Saturday Night

SOM ROX! See you there.

Happy Weekend.

REAL TALK: Machete

The world is a better place because Machete is being made into a feature length film. (I also avoided a very obvious pun in the post title)

PLATINUM PRODUCT REVIEWS

The Sam McGuire Pro Sock Pretty much awesome, and very life-like. You can even wear it to the club that night, and then when you take the sock off if you're lucky a little bit of it will have bled through and a little piece of Sam will be with you until you shower!

TALK BOY X I-POD The perfect accessory for a night on the town; bikes, parking garages and beers beware! Especially amazing for bombing parking garages while listening to Sabbath; watch for the poles on the exit. Git some.

What Really Happened

Holler @ The Fam

And don't forget about Red Wave Redux: The Blood Tide, tomorrow.

Happy Weekend!

The Stormy Weather

Who's to take blame? Dreary days and too lazy to go to the mall. Oh well.

Viking was getting some boxes from Pervert right around the time this ad came out. Did you ever get that jersey bud? Straight from Chrome Ball.

Was going to link to Barney Frank simply crushing it, but you know jerboi S-Dot already has us covered.

Act Normal.

I know some of ya'll are into Zombies and geo-politics at the same time.

I don't think this has been linked yet. It'll stoke you out and make you want to go to the club or some shit but you'll feel way dirty too. Its so late '00's chic. Or something.

Damage has their first video coming out!

Heckula, because.

TRU, true.

Edit: Head over to the Calsurf blog for a little "Day in the Life" with jerboi Davis; its mad ethereal kid because Dennis' 3-chipper is a little loose.

Basketball and Skateboarding Again: Worthwhile Edition

As much as skateboarders love to preach acceptance of all races, creeds, and colors, and go on and on about some quasi-skater humanhood (to accept both skate brothers and sisters), and reject all notions of jockdom and jock-mentality, the whole run-on notion (for the most part, there are exceptions) falls apart when it comes down to the matter of homosexuality, and suddenly us righteous skateboarders are on the same level as Steve and Brett at the frat-house, and any jock on the field or court or etc. Simply, skateboarding becomes very "sporty" in light of its rampant homophobia.

Simply, I know its wrong, but I'm not trying to be preachy. The above is what I've noticed and realized over 15 years or so; its just an observation. The true point of this post is to link to this article from Truehoop written by Kevin Arnovitz about homophobia in the NBA. I figure it can apply in certain ways to skateboarding as well. Think it over.

A Summer Sweeping

About four days apart, a wrecked ankle, too much Laser, Iowa City and Mount Pleasant, Barn Ramps, pirate living.

(Tube Top Tuesdays!)

HOAX!!!

Hey all! Full disclosure, I did not go to NYC for the weekend (or even the day for that matter), in fact, I spent most of the weekend on Solsbury Hill with Mr. Sam McGuire and some other select individuals, mostly playing "Would you rather?" and drinking Black Labels and definitely NOT rolling down the hill and losing i-phones. Hopefully that clears it all up, it was an unintentional hoax.

Speaking of Sam, he was just in the STL chilling with Nelly and jerboi Randall getting hella froggy. Along the way he almost died via Manderson and an unopened beer. Froggy indeed.

Can't keep The Viking down; Neal may have the full time live in going on, but he still gets gully while drinking wine and assembling IKEA.

I still haven't beer bonged since May 19th.

Improbable link to Danknuggzz.

This post took a turn towards the meta, didn't it? Here's a photo of Efron Davis and the aftermath of a tried maneuver on Saturday. There was also a little kid talking mad s to Davis; here's a taste of the conversation:

Little Kid: "If it hurts you, don't do it."
Davis: "What if I land it next try?"
Little Kid: "Not in a million years."

Sam then gave Davis the go ahead to mash the little kid out, and Davis kicked the crap out of an eight year old, and then landed his trick. One of those facts is true.

BSE

It's Saturday and the day boils and suddenly summer is here, after a two month hiatus, we've had a two week welcoming party. Dog days, days still long; a summer ago seems like a lifetime ago and in some circles June-August '08 was the Best Summer Ever. That's the crux of the above, a physical/visual depiction of what was and what is still to come. Come see Mr. Tucker Gerrick's ode to a time.

August 29th @ Umber Studios.

PS: Don't forget to peep the Agent Banks Rip Clip at The Mag.

DAY OFF!!!

I'M GOING TO NEW YORK FOR THE DAY!!!

Steve Olson: Insane Genius

Steve Olson, no matter where he's ended up these days, is without a doubt some sort of insane genius. Just ask Sissi or Ryan about the roof drop-in to boardslide and you'll have proof.

