Thursday night, I went to New Jersey. That isn’t really a big deal, in itself, since I go to NJ about 4 times per week on average. This time, though, it wasn’t just a run across the George Washington to Fort Lee. I actually took NJ Transit (above), and went to a little town near Newark. Deep Jersey. Snooki/Jerseylicious Jersey. Hahahah. I was there to shoot an interview with the famed tattoo artist Jun Cha, who I errantly reported earlier this week operates out of NJ. He is really a dude born and bred in So. Cal. trained by the likes of Mr. Cartoon. Anyway, here are a few of the shots from the interview:

The dude does traditional So Cal black and grey, in photo-realistic style. If I were ever to get a tattoo (which I never would), this is probably the dude that I would hit up.

Back to the matter at hand.. We are supposed to be blasted by Hurricane Earl on Friday. Hurricane season is the time of year that I suffer the pangs of being a poseur, past-prime surfer. Last time I checked the surf report it was like, double overhead at Coney Island. CONEY ISLAND! DOUBLE OVERHEAD! Can you imagine getting a barrel at Coney? This is the one time of  year where you are more likely to die at Coney by being swallowed by the ocean, than by getting stabbed while waiting in line at the Wonder Wheel. We aren’t even talking the point at Montauk. There is going to be some serious Mark Foo stuff going on out at that end of the island, this weekend. Last time I surfed double overhead, I was a 19 year old resident of the aloha state. These days I am a landlubbing surfboardless Manhattanite. So depressing.

On a less depressing hurricane season note, I watched my University of Utah football team eek out a nail biting season opener against Pitt, on Thursday night. How awesome is college football? I seriously love it.

Just when I could really really use a three day weekend, Labor Day comes along. We have a banger lined up, too. Some items on the agenda include: Party for TH opening a new store in SoHo; Multiple PJ visits; hanging out in the country (Rural CT); a long training run with tight amigos (also in the country); watching the GP race at Misano; a dip in the pool; a fun editorial shoot;  and, some barbecue. Have a fantastic weekend, peeps. And if you end up surfing Montauk this weekend, don’t tell me about it. Because I may accidentally punch you, out of pathetic jealousy.

I don’t mean to brag, but, in my very biased opinion, I seriously have some of the cutest  nieces and nephews on the planet. It is basically blowing my mind that two of them have now grown enough to start school. Here are some adorable recent shots of them.

Maya off to her first day of school in Ketchikan Alaska. Beyond cute–

I seriously love that her backpack is as big as she is. Flawless first day of school outfit, right down to the ruby slippers.

And here is my little nephew Kelton. I’m not going to say these are cute (because I don’t want to risk taking a samurai sword to the knee caps next time I see the guy), but he is a handsome little kindergartner.

Serious props on the hairstyle (he chose it himself). His teacher is going to smell trouble in the air from a mile away with this little guy.  Hahahah.

First of all– Well done, Mr. Schuman, on the above photo. I can tell you right now, though, that there are some mommy bloggers (no disrespect intended) out there, who don’t approve of the way he is wearing that hat, all crooked-like. Hahaha. I bet Nigo and Pharrell don’t have to put up with that kind of crap. Not that I’m pretending to have fashion designer status, but I’m just sayin’.

Actually, thinking about it now, I’m guessing that most mommy bloggers probably aren’t into Bape or Ice Cream/BBC. So, this whole blurb is just a waste of characters. Aaaaanyway, I am generally not too fond of re-posting stuff (especially not from the Sartorialist, since he is probably the most re-posted dude in blogsville). But, aside from being the poster child for my hat rant, I really do dig that shot.

Random topic #2– Sometimes I swear that Jim Nelson and I share the same brain. I just barely was able to catch up on my magazine reading enough to crack the September issue of GQ, yesterday on the train. As I was reading Nelson’s opening commentary, I was thinking to myself “tttttttttttooooooooooooooooottttttttalllly.” For a minute, I was like “I should be a magazine editor. I think exactly like this guy.” Then I realized that the reason Jim Nelson is a magazine editor, is because he can write something that makes everyone who reads it feel like they would be Jim Nelson’s best friend in real life, and that they and Jim Nelson are extremely like-minded individuals. Hahahah. That is a skill that I definitely do not possess.

So, yes, September is here. Ads galore in all of the mags. At some point I’ll be posting some of my favs along with commentary. But interestingly enough, I have been a lot more taken in by the articles in this year’s September GQ than I have by the flashy fall looks. In addition to Nelson’s article mentioned above, I read another piece yesterday that I found interesting. It was about keeping the flame alive after marriage, kids, etc.. It wasn’t the typical Cosmo-style, “10 ways to keep your spouse at constant climax” sort of thing. It was about figuring out the logistics of “date night,” when you and your spouse both have insanely busy lives. I thought it was pretty cool.  The article is by Joel Lovell and it is called “How to date your wife.”

Reagan will probably punch me in the neck for admitting that a magazine article is what convinced me that I need to focus a bit more on spending structured “date” time with her. I might be safe, though, since I waited until this far into the post to admit it. She told me this morning that she doesn’t really read the stuff I write when it gets too wordy. Hahahaha. Anyway the article isn’t online yet. But, I found it interesting enough to recommend checking it out (if you haven’t already) when it does show up .

To wrap things up– I’m pretty excited about some of the stuff that I will be shooting for the rest of the week. One item in particular, is a famous tattoo artist who operates in NJ. I have never even been in a tattoo parlor before. So I’m keenly interested to see what it will be like. Tomorrow night college football starts (go Utes). And finally, as we all know, this weekend has three days. What’s not to be excited about?