Venice Beach Skate Park visit (7/15/2011)

Footage from Youtube of someone shredding at the Venice Beach Skate Park.

Today I went down to the Venice Beach Skate Park. I was skating the large pool and some local kids came over to skate it too. I got out of the way and took a seat next to one of the kids; he looked like he was 13 or 14. All of these kids could shred. Me, I just try to skate, and when it's my turn I take it. My turn was currently over, so I was taking a break. I sat down next to a skater and started listening to the kids' conversation.
"Where do accents come from? Are people born with accents?"
"No, man, they pick up accents from people around them."
"Yeah, we have accents too. We just don't hear it"
(Laughter)
One of the kids started talking in an exaggerated hick-like American accent.
Everyone cracked up.
The kid sitting next to me paused then, loudly immitated the young kid who immitated the American accent.
"Haha, that's what you always sound like."
Everyone within earshot laughed at this, which obviously pissed off the kid who happened the be the butt of the joke. He dropped into the pool looking rather butt-hurt and disappeared for about 35 seconds. The conversation continued and then stopped abruptly when the kid popped up out of the pool, missing the lip-trick he was going for.
The kid looked up and looked directly over at the young African American kid sitting next to me who had just made fun of his accent earlier.
"Hey D! Why don't go over there and join the drum circle?"
Nobody responded to this crack.
The kid sitting next to me to whom the joke was directed looked surprised. He paused, shook his head, and said out loud, "How is that funny?" Nobody responded.
At this point, I felt it was appropriate to lend my 2cents to the conversation.
"There's nothing to get," I said
"Huh?" The kid sitting next to me looked over in my direction.
"I just said that there's nothing to get."
"Oh, hahaha, yeah you're right, hey did you hear that? There's nothing to get!"
Some people laughed and a few kids looked back in the direction of the one who had made the drum circle joke. Then "D", who was still sitting next to me added the comment, "Unless he means like people in Kenya playing drums or something..." I looked over and with a dumbfounded expression on my face replied, "OH, that's what he was implying? Ha, I didn't put the two and two together! Haha." To this reaction my new young friend looked at me inquisitively.
I paused then grinned and said, "Dude, I'm just playing. It was a stupid joke."
"Hahaha, that's cool man." He smiled. "Hey my name's 'D', what's yours?"
"David," I replied, "Nice to meet you."
"You too."
I thought for a second, laughed and then added, "Besides, nobody is just born with rhythm, you have to learn that shit too, like an accent."
"Haha, you're right," D said.
.

I went on to skate the pool for a few more runs, then I ventured over to the snake run. The smell of blood, sweat, and indo' filled the air around me. I really love Venice.

the other night in hollywood...

I went to see a rap show. It was a by a group called Swollen Members. I went with my co-worker Dan and his roommates. The show was good, a little bit too stonerish and weed themed if you ask me, but otherwise pretty decent. What more would you expect from a group based out of Vancouver, BC anyway, huh?
After the show let out, we started walking back to where our car was parked only there was one problem - we couldn't get there because the police had blocked off an entire intersection of the street and they weren't letting anybody through for any reason.
Supposedly it was going to be this way for a few hours.
It was obvious something serious had happened in the area, so we started asking around if anybody knew what had caused the police to block off such a large area of Hollywood. Turns out someone had just been hit by a car while riding their bicycle and possibly killed. Shit was serious.
So, we walked around a bit, made a couple of 7-11 trips and basically just tried to kill some time. Finally, around 2:30am after lots of , we were getting tired of waiting and wanted to get back to our car. Dan, being the forward-thinking and always-on-point kind of guy that he is, decided to go up and ask one of the officers directly if we could walk through the area just to get to our car.
Surprisingly, the officer gave us permission. "Sure," he said. "Just make sure you stay on the sidewalk and keep walking forward. Don't stop and when you get up there to the parking garage, tell the Sheriff that the Deputy gave you permission to return to your car."
We thanked him and started walking.
Have you ever seen one of those war movies where there's a huge battle scene that's just ended and you're looking at the aftermath of what just took place? There's ashes that are still smoldering and dead bodies being carted away as armed officials walk through the area clearing it up while they're talking on walkie talkies... Then all of a sudden, a civilian is granted permission to enter the forbidden area and as they walk through they are aghast by all the images of destruction and chaos they are witnessing and you see the scene as if it is from their eyes...
This is precisely how I felt as we began walking past the yellow police line tape that was marking off the area. We followed our instructions and stayed on the sidewalk. I couldn't help but look around a little bit as we walked. To the right there was what looked like a witness being comforted - she was in tears and obviously distressed. A little farther down was a group of young men talking to some police - possibly more witnesses being held for questioning.
As we walked through the police scene, I couldn't help but wonder why no officers had stopped us or said anything. Then, before I could question anymore, we met our first opposition. "Stop right there! This area is blocked off, and nobody is allowed through," one of the approaching officers said.
My friend Dan started to try to reason saying that we had permission from one of the officials, but it was no good. Clearly these officers would not let us walk to our car. Then, as if on cue, our good old friend the Deputy walked up behind us. "Hey, it's okay, these guys can go through, they're just trying to get back to their car. I gave them permission," the Deputy said.
Wow. He must have had one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets in his hand because all of a sudden the officers who had approached us and denied us permission to walk through backed down and let us pass. Unfortunately, this was probably the most grim part of the night. As we walked by what was clearly the scene of the accident, it was hard to avoid looking to the left at some of the items that lay in the street: A blanket. A car that was facing the wrong direction in the street. Bike parts. A dark patch in the road near that hauntingly still blanket... I tried to ignore the thought of what all of these signs could have meant.
It was too much to think about, and so we kept on walking in silence. We got to the car and pulled out of the garage, still surprised we had been granted permission to leave. As we were pulling out of the garage, our driver made an illegal U-turn and started heading back toward the scene of the accident. Whoops!
Cops started yelling, heads turned. Our driver corrected her mistake and turned around heading back in the proper direction. We all breathed a sigh of relief happy to get out of there.
What a somber way to kick off an otherwise good night.
I am so sorry that this happened to somebody that must have been loved and cared about. As I write this, I cannot help but think of the family that potentially lost a loved one.

