Happy New Year's everyone!

To many of you, it's a night to go out and party.  To me it's just another day.  I could spend the rest of my life writing about the things hat happened in the last year for me.  But the most amazing thing is that I'm still alive. 

I've just scrolled through the first half of 2008's blog posts.  348 posts, nearly 50,000 page views in the last year.  The Orcs (evangelical establishment) still hate me as much as ever, but don't want my story to ever come out.  I survived snow collapsing my tent, an 11 degree (f) night in the tent, a Carolina near lynch mob, my artwork sales begin shut down so I'd be forced to go to jail, and all manner of threats in Winston-Salem.  Things there got ridiculous, and I literally had my life threatened multiple times because of this blog.  Really. 

Realizing how stupid things were, I escaped North Carolina, and I mean that literally as well.  I wound up in a city I'd never been to before, where I knew no one (later found an old friend and some new ones), with $3 in my pocket.  I'm still homeless, getting harassed a bit again because of that, but I'm selling some art, now selling zines, and plugging away to get back on my feet, while marching into 75 mph headwinds (metaphorically speaking).  It's been a wild ride.  But I'm still here, and still creating.  And that's what's important. 

Oh, that looming recession I was predicting a year ago, that's here, too.  2019 is going to be nearly as wild for many of you as 2018 was for me. 

Party it up.  Take and Uber, Lyft or taxi home, and sleep it off.  It's gonna get fun in this coming year...

Left out of my zines: Pete Augustin

If you were a BMX freestyler in the 80's, and someone mentioned the name Pete Augustin, riding like what's in this clip is probably what comes to mind.  In the Webster's Dictionary of Freestyle in the 1980's, if you looked up "aggro," there was a picture of Pete riding street.  Remember that pic of him doing a lookback off a curb with the back tire tagging a the top of  trash can?  Yeah.  Hard.  Tough.  Brash.  San Diego street riding.  That was Pete Augustin.

So it may surprise some people that, for some reason I can't really remember, Pete Augustin came up to The Spot in Redondo Beach once in a while and had some flatland sessions with us in 1986.  Pete was Chris Day's favorite rider, and the guy Chris wanted to emulate back then, and I think Pete hooked Chris up with Bad Boy Club clothes, so maybe that's why he came up to The Spot.  In any case, Pete was one of the first SoCal pros I rode with.  I think R.L. was out on a tour when I first started at Wizard, and Pete was at The Spot a few times before R.L. got back.  He wasn't a huge flatland rider, but you pretty much had to ride flatland then, street wasn't its own genre yet, and Pete had some cool stuff.  The rolling backwards handstands were crazy.  Here's Pete on flat.



Sliders and backwards wheelies were big in late 1986, and two of my favorite tricks.  Pete (and Lew) ripped both at those.  I could do a halfway decent backwards wheelie (on the peg), but Pete was doing one handed ones.  I thought, "Damn, I need to step my shit up," and started learning those.  Lew already did solid one handed backwards wheelies.  But Pete also did one handed backwards wheelies, then would grab the front tire, and then let go and just hold the tire for a few seconds.  It took me months to get that variation dialed, it was just a weird balance point to keep. That's the big thing I remember from riding with Pete Augustin at The Spot in late 1986.

Even then, Pete had the reputation of being a guy people were afraid to talk to.  Everyone who didn't know him seemed to think that if you looked at him wrong, he'd punch you in the face.  Maybe he went off on some annoying kid at some point, and it got blown up, out of proportion.  But when I was riding with him at The Spot in those days, he was totally cool.  OK, he's not like Mr. Congeniality, the smooth-talking salesman type.  He would ride, we would ride, and we'd all be doing our own thing for a while.  Focused more than anything.  But when we started talking, he was cool.

So for the next three or four years, when riders from different parts of the country brought up this idea that Pete Augustin was totally unapproachable, I'd tell them he had always been cool to me, and while he was aggro as hell in his riding, he was cool to talk to.

A couple years later, at one of the local AFA comps in Anaheim, which were held at the R.G. Canning car shows, we had this brick patio area at the Anaheim convention center to practice in.  Wall rides were the new thing then, and a few of us were trying them on the brick wall of the patio.  Really, we were doing wall slides.  We'd bunnyhop next to the wall, and get both tires to touch the wall, sort of sliding against it.  Nobody was getting any real traction on the wall.  It was just flat horizontal ground to flat vertical wall, no bank to help us out.  We were all running 90 or more psi for flatland, which didn't help.

As we were doing that, Pete Augustin rolled out onto the patio.  We all did a couple of more lame wall slides.  Then Pete went to do one.  He did this gargantuan bunnyhop, hitting the wall nearly vertical, slamming the bottoms of his tires into the wall.  From flat ground, he bunnhopped into the wall, actually rode up it a bit, and pretty much did a kickturn on the wall, pulled out, and landed.  It was fucking amazing.  I'd never seen anyone stick to a wall like that coming off of flat ground.  Neither had the rest of the guys there.  Pete kind of smiled and rode away.  I don't think he even said anything.  The riding said it all.  "Like this, guys.  San Diego motherfuckers!"

 When writing the stories for my two 48 page zines about The Spot in Redondo, I wrote a few pages about the guys who weren't really locals when I was there, but rode with us now and then.  As I cut the sections down to actually fit in the zines, that part got cut.  The part about Pete Augustin isn't in the zines, so I decided to write a blog post about riding with him.

Four years later, shooting video for my first, completely self-produced video, Jess Dyrenforth invited me to a session at Mouse's ramp near San Diego, and Pete and Chris Day were there tearing it up, along with underground SoCal legend Mike Tokemoto.  You can see that section here at 38:05.  Pete's in the white T-shirt.  This section is the first serious spine ramp session EVER in a BMX freestyle video, so they were breaking new ground then.  So that's what I remember of Pete Augustin from the 1980's.

My zine about the The Spot in Redondo turned into two, solid, 48 page zines of stories and thoughts and photos.  The two big, fat zines, come with some original, homemade stickers and mini flyers.  We all know that zines immediately turn into collector's items, by their very nature.  They're so collectible, nobody ever sells their zines.  So I'm charging $15 for these 2-zine packs.  Each one is signed and numbered, you know, so you can sell it on Ebay if I ever hit the big time as a writer, like J.K. Rowling or something.  Or even Ed Templeton, his "Teens Smoking" books have sold for $500 on Ebay, believe that or not.

Anyhow, if you'd like to add these to your own collection, paypal me $15 to stevenemig13@gmail.com .   ("steven" not "steve")  Shipping is included in the continental U.S..   If you're in Canada, Alaska, or Hawaii, it's $20.  In Australia, New Zealand or the U.K., $25 U.S. You've read the blog, now get my stories into your hot little hands.  Or big hands.  The first packs are shipping out today.

I've got a new blog going, it's about building an art or creative business, or any small business.  You can check it out here:
WPOS Kreative Ideas

Off the rails...

Maybe your life isn't really off the rails.  Maybe the rails have ended and it's time to make your own way.

my photo.

Breaking stereotypes: the ukulele

Amanda Palmer performing "Ukulele Anthem" in about 75 mile an hour winds outside Sydney Opera House.

When I was a kid, if someone mentioned ukulele, pretty much the only thing you thought was of Don Ho singing "Tiny Bubbles," or maybe Don on The Brady Bunch, because that's the only times we ever saw anyone on TV play a ukulele.  That's fine, but it's not all that exciting.  So here are two women playing ukuleles in completely different ways, and breaking that stereotype that Hawaiian easy listening music is all ukulele's are capable of.  Enjoy.



