Creative Life: 12/3/2018

Last week, I started a GoFundMe Campaign to get myself off of the streets and into business.  At this point in my life, I have one reasonable way to make a living again.  Art and writing.  That's it.  That's Plan A.  There is no Plan B.  I don't have to live my life by any of your standards.

Why don't I get a "real" job, some people ask me.  Even more people think it, but don't ask.  One, I don't have a valid ID at the moment, so that's not an option immediately.  Even when I get an ID, it's still not a viable option.  There's no job I could get here, in this region of the country, where I could ever make a decent living again.  I tried it.  I spent ten years of pure, living Hell, in North Carolina, unable to get ANY job.  I applied for over 140 jobs online, and simply never heard back, except from one Wendy's restaurant.  When I interviewed, the manager said she could use me part time.  A week later, when I went back after not hearing from her, she had changed her mind and didn't bother to tell me.

OK.  Lesson learned.  I'm not going to find a good paying job in NC.  So I started working to create my own job with my artwork.  I started, LITERALLY, without a dime to my name.  I just had some art supplies and a lame laptop.  After being a taxi driver for years, which is actually a small business, not a job (taxi drivers don't get paychecks), I think like a businessperson.  I don't think like an employee anymore.

I started with nothing, I had to become homeless escape a highly toxic environment, and I lived in a tent all last winter, got fucked over by several people, and still managed to build a small, but steady income selling original art.  Then came more drama, and it became apparent that I would not be able to build a decent income in that area.  A bullshit arrest and an mob with baseball bats outside my tent one night, threatening to beat the fuck out of me, proved that making a decent living in North Carolina would never happen.  I gave it one last go, but I had to escape.  I mean "escape" literally.  North Carolina does not like intelligent, free thinkers, and it does not like creative people.  Fine.  I don't like North Carolina.  So I left.

I landed here in Richmond by accident, and got stuck here.  It's a pretty cool city, there's a huge group of art scenes here, murals all over, and a cool  BMX scene.  That's most of my criteria.  This place need s serious skatepark, but that's another issue.

Can I make a living here?  I don't know yet.  But I'm finally able to BEGIN really working in that direction.  I've been homeless for four months here, and it's been tough.  I nearly died in the hospital from a drug reaction when I went in for a leg infection.  It was a legit accident, no one knew I had an allergy to that medicine.  But it still sucked.  I partially threw my back out the other day, and spent Saturday evening sleeping outside in a ton of pain.  Hey, shit happens.  I keep going.  I'm feeling better now, managed to loosen the back up for the most part.

I finally got to a point where I could begin to plan beyond the day in front of me.  I started a GoFundMe campaign for $10,000 in six months.  Let me be absolutely clear, I'm not asking for ten grand in donations. It's a sales goal.  IF I can do $10,000 in sales in six months, I SHOULD be able to make the transition to a fairly stable small businessman with a place to live.  That's what it takes.  There is no house of guys I know where I can rent a room for $200 a month and get back on track cheaper.  I have to earn it, and that's all there is to it.  It takes thousands of dollars to go from the streets to my own place.  Since I started that crowdfunding campaign, I've made some sales, got a working phone from a friend that I need to learn how to use, and written most of a small book I'm going to sell.  That's in five days.  It's a good start.  Things are looking up.

But suddenly people are popping out of the woodwork to "help" me.  I shut down one completely hypocritical Facebook preacher right away, and then got called an "antichrist" and a piece of shit.  By an online preacher.  Another person, one much more likely to be helpful, is trying to get me into a housing program.  It takes MONTHS of wasting time and jumping through hoops to get a ghetto apartment through those.  I'll look into it, but it's unlikely they will have anything to help me.  We'll see.

I NEED TO SELL THE SHIT I MAKE.  Period.  Not to the whole world.  Not to everyone.  Just to a fairly small number of people who like what I do.  $10,000 sounds like a lot, but every single one of you reading this will spend far more than $10K to survive in the next six months.  It may not be money you earned, but you'll spend more than $10K.

