Back from the Dead

[MarkStalcup]

Hey everyone...I dropped off the boards for most of the summer because I've just been really busy...life's been hectic. I'm working what are essentially two full-time jobs...lawyering and journalism...plus I DJ on the weekends, plus I organized my class reunion, plus I'm dating someone who lives 30 miles away...so that's a drive.

And the summer was rife with injuries, etc. - torn rotator cuff on my right shoulder, fell and scraped up/bruised my arms, bloodied my nose and hit my head, had a clogged ear due to sinus infection...all kinds of fun, basically.

I think at age 39, I should learn not to skateboard anymore. Recovery time is not as quick as it used to be.

Nearly got mugged two weekends ago in Terre Haute. Two guys and a girl, rough neighborhood, 3:25 a.m., stopped for gas. The girl came up asking for money and started hitting me in the side of the head. Then the blonde guy started throwing elbows at the side of my head, while the brunette guy tried to grab my shoulders and pin me. I swung on them, and would up bloodying the blonde guy's lip and blackening the brunette guy's eye. They ran when some friends of mine came out of a nearby bar, and the cops have apparently learned who these guys were.

Otherwise, the summer's been good.

I still owe Slip and a few others some Megomuseum cards, and am trying to sort out who gets what. How has everybody else been?

Mark

[toys2cool]

holy crap dude

Glad you're ok man :grin:

[wayne foundation 07]

Wow looks like you need a vaction.

[Hector]

Good thing your buds happened to be there in a bar that's still open at 3:25 a.m., just in the nick of time...small world.

[MarkStalcup]

Actually, Hec, the bar was closed...Indiana pubs do last call at 3 a.m. and the bar itself shuts down around 3:30 a.m. So the bar manager, Dan, and one of the bouncers, Brian, who are friends of mine — I used to DJ at that club — came outside, saw the fight and headed my way. So yeah, it was a lucky break...three on one, and as messed up as my right arm is...that would not have been fun alone.

[toys2cool]

Actually, Hec, the bar was closed...Indiana pubs do last call at 3 a.m. and the bar itself shuts down around 3:30 a.m. So the bar manager, Dan, and one of the bouncers, Brian, who are friends of mine — I used to DJ at that club — came outside, saw the fight and headed my way. So yeah, it was a lucky break...three on one, and as messed up as my right arm is...that would not have been fun alone.

man you must be a bad *** to pull off something like that :grin:

[MarkStalcup]

I'm not remotely a badass. I walked away with a torn rotator cuff on my right shoulder, a bruise on the side of my head, a bloody nose and a scraped elbow. And if my friends Dan and Brian hadn't happened to walk out of the bar, I might have been toast.

As it was, I got confronted by the three would-be muggers, asking for money and cigarettes, and I said no, I didn't have any smokes nor money - didn't feel like giving them any - and then the girl started punching me on the right side of the face as the brunette guy grabbed me from behind, while the blonde guy started throwing elbows at my head...if you've ever been elbowed in the head, you know it kinda hurts. I pushed backwards, knocked me and the brunette guy down, then tore loose of the brunette guy - just pure adrenaline, more or less - and that's how I messed up my shoulder and elbow by hitting concrete. Then I threw a few punches at the blonde guy, and split his lip and blackened his right eye...my friends showed up, and the others ran off. I had no idea I even connected well with my punches because the first elbow strike messed up my contact lenses, and my eyes are bad.

I was a boxer when I was a teenager and in college, and I used to get into a lot of fights, but when you're jumped and it's 3 on 1, the odds of taking a shot to the back of the head - which probably would have happened quickly in that instance - increase a lot. And they could have messed me up quite readily and taken my wallet.

So, badass? No. I punched back and I scored a few good shots. The end.

[AUSSIE-Rebooted-AMM]

G'day Mark. . .long time no type. SO who got the black eye, I thought you said it was Brunette guy you said first? Must have been in a well lit area was it? Where they mugged you that is. You said you were getting gas. . .was it at a petrol station? Did they have any camera running of you beating the crud outta these loosers. . . .I hope you went and asked for a copy of the video tape, if they did!

[huedell]

Hey Mark---glad to see ya stop by when you do----

Interesting crazy stuff----cool you're doing alright anyway in spite of it.

[Bill]

You'd think we would learn, but 36 years old and still skating too. Maybe it doesn't work out like it does in my head but I still have fun. Team Pain just did our town's park last September and I've been damaging myself on a regular basis since then.
Now that you have the money and you're not a kid mowing lawns for a new deck, splurge and pick up a set of Rockin' Ron's bearings, worth every penny.

