Dave Crynes: A Tribute
A tilt of the head, the eyes spark in recognition and a nonchalant, yet sincere “Hey Dude” greeted me as I walked into the room. This followed by (in my mind) a stylised and complex greeting of tribal worth and ultimately coolness with a fist punch, over tap and wry smile. I over complicate the greetings that always result upon catching up, but that’s because I’ve always felt that I wasn’t cool enough to warrant such a welcome, mostly because no one else had ever seen fit to include me in such a ritual.
I first met Dave in 2004, at Crown Casino of all places, where Katie was surreptitiously introducing me to her friends in those first few weeks to put me up to the “screening” – that is to see if I passed muster and was a suitable candidate entitled to be “the boyfriend”.
Dave sidled up to me with a: “Hi, I’m Dave, nice to meet you.”
This followed up by a more earnest: “So, what makes you a suitable sort of guy to go out with Katie?”
Rather direct really. As I got to know Dave, I recognised how highly he regarded Katie and was on the look out for her – the mere fact I got a greeting upon first meeting was actually monumental.
Catching up with Dave as we did, in different circumstances was always entertaining, as it entailed a dialogue of witty comments, astute observations and “zesty” behaviour, as Katie and I like to refer to our interesting and treasured friends. Perhaps, most importantly from my viewpoint, Dave liked to share. In all aspects – opinion, ideas and with his treasured wife Melody at his side complimenting his viewpoint – these are the over riding memories I have of the guy.
As I got to know him, Dave distinguished himself as being further unique as the props with which he relied upon were that which can be considered from any angle, geeky. He liked comics, errr excuse me “graphic novels”. He loved movies of any genre, particularly if it covered controversial subject matter which charts the human condition and the ongoing struggle with identity with which people constantly question and grapple with. Given he was a media teacher at Melbourne High School and had a avid and stalwart following of students speaks to his influence, motivations and commitment to sharing. Such a passion for the big screen transcended across to the idiot box and I have much to my pleasure, the clearly impassioned “Oh Dude, you have to watch this!” firmly emblazoned on my memories. I see it a sign of our friendship having grown over the years that this decisive statement had evolved from “What?! You haven’t seen this?!”
Dave introduced me to Firefly/Serenity, Moon, District 9. His most recent observations and go to series were “The West Wing” and “The Wire” which are on our watch list for the near future.
Recently I had the inevitable circumstance whereby I had to attend the funeral of Dave. It’s not beating around the bush to say that he met his time too early, falling prey – Dave would like that description – to the modern nemesis, Cancer. However, unlike some who meet an untimely death due to misadventure or inevitable fate, Dave is one of the very few people who I can acknowledge clearly lived life full tilt and maximised every opportunity that was in front of him. There was nothing that wasn’t too outrageous, so long as it met his own noble hallmarks of conduct – he was enjoying himself, it involved his friends and he was learning something along the way, even if it was the validity and worthiness of Star Trek on this world.
Upon reflection a month goes by quite quickly if you aren’t paying attention. As I complete this post, it is with some sadness that I reminisce that it was almost a month ago that we said farewell to Dave. We all paid tribute and our everlasting love and respect for a guy that impacted in such a positive fashion upon all of us who knew him. Dave had this inimitable style of equally lambasting his friends yet being the first in line if something was going south. This was reinforced by the eulogies that were paid in his honour and is endorsed by the long list of memories I have. The way I catalogue them stand out because of the people involved, the inspiration they invoke, the fond memories they elicit and most of all the fact that Dave was the binding force which bought them all together.
“The Subaru”: Katie and I went holidaying for a few weeks and rather than leave my car home in the driveway as thief bait, I loant it to Dave & Melody, as I knew they would enjoy it for a driving holiday. If you know me, than you will also know that 1/ I love my cars and I love driving (fanatic is an apt term) 2/ I was very proud of my Subaru, given that it was representative of fond memories of my time working for them earlier in my career.
Dave’s report back when I asked was the car okay on their holiday, which they drove to Adelaide and back was charmingly succinct: “Dude, that is the BEST car I have ever driven and I want it now. Excuse me, I like you a lot, but if I stab you and stuff you into the wheelie bin out back, I can’t be held to blame. I want your car.”
To say I was chuffed that Dave & Melody had a great break is an understatement of the highest order.
“The Bookshelves”: So the story goes thus. Dave & Melody have a beautiful house with which they have slowly been renovating, even to the extent of polishing their own floorboards (madness in my parlance – we paid someone). Melody had headed away for a few days with her work and Dave had decided to be enterprising and build floor to ceiling bookshelves to house their extensive DVD collection, movie memorabilia and every single book that each of them owned. Considering that the room he built this in has 15 foot high ceilings, it’s the type of book shelf that is so vast in size that you enter the room by walking through the structure and only upon turning around do you freak out at the sheer scale of his achievement.
