Classics From the Distant Mid-2000s

August 31st, 2010 | 2:03 pm | Time Capsule | 5 Comments

Given that the environment surrounding skateboard videos in 2010 typically shoots through a one-month cycle, in which the routine of them being premiered at some bar, uploaded to YouTube, released on DVD, deleted off YouTube, re-uploaded onto some sketchy eastern European video sharing site predominantly used for personality gauges of mailorder brides, and finishing their lifespan with a three page topic on Slap that usually dies out around the time some token asshole says “It’s kind of boring, I don’t get why everyone likes it so much,” it’s hard to maintain a longstanding presence, or even find something you may have missed from years before. The phenomenon is particularly pertinent to local videos, which went from their nineties/early-2000s existence of being passed around their respective regions on VHS dubs, to the complete opposite end of the spectrum, where every single twelve-year-old has a HD camera and desperately tries to make the defining document of their generation, right before the majority of their friends find out about cocaine and start filling out their art school applications.

Everyone knows that Mixtape is the best New York video (of the nineties, because “New York” videos don’t really exist anymore in the same way, unless you’re Flipmode.) Maybe if you’re more concerned with dat real hip-hop than with skateboarding, or are a Japanese person who doesn’t know who Eric Koston is, it’s your favorite video of all time. Choosing such a distinction as a clear-cut statement is more difficult for the 2000s, given that there are probably, like, a hundred New York skate videos that have been forgotten by this point. But unless you have personal allegiances, a safe top three would be Vicious Cycle, Flipmode 4, and Lurkers 2, probably the best time-capsule of what it was like to actually skate in New York during 2004, with the drives to Staten Island to pretend like you’re in California for a few hours, and the shift away from skating the Financial District with the recent loss of the little Banks.

Lurkers 2 has been uploaded to Vimeo for about two months now, and is teetering around one hundred views, which is only fuel to the suspicion that it is criminally under seen outside the immediate circle of Manhattan and North Brooklyn inhabiting skateboarders. Plus, it’s a good way to cap off August. The quality looks decent, not what you’d expect from the age of faux-HD Vimeo uploads, but you’ll live. Features full parts from Dharam Khalsa, Ted Barrow, Jason Dill, Ian Reid, Lurker Lou, and Charles Lamb. Has a riveting opener by Aaron Szott, and cameos from Quartersnacks team members, Matthew Mooney, Ty Lyons, and Pryce Holmes.

A few relevant links: Quartersnacks’ 2006 review of the video, and links to some alternate edits from the video.

Brooklyn Banks Week: Ian Reid Interview

July 18th, 2010 | 11:25 am | Features & Interviews | 7 Comments

I’m ending this thing off with Ian because he was the first dude I ever met who was getting coverage in videos when I was growing up and first started going to the Banks. A common question throughout all these interviews has been, “Who would you see?” The best things about spots like the Banks when you’re a kid is that you get to see people you’ve been watching in videos (it wears off pretty quickly, I know.) Nowadays, you might bump into someone trying a line downtown for some shitty web clip, but it’s not the same as showing up to the Banks in August and seeing Dill, Muska, and Jamie Thomas occupy the same spot simultaneously.

In Ian’s case, he was always around, he was always recognizable, and if you were a little kid, he was by far the most approachable dude out of any older skaters you might’ve run across when you were younger. So while a lot of these stories might make the people who frequented Banks sound really stand-offish, there were exceptions to the rule.

Hopefully, everyone enjoyed these interviews. Thanks again to Ted and The Chrome Ball Incident.

Interview by Ted Barrow on September 30, 2006

+++++++

I benihana’d that shit. That was my claim to fame — a benihaha over that shit. Yeah, dope.

When was that?

It was ’93, baby. Yeah, that’s when I first – Brian used to do benihanas and I thought it was sick.

Did you skate both the Banks and Love?

I’ve been to two out of four, and I was there when two out of four monumental events occurred. The Banks, I was here, I’m from New York. Love, I was there, my man BW put it down. Pulaski, I never fucked with. When I was in DC, I wasn’t skatin’. I was on some other shit. And EMB, I just wasn’t into Frisco. I missed the EMB shit. I saw the new one. I wasn’t into the old one. I wished I did, I wanted to see it.

[gnats buzz around our bench by the dirt]

This place is insane, that we’re sittin’ at. I don’t know what they are, but they’re annoying. I suggest we move. We have to get out of here. [Looks around the empty park, full of dirt and gnats.]

