Tokyo Diamonds

September 28th, 2011 | 12:15 pm | Quarter-Diary | 1 Comment

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Heat Wave / End of Summer 2011

September 16th, 2011 | 1:52 pm | Footage | 11 Comments

Fresh off stealing mad bottles from the Rick Ross concert last night (here’s Ross without his trademark sunglasses), and combined with this morning’s crisp, early-fall temperature, it’s only right to present to you our End of Summer / Heat Wave video. It encompasses everything we were up to throughout the past three months: Barcelona, the Wave at Bowery Stadium, skating at night to beat the heat, and perhaps most impressively, somehow coming up with four or five minutes of New York footage entirely filmed in Manhattan (save one trick.) It’s also proof that our recent HD conversion had minimal effects on our attitudes towards production values.

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to support Quartersnacks, and the crew at Bowery Stadium for putting together a great event. Thanks to everyone else that helped us make this video possible as well. Until next summer…

Clip features Daniel Lebron, Doug Brown, Tyler Tufty, Thomas Taylor, Michael Mackrodt, Josh Velez, Andy Henrie, Mike Cuneo, Marcel Veldman, Sven Aerts, Andre Page, Ty Lyons, Corey Rubin, Jahmal Williams, Zered Bassett, Phil Rodriguez, Bryce Golder, Conor Fay, Sean Kelling, Justin Brock, Dan Plunkett, Emilio Cuilan, Mark Nardelli, Ritchard Swain, Alexander Mosley, and Young Chris. Cameos by Mannie Fresh and DJ Roctakon.

Pad’s quote about his party footage outdoing his skate footage came true…

(Alternate YouTube Link)

Filming Clips, Straight Off the iPhone

August 10th, 2011 | 2:38 pm | Footage | 8 Comments

Contrary to what Rick Ross may insist, the iPhone probably isn’t well suited for “selling dope.” However, it’s great for second angles and quick clips when you’re sitting around lurking at skate spots, as many have learned. (It’s not ironic that a former law enforcement official encourages impressionable youths to perform illegal activities on a highly traceable piece of technology, but perhaps he’s just trying to make his colleagues’ jobs easier.)

If Universitat is Barcelona’s (vastly superior) version of Union, then MACBA is the city’s (vastly superior) version of Tompkins and 12th & A. People kind of just get stuck lurking there, and avoiding it is a badge you can proudly wear, just like “I haven’t been to Tompkins in weeks” is a controversial conversation piece for any New York skater. Further similarities exist in that it’s too dark to skate MACBA at night (doesn’t stop people from trying), and it is a premier location for “homie cam” clips. If Diamond Days clips were based in Barcelona, they’d undoubtedly have their 3:1 duration ratio of 12th & A to non-12th & A footage replaced with MACBA footage. As a result, here is an iPhone clip, largely composed of footage filmed while sitting bored at MACBA, and other joyful moments.

Features Ishod Wair, some lil’ homie (who also appears in a recent Clint Peterson Transworld clip), Tyler Tufty, Vladamir Kirilenko, [poached footage of] Omar Salazar, Andre Page, Ty Lyons, Doug Brown, Andy Henrie, Marcel Veldman, and E.J.

Alternate YouTube Link

Barcelona Update 2 of ?: Damm Estrella Edition

July 29th, 2011 | 12:31 pm | Footage | 6 Comments

Beyond the enticing “legality” of street beers in Barcelona, which allows American tourists to maintain a mild state of intoxication at all hours, another perk is the availability of the beers themselves. New York, unlike most of the U.S., has a 24/7 window for beer purchases (barring Sundays after 4 A.M. if your local bodega happens to abide by that regulation.) However, it doesn’t have an army of Middle Eastern immigrants walking the streets and around skate spots delivering cold Damm Estrellas in exchange for 1 Euro (equivalent to $1.43 by today’s conversion rate.)

Universitat, the spot best known to the rest of the world as the three long black marble ledges on perfect ground, is sort of like Barcelona’s Union Square. The similarities are in the mixed crowd of late-teen to early-twenties lurkers blended with tourists and junkies, plus the centralized location that becomes more spacious for skateboarding as the night progresses. The comparison starts to fall apart once you account for fact that the three ledges would invariably be the best ones in all of New York, not to mention the reliably of the green-bag-carrying Estrella vendors that could be summoned by yelling out “AMIGO!”

Below is a clip featuring Josh Velez, a drunk homie at Universitat, Ty Lyons, and Andre Page. It was filmed under the discretion of street-bought Damm Estrellas. We have been trying to bolster our rap to non-rap soundtrack ratio, and it should come as no surprise that Quartersnacks has a soft spot for songs from the 1950s when it comes to video clips filmed entirely at night.

Alternate YouTube link

Weekend Viewing: Live From Summer 2006

February 26th, 2011 | 12:46 pm | Daily News | 5 Comments

Over the past four and a half years, Gigliotti has been worrying about a lost line he had filmed in the latter portion of summer 2006. It was a noseslide on a high ledge, followed by a bunch of flatground tricks in the middle of a stylish SoHo street. Despite whatever style points Michael had acquired for this late-night maneuver, he feared he may never see his line, for it was believed to be lost on a DV tape thrown in storage somewhere. The spot on which he filmed this trick was problematic, due to the fact that you had to wait until 3 or 4 A.M. for the restaurant / bar to close before you can skate it, so merely re-filming it was not the easiest of options. Michael kept devising plans to bribe Sam for access to his stored tapes, to little avail. He feared the cause may be lost. But then came today.

This is a clip filmed and edited by Sam Salganik, with most of the footage originating from late summer 2006 throughout the remainder of the year. Pretty much when everyone was a lot more productive on the skateboarding end of things, and Ben was frontside flipping the Wall Street Gap in two tries with like three feet of extra space after the gap. (Some of the footage appeared in this clip from January ’07.) Features Kevin Tierney when he was a few inches shorter and wearing his world renown Corn Pops tee shirt, Matthew Mooney, Pryce Holmes, Ty Lyons, Isak Buan, Taji Ameen, Leo Gutman, and of course, Michael Gigliotti.

There’s also a clean, good quality upload of Gnar Gnar up on Vimeo now as well.