gone fishin slashin

if there is any best day to play hookie, it's today. 10-15 inches of new pow on top of the 10-15 that fell yesterday. and dontcha know, i'm stuck in my office all day.

my solution would be to stay in my windowless office and waste time on snowboard.com, but meetings out of the office today will conjure up tearful and remorseful emotions that question my initial thoughts on coming to work when i step outside and see the snow covered mountains in front of me. who has two thumbs and doesn't care about the speech/luncheon on park city's economical forecast? yeah, you know the rest.

it's days like today that make me rethink my ambitions to have a 'real job' so i can prepare for a 'successful future.' boo to that. befriending mother nature and breathing in fresh air is where true success lies. and anyone who says differently should go to the girl's department at jc penny, buy a pair of skinny jeans and call themselves emo.

let's go shred.

www.skiutah.com

Monster Dump! Resorts with 12" or more are in green.

Resort	new	base
Alta	17"	132"
Beaver Mtn	5"	78"
Brian Head	0"	50"
Brighton	17"	112"
The Canyons	16"	107"
Deer Valley	10"	99"
Park City Mtn	10"	88"
Powder Mtn	11"	104"
Snowbasin	17"	119"
Snowbird	16"	126"
Solitude	17"	110"
Sundance	17"	80"
Wolf Mtn	14"	88"

MOUNTAIN WEATHER
1° F	9:15 am

if you should buy one thing today...

it should be the february issue of future snowboarding, chock full o' travel tidbits in february's. but i bet you'll buy the magazine because of the spacecraft article on art + collaborations on page 32... and to support the lovely writer so she can buy her daily bottle of wine.

apres work

it's a tit cold outside - temps coming in at about 6 degrees right now, but it sure is gorgeous. i'm pretty sure it's been about 3 weeks since we had a full day of sun. finally, time to strap on the sunny lenses. ride break extended lunch break product testing here i come!

tara dakides, rainbows and unicorns: a movie review

'against the grain'

as sundancers and slamdancers and chefdancers were getting rad on the streets of park city last night, i was x-dancing my way to SLC. x-dance, an action sports film fest, shows some of the best surf, snow, skate and ski movies of the year. all these 'dances are really to recognize the indie scene and all the talent that produced the goods - namely filmmakers. a 2-year project, josh landan documented the past and present life of tara dakides, who in my eyes is one of the top three legendary women snowboarders to push the limits of female riding (barrett christy and victoria jealouse rounding it out). and it's a great fucking film.

it's pretty to obvious to understand why josh chose tara. her story is so easy to tell - just put her in front of a camera and you've just got an audience. props to josh for making this film, but tara dakides earns the credit for her starring role in 'against the grain.' it's not so much a snowboard flick as it is a biography on tara and using snowboarding as a means of self-discovery and progression. call me a hippie, but i think that's beautiful.

her teenage years weren't so happy. her parents' divorce took a toll on her, and all the ditching class, smoking, drinking and a suicide attempt prompted her mom to pop her into a mental hospital for a few months and forced tara to deal with her problems on her own. at 16, after this emotional roller coaster, she bought a bus ticket to mammoth and moved out on her own, which launched her into a life journey and a career in snowboarding.

i could get all wrapped up in retelling her story, but it's one you have to watch for yourself. it's tara's story, anyways. and, hell, she doesn't just tell it - she's *lives* it and she has created an amazing journey because of it.

after watching 'against the grain,' i had the best snowboard dreams of my life. dreams of the most styled out backside shifties. the cleanest front boards. the deepest pow days. it was the most refreshing sleep i've had in a long time. i slowly drank my coffee this morning while snow was falling on the cars driving into town and wondered where they were headed. 15 minutes late for work, i hopped in my car, picked out some tunes and took a different route to work. after all, getting there should be half the fun of the journey.

studio 411 is distributing 'against the grain' and will be released in the fall of '08. check it out. find your own happy place with rainbows and unicorns.

vodka/monster, art and airplanes

mary jane's had an art opening last night at their main street store in park city. saturday night. during the first weekend of sundance. free bar. yeah.

erik otto. greg gossel. stella im hultberg. travis louie. joshua petker. oh it was good!

this was my first legit art show. these were names i've seen gracing the pages in juxtapoz. artists whose work i rip out from the magazine and pin to my bedroom wall because i can barely afford a print. the small, local openings i've been to were never on this level. the whole night reminded me of being on an airplane for the first time.

when i was 5, i went to disneyland and my parents told the flight attendant it was my first time flying. they said my name over the loudspeaker, congratulating me on this accomplishment and gave me one of those wings pins. it was all very anti-climatic. i thought people might applaud or the pilot would invite me into the cockpit or i would at least get an extra pack of in-flight crackers. nothin except a handshake and a free souvenir. but it was the most exciting nothing i had received. very similar to losing my virginity.

i've learned to appreciate flying more now than when i was 5. it's more exciting than it was back then and there are always new questions that arise with every trip. like, 'why am i going to alaska for 2 weeks by myself?' 'is the plane going to be hijacked?' 'will my panties be sifted through by TSA?'

and just like that, my first big art opening was over. nothing spectacular, but it was everything i could have asked for. can't wait to do it again!

jib this

nice little surprise at the canyons today. a park! ok, to be fair, they had 4 features last time i rolled through. it flows really nicely right now. a few boxes, a 4-jump line, a few more jibs, a wall ride and a kinked rail.

hey, not bad for a bankrupt resort!

PIB's

i'm not talking the sugary mr. pib soda from the days of middle school vending machines. these pib's are worse for your health. people in black. personalities that are stereotyped as a bunch of high-maintenance hollywoodites that invade park city for 10 days every january. today is the first day of sundance.

o__O

i have an urge to watch that old episode of south park where an LA film festival comes to town and corrupts it with their lack of culture. it's a true story.