April 25, 2016

All seven

#purifyyourselfinthewatersoflakeminnetonka #prince #ripprince #mpls

A video posted by Benji Meyer (@benji_meyer) on

I don't have a strong grasp on exactly how long the clip above runs but I've got a feeling Meyer just might make good use of the extra IG running time.

The Burnsville skatepark will be expanded. Per Dean Mulso on FB:

The Burnsville City Council approved the Phase II construction for the Burnsville Lions Skate Park.
So the good news is: we have a construction project that will set Burnsville in the skating scene for years to come.
The other news that comes with construction is: the entire skate park and surrounding area will be closed during the construction period. Anticipated construction schedule is May 16 - August 16.
We are asking for your help in spreading the word to keep skaters out of the area so you have the best possible quality of workmanship and the park holds up for years to come.
We will be having a Grand Re-opening celebration once the park is completed.
A bit more: The Burnsville council essentially gave the go ahead in January and finalized the bidding process at its April 19 meeting, awarding the work contract to Custom Builders, Inc., on their nearly $234,000 bid. Much of the funding for the expansion comes from the city -- just more than $155,000 comes from its park fund -- while $50,000 was contributed by the Lions Club, hence the name.

As far as I can tell, a longboard shop opened near Roosevelt High School near 42nd Street and Hiawatha in South Minneapolis. City Pages wrote about it:

Max’s father, John Kuker, was a recording legend who owned Seedy Underbelly in Minneapolis and Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, paving the way for local musicians like Semisonic and Jonny Lang to launch their stars. He was also an avid skateboarder, placing Max on his own baby penny cruiser when he was just six years old.

Last February, John died unexpectedly of a heart attack. He was 40 years old.

“That store, I was always just being like, ‘I could never do that, I could never swing that,’” Max says. “Then after he died, I just kinda realized, I need to do it. He recorded a lot of new Minneapolis bands that were just broke and looking for some way to get their music on CDs. His studio kind of became a haven for creatives. I’m want to make that for skaters.”

Per a text convo with Davis about the news last week, he said that after his two Purple One-themed pro models, "[I] kinda had to tell them no more Prince graphics." The one I held onto is definitely bound for the wall, now.

7 comments:

Wylie T. said...

My exposé of Davis's Transworld "Substance" will be installed here by no later than midnight on Sunday May 8, 2016.
(My thrift store DVD player froze this evening and prevented me from observing the final, intimate details of his part, so I decided not to begin writing, since such a sacred a part deserves nothing less than our complete adoration. That's some Catholic satire, applying the same phrases for Mary to Davis's part.)

Wylie T. said...

Alright, so the reality of installation will be more like 12 p.m. of May 9. I apologize.

Anonymous said...

Wylie, get your own blog this is ridiculous.

Wylie Tueting said...

(Part 1.)

What Davis Torgerson’s Career Finally Has: “Substance”
By Wylie Tueting

For anyone who’s ever worried about how much the brutally leisurely lifestyles of Mikey Taylor, Sean Malto, or Mike Mo have affected Davis Torgerson’s skating, I can tell you now that the answer seems not much at all, according to his Transworld “Substance” part. This is his most deliberate part yet, so too it is his finest. The tricks are relatively simple but the surrounding details are rich. Don’t let yourself feel otherwise. Torgerson’s part is a thing of ambitious Art.

But what are those rich surrounding details of the part? Well, it follows on the heels of several fractures that disabled Torgerson (which is badass); it is not a showy YouTube upload but one of several parts that contrast with but don’t compete with each other (which is collaborative); it carries no particularly noxious southern California spots, but instead carries mostly pleasantly exotic spots (which is stunning, that Torgerson could find the willpower to avoid such California spots); it displays a familiar visual aesthetic, given the VX quality, but not an entirely familiar visual aesthetic, given how agile the filming is, so agile in fact that it leaves the viewer space to spy the clothing, footwork, textures, gestures, windows, placards, etc.); and it etc.

So the surrounding details of Torgerson’s “Substance” part are rich. Yet by themselves they prove little about how his skating triumphs around such details. Thus, allow me to join the surrounding details with some specific details, in order that we glimpse the unity of effect.

__________

Wylie Tueting said...

(Part 2.)