Taimane Gardner popped up on YouTube today as I was watching other stuff, and gave me the idea for this post.  We all have preconceived notions about much of the stuff, and the people, around us day to day.  But those are just our thoughts, not the reality of what's going on, or what's possible.  We don't have to live in a box surrounded by stereotypes of everything.  It's up to me, and it's up to you.

Excerpt from "The Spot": my two 48 page zines just out

BMX Action Trick Team founder, one of the first freestylers ever, and Redline, General, and Bully pro, R.L. Osborn.  AFA Masters, Columbus, Ohio, 1986.

In the middle of August of 1985, Idaho freestyler Jay Bickel and I were the Critical Condition Stunt Team, the only BMX freestyle team in the state of Idaho.  I was the 1985, 17 & Over flatland champion of Idaho (there were two of us in the comp).  We lived for the day that FREESTYLIN' magazine would show up in the mail, and we'd each read the whole thing, even the ads, that night.  Sometimes we'd read the whole thing twice, then Jay and I would meet up the next day and talk about all the new stuff in the mag.  That was life for a BMX freestyler outside of California in 1985. No matter what state or country you lived in, besides California, it was the same thing, waiting all month for that issue of FREESTYLIN' to show up, because that was the only info we got about freestyle,

Eleven and a half months later, I walked into an office against the back wall of Wizard Publications, located at 3162 Kashiwa Street, in Torrance, California (I still remember that address).  It was my office.  Lew's was next door, Gork's was 30 feet away, and R.L.'s office was maybe 40 feet away.  In less than a year I went from a goofball biker in B.F. Idaho, to an editorial assistant, and the official proofreader of BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines.  It still blows me away that that happened.  The next night, I followed my new roommate/co-worker, Mark "Lew" Lewman down to The Spot, the local flatland session area by the Redondo Beach Pier.

I've just finished a Club Homeboy-style goodie pack, the start of the Freestyle BMX Tales zine series, featuring two handmade zines, each 48 pages.  That's 96 freakin' zine pages of stories about riding at The Spot in Redondo, and thoughts on how what was then the tiny little sport of BMX freestyle has spread worldwide since.  You can order the two-zine pack, which comes with some cheap ass, homemade, custom stickers, at the bottom of this post.  Here's one of the stories featured in zine #2:

Teaching R.L. Osborn a Trick

I've met a lot of people who say that "famous people are just people, to me they're the same as everyone else."  There's a lot of truth to that.  But not completely.  Famous people became famous for a reason.  Sure, it might not be a good reason.  The Kardashians are mostly "famous for being famous."  But to get there, they learned how to play the internet/social media game better than most.  I have no interest in them.  But a large number of people in pre-internet days were famous because they actually did something.  Actors acted classic roles in major movies that millions of people saw.  Musicians sang or played on albums millions listened to, and on and on.  Professional athletes developed skill and talent to compete at a very high level.

A lot of people who are famous worked really hard to get good at something, and then became famous for that skill at some point.  They moved beyond the realm of "normal" people.  In my younger years, I wanted to know what made those people different from everyone else.  Later on, I wanted to meet and hang out with famous people to learn what they did that I wasn't doing.

When I got into freestyle, and learned there was a hardcore entrepreneurial side to it, R.L. Osborn became the guy I most looked up to as a model of what I wanted to try and become.  I wanted to be a clean cut, professional BMX freestyler, a guy who could get business people and city leaders to take our weird little sport seriously.  Then, suddenly, I went form making 57 pizzas in four hours at Pizza Hut to having an office 40 feet away from R.L.'s office, and riding with him at The Spot a couple of nights a week.  It took me quite a while to just see him as R.L., the guy, and not R.L. the famous pro freestyler entrepreneur.

One night while riding, most everyone had taken off back home.  I think Chris Day was whipping boomerangs at one end of The Spot, and R.L. and I were practicing, each doing our own thing, near the other end.  At the time, I had a weird little tailwhip variation I was working on.  I was starting to do tailwhips differently.  The original, Brian Blyther tailwhip started with crossing a leg over the top tube to the other side of the bike, and jamming that foot behind the front wheel, then kicking the frame around with the other foot.

I think I was trying to learn Pinky squeaks, a Switzerland squeaker and tailwhips together, created by Gary "Pinky" Pollak.  So I would do a brake endo, jump up to my feet on the top tube, and push the frame around counter-clockwise with my right foot, and drop my left foot down to the back of the tire.  I'd figured out this cool little variation.  I crossed my right foot behind my left leg as the frame was coming around, I'd hit my back brake, and catch the right pedal with my right foot, then lift my left foot, cross it over the frame, and set it on the left pedal.  So I did a flatland tailwhip, but ended smoothly back in an endo posistion with my feet on the pedals.  This would be the ideal way to do a nosepick tailwhip, but those weren't invented yet.

So I was practicing those, what I called a "back can tailwhip."  The term "Nac-Nac," a can-can behind the other leg off a jump, hadn't been invented yet, either.  From behind me I heard, "Hey, what was that?"  It was R.L..  I didn't realize what I had done.  It was just a new thing I'd been doing about a week, and it never occurred to me that it was a cool trick.  But R.L. liked the look of it.  He rolled over to where I was.   

Suddenly, I found myself teaching a trick to R.L.Osborn, whose how-to's I'd read in magazines, and the guy I most wanted to emulate in freestyle.  My self-esteem was low enough back then that I never really felt like I was "really" part of the Golden Gate Park scene the year I rode with those guys.  I wasn't good enough, but dreamed of getting there someday.  All of the sudden, I'm teaching one of my variations to one of the top pros, and a pioneer of freestyle.  It was totally surreal for me.

I went through the trick a couple of times, showed R.L. the moves, and then coached him as he tried it two or three times, figured out the weird leg movement, and landed it.  This is what was so cool about freestyle back then, and still is to this day, through maybe not quite as much.  You couldn't be a kid today at the local basketball court and have Lebron or Curry come down and say, "Hey, what was the move you just did?"  It's just not going to happen, or maybe it could happen to one high school superstar in a million.  But never to a mediocre kid who's a bit creative.  But in BMX freestyle, and other always-progressing action sports, this kind of thing happens all the time.


So that's one little piece of the 96 pages worth of zines that I've just come out with.  Many of you remember my Freestyle BMX Tales blog, now I'm starting a series of zines by that name.  I want actual, physical, tangible copies of some of my best old school freestyle stories out there in the world.  And I'm homeless right now, so I don't have the resources to put out an actual book right now.  I'm a zine guy, going back 33 years now, so that's what I'm doing.  You all know that zines, by their very nature, are collector's items.  People keep zines.  OK, I lost all of mine in a move, which really sucked.  But most people keep zines.

So I'm charging a fair amount of money for this, and trying to make it worthwhile for all of you, and for me.  These are huge zines, as zines go, and each will be signed and numbered in the order people order them, because I plan to become as famous as J.K. Rowling someday, just so you can sell these zines on Ebay for $1,000 each.  OK, not really.  But they will be signed and numbered anyway.

 If you would like these first two zines full of stories about The Spot in Redondo Beach, you can Paypal me $15 to:  stevenemig13@gmail.com .   ("steven" not steve, there's a "v" in there).  Add your mailing address in the info.  Or email or Facebook it to me.

That includes shipping in the continental U.S..  If you're outside the "48" but in North America, make it $20.  If you're in the U.K., Australia, or New Zealand, make it $25 U.S..  OK?  Order one today.  Or ten.  If you're really brave, you can paypal me $35 and get The Spot zine pack, AND a one year membership to Club White Bear.  I'm not sure what that includes yet, except you'll get 6 CWB zines each year, and discounts on my art.  And more.  But you'd have to be kinda crazy to send that much money to a homeless dude.  But it you're the adventurous type, go for it...

