--------------The End of an Era: The Last Days of the Digi Elph-------------

Yes, it’s official. The party’s over…in more ways than one. It took more than a week for me to finally sober up enough to bring you the TELUS Fest SuperBlog—or as I was calling it, The Countdown to Sobriety. A ten-day adventure through the final days of the constant binge that has been my life for the last three months. You see, back in January there was this trade show in Las Vegas called SIA. Well, I took it a little too far in Vegas, and I spent the next 94 days straight maintaining the pace.

Oh man, nothin’ like a good binge to help dull the pain. And what a binge it was. 94 days of drunken bliss—a personal record. I mean…there have been plenty of parties in the past, but nothing like this. I was like a machine; pounding anything put in front of me with reckless abandon, no regard to type or style of intoxicant. “No Nights Off”. That was my motto. There are a few friends of ours who know exactly what I mean. I was proud to be among you tireless captains of the cantina this winter, but I'm afraid all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately, my fear and loathing inspried run has met it’s demise…and my six-year-old “first gen” Digi Elph along with it.

I only had one day to spare after getting home from Breck (see previous blog entry) before I had to leave for Whistler; just enough time to swing by the DDC and make a poster for the party I was going to have on the last day of the festival. I drank some of Draplin's Coronas while he came up with the graphics and pretty soon we were good to go.

So the next night I hit the road; I had to pick up Chad Riley at the airport at 2:00am in Vancouver so I timed it right and left Portland around nine. It was cool; I only drive at night anyway to avoid the Seattle traffic (which always sucks during the day, by the way). So I grabbed Chad and we made it safely to the crib. Gotta love that Sea to Sky at four in the morning…it’s the only time you can pin it. So we got to Whist around five or so, had a couple beers and passed out for a few. In the morning, I got to wake up and ride some freshly fallen pow with Baker, Lily, Sullivan, Lucky Lopez (in the custom Sepia SNOWBOARD jacket) Basher, Pat Moore and the whole gang.

Although I'd missed out on the opening night Billabong party on Friday, Saturday was the BRAVE Art Show opening party at the conference center. The BRAVE Art show was major this year, bringing in over 150 pieces from the world’s best street and graffiti artists from around the world. There was live painting (sometimes on live people), DJ spinning tunes and lots and lots of high fives. All the trendy artists were reppin’ to the fully, and we spent the better part of an hour wandering around the show, taking in all the visual stimulation and wondering why there wasn’t free wine and beer. This was an art show opening right? Oh well, I had a subway cup that was workin’ just fine for me.

Bic is stepping up real big too with customized lighters from various artists. They even had big bowls of free lighters. Yes, free lighters. I stuffed my pockets ‘til they could hold no more.

Doze had a couple nice original prints. This one was $400 though...too much for me.

The Endeavor Live Board Series: A collabo with Berlin artist Thomas "Marok" Marecki from Lodown Magazine.

What would an art show be without Kinsey?

And of course, the mandatory Obey wall.

The www.ifullrwasagirl.com girl. Man they really made a good choice with that one.

Sam Flores.

UNKL's SUG dudes were my favorite; I wish I would have bought one of these guys for the Portland crib. UNKL's dope, check out www.unklbrand.com to read the story of the SUG.

After the art show, we went to the SBC party at Black's to check out the McDonald's Rail Jam. Then it was on to Garf's or Bill's or some other bar, I can't really remember. But what I do remember is going to SNOWBOARD contributor and Kits star Shaun Hughes’ house for the after party. Man, this guy’s shop is as Canadian as you can possibly get. Look at all this crap!

Canadian flag with Kokanee poster.

Jager bottle lamp. Yuck.

Shaun's Stepchild.

Crappy tuning bench. Whoa, where'd that Budwieser come from?

And of course, a Wildcats sticker...with a Jager sticker to compliment. Get me outta here please. Heather and I went back to the crib and Basher was bummed because I tried to kick him out of my bed, Vegas style. Hey...I tried to warn him (see previous comment ) It didn't really work out for us though, and we spent the rest of the night keeping Mark awake in the other bedroom, squeaking away on the sketchy bunk bed set up. Basher moved out of my room the next day.

Night #2 was Sunday, and mang was I excited. Raekwon the mutha f-ckin' Chef was in town. That's right...Mr. Cuban Linx himself. I kept telling everyone the story of how I once drove 12 hours to see Rae on the first "Only Built for Cuban Linx" Tour in '95. Fox Theater in Boulder. I'll never forget that shit. That joint's a classic son, better act like you know. Naturally, More shots were in order.

