Germany | Quartersnacks

The August Slump

Daily News August 19th, 2013 · 5:02 am · 3

August is always slow. Having three Monday Links posts on the front page isn’t really a good look though, so hopefully stuff starts happening soon :(

Seattle is taking a step in the right direction with regard to more progressive thought than “skaters = skateparks.” Except the thought is a bit better than the execution, because the “skateable sculpture” they built looks absurd and not a good way (it’s designed by a snowboarder…and Torey Pudwill.) Unsurprisingly, even when not making full-fledged skate plazas, the Germans are ahead of the curve with the whole multi-functional skateable sculpture thing.

Skate Spot Porn: Architizer rounds up some works of modernist architecture that happen to be unintentionally perfect for skateboarding.

Get weird with the Juicy Elbows “Summer Trip to New York” montage. Here’s last year’s edition in case you missed it. And if you didn’t know by now, there’s a Venice curb and flat bar at the Fat Kid Spot now.

Watch Raffie Gordon’s part and Karim Callender and Alejandro Batista’s shared part from Belief Skate Shop’s Ever Upward video. Anyone who does a trick at the two-second bust plaza outside of the F train on 42nd Street deserves a pat on the back.

Skaters aren’t the only ones obssessed with the VHS format. Is it safe to say that unlike straight-to-VHS B-movies from the eighties, most skate videos initially released on VHS that are worth saving have already been preserved on new mediums?

Speaking of formats, here is this week’s edition in our search for the new VX1000.

J Kwon / Radio Korea is singlehandedly bringing a nineties plaza vibe back to L.A. skating, a la the USC, Santa Monica Courthouse, or L.A. County days.

This Carlos Iqui guy is keeping the switch push alive.

Brian Anderson skates the B.Q.E. spot and talks about his new shoe, which has been getting some heavy praise from the older, “I only skate in one shoe”-stickler crowd.

A new old NJ Scum clip.

Someone (not Ian Reid) uploaded Ian Reid’s Video to YouTube.

R.I.P. to the Instagram sensation Bushwick Bump.

*BONUS* QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: The NBA season is two-and-a-half months away, so here’s White Chocolate with a bounce pass to alley oop in a Taiwanese exhibition game from this summer. FYI: Derrick Rose returns in a season opener against the Heat, and the Knicks’ second game is in Chicago. Also, the Knicks play the Thunder at MSG on Christmas (their last meeting was a good time.)

Quote of the Week: “I hate hearing people drive by blasting that ‘Ain’t Worried About Nothing’ song when I’m worrying about landing a trick.” — Lurker Lou

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Our statistics reveal that the past six months have coincided with a 30% rise in traffic from Brooklyn visitors. Does this mean we need to reformat, relocate and cut back on the Lovely Day jokes?

#TeamSweatpants

Daily News August 12th, 2013 · 12:20 pm · 8

Germany doing cool things with skateboarding is becoming a common theme on QS.

The FTC Book blog has been posting snippets / mini-interviews with various people in the lead up to the book’s release this fall. Huf on his song in Penal Code 100A, Aaron Meza on filming for Finally…

A clip of the Palace and Polar jam in Leeds this past weekend, featuring Danny Brady, Pontus Alv, Benny Fairfax, and…Shawn Powers.

An interview with Manolo, the guy who painstakingly re-dubs sounds and researches the depths of skate video history for all those “Best of” tribute mixtape clips.

Iron Claw Skates with a disco-tuned Daniel Stone in New York mini-part and a trip to Baltimore. The fact that people are editing 4:3 iPhone fisheye footage alongside VX1 clips furthers the equivalency theory. Also, VX1000s are just stupid.

In anticipation of his first work of erotic skate fiction, Roctakon started a Tumblr for his musings. RT if you want to read so the publishers know…

Elijah Cole’s standalone part in Cathode, in which he does a 10/10 hardflip on flat.

Some historic reading for your afternoon: The story of Nimbus skates, the New York company that existed between Shut and Zoo York, and Zoo co-founder, Eli Gesner on skateboarding in New York in the eighties and nineties for Dazed Digital’s 1993 series. (Though this is the far better Gesner-written article on the same subject.)

This was uploaded in 2010, but has been re-making the rounds on Tumblr for the past week: Skateboarding in Brooklyn, circa 1989.

The second teaser for Colin Read’s video, Tengu, which will be premiering later this month.

Spot Updates: 1) The final remodeled version of Bubble Banks = Two two-up-two-down manual pads, and some wooden benches that are going to get knobbed, but that you could still ollie over. 2) One of the few spots in lower Manhattan that you had a chance of not getting kicked out of is, in the best case scenario, not going to be skateable for a long time.

Quote of the Week
Inquisitive Gentleman: “How are you doing?”
Torey Goodall: “Good. Pretty bad.”

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Weird, 2:16 P.M. is also the best time to show up at the T.F.

We Been On

Daily News July 22nd, 2013 · 5:25 am · 2

jugg house

Exit Skateshop in Philadelphia (825 N 2nd Street) has a restock of QS gear. No, they do not have RiRi cruisers. Also, we will be going out of the country for a bit, so all orders placed after 5 P.M. E.S.T. on Tuesday, July 23, will not be shipped until August 7th. Please place any orders for QS merchandise in the next day or so if you don’t want to wait two weeks for delivery. (P.S. There are not many larges left.)

