I'm off to Milan in a few hours, be there for the tattoo convention through the weekend. I painted this for the show:
I hope everyone is good, if anyone will happen to be at the show, stop by and say hello!
I hope everyone is good, if anyone will happen to be at the show, stop by and say hello!
Happy almost Thanksgiving - time is moving at breakneck speed. I feel like I don't do much, but if I think about it - I guess I do a lot.
We went to Vegas for 2 nights, drank a lot, gambled a little, and otherwise relaxed.
(waiting at the Vegas airport to come home... hangovers intact)
My band finished our album - CD's are about to be ordered, artwork is done, recording, mixing, mastering -DONE.
(rewriting last minute lyrics)
In putting together the artwork, I found that a 12 1/2" Macbook Pro doesn't cut it when one wants photoshop, illustrator open, with multiple images in from of you at the same time. I figured out the cure for this: a 27" imac. Also great for movies..
We've been playing a lot of shows...
..and we love living in the Sunset.
I reckon life is good.. to be able to say that is enough.
We went to Vegas for 2 nights, drank a lot, gambled a little, and otherwise relaxed.
(waiting at the Vegas airport to come home... hangovers intact)
My band finished our album - CD's are about to be ordered, artwork is done, recording, mixing, mastering -DONE.
(rewriting last minute lyrics)
In putting together the artwork, I found that a 12 1/2" Macbook Pro doesn't cut it when one wants photoshop, illustrator open, with multiple images in from of you at the same time. I figured out the cure for this: a 27" imac. Also great for movies..
We've been playing a lot of shows...
..and we love living in the Sunset.
I reckon life is good.. to be able to say that is enough.
So Summer is definitely over. It's been raining here on and off for the past few days, no more light out until 8:30, no more rum drinks.
We went camping for a few days with Thistle's family, the dogs loved it.
Mini had a Zissou moment:
I was in Portland for a week in August - worked at my friend Mikki's shop, Fortune Tattoo, rode motorcycles around, went tubing down the river, spent quality time with one of my mentors and truly one of the best people in my life.
After getting back from Portland, Turbulence and Mneylu stayed with us for a few days, we managed to spend an afternoon at Zeitgeist drinking and eating veggie burgers.
In late Sept. I went to London for a 4 day trip, for the tattoo convention and for our book release. It was a blur - we pretty much set up and worked, then broke down and flew home. The Tower Bridge was outside our hotel, so we had that to see - other than that it was the cab ride to and from Heathrow when we saw a bit of the city. It was still an awesome time though. We had a booth 30 feet wide, and were able to have all 6 of us tattooing at the same time, and I saw some familiar faces and great tattooers.
All in all a pretty busy Summer. The Mrs. and I are gonna decompress (if that's possible) in Vegas in a few weeks - a couple of days of room service, the Double Down, Fremont Street and a hot tub.
We went camping for a few days with Thistle's family, the dogs loved it.
Mini had a Zissou moment:
I was in Portland for a week in August - worked at my friend Mikki's shop, Fortune Tattoo, rode motorcycles around, went tubing down the river, spent quality time with one of my mentors and truly one of the best people in my life.
After getting back from Portland, Turbulence and Mneylu stayed with us for a few days, we managed to spend an afternoon at Zeitgeist drinking and eating veggie burgers.
In late Sept. I went to London for a 4 day trip, for the tattoo convention and for our book release. It was a blur - we pretty much set up and worked, then broke down and flew home. The Tower Bridge was outside our hotel, so we had that to see - other than that it was the cab ride to and from Heathrow when we saw a bit of the city. It was still an awesome time though. We had a booth 30 feet wide, and were able to have all 6 of us tattooing at the same time, and I saw some familiar faces and great tattooers.
All in all a pretty busy Summer. The Mrs. and I are gonna decompress (if that's possible) in Vegas in a few weeks - a couple of days of room service, the Double Down, Fremont Street and a hot tub.
Dear Portland: I'll be seeing you tonight for a week of tattooing, drinking and good times....
I post blogs less and less as time goes on... I don't know if anyone even reads them anyway, lost in a sea of white noise that is blogs, wordpress, tumblr, facebook, etc.
That being said, in real life over the past months, lots is happening.........
So... the Mrs. and I are working hard as always... we moved to the Sunset in SF a couple of months ago, we're 4 blocks from Ocean Beach, 3 from a killer dive bar, and minutes away from food, bars, Chinese foot massage, movies, parks, and people driving like shit and hocking loogies all over the place. I regularly see cars double parked next to open parking spots. I see people in dirty sweats driving $90,000 cars.
