I got interviewed by the Kernersville News, the local newspaper where I live last Tuesday. It's a three times a week paper still pumping out local news on paper. I was initially contacted by Jennifer, the lifestyles editor in mid-September, and since I hardly use email anymore, I didn't see the email for two weeks. But I replied, figuring I wouldn't hear back. But I did, and I took several of my drawings to their office for the interview last week. I was expecting a 15 or 20 minute interview and maybe a single photo in the paper, along with a few column inches of text. Very much to my surprise, the article ran last Thursday, October 20, 2016. It started on the lower left front page and covered nearly the whole back page of the first section. A couple Facebook friends expressed interest in it, and I looked it up online only to find just the title and one sentence. So I'm going to type the whole article here for those of you online who want to check it out. Big thanks again to Jennifer Owensby Eminger, Kernersville News Lifestyles editor, for finding my Go Fund Me page, and deciding to interview me.
Here's the article as it appeared in the paper:
This blog is about 7-8 years old ( in 2023), and I have a new blog now, check it out! I had no idea this blog was still getting quite a few views, please go to
Creative Scenes Artist Steven Emig using artwork to help fund publishing a book
By Jennifer Owensby Eminger/Lifestyles Editor
Despite having struggled as an artist and writer and having lived in homelessness for several years, local artist and writer Steven Emig has seen the world of action sports through working for magazines and TV production. He is using his artwork to help fund publishing a book about how creative scenes turn into an industry.
Emig grew up in Ohio, living in Boise, Idaho and California for many years, before settling in Kernersville in 2008. With aspirations to be a professional BMX rider and writer for a magazine, Emig learned how creative scenes can help build local economy. Along the way, he has struggled to make ends meet, but he continues to do what he enjoys - art and writing.
Emig explained that his father was a design engineer, having started out as a draftsman, so naturally Emig has always been interested in drawing.
"My father taught me how to draw," he said.
Having grown up in the 70s and 80s, Emig got into BMX bikes and enjoyed riding with kids in his neighborhood.
"We always tried to outdo each other." he said. "One day, we found a BMX race track. They were having the last race of the year. We raced and came home with trophies."
The next year, he started getting more into freestyle BMX riding and said it became his life. In 1985, his family moved to San Jose, California where there was a big BMX freestyle scene.
Along with riding BMX bikes and drawing, Emig took an interest in writing and began writing zines (self-published miniature magazines), which he learned about in a freestyle magazine.
"It's pretty much what bloggers did before blogs," he said.
After his zines got noticed, Emig became more popular and eventually landed a position at Wizard Publications. Over the years, Emig moved around to different jobs in the writing and production industry, having written articles and helping produce low budget films in the world of action sports, but never catching a break.
He shared that he has worked behind the scenes on shows such as American Gladiators and Cirque du Soleil.
Emig got out of the TV production world in 1995 to find a more stable job, moving furniture.
"You are always working on other people's ideas and I was getting sick of it," he said.
Eventually, Emig decided to get back into the industry and joined a lighting company, but when he began struggling to make ends meet again, he became a professional taxi driver for about five years. Eventually, Emig said he became homeless and ill.
"I ended up living out of my taxi because I was struggling to make ends meet, working 16-18 hours a day," he said.
Having lost his way in art, Emig said his passion for art began to come back when a friend offered him a place to sleep in an art gallery, where he lived for several months.
"It was an underground indie art gallery called, AAA Electra 99," he said. "I hadn't done anything creative in a while, but it was while I was living there for a month or so that I came up with my scribble style."
Emig explained that he drew some pictures for his niece and nephew in Greensboro and for his mom, who had moved to Kernersville.
Emig said during his downtime working as a taxi driver, he got really into drawing, reflecting on musicians and BMX riding. Having gotten his passion back, Emig said he once again fell into despair when his long days of sitting caught up with him and he got a bacterial infection and was hospitalized.
"Driving a taxi, you sit too much and end up eating a lot of fast food," he said.
After walking out of the hospital with $15 to his name and unable to find a job, Emig said he ended up panhandling for about a year, until his family encouraged him to move to NC.
"I had all this experience writing and working in TV production, but on my resume there was a gap (where I had worked as a taxi driver)," he said.
In 2008, Emig finally moved to NC and has since been engaged in his artwork and blogging about his experiences. He explained that initially he began drawing in black and white with pencil and then pen and ink, but has since moved to the use of Sharpies, which he turned to in 2005, using a scribble design.
Having experienced working in TV production and magazines, Emig is also working on writing a book and has started a GoFundMe page in hopes to getting help with funding.
"I have started a GoFundMe page, and right now, I am trying to write a book about how creative scenes eventually attract big industry. I've been in a lot of these scenes throughout my life and have seen how they attract business," he said.
Emig is selling his art for $100/drawing and is giving his artwork away to people who contribute to helping fund his book. He is also selling zines about his book for $5 to give people an idea about what to expect from the book.
Emig noted that he can also create a drawing for anyone interested in having one made.
"I work from photos. I look at a photo and get a basic outline and then start scribbling ans shading," he said.
While Emig does work from photos, he said he is not great at re-creating faces unless it has heavy shadows," he said.
"I really like making drawings with heavy shadows," he said.
In each color on his drawings, Emig said there are actually four or five colors with different thickness of the Sharpie point.
"I almost always start with out with orange, lime green, or yellow and usually end up with the opposite color," he said. "That's how I am able to do the shading."
Having been homeless and fearing he might die, Emig said the biggest lesson he has learned is, "Figure out what's most important to you and do it as much as you possibly can, because you never know how much time you have left on Earth."
I've put myself on a blog diet, and I'm down to one blog... really. Steve Emig: The White Bear
You can find my newer stuff there.
Ron Wilkerson's 2-Hip King of Dirt at Mission Trails near San Diego in the spring of 1991. We were deep in the grips of the 1990 recession, BMX was "dead" according to the bike industry. Only the hardcore riders were left. And this happened. Personally, I consider this the first Mega Ramp. None of us had seen a huckfest like this before. It was one of those contests where we all walked away knowing that much, much more was possible on a BMX bike. This is footage I shot that was later used in the S&M Bikes video Feel My Leg Muscles, I'm a Racer.
