Latest drawing: REM

My sister Cheri has talked about me doing this one for quite a while, for her husband Nathan.  They've both been REM fans since high school.  I've been working on it in bits and pieces around the other drawings I've been doing.  I just finished it the other day and took it over to them yesterday.  I never listened to REM a lot when I was younger, except for all their songs I heard on the radio over the years.  "End of the World" has always been my favorite, and I put the lyrics of that one in the background of the letters R-E-M.  It was cool listening to a bunch of their music as I drew it.  They have a lot more really good songs than I remembered. 

Sharpies on paper, in my unique scribble style.  There's a little bit of paint pen in this one, as well.  Pretty stoked on how this one came out.  18" X 24."

Seth Godin: Here's why you should read/listen to him

After my FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales blog gained a good following back in 2008-2009, I started looking up stuff online to figure out what it took to be a writer, and to make money, in the 21st Century.  I haven't made money directly from my blogging, but my top 4 blogs (including this one) have landed over 200,000 total page views, and my blogs have helped me sell my Sharpie art drawings, which I do make money from. 

I think it was 2012 I discovered Seth Godin's work.  I've only read three or four of his books.  But I've listened and watched almost everything he has online, and he has been a huge impact on me. 

If you want to be successful at anything in the next 20 years, read Seth's book, Linchpin. 

'nuff said.  Watch this.

Gun powder art: how to use YouTube to promote your art

First of all, painting with gunpowder and lighting it is ridiculously dangerous, so don't try this at home.  With that said, there are several gunpowder art videos on YouTube.  I picked this one by Danny Shervin as an example, because he does a really good job of making an interesting, time lapse video.  The board stays in one place, and he shows you the brushes and tools he uses real quick in the beginning.  Then you get to see him outline and do the detail work, which flows quick with the time lapse video.

I imagine one important aspect of painting with gunpowder is not to sneeze while you're doing it.  Man, that would suck.  Anyhow, after the sped up footage making the video, he lights it, which looks like it happens in real time.  Gunpowder and fire, let's face it, it just looks really cool as it burns, and it actually burns the image into the wood as I understand it. 

Whatever kind of art you do, a well made time lapse video on YouTube, that you can then share in other media, is a great way to show other people what you do and how you do it. The video is only part of the picture.  You need to also build a community online to actually watch your videos, that's another aspect I'll write more about in later posts.

The Rise of the Warrior Sports: 20 years later

In 1998, the fifth year of the X-Games, the suits at ESPN thought the future of BMX freestyle was side by side dog piss airs.  As a longtime rider and zine publisher, I had come to a different conclusion.

I was working full time as a furniture mover in 1998.  I was also riding nearly every day, just for myself.  I wrote up a zine that same summer called The Rise of the Warrior Sports, and took a bunch of copies to the '98 X-Games in San Diego, and passed them out.  By that time, I was thinking that BMX freestyle, and all the action sports, were part of a much bigger shift happening in society.  By riding, and shooting photos, making videos, zines, magazines, and starting companies, riders were actually helping to build the distant future of the United States.  How does doing curb endos, airs, and jumping doubles affect a whole society, and the world at large?  Here's the story.

My Warrior Sports zine started with a book I picked up on a trip to visit my parents in North Carolina, Christmas time of 1989.  The book was called The Great Depression of 1990, by economist Ravi Batra.  He based his prediction for a huge economic downturn on a social theory by a man from India named P.R. Sarkar.  That theory, The Law of Social Cycle, said that there are four basic mentalities in any society.  Those are the Warriors, the Intellectuals, the Acquisitors, and the Laborers.  These mentalities aren't based on your race, gender, social class or anything like that.  They're based on the way you earn your living in the world.

The Warriors earn their living with physical skills and courage.  In Sarkar's theory, Warriors are NOT just soldiers or people who fight wars.  Anyone who makes their living using some type of courage or physical prowess is part of this Warrior group.  Examples include soldiers, police, firefighters, construction workers who do really dangerous work, and professional athletes, among others.

The Intellectuals are the people who use their brain power to earn their way in the world.  These include professors, teachers, scientists, writers, artists, politicians, the clergy, and other serious thinkers.

The Acquisitors are also smart, but they use their smarts in business.  Acquisitors include people in finance, landlords, business owners, entrepreneurs, stock traders, professional investors and others focused on making money.

The Laborers are the largest group of people, by far.  They are the average, everyday working people with low to mid-level skills that work for other people's businesses.  They don't excel at any of the above categories, but they are the largest part of any country, and are the masses in any society. These are the people who make up the body of a city, state, or country.

The cool part of this theory is that at any given time, one of these groups leads a society, and that society is shaped by their outlook on life.  This affects every level and aspect of that society.  One mentality can dominate a society for hundreds of years, there's no set time limit.  But the interesting thing (to Ravi Batra, and to me, anyhow) is that these groups lead a society in a particular order.  That order is: Intellectuals, Acquisitors, Laborers, Warriors, and back to the Intellectuals.

Batra, the economist born to Indian parents, took The Law of Social Cycle, which was virtually unknown in the U.S., and applied it to the United States, in the 1980's.  He came to the conclusion that the U.S. had been in an Acquisitor Age since its colonial days.  But in the late 80's, we were heading into the "Acquisitor cum Laborer" stage.  That meant that the big business people leading society were getting more and more corrupt.  They were siphoning off the wealth of the middle class,  the wealth of the nation, and totally screwing over the everyday working people.  Not every business person did this, but a fair amount did.  Batra blended this concept with a whole bunch of data on economic cycles, and predicted we would have a Great Depression starting in 1990.  He was wrong.  Sort of.  Those of us old enough to remember the early 1990's recall that we went into a recession in 1990, and we were in tough financial times through 1996.  But it was officially called a "double dip recession" at the time.  So what Ravi Batra predicted actually happened, it just didn't get as bad as he predicted.

I was always interested in the future, and became interested in economics in high school.  I found his book fascinating, and I started paying attention to the financial markets and the "big picture" of the world after I read the book.

 I produced my own bike video that year, in 1990, The Ultimate Weekend, the 8th BMX freestyle video I produced or edited, and went on to work on several TV show crews in the early 90's.  I worked as a furniture mover or video store clerk in between shows.  I was also out riding my bike every day, just for fun at that point.  I also got into rock climbing, and became a boulderer, climbing small but technical cliffs with no ropes.

By the mid-1990's, after seeing much of what Batra predicted actually come true, I started thinking more about Sarkar's Law of Social Cycle.  If Batra's assessment of the U.S. was correct, then the theory hinted at other things happening in the future.  First, the corporate world, the major Acquisitors, would keep getting more and more corrupt, and keep gaining in wealth.  The American Middle Class would start to die out as a greater percentage of wealth shifted to the super rich.  This would eventually cause a popular uprising among the everyday, working people, the Laborers.  That's the Acquisitor cum Laborer era.  The working people get sick of being screwed over, and a populist uprising, or a series of uprisings, start to happen.