I've been fighting for survival since my bank account was inexplicably shut down a couple weeks after 9/11 happened, 17 fucking years ago!  I'm still here.  Don't suddenly pop into my life and pretend you're saving my ass.  If you can legitimately help, cool.  If not, have a nice day.  Go on your way and do your thing.

The more this bullshit happens of people popping out of nowhere, suddenly worried that I'm homeless, the more it seems that Richmond IS NOT the place I need to be.  I'm on the fence already.  I can hop a bus to Southern California for less money that a cheap motel room here for a week.  And rent out there is no more expensive than it is here.  A "weekly" motel or a decent room in an apartment is about the same both places.  If I'm able to make a living in Richmond doing my thing, cool.  If it becomes apparent that I won't be able to, then I'll move back home to SoCal.  That's where I'm at.

Next day...  Hmmm... My back was jacked up, just had to vent, I guess.

Welcome to Level 50 Tony Hawk

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk decided to land 50 of his original tricks in celebrating of his 50th birthday.  You know what that means.  Yeah, he has really good health insurance.  Freakin' amazing stuff.  Go back and watch the 720 again. Watch the ending.

My 50th birthday was not this cool.  Yet, oddly, I was really stoked to hit 50 for some reason.  That was almost two years ago, I'm creeping up on 52 right now.  I've never met Tony Hawk.  But in the action sports world, "meet" means actually having him knowing who I am at some point, that's what I've never done.  But I was in the same realm as him over the years.  Here's a few of my stories about Tony Hawk.

I first heard of Tony Hawk in a BMX Plus article about a BMX skatepark contest at the Del Mar skatepark keyhole bowl.  They added a sequence of some local skater kid doing a 540 in the bowl.  That kid was Tony Hawk, and that was probably in 1984.

When I moved to Southern California in 1986 for the job at Wizard Publications, my new roommates/workmates, Gork and Lew, had a VHS copy of the second Powell-Peralta Bones Brigade video, Future Primitive.  I used to watch that video every Saturday morning and every Sunday morning and then go on solo street riding sessions all day.  That's where I first saw a bunch of Tony Hawk footage.   Tony does a 720 in the intro of the video. That was 1985.

When I worked at Unreel Productions, Vision sponsored the NSA contests, and I was the guy who made VHS dubs of all the raw footage that came in.  At that point, as a BMX guy who hung out mostly with skaters, we were still mostly focused on getting ready and skating /riding in contests.  But deep down, it was just fun, we new there was another reason we kept doing it, but I never heard anybody put a name on that reason.  In a quick interview by our cameraman at some contest, Tony was asked what skateboarding was all about.  "Progression, it's all about progression," was his answer.  It suddenly clicked to me.  Yes, we practice for contests because that's how you play the sponsorship game and that means something to family and outsiders.  But the continual progression was why we really did it.  I never forgot that.

Getting ready for the huge (at the time) NSA finals in 1989, aka Skate Escape, Tony Hawk came by Unreel to share ideas on what would make the contest better.  I came back from lunch one day, saw his blue car in the parking lot, and got all stoked, "I'm gonna get to meet Tony Hawk, finally."  I saw him walk by with Don Hoffman and the other guys, but I was the lowly "Dub Guy" at Unreel, so I wasn't cool enough to be in the meeting, and definitely not cool enough to get introduced to him.

Another time that year, I got to go with Don Hoffman to Tony's Fallbrook house to shoot video  of both Ken Park and Tony's roommate at the time Joe Johnson (the skater, not the BMXer).  Both times, Tony was off doing demos somewhere.  You can see me in the back ground of the Ken Park's section (in all white at :17, :26, :42, 1:34, 1;41) of Barge at Will, a few times.  If that music in the second half of Ken's section sounds familiar to you BMXers, it's because that's "No More Cheap Talk" by The Stain, which I used as intro music in The Ultimate Weekend.

That was a really cool day, because Frank, Tony's dad was there, and he had me run to buy us all sandwiches and drinks at some little liquor store nearby.  Then I sat in the bed of his pick-up as he and Don Hoffman sat on the tailgate talking about "the old days," of skateboarding.  That was one of those epic moments to just shut my mouth and listen to these two guys who'd seen it all before.