[mitchedwards]

Welcome Back mark, glad your OK after the mugging

[Captain]

A skateboarding lawyer/journalist whos also a Dj... and gets in scraps....are you sure you arent living in some kind of weird 80's tv series? :)

Welcome back!

[huedell]

Mark is our resident Modern Renaissance Man :wink::cool_y:

[Hector]

Markangelo.

:grin:

[saucerful]

damn what a nutty summer!
glad you survived, albeit messed up some....
heal quickly
Bryan

[theantiquetiger]

A skateboarding lawyer/journalist whos also a Dj... and gets in scraps....are you sure you arent living in some kind of weird 80's tv series? :)

Welcome back!

I was thinking the same thing!!!

From "Point Break":

"Lawyers don't surf(skateboard)"
Well, this one does!"

[MarkStalcup]

Thanks for the good wishes.

Yeah, I've been skateboarding since I was 9...I just bought a Hook-Ups board because I thought the manga art looked cool...snagged some Destructo Bam silver trucks for it. Seems to ride okay, but like I said, when one falls at 39, it seems to hurt a hell of a lot worse than at 15. Or at least the pain lasts longer.

I am indeed a skateboarding journalist/attorney. And I haven't really had a haircut since January 2007...I pull it back into a ponytail in court...so I'm a longhaired skateboarding journalist/attorney who hasn't been in a scrap since 1995, and really doesn't relish fighting. But yeah, I'm weird and I know it. I also collect these figures from the 1970s, called Megos. You may have heard of them. Oddly, that gets me stranger looks than the long hair and the skateboarding. :-)

The area of Haute it's in is down in 12 Points, which is Lafayette Avenue. Bad neighborhood, generally...but I've lived in that neighborhood off and on since 1990, so you get comfortable and stop thinking there's any danger. There's Union Hospital, and three bars - Malloy's, 6th Avenue, and the Wagon Wheel. Sixth Avenue was the bar where my friends came out of.

Two gas stations, one of which has pumps which date from the 1970s...that's where I was headed. It was due south of me - the intersection I got jumped at was maybe 30 yards from it, so no cameras pointed where I was.

I'd parked my truck down at 13th and 6th...my buddy Danny has a fenced in garage, warehouse and compound there, where we're also working on my Mustang, and the truck was low on gas...Silverado burns gas at 15 mpg so I didn't want it stalling on the street, which it's done once lately. When the low fuel light came on, I grabbed the gas can and went walking. Dumb idea, but again, I've lived there off and on 18 years and one starts getting a bit relaxed in one's own neighborhood.

The blonde guy got the busted lip and black eye, I'm told. Brunette guy got pegged once, and a bruise below his eye, but I'm hearing all that secondhand from the cops and the bouncers. The first elbow shot I took to the head knocked my contacts out of whack and my eyesight sucks without them. (I have like a -6.5 and a -6 prescription, which is very nearsighted.)

And I'd love to surf, man. Alas, I am landlocked in Indiana. One of my major dreams is to surf the Great Barrier Reef in Australia on a longboard someday. Seriously. Me and a buddy of mine, Devon Massey, who used to draw the "Cavewoman" comic, are both surfers stuck in Indiana, which sucks. The best one can hope for is some weak bodysurfing up at Lake Michigan on a good day.

[Adam West]

Welcome back....glad to hear you are ok.

You are right about being older and not being able to do what you could 20 years ago. I still play soccer at 40 and I don't know how to play at less than 100% so I always end up crippled for a week after a game because I still feel as healthy as a 20 year old and although I am very healthy and in shape, I just can't do what I used to without a muscle hurting here or there.

About a year ago, I had three teenagers (16/17 year olds) breaking bottles in my street. I walked out and demanded that they clean up the mess they made. The biggest kid who was about my height 6 feet approached me with clenched fists at one point and I told him if he took a step closer, I was going to kick the **** out of him regardless of his age.

Luckily he backed off. The other two didn't look like they wanted to get involved which was good and at a new years party, a neighbor mentioned that he saw part of the incident and said it was pretty bold of me to stand up to the 17 year old. I guess it never occurred to me that the possibility existed that he might have taken me down if the fists started flying. I am also guessing that he was probably one of those bully types who is used to having people back down to him and he was entering new territory when I stood my ground and told him in a calm but authoritative tone not to take another step toward me. Glad nothing ever came of it.