the life of willie

Willie gets some internet press as the featured surfer in May 2008…

at www.rerip.com

or the specific link at:

http://www.rerip.com/community.php?id=5&sid;=26

Booze Cruise in Mission Bay, San Diego, CA

Our good friend John invited us and a group of 12 friends (Jessica, Britt, Kelly, Kristen, Sara, Karin, John, Bill, Willie, Josh, Andy, & “Captain Bubba” on his new 50 foot boat yesterday for a great time of drinking partying and listening to music in the sun. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse. We saw dolphins, went to Barefoot Bar near Sea World, had mimosas, champagne & cocktails, did crazy jumps off of the boat into the ocean, and hit speeds of over 50mph with Windsor’s song El Mundo blasting through the stereo! (I was stoked that John happened to bring our Windsor Melting Highway cd along for the ride on his 2008 Maiden Voyage of our boat “Fast Break II”. The boat had a pretty great stereo too. I guess this boat goes up to 65mph which is faster than average for those who don’t know boats well. After a long day drinking, eating pastries and Cool Ranch Doritos in the sun we finally docked at the Marriott in downtown San Diego. Half of us ended up for a tasty dinner at the Olive Garden. Warm buttery garlic bread sticks. Yum. We got some cool pics and it was a great day that will go down in the books for sure.

Oh yeah, my soccer Team Hung Over managed to pull off another rough win 3 to 1 on Saturday. Off of a throw in from the side near the other team’s goal I managed to run by and flick the ball over the goalie’s head into the net with a sneaky header. I was pretty stoked. Tally up another goal for the Willster. Nice.

New adventures lurk ahead…

Coachella & Filter Magazine Party?
Costa Rica trip?
Catalina trip?
Williestock?
Radiohead?
Bali?

Not all for sure yet but definitely in the works…

So the dream is to own beach houses in all of our favorite places in the world so that we can just travel around from place when there not rented and rent them out to buy more cool beach houses!

Check out JimsBeachHouse.com for 2 we’ve got so far in Playa Grande, Costa Rica & Solana Beach, CA

Our extended family also has places so far in Lake Arrowhead & Catalina Island…

Still looking for spots in:

Raglan, New Zealand

Phuket, Thailand

Bali, Indonesia

Kauai, Hawaii

Jamaica

Am I leaving any cool spots out?
:-)w

Good times. & lots of them.

Saw the Padres beat Houston 3 to 2 at Petco Park!
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008. Day games are awesome
in the sunshine in downtown San Diego, CA. I went
with my good friend Jasen Carr, my Dad, and myself.
We had beers, hot dogs, & peanuts. It felt like a
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, especially when they
played The Beatles cover song version of Twist &
Shout during the 7th inning stretch.

I’m sort of going out of order in time because that’s seems
to be how I’m remembering the last few weeks…

Yesterday my soccer team called Team Hungover won 5 to 2!
Woo hoo! I managed to put in a header goal just before the
end of the 1st half whistle blew. My friend Ignacio had a
goal too and I managed to sneakily intercept a lazy defensive
pass in the second half to put in an easy 2nd goal. We were
pretty happy with our win because we were short handed 1
player and had no substitutes. We were on.

Last night I played an acoustic bonfire show for about 20
friends down the street. We were singing Weezer, U2, etc..
and some new originals I’ve been kicking around ’til 2AM.

I still smell like a campfire after 2 showers!

I was a groomsman in a wedding for 2 of our best friends
Liz and Evan Kinkruz. Super fun and weddings are usually
hit and miss for me. The love is either there or it isn’t.
This one, the love was definitely there. 3/29/08

We had a kick ass time partying at Yogi’s in our tux’s
after the wedding too!

After the excellent limo rides and wedding festivities we
went and saw our other best friends play a show at The Casbah
the following Monday. Musee Mecanique played an amazing mellow
set using instruments such as accordians, acoustic electric,
guitars, drums, all kinds of key boards, and even a hand saw
played with a violin bow. It was a night to remember especially
when we had shots with the bride and groom as they officially
signed their new wedding license with my wife Kristen as their witness.

I’m sure I’ve left things out. Life moves pretty fast! Geese.
:-)Willie

Drop me a line if you’re interested in “Williestock” June 28th & June 29th.
This could get crazy.

So much to say so I will sum it up in code.

New Zealand
16 days
camper van from North to South
Natural Hot Springs
Para Gliding from 3000 feet in Queenstown!
Surfing
World Class Wave in Raglan Longest Left in the World!
Jet Boating
Luge-ing

New Windsor Recordings! (8 new tracks recorded on 3/24/08
Extra special thanks to Pete Vilotti, Mark Smith, Tad “The Awesome Dude”,& Scott Exum
Check out our brand spanking new song called Ghost at myspace.com/williechambers

Williestock?
Willapalooza?
Williechella?
300 acres.
5 bands and counting…
200 people and counting…
50 hotel rooms and counting…
acres of camp space and tent space…
June 28th & June 29th?
Ventura CA
WTF?

wanna come?!
e-mail me for details…

willie1377@yahoo.com

This simple math equation will change math as we know it forever.

