Happy weekend.
May 24, 2013
Youtube Does Not An Update Make
May 22, 2013
May 14, 2013
#VIKINGSHIPHALFPIPE
The above might be the best we can expect from Minneapolis public skateboard parks, for now. Those dudes rip. At least there's Joe being Joe.
The Twincities skatescene has thrived for a long time with the obvious absence of good public skateparks. The nature of the climate around here has made the private-but-pay skatepark the norm and the industrious amongst us have found the private bowl the way to go since the end of the aughts. The fact that very few frequent the Edina Grindline skatepark is a failure on that city.
There's a new wave of skatepark construction sweeping the metro-area and it could be good and it could be bad. I wrote a post about that last year and it's here, so take that as a refresher.
Right now, Minneapolis is in the early phases of revamping its lackluster skatepark system, and they want everyone's input, which they'll take via this survey, right here.
Think this one out and take something around the full 15 minutes they say it'll take, if not a couple moments more. It seems obvious that the people who read this site know what makes a good skatepark, and the people at the city need to hear it, so take care with the answers and when the text boxes afford a longer, more fleshed out answer, give them one.
Update: The city unveiled a big money plan for redevelopment around the new Vikings stadium, in an area which is a vast sea of surface parking lots. The proposal includes an almost 9 acre park, which is a possible location for a new Minneapolis public skatepark. This little bit is the origin of #vikingshiphalfpipe, FYI. An artist's rendering below, sans skatepark: It's worth noting the snow/no snow element in that picture.
May 9, 2013
Last Trip To 'Kato
Dolo ran the shop in Mankato for a second there in the mid-aughts, about the same time he ran for mayor. He offered a board tuneup--re-gripping, rotation of wheels, bearing cleaning, etc.--for $20, and it's still one of my all-time favorite rigs. The Saturday morning skate jam was cold, and come to think of it, that was my last trip to 'Kato.
May 8, 2013
"The Last Slice" Premiere
Pizza-obsessed filmmaker, Dana Ross, will be showing his latest offering in Stillwater this Saturday. For some time now, Ross has claimed this will be his final film, promising some sort of totemic sacrifice of his video camera at the premiere. We'll see. But then, what would be next for the pie-auteur? It's difficult to imagine him turning his back on a decade of skateboard documentation; it seems that something like You Want The Crust?> is inevitable.
If Ross does indeed hang it up, while, in a literal sense, there won't be big shoes to fill, he'll still have left his mark on wonky skateboard video making and it's assured he'll continue to raise consciousness about one's most recent consumption of pizza.
May 7, 2013
Defunction
"Crew Trip; skate, dance, go home in the middle of the night. Featuring Jason Byrne, Joe Blum, Keith Spettel, Andy Paulsen, Sam McGuire, Nate Compher, that stuffed badger, Benji Meyer, Chad Benson, Mike Munzenrider, Dan Jackson and Josh Holtan. Shot and edited by Benji."When did that park close? Some time ago?
Perhaps you never heard, but Lake Owen Skatecamp is no more; the land that it was on was sold for development, thus, last year was its last year. Stand up dude and friend of The Plat, Zach Moore, shot and edited video for Lake Owen over the past couple of summers, and, what with the camp now out of business, needs a bit of help making copies and premiering the 2012 camp video. He's set up a Kickstarter here for his video called Goodnight Loon, and needs about $1500 more to meet his goal. Pitch in if you can, there are 12 more days to go.
May 6, 2013
Video Salvage
Thanks to the Wayback Machine and a lazy Saturday evening, I tracked down the above, a not-as-bad-as-expected upload salvage from a little Quicktime movie that dwells out there, somewhere, in a corner of the Internet.
Skaters include Sam McGuire, Andy Paulsen, Me, Chad Benson, Chris Carpenter, Ryan Hansen, Dan Jackson and Dom Hess.
Memory bank the date: May 18 is Day of Familia.
Sorry for the lack of updates, I was pretty mentally checked out during that fever dream of non-spring.