Merry Christmas

merry christmas

With each passing year, it gets tougher to not acknowledge that Gucci Mane has three Christmas songs on the low, especially after straining cheesy Christmas music for the past nine clips. (Yeah, this is somehow the ninth one.) But even if the #musicsupervision department is backlogged due to not having utilized “Used 2” and “Paranoid” yet, maybe one clip a year that isn’t partial to drum machines is okay…

This somehow ended up being the most daylight-heavy Christmas clip of the nine, due to November and December being unseasonably brick. To make up for it, there was one miracle day when we didn’t get kicked out of World Trade, as evidenced by maybe a fifth of this clip being filmed there. Win some, lose some. Merry Christmas.

Features Brendan Carroll, Keith Denley, Lurker Lou, Tyler Tufty, Zered Bassett, Dave Caddo, Sweet Waste, Elijah Cole, Tony Durao, Calen Knauf, Josh Velez, Andre Page, Alexander Mosley and Connor Champion.

Thanks to Joe Cups, Andre Page and Rob Harris for contributing footage.

Alternate YouTube Link

Past Christmas clips: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005

Other Christmas Gifts: It’s mostly at skateparks, but there’s 50 seconds of new Gino footage out and an awesome mini doc about the governor of New Jersey, Fred Gall.

Don’t Look Like That: End of Summer 2013

dre roof 360 flip

We’re three weeks past our Labor Day deadline for End of Summer clips, Dre is back to wearing colors besides white, and we’ve been experiencing some 50-degree mornings, so this is more like a Start of Fall clip.

The past summer was weird. Our research of recent visitor trends revealed a massive increase of Brooklyn readers, so we were advised to up the wallie and wallride count in this video by a whopping 80%. In fact, Josh Velez took it upon himself to enter the wallie arc of his career some seven years earlier than he initially anticipated to remedy this disconnect between the site’s content and its readers/viewers. Also, there are an inordinate amount of Jersey Shore spots in this clip to add to the weirdness.

Features Zered Bassett, Atlanta Shane, Haffa, Galen Dekemper, John Diaz, Ron Deily, Josh Velez, Pryce Holmes, Elijah Cole, Lui Elliot, Kadeem Walters, Ritch Homie Swain, Torey Goodall, Shawn Powers, Andre Page, Matthew Perez, Lurker Lou, Brendan Carroll, Tyler Tufty, Quim Cardona, Gavin Nolan, Paul Tucci, and Alexander Mosley.

Have a good weekend.

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Previous “End of Summer” Editions: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

The August Slump

tf

Photo by Emilio Cuilan

August is always slow. Having three Monday Links posts on the front page isn’t really a good look though, so hopefully stuff starts happening soon :(

Seattle is taking a step in the right direction with regard to more progressive thought than “skaters = skateparks.” Except the thought is a bit better than the execution, because the “skateable sculpture” they built looks absurd and not a good way (it’s designed by a snowboarder…and Torey Pudwill.) Unsurprisingly, even when not making full-fledged skate plazas, the Germans are ahead of the curve with the whole multi-functional skateable sculpture thing.

Skate Spot Porn: Architizer rounds up some works of modernist architecture that happen to be unintentionally perfect for skateboarding.

Get weird with the Juicy Elbows “Summer Trip to New York” montage. Here’s last year’s edition in case you missed it. And if you didn’t know by now, there’s a Venice curb and flat bar at the Fat Kid Spot now.

Watch Raffie Gordon’s part and Karim Callender and Alejandro Batista’s shared part from Belief Skate Shop’s Ever Upward video. Anyone who does a trick at the two-second bust plaza outside of the F train on 42nd Street deserves a pat on the back.

Skaters aren’t the only ones obssessed with the VHS format. Is it safe to say that unlike straight-to-VHS B-movies from the eighties, most skate videos initially released on VHS that are worth saving have already been preserved on new mediums?

Speaking of formats, here is this week’s edition in our search for the new VX1000.

J Kwon / Radio Korea is singlehandedly bringing a nineties plaza vibe back to L.A. skating, a la the USC, Santa Monica Courthouse, or L.A. County days.

