Alex Olson | Quartersnacks

R.I.P. Rihanna’s Instagram Account

Daily News May 27th, 2014 · 1:28 pm · 3

j john the don

Two J-John the Don Monday Links headliner images in four weeks? Sure. Photo by Jason Lecras.

Okay, let’s get all the Workshop-related links out of the way first…

Manolo’s Mixtapes put together a seven-minute tribute edit from all the Alien videos.

Jake Johnson sits down with Thrasher radio to talk about the Alien situation, the slappy 5050 down the Clipper ledge, and why Brandon Turner broke up with his shorty, all while playing some Elton John and Billy Joel songs.

Boil the Ocean has a good ramble about the end of Alien Workshop / “the biggest board company to go out since Plan B.” (No Blueprint 2.0-esque reboots pls thx.)

Joe Castrucci released a statement regarding the future of Habitat.

[ end of Alien Workshop-related links ]

Rodrigo TX skates Three Up Three Down and Lil’ Lui ollies over the entire Rector Street Bench in the Adidas Skate Copa NYC street edit. (Back smith down the Battery Park wall rail = the new backside flip over the Wall Street Gap?)

Between that Adidas clip, and the new Gavin Nolan “Five Trick Fix,” there’s really no reason to skate the median ledge on 111th and 7th ever again.

Frozen in Carbonite reviews the latest batch of Washington D.C-based skate videos, while comparing each to Scandal, House of Cards, Veep, etc. We are also admirably reminded to revisit Bobby Worrest’s switch 360 flip up / fakie hardflip / switch 360 flip down White Steps line from Right Foot Forward.

Also also also, this rather vague “Underdog Skate Part” #listicle from Kingpin reminds us to revisit Jack Sabback’s part from the 2005 I-Path promo. The revert out of the switch nosegrind at Universitat is cute.

Another black and white one from Pop Trading Company out in The Netherlands.

Apparently, when you comply to last year’s #TRENDWATCH by skating on televisions, there’s a chance you end up in a real-life version of that Simpsons episode where Homer found the Tron wall inside of his closet.

We often joke about the “Skaters see the world differently” cliché around here, but Jonathan Mehring’s “Frame of Reference” feature for Bitchslap magazine is awesome.

A two-minute fan remix of Alex Olson appearances in web clips throughout the years.

BTW, Yaje is a movie star now…

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: The end of the first half of WCF Game 3 was pretty intense. How about that Ibaka comeback?

Quote of the Week: “That spot was like a Philly step into poverty.” — Josh Velez

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In order to commemorate four years since our relaunch and the end of @badgalriri on Instagram, you have an additional half day to use the MEMORIALDAY code at checkout for 25% off anything left in the webstore ♥♥♥

Same Thing Every Morning

Daily News May 12th, 2014 · 5:57 am · 8

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Via Grandpa on Instagram

Our good friend Michael Gigliotti made an eight-minute bro cam clip that features parts from himself, Miles Marquez and Alex “$80 Baseball Cap” Olson. It’ll make you really happy you live near the Tompkins though.

Jason Byoun with an avant garde line of the year contender in video blog #209 from the Beef Patty dudes. Also big congratulations to the homie Max Palmer A.K.A. Loose Trucks Max. He has his name on a skateboard now.

Following in the footsteps of Wes Kremer’s wallie bluntslide, and Jake’s trick from Static 4 (won’t spoil for anyone who hasn’t seen it), some guy wallie crooked grinded the Clipper Ledge. It’s not like tricks down Clipper have been tangibly comprehensible to the average human since Darrell Stanton’s Free Your Mind ender anyway…

Big pop shoves, Lucien Clarke lines and kitchen freestyles in the “Piff Sticks Mixtape” from the Yes Fam crew out in London.

Some thoughts on everyone’s unwavering Gino fandom and his Six Feet Under shirt.

Even if it’s for a bit of a puff piece, it’s cool to watch Quim and Ricky shoot the shit.

Rochester looks like it has some spots.

