Why the world seems so crazy: my ideas

When I was a kid, we were taught this was a likely future, by movies, TV shows, the news, and drills at school where we had to hide under our desks.  Like a cheesy school desk would protect us from a nuke.  The Soviet Union would launch its nuclear missiles, the U.S. would launch ours, and most people would be toast a couple hours later.  There was a sense we might wind up living in a scenario like that in this Damnation Alley trailer, from 1977.  That cool vehicle in the movie, the Landmaster, was parked at the top of Cahuenga Boulevard, above Hollywood, for years.  I used to drive by it pretty often when working up here.  It'd make a hell of an RV.  

Homeless people, like me, everywhere.  But we have devices that can send voice, photos, and video to half of the other humans on Earth.  In parts of the country, people will openly carry an AR-15 into Starbucks to get a coffee, while mass shootings happen with regularity other places.  We're coming out of  a 100 year pandemic, and prices are soaring on housing, gas, and most everyday items.  A couple days ago, one of the biggest movie stars got up at the Oscar's, and bitch slapped the comedian/host, on live TV, because his wife didn't like a joke.  What the hell is going on?  

I've written a lot on where I think human society is heading, based on a theory of mine that piggybacks on a couple other theories.  It's complex, but here are the basic ideas I see playing out, in a nutshell.  

My Theories:

The Big Freakin' Transition- I believe we are in an 80-90 year transition period BETWEEN the Industrial Age, and the Information Age.  Some businesses, industries and institutions have mostly made the transition to the Information Age, and a lot have not.  Many parts of our world are using a lot of modern technology, but still working from old ideas, old paradigms, and Industrial Age systems and processes.  This creates a ton of chaos, because everyone's way of life is changing in multiple ways, on multiple fronts, all the time.    It hard for anyone to take a breath and relax very long, because more change just keeps coming.  More on this, The Big Freakin' Transition, here.  This theory is a continuation of The Third Wave* concept, authored by futurist Alvin Toffler, in 1980.  For those of you more visually oriented, I have a Pinterest board on this subject, showing photos of this transition over time, for different things.  Start at the bottom and work up.

The Tumultuous 2020's- This is my name for this decade, because I believe the pace of change, both in The Big Freakin' Transition, and the change of dominant mentality predicted by P.R. Sarkar's Law of Social Cycle (see below), are peaking during this calendar decade.  That means massive change on pretty much every front, over many years.  As humans, we don't like change.  We say we do, but we really don't.  Have your partner, kids, or roommate change the drawers in your dresser, and see how you react to a small change.  Right now, we are all dealing with many small and big changes.  It's a stressful time for nearly everyone.

The Phoenix Great Depression- This is my name for the economic aspect of this crazy period of transition.  Basically, we are in a period of major economic and workplace change, much like the Great Depression of the 1930's, but with even more types of social change going on.  This period of economic turbulence and change started with the Repo Market Crisis in late September of 2019, and will continue until, at least, late 2026.  

The economic downturn in the Spring of 2020 was, officially, a depression, not a recession.  (A 33% drop in GDP, a 10% drop is a definition of a financial depression).  Unlike the 1930's, The Federal Reserve created about 30% more U.S. dollars, vastly increasing the total money in the U.S., and the world.  Other central banks in major countries did the same.  That helped us through the Covid crash, but the result of all that newly created money is the high inflation we are seeing now, and will continue to see for a while.  

Our financial system uses a ton of new technology, but the basic structure of the banking system goes back to the Medici era in the 1400's.  In the coming years, we will transition into some financial system more in tune with today's technology, and our social habits based on how we all use today's tech.  But in the meantime, it's another area of lots of change and chaos.   

My geeky side looks at things very long term, and there are cycles and trends that can help us figure out where things in society are headed.  This is stuff I geek out on, and have been reading and learning about for over 30 years now.  That gives me a much different perspective on what's happening now, and where our world is headed, then most people.  

So those are my main names for the chaotic period we are in as a society.  I have a 20 chapter book/blog thing called Welcome to Dystopia: The Future is Now, written between October 2019 and May 2020, that goes much deeper into these ideas, as well as separate blog posts.  

For more info on Alvin and Heidi Toffler's concept of The Third Wave, check out this interview, from 2007.  Alvin Toffler died in 2016, after writing and speaking about the future for over 35 years.  

P.R. Sarkar's Law of Social Cycle is from India, and I heard about it from the book The Great Depression of 1990, by Ravi Batra.  He basically says that there are 4 mentalities in a society.  The Intellectuals, The Acquisitors (landlords. large business owners), the Laborers, and the Warriors.  At any given time, one mentality dominates and shapes a society, usually for decades, often hundreds of years.  According to Batra's analysis of the U.S., using Sarkar's concept, we are in a period at the end of the Acquisitor Age (businessman's mentality is leading to mass corruption, and lower living standards for workers), when the Laborers rise up in several populist waves of revolt, and eventually the Warrior mentality takes over.  It's really complex,  You can find the basic info here.

