The Ben From Brazil

Latest Update: October 4 , 2006

By Ben Marcus

18:14 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2006  MALIBU

On top of everything else I am going to offer a blog about this Brazil trip to Sacklunch. Like I don’t have enough to write, but Brazil is almost guaranteed to be interesting so what the hell, I’ll start now.

I just went on Sacklunch and saw that Don Meek was let go. Don’t know him well enough to comment on that, although the whole idea of corporate-owned surf magazines is just dumb. Oil companies and car companies need to be run by corporations. Not magazines and especially not surf magazines.

So, like, whatever.

Right now it’s 5:45 and I should go surfing but Malibu is fllllllaaaaaaat. The water is still warm and it’s crystal clear and I should go diving at Paradise Cove with Pam but she is as busy as me.

I am leaving for Brazil in a couple of days, I think. Rosaldo Cavalcanti has invited me to Rio de Janeiro for a surfing and art festival called III MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE ARTE E CULTURA SURF. 

Everyone says, “Wow! Brazil!” But I am a little too Northern European to be a fan of most Latin American countries. I have been to Brazil once before, with Art Brewer to do a profile on Fabio and Flavio in the 90s. That time I went to Rio and Sao Paulo and Florianoplois, but this time it will just be Rio. In and out in a couple of days, and a birthday party for Rosaldo.

I sent a DVD of Black Orpheus to Spencer, and I wonder if he watched it. He is going down there, too.

I am bringing down materials. Over the last week I edited down Trunk It from an hour to a more manageable 30 minute movie called Surfando Antes Dos Anos 50, which means Surfing Before the 50s. This is a musical documentary with titles in Portuguese that starts in Waikiki in 1906 and goes through World War II in Hawaii then ends with some footage shot in California in 1947. We took out all the filler and left the killer and also added in some footage of a 1938 Long Beach surf contest cut to East Saint Louis Toodle Oo. Robert sped up all the slow motion by 400% and it worked great.

The footage was edited by Robert Campbell and we used music by Duke Ellington, Hawaiian music and The Ramones. We also used Wanna Be Like You by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, which the Brazilians will love because it has a samba beat.

So I am going to Brazil with that and all my historical DVD and some other visuals I can’t talk about. I had some Beta tapes left over from putting together the Surfer Video Awards many years ago, and today I took them to Santa Monica Video to get them dubbed to DVD. These are pretty famous surf movies that haven’t been released ever. I shouldn’t be bootlegging them and I am nervous about taking them to Brazil because I know they are going to disappear down there and I don’t want it to come back to me.

But they are going to be popular down there and since this is all being paid for by them and I just asked them to maybe change my ticket from Monday to Wednesday, I had better not show up empty-handed.

But whatever. I drove into Santa Monica and took care of the dubbing which will cost $85 a piece. I don’t like driving into Santa Monica because of the traffic and nitwits. I bought a chair and a vacuum cleaner and some shoes at the Goodwill, which is the best Goodwill I have ever seen.

The Santa Monica BOFA was closed and I should have gone to Bank of the West to close that account but I just wanted to get back to the Country.

Back in Malibu I deposited a check from someone investing in WET/SHACK but was told it would be 8 days for it to clear, so that was inconvenient to me and others.

I have a lot to do. So much that I shouldn’t be wasting time with this Sacklunch blog, but I might be doing this to keep my head straight.

I was asked by a website to write 20, 500-word profiles on surfers before Friday. It’s a decent buyout which will come in handy when I get back, so I am powering out 10,000 words in 4 days. So far I have done Kelly Slater, Laird Hamilton, Chelsea Georgeson, Bruce Irons, Andy Irons, Keala Kennelly, Taj Burrow, Rochelle Ballard and I lumped CJ and Damien Hobgood together, so that makes 9 out of 20.

After I finish this I am going to Diedrich’s to write five more which will leave six for tomorrow. Three in the morning and three at night. Pace myself. I also have to round up photos but most will come from the www.aspworldtour.com website.

I also have to finish a History of the Surfboard book for a publisher in Minnesota. It is long overdue. They asked for 25,000 words on the history of the surfboard which is impossible, so I have accumulated a 125,000-wrd document that is still growing. I am up to 1966 and the next chapter will go 1966 to 1981 and the final chapter will be 1981 to now.

Hopefully I can have the long version all done before I leave and I will spend my airplane time and down time in Brazil hacking it down to 25,000.

Someday I want to take the long version and send it around to everyone from Joe Quigg to Randy French to Stretch and have everyone flesh out the complete version. Hopefully the Surfing Heritage Foundation will get behind it.

And on top of that, I am trying to launch the second issue of WET. I have sent out 40 advertising packages to all the major surf industry companies and I am waiting for response. I fully expect everyone to ignore me, but I could be surprised.

The mainstream distributor has sold about 600 issues of WET to various distributors around the country and I have to mail those out. Unfortunately I have to put a price sticker on every issue and that means taking them out of the box and reboxing them, but I also have to put a subscription card in each one. I have three days left to do that, or maybe a little more.

The USPS has a box that they charge only $8.10 for no matter what is in there, so I will be sending out all those magazines in boxes of 25. I probably lose money on the whole deal, but you have to eat it at first, I think.

I think I am leaving for Brazil on Monday because I screwed up my Visa application twice last Friday and then again on Monday and finally get it done yesterday.

PT’s Brazilian wife/girlfriend was in the Consulate when I was there.

I got the paperwork done and they said at the normal rate it wouldn’t be done until Tuesday. I am supposed to leave Monday early so that could screw up. If so it will leave me with another two or three days to get things done, which I am going to need.

I just sent an email to Rosaldo and Freddy asking if they could maybe move the reservation up to Wednesday. I will need the extra couple of days.

What else is going on? My story on the Republican Women’s Federation meeting appeared in the Malibu Times today, so that worked out okay. There is a surf movie made in Norway playing in Malibu on the pier tomorrow night and I want to see that. And I want to talk to the people who made it, but I have to find them if they are here.

Art Brewer responded today about photographing Casa Windansea and that inspired me to rewrite and reduce the manifesto for SHACK to something manageable.

I just sent out some emails for a friend’s wife who is a Materials Engineer and who thinks the surf industry might be able to use her.

It’s 6:11 and I might go see Sarlo later tonight to talk about the structure for a documentary he wants to do. It could be cool if done right.

Earlier today I dropped off all the historical footage to a guy in Point Dume who is looking for material for some online surf TV, and I also finally dropped some issues of WET at Malibu High.

None of the subscription cards for WET have come in yet, but I am still getting subscription requests by email.

There is all kinds of stuff going on and I hope I get it all done before I go to Brazil.

Okay this thing is already over 1000 words and it’s 6:23 that’s enough.

Time to go write some more at Diedrich’s and watch the crazies intermingle.