My current blogs: Steve Emig Art
In 2005, while actually living in an indie art gallery in Anaheim, California I developed a way of shading with Sharpie markers I call "scribble style." As far as I know, no one else in the world uses this particular technique.
How to Make Your Lame City Better, Part 1
This blog is where I'm exploring ideas in public which I will ultimately self-publish in a book. The theme is about why creative scenes (art, music, film, action sports, etc.) are a major force in today's economy, and how to build, nurture, and enhance those scenes.
Cash Poor Story Rich
I've got lots of stories from the early days of BMX freestyle, working on TV crews, being a taxi driver, and being homeless. This is where I put those stories.
Steve Emig Thinks
Every once in a while I write a post about current events or ideas.
Check Out Downtown Kernersville
Kernersville, North Carolina, where I currently live, has a cool little scene of shops in the old downtown area. Since I'm working on a book about creative scenes, I realized I needed to blog about the one closest to home.
My four best known BMX freestyle videos
44 Something
Made for S&M Bikes, 1993, I produced and edited the video. Total budget, about $750 including beer money, the video sold about 8,000 copies, one of the best selling BMX videos of all times. 44 Something was named one of the Top Ten BMX videos of the 90's by BMXPlus! magazine.
The Ultimate Weekend
This is my 1990, completely self-produced BMX freestyle video, featuring about 40 top riders. Along with Eddie Roman and Mark Eaton, I was one of the first three BMX freestylers to self-produce videos, pioneering a major trend in action sports. I'm in the intro doing a wall ride over my sister's head, and wearing the Vision Street Wear T-shirt riding the Nude Bowl much later.
Feel My Leg Muscles, I'm a Racer (1991-sections) Chris Moeller Dave Clymer Alex Leech Jimmy Levan
This 1991 video the I produced for the fledgling BMX bike company S&M Bikes. The company was being run out of a tiny, one-bedroom apartment in Huntington Beach, California at the time. I edited the video with my camera and a VCR, sitting on the floor of that apartment with a 40 of Mickey's. Crazy night.
2-Hip BHIP
This is the 1988 2-Hip season video that I produced for Ron Wilkerson, pro freestyler, contest promoter, and later founder of Wilkerson Airline Bikes. I made this in early 1989, and the original title was 2-Hip-The '88 Adventure. I made $500 for editing this video, which I immediately sent to my sister who needed money at college.
A few random video clips I'm either in or had something to do with
In this 1986 clip of Maurice Meyer and the Golden Gate Park freestyle scene, you can see me chasing my bike at 5:07. Seriously, that was a trick back then, mostly used to make people laugh while riding in parades, I'd jump off my bike, run after it frantically, then jump back on at speed.
My video career began in the summer of 1987 when I worked at the American Freestyle Association, writing their newsletter and doing a bit of everything for $5 an hour. My boss, Bob Morales walked in one day and said, "I just found out I can buy local spots on MTV for the Austin contest for $25 each, do you wanna make a TV commercial?" After producing that really bad commercial, I got the job of producing flatland and ramp videos from three of the contests we put on that year. We only sold about 30 to 50 of each of those six videos. But somehow, a handful of clips from those videos made it into the BMX documentary Joe Kid on a Stingray many years later. I had absolutely nothing to do with the documentary, but the shot of Mat Hoffman at 2:17 in that trailer, and the shot of Kevin Jones right after that, are from those early AFA videos I made.
I edited this video of the first 2-Hip Meet the Street contest in Santee, California, and you can see me ghost ride my bike into the big wall at 3:07. This was one of those contests that changed riding forever.
As luck would have it, I was on the deck shooting video during Mat Hoffman's first 900 on a bike in 1989 in Kitchener, Ontario Canada. I'm on the opposite of the ramp wearing black and white splotched Vision Street Wear "cow" pants with the big betacam video camera.
In this clip of Joe Johnson at Wooward BMX camp in 1989, you can see me shooting video. I'm on the near end of the right side of the vert ramp, white shorts and a white Vision Street Wear T-shirt, with the big betacam on my shoulder. I think Joe was still an amateur at this point, and he and Mat Hoffman battled it out every contest. You see Joe pull the first double tailwhip in a vert contest near the end of this clip, and then try a triple tailwhip. Joe was way ahead of his time.
Here's another 2-Hip King of Vert contest in Colorado in the summer of 1989. I'm shooting video, on the far side of the left deck with the big betacam. Mat Hoffman stopped being The Condor and became Thor for this contest. I never did find out who was making up the rider's nicknames on the scoreboard.
2-Hip Meet the Street contest at the legendary Brooklyn Banks, 1989. that was one of those contests that stands out in everyone's mind. I'm somewhere on the ground, in the chaos, shooting video for Vision with the big betacam. The reason that contest is really memorable to me is because Vision rider Rich Bartlett and me shared a room. We let a few guys crash on the floor of our room since money was tight. Those guys on our floor included Dennis McCoy, Mat Hoffman, Steve Swope, Rick Thorne, and a couple other Kansa City riders. Just riding Manhattan with those guys was insane. Oh, and the contest was pretty cool, too.
Tom Petty's "Freefallin'" video, 1989, I think. I had nothing to do with making the music video, but since they used the Vision Skateboard's mini-ramp, and I worked for Vision's video company, I got the job of shooting behind the scenes footage all day. Fun day, craft service table and no stress. Tom Petty's a cool dude.
In this clip of skater Ken Park, from the 1989 Vision Skateboards video, Barge at Will, you can see me sitting in the background a few times wearing all white. This was shot at Tony Hawk's Fallbrook house, and I had lunch with Frank Hawk, Tony's dad that day. Good day.
In early 1990, Unreel Productions was dissolved, and I was moved into the Vision Skateboards main office. But I had one last project before we cleaned out Unreel's $500,000 edit bay. Legendary pool and street skater Christian Hosoi teamed up with Vision for a new company called Tuff Skts. I spent three days hanging out and shooting video with Christian and his guys, and then I went back and edited a 7 minute promo for the company. The women in the Vision promotions office said that my video made Hosoi and his guys look like a bunch of hoodlums. I replied, "They are a bunch of hoodlums, but they're great skaters." So I cut the 7 minute promo down to four minutes, using music from Bad Brains and Muddy Waters in the background. I lost my copy of the Tuff Skts promo, so here's the only surviving version, shortened even more with crappy music.
