Wait.

Wave.

Run.

080731.

Here's to a man who has left so many special memories and who will always inspire me.

The official word:

Mr. Bill Abbott, 83, of Roswell, GA passed away peacefully on July 23, 2008 after a brief illness.

Bill was born January 27, 1925 to Stella VanDuzer Abbott and William Abbott in Blakely, PA. After graduating from Blakely High School (Class of 1943), where he met his future wife, Marion Davies, he served in the Navy during WWII on the LST 689. Upon returning to PA, he worked for his father-in-law at Davies Motor Company in Peckville, PA and Scranton Buick. He then worked for Volkswagen in different locations for 15 years, Toyota in Severna Park, MD, and Isuzu in Roswell, GA. Since retirement, he has been active in the Roswell Chapter of S.E.L. and as a board member of the United States LST Association. Bill was known both before and after retirement for his generosity to family and friends, wonderful stories, and sincerity for sharing his joy for life.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Marion; son and daughter-in-law, Rick and Jean Abbott of Boulder, CO; daughter and son-in-law, Gayle and Ed Farley of San Ramon, CA; grandchildren Patti, Nate, Brett, and Timothy; great-granddaughter Emily; and sister Millicent Smailes. He was preceded in death by his brother, Earl, and sister, Marilyn Perkins.

A memorial service led by Rev. Nancy Folsom Lane was held Saturday, July 26th at the Roswell Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Roswell United Methodist Church or Senior Enriched Living, Roswell, GA.

Bill Abbott, Florida. 2007.

Bill and Marion Abbott, Florida. 2007.

Incredible. I also crashed my bike, had my Blackberry stole and tore up my knee. But all is well and I'm back in touch. So send me a txt with your phone number and I'll call you back or maybe next week I'll be back on the BB and send you a txt back. Honestly, at this moment, I miss everyone. Wishing the best to you.

-N.

PS. an EDIT, before I get to my images. we should all read this: http://bernardavishai.blogspot.com/2008/07/dream-palace-of-arabs.html

(I know, too many and too below par, but I'm too tired to edit this any more...)

I went to visit my Grandparents and see my niece and my sister. I miss them all terribly.

Clouds. Since I just hung out with them and didn't take any pictures. Except of the clouds on the way there.

And when I saw that they had the checkbook out for John McCain. I still love them.

The sun was setting over the nabe where I live. But I don't live in that high-rise.

That's the Williamsburg bridge.

These people were in love and not paying attention to the waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge.

This waterfall was in front of an old building and a new building.

Brooklyn Bridge. With waterfall. And flag.

Take a picture. Brooklyn Bridge.

Financial District.

Liberty. 2008.

Statue. Sucky picture. 2008.

Japanther crowd. (1) 2008.

Japanther crowd. (2) 2008.

Two pints of Jameson later, I made it back to my bed in Brooklyn. 5am, on the Fourth of July, I'm still awake and wondering.

The Itch (PS. I love thinking about perception even if I don't have/get it...):
The article is at NewYorker.com, but go buy the magazine and read it in a park or a coffee shop.

Beautiful:
Bon Iver, Skinny Love

Funny (and also smart):
Show cookie pride by eating...coooooooookie!

Ciao for now...

This story, of a guy who collected a Polaroid every day for about 18 years, is so over-blogged I wasn't gonna post it. But the images are very good, and the story collected is well crafted and the images from the last year of his life are something else.

It also ties into one interesting story of dedication, love, focus and partnership. This one I saw yesterday while I tried to not infect anyone whilst wandering around MoMA. You kind of have to see it in person to recognize the sheer madness of spending 30 years taking pictures of then curating and printing a geometric and fucking weird survey of industry around the world. But Bernd and Hilla Becher have done something that just tears apart my mind.

Go rent the movie Control, about Ian Curtis of the band Joy Division. Movie was made by Anton Corbijn who is a legendary music and portrait photographer. You should really look around his website and at his photographs.

Hercules and Love Affair Blind.

Cut Copy.

Justice. (I was gonna post this, but then I saw it on Anthony's Joystick blog, but I'm posting it anyway. Great minds don't fall far from the tree of Apples?)

"More moderate scale reinforcement SW(200-220) groundswell joins in during the first half of next week, keeping waves in the waist-head high range from Monday through Wednesday. Slow fade by next Thursday.
High pressure over the Central SPAC and a low off South America is currently setting up a large fetch aimed our way. Solid, long-period SSW(195-210) groundswell being whipped up by those winds is due to fill in next Friday, May 9th, then peak over the following weekend with more overhead waves."

Was going to gloat on that before I left, but I got busy and forgot to post. Even in the absence of electronic info, I went down to Mexico, I surfed, I hung out with old and new friends, I read, I celebrated the birthdays of two close friends, I ate a couple drinks, I remembered, I surfed, I got some sun, I took a few pictures, I played some asshole—you know the deal.

