Way back in 2018, a rainbow-haired man adorned in face art ruled the land. His sermons could be heard blasting from car speakers all throughout New York. His visage was unavoidable on our phone screens. Some devotees even painted a ten-stair set in Bushwick with the spectrum of his colorful head as a tribute. According to a QS commenter, those stairs were two blocks from his childhood home. His name was Tekashi 6ix9ne.
And on a day when the wind-chill brings the temperature down to 12 degrees, we bring you some… good news.
Space 198, the new free, INDOOR Vans park is opening on January 2nd at 198 Randolph Street in Brooklyn. Unlike the belated House of Vans, which was more of an event space inside of a skatepark (and brought out people’s inner savages anytime there was a mid-winter open day there), this park is a community-oriented space built for skateboarding.
It’s going to be open Thursday through Sundays — you just need to to sign up on the website beforehand. And it’s off the Jefferson L stop in Bushwick, making everyone’s life a bit easier than a 20-minute walk through the snow to Greenpoint that we used to do ;)
As they were putting the finishing touches on it, they gave a handful of crews the chance to check out the park last week, and here’s what we came back with. Be nice to Jersey Dave when you see him, because chances are, his phone has not stopped buzzing for the past two weeks.
Filmed by Will Rosenstock, Paul Young, Max Hull, Cristian Berrios & Kyota Umeki.
2019 was a year where the the past was rousted up to contend with the future — we listened to new Max B off a DatPiff stream while acknowledging that our existence rests at the mercy of rats plotting a takeover of mankind. Jeremy Lin became an NBA champion, the Knicks lost the lottery, and the gods just laughed and laughed.
Here are the developments that loosely defined the past 12 months in New York skateboarding.
Past Editions: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010
Late day Monday links update, sorry. Lousy Smarch weather, True Detective, etc. You know?
Labor has a restock of Marisa Tomei and Jesus Piece cruisers on their webstore, but they probably won’t be there for very long.
A lot of interviews went online this past week, and Frozen in Carbonite’s interview with Chris Franzen might be the best of the bunch. He talks about L.A. County (“We were just a bunch of rejects from the industry”), switch 360 flips over Cali tables off flat, and stuff about the business of skateboarding in the nineties that other interviews may be reluctant to address. Must-read for anyone who is a fan of that much mythologized decade.
The Dime crew compiles all the monumental achievements that have occurred while a skater was wearing a yellow tee shirt.
Kanye’s inane, more-calculated-than-people-care-to-admit rants seem to be the latest avant garde skate clip #musicsupervision choice, but when is someone going to edit a clip to DJ Khaled’s McDondald’s commercials?
Josh Stewart interviews Jahmal Williams. Jahmal must also be one of the most photogenic skaters ever — is there a single mediocre photo of the dude on a board?
Alex Olson stops being vague about his new company, Bianca Chandon. He also gives fair warning to all the good-looking boys out there wearing his Fire Island shirts about town. (“Have you ever really been to Fire Island?” #promiscuous)
A cool eight-minute throwaway reel from the past few LurkNYC projects.
Muckmouth interviews Peter Smolik over text (and we thought e-mail interviews were bad…) How could they forget to ask him about the most notorious selfie in skateboard Instagram history though?
Sometimes, dudes just want to skate in Bushwick ‘n stuff: Penny Pinchers II, a video 95% filmed around familiar haunts in Brooklyn.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Metta World Peace Ron Artest got bought out by the Knicks last week. The Artest era in New York was short, underwhelming, injury-ridden, and worst of all, a decade late, but to his credit, he did provide the team with possibly its sole highlight of the 2013-2014 season.
Quote of the Week:
Good luck to Roctakon out west. The QS crew and Dunions will miss u :'(
