Busking on Ionia.

What do you believe in?

I believe in ‘safety first’ and then teamwork.

What’s a time when you were really scared?

When I broke my leg snowboarding, I flew 20 feet in the air and hit a tree and my leg broke the fall and I snapped my shin.

Was it worth it?

Yes. It made me a stronger person.

Pretty much anytime you’re in the sun… it’s hard to NOT be happy when you have a beautiful thing shining in your face.

“What does the future look like?”

She says, “You go first!”

“I have no idea…”

“It looks like I’m going to win this game!” she said.

Seen in the AM on Fulton.

Seen in Midtown.

"What about me!? Woooooooo!!"

“How would you like to be remembered?”

“Where will you be using this?”

“Online, it’ll be public.”

pause.

“Someone who was a good dad and a fun guy, I dunno, how’s that?”

“That’s good, what else is there.”

“Yeah, what else is there?”

“What would you do if you had a time machine?”

“Go back in time. Yes. Flirt with all the ladies that I saw that were beautiful that I never put myself out there in front of.”

“To like, eliminate regrets you have?”

“No not to eliminate regrets… but to be more of a people person.”

“Do you mean in like a religious aspect?”

“In any kind of way you’d like to think about it.”

“I believe in the pursuit of happiness.”

“Music! Art! I’m a big, big art person so…”

“I couldn’t tell.”

She laughs, “yeah I try to hide it.”

Dangerous Hooligans.

"What are you most grateful for?"

"That I can do this for a living."

"Life? You live life to the fullest, and enjoy life... that's what it's all about. And you thank God for being here."

"I like all the kind of art culture that is sparking up around here, it's gotten a lot more exciting to be in Grand Rapids."

"How did you two meet?"

"Through our demented friend Jimmy."

"What is something that makes you embarrassed?"

"That you can be pretty sure I'll be in bed by midnight."

"Do you catch anything ever?"

"Yeah."

"Do you eat it?"

"Yeah, we do."

"Are you worried about how dirty the river is?"

"No, he'll eat just about anything. But, it's not that bad if you deep fry it, it kills all the bacteria."

Is that an Zamboni in the left-hand turn lane?

"If you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what you you say?"

"Stay true to myself, trust little people and stand up for them. Not everyone is your friend."

"Go with my intuition more often."

"Can I take your picture?"

"It don't bother me. but I'm moving and I aint slowing down so..."

"What is a way life has changed for you?"

"More pain."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"That's life."

"He's not going to bite you, he's a good dog."

"What's your favorite part of spring?"

"Getting out like this, getting out going for walks. enjoying the sunshine."

"What does the future look like?"

"The future of Grand Rapids? When you talk about the future, you're talking about two or three different things. I can look at it from different perspectives. Grand Rapids as a whole is climbing, I feel like it's productive, like it's going to be the place to live. You look at it now, the inner-city is a part of downtown. things are building up, I feel it'll be prosperous for a lot of people... but for some, being black it's going to be hard. It's hard now, but it is going to be harder because there is a push. You've got this thing called gentrification. Whites moving in, blacks moving out. I mean we're talking about the future for our kids man, the inner-city kids. When you put more money into the prison system than you do into the Grand Rapids public schools, then you've got a problem. You're guaranteeing the future of prisons. So... it depends on which future you're talking about.

I just try to be a positive influence in the neighborhood so that the kids can see the lifestyle that I lead and where I came from and, you know, 'if I can do it you can do it' kinda thing. We need more black men to stand up and show our black kids how, so that our future can be brighter. So, I try to live an example."

"what are you looking forward to?"
"Tomorrow. Because tomorrow is never promised. But also, looking forward to tomorrow because, I dunno there is a lot of stuff to look forward to, it's a new day, it brings new things."

"What is something that has surprised you lately?"
"Like about the city or about life in general?"
"Yes."
"Oh.. uhm I guess the amount of emphasis in this city, and I don't necessarily think it's only this city, but certainly this city, has been been effected by this a lot, which is, what does it mean to have an economy based on the service industry and specifically alcohol and what are our livers going to look like in 20 or 30 years if we are Beer City USA, and if we keep 'repping ourselves as THAT, instead of, say, Furniture City where we [had all this great work], and now you can only get that from here [points to an antique shop] where the actual furniture we actually get is from Target... and maybe that's good in the short term, but what about the longer term? I guess I've sort've had that epiphany or thought recently."

"The first thing that came to my mind was the power of genetics overcoming 'nurture'. I've been thinking a lot about that... And how you might expect someone to turn out and the fact that their genetics totally overcome that, sometimes."
"That genetics are more powerful than nurture?"
"And not always... but the fact that they can come through in a lot of surprising ways."

"What are you really proud of?"
"The fact that I can stand on my own 2 feet and support myself."

Seen on Lake Drive.

"...Well, I haven't biked 100 miles on gravel yet. We're hoping to fix that. We're hoping to do that in 2 weeks."
"Why gravel?"
"Something to do. It's a big race in Minnesota, called the Almanzo 100."

Seen in Eastown.

"I hate politics. I just hate it because it's so polarized."
"You think there should be more unity?"
"Well yeah, of course. I don't feel represented at all."

"If you could tell the whole world something what would you say?"
"Stop being assholes."

"Can I take your picture?"

"Oh man! hold up... ok ok."

he poses.

"can I ask you a random question?"

"hey you got your photo, no questions."

"What are you waiting for?"

"damn..."

"Money." 

"Warm weather, honestly."

"What did you want to be when you grew up?"
"An artist."
"Did it work out that way?"
"Oh, no. I'm a painter though, so at least I'm still making things beautiful."

"If you could go back in time and tell yourself something, what would you say?"
"Oh goodness... I would tell myself that high school wasn't worth it.. and one day, you're going to be incredibly happy. But now, you just have you get through this."

"Is it ok if I take your picture?"
"Of the dog? or?"
"Both of you... if that's ok?"
"How about just the dog?"
"Ok. Can I get your shoes in the shot?"
"Yeah."