Mat Hoffman's 360 over flaming cars on Stuntmaster's. This one still kind of amazes me. In 1991, I was working at my first real "Hollywood" job, a PA at GRB Motorsports, an offshoot of GRB Productions. My office was working on that season's Supercross and Monster Truck shows. But at the main office worked Johnny Airtime, the motorcycle stuntman who spanned the years between Evel Knievel and Seth Enslow. After the Mission Trails contest at the top of this post, I sent Johnny footage of that contest through our interoffice mail. He freaked over it, called me up, and we brainstormed a BMX stunt on the phone. I was trying to hook up my roommates Chris Moeller or Dave Clymer for the stunt, but Johnny brought up Mat. Things in the TV world always get changed, but somehow this stunt happened just like the original idea, even thought I moved on to another job and didn't know it until a couple years later.
Wesley "2 Scoops" Berry versus Kyler Storm on Swingshot on American Gladiators. If you pause this at :24, you can see me on Wesley's tower in the background. Hey, when you're a crew guy, you're not supposed to show up much. I worked four seasons as a spotter on the show, two years as the head of that crew. It was a really fun place to work, though we worked really hard doing the biggest set changes in the history of TV at that point, 7 times a day. By the way, Wesley Barry is undoubtedly the best athlete I've ever worked with.
Long before Game of Thrones there was Knights & Warriors... which pretty much sucked. Yeah, it didn't last long, but I was also a spotter on that show. I'm probably in the background somewhere, but I'm not going to watch the whole thing to find myself. Interesting note, Lady Battle Axe was played by Dot Jones, the funniest woman I've every met. She went on to play Coach Bieste in Glee a couple years back.
Keeping with the theme of goofy 90's competition shows, I was also a spotter on Blade Warriors. We're the guys in all black with the crash pads throughout the obstacle course. The best thing about this show was getting to work early and skating the ramps.
In 1993, while living at the crazy P.O.W. BMX House, I opened the newspaper a couple weeks before rent was due to find a quick job. I answered an ad for some new circus. It was the first Orange County, California appearance of a fledgling French Canadian circus called Cirque du Soleil. I got a job in the box office, a converted semi trailer that housed about 15 people, where we sold all the thousands of tickets for the run. As soon as I saw the actual show, on dress rehearsal day, I was an instant fan. Cirque came to Orange County every 2 to 3 years, and I worked on Saltimbanco in 1993, and the next four tours through O.C.. Those were Allegria, Quidam, Dralion, andVarekai. Cirque du Soleil is not only the most creative group of people I've ever worked with, by far, it's the best run business I've ever seen. For all you old school BMXers reading this, the guy in the big wheel at 1:20 in the Quidam promo is Chris Lashua, old school Northeast freestyle pro.
Sometimes fate just puts you in the right place at the right time. I was standing at the bottom of the ramp, talking to old school freestyler Maurice Meyer, when Tony Hawk landed his first 900 at the 1999 X-Games. THAT was an amazing moment to watch.
In the spring of 2000, I was living in my taxi in Orange County, California. After a bunch of taxi drama, I took a solo road trip up Pacific Coast Highway to the redwoods for a week. It was awesome. I stopped at Denny's in Huntington Beach for a good meal before I went back to taxi driving. I overheard some guys at another table saying they needed to find someone to build skateboard ramps for a movie. With no home, no tools, and little money, I walked over and introduced myself. I wound up getting the job to make a couple of big launch ramps for the horrible Christian propaganda movieExtreme Days. I built the ramps the next day using borrowed tools in my old roommates' driveway. I worked through the night out of a Uhaul truck behind a grocery store in Studio City to make the 5 am call time the next day. I made $500 in a couple days, got a day on the set with free food, and some Powell Peralta skater ollied a dumpster and the actors in the VW Thing car from my ramp. The movie totally sucked, but may be historic as the first Christian movie to have a three minute long fart lighting scene.
After a couple years of furniture moving, I got back into the entertainment industry with a job at a lighting company called ELS. I worked in the warehouse mostly, prepping lights to go out to films and TV shows, corporate parties, or concerts. Every once in a while I got to go out and work in the field. Two times that stand out are the day I spent working on the set of Viva Rock Vegas, the second Fred Flintstone movie. I spent a very hot day inside the giant hamburger in Bedrock, setting up lights for a Flintstone fashion show that was hyping the movie. Man I wish I would have had a camera with me that day.
I got called later to work tearing down after the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie premiere. Emma Watson's plane was late, so I made an extra $32 while sitting on a road case and eating tacos waiting for her to show up. Thanks Emma.
At one point, I decided to try to get into film work, as opposed to TV production. So I bought a list of names of producers from an ad in the Hollywood Reporter, and I cold called the list looking for work. About ten names in, a woman told me, "We need PA's (production assistants) in downtown L.A. tonight, how soon can you get there? I got there in an hour, and worked 17 hours straight on a music video. I'd never even heard of the singers. That night they shot the alley fight scenes in the rain for K-Ci and JoJo's "Crazy." My job was standing at the end of the alley and keeping homeless people from walking through the shot. I saw the biggest rats I've ever seen that night, and I made $225. Hollywood is crazy. I planned to keep doing that kind of work, but my car got towed for parking tickets a few days later and I couldn't afford to get it out of impound. I eventually went back to taxi driving.
Here's me getting interviewed by the Winston-Salem Journal for being the first person to draw a picture in the Forsyth Central Library's "Leave Your Mark," project. 2011?
Richard Johnson and AAA Electra 99 Gallery in Anaheim, California. I'm not in this clip, but in 2005-2006 I was the janitor/artist/kitten wrangler at Electra. I drove Richard's taxi on the weekends, and hung out in the gallery during the week. That's where my Sharpie "scribble style" of art was born.
My Three Top Blogs
I started seriously blogging after coming to North Carolina at the beginning of The Great Recession, in November 2008. My first blog was called FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales, and was over 200 posts about my short stint working at FREESTYLIN' magazine in 1986. I followed that up with a blog called Freestyle BMX Tales, which was tales from my days in the BMX freestyle world in the 1980's. I wrote over 500 posts on that blog. Then in 2010, I started a blog called Make Money Panhandling as a joke. I just wanted to see if I could get that title to the top of Google results. I realized, having been homeless for quite a while, that I had a lot to write about the subject. These three blogs together got over 160,000 total page views, and each blog was #1 in the world in its niche. During a dark time in my life, after my dad died in August 2012, I took down all my blog posts, over 2,000 across several blogs. I'm really bummed now that I took them down, but... that's life. Eulogy to my FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales blog by ESPN BMX editor Brian Tunney.