Modelo. Two birthday boys.

Timmy Shred.

R-G. 3-0.

Another Runway (DIA).

Also, read this one over eggs at the Sunrise Diner this morning. Bill Clinton isn't that bad, but I just like Hillary less and less every day. Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker

"Do you realize—that everyone you know someday will die?"

Someone Twittered this song lyric—from a favorite song of mine—and I found this beautiful bit of writing. Ted Jillson in McSweeney's

Back Window View, Brooklyn, NY.

Sunrise at LGA.

Almost taking off from ORD.

Storm at ORD.

Over breakfast I read a fabulous, subtle, ironic and smart profile of Errol Morris in GQ Magazine. "Fog of War" is among my favorite films—I've got high hopes for his new movie "Standard Operating Procedure".

I like Shay Williams too.

I'm in the process of photo editing some stuff from the winter. Here are some faces from one night at the X-Games.

People get in your way a lot at events. So I shot enough action to make a story, then went on to the people around me.

Other photographers, like Jay Michelfelder (who's website is apparently down.)

And legendary action photog Scott Markewitz.

Skier TJ Schiller, in the crowd due to a knee injury.

Blogger, comedian, skier and fellow dislocator of hips John Symms (Napa Bombs FTW!)

Peter Olenick still giving some high fives with his Empire Gloves, despite being a little bummed about his run.

Colby James West.

On a historical note, and more important to me in my personal growth, there was a very interesting profileof Robert Frank in Vanity Fair last month, although I read it today due to travel schedules. I'm looking forward to teh re-issue of his book The Americans in May.

I've got a little rant about sentimentality stewing in my brain, but in the meantime, check out these two videos.

Part of "Pull My Daisy" film by Robert Frank.

Part of Robert Frank's documentary about the Rolling Stones "Cocksucker Blues".

Still there's never any place that can serve as a proxy for home: clean clothes, picking my own music, walking around naked, juggling a soccer ball in the living room, doing the dishes tomorrow, twenty photo books, a hundred magazines, falling asleep on the couch, vacuuming my own messes, any shoes I want, broccoli for lunch, coffee for dinner, ice cream at midnight.

At rest. In motion. (Stockholm)

Bankomat. (Stockholm)

Statue of Liberty from Flight 684.

With the contest done, Hatveit and Candide kicked it on the mini ramp while Blake Jorgenson—an amazing photographer with a new gallery in Whistler—enjoys a cold one in beautiful Åre.

Jersey Mike and Peter in the elevator.

Stockholm.

People.

Shapes.

Had a dance party with Shay WIll and Colby West last night for Colby's birthday. Party Shay was in effect all week long.

Stockholm building that looks like a diner.

Colby and the beginnings of spring.

Söt . Or maybe Gullig. My Swedska is kind of weak.

This is the rest of the crew, they went home today. They ate McDonald's yesterday and we all went to TGI Friday's for dinner. Horrible.

I wrote this at sometime during the evening:

At some point yesterday evening, while it was still light out, it snowed in Are Sweden. I was working on my slide show for the Jon Olsson SuperSession ski/photo/video contest, so despite not sleeping since 8 am yesterday, I didn't notice until after sunrise today. I'm currently writing this blog at 6 AM here in Sweden as my show exports. I had an hour of panic while Final Cut stopped working, a huge learning curve as I'd never used Final Cut before noon yesterday, tragedy as part of our crew came home from the bar with the news that their close friend Wallace from Aspen had died while snowboarding. Fuck, that will overwhelm my general artistic dissatisfaction and make me happy to just be creating something—I'm so happy and wired right now.

All that was a part of the craziness. And after a two hour nap I spent the whole day alternately telling myself all was fine and stressing about better shots I left out of the show and all the other technical difficulties. Damian, Colby and I grabbed an early dinner, where I basically laughed my ass off at two of the best dudes I know, then we were driven to the show. On stage, in front of so many people I was getting ready to be super nervous when I was told our show was first. It played before I could even stress. Then, shit all the other shows went off. Lots of comedy (Peter and Colby especially) and a really fucking well done movie courtesy of Simon, Riley and Blake. A long drawn out judging left me super nervous, but in the end, our team—Sammy Carlson, Dom Janiszewski, and myself—we're judged at the top.

I'll say again that this contest is so amazing because I just wanted to do a great job and push everyone else to do their best. I would have been happy finishing last since I tried my hardest. Anyway, I'm delirious and haven't slept and am not going to edit this. Here is my slideshow and portion of the Team Sammy presentation.

Thanks again to everyone here! I mean it, everyone. Peter and Colby and the boys are giving me a tour of Stockholm for the next two nights, but I can't wait to get home to Brooklyn either. Peace. -Nate.