Retail Apocalypse- May 2018- Sears closing 72 more stores

In this just out CNBC article, the department store that clothed me in Toughskins as a kid, Sears, is shutting down another 72 stores.  That's after 1,000 Sears/Kmart locations that have already closed.  According to the article, many industry people think that Sears is close to filing for bankruptcy.  Here's a map of those stores closing down.  The closest to here seems to be either Charlotte or Spartenburg, SC area (hover isn't working right now).

That could hit home here in this area.  The local mall here in Winston-Salem, Hanes Mall, is one of the "average American malls" that's still doing really well.  In the struggling shopping mall world, the high end, luxury malls are mostly doing well.  The malls in really small cities are often the ones in the "dead mall" world.  There's no official designation for what constitutes a dead mall, but one with 70% or less of the shops filled (or 30%+ empty), is the sort of accepted threshold.

The Hanes Mall here is in the middle, which is why I refer to it as an"average American mall."  Some of these across the country are really struggling, some are doing just fine.  Hanes is one that's doing well.  But three of its anchor stores are Sears, J.C. Penney's, and Macy's.  J.C. Penney's has been struggling for years, and many people think its days are really numbered.  Now Sears has industry people thinking it might be close to bankruptcy.  Macy's has closed a lot of stores in its downsizing, but is definitely in better shape than those two.  If Sears and Penney's bite the dust, malls that are now doing well, like Hanes Mall here, will find themselves quickly in a tough spot.

What would you do with an empty store in a mall?  Or a whole Dead Mall?  The retail world is looking for really good ideas.  Your idea might be one.  My best ideas look something like this.  Yes, that's a store in a mall, The Block of Orange in Orange, California.  But that's just MY idea.  Throw your ideas in my comments on Facebook.  They may be much better than mine.  Here's a little contest that takes place in this same mall "store" every year.

The cities that get most of the U.S. start-up business money

So here's a big issue in our 2018 economy.  The computer/internet/tech world has built some hugely profitable companies over the last few decades.  Along the same timeline, most of our Industrial Age factories closed down due to new technology and jobs going to factories in countries where workers are way cheaper.  So we have tens of millions of former middle class people who don't have good paying jobs, and a new, much smaller group of high tech workers making tons of dough. 

All across the United States, the cities that lost their big employers have been trying to get new businesses to move in and put their people to work making good money again.  But you need lots of people with the right skills, businesses who want to set up in your area, or investors who will put up their money to get new tech companies started.  These investors are called Venture Capitalists.  Watch the video above for a quick but good introduction to how venture capital works. 

Here's the big problem, in this well illustrated article by Richard Florida and Citylab, we find out that 70% of the Venture Capital money invested goes to just five big metro areas; San Francisco, San Jose, New York City, L.A. and Boston.  Most established tech companies, most of the good tech people, and the vast majority of the new money to start companies, all go to a few regions.  The rest of the country struggles to figure out what to do in this crazy time, and how to get 21st century businesses and good paying jobs in their area.  There aren't any really good solutions that work over wide areas at the moment.  For the United States to build a thriving Middle Class again, we need to figure this out.  Most of small town, small city, and rural America is struggling with this issue.  That's why I spend a lot of time learning and thinking about it.

Before you break up with your new girlfriend...make sure she's not in this video

Wow.  That's about all I can think to say.

The beauty of the ocean...

Ahhhh...  The beauty of tropical beaches, the ocean, and the undersea life.

Bethany Hamilton shreds Pipeline

Old clip, but an epic one.  Amazing surfer, huge wave.  It's awesome on those points alone.  And she happens to be one of the women who've ridden waves this big.  If you know anything about surfing, you know her backstory.  If you don't, Google her name.  Like I said, EPIC.

The Nitro Circus is nutty as ever...

Travis Patsrana and friends adding a figure to the evolution chart, which will probably be followed by a dude in a wheelchair on the chart.  Hey, T-shirt idea.  Don't steal it, I wanna make this one. 

Todd Lyons, they beat out your video of picking up the kid from daycare.  Gotta step it up now.  Heh, heh, heh.

Southern Accents... The rant revisited

As a cameraman in 1989, I got to "work" one day shooting behind the scenes footage on the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers "Freefallin'" video shoot.  There were probably 80 people wandering around the set where the Vision Skateboards mini-ramp was set-up, high in the hills, off Muholland Drive, overlooking Universal Studios and the San Fernando Valley. 

At one point, Tom was playing around with his young daughter between takes, and I shot video of them.  He turned to me, said a few words with a characteristic Tom Petty smerk, and I got the point.  I smiled, nodded, and didn't shoot anymore footage of them having family time.  I instantly thought he was one of the coolest people I ever met.  I still think that. 

While drawing a picture of Elvis Presley recently, I listened to the entire live concert of Tom Petty that the clip above come from.  I forgot Tom, one of the people I respect most in the world as a musician and a human being, was a Southern boy from Gainesville, Florida. 

The rant that I originally wrote in this post was nearly 20 years in the making.  I have every right to be pissed off about a whole lot of fucked up things that have happened in my life at the hands of other people.  But as a writer/blogger, making blanket statements about large groups of people in that rant, I became the very ignorance I work hard to eliminate.  That's just irresponsible as a writer. 

In addition, there's a big part of my personal history that I simply can't write about because of people who have interacted with me at times.  I'm literally a writer who can't tell a chunk of my own story.  I touched on things I shouldn't have while writing in anger.  Again, that's me doing a really bad job as a writer.  That's what poetry and song lyrics are for, saying things that can't always be said in a literal way.

