On The Roof

I ran into an old friend/acquaintance earlier today. We used to work out at the same gym about five years ago. I have not seen the guy for quite some time but then again I stopped going to that gym so for all I know he still lived in town. Apparently he fell in love and followed the girl back to her home in Denver, CO. Long story short, homeboy was passing thru Pedro showing his lady his old stomping grounds and stopped by the cafe to say hello. The one thing he misses the most about Cali is being away from the ocean. I never really think about it but I'm pretty much surrounded by water on a daily basis. I'm not sure how I would adjust to being away from the ocean because I have never really tried. Well regardless, it made me appreciate my location a little bit more. What can I say...water is rad...see I'm grateful.

Sunday Funday

My homies at Sunken City are doing BIG thangs. Pack the friends in the van and cruise down to Channel Street tomorrow. You can watch me win the best trick contest. Boooyeaah.

Go Jetta Go

Cavotu rider, Wes-Wee has been gearing up for the big race. The car is coming along nicely but still in need of several late night silver bullet sessions. Follow the Broverload racing team for more info. I could use an ice cold Mountain Dew and a side car of Awesome right about now.

Day Four = Vineland

Adrian has been my friend since 2005 although we have never met in person prior to Saturday. To some this may seem strange but in my life it is very normal. I was introduced to Adrian via Myspace by a mutual friend (Hello Amanda). Adrian was in the band Life Is Here which some of you may remember as being one of the original bands on Team Cavotu. LIH eventually disbanded and Adrian started a solo project. A's Rage is the future. Watch out for big things.

Vineland is the place where Adrian calls home. It's a small town in Southern New Jersey about a 2 hour drive south of New York. I took the train out of Penn Station and Adrian picked me up in the blackberry pearl g ride. It was a nice break from the city life and I was really looking forward to experiencing a so called normal Saturday in Adrian's shoes. I got the grand tour of the town, saw the Wawa store, the water towers, the secret bamboo forrest, grabbed a slice at the mall and stopped by the local coffee shop, Fuel House.

The rain eventually cleared up and we headed over to a pool party. Things were just getting started but they were expecting a crowd of over 100 people. Joe, the birthday boy, carved out a ridiculous shot luge out of a 300 pound block of ice. Power tools and red cups were all up in the mix. The alien head was this years theme with custom slots on each side for multiple glow sticks. One of Joes friends told me that the shot luge was invented in New Jersey, I couldn't help but smile.

I wish I could of stayed longer to witness my first A's Rage performance but I had to bounce back to New York to catch an early flight out in the morning. Vineland is pretty cool. thanks again Adrian and Ashley, good times. Adios East Coast, I'll see you in a few years.

Day Three

The plan of action for day three was spend time exploring the streets, shops and cafes of NOHO, SOHO, Greenwich Village and the Chelsea district. I started off with two awesome cupcakes and a glass of milk for breakfast at the Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker St. I heard they just opened a shop here in Los Angeles. Yum yum.

I noticed a Vans ad that appeared to be wheat-pasted but as I got closer I realized it was hand painted on the wall. The artist was working on a similar ad around the corner. I was tempted to pick his brain about the process but chose not to bug him while he was working. I sat on a nearby bench and watched the picture come alive. This is the part of advertising that I appreciate the most. Plus the clever branding angle of putting the ad 'on the wall' when the famous Vans mantra is- Off the Wall.It wouldn't be New York without a trip to Supreme, super fresh and always ahead of the game. Blades was right around the corner, another clean shop with the latest street wear, shoes, boards and more. Blades had a large section of FSAS which has blown up ridiculous over the last few years. I still have the original Famous logo tee back when they didn't change the Hanes Beefy Tee tag.

I appreciate random skate boutiques and I went on a mission to find Dave's Quality Meat. I have been following this skate brand on the internet for a few seasons now so it was nice to actually experience the brick and mortar. I bought a DQM shirt as well.

The Apple store is open 24 hrs a day. I made a few stops in there to charge my phone and play on the new iPads. Reading books is far on my list of weekly accomplishments but the iPad is still a very clever gadget.

My friend, Anthony sent me an early birthday gift via email and I found myself jamming across town to watch the New York Mets play the Atlanta Braves. Citi Field officially opened in 2009, known as a pitcher's park and is the only major league baseball stadium that has orange foul poles instead of the standard yellow. The park has a giant red apple that rises up from the center of the outfield when a Mets player hits a home run. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the apple rise and the Braves took the W. Thanks again for seat doggy.

Day Two

I rarely get the opportunity to sleep in past 6 or 7 in the morning so I must say it was rather nice to sleep in for a change. Besides the 94 degree weather wasn't a very motivating factor for being outside. I eventually hit the subway and charged the city. I usually stay clear of coffee and that place called Star-blah but I couldn't resist grabbing a quick drink while I was on the go. Manhattanites and tourists always lined up out the door, safe to say America loves their coffee.

The scorching heat/humidity made my first destination an easy one: explore the world famous MET. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is HUGE. I wandered around for days enjoying the air conditioning, minimal crowds and amazing artworks. Here are some that caught my eye or shall I say my lens.

I have always been a sucker for The Wheat Field and Cypresses painting. In 1889, Van Gogh painted three different versions of the view outside his window while he was staying at a mental asylum in France. I have seen one version in the National Gallery of London and now the second version at the MET. The third is in a private collection or if you want to pretend the movie was real then Tom Cruise has the third in his house.