These zines are pretty cool, and sleeping in an open doorway of an abandoned building in the winter is getting old.  When I get a room, I'll have more time to write and draw more cool shit.

I'm going to be sharing most of my old school BMX stories on the new Block Bikes Blog from now on, check it out...



 

Throwback Thursday to Chris Moeller

I haven't put much BMX on the blog for a bit because I'm publishing a small book as two 48 page zines, in a Club HOmeboy-esque goodie pack.  And I I'm homeless, in the winter, and sleep in a small doorway.  In other words, I'm busy trying to improve my situation.  No time to write a big ol' BMX blog post at the moment.  So here's a look back to what happened when Chris Moeller called me in 1991, when he was running S&M Bikes out of the garage of a one bedroom apartment, and asked me to produce his first video.  He bought an S-VHS VCR to edit with, which became the apartment VCR.  Other than that, the entire budget for Feel My Leg Muscles... I'm a Racer was about $250.  Most of that was spent on beer.  Enjoy.

I've got a new blog going, it's about starting and building an art of creative business, or any small business.  You can check it out here:
WPOS Kreative Ideas

My stock market index predictions for 2019

There are far worse bear attack videos online, but I'm not going for the gore today.  The bear is the stock market in the next several months, the cage is your 401k or investments, and the guy is you.  Like the bear handlers say, "Get ready to brace yourself." 

These predictions below are numbers I think the four major stock indices will hit, almost certainly in 2019, but possible slightly later.  I'm not saying these numbers will be the bottom of the markets.  But I think if you are looking for a bottom before these numbers are reached, you're going to be disappointed.  But hey, I'm just a homeless artist/blogger guy, what could I possibly know about the stock market, right?

Here are my predictions (I've rounded to the nearest dollar):

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 
Peak- 26,828
Prediction- 17,025

Nasdaq:
Peak- 8,110
Prediction- 4,702

S&P 500:
Peak- 2,931
Prediction- 1,833

Russell 2000:
Peak- 1,741
Prediction- 1,046

Let's see how close I get...

Merry Christmas

From the guys who really got average white people into rap and hip hop back in the day, comes an unexpected Christmas hit in 1987, and is now a holiday classic.



All the shopping and rushing is over.  For most of you, that means a day with the family.  So here's a a happy, uplifting Dropkick Murphy's song about how wonderful it is to be with family on Christmas.  Me, personally, I was able to get a motel room for the night, I have no family around, so it's awesome.

OK, my sister's family is cool, not like this video, but they're a couple hundred miles away, and I won't be seeing them today.

I'm going to spend the day finishing up my first two big, fat zines in the Freestyle BMX Tales series.  This is what I love doing, so I'm going to have a great day.  Hope things are cool for the rest of you out there, whether you're celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, the winter solstice, or whatever.

It's a big, crazy world out there, and it's gonna get a lot crazier next year.  But we'll get to that in future blog posts.  Make the best of whatever this day brings.  Oh, and for those of you giving me crap on Facebook, I really do listen to the Partridge Family's Christmas album every Christmas.  Seriously.  We had the album all through my childhood, and to me, that brings back the best parts of what Christmas is supposed to be.  I forget the lame parts of those years.  No need to relive drama from years past.

My life is far from what most people consider "normal", or even tolerable by most people's standards.  But I'm spending my day being creative, and that makes it a good day.  The things missing, (like an apartment, car, material stuff) will be replaced in time.  I' not sweating what I don't have, and I'm inside, warm, eating some good food, and spending my day doing what I most want to do. 

Have a good day!

Here's what I'm working on today.  You can find the details on these, and how to order them, in the last post, if you're an old school BMX freestyler.

Freestyle BMX Tales Zines #1 & 2 are available NOW

These are the masters of the two zines.  I'm finishing them up today and tomorrow.  Both are stories from my time riding at The Spot in Redondo Beach, California in 1986.  Each zine is 48 zine pages, which is really fat for a zine.  Once I got writing tales, I wrote over 100 pages of rough drafts, that's why there are two.  I'm finishing laying out Zine #2 right now, and I'll be ready to ship them (plus a homemade sticker pack and maybe some other goodies) by this Thursday, December 27th. 

Get yourself a Christmas present! 
To order your set, Paypal $15 to me at stevenemig13@gmail.com . Postage paid in the continental U.S..  (It's steven with a "v", not steve) add your mailing address, or FB message or email me your address.  Elsewhere in North America, add $5 shiping.  U.K. and Australia orders add $10 shipping.  Every zine will be signed and numbered in order of the orders I receive.

In 1986, during my short stint at Wizard Publications, I was roommates with Gork and Lew, and riding nearly every night with Craig Grasso, Chris Day, R.L. Osborn, Andy Jenkins, and hanging out with McGoo, who brought Ceppie Maes and John "Dizz" Hicks down from time to time.  So those are the guys who feature in some of the stories.  

Most of you remember my blog, Freestyle BMX Tales, which I published over 500 freestyle stories in back in 2009-2012.  Unfortunately, I took it down during a dark time after my dad died in 2012.  I published another version for a while, about 65 posts worth, back in 2015-2017.  But I decided it's time to put some of my tales of the early BMX freestyle days into a hard copy, physical version. 

Zines by their very nature, are collector's items as soon as they're published, and we all know that there's a serious collector's market in BMX these days.  As the publisher, I think $15 is a fair price with that in mind.  Fat, 48 page zines, actually cost a bit to make.  I'm going to limit this to 243 total copies (plus a few promotional media copies, not numbered.) I doubt I'll come anywhere close to selling 243 sets, but that's a big number to cut it off at.

I've been doing zines since 1985, many of you know that.  My first zine landed me the job at BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines, which changed the entire course of my life. I landed, much to my surprise, in the BMX freestyle industry, and led to working with several of the people making freestyle happen back then. 

I really wanted to have these ready to ship before Christmas, but with my current sketchy living situation, and the sheer amount that I wrote for these, I couldn't make it happen.  But I'm squaking it in before Christmas so you can do a little (well deserved) shopping for yourself this afternoon.

Remember, they're signed and numbered, cool guys get lower numbers, so you can show'em off at the next old schooler event in your area.  Hope everyone's stoked on them.

My art's in Workshop RVA: in Richmond's Arts District

 As of yesterday, prints of these three small drawings of mine (all 8 1/2" X 11"), are on the wall and available at Workshop, located at 420 W. Broad.  That's on the west end of the Arts District here in Richmond, a short walk from VCU.  I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I didn't manage to get anything together for December's First Friday Art Walk.  So I just wandered around, checking out the scene and talking to a few artists and galleries.  I wandered into Workshop, and started talking to Sean and Justice there.  In my current situation (homeless), I look really sketchy, but they were cool right off the bat, and really stoked when I showed them my big Sumatran Tiger Sharpie drawing.  We talked for quite a while, and they decided to help me get some exposure as I work to get my living situation back on track.  So I dropped off a handful of prints of these three drawings yesterday.  They're small and inexpensive, if you're a fan of Marley, Cash, or Biggie you should check 'em out.  My large Sumatran Tiger drawing will be up and available at Workshop as soon as I can get a frame for it.

I'm really stoked to be up in a really cool spot in the Arts District, and working with a couple of really cool guys, and I appreciate their help right now.  There are a bunch of great paintings and work by others artists, and clothes for sale in Workshop, as well.  Check the place out.  Here's a recent article about it with more info, or you can check out the Workshop website. 

