Spooky... the stock market lost $2 trillion this month

Here's a CNBC article that's on their site right now, Halloween afternoon:
The Stock Market Lost More Than $2 Trillion In October.  Here's What Happened.

That's written as $2,000,000,000,000.
 When the stock market loses huge amounts of money like this, it doesn't mean that the money goes somewhere.  The inflated value of lots of stocks just disappear.  Things people thought were worth trillions of dollars a month ago are now worth $2 trillion less now.  It's an amount of money virtually impossible for anyone to comprehend, so I use the Lamborghini analogy to give you some kind of framework to think about this.  Here's a Lamborghini Gallardo:
 


This clip has an old, washed up comedian talking about the Gallardo, a guy who was homeless in his early days of stand-up, and actually lived in his car for a couple of years.  Maybe you've heard of him.  Anyhow, used Lamborghini Gallardos sell for $90,000 to $120,000.  So it's safe to say you can get decent used one for  an even $100,000.

So, the $2 trillion that just disappeared from the stock market in October (2018) could by a $100,000, used Lamborghini Gallardo for every single man, woman, and child in the state of New York, the city of Costa Mesa, California, and my childhood hometown of Willard, Ohio.

OR
That $2 trillion could buy a used Lamborghini Gallardo for every single man, woman, and child in the states of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Idaho, West Virginia, Nebraska, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, and almost everyone in Austin, Texas.   In Austin, 16,000 kids wouldn't get one.

That's how much money just went POOF!, and disappeared from the value of the stock market in the last month alone.  Yeah.  Ouch.  That's gonna leave a financial mark somewhere.  We'll find out where before too long, I think.

The Ultimate Weekend Story 4: Huntington Beach Flatlanders

Back to the story behind my 1990, self-produced BMX freestyle video, The Ultimate Weekend.  The part of the video I'm writing about today is the flatland segment from 4:37 to 9:53 in the video above.

Within a week or two of starting my job at Wizard Publications in August 1986, I drove Windy Osborn, (Windy Osborn Photography) our photographer, to a photo shoot at the Huntington Beach Pier.  It was my first trip south from Torrance to Orange County, and we were there to shoot photos of freestyle skateboarder Henry Candioti, who I thought was from Italy.  He was actually from Argentina, at the time, and his family had recently moved to the States.  Windy and I went down below the pier, to the wide bike path area, where Henry and another freestyle skater were skating.  Windy got to work, first watching what Henry could do, and then shooting a bunch of photos of him.  I just kind of stood back, watched Henry and the other skater, and checked out the scene on a sunny, fairly empty, weekday at the beach.  I'd never been to the H.B. Pier before.

While Windy was changing film, and talking to Henry, the other skater rolled over, Henry said, "This is Don Brown he's a lot better than me, he's the guy you should really be shooting."  So Windy finished shooting Henry, then asked Don if he wanted to shoot some photos.  She was shooting for FREESTYLIN' magazine that day, a BMX freestyle magazine.  But Oz the publisher (and Windy's dad), had decided that including skateboarding in the magazine would help it grow, bring in more income, and hopefully spread the word of BMX freestyle, which had only been an actual sport for two years at the time.

Don was really cool and funny, and Windy shot a few photos below the pier on the wide part of the bike path, by the arcade.  Looking for a different background, she asked Don to head up the stairs, onto the pier itself, next to Maxwell's restaurant.  As she was shooting, some local kids were hanging out, and having them in the background, watching Don skate, made for a cool backdrop.  Out of that shoot, came the great photo of Don's 540 (720/?) shove-it, above, which ran as a full page photo in the December 1986 issue of FREESTYLIN', which you can check out here.  Don's on page 56, Henry on 51 and 52.  On the page after Don you can see the mini-interview I did with a skater who practiced at The Spot in Redondo, where we rode our bikes every night.  That kid is named Rodney Mullen.

When this photo came back from the developer (remember developing photos people?), Windy freaked because that girl walking by on the far left, which Windy didn't notice while she was laying on the ground shooting, focusing on framing the shot well, that girl turned and looked at Don, and that just added that magical touch to this photo.  Windy loved that, and ran down to show her dad, Oz, right away.  She got so stoked when really great photos turned up.

So what does any of this have to do with my 1990 BMX freestyle video?  As it turned out, those kids in the background of this photo, who were maybe 12 or 13 at the time, they kept riding.  I remember seeing them at a GT show a year or so later at Bolsa Chica Bikes.  After the show, SoCal flatland icon Mike Sarrail and I taught them some tricks, like old school tailwhips, squeakers, and stuff.  Those kids practiced in that parking lot for an hour or more.  And they kept riding.

Another year or so later, early high school age for them, I moved to an apartment near that area.  I ran into them right away, because they practiced every night in the Taco Bell parking lot, at Bolsa Chica and Heil in Huntington Beach, a couple blocks from my place.  By that time, they could do most of what I could do, and they were moving on past my flatland level with the Kevin Jones/Plywood Hoods inspired forward rolling tricks.  And they kept riding.  None of them ever went pro, as far as I know, but they became really solid amateurs on the SoCal contest scene.

The kid in the blue shirt, sitting on his bike, in the Don Brown photo above, is Andy Mulcahy, who you first see at 5:38 in the video.  Ahhhh... the mullet era.  Anyhow, by 1990, this crew usually practiced in a parking lot of a big shopping center on Beach Boulevard, near Stark and across from the Burger King, not too far from the 405.  The opening part of this section was shot behind that shopping center.  The first flatlander is Joe Goodfellow, known as Red then.  He's not to be confused with "Crazy Red" Mike Carlson, who's in the video later.  Red might be the guy blocked by Don's knee in the the photo above, I'm not sure.