Yo this is so wack, what they did, I can’t even believe it. I’ve been skating this shit for over 15 years, and the only motherfuckers who ever sat back he — actually there was never no seats here — the only motherfuckers who was back here was skaters and homeless motherfuckers more or less. That was before it was all terrorist-crazy and all that, so you know. Motherfuckers used to have their little shop set-up back there in the corner. And they would just sleep and chill. Like now they got all these stupid-ass benches and shit over here. Nobody even sits on these things. Look at us, we’re the only ones here. They got a fuckin’ chess table. This shit is… just stupid, like who the fuck plays chess like this? Out in the open in the city? It’s just weeds and shit. You’ll probably get like West Nile and shit when it’s raining from the mosquitoes.

When did you first start coming here?

Oh, shit. Damn, like ‘88 maybe. Late eighties. When I first started skating, it was like these dudes on my block used to write graffiti, and they used to skate, and the name of their crew was Twisted Skates, and that shit was dope. That shit was hard to me when I was little. And they used to have these graffiti stencils on their boards. I was like damn, I wanted to write graffiti. So they used to skate around and write graffiti, I started writing graffiti and skating around.

Probably like ‘89, that was the first time I ever came to Manhattan. I came here by myself; I saw all these people skating. I just live over the bridge and shit, so I just walked over the bridge, and you used to be able to just walk down them steps and you’d be at the Banks. So motherfuckers are skating here and shit, I just seen it, I was like “Oh shit, skating!” and I just like started skating. I would come here like, not every day because I was still young, but I would come on the weekends and shit when it would be crowded. And it was just wild, skating that shit.

I see you on that fire escape, girl.

June 23rd, 2010 | 2:52 pm | Daily News | 20 Comments

Joe Cups has been posting an ensemble of wonderful videos over on Vimeo. The latest installment features Ted Barrow, Matt Avedon, Charles Lamb, Taji Ameen, Ian Reid & Matt Mooney. There are a handful of others, including Ty, Pryce & Charles in Barcelona, in addition to some golden TF nostalgia reaching a half-decade back in time, when it was at the height of its oft-discussed (at least here) high-point of cultural relevancy and featured many eminent, eighties-inspired crackhead performing artists. All is embedded after the jump.

Merry Christmas

December 25th, 2009 | 9:38 am | Footage | 5 Comments

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Usually, I start these things some time around the 20th or 21st of December and see how I like them over the next couple of days before Christmas. This time around, I started about 2 hours before midnight on Christmas. So, a lot of hours in FCP, a few dozen cross dissolves, and three or four coffees later, this is what I came up with.

Its a typical QS December 25th / End of the year mood piece with pianos and shit. Handycams, flip cams and some three-chips here and there. Dusty and dirty lenses and bad filming on my part included of course.

You know the drill — part one is the homies, part two is the roster. It is the fifth year anniversary of QS Christmas clips and I think next year is bound for a full-scale Weiss comeback to his former 2005 glory. Hopefully they re-model Lincoln Center with something that he can kickflip nose manual this time next year.

Features: Adrian Vega, some Boston dudes, German Nieves, Allen Siegler, Ian from Union, Dennis Feliciano, Keith Denley, Jersey Dave, the Gothic Raver, Alex, Shawn Powers, Staten Island Adrian, Tohmi Shiroyama, Ty Lyons, Aaron Szott, Danny Weiss blowing it as usual, Isak Buan, Francesco Pini, Taji Ameen, Kevin Teirney, Ian Reid, Pad Dowd, Galen Dekemper, Miles Marquez, Thando Beschta, Benjamin Nazario, Matthew Mooney, Vladimir Kirilenko, DJ Roctakon.

Thanks to everyone who contributed footage: Justin White, Jimmy Marketti, David Spodofora, Dennis Feliciano, JP Blair, Anthony Beckner, Alex Rialdi, Pad Dowd, Joe Cups.

Got me working day and night

June 26th, 2009 | 3:06 am | Footage | 8 Comments

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Another king gone.

You already know the drill. Dirty lenses, excessive cross dissolves, curbs, the worst filmed Jake Johnson footage you’ll ever see, Lenox Ledges, etc.

Features Miles Marquez, Ty Lyons, Matthew Mooney, Tyler Mate, Jack Greer, Tyler Tufty, DJ Roctakon, Ian Reid, Galen Dekemper, Jake Johnson, Billy Rohan, Charles Lamb, Brendan Granstrand, Snack, Justin White, Negative, Taji Ameen, Benjamin Nazario and Michael Gigliotti.

Contains cameos from Switch Michael Strobert, Thando Beschta, whores from Washington Heights and Danny Weiss.

Thanks to Justin White, Jeremy Cohan, Alex Rialdi, and Brengar for contributing footage.

There is an alternate edit of this that was unfortunately suppressed by the Quartersnacks Board of Trustees as it was declared too racist and ignorant for public disclosure. While I still feel that is not the case, it is better to keep it buried in a folder of random edits to ensure that nobody gets offended.