Video Review: Not Another Transworld Video

June 8th, 2011 | 12:31 pm | Reviews | 14 Comments

The past seven or eight years of Transworld DVDs seem like a blur, but specific memories of a Peter Smolik comeback, Dylan Reider’s first major impossible tailgrab, and Richie Jackson’s striped bell bottoms left lasting impressions. The videos have always been vehicles to hype up the latest to-be / just-recently-turned pro, with one or two classic parts that will continue on with a prolonged shelf life. Transworld got worried about any potential redundancies in their video formula, and self-referentially named their latest Not Another Transworld Video. Maybe it is not another Transworld video because it is filmed (mostly? all?) in HD (this website isn’t an expert on formats by any means), with the assistance of some footage that looks like it came from a GoPro.

Although Transworld is a year late for the Waka Flocka train, the recently-pro Theotis Beasley skates to “Hard in the Paint” for the video’s opener, and it works wonderfully. The part is a bit more lighthearted than your typical Transworld section, in a way that makes it feel like the best part you’ve seen in a homie video. They chop up the skating with candid shots of iPod diddy bop sessions, Facebook browsing, and best of all, him standing in a pool wearing a full suit and tie. The skating switches between tech manual and ledge tricks, large bigspin heelflips, flip-in tricks down hubba ledges, and the patented double backside flips, double back heels, and even double half-cab flips. After this part, it may round him out to be the most versatile dude on Baker. (Speaking of Baker, they need to put Forrest Edwards on already. Nevermind.)

Consumption and Production: A Manifesto for Skateboarding Effectively Past the Legal Drinking Age

May 13th, 2011 | 2:41 pm | Reviews | 7 Comments

Quite by possibly the longest skateboard video review ever written.

By Galen Dekemper

In Boston, Shape Deuce rings through the tea-scented air much in the way “Swag,” “Waka,” “Shake Junt,” and “Wu-Tang” have been ad-libs of certain times and places. As ad libs are wont to do, Shape Deuce invokes the good life, with its flip to grinds, vomiting in the company of friends, confrontations with authority, camouflage, street beer, and wet, bare breasts. This potent stew brings to mind Miles Marquez’s flask based younger lifestyle. Before the Doors finish their intro song, the Shape Deuce boys further engage in skating into and through bodies of water, popping confetti and skating New York spots near and far from the Fung Wah bus stop that drops them off at the base of the Manhattan Bridge. The introduction ends with Dave Bachinsky doing a line at a spot from PJ Ladd’s Wonderful Horrible Life, which may as well be a quality comparison.

As with many independent videos, there is the question of initial name recognition. The Shape Deuce crew features Manny Santiago, known for complicated handrail tricks in baggy clothing, the Krooked affiliate Brad Cromer who has done difficult tricks over the bank to bank in Greenpoint, and Dave Bachinsky, who may have a different shine in a homie video than a corporate production since, despite his barrage of bangers and sponsors, has not embraced superstar status in the way of a Greg Lutzka and is the first person to leave Adidas sponsorship for Vox Footwear. The shops that sponsor Shape Deuce’s habits are Eastern Boarder, the Massachusetts skate shop collective and Identity, which has taken Shape Deuce under its west coast wing as they make names for themselves and vie with the City People franchise for a spot atop the post-P.J. Ladd Boston scene. Blues rock replaces Brit-Pop, and as reminders of Coliseum’s presence wither, lampposts, bar bathrooms and ledges feature fresh Shape Deuce stickers.

