2012

Dear 2012,

It seems as if my other websites and blogs have stolen the thunder from my once priority "blog". I have to say, 2012 has hurt a little, but isn't it nice to know, that the lining is silver?  BTW, reggae and remixes are two of my favorite things. Here is Miike Snow (who we saw at ACL and will be at SXSW) being remixed by Mark Ronson. Live Happily Ever Now.

Happy Holidays!

An amazing year in Austin, and thanks to my wonderful wife Leyla for not being afraid to make cool art everyday!

Xavier Rudd Concert Footage in Austin

7 months later I finally uploaded all of my Xavier Rudd videos to youtube! You can view all of the videos at my original post here. Here is one of my favorites with Xavier absolutely jamming on the didgeridoo.

A Live One - Farmhouse by Phish in Austin

Since moving to Austin I have been surrounded by great music and musicians, and one of my favorites and good friends is local drummer (of Moving Matter and A Live One) and "wayall" man Dan McGreevy. While I wasn't necessarily up to par on the "jam band" scene (if you must label it), Dan showed me that this style of music grows on you quite fast, and to make a long story short, after hating Phish (more like not giving them a shot because of the circumstances) since the late 90's they have turned into a band that I listen to almost everyday. This started with Farmhouse, and since then I've been celebrating their entire catalog. If you are in Austin and can't follow Phish around on tour, check out Dan's band A Live One, and you will be dancing your ass off in no time.

Surfrider Central Texas Chapter Holiday Party

Tacos for Everybody!

I wanted to recap on the great time had at the Surfrider Central Texas Chapter Holiday Party two weeks ago at Wahoo's Fish Taco in downtown Austin. It was a great event to look back and celebrate a year filled with cleanups, activism, surfing, raising awareness about single use plastics, and many other victories along the way. We had an awesome night that included great food (tacos donated by Wahoo's), great activists, great films (we watched One Beach and One California Day),  and great prizes (including sweet shirts from Wavecation) for the top scores in our Rise Above Plastics quiz.

We are all excited for what 2012 will bring, and would like to thank everyone who attended the event and participated throughout the year.

If anyone was interested in taking the quiz, here you go!

1)     How many plastic bags are used annually in Austin?

a.     4 million

b.     33 million

c.     263 million

d.     127 million

2)     How much does it cost the city and taxpayers of Austin to cleanup plastic bags annually?

a.     $850,000

b.     $450,000

c.     $125,000

d.     952,000

3)     How many plastic bags are used by Americans each year?

a.     13 billion

b.     37 billion

c.     100 billion

d.     88 billion

4)     What percentage of floating marine debris is comprised of plastic?

a.     90%

b.     20%

c.     40%

d.     97%

5)     What percentage of the world’s communities have policies addressing the issues with plastic bags?

a.     25%

b.     3%

c.     11%

d.     40%

6)     How Many GLO Adopt A Beach cleanups does the Central Texas Chapter participate in Annually?

a.     2

b.     3

c.     4

d.     5

7)     How Many Keep Austin Beautiful at Lady Bird Lake cleanups does the Central Texas Chapter participate in?

a.     3

b.     5

c.     6

d.     7

What you can do:

1. Choose to reuse when it comes to shopping bags and bottled water.  Cloth bags and metal or glass reusable bottles are available locally at great prices.
2. Refuse single-serving packaging, excess packaging, straws and other 'disposable' plastics.  Carry reusable utensils in your purse, backpack or car to use at bbq's, potlucks or take-out restaurants.
3. Reduce everyday plastics such as sandwich bags and juice cartons by replacing them with a reusable lunch bag/box that includes a thermos.
4. Bring your to-go mug with you to the coffee shop, smoothie shop or restaurants that let you use them.  A great way to reduce lids, plastic cups and/or plastic-lined cups.
5. Go digital!  No need for plastic cds, dvds and jewel cases when you can buy your music and videos online.
6. Seek out alternatives to the plastic items that you rely on.
7. Recycle.  If you must use plastic, try to choose #1 (PETE) or #2 (HDPE), which are the most commonly recycled plastics.  Avoid plastic bags and polystyrene foam as both typically have very low recycling rates.
8. Volunteer at a beach cleanup.
9. Support plastic bag bans, polystyrene foam bans and bottle recycling bills.
10. Spread the word.  Talk to your family and friends about why it is important to Rise Above Plastics!

Cheers,

Matt Kuhn

Answers: 1: C  2: A  3: C  4:  A  5:  A  6: B  7: C

Surfrider Texas Chapters Conference!

I ran out of time to publish this article about my recent trip to the Surfrider Texas Chapters Conference in Galveston, but I will just take a quote from Rob Nixon and say Ditto! From Rob's blog:

All said and done, I personally had a great time with some amazing coastal Activists who put in thousands of volunteer hours a year sacrificing time with Family and surf sessions to ensure that Texas Beaches are preserved and kept open for everyone to enjoy and pass on to the next generation.  These exceptional Texans embody what it means to be a Texan.  We were all raised with the ingrained ethic of fiercely defending what you love at all costs and that moral obligation passed down from previous generations of Texans to us runs strong throughout the Texas Surfrider Foundation Chapters!

I was so stoked to meet all of the great Texas activists, and the crew from California. Truly inspiring people, and it was great to see the passion that everyone had for protecting the coast!

