r.i.p. hunter ward
this is kind of long, i'm sorry. i just realized that i had a lot more to say than i initially thought.
this is truly something about as unexpected as i could have ever imagined. i don't know if too many of my friends ever even knew hunter, but the few that did could attest to what an amazing and hilarious guy he was. it feels terrible to have to use the past tense now. i don't know what happened to him at this point, i literally just found out about 5 minutes ago, and i'm sure that posting a bulletin on myspace about a friend dying is somewhat pointless, but i suppose it has come to this nowadays.
hunter was probably the first really "cool" guy i ever met that ever treated me with respect. when i was about 18/19, i used to go to vinal edge records all the time and hunter would always be behind the counter, cracking jokes, recommending records, and being a great big goofball. hunter had a strange sense of humor that record store nerds could instantly recognize and relate to. forget the movie HIGH FIDELITY, hunter was the real life incarnate of all the possible "record store guy" cliches wrapped into one, yet he far surpassed all the expected things that one could say about such people in the first place.
hunter loved just about every single type of music you coudl ever imagine and he actually had an encyclopedic memory when it came to talking to anyone about all the music that he had ever cared for in his life. buying, selling, and actually making music was such an integral part of hunter's life, it is really difficult for me to see him beyond the realm of someone who just ALWAYS seemed to be having a good time with something that involved it. come to think of it, almost every single moment i ever spent with hunter had something to do with music and there is nothing wrong with that at all.
looking back on all the moments that i did get to share with hunter, i recall several that just involved us driving around and talking. on one occasion, me and him drove to austin a couple of years ago to see the butthole surfers. i remember drivign late to hunter's mother's house, where he was still living at the time, and talking to his mother for a while. hunter had not come back because he was selling a car at the time and i remember his mother's enthusiasm when she told me that he was about to pull off a sale. she had the same type of excitement in her eyes that hunter had whenever he was really into something. when hunter finally got home and we left for austin, it was nearly 9:30 and we high-tailed it across texas to get to austin by midnight. on the drive there, we listened to rap music and thrash music and later on, hunter put the music down and just started talking about his life. i can't honestly say that i remember everything that he told me, but i remember that i felt good just listening to him speak. its not often that he would talk about things beyond what he was listening to at the time, but at that moment, maybe something got to him and he started talking to me about his life.
one thing that most people who have known hunter can say is that he initally came off headstrong and cocky, which is certainly a valid observation if you've only met him one time. however, underneath that facade, hunter was an incredibly humble and hardworking person who had many faults that he was never afraid to admit to. he knew he had certain things wrong with him just like everyone else and even though he might not have readily admitted it to many people, those who knew him could just tell where exactly his heart was at.
whenever me and hunter made it to the show, it was kind of awful. overcrowded, super hot, just very exhausting and this was before the band had even come on stage. within the first 20 minutes of the show, i realized that i had become extremely dehydrated and i almost passed out and had to limp to the bar to drink water. i figured that hunter would just keep on watching the show and find me later, but when i looked up from the bar, he was right behind me and he asked me what was wrong. when i told that i had nearly passed out and vomitted, he looked concerned. when i asked him if we coudl leave, i expected him to get kinda mad, since the band had only played for about 25 minutes and he had driven 3 hours to get here, but he just said, "Sure, no problem dude. i already got my shirt and i've seen the band like 20 times." TYPICAL hunter non-chalance that gave me such a sigh of relief that it actually made me feel even better about him, because he really did care more about the well being of his friend than about the show that he was missing. this memory of hunter means more to me now than it did at the time it happened. it just now hits me how much of a caring individual hunter actually was when it came down to it. reliable and thoughtful, even with his quirks.
me and hunter lived over 35 miles away from each other, but he made the trek over to my neck of the woods several times to just hang out. nothing else. he said he didnt mind the drive because he could listen to music and he really didn't seem to care if it ended up taking him close to an hour to get to my house. i only ever went over to hang out with him while he still lived with his mom, but i'm glad i was able to return the favor because i truly never had a dull moment hanging out with him or going record shopping with him.