A lot of The Ultimate Weekend was pretty new stuff happening in BMX at the time, like th estreet and mini ramp riding.  While Andy, Red, and the guys were really good, they weren't quite the cutting edge of flatland, dominated by the Plywood Hoods, Chase Guoin, and a couple others at the time.  But their long, smooth lines let me progress in a different way in my video.  Those opening shots of Red, where I'm rolling along beside and moving around him, were shot with by skateboarding along side him with the camera.  These days, you all probably know that.  But in 1990, that was something that wasn't done much.  Ski filmmaker Bruce Benedict, the first to shoot serious footage of Action Jackson and the early Rollerblade team, started using blades to shoot cool tracking shots with a camera.  I know this because he also shot most of our Sims snowboard footage, and we talked about it a couple of times when I worked at Vision and he showed us he Rollerblade footage.

But when I took this section of the video up to my first real "Hollywood" TV job in early 1991, and showed them this flatland footage, they freaked.  The experienced cameramen and editors I worked with on Supercross and Monster Truck TV shows, they could not figure out how I shot that footage.  It seriously baffled them.  The only way Hollywood people knew how to get a tracking shot (rolling beside or behind something) was with a big camera dollie, like this:



It was hilarious.  Huge devices like those above are all they thought of when trying to get the camera rolling, and there's no way a big camera dollie could do those shots I took.  I was a lowly P.A. (production assistant) around guys who'd worked in the real TV industry for 10-15 years.  And those first camera shots rolling along and around Red and Andy had them completely confused.  They just kept re-watching them, and couldn't figure out how I shot them.  I finally said, "I did it with a skateboard."  It blew their fucking minds.  They first thought I sat on a skateboard, held the camera, and had someone push me.  I said, "No, I just skated along side of them, and around them, holding the camera  (a full size S-VHS) in one hand.

One thing about the early, rider-made, BMX, skateboard, and snowboard videos that never gets discussed is that we changed the way the entire video world shot video.  Using a skateboard to get tracking shots is just one example.  But, accidentally, we changed the video world by making the videos we, as riders, skaters, and boarders, wanted to see.  We came up with new ways of shooting and editing that changed Hollywood.  We also pretty much invented the "reality TV" idea, too, by shooting candid footage of ourselves and random people, but that's a whole different issue.

The contest at the Rose Bowl was one I gave those guys a ride to, and shot some footage while I was there.  The minute+ long hitchhiker was just a shot I caught randomly.  I'd never seen anyone do a hitchhiker more than maybe 100 feet or so, and that was amazing to me.  But that guy, and I don't even know who he was, just kept going, and going, and going.It was insane to see at that time.

The nighttime footage was another session I shot later in 1990, late summer or early fall maybe, to get the most up to date stuff they were doing before I edited the video.  The black guy riding is Sean Johnson, who just moved to Huntington Beach and started riding with those guys a month or so before that.  The trick where he's doing what looks like a "lawnmower" rolling in a circle is something I'd never seen before I shot it.

So while Andy, Red, and the H.B. flatlanders weren't quite up with the Plywood Hoods at the time, they were solid riders, and a part of our H.B. scene that needed to be in The Ultimate Weekend.  In addition, I met Don Brown.  A few months after that photo shoot, I got the boot from Wizard Publications, landed a job as the AFA newsletter editor in H.B., and became a local at the pier.  Don Brown, Pierre Andre', and Mike Sarrail became lifelong friends.

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

Are you ready for the economic collapse? Gary Vaynerchuk is

I'm a big fan on betting on the inevitable, because it will eventually happen.  Gary Vaynerchuk has built a $200+ million digital (marketing/ad) agency in the last 5-6 years, and he knows a financial meltdown is coming, too.  He's actually built it into his long term plans.  How 'bout you?

I watched this consulting session, the full length video that this clip comes from the other day.  Another recession is inevitable, it WILL happen at some point.  And it looks like we're real close to that point now.  Gary spells out how this will launch his business to another level, not destroy it.  Don't bet against gravity people, it works. 

The most exciting skateboard video I've seen in a long time...

Launch ramp jam in 2018?  This popped up on my YouTube feed a little while ago, and I decided to watch it before writing the blog post I had planned.  I watch a fair amount of skate clips these days.  For some reason, I've always liked watching skating and snowboarding more than BMX.  But then, I rode with skaters, and did skate tricks on my bike, for much of the time I was riding seriously.  Nollies, backside bonelesses, no comply's, and half Cab's were standard bike tricks for me.

This clip just keeps blowing your mind.  Why?  It's not just a launch ramp.  The ramp is at the top of a gnarly hill.  Launch ramp to hill bomb.  Wanna watch it now?

When I moved in the San Francisco Bay area in 1985, I knew about it's crazy hills.  But I didn't know what that meant for skateboarding.  Those hills bred skateboarders who saw the whole city as one big skatepark.  When I made it up to Golden Gate Park on a weekend, along with the BMX guys like Vander, Drob, and all, there was the other side of the Curb Dogs.  Curb Dog and Powell Peralta Bones Brigade member Tommy Guerrero, and the other S.F. locals were sessioning launch ramps near where we used to have our BMX freestyle jam circle.  I'd always go watch and shoot photos of them on my Kodak 110 camera.  They were amazing.  A couple years later, in SoCal, I'd roll by Pay-n-Play in Huntington Beach and watch the launch ramp sessions, and ride with them.  This is old school street skating taken to a new level, and these guys fucking rock it.  Mostly.

New poem: Love Lies Bleeding

This is a re-write attempt of one of the 165 "Lost Poems," the ones I lost completely, both copies of each, along with copies of all but a couple of the 400-500 poems I've written.  That happened when I moved to North Carolina in 2008.  I'm not completely satisfied with the end of this poem, but in light of the craziness in our society these days, I decided I need to put this out there.  Maybe it will help someone a bit...

Love Lies Bleeding

In this time of division and strife

I sensed there must be something more to life

I walked out the front door, into the evening chill

No destination in mind, I ambled down the hill

The night was quiet, a welcome reprieve

I turned the corner, no intentions to leave

I soon found myself at the railroad tracks 

That divided my town, I thought to turn back

The tracks, I'd been told, should never be crossed

On the other side was "Them," the souls that were lost

Then I saw a young woman, and she beckoned to me

"I'll take you across, it's time that you see."