Video Review: Flow Trash

April 30th, 2011 | 10:17 am | Reviews | 7 Comments

(Better late than never)

The release of Welcome to M.I.A. this past winter was rude and sadistic. As the majority of the country was pummeled with snowstorms, the main anticipated video for that period happened to be from a region blessed with endless 85-degree days, and hordes of drunk girls on vacation from state colleges in New Jersey. Welcome to M.I.A. was hard to watch, as your attention would divert to various travel sites, looking for airfare to any place where the temperature is constantly above 70 degrees. Those unwilling to leave behind life’s responsibilities in exchange for perfect skate weather were able to pick up Flow Trash, a video filmed in Minnesota, some 1800 miles to the north of Miami. There, they skate rails into snow, have a far worse winter than the northeast, and could relate to sitting home watching skate videos with three sweaters on, instead of rejoicing in the glory of life near the equator, amidst multi-colored strobe lights and Tiesto concerts. Flow Trash comforted us this past winter — “Hey, we know it’s tough, we got it bad too” — it didn’t laugh at our unfortunate state of affairs, like M.I.A’s offering did.

On the video’s back cover, being on “flow” is described as “toiling away for little official recognition, not officially on though technically sponsored, bottom of the ladder, skating for sticker packs.” As Minneapolis does not have a massive bar-backing, party promotions, or art economy, the toil of a flow “career” must be intense, given the lack of supplementary work, which is far more available in places like New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.

Video Review: Real Skateboards’ Since Day One

April 12th, 2011 | 12:22 pm | Reviews | 27 Comments

Video “reviews” for videos that everyone is going to watch are weird, and mildly unnecessary. Since Day One is definitely an “event video,” so you’re going to see it no matter what anyone says. By that same token, reviews that take a “this guy is sick, he skates real fast and does gnarly stuff, this other guy is sick, he noseblunted a big rail, this young kid is sick, and he’s going to get even better, etc.” direction are rather useless as well. As the last “event video” review on here failed to do that, and was thus misunderstood by a lot of casual “Stay Gold review” Googlers, we’ll avoid discussing this project in a full constructed paragraph form. Instead, we’ll take a more observation-based, reactionary course of action, as what was done here for Mind Field, except with less sarcasm, and obviously more enthusiasm.

1. Buy this video. Don’t download it off some Lithuanian Blogspot page. Get it off iTunes for ten bucks, or better yet, buy the physical copy. As companies’ desire to huck over considerable resources into full-scale video production has dwindled over the last several years, and revealed one part videos or other formats previously reserved for disposable content to be a more cost-efficient, most companies still abiding by the old physical full-length DVD deserve your $20 and a space on your shelf. Especially the ones with as rich of a history as Real, Emerica, Girl/Chocolate, etc. Do it as a gesture, if nothing else. Sure, nobody watched Mind Field, Fully Flared, or Stay Gold in their entirety after a week of owning them, but videos aren’t an average of thirty-five minutes anymore. There’s something special about waiting years for a video to come out, and then finally being able to hold it in your hands. (Unless you’re young enough for DVDs and VHS tapes to have never been a major factor of your existence, that’s a different story. Just download it off iTunes then.)

Video Review: 3D Innovations DVD Compilation

March 3rd, 2011 | 11:52 am | Reviews | 8 Comments

While you probably couldn’t write a book or make a documentary about a principal Boston skate spot in the same way you could for Love Park, the Brooklyn Banks, or Pulaski Park, the city is no less important than the other three within the context of the northeast. The talent that has come out of Boston and its immediate surroundings (in addition to it having the best spots out of the four as of 2011) is enough to attest to the city’s long winding influence, regardless of whether or not Copley Square or the Hospital Banks have grandiose, mythological narratives surrounding them.

3D Innovations was a D.I.Y-tee-shirt-turned-legit-clothing-company that started up in Connecticut back in 1990. It would eventually come to sponsor the likes of Robbie Gangemi, Jahmal Williams, Jeff Pang, Ryan Hickey, Mike Graham, and others, all at varying points in time. Earlier this year, 3D released a collective DVD that features The Fat Juicy Video from 1991, Messin’ Around from 1998, and a bonus section filled with various promos and loose parts from the 1990s. With compilation videos like Revisited, Greatest Misses, and Pre-2k all being coveted by more nostalgically-inclined skateboarders, 3D’s video is special because it’s presented with its original slew of cheesy graphics (in a good way), all-over-the-place soundtrack, and is in no way re-edited for the current age like the aforementioned projects. (Again, in a good way.)