Sometime in the early 1990's, H.B. local Brian Jordan of J'Lofty hired me to make a video promo for the Action Sports Retailer trade show.  I managed to get to the deck of the demo vert ramp to shoot some photos.  It was mostly skaters on it at that point.  Just a big ol' jam session.  As luck would have it, Tony Hawk popped out right next to me at one point.  In the bike skate world, formal introductions are all that important, so I wasn't going to just act like a fan and introduce myself in the middle of a session.  So I stood there next to Tony watching guys skate.  Some newcomer to the scene, a kid named Bucky Lasek, dropped in and started to skate.  I'd never heard of the kid before.  That kid was Bucky Lasek, and on one run he did a backside 360 ollie right in front of Tony and me.  I thought that was amazing, I'd never seen anyone do that before.  It turned out to be far more amazing than I thought, because Tony Hawk started freaked when Bucky did it, and started slamming his trucks on the coping in appreciation.  Bucky does a backside 360 ollie in this video at :25. 

Oh, and then there was the time I nabbed a press pass to the 1999 X-Games.  I ran into Maurice Meyer, who I hadn't seen for years, as BMX vert practice was ending.  We started talking, and the skate best trick contest started at the skate ramp 100 feet away.  So we walked over there and kept talking.  By some weird bit of luck,  we saw this happen.  We were standing right behind the rows of chairs 20 feet from the side of the ramp.  We could see the look in Tony's eyes after the 3rd or 4th try as he walked off the ramp.  We realized he was either going to land it, or go to the hospital from trying.  As luck would have it, I had my Sony Digital 8 camera in my hand... with a dead battery.  I'm kind of glad, though.  Because I just stood there and watched history take place, soaking it in.  That's pretty cool.

Maurice ran out with the guys to congratulate Tony on the ramp.  At 6:04, you can see him in a white hoodie with sunglasses, right behind Tony.  I stayed where I was and just watched.  That was a moment to always remember. 

The Value of Murals by Eric Schmiel

With December's First Friday a couple days away, I'm checking out YouTube for videos of and about art here in Richmond.  Much like Winston-Salem, NC, where I last lived, there's not a lot.  But there's some.  Much of that has to do with Richmond's murals and annual street art festival.  There are dozens of murals here, maybe hundreds, and most seem to have been made 4-7 years ago.  These murals were the first thing that made me think, "Maybe I'll stick around here a while," when I landed here sort of accidentally (or was it FATE?) back in August.  The big and spread out art scenes and BMX scene (where I got my start in creative work in the 80's) here drew me in more.  But it started by seeing all kinds of murals while riding the buses around.

Looking through the online videos, I stumbled upon this friendly sounding guy dropping some cool thoughts about the whole concept of murals.  So I deemed it worth a share.  Check it out. 

RVA Street Art Festival 2013

Murals, murals everywhere.  That started to dawn on me after I landed here in Richmond in August. As I wandered around on buses, I just kept seeing murals, and that's the thing that first made me think I might want ot stay here a while.  Here's a cool time lapse video of the 2013 RVA Street Art Festival. 

For those of you outside this area, basically everyone who checks out my blog, "RVA" is the official, or at least publicly accepted unofficial abbreviation for Richmond, VA.  It's on big signs and stickers and car window stickers everywhere.

Graff writer/artist Pose at RVA Street Art Festival in 2012

I still haven't made it out to this spot yet.  But here's Pose, and a couple others on the periphery, putting up pieces in 2012.  The surge in murals here in Richmond seemed to be around 2010-2013, something like that.  I still don't have a real good feel on what's happening in the art scenes here now.  I've been busy doing my own thing, and just surviving.  Cool pieces, though.  #RVAart

Creative Life: 11/27/2018

One of my doodle drawings I left on the wall of where I was staying in North Carolina.  D.I.Y. from way back.

