1. Doomed (2006)

What chance do we have?

With the misdirection society is plunging in, do we have even a shot at living simple, upstanding, moral lives?

Definition and interpretation of morality is largely subjective, however I would say that disparaging someone after, or making light of, their untimely death is flatly immoral.

I recently overheard a man talking about his ex-wife. He was speaking to a few women, one in particular, and casually mentioned that his wife had gotten cancer and died during the finalization of their divorce, “…making the process easy for him!” No remorse in his voice, no follow-up statement to make himself sound less arrogant or heartless. Instead, his crude follow up was, “I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it!”

Read On…

2. Beep-Beep. (1999)

I was riding my bicycle down a city street in Rochester, NY when some idiot and his girlfriend in a gigantic Jeep tried to veer me into the cars parked alongside us. It was a perfect east coast spring day- cool and sunny. I had a sweatshirt on, and it must have made me look a bit younger than I actually was; Bullies usually only mess with easy targets.

I avoided hitting the cars, not for the lack of him trying, and as what I thought to be a passive retort, I rode in the center of the street making it briefly impossible for him to pass by. I was confused and pissed, but intent on enjoying the day… I was on my way to a friends’ house, so I opted to inconvenience him for just a minute and then turn off towards my destination.

The plan was solid until I heard what sounded like a loudspeaker in my ear: “Get out of the road you stupid fuck! I’d love to just run you over but my Jeep’s too nice! Get out of the way you loser!”

What a stupid, one-in-a-million chance. The prick that was veering me into the cars also had a megaphone with speakers set up in his jock-mobile; That alone entitles him to have something bad happen.

Read On…

3. Learn the Hard Way. (2002)

I am at a point where I don’t understand anything, least of all the things in my life that I thought I understood quite thoroughly.
I’m not driven by anything positive, I’m not contributing anything I feel is positive, and I fucking can’t stand to even look most of the people I meet square in the eye.
Those things are a problem.

I am a person that is highly affected by my intentional and unintentional surroundings; I feel as each week and month passes, they become more and more foreign and less and less appealing. I can’t really say why. I think it has something to do with the fact that every time I leave the god damn house I’m reminded how the things that fuel modern society are the very same things that fuel my aversion to it.

Read On…

4. Fatally Flawed. (2001)

In everyone’s day-to-day travels, they surely run across someone that is thinking something bizarre or derogatory about them. One easy way to determine how much of a freak or an asshole someone may be is whether they have the gall to say those things to strangers… I’ve met more than a few people that haven’t yet made the complicated distinction between casual conversation and belligerent antagonism.

The most recent disappointment was a fanatical gentleman at the Home Depot in Lakewood, Ca. My friends were building wooden skateboard ramps, and I was assigned the daunting task of matching the screws they were using to some new ones at Home Depot. I was also responsible for paying for them, carrying the bag to the car, AND delivering them to the builders. All in one day…

I was walking around the worst home improvement store in the free world carrying a screw and looking for the cryptic sign in the aisle that would lead me to its mates when a well-dressed, normal-looking thirty-something man stopped me short. I figured he may have mistaken me for an employee- I get that a lot at establishments frequented by oddballs and older white people- but no such luck.

Read On…

5. The War. (2010)

As time lengthens after a notable occurrence or significant feeling, their gravity and severity often dissipate… or at the very least, soften and blur. I believe this is mandatory in order for sanity to stay intact.

I often recall feelings from many years ago as if they were born today, and while I am glad to have had experiences worthy of strong memory, if their potency were to diminish a bit, it would make my psychological situation a little more manageable.

Maybe they are simply un-reconciled within me; Maybe I am just a big fuckin’ baby. Either way, when I look around my house at some of the non-disposable things that live there, my eyes often well up and my heart drops. Many other innocuous incidents elicit a similar result.

I am quite sad, quite often. I’m not an overtly morose sort, and certainly not one that needs or solicits sympathy for troubles I have undoubtedly brought on myself. I am also not one that believes being sensitive makes me weak; Quite the opposite. The darkness and ill-ease that keep me up at night also drive me; Sometimes mad, but often times to, through, and past any goals I set or roadblocks that may stand in my way.

And maybe if hard things softened over time, as I wished, it would be a disservice to the memory. Maybe the honor of enduring the experience is served best by its memory staying sharp and mean, and proving useful in guiding my future path.

6. “The Trump Card” (Non-fiction, 1997/ 2007)

This is a story about my personal interactions with Mark Christie, the man that kidnapped and killed four-year-old Kali Ann Poulton in 1994 and killed Viola Manville in 1988.

It is featured in PDF form here, and also in full-form below.

The Trump Card

It is not to be re-posted anywhere without written permission. All writing on this site is Copyright, both the real way and the poor mans way. And, I’ll find you.

________________________________________________________________________

He would stare at the cardboard cutout of a woman (used to market some sort of diet pill) as if she were going to come alive and adorn him the King of Man.

Chapter 1: Foundation.

I was a healthy eater, and had done enough personal homework on the subject that working in a health food store seemed like a great job for an 18-year-old in the midst of deciding where his life would go.

I applied in person, and had an instant report’ with the manager, Jim. He loved the mall for the environment, which goes a long way in describing his character; He was quite a character. He picked up on my non-slapstick sense of humor immediately, and we got along swimmingly. A perfect cross between Higgins from Magnum P.I. and any other trim, well-kept, mustachioed incarnation of an English butler, his sarcastic smile and scowl were interchangeable, and both were used as methods of passing judgment on every customer, passerby, and employee in our mall.

Jim had a long history in retail management, and even a brief stint as the owner of a video store. That wealth of experience enabled him to work just hard enough not to draw attention to himself, yet still shine brightly in the face of upper management in person. He was a low-level management wunderkind, and would not hesitate to tell you so if you asked.

Daytime at the mall is often a dead time, and conversation becomes vital so as to not look like you’re doing nothing. Jim and I often talked about his numerous ideas for inventions (all of which he was going to patent at some point), and also movies- he watched, critiqued venomously, and lived vicariously through the silver screen.

Prior to my new job, I had interned at a local paper as a staff writer, and was sent to the movies several times a week to watch and review… Jim was jealous, and I think that having held such a prestigious and sought-after position as an unpaid movie reviewer for a sub-par local paper caused him to consider me a peer and not a subordinate.

The only other employee at the store was a very un-noteworthy college girl who up and left with no notice, leaving us searching hastily for a replacement.

Mark Christie was the 3rd person interviewed, and arrived at the mall in a suit and tie.

Read On…

7. Flying, pt. 1. (1998)

(Originally published in “Dig” Magazine, 1999.)

I backhanded a guy on a plane returning from Los Angeles not too long ago. I was reluctant to tell the story because it could make me seem like some sort of short-fused prick, which really isn’t true, but it is pretty nuts and just illustrates how unnecessarily fussy people can be.

