Holidaze

Ho. Ho. Ho.

We made it alive and well back from sunny Los Angeles only to be welcomed back by this sub-zero bull. Harumph I say.

Still and all, the West Coast was a welcome change of pace. It was sunny and in the 70's most of the time. Mrs. Meezy returned from a stroll her first morning there and stated, "Let's move back." Amen, Doll. Now there's only the small matter of securing a massive chunk of change for a house, jobs for both of us and tuition for SoEM once he hits middle school. I ain't bitter folks, really I aren't. Wistful thinking is all.

I spent Christmas Morn on a borrowed epoxy longboard at Bay Street in Santa Monica. Waves weren't fantastic but were fun. I managed to snag a few decent rides. I must say that I don't care for the epoxy. It was lacking something. It turned ok and I got into waves ok but I tried to walk it a couple times and that just didn't work. It also seemed to lack the weight or the feel of my poly longboard. Needless to say, I won't be rushing out to pick up a plastic fantastic machine like that anytime soon.

Finally...SoEM slept both to and fro the Coasts. So minus having to lug a bunch of crap around the airport, the voyage was fairly seamless.

New Year's Realizations

I'm probably jumping on the "past year" blog entry a little early but that's alright because I'm winging off to LA with my little family tomorrow. It will be my little boy's first time on a plane, which should be interesting. Thankfully, we're flying at night so we hope he sleeps.

The year started off a bit rough. I lost my job back in February. My son was five months old and we were contemplating putting in a bid on a house in Waltham(dodged a bullet). My wife has been down the unemployment road with me before and the phone call I had to make to let her know that I had been let go because my company needed to dump salaries to stay afloat hit the "worst moments in my life" list with a bullet.

The situation definitely stung until I realized that being home with my son at this important stage in his young life was a gift. I realized that I had the opportunity to take a step back and try to figure out some different career options.

In pursuing a career as a writer, I have often taken whatever jobs paid my way while I worked on my "craft". It never occurred to me that I could have an actual career in a job that I cared about and still work on my screenplays, or my novel, etc. It was the arrival of SoEM(and my layoff) that gave me new impetus to search out something not just to pay the bills but also to feed the soul. I'll let you know what I find when I find it.

Thanks Again

The Thanksgiving tradition continued at the same spot as last year and while it was smaller than last year, I probably had a better time. Winds were less than 5 knots making it fairly comfortable in the water and the waves were waist-ish and clean. A small crew was out and the vibe was proper.

I grinned huge for the young(ish)kid who burned me on one wave and gave me a thumbs-up as he did it(he had position).

El Meezy's Beach

It may have been bigger elsewhere yesterday but can anyone say that they had a whole beach to themselves(I've got my hand up)?

The call was the "unnamed beach break" that I've big-upped in the past. Knee-high stuff yesterday with some waist sets and clean. I spent most of my time working on some areas that I felt could use a little polish. My two best moments were two women giving me a standing o from the beach after I had done a little carving on one wave and when I was a little overzealous with my cross-stepping and went off the front of my board(no lie). Good thing I can laugh at myself.

I'm about to break out my hood and depending on how the weather goes, we'll see how many sessions I have in me before I decide to pack it in for the season. Luckily, I'm going to LA next month and will get to prolong the stoke a bit.

The shots above were taken a couple of months ago. I don't think I had even busted out my booties yet.

I hate winter.

Because I'm Lazy

Late to the party once again.

I love clam shacks. It's one of those quintessential New England things that I missed during my time out West. I maintain that the food found in some of New England's best shacks rivals some of the really high priced offerings out there.

Mrs. Meezy had a weekday off a couple weeks ago and as luck would have it, it was a honey of a Fall day. One of the(many)things that I appreciate about my better half is that she possesses the sort of spontaneous attitude that allows for spur of the moment drives to places like...Ipswich and Essex, which is where we found ourselves traveling to.

