Though it’s far from the most #trending skate spot these days, a plan for the renovation and expansion of Union Square was unveiled last week. Just give us a couple République-style planters in the back, don’t kick us out of them, and the city can keep the next two skateparks they were gonna build. Thanks!
Good vibes in this one: “Vlog #1” via Josh Paynter, featuring all winter footy around the city. Footage can never do justice to that backside noseblunt at the L.I.C. D.I.Y. — that one was wild. Bed frame and subway clips are a hoot too :)
In Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson’s film about the porn industry of the 70s and 80s, Burt Reynolds’ Jack Horner gives a fateful speech admonishing the advent of home video: “I have a stable of actors and actresses. They’re professionals. They’re not a bunch of fucking amateurs. They’re proven in the box office. They get people in theaters, where films should be seen, and they know how to fuck.”
It is not hard to imagine similar tirades (maybe with a few words switched out) occurring in Powell-Peralta boardrooms as the 80s were coming to a close, and skateboarding was around the corner from a crash. Skate videos of the decade were refined and narrative-driven, and for good reason. There were only like, six tricks invented at the time, so they had to fill up those other 53 minutes in an hour-long skate video with story, personality shots and other shit.
But what would come after skateboarding’s believed-to-be demise was a rebirth. Videos like Snuff, Video Days, Tim & Henry’s Pack of Lies, and Questionable were unrepentant in their progression — they were too busy inventing modern skateboarding in front of your eyes to worry about the extracurricular malarky from the Animal Chin days. New faces and a camera thrown in a backpack was the name of the game. The old mode was dead. But for how long?
Skateboarding draws many parallels to pornography, but one of the most curious ones is an incessant need to add narrative to something that nobody watches for the story. As we will soon learn, plots returned to skate videos as quickly as they went.
Over the weekend, there was a scare that Shorty’s was being demolished. Although it ended up being a miscommunication between the city and a private company, part of the structure was demolished, but much of the spot remains in tact. The Shorty’s crew met with the mayor of Newark today, and you can read an update here.
Super refreshing to see an interview with a nineties pro from the east coast that doesn’t tread the bitter waters that cover so many recollections of that time period. Chromeball interview #99 is with civil engineer, Andy Stone. Anndd Twitter’s saying the newly surfaced footage of him belongs in the Smithsonian.
Speedway Mag posted its extended interview with Josh Stewart about the entire Static series on the occasion of Theories’ ten-year anniversary. (The edited version originally appeared on the Keen Distribution site if some bits seem familiar.)
“Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Jim Greco boils.” As discussed last week, skateboarding has doubled down on angst while angsty icons of the 2000s have rebranded themselves with a newfound focus on straightforward skateboarding. Boil the Ocean considers our age of the self-concious comeback in skateboarding.
Consult aforelinked Andy Stone interview for context on why people still fawn over 411 videos. Tennyson comes through with another compilation, this time an eleven-minute mash-up Carl Shipman and Tom Penny, maybe the only guy out there who can keep your attention with twenty-year-old contest footage :)
The Northern Co. goes all-city in their five-minute “Summer Trip to New York” montage. (Ok fine, they don’t go to Staten Island — has there ever been a truly all-city summer montage though?)
Quote of the Week Conor Prunty: “It took me like two years to learn how to ollie.” Jesse Alba: “My dad is still learning how to ollie, he’s been skating for like 40 years.”
There are obviously an overwhelming amount of causes that need contributions right now, but even if it’s just a few bucks, please contribute to the construction of the Annapurna Skatepark, Nepal’s first international-standard concrete park.
Congrats to Yaje on his Transworld cover. 1) Is it safe to say the easiest way to land on the cover on a major magazine while skating a spot in New York is via the Columbus Park rail. 2) Why does the cover layout of TWS now look like TSM?
“I’d rather watch Kenny do a backside 180…” The same wonderful remixer who treated us to post-Pretty Sweet remixes of Jesus and Carroll went ahead and put together a feel-good George Benson x Kenny Anderson pairing.
Even though it was only partially based in New York, Last of the Mohicans was a 2008 that further propelled the typical mode of skating this city into deep outer borough crust. Joe Perrin and OJ Wheels put together Relapse of the Mohicans, a 13-minute video with parts and cameos from the entire original cast.
“Whether he knew it or not, a Bowie song in a skate video was more than just another song in the credits ━ you had to fucking earn that song.” Can’t say another artist’s passing has ever resulted in such an outpour of reflection from skatemediaoutlets.
New Pete Eldridge footage! New J.B. Gillet footage! The Cliché team in Paris, unfortunately sans Lucas. Despite having seen that Créteil brick bank spot in videos for two-plus decades, there hasn’t been really much footage of people skating it like a halfpipe (way harder than it looks tbh.) All the footage is super fun :)
Have a suspicion that Tiago Lemos’ secret is a bit more sophisticated than “rice, beans and lots of acai,” since half the skaters with jobs in New York live off that stuff…
