... tick tock, you rock ...

... the ticking hands of time are a constant in our temporal existence ... days past are never regained, gloomy as that may sound ... but if we see growing up as the sort of blessing that gives us the opportunity to learn something new everyday, and every tomorrow, then the annual milestones we call birthdays become useful reference points, perfect for reflections on the past and to make resolutions for the future ...
















... me 'n' my boy have been through a lot of stages and hairstyles together, but somehow fate likes to conspire for us to be apart on his birthday ... up until now I've dealt with this as a function of pre-destiny and have made various attempts to compensate some other way ... though it's not intended to be a case of emotional disregard on any level, I know that the love-you-from-a-distance scenario doesn't fully bridge the divide ... and it hurts ...

... Creed rides skateboards for fun, and he'll continue well after this day which sees him turn twenty-one ... what was once merely kid activity is now a bonafide sport with real superstars and sponsorships from street-level to pro ... ok, so he's more street than pro, but fo' sho I'm feelin' the vert and those grabs ...



















... this age can be a cue for feelings of trepidation about the next step in life ... looking back on mine, I offer this ... twenty-one is the elementary stage of the metabolic plateau which succeeds the matrix of rapid development that is youth ... in effect, nature's call for deliberate progress ... not ponderous or boring, but measured and mindful to carry forward those things that will stimulate senses, release tensions and overcome inhibitions ... all the while continuing to accumulate skillz and experiences ...

... rockin' Mos Def and Q-Tip all day in his honor will have his full approval ... the kid's musicality comes via osmosis I suppose, such is the soundtrack to his life ... only he among his kin actually makes music, using voice and rhyme as instrument ... cool move too, linking with Pigeon Park homies to push seventies-style rock-pop, liberally fused with ragga-tinged hip-hop commentary ... part of the weed-wise Vancouver music scene bubbling out of Gastown bongs ...

... this particular show, photographed by Danya Robinson, was a tour send-off ... the band would make the trip East without Creed because the young M.C. (mic-chatter) has a day job from which he is not expendable, giving him a personal taste of that predictable, ambivalent conflict which haunts artists everywhere ...

... he made the right choice to honor the regular gig, the latest in a string of better choices after some astoundingly poor adolescent ones, but then ... which of us can say that wasn't our trajectory too ... there really is nowhere to go but up from a state of youth ...

... twenty-one is an arbitrary numerical threshold which allows us to accept a child proclaiming itself to be grown, but the truth is closer to "twenty-one" being a paradigm that sees as many people mature before reaching the number, as after it ... it's understandable that there's this over/under differential because nothing in life, except the inexorable passage of time, is immune to variation ...

... I'm proud of this young man, now formally turning adult ... saw it coming all the way (wink), even from here ... but once again I'm overseas for his birthday and conveying my love from afar ... this time however, there's a new recognition ...

... Happy Birthday to you my son, man-to-man ...