Show this link to the smartest math person you know and see if they can make any sense of how 64=65!!!

http://i25.tinypic.com/dq5atu.jpg

Thanks for checking in,
:-)Willie

Unplanned Not Well Thought Out But On The Right Track Ideas:

Idea #1) If I were president of the world I would go to the richest person in the world and give him the most honorable “Karma Tax”. I would ask him to pay $1.00 a day to the poorest person in the world. Then I would go to the second richest person in the world and ask him to pay $1.00 to the second poorest person in the world and so on and so on…

If I could get the 1,000,000 richest people in the world to pay a dollar a day to the 1,000,000 poorest people of the world it would be a great start…

Any thoughts?
:-)Willie

My 84 year old amazing grandfather Stan Chambers wrote a book called “KTLA’s News At 10: 60 Years With Stan Chambers”!
He’s been working for over 60 years and counting as a Reporter/Anchor/Everything on the KTLA News! During his career he has earned 100’s of awards including a street named after him, a building, (mayor Tom Bradley even named a Los Angeles Holiday after him in December!) and his own personal STAR on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! Below is a recent interview written about him in the Pasadena Weekly.

“If any man could ever claim he’d seen it all over the last 60 years in Los Angeles, it would be pioneering Channel 5 newsman Stan Chambers.
Whether capturing stunning footage from the Watts and South Central riots from the station’s helicopter, or covering crimes like the Manson Family murders, the Frank Sinatra Jr. kidnapping and the beating of Rodney King, or weathering six decades of ratings challenges and competition by tabloid journalism and now Web-based media, Chambers has seen his share of history happen, and still has plenty more to say about it.
Now he’s put his most memorable stories into a new book called “KTLA’s News at 10: 60 Years With Stan Chambers,” which he co-wrote with Lynn Price. As he prepared for a 10-city promotional tour that included a stop at Pasadena’s Vroman’s Bookstore, the 84-year-old Chambers took time to reflect on it all in an exclusive interview with the Pasadena Weekly. — Carl Kozlowski
Pasadena Weekly: You began your career at the literal dawn of the television era. How did you know this would be a good field to get into, and how did you get your break?
Stan Chambers: It was an amazing time. I got out of the Navy and went to school at USC on the GI Bill. You could take any course you wanted, paid for by government. I went by the law school and saw a huge line around the building. I told myself in the Navy that I’d never stand in another line again, so I turned and walked the other way. There went my law school.
There was one other building there [for] KUSC-FM. I thought that would be fun, because it was the first university in the area to have its own radio station. I worked there while I got a master’s in international relations, and it was an easy step from there to television. I told KTLA I had an idea for a TV show, a campus magazine show. We did a sample episode, and then a few months later I got a call offering to hire me for $1.25 an hour with time-and-a-half for overtime.
In those years, the engineering side was the big thing. Just going on the air was a big thing. I worked on the crew for six months or so. We’d go to Paramount Pictures and use their props to build sets for whatever was going on the air: a cowboy set, or a living room. Then for news, you had a desk, one camera and a script you’d written from the Teletype for a five-minute newscast. That’s what TV news was.
Eventually I was on the newscasts myself, under many lights, perspiring, waiting on the cue. That’s what made it so appealing to me and I thought it would always be that way; that this was state of the art, and all the things we’d have to work with.
Despite being constrained by budget and technical issues, you still managed to be part of a precedent-setting report in which you broadcast live for 27 hours from the scene of an unsuccessful rescue attempt on a girl named Kathy Fiscus. Did you realize you were making history at the time?
We were usually stuck in the newsroom, but then our producer felt a television story should show what’s going on in the city. He’d pick up heavy cameras, put them in the truck and drive out to where big news was taking place, and the biggest story then was about a San Marino girl stuck in a well.
We were on the air 27 straight hours broadcasting the attempted rescue. When she died, it affected the whole city — they never saw something like this before. When she died, it dealt a devastating blow and it made a very big impact on everybody in LA. It got people buying 10-inch TV screens and getting them in their homes.
Jump forward many years, and you became part of the Rodney King story when a citizen named George Holliday showed up at KTLA with the home video he’d made of the police beating King. What are your recollections of the events?
What happened was we got a call at the station from George Holliday. He heard all this commotion outside in his neighborhood and he went out to see what it was. He’d just bought himself a new video camera, so he got it out of the box and from a distance shot the beating going on. The next day he called KTLA and told the station what he had and he brought it over.
It was shocking to have video of that type. Every one of us got involved in the Rodney King tape and the riots. We held a staff meeting and the decision was made to take it down to the police department. I was the one sent to take it to the LAPD, and the attention all started from there after the police said OK.
We knew it would be big news because it was a tough time all around. This really happened, blow by blow, and it was a very difficult situation for everybody. Then when the verdict came out on the officers, I drove back to the courthouse and we had the news on with reports that a riot was breaking out. By the time I got to the station, we had a very uneasy situation in many parts of the city.
I was sent to the airport, then up with a pilot in a helicopter and we were over the riot for six hours looking down on it all. People ask, ‘Would you do it again?’ But do you not show something that had already begun? Some said if I had thrown the tape out and didn’t show it, things might have been calmer, but I don’t believe it.
You’re in the air, shooting live, and there was nothing you could do. That went on for ages, but there was nothing we could have done. You show what’s going on.
With that in mind, though, one has to wonder where we should be drawing the line with tabloid journalism soaking up the airwaves.
Tabloid journalism certainly affects our time. In the beginning we were very careful about what we talked about and what we showed. It was a general approach from everybody. The worst we’d do was showing someone going into court to be sentenced for something. We didn’t have the ability to cover anything, and celebrity news was not hard news, it was a side thing. You had a pattern of what news was, but if we had an opportunity to do something extra, we showed a flood or a major car accident causing traffic [problems]. For entertainment news, we just went to the Academy Awards or the premiere of a big movie. But we were showing what’s going on, not being part of what they’re selling. But that’s what TV news has evolved to — that cameras can be there anytime or anywhere. You have to be prepared for it no matter who you are.”