Wow — look at this spot. (Previously mentioned here.)

John Shanahan’s part in the Homebase Skateshop (Bethlehem, PA) video, Lemmegetdatfooty is awesome. Cool spots and good style. Check out all the Homebase videos, including this one in full, on the shop’s discography page.

You thought spring rumors were bad? Ripped Laces rounds up the recent cluster of skate gossip and sponsor changes, though they failed to mention Alex Olson’s reported destination(s) or the formation of a new Bones Brigade.

Much like Nas’ 2001 freestyle over the “Paid in Full” beat, the new Skate Jawn montage reminds you that Jay-Z used to rap like the Fu-Shnickens.

Some dudes from Puerto Rico opted out of the traditional April-October trip to New York season, and came here in the winter to film a cool ten-minute montage with a Watermelon Alex appearance.

The Tennskate crew keeps the 2002 dream alive by skating the last remaining Up-Rail in their new summer trip to New York clip.

In case you missed it, Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock talked about the virtues of skateboarding in the latest episode of Seinfeld’s web show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. The whole episode is great, but skip to the 11:35 mark for the part in question, or check the soundbyte that 5,000 people Instagrammed last week.

The new Buffalo skatepark looks like the Canarsie park on steroids.

Dude, it’s, like, totally art, dude.

Spot Updates: 1) FYI for anybody going to skate a certain bank spot in Coney Island… 2) A mellow bank-to-curb is the latest addition to the BQE spot.

Derrick Rose says he’s at 100%. “Shall we begin?”

Quote of the Week
Inquisitive Gentleman: “What’s up, where you headed?”
Tyshawn Jones: “Lovely Day.”

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The Kellz and Birdman song is super chill.

Film Review: This Ain’t California

Features & Interviews May 8th, 2013 · 5:34 am

thisaintcalifornia-1

It may have a vague title (…most skate scenes are not California), but This Ain’t California is a detailed pseudo-documentary about a crossroads of recent world history and lesser-known local skate lore.

Marten Persiel’s tale centers around Denis “Panik” Paraceck and his 1980s skate crew in the German Democratic Republic, the portion of Germany that was a Soviet satellite state until 1990. The story is told through Panik’s friends as they gather to reminisce in 2011 upon learning he was killed as a soldier in Afghanistan. This Ain’t California is seemingly presented as fact through old footage, modern interviews and animation sequences, but the viewer suspects the main character may not have existed early on in the film, due to “archival” footage that is a bit too-good-to-be-true, and several obviously scripted moments. Some Googling will reveal that the character of Panik is played by German model and skater, Kai Hillebrandt, and that the film is a blend of both reenactments and real home movies.

Though Panik is fictionalized, he is a composite character found in any skate crew out there — the hometown hero who will try the gnarliest trick to further his legend, who could be good at just about anything but chooses to skate, often to the chagrin of parents. (Even superficially, one would think the actor’s resemblance to Natas Kaupas was part of the casting decision.) Denis Paraceck may not be real, but every skater knows someone like him.

Daylight Savings Links

Daily News March 11th, 2013 · 7:07 am · 11

redbottoms

Red Bottoms x Skateboarding: Vol. 2. You can tell Miley skates because her wheels are mad crusty yo.

A new teaser for Solo Jazz, the upcoming project from Bronze.

America could learn a lot from the Germans. They took hunks of granite from an old government building and used them to produce an amazing skate spot on an obsolete airfield. Imagine if all that City Hall granite actually went towards making a skate plaza for the city of Philadelphia? How many city plazas get torn out and reduced to scrap each year in the U.S? The “solution” is so simple, but gets turned into such a stupid mess because of zoning / permits / $$$ / insurance / red tape.

The Dimestore dudes made a parody of New York clips and it is incredible.

Manolo and Cliché teamed up for a J.B. Gillet “best of” edit. Dude has always been up there with Kalis in the “best flip tricks” category.

Shade is a 25-minute video by Jeremy Jordan (Todd Jordan’s brother), based out of New York [State]. Grown dudes don’t have to be pro to still rip.

This ongoing advocacy for the front of Union Square returning to its glory days is one of 2013’s most interesting developments.

“Now, the padless deep-pool and vert work of Ben Hatchell, Grant Taylor, Elijah Berle and Jaws may for the coming generation obviate pads and helmets altogether, because, when everybody’s good enough to do every trick, there is no point in falling and getting hurt.” Boil the Ocean dwells on the future of skateboard retail.

The NY Skateboarding crew re-designed their website.

Did @badgalriri teleport from the future to this party by any chance?

New bro cam clip from the PWBC fam.

Speaking of which, Palace eBay / bootleg watch: Might want to use spellcheck.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Is Brandon Knight okay?

Quote of the Week: “Pick up your pants, you criminal!” — A Parks Department security guard regarding the G Man’s sagging, oversized pants as he fled a prohibited skate spot.

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2 Bros. has a breakfast menu now.