I brought up one really serious issue in that rant that I can speak to.  The American South was entrenched in slavery to work the farms and plantations from the beginning.  Slavery is, quite literally, one of the worst forms of terrorism.  Slaves were (and still are in places) terrorized and intimidated to remain slaves.  The mindset that allowed white slave owners to be white slave owners has vestiges that continue today.  Those things, racism being only one, are holding white Southern culture back in many ways today.  In the same fashion, the mindset that allowed black slaves to remain black slaves, also has vestiges today that hold black Southern culture back.  YOU ALL need to confront and start healing these issues if you want Southern states to thrive in our high tech, hyper connected, video camera in every pocket, 21st century world. 

So let me end with a suggestion to ponder four things:
Banana pudding
Homemade mac and cheese
Fried chicken
Red velvet cake
What do these four traditional Southern foods have in common?  Any one of them can bring black, white, and mixed race Southern folk together in friendship at any time.  That's a real good place to start. 

The White Bear Podcast... sort of

 That's Rachel, second from the left, leaning over to help someone during one of her Create & Sip events.

 Here's me in the the BMX days, doing a wall ride over my sister Cheri's head.  The Blues Brother Wall in Huntington Beach, 1990, still from my self-produced video, The Ultimate Weekend.  Below is the Michael Jackson drawing of mine we talk about in the interview.  It's in the front window of Rachel's studio right now.

At 23:20 in this radio show, you hear Rachel White start her interview with me.  As most of you know, I'm doing a weird, unique form or Sharpie artwork these days I call "scribble style."  While this interview starts out about my art, we spend a huge amount of time talking about my roots in the BMX/skateboard world in the 1980's.  So it might be worth a listen to you old school and mid school BMX riders out there.  I give several of you shout outs in the interview. 

Last November, I finally made it to the First Friday Gallery Hop in downtown Winston-Salem.  I was living in a tent in the woods on the outskirts of town.  I became homeless as a way to focus 100% of my energy on making my art into a business.  I looked horrible.  I smelled horrible.  And I had my big sketch pad wrapped up in two trash bags under my arm.  I wandered around the open galleries on a chilly night.

I met a woman named Luba (I think that's it), who asked to see what I did.  She was stoked on it, and told me to follow her around as she introduced me to people at several different galleries on Trade and Liberty Streets.  Another woman, a energetic, tiny redhead, Rachel White, really loved my weird Sharpie art.  Rachel had just moved her create and sip, wine and art business, Designs, Vines, and Wines, from her basement to the Studios at 625, right smack in the middle of the Trade Street art district here in Winston-Salem.  Rachel was super busy at her first gallery hop, and told me to come back.  I did.  A month later, at the December Gallery Hop.  I finally got some drawings to her in time for the February Gallery Hop.  We've been working together on stuff ever since.

She started her one hour radio show on WDRB, out of Charlotte, and this was the second show, I think.  She sent me the file, but it hasn't been out in a web sharable way until now.  If you like my art, or want to hear about a bunch of the highly creative people that came out of the BMX and skate world, take a listen.  You don't have to skip the first 23 minutes, it's cool, too. 

Deutsche Bank laying off 7,000 employees

Back on May 1st in this blog, I told you folks to keep an eye on Deutsche Bank, the huge German investment bank that's been struggling for years now.  A couple days ago, they announced they will be laying off 7,000 of their 97,000 employees, as reported in this Finacial Times article and the video above.  That's huge, and a bad sign for the world economy at large.  It's just one thing after another for Deutsche Bank right now, as the new director strives to try and get the place under control. 

What does this mean for an average person like you in the U.S. (or maybe U.K., Europe, or Australia)?  
If Deutsche Bank collapses, which a lot of world economy watchers worry might happen, the ripple effects of its $1 Trillion euros in assets will affect the world banking system, and may lead to other banks having big troubles.  That's what happened when Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. 

Here in the U.S., many people, myself included, believe we're teetering on the brink of a deep recession.  It could easily be as tough on us as The Great Recession (BTW way, why did they call it "great"?) of 2008, for a variety of reasons.  It could be much worse, because there's a lot more debt in the U.S. at all levels now.  That means tough economic times ahead for most of us average people.  Recessions also mean a lot of great opportunities for new businesses.

I don't write these posts to be an alarmist, but more like a financial "weather report."  There's a big storm, possibly a hurricane, coming, and we all need to get ready to deal with it.  That's my motivation.  Watching the big picture social dynamics and macroeconomics is something I've been doing for nearly 3 decades, and I find it fascinating. 

I'll write more on these issues as things occur.  But for now, think about what you could do to get ready for a serious recession to help yourself and your family get through it as well as possible.

"Do the Clam" with Elvis Presley

Here's my Elvis Presley Sharpie "scribble style" drawing I just finished.  I initially started this to go up on the wall at Earshot Music, here in Winston-Salem.  Jane and Phred at Earshot were the first people to put my art up for the public to see, and gave me my first show here in Winston-Salem. I am really appreciative of that.  But Elvis got snapped up by a man who bought another of my drawings from Earshot a while back. 


At the moment, there's one of my drawings of The Ramones on the wall there.  There's not much of an old school punk rock scene here, so nobody has snapped it up.  I'm trying to keep two quality pieces up at Earshot, but I'm now swamped with orders.  They are featuring another artist since my show ended, but the side wall has works by several local artists, myself included.  So while I try to keep up with orders (a good problem to have), I need to do a couple for Earshot on the side, and a new piece or two for Rachel at Designs,Vines, and Wines on Trade Street, who also has my art up on the wall.