The first VX clip is a two-trick line, and frankly it’s not likely to thrill you, unless you force yourself to rewind. You must force yourself to rewind, because if you do you’ll notice that the two concrete wave bumps that he pops off are oriental in design, and spaced a peculiarly challenging distance apart. They’re not inviting easy lines, nor breezy 360-flips. So, as much as his ollie off the first one and kickflip off the second one seem together to be basic at best, the line itself is impressively initiating, because those wave bumps are spaced peculiarly as hell.

There’s something going on with Torgerson’s landing standards here, and it’s hard not to find it charming, even innovative. I’m talking about his new foot flexibility, the way a foot can be seen hanging on, askew. There are several vivid examples, the first of which occurs after he ollies off that incline and counter-intuitively bs-bluntslides to pop-out up that ledge, and his back-foot rides it out quite obliquely. Another example – not as oblique but surely more elegant – occurs later in the part, after he lands a bs-boardslide to pop-out to fakie off that out-rail, and his front foot tweaks forward distinctively, relaxedly, naturally before he hops off his board to dodge some chairs. There are further examples, rest assured. And while I’m not saying that his new landing standards are the easiest to talk about, what I am saying is that it’s hard not be charmed.

Wylie Tueting said...

(Part 3.)

To say that Torgerson’s clothing varies much throughout the part would be a stretch, just as it would be a stretch to call his clothing bland. He mostly sports undistracting T-shirts and khakis, set below an orderly hat; occasionally he sports a collared shirt of some type, set below a not necessarily orderly hat. Whatever the case, his clothing choices don’t hinder his style or tricks. And yet there is one major oddity – or retro perfection – that can be caught in two separate clips. Both seem like clips out of Transworld’s “The Sixth Sense,” not “Substance.” In the first clip we see him rolling on a residential sidewalk in a grey sweatshirt, faded denim, a black beanie, and black DCs, before he does a switch bs-heel off a sidewalk incline gap. (That could actually be Caine Gayle.) The second clip is a line, in which he sports similar clothes while doing a bs-bluntslide on a marble ledge, an indifferent nollie bs-180, and a switch flip to Suski grind. (That may be Torgerson, or it may be Robbie McKinley.) So Torgerson plays with form in this part, whether consciously or not, and leaves you considering something more than tricks.

Getting back to those tricks of his, there are many highlights, all of which are such for their own particular reasons. (That’s how his tricks work in this part.) Of those tricks that are exquisite in their simplicity, look upon his fast-moving line of a switch bs-5-0 on a ledge to then immediate switch heel up stairs, or his fs-5-0 off a bench that drops him down upon a narrow dock landing. Of those tricks that seem most creative, observe his dropping in on that mini roof, to drop onto a flat roof, to ride-on fs-50-50 to pop-out off a guardrail, with the spot itself feeling like England; or his wallie up that loading dock that he curves around on before rolling up to a windowsill on which he does a bs-180 to switch nosegrind that grinds, tweaks, then sticks until he pops out into the Spanish sun.
And of those tricks that are clearly professional, there are very few luckily, and yet they still deserve examination, as in the case of his switch flip over that green handrail and down that embankment, which might as well be in Africa; or in the case of his line at that place with the silky grey pavement, which is a line that moves smoothly from a switch fs-tailslide, to a nollie heelflip to crook, to a bs-180 off a grate and over hedges; or in the case of his definitive kickflip over that sizeable handicap ramp, definitive especially because his arms are outstretched in midair, to facilitate a kickflip that he never really catches, but which he lands and rides away from quickly in spite of his hat fluttering away. And those are only some of the highlights.

__________

Now we can understand why Torgerson’s “Substance” part is his finest yet. It has the glamour of ambition, sobered by the reality of previous injury, uplifted by collaboration between skaters, captured by the agility of great filmers, in locations near and far, and produced with just enough refinement to allow us to see what makes Torgerson an individual. None of his former parts allowed us to see such. But this part does, so feel proud to support it as well as to support “Substance.” Then pause, and feel prouder to support Torgerson, who for all his apparent skill and notoriety, has just begun to attain Honor. Well done, Davis.

Wylie T. said...

To Anonymous,
I apologize for the broken promises, sincerely. I've been working as safely as I could all the while. Hell, does it help if I confide that I am recovering from literal heart issues currently? Let's hope so. Love,