Her clothes dark and baggy, somehow I felt safe

With a smile in the shadows, I took the hand of the waif

"You've come tonight, burdened by a problem

You want to find the line between Us and Them"

I knew she was right, though I didn't know why

My hand in hers, I could no longer lie

I heard They lived over there, just beyond those trees

My mystery woman said, "Let's go and see"

 There were people alright, backyard, lots of food

They welcomed us in, quite friendly, not rude

After the meal, much laughter and talk

I asked where They lived, to continue our walk

Our host answered me, as she cut the peach pie

"They live in the next town," I knew she wouldn't lie

And that's how it went, with my companion and me

We kept finding Us, no Them did we see

We tried the next town, and then the next state

We made lots of friends, and ate plate after plate

Days turned to weeks, then months, then years

Traveling with my young friend, there was nothing to fear

After several years, there was no more need to roam

So we knew the time had come to go home

But things were much different by the old railroad tracks

Chain link and barbed wire, soldiers roaming in packs

My home was a war zone, a spotlight shown bright

"It's a couple of Them," cried a voice in the night

You don't understand, I tried to explain

I live right up there, I'm coming home again

I saw a bright flash, heard a rifle crack

My companion sagged, and reached for my back

I dropped to my knees, I saw blood on her coat

Her breathing got raspy, a lump formed in my throat

She reached for my chin, hands soft as a dove

"You were always safe with me..you see

My name is Love."

-The White Bear

I want to give big thanks to L.B. the Poet, and Reece Johnson, and the scene Rachel White pulled together at Designs, Vines, and Wines in Winston-Salem.  That got me writing poetry again.

The title from this poem comes from "This Thorny Rose," my favorite song by singer/songwriter Kerry Getz, out of Newport Beach California.  Check out her music, she's the most talented person I've ever met.

New poem- Life: What Will You Do?

Life: What Will You Do?

Chances are

You won't fossilize

Your skull will last a while

After your meat puppet dies

The flesh ain't you

It never was

The bones aren't either

They're just borrowed dust

You're a piece 

Of God's big bang

Not the cosmic one

That's another thing

The Great One splintered

Into billions of shards

One is your soul

That let down its guard

In a cosmic backwater

Near a minor star

You swooped down

Free will to explore

Among the creatures

You ducked and wove

Then, with a leap of faith

You dove

Two legged creatures

Scrambling 'round

Turned into humans

As we dove down

Splinter of light 

In human flesh

What will you do

While you're Earth's guest?

-The White Bear

Written early last June, directly from my head onto a big, freehand drawing of a skull colored with all kinds of colors.  I wrote this after getting into a lot of talks about Edgar Cayce's readings, the late "Sleeping Prophet," and the most documented psychic in history.  

Scotty Cranmer's video: The FBM/Powers Bikes D.I.Y. World Championships

I got busy last week, and didn't think to look this clip up til this morning, while writing another blog post.  Here's the D.I.Y. World Championships from last weekend, through the eyes of Scotty Cranmer and posse.  Great stuff.  This contest was, seriously, the most fun I've had in over a decade.  Steve Crandall puts together the coolest shit.  Chad at Powers Bike Shop offered up the awesome location.  Bikes and fun ensued.  Just watch.

Here's the band Cruelsifix performing at the comp.  Old guys:  they cover Agent Orange.  Hell yeah!

I was in the booth trying to sell art most of the time, but here's my best pics of the day...

 High air on the RAMPLIFLIER.

 Flip to flat off the giant cinder block jump.

 Crank arm slide.

 The Corgi.

 Crandall.

Dog checking out the Buck Wild trophy.

Flipping for Cash: Gary Vaynerchuk's Trash Talk- episode 3

It's total synchronicity that Gary V. started this series right when I'm trying to work out of homelessness in a new city, and finally get my art/writing/whatever it takes business going.  So why does the hard working, hard cussing CEO of a $280 million a year digital agency make a video of buying stuff at garage sales?  Because he's a lifetime entrepreneur, starting with lemonade stands, then making tens of thousands of dollars as junior high age baseball card dealer, and then teaching his brother the business ropes by garage sale dealing.  He's back to his roots, showing his millions of followers what's possible with a little research and a little work. 

If you need extra cash, or need to increase your income, like me at the moment, this is a way that's available to damn near everybody.  It's up to you.

My first "flipping" attempt in a while... A FAIL or not?

I'm not talking about this kind of flip.  But here's some funny, and some cringe worthy, flip fails, for those of you too lazy to try to go make money flipping stuff for profit.

"Flipping" is today's buzzword for buying something cheap, and then reselling it fairly quickly for a profit.

When I was a kid, back in the dark ages of the 1970's, my dad did this all the time, but he called it "wheeling and dealing."  I went with him to gun shows from the time I was maybe 8 or 9, and with both of my parents to garage sales, yard sales, and flea markets on a regular basis.  My mom was a consumer shopper at these, looking for items she would use at home.  But my dad was a wheeler/dealer from way back.  He never tried to make big money doing this, it was more for fun.  But he nearly always made some money.  I learned haggling and wheeling and dealing by following my dad around as he did this.  I'll talk about some of his better deals in future posts.

If you read this blog, you know I'm homeless right now, since I escaped North Carolina and landed in Richmond, Virginia randomly about 3 months ago.  Now there's a whole big bad stereotype that comes with the term "homeless," and I don't fit much, if any, of it.  I don't drink anymore.  I'm not an alcoholic who had to quit, I just worked as a taxi driver for years, driving drunks home every night.  I worked  7 days a week, got random drug an alcohol tests, and basically just didn't drink during those years.  I'm not opposed to a beer or two every now and then, but I don't really like beer, so I just don't drink.  I also don't do any drugs, prescription or street drugs.  I also am a talented artist, who actually sells work on a regular basis.  And I'm a small business minded guy, with entrepreneurial tendencies, at heart.  I wake up wanting to do something cool to make a little money.  So I'm not the typical street bum, although most people see me as just another bum, because I look like one these days.

So, lame ass stereotypes aside, my way out of homelessness here in Richmond is to create an income, from zero, that will rent me a room and get me going again.  I'm working on getting my artwork selling in a new city.  I'm selling some, but it's just not steady money yet.

