Fall Psych

(Yuji Huriyama high on the Nose--pulled from Speedclimb.com)

The last warmth of summer has given way to a chilly fall. The East Bay Bouldering Crew is craking as usual. Hans and Yuji are going for another speed attempt on the Nose today, and blue skies surround SF despite the Blue Angels' best attempts to scare the city with their vulgar display of power and noise.



I've been experimenting with different variations on my hangboard routine (pyramid hangs: 2,4,6,4,2 seconds; 10 minute condensed workouts; L-sit pullups). I'm still a bit of a novice at this kind of training, but I'm keeping with it. The hardest part of training is choosing to begin.


(Old Reinhardt Karl photo from Wolfgang Gullich's book.)

Dawn Patrol

(Using the night to get more day--Bugaboos.)

My good friend Steve is no stranger to F.O.M.O.--Fear Of Missing Out. It's a known killer of men below 65 and when he gets to feeling particularly behind the training curve he'll lament, "while I'm sleeping, they're getting strong." "They" could be the next V12 grommet, the off-the-couch savant who does the Nose-in-a-Day, or the low-key East Siders who treat the Incredible Hulk like a mere crag. Not to be left out or behind, he's heading into the Gorge several days a week--before teaching!--to run laps on 5.11s and 12s that he's got in the bag. Just as folks are dropping into the Central Gorge he's on his way out having logged a respectable afternoon's worth of routes.

(Jon Baum going third-class on Bugaboo Spire.)

Feeling some mighty F.O.M.O. of my own I've started dawn patrolling in the spirit of Alex Lowe. Lowe's infectious energy, drive, work ethic and caffeine consumption are the things of legend. My dawn patrol--hangboarding or doing yoga from 5-6 am; bike commuting to school--is building toward the alpine ideal of going higher, lighter, and faster.

(Room 122 where I like to think I model a way of living as much as I model sentence trees.)

Black Dove

Dennis Berendt's Black Dove have single-handedly revived my faith in heavy music. I'm not usually taken with d-beat and the cacophony of denim-n-leather punks in a world without soap channeling Motorhead and Tolkien...but Black Dove is something special. Cloaked beneath the nihilism and aesthetics of doom I can't help but remember that Dennis has a heart of gold and believes deeply in the possibility of change. What he began with Three Studies and continued with The Awakening lives on and that makes my day a little brighter.

Check them out here.

Still/Hear 2

"The words and the pictures and the voice are held like weapons/hate as an object, as a product and it sells so quickly/all just to prove we can be just as numb as our enemy/and if you really care then why do you use these tactics?" ("Numb", Campaign, 1992)

The Fiend still inspires

R.I.P. Alex.
(Conrad Anker photo)

Bill Ayers: A Call to Teach

I'd like a president to know "radicals" like Ayers.

Still/Hear 1

As cheesy and cliche as some of these records seem now, each of these seven inches--an anachronism if there ever was one--defined the landscape of hardcore punk for me and my closest friends in the early 90s. They're part of me, and through them I found my voice and a way to define and describe my values outside of the confines of white suburban California.