We stopped at Russell orchards so that SoEM could look at farm animals and so that we could indulge in our version of apple picking...hitting up the farm store. We felt a little peckish afterwards and decided to visit a place I've been itching to check out, Woodman's in Essex.

The Rhode Island side of me kicked in and I had a bowl of chowder and some clam cakes while Mrs. Meezy got a lobster roll. SoEM made do with a grilled cheese and some fries. Everything was excellent. I got to finish Mrs. Meezy's lobster roll and it was a fine representation of the clam shack staple. The chowder was also delicious but I could have made do with only two clamcakes instead of the four I opted for(eyes bigger than stomach). The view of the salt marsh out back also added to the ambience. Woodman's is definitely on the honor roll.

Playground Rules

I've been at the parenting thing a little over a year. This hardly qualifies me to get preachy about anything, however...

I took the wee nipper to Robbins Farm Park today. It's quite possibly the nicest park in Arlington. SoEM(Son of El Meezy)loves the place. He was playing in this wooden train engine and another child was also in there playing with the steering wheel. SoEM amused himself and when the other child left the wheel, SoEM went over and started to play with it, prompting the other child to come over and retake possession of the wheel by shoving my kid down. SoEM is not quite 14 months old.

This isn't an unusual situation. I don't even blame the other kid who I guessed was probably 2 years old. Kids are little savages and their tiny brains are pretty much focused on "me" and "mine". The problem is that I saw no sign of Captain Runny Nose's mom. Generally speaking, the parents at the park are pretty on point with watching their kids. When I've had similar situations occur, there's always been a parent right there to police their progeny. So why the hell did I have to be the one to tell this kid that pushing smaller kids down just doesn't play?

The mystery as to who claimed ownership over the brat was solved when I saw him walk over to a woman sitting on one of the benches 10 minutes later. She was with a friend and yakking on a cell phone. Priorities, right? If someone wanted to snatch her kid, he would've been easy pickings. I even saw the little dude trundling up a very steep set of stairs set into a hillside. If he had fallen, it would not have been pretty and I never even saw her look over.

I don't really know the rules of etiquette in situations like this. I was on the verge of rolling up and laying into her but I try to take the position that if you blow your cool and act in anger, you've already lost the battle. There was no way that I could be diplomatic in this situation, so I let it go.

Like I said, I don't want to get preachy but...damn. Wake up.

The Magic of Primal Music and More Sliding

If you've noticed, there's a theme running rampant through the music player embedded on this here blog. I love music and what's more, I love delving into genres that I haven't explored. I've had many conversations with people about the Nuggets box set(and garage rock in general) so when I found one used in Newbury Comics recently, I snapped it up pretty quickly.

A note - I can be obsessive about things that I dig. Call it compulsion. There's this thing in my brain that forces me to track down burgundy New Balance sneakers that have been discontinued, learn everything I can about certain surfboard shapers and go digging for albums that have long been out of print, vintage sunglasses, ten speed bikes... I think you get it.

So...I played the hell out of all four cds in the set and wanted....more. Specifically, I wanted more of that primal, driving, stomping stuff. If I can quote ODB, "Oh Baby, I like it rawwww." I'm just not an Incense and Peppermints guy. Cue the aforementioned compulsion and Nuggets is joined by (and taking a backseat to) Crypt Records's mighty Back From the Grave series.

Chock full of "Raw and Crude Mid-60's Garage Punk", the series is all killer with precious little filler...and NO psychedelic noodling. I'm bummed that Crypt Records no longer resides in Brooklyn because I'm headed there this weekend but at least I've got the tunes. Great stuff. If you can find these comps and this type of music is your cup o tea, then Back From the Grave is required listening. And since I'm a johnny-come-lately to the whole garage genre, if you've had these for yonks, then I'm preaching to the choir.

I'll save the treatise on the garage-punk stuff of later years(The Mummies, etc..) for another day.

I haven't been in the water lately, although over the past couple of weeks I had one Nantasket session that almost required Dramamine(just a bit choppy), yet another phenomenal(uncrowded) time at the not-so-secret beach break and an ok go-out at the aptly named Good Harbor(generally good, never great and sometimes lousy).

