I grew up in South Minneapolis and went to Washburn Highschool with Slug from Atmosphere he sold me a homemade shirt he had drawn that said “One Race The Human Race” for $10. It was in graffiti bubble letters, he made them himself at home. I had no friends at that school, but in 1989 I was heavy into rap, specifically Public Enemy, ICE T, Rhyme Syndicate, Ice Cube. I had this great idea to shave the logo from Def Jam records into the back of my head in bubble letters. The lady who did it (cost me $50) screwed it up and did the “Def J” so big that she had to cram the “am” over on one side, sort of curved up next to my ear. It was like when you run out of room on a Christmas card and try to mush everything together. Anyway, for those walking behind me in the highschool hallway, if you didn’t really take the time to look closely it just said “Def J” Which was lame, I know it was lame cause of the steady barrage of “HEY DEF J” and “LOOK ITS DEF J, I didn’t know he actually went to school here?” comments I got. For weeks I got roasted, by the entire school, until one day I leaving school early and passed Sean on the stairs and he looked at me in passing and said, “hey man, your fade is dope” and he smiled and went on his way. I don’t know Slug, then, never talked to him again, never even heard of Atmosphere until years later, but he was fucking cool, and I realize I am making this analogy’s based on fucked up haircuts, but the haircut isn’t the story. The story is everyone else was destroying me, even me, when I looked in the mirror I was like “what the fuck did you do?” but I rocked it! I owned that that fuckin haircut, and it was bold and was a risk (and fuckin ugly) but artists understand that more than anyone. Artist’s understand that; you take risks, you put yourself out there, and sometimes (like this time) you look fucking stupid, but you do it, cause what everyone else is doing can get really fuckin boring.

I got nothing, I just consume what TMR has. So In a way I’ve seen the progression of TMR since 2011 and through it’s good and bad. I’m happy I contributed.

This thing totally makes me remember my youth , when I was about 14 I want a guitar so I could play with my drummer friend, unfortunately , my dad didn’t want to lend me the money so I figure out if I sold 250 fanzine at 1$ I could afford it. SO I began to make Zine with stuff from my favorite bands and sold every single one so I can buy the pawn shop guitar and the 10w amp. 18 years later , i’m in a new band just about to record our first single , maybe the next zine will be about us.

I have an encourgement story involving Chicago sax man, Eddie Shaw, who just passed away Tuesday. http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2018/01/passings-chicago-blues-saxophonist.html

He played the late, great Silver Cloud in Grand Rapids a few times and I was fortunate to catch his band there one beer-filled night in ‘88 or ’89. Young and clueless, I approached him during a break, told him I was blues sax player and, half serious and fully presumptuous, asked if I could join them on stage for a song or two. While I backtracked my request (I was only just getting started with my band, had only played a couple shows, more of rock guy, etc), he told me to quit talking, go out to my car, and get my horn. I don’t remember what I played and I’m confident it was entirely forgettable. But a couple notes and phrases elicited an encouraging “Alright!” from him and that was all I needed.

I leveraged that moment, that generous blessing from a hard-traveling sideman for Muddy, Wolf, and Magic Sam, a REAL blues man from the holiest lineage, into the confidence that I needed to keep on playing in all the years since. It propelled me forward. Today, I more fully appreciate how important that moment of connection and encouragement was, and wish that I could have thanked him in person.

These cubicle walls have destroyed the last bit of creativity that was within me, BUT I appreciate this posting. Good to see others still have the drive. ¯\(ツ)/¯

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