Texas.

Sorry. No change right now. It's coming.

Paul Brabenec.

{Testing a post from the iphone. Technology}

Family Emergancy.

{There probably won't be anything up here for a while. Sorry. Something sooner or later. Kind of out of the loop}

Marlon Rabenreither

Polo.

{Some of my favourite photo taking people are in this. It's a shame LA is so far away. Go if it's not far from where you are}

XLV

{I}

So she watched. She watched when others rented their boards to see how they drew them from the rack. She watched to see how they held them, carried them, when they strapped on their ankle bungees. And she did as they did, even though, as often as not, they didn't know either. Everyone was an amateur, everyone pretending at grace - that's why they were renting boards and did not own them, and that's why they were surfing here, at Alta, where the waves were small and forgiving and the water was warm, like the inside of a plum.

GOD: I own you like I own the caves.
THE OCEAN: Not a chance. No comparison.
GOD: I made you, I could tame you.
THE OCEAN: At one time, maybe. But not now.
GOD: I will come to you, freeze you, break you.
THE OCEAN: I will spread myself like wings. I am a billion tiny feathers. You have no idea what's happened to me.

{From "The Only Meaning of The Oil Wet Water" from How We Are Hungry by David Eggers}

Something New.

{Something recently read. A sentence, or two, a paragraph perhaps. As regularly as they come. As often as I read something that I think you might like}

Ry Guy / Zero One

This has been a summer of new/great friends. One of them, RYAN, just got hit up for a cool little INTERVIEW. Zero1 MAGAZINE (and BLOG) is a great new internet magazine he gave me a heads up on. You should check it out. But first check out RYANS SHIT.

Worth it for the 70's and 80's Basketball Nostalgia alone. Like Wu-Welsh in Free Your Mind.

First Wave.

So just to let you know that the first couple of stockists got their goods this week... So from today you will be able to find Sleeves Commonwealth Press releases at:

FAMILY, in LA.
&
ASSEMBLY, in New York.

With Assembly we worked out a cool little deal where customers who purchase anything in store will get Marcelo's poster snuck into their bag for free. So stop by, buy some new stuff for fall (even though it's currently a heatwave here) and get some free awesome for your wall.

More stockist information coming by the end of the week. Hopefully.

Lay Down In The Light.

{LAY FLAT. I slept on this thing. Just found out about it recently and it's pretty much sold out. There are a few issues left HERE though. That's where I got one.

"Included in the inaugural issue of Lay Flat are four essays, an interview and a poem, all accompanied by 20 unbound photographs from a selection of international photographers. This issue's photographs were co-curated by Lay Flat's editor, Shane Lavalette, and Chicago-based photographer Karly Wildenhaus."

Oh and apparently Issue 2 is coming soon. So that's awesome. I'm not gonna lie: I stumbled on all this from NICHOLAS HAGGARDS site. That dudes work is seriously the best. Anyone know him? Tell him I would love to do a book with him sometime}

XLIV

Not My Reality Girl.

{So I'm a good, and a bad person. I'm an impatient person. Sometimes when a band I love is releasing a new album- or really if I'm just curious- I'll troll the blogs and download a leak or two. I almost always end up buying the record though. When I stumbled on Catacombs, the new Cass McCombs record a few months back I was obviously stoked. It's amazing. BUY IT. I listened to it nonstop, unaware anything was missing from my life. And then I stumbled across this:

Girls "Dreams Come True Girl" (Cass McCombs) from Left | Right Hand on Vimeo.

So: What the fuck is that? How had I never heard that song before? So a few more weeks go by and finally Catacombs is released and I pick it up on record, only to discover on first listen that this whole time I'd been one song short. The leak I downloaded was missing the first track on the album, the outofcontrol good Dreams Come True Girl. Anyway since then I've been rinsing that song non stop.

I don't know why but I just felt like talking about this. Also, while on the subject: That band GIRLS? Fucking awesome. They have an album about to drop any day now, which I'm sure I'll download first followed by a swift purchase the second it arrives at Other Music. You think they'll mind?}

Reaching.