So here it was 11 years later, and I got to see Raekwon again on the eve of his new release, "Only Built for Cuban Linx 2". He didn't perform much new material though; him and the RZA be keepin’ that shit a secret right now. We’re expecting big things from the Clan though, especially after Ghost’s Fishscale. Check out www.wutangcorp.com for all the latest Wu news.

Rae keepin' it gangsta.

Lucky and I holdin' it down.

Anne Flore Marxer was in the house; her and Shaun seemed to be having a good time that night. After the show, I gave Rae his props and kept it moving. Colin (Golden photographer) and I found a wierd afterparty to go to in the hills, and we kicked it 'til about five or so partying with complete strangers. It was pretty awesome.

Look at all the junk I had to carry around every night. It's like my own Gear Up...out of control. The flask is so money though...last call means nothing when you got that in your back pocket.

I decided to rock my American shades for the rest of the night. I thought about just writing asshole on my forehead, but I think the sticker achieves the same effect.

You might of seen me in the streets, but nigga you don't know me.

How 'bout this guy? He was keepin' it crunk with the ghetto blaster speaker in hand, sunglasses too. I'm down with that.

So Monday night it was back to the conference center for more art show action, this time it was Local’s night. In addition to all the high profile guys, the BRAVE art featured the work of local artists. This pile of TVs was the first thing I saw when I walked in. That’s not art…it’s called garbage. Anyway, there still wasn’t any free alcohol—but there was more live painting to see.

Painting on canvas.

Painting on girls.

Kazu and Shaun. Kazu is awesome, we love that guy. He shot "The Pink Cover" last year. After the art show it was on to the Comor "Mansion" Party at Garfs. With a Playboy bunny theme, the party was supposed to be like a party at the Mansion with lots of girls in lingerie and stuff. It actually ended up being about two girls dressed like bunnies and bunch of snowboard.com guys in bathrobes. It was cool though. Shaun and I spent the night masterminding on how to make our party better come Saturday.

Tuesday night started out mellow enough. There were a few random parties around town; we did a little tour and I ended up at Tommy Africa’s for one of the Kokanee Freeride series parties. That’s when the trouble started. I ran into my homegirl Liesel (from Whistler Kits fame), and things got a little hazy after that.

After the club, I think we went to the Creekside store at one point for smokes and shit. Yea, they have the mag! Liesel is never afraid to party, and somehow we spent the rest of the night at Shakes’ house huddled around the kitchen table. At about 7:30 am, Mel (my new trophy friend—she’s like 6’2”, French and way too hot) decided to call it. So Liesel and I figured, “Hey, we might as well just go ride now, right?” Bad idea. First run through the park, early morning packed frozen slush and I hit the jump (which was still closed off) with normal speed. At least I thought it was normal speed. Turns out it was way too fast and I cleared the entire landing.

Liesel laughed at me as I clutched my ribs in pain. I thought they were broken but I think they’re only really bruised. Anyway, my season was offically over after that, but we did hang tough for a few more hours. We had a pitcher of beer for breakfast, and Liesel took me to an igloo for a safety meeting (which apparently I need more of). I’m still icing these f-ckin’ ribs. Ouch.

So Wednesday evening I spent on the couch, icing my busted ribs and trying to scrounge up powerful painkillers. I almost failed and stayed home that night, but got up around 11pm and (literally) dragged myself to the bar. I missed the Photographer’s Showdown which Kevin Zacher won, but made it to the afterparty at Tapley’s and gave him my congrats. Alex Pashley and Sierra from Salomon just got into town too, so I had to go out for at least a couple drinks. It was chill though, I made the usual rounds and ended up at Bill’s where everyone was already wasted and the night was over. I went to 420’s, got a warm meat pie and held it close to my painful injury.

Good thing I got some rest after that, 'cause Thursday was big. J5 was playing the main stage during the day, there was a Ricky Powell Slide Show and Showcase party at 8pm, then Swollen Members Thursday night. Not much time to spare. Luckily the J5 show ran late, which gave me plenty of time to get prime positioning on the roof of the hotel overlooking the stage. O’Niell and Atomic were having parties, and I ran into Matt Beardmore who had plenty of refreshments for me during the show. Unfortunately, I left the Digi Elph at home so I was reduced to my even crappier camera phone.

Candice and Beardmore. F-ckin' awesome dude.

