Monday 12.26.11

I had Monday off and was looking forward to kicking it around my house but the homie Dan Foster hit me up saying he was downtown. I grew up skating with Dan and when he moved to Boston he used to let me crash on his couch every weekend. That was back in 1999 and being 17 and living in Maine, to be chilling in Boston was fucking epic. The city seemed huge at the time and being able to skate Turtles, Copley and a bunch of other landmark Boston skate spots was a dream. Fast forward 12 years and I hadn't seen Dan in forever, so I was stoked to grab some beers downtown and catch up.

This is Joey and Dan at Downtown Lounge.

Friday 12.23.11

A bunch of my friends were at Dock Fore last night so Bogle and I headed down. I was wondering why they were there because we never go to that bar but upon arriving I found out why. Dock Fore has two dollar, twenty ounce PBR's on tap. Definitely our kind of place.

Geoff changed his name to Haggard Randy to test our theory that anybody can be famous in this day and age with a cool name.

Cironi agreed with this theory.

Gary was chilling.

Gary opened up the skate shop and we drank Budweiser there. This is Brad.

Labbe and Geoff shredding.

Labbe solo shredding.

96 Mentality.

Got the 96 Mentality shirts in from the screen printer.
In dark chocolate and black.

WU TANG. 12.20.11

Wu-Tang played the State Theater on Tuesday and it was sick. They opened with a lot of old school bangers. Getting into the show was a bit ridiculous, though. You had to get frisked and searched. I could understand going to those lengths for a fuckin MOP show but whatev's. Rolled in with Geoff and JWard.

Wu-Tang!

Method Man was killin it.

People were moshing and shit.

Accidental artistic shot.

RZA was on point. Dude held it down for sure.

Crowd Participation.

Method Man stage diving.

Method Man post stage dive.

Matt, Damon and Me.

Damon smoking cigarettes in the lobby. I claimed he was European and thus not liable for not adhering to no smoking regulations. It worked and people we're like, "Oh, Ok."

Met up with the crew outside.

Went to Norm's with everybody.

Norm's continued.

And again.

Took a picture of Norm's kitchen for some reason. It looked really nice.

And that's where we'll leave it. With a picture of Norm's kitchen. All in all it was a great night.

ESNC ad.

This is the ESNC ad for December/January. I have had the idea to put a girl in an XL ESNC shirt for an ad for awhile now and it worked out great. Sam McKenna did a great job with the photo and my friend Jenna Hargis did a great job rocking the ESNC tee.

Saturday 12.17.11

I almost didn't go out on Saturday night because we shredded it so hard on Friday night. But you know how it goes, 8 O'clock rolls around, the homies start hitting you up and there's no way your staying in. Good times await and the way I always looked at it is that you only get so many Saturday night's in your life. So you gotta take advantage of every single one.

I started off at my friend Geoff Bogle's house and after kicking back a few PBR's we headed up to Empire. I really dig this place. It was crowded but with a lot of open space and $2 High Life pounders.

This is Jay Brown and Geoff Bogle in Empire. Geoff's holding the dolla's, yo.

$2 High Life pounders. Good deal.

We held it down here for a minute with a rad crew of friends and then headed over to Ben Cironi's girlfriends crib. Ben was kind enough to invite us over for beers and snacks. It was hella sick.

These are the homies in the elevator on the way up to the party.
Nate, Jay and Geoff.

This is in the hallway at the party. I don't why we shot this photo in the hall like this but I'm sure there was some reason for it.

This is Geoff and Nate supervising the snack table.

Another great weekend. Great times with great friends. Hope you had a fun weekend as well!

Friday 12.16.11

Friday night was hella fun. I've had a lot on my mind lately and some big decisions to make so it was rad to check all that shit at the door and go drinking with my friends.

These are my homies Brad Sawyer and Nate Keegan. We're kicking it at Geno's Rock Club on Congress Street. Geno's is a super cool place.

I don't know what band this is but they we're shredding while we were there.

Video Extras.

Couple clips of Gary Smith and I from the upcoming Underground Wheel Company video.
Peep the Underground website here.

Everyday People.

This is my part from a video entitled, "Everyday People". It was filmed in 2004 right after I moved back to Maine after living in Lowell, Massachusetts for 5 years.
Looking back, it was a really special time. The skate scene was really strong, especially in Mid-Coast Maine and people were skating hard all the time. After this was finished a lot of people moved onto other things, be it joining the Navy or pursuing other activities. The skate scene took a hiatus of sorts up until the last year or so. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like what's going down in Portland these days. All my friends are completely killing it and with people around to film and shoot photo's it seems the motivation level stays constantly high.
I couldn't be more stoked to live in Portland and see some amazing shit go down on the regular!