So, as you can imagine, my prices will be going up for original drawings after I finish those ordered right now, which is 6 to 8 weeks worth of work.  Rachel has made a few large prints of my drawings of Dr. Maya Angelou, Jerry Garcia, and poet Mary Oliver.  You can contact Rachel for those or me or Earshot if anyone's interested in The Ramones.

For all you Elvis fans out there, here's his classic song, "Do the Clam."  Yeah, that's a real song.

How Goldman Sachs made $200 million in one day as you lost a bunch of money

In this CNBC article today, they explain how mega investment bank Goldman Sachs made $200 million a single day while the stock market lost 4%.  A four percent loss doesn't sound like much.  But you have to ask, 4 % of what?  Four percent of the total value of all stocks in the country.  That's a big number.  Around 1 TRILLION dollars in stock value was lost that week.  So somewhere around $600 BILLION of the money in American retirement plans, 401K's and mutual funds simply disappeared.  Bye-bye.  Gone.  But the good news is that traders at Goldman Sachs made a big bet on volatility going higher, and that bet met them $200 million while the American people lost $1,000 billion in wealth that week. 

Does that make you feel better about your nest egg?  No, I didn't think it would. 

Great TED Talk about Dinosaurs

I listen to all kinds of things while I'm drawing day after day.  I'm working on an Elvis Presley drawing right now.  After listening to a couple hours of Elvis live shows, I wanted some interesting intellectual thing to listen to for a while. 

I stumbled across this TED Talk by scientist Jack Horner.  This is both fascinating and funny, especially if you loved dinosaurs as a kid, like I did.  Worth the watch for all ages, though it might be a bummer to grade school kids.

Rodney Mullen on getting up again

"What we do is fall."
- Skateboarding pioneer and legend Rodney Mullen

The first time I ever rode a skateboard was at my new neighbors' house shortly after my family moved to Laurel Street in Willard, Ohio in 1976.  I was nine.  This kid Jeff pulled out a thing called a skateboard he said his dad made for him.  It was flat, the shape of a small ironing board, and made from pressed aluminum.  There was no grip tape.  The edges were bent over with some nice craftsmanship.  It had steel roller skate wheels mounted on the bottom.  Jeff set it on these flat rocks that formed a broken walkway to their front door.  He skated across the bumpy rocks easily.  He asked it I wanted to try.  I pushed off, went about a foot, the front wheels crabbed in a crack, and I fell hard on my knee.  It hurt like hell.  I got up and said, "Skateboarding is dumb."  I never intended to do it again.

A year later, after saving my measly allowance (after candy purchases) for nine months, I bought my first skateboard, a green, plastic Scamp board.  I've been skating on and off ever since 1977.  In 1986, a decade later Rodney Mullen taught me how to do pressure flip style kickflips, the non-ollie original version.  I landed the first few on his board on night at The Spot at the Redondo Beach Pier.

But I wound up being a much more serious BMX guy.  I got into it in 1982, raced a while, and then freestyle became my thing for the next 20+ years.  The only reason I don't ride every day now is my weight gained while taxi driving and my lack of a bike at the moment.  I'm working on both of those, and I'll session again in a few months or so.

In 1984, I was out in the street in front of my best friend Darrin's house one night.  I was trying to learn can-can brake endos.  It's a simple trick.  I had been doing curb endos and brake endos for a few weeks at that point.  But taking my left foot off and stretching it over the top tube to the opposite direction just didn't work.  I just couldn't get the coordination down.  At one point, I pushed my leg over while balancing on the front wheel. somehow the bike slipped out form under me, and my feet kicked sideways up in the air.  I was only a couple of feet off the ground, but I landed with my right hip bone hitting the end of the pedal with all my weight behind it.  It was not a bad bail, it just hurt like hell.  I rolled off the bike cussing.  "That's it," I said, "Fuck this freestyle crap.  I QUIT!"

I slowly stood up and hobbled around, whining about the pain in my hip.  For about fifteen minutes, I gave up BMX freestyle forever.  After sitting down for a while, though, I decided to give it another try.  I got back on my bike, and finally pulled off a few decent can-can brake endos.  That's the last time I can remember actually "quitting" riding. Right now I don't ride for the reasons a mentioned, but I haven't quit.  I'm on a hiatus.  I'll ride again.  Giving up riding for good is incomprehensible at this point.
In the years after that night I "quit" because of hip pain, I went on to ride with most of the best riders of the 80's and early 90's at some point.  I wrote or had photos published in 7 BMX magazines.  I've published 40+ zines.  I produced and/or edited 15 bike, skate, and snowboard videos.  I've worked on the crew of over 300 episodes of a dozen different TV shows.  All of those things happened because I first got into BMX freestyle.  None of those things would have ever happened if I had actually given up riding that night in 1984 when I landed on my hip trying a pretty easy trick. One of the many things I've learned from bike riding and skating is that when you fall, you get back up.  Simple to say.  Hard to do on many occasions.  But after a while, it becomes a habit.  After a much longer while, it simply becomes a part of who you are.

I've had a lot of really crazy stuff happen in my life.  You know, little things like getting hit by a Jeep while riding my mountain bike, having a top MMA fighter try to throw me out of my taxi because I wouldn't run over the guy who he just had a bar fight with, or the time I was homeless and a young mountain lion crashed into my campsite.  You know, those weird little things we all deal with from time to time.  By the time those things happened, getting back up and trying again was just my nature.  It wasn't easy, especially through some of the homeless days in Cali and 18 hour long days driving drunk idiots in my taxi.  But I kept going.  Rodney Mullen kept going when his hip locked up.  I watched Tony Hawk try that 900 11 times in 1999 at the X-Games.  He got back up an landed it.  Danny Way at the beginning of the video above.  Mat Hoffman for the last 25 or 30 years.  Some, like me, dealt with weird situations.  Guys like Danny, and Mat, and Tony and many many others dealt with debilitating injuries and unfathomable physical pain.

