Skatepond and Skatepond

I took some auto-timer self-pictures at the backyard skatepond the other day. It took some doing to get the ollie timing down (plus the fact that my hip ollies rarely crest the hip). I took a few slams as well. I love the skatepond. I'm a lucky boy.

Some day soon after those photos were taken, Andrew Killmurder and his out-of-town buddies swooped me up and we headed to the newly minted Albany Landfill Skatepond. It is good to see another hand-made concrete bowl out there, and this one is pretty sweet (although I still like mine best).

It isn't very tall and is a bit wide but it has a nipple in the middle for pumping help, a small hip, and a channel gap, and a big flat bank / roll in. The view from the landfill of the entire bay is awesome and there are usually some crusters around for extra entertainment. I can barely survive this thing but I've seen it get destroyed pretty well. Big props to the dudes who hauled all the concrete out to make this thing.

Andrew styles a frontside ally-oop groner-grinder. Always fun to skate with this guy.

If you are looking for the Albany Pond, it is around the north-west quadrant of the bulb, in the old bicycle graveyard. Beware of squatting crazy dudes and no waxing!

Stop Eating My Tomatoes!

Check out this giant caterpillar I caught munching on our tomato plant! It had already gorged itself on the leaves and tomatoes on most of one of our plants and was as big as a hotdog by the time I noticed it. The plant is now, like, just a stalk.

I'm actually really pleased with how this picture came out. Especially when you consider how creeped out I was when taking it. That thing was huge.

Tobias 1996-2007

I adopted Tobias the cat on October 15th 1996 at the Hopalong Animal Adoption thing on the sidewalk outside the Safeway on College Ave. I was 19 years old and Toby was about 6 months. They told me that it was the last day to adopt a black cat until after Halloween. They also told me Toby was a noisy cat, and they weren't kidding. I wasn't looking for any type or color of cat, I just thought Toby was a cute kitten.

For the first few days he hid under the stove and in other nooks in the house I rented in Oakland with two roommates. Eventually he would come peek around the doorway to watch us but if we made a move he would run. Within a few weeks of me feeding him he started to sleep in my bed with me at night. He loved to hang out under lamps and in houseplants. Like most kittens, he was a bit crazy and always on the attack. He also meowed... a lot.

Toby and I moved into a studio apartment on Piedmont Ave in 1997 and lived together there for three years. He spent the summers in the sunlight coming in from the window and he spent the winters conked-out in front of the apartment's heater. Sometimes he would dart into the hallway and meow like crazy but for the most part seemed pretty happy to just hang-out with me on the futon and play in boxes and paper bags. Even though I lived alone for this time I was never all that lonely thanks to having Toby T. constantly by my side.


In 2000, Narangkar and I moved into a 1-bedroom apartment together and Tobias was introduced to his new little sister, Roo. I remember when we let them both out of their kitty carriers at the same time and they just locked eyes for a while. Toby and Roo got along together immediately and although they never completely snuggled together they spent a great deal of time wrestling and chilling out next to each other. Roo employed her signature "side-stance" and would fluff Toby with her tail while Toby would just wait with his eyes all squinty. Then he would pounce and knock Roo over, they would wrestle a bit, one would run away (usually Toby) and the whole thing would start over. They constantly battled over bags and boxes and sunlight but they rarely growled and never hurt each other.


Tobias and Roo together were known as Roobias. Since they usually were being bratty together it just was easier to yell at them both at once. They were a little yin-yang. Roo is feminine, fluffy, white fur with a pink nose and blue eyes, and pretty quiet. Toby was masculine, short hair, black fur with a black nose and green eyes, and was loud and proud. While Roo will get your arms with her back foot claws Toby would punch you with his paw (no claws) in the head. We called it "bapping". Both Toby and Roo are the same size and both super sweet. The same, yet opposites.

Toby has always been there and made his presence known for my entire adult life. He was my little partner and I cannot even count how many great times we had. I'm sure most cats form bonds with their 'owners' but anybody who met Toby knows he was downright obsessed with me. He would stare at me for hours, meow at me for even longer, and he liked to sleep in my armpit-nook on chilly nights. Sometimes he would even sleep under the covers with his head on the pillow. He completely allowed me to hug, kiss, and moigel him all the time.

The last year and a half was pretty tough on Toby. After having most of his teeth removed in November 2005 he had a minor meltdown and refused to eat when we had to temporarily house my sister's cat, Bert. Once he recovered from that he still had trouble gaining weight and was having a gum infection and digestion problems and nothing seemed to help. We later would find out his gum problem was really a malignant melanoma tumor. By the time we got a proper diagnosis in July of this year it was pretty bad. This type of tumor is extremely rare in cat's mouth and despite cutting it back twice it was growing very rapidly.

Tobias was euthanized in our home this past Monday morning. While it was absolutely heartbreaking to see him go I am glad he did not suffer greatly in his final months and got to enjoy lots of tuna. Although pretty sick he still was a sweetheart up until the very end and we miss him so much. He always made his presence known so now it is starkly missing in my life. I love him very much (as do Narangkar and Little Roo) and I will never forget him and the joy he brought me.We had lots of name for Tobias: Little Guy, Teegins, Talky Teegy from the Toogy-Toogies, Mister T, Evil Mordock, Snooginsen, Tobiason, Tobiashi, Toby T., Special T., and the Man of a Million Meows. It is quite likely he actually did hit a million meows (he probably averaged over 200 a day). So here is to my best friend forever; There will never be another cat like him.

