He taught me a lot, showed lots of support and has been one of those friends you couldn’t ask for more for. Happy Birthday, Casey P.
Look at that GQ dude on the left. That’s Casey Palmer, aka Doomsdayblaze. He was one of the first people I wrote rhymes with on the internet, back in 2002 or so. We were on LiveJournal and he was a funny guy who had hilarious punchlines and was quite inspirational in keeping me writing. At one point we had the group name of ‘Mic Wreckahs’ alongside our friend George who went by Lunz at the time (now Tubbz).
He was the first person to tell me to push through the pain barrier when writing, the first person to follow me on Tumblr, the first person to encourage me recording and offer advice, and always an open ear. In 2004, he visited the UK as part of a travel around Europe thing, and we went to a few clubs, and he encouraged the ethos of dance as though no-one’s watching. We did, and we got a whole crowd involved. It was a party, partly from people who wanted to take a stab at bboying, partly from people who were just surprised to see such enthusiasm and energy on a dance floor in London. If you’ve ever seen Brits at a gig, its like hipsters at the Bowery - standing still, not moving, barely clapping etc. - that’s how we are on dance floors too.
In 2004 we hung out, and it was every bit as it had seemed online. We were great friends in both worlds. That’s when I started to close the gap between Internet friendships and ‘real life’ friendships. They were all real life, its just some people lived further away than others. They still do.
In 2006, Casey flew to Los Angeles, along with a few other friends (Cheryl, Maz, Christiana, Maria, Khalid) to join Ryan, Jeanne, Charles, Matt and more in celebrating my 21st birthday, and it was a brilliant birthday. I still owe Casey a trip to Canada. I have to go visit because he’s made two excellent trips and I owe him.
Khalid’s the guy I stay with in New York. A great support and I’ll be seeing him soon. Maria’s off everyone’s radar now. Christiana is celebrating her birthday in NYC in October whilst I’m there. Cheryl and Maz are Brits who I don’t really see as often as I used to - we drifted apart somewhat, musically and friends wise. That’s OK. There’s no ill feelings.
One time, whilst I was at University, I went on this epic bar crawl near my University. There were about 10-12 pubs and bars all with student discounts along this stretch of road between Borough and Elephant and Castle. They weren’t great bars, but it was cheap. For some reason, when trying to get home, I was a little lost and I picked up my phone and called old reliable Casey. Except he was back in Canada. I apparently have made a habit out of calling internationally now, be it Sara, Khalid, MB or others of you. I just like your voices.
Anyway, this good looking dude is celebrating his birthday today, and I’m just overjoyed to have met him and read his rhymes, read his comics (http://doomsdayblaze.com) and enjoyed him as a person (nohomo). Happy Birthday, Casey.
On top of all this, he’s a huge Capcom fan and a lover of Mega Man.
You can’t argue with that. Happy Birthday Casey!