The Laborers stand up, but they don't have the skills to actually lead society for any length of time.  So things get really chaotic and crazy as average people rise up against the corporate overlords.  At that point, one of two things happen.  Either the society completely collapses, or gets overthrown by a stronger neighbor, or the Warriors mentality rises to power, and The Warrior Age begins.With the Warrior age comes a different set of values, like more respect for courage and physical abilities.  There's also a big push toward individualism and doing your own thing, rather than fitting in with mass culture.

With this theory in the back of my head, rattling around, I lived at the infamous P.O.W. BMX House, was a long time roommate and sidekick to Chris Moeller, I saw the rise of Sheep Hills and dirt jumping, and I edited the first two S&M Bikes videos for Chris.  As I burned out of the TV production world and faded away from the BMX industry in 1995, I started to realize something else was going on.  BMX freestyle, and the action sports world as a whole, were part of the Warrior mentality rising up in society.  As our weird activity turned into a sport, a lifestyle, and then a trend, so did skateboarding, snowboarding, mountain biking, and... OK, even inline skating.

I realized that I was an Intellectual with Warrior tendencies.  While I would never be a great BMX pro, but my deep thinker side saw the bigger picture that we were all a part of.  We were one aspect of the Warrior mentality, people who wanted to push ourselves physically, who often did daring stuff, who looked up to physical skills and courage more than a big bank account.  We wanted to actually get out there, do our own thing, and really EXPERIENCE life.  We just weren't interested in working for someone else just to buy a bigger house, a newer car, and have a hotter wife than our neighbor.

Most interesting to me, the action sports world was a totally new type of Warrior mentality.  We blended art and creativity with physical skill and courage, and created "sports" where winning a game wasn't the point.  Progressing as a rider, and as a human being, that was the point.

I typed up these ideas in a zine of about 20 pages, added a few Xeroxed photos, and I passed out a bunch of copies to people while walking around the 1998 X-games in San Diego.  Like most zines, I eventually handed out every copy I made, most people flipped through it for a minute or two, then put it in their backpack.  I handed one to photographer Mark Losey, and he put it in an outside pocket of his camera bag.  I hung out, watched the competitions, and headed home to Huntington Beach.  I didn't think much more about the idea, and went on with my life.

In the summer of 1999, I decided I wanted to get back into the BMX world, and I scammed a press pass to the X-Games in San Francisco.  I stayed at some relatives' house in San Jose, and drove up and shot behind the scenes video all weekend.  At one point, I got to the deck of the vert ramp during BMX practice.  A whole new generation of riders that I didn't know had taken over, for the most part.  Dave Mirra and Ryan Nyquist were going through their trick bags.  I was shooting video, and getting some really cool, up close footage.

Then Dennis McCoy flew out near me after e run.  We came up at the same time, in the AFA days of the mid-80's, and I knew him pretty well.  Out of nowhere, Dennis turned to me and said, "I read that warrior thing you wrote, that was really cool."  I didn't know what he was talking about at first.  I'd forgotten about the zine a year earlier.  "I got one of your zines last year from Losey," Dennis said.  Then I remembered.  And I was blown away.

A zine that didn't seem to have much impact, or even get read much, a year earlier, had left a lasting impression on Dennis McCoy.  The old school rider who was still hanging with the kids on the vert ramp in 1999.  Let's face it, getting compliments about something you write feels good.  But getting a compliment out of nowhere, from Dennis McCoy, DM fucking C himself, A YEAR after I wrote the zine.  That's insane.  I'll remember that one til I die.  Or 'til Alzheimer's sets in from rotting my brain by drinking Diet Coke every day.

More than just the compliment, though, I realized I was right.  The BMX freestylers, the whole action sports world, really was a part of the P.R. Sarkar's Warrior mentality coming up in society, and growing into a worldwide influence.  That's why the concept really resonated with Dennis, he was one of the best examples of the rising Warrior Sports mentality in the world.

But... I realized... if that was right, then the other aspects of the theory would eventually happen.  In time, somewhere down the line, average people would start rising up in a series of populist uprisings.  And these uprisings would start small, but spread quickly.  And they would eventually get bigger, and bigger, causing major shifts in the way society thinks and acts.  And that would completely freak out the big money Acquisitor establishment that runs the world from the the corporate boardrooms, the traditional advertising agencies, and behind closed doors in our capitals.  So I kept an eye out for something that looked like a legit populist uprising.

When the Occupy Wall Street movement sprang up, around 2014, I knew that was the start.  Then it faded and went underground.  But many of those people kept working in their local areas.  When the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign first started, we all knew what would happen.  We'd wind up with long time political insider Hillary Clinton running against longtime political insider Jeb Bush.  Got ya, didn't I?  If you can think back to the very beginning of the 2016 campaign cycle, that's what it looked like.  That's what most everyone believed.

But then something crazy happened.  On the Left, Social Democratic senator Bernie Sanders tapped into a huge populist uprising that was fed up with the mainstream Democratic Party.  On the Right, egomaniac billionaire and reality TV star Donald Trump tapped into a huge populist movement that was sick of the traditional Republican Party.  Things got crazy, Vladimir Putin added his evil genius to the mix, and Trump is now president, though probably not for much longer.

The people, the average, everyday people, the Laborers in Sarkar's theory, are rising up.  While the Republicans have the political edge right now, all those Bernie supporters are still out there.  In addition, we've seen other movements, like women standing up in the #metoo movement, and the #neveragain movement.  As I write this (3/24/2018) there's a huge march in Washington D.C. happening today, sparked by a handful of Florida high school students who survived the recent mass school shooting.  Over 800 satellite marches are happening around the world.  Kids are tired of getting shot at school.  They're tired of friends using guns to commit suicide or kill other kids in the hood.  This is another populist uprising.

Attitudes are changing.  Everyday working people are tired of getting screwed over.  They're tired of working two jobs and still struggling to survive.  The shit is hitting the fan.  And the fan is on high.  Hell, the fan's on HYPER.  There will be more uprisings of different groups that will seem to spring out of nowhere and spread like wildfire.  These groups will keep coming up, and we will see some really crazy, chaotic, and turbulent times ahead.  It will be tough.  But there are a lot of Warriors in the world now.  Not just people who fight actual wars.  But people who stand up and fight for what they believe is right.  We look up to courage now much more than we did in 1998, or in 1990, or in 1984, when Bob Morales held the first BMX freestyle contest.

My belief is that if you ride now, you are part of the Warrior Mentality rising in society.  If you rode years ago, or skated, or snowboarded, you are part of the Warrior Mentality rising in society.  But us in the action sports world have created a whole new kind of "warrior."  We have created lifestyles, and sports, where people can be individuals, and they can express themselves and conquer their fears with bikes and boards and other vehicles.  But we've created ways to build your courage WITHOUT going into an actual war and killing other humans beings.  That's HUGE.

That's the basic idea I shared with the world in my 1998 zine, The Rise of the Warrior Sports.  Was I right?  Was Ravi Batra right?  Was P.R. Sarkar right?  If this blog post helps you make sense of the craziness in the world today, then maybe all three of us were right.  I'll let you decide.

