The New iPad

Okay, here’s the real one. At $500 plus, I’m going to wait. My kindle will have to get me by. Amazon, by the way, announced that it soon will have apps for the Kindle. I do think e-readers will eventually boost the publishing industry, once prices come down.

Check out NYT’s live blogging of the announcement today.

NAMM 2010 Day One

Possum and Kitty

Sandy Seals of Central California

Crystal Cove SandyMan

Read about the Crystal Cove Cottages in Newport Beach here.

Warpaint Billie Holiday

One of my favorite musicians is John Frusciante, who recently left the Red Hot Chili Peppers to pursue his own musical and creative interests. He’s been doing that for a long time and has a slew of solo records that I adore. He’s also done some fabulous collaborations, Ataxia, for one. My blog name is inspired by their first record.

Well, it seems John’s been dating (maybe married?) Emily Kokal, a musician herself. Since I liked John’s music so much, I wanted to listen to her music and I now have a new favorite band, Warpaint: Emily Kokal, vocals and guitar and the one with the side bangs; Theresa Wayman, vocals and guitar; Jenny Lee Lindberg, vocals and bass. I love their voices, and the innocence and unfinished-ness of the music. Josh Klinghoffer, who worked with John on A Sphere in the Heart of Silence (what I call John’s dance album) and Ataxia’s Automatic Writing, also plays with Warpaint:

Here is Stars from Warpaint’s new record Exquisite Corpse.

On the Bright Side

From Never Shout Never

NPR’s New App for Junkies

For all you NPR junkies, now you can get national news and live streaming from your favorite local NPR station on your iPhone or iTouch.

NPR launched this app a couple of days ago. Go here to download.

Weekend Edition’s Scott Simon explains:

Mighty Mama Skate-O-Rama June 26

For more information, visit Mighty Mama Skate-O-Rama.

Beach Birdie

Testing my new Sony Cyber-Shot. I went from 3 megapixels to 10!

Off Writing

Head down, working on finishing my children’s book. 

The most awesome illustrator ever.

 

 

 

 

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Summertime Rocks

Smoke from India.

It’s Skateboard Mom

Also known as Barb Odanaka, who has a smashing new children’s book coming out about some wild critters.

KiteSurfing

Generic Youth

Generic Youth designs and makes t-shirts, hooded jackets made of towels and other clothing. When I visited owner Jeff Yokoyama, he was wearing a hoodie made out of a Coke beach towel.

What makes the store interesting is it’s a hub of ideas, many of which are coming from the local kids. They come up with t-shirt designs and he pays them for their drawings and transfers them to t-shirts. Local filmmakers are working on enhancing the Generic Youth website.

Jeff designs in one corner of the store, where there is a sewing table set up and lots of fabric in cubbies. On the other side of the store, are the tees and jackets. He’s got some new plaid hooded jackets in the store. He also brings in designers to set up “pop-up” stores in his store. Now, he’s adding a hair salon. He used to be a hairdresser in his 20s.

The store began as a summer project for his daughter, Coco. She came up with the name and her shadowed sillouette is used as the logo. She also came up with the key on the zipper pulls, which stands for individuality.

The store is at 1609 Pomona Ave. in Costa Mesa.

Christian Louboutin Coming to South Coast Plaza

The “it” shoe guy has signed on to open at the Costa Mesa mall, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Oprah featured his shoes on her show recently. You can’t miss Christian’s shoes because they have red soles.

Obey’s Obama Poster

The very cool Obama poster, created by artist Shepard Fairey, of Obey Clothing in Santa Ana. The limited edition posters are all gone, according to Obey’s website.

Atwater Getting Big Buzz in OC

Atwater Clothing is Orange County’s latest buzz brand. The Costa Mesa designer of clothes inspired by surfing has shop owners and other industry types raving.“Those guys are the coolest and the nicest—a very talented group of kids doing fantastic things,” said Jeff Yokoyama, owner of Generic Youth, a Costa Mesa boutique that sells Atwater clothes.Read the rest in the OCBJ.

Atwater is one of the few companies that sponsor a skimboarding team. The No. 1 guy in skimboarding, Paulo Prietto, is on the Atwater White Tiger team. Skimboarding is big in Laguna Beach.

Some fun skimboarding photos I took in Laguna.

Photos (all by me except shots of Paulo and George) and story I wrote on skimboarding for the OC Insider magazine

The Yachting Life

Look for my story about Crow’s Nest Yachts in this week’s OCBJ.

NAMM 2008 Videos

More NAMM Show 08

Leo Fender’s wife, Phyllis, with her special edition Blondie guitar made by G&L Guitars in Fullerton. G&L was Leo’s second venture. His lab is still intact at G&L’s headquarters, where the McClaren family now runs the business. Photo courtesty of G&L

More NAMM photos

NAMM Show 2008

More Namm

Cabana Boys, Fullerton College

Refrigerators and Guitars

Cookie and Elmo start the show, followed by the NAMM band

Pelican

NAMM 2008

Update: NAMM! 

See photo blog That’s right, it’s NAMM time again. Keep a look out. I’ll post photos from the show here on Thursday. The show runs through Sunday at the Anaheim Convention Center. NAMM is one of my favorite conventions. Music retailers come to get a look at the latest musical instruments and other products — guitar straps, metronomes, deejay turntables.

Black Friday

Good Friday. Shoppers still doing their thing today in Orange County.

Newport Beach

Orangey Sky

Newport Beach this morning….

Water dropping helicopters on their way to the fires

Newport Beach Concours de’Elegance

Story in this week’s OCBJ.

Orange County Auto Show

Here are some of the autos, robots and creatures at the show, which started today at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Brasher Falls, New York

The Village of Brasher Falls, where life is slooooow, cell phones don’t work and everyone sells worms!