About Me
Well, what’s there to say about me?
My name is Damien, which I am proud to say is after the fictional son of Satan. Not that I was so named because the character was evil, rather that’s just where my mother first heard the name. But still, I think my mom deserves points for that.
I spent a few years trying to be a filmmaker, dabbling in 3d graphics and making lots of bad student films. After that, I got into photography. I liked it – photography is simple. You don’t need to orchestrate anything, it doesn’t cost a lot of money, and you can compete artistically with anyone regardless of budget.
I also started learning how to pop during that time. Popping is a dance style associated with hip hop and break dancing. I practiced for hours every day on my own, learning what I could from the internet (this was back before there was much about it on the internet, youtube hadn’t even been created yet, most of what I could learn was from reading articles and Mr. Wiggles‘ forum, the one place all the b-boys and poppers seem to gather. I have to mention Nustudios as well, though. Back in the day I got a lot of help from Ceech and the rest of the folks there, it (to me) a smaller, friendlier community than Wiggles’ forum. After a few years of practicing on my own, I learned that some influencial poppers were coming to Calgary to teach master classes, but to go I would need $725… and I was jobless, couldn’t drive, and stuck in a town with a population of 2000 people.
Fortune (who’s name was Tara Wilson, the organizer of the classes) smiled on me, and I got to attend the classes and pay a bit up front and I promised to pay her the rest after. It took me a year to pay her back, which I still feel guilty about to this day, even though I gave her an extra $100 and she was totally nice about it.
So I got to the classes, and for two weeks straight from 9 to 5 I took every dance class. It was insane. I learned a lot and got to meet and take classes with Poppin Pete, Suga Pop, Mr. Wiggles, and Boogaloo Sam. I got to learn from the guy who taught Michael Jackson how to do the robot in the Jackson 5 years! All these guys are literal living legends, and it was hands down one of the top 5 experiences in my entire life.
In all, I spent 4 or 5 years focused on dancing, but I started having problems with my knees and had to stop. It was very difficult time in my life.
My next pursuit revealed itself to me in the way of an old acoustic guitar I happened upon after a bad experience with a redhead. (The first of many bad experiences, with many redheads. You can call me many things, but you can’t call me inconsistent.)
I got into guitar and music in general, learning as much as I could. I still think my music theory needs some further education… But I’m at least competent. It’s been about 7 years now that I’ve been playing guitar, and I’ve fiddled with keyboards and other things as well.
Somewhere along the line I politicized. There is no difference between a grasshopper and a locust, other than one is “gregarious”. I suppose that’s what happened to me, I became politically “gregarious”. Since then, I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time reading and educating myself about religion and politics (as my taste runs along the secular side of things), and generally become an incredible bore to talk to by all accounts. I fondly remember the times in which I could have conversations without referencing a book, or paper, or lecture. (It seems like I had a lot more conversations back then, too!)
And now some pictures. (How’s that for a segway?)
