Dave Carnie
- Text by Alex King
To celebrate Huck 45, curated by artist, skateboarder and chronicler of teenage California Ed Templeton, we are having a Huck website summer takeover dedicated to Ed’s longtime muse, suburbia.
In this regular series, the Suburban Youth Pop Quiz, we ask characters from our world what their suburban youth meant to them.
Number seven is writer, photographer and editor-at-large at King Shit Skateboard Magazine Dave Carnie. Back in the ’90s/early ’00s, Dave was an editor at the era-defining Big Brother magazine where he once shipped mags in cereal boxes, helped give birth to the phenomenon that became Jackass and did his very best to piss off middle America (an art he still excels at).
Where did you grow up and can you describe it in three words?
California. Bay Area. Foster City, then Cupertino, then San Francisco. And, no, I cannot describe it in three words. I could probably describe it in maybe four, or five words, I’d probably need even more than that even, like nine, but there’s no way I can describe anything in only three words. Fuck that shit.
Who was your weirdest neighbour?
The Ha family. My friend Pete, the middle Ha boy, jacked off his cat, Herky, by tickling its balls with two fingers. Among other things.
What was the most important record you owned?
Big Black.
Where did the bad kids hang out?
The Fuck Hole. It was a tunnel for the creek that ran alongside the railroad tracks that went to the cement factory. There was also a rope swing.
Biggest fashion faux pas as a teenager?
I still Wham my pants.
Who was your first celebrity crush?
Ronald Reagan was dreamy.
Describe your first kiss.
I only do anal.
What happened the first time you got drunk?
I’m still drunk.
What is the naughtiest thing you did as a suburban youth?
So many to choose from. I’m going to nominate: I pooped on a neighbour’s car windshield.
What was the best party of your teenage years?
The Meth Amphetamine Anal Sex Jamboree.
What’s your most embarrassing suburban youth memory?
Watching my friend Pete jack off his cat.
What was the greatest lesson you learnt during that time?
That you can jack off a cat. And you don’t need to stop at stop signs in mall parking lots.
Who would you most like to see at a reunion?
Herky, the cat that Pete jacked off.
What was your first car?
After the banana boards, my first real skateboard was a Powell Peralta General Issue. It was a blue board with yellow bombs all over it. I made the mistake of outfitting it with Tracker trucks.
What was your food of choice?
Buttholes.
What was the biggest fight you ever had with your parents?
Probably the time I murdered them and hacked up their bodies with a spoon when they confronted me about pooping on the neighbour’s car windshield. That was a real hullabaloo.
What book/film changed your teenage life?
The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Butt Sex.
What posters did you have on your bedroom wall?
Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, Pol Pot, Richard Ramirez, Hello Kitty, some guy with a moustache wearing a Speedo next to a Ferrari, and Joseph Stalin.
Any hobbies you didn’t give up?
I still enjoy pooping on car windshields.
What smell reminds you most of the suburbs?
Farts.
See other interviews in the Suburban Pop Youth Quiz series and buy the Ed Templeton issue at our online store.
Latest on Huck
In a city of rapid gentrification, one south London estate stands firm
A Portrait of Central Hill — Social housing is under threat across the British capital. But residents of the Central Hill estate in Crystal Palace are determined to save their homes, and their community.
Written by: Alex King
Analogue Appreciation: Maria Teriaeva’s five pieces that remind her of home
From Sayan to Savoie — In an ever more digital, online world, we ask our favourite artists about their most cherished pieces of physical culture. First up, the Siberian-born, Paris-based composer and synthesist.
Written by: Maria Teriaeva
Petition to save the Prince Charles Cinema signed by over 100,000 people in a day
PCC forever — The Soho institution has claimed its landlord, Zedwell LSQ Ltd, is demanding the insertion of a break clause that would leave it “under permanent threat of closure”.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Remembering Taboo, the party that reshaped ’80s London nightlife
Glitter on the floor — Curators Martin Green and NJ Stevenson revisit Leigh Bowery’s legendary night, a space for wild expression that reimagined partying and fashion.
Written by: Cyna Mirzai
A timeless, dynamic view of the Highland Games
Long Walk Home — Robbie Lawrence travelled to the historic sporting events across Scotland and the USA, hoping to learn about cultural nationalism. He ended up capturing a wholesome, analogue experience rarely found in the modern age.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The rave salvaging toilets for London’s queers
Happy Endings — Public bathrooms have long been contested spaces for LGBTQ+ communities, and rising transphobia is seeing them come under scrutiny. With the infamous rave-in-a-bog at an east London institution, its party-goers are claiming them for their own.
Written by: Ben Smoke