Saturday, September 29, 2007

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

This is what the music industry, by and large, could be or should be. From the end of the New York Times article on them today:

"We’re not comfortable," Ms. Jones said. "We’re independent. I drive an ’88 Honda."

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Top 5 Tunes

The Top 5, Hoochie Pop Edition!

Editor's note: myspace, I discovered not too long, is a great place to legally listen to music without having to buy it. The only price you pay is waiting for all the cruft on a typical artist profile page to load -- and the cost against your good taste exacted by the aesthetic of some profile designers.

But an even better place to listen to a song on command for free: youtube. So most the links below go to youtube pages.

1. The Party by Justice (with Uffie)
2. Konichiwa Bitches by Robyn
3. Lip Gloss by Lil Mama (and a positive message, to boot!)
4. It's the Beat by Simian Mobile Disco
5. Rehab by Amy Winehouse

Also receiving votes:
Thats Not My Name by The Ting Tings
Grip Like A Vice (Blackaffair Remix) by The Go! Team
Sweet Dogs by Trolle//Siebenhaar

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Surf Report: 2-3' High Tide

Surveyed from River Jetties to Bolsa Chica around 9am. South of HB Pier looked most surfable. River Jetties small and walled. Bolsa Chica looked tempting on the sets. But tide too high (6'+ around 10am). Too much water, not enough swell, did not surf.

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Surf Report: 2-4', Fair+

Fun session this morning. The way the last week has been going, I needed it.

2-4'. We arrived right at high tide. (I'm sure because Dan called the HB Lifeguards' surf report from the beach to find out what time high tide was and it was peaking right at that very minute!)

Breaking kinda close to shore but the good ones would line up all the way inside. I didn't get many of those. But a couple fun ones.

Water warm. Skies clear. Wind started to spoil things just as I was getting out around 11am. Surfed for about an hour and a half.

Photo below Ponto Jetty is a fair reference, as I suspect the lineup is a lot like Bolsa #19:



Looks a little bigger at Ponto and this was later closer to low tide.

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Saturday, September 22, 2007

Rain

Rain has been in the weather report since Thursday. This morning, however, was the first time it's actually rained on me since... well, probably that weekend trip to San Diego back in April or May. A few drops caught me on my morning coffee jog while I was walking back. Not enough, unfortunately, to clean my car though it rained a little harder a little later.

Sun peeking out now.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

My Blogboard Top 5

My musical tastes at the moment, let me share them with you:

1. Don't You Evah by Spoon
2. Volver a Comenzar by Café Tacvba
3. En Cada Lugar by Frederico Aubere (mp3)
4. The Salmon Dance by The Chemical Brothers (not the remix)
5. Running Away by The Polyphonic Spree

And, finally, in honor of the rain forecast for L.A. tomorrow (the first in months!), Loudon Wainwright III's Grey in L.A.

What's cool is that you can listen to all of these (for the time being) on myspace.

There's also a mesmerizing song they've been playing on KCRW the last week or so that I really like. One of those hybrid, jazz-sampled, dub-mix sort of things where the title doesn't necessarily have any relation to the lyrics and the band could be from London, Sweden, or Van Nuys. I tried to track it down on the KCRW playlists. I suspect that it's Sugar Mama by Bitter:Sweet, but I haven't been able to find the song online to confirm. But I'll look out for the name next time I hear it.

Update: just heard it around 9:10pm on KCRW. Not Bitter:Sweet. But Trolle//Siebenhaar – Sweet Dogs (unremixed version on myspace page.)

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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Surf Report

2-3' occasional 4' sets with long soul-crushing lulls. Not unlike the photo of Del Mar below. But brother and I were about 100 miles north at Bolsa Chica. Water has chilled. (Mild ice-cream hand-ache but comfortable in full suit.)

Surfed around 10-11am. Things sort of shutdown around a quarter to 11. Finally got a 2' wall in.

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Monday, September 17, 2007

A Touch of Autumn

Ok, after several straight days of 100+ temperatures (often accompanied by unusual humidity) a couple weeks ago, anything below 90 would feel unsummery. But that's not it. No, the sign of change was the sky this morning. Mackerel. Not the thick ceiling of June gloom. But patchy cotton balls. A bit of breeze. Cool and comfortable.

Just talked to my brother. He said the ocean temp is down in the low 60s. Autumn is here. White shoes are out. Wetsuits are back in fashion.

Of course, the transition will be beyond doubt once we have our first Santa Anas. Indian summer is not summer. It is most definitely autumn.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Post-Script

This blog is the post-script to this one.