Daniel
Go NEMO

Louie
BIKE

Daniel
i used to work at nemo, do you surf?

Louie
hey dude, i wish! no waves in idaho.

Daniel
mountain bike waves at schweitzer
they got a new lift i think?

Louie
yeah

Louie
right on. where you livin?

Daniel
se portland. West Linn. Gypsy style
get the best of all worlds here

Daniel
can i ask you a question?

Louie
yep

Daniel
with all the years involved in snowboarding. who was the #1 influence?

Louie
um, thats hard to say. so many influences. probably just the people i was riding with at the time,
travis parker was definitely a huge one.

Daniel
can i use this interview for my reqwium blogspot?
simply haha, may i interview you for a bit?

Louie
yeah man, no problemo. i’m going to play pirates in a minute
though my kids are all fired up on hunting for treasure. fun stuff

Daniel
changing the world one patch at a time. awesome
is it true that robot food may have changed the face of snowboarding?
i believe it did, very strongly

Louie
I think RF kind of brought something new to the sport. It was ready for something fresh you know?
that was a fun time.

Daniel
how long until pirates? we still got a minute or two?

Louie
Yeah

Daniel
ok. bike or snowboard? thats a mean question…

Louie
cant i have both?

Daniel
one supports the other in a healthy way… yes

Louie
i think so too. i just got back from an amazing bike ride
about 40 mi. through the rolling wheat fields. good air to breath

Daniel
good for you. peddle to the metal, or concrete i guess?
watching parker gap that roof to flat at bachelor was proof enough that biking
and snowboarding go hand in hand.

Louie
oh yeah, that was hilarious
glad he didnt blow out

Daniel
for sure. what are your plans for the next winter season to come?
olympic circus viewing?
or family and pow? or anything you want?

Louie
probably just snowboard a bunch and learn some new stuff and try to film it.
i have a few plans in the works
fun trips and stuff

Daniel
Very proper. film crew?

Louie
not sure yet
that stuff usually pans out in the fall

Daniel
this is true, im a photographer and i dont even know exactly whats in store for this next season.

Louie
yeah, just roll with it huh?

Daniel
perfectly executed
if you had 3 words to describe Trevor Graves…..?

Louie
Artistic family man
or maybe Best Guy Ever

Daniel
Jamie Lynn said just about the same thing when we beached it 2 summers ago.
Magic of Reqwium was there as the stoked SanFran Train man, we all met up at 3am. straight to the
coast from portland.
lucky life
well, i mean… being able to skateboard with one of my personal biggest influences ever is something i will never forget

Louie
Thats crazy, Jamie is definitely one of my heros.
totally man. we share something in common then
He is a living legend

Daniel
ever seen his band?

Louie
yeah, i watched them play in seattle. rockin.

Daniel
huge stoke factor there

Louie
sorry to cut you off man. i gotta go hunt for treasure. nice chat’n. stay in touch. God bless. Louie

Daniel
thank you. Good Luck and Stay positive Pirate!

• McDonalds (first job, i was 14) – quit
• Caddy Royce Brook Golf Course – quit
• Cart Boy Mattawang Golf Course -quit, before i was fired
• Dental Assistant (i have no idea why i worked there) – quit
• Mail Boxes Etc (Matt lways hired the prettiest girls to work there!) – quit
• K-Mart (worked there 1 day, got a check for $27 in the mail) – quit
• Graphic Designer for a Yoga book author (high school design job, very weird) – quit
• Mail Boxes Etc again – quit to move to Colorado
• Graphic Designer (The Valley Shopper, shadiest boss ever, skipped town when i went on vacation) – quit
• Graphic Designer (Real Time Marketing, started as intern and worked up to Mid Level Designer) – quit due to ex-gf antics, very long story.
• The Creative Group (shuffled around to different design firm all over the state) – quit
• Park Crew Volunteer (Buttermilk) – season ended
• Hotel Jerome Bellman  (Guest Services is not my bag) – Quit
• Reqwium Design (Started my own freelance design company) – current
• Reqwium Clothing (Sub Division of Reqwium Design) – On-going

It’s funny to see them all in a row and wonder why people do a job they don’t love. I could not imagine working somewhere or doing something I didn’t love ever again. Granted most of those jobs were high school and college jobs, it just got me to thinking that so many people have two different lives, a work life and a personal life. I like that I can combined both of them into my Lifestyle. The work I do has become who I am and I am okay with that, in fact I would  prefer it that way.

A quote my favorite band and songwriter Blake Schwarzenbach (Jets to Brazil, Jawbreaker, Thorns of Life)

When the measure of your worth, is the measure of your work/
Then you better make it work/
-Jets to Brazil – “The Frequency”

And I am okay with that.

