All photo's by Chris O'Shea & Brenton Priestley unless otherwise noted
Simply living at Fins
Photo: Chris Glenn
I want to grab tail for as long as I can! -Chris O'Shea
spin slower, grab longer, drop later. method backside 180
THE HOOD IN FALL As the season starts to wind down, lakes cool and the kids play. Dogs wonder the streets while children run from Crazy Mike with a chainsaw. Adorable baby chicks come out to enjoy the warm fire that brings the hood family together. Its a tight family. The ‘Roos flock home to the land down under for the winter. Leaving the hood behind is aways hard but the ocean shores of the home land are getting summer fever and radiating blue.
Rufus The oldest dog in the hood
Naughty Wilfred
RUCK
The cutest little chick in the hood.
Michael Myers chases all the little hoodrats off on Halloween
Little golden love
The every day lake life
Boat Babes
Local fishermen
The milky colors of film
Ryan Leary
Photo: Adam Aslanian
Rider: Shane Bonifay
Downtown ORLANDO Day buzz, on a rainy day Day two and still raining Day three, still day buzzing
the magic man "DONT FIGHT THE WAVES, SURF THEM" Livesimple with the Magic Man Rainy day # 3, drinking piss A random word for word interview at the bar Ends up being a good story
Magic Man(MM): I’m “Richard the Adequate” a street magician in Orlando Florida, originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I’m 51 and I feel fucking old. We all laugh. Brenton(BP) and I look at each other and I’m pretty sure we were thinking the same thing, ‘this guy is a funny cunt’ BP: So how did you get into Magic? MM: Five years ago, I lost my home and my job in the same week. Before this I’d been doing magic as a hobby. I was painted into a corner because I couldn’t work. So I started doing street magic and lived under a bridge. Three days a week, I’d go to the salvo’s to have a shower and the other days, being that we live in the ‘State of Hospitality’, I’d show up to a hotel resort with a swimming pool in a bathing suit and go swimming. You’d be amazed what chlorine can do for personal hygiene. At this point, BP and I are laughing as “Richard the Adequate” continues to talk at 100 miles an hour. MM: After 3 week of living under a bridge I’d made enough money to rent an apartment and was off the streets. Magic got me of the streets. (Raising his voice considerably) That’s poetic justice if you ask me! DONT FIGHT THE WAVES, SURF THEM. We get a round of beers. BP: So how did you learn magic? MM: When I was about 6, my Dad took me to see the movie Houdini. He noticed how enthralled I was by the movie. After the movie was over, he grabbed his Encyclopedia, Volume 8, and read to me the Houdini story. At that moment I was hooked and every birthday and holiday I’d get a magic trick and a word puzzle from my Dad. By the time I was 15, I was doing magic tricks for all my friends at parties. My buddies would be like, ‘Hey Richard show us your new trick!’ So it became a hobby that I shared with my friends. I’d remembered that in a previous drunken conversation, he mentioned he was in the Navy, so I asked him why he joined.
MM: I had to make a choice, go to Jail or go to the Military. Why was that? MM: I got into some trouble with the law as a kid and about 8 months out from turning 18, the judge said ‘I’ll put you in jail or you can join the Military.’ I said hey, I’ll join the Navy and atleast I will get to leave America. I got to escape and see the parts of the world I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. He goes on and lists off nearly every sick place you would want to go in the world. This is when we learned of the time he got stuck in Perth, Australia in July 1981. MM: When we got to Perth, we dropped anchor and a wicked storm hit. At that moment we couldn’t get the Liberty Boats back to the ship, so we had half the crew stuck on shore and half on the boat. So they put out a call in the news papers and TV saying, ‘hey there’s sailors from America stuck here, they cant get back to their ships, can anyone help them out?’ I volunteered to answer the phones, and when a sweet little girl that sounded like Olivia Newton John called in to offer help, I yelled ‘hey I’ve got a live one here boys’. My buddy Joey and I spent the next 3 days with a couple of nurses from Fremantle having a great time. BP: Did you know that the ratio of girls to boys in Perth is 60% women 40% men? Im almost surprised that Brenton knows that fact, but then again, I’m not really At this point, we are 8 or 9 beers deep, and this interview is getting sloppy. MM: We had a great time in Perth. I got to see ‘Men at Work’ before they ever got there recording contract. I heard them play ‘Land Down Under’ and ‘Who Could It Be Now’ in a small bar. A question that inevitably enters your mind if you have ever seen Magic Man more than once, finally comes up and I ask him about his clothes. He has worn the same shit every time I’ve seen him for the past 8 years. MM: First of all it’s a recognition thing. I always wear the hat. I always wear the jacket.
