For My Dad: Then and Now

I took a little break from Culture Shock Art in May, and I am so happy to be back at the keyboard sharing my finds in art, music, and fashion.

My Dad fell ill last month and it was the first time I had ever seen him sick with more than a cold much less a week laid up in the hospital.  It was surreal, frightening, confusing and unsettling.  Despite that I learned a lot about my Dad during that week in the hospital, and I am happy to say that he is home recovering and getting stronger every day!

My love for music came from my Dad who would listen to Pharoah Sanders, Elton John, Sergio Mendes, Credence, always blending jazz, folk, funk and rock seamlessly without regard to falling into stratified categories.  The diversity of my taste in music was directly influenced by him.

Most importantly we laugh!  A love for comedy has always been shared between us and we are always quoting Seinfeld episodes.  I made it my mission to make him laugh as much as possible when he was feeling ill (when I wasn’t questioning everything the nurses and doctors were doing).  One thing he doesn’t know is that I call him the black Larry David because he always finds humor in the most awkward situations, and awkward is practically my middle name.  So in the spirit of awkward, I’m sharing one of my favorite pictures of my Dad, who will probably kill me (after laughing first) once my mom shows him this.

Back in the day my Dad drove Triumphs, played pool and hung out with Jazz greats like Pharoah Sanders in San Francisco.  The definition of cool.  Above all that he loved tennis; so much so that he also had some mean ping-pong skills as evidenced by a lunchtime snap captured here.

Behold the porkchop side burns, the fro, the toothpick in the mouth and the toothpick slim skinny trousers…add some ping pong?  Well, you can forget the dads on that famous Tumblr site (which is possibly the best website ever), my dad is THE OG hipster.  Bow down and raise a can of PBR, because my dad is awesome!

To the man who taught me that anything is possible, always made me laugh, supports anything I do and loves me unconditionally I say, Happy Father’s Day!  Love you Dad.