I was sitting next to a very nice, very attractive, upscale woman probably in her early 30’s and much to my surprise, she talked to me pretty consistently throughout the flight. She was interesting enough that I didn’t realize the flight was arriving late and I only had five minutes to reach my connection; Once I did I immediately stepped into the aisle and, continuing our conversation, so did she.

Sitting catty-corner from us was a guy drinking Jack & Coke’s, and reading a book about the ‘70’s TV show “BJ & the Bear”; “BJ” being a man, “Bear” being a monkey, and the series being one of the worst I’ve ever accidentally witnessed.

Read On…

8. “Fag in the Pool” (Non-fiction, 2004)

Please enjoy the story below. It is a PDF, linked below in red.

It occurred in Long Beach, California where I was a resident for 10 years. There are swear words in it, as well as disturbing concepts relating to the use of discretion and common sense.

Proceed with caution.

Fag in the Pool

It is not to be re-posted anywhere without written permission. All writing on this site is Copyright, both the real way and the poor mans way. And, I’ll find you.

Claws. (Picture- 2013)

Never dead, yet never fully alive. Betrayal and doubt… Deadly sins  #8 and #9, and hammers on a coffin nail.

9. “Higher Education” (Non-fiction, 1995)

As I re-read this story with the intention of putting it on the site, it became clear to me that the moral “hang-ups” I explored in it are things that still challenge me today. Truth be told: even though there is a tone of questioning in the writing, if the same situation occurred today my reaction would be exactly the same.

It is a PDF, linked below in red. Please enjoy.

Higher Education

It is not to be re-posted anywhere without written permission. All writing on this site is Copyright, both the real way and the poor mans way. And, I’ll find you.

10. Going Nowhere. (2002)

During the week, I wake up at seven. On the weekends, I wake up marginally later than that. I’ve been doing a little experiment for the past few months: When I wake up in the morning, I go about my normal routine- eat, shave my head, etc. and then I spend a minute on my couch thinking about what I actually want to do that day.

That’s when things start to get confusing. I don’t want to do anything. Everything I really want to do I can accomplish in my house, with the exception of grocery shopping which I actually enjoy. I’m not unmotivated, just uninterested. When I end up doing what I know I need to do, things move right along. Getting there right now is what is troubling me. I go to martial arts classes on the weekdays. I do enjoy that. Work, necessary. Unavoidable.

Anything else? Nope. Not interested. I think about it as if I could do ANYTHING I wanted to. Especially weekends, when I can. I live in fucking greater Los Angeles- if it’s good for anything, it’s having a cornucopia of things to do.

Read On…

Among friends. (Picture- 2011)

“Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence— whether much that is glorious— whether all that is profound— does not spring from disease of thought…” – Edgar Allan Poe

11. Requiem “Storm Heaven”

One of the best lyrics I have ever read.

“Absence of pleasure, absence of pain
Day after day after day is the same
Absence of feeling, absence of hope
The absence, a vacuum that smothers and chokes”

Revolution. (Picture- 2002)

We worked hard before, during, and after each of our events. And it was worth it. (Ride BMX Magazine once called them “The best BMX events ever.” We take pride in that.)

12. Beginning of the End. (1998)

Originally written as an intro to the War of Attrition website when it first went online in January 1999.

What do I believe?

I believe that you will almost always be let down; If you are not, it is the exception, not the rule. I believe that people are generally bad, and if you are lucky enough to find a few truly good ones to associate with, it is the exception, not the rule.

I believe that I will often be disappointed and very seldom surprised; I would rather be sustainably negative and surprised once in a while than eternally positive and disappointed all time.

Read On…

The Journey. (Picture- 2013)

“The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things.” – Miyamoto Musashi

13. Motive. (2005)

Many different things motivate people. For me, it’s basically anger.
Not the directionless kind that leads people to screaming fits and road rage, but more a focused disgust for most of what goes on around me and a vengeful motivation to change it.
That is what this is about for me.

I don’t walk around with a constant scowl. I enjoy life. I enjoy my friends, the activities I participate in, my family. The flipside of that however, is that I am never completely at ease, I am never completely content. To be those things would mean that I have begun simmering in complacency, and any progress I have made towards any goals I have set for myself will halt.

Read On…

FFF. (Picture- 1956)

“No weight is too heavy when there’s blood at the bottom…”

14. Curse of Awareness #1. (2010)

Many weekends I try to go to the movies. I research the times, plan my pre-movie meal, and venture to the theater usually 15-20 minutes early. Almost every weekend, something off-putting happens in the parking lot or the foyer that prevents me from following through with the viewing. Not lose sleep type things by any means; More like, lose interest.

People (with exceptions noted of course), often confound and frequently sicken me; It might sound cynical and likely a bit clichéd but sadly, the fact remains.

I watch the careless, haphazard way in which they do simple things like park a car, get out, walk to a destination, and enter; Often I am jealous of their lack of awareness, but most times I feel blessed by my own. Often I feel like I have taken too seriously the simplest details of life; Other times I feel that without doing so, the rest of ones’ life could fall to carelessness.

Read On…

15. +/-. (2010)

I am not a corporate warrior
I don’t have those delusions of grandeur
I have scars on my body, and high moral standards
Again and again I try my best in vain
Turns out I am that kind of failure.

Weathered. (Picture- 2011)

“It was a good day and an evil day and all was bright and new…

And it seemed to me that most destruction was being done by those who could not choose between the two…”Nick Cave

16. Time Don’t Heal a Thing. (2002)

I’ve had basically three girlfriends.

The way I look at it I had my proverbial three chances, and in some form or another, fucked each of them up. Now I pay the price with regret. It is completely unhealthy, but I still think of what happened in each situation and dwell on it as if years later that will make any difference or do any good. In a sense, it is a punishment I deserve for being naïve, selfish, or stupid enough to compromise the relationships I had with each.

There are still things I fall asleep dwelling on and wake up uncomfortable about… some of the situations for almost ten years. Even though each situation met an end, I have never been the kind of person that could shake strong feelings I had for someone- friend, girlfriend, even an enemy.

Read On…

17. Through, not around. (2010)

‘Let the simple have their simple victories…

Our victories of ego need only be over ourselves; Nothing petty demands to be proven through posturing, silly slander or false bravado when you have found and remain on a brave path.

Hold yourself accountable for your stumbles or shortcomings, but share credit with the community that supports you for your triumphs.’

This sentiment can be applied to something as simple as someone racing to pass you in their car, intentionally inconveniencing you at the store, or transparently poking fun at you in a feeble attempt to heal a bruised ego. All are wastes of energy to respond to, and indulging them in any way will often do more to take away from your daily mission than to honor it.

Simple people fight simple battles. It’s… simple. Skip it.

Be a lion in the path, knowing which harmless creatures to let by, and which to take the effort to devour;

If your intention is to destroy, do so with ferocity and malice.

If your intention is to annoy, acknowledge the triviality of such acts.

