Time Capsule | Quartersnacks

The Only Zoo York 20-Year Anniversary Video You Need

Time Capsule May 31st, 2013 · 5:23 am

#slownewsweek

“What’s in the future for Zoo York? Airplanes? Asteroids?”

Over the past several weeks, Zoo has been releasing videos to celebrate the company’s twenty-year anniversary. Beyond an admittedly sorta sick return to Astor Place since a decade-and-a-half hiatus, a recent episode featured the team visiting the Chapman warehouse, where a lot of their board production has taken place. Considering there isn’t a gallery to browse through early Zoo graphics available online anywhere, it’s a fun trip back to simpler times to when a two-color graphic board was considered an anomaly.

And thus, your average mid-twenties to mid-thirties skateboarder is inevitably left with 411 “Industry” YouTubes as a vehicle to reminisce on old companies’ primes (e.g. this isn’t the first time in the past month where an “Industry” section has provided the exemplary five-minute glimpse of a company we were once in love with.) Who would have thought that the “expanding” promises uttered twenty years ago would amount to such a far-off result? Either way, try and find someone who doesn’t have this section on their shortlist of 411 favorites.

Previously: The Zoo York Institute of Design, Eli Gesner on skateboarding in New York, 1997

New Jersey Classics: Andy Bautista & German Nieves in ‘New Thirsty’ (2008)

Time Capsule May 3rd, 2013 · 4:30 am · 1

This photo is technically from a different era, but is sick regardless. By Jonathan Mehring. Shout out to anyone who ever skated Lackawanna Ledges (R.I.P.)

One of the somewhat obscurer inclusions on Ross One’s Hopps mix was “Come Back To Me” by Cheyenne’s Comin’, which, personally speaking, is one of my favorite songs that I’ve ever discovered from a skate video. It was used for Andy Bautista and German Nieves’ ender part in Justin White’s New Thirsty video from 2008.

Andy and German’s shared part is a semi-sequel to Andy’s section in Logic #6, a part that has been discussed on this website before. Logic #6 was an unofficial City Stars Street Cinema prequel, as it had breakout parts from P-Rod, Mike Taylor and Justin Case, with a 50-percent New York/Jersey, 50-percent L.A. Andy Bautista part oddly nudged between. In 2001, it was pretty great to see Lodi, Newport and Hoboken footage sit alongside mythical L.A. schoolyards; it made those places feel as significant in the bigger, video magazine-ized portrait of skateboarding, at least for three minutes. The part also started a ten-year obsession with wanting to skate that yellow tile bank in downtown L.A. (We made it there last summer, and predictably got kicked out in one minute. The cracks are a lot bigger than they look in footage, too.)

Justin did the original great justice, right down to music supervision that captures the vibe of the Logic part, despite not being as “mad hip hop, yo.” Andy even revisited Lodi for it, though he didn’t make it back out L.A.

If you need skate “culture” stuff to do this weekend: Our homie B.K. is having a release party (#freebuzz) for a zine he made with several friends that showcases bodega-centric photography and art, Hopps, etc. is doing another “Bum Rush the Spot” event at an “undisclosed” location that shouldn’t be too hard to figure out based on the flyer image, and there’s skate art stuff at da Fish on Sunday. We’ll be watching basketball during the aforementioned events. Hopefully not a Knicks Game 7, but probably. Have a good one.

What Happened to William Phan?

Time Capsule March 29th, 2013 · 5:03 am · 17

william phan

We posed the question above on Facebook, and got a response within three minutes: “Still skating in Barcelona every day. Doesn’t give a shit.”

You know that hypothetical “If you could skate like one person, who would it be?” scenario? Most usually answer with Cardiel or Gino, but a consideration people often forget when formulating their response is how nice it would be to have the flip tricks of someone who skated MACBA every day for over a decade. William Phan is one of those dudes who would do insane lines but still have the flat tricks stand out as the most impressive part. The kickflip up the ledge in the first line of his They Don’t Give a Fuck About Us part is legitimately one of the most memorable moments of the entire video. He even makes 360 frontside flips — a trick otherwise reserved for Battle of the Berrics and Greg Lutzka — look good. Observe below.

Unfortunately for anyone who doesn’t skate MACBA every day, he’s seldom been seen since a part in one of the best Euro videos of all-time, and yes, this is our second TDGAFAU-inspired post in twelve months. He’s on some European sect of Nike SB, last seen in the bonus section of Nothing but the Truth and the French SB team’s trip to China montage. BUT, thanks to the magic of Facebook (it’s not completely irrelevant yet!), some lesser-seen footage of Phan was brought to light via what looks like the filmer from the TDGAFAU era’s Vimeo page. This includes a clean quality version of his shared part from No Place Like Home (the YouTube upload for it sucks), which might be his only full part outside of the Lordz video. It doesn’t benefit from TDGAFAU‘s level of music supervision and has graphics that look like they come from shirts sold at Burkina, but it’s great either way. In the same Vimeo account, you’ll also find two “Firing Line”-style uploads that are incredible.

Add William Phan to the “He’d make a great Manolo Mixtape…” list.

Scanner File: Big Brother’s ‘Black Issue’ (1995)

Time Capsule March 22nd, 2013 · 5:58 am · 5

dre black issue

We may have missed Black History Month, but we finally tracked down a copy of the famous Big Brother “Black Issue” from 1995. Big thanks to Sweet Waste and his closet full of skate memorabilia hoardings (dude has multiple pairs of Mike Carroll Vans still in the original box, not even in his size, among a great many other things.)

Big Brother prefaced this issue by reassuring readers that they were in fact, not racist in any way, and that the production of the issue was “basically just to show how many black skaters there are out there ripping.” From a regional standpoint, the issue is significant because of the “Black Skaters of NYC” section by Dimitry Elyashkevich at the end, which features our good friend Andre Page’s first photograph in a skate magazine. A lot of the dudes in the article don’t skate anymore, but he sure as hell still rips. Beyond that, there is a main section full of nineties cult heroes, reviews for blaxploitation films, and um, interviews with Ras Kass.

P.S. The Skatepark of Tampa site is streaming Tampa Pro all weekend, so you can tune in live, where ever you are. Check the schedule. Have a good weekend.

People Come and Visit When the Weather is Nice

Time Capsule March 7th, 2013 · 3:48 pm · 3

Same shit, different decade.

The new Chromeball Incident post is too good to set aside for a Monday link…

In the late nineties, Ted Newsome ran these two-page spreads in Transworld — back when Transworld ran content that people would now associate more closely with Slap. They were quite obviously inspired by Eli Gesner’s scrapbook Zoo York ads, but with not as much of an overt hip-hop vibe. The scrawlings and blurbs that surrounded Newsome’s photos sounded more like excerpts from some stream of consciousness diary entry than the shittalking that often got included in the liner notes of rap CDs. Be on the lookout for key minutiae, like Burritoville receipts (R.I.P.) and familiar memories of Christmases that were too warm.

The concept would later be expanded to other cities and Dimitry Elyashkevich even opted to parody its layout and poetic ramblings. Angry New York skaters were still mad about outsiders moving in fifteen years ago! Technology just allowed them to move to anonymous comment sections of regional websites.

Check out the full post here. P.S. Yaje interview should be up tomorrow.