What I do know is that I had some people ride in my taxi in 1999 and ask me specifically about this Warrior Age idea.  I don't know who they were, or where they read my zine.  But after that, my life got nuts.  I became homeless, and have been struggling ever since.  I've been turned downed for dozens of jobs I was completely qualified for since.  It's been a tough ride.  All kinds of weird shit has happened in my life.  And I've wondered if my "Warrior Sports" idea really freaked out somebody powerful somewhere.  I'll never know.  But if it did.  They lost.  The Warriors of the world, the people willing to stand up and fight for what they believe in... they're winning.  And if I'm right, all of us BMXers played a part in that.  You don't just ride to progress.  You're part of something much, MUCH bigger.  You're a part of a fundamental shift in society itself.  The Warrior Age is coming.  You're helping to build it.

Now go ride.

I do most of my new writing on Substack now, check it out:

Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack

Recession zine coming...

I started writing a small zine* the other day called, "How to Make the Next Recession Great."  From my own perspective, it looked like we're getting really close to the tipping point into the inevitable next recession (from Hell).  But these days, I try to make the most of opportunities.  Recessions suck for most, because people convince themselves that recessions will never happen again.  And then they happen.  But if you realize it's coming, and get ready for it, recessions offer a ton of opportunity. 

Oh yeah... the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 700 points or so today.  Imagine that.

* For any who don't know, a zine (pronounced zeen), is a small, self-published booklet, usually handmade and done on a photocopier.

The coolest thing I've ever seen in Winston-Salem

To nearly all the people in the world, if you say, "Winston-Salem," people will think of two packs of cigarettes.  Period.  This is one of the problems small and medium sized cities everywhere are dealing with.  In today's Information Age world, cities that build an name for themselves as being interesting and exciting places to be and live, attract the most talented people (aka Richard Florida's "Creative Class"), which attract more talented people.  Those cities are the ones where tech companies tend to set up because that's where the good tech people want to live.

To get to that point, Winston-Salem needs to get past the tobacco-centric past and become an interesting city in the minds of talented young people.  This video that I just stumbled across is the coolest thing I've ever seen associated with Winston-Salem.  Parkour is always fun to watch, and knowing where nearly every place in this video is adds to it.  The video is also well shot and well edited, which really helps.  Now, anyone out there who wants Winston-Salem to flourish in the future, make about 100 more videos of cool stuff like this happening here.

First you make your city known in the minds of college age people around the country, and around the world.  THEN you start getting the talented biotech scientists and engineers to move here to the new Innovation Quarter.  First things first.

Top YouTubers from 2017

The world has always been weird in many ways.  But now we live in a world where ten million men aren't working or looking for work.  Five million more are looking for a job (BLS stats).  Tens of millions more are struggling with one job, two jobs, or mountains of student debt.  Whole areas of the country are struggling. 

And there are these guys... and one gal.  PewDiePie has bit the dust from the YouTube top spot, and Logan Paul as well since this video came out.  But the rest are still making absurd amounts of money for making entertaining, or just plain weird, videos.  Believe it or not, "content creator" is a business a lot of younger kids are looking up to these days.  We are living in interesting times.

Yes, you can make money on YouTube... or at least your kids can

Got kids?  Got kids with Minions and Fart Blasters?  You probably will have after they watch this video.

In the last post, I shared a clip with tips for using You Tube to promote your music.  But are there really actual people who make big money on You Tube?  Yes, like these two kids above, Evan and Jillian.  I happen to know these two are for real, because their mom is one of my sister's best friends. 

As I understand it, the first YouTube channel started with Evan making things out of Play Doh or something when he was about 5 years old.  "Daddy Tube," as they call him in the videos, was a video producer, so he started making high quality videos of Evan trying out different toys.  EvanTube HD was born.  The channel took off in popularity, and before long toy companies were making deals to have Evan test out their toys in his videos. 

I first heard of these two kids a couple years back when visiting my sister.  She had just visited friends from way back, and I asked her how her friends were doing, since I they all were around our house while my sister was in high school.  She told me her BFF's son, Evan, was a YouTube millionaire.  I laughed.  Then my sister said she was serious. 

So I looked up Evan's channel, and this was the first video I watched.  Yeah, this kid, who was 8-years-old then, built the Lego Star Wars Sand Crawler.  I don't even know if I could build that thing without screwing it up.  Intrigued, I watched a few more videos, then Googled Evan and found the original version of this Huffington Post article.  Yes, at age 8, Evan (with his dad, mom and a few other helpers) was making over a $1 million a year from his YouTube channel. That blew my mind. 

So... how does a person, kid or adult, make big money using You Tube?  First you make good quality videos that connect with a large audience.  Second, you have to be real and entertaining on camera.  Third, you get tens of millions of views.  Yeah... no problem.  How hard can that be? 

EvanTube HD now has over 5.1 million subscribers, and one clip (giant gummy worm) has over 131 million views all by itself.  As Evan's little sister got older, she got into the act, and now has her own channel, as well as working as a team on Evan's original channel.  These channels are a full time business for the whole family, and a few other people, I believe. 

So where does the money come from?  Millions of views on YouTube earns people money from advertising, and when the numbers are huge, the paychecks can be huge, too.  Most smaller YouTube channels don't make all that much from the views their videos get.  Additional money comes from toy and game companies who work deals to have their products reviewed and tested by Evan and Jillian.  So in their case, before even reaching junior high, these kids have a serious college funds in the bank.  Heck, these two could probably buy their own college by the time they graduate high school at this rate. 

For all you parents out there, my sister, who has spent time visiting Evan and Jillian, says they're cool level headed kids.  Mommy Tube and Daddy Tube make sure all this success doesn't go to their heads.  I believe a lot of the toys get donated to worthy charities as well. 

So... making an absurd amount of money with YouTube is possible.  Can you or I do it?  Hey, I haven't been able to.  I don't even have an active YouTube channel yet.  But you'll see my Sharpie art on YouTube before too long.  But if you do something creative, YouTube and other video platforms are one great way to promote and show the world what you do.  Let's face it, it's unlikely that any of us will ever match the financial success of Evan and Jillian, but knowing that it is actually possible helps make building a good channel seem like a reasonable idea. 

How do you learn how to actually build up a channel?  How-to videos on YouTube, of course. 

Can you make money with music on YouTube?

While I'm not a musician, I'm always checking out ways to promote and make money with various types of creative work.  This 5 minute video has a ton of solid info on what it takes to make money with music (or other content) on YouTube.  If you bootleg music for your videos, you should watch this, too.  Basically, it's hard to make much money on YouTube unless you're in a decent sized niche and your stuff goes viral.  But there is money to be made if you can pull in the views.  For most people, though, it's better to view YouTube as promotion, and try to make your money some other way. 

Amanda Hocking: self-publishing success story

One of the first superstars of the Kindle/Apple e-book era, author Amanda Hocking talks about how she started and where it led in this clip.  She started writing vampire-type love stories, as I recall, and put in the work to both write the books, and to promote and self-publish them.  She got so successful, that traditional publishers started coming to her with offers.

I've been writing since my late teens, and have self-published 40 or so zines, written for BMX magazines, a newsletter, and typed up thousands of blog posts.  But publishing a "real" book has eluded me.  My artwork is bringing in money these days, but I'm more of a writer, and hopefully I can make a real book happen in the next year or so.  Amanda did it.  So have many others.  Knowing it's possible with today's technology helps.

