CALIFORNIAN COOL: MESSRS JUSTICE AND JEF JOSLIN!

Growing up in Johnson City, Tennessee, Messrs Jef and Justice Joslin always knew that there was something else out there for them. So, in late 2011, with one brother fixed on a career in music and the NFL beckoning for the other, they packed their belongings into a Toyota SUV and drove 35 hours cross-country to find their own version of the California dream. 

"Growing up, that West Coast thing had always been an allure to me," explains Jef, the older of the two brothers at 27. "I'd always loved the Beach Boys. That rich, melodic sound - it seemed like the soundtrack to a lifestyle that I aspired to. I was just drawn to it." It was a job at a branch of Guitar Center in Atlanta, Georgia that gave the musician the opportunity he needed. "I just found a branch in LA near where I wanted to live, and hit up my manager for a transfer. Easy as that," he laughs. "Justice was trying out for NFL combines at the time, and I was like, "Dude, just come out with me.'" 

Nearly two years later, Jef's music career is gathering pace, and Justice has shifted his focus from football and is making his way as an actor and model. Other than that, though, it seems little has changed. "When we first arrived, we'd sleep on the floor and eat black beans and rice. But we had surfboards," says the younger brother. "And we're still pretty easy to please now," adds Jef. "Having the beach out the back door is all you really need. You can always go to the water and watch the sunset, and it doesn't cost a thing." 

MR PORTER caught up with the brothers on a typical day in LA. Follow the story, below!

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ON THE AIR: JOHNNY CASH LIVE AT FOLSOM PRISON!

Cash Onstage at Folsom Prison

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Again, I hope Johnny Cash needs no introduction!

At Folsom Prison is a live album and 27th overall album by Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in May 1968. Since his 1955 song "Folsom Prison Blues", Cash had been interested in performing at a prison. His idea was put on hold until 1967, when personnel changes at Columbia Records put Bob Johnston in charge of producing Cash's material. Cash had recently controlled his drug abuse problems, and was looking to turn his career around after several years of limited commercial success. Backed with June Carter, Carl Perkins and the Tennessee Three, Cash performed two shows at Folsom State Prison in California on January 13, 1968. The resulting album consisted of fifteen tracks from the first show and two tracks from the second.

Despite little initial investment by Columbia, the album was a hit in the United States, reaching number one on the country charts and the top 15 of the national album chart. The lead single from the album, a live version of "Folsom Prison Blues", was a top 40 hit, Cash's first since 1964's "Understand Your Man". At Folsom Prison received good reviews upon its release and the ensuing popularity revitalized Cash's career, leading to the release of a second prison album, At San Quentin (click here for video). The album was re-released with additional tracks in 1999 and as a three-disc set in 2008. It was certified three times Platinum on March 27, 2003 by the Recording Industry Association of America for US sales exceeding three million.

Johnny Cash first took interest in Folsom State Prison while serving in the United States Air Force Security Service. In 1953, his unit watched Crane Wilbur's film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison. The movie inspired Cash to write a song that reflected his perception of prison life. The result was "Folsom Prison Blues", Cash's second single on Sun Records. After its release, the song became popular among inmates, who would sometimes write to Cash, requesting him to perform at their prisons. Cash's first prison performance was at Huntsville State Prison in 1957. Satisfied by the favorable reception of the concert, he performed at several other prisons in the years leading up to the Folsom performance in 1968.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 88 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Blender listed the album as the 63rd greatest American album of all time and as one of the "500 CDs You Must Own". In 2006, Time listed it among the 100 greatest albums of all time

1 - Folsom Prison Blues -- 0:00
2 - Busted -- 1:25
3 - Dark as a Dungeon -- 3:04
4 - I Still Miss Someone -- 7:10
5 - Cocaine Blues -- 8:48
6 - 25 Minutes to Go -- 11:50
7 - Orange Blossom Special -- 15:21
8 - The Long Black Veil -- 18:21
9 - Send a Picture of Mother -- 22:19
10 - The Wall -- 24:30
11 - Dirty Old Egg-Suckin' Dog -- 26:25
12 - Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart -- 27:42
13 - Joe Bean -- 30:08
14 - Jackson (duo con June Carter) -- 32:30
15 - Give My Love to Rose -- 35:32
16 - I Got Stripes (duo con June Carter) -- 38:14
17 - The Legend of John Henry's Hammer -- 40:23
18 - Green, Green Grass of Home -- 47:17
19 - Greystone Chapel -- 49:48

Full Album


Clip from Walk the line


Documentary 


Walk the line (trailer)

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'!

 I think on Saturdays people should only be allowed to listen to music..

SUMMER READING: HOUSES OF THE SUNDOWN SEA!

