Smoke Out Rally 9

Titled a Book's Cover an art project done this December of the Smoke Out Rally 9 held at Farmington Motorsports Park NC this past summer. Enjoy.

Side Bar: Danny “Chocolate” Myers

Today's drivers are seemingly mundane and NASCAR controlled. On a talk show they line up with all of their parts in their hair the same direction and all of their expensive shirt ironed just right; never speaking out of turn and never without a seemingly scripted line. The driver's fathers and grandfathers that paved the way for NASCAR were loud mouthed, witty, charming and full of life. If you told them how to act or dress you had better be armed. Men like Ralph Earnhardt, "Fireball" Roberts, Cale Yarborough and Chocolate's dad and uncle: The Myer's brothers whom the awards ceremony is named after.

Chocolate's dad died in 1957 at the Southern 500. His father raced cars with nothing more than a strap for a seat beat and the only rules for protective clothing were blue jeans. He was a character and everyone knew him by his smile and charm. Chocolate is an apple that did not fall too far. His fame is self generated and nothing has been handed to him. "If I weren't with Richard Childress Racing I don't know where I'd be."

The large bearded and dark skinned man that stands tall over the suited men and dressed up woman of the banquet hall is not an unfamiliar face to this room. His nickname Chocolate came from his little league football coach in Winston-Salem, N.C. "You know I've always had a dark complection," says Chocolate on a phone interview he conducted while driving home from his XM radio show last Tuesday, "I went out for a catch one time and my coach yelled out, 'get it chocolate drop,'… it stuck every since."

Chocolate now can be seen as you enter the RCR racing Museum in Welcome, N.C. He operates it from a back office he rarely visits because the opportunities he has free he stand and greats as many fans as possible, "I want to be able to show the outside people the inside of the sport," said Chocolate, "I enjoy talking to the people, the fans." But you cannot find him between the hours or 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. weekdays because of his XM Satellite radio show he hosts. But Chocolate's fame did not come from selling T-shirts and keeping listeners entertained but from just simply refueling a race car.

Chocolate's fame started from his role as gas man for the No. 3 Chevrolet driven by the Intimidator, Dale Earnhardt Senior. Most fans recognize driver's names and faces but very few could tell you who their favorite driver's gas man is. Fame and popularity are not words written in a gas man's job description. But Chocolate is the type of man old racing stories are made of, a man that when he enters the room you knew he was coming because you could here him laughing before he made it to the door.

Chocolate told Rea McLeroy with the
Times-Dispatch, "Bobby Allison told me a long time ago that every autograph is a compliment," he continued. "Even when you're tired and disgusted and wore out, if somebody asks you, you've just got to sit and think if it weren't for these people I wouldn't be doing this. I feel very blessed."

Childress once told Chocolate, "I can't make you rich but I can make you famous." He has been with Childress for 24 years now but not every bit of it has been easy or fun. Chocolate is known for his parting and biker persona. Some articles say he had a problem with partying but he begs to differ, "I have never had a problem but I have not drank for," he pauses to think, "Seventeen years now." He will occasionally thanks to Childress's winery have some wine every now and then, "I might sip on wine at Richard's winery," but he insists on Richard's wine will do.

The best advice Chocolate every got was, "Never give up," which is something he learned from Childress. Also, "You can't solve a problem with a problem," but he can't remember who told him that one.

Childress winning the Humanitarian Award meant almost as much to Chocolate as it did him. "I feel like I'm a part of it it's very humbling," he continued, "It was Childress's money but he is able to do these things because of the success we had with the No. 3 car."

Chocolate's proudest moment was RCR's win at the Southern 500 at Darlington, the track his father died at. "You know I grew up dreaming to be a race car driver and win that race for my dad," he continued by saying he had come to a point like so many people do where he realizes he will not be able to complete his dream like he initially planned. "But to be with the team when we won that race, it meant a lot to me," said Chocolate.

Chocolate is 60 now and looks back on his life with no real regrets. "Just proud of what I've been capable of," he said with a slowed and concentrated voice, it was from the heart, "You know I've had a dang good time."

Photos Courtesy of DaleEarnhardt.net

Myer's Brother's Awards Ceremony Recap

First bit of multimedia for the up coming final copy of the feature article about Richard Childress and his winning of the Humanitarian Award. Enjoy!

A, B, C and hopefully not D

Okay, so I’ll give you a break this time. Hopefully it won’t take you 7:46 minutes to read this, were it was 7:46 minutes to watch me babble on. I just returned from the Alpha Phi Omega Co-ed Service fraternity fall camping trip and…..not ready to get back to work.

But unfortunately I have to. So my profile is off to a slow and late start like so many things I work on. I have a couple back up plans, but there is a reason they are my back up plans – I don’t want to do them. Brian Cleary told me during my internship about how he prepares for one of the specific features (Chow/restaurant review or Tunes/music review; for instance). He prepares with an A, B, C and when he can a D plan. “Trust me I had to use that D plan once,” is what he said to me.

So back to my A story – I walked into the Café the other day with a camera around my shoulder. A worker approached me and asked me some awkward questions about my photography experience. It was a little weird at first; only because of how he phrased his word, “So! You think you’re a photographer….huh?!” He began to tell me of what he photographs: Ghosts. “I mean full images of [figures], head to toe. Where others will only do parts,” he said using some terminology that made him seem legit.
We had just finished the story about a journalist following some ghost hunters. It flashed into my head for only a second, but I did not want to do it at the time, for minuscule reasons.

He is going to be talkative about stuff I will be skeptical to believe – it comes with the territory of being a journalist. All in all this will be a learning experience. If and only if, I can find this guy in time. I left in such a hurry for this weekend I did not have time to try and find him, but that’s what back up plans are for. Let’s just hope I don’t reach D this time.

What's Going On

ART 220

This is unrelated to Feature Writing but I wanted to show it anyway. The images are far more detailed than the video can show. I will make a post for this week, later.
These are my letters of the project "Remember the 90's" Alphabet Book.

Class Work

“Don’t take any wooden nickels, was the best advice I have ever heard,” said Patrick Devine. His grandfather told him this when he was a child. The meaning is obvious, don’t get ripped off but for Patrick he sees it differently; “It’s not really the meaning that means something. It’s just funny,” he says with a laugh.
This surfer music man considers Dave Chappell, Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan and Barack Obama as his heroes and ends everything thing with a smile and a laugh. Patrick, is a senior at High Point University majoring in English wants to, “Change the world,” when he graduates; but his greatest obstacles at the moment is just that: graduating. His friends consider him as easy going and opinionated but Patrick does not see himself the same way, “Silly… and extremely serious,” she says with a laugh of sarcasm.
If he had to choice a job, he wants to be involved in music. He plays the piano, electric guitar as well as the harmonica. Everything about Patrick is a hodgepodge of different ideas.
He picked up the guitar in high school with no real pressure for his parents considering his mother is a elementary school music teacher.
“My father, though, he kind of introduced me to a lot of music. Not playing just the music,” says Patrick whose favorite song is, All Along the Watchtower, by Jimi Hendricks, “Not Dylan’s version.” He makes sure to specify. Because like few Patrick knew that Bob Dylan wrote and recorded the original version.
As for Patrick the destination of a musical career is not the most important thing at the moment for him, “Finishing Research Methods class right now is.”

ART Project

The letters I did for an ART 220 project. Excuse me using the Feature Writing Blog, but I kind of like this project. I will load more soon a long with blogs on Feature class.

Portfolio

Excuse the hair

Latest post please excuse the lack of shaving and bed head.