I got a job a Unreel Productions in December 1987, because I spent so much time there working on the AFA videos. Unreel was the video production company owned by Vision Skateboards/Vision Street Wear. I was just a production assistant, doing a little bit of everything, and I didn't have much input on most of the videos. But I was part of the crew that made all these a bunch of videos. Unreel also made the first syndicated action sports TV series, called Sports on the Edge. Back then, when my bosses tried to sell a show to ESPN, the suits at ESPN said, "Nobody wants to watch skateboarding on TV... and what the hell is snowboarding?" They changed their mind six years later with the "Extreme Games" which became the X Games a year later. We at Unreel were ahead of our time. Vision Street Wear commercial (This was shot on the same stage where Motley Crue shot their "Girls, Girls, Girls" video two weeks earlier).
P.O.W. BMX House video... COMING SOON... since 1992. I've merged most of my ideas and blogs into a new blog: The White Bear's Making a Scene You can find my new stuff there.
The BMX jump called the Tabletop was invented in probably 1974 or 75. Thousands of riders have done it since, with many different styles. But in about 1991, Spike Jonze shot a photo of San Diego street rider Vic Murphy doing this super flat, one footed tabletop, OFF A CURB JUMP. That one photo of Vic redefined tabletops. This is one of the great BMX street riding photos of all time, and I had to do my take on it with the Sharpies. I'm really stoked on this one. Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24".
I've never been a huge football fan, mostly because I grew up in Ohio in the 70's where all the teams sucked. But it was easy to start rooting for the Carolina Panthers when I moved to North Carolina several years ago. Back then, it wasn't unusual for them to run the ball on 3rd and 17 and actually convert. They were perennial underdogs.
Last year, quarterback Cam Newton and the crew really surprised everyone with a long undefeated streak and then a trip to the Super Bowl. I drew this picture of Cam, and the Panther picture below in anticipation of another great season. Last year was crazy, so I figured the Panthers would maybe end up 10-6 or something this year. As of yesterday, they're 1-5, losing three of those games very closely. So maybe they're just trying to get the six losses out of the way before going on a streak. Yeah... that's the ticket. Anyhow, Cam's a freakin' amazing player, as are many on the Panthers. Hope they start pulling off the W's the rest of the season. Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24".
In about 1987, my friend Mike started introducing me to a lot of music I wasn't familiar with. He was a walking encyclopedia of punk rock, and The Ramones was one of the first bands he told me about. Some say they coined the term "punk rock" in an interview. In any case, the stripped rock and roll down to its rawest form, and by doing that influenced musicians for decades to come. Once I started looking for things that I wanted to draw, The Ramones was an easy choice. Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24". Hey Ho, Let's Go!
Legendary singer of The Ramones, one of the earliest punk rock bands, dating back to about 1974. The "quarter" word bubble is an inside joke. Ask me sometime and I'll tell you the story. Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24".
Most of you have seen this clip, Ron Wilkerson's 2-Hip King of Dirt, Mission Trails, CA, Spring of 1991. When riders from several different local scenes show up at the biggest BMX jump ever built (at that time), craziness and progression will definitely ensue. This is just one little example of creative scenes that have had lasting influence.
I was a serious geek before I became a BMXer. Within a couple years of getting into riding, I started to notice the different BMX freestyle scenes across the country. Little groups of guys who found each other, bonded over the idea of doing tricks on little bikes, and pushed each other to improve. I've been fascinated with scenes ever since. Since I stumbled into the BMX industry, and then several other creative industries, I've been a part of about 20 different creative scenes over the past 30-some years.
Back to the geek part. I've always been fascinated by what human beings are capable of, and why people do the things they do. Basically, I'm kind of a sociology/big picture thinking geek. Because of that obscure interest, I've read dozens of books the most people don't want to read. As fate would have it, my fascination with bike and skate and music and art scenes has now come together with my big picture thinking. It turns out that in our post-Industrial Age world, creative scenes have become a huge driving force in the economy. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs worked together to make a user friendly personal computer in the late 70's and 80's. They founded Apple Computers in a garage, and now Apple is one of the most valuable companies on the planet. A couple of creative geeks built a whole series on industries, which now employ thousands of people, from a simple, creative idea.
Here's one a little closer to home. Bob Haro started riding his BMX bike in skateparks in the mid 70's. He had fun, and eventually invented flatland tricks. After a while, R.L. Osborn and a few others started doing the same thing. A BMX trick riding scene was born. They pushed each other and progressed. Now the bike stunts industry has many genre's and employs people all over the world. A little creative scene turned into something big over time.
A professor of urban studies and economic development named Richard Florida dug into this concept in the mid 90's, and published his findings in his 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class. In his view, creativity, not big factories, is the driving force of the economy these days. He talks about the value of creative scenes in his work, but never goes into the details of how art, music, bike, skate, and other scenes form. It finally dawned on me that I was the guy who needed to write this book. So I am. I just started a crowdfunding campaign on Go Fund Me to help me do the necessary work to write and self-publish this book. I've written a 36 page zine, called Let's Make a Scene, that gives a brief, overall view of the ideas I'm working on. Here are some excerpts from the zine:
Page 2- We heard a commotion in the kitchen. Lawan, a short and powerfully built black guy emerged into the living room, wearing his Cunningham football jersey, a pair of boxers, and shaking a spatula like a club. "Aw'ight, who ate my eggs and put the shells back together with peanut butter? he demanded.
Page 4- We all just wanted to live cheap and spend as much time riding our bikes as possible. That was our passion, what we all had in common, and what we loved to do. But in doing that, we created a BMX scene like no other before it.
Page 10- Pretty much any time two or more people get together and use a little imagination and actually do something, that's a creative scene.
Page 12- ... creative scenes are where many of today's good jobs come from.
Page 15- But the "crazy" action sports athletes, punk rockers, and artists created an atmosphere that made Huntington Beach a really creative, entrepreneurial, and fun place to live.
