The McGoo podcast on Unclicked: The comedian of the BMX industry talks for 5 hours about his decades in BMX

Ryan Fudger of Our BMX/Unclicked podcast, with S&M and Fit Bikes owner Chris Moeller as co-host, interview Harold "McGoo" McGruther, for the longest BMX podcast ever.  It starts with the legendary "steamer" incident, where a rider let another guy take a dump on his back, while on tour, to pay off a debt.  Then it just keeps going.  Some of the craziest stories are near the end.  If you're interested in a serious look behind the scenes of the 1980's, 1990's, and 2000's BMX and freestyle industry, check this podcast out.  It's 5 hours long, and it's all good.  

The first time McGoo entered my consciousness was in late 1985, just after I moved to San Jose, California from Boise.  I ordered my first BMX freestyle video, and one of the first ever to be produced, Freestyle's Raddest Tricks.  It was put out by BMX Plus! magazine.  In the section shot at Pipeline skatepark, there's a bit where photographer John Ker and McGoo are sitting in front of the Pipe Bowl, talking about this hip new thing, BMX freestyle.  McGoo was the editor of BMX Plus! at the time.  I had been reading the magazine, and has seen his name, but didn't pay much attention to that, at the time.  This video put a face and a personality to the name in my head.  I was so stoked when I got that video, to finally have my own video of actual top freestylers, that I not only paid $39.95+ shipping for the video, I watched it 7 times the day I got it.  Two of those times I watched the whole video while balancing on my bike in the living room.  I'm not kidding.  

Photographer John Ker on the left, and McGoo on the right, in the 1985 BMX Plus! video, Freestyle's Raddest Tricks.  

In 1986, when I landed the job at Wizard Publications, I also became roommates with Gork and Lew, from BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines.  Andy Jenkins, editor of FREESTYLIN', and my other boss, also lived nearby.  All three of them were good friends with McGoo, who was working as the CW freestyle team manager then, the guy making the Mike Buff, John "Dizz" Hicks, and Ceppies Maes shows happen.  I was the quiet new guy, and suddenly I met McGoo, and he was cracking jokes and making sarcastic comments continuously.  I remember thinking, "Who is this guy?  McGoo should be a comedian."  The first time we hung out with him, we wound up driving up and down Beach Boulevard in Orange County, yelling at the hookers that used to work the sketchy area of Beach, through Westminster, Garden Grove, and Stanton, then.  

About midnight, I think, we stopped at a Burger King that was still open, for a late night burger.  As the five of us were eating, listening to McGoo, Andy, and Lew dream up crazy ideas, a couple of the hookers walked in.  They got their food, and sat down at the next table.  McGoo, just goofing around says, "Hey baby, how 'bout a date?"  He wasn't really trying to pick her up, just having some fun.  The hooker looked at us, McGoo was in jeans and a polo shirt, looking fairly yuppie, but the rest of us were in shorts and T-shirts.  The hooker said, "I'm on my lunch break!"  Total "Talk to the hand!" attitude,  The other hooker laughed.  She shot McGoo's joke, and all of us, down.  I was this really naive dork, only 20, and a year out of Idaho, thinking, "Damn, the BMX industry is crazy!"  We spent a bunch more time hanging out with McGoo, during my short stint at Wizard.  He was always "on," always joking and telling stories, and keeping everyone entertained.  After that, I saw him at contests now and then.  When him an Frank Scura got into it, talking smack to each other, it was always hilarious.

McGoo went on to be the GT freestyle team manager, in the era of Martin Aparijo, Josh White, Eddie Fiola, and Dino Deluca.  He went on to be the Mongoose team manager, signing Tim "Fuzzy" Hall and Dennis McCoy, as BMX freestyle hit its first peak, and was heading into the lean years.  In the early 90's, when I was roommates with Chris Moeller, Jason "Timmy" Ball, and Neal Wood, McGoo lived right around the corner in Huntington Beach, for a while.  He's the one who gave Jason the nickname Timmy.  The first night Jason showed up, as an 18-year-old rider from Colorado, they all went to McGoo's to hang out.  I stayed home, for some reason.  Somebody introduced Jason to McGoo, and his reaction was, "Jason?"  There's too damn many Jasons, there's already like four Jasons in this area in BMX, you need a new name, you're... you're... Codename Timmy."  Something like that.  That's the story I heard when they came home that night.  That was about 1994, I think.  Now, 29 years later, Jason Ball runs the shop at S&M Bikes, and lots of people still call him Timmy.  

Right around that time McGoo did the Mental Jimmy'z BMX mail order business with John Paul Rogers, sharing an office with S&M Bikes.  He talks about that in the podcast.  He talks about everything in the podcast, so stop reading my drivel here, and just watch the podcast.  Or listen to it.  

