Victor, Victoria… and Fear and Loathing in L.A., by Michael Davis – Straight No Chaser #152

January 29, 2010 Michael Davis 13 Comments

I’m not a cynical person.

Yeah, right.

I wasn’t a cynical person until I started to give a shit about things in the world. I’m from the hood and in the hood you don’t spend a lot of time worrying about anyone other than yourself and your family.

It was not until I reached my twenties (last year Jean) that I really started to give a damn about things outside of my life. I mean things that had to do with the world. I’ve always loved history but thought of history only in terms of entertainment, much like I would think of a good movie.

Wow, how cool is ‘Kit’ on Night Rider? Wow, how cool was the American Revolution?

That was how I thought of history.

Something changed in me, that change came when I started my mentor program Bad Boy Studios in 1987 (when I was 5 years old Jean) then history really became important to me. My students needed to know things about the past that would help them in the future.

Then and only then did I realize I had an obligation to try and inspire those students who came to my mentor program with insights that included history. My mentor program has produced some badass mofo’s. One day I will proudly do a column and brag like a proud new daddy about my ‘kids’ but this is not that column.

I’m officially bi-coastal. I still have a residence in New York but I’ve been living in L.A. for over a decade-but I’m still and will always be a New Yorker. Jason Medley, hotshot senior designer for Warner Bros and Bad Boy Studio alumni asked when we got to L.A. (Jason came out to L.A. to join me at Motown) if I was going to start a mentor program here. I said ‘no.’ In New York all you needed to reach me was drive and a subway token. In L.A. you need a car.

A car.

The kids I most want to reach do not have the kind of bank needed to buy a car, nor did I think there would be young people out here who would motivate me to want to spend that kind of time mentoring.

To me education is the one ring to rule them all. What’s not taught in inner city schools…wait a sec, what IS taught in inner city schools? Let’s assume that they are teaching something in inner city school, but what is not taught in inner city schools is any type of real career life skills. The life skills taught in most inner city schools have little to do with getting and maintaining a job, much less a career. The life skills taught in many inner city schools is real life skill, as in how to stay alive.

The life skills taught in better neighborhoods consist of things you need outside of the books. Case in point, my first year of College I lost all my financial aid because no one told me what I needed to do to keep my financial aid. No one told me I could question my professors if I did not agree with something. In fact no one told me it was my RIGHT to question these people. The list of things I did not know coming from a place where these things are just not important are many.

I had two things that evened the playing field at least a bit in college, I was smart and I had a crazy drive to be the best at what I did. As soon as I learned that it was OK to ask questions I could not be shut up. I’m the person I am today because my drive and lust for Asian girls…I mean my drive and lust for information and debate could not be stopped.

I told Jason that I did not think that people in L.A. who wanted ‘mentoring’ were as hard core as those kids in New York.

I was wrong.

Tatiana her brother Victor, my studio apprentice James and a young lady named Victoria have all impressed me to such a point that I’m making plans for Bad Boy Studios West.

I’ve spent so much time bitching and moaning about politics and the GOP, I’ve forgotten MY focus.

Each One Teach One.

That’s been my approach to mentoring and teaching and in all my ranting I’ve forgotten that.

It occurs to me that with my contacts out here, Bad Boy Studios West may rival if not surpass the original Bad Boy Studios.

The GOP will always be there for me to rant like the asshole I can be. This is far more important than politics.

Besides, Victor, Victoria, James and Tatiana and those that follow will be more fun to yell at anyhow.