But I've also been watching a ton of Gary Vaynerchuk videos (like Trash Talk in the next post), and I've been getting the urge to do some wheeling and dealing again.  I bought storage units and sold the stuff back in California for years, before the TV shows about it.  I was trying to turn that into a full time business to escape taxi driving, but couldn't make it happen.  When you drive a taxi, that's all you do, you're always in a certain spot waiting for fares, all day, every day.  There's no down time to really do decent flipping.

Right now, I'm in a new city that I don't know well.  I don't have a car, so garage and yard sales are pretty much out of the question for the moment.  This also holds me back on a lot of Craigslist deals.  I can't buy storage auctions, because I have no place to store anything.  Even my own clothes are in a duffel bag, in a trash bag, stashed in the bushes right now.  Oh, and I'm just scraping by money wise, panhandling for food money at times, when needed.

Even with all that working against me, I decided to try a type of flipping I did a bit in NC, thrift stores.  So I took a bus across town to the Goodwill Outlet store here.  Unlike normal Goodwill stores, most of the stuff at outlets stores is piled in huge bins, not organized, and not priced.  You dig through, bin by bin, grab what you want, and you pay by the pound.  They weigh the stuff at the register, and you pay a standard rate for most stuff, and a lower rate for books, because they're heavy.  At this Goodwill outlet, they have some things priced, and they also auction at ton of stuff off, so the outlet bins aren't as good as the Winston-Salem outlet store was in NC.  But there's still stuff to find.

I needed new shoes, because the soles were literally ripping off of mine, so that was priority one this day, and the main reason I went to Goodwill.  I found a pair of shoes really quick, luckily I have small feet in a popular size.  Then I started digging through the bins.  Here's my three finds from my first trip.

 This is an L.L. Bean canvas garment bag.  Looked like it had never been used.  No wheels, which most people want on luggage today, but you can store suits or women's dresses in it when traveling, throw it on your shoulder, and go.  It's still highly functional.  I got it for $1.00, it wasn't weighed.  Seriously, one fucking dollar! These sold on Ebay for $39 at the time.  But, I don't have the resources to sell on Ebay at the moment.  I tried Craigslist.  No luck.  It wound up getting wet because I had it stored in a trash bag in the bushes, and it got nailed when the remains of Hurricane Michael blew through town.  Then it got moldy.  So I tossed it.  One dollar loss, but good find.

 Wahl Color Pro hair clippers.  Research showed these are basically a consumer version of the high end Wahl clippers.  These actually worked, I plugged them in at Goodwill and shaved my arm hair to test them.  These were weighed with the item below, and I paid 41 cents for them.  The whole kit, with guards and plastic box, was $22 to $35 on Ebay, I couldn't find a finished sale.  I had the clippers, no guards or box.  I put them on Craigslist for $15.  No luck.  So I took them to the FBM/Powers Bike Shop D.I.Y. World Championships BMX contest last weekend.  I painted them gold (theme for prizes at the comp), and held an impromptu best trick contest on the curved wall ride.  I'm out 41 cents, but I had a blast, and Adem, the guy who won my best trick contest, had me autograph the clippers, since I produced some BMX videos BITD that are moderately legendary now.  Priceless. You can see Adem do a can-can rail slide at 9:28 in the clip at that link.

 I was so stoked I found this, COMPLETE, in the bins full of crap at Goodwill.  It's a cardboard scene of Snoopy's dog house, that you see in the bottom of the bottom pic.  Then you pull the vinyl characters off above, and place them in the scene, where they stick right to it, and peal off to change them.  I paid 40 cents for this.  It's the 2007, 35 year anniversary remake, of the original 1972 set.  They sell for $9-$10 on Ebay.  I tried Craigslist, no luck, and I gave it away at the BMX contest.

So, from a technical standpoint, these items were a flip fail.
I'm out a whopping $1.82 (plus tax).  These items were actually selling on Ebay for about $68 total.  So I got good deals, just couldn't manage the flip sales while homeless.  But it's a win to me, because I found that there really are good finds at the Goodwill outlet store here.  I just need to get a storage unit so I can store stuff safely, and I've already got re-signed up on Ebay, so I can get to flipping soon.  I also need to get a new bank account to use my Paypal, I'm working on that, too.

Plus, in the bottom of the bottom pic, you see my feet.  Those feet are in the $100 Nike Free Run shoes (in really good condition) that I also bought at the Goodwill outlet store for $3.00.  I'm wearing a $3.00 sweater I got at Goodwill right now, an Eddie Bauer jacket I got for about $1.75 at a Goodwill outlet in NC, and I have my art supplies in a messenger bag I also got for $3.00 at this Goodwill outlet store.

So, my point is, flipping in alive, well, and definitely possible, here in Richmond, Virginia.  It's possible where you live, too.  If you need some extra cash, are an artist who needs to supplement your income or suppoert your habit, or just like bargain hunting, check out the next post, where Gary Vaynerchuk, owner of a $280 million a year media company, goes garage sale hunting. 

Three Wealthy Guys Who Saw the Stock Drop Coming (like I did)

Here's Robert Kiyosaki, best known for his books on financial education, starting with Rich Dad, Poor Dad.  He's been a professional investor for much of his life, he and his wife Kim own hundreds of apartments and other real estate, and continues to write and teach about financial education.  This talk was published in January 2018. At 30:00 in this video, Robert shows a series of news clips from 2005 and later where he called for the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a huge investment bank that went bankrupt and was a key turning point in the Great Recession of 2008.

He first predicted an economic collapse in 2016 in a book in 2002.  What he didn't foresee was the trillions in cheap money pumped into the economy to buoy it up after the Great Recession of 2007-2009.  That cheap money helped the markets stay afloat longer than should have happened, but the result, though delayed, is inevitable.

Peter Schiff is the founder of Euro Pacific capital, and a long time enthusiast in gold as an asset.  This link below is the Peter Schiff Podcast #403, published on October 24th, 2018.  That's three days ago as I write this, and a day of huge losses in the stock market, including a 4.43% drop in the Nasdaq, (the tech-centered stock exchange) the third biggest point drop ever on the Nasdaq.  This is Peter's take on why the stock market is dropping so fast (8% to 14% in October alone).  The title of this podcast is: "Will Fed Capitulation Forestall Stock Market Crash?"



