Photo show at FTC Tokyo, quick travels in Japan, photo show at Fecal Face Gallery in SF, cloud nine via SF MOMA, and then pain.

I've made enough of the book coming out in other places so I'll skip all that, but if you aren't sure what that means check this first. Otherwise, here's some related new stuff...

So I went to Tokyo. Originally the plan was just to go as a family trip to visit some of my wife's relatives but it worked out to do a show at FTC Tokyo around the release of the book. I also got interviewd for a feature in SB magazine there, which was fun- weird to be on the other side of the interview for once. Here's some stuff from that...


My old friend Senn, who is the editor at SB, interviewed me for about two hours! Gnarly. Before that we rode the train around with SB photographer Tatsuki Masaru shooting my portrait for the article:


Then it was on to FTC. Everybody there was super helpful and hooked it up. The store got cleared out and we hung a dozen photos for the show. The books arrived from being printed in Hong Kong just in time, all wrapped in plastic and nice, along with free vitamin water and beer.


The show went really well. Lots of cool people came out and had nice things to say. Sold some books and prints and hung out a bunch. I met these two awesome guys- Gou Miyagi and Rich Adler.

Gou should need no intro at this point. I was stoked to finally meet him in person. Rich I have been a fan of for awhile. I feel like he's the best current embodiment of the style and aesthetic of the mid-90s Philly dudes who I always thought were so excellent. Anyhow, Rich is living in Tokyo and killing it- watch for an interview with him in the works now.

The kids even stayed up late for the party:

And so did lots of other people. The cops came, and the FTC guys said this was the first time that's ever happened there. Yes!


Thanks to Kent and Ando at FTC SF everybody at FTC Tokyo for hooking up the show! Was real fun and I was stoked to be able to do it!

After the show Friday it was off for a couple days of family time and visiting relatives. Before we got on the train we hit the slamming pastry shop around the corner from where we stay. I'm teaching my kids what they need to know about a healthy breakfast.


Tokyo is my favorite city for street photography, but unfortunately this time I had no time to do the street wandering because it was busy, so I had to make do with a few stolen moments waiting at corners. I always love when I get unintended lining up of shapes, like how the man's suitcase corner fits right in under the shape of the woman's jacket in the first one below, or how all the feet and legs and bag just fit together in the second.




Then we hit the train to go visit relatives about an hour away. They picked us up and took us to a local fish market to get supplies for lunch. Miya peeping the fresh fish:

And mister slicer dicer at work:


From there we went to the house, grubbed hard, and then my father-in-law took a nap in a home-made hammock on the roof. I was jealous.

Later we bailed back to Tokyo for a couple days of running around to do stuff with the kids and visiting friends, like Taro and Hina, friends who run the No.12 Gallery there (Taro was the main photographer at SB for a long time and shot a lot of Gou's SLAP interview, as well as this cover of SLAP for the issue he had a Portfolio in after the release of his book Pool).


The Japan trip was over real fast. I stood on the balcony the last night and just took in the sites for a minute. Here's three pictures of the same building:




We flew out the next day, back to California. A day later was my show in SF so I had to scramble some stuff together for that, but I was so stoked to find these boxes of my books when I got home:

So stoked! This whole thing with the book has been a dream come true...

Then it was showtime in SF at the Fecal Face Gallery, run by ex-SLAP man John Trippe and his wife Jessica. Vans was super cool and hooked me up with some help for the prints and frames and food and the like, thanks Robin! We laced the gallery-goers with donuts and beer to thank them for coming out (that's half of Matt Irving's face deciding which to ingest first):


It got packed inside pretty quick.


So packed that Will Sprott from the Mumlers who was gonna do a set couldn't even play! But he posed for me anyhow.


Then I stepped outside and couldn't believe how many people were there!

Lots of friends old and new plus lots of people I'd never met before were up and down the block in both directions! Here's some of the many friends in the mix...

Coverboy Tommy G!


Jason Adams, Ricky Espiniza, Matt Evs.


Me and old amigo Matt Field.


Gallery hombre John Trippe and the big boss Gwynn Vitello.


Daver and Captain EO with pals.


The hottest dude out right now, Halba (at right), with two inferior humans. Haaaaalba!


Little Red Riding Sally and L. Ron Hubba. And speaking of Little Red Riding Sally, everybody was interested in her kit that night- Evs had to try it on, so Sally showed off her Flash Dance kit that lay beneath...


Famed SLAP intern Number Two, aka Scott Cooper, and Creepy Kyle supported!


Tons more people rolled through, like deep SLAP Pal Dick Hart


and SJ ladies Amber and Blair

but most of all I was so happy to have my girls there with me (flanked by K Du, Katie VT and Travis)- without them I'd be lost. They even brough me dinner!

It was a really good night, so thanks to everybody who came out and helped make it all possible. And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it did- Kyle sent me an email the next day with a photo he'd just taken at the SF Museum Of Modern Art:

I'm in the MOMA bookstore, facing out nonetheless! Holy crap!

Then after all this good stuff I had to come back to earth, and come back I did- right to my wrist. Took a slam skating yesterday, headed to the doctor today today to see if I broke it... again. Ah, life.