Six Years...

Goodbye until the next hello. It was the best.

Progress?

2 More Months...

For now tide yourself over with the '89 All Star game intro featuring Kool Keith.

Homework

Eastern Exposure Zero.
Drake Jones' noseslide.
Keenan.
Jerry Fisher.
Oyola.

25th and Talmadge

Sensitivity, and the Ambivalent Hipsters

You can't keep him down-our very own Sam McGuire is helping Malto get all sensitive and shit over at Crailtap. By the way, click the Sam link; he finally updated his shit with the uber-sensi black and white porta-party. Feel the feelings!

Onwards. Call a hipster a hipster and they deny it. Same goes for the scenester (an issue brought up by a brave anonymous commenter). But is the hipster really the dead end of Western Civilization? Is it time for some soul searching? Does it really even matter? How is this even relevant to Adbusters (it might be?)? Time for more soul searching brah. At least there was no mention of skateboarding in there, though...

Since I haven't put it in the links section for some incredibly lazy reason, as a friendly reminder, ya'll should be looking at Boil the Ocean frequently. Ok?

I've randomly been posting a lot of Sk8 Mafia related shit, so, why not? here's another video from them. It must be said, post-Predator ass lookin' Brandon Turner has been consistently rad.

More From There

Weekend At Verms from Don The Jewler on Vimeo. Pretty typical of the HQ. Might be old, but it's pertinent.
Old 3rd Randoms from Don The Jewler on Vimeo. Some winter foote. Maybe the last time I backsmithed a bar ever. I don't know. That period was midway through Weekend Warriors filming.

The Ground Used To Be Good

Damiano, skateboarding needs you back.

Flip Flops and Socks

Be at SLP Park Sunday night at five for some bro-down and taco-up. In fact, go there just for the tacos, they're that good. Then the shit hits the fan with that Red Wave Challenge. Milwaukee or no Milwaukee? Did Tom Rohrer already win by default (you saw Boondoggle right?), is the wave slightly stretched for more shredability? We need answers people!

Oh yeah dude, Boondoggle. The Oak Street Cinema was standing room only; I don't think I've seen it that full for any other premiere. The crowd was super into everything, even a couple of weird and or a bit overly long promos prior to the video. They were good sports and I just say they were overly long before they were. Use the Meyer Rule of Excellence For Promos and have those things 30 seconds max, especially since they were a bit avante garde (or just weird). But funny too, don't get me wrong. Either way the video ripped (fully better than expected and I was expecting it to rip) and you should go to the shop and buy it. Maybe some sort of full review once I get my own copy.

Saturday then pretty much went trans-dimensional when I kicked the soccer ball off the roof and returned with a beer bong. I'm gonna get whoever deflated the air mattress.

So yeah, school starts tomorrow and that's wassup. The dream ain't dead, it's just changing. I can deal.

Emeric Pratt "Strange Notes Part"

Lurf Habit

London came up on the proof of lurfing. Neither of us had the digi-cams with us, but we did have a phone flicker that actually doesn't look all that bad. Oh yeah, the VX-1000 was sitting in the car the whole time. Know it to blow it, right?

You know a rep is bad when he's described as "a sketchy rep," due to reps being inherently sketch in the first place. Right?

New poll is about "epic," as a word in skateboarding and if we need to leave it behind in our ongoing pursuit of slang and such. So weigh in, is "epic" played out or not?

What you drinking at the Boondoggle premiere? Oh snap! Speculate about the video in the comments. Who's got last part?

More cab backtail bigspins right here courtesy of Kellen James. I think the word for that part is booyakai.

It's Coming...

SD He Represents.

Was working watching foote of Wes Kremer for a New Jack and found the part above. I like his shit, but what about that cab backtail to bigspin? Mind titillating. And hella booya.

We actually let the domain expire for a minute. We're six years strong and always blowing it, as we always did and do. Holler!

Went lurfing yesterday. That's surfing on a surf board being towed behind a boat. I know. I didn't have the digi with me. I know. But it's pretty much really difficult and exhausting and fucking awesome.

