Tax Day

Just got back from Greece, so maybe there’s a heightened awareness thing going on, but it kinda seems like ~going to Greece~ is becoming more of a moment now that a second generation of Americans has successfully re-done the entire list of ABDs from the 2000s at the Le Dome double-set ;) ANYWAY! You should watch the new sixteen-minute edit from our Greek friends at Screw Loose Fastening Co. to break you out of the République / Southbank / Barcelona / etc. European content spiral. It looks different, and is a lot of fun.

Jenkem has the raw files from Gang Corp’s Black Business video.

Elsewhere in a northern corner of the state: b-sides and extras via the Buffalo-based Jeb video that we linked up a bunch of parts from last year. Another upstate trip is definitely still on the 2019 resolutions list.

“The history of skateboarding is the history of the built environment, and of the ruins left by overreach.” Here’s a really rad photo essay about how hill-heavy condo developments in North Carolina that were left all but abandoned by the Great Recession have become ripe for skateboarding.

“Stranger Than Paradise” is the new mini vid from our new gen Miami friends at Andrew Skateshop:

Aaron Herrington has a day in the life-esque segment on Thrasher where he discusses Street View-driven deep dives for New York spots, sobriety, etc.

Paul Young did a quick refurbish of some used footy for a tribute to sandwiches.

“Places are all very different but also the same, right? A lot of it is what you carry around in your head.” Big past week for Jacob Harris on the ol’ non-Thrasher, non-Instagram skateboard content circuit: Atlantic Drift’s auteur talks to the Slam City Skates blog about his process and how Las Vegas is kinda the same as London at the end of the day ♥

Can’t tell where these dudes are based out of, but there’s a solid bit of New York footage in the teaser for the Sportsman Shit video.

How insane is it that the two French skate spots most recognizable to Americans have simply been, like, renovated and restored to brand new condition over the past twelve months? There’s actually this cool place by the Brooklyn Bridge that could use a similar treatment, but that probably makes too much sense, right? :(

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Enjoy Giannis in these cute early years before you have to get used to him breaking your team’s heart for the next ~decade are so.

Quote of the Week: “The Sombrero is the only spot in New York that isn’t a bust.” — Cyrus Bennett

Five Favorite Parts With Jacob Harris

Photo by Alex Pires

Past generations of skateboarders outside the U.S. felt like they kept one eye on America, the unavoidable center of skateboarding’s media and industry, and another inward on their native scenes. British skateboarding, on the other hand, felt like it had to look three ways: towards America, around its European neighbors, and at itself, as a place that produced distinctly English skate videos that looked unlike anything else.

It is tempting to call Jacob Harris’ “Atlantic Drift” series on Thrasher the most beloved video franchise coming out of the U.K. today. Except the videos are less an insular sum of their influences, and more a global portrait of a particular brand of skateboarding, as seen through an English lens. It was no surprise that Jacob’s influences came from all over the place ;)

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‘You’re Ruining The Aesthetic’ — Five Videographers On Skate Video Music Supervision In 2019

Graphic by Requiem For A Screen

Skate videos have long been a portal for musical discovery. Except in recent years, it has began to almost feel like …filler. If one editor finds success with an untapped genre or artist, there is always an avalanche of imitators. If you find that “how has nobody skated to this?!”-song, the answer to your question is often “someone has, it was just in some video you missed.” And a popular song? Forget it, it has been in twenty kids’ IG edits since the day it got uploaded to YouTube.

(Don’t even start with the dude editing his “Trip to N.Y.C!” video to Big L right now.)

Choosing a song that makes an impact, and gets people tracking it down is hard when our attention spans are their fickle 2019 selves. We reached out to five people who routinely put out edits (i.e. not the guys dropping one full-length every few years) to get their thoughts on how the process of selecting music in skate videos has evolved.

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Back To School Fashion Heatwave Week

The 2018 Brooklyn Banks. Photo via Bill.

Loved this addition to the recent trend of one-spot montages: “Mecca: A Everson Museum of Art Video” by Lukas Reed, which documents the life of the still-standing Syracuse, NY spot A.K.A. “Love Park if you squint.” Everything from the nostalgic landings in the shoveled out snow piles, to the circa-2002 internet titles/music supervision, to the unexpected Austyn Gillette cameo — the entire video is a fun watch. “Goodwine” is a sick last name.

Jesse Alba put together a montage with some footage he had leftover.