The closest thing you'll get to an afternoon in the pool around here is a lukewarm shower. It doesn't even really run cold; the taps are too warm. Burried too close to the surface; the sun gets to them same as it gets to every other damn thing, and the water heats up. Turn on the cold and end up with the hot anyway. Not that I mind so much to tell you the truth; my skin is so thick now that I can barely feel the water splash my back, let alone tell you whether it's cold or not.

But still; it's the nearest you'll get to a pool.

I mean, sure the neighbors they've got them, those high sided above ground types, but would you really want to go in one of them? Leaves everywhere, slugs on the decking probably, and infestation of some kind. And if you asked; if you even wanted to ask, they'd only tell you: some other time anyway. They're always rushing off somewhere; the grocery store, to pick up gas, the kids, the dogs, the Grandmother from the airport. Anytime you're locked out, or need a Philipshead, or the number for those fuckers that pick up the recycling.

So you're not going to go begging down the block, to people you've never even met, maybe seen them around at the market, or down by Shipleys, or Wallmart even, but you've never had a conversation, have no idea of their names, and are certainly in no rush to make small talk while you lean against the side of their splintering deck, trying to catch your breath after only a couple of lengths. It'd be one thing if any of them had a real pool; all blue tile and diving board. A lounge chair or two. A grill on the deck. A fucking water-wing.

Anyway, a luke warm shower is better than an afternoon overstaying your welcome. Even if you could get in there in the first place. They lock the gates. You could climb over after-dark, but by then it's not even so hot, and it seems like too much effort to get the step ladder. Besides they'd only wake up and call the cops, and where would you be? Floating on your back in your Speedos, staring up at the Big Fucking Dipper and waiting for the sun to come up. So sponge your back. Bury your face beneath the shower head, an avalanche of water straight to the crown; let it flow down your sideburns, cover your ears until- like the cave behind the waterfall- there is no other noise; just the sound of the lukewarm Texas water.

Covering your head; a thick blanket, drumming against your earlobes.

An old girlfriend once told you how unhygenic it was to use the sponge to clean your face.

But it's the shower, and everything in there is clean
Including you?
Including me. It's just one part of my body to the next.

But she kept going on about how she knew for a fact you used the sponge on your dick - why wouldn't you- and probably your ass crack. And at the very least your feet. So why in the hell would you wipe it across your face, mop your brow with the water as it fell from the tap? Like a lot of times back then, you told her to mind her own fucking business, and went about your usual routine. Except of course when you came to wash your face, and you stared at the sponge for several minutes. Thinking about your ass crack, among other things, you dropped it into the little wire basket on the side of the tub, and made a bowl with your hands. Of course you never told her, and it was never mentioned again. And still, to this day, you miss the smell of the wet sponge, one of the only things you can remember from childhood, that you kept with you at least once a day: biting off a chunk, chewing the water out, sucking on it and spitting it back into the bath. Have you ever tried to explain the way water smells? It smells like it tastes: an impossible odorless nothing; a tasteless quenching of thirst. A little soapy.

SCP II

MARCELO GOMES "TACITURN HEART" POSTER.

Newsprint Poster. 30" x 22". 50lb Paperstock. CMYK Offset Printed.
Edition of 1000.
Design by DTE STUDIO.

$5 Plus Shipping.

We produced this poster in advance of Marcelo's book "Taciturn Heart", which should be available in September. It features one large color image of a seascape, and folds into a smaller sizing with a cover and inside black and white image.

It's beautiful, and I'm proud to have it be the second official SLEEVES COMMONWEALTH PRESS release.

For the moment they can be purchased from here, or on our BIGCARTEL site while the website is being finished. I'll post up stockist information in the coming days, for those of you in New York (and perhaps further afield). If you know of anywhere you think might be a good fit for Sleeves releases please let us know.

P.S. The shipping costs are rough right now as I haven't been to the post office to send out one of these things yet, so a heads up that this may change once I've sent out the first couple.

Production Values.

{An evening spent with samples. Hers and Mine. Headbands by Rosen, and the second Sleeves release pinned to the wall behind}

SCP

{SCPII came back from the printers yesterday... Keep an eye on here for all the info in the next couple of days}

XLIII