I also am a huge fan of Richard Florida's concept of The Creative Class, which I believe explains much of the change in technology, the clustering of tech businesses in a few areas, and the changing world of work in general.

When I write about economic stuff, or things I see happening in coming months or years, I'm drawing mostly on these concepts and ideas, to give me a sort of road map of where society is headed.  

* Not a paid link.

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The most rational discussion I've seen about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars

So... the Oscars (aka Academy Awards) happened Sunday... and 99% of the conversation is about Will Smith getting up, and slapping comedian/host Chris Rock, after a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith.  In this NSFW (lots of language) conversation, here's MMA fighter/comedian/podcast legend Joe Rogan, and MMA fighter/commentator Josh Barnett, discussing the incident.

First of all, here's the clip of the slap, followed by the joke Chris said first.  

I didn't see this happen live, I heard a mention of it yesterday, the morning after the Oscars.  This crazy incident has brought up all kinds of opinions from people across the spectrum.  But the conversation between trained fighters, Rogan and Barnett, above, is the most level headed take on it I've seen, and it's about 15 minutes long.  First, Joe Rogan is the first person I've seen mention Will Smith's double reaction, laughing at first, then Jada's upset look, and then Will walks up and slaps Chris.  Second, Chris Rock can take a hit, I'll give him that, he didn't even put his hands up to block.  No stunt double needed there.

I agree with Rogan that I think Will was acting completely on impulse.  I don't think he had any thought of consequences at the time.  Yes, Will did apologize to the Academy during his acceptance speech later on, and I've heard he apologized to Chris yesterday on Twitter.  But he handled the situation horribly at the time.  

As I've thought about it over the last day and a half, like so many other people, I see Will's act as that of a person of privilege, who believes there are, or will be, no consequences for his actions.  That was the act of a spoiled rich kid turned adult, whose problems have been solved by someone else their whole life.  That's the kind of person we'd expect to hit someone on a live TV broadcast.  Now that's not how Will grew up, to the best of my knowledge.  But that's how how acted in the moment, like someone who had no concern for consequences at all.  Normal people know they'd get tackled by security if they ever tried something like that in a similar situation.     

When you bring the race into it, Will did the same kind of thing that black people have had to deal with from wealthy, privileged White people, for 300+ years in this country.  Except the guy throwing the bitch slap is a rich and famous black man.  There are so many different issues wrapped up in this little incident, that I'm kind of glad it happened.  Yes, Jada has a medical condition that led to her shaving her head, and Chris likely knew that.  But it was at a TV show, watched by millions, where Chris Rock's job was to roast a few celebs for laughs as part of the show.  If you're in the first few rows at the Oscars, you know you may have a joke directed at you.  You can argue whether the joke was in bad taste.  But I don't think it was malicious, Chris was doing his job as a comic host. 

This blow-up by Will Smith now has people talking about alopecia, and what jokes are acceptable to women with one issue or another.  It has people talking about jokes and free speech.  It has people talking about wealth, privilege and lack of consequences for some people's actions.  It has people talking about assault.  It has people talking about how fucking crazy the world itself has become.  It has people talking about copycat idiots attacking live performers in the future.  It has people talking about a whole bunch of social and human issues.  

It also has a lot of people thinking about social issues, and how we interact with each other in all kinds of everyday situations.  In the long run, the one douchebag moment of stupidity may yield several silver linings.  Chris Rock is OK, and seems to have literally, and figuratively, rolled with the punch.  Maybe this will ultimately prevent some stupid actions by a lot of other people in the future.  Let's hope so.  

If this incident is on your mind, watch the video above, there's a lot in it to think about.  

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The Bored Ape Yacht Club was created by skater/BMXers... really...

Nearly a month before its one year anniversary, the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection has gone from an idea that "probably wouldn't work," to a business valued at $4 billion which "real" business people love to hate, and real celebrities own pieces of.  This documentary by The Defiant above was made in June 2021, when the Ape NFT's were around $5,000 to $8,000 each.  No one had any idea how crazy they would get then.  Now BAYC NFT's run $318K and up.  For jpeg's of monkeys, tied to the Ethereum blockchain!  What sets BAYC apart from the dozens of other NFT projects?  

"The art was inspired by our upbringing.  We grew up in the cultural melting pot of Miami, where we skated, BMXed, and drank half our 20's away, in the parking lot behind the local punk bar, talking shit about music, movies, and books, our love of Miami, 90's hip hop, 80's hardcore punk, skateboarding, crypto culture."  - "NOSASS," BAYC Co-founder (18:40 in the doc above)

Sarcasm, beer, and action sports.  One of the main themes of my blogs, for 13 years now, is that people who get into action sports as kids often go on to do really creative stuff later in life.  Rodney Mullen gives TED Talks about creativity.  Steve Rocco punked the world building World Industries skateboard company, then selling it for $20 million.  Chris Moeller went from a Mad Dog to BMX mogul building S&M Bikes and Fit Bikes.  My old Huntington Beach Pier friends, Pierre Andre' Senizergues and Don Brown created Etnies/Sole Technology.  Spike Jonze has directed some of the most profitable movies in history, and  won an Oscar.  Mat Hoffman still rips, and runs multiple businesses.  Tony Hawk helped create a billion dollar video game series, and is often interviewed on business news channels.  The list goes on and on.  You get the idea.  

