Planning A Toast

I sat in bed this morning, half-sleeping, half-dreaming about making a toast, more like a speech, at my wedding, which is exactly one week from today. I decided not to write it all down and just wing it when the time comes. But the message and the tone are dialed, I know what it’s going to sound like. I also know I had better have a few in me before it happens, just for a looser feel.

Thinking this morning made me realize the extremely diverse nature of all of the people who will be in the “crowd” when I make a toast at the wedding. A wide range of ages, religious and artistic sensibilities, and family histories will be there. Some people will have just met me, some will have known me since the day I first breathed air. There will be people there who know me better than anyone, and I hope to even surprise them a little.

This whole thing seems like a big surprise to me, still. The fact that I am so close to getting married to a woman who is not only the love of my life, but my best friend and the best thing that’s ever happened to me is simply overwhelming and even though it’s been over a year and a half, it’s still unbelievable. I still feel like it’s new, it’s a new feeling to be in love every day and have someone love you the same right back. And it’s totally new to be comfortable saying that!

I remember wondering if I’d ever find someone like Meghan, someone who could “deal” with me and even love the weird things about me. I remember thinking I had no idea how that could happen, I did not know what to do to get there. And when it happened, I remember thinking that I should not try too hard or do anything to jeopardize what could be the best thing ever. I guess I did well enough cause here we are.

I could not be happier and I am not going to go into the reasons why, but there are all of the reasons you could think of. There’s nothing missing. I am also not going to spoil the words I composed this morning in my head, I think they are still there. When I asked Meghan to marry me, which was the craziest day of my life, I wrote a bunch of words down to remember them, not read from them. I think she still has those, and I think I got them all out without referring to the note.

So, Meghan will be excited that she is the centerpiece of a post on Vinceland. Currently, she’s out with the girls getting toes painted and having fruity, alcoholic cocktails. In a few days, we’ll fly to Vermont and then the madness begins. Family, friends, new faces, big big events, center of attention, etc… I am positive I have no idea what to expect, nor do I realize the importance or gravity of the situation. But I have a toast in my head, one that I hope will sum things up for everyone and help give meaning to our wedding not only for the guests, but for Meghan and I also. I am sure I will know more when we get back, I am sure there will be more revelations.

Here’s to living and loving.

What Is Snowboarding

Here we are on the eve of the Dew Action Sports Tour’s night-time snowboard rail jam at the Rose Quarter in Portland. The Dew Action Sports Tour used to be the Gravity Games and is now owned by NBC/ Universal and Live Nation, a spin-off from Clear Channel. I heard the snow for the event is going to be delivered late tonight, but the rails and stairs are all in place, waiting for the snow. No one is sure where the snow is coming from, maybe it’s from Mt Hood, maybe a skating rink.

I don’t snowboard any more. I used to ride a racing snowboard, but I never raced competitively. My favorite part of snowboarding was going fast and turning hard, usually under the lift so people could see that we could actually turn. My second favorite part of snowboarding was watching my friends ride, stopping to hit jumps, logs, or steeps on the way down. My third favorite part of snowboarding was watching videos. My fourth favorite was going to the Burton Snowboard US Open to watch my heroes ride. My fifth favorite part of snowboarding was getting new boards, jackets, hats, t shirts and stickers. My sixth favorite part of snowboarding was going to Burton. My seventh favorite part was reading snowboard magazines. I think beyond that, I was usually doing or thinking about something else.

Snowboard racing today is for snowboard nerds, it’s a super-niche thing called “carving” now. No one in the industry cares about racing because it does not make any money. Years ago, companies made a conscious decision to stop making product for racing, therefore dooming that side of the sport and riders out of existence. They felt they’d wasted enough money on a side of snowboarding that did not make enough money in sales to justify the development of race-specific products. The ripple-effect this had on the sport was interesting to watch. Freestyle snowboarding BECAME all that snowboarding was. Now, there was only one way to ride: Look cool, get new shit, go bigger, grab right (god damn it) and spin.

The emphasis in snowboarding was placed on the segment that made money: fashion freestyle. Companies forced the trend by focusing product and marketing on specific styles of boards, jackets, bindings and one style of riding. Magazines and smaller companies followed, because they needed to make money too. Snowboarding was transformed into an activity that attracted corporate sponsorships for events, videos and magazines, and the pro riders followed the money trail. And if any part of snowboarding, or the riders involved, did not attract those types of dollars in sales or sponsorships, they were abandoned as worthless.