he might have been a loud person at times, with a big mouth, but it was always so he could strike up a conversation with anyone in the vicinity who might have happened to over hear his words. i've seen hunter smooth talk his way through even the most painful conversations with an ease that seemed characteristic only after you had gotten to know him well him enough. he was one of those people who really did have that innate savoir faire that you can only see in movies...and only the GOOD ones.
one thing about hunter that i hope to hold on to forever is his ability to get a laugh out of you. he really was one of the funniest people i've ever known in my life and just getting the chance to talk to him and chris and chuck at vinal edge was actualyl what drove me to go there all the time because i coudl always get a lift from just beign around him and listenign to his jokes. hunter had the ability to basically "stack" one joke on top of another and keep going with it as far as possible. i remembe driving him around once and he started telling me a joke about how stupid he thought "so a ___ walks into a bar" jokes were and he just kept on adding onto it, essentialyl stretching a 1 minute tirade into an epic 10 minute joke that nearly caused me to wreck my car because i was laughing so hard that my eyes had begun to tear up. hunter never lost this gift, it was just one of his many things that i grew to appreciate from him. he could NEVER bum you out, it was like it wasn't in his protocol as a human being.
i feel terribly strange writing these words right now, as its been a long long time since the last time that a friend had passed away and this hits home right now about how important friendships can actually be. you never truly know when your time (or that of your friends) will come and this is a sad reminder to me to embrace every single moment that you can with all the people in your life.
rather than end on such an apparently "profound" statement, i'd rather share a very nerdy joke that he told me. back when he still worked at the edge, he told me about the time that they had ordered a second computer to help catalogue some of the music that was in the store. when the computer had arrived, he had begun to set it out and realized that he didn't know where to put it, so he basically grabbed the new computer and placed it across from the old one, so that they were facing each other. the other person in the store asked him how he was going to be able to use both of the computers, hunter simply said, "oh it's cool, don't worry, i'll just be like rick wakeman" and he twisted his arms in a pretzle and began typing on both computer keyboards at the same time while looking straight ahead, in typical prog rock fashion. i don't know why i remember that specific thing about hunter, but it cracks me up everytime i think about it and i think that that is how he would have probably wanted everyone else to remember him by as well.
hunter, rest in peace, dude....and in pieces (sorry, i had to throw in the obligatory metal reference)
this is truly something about as unexpected as i could have ever imagined. i don't know if too many of my friends ever even knew hunter, but the few that did could attest to what an amazing and hilarious guy he was. it feels terrible to have to use the past tense now. i don't know what happened to him at this point, i literally just found out about 5 minutes ago, and i'm sure that posting a bulletin on myspace about a friend dying is somewhat pointless, but i suppose it has come to this nowadays.
hunter was probably the first really "cool" guy i ever met that ever treated me with respect. when i was about 18/19, i used to go to vinal edge records all the time and hunter would always be behind the counter, cracking jokes, recommending records, and being a great big goofball. hunter had a strange sense of humor that record store nerds could instantly recognize and relate to. forget the movie HIGH FIDELITY, hunter was the real life incarnate of all the possible "record store guy" cliches wrapped into one, yet he far surpassed all the expected things that one could say about such people in the first place.
hunter loved just about every single type of music you coudl ever imagine and he actually had an encyclopedic memory when it came to talking to anyone about all the music that he had ever cared for in his life. buying, selling, and actually making music was such an integral part of hunter's life, it is really difficult for me to see him beyond the realm of someone who just ALWAYS seemed to be having a good time with something that involved it. come to think of it, almost every single moment i ever spent with hunter had something to do with music and there is nothing wrong with that at all.
looking back on all the moments that i did get to share with hunter, i recall several that just involved us driving around and talking. on one occasion, me and him drove to austin a couple of years ago to see the butthole surfers. i remember drivign late to hunter's mother's house, where he was still living at the time, and talking to his mother for a while. hunter had not come back because he was selling a car at the time and i remember his mother's enthusiasm when she told me that he was about to pull off a sale. she had the same type of excitement in her eyes that hunter had whenever he was really into something. when hunter finally got home and we left for austin, it was nearly 9:30 and we high-tailed it across texas to get to austin by midnight. on the drive there, we listened to rap music and thrash music and later on, hunter put the music down and just started talking about his life. i can't honestly say that i remember everything that he told me, but i remember that i felt good just listening to him speak. its not often that he would talk about things beyond what he was listening to at the time, but at that moment, maybe something got to him and he started talking to me about his life.