Like any creative person, I have a ton of ideas, and hopefully will be able to bring many to life in conjunction with Workshop.  Thanks again for the opportunity Sean and Justice.

This is the lead in to the recession I've been talking about...

You read that right, December 2018 is shaping up (or maybe slimming down?) to be the worst December for the stock market since 1931.  You know1931, back during The Great Depression, when your grandpa used to walk four miles to school each day, barefoot, on his hands in knee deep snow, up hill... both ways.  The major stock indexes, (Dow Jones Industrial, Nasdaq, S&P 500, and Russell 2000) have all dropped considerably since this video was shot.... three days ago.  This guy in the hoodie is young, I'm not familiar with him, but he's a serious stock trader judging by his talk, and his YouTube channel has nearly  a quarter million subscribers.  So he's not just another yahoo talking smack, a lot of people listen to him.  The point is, the stock market is getting pummeled right now, at a historic level. 

I wrote a blog post on January 2nd, 2018, a day after the 2017 tax cut bill went into effect.  The tax cut was a huge windfall for major corporations and ultra rich individuals.  That windfall, according to President Trump's economic advisor Larry Kudlow, was supposed to create a great investment boom in the U.S. in 2018.  Instead, it mostly led to large corporations buying back a whole bunch of their own stock. 

Here's a paragraph I wrote in that post on January 2nd, 2018, when every official person in economic and big business circles seemed ready for stocks and the economy to soar, even higher, for many years to come:

"I see the stock market going a bit higher, while most of the mid-sized cities, small towns, and rural areas, most of America, continues to struggle.  We may even see the stock market go up as most of the country slides into a recession in a few months.  Something, maybe Trump's looming impeachment and leaving office (and Pence might get the boot, too), will trigger a collapse like 2008.  Except this time it's $1.4 trillion in student loan debt that will turn into an anchor on global markets."

Here's the actual post from Jan. 2, 2018-
"Larry Kudlow's wishful thinking..."

Now, President Trump is still in office, but several of his closest advisors have plead guilty to serious crimes, and the president himself currently has 17 investigations looking into him and his affairs.  In January, a Democratic led House takes over, which makes impeachment a serious possibility.  Also the student debt has not imploded.  Yet.  It was the tariffs and potential trade war with China that seemed to tip the financial house of cards.  There have been more articles and talk about student debt recently in the financial media it seems.  The complete mentality of the financial markets has changed in the last 2-2 1/2 months.  Everything I mentioned is being discussed now.  Time will tell how it all plays out.  Most important, the serious stock market drop has opened up the conversation about whether we're heading into a recession.  I say we are.  Again, time will tell. 

Here's another post I wrote on September 22, 2017.  It goes into some of the big, underlying issues with jobs, as we continue to transition from the Industrial Age into the Information Age.  These issues, brought up in th e2013 TED Talk in the post, are still largely unaddressed by our society.  That's not good.
"The crazy future of the work world"

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIJA) was at 24,824 on January 2, 2018.  It got up to 26,828 on October 3, 2018.  As I write this post, about 2:25 pm on December 20, 2018, the DIJA is at 22,791.  It's down more than 500 points today alone, down more than 2,000 points from January 2, 2018 and down more than 4,000 points ( over 15% down) from it's peak in October.  The Russell 2000 average is down about 20% since its peak.  The Nasdaq hit the "down 20%" point today.  The S&P 500 is down over 16%.  In Wall Street speak, the Russell and the Nasdaq are now in "Bear Market territory" (-20% or more) and the Dow and the S&P are well into "Correction territory," (-10% or more).

If you listen to the clip of presidential economic advisor Larry Kudlow in that Jan 2 post, you'll hear him say that he expects President Trump to win on the DACA issue, to have major economic growth in 2018, to get his Mexican border wall construction going soon, to start  a TRILLION DOLLAR infrastructure rebuilding plan, and then Larry says he expects the Republicans to do well in the 2018 midterm elections.  So, the esteemed Larry Kudlow was basically completely wrong on his predictions at the beginning of 2018.  To be clear, I don't think Larry is stupid.  I think he was just lying.  That's his job.  Sell the public on ideas that help the ultra-rich get ultra richer.  He was doing his job.  If we realize he's doing his job, and that job is not to help YOUR best interests, then you know to take what he says with a grain of salt.  Or maybe the whole salt shaker.

Meanwhile, I was the homeless artist/blogger that was living in a tent in the woods of Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the time I wrote that post.  I expected stocks to rise for a while, but then the underlying issues would drag things down and we'd head into a serious recession.  We are in a MAJOR stock market correction, and I believe this is the lead into the recession I expected.  

Here's my prediction today, December 20th, 2018:  

We will see the Dow Jones Industrial Average near or below the 18,000 point mark, long before we see Dow 25,000 again.  The other averages I expect to drop a similar percentage.  This could take 6 to 8 months, but it could happen much sooner.


I wrote this post, and many others like it, because what's happening now, and will happen throughout 2019, is simply inevitable.  The financial world is completely manipulated and disjointed at this point, so figuring out the timing of when things would head down was harder than in previous recessions.  I was early on my prediction.  I expected the markets to drop big time in the late spring, and it happened in the fall.  

This will probably "officially" be called a recession next summer or early fall.  We are always several months into a recession by the time the data proves it's "officially" a recession.  Student loan debt will be the big debt bomb this time around.  Keep an eye on that.  It won't be too hard.  That term will be all you hear in the media at some point.

I realize this is a huge bummer right before Christmas, or whatever holidays you celebrate.  Sorry about that.  Don't freak out.  Have a good time, buy some presents, do your normal holiday thing.  Just don't go on a crazy buying spree.  Don't rack up a ton of credit card debt buying presents.  Keep it reasonable.  Next year is going to present a bunch of serious challenges on a bunch of levels.  But there will also be a lot of opportunities, as well.  

Enjoy your holidays, and then get ready to buckle down for a bit s serious work.  

Creative Life 12/16/2018

This is Airin Roso, longtime BMX freestyler, trick show promoter/rider, and and skate/bike park builder/maintainer.  I'd never met him, never even heard of him before.  But I've been out of touch of the mainstream bike world for a 20-some years. I ran into him randomly at Powers Bike Shop here in Richmond a couple of weeks ago.  I was there to pick something up real quick, and Airin stopped there on the way through town, enroute to a contest in North Carolina.  I couldn't find any big air clips of him, though ramps are his specialty.  Airin used to do a front flip dismount in shows, off the bike, and land on his back on the box jump landing.  OUCH.  Here's a clip I found of him doing that into a foam pit.

We started talking, and wound up talking all afternoon about the old days of BMX freestyle, the current days, and all the different ways people contribute to the world of bike riding.  He's made a really good living doing shows, mostly anti-drug shows at schools.  Airin (I'm guessing it's spelled a bit different on his birth certificate) can bust some flatland, and has done ten foot airs on ramps, and is still riding hard well into his 40's.  He's one of those riders that never stopped.

I actually got a really cool blog post idea from talking to him, which I started to write, but then got sidetracked by another writing project.  That's why I haven't mentioned him in a blog post until now.  Meeting him is one of the cool happenings in the last couple of weeks.  That blog post will be out before too long.

