Barry McGee show in Berkeley

Deanna and I drove up to see Barry's mid-career retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum. And then spent a day in San Francisco looking at more art.

Retrospective - ret·ro·spec·tive - [re-truh-spek-tiv]
1. directed to the past; contemplative of past situations, events, etc.
2. an art exhibit showing an entire phase or representative examples of an artist's lifework.

"It is a simple but sometimes forgotten truth that the greatest enemy to present joy and high hopes is the cultivation of retrospective bitterness." -Robert Menzies

Met up with Jamal, had some food, and then walked over to check out the show.

Old metal trays used to set type...

"I grew up poor. I never had any money. I was a hobo, you know, ride the freights." -Art Linkletter

You have this AND a sweet one at the SFMOMA, dang. Barry is ruling the Bay Area right now.

Its all in the details.

Legendary Kevin Ancell (creator of the Spitfire logo) who is responsible for the heavy lifting on the production side of a Barry McGee show. Is that Colt Bowden in the background?

Clare Rojas (aka Peggy Honeywell) and Laurie Lazer from the Luggage Store.

Barry's father did these drawings on napkins.

Some hints of Margaret Kilgallen were everywhere.

Etchings...

Pat and his lovely wife.

Get outta my shot Jeffrey Deitch!

There we go. The museum itself is quite beautiful. And also not secure in an earthquake. If the big one hits, all these people are dead.

Immense.

Hey there's a kid tagging back there.

Bulging.

Wood, not metal. Amazing.

Barry's response to Nam June Paik...

The Margaret room.

Old Barry.

This guy said fuck it, I'm just gonna sit on the art.

Remember that yellow dumpster? This is what's inside it.

The elusive Teen Witch.

Barry's mom and Brother Mike.

Posted August 30th, 2012 by go see it and the sfmoma!

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Litmus Test Exhibition

In Copenhagen, Denmark!

Posted August 27th, 2012 by Go and see and think and vomit.

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US Open in HB part 2

Here is more of the images I shot during the US open of Surfing here in Huntington Beach.(These are scanned from a proof sheet, so forgive the quality.)

Promoting beer on the beach while police actively ticketed anyone with a beer on the beach.

Lurking by the puddle did not get me the results I was hoping for.

This kid was showing me the ticket he got for smoking in public.

Heavy Metal Swimming.

This kid, buddy of the ticketed kid, was showing me the tab of acid on his gums, and his brand new Deathwish tattoo.

"By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out." -Richard Dawkins

This is the girl being lifted with one hand above.

"To make money I picked up work as a busboy, valet parker, skateboard shop employee." -David Spade

This mama was going for it. The skimpiest bikini I saw all week was worn by a 40+ year old! Nailing it.

"An evening dress that reveals a woman's ankles while walking is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen." -Valentino Garavani

The costume of a hippy can be easily acquired.

Jamming for Jesus.

Posted August 23rd, 2012 by If I had time to scan the negs they would look better!

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iPhone fotos and Instagram outtakes 3

More from the iPhone during US Open week...

Kid with a Matt Bennett graphic tattooed on his leg by himself. Welcome to the lifers' club.

I captioned this "Brainwashed Kid" on my Instagram and it sparked quite a debate.

People love the beach.

Clusters of flesh.

You know your autograph is really cherished when they ask for it on their ass.

New Leo board!

Capitan Soncho es ...

Devin Briggs was pissing off the Christians.

Arf.

I think those bikinis glowed in the dark.

Forgot this girls name.

Arto signaling that he needs a rock lock.

Dakota Servold texted me this one...

People were just smacking ass all over the place, I kid you not. Watched it happen a bunch of times.

The Schaeffer filter.

Deanna was documenting like crazy.

This guy demanded that I shoot him and put him on Instagram, we even tried to get a girl in his shot to make it better. But I have yet to find the time to put it up.

I may have freaked this kid out.

This happened.

Skaters making shit happen.

Shredding girls.

Breaking it down...

No more daily HB pier photos I guess.

Censored for their protection.

Posted August 21st, 2012 by Double boo-YA.

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US Open in HB part 1

Here is some of the images I shot during the US open of Surfing here in Huntington Beach at the beginning of August.

(These are scanned from a proof sheet, so forgive the quality.)

Take your child to the beach and get a photo of him with the paid to walk around in bikini girls. He can understand later.

