This Friday, in the Far-Reaching Depths of Queens

June 2nd, 2010 | 2:22 am | Daily News | 7 Comments

The city of New York is approximately 305 square miles. The island of Manhattan is approximately 23 square miles. The area south of 14th Street is, just maybe, what? One-sixth of that? One-eigth? Well, apparently, things happen in those remaining 282 square miles. Things worth going out to. Things that involve skateboarding.

Normally, I would not have the audacity to advocate venturing out anywhere north of Union Square, but this event is actually worth the trip on the 7 to a remote, primitive part of New York City that’s between the devil and the deep blue sea. It is being held at The Queens Museum of Art on this coming Friday, June 4th, starting at 7:15 P.M. The standout attraction of the Queens Museum of Art is a 9,335 square foot model of New York (yes, it includes those other four boroughs), that was built in 1964 by Robert Moses for the World’s Fair. It has the full city grid on it, and 895,000 individual structures updated up to 1992. Some family that owns some sort of basketball team is holding some contest nobody has ever heard of in Flushing Meadows this coming weekend, and in honor of that event, the panorama is going to be decked out and marked with over one-hundred skate spots found throughout the city, by exact pin-point location. Rodney Torres will be giving a talk on skateboarding in New York to accompany the skateboard-ified version of the panorama.

Following Rodney’s talk, at around 8 p.m., there are going to be several video screenings, the most of which you can gather from the above flyer. The overall highlight would have to be the premiere of Howard Glover’s PRE2K video, which is worth the trip alone.

Aside from that, there’s free Monster Energy Drinks (Marquez co-signed, “That shit has got me through so many miles on the interstate”), free Vitamin Water (sorry alcoholics, no free liquor), and 200 free tickets being given away for the Maloof contest (100 for Saturday, 100 for Sunday.)

The Queens Museum of Art is located just to the right on the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows / Corona Park. Take the 7 to Willet’s Point (is the stop still called Shea Stadium or is that done for?), walk across the wooden platform into the park, head towards the Unisphere, and the rest is self-explantory.

Official Event Page on the Queens Museum of Art Site

Quartersnacks Celebrates the Decade: Volume 2

December 21st, 2009 | 5:00 pm | Features & Interviews | 7 Comments

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And so we continue on our path, ninety-one, ninety…

Not Exactly Dead

September 30th, 2009 | 10:31 pm | Spot Updates | 1 Comment

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Based off what I can gather from this thread on Official and this Gothamist report from a month ago, the fountain surrounding the globe at Flushing is not actually being “re-modeled” and made unskateable. It’s all speculation, but the problems they seem to be addressing by fencing off the whole area appear to be largely technical with the pipe system and the poorly maintained nature of the space inside the cube itself (you know, grass, weeds, that kind of stuff.)

Nothing I have read really indicates that there will be a full-scale remodeling of the area on a cosmetic level (however, it is fully imaginable that some retard from the parks department would tell that to a bunch of skaters just to piss them off or think they would never come back), thus resulting in the demise of the entire border of the fountain. The whole situation reminds me of how back in 2004, the city began doing work on the infrastructure of the B.K. bridge in addition to some re-modeling (which of course, resulted in the demise of the little banks among other things, but still, about 70% of the spot was left in tact) and everyone began to think the whole spot was being torn apart.

From what it looks like, its a maintenance measure. The worst case scenario for us appears to be them leaving the fountain filled up for prolonged periods during the summer months, and them sandblasting the ledges like they did in 2003 or 2004. But even then, the amount of energy and water needed to keep that thing full, in addition to the added facet of them needing people there to patrol the fountain from turning into a Mexican swimming pool would probably render the fully-filled 24/7 scenario not-too-likely.

As of now, its fenced off. I haven’t been to Flushing in two years, but the aforementioned thread on Official is probably the best place to go for up-to-date status reports on what’s going on over there. As of now, it does not seem like the spot is lost.

Not good.

September 26th, 2008 | 4:37 pm | Spot Updates | 19 Comments

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I never really cared for this spot on a personal level, but this would be a bummer if it happened.

Dear Summer

May 26th, 2007 | 12:21 pm | Footage | 17 Comments

Regardless of what the nerds in labcoats may say about solstices and all that nonsense, in my book, the first day it hits 90 degrees, summer begins. It’s hot as hell outside, and I am currently in the midst of recovering from a hot-pocketed ankle and sitting out this first mini-heatwave, so here’s an update if you’re waiting for the sun to go down…

It’s pretty safe to say that skateboarding has essentially become a homoerotic art gallery, so as apart of our “Bringing Sketchy Back” movement, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to start lowering standards for all of your favorite New York spots — in hopes of making it acceptable to film there when you’re not capable of switch varial heel noseblunts. First up, is the much beloved Flushing Meadows Park, which Pryce, Zach, Skinhead Mike, Isak, Brengar and I recently ambushed with a barrage of “below-average” and “not serious” tricks in order to get the art people all uptight in their slip-ons.

Anybody in the market for a Century Optics Mark 1 lens for a VX1000? I’m selling mine.

Normally, I don’t post spot updates that I can’t confirm from firsthand experience, but this is coming from a reliable source. Lenox Ledges (AKA the only decent ledge spot you can skate during the daytime in Manhattan) is now officially a bust. Just in time for summer.

I’m about a week late on this, but Steve put up a new montage over at Square Films.

Now that the most known unknowns have become pop culture darlings due to their MTV show, most of you are probably going to get all riled up with your insecurities insiting that they “sold out” or how “they used to be better before they became mainstream,” but as far as I’m concerned, this new song with Lil’ Jon and Pat is one of the greatest things ever recorded (and it has, bar-none, the greatest hook in Hypnotize Minds history). This song with Pat and Paul over the “Hustlin’” beat is also bound to put a smile on any hater’s face as well.

I’ll see you when it goes below 80 again.