Jim Rogers is continually introduced as a legendary investor, and the co-founder of the Quantum Fund.  In 1973, Rogers and George Soros left their jobs, created the Quantum Fund, and brought in 4,200% returns between 1973 and 1980.  At 76 years old, Jim has pretty much seen it all and done a lot of it, including driving around the world twice. He moved to Asia years ago, and sees that part of the world rising to dominance in the 21st century.  Both of his daughters speak fluent Mandarin.

"The next time we have a bear market, or a problem in the U.S., it's going to be the worst in my lifetime..."  Jim Rogers, age 76, this interview took place in May 2018.

Sea Turtle Drawing #2

 The stock market's down again this morning.  The election is coming up and everyone's crazy.  Blah, blah, blah, blah...  Take a break for a second.  Here's my work this morning at my homeless artist morning "McStudio."  I'm doing my second 11" X 14" sea turtle drawing from one of  Barspinner Ryan Brennan's free dive photos (with his permission).  This one's sold, but I love this photo, and I'll probably do another version of it to make some prints of to sell more reasonably.  It's being done, like my others, in my unique Sharpie scribble style.  The drawing at the bottom is my first sea turtle drawing, also an 11" X 14."

#sharpiescribblestyle  on Instagram or Google Images will show you a ton of my earlier work.

Who do YOU listen to? Is Jim Cramer the guy you want to believe right now?

As the financial collapse of 2008 turned into the Great Recession in 2009, The Daily Show host and comedian, John Stewar,t got really serious in going after CNBC business news channel, the business press, and in particular, CNBC show host Jim Cramer, for not being honest with the American Public.  Basically, Stewart said the financial reporters knew that the big banks were in trouble, and yet pretended not to know on air, encouraging average Americans to hold their stocks as prices dropped and dropped and dropped.  Millions of people lost huge chunks of their retirement investments, and millions more lost their houses in that crisis. 

The on air battle between Stewart and Cramer went back and forth, here's one news segment showing part of the fight.  I can't find the full clip of when Jim Cramer went on The Daily Show and was interviewed live by John.  Let's just say, it was tense. 

So... today, nine years later...  this is a CNBC article right now (11:18 am, 10/23/2018)
Cramer advises patience, not panic, saying don't dump stocks in this sell-off

The Dow (Dow Jones Industrial Average) is down 385 point this morning, bouncing back a bit, since it dropped 500 points earlier.  That is after dropping over 1,500 points from it's peak on October 3rd.  From 26,818 to 24,961 in 20 days.  The Nasdaq, the more tech heavy, and to be honest, the more important index these days, is down 134 points, or 1.8%, this morning alone.  The Nasdaq is down from it's peak of 8,109 on August 29th, to 7,341 at the moment, on October 23, 2018, as I write this.

I'd say this is a really good time to consider dumping stocks, if you're invested in them.  Hey, a serious look may make you want to stay in the market, or it may make you want to sell.  But it's definitely a good time to consider the option of selling. 

My whole point is this.  Jim Cramer, and the financial  news media, are not under contract with you.  They are paid by their networks or print media, which is paid by the advertisers.  Their job is to keep you from bailing out of the market, and to try and keep the bottom from dropping out of the whole financial system when it drops hard, or begins to collapse.  And if you lose money, well, that's why they have that little disclaimer in the beginning of the shows.  It's your fault, legally speaking, not theirs. 

Personally, I think the stock market just can't hang on any more, things are too sketchy.  I think we are FINALLY heading into the inevitable next recession.  If the economy was really roaring, like they say it is, then interest rate hikes by the Fed would just lead to minor corrections, and things would bounce back.  But that's not what's happening.  Super low interest rates are life support for the economy.  It's like giving Grandpa oxygen in the hospital when his cancer is taking him slowly.  It helps him keep going a while longer, but not forever.  The financial markets have been on low interest "life support" for nearly ten years.

It looks like Jim Cramer, and CNBC as a whole, and much of the other financial media most likely, is doing the exact same things John Stewart called them out for in 2009.  Nine years later... same game, different recession, perhaps.  We'll see.  Except this time there are a whole bunch of well known, and financially savvy people, like Jim Rogers, Robert Kiyosaki, Peter Schiff, and others, who see a big recession coming.  And some unknown bloggers types, like me. 

D.I.Y. World Championships- Post 5

 How cool are BMX people?  When I landed here in Richmond, I was literally escaping crazy drama in North Carolina, and was homeless, broke, and trying to figure out what to do next.  Steve Crandall saw it on social, and told me to meet him at Powers Bike Shop.  I didn't even know he spent time in this area, much less is pretty much based here.  We go back to 1994, but hadn't seen each other in 15 years or so.  After the high fives and bro hugs, Steve handed me an old phone of his, and a bag of food.  He didn't even think twice about it.  That's a thing that only happens if you've got a solid history in the BMX world or something like it.  Good guy that Steve Crandall.  This is the side of BMX outsiders don't see, or don't get.

That phone is what I shot these photos on.  I've never spent much time shooting photos on a smart phone, and never action photos.  But I've been shooting photos for 45+ years, and every photographer gets lucky now and then.  I'm really stoked on the pic above.  The peak of the highest air of the day, full invert, Cruelsifix rocking (hidden by the crowd), pyro stuff smoking, and the whole crowd digging it.  Good bikes.  Good friends.  Good times.  What more do you need on a Saturday?

 All of us old guys get sick of seeing flips, one after another after another, in comps like the X-Games.  But this wasn't the X-Games, and this back flip to flat off the cinder block launch was burly as fuck.  Props rider, whoever you are.

Below is the launch ramp to bike rack rail contest, which had a bunch of crazy variations coming off it.  Crank arm grind the full length.  Gnarly shit.