Until next time...this El Meezy saying....

Back to the Garage

Hey Kats and Kittens. Here for your listening(and viewing) pleasure are The Konks with a ka-razy kover of The Strangeloves killer kut, "Night Time". Dig it.

What I Ride

"Why I ride a longboard" - A treatise on the subject by El Meezy:

I dig the glide.

Marathon Sunday

Fried and tired, tired and fried.

Onshores and crap weather were pretty much making any go-outs this week a less than desirable option but today....well....today was great.

The Bollocks(along with Mrs. Bollocks) and I headed out to a not-so-secret and yet never-all-that-crowded beach break. I've mentioned it plenty of times before but I will leave it up to the imagination of you, the readers, to determine which one it is. In any case, it was easily waist high and at one point, glassy and clean as anything.

We had decided to make a day of it and so surfed for a couple of hours, ate lunch and then went back out again. I caught some lovely rides, made more trips to the nose(sort of) and even met the man who pioneered the break(He told me so, resplendent in his springsuit and gloves and with a Surftech under his arm).

I. Am. Wiped.

El Meezy's Middle Finger

Been a long time since I rock and rolled....

As far as the latest and greatest of my sliding ventures goes, I snacked on some choppy apps served up by Bill at Wells Beach in Maine but found my efforts confounded by the blatant jackassery in the water(more on that later) and then a couple days later polished off some leftovers, first at Nahant where I had a great session followed up a day later by a more frustrating go-out at Jenness.

I missed Danny due to a wedding in Arkansas and my latest sessions have been nothing to write home about, therefore....

Welcome to the column entitled "The Middle Finger". I am not a misanthrope, nor do I typically whine about crowds, sup's, etc. but hell, I've got an axe what needs grinding so it's time to give with a few middle fingers.

Our first middle finger goes to the older dude with the white beard and the squid lid out at The Wall yesterday. Listen Jack, I don't give a flamin' fig how many years you've put in at New Hampshire breaks, it doesn't excuse you pulling that right of eminent domain shit on every wave that was even half-way rideable. In your state of advanced decrepitude, you oughta know better. Get bent.

The next middle finger goes to The Wall itself. Between the whole lemming mentality, Canadians on rented bics and softops and a general lack of etiquette from folks that might have a clue, this place can get the penis. I only paddled out because it wasn't working at Jenness.

Third and final middle finger of the day goes to the pack of swimmers, boogers and other assorted flotsam that cluelessly splash around where I've lined up. Yeah, the ocean is for everyone but guess what, YOU'RE IN MY WAY. I make a concerted effort to stay away from people because I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt. Yet, even when I make the aforementioned effort, there is always some brain-dead jackanapes that decides the best spot to get in the water is right where I happen to be surfing(up at Wells, recently). It makes me happy that Labor Day has come and gone and with it, the feckin' circus at all my breaks. Don't let the driftwood smack you in the ass on the way home folks.

Sigh.

That's all the vitriol for today ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for flying with us and have a lovely day.

sliding and a find

I haven't reported on my sliding activities as of late. I've probably made it out at least once a week for the past few weeks. Each session has been on the small side but fun.

Northern expeditions have been the predominant theme of the summer and I find that The Bollocks and I tend to spend more of our time up in Maine or NH to the point that I may never head south again(unless of course Nantasket is working).

This past Friday saw me up at Jenness. The Wall was probably better but Jenness is always quieter and I was able to spend a couple of hours getting more than my share of the squeaky clean shin to thigh high peelers. It was easily one of my best sessions of the summer as regards my meager abilities. Actually, the handful of relative beginners that were out made me look and feel like the Big Kahuna. I really couldn't miss. Highlights included yanking victory from the jaws of defeat when I muffed a pop-up going left but managed to still get to my feet and rode that sucker bully stance and then getting pretty close to a nose ride on a clean little right.