Page 17- In my experience, people who see themselves as creative ALWAYS have a list of future projects in their heads of what they want to do.
Page 20- Everyone thought I was a complete idiot for focusing so much time riding a "little kids bike."But it felt right to me.
Page 27- It's a town where these people get together and cuss and discuss ideas.
Page 28- When you have a healthy "creative ecosystem" sooner or later someone breaks out with a big success.
Page 30- So the musicians started doing it themselves.They learned all the skills necessary to play, record, and promote their music.That's where the "Do It Yourself," or DIY ethic began.
Page 33- He got to travel the world, his goal as a kid. He even traveled outside the world, becoming one of a small group of people to go into space as a tourist, and spend time on the International Space Station.
For $5, I'll send you the zine, and you'll help me work on publishing this idea as a real book in the next few months. Everyone who contributes to my crowdfunding campaign also goes in a drawing to win one of my original drawings. Your choice of the ones I have sitting around. Or the next drawing, which will be of Evel Knievel. Here's my Go Fund Me page. Many of you have read quite a bunch of my 700 blog posts about my Old School BMX freestyle days for free. Now is your chance to help me out a bit. Thanks.
Here's the zine:
I've merged my ideas and blogs into a new blog: The White Bear's Making a Scene You can find my new stuff there.
As a kid in the 70's, I grew up listening to what was then called Country and Western music. I didn't want to, that's just what was on the radio my mom always had playing in the kitchen or in the car. It was the era of "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," "Stand by Your Man," "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.," and "The Harper Valley PTA." My dad and I used to joke that every country radio station should have the call letters, KRAP. "This is Twangy Bob, your D.J. on K-R-A-P, country crap radio..." My mom never thought that was funny.
Like it or not, that was the soundtrack of my childhood. But there were some country songs I liked. And then there was Johnny Cash. He wasn't country, he was The Man in Black, a genre' all to himself in my mind. I remember laughing to his song "One Piece at a Time," which was about a guy working in a car factory (back when those existed), and the guy stole a whole car from his job... one piece at a time. I thought that was awesome when I was about 12. Song after song, Johnny Cash created a huge collection of epic, working class music.
Years later, in Southern California, my friend Mike started introducing me to punk rock and alternative music, bit by bit. The first couple of live shows he took me to gave me headaches. Although the house band, a little group called Jane's Addiction, was pretty cool. But at the third gig Mike introduced me to one of his favorite bands, Social Distortion. It was pretty cool. And then they broke into their cover of Johnny Cash's (actually it's June's song) "Ring of Fire." I was hooked. Social Distortion is still my favorite band, even though no one in the crowd that night seemed to know who Johnny Cash was. I was really stoked that Johnny broke into a whole new generation with his cover of "Hurt" near the end of his life.
When I decided to start doing drawings that really got me stoked, drawing Johnny Cash drawing was inevitable. Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24". Drawing the feelings that came through "the mud, the blood, and the beer."
Johnny Cash just found a home, he'll be on that wall in Deli on Main in downtown Kernersville.
This is my four legged niece, Willow Belle, during a recent visit. It's pretty rare to get her eyes and mouth in a photo, because she's always moving, so I was stoked on this shot. She's a super friendly Aussie Doodle, and like anyone in today's world, has her own Facebook page.
I did this one for my mom's birthday over the summer. I went through the old photos of her grandkids, Katherine and Ethan, and picked several from babyhood to this year, and drew a little color in the background. Grandma's love pics of their grandkids, and this is hanging in my mom's room right now.
My nephew Ethan is a cool kid. He's been totally into baseball since he's been about four, and he's also been a Red Sox fan since then, and now he's thirteen. Not too many kids stick with the same team all the way through grade school. Since I'm pretty much always broke, I've been drawing my nephew and niece pictures for Christmas and birthdays since I've been in NC. They're probably sick of uncle Steve's drawings, but they always act stoked. I wasn't sure what was left to draw for Ethan's birthday over the summer. So I went old school and drew him a pic of Babe Ruth, baseball legend, and lefty like Ethan. I added my poem "Become," to it, figuring he was old enough to maybe appreciate it. He seemed pretty stoked, although he did mention "The Curse of the Bambino." Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24".
Over the years, people have asked me why I wasn't really into traditional pro sports. My answer has always been, "I grew up in Ohio, where all the teams sucked." That's mostly true. The Cincinnati Reds were really good in the Pete Rose and Johnny Bench era, when I was about four and lived there. But then we moved to northern Ohio. The Cleveland Browns flat out sucked. The Cleveland Indians sucked then, too. The Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team was mediocre as I remember. So I wound up getting interested in BMX and skateboarding when I moved West.
But it was really cool to see Lebron James, born in Akron, near where I was born, go back to the Cavs and take them to the finals. I was stoked when they won and Cleveland had a championship for the first time since I've been alive. So I drew a couple of pictures in celebration of that title win. The top drawing is Lebron, surrounded by a bunch of facts and stats from the series.
In the drawing below, I took the photo of Kyrie Irving shooting "The Three" over Steph Curry, the shot that clinched the NBA Title. I know some people in Ohio, even a couple in Akron, so I thought I'd be able to sell these drawings. I wasn't. I'll find some Cavs fan one of these days that wants them. Sharpies on paper, both 18" X 24".
I wanted to do a drawing to donate to the Boozer Jam, an event held every year at Sheep Hills in Costa Mesa, CA. "Boozer" Mike Brown is a longtime Sheep Hills local to was paralyzed in a racing crash a few years ago. He was one of the only riders to have a line named after him at Sheep. I went looking for a photo of Brian Foster to draw, but couldn't find one that worked with my style of drawing. But I ran across this pic of Josh Stricker at Sheep Hills laying down a stylish one hand tabletop. I didn't have my act together, and the drawing didn't get there in time for the Jam. Oh well... there's always next year. Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24".
Much to my surprise, Simon Tabron was stoked when I asked if I could draw this photo. I think he thought I was drawing a poster size drawing. I'll have to do a better drawing of him one of these days. I like this one, simple but to the point of why riders ride. Sharpies on paper, 12" X 18".