Toys-R-Us: another chain bites the dust in the Retail Apcoalypse

DEFINITELY NSFW.  How does a kid fee when the biggest toy story is closing down for good?  Probably a lot like the kids in this classic scene.

As disruption in the retail store world continues, the best known toy store, Toys-R-Us has succumbed to the transition from the old Industrial Age to the building Information Age.  I call this in between time The Big Transition.  TRU will be closing all 800+ stores across the country.  Here's the story of how it happened from CNBC.  Might be a good time to go shopping for next Christmas.

Some recent drawings...

 They ladies at the office I was at yesterday were asking about what kind of stuff I draw.  Here's a few from recent months.  Tupac, Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", sold.

 Maya Angelou tribute, Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", for sale now at Studios at 625, 625 Trade Street, Winston-Salem.

 Michael Jackson, Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", in a show and for sale now at Delurk Gallery, on the corner of 6th and Trade, Winston-Salem.

Jerry Garcia (of the Grateful Dead), Sharpies on paper, 18" X 24", for sale now at Studios at 625 on Trade Street in Winston-Salem.  I also have two drawings, Gene Simmons and The Ramones, still up and for sale at Earshot Music, 3254 Silas Creek (next to Marshall's) inWinston-Salem.

3/14/2018- Homeless stuff, now back to work

I spent the last couple afternoons working on getting my community service transferred here so I can put in my hours.  The clock was ticking and I finally got halfway stable, so I could deal with this.  I managed to get arrested for trespassing last fall while buying a pack of donuts in a grocery store during business hours.  Really.  It's the kind of thing that can only happen to homeless people. 

In the course of re-scheduling the hours I need to put in, I had to tell the ladies there where I live.  I also told them I had created my own job, as an artist, since this had happened.  That was a tough sell, since it's not every day they hear a story like that. 

Everyone thinks that if you're homeless that it's mandatory to go stay at a shelter.  But going to a shelter is pretty much like going to jail, by choice.  If you have no ambition, and don't mind hearing five guys snore in the same room, having sketchy guys wake up at 4am to steal your socks, and being woke up at 5:30 am for no good reason, then shelters are fine.  But I was able to get going in the local art scene and get a ton of work lined up precisely because I DIDN'T stay in the shelter.  But that's a hard sell to people who know nothing about homelessness.  In any case, they ladies I dealt with yesterday were really helpful, and I'm glad I got things squared away so I can put in the work time.  Thanks ladies.

So now, I have a 4 to 5 solid weeks of artwork to do.  It doesn't pay a lot for the hours, but it's all paying work.  I also have to clock in 50 hours of community service AND pay a $250 fine soon.  So I'm gonna be a busy guy for a while.  And, of course, doing all this stuff sets back the date when I can finally get some kind of place to live by a month or more.  But that's life.

Also, since I had to tell ladies associated with law enforcement where my campsite is, I knew that anything was possible when I got back to it last night.  Someone found it, looked through my stuff, and were hanging out not far away when I headed in to go to sleep.  I heard a lot of people trampling around outside my tent, and they didn't seem to happy, but I'm still here today.  So... back to work.  

Another blog milestone- Thanks

With that last post about Dave Vanderspek, this blog hit the 20,000 total page view milestone.  As big time blogs go, that's not a lot.  But for a weird little blog like mine, that's really good.  Thanks everyone for checking out my stuff, I'll try to keep it interesting... most of the time, anyhow. 

The big thing I learned from Dave Vanderspek and the Curb Dogs

Blog post:  The big thing I learned from Dave Vanderspek and the Curb Dogs

Dave Vanderspek head shot, as they call them in the entertainment industry.  Courtesy of Maurice Meyer.  Pro BMX racer, pro freestyler, super promoter, contest promoter, and BMX pioneer.

 

Dave Vanderspek was the visionary leader of the whole Bay Area scene, and he started the Curb Dogs bike and skate team.  At that time, there were a few factory teams that toured every summer, The BMX Action Trick Team, Haro, GT, and CW teams were the best known.  But when the magazines took a poll of the most popular teams, the Curb Dogs were always ranked right up among the factory teams.  At the time, every little group of BMX freestylers around the country had a trick team in their area.  We had one when I live in Idaho.  Ron Wilkerson started the 2-Hip Trick Team when he lived in San Francisco.  Chris Lashua and Dennis Langlais had the GT/Mountain Dew team on the East Coast.  The Curb Dogs were the only completely independent team that ranked with the top teams in popularity time after time.  The main reason was the Dave Vanderspek was an incredible promoter.

But Dave also came across as a kind of goofball.  At a time when Bob Haro and R.L. Osborn were working to look respectable and be clean cut businessmen, Vander was more like Jeff Spicoli in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  Check out this clip of Dave doing damage control after skaters got a bit rowdy at a show and the police were called.  This was the Dave we saw and hung out with.  He was the opposite of the clean cut business guys like R.L., Bob Haro, Bob Morales and others at the time.  I think that's why the magazines loved him so much, you never knew what Dave was going to do or say.  He was fun to hang around, and he could RIDE.  And he could skate well, too.  But it was hard for me to take him seriously when I first got to know him.  And I was jealous, as were some other riders, of all the coverage Dave got in the magazines.

At the same time, the Bay Area BMX freestyle scene was the best scene in the country.  Vander, Maurice Meyer, Robert Peterson, Oleg Konings, Rick Allison, and Hugo Gonzales were the pros we all got to hang out and ride with.  The Ground Control team, the top amateurs at the time, included Chris and Karl Rothe, Mike Perkins, Mark McKee, Darcy Langlois, and John Ficarra.  Down in San Jose, where Hugo lived, was his brother Oscar, John Vasquez (an INSANELY good rider), Vince Torres, Mike Golden and others.  The posse came together every Sunday afternoon in Golden Gate Park to session.  Once a month or so, most of us gathered in Foster City (halfway between S.F. and San Jose), where Robert Peterson worked, and the Skyway guys set up their ramps, and we all sessioned.  During all the time in between, we rode by our selves or in small groups in our area.

Over 20 years, I was a part of many BMX and freestyle scenes; the Bois, Idaho local scene, The Spot in Redondo Beach, CA, Huntington Beach Pier scene, the P.O.W. House/S&M Bikes crew, and Sheep Hills.  I met and hung out with nearly all the riders around the country in those days.  There were many really good scenes that had influence over BMX and freestyle as it evolved.  But none of those scenes compared to the Golden Gate Park/Curb Dogs scene.  And the main reason was Dave Vanderspek.  He set the tone.  Somehow, when the rest of us were mostly trying to promote ourselves and get coverage and sponsors, Dave recognized the importance of building the actual scene.  That attitude was shared by the other pros and the rest of us.  They wanted all of us to improve.  They wanted all of us to get sponsors and coverage when possible.  The better riders were always helping out younger and newer riders learn new tricks, or better style.

