0206_DSC_0733.jpg

0206_DSC_0733.jpg
Originally uploaded by Mark Yezbick.

Vicky made some bagels the other day, and I could hardly keep my boobs off of them !

Bode Who?

Local Girdwood Girlie Rosey Fletcher made good on her final Olympics debut tonight as she brought home the Bronze medal in super-fast snowboarding to Girdwood. The medal will be melted down when she returns home and turned into a small, automated statuette in her likeness at the Post Office. It will gently slalom back and forth on its miniature snowboard when the wind blows through her bronze hair. Either that or she will hang the medal on her wall...

From Fox News, the only REAL news:

"Unlike the other two times, I was a dark horse, and I prefer being the dark horse," Fletcher said.

Fletcher became the first U.S. woman to climb an Olympic podium in a discipline that combines American-invented snowboarding with old-style racing through gates. Because of that, Tom Kelly, the longtime U.S. ski and snowboard team communications director, now must live up to a promise he made to Fletcher back in 1999, when he told her he'd dye his hair blue if she registered a podium finish in the Olympics.

Whatever- Mark already did that, but that's beside the point, NICE JOB ROSEY!!!

Check It

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

Hello my cheeky little monkies, how are we today? What I'm going to write about here has absolutely nothing to do with Girdwood and everything to do with advertising for this awesome film festival that's going on right now. Call me a sell out but they paid me many peanuts to post this and I like peanuts. Basically what I want to say I've already said but I'll say it again, this film fest is really cool. I have the wonderful opportunity to check out as many of these films and eat as much buttered popcorn as humanly possible because, some of you may already be aware of this, I have no job. Life is grand.

My Favorites (so far)

1. The Big Question - Hey, it's got Mel Gibson in it! The cinematography is amazing in this film. In fact, in my opinion it's so incredibly brilliant that it almost takes away from the main focus which is asking deep questions about faith, religion, and happiness. It was shot behind the scenes on the set of The Passion of the Christ and its interview-ees are the actors and extras.
2. The Venus Theory - Shot with profession and experience this film is like watching a very interesting Discovery Channel episode. The scenes were nice to look at, especially the earth from space views but the subject definitely grabbed a hold of my attention the most. The possibility of a runaway greenhouse effect in the near future (near being in relation to the age of the earth, meaning a couple hundred years away from now) is a scary realization. Some don't believe it's an important thing to worry about but after watching this film I bet their minds would be changed, if they're not the President.
3. Beethoven's Hair - A very interesting chronicle of the "life" and travels of a lock of the famous composer's hair. After about 170 years of being cut from the dead man's head it falls into the hands of Che Guevara (not the Cuban Revolution guy, obviously), a dude named Ira that founded a Beethoven research institute in Arizona, a guy that does hair tests (he'd probably scold me for not being scientific about his profession), and some cool dudes with a really cool huge gadget that uses little lasers to x-ray stuff. Ok, this is why I'm not getting paid to do this. Anyway, the journey this little lock of hair goes through, which includes a harrowing escape during WWII, is quite amazing. Enough said.
4. Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine - The title says it all. Gary K. vs. IBM's Deep Blue and the "maybe" conspiracy that surrounds it. Interesting camera angles all over the place and just interesting subject matter, to me anyway. I arrived a bit early to this one and caught the last few minutes of One Shot, an eerie look into the lives of Israeli snipers. Crazy shit man.
5. Two Museums - Kind of interesting and kind of boring too. This film is a first attempt by a couple from Saskatchewan that follows two people in a tiny farm town. It's possible to get deeper than that but I fear I'm taking up too much space so I'm covering these last two films with the mere basics. After the show I had a great conversation with the producer. He was nice enough to give me some good tips and suggestions.
6. Last Thoughts - Last but certainly not the least favorite. Quite the opposite really, it's my super favorite so far. A man jumps freight trains during the Great Depression, goes on to lead "normal" life, doesn't reveal his adventures until his last days when he records his stories. Grandson hears tapes, decides to live in van for one year while traveling across the states. Grandson's first film EVER and it's the best one I've seen yet. Cinematography is a visual orgasm throughout the whole 72 minutes and the way it's all put together is certain to win this guy some kind of award during this year's Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

There you go John, my attempt at getting your naked body off the main screen!

sunset.jpg

sunset.jpg
Originally uploaded by Mark Yezbick.

Vicky and I escaped up the mountain for a 5:30 sunset run on Tuesday.

Scroll Down for Some Very Important News Updates!

Apparently someone doesn't know what dates and times and days and months are. Let this be a lesson, when you don't have a job and no schedule what-so-ever time turns into this big mushy, squishy, gyrating, silly putty-like, gelatinous ball that you stuff away into the deepest darkest dankest depths of your mind. It pops up every once and awhile and makes you stop for just a moment to say, "Is there something I should have accomplished today? Nah, couldn't have been." Then you go back to watching the snow fall through rays of sunshine and all is well.

