Parrot Girl

It was time for me to leave the orchestra—blow solo

SMA World Industries advertisement—Thrasher Magazine, July 1989.

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        I see the parrot girl all the time
she looks at me
I turn away—I am shy
No parrot girl could make me lose my mind
though

        Parrot girl puts on too much make-up 
and in all the wrong places
One can tell a feathered wing did the work

        Parrot girl says the same things over and over
Give me, love me, cater to my parrot needs

        Parrot girl, she has a job
I’ve been to her place of work
She handed me plate with another feathered friend
fried and dried on it
Eat and enjoy she said

Something is wrong with the parrot girl

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Parrot Girl stands as the very first poem I ever published. I insisted on its inclusion in my inaugural advertisement—marking the first-ever color ad for SMA World Industries (which later became simply World Industries)—in the July 1989 issue of Thrasher Magazine. I wrote the poem while seated next to Jason Lee on an airplane headed to Sweden on March 20^th of that same year. Just a month before, I had decisively walked out of a ten-year contract with Powell Peralta, the preeminent manufacturer in the skateboard industry, to become part owner of SMA World Industries alongside Rodney Mullen and Steve Rocco. This was a bold move to sign on with a fledgling venture that had co-opted another company’s name. Many industry insiders thought it was career suicide.

Despite all the tears and talk, I understood precisely what I was doing and why. My decision to leave Powell Peralta had little to do with contracts, handbooks, graveyards, marketing campaigns, or any strained relationships with the company or the people involved. I have a profound admiration and respect for Fitz, Todd, George, and Stacy—those guys were instrumental in my start and believed in me. I truly appreciated everything they had done for me, especially Stacy—he was, and still is, one of my heroes. However, I envisioned a different path for myself and my skating—one that didn’t conform to the established mold. It was ultimately about my independence as a skater and as an artist.