Evidence LXXXVII: Got It!

Went back and got the Fibrewidow. The Shastaglass held up surprisingly well, although it deveoped a couple hole where the standing water was. Taped 'em up, and continued the shred. Courtney took care of the diving board. Nice bowl, killer tranny, sick little shallow pocket, but the ruined area near the drain cut off some lines, and the side walls were pretty steep. nothing to do but skate it once or twice more until the holes get worse, then blow this one out. Neighbor kids came by and hung out for a few, they were stoked. 

So with the screen on my camera fucked up, I can't change the settings, including ISO, so when the sun goes down its 100 all the time. Dickborg gets a fronside, all my other photos look worse.

Evidence LXXXVI: Fibrewidow

Did some scoping with Hoss the other day, and came across this gem. A solid 1.5 feet of shitty, black water, and a lot of debris. We decided to come back to clean it. Called a few folks to get them in on it -- after all, it's easier to clean with 3 or 4 than it is with 2. Everyone flaked.  

Yep, it's another Master Pools pool.

Went back, just Hoss and me, and started working. There were the most black widows I have ever seen in one place in this thing. The photo above wasn't even the biggest one. When it comes to black widows (and scorpions), I am on a seek-and-destroy mission -- anything that can potentially kill me, I will kill it first. A friend asked me if I thought that was "bad mojo." Nope. Self-preservation. There was a lot of debris, palm leaves, plastic barrel, cement blocks, toys, coffee mug, and thick, black goo.

But it's empty. Dunno why I can't trun this sideways, tried four times and gave up. Gonna get this one today. It's fibreglass, but only one or two small tears and a couple jets, killer shape, killer tranny, no light in the deep, tile coping.

Gloria Jones

Been diggin' some Gloria Jones lately. Her two most famous songs are "Heartbeat," her first hit in 1964, and "Tainted Love" from 1965. Both are more known today for their cover versions, by the Detroit Cobras and Soft Cell, respectively. As usual, however, the originals are vastly superior. The thumping bass line behind "Heartbeat" is a little obvious but evocative, and it comes to the fore in a few places; irresesitable dance number (proven last night, actually). "Tainted Love is a solid one as well, a favorite of the Northern Soul crowd, but I'll take "Heartbeat." 

She wrote for Motown for several years, writing songs for some of their biggest artists. She split the label in 1973 to move to England, and joined T. Rex as a backing vocalist. Jones and Marc Bolan fell in love and had a kid. It was Jones who was driving the mini that fateful day that Bolan was killed. She fled England after charges of drunk driving were brought against her, returning to Los Angeles.

 

Evidence LXXXV: Shitty square, big bust

Hooked up with Joe, Craig, their friend Beach from New Zealand, and Hoss. Hoss had a square for us to check out with a little wateer. The more we bucketed, the more we realized that it was pretty much a piece of shit. There as a ton of mud in there, and we were running out of time, so we got it as dry and clean as we could and decided that we'd come back. 

Dirt remembered one right down the road. We snuck in, very high profile, and took some runs. Deep and tight, but smooth and fun. 

Joe got the stairs. Dark and dusty.

On the way out, cops were rolling up near the exit. Nothing to do but face the music. 6 cop cars and 10 cops all showed up because a neighbor had reported a possible burglary. The neighbor came over and talked to the cops when he saw we were just skaters, and actually apologized for calling them. A couple of the cops were assholes and had to be tough guys, but the bottom line is once they figured out we were just skating they let us go. That's what usually goes down.

CB175 Named Gary

The CB175 is coming along. Took some time to paint it, and went for the gold glitter paint (hence the bike's name: Gary). The paint is cool but took a while to cover everything decently. Sprayed three layers of clear coat, and then brushed on two more. It ain't perfect, but it looks pretty cool. Tank is coated, I just need a new o-ring for the petcock. The air filter set up looks good and works well. Reconnected the wiring, still got a few bugs, but the engine fired right up. Gotta reconnect some cables too, and take care of the rear brake. Then finish the seat and hide the battery. Connecting a new clutch cable today I found the rat's nest below when I opened the cover. Once I got the new cable on there, I fired it up and it shifts through all five gears smoothly. It's a runner. Gotta finish up the headlight as well, and figure out where to mount the tach. 

Clutch cover rat's nest.

The Mighty Hannibal, "Jerkin the Dog"!

I dig the Mighty Hannibal's stuff, got a Norton LP and some of the original 45s. Killer beats, but deeper than that: Hannibal played with a white backing band, and it led to some tense moments. He was a civil righs pioneer as well, but mostly unrecognized. This song's killer, despite it's off-kilter title: "Jerkin' the Dog." Jerkin' the dog? I guess it's supposed to combine the Jerk with the Dog, and from the video below, it's pretty awesome to see him giving the dancers the eye, as in: "Get with it, sisters, you're doing the wrong moves!"

Hymn No. 5 was an anti-Vietnam War song, from 1966. Reached #21:

And redone in 1973, as the war came to an end:

Both killer.

Evidence LXXXIV: Return to Suckville, Nude Dude, and Some New Ones

No sticker, so evidence in the form of a patch?

The bad news is, we got to the pool and my camera is broken. It still takes photos, but the view screen in the back is fucked. So I can't see what I've shot, what the settings are, etc.

The pool we bucketed the other day was a tight little bitch. Sometimes they look so good, but really aren't. We pulled up to shred, but a sheriff down the road spooked us so we headed to a local watering hole for a quick brewski. Then back to the bowl 20 minutes later, where Hoss got his BSG.

Shitty photo (see broken camera section above...), but Joe Dirt got his FSG...

...and BSG in the shallow.

Then it was on to scope some more. Cool square down the street, shallow, looks workable and slippery. I wanna come back...

I've been diggin' the whole "when nature takes over" aspect to a lot of the derelict pools we see.

And this one takes the cake. Small swamp in the bowl? Overgrown everything? We lurked this one for a few, and then a nude dude appeared in the backyard. Dixon saw him, told Hoss to have a look, and Hoss got an eyeful of a full frontal. The guy looked like a caveman, and was either deaf or seriously mentally ill. We got the fuck outta there, in case he had a gun.

Weird one down the street, not skateable.

Shot from the alley... A Hispanic woman lived here, and she didn't speak English. I communicated best I could that we wanted to clean her pool, then skate it, but she wasn't buying it. Looked killer though, although you can't tell from this shitty photo.

Nasty Gal and Bold Soul Sister

"I'm me and i'm different; my music is just another level of funk. I love Tina Turner, but we are two totally different people. The same with Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Larry Graham and Stevie Wonder. We all make your fingers pop, but for different reasons....so don't compare me"

—Betty Davis

OK, so I won't compare Betty Davis to Tina Turner. They both rule, though.

Dig Tina and the girls gettin' down, not to mention Ike's funky hairdo. And this jam seriously kills. Intro on this video only and not on the record. Been playing both of these out a ton.

Evidence LXXXIII: One New, One Old.

Hoss had a couple new ones to scope. This one was a pit and lived in, so we went to the other one and got to work. 

Oh yeah, someone's airing their laundry. Those things are huge! 

Shameful abuse of Old Glory. 

A good two feet or so of green much with a lot of solid waste. This was messy. Thankfully the lady next door let us wash off. 

Another cool example of nature taking over. 

This little girl did some reading and writing while we were cleaning. As you can see from the first photo, however, she got in the way of a mucky bucket. 

Down the the last buckets. We decided to bolt to the pork chop and let this one dry. We'll be back. 

C-Raigs, FSG. 

Hoss, BSG. 

B-Rad, FSG. Another fine day... 

And another Master Pool.