 I honestly have no fucking idea what this guy is doing in this shot.  One hand off, the bottom of his tires 5 to 6+ feet above the deck of the 10 foot high quarterpipe.  I'm sure this didn't end well.  But I think this might be the guy who managed to do a foot jam nosepick on top of the knobs later.  That was huge.

One more time, Steve Crandall, the man behind this whole jam idea, on the mike.  Huge thanks to Steve for shepherding this whole jam into reality.  Props to FBM Bikes and Powers Bike Shop for the support, the gift certificate prizes, and the location.  It was a great event all around.  Thanks again to Steve and Chad Powers for letting me set up and sell some art.  It was great to reconnect to the BMX world again.  It's been over a decade since I've even been to a BMX event, and I've been wanting to make it to an FBM "ghetto comp" for a long time.  Everyone I talked to had a blast, many of them actually did blast air, and have Instagram pics and real life memories forever.

On a personal note, I got contacted by a couple of old school BMXers I didn't know before the event.  A guy named Sam Weber messaged me ahead of time, and told me he wanted to buy my sea turtle drawing, which I drew from a photo shot by mid school jumper, Sheep Hills Local, and now hardcore free diver, Barspinner Ryan Brennan.  That definitely helped me out a lot, and I got to meet Sam, which was cool.  I literally haven't been able to chill and talk to old school BMX guys for a decade. So that was way cool on both counts for me. There simply weren't any where I was living in North Carolina.

I also got a message from York, PA legend and Plywood Hood, Brett Downs.  I'd never talked to him before, but he's been reading my blog, and wanted to catch up.  Brett's a really smart, really cool guy, and we ended up talking for a couple hours all together, I think.  He's also one of the better riders in the 50 plus age range, or Level 5-0 as I call it, because that sounds cooler.  Here's a riding clip I found of Brett, which is a ton of inspiration for us older guys to get on a bike, or to ride more often.  Ride everything.  Good advice.  He also reminded me that I may not be riding like I'd really like to be now, being out of shape and in a sketchy living situation.  But he reminded me I'm still part of the BMX world.  That was huge to me.  Thanks a ton Brett.

Brett also handed me his bike, and said he wanted to see something.  At about 315 pounds at the moment, weighed down by the taxi driving weight I never lost, and after about ten years of not riding, I was nervous.  I managed a halfway decent (for not riding so long) infinity roll on the second try.  I was jonesin' to ride all day, so thanks for that Brett.  While we were talking, Crandall walked by, and Brett offered his bike and challenged Steve to bust out a flatland trick.  Crandall, who I've never seen do any flatland, busted out a mega spin.  Hell yeah.

One last thing.  A bunch of guys were doing flatland tricks, hang-5's and such mostly, on the loading dock, early in the day.  I walked up and said, "I've got a quarter for the best front brake trick."  None of them had front brakes.  I was just being an old guy having a little fun.  But I had a point to it.  Hey guys, we named it "FREEstyle" for a reason in the 1980's.  You can do whatever you want.  You can set up your bike however you want.  I rode brakeless for a year in 1989 when EVERY trick was a brake trick. That year, as a MEDIOCRE rider, I learned half Cabs, lookback 180's, lookback half Cabs, full cabs (rollback to 360 bunnyhop), no complys (footplant to 180 bunnyhop), and a bunch more.  It made me try new stuff, riding brakeless in the "must have brakes" era. 

Just because everyone is running no front brakes and lots are running freecoasters, doesn't mean you have to.  Try whatever sounds interesting.  Different setups teach you different skills.  Different types of riding teach you different skills.  You know how Brian Foster can do such insane gaps? It's partly because he was a AA pro racer and knows how to accelerate and go fast, so he can get speed to make the distance.  Most of today's riders don't have those basic high speed pedaling skills.  Racing for a few months can fix that.  Even if you race flat pedals against the clip guys and get fifth.  You build bike skills, acceleration, and speed.  Flatland teaches you weird balance points and concentration.  It can also impress gangbangers in the hood who want to steal your bike.  That's actually the best reason to learn a few old school flatland tricks when you're street rider. Flatland tricks have gotten me out of many sketchy situations in the hood while street riding back in the day.

OK, enough preaching.  This past weekend was a blast.  Like I said in an earlier post.  Good bikes.  Good friends.  Good fun.  What more to you need?  

D.I.Y. World Championships- Post 4

 Cruelsifix, continuing to rock us all into the dusk after RAMPLIFLIER contest ended.  The two brothers in the band, who names I never caught, were hitting the ramp right before playing, and one was getting maybe three feet out and the other about five feet out of the ten foot high quarter.  The rock ON and OFF their bikes.  They rock.  They ride.  They have a band name that will definitely cause some controversy for some, but I'm going to blow your cover, guys.  These rockers are all just plain really good guys.  

 Younger rider with a no-footer off the five foot high cinder block launch ramp... tp flat.  They launched to flat for a while, then the "John Deere ramp," a landing built with long strips of wood that made it look like a tractor tire pattern, was moved into its landing position. 

 You know, there are times when you just need to go into the curved wall ride, and get the help of a three foot tall cat to fix your bike, while a hamburger eating rocker looks on.  There was a prize for hi-fiving the cat while doing a curved wall ride.  That was pretty damn impressive when it happened.  This obstacle, the curved wall ride, also won the prize for best obstacle built by a group.

 It's 2018, and BMX events are a family thing these days.  The cute little blonde girl here wasn't all that impressed by the riding, but she seemed to have a good time anyway.  I'm pretty sure that PBR isn't hers, by the way.  Number 9 guy is apparently a Russian, judging from the name, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't an evil bot.  Oh yeah, this is actually a riding pic, too.  My new friend Adam, in the black stocking cap with the beard above the crowd, is actually sliding a bike rack rail from a launch, in the background. 

Adam saw my art earlier, and wanted a poem, but didn't have his wallet.  We talked for a minute, introduced ourselves, and I told him I'd forget his name.  We kept running into each other, and I wound up remembering his name by the end of the day.  Good guy.  He's the guy who won the Golden Hairclippers in my impromptu curved wall ride best trick comp at the end of the day. 

