I had to repost this thing from Gothamist. I thought it was so great. Those little homies in Staten, know how to get down. I was dying over how much the kid singing the solo, was getting into it. Check it out:

These little guys have graduated from eating random detritus to eating ground up veggie flakes. They are also looking like actual little fish, instead of tadpoles or something. They still don’t have a lot of color. But they are very cute and curious. When I get close to the tank to look at them, they all swim over to look at me. It seems like there are about 15 or so that have survived this far. I hope that they are all big and strong enough to make it, now. At least none of them have to worry about swine flu, right?

Last night was about as perfect as it can get, when it comes to skating weather. It was high 70′s, breezy and not very much humidity. I skated down Riverside Drive to 96th Street and met up with my friend Bryan Swiss. We rode Central Park Drive from there up around the north end and back for a couple of hours. It was a pretty good time. Here is a vid of one of our runs:

Jake Longboarding in Central Park from Jacob Breinholt on Vimeo.

I probably shouldn’t have set out on 10 mile trek, after no skating in 6 months. I got this nasty blister on my pushing foot, as a reminder. It should add some fun to the marathon, this coming weekend. Blah.

It was such a nice day outside yesterday, that I had to take a little stroll for lunch. I headed over to the Brooklyn Banks to watch some kids skate. Sadly, there weren’t very many people skating over there, when I arrived. There are a lot of new installations, since the last time I skated over there.

I saw a new fun box, as well as a volcano spine. I feel like I should get down there soon and skate. It was a beautiful walk though, and I’m glad that I went over.

Dear Jake,
I dreamed the other night that I was hanging out with James and Lars from Metallica (it was totally awes) and I was still in high school I found Lars to be very charming with his slight German accent and feathery rocker hairdo. It was a shocking but inspiring experience.  What does it all mean?  P.S. BHS CLASS OF ‘95 RULZ!

Name: Bring back the man-perm!

Answer–

BB, Imma tell ya, you aren’t the first person who has told me about that dream. Do you think that you are the only one who ever read the August 1991 issue of Slay on! magazine? Yeah, I read it too, the story about Lil’ Jennica Hodgeson from Buttsmouth Arkansas who won the trip to hang out with Metallica on tour for a day. She described Lars in the exact same way that you did in your question. You do raise an important issue though. It is the downfall of humankind that we are witnessing on a daily basis. Men aren’t sensitive enough anymore to wear the man-perm. That is basically what it boils down to. If we could some how introduce the man-perm again, maybe men would revert to being more sensitive and we could all just rock out instead of blowing stuff up.

Get it?

–Jake

Sunday’s race was very exciting. The first two days of practice and testing at Motegi was done in the rain. The weather finally broke for race day, leaving all of the teams scrambling to try to guess what the best dry weather setup would be for the bikes. Rossi started on pole and opened up a bit of a gap, right away. It only lasted a few laps, however, as Jorge Lorenzo worked his way up the chain. There was a brief battle of back and forth passing at the front, but ultimately Lorenzo made his pass stick and was able to open up a bit of a gap. Pedrosa had a great race, as well. After being passed by Lorenzo, Rossi had to contend with Pedrosa, late in the race. Pedroso traded passes in corners 2 or 3 times on Rossi, before the final lap. Rossi was able to maintain his position in second spot, when they came across the line on the last lap. This is Lorenzo’s second victory in the GP class, his first at Motegi. Stoner finished up barely off of the podium in 4th spot, after a less than ideal start and a hard battle. Here are the full results.

There was some drama early in the race. As you may recall, Nicky Hayden suffered a very messy high-side wreck before Qatar, which required minor surgery. He is still healing from that tumble. In fact, they haven’t even taken the stitches out yet. At fate would have it, the GP rookie, Takahashi plowed into the back of Hayden entering a turn, on the very first lap of the race, Sunday. It was a nasty spill. Takahashi walked away, Hayden was taken out on a stretcher. It is said that Hayden will be fully recovered in time to race next Sunday in Spain.

