The following is the first in a series of randomly collected pieces from
myself, and the very few friends I could get to participate. This is a very loose formula, so loose in fact that it doesn’t even have a name. So remember that once this is done, and it DOES have a name, that it was tacked on at the end in an effort to appear complete. But long story short, I’ve been lucky enough to stumble upon countless talented people in my life, but always struggled with a way to show my appreciation and showcase it in a way that others may also enjoy it. So here goes, the first in a hopeful series of hodgepodged, seemingly unconnected works from my friends and I.
I.
Max Bouvatte is a photographer and friend from Saint Louis. He lives in Oakland, CA now taking pictures of people on the street. We met working at the darkroom together in college. Max gave me a bunch of his stuff when he moved and I should probably pay him back eventually. He is one of the best “people persons” I’ve ever met. He can have a conversation with almost anyone about almost anything. He shoots mostly digital now because he gave all of his other stuff to me.
Max wanted me to say that he found these on the ground outside of a Walgreens, but that isnt true and I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot here. When he worked in the photo department there, they still had a binder full of polaroids as a record of shoplifters and scammers who would come into the store on a regular basis. The workers would make special notes about the perps so the others knew what to expect. It was a weird place from what I heard. These are some of those polaroids that Max “Found.”
II.
JACK KLIPSCH is my roommate in New York. We lived about a mile away from each other our whole lives but never met until our third year in college. He once threw my Jack In The Box breakfast sandwich at a lightpole when I ditched him to talk to a girl. He says some funny stuff sometimes, and is also sometimes good at writing them down. If either of us can ever get off our ass and do something it would probably be pretty good.
III.
This one is by me. Good luck reading my
IV.
Cory Montero is a visual artist from Saint Louis. We went to high school together, but for some reason we hated each other. Our first interaction was through skateboarding. I posted a photo online and we got into a furious debate and became sworn enemies. I remember coming to school the next day and thinking I would have to fight him or something. I don’t really remember how we came to be friends instead of hating each other, but I also dont remember it being a difficult process. He’s one of the nicest and most talented people I know. He lives in Kansas City now, killing the game there and one upping Sean Malto in front shuvs.
TALES FROM MY UNCLE. Well, technically he’s my Godfather. He would be pretty upset if I didnt include that. My Uncle Don is one of, if not the most, talkative people on planet earth. He has a story about seemingly everything, and they are all, for the most part, very entertaining. He’s a great person to just relax, and listen to. That is, unless your trying to watch a movie. In the car on the way home from a winery, I convince my Uncle Don to tell me a story I’ve already heard a hundred times. He agrees and I set my phone up to record it... “How about I put it on my gut?”(he sets the phone on his stomach as he drives) “That’s how I normally do it.” “I’ll just see if I can relive it here.” So I was about 13, and my brother Ken, who would have been 11, and my other brother Tim, who would’ve been 10, and I went to Wilmore park to fish. While we were at the park we found a dead carp. We would hook the dead carp onto our line and cast it out and start screaming that we caught a big one. We would wait for a crowd of people to come around and we would start reeling it in, it was about an 8 or 9lb carp. When we got it in of course it was dead, it smelled, and it had been eaten on and everything else. People would go “oh, its dead.” and we would say, “ it must have died, we reeled him in to death, he fought for a long time.” So we did that for a while and then we decided we would start throwing the fish at each other.
We started throwing it around, and we saw these kids that we didn’t like so we threw the fish at them. When it would hit it would splatter, it would make that splattering sound? So in return they threw it at Ken, and it cut Ken’s leg. He fell down, but my brother Ken was quite a faker, he would always fake that there was something wrong, and there would be nothing wrong. So he kept yelling “I cant walk, I cant walk.” We kept saying “get up you pansy, you can walk.” And the fish, it was in his calf. There was a hole in his calf and part of the fish was hanging out. It looked like a fin had broken into his calf and the skin from the fish was hanging out. So of course he couldn’t ride his bike home, so this man threw our three bikes in his pickup truck and drove us back to the house. When we got to the house, Mom said “whats wrong with Kenny?” cause we’re basically carrying him into the house, and of course he was yelling “my leg, my leg, my leg.” So I told her, “these boys threw a fish at us, we weren’t doing anything wrong.” “They threw a fish at us and part of it broke off in his leg.” So Mom says, “ok, bring him out on the back porch.” We had a three seasons porch, so Mom laid him on the floor and we went and got a tweezers. Now, Kenny weighed about 80lbs and I weighed about 125. Mom told me to sit on top of Kenny so that she could pull the fish fin out. She would wrap up this white dangling piece of fish skin and she would yank on it, and when she would yank on it Ken would buck me off and he would be SCREAMING, just blood curdling screams. Mom was hitting me saying “SIT ON EM, I SAID SIT ON EM! DONT LET HIM MOVE, I GOTTA GET THIS OUT OF HIS LEG.” Well just then my brother Bill comes home from work. Bill was not the most concerned person, he just wanted to take a shower after his job working in the factory. He came in and he looked and he says to Mom “whaddya doin?” Mom says “Im trying to pull that fish out of his leg and Im wrapping that white skin around a tweezers and I’m pulling on it.” and Bill goes, “well I dont know but, that doesn’t look like fish to me.” Mom goes, “well, whaddya mean?” he says “I think you oughta take him to the doctor.” So we loaded Ken in the car and Mom took him to the emergency room. When we got to the emergency room the doctor came in, and Kenny was pretty pale at this point and probably in dire need of pain medicine, which my mother didn’t really believe in either. And so the doctor says, “well what happened?” and my mom says “well they were throwing a fish around and a piece of the fish fin broke off in his leg, we think, and thats some of the fish hanging down. the doctor says “ok, well whaddya been doing?” and she said “Ive been wrapping that around a tweezers and I’ve been yanking it as hard as I can trying to get the fish fin out. And the doctor actually paused and made a face like “oh my god.” He said “have you really been doing that?” Mom said “well yeah.” “how many times?” “well six or seven” he goes “OH MY GOD, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT IS?!” Mom says “its part of the fish, right?”