You might be asking why I'm running a lame photo of a cut off rider doing a no footer on the launch ramp.  I'm not.  This is an great photo of Adam chilling on the back of the three foot tall cat in the bottom left, and there just happens to be a rider doing a no footer in the foreground.

D.I.Y. World Championships- Post 3

 The D.I.Y. jam idea comes out of the head of Steve Crandall, master of the FBM empire.  He wants to promote the concept that you don't need huge corporate sponsors or a huge bankroll, or a major skatepark or venue to have a great jam, all you need is a bunch of interested people, a community, to come together, grab some old pallets and scrap wood, buy a box of screws, and build some cool shit to ride.  In BMX, the roots of this whole idea is the kids on the block grabbing a cinder block and a random piece of wood, building a little, sketchy ass jump, and having a blast. 

In my life, that's exactly how bike jumping first happened.  I was 8, and lived in Coshocton, Ohio.  My friends and I found three bricks, a 2 X 8, and built a sidewalk jump.  We hadn't even heard of BMX then, we were jumping our banana seat bikes with tall handlebars, three speed stick shifts on the top tube, and slicks for back tires.  Roots.  Taking that basic idea to a ridiculous level, Crandall and friend Crescent (I don't know how he spells his name, sorry) actually built a 3,000 pound, concrete cinder block, and a slightly custom concave board to form this roots looking launch ramp.  Epic.  If Richmond, VA gets hit by a nuke someday, there will be cockroaches and this cinderblock left standing.

 There were trophies for each event, and $100 gift certificates for FBM/Powers Bike Shop for several events.  The gold painted guitar was for the RAMPLIFLIER best trick, the gold cinder block was for the giant cinder block launch best trick.

 Here we have one of the larger dogs at the jam checking out the Buck Wild trophy, an actual, mounted, 8 point (Eastern count) buck, with rifle holding hoof mounts.  This was for the best trick all day long.  The Buck Wild Jam turned into a session on the smaller quarterpipe, where handplants, flairs, 540's, and some crazy ass footplants went down.  Who won?  Shit, I don't remember, it was a jam.

 Steve Crandall's art was for sale under the awning.  His classic coffee mug paintings, along with prints of the board and cinder block.  Coffee and BMX, wake up and go ride America.

 Steve let me set up my art to sell, and I sold a bunch.  Huge thanks for that Steve.  I'm sitting in the cheap motel room right now, paid for by the art sold.  Thanks for that all of you who bought art, or helped me out just for the hell of it.  Seriously, Thank you BMX world. 

I couldn't get rid of my big Gwen Stefani drawing from last year's art show at Earshot Music, though.  But I had small prints of Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, a poem I wrote, and a WWII guy riding a motorcycle while shooting a machine gun. 

I bought these clippers for 41 cents at Goodwill, while doing some bargain shopping.  We painted the handle gold, and I was going to give them out for a prize in the World Record Bummy Hop contest, but I lagged on that, and it never happened.  So I held an impromptu best trick contest on the curved wall ride at the end of the day, and my new friend Adam won with a peg stand curved wall ride. 

What's a Bummy Hop?  When I moved to San Jose in 1985, I started a zine, met the Golden Gate Park freestyle scene guys, which included the Curb Dogs, the Skyway factory team, and some great amateurs, and started riding with them.  I learned that the San Francisco skaters had a trick called a "Vollie."  When they were skating down the sidewalk, and a sleeping homeless person was in the way, they'd ollie over the bum.  So it was a vagrant ollie, which became known as a vollie.  I asked the BMX guys what the BMX version of a vollie was, and there wasn't a good answer.  So, as the zine guy of the scene, I took a poll.  We had an official vote.  There were several ideas at first.  But eventually, the official name for bunnyhopping over a homeless person became the Bummyhop.  I told Crandall about this, and since I'm currently homeless, I volunteered to be the bum to bunnyhop in the first ever Bummyhop World Record contest.

But since it rained all morning, I waited until late in the day, when the pavement dried out, to tell Steve I was ready to do it.  By then, there were too many other events lined up, and not enough time before dusk.  We didn't have time to do it.  So... maybe one of these days, we'll have a Bummhop contest.  Or maybe some of you will do it.  If you do, buy the homeless person/people some pizza and beer or something.  Their life is hard enough, don't go making it harder.  I'm telling you, I know.  Oh, and don't land on them.  That wouldn't be cool.  

D.I.Y World Championships - Post 2

 BMXers have always jumped curbs and bunnyhopped street obstacles, since the early 1970's.  Then, in the mid-1980's, skateboarders like Mark Gonzales and Tommy Guerrero started skating the streets themselves as a big skatepark.  Tommy was part of the San Francisco area, Curb Dogs bike and skate team, led by BMX pro/good skater Dave Vanerspek, and the idea of looking for street stuff to ride bled over big time into the BMX freestyle world.  Since then, BMXers have been wandering into weird urban places looking for stuff to ride.  This past weekend, at a bike shop tucked away in the back of a sketchy looking industrial park, bikers gathered to session, goof around, and just plain have a good time.  That's exactly what happened.

 The upside down bike, the helmet and backpack.  I think I took this shot by accident.  But this is the BMXers life.  Chill for a bit, watch your friends, and grab the bike and ride a while.  When you see these things, there's a session nearby.  Below is the back part of the contest area.  Every obstacle was built by a different group of people, part of Steve Crandall's idea of bringing the BMX community together, everybody adding something, and then riding it.  It's like BMX Stone Soup.  Remember that book when you were a kid?  If not, go read it.  If you look close below, there's a guy on top of the gray banked wall, doing a manual, I think.  That obstacle was a grind box to banked wall to grind box, and made for some interesting combos.  With open jams in between, the day's focus went from one obstacle to another, with prizes for best tricks in each.

 This little low rider collie, "The Corgi", was wandering around all day, and getting in the way and ruining lines all fucking day.  It was a theme, and at one point there was a bounty to bunnyhop the Corgi, though no one did.  The Corgi even puked on the course and then ate its own vomit at one point, which nearly won it a best trick prize.  No one seemed to know who The Corgi belonged to.  There was talk of Corgi burgers and that it would fit well on a rotisserie, but all in good fun .  Somehow, The Corgi managed to get in the way for hours, but never get hit or landed on. 