Also on the BMX track, I decided to do a zine to actually sell.  It started by working on a 40-48 page zine, the first in a series of Freestyle BMX Tales zines, about The Spot in Redondo Beach.  Freestyle BMX Tales was my second blog of BMX stories from back in the day, from about 2009-2012.  I wrote over 500 posts on that blog, and it got something like 120,000+ page views in its day.  But I deleted the original version during a dark time after my dad died in 2012.  So I decided to do a series of zines, and sell them, since zines wind up as collectible items by their very nature.  And I just can't afford to write and publish an actual book right now.  And I need to earn some money to get my life back on track.

Once I got going, the 40+ page zine turned into TWO 48 page zines, which I'm laying out right now.  So it's going to be a little package of old school BMX goodness.  Stay tuned, they'll be ready to go soon, before Christmas. 

I couldn't get money and time together to do an art project for the December First Friday art walk here in Richmond's Arts District.  And it was supposed to rain some.  So I ended up wandering around the Arts District on First Friday, and met a couple of different groups and talked a while.  I'm going to do a post about the one artist, who's info isn't in front of me right now.  Again, the zines are the priority at the moment, everything else will come soon. 

On my own art front, I have a gallery space in the Arts District that digs my work, and wants to put some up.  That should be happening in a few days.  I'll  give all the details when it happens.  I'm really stoked on that, and hopefully it will lead to some really cool events in the future.  I'll have both big originals and small, inexpensive prints for sale there.

I've got a big drawing I'm working on, which I'll show once I get it done.  It's for a friend who's totally helped me out over a couple of years.  I've got a smaller drawing to do right after.  So I'm staying super busy, but no big announcements at the moment.  Lots of stuff soon.  You can check out my Sharpie art with #sharpiescribblestyle on either Instagram or Google images.

Then, this past Friday, I went to Steve Crandall's art show, which you saw in the last blog. 

Here's the 8 1/2" X 11" drawing of The Notorious B.I.G. I just did.  Prints available soon:

Caffeine Addled Nonsense: Steve Crandall's Art Show last night

 It was a dark and stormy night...  No, really, it was.  OK, not really stormy, but was dark and rainy as I walked from the Pulse bus stop in the Scott's Addition area here in Richmond.  I was looking for an industrial place called Cut and Bleed, the site of Steve Crandall's art show.  Cut and Bleed isn't a nightclub playing The Cure and Morrissey 24/7 for depressed Suicide Girls.  It's an oversized item printing business.  Need to wrap Grandma's car with photos of your kids, or a 30 foot tall banner of The Ramones?  Cut and Bleed can do it for you. In the shop there are a couple of rooms which are the perfect size for an indie art show.  FBM Bikes founder Steve Crandall, throwing some peace above, held a solo art show displaying his signature style of cool coffee cups and cinder block ramps there last night, December 14, 2018.

 The 3,000 pound concrete elephant in the room.  If you were at the D.I.Y. World Championships Jam at Powers Bikes in October, or if you saw video it, you saw this HUGE cinder block with a curved ramp set up on it, a MEGA launch ramp.  One of Steve's big themes is the idea, seen often last night, to "build your own fun."  His simple icon of this is what so many of us BMX guys and girls started jumping as kids, a cinder block and a board.  I remember jumping similar ramps as an 8-year-old on a tall handlebar banana seat bike, and doing the same thing on my BMX bike at 17.  Nearly all kids who have ridden bikes much know this simple set-up and remember it.  To Crandall, it's the epitome of using what's around to build something to ride and create your own fun.  This simple, but awesome, idea is a main theme of Steve Crandall's outlook on out world.  You don't need a ton of money, you don't need to be sponsored by a basketball shoe company to have fun on your bike.  Look around.  See what's sitting around, grab some stuff, build a little something, and go session.

Somehow, in a Stonehenge-like mystery, Crandall had the 3,000 pound monster cinder block from the D.I.Y. Jam transported to the art show.  To me, walking in and seeing that humongous object there just made me laugh.  It totally reminded me of the Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, Texas.  It just made people smile, whether you  wanted to or not.  The absurdity of this huge chunk of concrete in the middle of the show, with the launch ramp on it, was just hilarious.

 If you are at all familiar with Steve Crandall's paintings, you know coffee is his main theme.  Coffee cups, to be exact.  I heard him tell someone last night that on a cross country trip a while back , he was guzzling coffee to stay awake, and the coffee cup idea took root in his brain.  Coffee cups took on a mystic importance to him, or something along those lines.  So there were about 10 big paintings on plywood, most of them huge coffee cups, and maybe 40 small paintings on paper in the show.  Each one is was a bit different, and all were reasonably priced for the people at the show to take home.  The blue painting above had a bicycle for eyes, while the brown one has a bike inside a heart.  Love coffee, love bikes, ride, have fun. 

If I had my act together financially right now, I would have taken this painting above home.  That was my favorite of the show, except for the two big photos.  Below, the real thing.  Life imitates art imitating BMX. 

 Another look at the monster block, with local BMX racer and BMX Hooligan mom's funny jacket slogan behind it.  She's definitely NOT ugly, by the way.  This was also the most kid friendly art show I've seen.  The mega-sized launch ramp and mini quarterpipe (with the yellow arrow in the background), made a little halfpipe.  A few of the kids burned off energy running back and forth between them, like riding a halfpipe without a bike.  Hey, they were real ramps, not art show props, go ahead kids.  Have fun.  You won't brake these.

This was my other favorite of the show.  It's a very vintage ironing board with a happy coffee cup and "surf's up" on it.  All in all, it was a really cool indie art show, and the old school BMX crowd of Richmond, a really good crew of people, showed up to check it out, and support Steve's work.  Plenty of people went home with art.  We all pigged out on the snacks, and wine and beer for most.  One idea if you ever do a BMX world art show, put some art up next to the snacks (which were in a side room).  A whole bunch of us stood there munching, for a long time, because we're mostly cheap ass BMXers at heart, and talking.  I'd put a few pieces up (and plastic covered), by the food, beer, and wine.

It was a good time, with a cool, BMX scene crowd, and a chill and fun vibe all evening.  Props to Steve Crandall for doing a ton of original work, putting the show on, and showing us all a good time.

I was inspired.  My mind was racing on the way out for ideas to do my own art show somewhere down the line.  Oh, if anyone needs a dining room table that will survive a nuclear holocaust and the zombie apocalypse, call Crandall.  That monster cinder block may need a new home. 

Still alive after night in snow storm... homelessness is no joke

Snow.  It's beautiful when you're inside looking out at a heavy snowstorm.  It's even beautiful when you walk out in it for a while, and then go back into nice warm house, even better with a crackling fire to warm up by.

But when you're homeless, like me at the moment, a heavy snow quickly turns to a life or death situation.  "Plan A" was to sell my tiger drawing last Friday and save money to get a cheap motel room for the potential snowfall last night.  Things didn't work out as planned, the storm shifted north, and I ended up on about Plan W. 

I have a little spot I sleep, with a tiny roof over it, on the side of an abandoned building.  There's a side wall that keeps most of the rain out, except when the wind comes from one particular direction.  Last night it was coming from that direction.  With snow.

Since I'm in the"working homeless" group, but working for myself doing artwork, I spend most of my time at a library or fast food place where I can draw, use wifi, and get drink refills when possible.  That's also why I avoid the "Homeless Merry-Go_Round" of free meals, short term shelters, and social workers. When an area like Richmond, not used to big snows, gets a storm like this, things close early.  I grew up on Ohio and Idaho, places used to, and equipped for, lots of snow.  In Richmond, 10"+ of snow is epic.  In Ohio, it's Sunday.  Life goes on.  Stores are open.  Here, for good reason, unfortunately, things stop.  As a homeless guy, that makes my situation worse.