You may hate crypto and NFT's, or love them.  That's up to you.  But this post is to let you know that Bored Ape Yacht Club is yet another highly creative business taking off that has some action sports roots, along with punk, hip hop, and crypto culture.  I don't know about you, but it'd be cool to see Tony Hawk, Mat Hoffman, and other BMXers and skaters help them build a part of their metaverse.  We'll see what happens.  

Just found a cool interview with Nicole Muniz, aka vstrange.  She's the CEO of Yuga Labs, creators of BAYC and now owners of  BAYC, Mutant Apes, Crypto Punks, Meebits, and probably some other stuff.  Cool interview on the creation, first year, and future thoughts for the Apes and Ape friends.

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33 years ago today Mat and Joe did some things...

A Facebook post by Mat Hoffman just reminded me where I was 33 years ago today.  I was in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, shooting video of a 2-Hip King of Vert contest for Unreel Productions.  Mat landed the first 900 in a contest that day (at 14:43), and Joe Johnson landed the first double tailwhip air on vert.  Epic day of BMXness.  This is about fifteen minutes of my footage of that day, narrated by Eddie Roman and friends for the 2-Hip video, Ride Like a Man.

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Bored Ape Yacht Club is creating a metaverse

A metaverse worth actually exploring?  Full of new gaming worlds and other cool stuff wander through?  I'm not a gamer, but the Bored Ape Yacht Club metaverse ideas in this new trailer actually look fun and interesting.

For a lot of us, the whole idea of a "metaverse," a new virtual world to explore with VR goggles, crossed into our awareness thanks to Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook.  Here's their metaverse trailer, and it looks lame (and commercial) as fuck.  Bits of it are cool, but not enough to make me want to put on goggles.  

Then there are the metaverses that already exist and are being built as we speak.  The Sandbox is much less corporate, and based more on the decentralized ideas from the crypto world.  The idea is that you can buy a chunk of virtual land, and build whatever you want on it.  A little more pixelated in the video, but lots of weird, creative people building all kinds of VR places.  That sounds more interesting than the Facebook/Meta world.  There is a land rush going on in The Sandbox to buy great pieces of virtual property right now.  But it doesn't have me wanting to put on goggles yet.  The same with Decentraland, the other main main metaverse being bought up and built up right now.  Pretty cool, but it doesn't have me excited to go explore.  Not yet.  I think both of these two will get pretty cool in the future, but they're still a long way from mainstream adoption.  

But Bored Apes...  These crazy guys from Miami put out a series of 10,000 NFT's less than a year ago.  They came out in late April 2021, when crypto and NFT art was surging in its first big wave of popularity.  They came up with this little back story for the Bored Apes.  The year is 2031, and these apes are rich from crypto, but bored, and just like to hang with similar people, in a weird little club out in the Everglades.  The NFT's didn't move right off the bat, at a price of  .08 Eth, about $130-$150 each.  Then word got around the crypto world, and they got snapped up in a couple of days, about two weeks later.  

Crypto Punks were still the OG NFT collectibles then, and the series that all other NFT collectibles/art were judged by.  But the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) community became just that, a community.  Crypto enthusiast business guys bought some, like Mark Cuban and Gary Vaynerchuk.  The prices rose into the tens of thousands of dollars each, then hundreds of thousands.   Before long, a few celebrities started buying them.  Steph Curry, Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, and others, joined the BAYC club.  

The floor price, the lowest price for any NFT in the collection, kept rising.  They came out with another series, the Mutant Ape NFT's.  The BAYC floor price surpassed the Crypto Punks, and kept going.  Now it takes about $300,000 to buy one of these NFT's, basically jpegs tied to the Ethereum blockchain.  

Is this all insane?  Yeah.  But BAYC has kept going.  They just bought out the O.G.'s, Crypto Punks and Meebits NFT series, from Larva Labs.  They just airdropped their own crypto, Apecoin, to NFT owners.  Now they are talking about building a whole new metaverse world, based on these three NFT series.  In less than a year, this wacky idea by the crypto guys in Miami has become a business empire valued at about $4 billion.  WTF is going on?  