Imagine if this had happened in bicycling. No Tour de France, only BMX Park at the XGames! Talk about doping scandals!

The most interesting part of what’s happened in snowboarding is the relationship between the most influential professional riders and the industry. The riders (who were “driving” the sport) were convinced by the industry and their sponsors to conform to what sells best: dope style, attitude, rails, backcountry jumps. Halfpipe is barely hanging on as a viable part of the sport, mainly because it makes for good TV (see “Advertising”). Not many people go out and buy halfpipe-specific boards any more. If the Olympics did not pick up Snowboarding, who knows if halfpipe would even exist now? The US Open and X Games cannot prop up this part of snowboarding alone. Boardercross (Snowboard Cross?) is the land of ex-alpine racers and is doomed for the same reasons.

So, what does this mean for the “sport” of snowboarding? It means that there is a very narrow definition of what snowboarding is today. There’s a single, narrow path for snowboarders to follow. Snowboarding likes young kids who have parents that buy them things and parents that send thier kids to resorts and kids that work in shops at resorts. And that means that everyone outside of this definition (including most girls and women) do not really fit what the industry needs snowboarding to be. The snowboarding industry needs snowboarding to be young, rich, male and stupid. Or it needs to succeed in attracting more women to the sport, which is hard because they don’t relate to the current singular definition.

Everyone else (usually older male riders) buys product, wears it, rides it and enjoys it, much like golf clubs and shoes. It goes in the basement in the off season, get’s replaced every 3-5 seasons. My guess is that these riders are increasing in number, and decreasing in stoke on snowboarding. It’s possible they like feeling younger when they go ride. It’s possible they’ll watch the Dew Action Sports Tour Rail Jam in a week on NBC prime-time and say “Fuck! I am such a pussy. I am going to Mammoth to practice sliding rails all season next year.” It’s not possible, though, that these dudes will buy as much shit as a young wiseass kid with parents who have money. (PS: I was this kid until recently. It’s a good thing I had friends in the industry…)

What about backcountry or big mountain riding? People in Chamonix, Jackson and Tahoe love that. There are one or two respected professional riders in the entire sport who are hanging on to thier sponsorships by putting their asses on the line in situations that would make an SLC rail-jockey crap his saggy drawers.

Snowboarding began in powder and on hills that had to be hiked. It began with makeshift equipment, NO style and only fun with friends in mind. When it moved to resorts, it attracted more people and made more money for everyone. When it moved into the mainstream media, it attracted more people and made more money for everyone. Some parts of the sport and riders were left behind for the ones that attracted more people and made more money for everyone. Now, there’s no where else for snowboarding to go. And what are we left with? Too much emphasis on style, fashion and attitude. Not enough emphasis on accessibility, creativity and the feeling of snowboarding with friends.

Many people would say that they love snowboarding, they love the part of snowboarding that they now have. So do I. I loved it so much. Snowboarding got me to where I am today and I met the most amazing people in my life. I have vivid memories of snowboarding that I still daydream about. There’s no way I am going to ruin those memories by trying to fit into snowboarding today.

People will say that snowboarding is not about the industry, it’s about getting out before dawn to hike the ridge and make a few turns before anyone else gets there. Super nice. That’s perfect. Get out there and do it.

People will wonder why I care to comment, or what right do I have to try to influence what snowboarding is today. I don’t know why I care. Maybe it’s because I don’t want snowboarding to disappear for you too, because the industry could not make enough money from your favorite part of snowboarding.

Casting Lines

When I was in college, I befriended a grizzled, old Philosophy professor who loved vodka and smoked a ton of butts in between classes. Rumor held that he kept warm vodka toddies in his coffee mug, sipping it throughout his early morning sessions speaking in front of half-sleeping, empty-minded college students.

Professor Zeno remembers everything. In the first day of class, making role call, he remembered my buddy Pat’s college entrance essay which included a reference to fishing. Pat had submitted that essay on his college application over a year earlier. Zeno must have reviewed thousands of those things.

Luckily, Zeno loved me (and Pat) because we loved fishing and listening to him, so we got “A”s all the time. For many students though, his ramblings soared over and above their heads, never making any sense. Over a semester, it gets harder and harder to endure long seminars that are designed to twist the mind and bring it back to a point an hour later, if you can follow along. Zeno always held his classes early in the morning, in basement classrooms with few windows. But now I realize he picked that time and place to weed out the weed-heads and allow the people who could listen and follow him to do just that, without distractions.

