Catching Up

East 2nd Street & Avenue A, across from the original Autumn location. Thanks to Kyle for the photo. The Astronaut Status birds are a nice touch.

Here are a few things that surfaced in the past two weeks. China didn’t have YouTube or Vimeo, and 90% of the skate-related portion of the internet involves those two sites. Sorry if you’re seeing week-old content, bro.

Sweet Paradise, a once crucial corner of the constantly-declining Barmuda Triangle, is slated to close for good in the near-future. Grab a drink in it’s current dilapidated state, and share stories with some friends. Thanks for the memories, and all the free drinks. Thanks for hosting Galen and Danny’s birthday three years in a row. Thanks for hosting the Danny Weiss Dis-Own-A-Thon. One less place for girls to get a skater boyfriend.

Darren Harper on being “The Obama of Skateboarding,” friends borrowing bullets, partying with Paris Hilton, and the Manny Mania incident.

A weekend in New York edit sent in by a reader. Includes a soundtrack by French Montana (who’s destined to get mauled by a bear for karma reasons), and Jeremy Lin inspired titles.

A 14-second Mighty Healthy commercial featuring Gino Iaanucci, and a 60-second Venture commercial featuring Danny Falla and Silvester Eduardo.

Turns out that the so-bad-it’s-good “masterpiece” ABC Skateshop video from 2000, Remedy, has been online for the past year. Though it’s awful in a variety of ways (what other video dedicates a part to harassing NYU students?), it is still a nice glimpse into what New York skating looked and felt like twelve years ago. Fun watch if you’re bored, feeling nostalgic, and at least six beers deep.

Everyone has seen these Bill Eppridge photos of New York skateboarding in the 1960s for Life magazine, but not enough attention has been given to this particular photo. Proof that time travel exists, or merely Shawn Powers’ extra futuristicly swagged out great uncle?

A story came out yesterday stating that Max B’s appeal was denied, meaning he would remain in jail until at least 2042. Mr. Montana placed a called to Mr. Wingate to confirm that this is all false, and insisted that a court date was imminent.

“Brief thoughts on the 2012 XXL Freshman list — Fuck that shit, doggie — we ova here takin’ screen grabs of that bird in the floral frock wot looked like a sarcastic Brandy from the ‘Feel So Good’ video tonight instead.”

Quote of the Week: “I just realized how sick it is that Brian Anderson skated to a Muska Beatz song in Modus.” — Alex Olson


Back in the U.S. China was tight. Updates resume as normal.

Before There Was Autumn…

Last summer, we wrongly attributed the “Golden Age of the T.F.” title to the period that coincided with Lurkers 2. The “Golden Age of the T.F.” came two years earlier, between the fall of 2001 (when the T.F. was born), and the summer of 2003 (when the World Industries box was there), with its absolute pinnacle being the manual pad, one-sided box, yellow rail, and black rail days. Yes, there was a time when there were FOUR obstacles at the T.F. Over the last five years, the act of returning the box to the shop a mere half-a-block away became immensely unpopular — just imagine that at the onset of the 2000s, people would lug four obstacles all the way from 13th Street to the park.

A large portion of the people you see at the T.F. in 2012 either did not skate, or did not yet move to New York when ABC was around (sadly, the people picking up skateboards and moving here for college now missed out on both the Autumn and ABC eras.) This video should bring you up to speed the time when Tompkins was fortified by Scott Schwartz’s excellent carpentry skills. It’s a much better representation of the era than that awful and horribly-aged Alphabet City video. With all due respect to Autumn, ABC might have been the superior governing body for Tompkins (please consult this clip for a glimpse of key moments from Autumn’s reign.) Everything is left to the history books now.

It is actually perfect that the second part is edited to Ms. Jade, as she, and other Timbaland side projects like Tweet (of “Oops Oh My” and “Call Me” fame) were massive favorites on the ABC shop speakers. Shout to NY Skateboarding for discovering this one.