Todd Lyons appreciated this one. Based on a photo of Dennis McCoy (who else) in a very bad situation, here's another old school BMXer sentiment. Those youngin's these days don't know how easy they have it. The "and we were thankful" bit reminds me of my grandpa's stories I heard as a kid, like so many other kids' grandpas as well. Sharpies on paper, 12" X 18".
I had these ideas for stickers years ago, and never got around to making them. So I decided to draw three of the ideas this summer and make mini-posters out of them to see if they'd sell. A lot of guys liked them, but no one wanted to buy them. Any old school rider who's been to a skatepark has seen some little kid land a trick they thought was brand new, but that the old schooler saw 25 years ago. That's the idea behind this one with Martin Aparijo doing a cherry picker. Martin quickly let me know that he invented cherrypickers in 1984, not '87. Sharpies on paper, 12" X 18".
I was really stoked on drawing this one. I'd seen a couple photos online of this place, but never thought I'd get to draw it. They call it the Skathedral, an abandoned church turned into a skatepark. I added my favorite Joseph Campbell quote at the bottom: "People say what what we're seeking in the meaning of life, I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is the experience of being alive."
I'm pretty stoked on this one, it's one of my favorite drawings Ive done.
Scotty Zabielski is an old school freestyler who I didn't actually know back in the day. He ordered a series of drawing from me, riding pics of him. This topside no-footed can-can, for me, brings back memories of sessioning backyard ramps in the 80's and 90's. Good times.
Here's another shot of Scotty with a footplant on the ramp.
This drawing was ordered by my friend Paula, who I met back in the BMX days. It was a gift for her friend Robin Logan, one of the female pioneers of skateboarding. Robin's family made their mark in skating in the 70's and by putting out the Logan Earth Ski boards. The owl has a personal meaning to Robin, which I won't go into here. I went for some 70's earth tones, and gave the owl a little bit of decoration. This was another drawing I was worried about everyone liking, but Robin was stoked on it. Like Sonja in the last post, Robin has become a Facebook friend.
This drawing scared me. My scribble style works best when I'm drawing photos with really hard shadows. Well shot photos, especially portraits of people are much harder. Sonja is a friend of my old school freestyle friend Alma Jo Barrera, and saw the pics I did for her. She wanted a drawing of her for her husband as an anniversary gift. Sonja loves her kid, her dogs, tattoos and weightlifting. I drew her on a simple background with an oak tree in the background, which is a symbol of strength and persistence to me. I was worried when I sent it out, but she liked it. Happy Anniversary.
I had been wanting to try a surfing drawing, and I wanted to draw a good looking woman. With those two things in mind, I immediately thought of Karina Petroni, a pro surfer that I gave a couple of rides to in my taxi in Huntington Beach years ago. I couldn't find a surfing photo of her that would really work with my scribble style, but I loved this duck dive shot. For all you non-surfers out there, a duck dive is when a surfer dives under an incoming wave (like a duck does) while paddling out. I drew this one on one of my "backing sheets," as I call them. Since I work with Sharpie markers, I always put a sheet of paper under the one I'm drawing so the markers don't bleed through to the fresh sheets underneath. I also test markers to see how fresh they are and if that's the color I need at the time on the edge of my backing sheets, So the pages end up framed in black and little blobs of different colors. I think they look pretty cool, so I keep these backing sheets to draw on later.
Here's a drawing I did of Barspinner Ryan Brennan free diving a place called The Blue Hole. A mid school BMX jumping legend, Ryan now runs a very successful trick team, but has been getting into free diving over the past year or two, which makes for some great pics on Facebook. The top says, "There's another world... one breath away."
Many, many years ago, I wrote a poem called "Teacher" for my sister Cheri as she was embarking on her career. I figured it was time for a new poem. Her 39th birthday (again ; ) ) is coming up this week, so it seemed like a good time to come up with one. Happy Birthday Little Sis!
Club White Bear begins today. Not as cool as Club Homeboy... but close.
Quite a while ago, e-chatting with China Darrington, who us old school BMX freestylers remember as Krys Dauchy, she brought up how cool it is to get random stuff in the mail. Good ol' snail mail. We talked about Club Homeboy back in the 80's, and she told me that her and Lew from FREESTYLIN' used to send random stuff back and forth, and it was such a blast to get a surprise package from someone. I joked that I should start my own group, Club White Bear. Now I finally am.
Here's what you get if you join:
-At least four zines a year, hand-made by me. Club White Bear zine#1 is in the photo above, it's 32 pages, and ready to make copies. The first 43 zines will be signed and numbered. Yeah, I know I'm not a superstar or anything, but zines, by their very nature, are collector's items. If you happen to have the epic July 1986 issue of FREESTYLIN' laying around, (with the tiny pic of Josh White on the cover) there's a zine article in there where they name my zine, San Jose Stylin', as the best in the U.S. I've also had both freestyle illuminati member/Sole Technologies V.P. Don Brown and BMX legend Dennis McCoy tell others I make the best zines. I don't know about that, but I make some pretty good ones. These will not be all about BMX. I have a lot of stories I can't put on the internet, and some will be about my BMX/skate industry days, and other articles will be more about life in today's world mixed in with tales from my days as a taxi driver, working on TV crews, furniture mover, Cirque Du Soleil worker... oh... and that other weird job I held.
-Stickers, both from companies and handmade ones with random slogans. Right now I have some Synopsis Skate Bearings stickers from some work I did for that company a while back.
-Random drawings for stuff. In the pic you see two sets of Synopsis skateboard bearings I have to give away at the moment. I'm keeping the standard Blue Rays set for myself, but these two are Synopsis stainless steels (retail $39) and Synopsis Ceramics (retail $58). I'll have a drawing to give these away.
-Copies of my artwork. As most of you know now, I'm doing drawings with Sharpie markers to make a living these days. I'll do some smaller drawings specifically for Club White Bear members and you'll all get a color copy.
-Drawings for my original artwork. Every now and then I'll draw an original piece and give it away to a Club White Bear member through a drawing. -20% discount (after June 1, 2016) on any original artwork you order from me.
-Random stuff I just feel like sending you. Could be anything. Like I said above, it's cool to get surprises in the mail.
-First chance at buying original drawings I do to sell and single topic zine books I publish.
Insert late night infomercial guy voice here: All of this would be a bargain at $99... it would be a bargain at $59... OK, no it wouldn't. But you can join Club White Bear for a year for $25.