For the past fifteen years or so, McGoo has been working as a co-founder of  Biltwell, selling retro-styled motorcycle helmets and accessories.  He's trimmed down, and I must say, looks in damn good shape these days.  Harold McGoo McGruther is THE most inside insider of the 1980's-2000's BMX industry, and all 5 hours of this podcast is entertaining, if you're an Old School BMXer/freestyler.  If you haven't watched this already, watch it.  Thanks to Ryan Fudger and Chris Moeller for getting McGoo into the podcast for this interview.

Vans BMX Integration edit

This has been my favorite new school BMX video to watch for about the last month or so.  Led by Perris Benegas and Dennis Enarson, with clips by a whole bunch of other Vans riders.  Just a good solid street riding video.  Perris' section if the fuckin craziest women's street section I've ever seen.  This whole video's off the chain.  

The Retail Apocalypse continues... at least 1,450 more drug stores to close in 2023-2024

 As the "not a recession" economic malaise continues in the U.S., drug stores are struggling.  In this CNN article today (10/17/2023), we learn that Rite Aid went into chapter 11 bankruptcy this past Sunday.  Hmmmm... I didn't see that on the news over the weekend.  Nothing like a televised war and genocide to keep people from thinking about the U.S. economy.  In the article, reading down a bit, we learn that Rite Aid plans to close 400 to 500 more stores, CVS plans to close 900 more stores, and Walgreens plans to close 150 more stores.  I say more stores, because these chains closed a lot of stores in 2015-2020, and some stores since.  That's a lot of stores.  

I'm doing most of my writing on Substack now, check it out:

Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack

Planting flowers in Hell... artwork inspired by tragedies

On August 1, 1966, a man named climbed, unobserved, into the tower of the University of Texas in Austin.  Over an hour and a half, he shot at many people, killing 14 people, and the fetus of one of those women, who was pregnant.  He wounded 31 others.  He was shot and killed by police.  Harry Chapin later wrote the song above, "Sniper," about the mass killings, something which was nearly unheard of in that era.  This is probably the single most intense song I've ever heard in my life.  

Many things inspire works of art.  Tragedies, both personal, and catastrophic events involving groups of people, have always been a source of inspiration for artists throughout history.  Here are a few pieces of art inspired by tragedy, at a time when the world witnessed the effects of one tragic attack on civilians, on TV and social media, and what may turn into a much larger civilian tragedy emerging in retaliation.  As a 75 year period of strife once again flames up into warfare in the Middle East, people there, and around the world, struggle to cope with all kinds of traumatic events.  

There are many ways to grieve, cope, and try to deal with the wide varieties of tragedy we see, feel, and experience in life.  Creating art is one way to both work through the trauma of tragedy, and also to remind other people, in real time, and in the future, of the darkest events that human beings are capable of.  

Personally, I'm shifting towards writing more about writing, drawing, art, and creativity itself, ideas from my own weird, path of coming to grips with the urge to make art and write down ideas.  The events we've all seen this past week led me to the idea for this post, to look at some works of art that were inspired tragic events.   

The song "Amazing Grace," sung here by the Gospel Touch Choir, has been a standard in churches across Christianity for over 150 years in the United States.  It was written in 1772 by an English pastor named John Newton.  Newton was a former slave ship captain.  He saw, and was an active part of, the worst aspects of slavery.  Newton was even held as a slave himself, for a time, off the African coast.  After a storm nearly sank his ship, while still in his 20's, he turned his life around.  This 14 minute documentary tells the story of the song, "Amazing Grace."  The tune we are most familiar with now is not the original music for of the song.  It may have come from a type of Scottish folk song.  Here's "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes.  If you have ten minutes, good headphones, and really want to hear the true power of music, listen to this version sung by Aretha Franklin from 1972.

In 1983, the young band U2 had a big hit with the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday," another song inspired by a tragedy.  For most of the 20th century, some groups of Irish wanted to become independent from British rule.  Other Irish people wanted to stay a part of the U.K..  This led to decades of trouble in Ireland, attacks, car bombs, and religious tensions.  On January 30, 1972, during an Irish catholic march for freedom and civil rights, in Londonderry, British troops ended up shooting at protestors.  Thirteen protestors were killed in by the troops, and several more were injured.  A 14th protestor died several months later from the injuries of that day.  That event inspired U2 to write the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" years later. This short video explains the main events of January 30, 1972.  

Guernica, the painting by Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso created well over 1,000 works of art in his life.  The best known work, to most people, is a huge painting called "Guernica."  The painting is 4 meters by 8 meters, about 11 feet tall by 26 feet long, to us Americans who don't use the metric system.     On April 26, 1937, the Basque town of Guernica, Spain, was hit by an air raid, the first time of a large air raid on a civilian population.  An estimated 300 people were killed in the bombing, and as many as 1,700 later died from injuries from the attack.  This short documentary tells the story of Picasso and the painting of Guernica.  

