Everything I think

Brother Wayne

I met Wayne today at Cheapo Records, my new spot for vinyl shopping. They happen to have an abundance of fine LPs at affordable prices, as you might have guessed by the store's name. Wayne works at this shop and helped me find some good records; Peter, Paul and Mary ($4), Glenn Miller ($2), Count Basie and Duke Ellington ($4) and Bill Rays and Red Mitchell ($2). Wayne is also on the radio station WNBR. Being new to the Boston area I'm not familiar with the radio stations, but I'm excited to check it out. I was lucky enough to catch Wayne on a cigarette break outside the shop to talk to him. When reading his interview, I hope you hear his voice as one of the most enthusiastic people you've ever met, because he sure was in my book.


Brynn: How long have you been working at Cheapo Records?
Wayne: I've been working here for eight years.
B: What are some of your favorite albums in your collection?
W: There is no way I could tell you. It changes by the day, honestly. By my mood. I have thousands and thousands of records I've collected and I don't really have a favorite.
B: There isn't anything you're always in the mood for?
W: As far as a favorite style, I'm usually in the mood for funk. There are always new surprises and they're always done well.
B: If you could travel back in time to see any musician live, who would it be?
W: It wouldn't be so much of a question of who as of where. There used to be a club called the Sugar Shack right here in Boston. Everyone played there in the 70's... Parliament, Funkadelic, Kool and the Gang; everyone played there. The crowd was 80% pimps... the other people were freaks, too. A few normal people. As far as traveling back in time, I've seen almost anyone I'd have wanted to live. I do wish I had been born ten or so years earlier so I could have collected more records. For cheaper prices, too. 65-75 was the big boom for music, for good music. I was 3 years old in 75. I could have collected so many more records.

Thankful for the cab driver

Cecilia and the Birds

Missing You

this is a movie I made about what it feels like to be across the country from the person you love most.

Ross Runge: professional badass

I spent today with Ross Runge and it was one of the best days I've had in a while. I first met Ross through my work. He comes in every day twice a day and gets a small coffee in the morning and a small mocha (yes whip) in the after noon. Ross works construction a block away from my job.



Brynn: Tell me a little about yourself, Ross.
Ross: Well, I'm a little bit of everything. I'm real friendly to everyone and some men think I'm a gay because of it. I'm real big on socializing. People come to me with all sorts of questions. I don't know why; do they think I'm a fxxxing answer maching? I'm a collector and a handyman too.

B: what do you collect?
R: everything. Everything under the sun. Bottles, knives, old things, clocks, things with eagles or owls, bird pictures, baseball things, bike things... It's all piling up and I'm getting a little sick of it.

B: Do you have any kids?
R: Yeah, I've got a 5th grade boy named Cole and he is a great kid. He lets me help him with his science projects and likes to help me in the garden and with the chickens. We play with our dog together. He's my buddy.

B: Tell me about your dog.
R: We've had Fergie for a year now, and she's a great dog.

B: Fergie?
R: I always liked that song 'Big Girls Don't Cry.'

B: Ross, if you could have any car in the world, what would it be?
R: Oh, easy. A 66 Chevelle. 375 Horsepower, red on black. Preferably a four speed. Bucket seats inside. Now that's an ass kicking car.

B: What is some advice that you think everyone needs to hear?
R: Always keep your word. Follow through with what you're going to do. This makes you trustworthy and reliable. If you don't follow through on a regular basis, people will remember and they won't call on you again because they remember when you let them down. Treat others with the same respect you'd like to be treated. Be the first to say hello in the morning or when you walk into a gathering. It creates more of a positive atmosphere. Talk to people from all walks of life. Listen to old people.

jellyfish vs owl

shoes for my friend Frank

Deulbari, Bangladesh

I'm going to make shoes I think. These are my first ones, inspired by a story I read about a tiger that escaped off of a boat in Bangladesh.

12 hour train ride

my first movie!

Zach Houston and the Poem Store

Zach Houston has been writing poems as his profession for over two years, calling himself the Poem Store. He finds corners of San Francisco to occupy and sells people poems that he writes on his typewriter. Each poem is different.



How I met Zach: I was going on a trash run at work, and he was sitting outside on the corner with the Poem Store set up.
Brynn: How long have you been writing poems?
Zach: I've been writing poetry for quite a while but I've only been able to call it my job for the last two years or so. It's been that long since I've had any other job.
B: How much money do you usually make on any given Saturday?
Z: seventy dollars on an average day, one hundred fifty dollars on a good day. It pays the bills... usually. There are always those three weeks in February where it just rains. Business is bad enough then for me to loose my house.
B: how old are you?
Z: I'm 25, 26 on June 11.
B: What is the weirdest thing anyone has ever asked you to write a poem about?
Z: One time this guy said "after 28 years, my wife left me yesterday. write a poem about that." Another time a girl wanted me to write about her dad who had died that morning. These things blow my mind.
B: Is every poem different?
Z: yeah, I just wish I could remember some of them. I've sold some really good ones for less than a dollar and some really shitty ones for fifty. But after I hand them off, they're just gone. A lot of people ask me to write about their dogs and a lot of those poems get redundant, but yeah, they're all different.
B: where do you see yourself in the future?
Z: I want to start an institute called Life School where artists can live and share gallery space in a collaborative community. Life School students would be basically employed by the school to scout and poach creative individuals from corporate art schools in order to not only tear down the academy ideal but to build up the creative collaboration at the Life School.

all of Zach's answers were written by memory. While they aren''t exactly word-for-word direct quotes, they are very close.