In those days, in every scene I was a part of, we would hide the new tricks we were working on from the other riders.  Even Jay Bickel and I in Idaho, when there was only two of us, we would work on a new trick in secret, and be able to pull it off, before we'd show it to each other.  But the Golden Gate Park/Curb Dogs crew was different.  I could show up at Golden Gate Park, and tell everyone about some idea for a trick, but could not come close to pulling off yet.  Unlike every other riding scene, the other riders would give me (or any of us) ideas and tips, and they wouldn't even try to steal my idea until I could do it.  That was true of every rider from pro to the newest kid who showed up.  We could share ideas for new tricks, and it was our trick, and the rest of the posse would be stoked to see us finally land it, and then get it wired.  Only then would the other riders try to learn our trick.  That little bit of difference in how the scene operated made a huge difference.  Because of it, we all improved as riders, but also as people.

Dave Vanderspek didn't always show up at Golden Gate Park on the weekends.  At the time I thought that was lame.  We all made the trip from around the huge Bay Area, and Dave wouldn't be there sometimes.  I didn't realize that it was because he was out promoting and doing things that would ultimately help all of us, and riding in general.  The Golden Gate Park scene, and the Curb Dogs and Skyway teams, had a big influence on the freestyle world.

Vander put on the first BMX halfpipe contest and the first bike street contest.  EVER.  He brought punk rock and D.I.Y. attitude into BMX and freestyle.  The NorCal guys were pioneers of street riding.  Ron Wilkerson got the cover of the first issue of FREESTYLIN' magazine at Golden Gate Park.  Ron became a top Haro pro, moved to SoCal, went on to promote the 2-Hip King of Vert, Meet the Street, and King of Dirt contests.  Those were the first halfpipe and street contest series. Later came Wilkerson Air Lines and 2-Hip Bikes.

My zine got me a job at BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines in August of 1986, and I moved to SoCal.  I later worked at the AFA, Unreel Productions (Vision's video company) and produced several early, low budget videos, including vids for the AFA, 2-Hip, and S&M Bikes.  Chris Rothe was the first rider I ever saw do a bar ride, though not the very first guy to do it.  Karl Rothe went on to become the longtime editor of BMX Plus! magazine.  Mark McKee went on to become a graphic designer at World Industries skateboards, and created the most influential skateboard graphics of all time.  Oleg Konings did the first scuff trick I ever saw, a couple years before scuff tricks changed flatland forever.  The time and attention that Vander and the others put in to creating a great scene, not just a few egomaniacs trying to out ride each other, made all the difference in the world.  But I still didn't really get it.

Then, one day in late 1987 or early 1988, some promoter guy held a street and jump box jam in Huntington Beach.  H.B. Pier local, and my good friend, Mike Sarrail gave the guy the idea.  We got word out, and riders from all over showed up for the jam.  During that jam, Dave Vanderspek rolled up on his bike and pulled me aside.  Dave told me he noticed how much I had improved as a rider since he first met me, and that he was really stoked that I had worked at FREESTYLIN', and then edited the AFA newsletter.  As he was talking to me, he had his back to the whole jam.  Over his shoulder I saw Brian Blyther, Dave Voelker and many others blasting off the Stonehenge jump box.  It blew me away that Dave Vanderspek, this guy I'd talked some smack about, and was secretly jealous of, literally turned his back on an insane session to tell me he was proud of how I had improved both on and off my bike since he first met me.

And then I got it.  Dave actually gave a shit about me.  And not just me, but every single kid that rolled up to him at Golden Gate Park or a ramp jam or at a show.  He wanted ALL OF US to improve, both on and off our bikes.  He was stoked when one of us got a job in the industry or came up with a new trick or had any kind of success.  At 24 years old, Dave Vanderspek intuitively understood that by building a great scene, all of us would have a better chance to reach our personal potential.  We helped each other.  We fed off each other.  And we helped invent, improve, and change the bike world forever.  That was what he had been doing all along, and I just didn't see it.  Finally, at the ramp jam in H.B., I got it.  I finally saw why pretty much everyone in the sport was a fan of Vander.  That was the last time I ever saw Dave Vanderspek.  He died in a crazy and tragic way in the months after.

Now, as a 50-something guy starting over, yet again, I'm trying to take what I learned from Vander and put it into practice in the art scene I'm now a part of here in Winston-Salem.  It's my turn to be a kind of Vander, and help this local art scene progress and grow.  All of you out there riding or doing some other kind of creative thing, it's your turn to be Vander, too.

Help the beginners and  young kids in your scene.  Share the D.I.Y. spirit.  Become better people on AND off your bikes or skateboards.  Do the same in your art, music, film, or other creative scenes.  If anyone in your scene does well, you win.  You all win.  Dave Vanderspek understood this way back when.  He lived it.  Now it's our turn to live it.

Curb Dogs video, part 1

Curb Dogs video, part 2

1986 "Pacific Currents" featuring Maurice Meyer, ( I'm the guy chasing my bike at 5:07)

Beach Park Ramp Jam local TV segment from 1986

The high temperature here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is supposed to be 43 degrees today.  Really.  Hi 5 Vander. 

Rachel's "Fresh From The Vine" radio show

Since I met Rachel from Designs, Vines, and Wines a about 4 months ago, I've been spending more and more time hanging out there.  It's just plain fun.  That's all I really need to say.  Creative people hanging out, doing projects, spitting poetry and spoken word, Melvin (featured in this show) sending out some beats.  It's just a cool place to hang out.  In addition to giving some wall space to newer artists like myself, Rachel now is doing a weekly radio show about her passions, wine, art, creativity, wine, music, wine, organic gardening, the Trade Street art scene in Winston-Salem.  Oh, and wine, did I mention the wine?  And I don't even drink any more.  Rachel's studio is in the middle of the Trade Street Art District of Winston-Salem, in Studios at 625, at (you guessed it) 625 Trade Street downtown.  Cruise by if you're in the galaxy.

Here's the first show.  Tribal beats.  A few laughs.  A message from our last president.  And some poetry.  Enjoy. 

Wintry mix sucks: 3/12/2018

I saw a dusting of snow and had sleet falling when I headed out this morning.  Halfway to the place I eat breakfast, a few big, beautiful snowflakes started coming down.  It was snowing heavy by the time I got there. It's about 35 degrees, deep slush all over the place, and I was walking around a bunch today.  I had to go to the library to print a photo, then walk to a place to make some photo copies.  I don't have boots, so I was doing my best to keep my feet halfway dry.  It didn't work.  But I did.  I got started on the next drawing I have to do today.  I work seven days a week, I'm working on building my art and writing in a business, after all.  It doesn't matter what the weather does, I need to keep going, and get as much done as I can. 

You can't make a living as an artist... can you?

This video is actually a promo video for Shopify, an e-commerce service where you can build your own online store.  It's an alternative to Etsy and other ways to sell your creative work online.  I just like this video because it gives a great look at actual working artists.  They're not household names.  Their work doesn't sell for millions at auction.  They're real people who've blended their creative work with business and make a decent living and live the kind of life they want to live.  That's what most of us creative people want to do.

