I’ve been laid up all day with a burning head and everything is a falling daydream when there’s nothing to comfort. But pure love comforts, and right now I’m compelled to recall the several Loves of my life. This isn’t about the girls that seem to come and go all too often. This is about the things that have got me through, have always been true, and nurture me inside and out.

My first pro skateboard was a Ron Allen H-Street. I saved up for a whole summer and by the time I was 10, I was doing slappy nose slides on every parking block from here to Florida. In 6th grade I stopped talking to my first love so I could skate all summer, but at that age those things hardly matter. From my first girl to my first car where I played Stakes Is High non-stop… to my first, second, and third broken heart, and lost friends… it’s always been my companion.

Fingerbanger 1: De La Soul – Dinninit (download)

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I traded my first guitar and amp for a Noah Salasnek with the bindings T-bolted on regular (I ride goofy). I didn’t know how to carve, I didn’t have boots, I just knew how to bomb the local hill and hit a kicker made out of snow that the city would dump at the bottom. I didn’t know how big I could go, I only knew it felt like I was flying and I never wanted to stop. It took me 15 years to get another guitar… and I still don’t know how to play, but I’ll never find another ride like one down a mountain on my snowboard.

Fingerbanger 2: Boogiemonsters – Honey Dips in Gotham (download)

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Some places are obvious, but I prefer the ones that need discovering. Anyone that knows me knows that at any given time I’m probably hanging out at some obscure location that you can’t find unless I show you where it’s at. Most often it’s by the lake somewhere, but it might be down into some woods, or a beach that maybe you’re not suppose to be on, but is worth the risk in memories. Nature balances the soul.

Fingerbanger 3: The Roots – What They Do (download)

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My love of music is fairly well chronicled, but what isn’t so well known is where it began. Thats probably becasue love doesn’t just “begin”. Love is something that feels comfortable and natural from the beginning… it just has a home inside.

Fingerbanger 4: Blackalicious – Make You Feel That Way (download)

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I don’t care if I’m on it, in it, by it; water is my love. Sometimes it feels like my soul is a divining rod, I’m just compelled to seek out whatever water I can. When it’s coming down, inside it, over it, beside it… I feel at peace. If there was any surf around here, that would probably be on my list too.

Fingerbanger 5: Slum Village – Climax (download)

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Hope you enjoyed the old hiphop joints I laced on you today… all the other stuff is basically for me.

Over end Out – P.tone