I just hit my 5 year mark at the shop, we have a magazine article coming out in Tattoo Life in September. We also just finished a monster painting project for a book being published by Miki Vialetto.. Spider Murphy's Flash, with 110 sheets of our blood sweat and tears by all of us at the shop. Printed and hand-bound in Italy. It's a pretty big deal, we're even closing the shop for 5 days in Sept. for a book release and signing at the London Tattoo Convention. This is beyond anything I really thought would become of my work, and I'm fuckin ecstatic to say the least.
My band is working hard, playing shows and in the middle of recording an album.. hoping to release our debut album in the next couple of months, just knocking out recording bits here and there, as time and moolah permits.
The 4th should be awesome - going to Pop's to watch drunken tricycle races with Mrs. and my son who just graduated college. Hope to see some familiar faces there.
Random pics..?
That being said, in real life over the past months, lots is happening.........
So... the Mrs. and I are working hard as always... we moved to the Sunset in SF a couple of months ago, we're 4 blocks from Ocean Beach, 3 from a killer dive bar, and minutes away from food, bars, Chinese foot massage, movies, parks, and people driving like shit and hocking loogies all over the place. I regularly see cars double parked next to open parking spots. I see people in dirty sweats driving $90,000 cars.
I just hit my 5 year mark at the shop, we have a magazine article coming out in Tattoo Life in September. We also just finished a monster painting project for a book being published by Miki Vialetto.. Spider Murphy's Flash, with 110 sheets of our blood sweat and tears by all of us at the shop. Printed and hand-bound in Italy. It's a pretty big deal, we're even closing the shop for 5 days in Sept. for a book release and signing at the London Tattoo Convention. This is beyond anything I really thought would become of my work, and I'm fuckin ecstatic to say the least.
My band is working hard, playing shows and in the middle of recording an album.. hoping to release our debut album in the next couple of months, just knocking out recording bits here and there, as time and moolah permits.
The 4th should be awesome - going to Pop's to watch drunken tricycle races with Mrs. and my son who just graduated college. Hope to see some familiar faces there.
Random pics..?
Merry New Year, may 2011 be even better than 2010.
My girl and I are planning to move the whole operation to SF in the near future.. gotta get some ducks in a row first. My son graduates from SF State in Spring, has no idea where he'll go with a theater degree and acting dreams. LA or London I'm guessing. He seems to want to go back to England more though.
My band has been playing shows - we're opening up for Throwrag on Saturday in Santa Cruz, then two shows in Denver at the beginning of February. We're working on recording hopefully in Feb/March.. There's talk of playing in Munich and Berlin in the Spring, if we can get the recording done beforehand. So, here I am, at almost 42, and in a band that might actually tour and that, when I couldn't when I was in my 20's. Weird how that works. I'm stoked, so whatever.
Tattoo Life is doing a 6-8 page article on my tattoo shop, we're busy trying to get new things together for that. Look for it sometime in May/June.
I don't understand why goofy wigger dudes walk down the street playing hip hop on their phones, the speaker distorting on the little thing.. acting like they're actually enjoying what they're listening to, thinking they look awesome. Stop that. You'll never look as cool as a black guy. Sorry.
Otherwise, just keep on truckin'
My girl and I are planning to move the whole operation to SF in the near future.. gotta get some ducks in a row first. My son graduates from SF State in Spring, has no idea where he'll go with a theater degree and acting dreams. LA or London I'm guessing. He seems to want to go back to England more though.
My band has been playing shows - we're opening up for Throwrag on Saturday in Santa Cruz, then two shows in Denver at the beginning of February. We're working on recording hopefully in Feb/March.. There's talk of playing in Munich and Berlin in the Spring, if we can get the recording done beforehand. So, here I am, at almost 42, and in a band that might actually tour and that, when I couldn't when I was in my 20's. Weird how that works. I'm stoked, so whatever.
Tattoo Life is doing a 6-8 page article on my tattoo shop, we're busy trying to get new things together for that. Look for it sometime in May/June.
I don't understand why goofy wigger dudes walk down the street playing hip hop on their phones, the speaker distorting on the little thing.. acting like they're actually enjoying what they're listening to, thinking they look awesome. Stop that. You'll never look as cool as a black guy. Sorry.
Otherwise, just keep on truckin'
Time for a proper update... complete with a few pics. First off, life is pretty damned great I gotta say; my son is back from England after 9 months (though I see him barely more frequently than I did when he was overseas), and just started his senior year at SF State. The Mrs. and I have been plotting vacations and other fun stuff while we're busting ass on tasks at hand. She's working at the bowling alley bar at the moment, which is about as cool as it gets for 50's divey-lounge sort of places. I love drinking there, and I'm stoked she made the jump from straight corporate gigs to bartending and writing more for herself.
We went to Dolores park last month with lil_tuffy and the dog, had a little picnic.
I got a call a few weeks ago about putting fake tattoos on an actor and pretending to tattoo the younger version of him for a Slim Jim commercial - I was a bit disinterested at first, but when I though about it (as well as the decent bit of cash for a few hours of work) I decided to do it. The dude was a scary looking trucker guy, about 6' 8" tall, had a mean look about him -but the truth was he's a big gay bear, who had an impossible time trying not to laugh when they wanted him to look tough. The end result looked not terrible on camera, and I'll be on TV tattooing a kid. Film at 11.
My band is playing our first show on Oct 9 down at the haunted Brookdale Lodge in Santa Cruz, I'm really happy to be playing music again. I hadn't had a band in almost 7 years, I'm glad the fingers still move ok.
I think it's (once again) time to move. In the past 10 years, I've had 7 addresses, about to number 8. This time its because A) we live in an apartment on the third floor, it's small, gets super hot in the Summer and I'm physically too close to other people... and B) my landlord is completely crazy. I thought it was funny when I moved in here a year or so ago, but now it sucks. At least we have high life.
it's exhausting sometimes......
We went to Dolores park last month with lil_tuffy and the dog, had a little picnic.
I got a call a few weeks ago about putting fake tattoos on an actor and pretending to tattoo the younger version of him for a Slim Jim commercial - I was a bit disinterested at first, but when I though about it (as well as the decent bit of cash for a few hours of work) I decided to do it. The dude was a scary looking trucker guy, about 6' 8" tall, had a mean look about him -but the truth was he's a big gay bear, who had an impossible time trying not to laugh when they wanted him to look tough. The end result looked not terrible on camera, and I'll be on TV tattooing a kid. Film at 11.
My band is playing our first show on Oct 9 down at the haunted Brookdale Lodge in Santa Cruz, I'm really happy to be playing music again. I hadn't had a band in almost 7 years, I'm glad the fingers still move ok.
I think it's (once again) time to move. In the past 10 years, I've had 7 addresses, about to number 8. This time its because A) we live in an apartment on the third floor, it's small, gets super hot in the Summer and I'm physically too close to other people... and B) my landlord is completely crazy. I thought it was funny when I moved in here a year or so ago, but now it sucks. At least we have high life.
it's exhausting sometimes......
I'm drowning in a sea of hula girl boards... I've made 20 now, and I think that'll be it unless I somehow find a studio space or somewhere that isn't our dining room. After getting the wood cut, then sanded, then the back and sides sprayed black. I then mount the print, two coats of sealer, then the 2 part resin that takes 3 days to dry. What you end up with is a piece that looks right hanging above the bar. I might do a series of these things -#1 being the hula girl print, then #2 maybe a volcano scene, #3 being a big tropical floral one. The resin treatment is pretty cool once it's cured, I can see doing other stuff with it.
We had our shop trip last week - we closed the shop for three days and stayed at the Dawn Ranch in Guerneville.. I felt hungover for three days after getting back. Can't drink like I used to. Speaking of drinking, we managed to score a killer 50's bar, complete with a Blaupunkt hi-fi inside. Yeeaaah!
I have a new band going, working on a sound that's somewhere between Link Wray, Deadbolt, Bo Diddley, surf toned, spitting growl spaghetti western spy, that features myself, my old drummer from the Gin Demons; Matt Macabre, and RA Maclean of Deadbolt origin on wall of bass. Coming soon to a wrong-side-of-the-tracks club near you (if you're within a few hundred miles of the Bay Area). The plan is to record a 4 song EP and just play shows for awhile, see what happens. This is my first official band in more than 6 years, so I'm pretty stoked. Ive cut my work down to 4 days/week, so I'll have more time to enjoy doing fun things besides just work. Next week I'm off to Vegas, to meet up with my wayward son who's been in the UK since September, it'll be his 21st birthday, I'll actually be drinking with my kid. Weird.
Otherwise, the missus is great, work is great, the dog is crazy.
We had our shop trip last week - we closed the shop for three days and stayed at the Dawn Ranch in Guerneville.. I felt hungover for three days after getting back. Can't drink like I used to. Speaking of drinking, we managed to score a killer 50's bar, complete with a Blaupunkt hi-fi inside. Yeeaaah!
I have a new band going, working on a sound that's somewhere between Link Wray, Deadbolt, Bo Diddley, surf toned, spitting growl spaghetti western spy, that features myself, my old drummer from the Gin Demons; Matt Macabre, and RA Maclean of Deadbolt origin on wall of bass. Coming soon to a wrong-side-of-the-tracks club near you (if you're within a few hundred miles of the Bay Area). The plan is to record a 4 song EP and just play shows for awhile, see what happens. This is my first official band in more than 6 years, so I'm pretty stoked. Ive cut my work down to 4 days/week, so I'll have more time to enjoy doing fun things besides just work. Next week I'm off to Vegas, to meet up with my wayward son who's been in the UK since September, it'll be his 21st birthday, I'll actually be drinking with my kid. Weird.
Otherwise, the missus is great, work is great, the dog is crazy.