one thing that most people who have known hunter can say is that he initally came off headstrong and cocky, which is certainly a valid observation if you've only met him one time. however, underneath that facade, hunter was an incredibly humble and hardworking person who had many faults that he was never afraid to admit to. he knew he had certain things wrong with him just like everyone else and even though he might not have readily admitted it to many people, those who knew him could just tell where exactly his heart was at.
whenever me and hunter made it to the show, it was kind of awful. overcrowded, super hot, just very exhausting and this was before the band had even come on stage. within the first 20 minutes of the show, i realized that i had become extremely dehydrated and i almost passed out and had to limp to the bar to drink water. i figured that hunter would just keep on watching the show and find me later, but when i looked up from the bar, he was right behind me and he asked me what was wrong. when i told that i had nearly passed out and vomitted, he looked concerned. when i asked him if we coudl leave, i expected him to get kinda mad, since the band had only played for about 25 minutes and he had driven 3 hours to get here, but he just said, "Sure, no problem dude. i already got my shirt and i've seen the band like 20 times." TYPICAL hunter non-chalance that gave me such a sigh of relief that it actually made me feel even better about him, because he really did care more about the well being of his friend than about the show that he was missing. this memory of hunter means more to me now than it did at the time it happened. it just now hits me how much of a caring individual hunter actually was when it came down to it. reliable and thoughtful, even with his quirks.
me and hunter lived over 35 miles away from each other, but he made the trek over to my neck of the woods several times to just hang out. nothing else. he said he didnt mind the drive because he could listen to music and he really didn't seem to care if it ended up taking him close to an hour to get to my house. i only ever went over to hang out with him while he still lived with his mom, but i'm glad i was able to return the favor because i truly never had a dull moment hanging out with him or going record shopping with him.
he might have been a loud person at times, with a big mouth, but it was always so he could strike up a conversation with anyone in the vicinity who might have happened to over hear his words. i've seen hunter smooth talk his way through even the most painful conversations with an ease that seemed characteristic only after you had gotten to know him well him enough. he was one of those people who really did have that innate savoir faire that you can only see in movies...and only the GOOD ones.
one thing about hunter that i hope to hold on to forever is his ability to get a laugh out of you. he really was one of the funniest people i've ever known in my life and just getting the chance to talk to him and chris and chuck at vinal edge was actualyl what drove me to go there all the time because i coudl always get a lift from just beign around him and listenign to his jokes. hunter had the ability to basically "stack" one joke on top of another and keep going with it as far as possible. i remembe driving him around once and he started telling me a joke about how stupid he thought "so a ___ walks into a bar" jokes were and he just kept on adding onto it, essentialyl stretching a 1 minute tirade into an epic 10 minute joke that nearly caused me to wreck my car because i was laughing so hard that my eyes had begun to tear up. hunter never lost this gift, it was just one of his many things that i grew to appreciate from him. he could NEVER bum you out, it was like it wasn't in his protocol as a human being.
i feel terribly strange writing these words right now, as its been a long long time since the last time that a friend had passed away and this hits home right now about how important friendships can actually be. you never truly know when your time (or that of your friends) will come and this is a sad reminder to me to embrace every single moment that you can with all the people in your life.
rather than end on such an apparently "profound" statement, i'd rather share a very nerdy joke that he told me. back when he still worked at the edge, he told me about the time that they had ordered a second computer to help catalogue some of the music that was in the store. when the computer had arrived, he had begun to set it out and realized that he didn't know where to put it, so he basically grabbed the new computer and placed it across from the old one, so that they were facing each other. the other person in the store asked him how he was going to be able to use both of the computers, hunter simply said, "oh it's cool, don't worry, i'll just be like rick wakeman" and he twisted his arms in a pretzle and began typing on both computer keyboards at the same time while looking straight ahead, in typical prog rock fashion. i don't know why i remember that specific thing about hunter, but it cracks me up everytime i think about it and i think that that is how he would have probably wanted everyone else to remember him by as well.
hunter, rest in peace, dude....and in pieces (sorry, i had to throw in the obligatory metal reference)