So I left a large store's food court last night about 6pm, when they closed several hours early.  I hiked through about 8 inches of fresh snow in running shoes.  By the time I got to my sleeping spot, my feet were soaked and cold.  It was snowing hard.  The temperature was around 30 degrees, and the wind was about 10 mph coming right into the top of my sleeping area.  My spot was wet concrete with an inch of snow on it.

I hiked through more fresh snow to a nearby dumpster, and a bunch of cardboard boxes.  I made a wall by the opening of my spot, out of cardboard and snow, to block some wind and most snow.  I shoveled out the snow inside with a cardboard box, and tossed some newspapers out that were on the ground for insulation, but were all wet.  Then I laid cardboard down, as best I could, while freezing my ass off and with wet, cold feet.  Then I took off my heavy coat and stocking cap, both covered with snow. (Thanks again for the coat Scotty!), I pulled my two sleeping bags over my body and head, while sitting up, the only position I could manage without getting part of me wet, and I began to warm up.  I put the winter jacket over my sleeping bags for added insulation.  Once my body warmed up, I took off my wet shoes and socks and worked on warming my feet up.  It worked.  They weren't toasty, but stayed far from frostbite.

Last evening, I walked out into what is now Richmond's worst early season snow ever, and the 12th biggest snow since records have been kept.  My feet were cold and wet almost immediately.  I stayed out in the cold for over 17 1/2 hours.  I did not know if I would survive.  Honestly.  Last night was a crap shoot.  I would have bet against myself.

I had someone interested in buying my tiger drawing last Friday, and I was hoping to sell it.  We didn't connect, for whatever reason, and so money for a motel for last night wasn't there.  Shit happens.  I adapt.  On Friday, we were looking at a weather prediction of a little "wintry mix" Sunday night.  As it always does on the Eastern seaboard, the weather pattern shifted, and we wound up getting 9-14 inches of "wintry mix" yesterday and well into last night. 

I laid under my sleeping bags for hours this morning, because the only fast food joint in sight didn't open.  My socks and shoes were soaking wet and actually froze over night.  While I managed to keep my feet fairly warm, and avoid frostbite, last night, I knew I couldn't go far after putting wet shoes on bare feet this morning.  Finally, since I really needed to go to the bathroom, I had to throw the icy shoes on my bare feet, and trudge through 10 inches of fresh snow to get to a nearby store, hoping it had a public bathroom.  I pulled my shoes off in the bathroom and dried them with the hand dryer.  Feeling much, much better at that point, and finally sure I'd actually survived, I hiked to a place with wifi and food, where I am now.  My feet got kind of cold and wet again.   This is why I don't bog much about my day to day life right now.  No one really wants to read it.

So that's the last 20 hours of my life.  How was your day?

Newspaper report on the snow storm of 12/9/2018 here in Richmond

Alternative Christmas Playlist

Yeah, you know this song.  Or at least you think you do.  Have you ever actually sat down, closed your eyes, with the headphones on, and listened to the lyrics of "Mr. Grinch?"  Seriously.  Do it.  This song is as punk as it gets.  "You're a triple-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich, with arsenic sauce."  Those are actual lyrics in the song. How can that not make you smile when thinking about all the crap you have to do before Christmas Day? 

DISCLAIMER:  This list will likely be offensive to people who should be offended by the gross over-commercialization of Christmas, but aren't. 

If you're like me, and the holiday playlist playing everywhere, like the McDonald's I'm in right now, is bad boy bands and washed up pop star covers of old Christmas songs that make you want to vomit. Here's some alternative holiday tunes to lighten up the day:

"Jingle Bells"- Brian Setzer Orchestra
"Silent Night"- The Dickies
"Little Drummer Boy"- Joan Jett
"We Three Kings"- Blondie
"You pissed yourself"- Bad Santa
"Merry Christmas (I don't want to fight tonight)"- The Ramones
"The Season's Upon Us"- Dropkick Murphys
"Silver Bells"- Bing Crosby & Rosemary Clooney
"Oi To The World"- No Doubt
"Christmas in Hollis"- RUN-DMC
"The First Noel"- Bad Religion
"Christmas Wrapping"- The Waitresses
"Run Run Rudolph"- Lemmy Kilmister
"Stray Cat Strut/Mr. Grinch"- Brian Setzer Orchestra
"White Christmas"- The Partridge Family
"Holiday"- Green Day (Christmas instrumental cover)
"The Chanukah Song"- Adam Sandler (Somehow it's just not Christmas without hearing this)
"Blue Christmas"- The Partridge Family
"Silent Night"- Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins &
friends
"Drunk at Work"- Bad Santa
"Christmas Canon"- Trans Siberian Orchestra
"I Won't Be Home For Christmas"- Blink 182
"Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth)"- David Bowie & Bing Crosby
"Daddy Drank our Christmas Money"- TVTV$
"Angels We Have Heard On High"- Brian Setzer Orchestra
"Amazing Grace"- Dropkick Murphys
"White Christmas"- Stiff Little Fingers
"Christmas Wrapping"- Save Ferris (Jewish Version) 
"Little Drummer Boy"- Pentatonix
"Oi to the World"- The Vandals (the No Doubt version is a cover of this one)
"Skank For Christmas"- Reel Big Fish
"The Christmas Song"- The Partridge Family
"The Insults"- Bad Santa
"Christmas Sucks"- Peter Murphy & Tom Waits
"Merry Fucking Christmas"- Dennis Leary
"Christmas Cards & much more"- George Carlin (just in case you're not offended yet)
Johnny Cash & Family Christmas Special 1977
Christmas Fails 2016 
Christmas Fails 2017 

Have a Happy Holiday Season everyone.  Me?  I'll be Home(less) for Christmas... so stop your bitchin' about stupid shit, it could be worse.  Heh, heh, heh, ho,ho,ho...

Four Great Talks for Artists to Check Out

Simon Sinek is the Optimist/writer of books like Start With Why, and Leaders Eat Last.  I've listened to several of his talks on business and finding your "Why?" in life.  He's easy to listen to and makes a ton of sense.  This one surprised me when it popped up on my feed a couple days ago.  I found it totally fascinating.  Maybe you will, too.  Oh, among other things, he gives an actual definition of "art."  Hell, I've never managed to do that.



What do you do after you spend a year eating, praying, and loving?  You inspire the freakin' world with an epic TED Talk.  Elizabeth Gilbert's epic piece.  I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've watched this.



Why are we all afraid of asking for so many things we need?  Maybe it runs in the family.  Maybe we need a ukulele anthem to psych us up first.  Another epic TED Talk involving creativity.  Like the one above, I can't even count how many times I've listened to this.





"Let's talk about donuts..."  What?  You had me at "donuts."  Maria Popova does some serious brain picking into Amanda Palmer's thoughts.  I wasn't sure what to think when I started watching this for the first time.  Like those above, it's become a favorite I've watched many, many times.  EAT THE FUCKING DONUTS!

The thing I've learned about suggesting books, talks, music, or orgasmic techniques to other people is that what is amazing for me may not do anything for anyone else.  So I'm throwing four favorites out there.  If one calls to you a bit, watch.  Listen.  That little intuitive spark of interest nearly always means there's something in it you need to see/hear right now.  Let me know if any of you get something cool from one or more of these.

Why I started selling my artwork... without a dime to my name

Lana Del Rey drawing I did as a commission earlier this year.  It was bought by a mom, as a gift for her daughter's 16th birthday.  Young Erin, who received it, was "over the moon," upon receiving her gift.  I felt the same way when I got the photo of Erin, with a huge smile, holding this drawing.  That's a big part of why I draw these pieces.  I want you to see the people you admire in a new way. 