Houses of the Sundown Sea: The Architectural Vision of Harry Gesner. For more than sixty years, casual observers and architectural aficionados alike have craned their necks to catch glimpses of Harry Gesner houses of Southern California. There's one hovering on a mountaintop above Malibu, as it poised to take flight over the Pacific. Another is bolded to a cliff so that the site can support a home before the next 60 -foot cliff drops off. And yet another is tucked away on the grounds of the Getty Museum centre in Los Angeles. Maverick architect and inventor Harry Gesner was always drawn to unusual, challenging sites, which called for dramatic architecture and living environments. Houses of the Sundown Sea: The Architectural Vision of Harry Gesner will open doors to these and twelve other intriguing homes, all located in and round the Los Angeles area, accompanied by magnificent photographs by Jurgen Nogai. The book's scope will be broad, using archival photographs, documents and a rich collection of Gesner's own spectacular design drawings, blue prints and floor plans to trace his career from 1945 to the present. Even in Southern California, a region that has been a catalyst for great Modern architecture for more than a century, Gesner's utterly unique designs are outside the canons of doctrinaire modernism. Rather, his sensibility springs from his interpretation of the landscape and the messages it communicates to him after days of sketching on a new pristine site. Inevitably, for a man born an raised in Southern California, his sculptural designs are imbues with the vision of an almost primeval California, derived from his parents memories of the relatively undeveloped paradise of his youth. He is a Modernist, but one whose romantic, idealistic nature has caused his truly extraordinary body of work to be overlooked. Until now.

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THE ICON: MR HARRY GESNER!

The life story of Mr Harry Gesner, whose 88 years have packed in three times the action of most ordinary high achievers, is so fabled that if it were not true, you'd suspect it had been fabricated by the author of a classic Boy's Own yarn. Mr Gesner is primarily an architect, whose work over six decades has defined many of Southern California's most sought-after bluffs, coves and hillsides... But that only scratches the surface. 

MR PORTER has been invited to meet Mr Gesner at his home, Sandcastle, a remarkable circular construction of stucco, salvaged brick and repurposed wood set flush to the beach at the western end of Malibu, California. The building next door is also a Gesner structure: The Wave House (completed in 1956), much admired by Mr Jørn Utzon (who channelled some of that admiration into his design for the Sydney Opera House) and formerly owned by rock'n'roll legend Mr Rod Stewart. 

"I thought that the best education I could possibly get would be to see the world. ''

MR PORTER was joined by model and actor Mr Zen Gesner, 42, the youngest of Harry's offspring, whose credits include a fistful of Farrelly brothers comedies and the TV series The Adventures of Sinbad, in which he played the title character. On looks alone, both father and son qualify as archetypal Southern Californian supermen: they are lords of the longboard, buffed to a state of golden wellbeing by the ocean and the sun.

 If Game of Thrones happened to be set in modern Malibu, the House of Gesner would be a dominant dynasty, fortified by its youngest generation, which includes Mr Zen Gesner's three sons, Finn (15), Rory (12) and Tuck (9). It has become a family tradition that fathers instil in their offspring a love of creativity, a close bond with the natural world and an appreciation for ancient weaponry. "My dad is the ultimate renaissance man," says Mr Zen Gesner. "He trained me how to use a sword, and a bow and arrow, and he taught me how to dance. I'm an actor, and I love that walk of life, but I have a great appreciation for what my father does as well. Dad was always a constant source of inspiration." 

READ AND SEE MORE AFTER THE BREAK!!!

WAVERIDERS!

Waveriders is the previously untold story of the unlikely Irish roots of the worldwide surfing phenomenon and today's pioneers of Irish big wave surfing.

Waveriders focuses on the Irish roots of surfing. The film covers the life of Irish-Hawaiian surfer George Freeth and his influence in popularizing surfing in California and his contributions to lifeguarding. It also follows Irish, British and American surfers Richie Fitzgerald, Gabe Davies, Kelly Slater and the Malloy Brothers. The surfers conquer enormous sixty foot waves!!! - the biggest swell to have been ridden off the Irish Atlantic Coast. Irish surfer Easkey Britton is also featured in the film and was the first female surfer to ride the "big wave", Aill na Searrach off the Cliffs of Moher in 2007.

Margo Harkin (Producer) and Joel Conroy (Director) were awarded Outstanding Achievement in film making for Waveriders at the 2009 Newport Beach Film Festival.

A SATURDAY WITH: MR JESSE RUTHERFORD!

"When I'm back from tour, I'll call up Wu over at Shamrock. It's on Sunset, it's the perfect tattoo shop," says Mr Rutherford - the driving force behind new LA band The Neighbourhood, and latest star of our "Saturday" film series. Shot on a rare day off, we accompany the 21-year-old in his beloved town of Newbury Park, California, where he grew up and currently resides. Mr Rutherford, who created a track exclusively for our video, takes time out to get a new tattoo, go on a drive, and hang out with friends. A musician influenced by hip-hop, he formed his band in August 2011 and soon penned a deal with Columbia Records. "I found the one thing that I had that worked, and I was content with getting better," he says. "When I'm performing I think it's the only time in life I find complete peace." Watch MR PORTER's video below to find out more!

The Neighbourhood's debut album I Love You is out 22 April. thenbhd.com