December 2010 - Quartersnacks

A Flipmode video to end the year off…

Daily News December 28th, 2010 · 3:27 pm · 89

By some strange stroke of fate, Peter has concocted a video project to aid us through the first half of winter, and tallied up 2010 as the third straight year in a row of making some of the finest local multimedia available. Longer than Sognar, but shorter than Trife, Caviar has parts from Bill Piece, Pedro Garboza, and others that were largely missed from the preceding project, in addition to keeping the crew’s traditional roster (McFeely, Shawn Powers, Kevin, etc.) This may be the second time this year that Flipmode has fallen victim to video pirates, as this video seems to have been ripped from a video cassette that was originally a collage of taped evangelical daytime TV shows, Larry Johnson’s four-point play, and scenes from New Jack City. The locations in the video only fuel the fact that there are still tons of spots left in New York, all you have to do is look harder, or employ San Franciscan approaches to hillside spot discovery before you start complaining about how everything is gone. It has been a really good year for local videos.

(The video offers some ominous hints at the Billy Lynch disappearance mystery, but no clear solutions. What is it with Long Island and the perpetual vanishing of its skateboard-riding residents?)

Features Rob Gonyon, Shawn Powers, Pedro Garboza, Kevin Tierney, Bill Pierce, Luis Tolentino, Patrick Murray, Joseph Delgado, Danny Falla, Jamel Marshall, Dylan James, Mike Burch, Amadeus Estrada, Xavier Veal, Derick Ziemkiewicz, Phil Rodriguez, and Billy McFeely.

Part 2 embedded below.

All White Everything

Daily News December 27th, 2010 · 10:15 am · 5

Thunder, lighting and snow, that’s a first for this lifetime. There’s even snow inside the train stations right now. If you happen to be blessed enough to not have work today, don’t go outside. Sit home and listen to the Can’t Ban the Snowman tape or something. Here are some links to pass the time for this Monday morning.

With board graphics getting all of the retrospectives, and printed-word love these days, wheel graphics are pretty much universally neglected. Here’s a quick guide as to when skate wheel art began, and ceased to, matter.

The Quartersnacks Varsity Jacket via Bowery Stadium.

Someone asked Ian Reid if he could name “25 skateboarders who are actually from New York” on his Tumblr some time back. He returned with a very comprehensive answer.

Anthony Claravall offers some anecdotal nostalgia about the Cardona brothers, and what it was like filming their 411 “Wheels of Fortune” segment sixteen years ago.

You know things are slow down in Yahoo News International Headquarters when they can write five hundred words about the city installing fences and “No Skateboarding” signs at the Chinatown Banks. They quote Two Hawks Young though, which is sick. For those who don’t know, he was a crucial part to the greatest conceptual skateboard video of all time.

Anthony Beckner threw together the first batch of footage from the Below the Bridge Skatepark with the Classic Skate Shop crew. Conveniently enough, the park opens today, but even driving to Bayonne might be a bit too ambitious of an endeavor right now. The park looks slightly smaller than expected, and unfortunately doesn’t have the two different sections of street courses like Drop-In does (real estate, I know), but it would still be a good call for an off-hours winter session. Just maybe wait for the kids to get back to school.

While you complain on the internet, Roctakon is a humanitarian who supports Dominican skateboarders.

Rob Harris’ “Aussie Pressure” clip. The ending is brilliant.

Blueprint Skateboards’ “Summer in New York” digi-cam clip. Aside from the ground, this spot is the worst.

Thanks to everyone who linked up the Christmas clip: 48 Blocks, NY Skateboarding, Mound City, Paulgar, Second Nature, Blogge Materiale, Senes 23, Olson Stuff, Ian Coughlan, Krook Life, Skate the Streets, Tim Nolan, High Five Skateshop, Strictly Skateboarding, Max White, Delta Co. You guys are the best.

Quote of the Week: “I’m going to buy a bottle of Jack and drink it until I no longer care that I suck at skating.” — Miles Marquez

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Merry Christmas

Video December 25th, 2010 · 3:12 am · 21

Here’s the annual jazzy mood piece. Filmed throughout the past three months. Twenty-percent of the total eleven minutes was filmed on one miraculous twenty-five degree night in Midtown, something that is otherwise unprecedented in all of our over-eighteen-years-of-age existences. Complete Christmas miracle if there ever was one. Thanks to everyone who supported, visited, and spread the word about Quartersnacks this past year. First person who points out the grape soda BGPs gets a free Quartersnacks tee shirt (when the second batch comes in, which should be relatively soon.) Somebody please buy Josh a set of white wheels for Christmas, the lime is really starting to offend everyone. He’s “dreaming of a white-wheeled Christmas.”

