Chris Teta | Quartersnacks

The blue collar skateboarding stalwarts over at Traffic released their latest project, It’s Completely Fine: The Toynbee Project late last night. Features full parts from Kevin Coakley, Chris Teta, Hiroki Muraoka, Luke Malaney, Josh Feist and James Sayres, in addition to appearances from the rest of the crew in between. If you pay close attention, you might even spot a pre-Lasik Keith Denley emptying out his backlog of glasses clips.

Anyone who has seen a Traffic project before knows what to expect: rather than hinging their productivity on the rotation of shit that’s in all the other east coast videos, they find, restore and battle a cornucopia of asphalt inclines and cracked cement. You can practically see the flashbacks of all the attempts it probably took Coakley to roll away from that ender back tail as he’s still rattling down the bank. You’re not going to catch much by way of Big Screen, Muni or Pulaski clips, and when something like the Albany plaza does show up, it’s with a third-eye open.

📝 Intro + Interviews by Frozen in Carbonite

If you ask me, shit just hasn’t been the same since Home Box Office brought us all together every Sunday night at 9 P.M.

Finding spots in movies and television has long been a quantum-level subdivision of skate nerdery, from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (that black marble ledge on the east side of Manhattan) to The Godfather (Courthouse Drop) to Michael Mann’s Heat (DTLA Arco Rails area.) On an October 10, 2006 episode of The Wire, viewers caught a glimpse of a location known as Marlo’s hangout (Season 4, Episode 5) — a bleak concrete expanse with an array of banks, ledges, and bank-to ledges. It seemed insane that A) such a place existed, and B) one of the flagship programs of the “Golden Age of Television” used it as a key location.

As the legend of The Wire grew, so did that of the “The Wire Spot,” popping up in a slew of 2010s videos – primarily of the east coast variety. It seemed dope that an infamous locale in Wire lore became a destination spot, not only for locals, but for visiting pros.

Tag: Chris Teta

Meditations on Crust — Traffic Skateboards’ “It’s Completely Fine” Video

The Oral History of ‘The Wire Spot’ A.K.A. Marlo’s Hangout