Chalk this post up to I-tunes on shuffle; one night I awoke from CRAZY nightmares, and, wouldn't you know, the Gravediggaz song that Olson skates to above was playing over the speakers off the computer. Be careful with the "Diary of a Madman" kids. That feels like an allusion to the Evil Dead or something.

(For a short and dirty version of the roof drop-in to boardslide story, it happened at six AM and his girlfriend filmed the trick. There was a 2x4 nailed to the roof at the take off point for whatever reason, and Olson had to ollie over that and then to the left because of a wall. Watch the footage closely; its all there.)

Old Man Skate Culture in CP

From City Pages:

Jay Jensen perches at the coping of an eight-foot drop, his board dangling over the curb. He's as lithe as a coiled cobra, and filthy across the shoulders—after just a half-hour of skating, he's damp with sweat and coated in a sheath of grime from knee slides and bails.

As he plots his line, he has a falcon's presence—a sharp jaw, wary, analytical eyes, a Roman nose—and his face is terse as he scans the double bowl before him. The slope and depth seem hard to fathom.

Then he drops in. He pumps into the pool, descending into its deepest lagoon, building speed. Up along the coping, he goes into a grind, then dives deep once more. Over a pasture of plywood, his wheels roar. In an instant, he is airborne, clutching his deck, skimming the lights, and sending a shower of dust into the still air.

Ripping around the turns of his park, Jensen is as smooth as a silk ribbon. He handles its dips with practiced ease. His balance is uncanny.

But when he kicks his board to his hand to hoist himself out and yield the bowl to another skater poised to drop in, Jensen grunts and favors his left knee. Jensen is 36. Behind him lay almost three decades of skating, years spent building quarterpipes in a disused barn of his father's hog farm.

While quotes of gold from Todd Brown are non-existent in the piece, I'll say kudos to David Hansen for capturing the fleeting reality of skateboarding that exists as one grows older. I would have loved to have heard more from Wizard, and beyond that, some of the older dudes still slogging it out in the streets, like Jackson or Judd, but then again, the ramps still captivate and win the hearts and minds of the general public. Still, its a missed opportunity that we didn't get to hear from Dan or Judd about being kicked out of spots by people 15 years younger than them, etc.

As a throw back, here's the "Flyboys" piece from 2001 which centered on Clint, Steve, and ZED.

Convoluted

Henry Abbott of the oft linked Truehoop blog is your consummate journalist/blogger. Monday through Friday he's expected to produce, and this is a hasty estimate, let's say about 3000-4000 words daily, complete with relevant links and whatnot, about basketball. He gets ripped to shreds in the comments. More people call him a hack than is otherwise fair, balanced, or rational, but the dude keeps chipping away, may reach at times, and overall, I'm giving him a solid 95% success rate on everything that he posts. Cut the guy some slack, it is the off-season after all.

This post got me thinking; essentially its about a sports writer that Abbott respects immensely, who asserts that the best basketball is the least flashy basketball, and on that point, Abbott, a bit haltingly, disagrees. To quote Abbott:

...[W]hen I think about the very best players I have ever seen, heard of, or played with ... a lot of them feel extremely comfortable on the basketball court, and make it their business to demonstrate a sense of ownership of that space. Sometimes that means being flamboyant -- doing something ostentatious to show your spirit is not likely to be restrained by, well, anything.

Those are his italics above.

And off to reflexively think about skateboarding; in all, the best skateboarding is the best skateboarding because it is flashy, perhaps flamboyant isn't the best word but there is that air of immense comfort that Abbott describes (this idea excludes Huf et. al., who, for another day, could be described as the Timmy Duncan of skateboarding, the "Big Fundamental"). To further elucidate, Mariano's switch frontside shuvit nosegrind fakie heelflip is akin to, uh, the fake-out behind the back pass going right to a left handed layup? Or something [would Huf's hop-up, ollie, ollie, ollie, gap to lipslide be akin to Duncan's posted up turn around bank shot? (again, another day)]? While the analogy breaks down when it is finally trotted around town, what it boils down to is the question of this: If flashy skateboarding is simply good skateboarding (the norm which is being aimed for, thus no longer being flashy and/or special, a value inherent to flashiness), then what is truly flashy skateboarding?