Not to be outdone in his craftsmanship, Dave invited an audience of people to hang out, sink some beers and chat to him and keep him company whilst he had this bout of industriousnous. I’m envious of his carpentry skills. And commitment. And vision.
I wasn’t part of the audience to the building phase of the project, but got the full blown sensory shock & awe experience a few days later when over for dinner and Dave has done the whole smoke and mirrors “Col, check this out”. Following him like a sheep into his study, the epithets that escaped my lips when I did a 360 degree swivel are not fit for this G rated Blog. I was impressed.
“The TV”: Man it was big. Dave had a 52″ Plasma, which is fitting considering he is a movie critic and all. And adhering to his geeky roots, he had a fully specced out media centre connected, the trickest mouse/keyboard combo I’ve ever seen – no mean feat considering I’m somewhat geeky too – and his desktop background was of different Conan the Barbarian in game screen captures. I was a particular fan of the close up boob shots he would occasionally have scroll across on slide show. Classy.
When we finally caught up and got our own LCD TV at our place, Dave was over like a shot at our house 2 days later for dinner and baby sitting our infant son Noah getting right into Ice Road Truckers on Foxtel.
Because of his love of the big screen, the running joke that always met when Melody came over to visit – she is very dear friends to my wife Katie – and Dave had stayed home to do some, pick one: editing/marking/reports was his deadpan response: “I’m watching porn”. Yep and we know you were enjoying it too Dave.
“My mate Benny”: I remember meeting Ben for the first time some 8 months ago at a Christmas in July dinner, and I recall stepping back and proclaiming “BENNY! OMG I Want to shake your hand, I am honoured to meet you”. Whilst tongue in cheek to some extent, the laughter with which this was greeted by all present was a reflection of Dave’s enduring capacity to involve all his friends and the respect and thoughtfulness for those around him. Dave always spoke highly of Benny and the regard they had for each other as long term, steadfast mates is aspirational. This was reflected in my greeting as Benny’s legendary status and myth had been shamelessly fueled by the pranks and hi-jinks which Dave relished in the execution and the retelling. Dave hacking Benny’s Facebook comes to mind….
“Man Hugs”: an interesting phenomenon I’ve noted as I’ve gone through my 30′s – men start hugging each other upon greeting. Given that I had always felt unworthy of Dave’s codified spy like secret handshake manoeuvre, I spontaneously one day just hugged him. He was startled than reciprocated with the rider: “Col, I like you alot. If you would have been anyone else, you wouldn’t be standing”. From that point on, he approached hugs with gusto, and Noah got into the act too.
“Our son Noah”: Dave loved Noah. I’m not ashamed to admit that it brings tears to my eyes and makes me quite upset to recall how much Dave enjoyed Noah’s Jekyll and Hyde persona and spending time with him on numerous occasions baby sitting him. It is to my eternal regret that Noah won’t get to know Dave properly given that he is only 18 months old. I truly hope that Noah surrounds himself with people of Dave’s calibre in his future.
Dave, this post is in tribute to yourself – we have often (whilst drinking too much) conjectured on the notion of being immortalized and remembered for our achievements and what we mean to those around us. My way of tribute is to emblazon you on the web – it’s what I know and I can’t think of a more fitting person in yourself that deserves to be remembered for being one of the most fantastic guys anyone could have the privilege of knowing.
Your legacy of living life and sharing and being there for your friends will be well remembered and honoured.
Thank-you for everything you gave to everyone you knew.
Rest In Peace.
Colin.
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Thanks dude, that was really great…. and always surreal to hear the other side of the conversation in that, I was aware that Dave talked about me and somehow made me out to be a sort of Tyler Durden character. Which I don’t mean to say that I’m any kind of wild, cool anarchist at all, but rather A FIGMENT OF HIS IMAGINATION since I didn’t really have a chance to meet a lot of his other friends until fairly recently. To the point where a (now) mutual mate of ours, Big Al, simply did not believe I actually existed!
After getting to know all Dave’s other friends over the last few years it’s clear that he only attracted the finest of people and I count myself very lucky to be among them. Also, I now realise why he hid so many cool people from me – HE WAS TERRIFIED I’D STEAL YOU ALL FOR MYSELF! (something I did give him much shit about towards the end).
Anyway, I think that the old saying that ‘you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family’ is total horse shit. We make our own families and I include you guys and all of Dave’s other mates in that family too.