Thanks for checking out the article. Drop me a line and say hi if you have time! (I can even ask Stan a question from you about his book if you have any and I could probably get you a signed copy too!)
Thanks!
Willie
willie1377@yahoo.com

Awesome Valentines Day.

Kristen and I went to Corteo Cirque De Soliel in Del Mar yesterday and it was pretty amazing to say the least. These stunt gymnasts flew 50 feet above the air with no nets doing crazy acrobatics that I didn’t think the human body was capable of. It’s one of those things that you just can’t explain so just go see it if you ever get a chance. This one girl was weightless because she was tied to huge balloons over her head. She jumped into the audience and tip toed across the crowds hands. It was pretty cool. We had an excellent dinner at a Peruvian restaurant called Q’ero in Encinitas. Good champagne. Nice apps. Scrumptious salads. Great seabass and lamb. Tasty chocolate covered strawberries and wine. The rest of the Valentines details are classified. (I could tell you but then I would have to kill you.)
:-)w

My SOCCER TEAM “HUNG OVER” did it again! and as we played proudly in our pink uniforms to help support breast cancer awareness we won the semi-finals 4 to 1 & finals 2 to 1 this last weekend. I was happy to have scored 2 goals to help my team win. Sorry to brag but this IS williechambers.com so I guess I pretty much make up the rules here. You never know, I might even start my own “Willigion”. Anyways, I dedicated my first goal to my grandmother “Grammy” Beverly Chambers and my second goal to my grandma Susanne Anderson who both passed away tragically to breast cancer. I think of them often as being two of the smartest kindest people and they are always in my heart. I never knew my Mom’s mom Susanne but I heard she was pretty much perfect (President of Kappa Kappa Gamma at UCLA and a straight A student!). I did know grammy for 12 years and she was so perfect I often ask myself “what would grammy do?” in tough situations. After I ask that question the answer is always easy. She was a great one.

I had a fun night in LA with some cool music friends last weekend as well: Tim & Marko 72 from the band Sugarcult, Brooke who has a cool self-titled album on iTunes & former Capitol A&R; Representative Loren Isreal and I all went to El Compadre Restaurant for some excellent Mexican food. After with even more friends we went to The Comedy Store where we saw some laugh out loud great stand up comedy from several comedians from comedy central and even one of the women from The View. If anyone has a night to kill in LA I highly recommend it. These guys will make you laugh out loud no doubt.

Chargers lost… 🙁 at least Cromartie Florence & Jammer all got interceptions off of Brady… we scored 4 times and the Patriots only scored 3 times! too bad we only scored field goals while they only scored touch downs…anyways it was a pretty good season… no Superbowl though… as Homer Simpson would say… DOUGH!!!! anyways…

Cool news for Kristen and I … we’re going on a 16 day trip to New Zealand! March 3rd to March 19th, 2008…we are feeling super lucky these days to try and check out the world!!! (it does seem to be getting smaller these days)… if anyone knows any cool spots or must see’s we would love to hear from you! (my friends from the band Sugarcult are also Touring over near there in Austrailia so we’ll all try and come back with some cool accents for everyone) g’daey matey. lots of cool stuff over there crocs koalas shrimp… surf, can’t wait!

Thanks again for checking in and drop me a line to let me know how you’re doing if you have time, I always love to hear from everyone!

Willie
willie1377@yahoo.com

Willie Chambers (from the band Windsor)

Wrote a new children’s book called The Painted Zebra

Dedicated to the spirit and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday go to:

https://williechambers.com/pz/

or go to williechambers.com and click the star that says “Writing”

and take a few minutes to read the whole book online for FREE!!!
(it’s also available to order at authorhouse.com amazon.com & barnesandnoble.com )

woo hoo!!!

(If you like Dr. Suess we think you’ll dig The Painted Zebra)

Thanks for your support and letting us know what you thought!
:-)w

& last but not least…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.!!!
You are a true hero to the world!