Josh Velez | Quartersnacks

Fall Flip Cam / iPhone Wave

Video & Remixes November 23rd, 2011 · 9:50 am · 6

Andre Page with a highly expressive ollie at Washington Square Park. I wonder what song he had in the iPod for this one? Photo by Emilio Cuilan. Click image to enlarge.

Hopefully, you came up on a $65 Flip Cam last month, and have been stacking clips with it ever since. The following is a clip filmed with that very same device, and its slightly more ubiquitous cell phone counterpart, the iPhone. The clip features the first public documentation of Ty’s critically acclaimed “white person” Halloween costume. (“What are you supposed to be?” “White.”) Whether or not it surpasses Drake and garbage, the other two crowd favorites from Halloween 2011, is your call. Edited to one of the best posse songs in recent history. Sorry French, we didn’t have enough footage to include your verse.

Features Jake Johnson, Alexander Mosley, Lil’ Steven, Andre Page, Emilio Cuilan, Brendan, Luke Malaney, Ritch Swain, Brian Kelley, Ty Lyons, Sweet Waste, Will Carpio, Ben Nazario, Alex, Dario Phillips, Torey Goodall (yes, that footage is from before that spot was “occupied”), and Josh Velez. Filmed by Josh Velez.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving. We’ll be back on Friday.

(Alternate YouTube Link)

Previous Flip Cam / Velez’s Corner Clips: Summer 2011, Fall 2010, Summer 2010

Heat Wave / End of Summer 2011

Video & Remixes September 16th, 2011 · 1:52 pm · 11

Fresh off stealing mad bottles from the Rick Ross concert last night (here’s Ross without his trademark sunglasses), and combined with this morning’s crisp, early-fall temperature, it’s only right to present to you our End of Summer / Heat Wave video. It encompasses everything we were up to throughout the past three months: Barcelona, the Wave at Bowery Stadium, skating at night to beat the heat, and perhaps most impressively, somehow coming up with four or five minutes of New York footage entirely filmed in Manhattan (save one trick.) It’s also proof that our recent HD conversion had minimal effects on our attitudes towards production values.

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to support Quartersnacks, and the crew at Bowery Stadium for putting together a great event. Thanks to everyone else that helped us make this video possible as well. Until next summer…

Clip features Daniel Lebron, Doug Brown, Tyler Tufty, Thomas Taylor, Michael Mackrodt, Josh Velez, Andy Henrie, Mike Cuneo, Marcel Veldman, Sven Aerts, Andre Page, Ty Lyons, Corey Rubin, Jahmal Williams, Zered Bassett, Phil Rodriguez, Bryce Golder, Conor Fay, Sean Kelling, Justin Brock, Dan Plunkett, Emilio Cuilan, Mark Nardelli, Ritchard Swain, Alexander Mosley, and Young Chris. Cameos by Mannie Fresh and DJ Roctakon.

Pad’s quote about his party footage outdoing his skate footage came true…

(Alternate YouTube Link)

Where were you during the poncho craze of ’84?

Daily News August 15th, 2011 · 9:40 am · 1

Nothing happens in August. There are even guides on how to look busy at work in August. The same applies for skate media. You’ll have to pardon some of the inclusions if they are not of the “breaking news” variety…

…and if you need something to do, please consult this MegaUpload link. It’s a 650MB .mpg file containing the first three FTC videos. Completely forgot that “Best Rap Song Ever” shortlist contender, “I Am I Be” has been used in a skate part before. (Quick links to relevant FTC New York sections: “Live From New York,” “Family Affair,” some guy named Keith Hufnagel.)

Vote for NJ Skateshop in Vans and Spitfire’s D.I.Y. spot/shop video contest. They’re the only east coast shop up there. And it’s the first skate video to channel narrative motifs from The Sopranos.

NYU: 0, Skateboarding: 1. Now a few more of those need to come off… (Related: Stop applying to NYU, and stop supporting hate crimes.)

Sick video of some Green Diamond affiliates doing noteworthy slappy crooked grinds and performing under-used maneuvers like frontside noseslides to fakie. “This is mad white…but also sick.” — Roctakon.