Being homeless at the current time, I have a few more challenges than most people.  Which is fine, that's the nature of things.  I bailed form a fucked up situation in NC, I landed here in Richmond by accident, maybe fate, and there's a lot of art and a cool BMX scene here.  So I'm working on stabilizing my life, and getting back to selling art.   I landed here the beginning of August, in a strange city, where I didn't know anyone, with about $3 in my pocket.  It's been been tough to survive, but for the first time in nearly two decades, I don't feel like I'm walking into a 75mph headwind.  Getting back on track FINALLY feels possible.

One thing that sucks when you're homeless is holidays.  Most people look forward to them, because they may be hectic, but there's good times to be had.  I can't wait til they're over.  I woke up early Thanksgiving morning, it was 30 degrees out, and I walked to the local McDonald's where I usually start my day, eat breakfast, and do my morning blogging and social media that helps me sell art.  It was closed.  I was broke.  There was no place to go that I knew of and could afford.

One of the hundreds of things that average people don't understand about the homeless situation is that homeless people don't go to fast food places to eat breakfast or lunch.  For the price of my sausage biscuit and Diet Coke (yeah, I know, Breakfast of Non-Champions), I'm not just eating breakfast.  I'm renting heat, I'm renting a place to sit down legally, I'm renting the use of a bathroom, I'm renting wifi to be able to work, I'm renting a place to draw for a while.  When I saw McDonald's closed, all of those things disappeared.  Luckily, Hardee's (that's Carl's Jr. on the East Coast for those in Cali), was open for the morning.  I cussed out the entire neighborhood in frustration, vented thoroughly, relaxed, and went to Hardee's.

There was a free Thanksgiving meal I heard about at the convention center downtown.  The Pulse bus down Broad (kind of like a light rail route, but with buses, pretty cool idea) was free for those going for the free meal.  So I went downtown, carrying all my belongings like I always do (until I can rent a storage unit or get a room), and entered a big room filled with the Riff Raff of Richmond.  Pretty sure they had a few police in plain clothes to make sure everything stayed chill, which it did.

I didn't go for the meal, really.  Homeless people do things for reasons most people don't understand.  I went to the meal to get out of the cold for 2 or 3 hours.  That's all I really cared about.  I almost just sat in one of the rocking chairs in the lobby and blew off the meal. 

Everything is closed on Thanksgiving, which is fucking stupid.  Homeless people aren't the only ones who need services on holidays.  Police, firefighters, garbagemen (and women?), taxi/Uber/Lyft drivers, bus drivers, EMS, doctors, truck drivers, and plenty of others have to work.  Those people need to eat breakfast and lunch, drivers need to take restroom breaks, most people need morning coffee.

It's the 21st century people, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's Hardee's/Carl's Jr., Starbucks, gas stations, convenience stores, and drug stores should be open, full service hours, 365 days a year. Period. "What about the employees?" many of you are asking?  What about them?  If you want Thanksgiving day off, work at Chick Fil-A, or get a better job.  Managers should schedule so most people get most of Thanksgiving Day off.  But stay open, people depend on you, and let the people who hate their families get some freakin' overtime.  That's what I always did when younger.

We all had to wait, standing in a huge line, for an hour or so at the free dinner.  There are a disproportionate number of people with health issues in that crowd, some chairs in the waiting line are would be a good idea next year.  Some idiots jumped the line, probably the same ones who did that in grade school.  But we all got to eat, it was a really nice dinner, so thank you volunteers.

The family who were the hosts at my table were cool.  I sat next to the woman, who asked about 3 million questions, but was very warm and friendly.  We all got a goodie bag to take with us.  And bananas.  There were bananas everywhere for some reason.  I took one.  One guy at my table grabbed 3 or 4 and about 6 or 8 cans of soda.  Homeless people, many of them, anyhow, do that.

I walked back to the bus stop, it was still chilly, but not super cold.  I looked through the goodie bag, grabbed 3 or 4 things I could use, and gave the rest, still in the bag, to another homeless guy standing at the bus stop.  I can't afford to have to carry useless stuff around.  I have enough of my own.  That's another thing most people don't understand about the homeless.  Every "gift," no matter how well intentioned, is dead weight we have to physically carry.  That's why we dig through goodie bags and leave most of it behind.