Features: Jason Lecras, Tyler Tufty, Connor Champion, Max Palmer, Dennis Feliciano, Josh Wilson, Jersey Dave, Shawn Powers, Matthew Mooney, Billy McFeely, Torey Goodall, Vladamir Kirilenko, Thando Beschta, DJ Roctakon, Ted Barrow, Ty Lyons, Emilio Cuilan, Gabe Tennen, Pad Dowd, Galen Dekemper, Miles Marquez, Alexander Mosley, Josh Velez, Andre Page, Kevin Tierney, Geo Moya, Isak Buan, some lil’ kids, Pryce Holmes.

Big thank you to the contributing filmers: Andre Page, Dennis Feliciano, Paul Young, Joe Bressler, Martin Wilson, Larry Bao, Paulgar.

“What’s the song for the Christmas clip?”
“John Coltrane. Nothing too crazy.”
“That’s corny.”
“The last clip I made was to ‘Fly Like a G6,’ give me a break.”

Here’s an external link to download the clip as an .M4V for iPhones and iPods. 147.8MB. YouTube version here.

Inspiration

Time Capsule December 21st, 2010 · 5:37 pm · 17

The internet has not provided any useful information as to why “My Favorite Things” is a Christmas song (beyond “the imagery”), considering it originally started out as a show tune. Walking around these past few days, and hearing it playing several times from more festively-inclined establishments in varying renditions, gives us an excuse to post this part. Even though it has been posted on QS maybe three or four times throughout the past several years, it is a concrete choice for the personal, “Top Five” shortlist. (Accompanied by the recently mentioned Nate Jones Real to Reel part, the last two parts in Mouse, and an ever-changing fifth slot.)

Great style, well-done simple tricks, cities, doing things on spots relatable to everyone (like a bump to hill as opposed to some household name handrail) and all that is associated with this brand of skateboarding, will never go out of fashion. Even though a part like this cannot be singled out as that one instance that inspired every kid to try nollie front foot flips, or to start wearing brown high-water Dickies, it will stand as a timeless example of amazing skateboarding, after the impact from the “of the moment” blockbuster parts has become muffled, and the tricks one-upped five times over again.

Of course, saying that trends are bad, or token handrails and gaps aren’t an essential part of skating, is stupid. For all those who have the power to influence those aspects, it is crucial that they continue doing so, as it progresses skateboarding more than anything else. All that’s being said here is to take some time to occasionally admire the simpler things, which too often get pushed out of the way by N.B.D. alerts and C.J. Tamborino parts that cause the internet to implode.

P.S. If you have ever opened Final Cut Pro in your life, this part is an inspiration to anyone who has ever undertaken the task of editing to difficult-to-edit-to music. Let’s get it.

An indoor skatepark twelve miles from Manhattan

Daily News December 21st, 2010 · 11:50 am · 11

Falling in line with Quartersnacks’ “Exception when it’s about Jersey” policy, we’re going to take some time to veer off and discuss an indoor skatepark. An important one. Even if you’re, like, the “street-est” dude out, by living in New York, your existence succumbs to one of three options in the wintertime: 1. You have a lot of money, resources, a mistress, etc. that enables a living situation in a warm(er) climate like Miami, Los Angeles, or Barcelona (yes, obviously it’s not summer there, but still.) 2. You put your skateboard in a corner, spend the next three months hibernating, and vicariously experience skateboarding on the internet. 3. You rent/borrow/own a car and go to Drop-In.

Not that there is anything wrong with Drop-In (They released a Jersey Dave “Bro Model” skateboard a few years back, so you sound like an idiot if you have anything negative to say about their institution), but it’s 40 miles away from Manhattan. And speaking from experience, that’s 40 miles worth of chances for Switch Mike to almost crash into a highway divider upon realizing he’s in the wrong lane at the start of a blizzard.

After a year or so of rumors hinting at a concrete, indoor skatepark in Bayonne, Below The Bridge Skatepark, located on 9 Gertrude Street under the Bayonne Bridge is scheduled to open on December 27th. (Source: The park’s Facebook page.) That’s twelve miles from Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel, or just over the Bayonne Bridge if you’re coming from Brooklyn or Queens, as you can cut through Staten Island over the Verrazano Bridge. Based off the park’s Facebook, helmets are required for those under eighteen, but there is no specific information on cost, hours, or things of that sort.

The park is part wood, part concrete, with a Berrics-esque design plus half of a mini-bowl. It’ll probably be packed beyond breathability in the first few opening weeks, but will hopefully mellow out once the real hand of winter sets in mid-January. In the end, it’s a indoor park twelve miles from the city, and while it will have no bearing on your life from April to November, it’s definitely a good thing that it came to fruition this early into the winter.

Check for more pictures after the jump.