Epicly Later'd Season Two Trailer. Gotta give it to Patrick O'Dell, he's doing some of the best shit in skateboarding right now*.

Extreme has been having dreams about Stemper lately. Seriously?

I'm OUT!

*As long as we are never subjected to an episode about the Wild Ride, ever again.

Too bad ALF never skated...

It'd be sick to go on a skate tour with ALF. Dude looks hella fun to be around. PS: Can't wait to see Boondoggle

The Big Pay Back

Hot Damn! We're proud of you buddy. Cha' boy, the skate pixie himself (might have to retire that one nowadays) Davis Torgerson got buck wild at the Brooklyn Banks and done nollie heelflipped the rail there. Link and info via The Surf. I saw him try that over the Saturn 10 rail, but...hmmm. Reportedly, he also came up on 2G's. Now you can pay me back! Sick Aaron Chilen cameo.

Wonder Woman shredding via Hardflip. That was a bitchin' two minutes.

Should the word epic be retired from skateboarding parlance? Maybe that's the next poll. And again, who the hell wouldn't want to bone Uffie? There's like 13 of you...I guess it's your life, if you want to fuck it up, that your business.

Stereo dudes were here last week, and now you re-live it.

Skated downtown during the workday with Tuck today, and it was really really hot. We got 20 minutes in at Pilsbury, and when we finally got kicked out by some early 20 something eastern European chick, who said, "You kids can't skate here," we reveled in the fact that we were probably both older than her. So there!

Chips stopped by Plat HQ today with the deliriously adorable Violet Holtan.

In semi-related news, I also received some brand new Weatha Men lyrics the other day (even with a primer for context):
Monsoon rains in India kill at least 40 people, with flooding heaviest in Andhra Pradesh.

monsoon drownin ya while standin' up
droppin Grade A joints so titties they like G cups
storm frontin in Andhra Pradesh
I turn ya village to an apocalyptic hesh sesh

uhhh, you moan out in pain
red cross red crescent and unicef can't help your fevered brain
broken legs and gangrenous phalanges
per your request i left ya floatin in tha Ganges

wethamen wethamen
killin ya bretheren
wethamen wethamen
killin ya bretheren

-from the upcoming Wethemen album MeatyorLogixxxz

I hear the Weatha Men are playing a show at the Myth. I'll keep you posted.

This'll be interesting, Glue Factory Demo in St Croix Falls. Is that in 'Sconny?

I could keep posting, but then I'd only be enabling you guys.

Boondoggle Premiere

Skladoosh

As Sissi said, the abridged version of Weekend Warriors, Blum, where you at? On the same note, Steeze, where you at? Also, Boondoggle Flyer, where you at?

That's enough of that. Had a pretty epic weekend, topped off by rooftop barbeque. There will be coverage soon enough. Come to think of it, I really did spend most of Sunday shirtless. Hella booya.

Skladoosh! Me and Zed are gonna make that sound effect huge in the Twincities, don't say "What?"

New T-wolves jerseys, which means a new season of me ranting about them all the time. Those aren't too bad, but not that good either. Who knows?

That's probably it man.

Shirtless Sundays: Youtube

Casey

A-Hart

A summer wasting...

The answer is yes.

Excellent Adventure

I finally got around to getting the digi-cam foote from this summer together. What you have here is a lazy edit on i-movie. Skaters are me, Viking, Malto, and Rada. Booya. Not having a pivot cup refers to this.

Beer Poll Results!

While it should have been called the "Hipster Beer Poll" as Extreme said, the "All Right Pussy, What Do You Drink" poll has some interesting and highly scientific results, as listed above. My breakdown is like this: I usually don't get Coors Light because it's vaguely expensive, I love anything that comes in a big ass can, though I generally do drink PBR, Black Label, Keystone, and when I want to ball out, I do Tecate. Whatever.

The Uffie Poll

That's Uffie. Poll invented and sponsored by Typoscura.

Strictly Business

Another thing to do this weekend. Gettin' artsy and shit. You know. I came up with that name too, but I would have been even more hyped if it had been called "Whippin' Shitties." You know?