Is this a big Ponzi scheme?  I don't think so.  Yes, there are a ton of scammers in the crypto and NFT worlds, just like the "real" art world and business worlds.  You have to due your homework and be careful when buying NFT's or crypto.  But I think what we're witnessing here (if you're actually watching), is a whole new kind of entertainment business model forming, and BAYC is suddenly leading the charge.  Most people thought the internet was a joke,  225-27 years ago.  The retail behemoth, Sears department stores, laughed at little Amazon,com, the tiny online bookselling business, 22 years ago.  Blockbuster video thought Netflix was a joke.  You get the idea.  We're in a period of time where old business and social models are being disrupted, and new ones are forming.  

I think we are seeing a whole new world of  blockchain tech-enabled entertainment businesses being born, and I think those Bored Apes have become the main group to watch to see where this whole new type of entertainment, gaming, and tech business may be going.  

I first heard of NFT's in a magazine article I found on a bus, about 9-10 months ago.  I finally got around to researching NFT's and the crypto world about 4 months ago.  From the start, I just liked the Bored Apes artwork.  Most of the others didn't do much for me, but the Apes had this sarcastic, funny vibe to them.  They were not the coolest NFT's four months ago.  But this group is charging full speed in this new and fast changing world, and I'm keeping an eye on them.  If crypto or NFT's interest you, maybe you should, too.   

Grey Trash pic of the day- 3/25/2022

 "It's 420 somewhere."  It's Friday, so here's a drawing for the stoners out there.  I only smoked weed for a year or so, right out of high school.  But I'm 100% pro legalization (for all the the states still behind the curve).  

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Grey Trash pic of the day- 3/24/2022

"I thought my kids were weird... until I went to Hollywood."  Yeah, Hollywood is a magnet for freaks and weirdos, wannabee actors, musicians, tourists, homeless people, and small businesses that want money for trinkets, food, and tours from all those groups listed above.  Check out this crazy video of people on Hollywood Boulevard.  The woman with the microphone in the video is my niece Katherine's stunt double.  Really, look at how much she looks like Katherine (on the left):

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The economy for 2022- 3/22/2022

Why a amateur rocket launch in a blog post about this year's economy?  It's a good visual representation of the way inflation took off, and raised prices on almost everything in the past several months.  Many people are looking at gas, home, and other prices, thinking, "Whoa, what just happened?

Disclaimer

In my opinion, we are now 31 months into what I call The Phoenix Great Depression, a 5 to 7 year + economic mess that will ultimately feel like a great depression to most Americans, and may meet the traditional definition of one.  It started with the Repo Market Crisis in late September of 2019, and got everyone's attention when Covid-19 hit U.S. shores in February and March of 2020, leading to mass business shutdowns.  

We are now heading into the second recessionary wave of this long crisis.  What does that mean?  This year, that means three main things.  

1) Prices will keep going up, in general.  Gas prices will go down some after a while, and real estate prices should be falling most places nationwide, by late 2022.  The official inflation rate, currently 7.9% is a joke, real inflation for most things people buy is probably closer to 12% to 20%.  Gasoline prices are up around 50% here in the L.A. area, over $6 in many places, and that's a lot more than 7.9% per year.  I think the official interest rate may go a bit higher, but then will come down this year.  But inflation will remain high, 5%-7% most likely.  

2) Interest rates will keep going up for most, or all, of 2022.  I wrote an economic outlook report for my business owning friends, and sent it out on September 10th, 2021.  In it, I  predicted interest rates would rise 1% to 2% by late 2022.  The 10 year T-bill rate, a good benchmark for interest rates, was 1.35% then.  The 10 year T-bill rate just hit 2.38% yesterday, meeting the 1% minimum rise I predicted six months ago.  It's reasonable to expect interest rates to rise another 1% to 1.5% by the end of 2022.  This will dramatically slow down the real estate market in 2022, and should lead to falling prices in most areas by late this year.

3) The stock market indices will continue a bumpy downward trajectory for the next few months.  Think of a ski slope with moguls, they will bounce up at times, but the overall trend will continue down.  Look at a DIJA chart for 2008, that's the kind of trajectory I see as most likely for stocks this year4-7 months of bouncy downtrend, and maybe a big drop afterwards.  Up and down, but a slow downward trend from now (late March) to maybe July-October 2022.  The four main stock indices should drop below these levels this year, 2022:  Down Jones Industrial Average- below 27,000, Nasdaq- below 10,000, S&P 500- below 3,500.  Once stocks bottom out, below these numbers, they should bounce back 10% - 20%.

Where  do I get these numbers?  In stocks and commodities, there's an old rule that every long term bull market makes a retracement of about 50% of the rise, after reaching the peak.  So if a bull market rises about 1,000 points, it will drop back about 500 points, get unstable for a while, and then begin a new trend.  I read about this rule in a commodities course by Ken Roberts in 1998.  The markets are so manipulated and warped at this point, I think the retracement will be more like 35% to 45% of the total rise from the 2009 low, to the peaks early this year.   

These are my personal opinions, and, as always please do your own research, due diligence, and consult appropriate professionals before making business and investment decisions.   

