Outside the sun bakes the concrete and people are bustling about SE 28th Street but we hide away and maintain a bearable temperature in the basement of my friend’s Portland home. The cool concrete and dark shadows of the basement give a welcome reprieve from the sweltering heat outside. Tyler beats rhythmically on the drums and Jarad jams out on his keyboard. I sit, with a wilting plant in my lamp, and I listen to them create sultry, dreamy music. As I listen I feel something, I feel my heart doing something. It’s a familiar feeling. It happens when I go the ballet, or when I watched the movie I Heart Huckabees, or when the afternoon sun makes everything glimmer and the mist from the sprinkler splatters fresh water onto my warm skin and the sun and the water and the noise from SE 28th street are the only things that exist. And so I sit, in the basement listening to my friends make music.  It’s like when your older brother gives you a wedgie but instead of feeling insulted or annoyed or anything, you love it. You love that he’s paying attention to you. It’s like that, only more so. And as my heart pours out everything delicious and good all I can do is hope that this moment continues. But it’s always fleeting. It passes and everything becomes normal again, regular again. I stop feeling the intense opening and I return to my normal state of being, agitated and impatient. So I get up and go do something normal and regular and wait for the next moment of unbuttoning.

I was asked to be the Betty of the Month for Shred Betties. Here’s a preview of the interview.  To be redirected click here.

Betty of the Month: Kumara Kelley

Diana Sciandra

Age: 22
Home Mountain: grew up at Mt. Baker, usually at Northstar-at-Tahoe.
Hometown: Mt. Vernon, WA.  Land of the tulips!
Years Riding: 10
Results: Nothing too impressive, a couple of Burton Am wins and a lot of losses.

Sponsors: Burton, Exit Real World, Smith Optics, Pow Gloves, Coal Headwear, Skullcandy and Bench Clothing.

Kumara is a unique name is there a story behind that?
My dad found the name at some hippie Hindu meditation workshop in the 70’s.  Growing up he told me it meant royalty and innocence, and that’s true, but it’s also the name of a Hindu warrior god.  And it’s what they call sweet potatoes in New Zealand.  I swear my name means something in every language.

Tara Sanborn photo

Late afternoons. In July. You do something to me.
You. With the sun hovering just above the horizon
And the bright green trees and shimmering lakes.
With the dust particles floating, swimming, drowning me
In late afternoon july green tree sunshine
And Radiohead. You too. Do something to me.
With your melodic voice and paranoid android
Whats this?
Whats this?
Sparkling green, shimmery glassy water and Amtrak train
Quiet train, lovely train, happy train
Washington farm lands and Amtrak train
Your doing something to me.
Nothing to do but sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit.
And listen. And watch the movie scroll past me.

from everyone over here at www.kumarakelley.com, Ryan Miller, Barry Sevig and the dude.
on the right his shirt reads: try burning this one, asshole.

……………………………………

I lay sprawled out on my friends couch working on a photo project.  I am deep in concentration when Miriam approaches me and ask softly, would I like to come camping?  Her, Nick and James have been bustling around me all day in preparation of this camping trip, while I sat and pondered my open plans.  I did not even entertain the idea of camping.  Not until she invited me did it cross my mind.  I have nothing to do this weekend, so why the fuck not, I say.  It’s super last minute and totally spontaneous.  Just the way I like it.  I live for moments like this.

We depart for the camping trip at 12:52am.  Along the way Miriam and I fall asleep while Nick, our pilot, and James, our co-pilot stay awake to get us to our destination.  Before completely drifting into deep car-sleep we stop so I can pee.  It’s roughly 2am and Nick, James and I all pee together outside the car.  It is a deeply profound and poetic pee.  As I (and the boys) relieve ourselves the tall grass rustles in the midnight wind, the stars glimmer overhead and nothing but us and the road lay ahead.  It was a soulful pee. Climbing back into the car I express this to everyone and we decide we should write a song, calling it “Souls and Genitals, part one.”  Release date of the single TBD.

We arrive in the Olympic National Park somewhere around five am.  We sleep more, wake up, cook oatmeal, walk in the woods, read by the river, sunbake on the wooden bridge, watch new-found friends trip on acid, make PB&J’s, read more, nap again, listen to Modest Mouse by the campfire, share stories, go to sleep.

The following day I decide to take a ride back to the city with the above-stated new-found friends.  Three of them plus me .  Just outside of Aberdeen, still two hours from Seattle our drivers tire blows up.  Literally.

Several hours of AAA and tow truck confusion pass before the four of us climb into a tow truck and get towed all the way back to Seattle.  Now I go shower and get my party kicks on, it’s America Day.  America, fuck yeah.

While this may appear to be a random and perhaps boring blogpost, apparently there’s this big thing among bloggers called “what I wore today.” It’s mostly popular in fashion blogs I presume. But I like fashion, a lot, and I enjoy dressing myself (and others if you need a stylist) So I decided that I’m going to share some outfits; this is what I wore today.

Volcom scarf
Bench. hoodie
RVCA white v-neck t-shirt
Ella Moss black pants
Minnetonka white moccasin shoes

song Bulletproof by La Roux, La Roux in general.

YouTube vid “Kittens Inspired by Kittens.”

band Blind Pilot.

being tan.

Portland.

biking, biking in Portland and my sweet white and teal Univega bike.

band Beach House.

Zach Galifinakis, especially when he does his “characters” click here to laugh.

jumping off arboretum bridge in Seattle.

Failblog.org.

Portland.

Exit Real World Shop.

and grandma…….

Someday ago, while I was out running errands in South Lake Tahoe I stopped to get  pizza before work and I bumped into my friend Alicia and her group of friends. I could only hang for a minute but in that minute they invited me to hike a big mountain, Mt. Tallac, the next day.  I said yes.  So we hiked, like a lot of vertical feet with an intensely steep grade, and I pretty much had a cardiac arrest.  Prior to the hike I had the image of me being in tip top shape from snowboarding all winter, and blowing past all my hiking companions.  What happened instead was me holding up the rear, stopping for frequent breaks and keeling over with exhaustion.  But alas I made it to the top and got to ride fresh pow down and it was pretty much. the. best. time. ever. Here’s some photos of the fun.