Anyhow, I spent much of Thanksgiving day cold, because the places I rely on, were closed.  That part sucked.

Black Friday, in the shopping sense, is also meaningless when you're homeless.  I'm far from an average homeless person, I just want to work all day.  And the holiday weekend fucked that all up.  On Friday, the library was closed.  I was going to go somewhere to sell some art prints, I finally had some money from an art commission to make some prints.  That's something I'd been wanting to do for MONTHS.  I stopped by a gallery that has some of my work on the wall.  I was told the guy wanted to see me later.  So I wasted more money going to a place to work for an hour, came back, and he didn't have anything important to tell me.  I might sell one more piece this week... MAYBE.  Maybe not.  But I never got to the place to sell my prints.  So I was low on money.  When the normal places I hang out are closed, I have to spend more money to rent heat, a bathroom, and a place to sit.

Saturday, it rained all day.  A cold, miserable rain, it was 45-50 degrees out.  I had to go out in it to scrounge up money to get through the day.  I got totally soaked, and basically had to stay wet, and cold, all day.  Late in the day, when the rain was ending, I went to a laundromat to dry out my clothes.  If I had done it earlier, I would have got all wet again when I left, and would have had to spend more money to dry out again.

Sunday was beautiful and warm.  And I was completely burnt out and had no energy.  I got some writing done and  worked on a drawing.  But I didn't get out to sell any prints.  So the Thanksgiving weekend, by and large, was a pain in my ass, and I didn't get near enough done.  But now things are back to normal schedule for a while, and the First Friday Gallery Art Walk is this week, so I need to gear up and promote my stuff.

So that's why holidaze suck when you're a homeless artist.  OK, back to work.  I'm going to post some Richmond area art videos ahead of First Friday, and do a lot more art-related posts in general from now on.  Onward.

Even Jim Cramer thinks it's a bear market now

It's the Monday morning after Thanksgiving weekend, and CNBC show host, analyst, and morning commentator, Jim Cramer, is now calling this fall's stock drops a bear market in this clip.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 350 points out of the gate.  But Cramer sees it dropping back within a few days.  How does he really feel?

"It's Not a good time."
"Every time you try to make money, it (this market) cuts your heart out."
-Jim Cramer in the clip above.

Just for the record, I don't hate Cramer.  He's a longtime stock trader, he knows that world, and he's really entertaining (usually).  But his job on CNBC is not to make you the most money.  His job is to keep you in the stock market, even when you probably shouldn't be in it.

The Dow is at 24,616 as I write this, up 330 points this morning, but down from it's high of 26,828 on October 3rd.  It's down over 8% in under two months.  The Dow is an average of 30 "industrial" stocks, and has been the benchmark of the U.S. stock market since 1885.  Here are the other major averages:

Nasdaq:  High- 8,109 (8/30/18)  Today (11/26/18)- 7,041  It's down over 13% in 3 months
Index of 100 stocks, primarily tech stocks
S&P 500: High- 2,930 (9/20/18)  Today- 2,664  It's down over 9% in just over 2 months
Index of 500 different stocks
Russell 2000: High-1,740 (8/30/18) Today- 1,508  It's down over 13% in 3 months
Index of 2,000 different stocks

Meanwhile, I'm a currently homeless artist/blogger and lifelong amateur futurist.  I look a big, long term things happening in our world, and try to figure out where we're heading as a society.  In an August 10th, 2018 post I wrote this:

"There WILL, without a shred of doubt, be a serious recession in the next year or so.  This next recession WILL be as intense as the Great Recession of 2008, and it will likely be worse."

Here's that full post: "It's Time to get off the Titanic, a brief history of our future 

The Dow was at 25,313 when I wrote this post.

In the stock market, a "correction" is a drop of 10% from the recent high mark.
A"bear market" is a drop of 20% or more over a time period of two months or more.

Still think I'm full of crap?   Or maybe there's a point to looking a super long term trends.