Oh, by the way...  When I was writing this post last night at a McDonald's, the type pad for my laptop was turned off remotely, by someone.  This has happened 2 or 3 times now, rendering my laptop useless.  As of right now, I can't get into the software to re-enable the type pad.  That's how intense the censorship of alternative thoughts about the economy is these days.  

In addition, I just noticed the page view counters on my blog have been turned off, AGAIN.  So, there's this thing in the U.S. called a Constitution, and the First Amendment is all about Free Speech.  This is how intense the attacks on free speech our in the U.S. A. in 2022.  

Grey Trash drawing of the day- 3/22/2022

"If you don't think you can make a difference in the world, far tin a crowded elevator and watch what happens."  One person can change things.  Somethings, anyhow.  #greytrash, #sharpiescribblestyle .
 

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Grey Trash drawing of the day- 3/21/2022

 The older I get, the more I believe this idea.  "Most progress in the world  comes from the freaks, geeks, dorks, and weirdos."  Cheers to all the other weirdos out there.  

Meet the Indricotherium, largest land mammal to walk the Earth

 In this photoshopped pic we see a human, an image of the indricotherium, and an African elephant.  Check this link, for source of the photo.  

I'm reading The First Fossil Hunters by Adrienne Mayor right now, which looks at the reports of, and thoughts about ancient fossils by the ancient Greeks and Romans.  She mentioned the Indricotherium as the largest land mammal that ever lived, so I had to look it up.  These ginormous creatures ate plants, weighed 15-20 tons, and lived in East Asia.  They roamed 33 million to 23 million years ago.  More info on this animal and it's cousins on Wikipedia, here.

Grey Trash: It started with Norbit

 This is Norbit, one of the three aliens that crashed in 1947 north of Roswell, now living in "Grey Valley" mobile home park, in a canyon hidden deep on a military base.   

After going down north of Roswell in 1947, one crew member died in the crash, and the second died in transit to a U.S.  Army Air Force Base in Roswell, months before the U.S. Air Force was created.  This guy knew very little English, he was the engineer of the craft, not the crew chief.  When the military asked what his name was, he thought they were asking him where he came from.  He said, "In orbit," in the best English he could manage.  They misunderstood him, and thought his name was Norbit.  The name stuck, as the weeks passed, and he learned English, and the government personnel learned of his world and ways.  

Yes, the Roswell crash was 75 years ago.  But Grey aliens have a natural lifespan of about 150 Earth years, and Norbit was 35, in our years, when his ship crashed.  At 110 years old now, he's got plenty of life left, comparable to a 60-year-old here on Earth.  

Norbit has been working with various U.S. government agencies, mostly on engineering projects, since 1947.  And yes millennials, he smokes.  His planet actually has air that's quite toxic by Earth standards, and the Greys have adapted to it over thousands of years, and their bodies flush airborne toxins out much better than ours do.  He picked up smoking in the 1940's, when many of the humans he worked with smoked, and hasn't stopped.  He still shows no signs of lung cancer, and telling to stop smoking really pisses him off.

Norbit, overall, is really low key, like many engineers.  He doesn't talk a lot, he likes solving tough engineering problems, and keeps to himself much of his off time.  He enjoys playing backgammon and a few card games now and then, and watching science based shows on TV and YouTube. 

While he was the first Grey to live here on Earth, among humans, for an extended period, he's not alone.  It turns out that, as advanced as the Greys spacecraft are, our lightning here on Earth can really do a number on them, or at least the craft from a few decades ago.  As more and more craft crashed on Earth, more and more Grey aliens crashed in the 1950's, 60's, and since.  The survivors all lived in secret bases, deep underground, until the mid 1970's.  At that point they had a bit of a mutiny, and demanded to be able to live somewhere on the surface.  

After much debate, a well hidden little canyon,  a ways east of  White Sands missile range, in western New Mexico, was chosen as the site.  Government officials moved in a bunch of single wide mobile homes, drilled a well for water, and put in the basic necessities.  The 53 Greys in the U.S. at the time all moved in, and the place soon got nicknamed "Grey Valley."  

Since aliens don't officially exist, they can't travel anywhere in public, so they're pretty much stuck in Grey Valley.  There is a big cave next to their trailer park, with a pub in the front part, just out of sight.  There are several lower levels hollowed out in it, for labs, machine shops, and tech rooms, for the various types of work they do.  They had TV early on, and eventually got internet a couple years after it came out.  

So now most of the aliens there are active online, using aliases.  Several play multi-player online games, and interact with humans who think they're just another person on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram somewhere.  They also buy a shitload of stuff from Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and other online shops. Everything they order gets delivered to a main gate loading dock, miles away, then transported by truck to Grey Valley.  Most of them are into buying crypto as well, and several have become crypto millionaires, which doesn't make the U.S. government very happy.  But they do their respective jobs, and otherwise keep low profiles.  So the feds tolerate their online interactions, and crypto and a bit of stock trading. 

