January 29, 2010

PUT MY SHADES!

Some song on The Current (partial ban, explained at a later date) caught my ear the other day and I had one of those wonderful "driveway moments" that public radio hangs it hat on. I couldn't place the song, and I moved on.

Today, out of the blue I realized that the song I was vibing on was what Jeremy Klein had skated to in Hookup's 1994 release Asian Goddess. I went ahead and downloaded said Frank Black song, and then of course, I had to go rip apart my closet in order to find my probably lost copy of Asian Goddess, to, I don't know what I was going to do with it, I don't have a VCR.

As could be judged by the above photo, I didn't find the video; instead I realized that I have two copies of Europe '96, and what I'd already known, that I have a really impressive collection of VHS copies of 411's, issues 9 through just about the last one they did on VHS. If you call that impressive that is. I also found the three vids pictured above.

Apocalypse: I know Neal and I split a copy of it $5 each when we bought it out of Johnny Vang's backpack at the Lake St. Lair. I got custody of the video Sunday through Wednesday. This may or may not be that copy. I thought Hardflip had Apocalypse for download but the closest thing they've got is the Roots Promo.

Unknown Empire: I feel like I have should have a brotherly connection with anyone that knows anything about this video. Its not listed on SkimTheFat, however, I did manage to find Brandon Cardone's part on some random URL. Unknown Empire does deserve some spot in the pantheon of pre-internet indy videos that enjoyed some sort of wider release than it's home area, that being Upstate New York. They're means of getting the word out was multiple commercials in 411 in issues from the mid-teens; they picked the seven best clips from the video and made quite a serviceable ad. Unfortunately, they'd already shown the seven best clips and with inflated expectations, I jumped on the copy above when I saw it at Calsurf, so for the record, both Muldoon and I were suckered. I mean, he ordered it.

Prototype: This is the first video jerboi Elijah Collard was involved in. He, pre-trees and pre-Roll, along with Chris Carnahan and Patrick Voller cranked the video out for Mr. So-and-so's class, and I'm ever so happy to still have a copy, oh, 13 years later? Prototype is way less psychedelic than Elijah's later additions to the TC cannon and contains all those mid-90's staples; Guy Mariano Axions (yellow and white only), The Metrodome stages, The Fed, and a dude rapping after the credits. Its all there. And guess what. You can watch it at Mightyroll.com.

Happy weekend, and if I ever get a VCR I'll review the Untitled I-Level video that Holtan gave me for my 20th birthday.

January 28, 2010

We Barely Knew Thee

J.D. Salinger, 1919-2010.

Oh Yeah.

A misspelled name is a small price to pay for that killer Fourstar TMNT shirt; after a long string of dropped "n's" (Muzenrider?) TSM gave me a byline of just "Munzenrider" in the latest issue. Getcho mononym on, I'll take that!

January 27, 2010

Just A Friend

Jerboiz Davis and Folley made it into Crailtap's latest Featured Feature and the ripping Anthony Acosta Mag Minute makes one wonder if a Seven Seconds in Heaven with Sam McGuire isn't far behind.

This is the kind of Conservative Coalition that I can fully back.

Shoe nerdery, taken to the nth level.

Thadolo, implicated in date-rape? I'm just trying to figure out what the hell is going on there.

January 26, 2010

That Awful Truth

Photo by The Viking, Madison Square Garden.

As the above photo shows, in it's terrible 8-35 clarity, maybe its time that I put myself on T-Wolves probation for a little bit, and just wait to see if they win the John Wall lottery, aka the 2010 Draft. That of course, would be some cruel blessing, considering the fact that we already have three point guards more or less in the fold, with at least one showing superstar potential, even if he'd rather stay in Spain. I just hope they don't drop this one by 50, which, at least, they aren't on track to do, as of right now.

MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS

Via The Done Blog.

Also out there in the internet, Madison boy done good Travis Erickson has a proper part over at Strange Notes.

January 25, 2010

Kill Fee Three: Nick Dompierre Placed

This was supposed to appear in The Skateboard Mag about nine months ago, but alas, it will not be running, so, read it here first, and for the last time too. Other "never happeneds" here and here.

It’s a Saturday night in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and as resident Nick Dompierre would say, “Saturday, it’s like the big night.” Saturdays, in general, loom pretty large just about anywhere, but when it’s Saturday night in New Bedford, for Nick, it means street racing in his ’87 Camaro.

This all makes perfect sense, really. New Bedford, aka “The Whaling City,” is an old New England port town; around 1920 or so it’s population topped out at about 120,000 people, and now there’s just over 90,000 people living there. Nick Dompierre is a rather gnarly skateboarding human, a fact that has been illustrated and proven countless times. Stick him in a smallish east coast city, add the fact that he’s drag racing in a Camaro on a Saturday night, and the whole situation becomes a foregone conclusion.

Nick was born and raised in New Bedford, and when the skate trips are over it’s where he calls home. He didn’t have much to say about the place really, and lives there for the same reasons that most people live anywhere else; he says, “I don’t know how to explain it, I like it, its where I’ve from.” Beyond that, and not surprisingly, he states, “I basically like it because all my friends are there.” New Bedford has its share of weather and seasons and all, but the winter months don’t phase Nick all that much, because, as he tells, “I’d say I like being home when it’s winter, I get to work on my cars and shit; I pretty much sit in the garage and work until April, when the track opens up again.”

