It’s not summer here yet in SoCal. It’s been a hundred degrees in NYC, I’ve lived through those east coast Junes, when the mosquitoes will eat you alive and you’re shvitzing as soon as you leave the house, but out here…we’ve still got June gloom, you can’t always leave the house without a jacket. Then again, isn’t it always summer in Southern California?

Not really. People wear down in December, even though it rarely dips into the forties. Residents of SoCal believe they’ve got a winter, but we transplants don’t. We’ve been delivered. To not only a place with better weather, but freedom. Doesn’t matter what your SAT scores are, most people just go to the state school… As for blue blood? Chances are you’ve got a drop of what came from south of the border, or a foreign country, or from our beleaguered ancestors, the native Americans. California is the true melting pot, it’s here where the American dream survives, to the degree it’s still possible.

It’s also here that the vast majority of the world’s entertainment product is hatched. And it’s these movies, TV shows and songs that are the soundtrack of everyday life, they’re intertwined with your steps. Movie gross-watching is a sport, celebrities lurk amongst us, we’re living in a real world "Entertainment Weekly", there’s a reason Mario Lavendeira came to L.A. to make it, that he started his PerezHilton blog here. This is where you come for a fresh start, to throw off the chains of where you came from and be your best self.

But, one of the jarring experiences of transplants is the native Californians. They’re not gruff and mean like New Yorkers, but they’re not inviting. They’ve got their own lives, their own culture. Including "5 Summer Stories".

Long before every kid had a video camera and was posting his efforts to YouTube there were twentysomethings forgoing the conventional business world, trying to make it where they’d lived out their teenage years, at the beach. If only they could get every hard core and wannabe surfer to come to the theatre to see lithe young people head down monster waves, they might never have to grow up, never have go to work in the city attorney’s office, at the advertising agency. There was a regular circuit, coming through the beach communities, of surf movies. You might have thought the most famous surf movie of all time was "Endless Summer". That’s only if you lived outside of California. In California, it was "5 Summer Stories".

Not that I knew. I experienced the legendary "5 Summer Stories" in its audio format, synched to ski movies in a living room in Sandy, Utah. What was this magical music? That both exhilarated and set one free? 5 SUMMER STORIES! The Californians all exclaimed in unison, and looked at me incredulous.

I had no idea. I thought the name of the band was "5 Summer Stories". That was untrue. That was the name of the soundtrack album, the band was called Honk.

The record had been out for years. It was a SoCal staple. But it was new to me. Everything’s new to you when you haven’t heard it before.

Moving to SoCal myself one year later, I purchased the album at Music Plus, where no record was over four bucks. It faded into obscurity in the CD era, but now you can buy it online. And steal it P2P. Our musical history does not live in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, but on the collective hard drives of the world’s music fans. They’re keeping the music alive in a way those who own the copyrights can’t even contemplate.

The track they were playing in that darkened Utah living room was "Pipeline Sequence". Which featured Hammond organ, acoustic picking and electronic EXPLOSIONS! It’s how you feel when you’re conquering a wave, when you’re nailing it on the ski slope.

Some people never have this experience. They live indoors. They think they’re safe, but they’re just nearer the grave. To be alive is to walk outside the front door, into the elements, and bite off part of this world, chew and enjoy it! That’s what SoCal is all about. Nothing’s holding you back. It almost never rains. It’s never too hot, never too cold… Are you gonna go for it?

Unable to sleep last night, I found myself perusing the Teton Gravity Research boards. The lifts may have stopped turning (except in Aspen this weekend!), but all over America’s west, ski nuts have strapped their boards to their backs and sans woodie, have climbed into the mountains, to slide down the remaining patches of white stuff on those towering peaks.

May sound crazy to you, but not only are they looking for one more thrill, they’re feeding their addiction. That’s what the experience does, it grabs hold of your heart and mind and doesn’t let go. Maybe it never evaporates because there’s no man-made intermediary, no human being to fuck it up, like in the music business.

Turns out tastes are not narrow. People don’t like only hip-hop, only country, but anything that touches them. "5 Summer Stories" touched SoCal. And the track that contains all the hope, all the exuberance, all the thrill of the experience, is "Blue Of Your Backdrop". You feel it in the track, the rising and falling of the music, like a wave.

Leave them all to the trappings they choose
Values on what one may win or lose
I can’t discern between the two
But with no god above
Guess we all start with the things we love

This was the culture, one of questioning, finding your own way. This was the premise upon which the rock explosion was built. To whore yourself out to corporations is antithetical.

As the song says:

Be your own saving grace
Dip your hand
Take your place
And shine on

It’s summer. Leave the house, take advantage of the good weather. Be the person you always wanted to be.