BOBBY BRADY STORIES! #2

"This is the story...of Bobby Brady!"
#2

One day, Bobby Brady walked in for work at L$O. Unfortunately, the punch-in computer was down so management was having its employees sign in on a sheet of paper. Bobby Brady got in right on time at 4pm, and so he signed his name on the sheet. After about an hour went by, Manager Dave walked by and inspected the sheet.
"Hmmm...Bobby Brady? Who's signing in as?...wait a minute...." he paused for a second.
"David Duncan, if you expect to get paid, you'd better sign in using your real name," Manager Dave said outloud.
Bobby Brady started laughing and so did everyone else around him on the line.

Bobby fuckin' Brady...

Wolgemut for a weekend in 2010

Hey friends, I've got some good news. Looks like I will be joining Wolgemut onstage for a weekend of shows out at TRF (aka the Texas Renaissance Festival). It's going to be the last weekend of the Faire, which is a three-day weekend.
The dates are November 26, 27, and 28th!

This will be my only appearance onstage at a Renaissance Festival all year, so don't miss out.

If you're in the area, come check out Wolgemut at TRF - with me as a special guest!
Hope to see you there.

-David

New month, new music....genre that is

Hey everybody, since I think I pretty much exhausted hip-hop in September/October, I think I'm going to use November to expose some other styles of music to my audience.
I would like to start by sharing some music by a band that I consider close friends of mine.
Bobby (vocalist/fiddler) was in my college pipe band with me. In addition to being a skilled bagpiper (of the Highland variety) he is also an incredible fiddler. And...on top of that, he can sing with the heart and soul of an Appalachian mountain man with a belly full of moonshine. My buddy Marcus plays the washboard with what I'm pretty sure is a washboard I bought for him while in Texas last year (he was broke at the time and I happened to be gigging nearby and we picked it up at an Austin feed store). Marcus is an incredible percussionist/drummer. I admire his skills. You can also check him out in the Indie rock band International Waters. Additionally, I went to college with their banjo player and partied with their guitarist when I was in Austin last year. Back then they were just getting started as a band. Today, they totally rip.
Here they are playing a tasty number in the park:

I love the way this video is filmed. With the dog (come to think of it, I know this dog, too...) running around in the background outside in the park, I don't think the setting could be more appropriate.
Then I saw this video, and realized the true venue in which Whiskey Shivers can shine:

What a song ("Cluck Old Hen" - a classic). Definitely my favorite by them. What a scene too, down and dirty, by the campfire, drunken audience, Texas bluegrass.
As Against Me! would say, TSR..."This Shit Rules".
Check out Whiskey Shivers if you get a chance.
Completely worth every second.

some work from school...

I'm not going to be posting much work that I do in school on here for multiple reasons:
#1. I'm not trying to show off
#2. I don't think I'm a very good digital artist (yet)
#3. These are pieces done as homework...and generally homework is boring!

However, I think I will post some stuff on here every now and then if I feel it's good for a laugh.

The following is a version of a photoshop project that I did not turn in. The assignment was to "bend the truth" visually. Here, in this picture we can clearly see that Bob Ross has a bad-ass tag...

-DD

Introducing: BOBBY BRADY STORIES!

 







  
"This is the story...of Bobby Brady!"
(#1)

Last weekend Bobby Brady showed up for work at L$O three minutes late . When he walked through the front doors, he saw Chef Eric sitting nearby at a table. Bobby Brady waved to him and said, "Hi" as he walked past him and into the kitchen. Chef Eric looked up, didn't say anything, but started giving Bobby Brady a stern look.

Bobby kept on walking. Bobby Brady had not even started setting up his salad station when Chef Eric came over to him and said, "Come here for a minute, I want to talk to you."

Bobby Brady followed Chef Eric into the break room where Chef Eric started to tell Bobby Brady that his work uniform was dirty and that he was tired of constantly having to talk to Bobby Brady about his appearance. Chef then told Bobby Brady that he looked like more like a "mechanic" than a cook, that he looked like a "messy cook" and also that he didn't look like he was a "part of the team".

"Don't you want to feel like you're a part of the team?" Chef asked Bobby Brady.
"But I do feel like I'm part of the team," Bobby replied.

"Well, you don't look like it,"  Eric answered.

Bobby Brady listened and nodded his head as if he understood. Then Executive Chef Eric gave Bobby Brady a brand new chef's coat and told him to put it on immediately and to not get it dirty. He also added that if he had to talk to Bobby about it one more time, that he would be fired.
Bobby Brady nodded his head because now he understood.

The rest of the night, Bobby Brady was careful not to spill too much food on his apron and his brand new chef's coat. He did, however, manage to spill some mustard all over the floor of the walk-in cooler later on in the evening.

Bobby fuckin' Brady...