In 1979, the band The Boomtown Rats put out a single called called "I Don't Like Mondays," which went on to become their biggest hit.  The song was inspired by a mass shooting in January of 1979, where a 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, shot at several people, in a school near San Diego, California.  She killed the head teacher, and wounded 8 children and a police officer.  When asked why she did it, Brenda said, "I don't like Mondays, this livens up the day"  This short video tells the basic details of that shooting.  Brenda Spencer is still in prison for her crimes, and her next parole hearing is in 2025.  

The song "Strange Fruit" was made famous by singer African American singer Billie Holiday, who was known for singing the classic ballads and standards of the early and mid 20th century.  The song was written as a poem by Abel Meeropol, in 1937, and was inspired by the lynching of black men in the United States in the late 1800's and early 1900's, primarily in southern states.  It was a photo of a lynching that took place in Marion, Indiana in 1930, that sparked Abel to write the poem.  He put it to music, and his wife sang it as a protest song at times.  In 1939, the well known, talented Billie Holiday recorded it.  This really spread the haunting song to a much larger audience, and it became a part of the growing civil rights movement for Black American, then usually referred to as Negroes.  This news segment tells the story of the song.  

Probably the most famous historical painting in the United States, the 1850 work, "Washington Crossing the Delaware," is known to school children and adults from American history classes.  General Washington's revolutionary army had lost 80% to 90% of its forces, and was on the run from the British, in the weeks leading up to the famous crossing.  The troops were tired, low on supplies, and battling the cold weather, and a better trained British army, along with German Hessian troops, mercenaries brought in and paid for by the British.  Things were looking really grim for the struggling colonial army.  Washington made a big bet by crossing the Delaware river at night, on Christmas night, 1776.  They moved in the early morning down to Trenton, and attacked a group of Hessian soldiers stationed there, surprising them and achieving a victory.  This helped raise morale of the colonial army under Washington, and became a turning point in our Revolutionary War.  Though this scene has been painted multiple times, the 1851 painting by German American artist Emanuel Leutze became the iconic image of the dangerous river crossing.  

On February 3, 1959, a small plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa.  The crashed killed three young rock n' roll stars on board, J.P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the planes pilot.  They were three of the biggest names in the young music movement of rock 'n roll, at the time.  Inspired by the airplane crash, in 1971, singer/songwriter Don McClean released the song "American Pie."  In this news segment, he tells some of the story behind the iconic song.  The early lines of the song reference Don reading about the tragic plane crash, which became known as "the day the music died," in the newspapers.  Don was 13, and a big fan of Buddy Holly, at the time.  Years later he put it all together in the 8 1/2 minute song that has been heard by millions since, and became an iconic song in American rock music.

These are just a few works of art, songs and paintings, that have been inspired by some tragic events.  But to many people reading this, these works are all from decades ago, are people still creating art and music inspired by terrible events.  Yes, of course.  

This kid goes by the name MC Abdul, and this song is called "The Pen & the Sword," and it's about the thirst for education among kids like him.  

This video has serious production quality, so he had some help putting this video together.  MC Abdul lives in a Palestinian region, I think the Gaza Strip, in Israel.  He puts his thoughts and feelings into his raps, and he's been doing this for more than two years.  This video is dated from about mid September 2023, about three weeks before the current war started in the region.  Here's another video he put out, two years ago, which is much more low budget and raw.  This is an amazing piece by a 12-year-old.  "Shouting at The Wall."  

There are a lot of reasons to write, rap, play instruments, paint, sculpt, design, or do any kind of artistic work.  Getting through the tough times in your own life, working through the things that trouble you, whatever kind of trouble it is, is one great reason to focus on creative work.  

I'm doing most of my new writing on Substack now, check it out.

Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack

Dave Vanderspek has been inducted into the US BMXA BMX Hall of Fame

Here's Dave Vanderspek on a local news segment about him and the Curb Dogs from 1985.  

It's really cool to see Dave Vanderspek, leader of the Curb Dogs, inventor of the Vander Roll, and amazing BMX freestyle rider, inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame.  As I've written about several times before, I lived in San Jose in 1985-86, and published my first zine there.  That zine, San Jose Stylin', is what landed me the job at BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines in August of 1986.  Most of what I covered in 11 issues of that zine was the Bay Area scene, was made up of Dave Vanderspek, Maurice Meyer, and the Curb Dogs, and Robert Peterson, and the Skyway riders.  

