September 25, 2012

Protest Extra Point

Zach Moore was born in Minnesota and went to school in NYC and has made videos for Lake Owen. His part rips with a good mix of the two places he's called home; he's a mean 360 ollie kickflip, fakie too.

Proof is coming in that the new Woodbury park is looking pretty fun, via David Fink and Twitter. A bit of skepticism is still in order, per this, but at least one of the parks under construction right now looks like a keeper. Shouldn't they all be, though?

The Twolves have come to an agreement to sign Louis Amundson, which makes them, perhaps (unscientifically), more than 66.333% a white basketball team. This would not merit mention on this blog site unless Ben Polk at A Wolf Among Wolves had not already discussed and crushed the whole "White Wolves" thing last week. He's already chimed back in.

Watch the end of that Monday Night Football game? Eddie, where you at? Scab refs blowing it, to the point where the commentators, at the risk of blowing huge television contracts, were calling out the bullshit refereeing. I don't care for the game much, but man, let Tom Scocca tell you why you shouldn't too, better than I could. I digress. Go Wolves.

September 18, 2012

Ian Steig Was Unavailable For Comment

Will Ian Steig return to the big screen? Kenny Anderson skates where you've skated and the dudes are really into the blunt-slip-foot-to-fakie. They abide.

Thus far, Elissa Steamer's Epicly Later'd (especially part 2), has gotten to must-watch proportions. The best of it as of now? The Muska copping to totally trying to bone her while on tour, of course. I've stated in the past that she doesn't get her due and am confidant the videoshow will back-up that assertion.

September 17, 2012

Trueridden, All Over Again

Photos by David Fink and Andy Conrad, respectively.

It's mid-September but feels like October, and two new skate plazas from west to east in the Twin Cities are near completion. Up top is the Eden Prairie plaza, a revamp of a forgettable decade's old Trueride park; below is the Woodbury plaza, more or less the same story*.

Remembering back to the first wave of millennial parks around town, these new concrete developments actually seem to be a cause for optimism. For example, Fink's Twitter reaction to EP is hopeful and the photo above of the Woodbury spot seems to show that they got two things quite correct, being open space and ledges.

We've also had some time now to digest plazas (or parks; the semantics wear on me) in Plymouth and St. Cloud. The general consensus seems to be that both are at the very least a worthwhile skate here and there, with St. Cloud being the obvious "skater's choice" at the end of the day.

There is also the matter of the new Richfield park, which is reportedly somewhat of a waste of space. I haven't seen it first hand, but it sounds like it's a smaller version of Plymouth, though not laid out as well. If there's one thing we learned about Trueride parks, it's that not all of them were created equal, which absolutely must apply to Action Sports Design parks, the firm responsible for St. Cloud, Plymouth, Eden Prairie, Woodbury and Richfield.

Last Friday Night's Cocktail Question: Are we getting Trueridden, all over again? In other words, do we really want the same design firm to be called in to create essentially different iterations of the same thing all over the metro area? London Luke brought this up, in light of Richfield, and it's very difficult not to conclude that this is a bad idea, because it's already happened before.

Looking at the EP pictures above, it's easy to see a kind of "modularity" about the way the park is designed: drag and drop obstacles. Are these obstacles a (literal) big step up from the 3-foot-and-under Trueride ramps of yesteryear and (shudder) the incompetence of Bottineau Park? Absolutely. How long will "new and concrete and not fully-standardized" continue to be a step up?

Feeling cynical about these new parks/plazas isn't satisfying. A lot of people put in time with Parks and Rec departments, city councils and the like to make them happen. I'm sure care and attention to detail went into the design proceses. It's now a future matter of making cities aware that a similar cycle of park building (and now replacement) took place where a single builder flooded the area with small variations on the same thing, leading to only a brief period of contentment. We'll remind them: Concrete is much more permanent.

*Right? Never skated the previous Woodbury park nor know who built it.

Home Grown throwaway:

September 10, 2012

19 and Under

Benji is teaching a skate video workshop through the St. Paul Parks and Rec. department. It's for ages 13-19, if any of you in that age range actually read this site, and should be pretty cool. I mean, look at that flyer; you can't tell, but he's standing in a canoe. Sign-up info is above.

Have you been to the new Send Help site yet? Why not?

On the parallels between skateboarding and writing. It's all a matter of shutting off the mind, to an extent.

If you've got some time today, take in this piece by Salman Rushdie about living under a fatwa. It kept me up late last night.

September 7, 2012

The Downtown Sessions

Davis comes correct in front of Dan Wolfe's dreamscape-maker, tooling around a couple square miles on both banks of the river. One must wonder about the possibly controversial second song choice. Homage, affront, indifference or ignorance? Who knows?

Happy weekend.

Update: Davis says it was all Wolfe. Here's the context of a "controversy."

September 5, 2012

Most Bestest Minnesota Skate Part

Last night I found myself on memory lane and ended up watching Nate's video part, above, from All In, among other parts. In an effort to blog better after a stint of not doing much with the site, let's do some crowd-sourcing. I've had polls about the best part in such-and-such video before, maybe even the best ever, but I never asked for nominations*. So, in the comments section below, track down a youtube link to the video part you'd like to nominate and type in the skater's name and the video in which they appear. This is your best/favorite part, subjective as all hell, and maybe even try to say why you like it so much. Go.

*Maybe I did? Don't think so. If anything, the landscape has changed since.

September 4, 2012

7 Day Hangover

Another good one from Wiskate.

Let's hang out in Milwaukee a bit more:

"I heard a rumor on a bulletin board one time that Tim and Eric brought their skateboards to a crossroads near Racine at midnight to strike a bargain with the devil, promising their eternal souls in return for telepathic control over certain parthenocarpic fruits. They ride multicoloured wheels due to a belief that these imbue sexual powers."-BTO

I'm playing catch-up: The Quartersnacks Gino interview.

This Saturday, there's a free skate jam at the Familia HQ from 11 a.m.-2 p.m..

Reuters thinks it killed Hitler.