there is lots of talk these days about real people versus fake people. if you really sit down and ponder that idea.... you come to a place of -well what does that even mean-? if it's about an activity does the length of time one has been involved in the said activity determine how real vs. fake you are? or is it the skill level of the said activity.. hence the better you are the more REAL you are? or does it come down to your literal knowledge of the activity... like how book smart you'd be on the subject. In all aspects i end up in pretty much the same place..... that NONE of that can judge realness or fakeness. It's all pretty silly actually. I mean, if so for example if we're talking choppers none of us would want some kid on melrose that just pulled up on his new sporty and new metal flake helmet to start telling you about how cool panheads are and soon he's getting a panhead and he just loves period correct choppers and blah blah. It doesn't mean he's not feeling it, or is fake.... he's just too much of a geek to shut his mouth and keep those feelings inside. it's a respect thing.. to those involved and to the activity itself. just like the guy calling everyone a fake, it's cause he doesn't really have it in his heart, of course he had the right to tell melrose Manny to shut the fuck up because he sounds like an idiot but if he really loved what he did, he would remember the learning curve... when something first grabs you, you just kinda blow it a bit. Some don't cause they already learned not to from something they were already involved in, and once kooked it or saw enough others do it that they never wanted to be "that guy". If the judges and jury of real vs. fake are threatened by you, then once again their lack of true passion will let their insecurities pounce upon all that doesn't hold up to their idea of realness. Have you ever skated with someone that is kinda all over the place, going for it, and just slamming and getting back up.... not technically -talented- is that guy a fake? No he's just trying really hard at something god did not give him the natural gift to do. I once saw that guy at a tampa pro vert contest make the top ten, he maybe did 3 tricks but was up there with tony hawk and bob burnquist and the likes because the judges and the crowd went off and his passion was addicting to watch. His name was pete the OX and he is as real as it gets, and his love for skating is pure. Yes, some vert jocks were bummed cause they got bumped out of the finals.... fuck those guys and in choppers music or art fuck those guys too. Fuck your need for credentials and social circle jerks and your need for conformity. Some of us aren't like you... you are simple minded and have only one thing you focus on in life so you have to protect like some schoolyard bully. Truthfully you're over it. Hang it up and let everyone breath. I take my own advice here... shit i see so much corny chopper crap and it's gross, but you have to bite your lip at times and let it pass. I often feel under intense scrutiny but i think that would lessen if i played the game a little better or if my chopularity was less. Everyone complaining about skaters getting into choppers, fuck what about dudes into choppers claiming skateboarding, taking pictures of themselves with skateboards or holding them...? wtf but then talking shit about them. Some people are just forever hang arounds, they never really got it, they just bought the slammed chevy, the skateboard, the chopper and they just have it... it's part of their identity. Those guys are trouble, big mouths calling everyone a fake cause they don't truly have it in their heart. This too shall pass. I've skated my ass off, i've ridden a chopper far a wide, and somedays i don't want to go near em. i don't feel it, so why force it. Seems people should be happier to have their health and family and friends, i'm happy to have somethings that i really enjoy doing. I still suck at guitar, i still have piss poor spelling, and my shop is a total mess but why fight it. Life is too short. Do you want to be remembered as the dude that just called everyone out, and was more hardcore, OG, here first... or someone that was "real" and passionate.
So in all this at he end of this rant... my point is Matt Darwin is very REAL. He is unique and passionate and an individual. He lives out in the middle of butt fuck Australia and lives his own way. I had the pleasure of meeting him - in person- and he was really inspiring. We went for a little ride, i slept with his dog, i saw god, and he asked me about all the chopper bobs. Matt, Thank you. He's starting something really cool.. i don't have the facebook but he can be found here THE MACHINE FILES.
the ozone is gone.
what makes us tick
a man, his land, solar panels, and a pond.
boat anchors
gassing up for getting down
he's going backwards in this photo and headed for a giant butt plug gently protruding out of a kangaroo's mouth.
