DANIEL BLUE: MEET RYAN WALLING >>>

Ryan Walling is my cousin. He has lived in Tacoma longer than I have. I remember visiting his house on the eastside when I was a kid. Ryan taught the younger cousin boys (me, Mike, and Zac) how to skate on the half pipe in his backyard. His father, my mother's brother Mike, let me borrow his skateboard and I dropped in from the top within the first day. I think I was 10. I remember that my uncle was building an airplane in the garage - no shit.   

Ryan just grew up cooler than us other kids.  Snowboarding, girls, music, most everything we wanted he got to first and mastered.  Here he is pictured with his iPhone, which he acquired before I purchased mine. 

Ryan runs marathons for fun. Sometimes you can see him, like a picture out of NICE BODY magazine, jogging around downtown with sweat glistening of his well-tanned shirtless stacks of muscles. 

Currently Ryan works for the City of Tacoma in the water division of our public utilities. 

He just purchased a black Ducati Monster "naked" motorcycle, which is faster and more attractive than anything made in America. 

Somehow Ryan achieves all of this coolness without being a douche bag, not even just a little bit.  He is nice and gentle with his words, as if he actually gave a damn about your touchy-feely art world.  Maybe its cause we are family.

LINK: The Tacoma Files archive