I'm pretty hyped on this Wiskate post, for the simple fact that Gary can pose the hell out of some photos. Look at those facial expressions!

Did I mention that Hensley was at the Lair last weekend? He was.

Tyler Surrey is really good at skateboarding and right up my alley.

Iowa's most ballin' ass skate photog, Sam McGuire, is in The 'Peg right now. Sam, if you read this, head to Bar Italia and track down a chick named Danielle, that is if she didn't move to Montreal.

More on digital Slap with Mark Whitely. I can't help but note that his vagueness just shows that they're going through some serious oh shit times. I will say that their latest issue is, uh, as consistently lackluster as they have been.

Would I rather have no comments at all, or just mainly humorless pointless ones with a handful of useful ones. I'll go with the latter for now, I guess.

sheckdog poop

Yeah... I missed the Stereo demo. But, this review was rad at THE HESH. "but imagine if 93x said Ryan Sheckler was going to be in international falls taking a dump... there'd be 300,000 screaming fans driving 8 hours waiting for a scoop of sheckdog poop" -Henkler "The Heah"

Hi-Fi

I was just at Triple Rock for the Tuesday night thing, which for the 50th time tonight I swore I would never return to, and I was talking to Sissi and Zed and I saw this dude and thought to myself, "Damn, that hipster looks hella like Daniel Shimizu." Then I turned and saw Mr. Clint Peterson, and it was like, ok, that was Shimizu. So the moral of the story is to go to these events when they happen.

The Big Ghettoplex in the Sky

In order from the top:
From the Typoscura archives.
Plat archives.
As seen in.
Ghetto Fred where are you?

If Richie Jackson Were Japanese, Not Nearly As Annonying, And Had Just Watched Beez For Three Days Straight

awesome Long title.

Snuffed Out

Judging contests can be hella trife and then you need some really good skateboarding to fill the gaps. Hence, Snuff. I wasn't around when it first came out, but Vang had a dubbed copy at 1072 which lacked Dill's part for some reason. I finally saw Dill a couple of years later and the Jackal's "Dill arm" is totally explained by that switch heel nose wheelie. Andy Stone was a fave back in the day, and Adam McNatt was always pretty craze, even before the homemade rail 50-50s to nollie flip and weird early grab nollie front flips. Then there's Gino, someone who has gotten one-name status, despite the fact that Gino Perez was a pretty decent ripper; just not legendary. More Gino: Less than a 1:20 of footage never tasted so good. More 101 business here.

Happy late birthday to Bauman, hope the booze and cruise was epic.

And then the question of what else? On judging skateboarding contests and making the correct but unpopular decision; I won this contest at Woodward 10 years ago, and when they announced that I'd won, I was straight up booed. I mean, my cabin had my back, thanks dudes, but other than that, the rest of the kids were hating the fact that the kid that dropped in on this really big ramp didn't win. I was fucked. But wait, counselor dudes stepped up and said something to the effect that I'd done the hardest tricks. For full disclosure, I did do a backside nosegrind shuv-it in my run, man (I pretty much don't remember anything else about the run). And this makes sense since chaboy Dan Narloch won today, and I heard some kids muttering that, "There must be something wrong with those judges." Allow the youthful ignorance. Good job Dan. Last part in Boondoggle? Would I be surprised? No.

Get me a flyer for that Boondoggle premier, Saturday the 23rd of August in 2008, four PM at Oak Street Cinema. I'm finding myself to be excited. Where's the after-party again?

Oh yeah, Sk8 Mafia at the Berrics is hella sick.

A Late Summer's Dream; And Taking Stock

I returned home tonight, well, actually during the drive back, and realized that as I was half to 3/4's drunk, that I hadn't taken stock of an awesome summer in the public's eye. And so, here's to a day spent waking up early to judge a contest at the Lair with friends, and then, half way through intermediate, cracking beers and finding oneself at a point where it's a good idea to scrap that midnight movie and go to bed at ten. You feel me?