Why do so many people from the action sports world go on to be talented and successful in so many other ways after the actual sports?  Because, like Rodney says above, "Falling is what we do."  So is getting back up. 

At 14:22 in the clip below, Mat Hoffman tries a trick and bails.  Then he gets up and tries again...

"The Family": Why the "Christians" who run the U.S. don't actually believe in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth

This is researcher/writer Jeff Sharlet explaining the most powerful network in American politics in 2008, "The Family." 

Here's a tweet from Jeff Sharlet (@JeffSharlet) from May 19, 2018: "I published my book THE FAMILY: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power 10 years ago around now.  Now we have Family associates Pence, Sessions, Devos, Carson & more *really* at the heart of power."

The Family is IN NO WAY followers of the teachings of Jesus.  They are simply people who have not done the hard work of spiritual growth, and instead use the name of Jesus to con people and have those people become hypocrites.  There is one simple way to find out if any person is a follower of the ACTUAL teachings of Jesus.  Punch that person in the face as hard as you fucking can.  If they turn the other cheek and off you another  punch, then they've spent some time working to learn the two simple commandments Jesus told his followers.  If the person you punch does ANYTHING except turn the other cheek, then then have no interest in actually following the teachings of Jesus.

Hey, that's your right.  You can be a complete asshole and call yourself a Christian.  But I'm under know obligation to believe your bullshit.  Neither is anyone else.

I don't care what you believe.  I don't care how you act.  You'll have to deal with your own karma at some point.  That's on you.

But I do believe that the Constitution of the United States of America was a really great idea, and I know we'll ALL be much worse off if we allow the lying, cheating, thieving, hypocritical assholes now in power to destroy the rule of law and the United States as we know it.  That would suck. 

I read Jeff Sharlet's book, The Family, several years ago.  I've watched things get much worse in this country, and prove his book true.  If you want your children and their children to grow up in a country that looks like today's mess in Iraq or Syria, ignore this post.  It's up to you.  Personally, that sounds pretty lame to me. 

The Bible- Matthew 22:37-39 (RSV)-  "And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, you should love your neighbor as yourself." (actual quote from Jesus).  This is probably why the corrupted NIV version of the Bible was created.

You can never justify ANY act of violence by these primary teachings of Jesus.  EVER.  

Those of you who follow this blog know I don't preach and I don't talk religion.  I have many other things to write about.  Now is the time I need to make my beliefs clear.  Many will attack me.  Many have already attacked me in many different ways over the last 20 years.  I'm still here.  Somebody "up there" must like me. 

My thoughts?  Create something beautiful today.

Who the Heck is Steve Emig? Revisited

That's me in the photo doing a wall ride on my BMX bike over my sister's head, on the Blues Brothers Wall in Huntington Beach, California, in 1990.  This video still is from my self-produced BMX freestyle video, The Ultimate Weekend.  My sister, Cheri had just started college to become a teacher when this photo was taken.  She's now a teacher in Greensboro, mother of my niece and nephew, and one of the thousands of teachers who marched for better funding in Raleigh the other day.  I'm proud of her and all the teachers for doing that.  Keep rocking teachers!

The Fox 8 news piece and my art has brought me to the attention of a bunch of people recently who don't know much about me.  I've had many adventures before I became Winston-Salem's "Homeless Sharpie Artist Guy."  So here's a blog post I wrote several months ago so you can learn where I came from (and WAY more than you really want to know about me).  Follow the link at your own risk ; ) .

Who the Heck is Steve Emig? My creative history.

Rachel and I got interviewed by Fox 8 WGHP yesterday

Here's one of my favorite examples of the Doodle Wall idea.  Years after beginning to do my Sharpie scribble style drawings, when I started to look up Sharpie art on the internet, Jessie Armand was the best around at this type of black and white work. 

My original start to playing with markers for me way back in 2002 began with seeing a segment on making a doodle wall on big sheets of paper on Cindy Crawford's House of Style show on MTV.  It must have been an old re-run, and it's not a show I ever really took the time to watch.  I was just flipping channels one day, and the doodle wall thing caught my attention.  I tried to do a mural on my wall on paper, and it completely sucked.

 So I just kept playing with markers in different ways until I came up with my unique "scribble style" technique using Sharpies while living in the AAA Electra 99 Gallery owned by Fame Ass Arteest and taxi driving legend, Richard Johnson, in 2005.

Near the beginning of the interview below, you see a partially done drawing of a sea turtle.  That's my take on a photo by Barspinner Ryan Brennan, who's become a hardcore free diver in Hawaii in the last couple years or so.  If he likes the idea, I want to make some prints of the drawing to sell before too long and make us both a bit a cash.

WGHP Fox 8 interview about myself, my Sharpie art, and Rachel White's Designs, Vines, and Wines
(it aired at 6:00 pm, Thursday, 5/17/2018)

 I should have died about 6 or 8 times in the last 20 years.  But I'm still here, just fat, with a mouthful of broken teeth, and I look like death warmed over.  But I'm still here, alive, kicking, drawing and writing.  Seeing myself on video I realized just how rough I look these days.  Dang.

For those of you in the Winston-Salem/Triad area, you can see my Sharpie drawings in person at Rachel's studio: Designs, Vines, and Wines which lives in the Studios at 625, 625 Trade Street in downtown Winston-Salem.  Or you can see some at Earshot Music, across the road from Hanes Mall, at 3254 Silas Creek Parkway, next to Marshall's, also in Winston-Salem.  You can check out a bunch of my artwork on Facebook (Steve Emig in Winston-Salem) or on my Pinterest page.