All I Ask. (Picture- 2014)

“Gave you all I had, got kicked in the ass,
stand by my side, was all I ever asked.
Happened once, should’ve know it happened again,
now alone stands the hand I promised to lend…”
Breakdown

18. Letter #1. (2010)

My dear,

I saw you walking tonight in your long grey pea coat. You looked intent, and although the compulsion was almost too strong to subdue, I chose to not make my presence known. It hadn’t been a full minute that you had been off my mind prior to you walking around the flowered corner merely 40 yards from where I first set eyes on you some years ago.

Read On…

19. Letter #2. (2010)

My dear,

Even my dreams now offer no reprieve from thoughts of you. I often look away as I am passing streets or landmarks that taunt me with memories; as of late the effort has been in vain, as the second I close my eyes they are there, ready and waiting.

The recurring dream has been a biblical-type plot- My role as the soul seeking retribution, and yours as that of the executioner. I am saying words I do not mean in an effort to secure a forgiveness I do not deserve, put forth in a grotesque and transparent display that is not fitting of me even in my broken form.

Read On…

20. Disappointed, not surprised… (2004)

Fuckin’ California(ns).

I was stepping out to cross the street in a very upscale shopping area by my house when an extremely old woman tripped on the curb and fell flat on her face right beside me. I mean flat; No hands out, no head turn.

I dropped the bag I was holding, hustled over to her, and carefully picked her up. She couldn’t have weighed 75-80 pounds; I have a medicine ball that weighs nearly as much as she did.

Read On…

Handmade. (Picture- 1994)

“…to my friends, and the ones I’ve fought, a special place left in my heart. Those days are gone, man, but they’re not forgot.” – Judge

21. “London Gospel.”

“London Gospel” by Wisdom in Chains. (Song linked at title.)

“Jesus don’t walk through the alleys. He must have forgot how to find me.
He used to hang around my family. But he never really did understand me.
God don’t come around no more. I don’t see a trace of him in this world.
Poor men fighting in a rich man’s war. ‘Cause God don’t come around here no more.
Too many murders on TV. Too many babies in poverty.
Religion ain’t shit but money. Priest in your pocket like a fuckin’ thief.
God don’t come around here no more. I don’t see a trace of him in this world.
Poor men fighting in a rich man’s war. ‘Cause god don’t come around here no more.
The Devil comes walking softly. He always stands right behind me.
I try to run away but he finds me.
I wish that God would talk to me.
God don’t come around here no more. I don’t see a trace of him in this world.
Poor men fighting in a rich man’s war. ‘Cause God don’t come around here no more.”

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It sounds bleak to say that a loss of hope equals a gaining of confidence, but our ability to find strength in solitude WILL help insulate us when we ARE let down. When we’re struggling, hoping for a helping hand or guiding light usually leaves us waiting for a long, long time; during which we’re often punished for our patience.

Bad bet. (Picture- 2005)

Hell on Earth store, Rochester, NY. Music, books, BMX, clothing, cookies, not enough money, too many lazy, self-loathing employees, the end. Fun, kind of.

22. “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1961.

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Some things about living still weren’t quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.

Read On…

23. Road Hazard. (2010)

You’ll often hear people romanticize the idea of hitting someone as hard as they can; Those that have done so, however, would very likely tell you that there is nothing romantic about it. The sometimes sickening noise, the way the impact feels inside your own body and head, the blood… And for most, the moments of questioning afterward as to whether that level of severity was warranted.

I didn’t feel any anger or post-incident ill-will towards the misguided lot that attempted to steal my bike (while I was riding it…) right down the street from my house. All the animosity I was feeling was completely self-directed. It was also justified, and overwhelming. I needed a break from my brain so badly that I chose to go on a bike ride wearing headphones and listening to music- something that under any ordinary circumstances I would never even think of. My life was falling apart, and it was my fault… If I didn’t distract myself, it could have easily gotten the better of me. A simple bike ride, close to home, with a little musical accompaniment.

People do it all the time.

Read On…

24. Sour times. (2014)

I visited a Target store today in a suburb of Rochester, NY (no, that’s not the end of the story…).

It was my day off, and I could not think of a single thing on earth I wanted to do, so my next idea was to do something totally normal and see if that gave any inspiration. I figured I’d walk around, look at about six-million things neither I nor anyone else needs, maybe buy a shirt and a few apples (they have groceries now, you know…), and definitely buy some expensive hand soap.

Shirts went better than I expected. I got a few OK tank tops, they were on sale (or at least that’s what the sign said) and one of them isn’t even black. After trying them on I went back to grab a second one, and came upon some boys.

Read On…

26. Searching. (2012)

We’re all looking for something; When our sights are set too low or we’re always viewing the next bar as too high, we very well may never find it. When the search ends, development halts, and our true potential looks down on us and laughs, knowing there’s no danger of us reaching it…
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I played lacrosse when I was a kid. I liked it, I was pretty good at it, and it made my parents happy. When I was 11 I came across a BMX bike riding magazine at the grocery store, and long story short, everything else took a back seat to the compulsion I had to find out as much as I could about this unique (and at the time, bizarre and unconventional) culture. The imagery was brash and bold, the players in the “game” were wild and looked like people you might be afraid of if you saw them walking in your neighborhood; I couldn’t get enough. The idea of “convention”, while I probably didn’t define it as such at 11 or 12 years old, changed immediately for me. The stability and simplicity of team sports (and the just-add-water social circle they often create) stepped aside to make way for a path that didn’t make sense to anyone but me…

Read On…

Lead. (Picture- 2011)

Whether it proves true or not… The only other option is… to follow. FTW.

27. Popcorn! (2008)

At least some of my post-work time each day is spent practicing social assimilation… Attempting to appear comfortable in whatever surroundings I’m in while not letting on that I am very often anything but. It’s kind of a fun game for a while, though no matter how good I’ve gotten at it, after a few decades it just makes you feel like a fucking freak.

For quite a while now, 2nd Street in Long Beach, California has provided many of those surroundings. The east 2nd Street area has somehow remained clean and docile even though many neighboring it have gone the very opposite direction. Some of the older shops have been pushed aside, as is the way, but enough have remained that the area has avoided the “shopping mall” feel.

One of the strangest business marriages I’ve ever seen is the small, upscale gym located directly in the center of the shopping strip, and the large Irish pub located directly above. There is an indoor stairway from one to the other, large plexi-glass windows overlooking portions of the gym from the feeding trough upstairs, and- in case you need to get some deep-fried zucchini and a few beers right after exercising but forgot your wallet- your gym membership card can be used to charge food and drink. Maybe it only seems strange to me, but it is definitely curious to watch people finish with one and transition directly to the other. But as I’ve said before, they’re almost certainly happier than I am, so who the fuck am I to criticize.

While offering no more cultural significance than a Polish sausage cart, the location of this particularly bland “Irish Pub” would allow it success even if it were called ‘The Non-Elective Russian Roulette Club’… Attractive crowd every night, upstairs outdoor patio- If I’m trying to improve at normal, that is where I needed to be. So, I went.