Goriallz is Damon Albarn, the British dude from Blur. Blur is the band that sings “Parklife” and “Song 2.” “Song 2″ is better known as the “woo ho- song” that is played at least once at every hockey and basketball game, right after “Dr. Who.” I was always mildly a fan of Blur. I admired their productivity. It seemed like they released an album pretty much every year for an entire decade, during the 90′s. When Gorillaz‘s self title album was first released, the popular single was “Clint Eastwood.” The track grabbed me pretty much right away. It was partially because I have always been a huge fan of tastefully melding genre’s, which I feel like Gorillaz had done by including Del’s verse in this track. I was already fan of the Hieroglifics Crew anyway. I’m not going to lie and say that I have been a huge fan of every track that Gorillaz have released, but I can say that I have enjoyed several songs from each of their albums. The song that I’m sharing today is called “Slow Country.” It is track 14 on their self titled album. Ok, I know that I said I would take it easy with the ska references. But, if you listen closely to this track, you will probably recognize the repetetive blowing-wind and drums sound that leads out the song. Yes, it is from the beginning of The Specials‘ “Ghost Town.” Check it.

Piper has been in her new digs for almost 2 weeks now. She is clearly still getting used to the place. They moved her to a different room, last week. So she now has a roommate that is of a more comparable age. Unfortunately, this week Piper is battling to get her immune system up to par, for the various strains of blah and gross that inhabit the new locale. She has had a fever for a few days, and was clearly not feeling too hot when we visited her today. She was still running a bit of a fever and was more snotty (in a literal sense, not her attitude) than usual when we visited. She was sleeping when we first arrived, but woke up after not too long. We gave her a bath, during which we were reminded of how we are still getting used to the new place, as well. It is tough going from knowing everyone, and knowing where all of the supplies are located, etc., to feeling completely helpless at the mercy of the nurses and staff again. It is also difficult trying not to feel like we are being a huge imposition when we go ask where something else is, every 10 minutes. Anyway, after we got Piper all cleaned up, she played for about 2 minutes, then passed right out in Reagan’s arms. So we had a pretty quiet visit. Piper’s vent settings are also a lot higher than they have been for a long time, since she is not feeling well. It is tough to feel like there has been so much regression. I guess I’m not really sure what I was expecting. Hopefully she will be making noticeable progress again soon.

When I first woke up today and saw the weather, I sort of panicked for a sec. All of these things were going through my head: ” I’m going skating, I’m going running, I’m going biking, I’m going to the park.” When I checked my phone, I had an email from the guys who run the Broadway Bomb, about a skateboard race in Central Park. I also had a note from my friend Jared about going golfing in the Bronx. It was a very tough decision. Ultimately, I decided that I should hold off on longboard racing until I have had a chance to get out and push around. I haven’t skated since last summer. Plus my friends Jared and Debi are super cool. I wish that Reagan could have come with us. But, being the popular girl that she is, her day was booked long before she got up and looked at her phone this morning.

I was a bit curious about what it was going to be like at the driving range. I mean, when I think of the Bronx, the first thing that naturally comes to mind is golfing (after gang shootouts, of course). It was actually a pretty nice course. Although, we didn’t actually end up playing the course this morning. Jared and I just hit some balls on the driving range, while Debi read magazines and took pictures of us (because we that good). But I think that we are going to try to make it back up there to play the course, now that we have seen what it is like, and that it is so easy to get to. The best part is that, right when we were getting toward the end of our session, the cart went out to gather the balls. This is fun on any driving range, because it is moving target practice. None of us were expecting what happened next. The driver parks off to the side, and gets out wearing a ball glove, smoking a cigarette and taunting all of the people hitting. Hahahahaha. It was the craziest thing ever. So there he was, running all over the range, like an outfielder on crack. I guess that is how they do it, at the muni-course in the Bronx. There is a shot of the guy below.

As if the driving range wasn’t enough fun for one day, we headed back down to the UWS for burgers, then spent the afternoon in Fort Tryon Park Hitting some Croquet. It was pretty packed, but we managed to find a spot of lawn large enough to set up. The lawn hadn’t been mowed for a while, so it was a little bit extra challenging. Thanks again, Jared and Debi for letting me be the third wheel.

The weather has been pretty mild, but patchy lately. We were pretty excited last week, when it broke 70 degrees. We went on a bike ride and everything. The shot above is of Reagan and her bike, Marsha  (short for Marshmallow) last week. Well, I’m not sure if I’m ready for the weather that appears to be around the corner for this weekend. The forecast says 88. Can you believe it? I guess that I won’t complain, since it was such a cold nasty winter. But I was hoping to ease into the warm weather a bit.