Theres a Latin Phrase, ‘Argumentum Misericordiam’ which means ‘Appeal to Pity’. If I walk around in a Christian Dior suit, people wont tip me and this is how I pay the rent so I dress down. Makes sense. What did you do after the Navy? MM: I was discharged from the Navy in 1981 and joined a band called Cakimo and traveled the east coast for 8 years. We were a trio, and we sucked, but we got paid well. After 8 years, I divorced the band to marry my wife. Then, when she and I divorced 11 years later I remarried my music and came to Orlando to work for Disney as a musician. When I got to Orlando, they had literaly sacked all the musicians. Everything changed to lip synching instead of having a band behind them. So I did 4 years work there anyways, 2 years as a custodian and 2 years as a maintenance man. But I got sick of getting the “Magic” sucked out of me.
Ever since I was six years old and saw that Houdini movie I was hooked on magic and I knew that is what I wanted to do. I can relate to this dude in the way he found his passion at a young age. He wants
to keep doing magic for as long as he can because it is what makes him happy. It is how I have felt about wakeboarding all my life. He suddenly gets up mid interview, runs out of the bar and does a magic trick, makes a quick tip, and comes back to continue with no hesitation right where we left off. MM: When I was working at Disney, I’d mess with peoples heads. One day on my day off, I was walking through the park smoking, not in a designated smoking area, and a new employee comes up and says ‘You cant smoke here’. I turned to him and said I’m not smoking, and I made the cigarette vanish as I was looking him in the eyes. His face dropped as to say’Holy Shit’and then he said, ‘where did that go’ I said I wasn’t smoking, what are you talking about, as smoke is coming out of my mouth. It’s a lot of fun messing with peoples heads. When I’m Downtown doing magic, I’m doing the same thing, entertaining people and messing with their heads, people like that. I always tell people to look for the stupid hat. I’ll alway show you something new and I’ll always do something to mess your head up. BP: It’s funny that we have asked for your phone number when it’s written on your hat. MM: I’m used to that, people in Florida don’t read. I grew up in Pensilvania and I thought Pensilvania people were stupid. Then I came to Florida. See, I went to a Private Military School. I studied and got a degree in Aviation Engineering. I’ve always been into electronics and tinkering with stuff. So if you have a solid degree that is in high demand and you could make a good living, why are you doing street magic and not working in your field?
MM: In the late 90’s, at the end of my marriage, I was making $200 grand a year, doing prototyping for the Military. I was working on the technology they were using in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. I realized I was part of the corporate killing machine and it bothered me. I was making more money then I’d ever known existed but I was empty on the inside because I knew people were dying because of what I was working on. I wanted to take the technology I was working on into the private sector and save lives not take them. He goes on to explain to us how that didnt work out for him either. MM: At that point my marriage resolved so I said screw it and followed my heart and thats why I’m here. There’s a great man called Joseph Campbell. He did a series of video’s on myth, religion and survival. His thing was you have to follow your bliss, your bliss is your heart talking to you. Believe it or not your heart is talking to you 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Most people don’t listen because they have a mortgage and kids etc. If you don’t follow your bliss, you will probably end up dying angry, possibly alone and maybe pretty young. If you follow your bliss you may never be rich, but you will always be happy and you will always feel content in your self and at this point that’s exactly where I am. Not rich by any means but I’m paying my bills, I’ve got a roof over my head and I’v got a happy heart. I get to make people laugh and smile. I wake up every day going, ‘I’m going to work! Who am I going to fuck with today!’ I get excited to go to work!
At this point I’m pretty mind blown with his story, and solidly buzzing. You would look at him and never have an idea of what kind of life he has lived. You might think he is your average degenerate beggar on the streets, but this dude work’s hard, he’s just doing life in a different way. No one really wants to be on the streets every night working for tips, but he loves it and it works for him. The bar is starting to get packed so we wrap it up and Richard in his high spirited way goes: In the great ocean of life, don’t fight the waves, surf them. If you fight the waves, you will die angry and alone and tired. If you surf the waves you probably wont end up where you think you were going but your going to really enjoy the ride. “Richard the Adequate” otherwise know as Magic Man, with livesimple! Check him out at adequatemagic.4t.com Words: Chris O’Shea
The Bear says to Batman, “Need a light?”
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3 Gringos family
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ORLANDO GRID LOCKED ON HALLOWEEN 3:45AM
The Drums Orlando Florida
Good things come in small packages
living
Trevor Bashir
Photo: Chris Glenn
All Saints
Photos: Josh Robinson
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