Read On…

Volume I. (Picture- 2014)

“There is no use crying over spilled milk, she often told herself.
She will always be alone, she will always be deviant. Righting the wrongs that are forced upon her is her way of fulfilling her role in society. Of that she was certain. Happiness, contentment… such things were myths of the uninformed, and luxuries of the ignorant. Even if they do temporarily exist, Sarah knew that ultimately, sadness would always prevail. “

28. The Gift. (2014)

I realized tonight, while watching someone receive great news in a movie, that nothing I can even imagine happening to me would elicit a response that might even resemble hers. Nothing. Not winning money, not publishing writing, not saving a life. Those things may evoke some sort of satisfaction, or at least elevate my mood from its current state, but the dancing, carefree, wide-eyed elation that the actress showed- the true joy- has never been and will never be something I experience or understand on more than a theoretical level.

When a character in a movie receives news or experiences something so horrible that they have to channel the worst moments of their entire lives to even appear the slightest bit as disturbed as the situation would in reality warrant- I do understand. Many things in my life have elicited responses that resemble the realistic versions of theirs. And nothing- not winning money, not publishing writing, not saving a life- will ever be able to offset the misery that either choice or circumstance has caused. I can’t even watch movies that feature such themes because my emotional maturity is so stunted that I can’t keep from feeling them as if they were mine.

I can’t imagine being truly happy, and I can’t keep myself from being truly sad. It’s pathetic, and my fault, and though I can clearly identify it, it continues to outsmart me.

Pain is a trick, and the magician is who or whatever we allow it to be.

Fuck it. Fuck you.

29. Drinking Games. (2014)

When I selected my shirt for the evening I’m quite sure I put consideration into the reaction it might evoke- I was likely hoping for curiosity, questioning, and maybe even a bit of intimidation. The music I had gotten into over the past few years made me feel those things in spades, and I misguidedly assumed that anyone in my eventual surroundings would share them. The shirt was either from the band Suicidal Tendencies or Overkill, and whichever one it was, the imagery and language were kind of severe; I was 15, and neck-deep in a somewhat frightening underground scene that I thought was the coolest thing in the world, partially for those very reasons.

We had gone to Buffalo to visit our aunt, uncle, and cousins, and for me that meant sneakily watching rated “R” movies that I probably would not have gotten to see otherwise, shoplifting prolifically with my cousin at the local mall, or attempting to matriculate with his somewhat uppity social circle. I stood out in demeanor (as well as appearance) at such gatherings however my general pleasantness had always allowed for nice conversations with a few of the girls that tended to be around. The party this time around was at the house of a well-to-do boy whose parents were out of town… cliché, yes, but that is what kids did in the world I was visiting. It seemed like a merry-go-round of traveling social events based on adult absence and availability of cheap alcohol. I didn’t get it, and it in no way resembled my life in Rochester, but I was there and decided to ride the ride.

Read On…

Devils in Jersey. (Picture- 1995)

“I hold no reverence for your ethereal presence, not convinced of results and not following your by-laws. An eternity of complacency is no peace of mind while watching this world go to hell.”Moment of Truth, “Premonition”

30. Allergic. (2005)

(Here are 35 random questions a popular European BMX website asked me back in 2005. They are still stupid today.)
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35 Random Questions for Greg Walsh

1. Do you give the peace sign a lot?

You’re joking right?

2. How many Abercrombie polos do you own?

If “Abercrombie” is a French word for “short sleeve”, the answer is 5.

3. Do you always wash your hands after using the bathroom?

Um. Yes.

4. Can you do a cartwheel?

I don’t know… let me check real quick…

Uh, yes, but now I need a new lamp.

5. Would you skate goofy or regular?

All skating is goofy.

6. How many times have you been to the mall this week?

You’re joking, right?

7. Do you regret something you did yesterday?

I dropped my left hand when I threw a cross, and got clocked.

8. Are you allergic to anything?

I think I might be allergic to hippies, and MySpace, and possibly California.

9. Have you ever been tubing?

Is that drugs or something? No.

10. Has school started yet?

Yep. I’ve been dropping my girlfriend off at her high school for over a week.

Read On…

31. Dead dog #1. (2001/ 2011)

At 14, I had already begun to feel like an outcast in both my personal and professional lives. My “professional” life was school, of course, and having recently turned the corner from matriculating lacrosse player into alienating BMX bike rider, it felt like I had disaligned with the prominent, acceptable political party. At the time, the two worlds did not cleanly overlap, and all but a few of my friends from one ran for the hills when I began to prioritize the other.

One carry-over was a popular kid, a sports stand-out, and the son of the football coach. He was a lifer in the conventional system, but had an affinity for the fringes where I now resided. He rode BMX with me whenever he could, and was good at it, and in my opinion him doing so was one of the only reasons that I wasn’t even more severely ostracized.

We got along well- causing trouble wherever we could find it, listening to Suicidal Tendencies on near-constant repeat, and riding bikes like we were being paid to do so. Being a sports kid in a sports family, I believed that things like football and lacrosse must have felt almost like jobs to him, and bike riding (especially with me) must have felt like a nearly-supreme rebellion.

Read On…

32. Dead dog #2. (2006/ 2011)

When I was younger I had a few strange episodes that the doctors called “Complex Partial Seizures”. They would cause me to black out for a few moments, and for a short while after waking up, things were kind of blurry. Immediately prior to the blackout, I would see a strange picture in my mind, or flash back quickly to something from my past. Falling down the stairs of a hotel I was staying in with my parents and brother is what allowed them to learn I had been having them; I hadn’t shared the information because I was approaching 16 and knew that they would (justifiably) never give a driver’s license to someone that randomly went to sleep for a minute.

I was made to wait another year and a few months, which meant that I would be a little over 17 when I got my license. I had had one or two more blackouts in the time since falling down the stairs, but didn’t tell anyone because I was restless and felt I simply had to move my life forward. I had already been traveling extensively for both music and BMX bike riding, but I wanted to be able to do so independently and was unwilling to wait any longer.

Read On…

33. Things I’ve stolen- #1, #2, and #3. (2015)

I don’t consider myself a person who steals, necessarily; Certainly not a thief. But I have stolen a handful of non-basic items each from equally unusual locations, and if presented with the option of a do-over, would handle at least a few of the situations differently.

In no particular order of vulgarity or priority:

#1: Hedgehog from a pet store in Eastview Mall
(Re-handling: Same.)

I worked at the mall for a period of time as a teenager, and while doing so made friends with an interesting girl that worked at the nearby music store (once upon a time there were these cool little retailers that sold almost nothing but music and assorted music-related novelties). She was unusual and, if for no other reason, we got along because neither of us felt any more at home in our weird work settings than we did in our own skin, but we were both really good at pretending in… both.

Read On…

34. What would Charles Ingalls do? (2014)

The less sense everything else makes, the more sense that question makes. To me, anyway.

When I take my blinders off and look at where and how we’re living, confusion and disillusionment are never far behind. There is a strange falseness to so much of it, but also a head-shaking amount of reality, and I’m not sure which is more disconcerting.

