My friend Zaxxon has been in town all week and he is leaving this morning to go spend the Summer in Arizona working on God knows what. Yesterday we got to spend most of the day hanging out. We ate sushi and ran errands. We had a little time to kill before the matinee of Iron Man 2 when Zaxxon presented a most brilliant idea.

Z: “Remember the Rude Boys picture?”

SC: “Yeah.”

Z: “When did we take that?”

SC: “Let me see. Krahli had just moved to Texas. And Kribbsy took the photo. And Clifton was there later that day. It would have to have been taken on the fourth of July 2000.”

Z: “Wow.”

SC: “I know. Ten years.”

Z: “Jesus.”

SC: “You said it, man. What makes you think of that photo all-ov-a-sudden?”

Z: “I had an idea.”

SC: “Uh-oh.”

Z: “We should re-take the Rude Boys picture. You know like ten years later.”

SC: “That’s brilliant. Let’s do it.”

Reality quickly set in. It has been ten years since that photo was taken. In an alley. In front of two metal doors with spray paint scrawled on them. The chances of us actually finding the alley are slim and then add the chances that no one has painted over the doors, and our odds get even worse.

Really quickly, for those of you who do not have a frame of reference for this story, let me break it down for you. Ten years ago, on the fourth of July, Kribbsy, the Heat, Zaxxon, and I went out and spent the day doing an 18 year old photographer’s idea of a photo shoot. The photo in question, has long been kept in the six volume tome that I refer to as “the Yearbooks”. The Yearbooks are a set of six Mead Composition Books that have been turned into a record of all of High School and the (roughly) three years after. They are a terribly frightening walk down memory lane. Imagine if memory lane was a dark alley that housed knife wielding zombies who are lurking in the shadows, waiting patiently to reopen old wounds. Needless to say, I do not do trudging through the Yearbooks often or lightheartedly. That said, I had to dig into them yesterday to find the Rude Boys photo.

Okay, so we are all caught up now. I guess now would be a good time to show you the original and then we can continue on with the story. Here it is, in all of it’s year 2000 glory:

Rude Boys 2000.

Yeah. It’s pretty awesome. I know. I’m in it.

Anyway, so Zaxxon and I stop by my house to grab a tripod, you know, since Kribbsy isn’t here, and of course we had to find the original in order to make this “revisited” photo as accurate as possible on short notice. So, we find the book, we find the photo in the book, we stand around saying “Oh, my God!” for about five minutes and we head off to the downtown area to hunt for our alley.

We actually found the alley very easily. We just sort of went right to it, like we were hammer head sharks returning to the place of our birth using magnets in our heads. It was weird. We parked the car, walked past the “if it were dark, we would not be here” piles of cardboard housing and round the corner into our alley. Lo and behold it is still there. Rude Boys in bright blue on rusty doors. Holy shit. Things really never do change in this town. So, we got the shot. If you haven’t seen yesterday’s Daily Photo, or if you did see it and were like “What kind of queer shit is this?”, now you know what it is all about. Here, I’ll make your life a little easier. Behold! Rude Boys 2010:

Rude Boys 2010.

I think we did a very good job in recreating the shot. Many a thing have changed, though. Zaxxon traded in the Birks for Chacos. I traded in those awesome shorts for Dickies. We traded haircuts with each other. One little thing that I noticed, and which made me intensely happy, was that I am still rocking the same chain wallet and Dickies belt. Both of which have taken a beating over the years and are held together with packing tape and waxed linen thread, but they are still here. Just like the Rude Boys.

Okay, so onto other things. Today is that Friday thing again, so that means lunch with Word to Me, and a new article in the City Wire. Read it here. Also, everyone send Zaxxon some good road vibes, since he is about to drive the 18 hours to Arizona.

Hopefully this weekend I can get together with Taco Planet and Furious Jessy to get the new website up and running. If it happens, you’ll be the first to know, since what you are looking at will be all different and stuff.

Anyway, before I go, I just want to say thanks to Zaxxon for the brilliant idea about the photo and for being my friend for the past ten years. Oh, I’m getting all teary-eyed. Shuddup, Ihatechoo. More soon. ~SC