Muckmouth caught up with Rob Pluhowski, Richard Mulder, Nate Jones, Scott Kane, and some others in the fourth installment of their “Where are they now?” series.

If you missed last month’s issue of The Skateboard Mag (the one with the “cherry” feature), they posted an extended transcript of the Rieder interview online.

LES Park edits are a dime a dozen, but Eli has a QS tee on in this one ;)

The BEV video features a bunch of LES park locals and premieres on May 24th off the Halsey J stop. Flyer here. Teaser here. It’s mad Tumblr.

The full CT/NY-based Merica video is now online. It’s mad indie.

Spot Updates: 1) The CBS 52 ledge over the six stair is sort of a wrap, though someone will find a way to boardslide it with a lot of wax. 2) There’s a new box at 12th Street, just in time for iced coffee season. 3) There are some temporary gaps all down Lafayette Street that’ll likely get filled in with cement by the end of the week.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Honestly, can’t think of anything that stands out above the rest from the past week, aside from Tony Parker’s entire Game 3 performance. (P.S. We’re Spurs fans here from here on in, because they’re the only team left that can beat Miami.) Still sorta amazed the Thunder blew it yesterday. Also, you should read Grantland’s history of the 2002 western conference finals between the Lakers and Kings. It’s mad sad though. Biebel probably teared up reading it.

Quote of the Week: “Tiesto is my favorite.” — Geo Moya

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How long do you guys think that box is gonna be at 12th for?

Erotic Skateboard Fiction

Daily News May 5th, 2014 · 12:17 pm

Is it safe to say it’s finally spring? J-John the Don — Nosegrind in L.I.C. Photo via GX1000.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Tees still available in the webstore. Now available at Solstice in New Bedford, MA. Also available at Supreme NY & LA, Seasons, Humidity, One-Up, Exit, NJ and Commissary. UK: Go to Lost Art or Palomino. Rest of Europe: Cali Roots has it online. Japan: Swingin Market and Apple Butter have it online.

Read the first ten pages from Roctakon’s work of erotic skateboard fiction. (Note: there isn’t a single mention of skateboarding in the first ten pages though.)

Most commonly asked question among people who skateboard this past weekend: “Did you see that trick Lucas Puig did on his Instagram?”

Jordan Trahan joins the 360 flip hall of fame with a co-sign from the head chairman.

Pop Trading Company distributes QS gear in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg, and they probably still watch Eastern Exposure a lot.

Kingpin has a dual interview with Lev Tanju, the mastermind behind Palace, and Pontus Alv, the mastermind behind Polar, regarding their tour through Denmark and Malmö. “That’s the problem: you start a skateboard brand and then you just get fat.”

Some other quick interviews: Street Piracy interview Clem from Recordings of Boardings, Chris Nieratko interviewed Sage Elsesser for ESPN, KCDC interviewed Jahmal Williams, and Bedford + Bowery interviewed Josh Stewart about Static IV.

As far as the kids-in-or-around-New-York-who-skate-handrails sub-genre goes this Julian Lewis part is pretty impressive. Dude does Grecco’s Deathwish vid 270 noseblunt ender on some rail and then decides to 5050 a 27-stair…in the snow.

The guy who invented the ollie works on Porsches now.

This Ain’t California is now on Hulu for free. QS review from last year here.

Mike O’Meally on one of the more iconic New York City skate photos (the shot of Jeff Pang, Todd Jordan, etc. skating down Broadway on September 12, 2001.)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Damian Lillard sits among John Stockton and Michael Jordan as one of the few players to end a playoff series on a buzzer-beating shot, all while giving his franchise their first series win in 14 years. P.S. Rooting for a “New York” basketball team with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett on it is not rooting for a New York basketball team. On the plus side, *if* Dolan is capable of feeling stupid (massive if), he should feel pretty dumb right now considering the Nets made the second round and the Knicks didn’t even make the eighth seed. P.P.S. How funny is it that the Sixers, Bobcats, Wizards and Raptors all have a considerably brighter half-decade ahead of them than than the Knicks do? Draft picks > Phil Jackson.