As I walked out the door of my apartment building today (it opens on to a relatively passive street and is directly between an antique store and a fancy hair salon) a guy spouted off “Watch where you’re going, motherfucker!” In his defense, I think he was partially kidding- though in bad taste- and also trying to impress his friend. It was dark out, and my luck being what it is, I firmly responded with “Watch your mouth. Let’s start over… ” and he immediately apologized and continued on his way.

Read On…

35. Letter #3. (2016)

My dear,

As attraction and hesitation paint their stories with the same blood-soaked brush, my mind is a warm, cold, fearless, timid, dauntless wreck;

The peace and calm I feel are pushily urgent, and the weight of wanting makes my veins feel coursed with something unnatural.

It all rests neatly, for now, underneath a limitless excitement for something I had nearly disallowed, with someone I had clearly misread;

I enjoy my mistakes in judgement, on the rare occasion that they prove otherwise in my favor.
_

My temperature changes before a complete image of you has even formed in my mind;

It is palpable, even though you are miles away, and merely our hands have touched.

It is relevant, because distance lessens force, and familiarity breeds comfort;

We are distant, and unfamiliar, and yet I feel forceful, and comfortable.

Yours,

Sense is made. (Picture- 2016)

bloodI was once told of a signature, “It isn’t real if it isn’t blood”.
I believed it then, and I believe it now.

36. She’ll Never Know. (2010/ 2016)

Quickly and quietly, the trapdoor had closed on me. My attempts to reflect on things I had enjoyed or loved were immediately darkened by vicious pain and uncustomary confusion. They would not relent, and it felt like there was no escape.

In the span of a few short months I moved back to my hometown after a nearly 10-year absence, watched a successful business we had built collapse in on itself, and in the turmoil allowed a lifetime of unmanaged mental health issues get way ahead of me. I pushed away a person that would have loved and cared for me forever, lost the house I misguidedly bought upon my return, and left my brother unemployed during the Christmas season.

For much of that time I was struggling with an injury that left me sleeping sitting up with near-constant pain in my back and legs. The surgery performed to repair it did not do its job, and after the pain and recovery of that process, the original pain had barely changed.

Read On…

37. Thought Crime. (2012)

What is “Thought Crime”?

“A thoughtcrime is an occurrence or instance of controversial or socially unacceptable thoughts.”

The term comes from the novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell. 1984 is the story of a man, and a society, that eroded into a cycle of forced control, blind routine and ultimately a total loss of free will. Out of fear, the citizens fight their natural instincts to think and act freely, and, also out of fear, the rulers of the society fight to suppress them.

No one on either side conceptualized or realized any sort of progressive or suitable destiny; Their lives began and ended a series of pre-manufactured actions and pre-determined conclusions…

Read On…

38. No fantasy. (2013)

(Following a serious surgery in 2012, I could barely walk, my left foot didn’t work, I was taking pain medicine I hated, and couldn’t think clearly about anything that I loved. None of it made any sense, but none of that made any difference. If I stopped, it all stopped.
For better or worse, I didn’t.)

______________________________________

Guilt has smothered the last breath of love.

Pain has eclipsed happiness, and neutralized fear.

…They. …Have. …Flatlined.

Anything… worth, feeling.

My attempts to reclaim my mind have driven far too much attention towards others, and far too much away from myself.

Selfish hands have strangled the Naeman lion, driven the stake into the heart of the last Vampire;

Guilt and pain have proven, that when met in sharpest form,

it is safer to relent than resist.

Waiting for the clouds to lift quickly became a snake eating its tail;

The flaw, you see,

was believing

something worthwhile

lived behind them.

No fantasy, will save me, from me.

New-old world. (Picture- 2017)

No stars Words as weapons, and weapons as friends;
Once the pen joins the sword, both weak and mindless, meet their end.

39. Curse of Awareness #2. (2017)

There is a gloom that lives here when the weather turns mean, and people either fight it like an enemy, or succumb to it, and spend an entire season in misery. I’ve never really minded it, with the exception of watching how it makes others treat, others.

The drive back to home base was short; A small consolation for the cargo I was retrieving being heavy, clunky, dirty, and freezing fucking cold. Metal pipes, even stored inside a garage door, didn’t seem to warm much past the single-digit temperature outside it. I drove appropriately cautiously, considering both the unusual weather and my irregular passengers.

Driving towards an underpass, I noticed a commotion.

Cars were honking and swerving, in very tight quarters, and for a reason I couldn’t quite distinguish until I got closer. Upon under-passing, I saw the obstruction:

It was a man. In a wheelchair. That had tipped over.

Read On…

40. Letter #4. (2018)

My dear,

I find no satisfaction in the unrelenting notion; I wish I would have somehow met you, long before. The cracks we continue to step in may have been shallower (or at the very least, different) had we had each other to watch, before we walked.

There is no use in crying over spilled blood ( …I believe Shakespeare said that), however the knowledge that something proves no use does not keep it from sneaking up on us when we feel of none, ourselves.
_

When confidence is asleep, its detractors tie it down;
The longer its eyes are closed, the tighter its hands are bound.

(I have been… asleep… for far too long.)
_

I want the warm clarity of ‘knowing’, without the cold mirroring guessing; I want factual measurement without fantastical underminement.

I now want many things that I have forsaken, by not caring enough to save them as they were dying, then.
_

You can untie my hands, and splash water (with lye) on my near-dead eyes. You can breathe calm and certainty, into lungs deflated by disbelief, and ambiguity.

Or, can you?

It’s too late, either way. You can catch the wayward glass, or watch it smash, and hide the pieces; I’m not sure which is my destined state.

But, the glass has already fallen, and the only hands with any chance are…

Yours,

Ceremony. (Picture- 2018)

Decade. Wolf Brigade: One decade, dead.

“Where are all the good men dead; In the heart, or in the head?”

For the few left alive that are actually good, the answer must be, neither.

41. Curse of Awareness #3. (2018)

If I wasn’t looking, I wouldn’t have seen; I’m never really sure if that is better or worse.

Any attentive, creative mind could write volumes (and I imagine even semi-interesting ones) about the oddity and unpredictability of the American grocery store. I can’t recall a trip in which I didn’t see something that, even on my widely-sliding scale, wouldn’t be considered major-league odd.

How we perceive what we see is what keeps the innocuous from becoming monotonous, I guess.

I’ve been forcing myself to stay even busier than usual lately; An often-unsuccessful attempt at a distraction from myself. I didn’t need anything, but wanted ice cream, and went to the smaller of the local grocery stores to get it. Independently owned, single location, and a strange mix of normal things and fancy things. I imagine the hybridization is a necessity, since if someone is spending $8 on a bag of hand-made, organic, ethically-sourced supercookies, they may need to save a bit on name-brand white rice and toothpaste.

The outing was a non-necessity, and I was in no particular hurry. I noticed an interesting young couple pull in a few spaces down in a well-kept older convertible, and waited a few moments to exit the car and move behind them, as opposed to walking near arm-in-arm in the small lot. They would very likely never have noticed; I would have noticed.