“NO, IT’S HIS NERVE.” My mother had been pulling his nerve out with a tweezers, hah. AND WRAPPING IT AROUND THE TWEEZERS AND GETTING A FISTFUL AND YANKING IT! No matter what, it would have never come out. It’s amazing Ken ever walked again, truthfully. If it not been for Bill, he would have had a limp the rest of his life. So they had to cut it, and sew it, and sew up the rest of his leg. And anyway, thats the story of the day my mother found out she was not a nurse.
V.
Reggie Colvin is a friend and former roommate from Saint Louis. I knew Reggie for the longest time but we didnt really start being friends until we moved in together. He’s been skating for a long time, and so we mostly would talk about that. For being such a wildly outgoing person, he’s equally quiet about his private life. One minute he’s dancing in the street, pants at his ankles, the next he’s asleep. He’s definitely one of a kind. Here are a few things I got to ask him before he moved.
QUICK THOUGHTS WITH:
REGGIE COLVIN
Whats your name? How old? Whats your sign? I’m a sagitarial, from the zodiac realm. I’m a zodiac killer named Reginald Reginald. Where are you going and why are you leaving? Cause a I’m goin to school, I’m about to make some clothes, learn some stuff. Live in AZ for two years. I’m out making clothes. How did you get into making clothes? I used to tighten my pants so I could look like Brayden Szafranski in “This is Skateboarding.” And then I’ve just been sewing since my freshman year. What do you like about Saint Louis? Skateboarding, Saint Losers. What are Saint Losers? Saint Losers are all of my friends that I grew up with and it’s just pretty much everyone that skates in Saint Louis. It’s tight. We film tricks, some people get drunk, I don’t. It’s fun. Why don’t you drink? I don’t know, I just never cared to. I haven’t done any of that shit. And I don’t care to, I just see it, it does make people pretty fucking unproductive. And it seems like a huge waste of money, I’d rather just buy clothes. What’s your least favorite part about Saint Louis? Closet racism and really posh attitudes. Basic broke hoes. Do you think Saint Louis has a fashion scene at all? I think everywhere does, but Saint Louis is on a really small scale. People here go by what they read and that’s style to most of the people I talk to here, which is the fucking lamest shit. That pisses me off more than anything. What are some of your favorite brands? YSL is like the tightest shit because shit is super fashionable and its still basic. But then again, I skate, so Im just in pants and a t shirt. So I don’t really have that much that Im crazy about. If you can make a good pant, and a good fitting t-shirt with perfect sleeves, I’m good. Wait, so what are perfect sleeves? I hate shirts that are really small, it seems like your flexing your muscles, your showing off. And I like sleeves to be just a little bit above the elbow, but not past them. How did you get into skating? I actually DONT KNOW how I got into skating. I started skating in Atlanta, GA. I would go out there for vacations, my brother stole a little banana board.
Are you trying to get a lot of tricks before you go to AZ? Yeah I’m trying to get like a bunch of shit, its not really working out but I’m gonna get what I can. Would you rather get footage in Saint Louis or AZ? Truthfully I’d rather get footage in Saint Louis more than anywhere. Saint Louis, Chicago, or New York is where I would be. So, are you gonna have enough money to get to AZ? Yeah, I got lucky and got a job that pays well for what it is. And I didn’t have to pay for shit cause living in Saint Louis is really cheap, so I had a lot of money. I saved a lot of money, but lost it all lending it out to my family, which is super inconvenient cause I’m leaving for school on Wednesday. What used to be your Instagram name and why did you change it? Niggadik. And I changed it cause the streets was cryin. It’s whatever, but hopefully no one steals that name. Tell me about your hip hop shit. HAHAHA Where are we going now? We’re goin downtown with Worful and all the other boys, gonna go try and get a photo. And then just hang out downtown, go to Hooters and spend ya 50$ gift certificate on some titties and wings.
VI.
When I lived in Saint Louis, I would end up at the Zoo probably once a week. It’s completely free and a great place to spend some time if the weather is nice. The reptile house is honestly one of my favorite places on earth, which possibly speaks to my sweating issues, cold clammy hands, dead eyes etc. This series of photos started several years ago between Max and I, each documenting it on our own and later compiling our work.
VII.
In October of last year Jack and I moved to New York along with two of our friends. It’s been OK so far, but we’ve definitely made some “beginner’s mistakes.” Here is a quick breakdown of those things.
TRASH
CONTRIBUTORS Jack Klipsch Instagram- @jackklipsch Twitter- @runhomejack23 Cory Montero Instagram- @crookinahammock corymontero.blogspot.com Max Bouvatte lightandtimeblog.com Reggie Colvin Instagram- @mistahwrong My Uncle doesnt have insta. Dan Goedeker Instagram- @dangoedeker www.dangoedeker.com