Most of the stories included some of all of us so if I missed something or remembered something differently they were always there to help fill in the rest of the story. My family was great at telling the same stories over and over again. It was always like “remember when Jason got that powder blue suit from Amvets and came up stairs and started breakdancing? ” I shared a lot those stories with my Dad, Mom and Brother. Over a 13 year period I lost my Dad, Mom and Brother and all the connections I had to those stories are gone for the most part.
20 years later with perfect teeth smiling is still something that struggle with today and not because I am unhappy in anyway but more because I am still fighting against 20 years of hiding my smile. Saying it out loud sounds really dumb and silly because smiling and laughing is such a natural reactionary thing that happens. Imagine if for 20 years every time someone told you a joke and you smiled they got to punch you in the face. Eventually you learn to stop smiling. It honestly just wares you down.
I actually popped over to Brandon's house this weekend because we were in town and he happened to be having a record sale. He and I kind of started collecting tapes and CD's together years ago. I remember we had a rack of like 30 tapes and that was kind of a lot in the beginning. When I walked into house house he had boxes upon boxes of records. I was asking about him about where else he sells this stuff and he told me about his Discogs. I scored a sweet first pressing of the Minor Threat record. This record definitely changed our lives so it was awesome to have that record change hands at his house. Here is the link to his store Hyper Enough Records He has so much great stuff if you are a record collector.
Vince and Brandon and Eric played together in this band right after SPIT called Kid Brother Collective and now he plays in a really cool band called Deer Widow. Dan and Eric started a band called Dixie Hustler after he was done playing in Kid Brother and Dan has played harmonica and sang in a few different bands over the years. I am not sure if he’s playing with anyone now or not. Eric is touring all over the world with his honky tonk country band Whitey Morgan and the 78’s. And I play in a band called Old Fire here in Grand Rapids as well as fill for other bands once in a while.
(Click on record cover to link to each bands bandcamp page)
KBrakes is an anchoring system that’s designed to help drummers stop their drums from sliding away from them as they play. We have a handful of products that started as a napkin sketch and went to store shelves and are currently being sold in over 90 countries around the world.
I do student mentoring and portfolio reviews for the local design school here in West Michigan as well as speak at various college events around design, start ups, and entrepreneurship. I also have a few start ups that I am working out the logistics on at the moment. So yeah all of this on top of having a wife and a family and all the various duties that include being a grown up like yard work, running kids to lacrosse practice, dinners, movies and all other things adult like. Hustle The Most is about doing more. It's about helping people and connecting through interactions, stories and experiences. IT's about move forward and doing you best with the tools that you have in your bag.
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