A Brian Foster video to suck you in so we can take your money

The guy who put Fit Bikes on the map, my roommate once upon a time at the P.O.W. (Pros Of Westminster) House, and one of the most stylish riders to ever ride on two wheels.  And now he's becoming a doctor, a physical therapist, to be exact.  Brian Foster, living the dream and riding beyond most of our dream levels.

When I first met Chad at Powers Bikes in Richmond, VA, shortly after landing there last August, we got talking about BMX, and eventually about Brian Foster, Chad's favorite rider.  He asked me to do a drawing of Brian.  Like most people, I imagine Chad was thinking of some time he'd seen Brian ride, the huge air, the smooth, effortless looking style, the epic table 3's.

But the first thing that popped into my mind, thinking about Brian, was sitting in the dingy P.O.W. House living room, where the drapes were always closed, with 7 or 8 other guys.  Dave Clymer, Alan Foster, Lawan Cunningham, Jay, Sales, Bill, Scotty, maybe Todd Lyons, and John Salami.  I don't remember exactly who was sitting on the 3 or 4 couches on that particular day.  Several guys had just come back from a national race, and Brian and a couple others had won some money.  That meant a lot of $5 pepperoni pizzas from What a Lotta Pizza down on Westminster Boulevard.  I was broke, so I didn't have a pizza that night.  In the P.O.W. House, we were all living cheap, so if you ranout of money, you learned to cook ramen.  Everyone one of us could make at least a few different meals out of a pack of ramen and random items laying around the kitchen.

At any given time in the P.O.W. there were a few guys who were doing alright money wise, and three or four who were scraping by.  I was scraping at that point.  I think it was the time I was working as a furniture mover, and the federal government was two months behind in paying Mayflower, so they were two months behind in paying me.  Whatever the case, food money was scarce.  I remember Brian finishing his own pizza, lifting up the box, and saying "Pizza bones."  That was the signal he left the crusts for someone else.  I launched off the couch about three people away, and snatched the box form Brian's hand.  And I was stoked.  After 2 or 3 days of straight ramen, pizza crusts were a delicacy.

Things changed regularly, and maybe a few days later, I'd be the guy with the pizza.  But I ate my crusts, when I had a pizza.  I would hook the roach d'jour up with a slice now and then.  There were 8 to 12 of us living in a 4 bedroom house for a reason, rent was $90 to $120 a month in Southern California.  That meant a lot less time spent working lame jobs in the tough recession years of the early 1990's.  One week one guy would be living high, eating $5 pizzas, and the next week that same guy might be waking up early, picking up all the beer bottles in the living room, and recycling them for ramen money.  And beer money, of course.  Gotta have a couple Mickey's Bigmouths when possible.

So while I've always been a fan of watching Brian Foster ride, my first memories aren't those of him doing a no-footed can-can over the huge Dover Cliff Jump, or a one handed table 360 at Sheep Hills.  When you wind up roommates with an amazing rider, it's the stupid shit that always seems to pop in your head first.

In any case, Brian put Fit Bikes on the map in its early days, when Chris Moeller and Rob-O got that idea going.  Who better to write about when I'm trying to suck you into checking out the discounted Fit Bikes in the Block Bikes Online BMX Store.  There's a lot more stuff for sale, but these are some good deals on new , but previous year, bikes.  If you or a friend are in the market, give them a look, and see if we got what you need right now..

 The new 2020 Fit Bikes are getting built right about now, and will be hitting the store soon, that means the Block Bikes Online BMX Store has some great deals on a few 2017 and 2018 models.  Prices are as of this writing on 6/19/2019, and subject to change.  For most of these, there's only one available, so hop on it fast if there's one you need.

