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This is a tough interview coming from Bobby Puleo. Because of the many conversations I've had with him over the years from everything to do with the great thinkers of the world to global conspiracy theories he has, to who the best member of the Wu Tang Clan was. Though we agree to disagree on a number of topics I still consider him one of the foremost thinkers of our time. In a simialar light Bobby reminds me of a 21st century version of Albert Pike if he were a Skater.
Much like Puleo Pike was a self educated man with ideas at the time that were so far ahead that he was seen as a Genius by some and a madman by others. Pike wrote Morals and Dogma a book that combines many mythical stories that take place through history and loosely connects stories to eachother in a way that even the most trained historian will leaves with his head spinning after the first two chapters. It's not because it makes no since but because there is almost no way to tell when Pike is writing and when he is plagiarizing an ancient mythical story being throw into the conversation to teach a moral lesson.
This how many people were educated back then but times change and though he is rembered by some as a madman he is also incase in a Mausoleum in Washington DC at the House of the Temple for the 33rd degree freemasons.
Puleo in his own way has traveled the world and become a self taught genius in the craft of skateboarding. The chapters of his book are almost undecipherable to the modern skater as the complex puzzels of spots others would never think to approach. They seemed to be made for Bobby, almost as if they found him as long as he did his part and kept lurking in the shadows drawing these diamonds out of the coal thru his illuminating process that made perfect since to him but could never be understood to the average mind. The culmination of Bobby Artwork is a very simialar process. It seems easy to explain "found art" right? The problem is that after visiting one of Bobbys art shows you realize that the art finds him he just happens to understand the universe in a way that where most are blinded by material illusion he is guided to the most ubscure places on earth to connect the dots of his complex life. Whether or not this interview destroys his skate career has no relivance in your mid thirties. The true legacy of Robert Puleo will rest with art historians 200 years from now in museums thru out the country. Much like Pike who spent his final days being taken care of by his fraternity brothers with just enough money to survive and who eventuly died pennyless only to be entombed in Americas sacred Pyramid years after his death.
So to does Bobby Puleo at the least deserve to have the respect and care of the brotherhood of skaters that reconize his devotion and contribution to the art of skateboarding. Theres a much larger world out there waiting for Bobby Puleo his Mausoleum in skateboarding will live in the minds of people who grew up listing to Wu tang watching him skate in the Infamous videos,La Luz, Static and Mad circle and said to themselves " I want to leave my shitty town in Florida and skate that dope marble shit in NYC or SF or London." Not because we wanted to take you out but because you inspried us to think differently about are surroundings and all thats out there to be explored. Thank you Bobby Puleo if this is your fair well interview for skateboarding where ever you rest and no matter how much money you dont have the ideas you sparked in thousand of street skaters across the world will never be replace with maketing money. We will always be reminded of a different time which served as a foundation for the next generation of kids to have much more than we ever thought possible thru skateboarding.
Peace Brother.
"What we do for ourselves alone dies with us ; what we do for others and the world remains and is immortal " - Albert Pike
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"I skate about 3 or 4 days a week. I gotta work now. I basically make no money from skateboarding these days. Isn't that insane?"- Bobby Puleo