Eli Reed looking for a manual pad in New York in hopes of retaining his Manny Mania title. Best thing to be on The Berrics since the Mike Vallely Battle Commander.

Web comment of the Year, via the Hella Clips page for the official DQM/Girl/Lakai demo video.

Nolan Lee skating a sketchy-looking handicap ramp rail.

R.I.P. éS Footwear. Though not as heavily romanticized as the Koston 1s and 2s, the 3s were big in New York back in 2001-2002. In further influence, Menik Mati was pretty much the Jaws of skate videos, in that it provided the blueprint for blockbuster skate video productions for over ten years, a format that is only now beginning to wane. Here is Boil the Ocean on that same subject (#25.)

Quote of the Week:
45-Year-Old Man: “Aren’t you too old to be skateboarding?”
22-Year-Old Josh Velez: “Aren’t you too old to be wearing shants? There are pants and there are shorts. Pick one.”

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Filming Clips, Straight Off the iPhone

Video & Remixes August 10th, 2011 · 2:38 pm · 8

Contrary to what Rick Ross may insist, the iPhone probably isn’t well suited for “selling dope.” However, it’s great for second angles and quick clips when you’re sitting around lurking at skate spots, as many have learned. (It’s not ironic that a former law enforcement official encourages impressionable youths to perform illegal activities on a highly traceable piece of technology, but perhaps he’s just trying to make his colleagues’ jobs easier.)

If Universitat is Barcelona’s (vastly superior) version of Union, then MACBA is the city’s (vastly superior) version of Tompkins and 12th & A. People kind of just get stuck lurking there, and avoiding it is a badge you can proudly wear, just like “I haven’t been to Tompkins in weeks” is a controversial conversation piece for any New York skater. Further similarities exist in that it’s too dark to skate MACBA at night (doesn’t stop people from trying), and it is a premier location for “homie cam” clips. If Diamond Days clips were based in Barcelona, they’d undoubtedly have their 3:1 duration ratio of 12th & A to non-12th & A footage replaced with MACBA footage. As a result, here is an iPhone clip, largely composed of footage filmed while sitting bored at MACBA, and other joyful moments.

Features Ishod Wair, some lil’ homie (who also appears in a recent Clint Peterson Transworld clip), Tyler Tufty, Vladamir Kirilenko, [poached footage of] Omar Salazar, Andre Page, Ty Lyons, Doug Brown, Andy Henrie, Marcel Veldman, and E.J.

Alternate YouTube Link

Barcelona Update 2 of ?: Damm Estrella Edition

Video & Remixes July 29th, 2011 · 12:31 pm · 6

Beyond the enticing “legality” of street beers in Barcelona, which allows American tourists to maintain a mild state of intoxication at all hours, another perk is the availability of the beers themselves. New York, unlike most of the U.S., has a 24/7 window for beer purchases (barring Sundays after 4 A.M. if your local bodega happens to abide by that regulation.) However, it doesn’t have an army of immigrants from the Middle East walking the streets and around skate spots delivering cold Damm Estrellas in exchange for 1 Euro (equivalent to $1.43 by today’s conversion rate.)

Universitat, the spot best known to the rest of the world as the three long black marble ledges on perfect ground, is sort of like Barcelona’s Union Square. The similarities are in the mixed crowd of late-teen to early-twenties tweakers blended with tourists and junkies, plus the centralized location that becomes more spacious for skateboarding as the night progresses. The comparison starts to fall apart once you account for fact that the three ledges would invariably be the best ones in all of New York, not to mention the reliably of the green-bag-carrying Estrella vendors that could be summoned by yelling out “AMIGO!”

Below is a clip featuring Josh Velez, a drunk homie at Universitat, Ty Lyons, and Andre Page. It was filmed under the discretion of street-bought Damm Estrellas. We have been trying to bolster our rap to non-rap soundtrack ratio, and it should come as no surprise that Quartersnacks has a soft spot for songs from the 1950s when it comes to video clips filmed entirely at night.

Alternate YouTube link