First ladies of skateboarding get my drawings for Mother's Day

I've been doing drawings almost continuously for a solid 2 1/2 years now, and have drawn all kinds of people.  This particular request got me really stoked.  The three lovely ladies above are (L to R) Vicki Vickers, Deanna Calkins, and Robin Logan.  All three are legends of skateboarding from the 1970's.  When I was a kid sidewalk surfing on my green plastic Scamp board in Willard, Ohio, in the late 70's, these ladies had been tearing it up out in California for years.

Since I worked in the skateboard industry in the late 80's, I met a lot of the top skaters of that era.  But all the top skaters from earlier eras are still in the legendary category for me.  Some of them were the people in the single library book my friends and I had to inform us about what skateboarding was back then.  We didn't have magazines to look at in Willard.

About a year ago, a friend had me do a drawing for Robin Logan, who I came to found out is part of the family who made the pioneering Logan Earth Ski skateboards, and a skateboarding legend in her own right.  Robin went on to become a Facebook friend, and I have done a couple drawings for her since.  A couple months ago, she asked me to do these drawings for Vicki and Deanna, and told me they would be Mother's Day gifts for the ladies.  I'm always nervous about people not liking my drawings, because, as an artist, I see all the little things I think I could have done a bit better.  So I was super stoked when Robin sent me this photo of the pair with the drawings I did for them, and they look happy to have them.

Though I'm primarily an old school BMX freestyler, skateboarding has played a huge role in my life, and I started skating five years before I got into BMX.  There are A TON of downright amazing artists in the skateboard world, and it amazes me that I wound up drawing pictures that have been given as gifts to the three legends that helped create the 70's wave of skating that drew me in.  Thanks ladies for the inspiration to myself, and all the kids of my era who made skateboarding a part of your lives.  Keep the stoke going!

Joan Jett/ I Love Rock n' Roll Sharpie drawing

I started this drawing out for me, like so many before.  Then I got busy, and it sat, half done in my sketch pad for a couple of months.  A week or so ago, I was hanging out at Rachel White's studio, Designs, Vines, and Wines, and she asked me if I had any drawings getting done soon. 

She's made space for a few of my drawings in her space.  But there was an empty space.  So I told her, "I could probably finish up Joan Jett right now."  I sat down on one of the empty tables and got to work.  Even though only details were left to do, I worked for about four hours solid to finish it up.  So now this Joan Jett drawing, done in my unique Sharpie scribble style, is hanging in the front window of Rachel's space, inside Studios at 625, located at (you guessed it) 625 Trade Street, here in Winston-Salem's Arts District. Check it out if you're in the area.

Great interview with Jeff Bezos

I just listened to this interview while working on my current drawing.  He comes off a lot more down-to-Earth than I expected.  Few think about it now, but I remember the Dot Com hype days of the late 90's and early 2000's when business TV networks and mainstream news continuously made fun of Amazon.com and their stupid idea for selling books online.  Shows what they knew. 

I give Mr. Bezos huge props for discovering the nuances of homelessness, and working with the "Transient homeless," which is an area we, as a society, should put a lot more effort into.

While space is fascinating, I don't agree with his whole premise of working to help human kind move into space over the next 200 or 300 years.  Our society will never last that long.  There will be humans then, hopefully, but not our kind.  But hey, it's his money. 

Really great interview on his ideas about entrepreneurship, business, and taking care of your customers.

Cub White Bear online store coming real soon...

 BMXers didn't invent bicycle trick riding, we just stepped up the progression BITD and took it worldwide.

 It's my personal opinion that bicycle trick riding was invented about ten minutes after the first bike was invented... when a cute girl walked by.

 Not all big beards today are on the chins of hipsters.  But many are.  In addition to the insight above, hipster beards remind me old school lumberjacks, which reminds me of Monty Python's "Lumberjack Song."

Has Been?  Never Was?  Call me what you like.  This is me carving tile in the Nude Bowl on a 105 degree day in 1990.  That particular session was for my video The Ultimate Weekend, and Brian Blyther, Xavier Mendez, Keith Treanor, John Povah, and Mike Sarrail were out there that day.  Don't get much better than that.  You can watch the edited version of that session, set to the great song "Pool Party" by The Stain, at 26:55 in this clip.

Keeping busy... 5/13/2018

With yesterday being the day before Mother's Day, things were quiet at Rachel's studio last night (Designs, Vines, and Wines in Studios at 625 on Trade Street).  Rachel was out back working on her mural for quite a while, and I was drawing my latest Sharpie scribble style piece, a request for poet Mary Oliver, and talking old school skateboarding to Jeff.  Jeff has a last name, I'm sure, but I don't know it.  He's one of two old school skaters I've met here now.  About 15 people wandered through the studio, and checked out the work of all the artists. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, and if you're in the Triad, welcome to summer, it's supposed to hit 93 today, after 91 yesterday.  What happened to Spring?  I like Spring here.  Summer is tough on big guys like me, we don't tan, we baste. 

Open Art Jam tonight on Trade Street 5/12/2018

I'm planning to be hanging out and drawing my Sharpie art at Rachel's studio tonight on Trade Street in Winston-Salem.  The location is inside Studios at 625, at- you guessed it- 625 Trade Street.  Saturday nights are an Open Art Jam there.  You can see one or more artists (like me) actually working on our stuff.  There's an open mike for poetry, spoken word, music, whatever.  Chill out and watch, or join in, it's up to you.  Rachel has "Create and Sip" art projects ($25- supplies included), about ten different ones, at her space, Designs, Vines, and Wines.  You can do a project to take home, sip some wine (if you're legal, of course), and have a blast.  Our friend Melvin will probably be there throwing out his great beats on his bongos, which always adds to the vibe and invites spontaneous dancing.  It's always a good time.

