You may have heard that the city approved plans to cover Tompkins with synthetic turf after a hearing this past May. There is very sparse information about this, outside of the Tompkins courts being outlined with a rectangle in a PDF. Several friends with, um, knowledge of how to navigate these things have begun to reach out for more info, as groundbreaking looks like it is set to begin this winter. Anyone with insight into how this could be debated and compromised with Parks, even after it has been approved, please feel free to share what you know. We’ll try our best to keep you updated as well.
“My project in Malmö felt unreal. Imagine that happening in New York. I wouldn’t even know where to start.” Hmm, on that note… MIT Masters degree holder, Alexis Sablone, has been heavy on the interview circuit lately, and everyone is happy about it. Alexis for president of skateboarding :)
Josh Kalis re-did the ender that capped a video part he filmed at age 23… at 43 ♥
Go Skate Day videos aren’t exactly the first things that get clicked on around here — unless they’re from the Sabotage dudes, who, rather than running the whole “this is the one day I refuse to skate” thing that contrarian “core” guys do, went out and got nine minutes worth of Philly footage in 24 hours. (Yo, where is that mini windowsill ledge? Figure it’s Center City somewhere and sucks IRL, but that thing looks super fun.)
…and if you are the type to check for Go Skate Day videos, Extra Crispy has been better at re-capping skate events in New York than anyone else for a while now.
The Traffic team had an extended stay in Japan, and came back with not not a full-length video and an article for TWS.
Kris Markovich skating the Chase steps in 1998 but also in 2019.
Hypebeast paid a visit to Mark Gonzalez’s Chinatown art studio for a video profile, and then skated a Popeye’s ledge with him through weekday pedestrian traffic.
There are a couple New York bits in the first part of this Australian Soda video by James Thomson, which quietly went live on Thrasher last week. Adam Davies’ part at the end is a gem.
Found this lil’ artifact charming in how foreign it feels to anything that exists out there now: “Dose,” a ten-minute local video from Maine, filmed in 1997-1999. Let’s hope that the state built those guys some more spots over the past twenty years ;)
A reminder: back-up your music collections, and don’t rely on streaming…especially mixtapes. An entire generation of rap music is just a DatPiff or Soundcloud crash away from largely ceasing to exist. Rip those Soundcloud files yo.
Quote of the Week: Been a slow week for the “quotes” file in the Notes app, so gonna give it to this text exchange between Ryan Lay and Jaws, as seen on Twitter.
Also pulled from the Twitter world (you already know that there are only four websites in 2019) — Lucas of anti-Frog notoriety dug up this Javier Nuñez part from Street Cinema, and it’s even better than you remember. People would trip if this came out today :)
Don’t worry guys I’m gonna use my cinema clout to dramatize the police surveillance and civil disobedience skaters go through at TF, get Rosario Dawson and Alec Baldwin on board, shop it around some liberal Hollywood circles, and hopefully raise enough money and awareness to influence the LPC and make TF a historic landmark
yo jonah hill
Javi’s line at the Christy st. bump, but on a DIY bump instead. interesting
Just not going to say anything about that cover photo huh.
Whatever the budget is to repurpose that section Tompkins could go a long way if used to transform the area into a designated skate spot. Obviously the popularity of the place for skaters shows demand, and a higher up could probably be convinced to save some money by building a few ledges instead of completely transforming it.
@Clay – that’s a very good point – and you’re obv an intelligent muf*cka with an excellent name.
I can confirm maine has way better spots now. Shout out to Mike G!!
The Jonah Hill comment should get an award.
I’m on Juniper St. just north of Chestnut St. I’ve been around for a while, so I think that makes me pretty fun to hang with, right? Peace & Love