In other news, I recently moved with my little family to Arlington and we're pretty close to the Minuteman Bike Trail. I have a Schwinn beach cruiser but thought that I might like something akin to my Columbia ten-speed that took me everywhere in my pre-driver's license life. With me being out of work, not spending a lot was also a factor.

One day while visiting my Mom, I wandered into a Sal's thrift store and scored....a Fuji Gran Tourer 12 speed in decent condition. It needs a little tlc to get it ready to ride but I'm looking forward to the challenge. Score.

A Year in the Life

On Sunday, my son turned 1. Hard to believe doesn't even touch it. As my older sister put it, "You can't have a son. You're 12."(For the record, I turn 40 in December).

It's been surreal, miraculous, aggravating, puzzling...all that. Every new thing that he does and discovers is both amazing and terrifying at the same time. I remember having to coax him to touch grass...city kid.

Cheers to you little boy!

Yooooorrrrrkk

Ventured up to Maine yesterday with The Bollocks. Much sliding was had.

Admittedly, my backhand game kind of sucks but the first few waves I caught were all lefts and I actually did alright on them. I surfed fairly well yesterday, although was humbled by the presence of a couple folks who knew their way around a longboard better than I. Looking forward to more visits up North.

Dads

Happy Fathers' Day to all those Dads out there! For my first Fathers' Day, my lovely wife bought me a grill which probably won't see action until this crap weather is done with.

I surfed Nantasket Thursday and Saturday and generally stunk up the joint but also managed to do a few things properly as well. Thursday was waist to chest and reinforced the thoughts I've been having about purchasing a shorter board(probably an egg) because the waves were kind of peaky and I took a bit of a beating.

Yesterday was smaller and fairly clean. Good logging waves, although again, I was digging rails and flopping all over the place. Ah well, we've got enough swell on the way to keep on improving.

Heatwave

Bit by bit, the extraneous rubber is disappearing. I'm still in the 4/3 with boots and gloves but I went hoodless last week and again yesterday.

Homeboy, "The Bollocks" and I hit NH yesterday. We skipped the Wall and went out at Jenness. I got a few good rides while "The Bollocks" attempted to dial in his new CI Fishcuit. I gave his board a whirl not too long ago and it's fast but squirrely as hell. Learning curve blues. I'll probably go with a slightly more retro shape when I actually have a job and some money again.

In my early surfing days, I acquired a lot of my gear either cheaply or through a bit of trading.

My original wetsuit was an ill-fitting 3/2 that my buddy gave me and I traded it for a 3/2 that was actually my size. I've worn that suit for the past 7 or 8 years and it got pretty shredded(it's the red and black job on the left , the "punk rock wetsuit") so I spent some of my savings to replace it with the new Escential suit on the right.

Escential is a new company out of Florida and I heard good things about their product so I figured I would be a bit of a test pilot. I'll post the results when I drop down from the 4/3(soon).

Gansett

My older sister used to hang out with some dudes that my Dad referred to as, "The Village Idiots". They were pretty funny, way into rock music like The Who and The Stones and they were very fond of Narragansett beer. They even knew of a certain bar that served it on tap(By this time I think it was being made in Indiana rather than Cranston.). They turned me on to a lot of music, as well as the beer.

I don't get paid to shill for Narragansett and I'm not into product placement. I do like the fact that the brand got resurrected, that it's better than most macros out there...and that it comes in tall boys.

The Plugz

My first real exposure to punk rock growing up in Woonsocket, RI in the 80's came after my older sis introduced me to the movie Repo Man along with said movie's killer soundtrack featuring such luminaries as...The Plugz.

These guys are on my "holy grail" list when it comes to diggin' in the crates.

Unemployment Benefits

After a pretty harsh Winter, today was a glimpse of what(hopefully) Summer has in store for the New England faithful. It was sunny and close to 70 and I spent a couple of hours in balmy 43 degree water catching my share of knee to waist high peelers.

Occasionally, being out of work pays off just lovely.

The Mats

Where are we going?
To the middle!
Which middle?!
The very middle!