Read On…

42. Time Under Tension. (2018)

(Originally seen in Raze magazine, Issue #1, 2018)

I over-think. But I am not the oft-seen “over-thinker/ under-doer”.

I think hard about deep water because I know I can and will put myself in it, and that it often gets deeper far quicker than even my over-thinkery could account for. Anticipatory pre-redundancy system; If you’re thinking about a single back-up plan, then the need for two is probably already one step ahead of you.

I did not over-think the booking of a recent trip to Salt Lake City to talk and train with a bunch of people I had never met in an environment I had never been in with a purpose that was completely (intriguingly) murky. When the offer was made, I immediately signed on the dotted line and began my plan. My lack of hesitation speaks loudly to the offerers’ quality and quietly to my mental disclarity.

My “plan” was to figure out at all costs how to unravel the tightening knot that my body and brain had found themselves in prior to making a daunting cross-country trip to talk physicality and philosophy with people so interesting to me that I would have walked the distance had that been the directive.

Read On…

Origins. (Picture- 1989)

I had no idea where any of it would take me, but I knew with every fiber of my being that I was going to live and die, finding out…

43. Lessons of Loss. (1991/ 2016)

When I was a kid, there were still (and only) home-phones. I’m not old, but I’m old enough to have had the good fortune to experience many now-dead things that required deliberateness and patience… though we didn’t know or appreciate that at the time.
 
The simple act of hand-dialing a number, the tolerance of… a busy signal. The fact that if you missed a call, you may not know until either someone told you, or they called back. Clear to see why optimal communication required evolution, but valuable to recall some of the virtues the inefficiency helped develop.
 
Sometimes, though, one edge of the knife is sharper and more malicious than the other… As is the case with the most important phone call I have ever missed.
 
I was goofing around with the neighbors; Stirring up dust, breaking something so we could figure out how to fix it, or building something so we could figure out how to break it. It was past dusk on a warm spring night, and time to go home.
 
I had missed a call. The handwritten recap said “Chris: 8:40pm, no message”. Then, it was not thought of twice to return a call the next day, unless a specific directive was given otherwise. And just after 9pm… The time had not yet come when a phone call for any reason at any hour was common fare. In school the next day we were sure to catch up on anything he wanted to tell me on the phone.
 
Such was the world, before it became a technological macrocosm of careless instantaneousness and largely unnecessary immediacy.
 
Chris was absent from school the next day. Odd, but not alarming… Until, it was.
 
As it occurred in a pre-device-based-Newspeak world, true voice-based interaction began to circulate that something had happened to Chris. Although I have notes from the time surrounding these events, all they said about this day was “No one knew the truth yet”, followed by “Heard from Meghan. Chris is dead.”
 
The girl that shared the news with me was not someone that would have moved in my orbit, ordinarily; Chris and I were quite close, and she knew that. She was also a friend of his, and as it did with all of us, shock and grief blurred any notion of adolescent caste system or social-order hierarchy.
 
As depicted in any movie on-or-relating-to the topic, small groups huddled together in stairways, girls walked arm-in-arm, crying down the hallways… Boys looked solemn, but tried not to look “weak”.
 
Details were surfacing, but the blur still outweighed the clear. We learned at the very end of the day that Chris had hanged himself in his bedroom the night before. I learned the next day that he had not died immediately, but that his parents had found him, taken him to the hospital, and then lost him. Once examined and investigated, it appeared to have been more a plea for attention than an actual attempt, and that it had simply (and not simply) gone as wrong as any cry for help could have.
 
In the same distasteful manner as followed several other situations I stumbled into as a youth and young adult, I was a different person after that day, and not in a good way.
 
Chris was the charismatic ladies’ man, with the gorgeous older sister and the cool car. His car was the first place I ever heard Black Sabbath, and his stories were the first I heard of… a lot of things. This was my also first look into the vicious unpredictability of the human mind, as- on paper- what happened made no sense to anyone that had ever met him; Especially the friend he had called on the phone, not long before it occurred.
 
I attended the wake, and at that time, had not yet been exposed to such sadness and widespread grief. I had been to funerals for people I knew and cared for, but a kid, taken in that way… In a community where such a thing was, at the very least, uncommon…
 
It was nearly debilitating, and combined with the fact that many in attendance were no more than casual school acquaintances and wouldn’t have had anything to do with me outside of these heightened circumstances, it felt even more isolating and volatile. Since isolation and volatility were already concepts I had made unintentional friends with, I chose not to attend the funeral.
 
Though I’ve lost many friends since, and far too many in far too similar a manner, I have not attended another funeral. I pay respects in my way; I attempt to pay respect with my entire life. I know the weight and gravity such things hold over me, and also how easily they can all join together and drag me under.
 
The fact that we had been made to endure a loss such as this together manufactured a fleeting sense of class camaraderie in the weeks following, however all pieces of the situation drove me to feel otherwise. Certainly a bad habit that I’ve held on to since, but circumstantial unity was never a notion that stuck with me; I isolated and removed myself even more from “conventional” life, and the paths it set me on and doors opened by doing so are certainly the only un-scarring take-aways from such a sad and overwhelming event.
 
I liken the psychological aftermath of such a thing to the storied BB lodged in the knuckle; Everything still mostly functional, but routinely painful, and truly unforgettable.
 
All aspects of what transpired were sharp and mean in ways I was unprepared for, and also as confusing and troublesome as they were avoidable; By me (maybe).
 
We’ll never know. But rest assured, I’ll always wonder.
 

Subvert. (Graphic- 2017)

-ist: A suffix of nouns, denoting a person who practices or is concerned with something, or holds certain principles, doctrines, etc. (apologist; dramatist; machinist; novelist; realist… )

44. The Last Rung on the Ladder. (2004/ 2019)

Everyone’s gut talks to them differently; I’m still not sure whether the way mine communicates is a blessing or a curse.

I moved to California in January of 1999 to work at what could be considered the only “real” job I’ve ever had. I’ve never not worked- I started when I was 15 and haven’t stopped since- but it has always been for either small companies, for myself, or in a placeholder-type position while I was occupied (or about to be…) with travel for bike riding or music.

Moving to the LA area from my hometown of Rochester, New York for a real job was a decision I did not take lightly, and once made I had no intention of putting in a simply mediocre run at it. As soon as the amazing opportunity presented itself I took it, and the heartache of leaving my family, friends, and hometown was matched and possibly even overshadowed by the clarity I felt towards the potential magnitude of the situation I was entering. Working for a major bike company (among some of my childhood heroes) was something I never could have imagined would lead me into the murky and dysfunctional situations I would later come upon.

Existing in the action sports industry in Southern California afforded me more than a fair share of interaction with people I could neither relate to nor take seriously, and when I saw yet another trimmed, skinny goatee climb out of a giant, lifted Ford truck at a skatepark in Orange County, I had profiled and dismissed it before the boot had even hit the pavement.