The best answer I can come up with is something along the lines of Eric Koston doing dork tricks. Dork tricks to him, at least. What comes to mind, out of a cast of thousands, is that, how do you even name it?, lay-back frontside 360 wallie grab thinger that he does in Beauty and the Beast (you know what I mean). So, what this all boils down to is Koston's part from Chomp on This. Flashy, and just maybe even flamboyant. Ostentatious for sure:

Madison, Wisconsin; 03/03

Keith Dan Dom Jason Nate Chad Joe Nick Jamiel Josh Mike Andy Sam

DAN JACKSON HAS REPRODUCED

Congratulations to Dan Jackson and the lovely Jane upon the birth of their six pound, three ounce baby son. We're proud of you Jackal.

Babies no longer make me feel old; they make me happy. Which in turn makes me feel old. Oh well.

Anyhow, welcome to the world Pegleg 2!!!*

*Pegleg 2 is not the name of Dan's son, it is simply a humble suggestion from your friends at Platinumseagulls INC.

Skater Dater

Above is the inaugural photo for Skaterdater.com, a url that, yes, seriously, Meyer owned for a year, let lapse, and then lost. The photo originates from the bowels of 1072 and the heady days of January 2003. Wow, my butt still looks that fabulous.

Cosmic Clothesline

If one is to believe in some sort of abiding cosmic order, further proof exists in the hiring of Kurt Rambis as the Twolves head coach. As ruminated upon in the previous Truehoop link as well as on this humble blog, it seems that the universe is once again aligned.

What happened guys?

Nieratko discusses, uh, sort of, uh, skateboarding's current sexual orientation. Or something. I agree, I like him calling the right people out and all that, but its the X-games already. What's to be expected? After reading that, for whatever reason, I'm compelled to re-post the You Wanna Date A Skater? story. Ugh, and enjoy.

Tha Dolo discussed top ten video parts; peep game and submit.

Hey Sam, you should launch your new site.

PS: Gang of Fourstar Trailer, that sure looks rad. Where's Davis?

Dreams In Technicolor Summer; Futurists Take Heed

Mikey Taylor, consummate pro, host, small forward, serves the soundtrack du jour and then some. The slept on part of Mind Field and dude hasn't reached his peak. Shall I say "pause," or just say fuck it, and go "full homo?"

That's Meyer's video of the Red Bull Bailout. Preach. I have photos that will emerge either here or here. I've just gotta get back to reality, wherever that is.

Red Wave Redux: The Blood Tide is tomorrow coming up at the Red Stag Block Party. Red Stags and Red Waves and a cool buzz, and, you know, I'm good.

Let's Dance is this tomorrow though!

Happy Weekend.

BANG YOUR HEAD

Fink's footage was glitched, otherwise I'd have my first trick done for Shitheads 2010; either way, x-up one footed table top. GET SOME.

One a completely different note: The ubiquity of "no homo" in Hip Hop and the possibility that its not that homophobic...still, full homo is the new no homo.

No Luv For Blogs

After skunking poor Davis, on his birthday of all days, I've posted the above photo of him looking decidedly tight, and its also an excuse to then link to the Etnies blog post full of McGuire flicks from that big contest put on by the guys who own the formerly banned from Plat Sacramento Kings. I'm also happy to announce that, what with McGuire's intuitable chumminess with the venerable Sheck-Dawg, that I am now only separated by one degree, of, yeah, separation.

Been putting off cleaning up the desktop on the whip for a bit now. Just before doing this here post, I found the jpeg called "surfnazis" and immediately asked (to myself, but out loud), "What the fuck is surfnazis?" And there it is, answers. I vaguely remember finding that.

Two must peep items from Hardflip today, exhibit A, Tha Dolo's sponsor me tape from '93. Is this the same tape that was reportedly focused after being viewed by a number of party goers? Is that footage still missing? What's the story there anyways? Exhibit B, if P-Rod switch tre flips the Santa Monica triple set, does it make a sound? I'm not sure, and I avowedly never check the Slap boards, so maybe the internet skateletariat is buzzing about it...I just liked Badger's post about it.

Also also, not only is The Hesh now tweeting, undoubtedly about sex, booze and drugs (actually, is sex included in that equation?), but they've also had a fresh video about this past weekend's Red Bull contest up for a bit; peep here.

A series on the end of America via Slate. Its heady shit, but worth the read.

Quite August

Found a trick list from 2004 that I had while filming for Weekend Warriors. I love how Meyer wrote a nice little header on each side. A few things made it into the video off that thing, a few things got scrapped for being lame, and some things were upgraded upon. Compare below, if you, you know, feel like it. Also, a brief article from Time with a reminder of what to do next time you roll your ankle. Its simple, start cussin'.

Best Day Ever

Wow. PREACH.

Happy Birthday Davis. Is this weird?