The Age of Information — A Young Bench’s Strange, Erotic Journey From Williamsburg to Far Rockaway

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Tuesday, June 21, 3:02 P.M: Despite tweeting plans of an eight-hour binge that would involve bouncing around screens at the 42nd Street AMC theater, the QS office decided that the national holiday would be best spent on the beaches of Rockaway.

Tuesday, June 21, 7:18 P.M: As the sun began to set, we set our sights on the Beach 91st skatepark. Objectively speaking, it might be the worst skatepark in New York, but we’re great at finding charm in awful things. The park has the special distinction of 1) Being a Hurricane Sandy survivor, 2) An appearance in Phil Rodriguez’s Caviar part, 3) Unlike pretty much every skatepark in New York, it contains what a 2013 Quartersnacks comment dubbed “A STRAIGHT FUCKING LEDGE.”

Tuesday, June 21st, 7:30 P.M: Sadness begins to set as most parties present did not bring ideal footwear for skateboarding or non cruiser boards. Said sadness is largely due to recurring observations about how fun and ideal of a height the aforementioned “STRAIGHT FUCKING LEDGE” is.

Tuesday, June 21st, 7:34 P.M: Quartersnacks art director, Emilio Cuilan (celebrating a birthday today btw), makes an observation that “I feel like I skated that ledge before, but it was at another spot.”

Tuesday, June 21st, 7:58 P.M: An iPhone photograph of Genesis Evans (of “I didn’t know I was beast until I varial flipped a trash can“-notoriety) performing a backside 180 5-0 grind is taken.

Wednesday, June 22nd, 8:42 P.M: Over 24 hours after the fact, that photograph of Genesis Evans is posted on the Quartersnacks Instagram account, with a note that the trick on display did not occur in Calabasas, and was not at 4 P.M.

Wednesday, June 22, 9:35 P.M: Sognar and Trife alumnus, William McFeely confirms Mr. Cuilan’s suspicions from the day before that perhaps the bench on display had lived life elsewhere via his Instagram account, “@billymcfeely”: “Still don’t understand how the bqe bench got to far rock away.”

Wednesday, June 22, 10:00 P.M: A comprehensive individual with the IG handle “@timandvicstagram” clears the air regarding the bench’s shaky past: “@billymcfeely there was talk way back when that all the ‘skate’ objects under the BQE were under imminent threat of being destroyed by the DOT/DOS. In fact, at one point, one of those agencies actually followed through and began to destroy the bank to bank there. The builder of the bench, instead of waiting for said agencies to make quick work of the bench, decided to move the bench to the Far Rock park after the original got wiped out by Sandy. It just so happened that the park was looking for donations, and through a friend of the OG skate community in NYC, arranged for the bench’s new home at B91. And that my friend is how the “BQE bench” got out to Far Rockaway. And f you absolutely must know how it physically arrived at B91, it arrived by a pick up truck.”

Wednesday, June 22, 10:08 P.M: Mr. McFeely thanks “@timandvicstagram” for the comprehensive response.

The more you know, yaknow ? ;)

‘Plug’ — The New Bronze Promo

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Three hours late may not have been much in 2010, but on the 2016 internet, we might as well be posting the new Bronze promo in the 2010 archives. We blew it.

“Plug” is a departure from the past few rounds of Bronze projects not because it is in HD — not their first video to ditch the VX — but because it’s far more conservative with the nostalgic non sequiturs that made it one of the western world’s most ripped-off skate video franchises. At the same time, it’s a return to the late-2010s, post-Flipmode / pre-merch availability era that made us fall in love with the Bronze age. There’s a revived Phil Rodriguez not seen since the 2011 Q.S.S.O.T.Y Caviar days, an ender part from the venerable Trife alumnus William McFeely, and a loving tribute to the God K.T. in which he appears for one clip like Danny Way in Photosynthesis credits except way tighter — making “Plug” a two-sided love letter to new and old Bronze fans alike. Also shout out to Nick Ferro for consistently making all of us underweight skateboarders proud, part after part :)

Previously: Trust, Enron, Solo Jazz, 56k, Caviar, Sognar

TRUST – The New Bronze Video

bronze 56k trust

Monday Links are getting bumped for a day.

