Photography Songwriting Drumming Skateboarding
I first heard of Kate Bush by my friend Louis Oliart’s girlfriend Cathy. I named my daughter after Kate Bush. I have viewed every interview, owned every recording and yet she still remains a mystery to me. For me she is one of this artists who stands apart from most.
Although the basic physical aspects of a skateboard remain pretty close to your old roller skates nailed to a piece of wood, the evolution of “skateboarding” always amazes me.
If you are using Juiceboxbuilder Pro or Juicebox light with Drupal 7. And you are using Baseurl to embed your gallery or slide show in Drupal. And some of your clients are able to see the gallery or slideshow while others are not. They might be getting the error Juicebox Error: Config XML file not found. Try using only relative urls. So in other words when you are coding your path to your folder and javascript don’t put all that http stuff in there. Instead use / to represent your root directory and then build up from there. So this my_gallery_folder/jbcore/juicebox.js becomes this /my_gallery_folder/jbcore/juicebox.js
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Apollo and I met with Jazzmen yesterday.
John Stamos text me this photo a few weeks ago. I had sent it to him decades back. I shot this when I was in High School with one of those plastic pocket 35mm film cameras. Probably had it developed at the K-Mart his mom used to go to. John would have auditions in Hollywood, and I would sometimes go along to hang out. On this particular day I remember we did not have enough money to get into Universal Studios. John Stamos and I used to like to watch the stunt show (because we were nerdy that way). At this time there was a huge ivy covered hill in front of Universal Studios (just above one of the parking lots) with a medium size chain link fence on top. Yeah you guessed it. Like most high schoolers we had a great time disrespecting authority.
I have been integrating a Godox AD200 into my photography lately.
I am a old dude (I mean really old), but I still skateboard. While skateboarding and taking pictures I have seen my friends learn new tricks. And I got to thinking about this process. If you don’t skate you might not know that in order for a skateboarder to learn a new trick they must literally fall. Think about that if you want to learn how to make spaghetti there is absolutly no falling on the ground involved. If you want to get a associates degree again no falling. But with skateboarding the recipe for a new trick includes being physically hurt.
It normally goes like this. The skater tries the trick for the first time knowing that they will mostly likely fall. And when I say fall I mean fall to the concrete from a couple of feet to around 13 feet above the ground. So knowing this the skateboarder still tries the new trick. They of course fall, and worse they didn’t even come close to making it. The skater might lay there for a moment to get over the pain and or embarrassment. The skater gets up and tries it again and they fall again, this time it physically and sometimes emotionally hurts even more. Their mind might began feeding them doubt. Doubt that is based in the logic of the physical and emotional pain they are feeling, but the skater pushes that logic aside. The skater tries again and falls again (imagine climbing a few rungs of a ladder and falling off (over and over)). Every fall proves how far away they are from the trick. Every fall hurts more and brings more doubt into the situation. But the skater who is physically hurting and emotionally doubting (for some reason) believes that he or she can do this and that it is worth doing.
Sometimes the skater falls so hard they cannot move for a few moments. They are not passed out, just physically exhausted which contributes to having a harder time with each new beating. They get this sort of dazed look in their face. And they are not thinking about school, relationships, money, politics etc. The skater is in some sense even more focused on the goal. The skater is in sort of a trick-trance.
At some point friends or even other skaters (complete strangers) who are nearby might start cheering the skater on. This support certanly helps take some of the sting away, but whats interesting is that the skater is really battling this thing alone. Skateboarding is such a solitary pursuit. In the end it is just the skater fighting gravity, figuring out physics, and the battling the worst enemy of a new trick (the self).
In the end this process of making a new trick can go on for hours, days, or even months. And of course the moment the skater makes the new trick they feel a sense of accomplishment that is hard to describe. And they take this feeling with them in their pursuit of new tricks as well as other things in life they are attempting.
So I see this day to day from people of all ages, backgrounds, and skill levels. For some skaters just standing on the board and rolling down a bank is a first time thing. And the beautiful thing about skateboarding is that other skaters no matter how old or skilled will alway cheer on and many times even coach the new skater. Skateboarding is like that, a wonderful skater-family experience. And when one learns to accept falling the world can look a little different.
Every time I photograph Kristy Scott, she has a few new tricks. Im looking forward to seeing the mark she makes with her skateboarding
A handful of men have had a huge influence on my life. My father, John Stamos, Roy Burns, Murray Spivack, Joey Grijalva, Jeff Porcarro, and this Man Vic Peloquin.
I haven’t seen Vic in 40 years (he is the guy who created Skatopia). After sitting and chatting with Vic and his wonderful family I can now see why I recollected Skatopia as such a paradise. The man who created it is a visionary, and has a passion for experimentation and creation.
He told me about how the land for Skatopia was acquired. How the half pipe was made. Who designed the Skatopia logo. Why he closed Skatopia. We also talked about drones, and even flew a drone.
Imagine a Skatopia reunion with these three at the helm! Stay tuned!!!