Glue Factory X-Mas

Glue Factory Xmas Vid/Filler Extras

How is this not a Glue Factory Festivus video? So it goes, and it should be noted, the GF is now two years old. Enjoy.

The Rememberance Of Things Past In 2009

P-Dawg

The year in review in light of shit I did, in attempted chronological order:

-Went sledding.

-Flattened coins on train tracks.

-Found out that drinking on Solsbury Hill was up there with sex, Jesus and The Beatles.

-Found out that rolling down Solsbury Hill while drinking and then becoming drunk was amazing.

-Found out that I'd lost my I-phone on Solsbury Hill.

-I'm pretty sure I dislocated my right ankle doing a heelflip on flat; if that wasn't the prognosis, I messed up my ankle unlike I had ever done before. This was the third time I'd rolled an ankle this year, it was mid-May. The injury persisted for the better part of two and a half months.

-I went to St. Louis and chilled with Nelly, and I cliff jumped in Iowa City, and I skated the barn ramps in Mt. Pleasant, IA.

-Familia gave me a "Trueheads" board and I'm still honored; on my deathbed, I'll say, "Hey, at least I had a 'pro-model,'" and then I'll expire, leaving everyone in the room utterly confused.

-Had my I-phone returned to me five weeks later by a man who I lovingly will call one of those "Old Northeast Liberals."

-Unable to skateboard, I biked a ton, tried to go swimming at least half a ton, and farmed a great tan.

-My ankle stopped feeling jacked and I tried to skateboard some more.

-I'm still scared of flat-ground heelflips.

-Met a girl. She's really great.

-For the first time in six years I skated in shoes other than Lakias; the recession hit me in the form of disappearing rep budgets. Around the same time the lackluster economy really hit me in the form of non-existent assignments for TSM; as the economy rebounds so do page numbers.

-Didn't film enough for Filler.

-Got setup to resume school at the U of M after nine and a half years; said "Good riddance" to MCTC, even though it was mostly fun while it lasted.

-Turned 28 (yet to occur; three more days).

This blog took a decidedly un-personal turn this year and I'm actually quite fine with that, but what with the goading of some friends, I decided to throw a little something up here. Normal programming will resume most likely after the New Year, I'm off to the West Coast!

'09 Platty's

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Lament For The Lost Generation/That St. Paul Thing

It just occurred to me that Twincities skateboarding is now four generations strong, what with the coming out party that was the New Flavors premiere this evening; hello Fourth Gen (As for the other generations: The Old Guard, above 30, The Lost Generation, late 20s, and the Boondoggle Generation, early 20s, get it?). The vanguard of this yet to be named Fourth Gen is filmer and editor (and erstwhile blogging princess) of New Flavors, Kevin Horn, who managed to fill the Oak Street Cinema to standing room only proportions.

After a mellow introduction, Max Byers opens things up, headbands and all, stringing together proper lines, and generally cementing a more complete image of his skateboarding than all the Familia events that I've seen him skate at put together. Hani Shamat is the dude that kickflipped off The Roofs onto the table while wearing a helmet; Hani does not disappoint, doing the roof to table ollie in a line and showing off his prowess for flipping his board after grabbing the nose with his hand. You dig?

Rayshaun Crawford has entered the building. Mr. Crawford picked up the pace a bit speed wise, did backside nosegrind reverts on picnic tables, and hopefully at some point someone will kick some free gear his way so he doesn't have to skate such decrepit shit in the future. If I'm getting my video order correct, following Rayshaun were a couple of montages, featuring some more familiar faces than before yet even more new dudes. Sherman got as froggy as you'd expect, and Ricky whose last name I cannot remember seals the deal with yet another monstrous kickflip; good looks.

Next, Tom Rohrer and George Akande take aim at being the old dudes in the video, and they come correct. Extensive polling has shown that Tom should rock a clean shave, but that hasn't slowed the kid down one bit, and he pretty much picks up exactly where he left off in Boondoggle. George got the biggest cheers of the night for a switch front board to boosted bigspin, and from there, he proceeded to steal the show. He looked strikingly similar to Kareem jumping down the stack at South High, did picnic table lines, and generally handled the award for being a man amongst young adults.

Following the Akande show was Peter Edge, evidently a fan of Salman Agah for his penchant of rocking either a wrist cast or wrist guard throughout his part. Pete breaks a lot of boards and will one day be breaking many hearts on his skateboard. Ender ender status ended up with Jeremy Coners, one of those long-haired long-bodied dudes that can do 360 flips with ease. Coners is another young St. Paulitan who I'd only seen skating at those Fam events, and with the advent of his first part, and this goes for everyone in the video, I'll say the kids are all right.

As for the video production, Mr. Horn did a bang-up job. There's an evident focus to the entire thing, the filming and editing are clean, and Horn mixes some good classic rock with some newer music to have a nice, cohesive, if not mind-boggling soundtrack. As far as first efforts go, this one is a doozy, and hopefully, finer skateshops across the metro will offer you a chance to pick up New Flavors.

Reminded:

See ya'll there.

Last post was #420. WOW. Happy Weekend.

Wiskate is 11 today. Shakas!

The BIG Mess

The next time I decide to write about 1,000 words or so about the time I decided to, oh, not read TWS for the past two years, or when I decide to not pay my electric bill until I think they're going to start noticing (just sent that shit in!), or something else that is completely inconsequential and otherwise boring, please remind me not to. And, in the future, let's extend the same courtesy to John Swansburg the next time he decides to write about the time he stopped being a sports fan.

Or something.

Swansburg's unconscious motivation for this entire quit-plan was an unconscious decision to just stop following the sports that he normally followed. That happens. And then, some months on, evidently utterly lacking content for some such article on deadline, he decided to rationalize his disinterest in sport by saying that the 24 hour news cycle of sports (or something) was way too overwhelming for his fandom, and that you have to follow sports in real-time or you somehow cause a disruption in the space-time continuum (making those who TIVO the Superbowl even more dangerous than that CERN ever was, maybe).

Having proof-read the above, I've now devoted a couple hundred words of pointless critique to something equally pointless, and will now stop; I suppose my problem is that I expected something worthwhile, from an otherwise always worthwhile news source.

Aside, big ups to the self described Norman Rockwell of Street Skating, Randall Ploesser on his TSM write-up about shredding at the City Museum; photos by Samuel Vincent McGuire Esquire. We need more self-deprecation in skateboarding these days.

I guess I'm throwing out more media criticism, its one of those days: Glenn Beck? That was easy.

Not that much more out there now that I've gotten them rants out the way; let it be known that the Chrome Ball is down with Tha Dolo. YOTD 4 starts in 14 days.

COOL CHICKS.

I love UPNORTHTRIPS.