Over walked a tall, good-looking, dark-haired guy wearing a button-up shirt with a big fly collar, oversized pants, and dress shoes… wheeling what appeared to be a really nice BMX bike. Unless he had a change of clothes in one of the gigantic pizza-pockets on the back of his jeans, it looked as though he were going to ride the skatepark in an outfit that would have been more fitting at a Top-40 nightclub in West Hollywood. In an industry and region of the country where people were routinely made fun of for simply having the seat of their bike too high, the oddity of his outfit made it a spectacle, and a curious distraction.

Once the ice was cracked during routine exposure and casual conversation over the coming months, it became clear that Andy was the troubled, caring kind- much like most of the people I’ve been closest to in my life- and also extremely insecure, but for no discernable reason. Another addition to the unfortunate and bewildering script: Handsome, extremely talented in a variety of useful ways, and a do-anything-for-you sort. Plane re-routed and new arrival airport is two hours from the intended? Andy will get you, and somehow make the headache into an amusing adventure.

Having a fondness develop for someone you assumed you were going to dislike always seems to add extra depth or deepened authenticity to whatever shape the relationship took from that point, since it was forced to rise from adversity.

He ended up taking a sales position at the same company I was in, and he was preternaturally good at it. His bad habits followed him, and over the next few years, everyone in our circle did everything they could to chase him back to the things he loved and excelled at each time his demons tried to drag him away.

Never discourteous, never disheveled, never so focused on himself that he couldn’t be asked to lend a hand to others; It was his casual day-to-day demeanor and admirable code of conduct that kept anyone from noticing that he was drowning.

He had moved into a room in the beautiful home of a friend and co-worker of ours, and the hope was that the proximity to normalcy would help him out of the dark, but it did not appear to be working. After receiving a frantic call, I hurried over to the house and found Andy in his room, with a loaded gun to his throat.

I believe strongly that the pure discourtesy of me being forced to intervene was the deterrent he needed that day, coupled with not wanting to disappoint someone that had put faith, time, and effort into him in both personal and professional realms. I was not afraid for my safety while intervening, as no matter how convoluted his mind was I knew he would never harm me, but I was enormously fearful of mishandling something so volatile.

It took several significant missteps and some pretty flagrant irresponsibility for the owners of the company to intervene, though when they finally did, I was tasked with delivering the news. I told them he was really struggling, had a lot of support within the company, and really needed the stability the job provided, but “risk” vs. “reward” for careless people that only see black, white, and green looked a lot different than it did to me; No professional risk could be outweighed by the potential of personal reward.

I was ordered to fire Andy, on a Friday afternoon, as per the handbook. Another co-worker was made to be in attendance as well, but I said the words, and knew it to be a mistake in both fact and conscience before I had even begun the wrong-minded task. The twists and pitfalls and gravity of what was unfolding within the company, and the amount of daunting-but- positive things I was spearheading, infused pressure to tow the company line even though I knew in heart and head that it was wrong. If I had flat-out refused, I believe many of the valuable projects we had in the works would have suffered; That presents as nothing more than trite, weak-minded justification, now with all things considered.

I fired Andy, and he killed himself the next day.

If humanity’s blight of selfishness that I had stood against and written about throughout my entire young adult life and avoided in all aspects of my “career” could manifest in such a profound way by my hand, there was a chance (at least in my mind) that I had been mistaken about the strength of my conviction to a self-less path. In a time when the questioning I was doing of myself was already nothing short of debilitating, adding that level of self-doubt to the list taught me some lessons in darkness that I definitely did not need to learn.

The end result is the end result. Of course there is rational discussion and point/ counterpoint conversation that could be had, but they would all end with the commiserators eyes on the ground, shoulders lazily shrugged, while the simple truth remains:

Were there other serious factors in play? Yes.

Had they all performed their uprising and been put back down, time and time again, with Andy’s life impacted but intact? Yes.

Did I cut the final fray of tightrope that resulted in the loss of that life?

Yes.

Was it possibly just a slight tipping of the already-in-motion “Hand of Fate”, and not an unexpected shove off of a seemingly stable ledge?

Anything is possible.

It is a possibility that he had planned it all along, and regardless of how his week went, Saturday night he was going to make damn sure of how the next one started.

But.

Hypothesis does not ease guilt or sorrow, and compartmentalizing the negative (especially that which we carry a burden of fault for) into the “Everything happens for a reason” folder, doesn’t either. There is no new-agey phrasing that can distract from the fact that I fired a good friend against my better judgment, while they were struggling, and he took his own life the next day. I will read that sentence until the day I die and never feel even 1% better about it than I do right now.

I’ve made a self-preservation-measure of peace with my mistake, but that doesn’t mean it will ever sit still, or play nice; As it shouldn’t.

Close friends, appreciated acquaintances from underground culture, people I looked up to for many of the same madnesses and idiosyncrasies that led them down their path to self-destruction…

The self-guided hand of doom has not discriminated in my life, and instead of the impact of the blows softening (as many tend to do with time), it now all just seems more horrible, and somehow, avoidable.

Several such situations have affected me in ways I still feel every day, but even the heavy ones can’t hold a candle to the heartbreak and self-scrutiny that resulted from the loss of my friend Andy.

Adornment. (Picture- 2018)

A still-treasured gift; A reminder, a decoration, a warning, a weapon… A thing-of-no-thing.

45. Demand, before a desire. (2021)

Originally published in ‘Devotion Magazine’ Issue #2, in October of 2021. Thank you to all involved for presenting it so beautifully.

______________________________________________________

My path to strength was not born of a hunger to be physically strong.
I rode BMX bikes all the time, I ran around the city, carried equipment, played outside… I was strong enough to do what I was doing, and early on, that seemed like plenty.

I had several cold glasses of weakness splashed in my face as a kid;
One that sent me back to the shallow end was an unprovoked group beating simply for being different, and being left to fend for myself in a strange city, injured, when it was over.

“Weakness” now had an archetype and a face, and in my mind… it was, me.

“I was lucky it wasn’t worse”, says the unprepared fool, to himself; While there are occasions for hope and luck, they are not when the chips are down in ways involving true risk and potential harm. At 15, and with no perspective on that fact, I was made to learn.

My perspective shifted instantly; Things like training weren’t even remotely near my radar yet, so I stacked the “strength” deck with observational obsession, and weapons. There has not been a day since I was 15 and beaten by those four strangers in the back of a van that I have not had something weaponizable on my person; Much different however, as I learned far later, is the art of knowing what that actually means, and how intensely fallible it truly can be. Again- luck, is not a bankable entity.

My mind had begun to sharpen, by demand not request, and it was frequently put to the test. I was in over my head more often than I care to remember or share as a teenager, often voluntarily and with righteous intentions, but upside-down nonetheless. I learned a lot, and “strengthened” in many unconventional ways, while also developing what I now know to be many significant dysfunctions and insecurities.

My youthful path was crooked but straight, and the next snag I hit took any straws-and-sticks strength I had pieced together and toppled it as if it had never stood at all.

In a nationally publicized case, a 4-year-old girl was kidnapped from her front yard in a suburb of Rochester, and a massive search ensued. I worked at a health food store in the mall at the time, and in the interest of brevity (and also since the story is outlined in detail elsewhere) I will simply say that the man that kidnapped and killed her, worked beside me. Day in, day out, the day before, and the day after he took her.