Things That I Have Done Enough Of:
Drinking Beer
Smoking Cigarettes
Driving a car through Nebraska
Stressing

Things That I Haven't Done Quite Enough:
Worked
Swam In Water
Non-stressing
Skateboarding
Biking
Cabinning
Living the good Fake Life

Things I'm Not Getting Enough Of (one way or another):
Listening to Belle And Sebastian
Making out with chicks
Filming?
Good haircuts. But I'm working on it.

And there you have a completely random stock check. I realized last night or this morning that I've got essentially two more weeks of this summer shit, and I don't want it to ever end, but then again I'm someone who needs deadlines and things to look forward to and or dread. So we're good. Here's to the amazing weather that we've had in the past two months, pretty much, and a long and temperate fall. Fingers crossed.

I almost never go to the Slap site anymore; their re-design isn't very pretty to look at, and while I used to go there for news and stuff, I've since turned elsewhere. I've never been into the message board there. So randomly, I headed there today, and noticed this post. Mark Whitely wasn't very, uh, specific in that post, but did he just say they aren't doing a magazine anymore? Upon further inspection, I found my answer. Pretty much, yeah, they aren't doing a magazine anymore (pdf).

This is interesting in a bajillion different ways. It's pretty much agreed upon that the current way the newspaper industry is being run isn't working. They're cutting staff, cutting bureaus, cutting coverage, and so on. It's been going that way for a while now, and this recent development may or may not be a signal that it's creeping over into the magazine side. This line of thought brings up another question: is everybody at Slap keeping their job? And yet another question: what's happening at High Speed Productions (who don't have a website), the publishing parent of Slap, Thrasher and Juxtapoz? Who knows?

All in all, I don't think I'll miss printed copies of Slap, as in my opinion, after the many identity crises they've had over the past couple of years, they become less and less relevant. What has me semi-alarmed is that this may be a sign of things to come. As stated above, I don't know exactly why Slap is going all digital (their answers seem slightly contrived. Being on the cutting edge and trying to be environmentally sound might sound good, but it also sounds like budget cuts.) but it just seems like it can't be good. I've always thought that, while newspapers are churned out daily, are low quality and highly disposable, a monthly magazine is completely different, of at times awesome quality, and generally something to hang onto. Am I in the minority with these feelings? Maybe, kids these days as they are of course...

As of this writing, there's two comments on the post linked above, but I'm sure that number is going to balloon quickly. And I'm pretty sure like the two already posted, they will mostly be uniformly negative. Will reader backlash perhaps change some minds at High Speed? Not likely. Which goes back to the causes of this, money. Hopefully all this ends up being is a parent company in the process of letting it's schizophrenic son go, and not something indicative of larger and more important things to come. Thanks for the memories Slap.

In a side rant, what the hell was that quote about the message board? Oh, sorry, the forum? Their quotation marks, "last outpost of free speech in skateboarding"? You're taking the damn thing that seriously? Who actually said that? Or is this a situation where you realized just how stupid what you were saying was, so you tried to deflect by throwing in the old quotes? I don't know, let's get back to arguing about beer.

Don't Do It To Yourself

There's something so appealing about the look of Hi-8. Gritty and imperfect but nostalgic. I remember when the VX-1000 first popped up with the death lens and all that shit; I was watching a 411 and all of a sudden the clip was way crazer than before...Where's this going again? Not sure. I like how Hi-8 looks, and I like how vivid the VX was, and I'm sick of HD shit in slo-mo almost already. But hey, if I could watch a video of my life in Hi-8...Rambles! Hi-8 butteryness!

Please vote in the poll to the right. I voted for Tall Boys.

I did some emo ass shit the other night; I stayed home and watched a Belle and Sebastian DVD. Tucker on the other hand, is claiming "best night ever." Hmmmm.

Oh, there's some stuff coming up dudes:
Midwest Melee
Calsurf Es Instore
Stereo is coming!

That's about it.

Welcome to my room

Platinum Seagull's Yemen Field Correspondent shows off his Yemen crib.

"Alcoholic energy drinks are a crime against taste--but worse, they trick your brain into believing you're not as drunk as you are. Bottom line: have a real beer instead. If your beverage of choice carries a silly name like Joose, you're probably too young to drink anyway."

