You may remember back in 2021, Kyota Umeki dropped a video filmed entirely on a gen 4 iPod Touch, the first such device to have video-recording capabilities — and one that has been antiquated to the point where it’s not even recognized by the new MacBook models.
A lot has changed in the Star Team’s home base of the East Village since 2021. Tompkins has been completely refurbished, and in many ways, more-or-less now the official domain of skaters. The neighborhood is at probably twice the capacity it was three years ago, when it was climbing out of the pandemic. There’s an FTC location on Avenue A. And perhaps most consequential in this context, the Star Team has a brick and mortar store, located on a storied block for New York skate shops dating back to the late 80s.
The iPod Video 2 is the sequel — filmed on TWO iPod touches, one for long-lens, another for fisheye clips — and a celebration of that shop’s one-year anniversary. Not so much a “here’s the hardest possible trick I could do at this spot,” but a pulse check on how the Star Team is living, what they’re into, and a sliding scale of what productivity looks like when you meet up at Tompkins in 2024, and go from there ❤️
This makes me feel old in a “wow i have no idea whats cool anymore” sort of way, not the the more common “i don’t get it and i’m angry” way of feeling old
I felt same watching — er maybe trying to watch is more true — this. But then I saw Pat Chanita in Top 10 and knew I was in good hands.