After many years living as a small group in a trailer park, though, some of them are getting kind of weird.  In the future I'll share with you my drawings of this odd, quirky group of aliens.  They are the Grey Trash.  Here are a couple more.  There are many more to come, with their thoughts on different things.  

Moron disclaimer:  Just in case you're a complete fucking idiot (and many of you are, judging by your online posts), this story is all FICTION.  The Grey aliens living in secret bases is an American urban legend at this point, and my Grey Trash drawings are my take on this idea.  I have no idea if aliens actually exist, if the Greys exist, if a UFO is what crashed outside Roswell, or any of the other things people have heard about aliens.  I started drawing aliens in 1998 or so, and first drew one smoking a cigarette in 2009.  It just made me laugh, and the idea of "white trash aliens living in a trailer park," began to form in my head.  

The Grey Trash are coming...

 They live in secret, in a government funded trailer park, in an obscure little valley in the New Mexico desert.  They can't travel,  They can't be seen in public.  They mostly work for the U.S. government, and the ones who don't get a government check monthly, like humans in any other trailer park.  They are online with aliases.  They kick your ass in online games, and have made a shitload in crypto profits.  They're sarcastic, and getting pretty weird in some cases.  They are trailer trash aliens.  They are Grey Trash.  More coming soon...

Happy St. Patrick's day everyone!

 Party on, leprechaun!  This is one of the two days a year I miss taxi driving.  Have fun, and get a ride home if you get sloshed.  Shot this pic in Richmond, VA, in 2019.  #steveemigphotos

Recent Sharpie Scribble Style drawings 3/17/2022

All three of these drawings are my large size, 18" X 24", drawn in my unique Sharpie Scribble Style.  The tribute to the early days of Thrasher magazine (above) is one I wanted to do to promote my art to some new people.  That's Chuck Treece with a layback on a sketched out backyard ramp, and a few other pics from 1980's Thrasher issues.  I wanted to capture that vibe from the days when skating was still done only by weirdos, there wasn't much money in it, and backyard ramps and street skating were new.  In the background are all the main names of skaters I could think of from that era.  

One of the guys from the weekly HB Tuesdays BMX freestyle sessions in Huntington Beach, Sean Ewing, asked me to do this drawing below.  It's Malcom Smith, the first legendary American motocross racer, hauling ass in the early days.  I drew this from Sean's photo, of a painting, of the original panning photo.  Trying to get the feeling of speed was the challenge in his one.

While I'm not a big fan of golf in general, I loved drawing the photo at the bottom.  The pic has special meaning for Ken in NorCal.  It was a great weekend of his life, a photo snapped while waiting for some other golfers to play through, who were taking their good ol' time.  I love that big pine tree in the foreground, and all the shadows in the original photo.  

These large drawings take me around 40-45 hours to do.  I don't make much per hour for doing them, but doing about 100 of these drawings in the last six years has really honed my skills, and I keep improving,  I'm working on a transition to work that takes less time, and makes more money, to get myself off the streets, and stabilize my life.  Like any artist, I have a whole bunch of my own ideas I want to draw, on different subjects, stacked up in my mind.  Getting an apartment and living like a human again, should give me a little more time to get to some of those ideas.  But the large drawings look the best in my style.  I need to raise my prices dramatically soon, to cover the hours I put into these things.    

 

My page view counter is still disabled on my main blogs...

 For reasons I don't know, my page view counter is not visible on my main blogs.  Here are the current page view counts for the four main blogs I have now:

Steve Emig: The White Bear- 133,699

Freestyle BMX Tales- 44,804

Crazy California 43- 2,901

Welcome to Dystopia: The Future is Now - 2,496

"Dystopia" is about this decade, the "Tumultuous 2020's" we are all now experiencing.  It's a book as a blog, written from October 2019 to April 2020.  

If you're really bored, here's my post about the 25 main blogs I've tried out, which have racked up over 438,000 page views in total.  Just for clarification, when someone looks at one page on a blog or website, that's a page view.  If they look at ten pages, that's 10 page views.  

Addicted to blogging...

Why are my page view counts not in view of the public?  Good freakin' question.  Censorship and "algorithm warfare" (directing viewers away form certain blogs/websites/YouTube channels) are rampant online today.  It's a crazy world, and art, science, and truth get attacked constantly.  

Blogger's note- 3/16/2022- Page view counter visible again.  Cool.  

Bored Ape Yacht Club creators just bought Crypto Punks and Meebits- HUGE NFT news

I don't know anything about this guy or his channel, but he does a good job explaining the BAYC creators, Yuga Labs, buyout of Crypto Punks and Meebits from the OG NFT guys, Larva Labs.  They DID NOT buy Larva itself, it continues doing other projects.  I haven't said much on NFT's for a while, since my laptop died, and being a homeless dude, I haven't got a new one yet.  So I'm drawing my own work, and biding my time, as the NFT world, like many investments right now, tanks as inflation soars, and Putin does his James Bond super villain thing.  If you're into NFT's, check out this video.  I have no comment on this guy's own NFT drop, I simply don't know anything either way.  Do your own due diligence, as always, if interested.  