So... can anyone else do that?  When you tell people you want to make a living as an artist, there's this age old idea that a handful of fruity, crazy people in New York and L.A. make money doing art, but it's impossible for anyone else.  I'm 51 years old, I've been working for 2 1/2 years towards making a living from my art and writing, and the whole time more traditional people around me have been saying things like, "That drawing is nice, but why don't you go get a REAL job?"  The funny thing is, I decided to focus on my Sharpie drawings to earn money when I couldn't find a "real job."

Being an geek about macroeconomics and big picture thinking, I dug into books that research and project where work itself is headed in the United States.  Million of the high paying factory jobs have either gone to other countries or been replaced by industrial robots or other technology over the past 40 years.  About 35% of workers now belong to what researcher Richard Florida calls the "Creative Class," people who make their living primarily using their brains and creativity.  That's tens of millions of people.  But most of that group are tech workers and management and similar types of work. As we head into the future, millions more jobs will be taken over by new tech like Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and even better robots.  Creativity is seen as one of the key traits necessary to make a decent living in the next couple of decades by the tech leaders. 

But can you actually make it as an artist?  Can you actually make a living as a painter, designer, sculptor, writer, or musician?  The vast majority of everyday people will tell you it's not possible.  Fuck them.  Check out this page of stats about working artists by the National Endowment for the Arts.  As of 2015, over 2 MILLION people made their living as an artist of some kind.  A total of 4.7 million people made a living in the "Arts and Cultural" sector.  That's a lot of people.  Artists also tend to be much more entrepreneurial than the general public. 

So yes, IT IS POSSIBLE to make a living as an artist in the U.S..  That doesn't mean it's easy, but it is possible, and millions of people do it.  Take that haters.

Building a Creative small business 3/11/2018

Since I'm working on turning my art (and writing) into a small business, I've been on a Gary Vaynerchuk kick the last few days, listening to a bunch of his talks and interviews.  Gary, like many of the wines he used to sell, is an acquired taste.  When you first hear him, it's easy to say, "This guy's a big-talking asshole who cusses to fucking much."  If you get past that stage, and some don't, you'll realize that he really knows his stuff on the internet, tech savvy business, promotion, story telling, community building, marketing, and sales in the connected, information age that we now live in.  And he puts out TONS of content these days. 

But Gary's advice is geared mostly to people already in the tech world, or very tech friendly areas.  He's ahead of the curve because he goes to great lengths to keep a feel for the pulse of our rapidly changing, connected world.  So that's why I like listening to him, especially as I work to get my own biz going. 

But one blind spot of his in the millions upon millions of people, and huge areas of our country, that "don't do tech," or are just don't see the need to learn all this new crap getting invented.  He's knows this world is out there, but he's to busy to focus on it. 

I'm getting going in a mid-sized city that has done a lot of work to encourage a biotech/science scene to grow here.  But the vast majority of everyday people here are stuck in the "get a job, and if you can't find one just keep trying" mentality.  There's not a big entrepreneurial spirit here... These people I see around town are often masters of Candy Crush, but don't think of their phones and laptops and tablets as business tools.  This area of North Carolina was built on tobacco and textiles, with lots of farming and factory jobs that have mostly gone away.  It's like huge parts of the U.S. these days.  The idea of starting your own business is not widespread.  But as I've said before, looking hard at where we're headed (being an amateur futurist is my geek zone), I think we're going to need literally MILLIONS of new small businesses to get this country jamming financially again.  That's a very unusual, minority opinion right now.  I'm fine with that.  I've been a pioneer in other things before, and I'm used to everyone thinking I'm an idiot until an a new idea becomes cool.  I've seen that happen many times. 

Listening to Gary Vee rant on You Tube the last few days, I've decided to narrow the focus of this blog quite a bit.  I'm going to spend most of my time writing about what I'm doing to get my own little creative business going, and all the different things that entails, from the mindset and attitude needed to practical stuff I do day to day.  I'll also be sharing all the stuff I find along these lines for the other artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people building businesses.  I'll still tell the occasional old school BMX freestyle tale, since that's what a lot of you know me from, and I may throw in some of my crazy taxi driver or homeless guy stories, if they tie into that basic theme. 

And I'll try not to write lame ass blog posts like this one that have six paragraphs when I could have said this in two sentences.  I need to work on that.  Alright, back to work for me, and for you, go do something cool.  Later.

Sharpie Art Lamborghini by Jessie Armand

I never spent much time painting pictures as a kid.  I was always drawing with pencils, and later ballpoint pens.  That's why I started drawing with markers in 2002, and later switched to using Sharpie markers almost exclusively.  I was in my own little world, and had no idea that there were people out there doing cool stuff with Sharpie markers. 

In 2012, my dad had a stroke and died a few months later.  While he was in the nursing home, I quit driving a taxi, and spent the time with him that could.  I wound up moving in with my mom when he died in August of that year.  I couldn't find a job, and started spending more time drawing in my weird "scribble style" with Sharpies.  It was around that time that I finally got around to looking up "Sharpie art" on the web. The standout artist I found was Jessie Armand.  He does these amazing designs using only black Sharpies most of the time. 

His work is totally different than mine, and much better in my opinion.  It looked like fun, so I do a doodle art drawing every now and then, my version of his style.  They're getting better, but they're still not near as cool looking as Jessie's stuff.  Here's Jessie working on a Lamborghini.  Hey, no pressure, it's not like the owner would be mad if you jacked up a $175,000 car.  Cool stuff.

Lessons from BMX freestyle: Get around the people who make stuff happen

When I came to Winston-Salem last summer, and camped out in the woods since I couldn't afford a room anywhere, I started wandering around and showing my Sharpie art to people in restaurants and stores to see what they thought.  I went to McKay's used bookstore (AWESOME place, BTW), and the women working in the back said, "Go to Delurk Gallery."  I met several other people who said the same thing, most of them in their 20's.  Delurk, on sixth street, just off Trade, in the space where Urban Artware used to be, is the coolest gallery here in Winston to the college age crowd.

My Michael Jackson drawing above is hanging on the wall there right now, in the "Creatures of Fortune" exhibit, one of 17 pieces chosen from all the talented artists in this area.  If you're a young artist, or a "creative" of any kind, you're probably wondering how a homeless guy who draws in an obscure medium made that happen.  The truth is, I didn't make it happen.  I got around the people who make stuff happen in the local art scene, and my first piece to hang in Delurk happened without me even knowing it.

How did I get to this point, having a drawing in the hippest gallery (to young people) around?  First of all, I  put in the work to learn to make cool looking drawings.  I tried to draw a mural on big sheets of paper in my room with markers waaaaaay back in 2002.  It sucked.  I kept goofing around with markers, switched to Sharpie markers, and stumbled on my "scribble style" technique in 2005.  I started drawing on a pretty regular basis, using my unique style of shading to do different types of drawings, most of which weren't very good.

In late 2015, unemployed and living with my mom at age 49, I couldn't find ANY "real job" in this area.  I made a little money now and then drawing kids' names in their favorite colors, and selling the drawings for $20.  I decided that I could either keep trying to get a lame ass minimum wage job, or I could focus 100% on turning my art (and writing) into a small business.  It wasn't much of a decision.  Obviously, I went all in on art.

