Tuesday, June 23, 2009

here is a place for sharing stories about our friends

 

13 comments:

  1. I was with Gunther going to see a ween or moe show in 99-01 ish in portland or seattle. And I got caught at the door with some contraban in my smokes. Bummed that i'd be missing the show, Gunthar gets a gleem in his eye, kinda innocent and kinda mischevious and says, Ive got an idea. We go back to the bus and he gets out a electric shaver and a change of duds. It worked. I can also recall one morning waking up in the bus at the gorge. I was completely freaked out waking to Gunthar speeking in toungs into his cell phone. Turned out to be spanish.

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  2. A few years ago Gunther, Donk, Jackson and I went on a road trip through the cascades during the winter in the charlie van. The trip started out at a storage unit off lakeway with donk and I chasing each other around the parking lot, with birch branches, whipping the shit out of each other and for some reason loving it. Shortly after that we put the little bit of money we had into the gas tank and gunther gathered up three jugs of veggie oil which were meant to carry us through stevens, mission ridge and then on to snoqualmie. We hit stevens pass and many good times were had. Many other northwest lovers were in attendance...

    To Be Continued--------Pictures will follow.

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  3. it was probably 3 years or so ago when this story took place. travis wysong and brook ashcraft had an apt up on capital hill in seattle, i was living with the boys as well and was dating travis at the time. sean and steph were in seattle and came to the apt on a hot summer day to hang. i dnt know how it started, it had to have been sean or travis's idea but water balloons were being filled by the dozens! we were up several stories above the ground level and ofcourse water balloons were being launched from our balcony, ha ha. sean threw one at a man who was just getting into his car, is splashed all over the hood of his car. the guy had no idea what had just happened, dumbfounded! he opened his door and looked up and saw water everywhere. ofcourse sean, trav, steph and i were giggling and ducking so he couldn't see us. *he wouldn't have been able to tell where it came from anyways, there are hundreds of windows and buildings! that was just one of their targets :-)a middle aged woman was enjoying the sunshine on her balcony (next apartment complex over) and then SPLASH!! she got deushed as well.
    sean used to come over to my appartment on racine, hi think he was living with his father then. we were all so young. frank and i would give sean rides to whatcom community college, he would joke about one of his teachers that he thought was hot and that his main reason for attending college was to meet all the hot girls and pretty teachers.
    also, tons of memories on czech road~
    both those boys were special. if you knew them personally then you know exactly what i mean. you will never meet another donnkie (or that giggle he had) and it just won't seem right to see charlie brown on the streets with out gunther in the driver seat.

    they will be missed.

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  5. yesterday i saw a woman in my favorite coffee shop. she had a tattoo of the van on her forearm. i wanted to say hello and introduce myself but i was too shy. i've known gunther since 1994 when my (then) boyfriend and i lived in the bushes behind the house where gunther lived with pieter and ted on jersey street. i remember watching those guys on the half pipe in the back yard and remember gunther working on vw vans in the parking area. it was fun to watch him ride the ramp on his bmx.

    so, hello to the lady with the tattoo! maybe next time i see you i won't be so shy.

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  6. I have know Gunther for over 14 years. We went to school together at Western (the first time he went), he was my lab partner in Photo 101,102,105, etc.... until he dropped out. I had a VW van at the time, that when I had the money and if he needed it, he would work on. Eventually he rebuilt the whole engine. I could see his talents and I hoped he would find his focus (and looking at his photos on flicker I believe he did). I miss going out on shoots with him. I will miss running into him and hearing about all the stuff he is trying, I was sometimes even envious of his zealous. over the last few years I would run into Gunther, we would talk, and I would always feel a bounce in my step after we parted ways. Even just the sight of his van around town put a smile on my face. Our lives took very different paths, I started a family and he started a road trip.

    The last time I saw him was just before his photo show. He was more enthusiastic than I have ever seen him. I am sure he was on his way to great things. His photos have a way of making the most ordinary event into a spetical. We all have experienced the bar scene, but his photos made you feel like if you were not there you really missed something good.


    I think we should turn that van in to a museum. A traveling art show, or something like that. I can not imagine anyone else driving it. Does anyone remember the blue one he had? It was nice but the Charlie Brown one is a one of a kind classic Gunther VW Bus.

    This was a great Idea thanks to all I can not wait to read more.

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  7. Barbara, I remember the blue one. My friends Casey and Lisa still have it, I think...

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  8. Hi all,
    I have a little thing to share...
    I worked at Casa Que Pasa as a server back in the day. Gunther and Donkee were regular faces there. They never drank much, but they came in almost everyday just to kind of check in. Anyway, one time I served Donkee a drink and for a tip he gave me a Donkee buck...has anyone else ever gotten one of these? It was a little dollar bill that had Donkee's pic in the place of George Washington. It was photocopied and smaller than a dollar bill, and he had a stack of them that he handed out for tips. On the flip side of the one he gave me was written "Is that a keg in yo pants, cause I'd really like to tap that ass".
    In my life, I worked as a server for over 10 years, and this is the only tip that I still have in my possesion. Cracks me up still....