The Cat was Away

Well, well, well. I leave for one little weekend and the whole place goes to hell. I have heard nothing but scandalous stories about Steve's 33rd and the blog has been simply ravaged, perhaps beyond repair. I don't know what to say. Even the normally upstanding and forthright seem to have fallen hard.
I spent the weekend shooting guns, a lot of guns, all kinds of guns...my eyes sharpened...my hands steadied...my cat-like reflexes honed to perfection...

So there I was patching some holes in the sheetrock when I thought to myself "Now that was a great birthday party!!" At least that’s how I remember it, at least what I can remember. Steve here, just wanting to give props to the great party and excellent pinata ass kicking. Notice in the photo below how close my feet are to the blue X's, denoting the safe swing zone, next year I'll put actual foot straps in to avoid any accidents. Thanks to everyone for attending and making it a great birthday. John we missed you but luckily your sexy picture was a constant companion on our computer screen, and just remember that the responsible party was in fact "Party Dude", so keep any and all retribution pointed in the right direction. Thanks again everyone and let’s do it again next year!

Happy Birthday Steve

Voodoo Magic?

So...I'm a little freaked out. I was cleaning my bedroom last night when I found this photo under my bed, positioned directly beneath my heart. It was wrapped in a piece of soft velvet, and bound securely with a woven lock of hair. Tiffany is utterly convinced that the hair is mine, as it matches both the rich brown color and the baby soft texture. It could only have been collected from my pillow. This poses quite a conundrum for me as I honestly cannot now know if I am friends with "Extremely John" because he is who he is, or because I am in the clutches of some dark spell paid for in blood. All I know for sure is that when he is not around... I miss him. Lord what shall I do?

Stormy Days are Here Again

Girdwood- What started off as a fatty 10" inches of new snow today soon turned to rain and wind and general hellaciousness. There are unconfirmed reports of an avalanche death by a snowshoer up on Flat Top Mountain in Anchorage and the Seward Highway is currently closed from Portage south all the way to Seward until 12 pm tomorrow and the road has avalanched shut at mile 33.

So things are looking pretty good all in all.

I submit a photo of Super Bowl Sunday 2005 from one year and 3 days ago, 40 mph winds, ice skates, glaciers and Alaskan Amber.

If you need a smile, check this out, it actually contains footage from Alaska, really, and at the very end is a shot of Anchorage, really. I wonder if the Visitor's Bureau knows about this?

Fresh Tracks

Here's Lt. Dan putting down fresh tracks in Turnagain Pass, above Summit Lake but on the other side of the road in a super secret location known only to a select few. Sweet as it looks in this picture there are 48 new inches up there waiting, nay yearning, to be tracked- so ya'll git out there now y'hear?

The Days Go By

I started working on this after the van posting, then I got distracted for a week. Part of that distraction was half naked John smiling at me whenever I tried to work on this most important post. Anyway, I'm back on track now and as they say some news is better than no news, or something like that.

.........Headline news.........

--Gwood gets dumped on by massive weekend storm. Cars, trucks and vans be warned, you will be buried to the hilt.

--Missoula, MT drivers are seeing an increasing amount of anti Bush bumper stickers. One such sticker states 'BUSH SUCKS MY GASSHOLE.' Could this be the start of a public uproar with murders, beatings, hurricanes, and all that great stuff we put in the news? Sure hope so.

..........In other news.........

--The man they call Vernon has been spotted surfing the streets of Missoula on his super uber cool long board. These photos are evidence of his existence (note the trademark beanie and the classic Salty Dawg hoodie) and have prompted local authorities to kick up the reward money to tree fitty. Get out your nets folks!

--A man by the name of JJ was pulled over by Officer Duniway this afternoon for driving a vehicle with expired tags. When JJ reached into the glove compartment to retrieve insurance and registration Officer Duniway "found our little stash, but he didn't know what is was and let us go, fined us 80 bucks in cash." Cue in Michael Kang on mandolin!

Ok, the last part isn't true but I did get a little nervous for about 2 minutes during the fiasco. Thank God for Karma...or wait, uh yeah. Glad you guys are getting some SNOW!!! (but I guess it's all melting, oh poo. The North Face still looks tasty!)

Vern's Van

Good morning fellow Girdwood revelers, a quick post to prove that sometimes we do indeed get snow here in our fair city. Vern's van has developed several unsupported slabs and wind cornices that present quite a hazard while warming your car up in the morning. Other than temporarily losing sight of the van every now and again it is doing well Vern so rest easy. Not sure when you are planning on returning to us, but can anyone say shoveling party?

The definitive 'Grizzly Man'

Although not a girdwood event, strictly speaking, the untimely demise of Timothy Treadwell certainly touched us all in Alaska, if for no other reason than everyone in the lower 48 gets to ask us "Have you seen Grizzly Man?, now that's a crazy son of a bitch". After hearing all there was to hear about the subject (or so I thought), I was enlightened today by what I am declaring as the definitive documentary on the trajedy, which I submit for your enjoyment, so enjoy goddamn it!

http://travisandjonathan.com/GrizzlyBearMan.html

Super Snow Sunday

Girdwood- Epic snow storm warning in full affect. This area is getting clobbered and it is awesome. Here are a couple of shots from Moose Meadows right about kickoff time. Gooooooooooooooooooo Seahawks!!! Whatever...