2017 Fit Dugan 1 LSD - $320.95

2017 Fit Begin 1 FC - $352.95

2018 Fit Mac -$432.95

2018 Fit Spriet - $360.95

2018 Fit TRL - $342.95

2018 Fit STR - $342.95

2018 Fit PRK - $342.95

2018 Fit Nordstrom - $342.95

2018 Fit Long - $432.95

2018 Fit Hango - $360.95

2018 Fit Dugan - $360.95

2018 Fit Corriere FC - $486.95

2018 Fit Begin FC - $486.95 

I've got a new blog going, it's about building a art or creative business, or building small businesses in general.  You can check it out here:
WPOS Kreative Ideas
And check out my new mash-up book/blog thing about the future:
Welcome to Dystopia: The Future is Now

Create the things you want to see in the world

For some reason, this video popped in my mind to go along with the nebulous, partially formed idea  for today's blog post.  I've learned enough in my (almost) 53 years on this planet, to know that intuitive spark means my post, though not yet fully thought out, not yet written, will tie in with the message Peter Dinklage gives in this short, but incredibly powerful video.  That's how the Universe works.  It's cool like that.

"The greatest words on written page, only come to life when you're on stage."

- Me, line from "Actress," a poem a wrote for my sister's best friend in about 1995.  That talented woman, a serious actor at heart, is now mom of two kids who happen to have some of the most successful channels on YouTube

The job, the real job, of writers, is to find new ideas that society needs at a particular point in time, and present those ideas in some form of text, so that the ideas are drawn out into society, and acted on... hopefully.  That can be done in many ways, in straight forward non-fiction, in personal blogs or zines or self-published ebooks.  Or those ideas can be woven into fictional stories and published as novels, plays or TV shows or movies.  The hardest part of writing, I've found, is to simply be able to survive, preferably with a roof over my head and enough food, while doing the time consuming work of thinking, and then writing.

Yesterday was four weeks that I've been back in Southern California, and tomorrow will be 30 days, a month.  For a month I've had a roof over my head, thanks to Rich at Block Bikes.  I can take showers, I have a room nearby, where I can sleep inside, I'm not out in the elements, like I was for most of the last two years.  I have a refrigerator and cupboards to store food.  I'm doing work to promote the new Block online bike store website.  But Block is a high caliber bike shop, it's not some huge corporation that can throw me a huge salary while building a brand new division.  So I'm living on a very small income, as we build up the online store into a successful business.  The Block Bikes online store, is a big, broad, major website, and it's going to take a solid year or year and a half to build something that large into a well known, popular, and profitable business.  It's a long term thing.

So while I have a stable, but temporary, place to stay for now, I still have to build an income on my own, if I'm going to build my life back into something close to a typical life.  I need to do that while helping Block get to where it needs to be.  I've spent most of the the last two years homeless, to be able to focus on my main talents.  I needed to live as cheap as possible, since there was no one willing to invest in me, to really build my art and writing into a business.  Homelessness was the best option, as crazy as that sounds. 

Most people think that homelessness ends when a homeless person gets a roof over their head.  Actually, that's not the case.  Homelessness, and the struggling mentaility that helps a person survive it, ends when a homeless person gets a room to rent, or an apartment, AND they have a stable income, high enough to keep that place indefinitely, barring an unexpected tragedy.  Homelessness really ends when a homeless person is confident they won't be homeless again, unless something really crazy happens.  I'm now at the top level of homelessness, similar to someone who's found a job, but is staying in a weekly motel or halfway house, working towards their own place, their own space.  I'm almost there, but I need to build a big enough, stable income, that will allow me to get my own apartment, a car, the basic stuff needed, and finally (hopefully) stabilize. 

The one thing that hasn't changed over the last month is my frantic, dawn to dusk work, to build a foundation, to build my own income, as well as building the awareness and online presence of the Block Bikes online store.  This blog hit the 70,000 page view threshold about a week ago, making it my second most popular blog, trailing only Freestyle BMX Tales.  Meanwhile, the Block Bikes Blog will be 2 months old tomorrow, and it has over 3,000 page views, more than 5 times what this blog saw in its first two months.  I'm off to a really good start on those things. 

I've also been building the Block Bikes Pinterest page.  I got interested in Pinterest when I started seriously promoting my Sharpie art.  I googled "Sharpie art," and saw that half of the pictures that came up were from Pinterest.  I've since learned that Pinterest has 250 million viewers a month, and they are largely higher income, and they actually buy stuff.  So while everyone is stroking their egos by posting B.S. on Instagram, the people who want to actually sell things online are learning the ins and outs of Pinterest, and putting it to work. 

