Saw Shaggy (of Handjob Sk8 Zine and Slap mail bag fame) skating around downtown when the protests were starting to get underway. He sent over a letter to the QS office about two weeks back to chronicle his time spent there, and other varying developments.
Though we have written about Union Square’s dwindling post-renovation relevancy in the past, it still manages to keep its head above water as a diminished, yet occasionally influential, political force in New York City skateboarding. We may be a long way from Union Square’s generation-spanning stint of power (please note that it was still socially acceptable to film last tricks at Union Square in the mid-2000s), but it still has its share of characters carrying on the torch to prevent it from being left merely to the history books, like the Astor Place cube or the Brooklyn Banks.
A brilliant resource for Union Square anthropologists, entitled Amazing Strangers, was recently brought to our attention. Aside from drawing up the map above, it provides a much-needed breakdown of the park’s cultural hubs as they pertain to junkies (apparently, there was a fatal incident of junkie-on-junkie violence a few weeks ago involving a hit to the head with a U-lock), confused skateboarders, gothic ravers, and any other human form that society outside of Union Square has rightfully refused to acknowledge. It also gives a breakdown of how an authentic Union Square skateboarder is supposed to look (pink V-neck, longboard, upturned sun visor, pink wristband, etc.)
Perhaps Quartersnacks will begin on compiling a similar guide for Tompkins and 12th & A (essentially a three-block map of the East Village.) We could then detail the history behind many of the Tompkins’ most infamous characters: The Mayor, The Janitor, The Cuddler AKA the Snuggler, The Irish Potato, The Philosopher, Dirty Daddy, Joseph Delga DOS, Union Squeric, The Brown Refrigerator, Tall Rodriguez, Puta, Young Buck, and many others. Give us a few months.
Until then, the Union Square guide should hold you over. It was obviously compiled recently, as the exclusion of Dave Thomas would be a glaring omission if a similar project was made available in 2002.
If you spend time south of, or on, 14th Street, you have probably seen Shaggy AKA Bobby Crawford skating around. A while back, we linked up a piece he wrote for Blackbook magazine about various Union Square degenerates, and a New York Times article about his longtime hobby of writing “Letters to the Editor,” so this may seem familiar. Aside from his Astor and Union visibility that has spanned many years, he gained some infamy from editors at Slap, where he was a recognizable name in their “Envelope” section.
When you see him, buy a $1 copy of his zine, entitled Handjob Sk8 Zine. It chronicles many of the entries that have made their way into print over the years. The zine is a couple black and white photocopied pages of magazine clippings, and handwritten commentary along the side, tackling topics like New York skateboarders turning into “sissys” (Via Slap: “If Anthony Pappalardo lives in the city, any wimp can do it”), longboarders (Via Thrasher: “I’m seeing big groups of people wearing helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, and even wrist gaurds, pushing mongo through the streets of New York. If they’re that concerned about their safety, maybe they should consider walking”), and even celebrity gossip (Via W: “Bruce Willis was starting to look more like a lost puppy than Die Hard‘s John McClane tagging along everywhere with his ex-wife and her boy toy husband…But things have turned around now that he is on the cover of W with his hot wife.”) Beyond the hilarious rants, there is some balance in there, like a well thought-out response to the ignorance of a 2005 New York Press article suggesting it wasn’t “cool” to be over fourteen and skateboard.
“Letters to the Editor” seem to be a dying feature of many remaining printed publications, as they are among the first things to get axed when cutting back on pages, so it’s cool to have even a stapled and photocopied compilation of these from someone who has found a bit of notoriety in the annals of print. New York doesn’t seem like a place with an overload of zines (I vaguely remember something called 2nd Avenue Zine that used to get passed out at the TF in maybe 2004, but cannot remember who made it. I think it had a photo of Ted doing a switch crook at the now-gone Philly step on Church and Worth Street), so a buck isn’t asking much to have a particularly entertaining one, especially when it’s not full of weird inside jokes, and could be enjoyed by anyone.
This is what happens when you defend Mike Bloomberg.
On September 2, 2010, QS commentator “less dead bikers” said: “what the fuck do skateboarders care about additional traffic? wider bike lanes are a good thing.”
Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but yeah, wider bike lanes are a good thing, especially given the fact that I don’t even have a driver’s license, and think cars are only useful when it is mid-July and you are tired of sitting at 12th Street every day, are slowly remembering that you haven’t left the city since last summer, and are contemplating jumping into the East River. Wider bike lanes are a good thing, if they aren’t administered by retards. Broadway isn’t a “green ribbon winding from 59th Street to 14th Street,” because these idiots took out an entire lane (which was basically empty half of the time, i.e. you can skate in the middle of it), and paved it over with sandpaper. Sandpaper? Yes.
Now, most of you probably don’t care, and unlike me, haven’t been in a lifelong training session for when the MTA deads unlimited Metrocards, in order to be used to getting by without taking the train. Unless you skate everywhere, this will have absolutely no effect on you. But everyone has a right (and a responsibility) to be upset about stupid shit. Remember, your freelance photography job is always cool until tax time rolls around. You just paid for all this bullshit with that chunk they bit out of it. And taking out an entire traffic lane that barely anybody used to begin with so you can pave it over with sandpaper, is stupid. (Neglecting the fact that your average cab driver does not care about your precious bike lane and will happily run you over anyway, because he definitely has less space to avoid doing so now.)
If this post upset you, and you’re warming up your fingers to post a comment about how you want to see some front shoves and hear the noise of a metal grate suffering the friction of a skateboard truck in SoHo, you can just go watch the Dylan Rieder Epicly Later’d. “Can we get to the Prada jackets and modelizing already!”
P.S. The Boyz n da Hood album was super underrated.
Hopefully you didn’t expect the most important event in New York City skateboarding history of the past ten years to be lumped in with everything else. All but one…
Late, but R.I.P. Pun / February 7, 2012 @ 11:37 pm / 1 Comment
What the hell is going on? / February 7, 2012 @ 1:31 pm / 1 Comment
Letters From Kat Stacks / February 4, 2012 @ 11:19 am / No Comments