I'm not an official artist there at 625, there are eight artists who are, all with different kinds of really cool work.  Rachel at Designs, Vines, and Wines welcomed me in a few months ago, and I'm a featured artist in her space.  You can check out the Kelly Slater surf drawing in the pic above, drawn in my original Sharpie scribble style, and a couple other original pieces of mine. 

Come by and check it out if you're in town.

Decompression: the art of escaping homelessness

If you're a SCUBA diver, or have watched lots of Jacques Cousteau shows as a kid, like me, you know about decompression.  As you see in this video, divers who are extreme depths for a period of time can't just rush back up to the surface and continue on with their day.  They have to come up slowly, wait for minutes at certain depths, and in this case, go into a decompression chamber to let the nitrogen built up in their blood escape slowly.  If they don't, they get a horrible reaction called "the bends."  Decompression sickness is the official name for that.  Divers can die, or experience agonizing symptoms, if they don't take the proper precautions AFTER THE DEEP DIVE ITSELF IS OVER.

One of the many things most people don't realize about homelessness, is that things aren't all unicorns and roses as soon as you get into a house or apartment.  There's an intense psychological mindset that keeps you alive as a homeless person.  It's a survival situation, but not like the TV show Survivor.  Survivor is a game.  It's intense, physically grueling, and takes a heavy psychological toll, but it's still a game.  In the back of their mind, the people on that show know they are going home.  They know their are people watching over them, that medical attention a few hundred yards away, and that a helicopter that can airlift them in case of serious disease or injury.  Homeless people have none of that. Yes, in extreme cases a homeless person can go to the Emergency Department, if they can get there. 

There are many different levels of homelessness, as there are many different levels of housing situations.  The "deeper" a person goes into a homeless lifestyle, the more of a "decompression period" is needed to re-acclimate to everyday society.  That's where I am right now.  A few nights ago, I was alone, in a tent, in a patch of woods nobody cared about... until they realized I was camped out there.  I had no actual weapon.  I did have a couple of fiberglass tent poles I could swing at a small animal if I needed to, but no gun, no knife, no RPG, no AR-15, and no pepper spray.  I walked out to my tent every night, in the dark, alone, unarmed, knowing that I could be attacked in any number of ways by humans, animals, or severe weather.  I laid down to sleep, every single night, not knowing if I would survive until morning.  That's a whole different mindset than on a survival reality show.  It's intense.  and the mindset it takes to cope with that is much different than the mindset it takes to work my way out of homelessness, or to operate as an artist and writer (my particular talents) in everyday life.  The transition doesn't happen overnight. 

It's not the same, but soldiers coming back from a dangerous deployment have similar issues, I imagine, as do people who've just survived dangerous events, serious addiction, a severe car accident, a house fire, a physical assault, or time in prison.  I now have a futon in a cool apartment to sleep on, I have a really cool guy letting me crash there to help me get back on my feet.  But it takes some time to get my head out of "survival mode" and into "normal" society. 

Because I've been in and out of different levels of homelessness for years, and because I've survived a lot of intense forms of assault on my life and well being, I'm fairly well seasoned at this.  I know this transition is necessary.  I can do it faster than a lot of people coming out of a tent could, just because I've done this kind of thing multiple times.  But I know I need to take my time, deal with each day and what needs to be done, and get used to the new situation until I'm functioning in working artist/writer mode and not artist by day/survival mode by night. 

So for everyone out there wondering why some people have trouble staying clean after quitting an addiction, leaving homelessness, coming out of intense military deployment, incarceration, or a serious individual trauma, this is part of your answer.  Don't overwhelm people in these situations, even if you have good intentions.  Give them time to decompress and get their mindset into the new life situation.  Future success has a lot to do with making through the transition period well.

Great music clips I've found while doing my drawings: Part 1

Prince steals the show from an all star group with one of the great guitar jams of all time.  The event was the  Rock 'n" Roll Hall of Fame induction of George Harrison.

Any of you following this blog lately know that I have been doing drawings of musicians a lot over the past several months.  I did a show at Earshot Music here in Winston-Salem (NC), introducing my Sharpie scribble style to this area back in November.  Since then, I've been asked to draw a whole host of drawings of musicians and bands.  When I'm doing these drawings, I immerse myself in the music and interviews of the musicians.  Here are some of the great YouTube clips I've come across while doing this.  Enjoy.


Prince- Superbowl halftime show
Prince- "The Art of Musicology" acoustic set
Kevin Smith talking about working for Prince (NSFW)
Nirvana- "Sliver"
James Brown- "It's a Man's World" (with Joss Stone)
Tedeschi Trucks Band- "Anyhow" live in studio
Tedeschi Trucks Band- "Midnight in Harlem" live
Social Distortion- "Don't Drag Me Down" live in Orange County
Social Distortion- "Reach for the Sky" live and acoustic
Lana Del Rey- "Summer Wine"
Lana Del Rey- "Old Money"
Joan Jett & Nirvana members- "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts- Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame set
Gloria Jones- "Tainted Love" 1964 Original version
Soft Cell- "Tainted Love"
Social Distortion- "Tainted Love"
Imelda May- "Tainted Love" 
Marilyn Manson (NSFW/uncensored)  "Tainted Love" 

When smart people screw up

This CNBC article is announcing self-driving vans going into service outside Dallas, Texas to give people rides.  As a former New Mexico resident and someone who's spent some time in Texas, I think the smart people who invented this amazing technology should have done a bit more local research.  In Texas, a bright orange van driving on its own is called a TARGET.   But hey, the roadside signs Texans usually shoot at might last longer.