Right now I can accept three payment methods:
-You can pay on my Go Fund Me page.
-You can send it Paypal ( stevenemig13@gmail.com)
-Or you can send me a check to: Steve Emig, 1436 Claxton Ridge Drive, Kernersville, NC, 27284.
Email or message me when you do it, because I'll be numbering the members as they come in.
OK, legal-type stuff: This is for adults only, you must be over 18. It's also only open to people in the continental U.S. for the moment. Shipping overseas just plain costs too much for me to give a reasonable price at the moment. Yes, any of your friends who are interested can join. Everyone from the BMX/skate world who has ordered a drawing in the past few months will get the first zine, but not membership. Everyone who has ordered multiple drawings, will automatically get a one-year subscription to Club White Bear.
Where did my nickname "The White Bear" come from? In early 1988, I got dumped by my first serious girlfriend and was crushed. So I went home, listened do Don McClean's song "American Pie" over and over, and wrote a poem called "Journey of The White Bear." Whoa, as I typed that last line, my Club White Bear logo drawing just fell off the wall and landed on my desk. Freaky. Anyhow, I wrote lots and lots of poems from1987 to 1992. One morning, while I was living in Chris Moeller's tiny apartment, he showed me a book of Henry Rollins' poems, called Black Coffee Blues, I think. Anyhow, I checked the book out and thought, "Hey, I could do that." So I started going through all my poems, and made a zine book so thick I had to bind it with duct tape. It was called, "We're on the same mental plane... and it's crashing." The first poem was my "Journey of the White Bear" poem. I gave a copy to Chris, expecting him to rip me to shreds after reading all my sappy poems. Much to my surprise, he said it was amazing how honest I was in the stuff I wrote. He started calling me The White Bear. You can ask Porta John or Belt Buckle Barry, when Chris Moeller gives you a nickname... it sticks. So all the guys from the early 90's call me The White Bear. Except for some of the guys from the P.O.W. House, I got the nickname Sluggo there, so a few people call me that. So that's The White Bear story.
If you haven't seen my artwork, here's a recent drawing I did for old school rider Scotty Zabielski. I work from photos, and color it in with scribbles of Sharpie markers. Every color is actually scribbles of 3 to 8 colors layered over each other. As far as I know, no one else in the world draws in this style. That's probably because this takes a ridiculously long time to do.
Six months ago, I knew I had to find a way to create my own job. I was one of thousands of people in this region having trouble finding a good job. Actually... finding any job. Maybe employers see me as too old, too fat, or just too weird since my last career was as a taxi driver. My wild and varied work life just wasn't playing well here in the ultra-conservative southern state of North Carolina. I decided my best bet would be to focus on the artwork I'd been doing for years. But I knew I had to step up my game. I also knew it wouldn't be easy. While I had a place to live for free, I didn't have a phone, a car, very many art supplies, or any money at all. Seriously, I started literally without a dime. At that point, no one thought this was a good idea.
My first task was wandering through the internet looking at art that got me stoked. I had a simple question: What could I draw that I'd want to put on my wall? Graffiti and street art are my favorites. And I soon found myself checking out a bunch of stencils work in urban areas. The high contrast work reminded me of the zine art I did 30 years ago. I found a stencil pic of Bruce Lee, and drew it. I knew I was on to something. It's on my wall right now.
Then my computer broke. I had an ancient Dell laptop so old that I joked was Fred Flinstone's old computer. It didn't crash, the hinge actually broke. At that point I was starting an internet based art business without any access to the internet. I did a few drawings for my sister for her kids and dog, and that money got me another refurbished laptop. After a month or so of different ideas, I decided to start a Go Fund Me page to jump start my little business. Hey, it's the 21st century now, and crowdfunding is a new way to get businesses started these days. I had absolutely no idea if it would work. But I really didn't want to work at Wal-Mart or something like that for the rest of my life.
The Go Fund Me page started slow. The first 3 or 4 days, no one donated. Finally my mom's best friend Linda in Ohio sent me a check for $20. Then old riding friend Keith Treanor contributed. Little by little, I plugged away drawing and I've been drawing seven days a week for three montths now. The drawing below is the one I just finished for the Boozer Jam 360 at Sheep Hills (that's BMX jam at some legendary
jumps for those who don't know).
While I'm still scraping by, I'm scraping by doing something I love. So I want to say a HUGE thank you to all the people who helped me get this little business off the ground. I have a lot of things I want to do in the future, and now they're starting to look possible. Thanks to:
My sister Cheri Durham Linda Kearns Keith Treanor Athene Dixon Alma Jo Barrera (who ordered multiple drawings) Brendan Thompson Mike Haupt Randy Lawrence Paula Piltz Scotty Zabielski (who ordered multiple drawings)
Sonja Axelrod Paul Smith My mom, Kathy Emig Ryan Brennan Rob Lawrence and my aunt Sue Davis
I can't thank you enough for helping me at a time when very few people saw any promise in my weird scribble drawings. I couldn't have done it without all of you. And I do guarantee all my artwork to double in value by the year 2343. Thanks again everyone!
As I said before, I never was a total Prince fan. His music provided the soundtrack for many high school memories, Purple Rain etched itself into those years. But over the years, and he kept re-inventing himself, continually producing new music, fighting his record label, and keeping it all fresh, I gained more and more respect for him. I was thinking about doing a Prince drawing, but I had a slew of other drawings lined up to do, so I was hesitating. Then I woke up at 4am a couple days ago, started working on that drawing, and had this deep sense that I needed to pound it out in a single day. So I did. I went back to it today, and touched it up here and there, adding several more song titles (thanks for the help on those Sonja A., Maurice M., and Mike S.) and put some purple raindrops in it. That's the finished drawing above.