I started a new personal blog, check it out:

Steve Emig's Street Life  #SEstreetlife

Did fossils found by ancient Greeks and Romans lead to myths of Gryphons, Cyclops, and other beasts?

This short video takes a look at the theory that fossil dinosaur, mammoth, mastodon, and other bones may have led to, or helped shape, some of the fictional creatures of myth.  There are recorded stories of Greeks and Romans finding fossil bones, but they had no idea that dinosaurs, and the large mammals of pre-Ice Age times existed.  So what did they think these bones belonged to?  That's the question this video looks at.

At some point in the early 2000's, while working as a taxi driver, I heard an interview on KPFK (90.7FM, L.A.) radio with Adrienne Mayor, who wrote a book called The First Fossil Hunters.* I still haven't read it, I actually ordered it to my favorite library yesterday, so I can read it when it gets transferred.  Her premise in the book is that fossil bones found by ancient Greeks, Romans, and others, may have led to, or dramatically influenced, the tales of mythical creatures in those days.  Is that where the story of gryphons, cyclops, and other fantastic beasts come from?  Maybe.  This video takes a look at the idea, and critiques it.  

Some conversation I had a few days ago reminded me of this interview I heard, and looking for a talk by Adrienne Mayor about it led to my post about the Amazon myth and the Scythians, covered in her later book.  If you're into archeology and paleontology, you may find this video worth checking out.  When I read the book, I'll write more on my thoughts about the whole subject.   

* Not a paid link.

I started a new personal blog, check it out:

Steve Emig's Street Life  #SEstreetlife

Tony Hawk just broke his femur... here's a classic Hawk/Hosoi showdown from BITD

On March 7, 2022, three days ago, 53-year-old pro skateboarder Tony Hawk broke his femur on a bad McTwist attempt.  In an article linked on his Twitter, he said he didn't have enough speed, and caught a sketchy grab, and crumpled on landing, breaking his femur.  For those of you who don't know, that's the really big bone in the top half of your leg, one of the worst things to break.  So good vibes and much luck healing to Tony, as he heals up and makes the long recovery back from that injury.  

If you've read my blog much, you know I was a BMX and skateboard industry guy in the 1980's and early 1990's.  So my stories I tell in this blog, and previous blogs, are my memories of working and hanging out with the riders and skaters back in the day.  I never actually met Tony Hawk, but I was at a couple video shoots at Tony's Fallbrook house, and saw him at contests events now and then.  I just never introduced myself, because we didn't really do that in those days.  

In 1988, I was working at Unreel Productions, the video company owned by Vision Skateboards.  I was basically a production assistant, mostly making copies of different videos for people in the Vision empire all day.  But Don Hoffman, the head of  Unreel had this crazy idea of getting action sports on TV, which WAS NOT happening in the 1980's.  So Unreel produced five well produced TV shows, called the Sports on the Edge Series.  We ended up syndicating the series across the U.S., six years before the X-Games started in 1995.  The series included bodyboarding, skateboarding, BMX racing, BMX freestyle, and snowboarding.  Unreel actually tried to sell the series to ESPN in 1989, but the suits there said, "No one wants to watch skateboarding on TV, and what the hell is snowboarding?"  So we hired a woman to syndicate the series, which actually played really well, and got good ratings, across the U.S..  

For the skateboarding show, we at Unreel worked with National Skateboard Association to put on the biggest skateboard contest ever at the time.  Following the huge progression in ramp construction in the Bones Brigade 3/Animal Chin video, we had a vert/spine/mini ramp combo built, as you can see in the video clip above.  Spine ramps were brand new then, and mini ramps were only a couple of years old, so this contest broke new ground in that way.  It was also unusual then to have a skate event in a big arena then, with a "huge" crowd of 3,000 spectators.  Most skate contests at that time were outside, where you could just walk up and watch in most cases.  

Someone also came up with the idea for this crazy, head to head format, rather than a big jam format like we see today.  I think I was there was a jam to figure out the top 10 or so skaters, and then they skated head to head against each other, which you can also see in this clip above.  So one guy would skate, and then the other, and you had to lose twice to get eliminated, much like a basketball tournament or something like that.  The main result was it wore the skaters out.  So this was a really huge, crazy, big event for skateboarding at the time.  Unreel hired SoCal radio D.J. The Poorman from KROQ to host, with Skatemaster Tate and Vision pro skater Ken Park for color commentary.  To top it all off, Unreel hired this crazy punk band called the Red Hot Chili Peppers to play after the contest.  

Not surprisingly for vert skating in 1988, the contest came down to Tony Hawk versus Christian Hosoi for the win.  Hawk was the master of hard, technical vert tricks, and Hosoi was the master of big , high, super stylish airs, and flow.  Crazy, head-to-head format aside, it actually made for a really cool live event, and a great TV show.  When you watch the video above, you see why Tony and Christian were continually battling it out for the top spot in vert, they both ripped, in completely different ways.  Tony got the win on that day, but it could have gone either way after those final runs.  