Black Bears that hate Sharpie art

So.. there are a lot of different creatures that could have ransacked the tent where I live yesterday.  There are thousands of black bears in North Carolina, and around this time of year some of them wander through central NC.  For the most part, they don't live around here year 'round.  But I'll be honest, when I first saw the door of my tent wide open last night, a wandering bear was one thought that came to mind.  But a quick look inside proved that my "home" was NOT trashed by a bear, raccoons, 'possums, or a pack of really angry squirrels.

My tent is a big one, and the main door has a broken zipper, and is held kind of shut by safety pins.  But the other half of the tent is separated by zippers that do work.  That's where I sleep, you can ask any of the many people who've walked out to my campsite at night, since I've apparently become a local tourist attraction.  I might have to start buying snacks and beverages if so many people keep wandering around there at night.

When I looked inside last night, I realized that humans, or maybe a sub-human species, like a crackhead, did the deed.  Like I said in the earlier post, my clothes had been pulled out of the garbage bags I keep them in, and everything was thrashed about.

So, this afternoon, after a pop-up rainstorm I didn't expect, I went back to my campsite to clean up the mess.  Of course, that sucked.  I just cleaned up quite a bit yesterday, which I hadn't done in a while.  Last night, and even this morning, I didn't think anything had been stolen.  Today I found out different.  I had a couple of bags of my used Sharpies, that I would use once in a while, in with my clean clothes.  They were gone.  In addition, I had my two partially used sketch pads with some partially done artwork and other stuff I use to make my drawings.  The two sketch pads were wrapped in two garbage bags to keep the rain out.  That seemed to be the one thing that wasn't fucked with.  But it was.  When I turned the big sketchpad pack over, someone had ripped big holes in both bags, and then, put it back, hole down, so water would soak through the floor of the tent over time and ruin both pads.  That means, that if, somehow, it was a wandering bear that did the damage, it was a bear that hated Sharpie art.

This is just the latest attempt to terrorize me as I work to make a decent living from my artwork and writing, and get a decent place to live.  There have been, shit, a couple dozen incidents(?) like this in the past several months.  And that's not including the people wandering around making noise on a regular basis.  This is so ridiculous.  All of us who grew up outside of  The South, have bad stereotypes of the region from movies and TV shows like the Dukes of Hazard.  But try as I do to get away from bad stereotypes, some of them keep getting re-enforced by actual events.

It seems like not being able to make a living in North Carolina for 9 1/2 years isn't enough.  It seems the guys behind the scenes are trying to "teach me a lesson," as they seem to motivated to do here in the Piedmont Triad area.  But the only lesson I keep learning, is that the people behind the scenes are largely a bunch of assholes.

But at least I can't blame the bears for hating my Sharpie art.  So don't hate the bears.

For 36 years people have been calling me a screw-up for getting into BMX bikes...

Orville and Wilbur shredded.  You never know what I bike rider will come up with.  The next time someone gives you crap because you like riding bikes, remind them who invented airplanes.  #getair #neverforget

My tent got ransacked yesterday: 5/6/2018

Today's theme song comes from a band that played their first gig in a Huntington Beach living room. 

I was feeling kind of crappy yesterday.  I spent much of the day working on a new drawing, one that I'll be able to make art prints of.  By selling those prints, I'll be a step closer to making a steady income large enough to rent a room before long. 

I got back to my tent last night to find it totally ransacked.  Even in the dark, it was obvious it wasn't the work of an animal.  Random stuff from one side of the tent was pulled out onto the ground.  In my sleeping area, I keep my stuff in garbage bags to protect things from the rain.  Nearly everything was pulled out of the bags and thrown all over.  The clothes I had just washed were thrown all over, spread among the funky smelling clothes from another bag that I just couldn't carry to the laundromat.  I found most of my clean socks on the ground outside my tent this morning.  What can I say, there are some lame ass motherfuckers in this world.  This is like 3rd grader mentality type stuff.

So instead of being able to get to work all day, I have to go back and clean up the mess.  This is the same kind of bullshit I had to deal with for years in California in the 2000's.  Same shit, different decade, different state. 

After 9/11, our president declared a war on terrorism.  But the everyday terrorizing of homeless people continues.

OK, done ranting, back to work...

May the 4th be with you...late

 Here's the Star Wars drawings I did a while back, all of which now live in Scotty Zabielski's beach house.  I originally did Yoda for myself, and Scotty liked it, so I did a couple more.  All of them are done in my Sharpie scribble style, 18" X  24."  One of these days I'll do another Yoda for myself... if I ever get the time. 

Toasting my trio of drawings with the epic R2D2 cup I nabbed at Goodwill for $1.  Cheers.  Now on to Cinco de Mayo, where Americans get hammered to celebrate the Mexican Americans they say they want deported every other day of the year.  Por que?!

First Friday Gallery Hop in Winston-Salem Tonight 5/4/2018

This video of a mermaid in the window of a Trade Street gallery is from 2010... and it has 90 views.  About ten of those are mine.  Every time I look for a cool clip to of the Trade Street scene, or the First Friday Gallery Hop, I end up watching this clip, because there are only a handful of clips, and most are old.  That's a bummer, because the Winston-Salem First Friday Gallery Hops are a blast.  So here's a tip for all the other artists in the Trade and Liberty Street scenes. 