Cheers
Benny
RT @TheCultureMind: @dcorbs @kpaxino @stevesparke @THEmashes Dave Crynes: A Tribute http://bit.ly/adITCo
As the man himself would say – Right on RT @TheCultureMind: Dave Crynes: A Tribute http://bit.ly/adITCo
My pleasure. I’m really glad you enjoyed it and your comments around Dave are particularly insightful and spot on. Tyler Durden indeed. How does Peter Pan sit instead…. LOL. It would be fair to say that Dave was quite a collector and I like yourself count myself as terrifically lucky that he thought we could all share the same planet as him. He kept us all separate, because he watched too many movies and his belief was that bringing too many egos like ours would be like crossing the streams:
“There’s something very important I forgot to tell you. Don’t cross the streams… It would be bad… Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.”
—Egon Spengler on crossing proton streams
That’s a lovely piece Colin.
There’s something I feel hasn’t been said about Dave and his movie watching proclivities that I wish to share here. Sure, there’s high-brow ‘film’ Dave. Media teacher Dave. Arthouse Dave.
BUT
There is also an infamous night where he showed up at my place with a case of beer and a bootlegged copy of the (then) unreleased sequel to Jackass…. Jackass 2!!!!!. Jump forward 2 hours later and I find myself running at top speed down a hill pushing a discarded safeway trolley with Dave inside aimed directly at the curb at the bottom of the hill with no signs of slowing down. The trolley slammed into the curb. I slammed into the trolley and Dave went flying into the nearby playground!
I suppose you COULD say it was life imitating art….
Colin,
You’re a goddamn blessing to this existence.
In his words – “Right on”.
S.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Colin Yeung and Steve Sparke, Kelly Paxino. Kelly Paxino said: RT @TheCultureMind: @dcorbs @kpaxino @stevesparke @THEmashes Dave Crynes: A Tribute http://bit.ly/adITCo [...]
HA! He stole ‘Right on’ From ME! ….. and I stole it from Kevin Smith!!!!!!! That’s hilariously awesome!!!!
Beautiful piece. Dave was one of the coolest guys I ever had the pleasure of hanging out with, and reading these recollections is like getting to know him better. Thank you.
He stole it from you?? That cheeky prick!
this is why he kept us apart! HE WAS USING MY MATERIAL!!!!!
Nah, it’s cool. I just find it awesomely funny he’s now known for saying something that he stole from me that I stole from someone else!!!
The irony is, he GAVE me the thing I stole it from. He loaned me his copy of ‘An Evening With Kevin Smith’ and he says it all the time. I was so impressed I immediately uploaded it into my lexicon and have said it ever since.
Thanks Mark;
Thanks Sparky;
Thanks Lee;
So I thought I’d wait until reading this didn’t make me weepy before trying to leave an intelligent comment, but I get the feeling that I’m waiting for a day that will never come.
Not having Dave around totally sucks balls, but I like that thinking about Dave still brings with it a feeling of grief and loss and honestly, I welcome that. It means that Dave is still a part of my day and still has influence over my life: the more acutely I feel Dave’s absence, the more i’m acknowledging and celebrating how awesome Dave was/is. It seems like talking about Dave is a taboo subject with some of his friends and family. I realise that everyone deals with things differently and there are many people who were closer to Dave than I was, but I love that I think about Dave everyday and I want to be able to share that with everyone.
So yeah, thanks Colin, for sharing some of your thoughts and celebrations of Dave’s awesomeness. There will always be hole where Dave’s rad-ness was: it’s really cool to be able to reflect on the silver lining it left behind.
Kel,
I read this, when you first posted it, and to be honest, I was somewhat floored and didn’t really know what to write back, without being sad, dispondant and generally a heffalump. This is in part due to having a 2 year old and 10 week old who are chipping away at my sanity cells within the sleep cycle and more immediately that in recent times I’ve been missing Dave and his care and attention that he gave Noah and I know he would have extended to Luci. Part of this missing Dave is that a memory I recalled with a great deal of loss was last week when I was putting Noah to bed and reading him a couple of bedtime stories. He had “No bed without Ted” and then followed by “Where’s Spot?” and for some reason, whether it was my tiredness or the play of light on young Noah’s little head, I was immediately transported back to a time when Dave was baby sitting Noah and reading him the same books. It made me sad. But re-reading your status, makes me realise that I should be sad, because as you say, he means and continues to play an important part in our lives. Just kick me in the shins if I ever forget this. I will welcome such an event. Now, I’m going to pour myself a scotch. Be well, see you soon, either at Grumpy’s (I’m hoping to make an appearance soon) or at Dan’s or/and Ben’s 30th.
Cheers,
CY