Underground Wheel Company.

Underground is a wheel company based out of Malibu, CA. They have been hooking me up with wheels for awhile now and I couldn't be more stoked on them. They make high quality product and have always been super cool to me.
Recently, they hooked me up with an ad in Lowcard Magazine, and needless to say, I was hyped! Peep the ad below, shot by my friend Darren Mcfarland. Peep the Underground website here.

12.10.11

This weekend was hella fun. A bunch of my friends from Massachusetts came up to skate and hangout in Portland. We skated a whole bunch but I didn't take any photo's of skating. This post consists mostly of everybody partying.

For me, it's the raddest shit to hangout with all your friends and kick back a swimming pool's worth of beer after skating all day. Saturday night was no exception. We rolled deep in the bar and just partied. It's the best feeling being surrounded by a huge group of your friends and having absolutely no worries on a Saturday night. All the real world shit just slides to the peripheral (bills, jobs, whatever bullshit your dealing with) and it's nothing but good times.

Alright, so to get this train wreck of a post back on track, peep the pics.

I was super hyped that my friend Tim Nichols came up to Portland. He is from Lowell, MA and he is a straight up epic dude. I've been on a lot of road trips with Nichols and he is always the one skating and charging long after everybody else is done. I have seen this guy do some legendary shit on a skateboard and in just life in general. Seeing Portland PD pull a two foot long dagger out of his backpack in the Old Port is just one of the many incredible stories I got about Nichols.

Anyway, about this photo. Nichols and Sean Hernandez both got their boards confiscated skating a spot in Kittery, ME. So, being in a pinch, Nichols had to skate this gem of a board.

I was equally stoked my friend Sean Hernandez made the trip up. He was the first skater I met when I moved to Lowell, MA in 1999. 'Nandez is one of the raddest dudes ever and we have shared many miles on the road. From New york to Philly and everywhere in between, we had some crazy hellrides over the years. This guy has legendary tales as well. He once hauled a bench back from a bar in the Old Port, eight blocks over his shoulder to my apartment on the Hill, for the hell of it. I returned the bench exactly on year later to the day. I can't help but smile when I think of how it must have been the talk of the bar for at least a week. The bench just re-appearing and shit. After he stole the bench the bar used five gallon buckets and two by four's to make a seat.
That story is tame compared to some of the wild shit this dude would do. I just don't wanna post anything incriminating.

This is 'Nandez listening to ABBA and staying warm in the car.

Fast forward a few hours and here we are at Amigo's. I was super stoked my friends Nate Keegan and Garrett Davis came up to shred and drink beers. Nate and Garrett are some of the raddest dudes as well. They both completely kill it on skateboards and can hold it down in the bar like no one's business. Everybody was rowdy as all hell and it made for super fun times.

This is Nate and my homeboy Elliott Vecchia. Elliott decided to stay up in Portland after the rest of the crew from MA bailed and I was so hyped! Elliott fuckin' rules and I was stoked to have him up in Maine kickin back beers and partying.

This is a portion of all the homies kickin' it up in Amigo's on Saturday night. I wish I had a photo of everybody together but I would have needed to clear an entire section of the bar to fit everybody in. Regardless, it was an epic weekend and these are the photo's I have to show for it. Hope you all had a great weekend, too!

Friends Section from Everyday People.

Skaters in order of appearance: Bill Rowe, Kyle Downs, Justin Lachance, Ryan Choquette, Ben Mugford, Nate Mugford, Chris Martin, Dan O'Melia, Travis Storer, Ryan Jones, Ned Sweet. Filmed in 2004. The original audio had to be replaced due to copyright issues. Thus the lack of background audio and the editing not hitting on beat.

Ben Skrzypek Everyday People.

This is Ben's part from Everyday People. Filmed in 2004 with earlier footage he filmed while living in Spain. Peep more parts from the video here.

Top Three's.

I was super hyped to get this "Top Three's" feature in this month's issue of "Skate Jawn". It's a switch ollie, shot in Portland, ME by Sam McKenna. I was able to give shout outs to Portland, ME and my good friend Ben Skrzypek. There is an ESNC ad on page 2 and the feature below is on page 20. Check out an online version of the mag here.