Half a day late on this one — Gang Corp just posted up their new video, Black Business. And from now on, anybody who doesn’t have a mosh pit to “Sold Out Dates” at the center of their premiere an hour before the video even plays should feel like they did something wrong.
When so much New York skate footage takes place deep in outer boroughs and at safe spots people got “carted” to, there’s nothing like a video that’s 80% filmed in midtown and the Financial District (with twenty people in the background of every rollaway) to make the last “everything’s a bust!”-conversation you had feel extra stupid. What group of skaters — locals and tourists alike — would even think to pull up in front of a Tr*mp building in 2019, pretend security doesn’t exist, and line up a dozen people on each side of the landing to session a seldom-skated handrail? The Gang Corp videos are special in that they encapsulate the feeling of invincibility your childhood skate crew gives when operating at full capacity, when no spot or trick isn’t worth a shot because your entire support system is right there with you ♥
“Jake Phelps surely embodied worlds in decline: Old San Francisco, famously non-PC, MJ1s on his feet until whatever deadstock tap ran dry, proofing a decades-old print publication with a snarling discontent any seasoned editor would recognize and respect. An artifact arguing and cussing every day for a place in a world moving some other way.” Unfortunate to link their way two weeks in a row for obituary purposes, but Boil Ocean has a way with them words.
“Though I would sometimes cross the street to avoid him, I can remember so much of what he said to me.” Patrick O’Dell also wrote a thing about Phelps over on Vice.
And here is a re-link to Willy Staley’s California Sunday profile of Phelps that originally ran in 2016, A.K.A. what BTO labeled as “secular-press skate piece top five.” Would be *so* open to a conversation about what the other four are ;)
Munchies has a mini doc on the institution that has sustained New York skateboarding like none other throughout the 2010s — of course, we’re talking about 2 Bros. They also bring up a terrifying reality re: the ten-year leases that got signed at the start of the decade ending (e.g. when everyone was still reeling from the recession), and the dollar slice soon becoming a thing of the past.
“I think the mainstream American skateboarding culture is kidding itself. They’re really dismissive of emotions in a way that is hurting itself. It’s becoming more and more inline with traditional athleticism, but also what is acceptable as a skateboarder is so narrow – you have to be cool, not talk about your feelings.” If you’re one of those idiots like me who put off watching Minding the Gap for months, here’s another motivator: Skateism put their interview with director Bing Liu online. Yeah, you need to enter your card details, but a Hulu trial to watch it is free, and you can cancel the second you finish the movie — provided you’re not destroyed for the rest of the day.
Doubtful that anybody hasn’t watched it through at least once by now — Sour Solution II is fucking insane. Their first video was nuts, but they entered some new dimension of spots and sorcery with this one. Also, this video makes the whole “Barcelona footage is boring”-thing that people have been saying as of late just seem stupid. Then again, these ten guys are maybe the only ten guys who can skate the spots they skate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
“Play – Part 2” is an iPhone video by Mateo deJesus featuring Marcello + a few of the Canal dudes, and really makes you happy to remember there’s this thing called summer that happens eventually. Can’t remember the last time anyone had footage from 3030 Park since they half-remodeled it either.
Two adults talking about adult skate shit… Chico Brenes chats with Tommy Guerrero about falling in love with skateboarding again, skating old school shapes, deciding to leave Chocolate, etc.
Blondey “Shorts in the Winter” McCoy and Shawn Powers build on the growing practice of skating the Banks’ exterior in “Serenity Now,” a shared part for Bronze. Shawn also has a quick video profile thing with …Manhattan Portage. (Honestly never registered the brand name of those red woven label bags until now. Content at work!)
Late to mention here, and it is more symbolic than anything, but Enid’s will be closing down at the end of March. It was the final North Brooklyn Barmuda Triangle institution still standing (Enid’s x No Name x Matchless), which aborted many day-after skate sessions before they even got started throughout the late-2000s and early-2010s. Its throne is now drunkenly held by the Bushwick Barmuda Triangle consisting of Carmelo’s x Birdy’s x Three Diamond Door. Shout out to that time Pryce and Waste held an Enid’s Christmas raffle with a chance to win a TV, and Marty won because he spent more on drinks than the TV itself costs ♥
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week:Steph to Giannis at All-Star, though who the hell paid any attention to the All-Star Game when you had the Sour video?