[posted by Will]

[posted by will]

[posted by will]

For as long as I have enjoyed cooking and have had my own kitchen, I wanted a big butcher block cutting board. Now on my 6th kitchen since stepping out and moving to Colorado, I finally have the monster I was looking for. Even though it has a few cracks in it,  cost a fraction of the actually retail price due to a mishap in it’s previous kitchen, it’s still huge and it work perfect. Tonight was the first time I used it and I felt all it’s glory. This particular night I was making chicken tostadas and some rice, re-fried bean and cheese casserole, a staple meal in the Blonna household growing up in Central New Jersey. On this night my best attempts have still fallen short to my father’s recipe, but like his other favorites of mine, I have mastered them and made them mine!

[posted by will]

On a recent trip to Denver my friend Shman took me to Meininger and all it’s art store paradiceness. I hadn’t been to a store that sol screen print supplies in ages. So i loaded up on some inks, squeegees, screens and random goodies. Here are a few creations. We also have some limited edition posters coming out.

[poster by will]

Hole in the Wall Flea Market, 835 N Kansas Ave, Topeka KS // .99¢ each

Oh man, I love this place. It’s in the ‘historical’ area of North Topeka (read: it’s run-down!) and Tom, the elderly man who runs it, is a real grumpy son-of-a-bitch. But damned if he doesn’t have some of the finest second-hand junk for sale. It’s where I picked up the N64 I used for my Bar Wars Tetris tournaments, the infamous AM/FM cassette boombox (Eliminator Jr.) along with numerous trinkets, tools and trash. There are piles of old record players, vintage sound equipment and some truly fine audiophile speakers.

There are myriad good deals to be had & a constant stream of new odds and ends to claw through. Strangely, such a store in Topeka is constantly raided of it’s best merchandise, but the Hole in the Wall is something of an anomaly. Most North Topekans are poor white trash or broke Swiss, take your pick. Why isn’t the Hole making money hand over fist? Three words:

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

See, this place is waaaay off the radar for most sane people. Even Topeka’s finest hipsters- who are always ready to risk life & limb for a .25¢ hand-woven tea cozy- are more apt to trek over to the Goodwill store on the tony ‘west side’ of our fair city. But the Hole in the Wall Flea Market exists near a shitty porno shop, Topeka’s premier gay bar (laughably called The Tool Shed) and right next to the truly horrifying Topeka Carnival Supply, virtually the only store in town where ‘No Smoking’ is more a suggestion than a city ordinance. I once saw a vagrant passed out in a nearby parking space using the curb as a pillow– true story.

Here’s my greatest Hole in the Wall anecdote: one Saturday afternoon I spent over six hours digging though what Tom claimed was ‘at least’ 20,000 records. Of course no one could ever be sure it was that many. But if you can visualize 100 rows of LPs, each at least 4 feet deep… that’s what he’s got. Yeah, a lot of it was the standard crap every flea market will have (Barbara Streisand, Barry Manilow, about a million Firestone Christmas compilations), but I eventually found an absolute treasure trove of great records: original pressings by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison… along with most of my 80′s stuff. I was there so long that day, the usually crotchety Tom offered me a free soda from his machine up front. I spent around $100 for about 90 LPs. As a result, I’ve been a regular for the last five years. And every time I walk in, Tom treats me like it’s the first time he’s ever seen me. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

+ + + 

These days, I’ve been hunting the the mighty cassette tape on these forays into the seedier side of local retail & much to my satisfaction, the Hole in the Wall has not disappointed. There have got to be 25 open-topped boxes full of tapes just adjacent to a goddamned wall of VHS cassettes. I’ve found excellent stuff like an unopened copy of Gary Numan’s amazing 1979 debut Tubeway Army (I could not believe it!) This is, after all, the place I found a freakin’ Kraftwerk tape the day I bought my little boombox guy; it was Electric Café, but still…

So, this is what I scored this afternoon:

• Them ‘Them Again’  (unopened / Van Morrison’s first band) 1966

• Roxy Music ‘Stranded’ (unopened / post-Eno, but still good) 1973

• The Cars ‘Candy-O’ (nice tits, honey-baby) 1979

• Love and Rockets ‘Seventh Dream of a Teenage Heaven’ 1985

On a side note, I learned this evening that Tom is something of a whiz when it comes to fixing audio components (duh- I should have know this). My poor Technics-1200 is on the fritz (again!) so it looks like that shit’s gonna be in good- albeit crabby, palsied hands. Thanks Hole in the Wall… you make Boyle’s Joyland look like a fucking war-zone (seriously!)

[posted by coach]

This has done wonders for my clutter and collecting problem, where before when I had my printer there were half finished pieces of epson printing papers strewn all over my apartment, folders filled with half finished ideas. I even went as far as to go to walmart and buy a $20 canon printer, but once that ran out of ink I realized how much I missed my epson, from the dozens of paper options and the availability of refill inks were far superior to anything Canon had to offer me. I must admit I am somewhat of a brand whore. In the sense that once I get comfortable with a brand I have a hard time getting away from them. There is just comfort you find in certain brands, I know it will fit right or I know the quality will be consistent.