Max Palmer continues to be an honorary Atlantic Drifter via Jacob Harris’ Taipei one-off, “Stuck Inside a Film.”

“Crop Circles” is an amazing post-Love Philly/Pennsylvania/Delaware video that barely even has any Muni footage! Tons of seldom-seen spots, and some great skating from newer names.

Lispenard Street is #trending. Here’s “Mean Streets Volume 12” via LurkNYC. (See also that Cons Brazil clip from a few weeks ago.)

Nik Stain, Kyon Davis, and Casper Brooker skate Southbank together.

Shout out to everyone being themselves. The Bunt’s latest is with Sinner.

Here’s Nate Grzechowiak’s part from the Buffalo-based Jeb video (still a good bit of city footage.)

#TFreport: Kyota made an all-Tompkins montage thanks to all the N.Y. Ramp Co. obstacles + another non-T.F. montage last week.

Canal Wheels put together a quick clip from the long steps portion of Borough Hall to last year’s Sahbabii even though we got new Sahbabii last week :)

Watching Paris footage and not being in Paris is kinda how I imagine people going through relationship shit feel when they listen to Drake. Here’s montage #35 from the POP Trading boys, filmed during the last #PFW.

Boil the Ocean on the future of the whole “skateboarders are the original gentrifiers” thing.

Aquemini turns 20 this month, so here is a spottieottiedopaliscious 4-Star tradeshow promo from 1998.

We’re going to start issuing an annual “Non-Skate Journalism” award on QS each December, and this is the frontrunner: Toronto spent $31 million dollars effectively skate-stopping trash cans, but for raccoons looking to eat garbage — only for the raccoons to conquer the trashcan lock mechanism that was said to be “impossible” for them to open (poor guys don’t have thumbs!) If you — as a skateboarder — can’t relate to this tale of raccoon prosperity in the face of drudging humans trying to keep them from having fun, then you are a heartless coward.

Quote of the Week: “I wouldn’t wish a week in North Hollywood on anyone.” — Jesse Alba

Good luck with the school year ♥

Louie This Louie That

lou

Congrats to Lou! ♥

An Instagram account partially focused on Gino skating flat in the F.A. warehouse.

Fresh Beer – Cold Beer” was of the finest straight-to-Vimeo exercises in ledge skating ever, and deserves some acknowledgement from the Czech Department of Tourism. The eight minutes of raw files from that trip are lovely.

Good vibes are contagious. Hearing Karl Watson reminisce for a half-hour is a nice way to set you on the path of having a wonderful day. Also, Karl is tied with The Muska for the skater who was most fun to interview for this website.

The boys in Buenos Aires did a chill wear test vid of the QS Bruin Hyperfeel.

Russian Bob uploaded four minutes of raw footage from Ron Deily, nu-era New Jersey legend and leading practitioner of lo-def noseslide tech.

Enjoyed this interview with the O.G. 2000 / Mariah video dudes about skateboarding in Switzerland, a European destination that tends to escape the global spotlight, despite being the world’s eminent destination for skateboarding on six-figure cars.

Everyone loves a good one-spot part or montage, but there’s something especially admirable about a one-spot montage of a place that instills zero desire of wanting to skate said spot due to how difficult it looks.

“If Marc Johnson hadn’t waited until 2016 to move to Adidas, could his Fully Flared part have been 26 minutes long? Backed by corporate shoe money, could The End have offered more realistic pyrotechnics? If DGK had clung to the Reebok deal, could Parental Advisory have offered a Jay-Z cameo instead of Beanie Siegel?”

You have probably already watched this new old Bill Strobeck video.

Eli Reed Harvey Keitel from Taxi Driver recreates an old Harold Hunter photo for Monster Children‘s “Back to the Feature” series. Amazing that the bump in Southbridge Towers is one of the few remaining landmarks of downtown skateboarding in the previous millenium.

The Bunt’s latest interview is with AWS alumnus, Gilbert Crockett.

w4m

Ari Marcopoulos — whose Out & About photos have become shorthand for the words “ninties New York skateboarding” — has a new ‘zine project coming out with Adidas.

Even he seems like he hates vegan food.” Top Ramen with Matt Perez coming soon.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Knicks games are a tough watch these days, but at least Brandon Jennings got waived so you get to see more of the second best player on the team, Ron Baker.

Quote of the Week: “I realized that you could do that job hungover, but it’s just better if you don’t.” — Dallas Todd