I sat down one night and spent over two hours looking at all kinds of artwork online, asking myself, "What would I want to put on MY wall?"  It's a simple, but powerful, question.  I love the colors in graffiti art, the wide array of street art, and I kept coming back to stencil art.  I found a very simple stencil art picture of Bruce Lee's face.  So I printed it out, blew it up on a photo copier, and transferred the outline to my paper, then I drew it and colored it in using my Sharpie scribble style.  It wasn't amazing, but I liked it, and I did actually put it up on my wall.  I realized I was on the right track, and I started drawing picturse of people,working from photos, mostly athletes at first, that had deep shadows and stencil-like looks.

In the time since then, I've drawn around 80 to100 drawings, most of which took 18 to 25 hours each, some as much as 40 hours each.  I stepped up my game.  I kept improving, and still am improving.  I learn little things on every drawing.  I promoted my work online, and sold a lot of drawings super cheap, $1 to $2 an hour for the time I spent drawing them.  Over the last two years, I got better.

I finally got to the place where my drawings, all by themselves attract attention.  Then I came over to Winston-Salem, broke as fuck, and left a toxic living situation where I never could have made a living with my art.  That was necessary, but it meant going back to homelessness.  I kept drawing every day, struggling to survive day by day at the same time.  It was tough.  Really tough.  But I knew it was the right thing for me to be doing right now, and I loved doing the actual work.

A couple of guys saw me drawing at McDonald's, and said I should show my work to the music shop across the street.  That shop was Earshot Music (3254 Silas Creek here in W-S), and the manager, owner, and the art director liked my stuff.  They put a couple of drawings up on the wall, then asked me to do a full show with 8 drawings.  I knew that was a launching pad for me.

To be clear, I don't actively "network."  I figure out who the people are who make stuff happen in the scene I'm interested in.  In this case, it was the Winston-Salem art scene, centered mostly around Trade Street downtown.  Earshot Music is not there, but it's vibrant part of the local art and music scene.  I went there, talked to Phred the owner, and we hit it off.  I don't try to push myself on people I don't really like.  I don't go around talking fast, using Neuro-linguistic programming, and hand my business card to everyone.  I hate that shit.  I go out and meet the people in the scene, show them what I do, and some people and me click, and some don't.  I don't worry about the ones that don't.  I learned that years ago in the BMX freestyle world.  Just meet the people in the scene, and you'll click with some.  Start working with those people.  Forget the rest.

Right when the Earshot show was about to open, I finally made it to the First Friday Gallery Hop on Trade Street.  I showed my drawings to several people, and a woman named Luba really liked my stuff.  She led me around meeting other local people.  She introduced me to Rachel White of Designs, Vines, and Wines, at Studios at 625 on Trade Street.  I talked to Rachel for a while.  A month later, at the next Gallery Hop, I talked to her some more.  She made me a featured artist in her space in February.  She liked my Michael Jackson drawing that I did for someone.  That person never got back to me when I sent them a picture of the drawing online.  So I gave it to Rachel to hang up, along with some others.  Then I had drawings hanging at two places in Winston-Salem.

I wasn't even there the day a person from Delurk Gallery came around, scouting work to have artists apply for the "Creatures" show.  Rachel took the initiative and entered two of my drawings.  Normally I don't like people doing stuff without asking me concerning my work, but it was near the deadline to enter, and I'm stoked he just did it.  As I mentioned, the Michael Jackson drawing made it into the show.  So now, while still homeless (hopefully for not much longer), I have drawings of mine hanging up at Earshot Music, Studios at 625, and at Delurk Gallery.  And to be honest, I didn't work hard to make those happen... recently.  But I put in the time to figure out how to draw with Sharpies, which I was attracted to for some reason.  I think that reason was mostly because I didn't want to learn how to paint.  I wasn't out to create a unique style.  That failed mural attempt just really pissed me off, and I was determined to find a cool way to shade with Sharpies. 

The recent part, working into the local art scene here, is based on something I learned in the BMX freestyle world in the 1980's.  In Idaho, I got into BMX racing, then freestyle, and went to a show by the only freestyle team around.  I met the guys, Jay Bickel and Wayne Moore, and started riding with them two or three times a week.  In a couple of months, I was part of the team and doing shows with them. 

When I moved to San Jose, California with my family a year later, I started a zine as an excuse to meet the riders in the San Francisco Bay Area, which included a few pro riders.  I didn't think I was a good enough rider to actually just hang out with them.  Within a couple of months, I met them all, interviewed them and shot photos for my zine, and I was part of the scene, which happened to be the most cohesive BMX freestyle scene anywhere then. 

Intuitively, I sent copies of my zine to the guys at the BMX magazines.  A few months later, at a big contest, I went up and introduced myself to Andy Jenkins and Lew from FREESTYLIN' magazine.  Much to my surprise, they said they really liked my zine.  That led to writing an article for the magazine, which was a huge deal in those pre-internet days.  Soon they offered me a job, and I "stumbled" into the BMX freestyle industry, and later the skateboard, video, and TV industries.  Along the way I realized that the two main things I was doing were: 1) Working hard to make a cool zine, (and later other cool stuff, like videos), and 2) I was finding and meeting the handful of people who actually made stuff happen in the BMX freestyle world.

In any scene (art, music, BMX, skating, whatever), or business, or industry, there are a relatively small number of people who make most of the stuff happen.  Do something cool, and then send it to those people.  Or meet those people at an event, and give them a small gift of your work.  That's a totally different mindset than say, stalking Kim Kardashian and trying to get her to give a shout out to your handmade jewelry or something.  Tons of people try to do that these days to get hype from "influencers."  Don't.

Work on whatever creative thing it is that you do.  Get to where it's pretty good... maybe even great.  Then give it to the people you admire in that world.  Lots of people ask those people for their influence or hype.  But not all that many people will just give the people they admire a small gift with no expectation of them helping you.  It's not hard to do, and the people who make stuff happen don't get that many personal gifts like that.  You will be amazed how many people will respond.  Many will remember your gift much later on.  But don't just do it as a quid pro quo.  Give a gift... a TRUE gift, without expecting anything.  Then just go on with life.  Some of those gifts will help you connect with the people who make stuff happen.  When you get around those people, opportunities will just start coming your way.  Yes, HARD WORK is a definite part of the equation.  But if you're doing something creative that you enjoy doing, it doesn't really feel like work. 

How crazy can this get?  At one point in the '90's, I made a little zine of my poetry, handmade, typed on a typewriter, and photocopied.  They were cheesy, but some of my poems were halfway decent.  I sent those zines out to several of my favorite writers.  Like real writers who published real books.  And then I just forgot about it and went on with daily life.  I got four or five thank you notes and letters back from my favorite writers, all very positive.  In fact, I got a form letter back from best selling novelist Dean Koontz, who gets thousands and thousands of fan letters.  He hand wrote two lines at the bottom.  That blew my freakin' mind.  Guess what, I read several more of his novels in the next few months.  If you happen to be a Koontz fan, write him an old-fashioned snail mail letter.  He has a newsletter he sends out to fans that write to him.  It's awesome.  That's his way of giving a little gift to his readers, the opposite form or what I'm talking about here.

