World Famous In San Francisco

San Francisco's Chris "Dune" Pastras was the coolest professional skateboarder. I was 12 when I first read an interview with Chris in Transworld Skateboarding. He was really young, he painted, made music, wore vintage frames, owned his own company Stereo Sound Agency, and had really outstanding taste in music. He was the only other person I knew of who also liked KISS. Immediately after I read that article, Chris became my favorite skateboarder of all time. He was the best example of someone making a career out of the things I thought were fun and worth doing.

Skateboarding meant so much to me as a kid in the middle of nowhere. It was my window into a world where art was made, people took pictures, made films, dressed cool, cared about music and lived exciting and dangerous lives. The skateboarders had a certain interest in life that I didn't see in the adults at the grocery store. Chris and his friend/business partner Jason Lee seemed to be all over anything cool. They made an amazing skateboarding video in 1994 called A Visual Sound which was unlike anything around at the time. The scenes were long, anticlimactic and paired with jazz music. Jason was in (then skateboard photographer) Spike Jones' video for Sonic Youth's 100% in 1992 and also stared in Kevin Smith's Mallrats in 1995. Anyway, the point of this blog entry is not to document all their accomplishments: needless to say, both of them became quiet the celebrities by the end of the 90s.

I always imagined that someday I would meet Chris and we'd naturally be friends. When I had my record deal and needed some art for my album, he'd do the cover. So that's what I did, I decided to contact Chris. He was nice enough to give me his home address and listen to my album. I didn't hear much after that - and he stopped responding to my messages. He didn't want to do it. Feeling disappointed, I avoided going to Chris' last art show in the city. My ex coworker attended with her skateboard industry boyfriend. She said there were lots of girls all over Chris and Jason. It never occurred to me that Chris may have been creeped out by me. I never thought of Chris Pastras in a sexual way, and I hope I didn't creep him out because that was never my intention. I'm sure he's been hit plenty closeted skateboarders.

So I gave up on the idea of working with Chris Pastras because Chris Pastras didn't want to work with me. To work with an artist, you've gotta have some chip on the table, or be able to create a mutually rewarding relationship. I'm sure if I had more monopoly money, Chris would've loved the opportunity to do something with me. In the meantime I'll brush it off my shoulders and respect my elders.

No matter where I am in life, questions about what to do next always surface. As a musician, I spent the first part of my life asking myself everything from "how do I tune my guitar" to "if I tried singing, would everyone laugh at me?"

Although those days are over, I still feel as clueless as when I started. Although the "how do I" questions are less personal, they threaten my 'success' more than ever. I had an idea yesterday to write all these questions down... and after doing so I decided to post them here on WFISF... as a sort of Internet experiment. Perhaps some questions will be answered! I'm sure some of my fellow music makers will appreciate this discussion... if they're okay with "selling out" of course.


1 How does a local artist open for a major act at a Clear Channel venue - say the Warfield, Fillmore or Bimbo's?

2 How do you get asked to support a touring act without knowing the band or label directly?

3 How do you tour at the "inde" level without loosing money?

4 How do you attract, trap and keep a good booking agent?

5 How do you get written about by Pitchfork Media?

6 How do you get your music on a "modern rock" station, like Live 105?

7 Who are these music festival promoters and how do I meet them?

8 Why isn't the punk circuit supportive and why is it impossible to break into? I mean, come on!

9 How do you get club night promoters to return emails?

10 How do you get support from 'arts organizations' in San Francisco? Why don't they return emails or phone calls? And why do they pretend like you're not talking to them when you approach them at one of their two buck chuck events?