So where was I going with this, I really don’t know, I think I started writing because I finally finished something and now it is time to release it to the public, which is always a little scary, but that good kinda scary. The unknown feeling of how it will be received by the public, good or bad it’s making people feel something. That is what I love.

[posted by will]

file under: art punk, post-punk

Wire is a UK band I had heard about for 15 years, but until recently, had never gotten into. I knew that their influence was everywhere, top to bottom– and sometimes this came in the form of blatant plagiarism (see: Elastica’s ‘Connection’). R.E.M., The Minutemen, Manic Street Preachers & The Urinals cite them as direct forbearers of their sound. Newer bands like Bloc Party, The Futureheads & Franz Ferdinand owe Wire a rather large debt as well. 

For the sake of my own hyperbole, I’ll say they are as influential as The Velvet Underground were in the 60′s & Sonic Youth were in the 80′s. My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields loves ‘em. So does Steve Albini (in fact, Big Black covered ‘Heartbeat’ several times with members of Wire). Ian MacKaye and Henry Rollins are counted as fans. And I can be, too, I guess.

Chairs Missing, Wire’s second LP, sounds more like Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd than, say, the prevailing sounds of London punk ca. ’78. This release is allowed more room to spread out than their previous record: the songs are considerably longer, allowing them to develop more organically. Darker themes emerge out of nowhere. There are more chords, more synths, etc. It is a masterpiece of post-punk- or rather the sonic missing link that Magazine & Cabaret Voltaire wish they had nailed first…

+ + +

Have you ever had one of those pop culture moments where something completely new (to you) is unfolding right in front of you- and you just gotta know what it is? This was Chairs Missing for me. I was in upstate New York for my sister’s wedding & like any destination I arrive at, I always try to check out the local record stores. The clerk at Albany’s Last Vestige Records had put this on the in-store sound system & I was hooked immediately. I bought the damn thing right off the turntable.

When I brought this LP back to Aspen, no one cared. Good! It was ‘too abrasive’ & ‘too British’ for my ‘contemporaries’ who say they can ‘hang’ with ‘punk music’. Bah! Seriously though, this one’s a grower. It’s so OCD in its genius… and it’s good for chasing off chain-smoking teeny boppers from Boulder (you know who you are!) A very personal favorite that marks me from a different time.

stand-out tracks:

Practice Makes Perfect

Another The Letter (1:07)

Men 2nd

Sand In My Joints

Mercy

Outdoor Miner (single version)

I Am The Fly

[posted by coach]

The Goodwill Store, 5515 SW 21st St, Topeka KS // $1.06

I try to frequent these stores often ‘cuz they always have a stack of cheapo tapes to sort through. Always. The Goodwill Store on 21st Street is no different. If you can get past all the Christmas cassettes & ‘Jesus tapes’, there just might be a rough gem worth ponying-up 50¢ for. So, imagine my delight this morning when I ran across Madonna’s 1990 greatest hits offering, THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION! 

Now don’t get me wrong- I do have my qualms with this cassette. First off, it is woefully, yet predictably front-loaded. Even the most casual Madonna fan knows that she peaked in 1987 (1989 if your’re feeling especially charitable). And to those people who say Madonna’s last great single was ‘Vogue’… STOP LYING TO YOURSELVES!!! It was ‘Like a Prayer’… sheesh.

OK, secondly, where in the hell are “Angel”, “Dress You Up”, “True Blue” and “Who’s That Girl”? I mean, WTF! Those are hit singles! International mega #1 jams! Fuuuck! It’s almost enough to make me put on that stupid R.E.M. tape I’ve been driving around with all day… gah.

‘So, Coach…’ you might ask, ‘just what is this cassette tape doing right?’… and I’d say, ‘A LOT!’ The A-side momentum is unstoppable… a tour de force of sexy, synthy sounds! Right off the bat, “Holiday” BAM! “Lucky Star” BAM! “Borderline” BAM! “Like a Virgin” BAM! “Material Girl” BAM! Hell, even ‘Crazy For You’ is a welcomed respite amid this pop music craziness! You might be wondering, ‘Didn’t she write that last one for Sean Penn?’ You bet your sweet ass she did! (Well, her producers did… but I won’t tell if you won’t! wink!)

OH, AND I DEFY YOU to name a better single from 1984 than ‘Material Girl’… that shit is so tight! You may have heard it oh, I dunno, about a million times… but seriously, it deserves repeat listens. Repeat listens, dude. The skronky bass, the chimes, the serpentine keyboard riff, the attitude, that goofy way she ‘echoes’ herself… it’s the total package- and in just under four minutes! 

‘Express Yourself’ still sucks, though.

A-SIDE

Holiday

Lucky Star

Borderline

Like A Virgin

Material Girl

Crazy For You

Into The Groove

Live To Tell

B-SIDE

Papa Don’t Preach

Open Your Heart

La Isla Bonita

Like A Prayer

Express Yourself

Cherish

Vogue

Justify My Love

Rescue Me

[posted by coach]