The adventure begins, has began, began, will begin, would have had begun, will have begun; am I missing any?

The start, inception, beginning, commencement... why do we have so many words for things and tenses in which to use said words? It's really pretty silly if you ask me. Russian, for instance, doesn't even employ the words "a" "an" or "the" whatsoever. They're pretty unnecessary if you think about it; even if you don't think about it. Anyways... / grammar tangent. The following photographs are from the first leg of the trip across the country; they lead right up into my first impressions of Iowa, where I had the distinct honor of staying with Kyle Bunker, skate photographer extraordinaire / farmer. Please do view these large by clicking on them. They look much nicer that way.

 Somewhere in shit-nowhere Nebraska I shot what I am pretty sure is the first and only photograph I have ever shot of a sunset. 

After sleeping in my car at a rest stop (highly recommended if you have lots of beddings) I shot this on my drive to Iowa. This is now the official Chemical Kiln logo, because here at the Chemical Kiln, we are very keen on keeping things orderly and official; Bureaucratic is the whole vibe that we strive to achieve. Kevin Leslie, who runs the Eastern Boarder Blog in addition to ripping (more on that later) put up a link to this blog for which we are all very thankful. The ratings will certainly reflect this. 

This railway runs through the farmland of Newton, Iowa. The town is famous for having had the Maytag factory which, when in business, had employed a majority of the town's population. It is now gone and the town reflects it. This aptly named thread features photos shot by Kyle Bunker of the abandoned buildings of Newton. 

Lots of farmland. Little of roads. Move along, nothing to see here. 

Iowa has these wonderful things called "Level B" roads. These are roads that have been determined to serve no public good and are therefore not taken care of by the city, county or state.

More on Iowa next time. For now, we proceed to skateboarding things. Focus Skate Mag recently began a new online segment which features downloadable desktop photos for your computer machines. Check out this link for the full feature. The following photos were used in this edition and feature Kevin Leslie and Matt Lane partaking in The cheapest of thrills. 

Kevin Leslie - Backside Heelflip

Matt Lane - Frontside Boardslide

Matt Lane - Ollie

The Cheap Thrills crew has been going on missions nonstop lately. You can be sure to expect a multitude of brand spankin' new footage for the video. 

Finally, a few fancy lads have in the works a video that promises to not be the new Coliseum video, nor the new H street video. Aforementioned fancy lads are premiering aforementioned fancy video this Sunday, and the info can be found here. 

good night / good morning / good afternoon / good day / good life