Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Shout out to the U of Delaware students I met tonight



I just found this clip above where director Spike Jonze talks about his early days of BMX and skateboarding and how that turned into a legendary movie career.  I too, got my big break from Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman and Gork at BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines.  I only lasted five months there, and was laid off mostly because I was really uptight back then, and because I didn't like the band Skinny Puppy.  A couple months later Spike moved into my old job, and my old bedroom in Hermosa Beach.  He's just one of the BMXer/skater kids I met back then who turned out pretty well.  Yes, it's easy to name drop, but here's an article someone I don't know wrote about my blog about my days at FREESTYLIN' magazine.  I took that particular blog down in 2012, so there are only a few excerpts floating around from it.

We got a phone tree call from church the other day telling us there were 30 college students coming to our church tonight for dinner.  These students, from the  University of Delaware, are in our area for a week working for Habitat For Humanity, a non-profit that builds houses for people who really need them.  So props to those students for spending their break volunteering for a good cause.  Our small church goes all out for these occasions, and we had a potluck dinner that gave these students a good meal and some cartons of leftovers to take with them.  I hope you all enjoyed the food.

I took my recent Cam Newton drawings to show some of the church people what I've been doing lately.  I showed it to one guy, who I knew was a Denver Broncos fan, and we ended up in a big political discussion.  While I was talking, my mom grabbed my drawing pad and showed it to some of the visiting college students.  Sorry guys, I forgot your names already.  But that led to a long conversation about my Sharpie art and my weird path through life.  Meeting a 17-year-old Spike Jonze while working at FREESTYLIN' was one of the stories I shared.  It was really cool to meet complete strangers who like my weird artwork, and to share stories of how life can lead to things you can't possible imagine when you're 20-years-old.

To give you guys an idea of how much doing a weird little project can lead to other things, here's two videos that are older than you are.  The first one is my first self-produced BMX video from 1990 called The Ultimate Weekend.  The other video is Spike Jonze' first skate video, Blind Video Days from 1991 (I think).  The lesson here, get around the people who are making stuff happen, and opportunities will come.  The sole skateboarder in the middle of my bike video is Pierre Andre Senizergues, best known now as the founder of Sole Technology, the parent company of Etnies shoes (among other brands).  One of the skaters in Spike's Video Days is Jason Lee, who has acted in all kinds of roles, my personal favorite being the lead in My Name is Earl.  You never know who those motivated young kids will turn out to be. Another thing you may notice is that both of these videos really suck by all technical standards.  But they were stepping stones for both of us.  So why is Spike so much more successful than me?  First of all, he's damn near fearless.  Second, I had had a lot of issues to deal with back then.  I had more hang-ups than Kim Kardashian's closet.

OK, enough rambling.  Thanks again to all you students for checking out my crazy Sharpie drawings.  Right now I'm doing them cheaper than normal through my crowd funding campaign here.  Good luck working the rest of this week at Habitat, it looks like the weather will be better than today.  The last thought I'll leave you guys with is a book I think you should read.  Yeah, I know, you're in college and do way too much reading already.  But I think the book Linchpin by Seth Godin describes really well the kind of person who will thrive in today's and tomorrow's fast changing working environment.  You students are the future, make the most of it and have some fun along the way.  Have fun working this week and have a safe trip back to school.


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