I had driven him to his home, I had heard his depraved stories, I had marveled at his unnerving idiosyncrasies, I had met his wife and son, I had covered his shifts. And I had… missed it. And when I learned it- after a significant period of time and via the local news- I was broken by it. In some ways, I still am.

Strength and confidence were no longer bolstered with a fistfight, or a bike sprint to avoid the cops, or getting up to ride again after falling down hard; Those things merely felt like reprieves, like the barrier-to-entry for even a moment of clarity or sanity.

My weakness was now a black hole of self-disbelief; I had pursued these paths of integrity, I had chosen to walk against the grain, I had routinely come to the aid of those in jeopardy… But yet, when it really counted, I might as well have had both eyes closed.
_____________________________

Perspective on my purpose and existence shifted in the year following the circumstances shared above. I have my brother to credit for dissuading me from a path of revenge I was calmly and strategically set on, and once I had reconciled his correctness, I set about correcting myself.

There is often only one way to be sure something you do not want to happen again, does not, and it is doing everything in your human power to forcefully ensure that it does not.

I did not want to be attacked again, without at very least being able to offer suitable response. I did not want any manner of oversight or ignorance or observational failure to prove costly to anyone close to me. I was just a normal kid, but now very much felt like I had a responsibility:

To be strong.

None of it, I took lightly. I ran shows in Rochester, and even when they weren’t, they were safe.

I rode my bike at all hours of the night with all manner of less-observant types for years, and even when they weren’t, they were safe.

I wasn’t particularly tough, I had no other trick up my sleeve, I just simply watched… all the time… and would rather have gone down at any cost than let harm befall, and been left to reconcile.

My strength became my focus and will; Much later, with the addition of intentional physicality, I learned the value of aligning all three. Later yet, I now preach what I practice, and live by what I teach.

I will never be the physically strongest among us, and I will never again be tougher than I have been in the past; Because strength has never been a singular novelty for me- nor, has it ever come easy- I know I will also never be anything less than the person in the room willing to go to any length to preserve the safety of the others in it, and that if one pillar of my strength breaks, I have painstakingly and redundantly build others to fall back on.

I have seen many with simple muscles, fall to those with thicker, harder mettle… And those with “undefeated minds”, but unkept bodies, topple to a strong breeze.

There must be a nearly-dysfunctional level of entwinement in order to ensure that any thread of strength will bind to the others, when holes have begun to appear, and no matter the weather.

_______________________________________________________

‘Pound the base until it no longer shows wear,
recognize and repeat the hits that landed the hardest,
and tie it all together with the desire and fire to do it all again- Forever.

Foundation – Skill – Will:

Three-headed serpent, all equally valuable, with infinite variables,
and each much less fearsome minus the others.’

46. Origins. (2022)

War of Attrition is a project I’ve worked on since 1999.

There was a brief period in, I believe, 2002 when I pulled the website down for a bit, because I had done some grassroots promotion in California (stickers in different strategic places, little flyers in other notable ones) and it had gained more traction than I was comfortable with.

Shortly after, I got my head straight and it has been up, since.

In 2019, I turned many of what I believe to be the stand-out stories and pieces of writing into an actual book; As vain and odd as it is to see yourself drawn, and significant chapters of your life in illustration, I asked two of my talented friends- Paul Waggener and Michael Childers- to bring an element of the stories to “life”. Pictured above and below are two piece of Paul’s artwork.

There was a period of about five years- maybe 1992 until 1997- where things were just… Too fucking much.
I believe at any point during, I could have ended up somewhere bad, nowhere at all, or completely gone.
Many of the significant stories from that period are featured on this site and in the book; Many others are not.

I had my tires slashed at a weird apartment I lived in downtown (that we had shows in, had a full-sized trampoline in, and also had a wedge ramp for riding and skating… that year could be a book of its own… ), and the cutter sent me a postcard about it.
It said ‘Two flat tires and no girlfriend.’

At that same location, I hit a restaurant owner with a frying pan that he had thrown at my friend Curly, because he didn’t like that we lived upstairs, and also threw a treacherously drunk metalhead down a steep flight of stairs while his – 95% naked – girlfriend screamed bloody murder (he was trying to get into our place, thinking it was the party location that was actually one level up… ).

I was robbed at knifepoint at a gas station two blocks from another sketchy apartment, almost fought back, and then three other people stepped into the light from alongside the dark building, I saw a man being beaten with a hammer while on a bike ride just few blocks from home, three out of every four shows we played or booked ended up in some sort of non-minor melee, and I channeled all of it into every time we played a show and every time I rode my bike. It was exorcism. Catharsis. Without those two outlets, I would have been, doomed.

Somehow each weird job I had (health food store (2), pool supply center, skate/ snowboard shop, show booking, running a band… ) was more dysfunctional than the last, and almost as if they were in some sort of competition with each other to be so.

We learned that the proprietors of the pool supply center (a part-time job that a friend had gotten me) were selling significant amounts of cocaine out of it, often even while we were there; Especially considering my sensibilities at the time, that discovery did not go particularly well. We came back at night, and destroyed anything we could- from their vans, to the awnings and signage, and so on- both for putting me at risk, and for having such lack of character that they’d unknowingly put a bunch of teenagers around that type of corrupt venture.

I loved every minute of the skate shop I worked at and helped run; I was brought in to add a BMX line to it, and did just that.

But.

The ’90’s in action sports and such, were not like now. It was not docile and accepted and assimilated in some gross way by every store in the mall. We had people attempt to steal that we would catch and simply lock the doors on, we had others offering anything and everything for anything and everything, there were more soft drugs moving through that place than on the first Bad Brains tour, and there was no less than five fights per week, either in our tiny lot or inside the store itself. It was the still-dysfunctional-but-positive counterpart to the past several places I had worked, and I couldn’t have been enthralled by it all.

Booking shows in the early ’90’s here in Rochester should have come with a Surgeon General’s warning. I was stolen from, threatened (a lot), tricked by clubowners, more frequently than not lost money, even more frequently than that, didn’t make any, hit from behind (several times), I beat the fuck out of people that deserved it and hated every minute of it, and I put on some of the very best shows the city has, and ever will, see.

It was the Witching Hour; Powerful, dangerous, and magical. The bands we had access to, were the ones that made it all happen. Or, at very least, the ones at the tail end of the first to EVER make it happen.

The fact that many of the shows are now storied, fictionalized, and still discussed, is because we were ready to let them be the madhouses they aspired to; We didn’t want them to be peaceful, or clean, or simple. We wanted them to be insanity. We wanted to be able to either control it, or destroy everything. And we did; Both.
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It didn’t take long to figure out that if I was going to retain any amount of sanity and virtue amidst these trials and tribulations that made me feel like a freak, a monster, and a coward, a killer, a victim and an attacker, and a success, a maniac, and a failure, I was going to have to do some deep-digging and soul searching, and earn it.