I grew up in a world where art was a hobby and everyone was told to go get a "real" job.  And that's what I did.  I had a whole bunch of real jobs, some cool, many of which kinda sucked.  From my early 20's on, after unexpected success in the BMX bike industry, I was still struggling with personal issues.  You know, all those wonderful (ahem) mental blocks, negative feedback loops, and emotional baggage that come with growing up in a family that's more dysfunctional than most, less dysfunctional than some.  In other words, I stumbled into a couple of dream jobs, and was still miserable.  I had shit to work out.

So rather than focus on going to college a few years later than most, my aim was to work through my shyness and other issues.  I didn't really give a damn about a traditional career path.  I worked a whole series of odd jobs through the 1990's, from a crew guy on the hit TV show American Gladiators, to bummed out telemarketing guy, and many in between.  It's a long story, but this, and an injury, led to taxi driving in 1999, and through much of the 2000's.

What I didn't plan on was new technology destroying the taxi industry, even before Uber and Lyft came along.  The switch from CB radio dispatching to computer dispatching changed the whole game, and forced us all to work 7 days a week.  That led to living in my taxi for about four years, working 14 to 18 hours most days, gaining over 150 pounds, and three bouts of leg infections that nearly killed me.  The declining business and my poor health led to the point where I could no longer make the $600 a week to pay for my taxi, and the $300 a week to pay for gas.  I walked into the taxi office the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2007, dropped off the keys, and walked out onto the streets of Orange County California with about $15 in my pocket.  My health was so bad, I assumed I would die within a few weeks.  Obviously, I didn't.

After a year on the streets, panhandling to survive, and unable to find any way to earn  living again, I called my parents.  They'd offered to fly me to North Carolina, where they, and my sister and brother-in-law, had wound up living.  We're from Ohio originally.  I never wanted to go to NC.  But I just couldn't get things going again in SoCal, so I accepted their offer.  I flew into Raleigh, and they drove me to Kernersville, in the Piedmont Triad area, near Greensboro, in Central NC.  That was mid-November 2008.  You know, back when the entire world economy was collapsing.  There were no jobs to be had.  In fact, except for another year of taxi driving, I never did find ANY "real" job in NC.  My dad died in 2012, I moved back in with my mom, who I'd never gotten along with.  By the time November 2015 rolled around, I knew I had to do something to start creating my own job.

We were living off my mom's Social Security, which is actually a decent amount.  But handling money is not my mom's strong suit, to put it mildly.  She got her check, I drove her on a couple of all day shopping expeditions, and then we were in financial crisis mode for the next 27 days.  Same thing, month after month.  The only thing I did that made me any money was my weird Sharpie artwork.  I drew pictures of kids' names in their favorite colors for $20-$25.  So I decided to focus on that, and work to turn it into a business.

My first step was to take stock of what I had to start with.  I had a small bedroom in a quiet apartment.  It was a completely toxic environment, but it was free.  "Free" meaning I chauffeured my mom around to stores, and an endless list of doctor's appointments.  I paid a huge emotional price getting berated all day, every day.  But I didn't pay money for rent.  So that was good.  Kind of.

I had a bunch of Sharpies, a cheap, 12" X 18" art pad, and a card table in my room to work on.  I didn't have a cell phone, much less a smart phone.  To communicate with the outside world, where I would have to sell my most of my artwork, I had a refurbished (like $60) HP laptop, still running Microsft XP in late 2015.  Perhaps most important, I'd built a small, but fairly hardcore following online, blogging about my days in the BMX freestyle industry when it was just getting going in the 1980's.  I got depressed and deleted my three best blogs shortly after my dad died, but I'd re-started one of them.  So I had a small, but legit, audience online.  Most had become Facebook friends as well.

What I didn't have was money.  I LITERALLY did not have a dime.  In my mom's apartment, if I had any money she knew of, a "crisis" would arise that needed all that money.  If I made $20 for a drawing, and spent $4 on some Ben and Jerry's ice cream to celebrate, a crisis would erupt that needed $16.  If I had $1.43 to my name, my mom would have a crisis, usually involving chocolate, that needed $1.43.  So I started without a dime.

My first step was to sit down one night and ask myself what I thought was a simple, but smart question.
 "What could I draw that I'd actually want to put on my own wall?"
I sat down at my mom's computer, which was faster than mine, and looked at all kinds of art.  When I was homeless in 2007-08, I discovered Banksy and became a big fan of Street Art.  Graffiti, from the collage-like look of layers of tagged walls, to huge, colorful bombing pieces, was another huge influence throughout my life.  I also like M.C. Escher as a kid, and the wildlife painter Bev Doolittle (Google her "Doubled Back," I loved that as a kid), and Russian Surrealist Vladimir Kush, who i met at a show.  I  looked at the western art of Frederick Remington, and the "masters" we're all supposed to like.  But I kept coming back to stenciled street art, like Banksy, Shephard Fairey, and others worldwide.  

I found a simple stencil of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee.  He was my first hero as a kid, and a guy that got more and more interesting the more I learned about him.  So I printed it out.  I borrowed a couple of bucks from my mom, and blew it up on a copy machine, and transferred the simple image onto my art paper.  I colored it in with my Sharpie "scribble style" that I'd developed years earlier while actually living in an indie art gallery in California.  I put words in the background, quotes from Bruce Lee.  It came out cool, I actually did tape it up on my wall, and I knew I was on the right track. 

So while I grew up in a world where everyone told me that art was "OK as a hobby," but that I needed to get a "real job," that had changed by 2015.  I still couldn't find ANY "real job."  So I took to art to begin to earn a living when regular work just couldn't be found.  My world had reversed itself.

In the next art post, I'll talk about HOW I started selling drawings with no money and just an old laptop to reach the rest of the world.   

Eight of my BMX blog posts you forgot about... plus art and stuff for sale

The Nortorious B.I.G., a brand new drawing, my take on a classic photo.  8 1/2" X 11" copy available on card stock for $12 (shipped in the continental U.S.).  Paypal me at stevenemig13@gmail.com  (2 prints for $22, 3 for $30 same or mix and match the ones in this post).  Outside the U.S., email me and I'll figure shipping costs.  I'm working my way out of homelessness right now, this art and zine books are how I'm making my living.  I could use your help to keep writing, and doing cool projects.  Buy something. ( #sharpiescribblestyle)

Here are two of my older BMX blog posts you may not have read:
Don Hoffman, Eddie Fiola, and Pipeline (skatepark)
Mike Dominguez's Best Public 900 Attempt

I started blogging stories of my days in the old school BMX world in 2008, right after losing all my raw video footage (1989-2007), my master tapes, and all my magazines, hundreds of poems I'd written and all my other creative work.  It was a real dark time for me, but also the first time I had unlimited access to a computer.  I was basically a Luddite before that.  I knew nothing about online communities or even that old school BMXers communicated online.  I found the FREESTYLIN' book online, and I wasn't mentioned, though I published the top freestyle zine at one point, and I worked at FREESTYLIN' for a few months.  I thought they'd at least make fun of me.  So I decided to write 20 or 30 blog posts about my stories just to say, "Hey, I was a BMX industry guy, I saw some cool stuff happen, here's some stories."

I started a blog called FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales, and  soon started connecting with old school riders again, much to my surprise.  I wound up writing over 200 blog posts about the magazines I worked at for only five months.  Then I started a new blog, Freestyle BMX Tales, and wrote stories about my other experiences from my serious years of BMX riding and working in the bike skate industry.

