Glen E. Friedman in PITTSBURGH

i had an argument with a friend of mine and the premise was “without the images we would have never loved the bands”. my point being - when we were growing up, the photographs were just as important to opening the door of a totally new world - as the actual music was. the photographs were a hook that sunk deep in people like me and made me want to dig to find out who these people were and what they were doing.

it was a heated discussion and we ended up agreeing to disagree..but as usual, i still think im right.

i saw a picture of minor threat before i ever heard them and it made me want to hear them. that one picture of henry rollins in that garage with the microphone stuck in his mouth was louder than any band i had ever heard.

PHOTO: GLEN E FRIEDMAN

PHOTO: GLEN E FRIEDMAN

take that and then pile on the fact that the same imagery introduced me to skateboarding, across punk rock, thru the early days of rap, into the beastie boys, and evolved with me as i grew the vision of the way i saw the world.

it seems like during this time, damn near every picture i would see then had the same name at the bottom of it - Glen E Friedman. that name became synonymous for me with a lifestyle i wanted to know more about. it wasn’t like he was only about skateboarding - or punk rock - or about rap - or whatever - he was about finding the authentic heart and core of the scenes that were exploding around him. he was part of it and he knew something was happening.

those pictures changed my life. they opened a world to me that there is no other way a kid from punxsutawney pennsylvania could ever have reached on his own. it was like someone kicked open a door that i didn’t even know was there - and turned on a spotlight to the way i was going to choose to live…

and i feel that i have.

20 years later - i get a call from glen e. friedman himself.

how does this kind of shit happen?!?
mainly it boiled down to that fact that i print shirts-live in pittsburgh-he saw one of my designs-he loves the pirates (wait, thats an understatment.. what is bigger than love?!?!) - THAT is what he does the pirates …

“IN FACT he has since informed me that he is directly responsible for both rocky george from suicidal tendencies AND chuck D sporting different eras of the pirates hat. youve seen em both in it. no shit.”

so we just kept talking and in the process of some of these conversations, i asked him if he would ever be interested in coming to pittsburgh to talk about whatever he wanted. he was down and so that was that. we booked the harris theater, he came in, caught a pirates game, he asked me to moderate the lecture, we spoke to a sold out crowd, he signed a ton of his books, and then left with what i hope was a great feeling about pittsburgh and a spirit that he helped spread. im not sure if he gets what his actual impact on people like me means, but there was a room full of people who felt the same.

PHOTOS ABOVE AND BELOW: MATTDAYAK

PHOTO: MATT DAYAK

it was an amazing experience to have him here and i cant be more proud of how it turned out. thanks to those of you that came out and please stay tuned - because it is part of a bigger picture.

this was done as part of a group of creative folks operating under the collaborative effort FULLTIME dedicated to existing on their own creativity, putting on events, and building a community of support.