Random: Rock

By 1978, Saturday Night Live was starting to hit a nice stride in terms of it’s hosts, edgy comedy and musical guests. With staple acts like Bonnie Rait, Billy Joel and the Rolling Stones, ratings were good and no big risks were being taken. That changed on October 14th when DEVO took the stage in studio 8H. Nobody expected a gang of nerds outfitted in yellow vinyl jumpsuits and 3D glasses. Certainly nobody guessed that they would jerk and twitch their way through a brilliant—albeit unusual—new wave cover of the Stone’s (Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. I distinctly remember trying to process and categorize the mesmerizing performance with my adolescent grasp of pop music... and coming up blank. But I knew I liked it. Push play >>

Run Sal Run!

My friend and ESPN/X-Games personality Sal Masakela is doing a big and good thing by running in the NYC marathon on November 1st—raising money for his charity Stoked, which helps at risk youth through action sports and focused mentoring. Sal is a great guy with a ton of positive energy and I can almost see the smiles this will put on the faces of a lot of kids. It's easy to make a donation... click here.

Sal has the hard part. His goal: one hundred thousand dollars. Your contribution: as little as five bucks, or as much as you want. There's a convenient PayPal link and if you already have a PP account, you're only two clicks away from being a hero. As we enter the dual season of giving thanks and giving gifts, this is a great way to put you in the mood. Do it for the kids!

Sun sets on '09 race season

One last trip around Carmel Bay with Jones on Sunday afternoon, and now the boards are bagged and tarped just in time for the first big rain of winter, scheduled for... tonight. Paddleboard season is OVER. It was a great race season, best ever. The highlights...

~ The Jay Moriarity Race in Santa Cruz, 12 miles, always a good scene with the SC bros

~ The 1st Annual Dolphin Race in Carmel, 9 miles... and now we have our own race scene

~ Crossing the Carmel Bay Marine Canyon with the boys and champ Kanesa Duncan

~ Paddling out to Point Lobos with whales and orcas in view

~ The Fall Classic, my first 22 miler, AND breaking it in under 5 hours... barely

Couldn't have done it without Mike Jones, best training partner ever. And couldn't have done it without Marie Muscolino, best support team/girlfriend ever.

Going AWAY

You heard the media buzz; you heard the banter in the office or perhaps on the train to work, but did you really think it would come to fruition? Yeah, me neither. But like any completely forgettable low budget horror film, it will... much sooner than anyone thought, on November 17th, to be exact. Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue (more on that ridiculous title later) is getting fast-tracked for pre-Christmas release, apparently because her publishers woke up and realized that her pond of quickly evaporating relevance will be completely Death Valley bone dry by spring of 2010, the original release window. Oh, and also because it turns out that it didn't take nearly as long for her to "write" the 4oo+ pages as everyone thought it would. Of course, she had a ghost writer, and she quit her job, and doesn't really spend any time with her kids, so—lucky day—it was actually a breeze! You betcha!

Yep, fire up the presses and get the first (and likely, only) 1.5 million copies on the shelves, while Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace still have jobs and can drive sales for her. "What? The title sucks? We know the title sucks! But there's no time, I tell you, NO TIME to think of a better one. Print it now! NOW!" you can imagine her publisher and agent screaming in unison.

The word 'rogue' has no positive connotations, anywhere, and this is most obvious in the dictionary; 1. dishonest or unprincipled; 2. savage or destructive tendencies; 3. inferior or defective specimen. When used to describe waves at sea, the word rogue is an obvious and ominous negative. Only in the crippled and gasping GOP, where a babbling redneck cheerleader somehow becomes a political ripple, does the word rogue seem to hold some invisible promise. Oh sure, these 1.5 million copies will be purchased, no question; they will be purchased by the 1.5 million Americans who are under the impression that Palin has anything worthwhile to say, and they will all likely be autographed by Sarah herself, since she has absolutely nothing else to do or anywhere to go. And by springtime of next year, when all the overprint copies are in the get-the-hell-out-now $1.99 bin at the bookstore, Sarah will have finally GONE AWAY.