These Days & Times

The predictions were true. The quarantine has everyone inside making #content — this was one of the most extensive link lists for a Monday update in a while. How sustainable it is? Who knows. Boil the Ocean is already speculating on what will happen if we enter a COVID-19 induced footage drought, e.g. will Thrasher be forced to only post “Classics” videos like how ESPN plays old games during off-seasons.

Until then…

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R.I.P. iTunes

Our office of M.I.T. statisticians is busy tallying up the entries each day — so be sure to vote in our Readers Survey about the best parts and videos of the 2010s. Voting ends next Wednesday.

Sometimes the full-length videos on Thrasher get overlooked when you’re not willing to commit to a 40-minute viewing with your morning coffee (…and then you forget about them because ten new things have come out by the next time you look), but you should REALLY watch Deep Fried’s Undercooked video if you have yet to do so. It’s mainly in S.F, but has a solid bit of New York footage, in which they somehow managed to skate those black marble ledges in Times Square A LOT. You’ll recognize tons of faces from GX videos, but Deep Fried is obvs a bit of a different vibe than those projects. And that first dude (Dustin Partridge) has one of the best feel-good parts of 2019.

i-D magazine put together a 20-minute, Epicly Later’d-esque mini doc about Tyshawn’s ascent to S.O.T.Y.

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Meet Me At The Mall — The Skateable History of Allen Street

According to The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan’s Street Names and Their Origins, Allen Street gets its name from William Henry Allen, the youngest Navy captain in the War of 1812. (Our then-recent ex, Great Britain, was beefing with Napoleon while America stayed neutral. The U.S. was trying to send a flow box to France, and Britain felt some type of way about it. Like any bitter ex who sees someone else wearing your hoody after a messy break-up, they went to war.)

Legend has it that Allen was in the English Channel on the hunt for opposition, when he stumbled on a Portuguese cargo ship carrying wine. Him and the squad had a wild night with the haul, but unfortunately, got caught slipping by the British on the following day. Allen and his crew’s colossal hangover would be their last: British canons shot off his leg, and he would die on August 18, 1813.

200 years later, L.E.S Skatepark was born.

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Can We Have A Pool Dad?

Adam & Slicky • Photo by Sophie Day

“I would be on tour with all these guys and that late 90s San Diego, hip-hop style of culture was ruling at the time. And I was just a kid from Northern California who liked My Bloody Valentine.” There’s a really nice interview with Jerry Hsu about life after sponsors in …GQ? Jk, Noah knows what he’s doing ♥

Dylan Holderness put together a rad ten-minute video from ten days in Puerto Rico. Shout out to having wild horses chilling in the background of city plazas. We went to that spot and didn’t see any damn horses!

The text is in German, but the dudes from Irregular skate mag put up a supplementary article to their “Summer Trip To New York” clip that was linked last Monday, and it includes a ton of really sick photos. Shout out to everyone going the extra mile in the #legacy #content realm. Tricks can be A.B.D. — but everyone’s story is different yaknow.

The fashion mags are onboard for the cause — Dazed ran an article about the cultural significance of the Tompkins asphalt, and Paper did the same. We cannot stress enough that this is so much bigger than skateboarding, and more about the community that this small patch of asphalt has cultivated. → Please sign and share the petition if you have yet to do so. Actually, if you read QS and haven’t signed it, please focus your board and computer. (And no, we haven’t heard an update back from Parks yet, but are hoping for some news this week.)

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Skateboarding Is Officially Old Enough To ‘Play The Classics’

In 2006, rap came of a certain age. It was the ten-year anniversary of Jay-Z’s first album, and he celebrated it by performing the entire thing in a highly publicized Radio City Music Hall show. Rap had enough longevity and had resisted enough fads to reach a level where some of its best acts never had to record a new song again — and they’d still be able to sell out venues for the remainder of their careers. (Fwiw, Jay was “retired” at this moment.) Our culture already accepted this from the Stevie Wonders, Aretha Franklins and Billy Joels, but it was around this point that hip-hop made the turn. Jay, Kanye and Wayne can call it quits on making new music today, and still pull a Barclays Center crowd in 2039 by giving the people what they want.

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