This one reminded me of the Feint shirt that was released in Spring 2007. I said it before and I'll most likely say it again- In Fist Fights We Trust. Hey hey hey, its Johnny.

I spent part of the afternoon wandering around New York's backyard as they call it. Central Park truly feels endless at times. Super mellow and a great place to get lost over and over.

I decided to head over to Brooklyn and check out the famous Coney Island. Huge boardwalk that goes for miles along the beach but unfortunately the Atlantic ocean looked more like a lake, no waves in site. Figured I might as well try one of those overpriced hot dogs and walked around the ghetto carnival.

My lovely wife had only one request while I was on this NYC adventure: go see a broadway play. I am not much of a musical or opera guy but I saw Wicked when it came to LA and thought it was great. A friend of mine recommended Jersey Boys so I thought I would check it out. Great performance by all the actors and musicians. Good times.

I ended my night back in Times Square wandering the streets, eating ice cream and getting lost in the crowd. I met a branding research guy, Ash Rashvand who asked me to participate in his current study. My emphasis in college was advertising so this topic was definitely easy to chat about. Check out the video, I think I was rambling a bit much but he loved the flowing opinions.

Day One Point Two

Depending on public transportation on a daily basis seems rather annoying. On the surface I see how it makes sense and how much money you save on gas, insurance, payments etc. The whole process of waiting around and not feeling like you have control when you need to be somewhere just kills me. One of Cam's roommates was born and raised in NY and he had a car for only a month during his entire 30 years of life. Wow. Hard to imagine coming from the Cali car dependent lifestyle.

After a brief nap I headed out west to explore Gotham City aka Manhattan. Walked mad blocks to the bus, rode the bus for 30 min, then transfered to the subway. The New York subway is the real deal. The ultimate people watching experience. You never know who is going to end up in your car, a caleidoscope of characters to say the least. I got off near the Brooklyn Bridge and walked about half way on the pedestrian path. Super rad architecture indeed.

I saw the Statue of Liberty back in 1999 and checked out the Ground Zero in 2004 so I didn't even bother going that direction. I made my way through the Lower East Side and Alphabet City. I stopped by the famous Katz Deli for dinner. The pastrami on rye was good stuff and I was starving. I mapped out a few points of interest for the next couple days. Then I made my way over to Times Square to end the night with some bright lights and a million people.

Day One

On Tuesday 7/6/10 I took a red eye flight out of LAX and arrived at JFK around 5:30 a.m. on 7/7/10. My brother in-law, Cameron is attending law school at St. Johns University so I arranged to stay at his pad in Queens. Queens is about an hour subway ride east of Manhattan but a free place to stay in super expensive city is all good.

Things got heated from the start, besides the fact the weather was mid 90's and humid as ever. I had a serious verbal altercation with my cab driver over the fare from the airport to Cam's house. Cam said it should be around $23 because it was only 15 minutes away. Apparently I got into a limo cab, which by the way looked just like any other cab except it wasn't painted yellow. So the driver tries to charge me $100 for the 15 minute ride. He claims this is the standard rate regardless of how far you go. I told him he was crazy and that I wasn't paying his tourist prices. We were both outside the cab, face to face screaming and I was ready to go. Slightly cracked from the time change, lack of sleep and I wasn't having this nonsense at six in the morning. The guy reluctantly backed down, I gave him $30 and he sped off like a bat out of hell. Welcome to New York.

I was relived to see the sticker on the front door to guide me to the correct house, residential homes galore on the block. Seeing Cavotu stickers upside down always bugs me but seeing one on a random house in Queens was a pretty cool feeling. I crashed out for a few hours so that I would have a fresh start for the day. My adventure was just beginning.

Storytime

NYC was a pretty rad adventure. I planned on blogging daily but my iPhone battery kept dying on me so I had to prioritize. Obviously the more important things like mapping, yelping, tweets and status updates came first. But besides all that I had a wonderful vacation. It took me a few days to adjust back to reality. The time change didn't have much effect but I found myself wandering my neighborhood late into the night with my daughter sleeping in a carrier just trying to come down off a natural high. It sounds silly but it's the truth.

I can tell a killer story in person but have some lazy tendencies when I have to type it all out as if I am writing a novel. To make things easy, I will write about one day per entry. If I stay on track I should have 5 entries in a row and that my friends is not as easy as it sounds. Consistency is the key to any good blog, still working on that one. Stay tuned.

NYC Bound

I have not traveled solo in quite a few years. The days of pre-fam bam are sorta foggy yet I still remember what it was like to be independent and virtually free of responsibility. As my 30th birthday creeps up around the corner, I started feeling like I had to do something extreme to shake up my reality. I had to experience life on a different level. I just told my wife that I was going to New York for a few days. To be honest it was kind of a joke at first but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. New York City screams energy twenty four seven three sixty five. I need energy, Cavotu needs energy so I booked a flight, arranged a place to crash and packed luggage. Nervous, um yeah. Stoked, um hell yeah.

I am sitting here on a red eye flight, internet oh boy, first timer on this Virgin America, random dance beats pumping thru the speakers as the pink and purple lighting illuminates the cabin, seats belts are fastened, here we go.