The beautiful mind of Earl Parker
I remember the day I first met Earl Parker back when I started out working for Big Brother magazine in 1992. The day I showed up for work to get to know everyone—mainly to get some film—that’s when Jeff Tremaine had Earl take me over to South Bay Photo. I couldn’t help but notice that Earl was a little different. When driving in his car to get the film, Earl had made a bong that was attached to the driver side door with a hose that would reach to his mouth, and he would smoke pot while he was driving his car. He would be packing weed, trying to light the bowl, taking hits, and steering his car at the same time. It was crazy! I looked over at him kind of confused and said something like, “Shouldn’t we just wait until we get there to get high?” Not for Earl. When he wanted to do something he pretty much did whatever he felt like doing, which usually was the case because he was a free-spirited individual.
There’s one thing I had in common with Earl: We both shared a passion for photography. Earl would always talk about becoming the master at street photography, like being able to shoot pictures without anyone knowing their picture was being taken. Earl also seemed to have some knowledge about what cameras to use to get the best photo when shooting covert-style.
For some reason though, Earl was never able to keep anything for long. He’s very careless and would always lose everything—even his camera. All that nonsense happened like 20 years ago, but when jackassworld.com was still around, Jeff and I bought Earl a digital camera. When he opened the gift his eyes lit up and was really excited! This was the first camera he’d had in over five years and he was ready to hit the streets again.
I really have no way to describe his shooting style or anyone that I could compare him to, but I know he really likes to take pictures of buildings, street signs, bums sleeping, girls’ behinds, and anything with a lot of color. He also has a good eye for composition and can capture some great images, but he usually ends up burning out and giving up.
When I started filming this short video on Earl it was right before I started making jackass 3D, so I had to stop and put all my energy into making the movie and shelve the project for a while. Now that I have more free time, I’ve decided to open up the files again and finish what I started out to do: Show you the beautiful mind of Earl Parker.
Music by Joe Mora.
He has a nice thinking in taking photos. And he know many tricks in getting a good result.
handy ortung
Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch since I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
adjustable mattress
I've only spoke with Earl on a few brief occasions and one thing that definitely stands out is his gentle frame and amazing/quirky mindset on matters. Even though our conversations were brief I picked up on a man who is passionate in his own introverted way. While his conversational abilities could be considered as a lack of focus on the topic at hand he really is speaking on point about the subject matter, whatever it may be. Just takes a listening ear, desire to hear him out and and the ability to follow the context in which he is speaking. Earl can be hard to follow at times, but when he speaks he speaks from his own personal brand of wisdom, though it may be odd to others it's exactly what makes Earl - Earl and one must appreciate that there really isn't any like him in that sense. The more you listen the more you see and understand his plight and eclectic wisdom through the many roads he's walked (good and bad) in life. Earl has a vast knowledge of life in a way that many don't understand or experience... ever... period.
I really don’t expect any of you to understand what Earl Parker is all about.