Waiting for the track to open again must be like waiting for that one spot downtown to be dry and sand free. Car racing and skateboarding have yet more parallels, at least in Nick’s case; as he tells it, he saw some guys doing it, and it looked cool. In his own words, “A lot of people would be street racing, and I’d watch, and I’d want to crack that. Then I ended up making some money from skating and I put money into [my car].”

But the parallels don’t end there; of a typical night out racing, Nick says, “Usually we just meet up at a parking lot, a hang out spot; just hang there. If someone wanted to race, you go race, or hang out, get something to eat.” Replace the word “race” with the word “skate”, and that’s damn close to a proper Saturday out skateboarding. There’s more, as Nick explains, “It’s best when people come down from another city, there’ll be a big race. If we’re lucky, a crew of cars will come from another area, and we’ll get something set-up.” For that last bit, replace “race” with “session”, and “cars” with “dudes,” and you get the picture.

While Nick is without a doubt an accomplished and established professional skateboarder, when all is said and done, he wouldn’t mind throwing some salt in the racing game; regarding being a professional racer someday, he says, “Yeah, I’d loved to. It’d be a way easier job than jumping down stairs and rails all day.” As an aside, if any car companies are looking to sponsor Nick as a racer, he’s down; he says, “Yeah, that would be great.”

Car and skateboard sponsors alike, don’t get it twisted; Nick is not leaving New Bedford anytime soon, and he’s especially not going to move to California. He says, “I’ll never move to California, I’m pretty much where I want to be.” Beyond just wanting to stay put, street racing is way better in New Bedford, even if, as Nick says, “It’s starting to die down [here] because the cops are getting worse.” He continues, “It’s definitely more mellow here though. I heard about some crazy laws; out in California if you get caught drag racing, they take your car and crush it--I heard rumors about it.”

All in all, having his car crushed as the result of a proper Saturday night out street racing is no concern of Nick’s; he states rather confidently, that, “My cars will never be in California, so I don’t have to worry about it.”

January 23, 2010

January 22, 2010

Don't Front or Mononymity or Goodbye JWoww

You know what you're doing Sunday even if you think otherwise; of course, His Purpleness will be watching down from on high. Thanks to jerboi -kw for the video link.

As for skateboarding, The Berrics and DC say "what up?" (Matt Miller!!!), and then Dyrdek used his time machine to go back in time to get some graphics done by Andy Warhol. It finally worked!

Wondering what hip hop entrepreneur and sandwich aficionado Andrew Hunkle has been up to? Catch up with this interview from The Johnny Reds Reports, brought to you by Vegas transplant Mr. Adam Longfield.

While I may have only watched 45 minutes or so of Jersey Shore, that 3/4s of an hour of my life was amazing, confusing, delighting, frustrating, and above all, awe inspiring. Here, Slate ponders how MTV can follow JS up, and boy am I glad that it seems like Snookie finally caught a break. [In an exciting turn, as Damian was our resident Guido (albeit a somewhat unconvincing one), he could also be our resident Masshole. We'll see how this develops.]

I just finished my first week back at the U of M and have a strange urge to only wear Ugg Boots and sweatpants all weekend. I know that's weird, so I won't even ask.

Happy weekend ya'll.

January 20, 2010

Tiger Balm for the Soul

Via The Dead Ones

Not much happening right now. If you want to see Bratrud's latest latest foray into picture blogging, then "Dead to the World" is your spot. The photo above is I-phone art. Also speaking of Todd, this post on Werdlife will make you wonder about the Santa Cruz Police Department as well as S.C.'s ER.

Also, to quote Mr. Sam McGuire, secretly live from Mazatlan, Mexico, at 4:00 AM CST today:

From: sam----------@gmail.com
Subject: i'm drunk
Date: January 20, 2010 3:57:01 AM CST
To: mike-----------@gmail.com

Message: just so you know

Word has he and Nesser and Co. drove down from So-Cal to Maz, and yesterday, they ate at one of my favorite restaurants and then went swimming and then went skating. I bet they drank beers after that too.

January 18, 2010

In The Middle

Oh park foote! It is what it is, but nobody can claim that Tabari, Sherman and company didn't bring the heat. Via The Hesh.

Thadolo, provocateur of the powerful and friend of the everyman, sent over this link regarding a new indoor spot in Brooklyn and the looming closing of the Brooklyn Banks. Also, this is way too good to pass on: the East Side/West Side blogging war is heating up.

Notable, as the fist-bump fades and the handshake comes back, at least in my circle, is an article about the origin and spread of the hand gesture formerly known as the "terrorist fist jab."

The two best power-forwards of the 2000's? Or is one a center?

Finally, I bet you found it already, but it has to be pointed out that this Mark Frolich Mag Minute is really, really good.