28 comments:
Very we'll said and worldly Max. I guess everyone could take some advice from Chappelle on when keeping it real goes wrong. You know what old Jack Burton says about paying dues though right?
Great text, Max!
So very true. That was a good read Max, thanks.
Matts been building cool stuff for a while now with no apparent conformaty to any one style. Nice land too.
Oh man, this reminds me of the first time I ever visited the new(ish) park in Venice Beach. I was just skating the bowl with some other random older dude when a guy in his 50s showed up all VB'd out - face tats, puffy chest and that thing where dudes wear a bandanna so low over their eyes it looks like they're about to play Pin The Tail On The Donkey. This guy was walking around the park with an unscathed DogTown reissue and those weird longboard trucks (where the kingpin is on the other side) and big soft wheels and he's calling everyone kooks. He yells "Beat it, kook" to some kid in cargo-shorts doing fly-outs and "Grind it, kook!" to some older padded-up barney guy just trying to find his footing in that big weird bowl. Then he starts yapping at me about how he knows "Jess the mess" and "T.A. and Jayboy" and once those guys get here, all us kooks had better either beat-it or sit-down and learn how it's done. But those guys never showed up and that fake-ass guy didn't skate even once. I asked him why he wasn't skating and he called me a kook and told me that I "...just don't get it." At first I thought all this was really funny. But when I got home and looked at the Humpston decks on my wall I thought it was all kind of sad. I wanted to take those decks off my wall. I didn't - just to prove to myself that something lame can't ruin something I like. But now as I'm clogging your comment feed with this shitty memory - it makes me want to take those decks down even more. My appreciation for their history is very real...but my own history with them feels fake.
Thanks Max . . . and Sheabones too. Live and learn, respect and accept. Mr Machine has always appeared to me to just do his own trip, and it's a good one.
great read . make me think back to a lot of situations and people . thanks .
Ive been that guy, actually still am, I geek out about motorcycles in general, recently flew to Milwaukee from Oklahoma to geek out on incredible bikes, and some really great chopper people, however some where just to cool to talk to a guy about what I thought was a shared passion. I get a good laugh and just go on, great life lessons Max, thanks for sharing.
Max-love you...Sheabones-solid perspective
and Matt...hopefully one day we will be able to celebrate our birthday face to face, not through the interweb
"when something first grabs you, you just kinda blow it a bit"
oh hells yeah. that's why it's tough to differentiate pure enthusiasm from phony-ness. That's why you shouldn't bother trying and, instead, just enjoy watching the craze whether it's real or fake.
Nice read Max, you make me smile.
solid stuff. it really feels like it all came out as one solid flow.
thank you
LDN
thanks for reading and comments.
Sheabones, spot on. thank you.
Max,
Been following your blog for a long time….
You really hit the nail on the head. I have been into old bikes since I was really young. In New Zealand growing up people my age just weren't feeling it.
I remember thinking the relatively recent resurgence in old bikes is fucked for allot of reasons.. I had to check myself and just let shit be. I had forgotten for a minute that life to me is about being a good human and being around other good humans … and learning….
I only know Matt through email conversations and the internet he is a good human and generous person.
Gene.
Max. It was a dream come true for this Aussie boy that you shared my life for a day. Candy misses you. See you soon.
And Webber... I'll work on that one.... See you soon too.
Love from Australia
M
Just to throw my two cents in (a little late) the older I get the further I try to move away from talking shit or worrying about what others think or do. It's hard at times and I am certainly guilty of still spouting off now and then but my time is too precious to worry about others. As a husband, dad, home owner, full time employee (as well as a second job in the summer) if I spent my free time worrying about the "realness" of others I would have any. I couldn't have said it better, we all blow it sometimes and in my case probably multiple times. I guess my point is like what you like, don't like what you don't like and be an honest person. Try and be a good person and that's as real as it fucking gets. Max your writing, photos, painting and bikes have done more for a lot of dudes out here than I'm sure you're aware of. One last thing with all this talk of "fakes" last time I checked you can't fake riding a motorcycle or a skateboard, you either do it or you don't. Fun is fun, do what you want and don't worry about the Internet police thinking you're anything because its your life not there's!