The local churches find the US open a roiling pit of sin. A parade of flesh and lust. (There is a lot of eye fucking going down.) But the debates and preaching end up only throwing gasoline on the fire, causing more harm than good, and serving only to make martyrs of the preachers for the abuse they take. Both sides are simply making froth, and no advancement of ideas takes place. But it's really entertaining to watch for me.

"There is no art without Eros." -Max Frisch

"A human being is only breath and shadow." -Sophocles

"Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them." -Walter Kerr

"I was an anorexic, beer drinking, class cutting, doodling, shoplifting, skater chick that was into nature, art class, and the beach." -Rebecca Miller

The US open was like shooting fish in a barrel for the long-lens "ass and cleavage" hunters. Exhibit A.

Exhibit B.

Concerts on the beach? Yeah, for 3 nights. You guys heard of Best Coast? I'm too old I guess.

Posted August 19th, 2012 by There is much.

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Out Takes from the Kid's Wear Shoot

I shot Captain Soncho's sister Coral for the new issue of Kid's Wear Magazine. These are some out-takes from that shoot.

Coral was laughing at some of the clothes that were sent from Germany.

And in this look the world flashes in front of you, the whole spark of life, the mischievous wiles of youth - but then fades quickly back to reality.

Soncho looks out at the power plant pumping smoke into the sky, but he is only steps from the beach, and position is almost everything at this age.

"All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name." -Andre Breton

"The modern Little Red Riding Hood, reared on singing commercials, has no objection to being eaten by the wolf." -Marshall McLuhan

"That corpse you planted last year in your garden, Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?" -T.S. Elliot

"Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why." -Kurt Vonnegut

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." -Albert Camus

"I bought a lot of rubbish things that kids buy: skateboards and clothes and typical teenage stuff. And, as soon as I could, I wasted a lot of money on cars - BMW's mostly - for myself and my family." -Tom Felton

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives." -Albert Einstein

"When you say it's gonna happen now, well when exactly do you mean" -Steven Morrissey

A Maleficent-esque headgear can make your inner evil come closer to the outside.

Posted August 13th, 2012 by HB days, HB nights.

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iPhone fotos and Instagram outtakes 2

More, More, More...

Even parking your car in HB, you are confronted by bikini girls!

I guess she wasn't leaving.

My niece and her homie.

I think this was on IG...

Captain Soncho was using his sister as a billboard. I need to get Deanna is a bikini with a Miss America style ribbon that says "www.toymachine.com/ed."

I see a #skateoardinggirl in there somewhere,

Insta-filters and cropping do wonders for shitty photos.

Kids.

Before.

After.

Posted August 10th, 2012 by time to try325986325

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iPhone images and Instagram out-takes

From around Huntington Beach during US Open week.

Another shot of the Bat Ray who kept his life after being thrown back into the water.

Tons of ladies carrying around skateboards in HB.

Everybody is somebody's son/daughter.

A little on the blurry side.

A #buildingtheusopen photo that never got used.

Before.

And After.

Before.

And After.

How did we start hanging out with 13 and 17 year olds?

Glistening bodies sizzle in the California sun.

Lots of posing for photos goes on.

Posted August 8th, 2012 by Life in Public, everyone is watching, remember that.

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Team Templeton in a part of this SPOTlife!

Along with some epic skating.

Posted August 8th, 2012 by so there you go.

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Huntington Beach in July

On and around the 4th of July.

The aftermath of some small skirmish was being watched by the Angry Bird.

It can be only two things. "May I put my hand on your knee?" or "Lemme get a French fry." Either way the correct reaction is a recoiled "Um..., No!"

"A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things. Nature has set upon him the process of decline and dissolution by which she removes things which have survived their usefulness." -William Graham Sumner

Not far enough out to be shooting surfers. Must be bikini babes. Ever heard of the internet?

"His mother should have thrown him out and kept the stork." -Mae West

The police busted this girl for drawing the Kracken.

On the way out I saw a piece of Drfiter collected on the railing.

On the way back, the Drifter dust had multiplied.

I always wonder when I see any sort of wheelchair, unless there is a cast or missing limb, can the person walk but would rather not?

This guy.

If you don't have a bathing suit, just rock your bra. It's actually more modest that most of the bikinis down here.

"As a singer, I might have fallen among thieves. I wonder if I'd still be alive by now." -Ben Kingsley

"A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it." -Samuel Butler