Zing! Time Magazine collectively zings all us Sparks drinkers with a shocking expose on how alcoholic energy drinks may or may not be marketed to teenagers, let alone 20 something skateboarders and the like. There are a ton of other good quotes in there, so give it a read. I'd like to contend for sure that drinking a sparks does not make me feel any, um, doper, and less drunk, or whatever they're saying I'm supposed to be thinking is happening. Usually they're a night ender. Yeah?

Sam McGuire who may or may not be the newest Platinum rider, is seen, are you sitting down, on Atiba. Jefferson's. Blog. Dudes...

Like I said Josh, no time for regrets man.

Peep the Familia Blog if you haven't been there for a minute. Full rippage, per usual.

Oh yeah, Philmer Phil emailed to confirm, and I'll do this in bold since it's wedged in a post and since I don't have the flyer yet;
Boondoggle Premiere,
August 23rd,
4:00 PM,
Oak Street Cinema

Ok, good. I'd like to announce that Sam McGuire rides for Platinumseagulls.com. We got A+ list on the team now!

187'ing It

Ah yes, the post attempted but not achieved last night; post peak blogging hours and we're good. Yes my friends, two random flicks mostly featuring the one and only Mr. Tucker Gerrick. One 70's guy, one baby-broker. It's classic teetotaling Tucker; one who had the ability to ramp it up to about 12 and a half on the Spinal Tap amp. As a bonus(?), ponder over just what my marionette-ass is doing in that first flick.

Borrowed the post name from Mr. McGuire, and realized that he probably had the better post but then again, I've got the punny material and whatnot going. Whatnot's a single word, you know? You know what else is tight? Whatsoever is a single word. YES!

So, round two of CHUD or no CHUD. I already weighed in there on that Christina Ricci controversy, but hey, I figure posting the google image search of her will make everybody's day better. Choass.

Edit: Just listened to a well done story about, in a way, how awesome the internet is at giving us information whenever we want it. It's right here. Meyer and I often talk about what we would do without the internet, and while that sounds remotely depressing, we're just talking about how rad it really is having the answer to all our stupid questions whenever we need it. The guy in the story above mentioned Quantum Leap and the little computer Al had, you know, Ziggy man.

That got me thinking about the show, and now I need to know; who remembers the Halloween episode where Sam fights Satan? I only saw that one once.

Double Dip In the Bonezone

Man, sometimes I go and try to post stuff during the peak blogging times (roughly 7PM-11PM, EST), and blogger won't let me upload any photos. As the addictively awesome Gossip Girl put it on a recent and controversial billboard, OMFG. But alas, here I am without the aid of the 1000 words that a picture affords me, so I must type.

Been to that one spot on that one foundation in that one city? Yeah? I don't feel quite right about saying where it is since I put in no work there and I just went there for the first time today. Plus, by the amount of dudes that showed up there while I mostly sat and chilled due to dehydration, it seems like half of you could answer the original question with "Yes". Either way, I shall hydrate and bring water and have a bang up time there next time, without the requisite dizzyness and shittiness that comes when your body is extra thirsty.

First Cherry and now the The Hessians are down. Then again, Sissi didn't know that this site was back up until last Friday. You know?

For some reason, I ended up at Coney Island twice while I was in NYC, and I'd said the first time that I'd never return, ever. Ok. Here's a pretty read little photo essay type thing on that insanely strange place right here.

The Dog Days of Summer. I never knew all that stuff about them, but man, we're there, if only based upon my serious need for hydration earlier today. But there is something romantic about the thought, especially with what we in Minne have in store for us not that far off. I'd originally floated "Dog Days" as a name for what would end up as Weekend Warriors, though Benji thought the Dogtown and Z-Boys correlation would be too much; that didn't really hold up to the test of time (for full disclosure, I'd also suggested the ill-advised alternate of "Dawg Days"-ouch). I love this time of year; there's a certain immediacy of the moment where you've got to squeeze every damn last drop out of it, but at the same time the way the heat and haze treat you physically makes it all the more difficult. I guess, as one dude said one time, "the living is heavy," and with sweated out gear and the rest in mind, it truly and literally is. I figure there's about 20 days or so until the sun starts getting low at a frustrating hour (look for it while your eating Pronto Pups at the fair). Then it's pretty much over, or at least feels that way.