Ps- Sheabones the pin the tail on the donkey comment killed me, good job.
well at least it was protruding gently....
thx max. always real...always enjoy your perspective.
*ch.
Let me guess the gist of the conversation that took place before photo #1 that got the caption "the ozone is gone"
Max: "... to help save the ozone or something, right?"
Matt: "the ozone is gone, man!"
and you died laughing.
"Fuck your need for credentials and social circle jerks and your need for conformity." So well said. See this far too often. Truly thanks for writing this.
Great read, Max. Thanks for saying what needed to be said. Keep doing your thing.
Just when you think you know people, they surprise you. Most men have friends for about 5 years. The real ones stick around longer. Everyone has their skills. Some try harder and never succeed. Real Styles don't change - Fake styles change. None of this will matter someday - just the goodwill we brought to this world by being nice, listening, observing and doing your own thing in your own time on this planet. Times don't change - Men do. I never met Max, but I like reading his letters sometimes.
You guys got it partly right, so mostly wrong.
Right now there is a hipster motorcycle fad. Will it last? who knows, but i bet the 'fakes' doing it now will be around later cause its so cool to be an old chopper guy.
75% of you idiots out there do this because you think it is cool and have nothing else do to after your day job.
I have often thought that i build bikes for me and thats good enough. but a lot of people out there are ruining. It is almost mocking what some of us do and it is frustrating. Some of us take this shit seriously and have been doing it a while.
All you do is drive the price of parts up so you can through them on your 15k knuckle,pan, shovel you bought as your first bike.
You throw some tins on it, get most of the help from your buddies, give it to a shop to finish and claim you built it and people who know nothing about bikes think you are rad, not fair.
People like you take selfies.
geronimo,
i've never started an anonymous account to leave a comment but maybe that is worse than a selfie? i've built my bikes from the ground up, and am always learning. people have to start somewhere, it is odd when the first bike is harley... lawnmower engine mini bikes were a much more affordable choice as a kid for me. i say lets sell it all to the "hipsters" and buy it back in five yrs, or quick caring cause where does that get you?
the happy old biker, at the bar never seems to complain about all the new kids out riding. that comes from insecurity and someone not getting the attention they think they deserve. they did the wider tire, the bandana, flat black, gold leaf name, then brass, then, skinnied it up, then 60's chopper, maybe now fxr..... fuck who's the fake? good music is good music, i prefer mostly 60's rock, and i like the bikes from that time. if you're building bikes for a living or as a side job and popularity increases is that better for you?
i see chopper builders having "clothing launches" , same guy says born free sucks because they were never a part of it, then take double knee down dick position to insert born free's dick into their mouth when they are invited,saying it's an "honor" so who sucks?
individuals seem to get so scrutinized these days, it's so much easier to join and be a hater. most threat comes from your lack of true identity and security in who you are and what you do.
that comment clearly wasnt directed at you. I know i vented and it came out worse than i feel but it is just frustrating to be associated with some people who dont actually care about this stuff. people dont see me as different from the guy with the chromed flamed new school chopper, they dont get it. I have learned not to care what others do, i help lots of people with bikes for free, whether it is advice, wrenching or paint. each bike and biker are different, to each his own. Its just tough to see these parts sky rocket in price.
10-4. thanks for the reply.
i got you.... best deals i've found on parts are always from people i meet when out riding. they want to see em put to good use i guess. you got to keep your head up and rubber side down.
I build BMWs(and an Aermacchi), never had this real vs. fake problem...I guess when everybody on a Beemer is a nerd, everybody can relax and be happy
haha
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