We stopped by the Showcase party for a hot minute, then Chad and I headed over to see Ricky Powell's slide show. This was the best part of the festival I thought. Ricky was f-ckin hilarious…talking shit about everything and everyone in his photos. He had an envelope full of random slides and was just pulling ‘em out, one by one and describing them. One would be the Beastie Boys, then Run DMC, Sophia Coppola, Dr. Revolt. Major NYC musicians, actors, artists and such. It was awesome. Totally candid, unscripted and straight from the heart. Dopeness.

After the show I creeped over to the Swollen Members show dolo since everyone was going to see Trevor Andrew's band play at Bill's. Even though I'd just caught S & M in Breck a couple weeks prior (see previous blog entry again), I knew they'd rock the house and I really had no desire to try and get into Bill's (see Basher's post). So, I rolled over to Merlin's only to find the line for the "free" Kokanee show was redunky large, and the guest list was a bunch of corporate retards. Luckily, a girl that I partied with on the rooftop during J5 spotted me and snunk me in the back door. Boo yaa bitches, I was all up in thurr! Thanks Candice. Soon Swollen rolled out and the crowd went nuts.

To top it off, my boy Matty Collins rolled up from Washington with his wifey and crew, and he brought his camera. I was back in business.

Madchild loves this shit.

"Rollin' with my soldiers, live soldiers ready to ride. For this real hip hop y’all I’m ready to die.” —Dead Prez

After a while, Prev and Mad just pulled everyone from the crowd up on a stage and the party got really live. At one point I was dancing with like five girls at the same time. It was stupid fun.

Rob the Viking even let us drink his beers. The Kokanee floww was serious; people were walking around with pitchers as cups. Haha.

This is what the show really looks like after a while. When it was over, we quickly found our way to Bill's which by then had mellowed out. We breezed right in and found a slew of drunk Canadian heads in their natural state. Hammered.

Need proof? Look at Dustin Craven—me and him always do it big.

Misschief's Fabia and Leanne Pelosi. These girls rule.

Okay, we're getting somewhere here I promise. Friday was the big day for me. I had two crews coming to town to play the main stage, Souls of Mischief and MYG and the indamixrecords team. I don't know exactly how I got put in charge of handling everything, but for some reason I felt responsible for everything to go smoothly. Luckily about an hour before they were scheduled to go on, Souls finally made it to the hoteez. MYG and Co. were already there ready to rock, and came out busting—hyping up the crowd for Hiero to come on.

DJ Lex from Souls of Mischief and MYG.

MYG and them straight killed it, Portland style fool.

Kable Rock was taggin' girls notebooks and shit. That's hip hop.

Then Souls came out and wrecked it as usual. Check out A Plus' jacket...what?!?

After the show, we grabbed some dinner at Earls and most of the crew went back to the telly to chill out. Not Lex though. We had to go check out the Fashion Show, so Kable Rock, Lex and I headed back over to the confernece center once again.

A snowboard fashion show? Yup, that's right.

John Stouffer and Christina Moore from Whistler.

DJ Lex and Tammy from England.

These dancers were pretty ill. That girl is front is crazy fly.

Oh yeah, sequence.

Kable Rock with the Rockstar girls. Lots of painted brestesess this year.

Nikita gear is the freshness though, fo rillz.

Kable Rock and Matt the Alien. That guy was busy yo—he had a gig every night.

Kable and I doing our best "Blue Steel" for some girl. Sadly, this is the last photo the Digi Elph ever took. My first gen Digi Elph made it through two Snowboarder RV Tours, a year long stint in NYC, and two winters on the road making up the majority of photos on this web site. Well, it finally met it's match that day, when Kable Rock dropped it trying to take a photo of me and the girl who took the last digi elph shot. Damn...end of an era I tell you. That thing was battle worn though. I wasn't mad; it was it's time to go. But, now I didn't have a camera for the party on Saturday! Oh well, I had too much to do to take photos anyway. Throwing a good party is pretty hard, but somehow we pulled it off.

The show was sick, everyone was trying to get it—it was crazy. Check out the post for more pics and details from the party. Special thanks to Shaun Hughes, Chris Saydah and Daryl Trinidad from Spy, Steve Thorp from New Era, Mike from Garfs, MYG and crew and of course Souls of Mischief for comin thru. Check out www.hieroglyphics.com for all that Hiero shiz.

When it was all over, I was finally ready to get drunk with my girl Heather. Me and H-Bomb hand held party shot. Money.

Three days later when we finally made it back to the bar to grab the banners and shit, the VIP area was still a huge pile of broken glass and ripped up magazines (top photo). The Garf's staff had been partying ever since and ignored everything. It was a celebration bitches. Hahaha. I had to capture it with the camera phone—it was a perfect end to another wild winter. So that's it everyone, I retire. The party's over...for now I guess.