To a young kid dealing with cold weather, rain, and snow for chunks of the year, it looked like the streets were paved with gold and life was absolutely perfect. Drainage ditches in the desert like the stuff of dreams; waves constantly rolling in with a coastline of choices, all while the sun kept shining.

Seemed almost mythical.

Every magazine was featuring skaters and surfers in California. The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone were doing something we'd never heard before. Didn't know we needed it, but it instantly made sense.

All of what California was offering us got absorbed, compounded, and layered on top of a basically preppy, and sometimes punk, sometimes hip-hop, style, defining a new Northeast attitude.

-Brendon Babenzien