An Ode to the Vacation Shirt

Oh vacation shirt, how do I love thee, and all the wonderful emotions you and your various colorful shapes and palm trees evoke.  Nothing says, "sorry I don't give two shits about a damn thing because I'm busy sipping daiquiris," like a Hawaiian or Paisley print shirt.  And as I approach my third Redlands vacation, I find myself eager to prematurely dawn my never-been-worn vacation shirt.  But I must show restraint, because I still have another day of latte pouring and coffee grinding ahead of me, before I can dedicate every waking moment of the next four days to lounging about without a care in the world.  It would be blasphemy to dress myself in that most sacred of vacation attire a day early.  So in the meantime, let us take a gander at some of the greatest men to ever sport a vacation shirt. 

While the vacation antics of these two men were seldom relaxing or mellow, Hunter S. Thompson and Dr. Gonzo certainly lived it up fully and certainly had not a care in the world.  The controversial thing about Hunter and his vacation shirt is that supposedly he was never really on a vacation.  He had journalistic responsibilities throughout his entire drug and alcohol infused stay in Las Vegas.  Eh, could have fooled me.

Here we have another fine example of a man truly embracing the vacation shirt.  Like Hunter S. Thompson, Ace Ventura lived the freewheeling life while still doing his job.  Ace's vacation shirt is exceptionally vibrant and colorful, further accentuating his zany personality.  The world's most famous pet detective never gave a god damn about what people thought about him and took any opportunity to visit exotic lands and soak up the culture.

Ok, so perhaps my list is a little short.  But the point of all this is, as long as you maintain some semblance of work ethic and the desire to be a productive member of society, you can wear a vacation shirt and run around like a maniac annoying all those around you who are too lame to join in the party.

   

Through Another Man's Lens Vol. 2

Yes indeed, it is that time once again my children.  The all knowing, all powerful, supreme leader of The Clog will once again... shirk all creative responsibilities and create a post of stolen photos and memories from one of his dear friends.  That's right, is time for another installment of TAML (Through Another Man's Lens).  At least it's better than sleeping with another man's wife.

This next group of photos takes off relatively close to where the last ones left off.  I say relatively because the source of my material is limited solely to Lane's Facebook, and I can only imagine how seamless this timeline of our lives would be if I had access to his entire collection of photography.  But I digress.  The time period covered in this post spans roughly from 2006 through 2008.  

I have to assume this photo was taken during prom.  Hell, it could even be from the same prom picture I have in the last post, but that's alright.  What you must really take away from this photo is the classy rockstar energy Cho Master Flex bestowed upon any social gathering, be it large or small.  This was during the height of Cho's rise to fame, and for a moment we all thought it might go to his pretty little head.  But the man has kept his cool throughout the whole ordeal and remains a Legend to this very day.

Lane was really bring his camera out a lot during these times.  He also was out skateboarding quite a bit, which led to photos like these.  Jesse, Mikey, Lane, and I had been skating the Guadelupe bank on this cold winter day.  Lane felt that it would be a good idea to take some photo's on these oversized dice, and I managed to get up onto a few bs 180 nosegrinds.  I doubt I actually landed this, but I like the cow trucks I am riding and how small of a board I have.  

This will forever be one of my favorite photos of all time.  As I write this caption I cannot help but wonder who has been behind the lens of all these pictures Lane is in.  Did that lunatic grab and nearest person and ask, "hey dude, take a picture of me and my friend!"  I suppose that is of little importance because the night this picture was taken I turned 21 years old.  On this glorious day I went to biology class, shot my first sequence with Wes, skated sunnyvale with all da homies, and eventually got drunk at Blossom Hill Park with Lane and a handful of other awesome humans.  And on top of that, I was legally able to purchase beer.  That little bottle of Hennessy was given to me at the skatepark by Jon Choi, but I cannot remember whether or not I drank it.  On this night Lane for some reason swore that he would hit me up everyday for a six pack of Corona, which unfortunately he did.  

This picture was taken during Reggae on the River 2007.  I was not a part of this trip, so therefore cannot accurately give an account of the events that transpired.  I can however say that my only real regret in life is not attending one of these functions.  I stayed behind because I could not imagine spending any length of time away from my skateboard.  On second thought maybe I was better off just skating my box.  The truth is, I guess I will never know.

This picture was taken on Jesse's 20th birthday.  J Bone is stoked like he always is when there is red cup in hand, Peter is being a loser and drinking water, Cho Cho is making a mandatory legend appearance, Xtina is looking fine as always, and Lane is fully embracing booze.  Jesse held this party at his mother's house in Almaden and I recall it being an awesome time.  I was somewhat delirious because I had stayed up most of the night making a "Best of Jesse" montage.  I went to Starbucks at two in the morning to buy espresso but they were closed, and then 3 years later, I started working there.