This Carlos Iqui guy is keeping the switch push alive.

Brian Anderson skates the B.Q.E. spot and talks about his new shoe, which has been getting some heavy praise from the older, “I only skate in one shoe”-stickler crowd.

A new old NJ Scum clip.

Someone (not Ian Reid) uploaded Ian Reid’s Video to YouTube.

R.I.P. to the Instagram sensation Bushwick Bump.

*BONUS* QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: The NBA season is two-and-a-half months away, so here’s White Chocolate with a bounce pass to alley oop in a Taiwanese exhibition game from this summer. FYI: Derrick Rose returns in a season opener against the Heat, and the Knicks’ second game is in Chicago. Also, the Knicks play the Thunder at MSG on Christmas (their last meeting was a good time.)

Quote of the Week: “I hate hearing people drive by blasting that ‘Ain’t Worried About Nothing’ song when I’m worrying about landing a trick.” — Lurker Lou

Our statistics reveal that the past six months have coincided with a 30% rise in traffic from Brooklyn visitors. Does this mean we need to reformat, relocate and cut back on the Lovely Day jokes?

The Place Beyond the T.F.

tity boy svu

Tity Boy S.V.U. 2 Chainz and Detective Benson are dating.

A few new QS tees are coming out this week.

Check the outtakes from Lurker Lou’s Williamsburg Monument spot check, one of the highlights of the new Iron Claw video, Faux One One.

Magenta parodies are like a “thing” now, huh? “Shmagenta Welcomes Jacque Lally” comes one month after Dimestore’s entry. Great music supervision. #trendwatch2013

ICYMIHopps’ spring commercial is great, just like everything else associated with that company. Not mad at T.F. West night lines either.

Tape is a new video from the crew that made Be Pretty, edited to nineties late night rap radio freestyles as a homage to a certain Zoo York video. One would hope that a sequel set to Clue freestyles has been discussed.

Here’s the Yaje Popson and friends section from the Mama’s Boys video.

Two teasers for upcoming New York-based videos: CCTV by Nick vonWerssowetz (LurkNYC) and Tengu by Colin Read (Mandible Claw.)

Kevin Tierney put together a Tompkins montage from the short-lived Labor box era. (Wait, is four weeks not really “short-lived” in T.F. time?)

Some background info on 43 Magazine and the now-notorious subway ollie photo.

Even Bon Appetit magazine knows that the $3.50 bodega egg and cheese sandwich is one of the best things about New York. How every other city fails miserably at this simple recipe continues to be a mystery.

“Backstreet Atlas,” the short film about two guys skating from Boston to New York, is premiering at the Jane Hotel on Thursday, April 18 at 8 P.M. Flyer here. Teaser here.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Durant hasn’t been on here all year, so why not?

Quote of the Week: “Daft Punk making an album with no samples is like Stevie Williams filming a transition part.” — Roctakon

Iron Claw Skates: Faux One One VM #1

lou texas

While we lament the demise of Skate.ly’s 411 collection and impatiently wait for Skateboarder‘s archive to fill out, the Iron Claw crew took it upon themselves to begin producing new issues of the seminal video magazine.

Contrary to the opinions of often-wrong message board pundits everywhere, participants in Slap‘s 2012 “One in a Million” festivities did not have their lives ruined. Kennedy Cantrell filmed a sick part and Matt Militano even makes an appearance in the “Chaos” section (though he doesn’t ride for the Claw like Kennedy does) for Life Ruiner Lurker Lou’s company, so there *IS* in fact light at the end of the tunnel for O.I.A.M. 2012 participants. Otherwise, Fred Gall is the east coast Lance Mountain, Cyrus Bennett comes through with his second solid part in a few months (hopefully the first one makes it online sometime soon), Phil Rodriguez makes his first non-Flipmode/Bronze appearance, Lou accurately tour guides you through the Williamsburg Bridge monument so you have no reason to ever go there again, and has his first full part in several years. Solid all-around video and a cool concept for tweens and nostalgists alike. Check out their site at IronClawSkates.com.

Alternate YouTube Link

Related: An Interview With Lurker Lou