Quote of the Week:

element grip

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Did everyone make it through Saturday’s T.F. closure scare okay?

An Interview With Alex Olson (From the March 2014 Issue of Thrasher)

Features & Interviews April 1st, 2014 · 12:56 pm · 15

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Thrasher put the QS-conducted interview with Alex Olson from their March 2014 issue online. In the event that you don’t want to read the small type on the layout pages, here it is in beautiful, enlargeable text. This was conducted right after New Years, so there are a lot of Supreme video questions (this one informed the Bill interview a bit), and vague questions about his company, which were made less vague in Mackenzie Eisenhour’s interview. It’s clearly a bit out of date (neither the Supreme video nor his company had an official name at the time…), but here it is for the print-averse.

All photos by Jonathan Mehring.

Unrelated but important: The Ultimate #Nineties Skater Bracket is down to the Final Four…Kareem v.s. Henry Sanchez and Jovontae v.s. Matt Reason. Vote here.

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Try and find a young skater that stirs up opinions more than Alex Olson. Abruptly quitting one of the most respected companies ever, bailing on a new one before it even got started, and being cryptic regarding the details of his own venture have a way of doing that. Alex wants to be something more than just happy to be here, which sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, that sometimes gets contorted by people who want to believe he’s either ungrateful or disinterested in skating altogether. After taking a six-month hiatus in New York last year, we had a chance to talk to him about what he’s been up to in light of all the changes.

Why have you been spending so much time in New York? What draws you to the city?

When I was 18, Dill flew me out. It was the first trip I ever took by myself. I met all the people at Supreme, Max Fish, The Hole…I always wanted to move out there but either sponsors wouldn’t let me, I had a girlfriend, or the weather was a concern.

Bill started filming for the Supreme video, and I had just gotten done filming for Pretty Sweet. My girl had also just broken up with me, so I was pretty over everything. I flew out to New York for Go Skate Day this past summer. I was only supposed to stay for two weeks, but I got a place out there and ended up staying six months filming for the video.

Supreme has been around for twenty years, but this is their first skate video. Why’d they finally decide to make one?

Well, they had “A Love Supreme,” which was the artsy 16mm video Thomas Campbell made in 1995. It used to be really hard to find but now it’s on YouTube. For this one, I think they realized there had such an eclectic group of people around Bill [Strobeck] and it would be a good thing for them to do. Once Dill and Mark Gonzales both said they’d film for it, Bill had a green light.

#TRENDWATCH2014: Preliminary Spring Report

Daily News March 21st, 2014 · 1:20 pm · 20

Photo via The Local Weather. Is #normcore still a #thing?

Spring greeted us with a 54-degree day, a box and a barrier at the T.F. yesterday. However, a spring trend report seems silly before everyone has seen the Supreme video and adjusted accordingly. All of this stuff may be outdated by the end of next weekend, after “cherry” has been given time to marinate. This does not mean the developments discussed below are unimportant, only that they may be superseded by ones with longer staying power in the near future.

Light Ass Denim™

It’s no secret that anyone who looked chilled-as-shit on a skateboard during the #nineties indulged heavily in Light Ass Denim™ (LADs™.) For yet-to-be-uncovered reasons, the proceeding decade did not look upon denim — of any form or wash — as kindly. Sure, textile industry lobbyists who covertly unloaded a surplus of brown chino fabric to the only people who would buy already dirt-colored pants in the 2000s had *something* to do with it (See: Pappalardo, Anthony), but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Why has no research been done on why Fully Flared is the most denim-deficient skate video ever made?

The twenty-year resurgence period of LADs™ and their ties to prosperity has come like clockwork. Did you really think the parallels between LAD™-heavy footage output and subsequent S.O.T.Y. covers in 1993/1994 and 2013/2014 were a coincidence? Fashion goes in cycles, obvs.