While the Corgi got the most attention of the dogs there on Saturday, Powers Bikes shop dog, Pedals, didn't seem to mind the lack of attention.  She knew it was a big event, and when all was over, she rules that parking lot.  Pedals was the perfect hostess to the ten or so canine Americans at the jam, and I didn't see her give any attitude to any of them all day.  Well done Pedals! 

For some reason, mostly because she's the guard dog, she always growls at me when I go to Powers.  It usually takes a good hour before she warms up to me.  But Saturday, I walked up, and pulled out a granola bar for a little snack, and she was my best friend.  So I guess the way to Pedals' heart is through her stomach.  I'll keep that in mind next trip to the shop.

D.I.Y. World Championships- Post 1

 This is a quick post with a few pics from yesterday's fun at the D.I.Y. World Championships.  Backed by FBM Bikes and held at Powers Bike Shop here in Richmond, Virginia, it was a BLAST.  I'll get into all the fun details later tonight or tomorrow.  There's a jam at the trails and pump track today in a bit.  Up above, rider blasting 7 feet above the RAMPLIFLIER.

 The man behind it all.  "Hey, lets get a ton of scrap wood, build a 3,000 pound cinder block, get a bunch of guys to build shit to ride after work, and have a good ol' time without corporate sponsors, any kind of budget, or all that stuff.  BMX fun at its core.  Steve Crandall, FBM bikes founder, daily rider, black bus liver, and DIY Jam Master of (lack of)Ceremonies. 

 360 from a tall launch into the most wobbly trailer mini halfpipe I've ever seen. 

 A huge cinder block that will survive the apocalypse, a piece of wood laid up on it, and a BMXer blasting some kicked out trails style.  Roots.

 Old school X-up, one of the classic tricks from early BMX days, launch to mini half.

Cruelsifix is playing between the foreground ramp and the RAMPLIFLIER in the back, pyro smoke rising, and an aborted ice pick or something on the knobs as we all rock out.  Props to the band for covering an Agent Orange song, you made this old punker's day with that one.

More pics and words later... both here and on Instagram. 

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

Want to be an influencer or social media star? Listen to Gary Vee drop some really solid advice...

This isn't the Gary Vaynerchuk blog, you know that.  I know the last post is Gary's latest Trash Talk episode.  But this gem of a meeting popped up on YouTube today, and I had to share it.  A little web synchronicity.  Millions of the younger people these days want to be social media/web stars.  It's easy to put your face out there.  But do you really have anything worth sharing?  Is you content going to actually help people out there?  Or is it just to stroke your ego. 

One of our modern masters at using today's media channels to build actual, legit, profitable businesses, Gary Vaynerchuk, gives some really solid advice in this video.  You should watch it and take note. 

Got Matchbox cars? Got cash?

Maybe it's a bit of fate that loud entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk started this Trash Talk video series right when I'm starting over myself.  OK, he's a Russian-born (OK-technically Belarus, but you don't know the difference) immigrant from a family of hard working, hustling merchants who now runs a $200 million digital agency.  The "flipping" game of buying deals and reselling stuff for more money is old hat to him.  That's how he learned his chops in business.

Myself, I'm starting back from homelessness... again.  So I'm at the bottomlevel and working to build a new stream of income.  I can't actually talk about the underlying reasons for so many years of homelessness, but apparently somebody is telling small bits of my story to the neighbors of the area I'm spending my time in.  Turning the sprinklers on to try to ruin my artwork didn't work, goofballs.  So, pissed off neighbors aside, I need to build an income.  I make some unique Sharpie art, and sell it on a regular basis.  But that's not enough to get me back to "normal" life and a roof over my head. 

In addition, my new Facebook group, (Making money while making art) is aimed at creative people and making money in ways that help people keep being creative.  The"starving artist" is a stereotype, but it can happen.  It sucks.  But it doesn't have to.  So I'm looking for ways in our fast changing (and soon recession burdened) world to make money.  Flipping is one of those ways.  Maybe it'll work for you.

I've bought a few deals recently myself, and I'll show them once I turn them into cash.  But for now, check out the garage sale deals Gary Vaynerchuk finds in Jersey.  The deals are out there.  There have never been more ways to resell stuff for average people than there are now.  This is one good option to make extra cash, or even a full time living, if you're willing to do the work. 

And Gary is damn entertaining.  Enjoy.  Then go make shit happen.

FBM/Powers Bike Shop D.I.Y. Jam Weekend

Turn your knobs to 11 and come to Richmond and ride the RAMPLIFLIER tomorrow.  There's a street ride around town tonight.  Jam starts at 11:00 tomorrow, random prizes and events throughout the day.  Make it here however you can.  Still time to fly here form the U.K..  Just sayin'.  Pump track at Gilley's on Sunday. 

One of those random events is my doing.  We'll have the first ever BUMMYHOP World Record contest.  It's an old NorCal trick from 1985, I'll tell you guys what a bummyhop is tomorrow if you don't figure it out.

High air jam at dusk as the band Cruelsifix plays next to the ramp.  Crazy sounding band name, but they're cool guys, I met 'em.  They're gonna rock.

All day sessions, music, and fun.  I'll have my art to check out, for the first time ever at a BMX event since I've been doing my Sharpie scribble style drawings.  Tons of good riders.  New ramps and obstacles.  Here's the FBM blog post with all the details.  It's at Powers Bike Shop here in Richmond, VA.  Here's the Ghetto Jam that happened here last year:

New BMX drawing

I'm doing a couple of takes on some old, vintage, public domain, biking drawings.  BMXers weren't around in World War II like this badass dude, riding a motorcycle, at speed, with wrong hand throttle (British?) while shooting a Thompson submachine gun.  But today's BMXers are keeping the spirit of badass alive in the two-wheeled world.  Prints of this drawing will be available this weekend at the FBM/Powers Bike Shop D.I.Y. Jam.

Sharpies on paper, 8 1/2" X 11", in my signature #sharpiescribblestyle .