At Carol Severance's House - Note the house was occupied as a vacation rental as we stood for this kodak moment

From Ellis Pickett from the Surfrider Foundation Upper Texas Coast Chapter:

"about our field trip: We stopped by the beach house owned by California divorce attorney Carol Severance. She is the person who purchased 5 Galveston properties a few years ago. Three of which were already on a list of houses in violation of the Texas Open Beaches Act (TOBA) and subject to removal by the state. She then filed a lawsuit against the people of Texas. Her goal was to overturn TOBA (the law that guarantees public access to our beaches for everyone, not just front-row owners). Six members of our Texas Supreme Court ruled in her favor and against the people of Texas last year. The result: there is no public beach above the high tide line on the West End of Galveston Island. Did I mention that she also accepted the FEMA buyout and netted over $900,000 profit after she gutted the TOBA & has since had FEMA fraud charges filed against her.

Here is a group photo of Surfrider Foundation officers standing in front of the house she is accused of defrauding FEMA in this debacle. And now, for the rest of the story. She applied for the FEMA buyout for houses that were more than 50% damaged. Because they were too expensive to rebuild. She then began to rent the "badly damaged" house on a weekly basis to tourists (as she had done since she bought it). I don't know the actual price, but these houses go for about $4000/week. When FEMA accepted her application, her neighbors were upset. You see, they didn't want the house torn down and the lot turned into public property in the middle of their exclusive, gated subdivision of only 12 houses. The other owners sued to stop the sale. They failed. The deal was about to take place and her good neighbors accused her of FEMA fraud. She inflated the damage estimates in order to qualify for the buyout. How could she continue to rent a house for thousands of $$ a week and still claim the house was beyond repair? Her good neighbors even stated they "did not want the public" in their subdivision. Severance gutted our Texas Open Beaches Act, and her good neighbors gutted her. I guess it was a friendly neighborhood until the repugnant idea of having the public use their beach turned them all against each other."

Again, an inspiring trip, and crucial thanks to the Galveston Chapter for being such great hosts, and I got some surf!

Green Day Secret Show Red 7

The "secret show" with Green Day tonight in Austin is something that I have been watching ever since twitter started buzzing about them cruising around town in Austin a couple of days ago. I was super bummed that I missed them for the Surfrider secret show, and now a little over two weeks later I will be at Red 7 with 499 fellow Austinites hitching a ride! Kerplunk was a big album for me, so this should be quite the time! Plus $20 is $60 less than Radiohead would have cost me (and better venue with vomit covered toilet seats!).

UPDATE: Had a great time at the 2.5 hour Green Day secret show at Red 7 in Austin, TX. Billy Joe, Tre and Mike were hanging out at the bar and walking around Red 7 (and Billy Joe was drinking a ton of Lonestar). At one point Mike was literally bumping elbows with me by the back bar watching the opening band. Pretty cool that everyone was being cool about it (or didn't recognize them). Security was super tight on cameras, but I ended up Taking a bunch of footage stealth mode, will try to get it all up. Pretty awesome night and epic show!

"2,000 light years away and brain stew"



New unreleased song "Carpe Diem"



"She"



"Dominated Love Slave (Texas version)"



"Enemy"



"Lone Star Piss"



"Hitchin' a Ride" and "Welcome to Paradise"



"Longview"

BJ Armstrong Pre-Show

Setlist:

1.Welcome To Paradise
2.American Idiot
3.Nuclear Family
4.Carpe Diem
5.Oh Love
6.Murder City
7.Hitchin' a Ride
7.Stay the Night
8.Stop When the Red Lights Flash
9.Hybrid Moments - Misfits
10.Hybrid Moments - Misfits
11.Let Yourself Go
12.Longview
13.Stray Heart
14.Amanda
15.Dominated Love Slave
16.Letterbomb
17.She
18.99 Revolutions
First Encore:
19.It's Fuck Time - Foxboro Hot Tubs
20.It's Fuck Time - Foxboro Hot Tubs
21.Stop Drop and Roll - Foxboro Hot Tubs
22.Stop Drop and Roll - Foxboro Hot Tubs
23.Hybrid Moments - Misfits
24.Teenagers From Mars - Misfits
25.2000 Light Years Away
26.Brain Stew
27.Paper Lanterns
28.One For The Razorbacks
29.Going to Pasalacqua
30.St. Jimmy
31.Amy
Second Encore:
32.8th Avenue Serenade
33.Know Your Enemy

Quotes: 

 • "I've Gotta Take a Lone Star Piss"
• "Do you know what twurking is? It’s like a vertical lap dance. I want everyone grinding up against the person next to you for this one."
• "Holy shit, is that a 40 ouncer? Did you know my wedding was BYOB?"
• "Is this thing on? That’s what my wife asks me when we’re having sex."

Shored Up Funded!

I'm happy to report that the Documentary "Shored Up" has been funded! The movie:

"explores why we have chosen to build right up to a tumultuous sea on the most dynamic and vulnerable stretches of land to storms, tides and winds and  the challenges we face in making that choice.  It also explores the debate between property owners, developers, recreational users, scientists and environmentalists that rages in all coastal towns and cities of how best to deal with these challenges."


Make sure you check out all of the progress here, and check out the official trailer to get a further look into Ben Kalina's film.



Here is my contribution! Stoked on this project!