January 16, 2010

Saturday Fare

National Public Radio has taught me hundreds, no, thousands of useful things over the years, and, without a doubt, I've done what I could to support them for enriching my life. More recently however, lacking a real steady income, I've decided that my monthly contributions to MPR would be better spent on, say, rent or something. We all know how it goes. However, after today I may have to rethink my position, and start shelling out a little bit of cash.

Today, while listening to the radio, I learned that Andre The Giant once allegedly drank 119 beers in 6 hours. That's a game changer. For perspective, that's 4.9 cases of beer, or one beer every three minutes, non-stop. In other terms, that's a 44.6 foot tall wizard staff.

Using the google to find further information about this feat, I found that Modern Drunkard Magazine had named Andre "The Greatest Drunk On Earth", and they also have a recounting of the story mentioned above. Happy Weekend.

January 13, 2010

The Real

Tiger strikes back, though I was thinking this wasn't that bad of a plan. Lifting weights in a black beanie though? Tight.

January 12, 2010

Divine Hammer

Got a killer tour of McGuire and Davis' new crib via video I-chat. Highlights included Davis' bumper in their living room, the fact that their apartment doesn't have a refrigerator, the jizz stained chair that Sam bought for $30 off a prominent artist/blogger, and the mattress leaned against the wall which, to quote Sam, "guests like to lean against."

Has Thadolo, quoted as saying that he'd like to, "get in touch with [his] paleo-self," taken up the caveman lifestyle, which has recently taken NYC by storm? While Thadolo declined comment, his friend and rival blogger, Neal Erickson did comment that Thadolo "has been playing catch the rock in between games of O.U.T. at Tompkins." Caveman link via Scott.

The Calsurf blog has a 2009 year in review in photos; I'm just two weeks late in posting something about it. Enjoy.

Van Halen strikes back: I stumbled upon our Winnipeg '06 video today and uploaded it here to the Youtube, but lo and behold, the use of "Eruption" by VH meant no audio track. Worst part of it all? You don't get to hear A-plus' wheel screech on that early grab 360. For shame! Whatevz, watch a quicktime of it with audio here.

January 11, 2010

Turn To Stone

No doubt, if the download time directly from Nike is any indicator, the above video will take a hella long time to play. No worry, the delay is worth the wait; Grant Taylor delivers the expected concrete goods, Shane O'Neill holds his own as (in our humble opinion) a slightly discounted Dtorg.org, and there are always those rumored Basilica moves, which are confirmed, while others struggle not to be a decade late on their switch tres. They fail.

We're a buck short and more than a day late on the latest Flow Trash Throwaway Montage, but I'm cool with that. ELO is so good.

Yeah, winter has taken its toll: sure would be fun to fuck around on a parking block. Maybe we should go to Cream City.

Little Mac and Co., via UPNORTHTRIPS.

I know that dude!

The body-jar noseblunt is done! Yeah Trapasso.

January 7, 2010

Title Belt

The first two lines are the best. Been meaning to post this.

Even thought there is much debate over just when the past/present decade ended/ends, we here at Platinumseagulls INC have decided that the aughts are over and we're onto the o-tens, and so it is time to address the illustrious Phil Schwartz' question (from last post's comments) regarding some sort of decade long Twincities skateboarding wrap-up. Yes there will be a wrap-up(s) on this website. Just not now. In an effort to broaden the opinion here which is normally just mine, some emails have been sent off to get decade wrap-ups from various sources, and I'm pretty sure once one or two of them show up in my inbox, I'll get sparked and try to do the same myself. For now, I've tried to get thoughts from a shop-insider, an industry-insider, a city-outsider, a city-expat, and two members of the TC skateletariet, young and old. We'll see how things pan out; a deadline of about a week has been set, so I'll just cross my fingers for everyone.

Also, here's what you need to know: "The Room" is playing at the Uptown Theater here next Friday and Saturday. What is "The Room" you ask? Well, I found out all about it through LOA, and so should you, and I'll be there Friday. Before then, don't get fed up with this world!

John McGuire does the pizza-man to trash and that's the new Wiskate vid. What with the cold and the snow and the fact that the dude upstairs hasn't shoveled the walk yet, the previously linked vid is quite the nostalgic head-trip. I wonder if Ellis tears up a bit when he's editing that shit.

The Badger got up on The Berrics; I heard the way to get Reda to stop sticking his camera into your face is to start asking him questions. Go figure.

DECADE OF THADOLO responds to the previous post's linkage to their site. We here at Platinumseagulls INC wonder how much our clout goes up when Thadolo's handlers and webmasters label this website as "influential."

DEVELOPING?

January 6, 2010

Christmas in Riyadh

Having taken the tweeting world by storm and putting out one of the most (self)celebrated video parts of 2009, Ryan Hansen starts the Oh-10 by unleashing DECADE OF THADOLO.

Word has it that out of growing paranoia due to Thadolo's growing clout, Gilbert Arenas started packing heat and now has been suspended from the NBA.

DEVELOPING.

In another developing story, it appears that McGuire has taken to shooting skate photos in rollerskates. Check the Pretty Blog for more.

The Hesh comes through with a Summit Skatepark review. Good looks Fink.

ZED has an art show at Familia this Saturday.

How things will probably shake out if your Siamese twin commits murder.

Happy New Years.