What I also realized, and what helped me get through all of those Philosophy classes, was that it was just an exercise for the mind. To much of an extent, the only point of Philosophy is to think together. To discuss, to interact and to work the mind through problems in a logical way, based on past arguments and developing thoughts. There may never be a solution or resolution, but the act of thinking is healthy and makes you a better person. I only realized this after 4 years of classes, but he told us we’d get something out of it.

That being said, the most important aspect of Zeno’s lessons and maybe the most important thing I took home from college was the notion of Insight. We spent a whole semester studying insight into insight, a phrase used to describe the philosophy of Bernard Lonergan, a Canadian, Jesuit professor who was around from ‘04-’84.

An insight is the moment you recognize and realize something new. It’s a flash of brilliance, a chance to notice something, the exact point at which your eyes are opened to a new idea. Insights open the door to other ideas, which bring more insights. Insights are the building blocks of all knowledge and if you watch out for them, and realize when one occurs, they can really make your day better.

Imagine ambling down a sidewalk and being completely aware of what’s around you. Every detail is enhanced, you notice everything, you realize things about details in your world that most people pass by in the normal, modern human stupor. Zeno brought the idea of noticing the beauty in everyday things to light for us. He described the taste of his vodka in short, simple terms, smacking his lips in between phrases to illustrate his love of vodka.

Close to the end of school, we would frequently meet Prof. Zeno outside the building and talk about fishing. He loved the simplicity of it, the chance to catch a big fish with every cast. He likened fishing to Philosophy in the sense that every argument, every new thought is like a cast, and you might not ever catch anything, but simply the act of fishing was worthwhile and a healthy human exercise.

Every once in a while, if you’re aware enough to pick the right lure, match the fly hatch correctly and get really lucky, there comes along a fish that takes your line. Each fish hooked and caught is like an insight, a moment in time where surprise, delight and the knowledge that you’re alive in a world of living things becomes apparent and important.

At my final meeting with Carl Zeno, he was evaluating my final essay (which obviously included plenty of references to fishing), and we were talking about the upcoming summer. He said he had a lot of reading to do and I admitted that I simply did not read enough, but when I did work over a book, it usually involved fly fishing. Prof. Zeno’s eye’s lit up and he smacked his lips as if he could taste the vokda. He told me straight up to get a hold of a book called, “The River Why”, by David James Duncan.

I’ve tried to read this book all the way through many times and my mind-set was never quite up to it. I’d get through a few pages and some weird language or metaphor would lose me and I’d just put it down. I used to tell myself my mind was just not ready for the book and when it was, I’d read it and understand it and enjoy it. This is a classic Vince-ism. I have a hard time reading books from start to finish. Same with journals. I have a dozen half-read books and several journals with 1/3 the pages full.

I just picked up “The River Why” again and jumped to a chapter to begin reading (this is also a classic move). Only today, did I realize the whole setting for this book is a river that exists near the central Oregon coast, in the Tillamook forest. It made me think about my passion for fly fishing again and my time at Saint Michael’s and my time thinking with Carl Zeno.

Here’s the opening quote from the chapter I opened to, entitled “Philosophizing”, in the book “The River Why”: All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren’t noticing which makes you see something that isn’t even visible.

Fisherman notice everything.

Portland’s Just Enough

I’ve been here since late March and I’ve realized some things about Portland, Oregon that other people will agree and disagree with. They are truths in my mind until someone convinces me otherwise. Feel free to convince me, I’m listening.