Real Life Sityations That Is

And the X-Games have become inescapable, as mentioned prior. So did you see Danny Way's slam already? As shown above? I'm not sure anymore if Duffy was the Terminator or if it was Danny all along.

Boil the Ocean with some more X-i-ness. Word has it that D-Way did that line after slamming like that, but Burnquist still won with the clip from BTO. Go figure. So after Jake Brown last year, Way this year, is someone going to have to die next year? Would Burnquist still end up winning? Is it going to be the The Flying Tomato as Kirian speculated?

Hopefully I'll talk about something else next time, but man that shit is gnar.

MY NAME IS EVIL

Off The Road

Well, after nearly seven weeks of floor surfing, because I nearly never slept on a couch during the past time period, I've made it back home, a home of sorts, and here I am. The picture above is of me at That 70's Party, which took place in the distant past when I was 18 and lived at this one house. The story then, and is now, that I finally found my bed, but then I ended up getting a ton of shit piled on me. There seemed to be poetry when the words were in my head, but now, not so much. The rest of this post is devoted to the Best Summer Ever, which is something that loyal Plat readers will recognize; I should also point out that I'm trying to give up the bitter concoction that was and maybe is BFSE, we'll see. The picture above was a random and rather scandalous night at 1072. Faces are obscured to protect the innocent and in order to blur faces out because I think it's rad to do so. Simply put, I'm not sure if that shit even happened in the summer, but I do know that if you know the whole story behind that night, which happened many moons ago, then you know it was awesome, and know it would be an integral part of Best Summer Ever, if only for shits and giggles. Jr. Mint knows.

If anything I'm hyped to be in a house by myself; my own house, that's that new shit.

Welcome Back

I've come to find recently that Bobby Puleo is a very polarizing figure in skateboarding. I for one, have been into the dude since his part in the second FTC video; hell, his Wheels of Fortune was pretty wicked too. I've always followed his shit and been generally hyped on it, maybe it shows through the way I skate, maybe not.

Like I said, I've been hearing recently, that, a lot of people think his brand of skateboarding is pretty much B.S. And while I'll give an inch on the simplicity of it at times, I still like to put his Static 2 part out there and dare fools not to be hyped. And they aren't. Love him or hate him...either way, I've heard he's a pretty big jerk, so who knows.

The point is, that maybe I'd given into the haters; recently I thought that Puleo was falling off. Aside from the sketchy bum look that he'd been rocking, the bits and pieces of footage that I'd been seeing seemed, well, sub-Puleo. Like he was coasting or something? If you're half assing it on a cellar door, man it shows. But then I peeped the new Traffic video (available for viewing at the link), and I'm pretty much back on the boat. What you have there is a pretty much full part, lots of night footage, lots of hops, lots of random shit skate, and a couple of ah shit moments that ought to make you want to run out the door and shred. There was still some whatevers moments in there, but for the most part, it was hecka rad, and I think that that's only partly attributable to BDP Productions song that he skates to (that song helped for sure, and the fact that it's summer and all that).

Thanks for the shout Josh. I hope this wasn't too serious.

Edit: I watched Puleo's new part again, and I'm just gonna say it's banging, no hedging or hemming and hawing. Banging. But yeah, I should mention the rest of the vid, I mean, you can watch it, but why shouldn't I talk about it? So Puleo is back to form and it's gritty and rad and hip hop and night foote. There's a team montage that goes well, Oyola looked good, Henry Panza is a beast, and Rich Adler continues to confound. Then it's Jack Sabback.

At least for me, Sabback's part is rad, hot and hazy due to the spots and the city and the song he uses. It's mad ethereal in a way, kid. But of course, he does a ton of awesome shit balances and if you haven't watched it by now...

Roger That

Um, I'll take two. Maybe we can package issue #1 of Kicks and Chronic along with it? Yes. Roger Skateboards seems to be better than Good.