:: BAD KIDS HAVE MORE FUN ::

Posted by: Sucka Pants

(photos from the Adriatic and entering Venice)

And the rafts keep movin' on:

- Gluing + duct-taping my shoes together for the third time this trip. Eventually I work out a combination of zip-ties and copper wire retainers.
- Finding some amazing old weapons charts in an abandoned customs station.
- Fried pizza. Yes it's that good.
- Napping and I do not get along.
- A snake set up home on Old Hickory for a bit in all the nooks and crannies.
- Waking up one morning to a giant sword fish head hanging on the shore next to the rafts.
- Having a Venetian lecture series on board, where every night someone can present info on any topic related to Italy. Conrad's lecture on Italian disco turns out to be a trick to have a DJ Dirtyfinger dance party on Alice. Complete with crowd surfing, climbing the structure, and propane-balloon-fireballs.
- Making up dances corresponding to parts of the trip: "Whip a shitty" = turn in a circle, "Do the Robin" = hold your hand up in the air as if you were protecting your injured thumb from getting bumped on the dance floor, "Pickles" = bite people around you like a rabid swan, "Kill the cat" = act like your pounding something with a paddle.
- The warning whenever someone is climbing something sketchy = "Built by clowns!"
- Moving from "Torre di Fine" (The Final Tower) to "Laguna di Morte" (Lagoon of Death).
- "There are some things you just can't unsee." (referring to a crew member taking a shit off the raft)
- Homemade hot chocolate, fireballs, and medical repairs.
- One of the crew had found a dead cat and brought it to the boats for the Cabinet of Curiosities. Before heading to Venice, there was some dead-stuff house-cleaning and the cat ended up over the side of the boat. It floated around between the rafts for a bit, until Paul the Plumber tried to sink it by pounding it with a paddle repeatedly. When that didn't work, Orien took over and repeatedly backed the skiff over it, trying to cut it up with the prop.
- Connie ramming into the coast guard boat while driving our safety boat during our first entrance into Venice. She was trying to tell them to chill out.
- We arrive in Venice, all in one piece, for the most part.

MP3:

- Mayyors - Ghost Punch

A band's place is no longer myspace.

:: ONION PATCH ::

Posted by: Bryan

A bumpy highway winds through the eastern countryside in Colombia, spiraling up lush green hills and cutting across smooth yellow fields. Somewhere along this road from Bogotá to the Venezuelan border, sits a small village called Berlín. Most of Berlín's thousand residents survive on growing and selling green onions. Given enough wind, the pungent aroma floods all corners of the village. Hours from any city of considerable size, Berlín maintains tradition through distance. For some folks, their entire existence lies in the blip along Highway 66.

:: HIDE YOUR HAIRY BUBBLEGUM ::

Posted by: Sucka Pants

(photos from the first leg of our junk raft adventure)

Selections from traveling on the Adriatic toward Venice:

- Constant problems with the Coast Guard every step of the way. Apparently it's standard operating procedure here to halt any vessel you don't recognize, boldface lie to them about what papers/clearance they need, drag your feet making copies of all their paperwork, including passports (even though your buddies 10 km away just did the same thing the day before), and then finally (hours later) smile and say everything is fine, have a nice day.
- Being stopped by a closed drawbridge right after leaving Marano. The next day being grounded just past the bridge by high winds.
- Patience and negotiation skills are the key to anything in Italy, it seems.
- Exploring an abandoned farm with tons of air-born cotton-fluff.
- Paying a visit to Gulliverlandia.
- Doubling Franny on the handlebars with a giant stuffed caterpillar on the back, riding down pitch-black country roads with no brakes.
- Bone fish stew = equal parts bone to stew.
- Scary mutant ice cream man.
- Ben Wolf joining us, and Callie being so excited she ran and jumped on him - splitting her chin open on his face. . . requiring stitches.
- Little kids bringing us a six-pack of beer in Caorle.
- Sleeping on the roof of an abandoned school on the beach.
- A lot more abandoned buildings.
- Little old ladies fixing our sewing machine.
- Having a bike break down while on a grocery run. When they return to fix it, they find someone had gone through the groceries and stolen just some of them.
- Dark Dark Dark comes for a visit and performs for us on the rafts at night.
- Having a moment that is actually TOO utopian.
- Traveling on the sea in large swells = a few crew get seasick.
- The Coast Guard stopping us out on the sea and ordering us to stay there while they took out Italian-speaking crew member back to headquarters to explain everything. They take so long that the sea goes from calm to large swells, so much so that when we do say screw it and head in, we have a very hard time navigating in the waves. Thanks for looking out for boater's safety, Coast Guard.
- The Bora lands while we are in the small canal town of Torre di Fine ("The Final Tower"). It is dramatic and powerful, with sweeping clouds and rain clusters. I was out in a field hiking to an abandoned farm house, and was having trouble keeping my tripod and camera from getting blown over.
- More abandoned buildings.
- Children in Torre di Fine bringing us rum, making it the third time kids have brought us booze.
- Someone brought us a kite as a gift. While flying it next to the rafts it gets hit by a car, and then a bus. All while about twenty school kids are watching while singing to us with their teachers. The kite flyer promptly jumped into a tent to hide when the car stopped.
- The restaurant Luigi in Torre di Fine randomly bringing us a giant pan of "Frutta di Mar" (fruit of the sea) pasta, with mini-lobsters, calamari and mussels. All they asked was that we return the pan.
- A night of music by Harrison is followed by kidnapping a bartender to go on a late-night cruise on Old Hickory to an abandoned farm house, which ends with two crew members heading to the hospital.
- Cereal with no milk = not so bad if it's good cereal.
- Some minor issues develop when a language barrier results in mixing up antibiotic cream with psoriasis cream.
- Heading out into the sea at dawn one morning, only to be warned frantically by some fishermen to go back because a Bora was coming. Sure enough, before we could even retrace our short path the seas had doubled in size and the rafts were taking a lot of water across their decks. Maria was even towed in to help her get out of it faster.
- The next time we tried to head out, our rafts had collected a massive amount of flotsam underneath them. While dragging it all out, one of the gems we found under there was a dead hedgehog (which was promptly gutted and salted for future transformation into a nail pouch).
- The Cabinet of Curiosities had officially become the cabinet of dead things.

MP3:

- Luminescent Orchestrii - Amaritsi

A band's place in myspace.

:: CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS ::

Posted by: Bryan
Matt: "Yo, do you have a nice suit?"
Me: "Yeah, hand-tailored in Vietnam."
Matt: "That'll do. You're going to the Robin Hood Ball tonight. It's like the prom of Wall Street where New York's wealthiest get together for a fancy dinner and give millions to charity. We want to know what it looks like given the current economic climate."
Me: "Cool. I'm there."

It was a fascinating experience, running with my camera between tables of folks that could buy and sell me. Many of whom are partially responsible for the financial collapse. Then watching those same folks sing along to Fergie performing "My Humps." All and all they raised $73 million (half of which came from George Soros) to fight poverty in New York City. Can't fuck with that.

:: PHOTOGRAPHING PHOTOGRAPHERS ::

Posted by: Bryan

I spent last weekend in Charlottesville, VA for the annual LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph. It's always inspiring to hear your heroes speak and see some of the best documentary photos from the last year. Martin Parr was a big highlight. Especially his Autoportraits. This has nothing to do with that except we were there.

:: IN BETWEEN ::

Posted by: Bryan

I just finished redesigning Lovebryan. Please take a look.

Lots of work piling up, pushing me down. Assignments, personal, obligatory, you name it. It's the in-between moments that make all the difference.

:: WILD IN THE SHADOWS ::

Posted by: Bryan

Walking down the dark alley to the Autumn Bowl is kinda like finding the Foot Clan hideout. There are no arcade games and less martial arts but the skating is gnarlier, the music is heavier, the smoke is thicker and the babes are more bodacious. This was a party for Damo's graduation and Natur played their first show.