Once I started building a personal Pinterest page, which included my art, I found I just like sitting down in the evenings, and looking through cool photos, and adding to my collections, my Pinterest boards. Google my main hashtag, #sharpiescribblestyle, and you'll be drowned in images of my artwork.  My Sharpie art now has a bigger online presence than most successful, mid-sized businesses, and I built that while living homeless, sitting in the libraries or at a McDonald's, on my old, hand-me-down laptop.  In the course of promoting, and actually selling, about 100 major drawings, I got pretty good at social media marketing.  There are a ton of things I still need to learn, and it's a continual process, but I understand the big picture of it now.  This has become another skill set that I can use to make money.  This is the skill set that Rich at Block tapped into, making it worth his while to get me back to California, and get a roof over my head.  This skill set will help me earn more money, as I use it to build up the Block online business. 

So, the night before last, I was able to finally do something I haven't been able to do for a couple of years.  I took the bus to the big shopping area near here, where there's a Barnes & Noble, among other things.  I was able to just relax, take some time off, and "catch my breath," so to speak.  I didn't have to worry about where I was going to sleep that night, or if my clothes and art supplies would be stolen, like they were in Richmond.  I've been an avid reader my whole life, and simply wandering around a book store and browsing magazines and books, is a thing I love to do now and then.  For the first time in several years, I had enough money to actually buy a new book, if I wanted.  As simple as it sounds, it was wonderful.  I browsed through magazines for maybe 45 minutes, and then wandered the store for another hour or so.  It was wonderful. 

But I didn't really find anything I wanted to read.  That spoke to the writer in me.  After wandering for  a while, I started to ask myself, "What do I want to read these days?"  There are a couple of business oriented books I do want to read soon, but they're both $20 or more, and I didn't really want to spend that much.  The store didn't have either one, anyhow.  In fiction, the last novels I really got into were the original Lisbeth Salander books, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and the two follow-ups.  The original author died, and the two new books with her character didn't interest me.  I was a big fan of Michael Crichton, and there are a couple of his novels I never read.  But those didn't seem right, right now.  Neither did  any of Clive Cussler's novels, though I always find them a good read.  Dean Koontz' books have some of the greatest characters, but I wasn't feeling his vibe right then, either.  Maybe re-read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land?  They didn't have that either, which was fine. 

I ended up buying the $8 version of Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad.  That was the only book that called to me, and was a price I didn't feel bad paying.  I've read that book 4 or 5 times, and I knew the new, 20th anniversary, updated version would refresh his ideas to me, helping with my work at Block on with my own stuff.  But still, I asked, "What to I REALLY want to read right now?"  That basic question is why BMXers started their own companies 30 years ago, and began to completely re-design the classic, double diamond hardtail, BMX bike, into the new, modern, much stronger versions.  That basic question is why people like me made zines in the 80's (and 90's and 2000's, and even today), and while people blog, and why we started making our own BMX freestyle videos in the late 80's and early 90's. 

That basic question, "Why doesn't somebody make (do, write, produce, build, film...) ______________?"  That's the question that leads to creative progression.  I realized that the book I REALLY wanted to read, was an idea I had in my head, to write, for a long time.  So I headed back home, and the next morning, I began writing it.  It'll be a big, fat zine soon.  I'll let you know. 

So that's where I'm at.  I was finally able to let go of the frantic struggle to survive, the homelessness survival mentality, to some extent, and relax a little.  That's a good thing.  And mixed in with all the other stuff I spend 15 hours a day doing, I'm writing a new idea, one I've had in the back of my head for maybe 15 years.  It may be a really cool zine.  Or it may completely suck and fail.  I'm OK with that.  If writing it didn't scare me, it wouldn't be worth the trouble.  That's the nature of creative projects.  You gotta take chances.  Now go do something you think needs doing.  And light up the night.