When I wrote the big post about Prince the other day, I left out one story. Several years ago, working as a taxi driver in Orange County (CA), I wandered by Fashion Island Mall in Newport Beach about bar close time. An attractive woman in her 40's flagged me down. She was the stereotypical Newport Beach cougar; great legs, saline enhanced bustline, Botox infused lips, and a college age guy in tow. They got in, and she told me where they were headed, a little known part of Bayside, close to the entrance of Balboa Island. She started kissing the guy, and at that exact moment, the sounds of The Foo Fighters covering Prince's hyper-erotic song "Darling Nikki" oozed out of the speakers. It was literally like I was in a music video for the song, watching the story happen live. Darling Nikki was luring her prey into her lair for the night. As we pulled up in her driveway a few minutes later, the song was just ending. She handed the guy some money to pay me, and strutted up towards her front door, keys already in hand. She'd obviously done this before. The young guy got out, leaned in the passenger window to pay me, and said, "Oh God, what am I in for?" I replied, "You heard the song that was playing, right?" He nodded. "Have fun," I said as he ran to catch up with her. OOooooooooooooh Nikki!
Like many other people, I've been watching and listening to a lot of Prince music since he died a few days ago. This clip from a tribute to George Harrison at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame stands out for several reasons. I knew Prince was a good guitar player and all around great musician and songwriter. But I didn't realize how absolutely phenomenal he was on guitar. To start with, this happened in a room full of great musicians. Tough crowd. Then we don't even see Prince until halfway through the song. When we do see him, he's wailing away, making his guitar sing, scream, and weep. He's dressed pretty low key by his standards. He doesn't say or sing a word. There's no fancy dancing. He just plays like few others are capable of doing. As if that's not enough, he falls backwards-mid-solo-into the hands of a crew guy, and doesn't miss a single beat. Then he concludes this amazing solo, throws his guitar up to God knows who, and struts off stage with the signature Prince smirk. Amazing.
I was finishing up high school when Prince first broke big time, and I remember making fun of all the girls I knew who were going to his concert in Boise, Idaho. The tickets actually said, "Where something purple," on them. Most of us high school guys made fun of him initially. But at the same time, we really liked "Little Red Corvette." When we first heard the "pocket full of Trojans" line, we couldn't believe they could actually play that song on the radio. Prince had an edge to his music that no one else did in 1984. We were the first high school kids to have MTV, which actually played music videos then, as a soundtrack and visual influence to those years. Prince's Purple Rain music was part of the soundtrack of my life then, and every song takes me back to those confusing and exciting days of youth.
My favorite Prince song is "Raspberry Beret." In the summer of 1985, I was the manager of a tiny amusement park near downtown Boise, called the Boise Fun Spot. With six rides, a food stand, and a miniature golf course, it attracted lots of moms with small kids, and bored and wandering junior high and high school kids. "Raspberry Beret" had just gone into heavy rotation on the radio and MTV when a young woman walked into the park wearing a navy blue beret. She was pretty good looking, and was wearing some very loose fitting shorts. When I locked her into a Ferris wheel seat, she made it obvious she wasn't wearing any underwear. We started talking as she got off the ride. She took her little sister around to the various rides, and all of us guys working were intrigued. I took a break from the Ferris wheel, and walked into the food stand singing "Blueberry Beret." I was immediately hit by the reply of the high school girls working there, one of which was my ex-girlfriend, "That girl's a SKANK!" they yelled. I just smiled and kept singing "Blueberry Beret." I never hooked up with Miss Blue Beret, but I did take have lunch with her for a couple of days, which totally irked the girls I worked with. "Raspberry Beret" always takes me back to that summer a year out of high school.
I paid less attention to Prince's music after that. I never saw him perform live, and now I wish I would have. He kept producing new music, always creating new sounds and looks, something very few musicians are able to do. He stayed in Minneapolis, his home area, instead of moving to Hollywood, New York City, Nashville, or some other music industry hot spot. Then, in 2001, I wound up out of work. I started talking to a panhandler near my house one day, and learned he usually made $10 or $20 in less than an hour before the cops showed up to run him off. Times were tight, and I started panhandling on the weekends to scrape up cash to buy food while I looked for work. One day, after standing on the off ramp with my sign for over an hour, I only had a couple dollars, not even enough to buy lunch. In one group of cars, a red Corvette pulled up right beside me. The driver handed me a $20 bill and said something like, "Good luck, man." He drove off, and I started singing Prince's "Little Red Corvette" as a headed off to McDonald's to get a McChicken. From that point on, whenever I was having bad luck panhandling, I would start singing "Little Red Corvette." Every single time I did that someone drove up and handed me a $5 or $10 or $20 bill. That money kept me alive through some really tough times. "Little Red Corvette" became my good luck song on the streets.
I saw Prince from time to time on TV and heard his songs on the radio. He got a $100 million+ contract, and then fought for his creative freedom and to own his master tapes, breaking new ground for musicians everywhere. He performed with "Slave" written on his cheek. He changed his name to that now famous symbol, and became known as "symbol" and then "the Artist formerly known as Prince," and finally just "The Artist." Think about that one for a minute. Many musicians have been known by one name, but how many could be labeled "The Artist," as if they were the only artist out there, and have the name stick. Then he changed his name back to Prince, making things a bit easier for fans and media talking about him.
One thing that hasn't been said much since his death is how many great female musicians Prince helped out over the years. He pointed the spotlight at Appalonia, Sheila E., and many other women in music, and showed the world women could not only look pretty and sing, but they could PLAY. He produced and starred in his own movie, Purple Rain, made on a tiny budget ($9 million), which is a huge undertaking. He had Paisley Park built, a combo music and video studio, sound stage (where they could practice for live shows), and living space. Again he broke new ground with that concept.
Of all the things I've heard about Prince in the last week, though, this is by far the funniest and weirdest: Kevin Smith talking about working with Prince. It's obvious that Prince, as gifted as he was, was getting pretty damn weird in recent years. Kevin's story brings thoughts of Howard Hughes to mind. (Watch The Aviator if you don't know). Is this just how a super-creative genius musician acts? Was Prince struggling to cope with his huge library of very erotic music conflicting with his spirituality in later years? We don't know. What we do know from Kevin Smith's story is that there are 50 or more finished music videos for songs we've never heard. Some reports are now saying there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of unreleased Prince songs hidden in his vault.
That brings me to the next thing. In the last couple days it's been said that Prince, known control freak, didn't have a will. So no one knows how his fortune, and more importantly, all his music and publishing rights, are going to be divided, and whether it will all get released. The only thing I can say for sure is that the lawyers and accountants involved are going to make a fortune.
Prince was a never-ending mystery in life, and now the mystery continues... with a bigger audience than ever watching. RIP Prince.
