Your Mom Is a Nerd

Exactly one year and three days ago I did an art show with my buddy Todd Bratrud at Escapist in Kansas City and I wrote about the experience for this website that you're reading. Fast forward a year and I just did an art show with my buddy Travis Millard at Escapist in Kansas City and I'm writing about it for this website that you're reading. That's seems weird to me because I hadn't realized that I'd been contributing to the VICE site for over a year. In the spirit of self-reflection, I made a list of things that have happened to me in the past year. 1.) Three haircuts
2.) Thousands of tacos
3.) Gained two pounds
4.) Ollie hole in my shoe
5.) Filmed 1 skate trick
6.) Cried twice
7.) One more haircut If you read my article a year ago about the previous show at Escapist, you can probably just skip this entry since it's essentially the exact same column. The only difference is that Todd Bratrud's hair is way longer than Travis' and he has more tattoos. Beyond that they're essentially the same dude. Super nice caucasian males who can draw way better than me. I secretly hate them both.

I mentioned this in the previous Escapist column, but one of my favorite things in the world is walking into a skate shop and seeing a fully-stocked board wall.

Totally like an art gallery. If art galleries only showed images of skulls and logo type treatments.

Roger that.

This is Dan Askew, one of the owners of Escapist, and one of the nicest dudes I've ever met.

This is Travis Millard at 10:30 AM. Let's hang this thang.

New Millard print.

Another new print. Perfect gift for Mother's Day… unless your mom is a nerd.

Travis' drawing output shames me.

Photo by Brett Millard

Travis "helping" me hang my work.

Travis' brother Brett helping Travis hang his work.

Photo by Brett Millard

Travis' brother Brett tripping out on iPhone technology.

This happened.

Travis'.

Man Wolf! If you haven't seen Macho Taildrop you're probably a nerd too.

Some of Millard's recent music posters. I love that Deerhunter one.

More Millard.

My favorite of the bunch.

I had four unfinished drawings that I brought with me that I thought I'd finish the night before the show. Didn't happen. I ended up finishing the last one about ten minutes after the show started. Amateur hour.

This is Cory (or corey?) and he drove all the way from Chicago to attend the opening. He's a card carrying member of the "Michael Sieben: My Apologies To Your Parents Art Club."

This guy asked if I would sign his six-pack and I told him I'd do it for a beer. Which means my signature is worth approximately a dollar.

Photo by Travis Millard

Travis sent me this photo and said this dude's name is Aaron and that he's one of the first dudes he (Travis) skated with in his neighborhood as a child. That kind of stuff is important when you get older.

Photo by Travis Millard

And this dude's name is Zach Friendly. Last year at the Escapist opening, Zach asked me to write "BOLTS!" (inside joke) on his leg with a Sharpie and a few days later he emailed me a photo of a tattoo that he got of the Sharpie lettering.

This year Zach asked if I'd draw something on top of the "BOLTS!" tattoo. I drew this skateboarding pear.

He emailed me the next day with this photo.

And this one. I don't really have any clever or insightful commentary about that series of events, but I do think that it's rad that some people really don't give two turds. Thanks, Zach. You rule. Save some room on your leg for next October. Many thanks to Dan Askew and Nick Owen at Escapist for hosting the show, Travis Millard for participating, adidas skateboarding  for supporting the event, Brett Millard for providing lodging, and thanks to all of the Kansas City art and skateboarding enthusiasts for showing up and making the event a success. See you all next October.

Good night.

Video Review:
Escapist Skateboarding: Red And Yellow
2012 Sean Malto skates for Escapist (if you don't know who he is then you're either a skateboarder who is out of touch with contemporary skateboarding, or you don't play skateboard toys) and I'm guessing the fact that he's in this video made all of the other dudes on the team turn it up a few notches. In my opinion, this video is better than most offerings from established board brands in the past few years. I'm a way bigger fan of local/shop videos than publicized mainstream videos, so maybe I'm biased, but my feeling is that you kind of already know what you're about to watch when you view a big company's anticipated video release. I suppose that's just the nature of the beast. Big companies run ads with their riders doing crazy stunts that are most likely stunts they performed while filming for said company's video, so when the video comes out you sort of feel like you've already seen the highlight reel. But when you watch a local video that's filled with dudes you've never heard of, each part is a mystery. In addition, the spots are also usually more varied and inventive. That being said, most local/shop videos tend to blow it by putting out videos that are way too long, including everybody and everything Vs. hurting some feelings and keeping the offering lean and mean. Red and Yellow includes tons of bonus footage that serves the purpose of letting all the homies get some, but keeps the main video offering short and potent. Ryan Pearce has the last part in Red And Yellow, and it's well deserved. The dude totally freaking rips. If he's still getting boxes from Alien Workshop I hope they Oreo-style double stuff his next box. The End.

Previously - An Interview with Travis Millard