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  9. I wrote a song for Donnkie and Gunther called "See Saw Tippin' Divine." It's up on my solo page at www.myspace.com/jordanrainyogoman

    Tina and I were out on a walk two days before they disappeared and ran into them at the tail end of dusk. It was a very lucid interaction to me and I felt the need to tell them that I appreciated them. It was a very peaceful moment, for which I felt glad that I had the opportunity to experience with them before they went out to sea. They were both very dynamic individuals that I am happy to have known. They lived their lives to the fullest, and enjoyed their time here, which to me, makes their age relative. Some would say they had a short life, but I would disagree. Thinking of them and how dynamic they lived their lives makes the concept of time a mystery. A big love goes out to them and their families from me.

    This reminds me to tell my friends I love and appreciate them as often as I can while we are here together.

    -Jordan Rain/Yogoman

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  10. Alright I am finally going to post it!!

    About a month and a half ago (Around the end of May), I was down at Rumors with a couple friends. I was sitting on the bench off the dance floor, my lower back and hip were hurting pretty bad so I wasn't really enjoying myself. One of my friends (Tess) came over and gave me a hug out of sympathy and as we were pulling away from the hug my brother (Sean) slid up on the bench next to one of my other friends (Erin). I leaned over excited to see him and said hi, and introduced him to Jesika and Erin - he had already met Tess before but once he got to Tess (who had given me a hug) he reaches out to shake her hand and grabs her hand with both hands and tells her "its okay, don't worry about it, its okay, it's cool," Tess looking at me with a confused, uh oh, look. I turned to Sean and said "no-no-no-no - Sean we're not, I'm not, He kept looking at me going it's okay Jess don't worry about it, I'm okay with it, I prefer it, I won't have to worry about you as much!!!!

    OHHHH Man - Sean and I proceeded to the bar, as my brother and Kemmeth (bartender) sat there trying to convince me to be gay!! I spent a good 30 to 45 mins trying to tell them it was not going to happen. As Sean said "why not, girls are more; understanding, gental, they always have soft skin, they take care of you and themselves, they are caring and socialable and he would never have to worry about a guy hurting you or having to kick some guys ass!! Don't worry Dad wouldn't care, Mom would probably be okay with it - I'm sure the whole family would be - so why not? give it a try!!"

    Sean and Kemmeth continued to try and try and try to talk me into becoming gay or at least giving it a try,

    I finally came to the point that I had to say something different than "no - no - no" to - "Sean, I'm sorry but I don't care for the equipment they carry!!" Sean comes back with "but you can buy equipment!" Serioulsy - he did not just say that to his little sister!!!

    The next morning I call Sean to see what he was up to - he laughs and says he was pretty drunk the night before and I told him I gathered that!! He continues with - "well did you sleep on it - so you gonna give it a try?" I again told him "no" and the conversation again went down hill from there!!

    Wow - coming from my brother!!!! I couldn't believe that Kemmeth and Sean put me through that - but I will say I am still telling the story - I can't believe they did that to me - but I it was absolutly halarious and I still laugh about it everytime I tell it!

    As Tess put it that night - I could be a Testbian for week!!! But now the joke is -since her name is Tess we changed it to - Tessbian!!!
    Still have not lived that one down and I don't think I will!!!
    Thank you Sean for all the good times - I love you and I miss you with all my heart.

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  11. Now I remember a fun time with gunther, It was Erin Varners (old room mate of his) going away party (east coast bound). We or I or Sean or someone, (Dourtey, diff Sean) had a big ol PATTY CAKE. It was like fountain on a 4x4 piece of plywood, cept way better. Any hoo, It just happened to get lit on top of the chiminey just as two police cursers were comming to bust the party. The officers shouted " Turn it off!!" every one just laughed,, and waited, what seemed to be forever, and then, the sray last shot.. .. kaboom. What fun.

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  12. So this is my favorite Donnkie (i love how everyone has a different spelling) story. It was spring of 98 I think seems longer ago, but we're hiking at Baker and on the way back we spot this road gap. Donnkie and another one of us hiked up to the top to look at the run up to it which was very short, hardly enough to get speed to clear the road. Then this other guy comes over saying how it's his first day snowboarding and says '...well you have to get good sometime.' Of course none of us were going to talk him out of it and watched in half dis-belief as this guy shakely makes it off the jump and piles up on the road with a terrible sound half growl half scream. I was filming that day and got the horror on video, my friend wanted me to keep filming while the guy approached us spitting out teeth, but I just couldn't.
    Anyways even after that scene went down Donnkie went for it, because as you all know that's just what he did and to this day it was some of the best shit I saw on the mountain. Click Here for Picture

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  13. My introduction to Donnkie was at an early 2000s boardercross/slopestyle at Crystal. The day before the competition, it rained and the mt. iced over during the night. The first hit was a huge nearly vert lip to clear a decent sized table top. As the competitors gathered at the starting line, there was a hesitation as people gathered their cojones and kind of looked around to see who would guinea pig this popsicle. From somewhere in the back side of the crowd comes this guy in old yellow fisherman's overalls, a sweatshirt and a beanie, straight lining it at the hit, to then pull one of the largest and cleanest backside 7 rodeos I had ever seen, and rode a way like it was nothing. After a few breathless moments, someone asks, "OK, who's gonna follow that?". Another competitor says, "That guys not even competing!" A little later in the day I had the pleasure of meeting the guy in the overalls who was carrying two pitchers of green St. Patty's day beer, and who happened to be Sean "Donnkie" Mansfield. Struck me as a genuine and impressive individual. Condolences.

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