positive mental octopus

the positive mental octopus t-shirt
I had that shirt... I acquired that shirt
somehow... someone got back stage at a red hot chilli pepper's show

hold on... slow down... this is not my story... I was not even there.

anyway... anyhow... let me start over
this guy that worked for Apple Courier was backstage at the Chili Pepper's show
not sure how... where... or why... maybe it was a connection to a guy that used to hang at dupont
maybe he knew someone who worked at the club
maybe... maybe... or maybe... I do not know

well.. I guess I will throw down some nicknames

there was "The Madguy" who hung at Dupont when people hung in Dupont
well... Bill Magi (the mad guy) drove a limo at the time
maybe this entirely insane old school skater was driving the band that night
who knows... maybe the back door was open

in any case... so this skater from texas who worked as a messenger was back stage and stumbled on a box of t-shirts
now well... you have to understand that the 80's skater\bicycle courier was in essence a modern day pirate
there was a twisted logic to this tweaked bunch

so this guy... pillow... dave pillow... yes the same dave pillow who got impaled at the white flint ramp
yea... yea... I know
another person's story... a local folklore tale that I was not there for...I was close enough to the source to tell the correct details... anything I say is information older than second hand
in any case back to the main story

this guy has this box of t-shirts and somehow one of them ended up in my hands

a free t-shirt to one of my favorite bands at the time?

why thank you!

that shirt got some serious mileage
surprised I was not wearing it in that photo from a bike tour I did in Europe in 1991
that shirt was on that tour... it is just not in that set of photos

so I had that shirt? what is this story about? a t-shirt?

if you can believe it I have not gotten to the meat of the message
in short... my kids are cool... my kids make me so proud
this morning I played some music as I sipped my coffee, played FACEBOOK Scrabble, and barked over my shoulder for the kids to get dressed for school
I always cover for them when Lisa calls upstairs to see if they are getting ready
it is common to yell down... they are out of bed getting dressed

so this morning I gave a verbal check to their status
as progress in the morning can take a long time
the task at hand can be lost to so many distractions
sometime it is the silent call of the pillow
other times it is an effort to pick up in the game where things were the night prior

in an effort to get their full attention I turned down the music and presented my query
when I was done and got my update Grant walked over and ushered me to turn it back up because it was The Red Hot Chilli Peppers!
he knew who it was and he wanted it back on and he wanted it louder
my boys have a few pop favorites... radio hits... but they key on this sort of music

come on... who has to tell a kid that The Beastie Boys are cool?
no wiggles in my house... okay... when they were little I may have sung along to Hot Potato a few times
but that was no Pancake Mountain!

as the Chili Peppers use to say... if you have to ask

I remember a short time prior to that
maybe a record prior the Red Hot Chili Peppers played to a small crowd at an outdoor stage on the Campus of George Mason
it as cool. it was cool that we got it together and drove up from St Mary's College of Maryland past the city for this show... who heard about it... how accurate was this word of mouth information
apparently accurate enough because we were there when it happened

good times

I wish that there were a documentary of even a book with stories/exploits from the skate scene
although I did not really skate I was close enough to catch some of the stories as they traveled via word of mouth
this was all pre-youtube... than goodness pre-youtube
okay... tangent jumping again...
but I will continue

it would be cool to get one story along with a portrait shot from any of a number of characters from back in the day
better yet... get Hound dog to set up a camera... get it together with a ramp and a couple of kegs
once the beer starts flowing so would the stories

the Toke Team was only one of the may groups of insanity that had me believing that the modern Hells Angels rode skateboards rather than motorcycles
beyond anything early Brando could have done to be considered The Wild One

oh man... the stories
so many of those characters were great story tellers
passionate people with boundless energy

there needs to be some documentation of this stuff
oral history
or even written history
people are getting old
and of course people are dying
too many people are dead

too many people showed that LIVE FAST AND DIE HARD is more than just a bumper sticker

that tangent had me all over the place
all over the web
about to post a cool photo from a very cool blog
there were other pages
but I did not book mark them