• Portland has just enough racial diversity to make me feel like I’m not in Whiteville, Vermont any more.
• Portland is just big enough to make everyone here feel like they’re truly metropolitan.
• Portland is just easy enough to get around that it’s not annoying.
• Portland homeless people are just respectful enough to earn a little respect.
• Portland is just outdoorsy enough for outdoorsy people and half-outdoorsy people to feel like they live in an outdoorsy place.
• Portland has just enough seedy, sketchy, windowless bars for bikers and true alcoholics to have a great time.
• Portland has just enough great restaurants to have a “food scene”.
• Portland has just enough “big money” jobs with companies like Nike and Intel to be attractive to people who need to make big money.
• Portland is just close enough to beachy areas on the Oregon coast to make it worthwhile to drive to the Oregon coast.
• Speaking of the coast, the surfing on the Oregon coast is just good enough to keep a large group of surfers stoked on surfing in Oregon.
• Portland has just enough cool people living here that I am friends with to make it somewhat comfortable to live here.
• Portland has just enough of a mix of weather and seasons to make it bearable for a dude from the East coast which is all about the seasons.
• Portland has just enough access to extreme sports activities that some extreme sports companies consider Portland to be the next extreme sports mecca.
• Portland has just enough redneck activity to make this place feel downright comfortable.
• Portland has just enough (sort of) affordable houses and cheap rent available that this place is considered livable.
• Portland has just enough funky, hippy areas with funky, hippy people living in them to be considered kind of a funky, hippy place.
• The rivers that flow around and through Portland are just clean enough that they are not considered by the general population to be dirty.
• The fishing in and around Portland is just sweet enough that serious fisherman of all kinds get stoked every day to get out on the water when they can.
• I am not positive, but I believe that the Portland education system is just good enough to be considered decent, and not much better. There are abandoned schools here.
• Portland has just enough good music coming through that residents never really need to travel to see great live music.
• Portland is just cool enough that when I tell people I live here now, they say “That place is cool, huh?”
• Portland is just green enough to be considered sustainable, which makes me feel better, even though I consume a lot of non-sustainable stuffs.
• Portland has just enough cool places to visit, drink, watch movies, see music and have fun that I don’t think we’d ever get bored here.
• Portland is just easy enough to get home from that it does not feel as far away from home as it is.
• Portland feels just safe enough to be comfortable, but has just enough violent crime to be careful.
• Portland has enough technology, web and creative firms with action happening that the place feels kinda creative and techy.
• Portland has enough mountainous terrain (on several volcanoes) that’s within a day trip that people here can feel like they live close to the mountains.
• Portland roads are just smooth enough that they are not super annoying.
• Portland’s roads and highways make for just enough varied routes to the same places that residents can rightly claim “It’s pretty easy to get around Portland.”
• There is just enough bike-wielding, public transportation-riding, hybrid-hippie action in Portland to make me feel slightly guilty about driving a small, US-made SUV to work and everywhere else I need to go, every day.
• There are just enough roadside coffee shacks in Portland to consititute an over-abundance of places to get a coffee in Portland.
• Portland is home to just enough sushi places that if you get violently ill from one of them, there’s a few others to try out when the craving hits next time.
• Portland people are just stoked enough on the “neighborhood scene” here that the whole neighborhood thing in Portland is kind of annoying. It’s just one damn town and it takes 10 minutes to get anywhere here, so who cares what’s in your neighborhood? Mine’s better.
• Portland has just enough sunny weather in the Summer that people who live here consider it a nice place to live weather-wise, even though it rains straight from October to April, or more.
• There are just enough semi-celebrities living in and around Portland for it to be pretty neat. I heard Gus Van Sant lives here, so that’s kinda neat.
• There are just enough strip joints in Portland that…well if that’s your thing you can get plenty of it here.
• There’s just enough of an art scene/ gallery situation in Portland that the art’s not too shitty.
• Portland is home to just enough vegan/ whole foods crazies that the whole “healthy living” society thing has taken hold here in almost every neighborhood. But there is still good meat/ fasties joints here too.
• And I may add to this list, but finally… There are just enough really cool things/ people/ places and stuff here that the place feels like it inspires people to do cool shit more often than uncool shit.

Sequels (Sometimes) Fail

The first Sony Bravia ad was great because of its simple concept that made us all want to be a kid again. But it did make me wonder how they were going to clean up after themselves. And it made me wonder how it would feel to spend a shitload of money on a flat panel TV.

This makes me wonder even more. Home video of the ad shoot here.

I don’t think these advertisements are designed to sell more Bravia flat panels. Do they make Sony look cooler? Maybe. Do they keep Sony in people’s minds? Yup. Do they create environmental messes and continue to exploit people’s lust for excess in everything? Uh-huh. Am I helping their campaign succeed by posting on my blog? Yes, I am exactly what they want to happen.

Now send me one of these damn things so I can play Socom 3 the way it was intended. Better yet, send me Playstation 3, Bravia and Socom 4 so I can dork out on something other than my keyboard.

Anyhow, I would be concerned about the potential fallout from 70,000 litres (Euro-style) of paint, tons of explosives and the fact that this ad does not share the same qualities that made the first Bravia ad so well-liked.

Fallout or not, when you launch something real good, lose the ego and try something different next time. Rehashing an old concept and trying too hard to out-do yourself can ruin the greatness of the original idea. Even if you do sell a few of them.

What they should have done is create a new, comedic, animated short called Bravia and Butthead. Actually, that gives me an idea for a new shoe company…called Bravis.