Nostalgia

I think I can trace my love of the water back to our old family swimming pool in our backyard on Forest Avenue in Castro Valley.  I grew up in that pool.  I have so many memories of swimming with my brother and looking for rocks that we threw in, being tossed hundreds of feet in the air by my dad and landing with a huge splash, standing up for the first time on a surfboard, and Moby Swim School.

Moby Swim School was originally started by my dad and his good friend Dean Sutcliffe.  We ran Moby in our backyard as far back as I can remember.  I remember our backyard always being full of kids getting lessons and parents socializing.  We would sell home grown zucchini to the families- a nice little side business.  So many people in our community came through that school whether to be taught to swim or watch their child learn.

I can clearly recall my dad's famous quote, "Don't drink my pool water!" as a child would resurface coughing and gagging.  

When I went away to college in Redding, I was walking around campus and noticed a girl with a Moby Swim School shirt.  I couldn't believe it.  I immediately ran up to her and asked about it.  It turns out she had bought it at a thrift store in Hayward.  I remember how happy I felt that the Moby legacy lived on.  I also remember thinking, "Why don't I have a Moby shirt?"

So here they are:  the classic green Moby Swim School t-shirts.  Green was the original color which switched to blue later on.  I'm happy to be able to make these for my family to remember the wonderful summers we spent on Forest Avenue and how blessed we are to have one another.  

And how fitting that I was rocking out to Creedence as I made them- another family favorite.

Screen Printing

So I have been talking about it for a l0ng time, sitting through linguistic classes and doodling ideas, hemming and hawing over which package to buy- and I finally did it. I am the proud owner of silk screen system.

Dad-in-law and I set up a little corner in the basement so I could make my own messes without messing up other peoples' messes. It's a perfect place to work since it can get completely dark for coating and burning screens, there's a sink for all the washing, and it gets freezing cold down there. We installed a bench, cabinet and lighting; mounted the press; and away I went.
My first attempts at burning a screen did not turn out too well*. Luckily I had lattes, tunes, and New Belgium to keep my spirits up. Fourth time is a charm, though, and I made a usable screen. Turns out I needed a higher wattage bulb, a longer burn time, and I only coated one side of the screen with emulsion. I used a cut-out stencil for my design since I didn't trust that my printer was printing the film opaque enough so that light could not get through. I used a panda design that I had originally submitted for a dorm t-shirt contest at Simpson University, but it only received two votes. Take that Simpson! The Panda LIVES!












I scrounged Goodwill for t-shirts to practice on and only came back with this black one for a buck- not bad, not bad at all. I practiced on some paper first cause I didn't want to screw up my nice new shirt.










I slapped some ink on the screen, squeegied (sp?) away, and BAM! Sexy Panda. WWF here I come (that's World Wildlife Fund).


SO GET YOUR ORDERS IN! This panda shirt can be yours for only a $99.99! Seriously, though, everyone who ever gets a gift from me from now on will probably be getting some sort of t-shirt or other printed item. Just pretend you like it.

Special thanks to my wife, mom, and grandma who supported me financially in this creative venture, and to everyone else who supported me in other ways like saying, "Dude, that's awesome! You should totally do that." Thanks to dad-in-law too for letting me set up shop in the...shop.

It's been a fun process. I love being able to have creative outlets.

*If you want to know more about the screen-printing process, check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee_8IMx0uMo

Man Shower

About two and a half years ago, right before Jenn and I got married, her dad and brother threw me a man shower. We used old license plates as plates, nails for toothpicks, a bucket made from tires for chips, a hard hat for dip and other manly, non-conventional ways of serving and eating food. We had a contest to see who had the manliest car, who wrapped their gift in the manliest way, and who could match the most tools to their slogans. For gifts, all I got were tools. It was one of the coolest ideas.


The whole idea behind the man shower is to put a little focus on the groom. Most, if not all of the presents that the couple will receive from bridal showers and the wedding itself will stereotypically be catered toward the wife- towels, plates, stuff guys don't really care about, etc. Even a lot of aspects of the wedding are all about the bride. At the man shower, everyone brings manly gifts and does manly things. The groom is celebrated and remembered (along with manliness).


A couple of my friends at school last semester were recently engaged, so I decided to throw them a man shower too. We had CAUTION tape streamers, ate out of my toolbox, had nail-pounding competitions, root-beer floats, a manly knowledge quiz, and a great time just laughing and hanging out. Both of the guys told me afterwards just how blessed they felt by the whole thing, and I just said, "Great! That's the whole idea."






Last night was the pinnacle of man-showers. The groom to be was my future brother-in-law Tim. We combined elements of the first two and added some new, amazing ones. The highlight for me was the hatchet throwing competition. Some low-life had escaped from the local prison, robbed the local orphanage, and came across our path. Luckily, we had hatchets to throw at him. Needless to say, we took that creep down and the day was saved. Russ won the competition by disabling the culprit with a key throw. Looking out for orphans is manly.


Moral of the stories- throw a man-shower for someone you know. The things we did don't take a whole lot of effort to put together. It's such a cool way to support the groom. They are guaranteed to be tons of fun. And every guy likes the chance to just be a guy.

Brian

The Book

Some of you already know that I have recently written and illustrated a book. It's called Man Eating Vegetables. It all started out as a Christmas present to my brother... I was laying in bed, about to fall asleep, and I had a vision of writing a crazy book about vegetables that eat people and giving it to my brother for his Christmas present. I immediately grabbed my journal and started sketching ideas. Over the next month, I would make more sketches, bounce ideas off my wife and classmates, and eventually publish the book through lulu.com.

This book isn't for everyone. The humor is certainly targeted toward my brother and myself, so if you don't think we're very funny, you probably won't enjoy the book.

I love it, though, and, like my t-shirt printing, thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to just get creative and make something.

It's about 19 pages total and you can check out a mini-preview or buy the book at www.lulu.com/content/1642159

Happy reading.

Brian

(you can click on the images to enlarge)