throwing words around

happy little californian, originally uploaded by mjane.

a woman i met yesterday made this statement, "california has turned into a police state."

i imagine that if california were a "police state" i probably wouldn't have had the luxury to be as lazy as i were and maintain habits such as smoking a joint while driving through the city, saying anything i want while conversing on the phone, and walking around my apartment naked.

hey, some people aren't necessarily great conversationalists, and needless to say, declaring california as a police state doesn't help the champagne go down easily. but it did make me realize that as i don't understand the experience in living in such an environment that i don't have a lot to complain nor worry about in comparison to those who do maintain progressive lives in places with so many boundaries to their personal freedoms.

jesus christ. what am i talking about? this is when i interject by saying, "speaking of los angeles, i'm going to see jurassic 5 perform in cannes tonight..." and what a show it was - ugly duckling and sharon jones and the dap kings opened for them. they were all great performances that got the audience hype the whole night. i wish i had my camera with me.

and now i get to end the weekend with a lazy, rainy sunday. i love it! am taking advantage of the weather as i know the coming week is going to be a big one. gonna move into our new place in st. laurent du var on friday, so that should keep me stimulated enough to stay excited and restless.

cokonutz en menton

okay, so it wasn't really cokonutz, but it sure looked like it could've been. mackenzie and i drove to menton one sunday to beach and skate. one of mack's friends builds ramps (sixieme sens), and he built this one right next to the sea in conjunction with a vw festival.

looking west on centre ville de menton, originally uploaded by mjane.

as soon as we arrived in menton, i fell in love with the town. very italian, full of color, and lots of people swimming and sun-bathing. after finding parking, mack and i both whipped out our cameras - his, a vx something or other, and mine, the nikon point n shoot.

an og vw carmengia (my bro is the pro at taking car photos), originally uploaded by mjane.

we entered the vw festival where old school bugs, eurovans/californias, and carmengias seemed to make the majority of the festival. it was funny because they were also holding a wet t-shirt contest. winner gets 150 euros. mack and i were joking about how i should enter it - one fifty for minutes of mild embarrassment is worth it, right? maybe not. in my brain i was picturing being on stage giving my worst imitation of a spring-breaking tourist dancing off-beatedly while some strange man poured a pitcher of water down my white-shirted chest. scratch that idea. i'll earn that one fifty in a less humiliating way, i decided, as toto and jules went to film the contest.

mackenzie the filmer, originally uploaded by mjane.

mack and i finally made our way to the skate demo which was just finishing up. as soon as we got there, mack breaks out his portable cassette player and holds it in one hand as he skated on the ramp with his surfas. in his get-up, people were more interested not in what music was on, but what he was on. apparently a natural high. and so was i as the setting was beautiful and bright. the ramp was situated in between the rocks and the sea. best of both worlds for this husband and wife duo.

there are two seats under the slide with two pairs of pedals in order to row this contraption; clearly, the adults got the short end of the stick with this gig, originally uploaded by mjane.

i took pictures in between sun-bathing and swimming.

toto and mack running shit, originally uploaded by mjane.

mack skating jungle-styles, originally uploaded by mjane.

this is how your run a skate shop, pt. ii, originally uploaded by mjane.

finally the sun set behind the west side of menton, and it was time to smoke a joint while the boys broke down the ramp. we hung around until 11pm, and then mack and i followed jules back to monaco to grab some burgers at the texan-owned "stars n bars" restaurant and checked out some spots for tw's upcoming tour happening on this side of the world in the near future.

break down, originally uploaded by mjane.

mack & cody from fort lauderdale, originally uploaded by mjane.

on the other side of the rocks is the sea, originally uploaded by mjane.

when we got home early the next morning, mackenzie eyed the footage from the vw fest. i fell asleep before catching the footy of the wet t-shirt contest. but mack told me all about it. (shaking my head) that's 150 euros i could've used. i completely forgot we were in france! meaning, the guys running the contest and its contestants had no idea what a wet t-shirt contest consists of. first of all, the girls they mustered up on stage were given thick dark blue t-shirts to wear. so obviously as the mc poured the pitcher of water over the girls' chests, there were no boobies seen-through the wet shirts. and the dancing was worse than off-beat embarrassment - there was no dancing. just a sort of uncomfortable and confused bobbing of bodies. in any case, i blew it - not only did the winner receive 150 euros, they got a trip for two to spain, and the title of "miss sexy côte d'azur." besides the fact that it's hardly a sexy way to gain it, i could do without the title.