So I knew Vander, and the other guys in that scene, and rode with them on the weekends, whenever I could get up to the monthly Beach Park Ramp Jams, or San Francisco.  The Golden Gate Park/Bay Area freestyle scene was the most cohesive scene of that era.  Most of the guys were at Golden Gate Park, on Sunday afternoons, every week.  All of the pros, Dave, Maurice, Robert Peterson, Rick Allison, Oleg Konings, and Hugo Gonzales, were always cool with helping newer and younger riders learn and improve.  That happened, to some degree, in most scenes then.  But it was a much bigger thing in the Bay Area.  

Dave, Maurice, Bert, and all those pros would help all of us learn new tricks.  Just the little things, "Hey, if you put your foot here, it would help you come out of it," or "I think if you lean this way, it'll help."  That kind of thing.  Some pros back then were just more into their own riding.  They wanted to learn new tricks and push the boundaries.  Teaching new riders wasn't a priority for many pros of the day.  The NorCal guys wanted everybody in the scene to improve, and have fun riding, not just themselves.  

The Golden Gate Park scene had a different vibe than every other freestyle scene I saw at the time.  Even if some brand new kid rolled up, who could only do one or two tricks, they'd help the kid learn something new that session.  That "make the whole scene better" vibe seemed to emanate from Dave, and through everyone else.  The more time went on, the more that had an effect on me, and still does, decades later.  

The reality is, I talked some smack about Vander back then, and was definitely jealous of how much magazine coverage he got, early on.  I'd seen photos of him in the magazines, before moving to San Jose.  Then I met him, and he seemed like a total goofball, he totally reminded my of Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  I didn't take him seriously at first.  

The best BMX photo I ever shot, this photo was complete luck.  I was just holding the camera.  Dave Vanderspek, at speed, at the Palm Springs Tramway Road GPV event, 1987.  

Then I got the job at the magazines, and learned that Andy and Lew at FREESTYLIN' were some of Vander's biggest fans.  It was actually in the handful of times I saw Dave after moving to Southern California, that I gained a lot more respect for him.  After meeting and riding with several other top pros, and seeing Dave ride some more times, I realized just how good of a rider he was.  

At one of the Velodrome contests, I rolled up to this little patch of pavement in the infield, near the contest area.  Dave was sitting there on his bike.  He started pedaling slow, and said, "Check this out."  Then he did a huge bunnyhop, and landed in a pedal stall, on the hubba part of this small set of stairs.  This was 1987, a year before the Santee Meet-the-Street contest.  Street riding was barely even a thing then.  Dave's pedal stall was like four feet off the ground.  Street grinds hadn't been invented yet. Wall rides hadn't been invented yet.  And Vander was doing this trick that would be impressive now, 36 years later.  Then he hopped down, and said, "Hey your frame is cracked."  Sure enough, there was a hairline crack in the Raleigh I was riding, right at this weird gusset it had.  I hadn't even noticed.  He explained why the weird design of the gusset would always be prone to cracks at that spot, just the way it was designed.  I later told Raleigh, and they changed the design, making the gusset much better.  

A couple of other times, Dave would roll up at an event, and talk about all the new tricks I'd learned since moving to SoCal.  For a few minutes we'd just talk about tricks or new stuff we were working on.  I had only ridden with Dave, at the Beach Park Jams, or Golden Gate Park, maybe a dozen times, while living in San Jose.  But he remembered what tricks I had been doing then, and commented on new stuff I was doing, a year or two later.  It wasn't just me, he did that for all the riders he knew, at any level.  So he'd  blow my mind with some crazy trick or move, then just sit there and talk a bit, like we'd been hanging out, riding together for years.  He truly wanted to see everyone he knew keep improving, and get as good at freestyle, or skating, as possible.  For a guy who was a solid, pro caliber rider, and who was always busy self-promoting shows, and all kinds of other stuff all the time, that was amazing.  

So it's great to see him honored in the BMX Hall of Fame now.  Here are a few other videos of Dave and the Curb Dogs, Skyway, and other NorCal riders and skaters of that era.  

"Nobody got hurt, nobody got arrested."  Dave has the white cap on backwards.  

Dave Vanderspek Tribute video 

Vision Street Wear's Freestylin' Fanatics (1988)- Dave's segment is at 11:20

Curb Dogs video #1 (One of the first few BMX freestyle videos ever- 1987)

2023 BMX Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (Maurice Meyer accepts on Dave's behalf at 2:49:50)

And just for good measure, here's a local news segment about Maurice Meyer, which also shows the Golden Gate Park scene, and several of the amateur riders, as well.

Dave Vanderspek tribute drawing I did a couple years ago.  #sharpiescribblestyle

I've been doing most of my new writing on Substack now, check it out:

Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack