Here's to a Bojon '06

Flight of the Canyons

groovy bojaunt this past weekend to roll with some old school banditos on the slopes of the canyons in utah.

no fresh snow while we were there, but an abundance of sunshine on top of a solid base courtesy of a few early season storms. and, alas, we did score some nice powder one morning when the resort opened the southeast side of the mountain (dreamscape lift) for the first time all seaon.

as a three-person posse, we rode hard each day, peaking on saturday with close to 25,000 vertical feet. we surveyed the whole mountain but found our best terrain off of the condor lift.

by far, the ride of the trip was down Canis Lupus. this legendary run is a natural gully that is way narrow and over one mile long with 15-foot banked walls. this terrain was once called James Bond after the skiing scene down a bobsled course in the movie "For Your Eyes Only." no shit, this path JUST KEEPS GOING.

nighttime activities centered around park city. the town isn't huge, but it does contain a bunch of western-style bars that pack a bit of a punch. we hung at a bar called harry o's one evening and then hit a dive called the spur the next. randomly bumped into former SF charger, christine roberts, one night. nice treat to catch with her and wax nostalgic.

here are a couple clips from the action:

- brother O on two blanks [VIDEO]
- tangerine dream afterparty [VIDEO]

jam on it, my friends. thanks for the hook up, maestro pives!

Its Reigning Buckets

great to hear from uncle velvet the other day. the avuncular one is well into phase two of his worldwide walkabout, and he's not slowing down.

he sent in the following note chronicling his most recent adventures...

Does anyone recall me saying how I thought the second half of my world tour, this time through Asia, would have more of spiritual bent and less of the crazy party scene that the first half turned out to be?  All of you that believed that bullshit, raise your hand. 





After seeing more gold buddahs than I'll need to in a lifetime during the first couple of days in Bangkok, Mandy and I headed out to hop some islands.  Ahhh, and that is where we were introduced to the Bucket and it was pretty much all downhill from there. 





As I am, if nothing else, a frugal sort, buckets first came into play as a cost savings measure.  It didn't take an accountant to help me figure out which was a better deal, given that a bucket is roughly 250-300 baht and a single cocktail is 100-150 baht.  A bucket typically consists of a full flask of Sam Sung (Thai rice whiskey that retails at 7-11 for about a buck and a half), and you get your choice of mixers... I went with a Red Bull/Coke combo, while Mandy preferring to watch her girlish figure went with straight soda.

Talk about bang for your baht, this shit F$#%s you up something fierce!  And we went with multiple strategies.  Some nights, we'd share, but in that scenario we would both be fighting to get our fair share so they disappeared rather quickly. But then when we went every man to his own bucket, they went down pretty flipping quick too. You can't win when you take on the Bucket! 





Considering that Mandy and I only met on the playa, five weeks in Thailand was a fairly ambitious first date, but more or less we got along brilliantly. The only fights? Bucket-fueled! Lost flip flops? Blame it on the bucket. Injuries? Nothing serious, but every limb is now covered with some sort of bucket-related scratch, divot, burn or the like. Seems the buckets have an adverse effect on motor functions. 

It reached a point where on a couple of morning afters, nursing hangovers and trying to reconstruct the previous night's debauchery, that we were ready to launch a new line of t-shits to compete with Thailand's ubiquitous "same same, but different".  Our Thoughts: "bow down to the bucket," "respect the bucket," "beware of the bucket," "suckthebucketmuthafucka"...you get the idea. 
 




Anyway, so Mandy leaves, I head to Ton Sai beach and I'm back on the beer (more or less)...girlish figure be damned.  Well, the first bar I establish myself in, the Viking, has a unique spin on the Sunrise Saloon's 'shot and a yo yo', 'shot and a peanut', etc promotion.  You order a beer, and they pass across a bamboo bong.  Beer and a Bong!  Brilliant!  Guess where I spent the full week on Hat Ton Sai?  Don't ask me, I don't remember.
 
Anyway, shit, good fun.  I finally got around to updating my website with plenty of bucket-infused photos, so check it out...
 
The Man burns in 272 days...see you there!!!
 
peace,
Velvet Bucket

bucket on, my brother. comforting to know you're out there ringing the bell!

shout out to mandy (she of the playa proven good attitude) as well. not an easy task going toe to toe with the uncle. more power to ya, sista!

O Z O M A T L I

Music is the key to every culture, the beginning of an understanding...

jammed over to the fillmore last thursday to catch the first of three sold out shows for Ozomatli. this ten piece band offers a highly politicized amalgamation of hip-hop, salsa, ska, funk and jazz.

the show was high energy right from the start, and every one of the ten band members exhibited his own flair throughout the night. the group worked through a lot of its new music, but the band's best tunes were cuts from its GRAMMY Award-winning album, Street Signs.

the Fillmore is super strict about not taking pictures during its shows, but here's a low quality video grab i was able to capture.

it will be interesting to see what the future holds for this group. at their best, Ozomatli comes across as the heir apparent to Santana. however, they're not quite there yet. they set the bar pretty high with the last album, and it will be a treat for all of us if they can exceed this watermark in the future...