Good Reads- “Barbarian Days, A Surfing Life” by William Finnegan

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This book was actually a gift from B (sort of). B was the one who added it to the Amazon cart, but it was my turn to pay for the order, haha. Anyway, I’m glad she did because I loved reading this book. It had been a while since I read a book that I didn’t want to put down at the end of the night. This was definitely one of those. To enjoy this book, being a fan of surfing definitely helps. But even if surfing is not your cup of tea, Finnegan is such an incredible writer that it may not matter. The book is essentially an autobiography with an emphasis on the plentiful elements of surfing that comprise his life. The prose with which he uses to tell these stories is as artful as it is interesting. Finnegan’s tales of the ‘barbarian days’ evoke a strong sense of nostalgia for a bygone era of simpler times when the world seemed much larger and more mysterious. I highly recommend reading this book.

20 Years

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The Author, Autumn 2002, Doing Laundry Between Class, Reading el diario in an ode to “Stop That Train”

This week is a personal milestone of sorts for the “Jake” of Jake.News. It marks my 20th year as a resident of The Empire State. This realization was thrust upon me a few days ago when I received a letter from the DMV advising that it was time to renew my NY driver’s license. The sincere, yet curt letter went on to state that, this time around I would not be able to simply log into my DMV profile and pay the fee online to renew. Further, my friends at the division of motor vehicles, in a round-about way of telling me that I was getting really old, implored me show up in person and take a vision exam in order to extend my driving privileges. I figured that since I was going to have to make the personal visit, I should probably get an updated photo. My current DL photo from 2002 shows me wearing that same early aughts Fred Durst (or worse) looking chin beard as seen in the photo above. So, yeah… I woke up early one morning, put on one of my finest collared tee shirts and rolled over to the Division. I was happy to see that the State of New York is still employing the same photo booth tech from 2002. The rest was a blur (though not literally, because I did pass the vision exam). I’m told that in a few weeks’ time, an updated NYDL showcasing my salt & pepper bearded mug will land in my mailbox.

Thinking back to August 2002- I has just completed a cross country trip in a U-Haul full of crap that I had deemed as really important, but that in retrospect should have actually just been thrown out/donated before I moved. On a trailer behind the U-Haul truck, I had towed a beat up second-hand A4, 6-speed that I loved and kinda wish I still had. I was finally permanently extracting myself from the social safety net of my childhood and adolescence. It was extremely liberating and terrifying all at once. I had a pretty good handle on west coast culture at the time. However, the east coast was a complete black box to me. I knew there was a lot of important stuff going on over there, which is exactly why I needed to check it out first hand. I’m getting a bit into the weeds.

Back to the point- I can actually still remember the first time I walked into a New York DMV. I was aged mid-20s. Thought I knew everything about everything, just like every idiot recent college grad, right? That’s what I try to tell myself anyway. When my newly minted NYDL arrived in the mail two decades ago, to me it was tangible evidence that I had committed to figuring out what NY was all about.

The Author, Summer 2012– Mirror Selfie Whilst Eric Kosten Stands Directly Behind Texting on Two Phones at Once. Camo Shirt Guy: Nick-Something.

Completing 10 years in NY seemed like at big deal at the time. Right or wrong, I started referring to myself as a New Yorker around that era. My chin beard had thankfully fallen by the wayside about 8 years prior. I had, by then, spent the majority of my adult life in the city. The global economy was still recovering from the ‘big recession,’ and I was splitting my energy pretty evenly between lawyering and photography/writing. My age and accompanying maturity finally allowed me to realize how little I actually knew about anything. In turn, it also allowed me to admit to myself that I had made some massive mistakes in prior years and finally start working through the arduous process to correct course. The liberating result of those efforts have culminated in what was sort of a personal golden era. Part of me wished those times could have stretched out indefinitely.

Fast forward another decade– 20 years in NY seems like a lot less of a big deal than I would have guessed. Just kinda seems like I have always been here. I still make mistakes (publishing this post might be one of them, haha), albeit, I would like to think that they are less frequent and less large scale than some from the years of yore. It also feels like I’m in the middle of another personal golden era, which I’m doing my best to maximize and extend for as long as possible. I’m very glad that I made the decision to move to New York. If I wait another 20 years to retake my driver’s license photo, it will probably be my last one!

The Author and Spouse, 0.5 crappy iPhone Selfie, Summer 2022

 

Good Reads: “Wayward” by Chris Burkhard

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Once again I have to thank Fieldmag for turning me onto this gem. Prior to reading the Q & A Fieldmag posted, I had certainly heard of Burkhard and was semi-familiar with his work (I stopped reading surf mags before Burkhard really became a fixture in that world). But after reading the piece, I realized that he was a pretty interesting dude who probably had some cool stories to tell. A few pages into the book, I could already tell it was right up my alley. As a kid who loved photography and board sports, young me essentially dreamed of having Burkhard’s life. The stories that he tells from his early career left a little bit of FOMO pang in my gut. If you are remotely interested in photography and/or cold water surf, I highly recommend this book. The images alone are worth the flip. Plus, the hard cover makes it a very handsome addition to the coffee table.

August 2022 Playlist

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August always seems to be the month where I try very hard to balance maximizing the remaining days of summer, while mentally preparing myself for the impending colder months. Marathon training starts. Daylight starts getting noticeably shorter. College football is around the corner. Some pseudo-poetic bullshit and yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, here are some jams to wind down summer-

Speaking of marathon training, here is a bonus playlist of running jams that I have been working on since the spring–

Colorful Chaos

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B and I took a trip to western PA for independence day. We stayed with my brother (who lives there) and were able to spend the holiday with his family, along with some of my other siblings, nieces and nephews. The kids were playing with glow sticks and sparklers. It gave me the idea to have some slow shutter fun. My camera battery was almost dead, so we only did a couple of snaps. But here they are, and they are kind of wild!

Mid-April Snow

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Our local ski mountain closed their lifts for the season about two weeks ago. Between then and now, we experienced few days where the temps peaked in the 70s. It was definitely feeling like spring. Then last Monday night it started flurrying and we woke up the next morning to about a foot of snow. At first I was super annoyed. But looking back though IG history, I realized that this photo was taken on April 18, 2020. It was a nice reminder that anything can happen during the shoulder seasons in the Catskills, and I should have seen it coming. After all, can’t get too annoyed at something so pretty. After shoveling the deck, I walked around the yard with my knock-around rig and snapped a couple of shots (below). In the afternoon when the snow died down a bit, I launched the drone (obv) and got the above snap.