Who I Blog For.

I often joke here about my carefully curated blog for whatever that means.    The word ‘curate’ is interesting.  I think the dictionary says it means something like ‘to organize, oversee’.   A friend of mine recently interviewed a museum curator for a magazine article she was writing and asked for some advice on questions to ask.    I have always wondered who a museum curator organizes for?   Do they have a particular person in mind that they ask themselves ‘what would Jane Doe think about this selection?’ and essentially Jane Doe inadvertently influences the contents of a museum or the pieces in a exhibit.  Make sense?

Since I started writing my blog, I have always casually told people that I write my blog or post photos with two people in mind.   Yeah, I may have a few hundred daily visits and I appreciate anyone that would take the time to read anything I have to say, or look at the pictures that I post on my carefully curated blog.  But I wanted to introduce the two people I write for:

Nancy Wells – Mother, Wife, Sister, Aunt, Friend to thousands, Dallas’ premiere purevyor of the finest in ladies shoes and accessories.

Peter Nguyen – Jack of all trades, changes cars like most people change underwear, best friend for life, even though he has never seen E.T. or Star Wars

Follow Peter on Twitter.

There ya go.

Good times in Dallas over the last few days. Busy as hell with meetings with old coworkers and potential partners (imc2), one amazing client (Doritos) – no, seriously amazing, not just kissin’ ass – and old friends and family. Unfortunately there were a few missed, and I apologize. Philip (Centre) – I will be back in about 10 days. Dennis (Aztec) – See you next visit.

See ya!

Old Video for Old Friends

I made this a while back, using photos from Fall of last year.  I think it has 100 or so views on YouTube, 94 of which were me.   I love watching it, so I thought I would share it.

Poor People Have Poor Ways – Veens

Photo courtesy of Jon Ball.  Shot on location in Cozumel, Mexico.

Don’t take the title of this post to be negative in any way towards any particular group.   When one of my best friends I were living together, we scraped by on the Wendy’s dollar menu, tuna fish (him, not me), and $.79 burritos.  We  drove 20 miles to the QuikTrip gas station because their fountain drinks and gas were cheaper.  We would hit the skatepark 2 hours before it closed so we would only have to pay $5.   He would sleep all day, because sleep was cheap.   We ate plenty of junk food because sweets were cheap.   Although we are both now doing just a tiny bit better for ourselves financially, we both look back upon those times as some of the best we have ever had.   The music, the skating,  the getting by.

But we had a motto back then.   Since we both had great families and upbringings, we had to justify our idiotic behavior with one statement:  Poor people have poor ways.

“Dude, you are putting jalapenos and hotdogs in your Ramen noodles? “  “Poor poeple have poor ways.”

So when he sent me the photo above with the Veens, I instantly thought about our old days together.  But the Veens themselves are worthy of their own post in some way, but for now, we can all just chuckle at the sight of them.

Vintage Skateboarding Pics

Thanks to my friend Fabian for having these around! Click any image to enlarge.

• Looks like my hair was some strange reddish color – likely due to that groundbreaking product called Sun-In or just straight up peroxide.
• Notice the black Vans Chukka Boots with colored socks. Awesome.
• Looks like a Birdhouse Projects shirts, which I do not remember ever buying.
• I am not ollie-ing over that box, but it kinda looks like it.

• This was taken at one of my favorite skate spots in Dallas. This was across a parking lot from a spot called Quorum. I will go head to head with any Dallas skater that thinks they discovered Quorum before us, and I know you are out there. I distinctly remember my friend Jamal and I waxing up all of the appropriate curbs when they were 100% virgin – untouched by metal or urethane. If you disagree, Jamal will shoot you.
• Note the Vision sneakers. They were high-tops that Jamal cut to be low-tops with a huge tongue. He was regular and I was goofy. After he tore up the left shoe, he gave them to me to tear up the right. Poor people have poor ways.

• This is definitely my favorite picture that I have from back in the day. Mainly because I remember the moment so vividly. I stuck this trick so perfectly, I literally get goosebumps thinking about it. It is not even a crazy trick, but keep in mind… this was 1991, pre-digital anything, and getting a good shot with a disposable was very rare. I even remember the flash hitting my body at the perfect moment and pulling it down flawlessly, no sketch. It’s these moments that make you a skater for life. It is these moments that make a 33 year-old still own a skateboard.
• This was one of those nights that we were all on fire. Aside from this trick, I remember landing half-cab late shove-its (both frontside and backside shove-its out of the half-cab) down a small set of like 3 or 4 tall stairs. Jamal pulled this crazy accidental late pressure flip (a backside late shove-it that accidentally flipped perfectly and he landed it like he meant to do it) – funny, I know. Fabian was busting huge ollies and cleared a nice gap. Oh, the memories.   I am sooooo grateful that I remember them like it was yesterday.

Reflections, After Getting Back to My Roots

I spent a lot of time back home over the last couple of weeks, and definitely spent some time thinking about the stuff that is really important in life – namely the friends, family and the memories that they are responsible for creating and helping you maintain. I will never pretend to write anything of any significance on my blog here. I mean, come on, you should never take anything you read on a blog seriously anyways. I did find out that just about all of my family and friends and even my Mom’s friends are regular readers of my blog, which is great, because I have always said that I am writing for them anyways.

That being said… I struggle with downplaying the importance of the things that I write about. Hip-hop music could disappear tomorrow and Robby Wells would be just fine. But for a lot of people, hip-hop provides hope, an outlet, a journey, a form of self-expression, etc… – all very important things in life. And as shallow as it seems, the same is true for apparel and footwear. Whether you are an independent retailer tyring to make ends meet in this jacked up economy, or a kid who loves holding that brand new pair of sneakers and making a statement through their apparel choices, fashion is everything.

So how did I choose my subject matter? It became all too clear during my visit back home over the last couple of weeks.

First, I realized that I still dress the exact same way in 2008 as I did on XMAS day in 1984. Right down to the windbreaker, 501s and high-tops.

My uncle told me that I had about 20 pairs of shoes at age 2, an age when you can claim one shoe size for a few months. I came from a shoe family, which also explains why at age 14, I gave a shit about Nike’s P&L. Regular readers know where I stand with Nike now. Blah.

I kept a bunch of old skate mags and other old publications in the pristeen Airwalk box below:

Which includes these classic covers:

Congrats to Ryan and Jon!

I always knew these guys would eventually get some well-deserved print coverage! Check this photo of Ryan and Jon in TSM – I love it!
Click for the larger version. (Someone send me some credits!)

Ryan did have some nice 30+ footage in the latest Four Duos installment:

David and Allen

The wonderful David and Allen graced us with their presence last weekend. Always a good time and sad to see them leave. Til next time.

via http://www.robbywells.com