K.T. Presents… Gang Classics

It is safe to say that this media enterprise’s decade-long tradition of Start of Summer, End of Summer, and Christmas clips has fallen into memories of the prosperous first-half of the 2010s. At a time when Swedish filmmakers deride the quality of skateboarding simply being tossed onto Instagram — between regular posts and tricks for the story — who really has time to carry a #realcamera around unless you’re filming for some big video project that Logan may or may not ever release?

As the iPhone has become our most oft-used video device, the #realcamera has become reserved for traveling i.e. when enthusiasm is high. If you’re lucky enough to blow off work in the middle of the week to go skate with your friends, sometimes it’s better to leave the pressures of “well, I brought the camera out” at home.

Over the past year or so, Kevin’s videos have made me perpetually jealous of all the times I decided to stay in and be responsible rather than ditching a pile of un-responded-to emails to go skateboard. They’re not everyone going their hardest, but they are representative of what it’s like to leave a skatepark, and try skate street at a bunch of decent-enough spots that you’ve skated a thousand times before in 2017.

Easter Pink

How much did Melo’s game winning shot (and Rose and Deng’s missed free throws, for that matter) have to do with the legendary Frank Costanza sitting courtside yesterday? (Visible at 1:06 with his non-biological son.)

E.J. now has a dedicated website Tumblr for his photos at FuckYouEmilio.tumblr.com. A lot of Tompkins photos, some some cute lookbook shots, and this epic photo of Araabmuzik.

Phat Stylez came through with a mini retrospective on Aesthetics, easily one of the phattest skate brands of all time. Part 1, part 2. Watch Ryde of Die before you put on your bucket hat to go skateboarding today.

Late, but here’s the video for the New Orleans, Birmingham, and Atlanta portion of the Map Masquerade tour. New Orleans is easily one of the better-looking parts of America, and Suciu and Jake kill it. (Loosely Related: Here’s Jake backside noseblunting the rail-to-bank at St. Vincent’s.)

It’s good to see 12th & A / East Side Community High getting some good press about their involvement with skateboarding after the nonsense that caused 12th & A to get shut down late last year. (No, it’s still not open for public use.)

“What’s the history behind Palace?” “Took a gap decade after getting das boot from school, hit 27, had a mid-life (crisis) and decided to start a good skateboard company out of the UK.” The last Palace x Umbro link.

Our good friend, Adam Abada, made a homie-cam / iPhone clip chronicling this past mellow winter. It has no wallies in it.

Speaking of iPhones, some kid in China sold a kidney so he could buy one. A life with one kidney is better than a life without Instagram.

Have custom cut cruiser shapes gone too far? Jason Jesse made an AK-47 shaped cruiser. Unfortunately, it’s shaped like the gun, and not a skateboard silhouette of Russian forward for the Utah Jazz, Andrei Kirilenko, who wears #47.

While researching last week’s post about bulky skate shoes, this Donger Puma commercial came up. Here’s a play by play: He skates up to a set of stairs, opens a laptop, some chick pulls up in a convertible, she walks past him, he stares at her ass in leopard print pants, she turns around, they make long eye contact, she walks away, and he then decides he’s better off doing an ollie over her car. Oh, and Korn is playing in the background the entire time. Imagine that pitch meeting…

Quote of the Week: “What’s D7? The chicken wing spot?” — Tufty


Have a good week everyone.