Quote of the Week Antonio Durao: “Yo! They’re selling hoodies for a dollar!” Inquisitive Gentleman: “You gonna buy one?” Antonio Durao: “…no.”
Five out of five Tompkins skaters agree that this is the best box ever made. Sadly, it’s on the other side of the planet. We got to talking about replicating it — anybody know any welders? (Real question.)
Holy big flip, here is an illicit link to Brandon Westgate’s part in the new Element video, Peace. (Read: Will probably get deleted.) Really sick to see him still gunning for it as hard as he was in the Stay Gold days, and on a lot of new/seldom-seen New England spots at that. Would comment on the THPS music, but Brandon Westgate never struck me as a skater who is too invested in music.
Not much other info on it, but “Background 1” is a fun lo-def video with a ton of faces you’ll recognize from Gang Corp edits, Tompkins, and L.E.S. Park. All street clips.
Listen to Bobby Puleo fan out on the Gonz for five minutes. He’s really good at finding the right words to describe why certain small things make a trick or photo extra special.
I’ve found myself using the word “super” too much lately, too :( Gino Iannucci is the latest guest in an hour-long interview on Lee Smith’s podcast.
Always down to plug something that resurrects the lost art of the video review. Livegets all Boil the Ocean on us and uses a bunch of vocabulary stuff and long sentences to do a joint review of Doll and It’s Time, two videos that occupy space on opposite ends of the spectrum (and country.)
The general harshness of the world feels extra apocalyptic in an election year, but if you’re an optimist (or willing to turn your sights that way), I read this article (from April 2018) about the [good] ways in which American life is currently being reinvented on a micro level and felt fuzzy inside, at least for a bit ♥ Love you guys, and please go vote next Tuesday!
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week:This four-second video encapsulates the entire history of the Brooklyn Nets. (And yes, if it was by a Knicks player, it’d encapsulate their past 17 years too obvs.)
Quote of the Week: “A Bennett grind is like another drunk tank trick.” — Dana Ericson re: someone else (forgetting who) originally coining a smith kickflip as being a “drunk tank trick.” (Hypothetical: Has there ever been a Bennett grind that’s been better than even the most generic switch back smith? Actually, nvm.)
“When I spoke with one of my friends about writing this piece, she cautioned against it, stating that women in skateboarding have come so far in the past few years and I should wait to see what happens in the next few. But this isn’t an article about female skateboarders. This is a piece about my experience as a woman in skate culture.”
The Canal Wheels full-length video, Mode, premieres at 198 Allen Street (between Houston & Stanton) at 8 P.M. on Thursday. Quick teaser here. Flyer here.
Village Psychic offers up some thoughts on the Polar video, which rather than being viewed collectively as a culture via a bunch of humans gathered in a room, was experienced on…PornHub. (Ed. Note: The video has been left off #QSTOP10 consideration until it is offered up on a more “official” viewing channel, because if we start counting things uploaded there, we probably have to start considering all of achievements uploaded to the ol’ Hub in a given week.)
“It’s dancing. And dancing’s fucking subjective. That’s why it’s a really weird thing when you can make a living doing it. And I was lucky that some people liked the way I danced. And I don’t ever take that for granted.” Rob Welsh reflects on his first-ever TWS Check Out.
“As nostalgia deepens to the point that people tune in to watch retired and beloved pros flipping through old CCS catalogues, each new print ‘Thrasher’ and ‘TWS’ issue begins to look like a collector’s item, every board on the shop wall a potential hanger, every pro with a couple video parts under his belt a legend.” Boil the Ocean ponders on just when does the nostalgia go too far.
“Juultage” is a montage filmed around New York that’s presumably Juul’s first not-so-covert foray into piercing through a skater market otherwise dominated by Cheap Cigs™ purchased in Chinatown with a state of Virginia stamp.
Quote of the Week Sweet Waste: “It’s crazy you’re 30 and never had a video part.” Keith Denley: “I’m just gonna go down in history as one of those O.G. legends who never had that much footage.”