I'm Steve Emig, Winston-Salem's premiere Sharpie artist.  Check out my Sharpie scribble style drawings and my doodle art stuff.  Also, you can check out:
Facebook: Steve Emig (only one in Winston-Salem)
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/stevenemig13/

Winston-Salem Artists, do this:  Take out your phone tonight.  Shoot video and photos of SOMETHING at the Hop.  Then put it on YouTube.  If you're not sure how to do that, search YouTube for a how-to video.  Then put it on Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, your blog, wherever.  Help the world find our scene. 

 If you want to actually sell your art at a decent price, you need to let THE WORLD, not just the people walking around the Hop, know you exist.  Let the world know WE ALL EXIST.  That's what I'm doing.  In the last week this goofy little blog has been looked at by people across the U.S., Canada, Australia, several European countries, and I got 63 views from Russia this morning.  Not sure what that's about, but there are BMXers and artists there, lots of them.  Or they may be reading my economic themed posts.  Or they may be making bootleg copies of my Stevie Ray Vaughn drawing (go back a post).  In any case, let the world know you rock on the First Friday Hop Nights Winston-Salem!

Tonight, there will be no mermaids.  But there will be Go-Go Dancers in the window of Studios at 625, (625 Trade Street) and near the stage at times.  That's also where I'll be drawing live, at Designs, Vines, and Wines, in Studios at 625.

Come down and check out the artwork from a whole bunch of great artists and craftspeople, have a drink, let the kids rock the sidewalk chalk, stare at the Go-Go dancers when your wife's not looking.  It'll be fun.  Heckle me as I draw if you want to.  It's OK, I was a taxi driver for years, I'm used to the abuse.

It's a hot summer night while still Spring, lots of people will be out and about.  I'll try not to scare off the Go-Go dancers.  Come join the fun.  This Sharpie art Jerry Garcia drawing of mine will be on display and for sale:

My latest Sharpie art drawings and my favorites

 Steve Ray Vaughn/"The Sky is Crying" - Just finished this one.  Sharpies on paper in my #sharpiescribblestyle , 18" x 24", Sold. (I saw him play live in a bar in Austin on Sixth Street when I didn't know who he was.  Freakin' amazing. 

 Kurt Cobain/Nirvana - Did this last fall, I was surprised when I first stepped back and looked at this one.  My Sharpie art reached a new level with this one.  It might be my all time favorite I've done.  Sharpies on paper in my #sharpiescribblestyle , 18" X 24", Sold.

"Tainted Love/Harley Quinn & Joker- I just wanted an excuse to draw Harley Quinn from the Suicide Squad movie.  Sharpies on paper in my #sharpiescribblestyle , 18" X 24", not for sale, this puppy is MINE.  I just need a wall to put it on.

Tupac Shakur- Keep ya head up people.  Sharpies on paper in my #sharpiescribblestyle , 18" X 24", Sold.  

You can see my art in person here in Winston-Salem at Designs, Vines, and Wines and Earshot Music.

Economy: Watch Deutsche Bank

Like many other people out there, I've been saying that we're headed into another recession soon.  At 4:50 in the podcast above, Jim Rogers talks about Deutsche Bank right now.  I think the best thing now is to prepare for tough times and watch that bank for bad news. 

Historically, we have a recession every 4 to 10 years, and we're into year 10 since the Great Recession of 2008.  In this clip above, legendary and longtime investor Jim Rogers has been saying for quite a while that we're headed for the biggest economic crash in his lifetime.  And he's not a young guy. Mr. Rogers is one of many intelligent people who see a huge recession (or worse) ahead. 

If you're old enough to remember the 2008 collapse well, you remember that a big investment bank, Bear Stearns, collapsed, seemingly overnight.  A large amount of their investments were sketchy and highly leveraged, and very quickly a huge amount were virtually worthless.  Days after that, as the collapse rippled outward, another big investment bank, Lehman Brothers, also became insolvent, again seemingly overnight.  Those two were the big events that got the whole world's notice that things were really, really bad in the global economy.

I was was homeless after the taxi industry took a dive in 2007, and I wasn't paying super close attention then.  But just from watching the Southern California real estate market, I knew a big recession was coming. 

This time, I'm paying a lot closer attention.  Almost a month ago, I predicted that April 4th was the start of this recession.  I could be completely wrong, but that's the day I became convinced that the stock market was not going to surge to new highs again.  But I don't know just what will trigger the coming collapse.  So yesterday I looked around the interwebs to see if I could find a major bank that might turn into this recession's Lehman Brothers. 

In short order I found that Deutsche Bank, the biggest bank in Germany, is struggling in a big way right now.  They somehow have $60 Trillion in derivatives.  A trillion dollars is a thousand billion.  There's only $280 Trillion dollars worth of wealth in the whole world.  Derivatives are investments like stock or commodity options, Collateralized Debt Obligations, SLABS (Student Loan Asset Backed Securities) and a whole host of other investments that art based on the performance of something else.  When these investments pay off, they make huge amounts of money.  But when the collapse, it's a really really bad day. 

If you look in the news, you'll see Deutsche Bank has recently had their own debt downgraded by the ratings agencies, they've suddenly laid off 400 people, got a new CEO, are talking about dropping most worldwide operations, and laying off another 1,000 people or more.  That's all signs that things are really bad there.  So, at this point, it looks like Deutsche Bank could be the Lehman Brothers of this next economic crash, the "canary in the coal mine." 

So, keep an eye on the big German bank.  If it's suddenly all over the news, things will get sketchy soon after.  We weathered the last recession, and we should be able to weather this one.  But it's going to be really, really tough on a lot of people.  Think of this news as a weather report.  There's an economic hurricane coming at some point.  Get ready to hunker down.