As a side note, welcome AJ as Bolts of Thunder's 42nd official follower!!!! It's good to have you officially on the team. That reminds me, Sam Milianta is still not an official follower. We need to get on that... Behold, Dave's interview:
(MrBoltsofThunder) So what's going on in your life these days? Where are you now, what are you doing? What does a normal day in the life of David McDonald consist of?
(Dave) In Paris, still. I just work. Still teaching English to spoiled, rich kids in the Parisian suburbs. Normal day sees me waking up when its still dark and commuting for an hour or so to my school. I read and listen to some music on the train; its not so bad. I also get to wear some nice thick coats, which I like to do. Everyone I work with thinks I'm a serious educator, but I'm just a joke. I can fake anything.
Besides the part-time adult nonsense, I've been skating, playing some guitar, making some videos, taking some pictures, investing, gambling, rioting, raving, posing, insulting, and apprenticing for a soap-maker. Yeah, got a lot on my plate, I guess.
I remembered this story the other day that you told me way back when of this bully at high school. As I recall, he wanted you and your friends dead. Then your friend stood up to him and got punched in the stomach and didn't flinch until the kid left. Something to that effect. Would you mind going into detail on that story?
So, there was this meat-head named Richard Calvin--a real wanker. He hated us because we dressed like Ed Templeton, naturally. We also had our own tight-knit crew of losers called the Weird Kids. Some jocks started calling us that, so we went with it.
Anyways, this Dick fellow had it in for us. He'd always bark at us and stuff. One day he said some crap to my friend Nick MacDonald (who invented the late shove-it and the triple kickflip, btw) and Nick just mocked him right back. Meat-head just let loose and nailed Nick in the gut, hard. This guy was way bigger than us. I think he was held back a couple years or somethin'. Anyways, Nick took it and just stared back at the guy. No flinch, nothing. Just absorbed a solid sucker punch. The guy just walked off. I could tell it hurt like hell, though. I'd taken a few sucker punches in my day. Its no walk in the park.
What was your reaction to the last Bolts of Thunder video? What were your favorite parts/tricks? And more specifically, what was your first reaction to Dan, Nick, and Matt's parts? You can talk about mine if you want, but I won't ask you specifically...
I was sort of blasé, you know. There was a lot of hype leading up to it and I left the premiere (which is the only time I watched the video) feeling empty. Just underwhelmed I guess. I mean, where were the handrails? What, no flip tricks? Please. You're never gonna get picked up by anyone with all those early grabs and hippie jumps.What would you like to see in the next Bolts of Thunder video? Any tricks that have been left undone or any spots that need to be skated? We're running out of ideas here, so any suggestions on your part would be appreciated.Dan needs to land that backflip, am I right? Also, I need a good ol' fashioned roof drop from Nick. Matt needs to ollie something gnarly. I'm talking big boy pants. Sam needs a good manual line. Jon, you need to three flip that long flat gap that you put the fridge down. I need to see that. Ima ollie this.
Give us your stats. How old are you, when's your birthday, how tall are you, how much do you weigh, how much can you bench press? You know, your stats.I am 28 years old. I was born on December 4, 1983 in Thousand Oaks, CA. I am a bit under 6'0''. I weigh 165 lbs. I can bench my weight, I know. Not sure after that. I was a rookie in the '93 season. I have ollied up a five stair and down a fourteen. I have kickflipped an eleven stair.Any good stories from Paris or Europe in general? Had any more fights with Arabs or landlords?Naw. Oh, wait I got one. One night a few weeks back I was frisked by some cops for trying to remove some vandals work from a building. It was midnight and I wanted to take down this mosaic from the wall that I liked. So, I was up on the roof of this Monoprix banging away at it for a bit, while my friend stood watch. Then a group of three people came up out of nowhere and asked what I was doing up there. I told them to move along as they were bringing too much attention to me. They're all, "yeah, well were cops." So, they made me jump down and searched me and stuff. They just couldn't comprehend what I was doing up there. They first thought that I was doing the graffiti, then they thought I was just weird and let me go. They just couldn't fathom that I was trying to scrape this thing off the wall just to keep it for myself. Yeah.
I saw some bonus footage of Jean Marc in the video the other day that made me smile. Who is Jean Marc? Would you mind giving a physical description of him for our readers? When did he start skating and what kind of set up is he sporting? What's it like hanging out with him? Has he reduced his cigarette consumption at all? How does he justify smoking when he goes to such great lengths to take care of his health? I don't know why I'm asking about him, but I remembered him the other day and he made me laugh...Jean Marc is like one of the three Nephites. I really think he was put into my life to serve some higher purpose, and then one day will be gone. When I first met him, I thought he was some weird African immigrant-turned homeless; I quickly realized he was some weird French skater dude. I was with you when I first met him. It was like night time and he wanted to skate flat ground with us in the metro tunnels...
I'm so glad to count him amongst my friends. I just don't get him. I don't know if he is mental, or if he is fried, or what. He is always wearing a red helmet and whenever he calls me, he introduces him self as "the skater with the red helmet." Yeah. Last week we were skating and he showed my all his new pads. He has like full on football pads under his Dickies. He assures me that he needs them due to his risky maneuvers.
Hanging out with him is great. You can ask him anything in the world. He has premeditated responses to every question imaginable, but he never puts you down. I feel like I can totally be myself around him.
Cigarettes? In full affect.
So in France you didn't hesitate to hit that Arab kid with your board. What happened there, and what was going through your mind?I'm just racist, I guess.Foreign food has been known to upset our American stomachs at times. Or really often. Any good sharting/diarrhea stories from your stays over seas?Nothing new. I will say this: I have yet to clog a toilet in France. Ask anyone I've ever lived with how impressive that stat is. I once pinched one off that was the size and shape of a grapefruit.So I really liked our island scenarios from last year's interviews. We're coming up with new scenarios. Seeing as everyone on TV is getting ready for the zombie apocalypse, let's say there was one. If you could have one member of Bolts of Thunder to be with you at all times, who would it be? what would be your MO in staying alive? Would you hunt and fight zombies, would you hide out with your crew in the mountains?Dan. Its always gonna be Dan.Now let's say that the entire Bolts of Thunder crew is staking out in some warehouse in a large, zombie infested city. We've got quite a bit of amo, food, and water, but the zombies have caught our scent and are trying to break down the doors. What would go down in this scenario? How do you see Bolts of Thunder making its final stand?We would just sit back and practice switch flips and let Dan go Rambo on everyone. We may have to occasionally pick off a zombie here or there, but from a distance. We would last as long as Dan stayed alive. If Dan went down, I'd probably just grab a grenade and kamikaze it.I'm out of questions for now, but is there anything else you'd like to say? Any last words for this interview?
so excited for summer. it's gonna be a good one.
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