This is one small part of getting to the point where you can make a living from your creative work, which is what I'm working to do myself.  And it IS work.  But in today's high tech, info age, hyper-connected world, there's a lot of work out there for creative people.  So take the time to develop your craft, work hard, and get around the people in your world who make stuff happen.  You'll be amazed what that can lead to.

The answers to the questions you'll ask when you're broke in two years: Gary Vee lets loose

If you're not interested in using the web and new tech to promote yourself or your business, then you'll probably think Gary Vaynerchuk is an arrogant prick who cusses too damn much.  That's understandable.  But he's not.  He's been a businessman since childhood, and he knows just how amazing today's technology is when it comes to letting everyone into the game of business.

When I came to North Carolina in November 2008, after a  year on the streets of Southern California, I started surfing the web for the first time in my life.  That was years after most everyone else started wandering around in the online world.  I was way behind the curve on the internet and new tech.  But I wanted to figure something out.  I wanted to learn what it took to be a writer in today's world.  I've been going to the Google State University and You Tube College and self-educating ever since.  I started blogging, and have since had three blogs that were #1 in their little niches, in the world (FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales, Freestyle BMX Tales, and Make Money Panhandling; all have been taken down since).  They didn't make money.  But I DID learn that these days you're a media company first, like Gary says in this talk, and then you're whatever you THINK you do for a living.

I live in a fucking tent right now.  But I'm doing what I love.  I'm creating drawings that real people want to put on their walls.  I worked two years to get to that point, after ten years of developing my unique style.  I'm writing about things that I really am interested in and care about.  I'm not worried about the raccoons I share the woods with getting in my tent.  I can deal with them.  They 're actually better neighbors than many 2-legged creatures I've met. I'm not worried about that because I spent many years searching for the reason that I, personally, am here on Earth.  I found the answers I was looking for that ring true on a really deep level to me.  That simple understanding let me get out of my own way, and get much, much more productive.

Some people like what I draw, I'm starting to make money consistently with that.  The writing and blogging will lead to other types of income in time.  I go to sleep happier in a beat up, old, musty tent in the woods than most of you do in a big, awesome (or not so awesome) bed in your nice warm house.  I'm doing what I think matters, and it's starting to pay off.  That's because I've been learning from people like Gary Vee (and Seth Godin, Mitch Joel, etc) for the last 9 1/2 years, and I've been trying different things, finding my voice, and learning what does and doesn't work for me.  What I've sent out into the world, both online and off, is starting to come back in a positive way.  I've been meeting talented and motivated people with similar interests, and many have helped me one way or another.  So even if it's a cold, rainy morning, and my tent zipper won't zip closed, and I start cussing like a taxi driver (or Gary Vee), I'm still stoked on what the day ahead of me will bring.  With that going for me, dealing with the day to day crap doesn't phase me that much. 

As a homeless entrepreneur at the moment, I know that something really bad could happen on any given night.  It's possible I won't live to see the next day.  But more than likely, I'll be able to work my way out of homelessness (again).  At that point, the sketchy tent living will become a funny anecdote to tell to people who think it's impossible to start their own business. 

For a while now, I've been saying we'll be heading to another recession before too awful long.  Like Gary, I did some research on the whole student loan crisis, and realized that it will collapse, probably in this next recession, and it will cause hard times for millions of people.  It could be another 2008 mess all over again, and we'll see well known colleges and universities struggle, and some will collapse.  It's another big part of the shake down as the old Industrial Age fades, and the Information Age continues to take shape.  I don't say this to be a doomsayer or bum everyone out.  I see it as a financial weather report.  There's a big storm coming in the economy, we get one every decade, and I believe putting some thought into it ahead of time will help me, and all of you, deal with it better.  Gary Vaynerchuk is the first successful business person I've heard talk about the student loan crisis turning into a Great Recession-type mess. 

But there's another side to financial hard times.  Lame businesses go under, and there are all kinds of opportunities for people who have good ideas and are willing to work hard.  I don't care who you are, it's worth the time to listen to Gary's speech above.  I know most of you won't watch it.  So if you're reading this, come back to this post and listen to it a year or so from now when things look really sketchy.  You'll be ready for what Gary's talking about then. 

Put in the work...

Gary fuckin' Vaynerchuk cusses a lot.  Or "curses" a lot, if  you grew up in this part of the country.  He also understands today's connected world like very few do, and he works his ass off.  Just listen.

Hanging at Delurk

Patrick Harris, the painter of the work in this clip, is one of the founders of Delurk Gallery in Winston-Salem, I believe.  He did a great painting of Deniro as Travis Bickel in Taxi Driver years ago.  I really wanted to buy it, but I was broke, so I drew my own version.  I'm showing this clip because, for some reason, there's hardly anything on You Tube from the Winston-Salem/ Trade Street art scene.  Let's see if we can double the 53 views it's had in two years.  Heh, heh, heh.

My Michael Jackson drawing was accepted into the "Creatures of  Fortune" exhibit at Delurk, which opened last night.  Months ago, when I first wandered around Winston, showing my art to random people to get their thoughts, nearly everybody said, "Go to Delurk Gallery."  To the college age people in particular, Delurk seems to be the coolest gallery around.  As I got busy with other projects, I never followed through with them.  The drawing got into the show thanks to Rachel White, and was a total last minute thing.  I didn't win one of the three prizes, but as a new guy to this scene with a really weird type of art (Sharpie art), I'm just stoked to be included and have something on a wall at Delurk.

I also just finished a drawing of Jimi Hendrix yesterday, my take on the classic photo of him lighting his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.  I was stoked on how Jimi turned out,  and I dropped it off to be picked up by the couple who ordered it.  There are a couple photos of it floating around, I'll chase them down and post them later. 

After a beautiful, but chilly and super windy day yesterday, the crowd for the First Friday Gallery Hop wasn't huge, but we had a good time.  The theme was Alice in Wonderland, so there were a couple Alice's and a Mad Hatter or two, wandering around freezing their butts off last night.  It was a good time, and after wandering the scene, I landed back at Studios at 625, and worked on a Sharpie doodle art drawing idea.  I'm not a member of 625, but more like a stray cat the fed a couple times that won't go away.

OK, that's my quick take on last night's gallery hop, now... back to work.  I've got a bunch more musicians to draw in the next few weeks. 

What happens when 7 to 10 million men are playing video games and not working?

As a geek who is actually interested in macroeconomics, the future, and big picture thinking, I've been skirting this huge problem for years without hearing about this aspect.  Here's some facts.  In the U.S., we have:

- 7 to 10 million men, ages 25-54, who are not working
- 20 million people with felony convictions who are in society and not incarcerated now
- A higher percentage of prime age men not working than during The Great Depression
- A growing number of women of prime age not working

Nicolas Eberstadt  wrote a book about this issue, Men Without Work, but it's still unknown to most people.  The small number who do know about this issue tend to be concerned, but the media at all levels either has no idea about this, or is ignoring the issue.  This is a very quick, concise clip that gives a great glimpse of a huge issue we all really need to figure out and deal with.