The latest Bronze audio-visual presentation is now on YouTube. Turns out the Bronze office really does use a 56k modem. Need some proper time to properly digest the sensory overload. So many feelings, so much confusion, so much joy, a few tears and even a few laughs. Didn’t Andrew Allen do that first?

Features Josh Wilson skating incredibly fast, Jordan Trahan stringing together many distant skate obstacles in unorthodox fashion, Shawn Powers looking wonderfully kempt and curated in the moonlight, Billy McFeely maintaining an odd life-long allegiance to that horrible high ledge at 20th and C, Rob Gonyon running through the six, Joseph Delgado including mid-2000s pre-Bronze Flipmode staple Pedro Garboza in his part, Chachi logging the first known line in Nike Foamposites, a career-best outing from Kevin Tierney, and Dick Rizzo making you yell drawn-out obscenities at your screen a few times.

Just a lot of emotions, man. Go to the Bronze webstore and buy things to help them pay back their $30K debt to Pig Wheels for production costs.

Ya, def.

Previously: Enron, Solo Jazz, 56k, Caviar, Sognar

K.T.B.D.K.O.N.Y. Remix

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Photo by Sean Cronan

Though both had separate remix videos in the past year, here is a dual part of Kevin Tierney and Black Dave sourced from their King of New York footage. These dudes have come a long way since Trife*, the yellow Osiris hoody (never going to let that one go, it’s too iconic, sorry) and Globe flow days. Great to see them traveling about and still killing harder each and every year.

All footage is filmed in New York City limits by R.B. Umali.

#TBT (the second T is for Tuesday though…) Quote of the Day
Charles Lamb: “I heard you were getting flowed shoes from Globe, that’s cool.”
16-Year-Old Black Dave: “Yeah…Flobe.”

Alternate YouTube Link

*Somewhat Related — Fellow Trife alumn, Billy McFeely, had a welcome part for Passport Skateboards go live today.

PreviouslyKevin Tierney: The Mad Bodied Edit, Black Dave: Banned From B.E.T

Breaking Boards

wavy mike

Still the best piece of photography in 2013.

This has to be one of the slowest news weeks in the past few years of doing Monday Links. Can’t wait for basketball season to start.

We can keep making up hypothetical narratives about why our favorite skaters haven’t had any footage in ages, but at least Fred Gall has been #relevant for twenty years and counting. He has a new part on The Skateboard Mag site with kickflip backside noseblunts in it ‘n stuff. (Here’s an alternate YouTube link.)

Ripped Laces investigates the Osiris D3’s second or third life. This time, it’s mostly confined to the shelves of Italian sports retailers.

The first post-Beef Patty video blog entry from Johnny Wilson and co.

Some guy did a frontside lipslide up Black Hubba.

A few cool homie videos popped up recently:Ripstick,” which is filmed around New York state, “Slime 2” (Leo Gutman sighting!), and “Porch Mafia,” a New York and Long Island-based project with a reutilization of Rick Howard’s song from Goldfish.

Skateboarding is weird in 2013, man.

On that very same topic, Chris Nieratko found the quintessential Dylan Reider lookalike at a skatepark in Belguim, interviewed him, and then got in touch with Reider himself to give his (brief) take on the legions of doppelgangers out there.

The part about there being enough time for it to go from day to night when you drive from Peekskill to Manhattan seems a bit exaggerated (this isn’t L.A…), but there’s some cool stuff in this Dustin Younie part from Belief’s Ever Upward video.

Every international #indie skate company with a following in the States seems set on having at least one New York guy on their roster. After an odd stint on Jart, Billy McFeely is riding for Pass Port.

Next time you’re complaining about how there is nowhere fun to skate, remember that people in Myanmar would think you’re an asshole.

The 12th & A renaissance seems well under way. People are filming there again, and the Labor bench that slowly disintegrated at T.F. last year has been resurrected.

Quote of the Week: “I have a theory that Time Warner deliberately hires idiots to work their phones so you can’t negotiate with them.” — Bar Homie

The weather is going to be incredible this entire week.