|
sk8erbra
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Chuey
Gender: Male
Interests: Skating (Skateboarding), Muscle Cars, Classic Cars, Art, Photography, Illustration, Painting, Music (Rap, Rock, Alternative), Helping Others, Being Sincere
Expertise: "The wrong thing to do about any given circumstance or situation is to do nothing."
Occupation: A student of life
Message: message me
Member Since:
2/28/2007
|
|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| This is really just a continuation of my earlier post, the streets of Los Angeles but as I grew up skating the streets of Hollywood I thought I would devote another post to this.
My first skateboard, was a tiny orange plastic skateboard when I was in the second grade and it's amazing to think back now how well I could ride that thing considering it was a pretty badly designed chunk of plastic compared to modern day boards. I rode it for several years and I took it everywhere with me. I rode it in the dirt, in the grass but mostly a rode it around the concrete school grounds during recess periods and in my backyard when I got home from school.
Embarrassingly, what I graduated to from this was roller skates as my best friend was a roller skating fanatic. And it was really about competition and getting better than he was which I quickly did. This was one of those friends you remain competitive with your whole life, it seems, no matter what the circumstances are. You always are comparing what you've done and accomplished in your life to this person. One such instance was at a skating rink, on a school field trip, where I raced against him and about 20 other kids and adults of all ages. I was probably the smallest kid there and I new that if I could muster up all my youthful energy at the starting line and got off to a fast start I would avoid the inevitable collisions that would probably occur around the first turn.
As I predicted, almost the entire crowd of kids were fighting for a little patch of free space and literally tripping over each other as I sped to the lead, free and clear and led the pace for the three laps and only came in second at the last second because I slowed down, on the last lap, and wasn't paying close enough attention to the group of frenzied skaters gaining on my heels and frantically trying to catch me. Anyway, that was one of those fond childhood memories you later look back on.
I lost my point to that story and I was really only leading up to the fact that I soon graduated from spending my days rollerskating to purchasing an actual real wooden skateboard that I bought at a shop on Hollywood Blvd, about a block West of Vine called The Spot. I basically had very little idea what I was buying and just bought it based on the cool skull graphics it had. Anyway these were the days of nose guards, rails, skid plates and lappers (a piece of plastic that goes over your back truck so you could lift the nose of your board over curbs and get up them with ease (this was in '81 or '82 before ollies, or at least nobody I knew could ollie).
Anyway, now I was skateboarding home every day. (to be continued...) | | |
| Though
I've visited and traveled through San Francisco literally hundreds of
times (having lived in Sonoma County) I unfortunatly never got the
opportunity (or made the opportunity) to skate there.
 Most
commonly I looked to the steep hills and how they were a literal
concrete playground with driveways and ledges and various other
obstacles. It also always reminded me of watching the Search for Animal Chin
video section with Guerrero effortlessly skating these downhills with
the utmost precision and confidence. I literally watched these downhill
sequences more times than I can remember.
Now while traveling through San Francisco not only do I admire the skate terrain but I also gravitate to the beautiful architecture of the old historical buildings of the area.
 After
having said all that, I am vowing to make an effort to visit this city
in the near future and bring my board, this time. And when I do I will
make sure I update my blog with all the skate photos, I've taken.
I'll end this post with a photo of Tommy Guerrero ripp'n it up in the streets of SF OLDSCHOOL STYLE. :) | | |
| If you've ever been around Hollywood or even visited Hollywood you would have noticed the fact that it doesn't exactly live up to its glitzy perceived reputation. Or at least the people I've talked to when they visit it for the first time are disappointed at how, ummm... dirty, it is. I watch bus loads of tourists arriving to Hollywood, streams of Japanese, European, or even Midwest tourists stream out on to the streets. They walk up and down the "walk of fame" stars reading off hundreds of names (many of which they've never heard of) and glancing around at the fact that Hollywood is made up of mostly crappy little stores you wouldn't want to buy anything from. Then they notice the bums and homeless people wandering the streets. They become increasingly reluctant to let their small children run ahead of them, instead keeping them within arms reach as they pass by these creature-like humans who have become degraded beyond recognition. Literally, walking Bundles of dirty and stained rags stumbling sown the street like a monster out of an old low budget horror movie.
How did these people get this way. People who were once small cute little babies, like you or me, that grew up and somewhere along the way something happened. And this is what they've become. I've been told that these are people who have been let out of psychiatric hospitals when their insurance money ran dry. Just let out on the streets, addicted and nowhere to go. Eating out the trash, unable to bath, and this is what you're witnessing as you walk the streets of Hollywood looking for the next tourist attraction.
| | |
| How many times have you put something in your mouth only to discover a split second later that something was just not right.
And your immediate reaction was to split it out but you can't always immediately or politely do so. Like a big chunk of gristly or fatty tasting meat that has an unchewable sinewy consistency. Anyway that's a little gross. But how about a big swig of sour milk? Do you hold it in your mouth long enough to spit it out somewhere? Sprinting across your living room with a mouth full of sour milk suspended in your mouth until you're close enough to the sink to spit it out. Or do you swallow it? Gulp...
It reminds me of a good friend of mine who was swimming in his friends swimming pool, just him and his friend, both had Dr Peppers that they were drinking out of and setting them on the side of the pool. However, and you'll probably guess what happens next, his friend was spitting chewing tobacco in to one of the cans. And my friend thinking he was about to take a big swig of Dr Pepper took a big swig of chewing tobacco spit, and swallowed. Gulp... | | |
| What percentage of people will stop what they are doing to help a complete stranger?
How many times have you seen somebody get in trouble or injured and witness the fact that most people will just "mind their own business" or "won't get involved"? Most likely if you haven't seen this it's because you too just ignored it to the extent that you may not have even realized you were ignoring it.
What separates those individuals who will "go out of their way" or "interrupt their busy schedule" and help "a complete stranger"?
| | |
|