That's it for my look back at an epic skate contest from the 80's.  You can find more clips of Skate Escape on YouTube.  The show got made into a home video later, their may be a few VHS copies in someone's collection still.  Here's the Joe Rogan podcast from 2020 with Tony, which I was listening to while writing this blog post.  Again, best wishes to Tony as he heals and recovers from his broken femur.  Like everyone, I hope he's able to get mobile again, and back on a ramp as soon as possible.  

 

People I gave rides to in my taxi: 1999-2008

 

In my days as a taxi driver, mostly in and around Huntington Beach, California, I gave rides to thousands of people.  Here are a few of the most famous ones.  I could think of no one better to start this post off with than pro surfer Karina Petroni.  She's beautiful, she's dedicated to keeping our oceans as healthy as possible, and this woman can SURF.

This is a post I wrote on another blog several years ago.  Since I don't have a laptop at the moment to really write new stuff, I'm bringing this post here to live.  

As a taxi driver, I never knew who was going to climb in the back seat of my cab.  In life, we never know what life will throw at us next.  I've chased and achieved a few dreams, I've done lots of weird jobs, and I've survived a year on the streets of Southern California.  I'm 50 now and still chugging along. Failing doesn't make you a failure, not getting up and trying again after you fail makes you a failure.  

My zine of crazy taxi stories, launching my online store, is coming in a matter of days.

 Life Lesson:  NEVER QUIT

Skaters
Arto Saari
Stefan Janowski 
Dave Duncan

Surfers
 Christian Fletcher
Samba Mann
Karina Petroni 

Billionaire
 Larry Ellison -Oracle founder (It was 2003, he was only worth $9 Billion then)

Musicians
Ignite
Kerry Getz

Brawl/UFC/MMA fighters
Tank Abbot
Ken Shamrock

Tattoo Artist/BMXer 
"Big Island" Mike Castillo

BMXers
Barspinner Ryan Brennan
Keith Treanor
Chase Hawk
Ryan "Biz" Jordan
Todd Lyons
Cory Nastazio 
Adam Pope & Shaun Butler 
Chris Moeller 
"Midget" Cory Walters
Freddie Chulo 
Marvin Lotterle
Troy McMurray

There were others, but I lost the official list years ago, and these are the people I remember.   

I have a new blog about BMX, skateboard, action sports spots, check it out:

The Spot Finder

The real Wonder Women warriors behind the myths of the Amazons

For the women of Generation X and later, you grew up knowing that Wonder Woman came from a group of Amazons, in comic book fiction.  You may remember this version, or this one.  And I know many women today wish for her golden lasso to make people (boyfriends, husbands ,mean girls) tell the truth.  

While looking for a talk on Adrienne Mayor's previous book, The First Fossil Hunters, I ran across this talk, and just listened to it.  It's a great look by Adrienne Mayor at the real life badass women of the ancient world.  If you are interested or inspired by tough, warrior-type women, you'll probably like it.  

The Scythians, who most Amazon myths of old seem to be based on, had many real warrior women in their culture.  The used bows and arrows, spears and lances, and yes, even lassos, in battle.  They had arm and leg shields much like Wonder Woman.  They may even have invented pants.  Really.  Some of them had tattoos (the first full sleeves?), they were depicted in Greek and Roman art, and in literature of the day.  It's a really cool talk, check it out.  

There are now 133,257 page views on this blog...

 Again... the page view counters on all my blogs don't seem to be appearing.  Mostly because I actually HAVE page views on all my blogs, I guess.  Censorship and web BS keeps escalating.  This blog was started in late June of 2017, BTW.  Around 20,000 page views a year.  

Blogger's note- 3/5/2022- The page view counters on this blog, and my other blogs that I've checked, are still not appearing.  More internet shennanigans going on, I don't know why.  My Freestyle BMKX Tales blog has over 44,000 page views, for example.  But someone, somewhere, doesn't want you to know that.  Freakin' douchebags and they're censorship.  Jeeeez...

Sound System gonna bring me back up...

Two members of Operation Ivy bringin' back "Sound System," 34 years after it was written.

Working on the S&M Bikes video 44 Something in 1993, Chris Moeller broke out his punk rock cassette collection, and introduced me to ska punk legends, Operation Ivy, and a few other bands that we bootlegged on the video, in standard early 90's bike/skate DIY style.  I loved this band ever since.  Here's two of those guys rockin' it again.  

Think back to your teen and early 20's years.  How many times did you take a hit in some way, and you cranked up your own music collection, and it brought you out of the funk?  I think we've all done that at some point, maybe many times.  Great song from a band that was way more influential (ask the guys in Green Day, for example) than most people know.  Now you have the Knowledge.  So go find The Crowd.  Or just listen to their one full album here.