Johnny Cash drawing, get an 8 1/2" X 11" print on card stock for $12, free shipping in Cont. U.S. (Mix and match these 4 drawings, 2 for $22, 3 for $30, 4 for $35 shipped in U.S.).  #sharpiescribblestyle

Over about 2 1/2 years, I wrote over 500 blog posts about my BMX days in Freestyle BMX Tales.  I think that blog got over 125,000 total page views.  I wrote them all because I wanted to, for free, on my blog.  I did put ads on my blog for a few months, but I got kicked off Google Adsense because I didn't respond to an email about tax info.  I took the ads off the blog.  All of those 700+ BMX blog posts were read by quite a few people, which amazed me.

Then, in March 2012, my dad had a severe stroke.  After a couple of months, I quit my taxi driving work to spend more time with him.  He had survived the stroke, but he wasn't strong enough to live much longer, and he died in August 2012.  I moved in with my mom, and went into a real dark period of my life.  In a depressed moment, I deleted all my blogs, the BMX blogs, and other's I tried out on other topics.  At one point, Brian Tunney, at ESPN, actually wrote a eulogy to FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales, which is pretty crazy.  What kind of blog actually gets a eulogy when it dies? 

Here are two more of my older blog posts many of you haven't read:
The S&M Bikes BS 20 Neon
You Are (fo)R(g)OTTEN- The P.O.W. House Video (sort of)

Drawing of a BMX vert turndown with my "Become" poem handwritten on it.  Get an 8 1/2" X 11" print of this for $12 (shipped in U.S.).  Paypal me at: stevenemig13@gmail.com .  (Mix and match these four drawings 2 for $22, 3 for $30, 4 for $35). #sharpiescribblestyle

At one point, I switched from Blogger and went to the better blog platform Wordpress, and did another version of Freestyle BMX Tales there for a while.  But I wasn't as into to it, and didn't do that many posts.  I eventually went back to the simpler Blogger, mostly because it automatically formatted the blog for smart phones at the time, and Wordpress didn't.  I ended up writing another 89 blog posts about my BMX days, published between 2015 and 2017.  That's where these blog posts have been sitting.  More of these are from the time period of 1990 on, which I never wrote about in my first two blogs.

Here are two more BMX posts from this surviving Freestyle BMX Tales blog:
The Birth of Club Homeboy
Feel My Fingers... I 'm Editing Drunk 

My take on the classic photo of Bob Marley.  Get a print of this 8 1/2" X 11" drawing for $12.  Paypal me at stevenemig13@gmail.com for a copy.  (Mix and match these four prints, 2 for $22, 3 for $30, 4 for $35).  #sharpiescribblestyle

As time went by, living in the small town of Kernersville, NC, I couldn't find any work at all.  Even restaurants wouldn't hire me.  I finally decided I had to create my own job.  The one thing that made me some money from time to time, was drawing pictures in my weird Sharpie style.  So I decided to focus on that.  After spending a couple of hours looking at all kinds of art online one night, I decided to start drawing people.  I found a simple stencil painting of Bruce Lee, and I blew up the photo, got the simple outline, and drew it.  I started working towards the goal of creating a small business, without a dime to my name.  I've been building it slowly since, drawing nearly every day for three years now.  I'm still not making a viable living.  There's been a ton of drama since.  But I'm still plugging along, still drawing, and trying to write more, as I can.  I brought all my former blogs together into this one in late June 2017, and it's been well read since, much to my surprise.

Here are two more of my older BMX blogposts you may not know exist:
Memories of Scot Breithaupt, part 2 (The Godfather of BMX)
The First Time the S&M Guys and the P.O.W. House Were in a Video

Ten years ago this week, I was at a real dark time in my life, having just lost my entire life's creative work.  For several years I'd been thinking of making a really cool documentary with all of my original BMX freestyle footage.  Then, because I couldn't borrow $150 to get my stuff shipped to NC from CA, it was gone.  Poof!  That's when I started blogging about stories from my life and work in BMX freestyle in the 1980's and early 90's.  I've written well over 800 blog posts about BMX in ten years.  All of them were available for free on my blogs.  Over 100 are still available.  At the same time, I was struggling personally and financially.

Last week I set a big six month goal, to earn $10,000 in sales from my artwork and writing in six months (until April 27, 2019). All of you reading this will probably make and spend far more than that during this time on everyday life.  But I'm starting again, in a new city, while homeless.  That's a big goal starting from basically nothing.

Much of this money will go to buy art supplies, make the prints, zines, original drawings, and ship them to people.  The biggest chunk will be to simply rent me a room to live as soon as possible.  It's winter here in Richmond, and I'm sleeping outside.  It was 38 degrees when I walked to McDonald's this morning (cheap food, bathroom, and wifi).  I cussed up a storm for a minute because I tweaked my back Saturday, and could hardly move this morning.  Then I picked up my stuff and headed off to get to work.  That's what I do everyday.

Yes, there are homeless programs for housing, which usually take 6 to 12 months (for single men) to get a subsidized, usually not very safe, ghetto apartment.  And then you're not allowed to actually make a good living in most cases.  You have to earn a sub par income forever.  That's just not me.  I WANT to work.  I have lots of drawing and art show ideas.  I'm starting a series of Freestyle BMX Tales zines (see below), the first one will come out in 2 or 3 days.  I have several books I want to write, ranging from my crazy taxi stories to building creative  scenes (art/music/bike/skate, etc), and where we're heading as a society (my geeky brainiac side is a futurist). 

I'm not asking for donations.  I've figured out that if I sell $10,000 worth of work in six months, I should make enough to go from homeless dude drawing at the library, to a legit art/writing small business.  That's my way to make a living going forward.  You can help by buying the prints on this page.  They are, technically, high quality color copies on card stock, which comes out really cool.  These are the other things I have available:

Freestyle BMX Tales Zine #1- "The Spot in Redondo Beach" - 48 or more black and white zine pages of tales from my time riding with R.L. Osborn, Gork, Lew, Craig Grasso, Chris Day, and others.  Unlike my blog posts, this will be more than just stories of riding, it will be some history of each place, and a bigger picture look at BMX freestyle and its place in the world.  These are $6 shipped in the continental U.S,  paypal to stevenemig13@gmail.com .  $5 + shipping anywhere else (message me, I'll figure shipping).  If you've ever made zines, you know the cost and shipping of a 48 page zine is about $5.  Not much profit, if any, but I want people to get these and check them out.  Zines, by their very nature, become collector's items almost immediately.  Each copy will be signed and numbered by me.

Large, original, 18" X 24" Sharpie drawings, you know, like these:

Vic Murphy top (from the classic black & white photo), Dave Vanderspek on his GPV below (from my best photo ever).  These take me 35 to 45 hours each to draw, and I charge $150 each.  I work from photos, and I can do your favorite athlete or musician.  I MIGHT be able to do a personal photo.  Some photos just don't work well.  These take about 10 days to complete with everything else I'm doing, and I have two lined up right now.  I MIGHT be able to do one and ship it in time for Christmas.  Maybe.  Message me on Facebook or email first- stevenemig13@gmail.com

Club White Bear.  $25 a year.  I'll send you a 24 page or bigger zine every other month, with BMX and other stuff in it.  And you get first chance at buying my future prints, and 20% off any original art of mine you buy.  Plus random goodies, and art copies no one else will get.  Paypal $25 to stevenemig13@gmail.com, add your address to send it to.

Thanks for reading everyone.  Thanks even more if you buy something.  Let me know what you're thinking about my blogs and artwork.  Look up the 60+ big drawings I've done, with #sharpiescribblestyle on Instagram or Google images.  Later.