New York City

It is a long story and maybe I'll go into it a bit more here someday, but a chain of events somehow led to me creating a film with my old art school buddy and current art-star Dave Choe for the Scion car company. Short story even shorter: we got paid to made a really fun film called "23 Short Films" which was entirely our own creation. The only influence Scion had (besides the funding) was that the project had to be television friendly: no curses, no nudity, all music cleared. It was a lot of fun working on the project and I hope to continue with the series of shorts in the future.

The film was made as part of the Scion Easy 10 Film Series (with 9 other films being part), and the entire thing was set to premier in New York City this summer. Although Dave was the primary name on the project (Scion contacted him and he incorporated me), they were generous to allow me to attend the premier event and get collaboration billing. Dave has done plenty of "business travel" all around the world (we know how his trip to Japan went), and I don't know if it was because he couldn't make it or what, but about a week before the premier event I was told I'm going to New York for two nights and being put up in a hotel on Scion's dollar. I could get used to this...


The flight was full of kids. I was stuck in the middle of a family of eight with brats in every age group. Luckily there was tv in every seatback and VH1 was airing "Classic Records" with the likes of Maiden's Number of the Beast and Priest's British Steel. The flight was direct, and free, so I'm not complaining.


The lobby of the Hotel on Rivington in the Lower East Side. It's all modern and Clockwork Orange-like. The bar features beer for $7 a bottle.


My room, with king-sized Tempur-pedic and a great view of a brick wall across the alleyway. Again, this is a $300 a night room so I'm all good.


First things first, I hit up Katz's Deli up the road. The above meal (Hot Turkey on Rye, Sour Pickles, and a pint of Katz's Ale) cost over $20! Still, it was a damn good sandwich.


At the deli they give you a this ticket on your way in and you pay on the way out. The guys who actually make the sandwiches just write on the blank back of the ticket. The whole thing seems a bit contrived to me.


I then proceeded to get lost. It seemed like every way I would go would take me further into Chinatown. It was a super-hot day so the night was excellent. Narangkar couldn't come on this trip and it was a bit lonely being in the big city by myself.


The next day I got up and headed straight to Doughnut Plant. They make a only couple of custom flavors every day. I got me some white peach, sweet basil, tres leches, and chocolate blackout. And a cup of coffee. So good. I really wish there was spot this good in Oakland.


Near to Doughnut Plant is Pickle Guys. They got all my pickle needs covered from spicy to semi-sour to dill to horseradish. The pickled celery was awesome.


This was my only day free in the city so I headed to the Natural History Museum. On the way I stopped at Printed Matter bookstore in the Chelsea district. My experience at the store was pretty frustrating, lots of employees and no one to help. I did get an awesome book they publish by Kim Beck (check the review here). The neighborhood is beautiful with lots of stoops and trees.


It was one of those 95 degrees and humid days so it was nice to get into the Natural History Museum. I headed straight up to the dinosaurs. I don't care how old you are, the fact that these giant monsters ruled this planet back in the day is awesome. I'm never not fascinated by dinosaurs.


Even better than the dinos are all the fossils of extinct mammals. Did you know the sloths once stood about 8-feet tall and lived in caves? No shit. Imagine running into one of these dudes. They are like super-bears. There were also mega-antler creatures, mammoths, and deer the size of rabbits. Crazy.


Most of the museum is filled with taxidermy animals and birds either mounted on the walls or in dioramas. While the Dinosaur area is packed with people, the rest of the museum is pretty empty.


I just really liked this illustration of the Gibbon skeleton.


There is also a lot of relics from non-European cultures. The Aztec, Olmec, and Mayan stuff always aesthetically fascinates me. This calendar here is huge.


The last area I was sure to visit was the meteor and mineral rooms. The mineral and gem room is like a giant carpeted playground with tons of ramps and ledges and low light. It is really comfortable to just sit around in because all the display cases just glow.


Got to respect graffiti like this.

The actual Scion event was crazy. There were two screening rooms and a big party room with a really great DJ (DJ Eleven from Oakland!) and an open bar. Brian and Alice Caraway, my neighbors, were in the Brooklyn so they came out for the party. I didn't bring my camera to the event (for once I wouldn't be the guy at the event taking pictures of myself), but they had photographers there so should be some photos online somewhere eventually.

The next morning, after doughnuts, I flew home. I got a bunch of DVDs of the project if you want to check it out. There is a preview on youtube here. There may be more info on Easy 10 here. There is an LA premier coming in late September to let me know if you wanna get on the guest list. Thanks to Jason at Malbon Bros. Farms, Scion folks, and, of course, Dave Choe, for giving me the opportunity to get to NYC for a few days. Go Mets.

Swell. Another Blog.

Great. Another blog. How groudbreaking. Welp, I wanted a place to publicly post some pictures and ideas and whatever and the other blogs I'm doing are either the Rowan Morrison Gallery News or the Art Books with Rowan Morrison blog. So, yeah, don't expect big and important things here and I won't either and we can all be content. But, by all means, check back in and comment and email me and all that.

So if you somehow stumbled here via strange search engine key words or whatever, let me tell you about myself. I'm Pete. I live in Oakland with my wife, Narangkar, and our cats. We are both artists working in a storefront studio here in North Oakland and we own and operate a small contemporary art gallery and fine arts bookstore in the adjacent storefront called Rowan Morrison. I have a website for my artwork, and a website for a publication I make called Junk Pirate. I also have a youtube page where I post random videos I've made (mostly skating and artsy stuff). I also have a myspace page that I never check. So chew that over while I try to figure out how to customize this blog and get it all looking tip-top.