One Step Above Garbage

curbz

They painted the curbs here yellow, and now it’s the second or third best spot in the city that you don’t get kicked out of. Paint more stuff yellow.

Can’t remember the last time a montage got me as psyched as “Faces,” the new one from Ben Chadourne, featuring the Blobys, Bobby Worrest, Hjalte, etc. These videos have a remarkable way of making Paris look like the funnest place in the world (which it probably is), even in the winter. The Rod Stewart is also perfect.

“As tennis’ stars age, will aping skateboarding provide an elixir of youthful advertising audiences or will tennis’ wealthy overlords catch onto the notion that a sizable bulk of pro shoes and contract dollars are tied up in veteran pros whose salad grinding days of filming feature length video parts may lie years in the past?” — Boil the Ocean re: skateboarding’s current infatuation with tennis. Frozen in Carbonite also tackled this subject four years ago following Gino’s Mcenroe commercial et al.

Kingpin interviewed Nick Von Werssowetz about his new company, Hotel Blue and the evolution of LurkNYC. Part 3 of Lurk’s “Mean Streets” series is also now live.

The Bunt has a tell-all interview with Darren Harper. Daniel Kim is my fave skater too.

Whoa is this the first wear test video to feature the Le Bain hot tub? Is that even the Le Bain hot tub? Ripped Laces x Canal Wheels give the Brad Cromer Huf pro model a try.

Given that 2016 marks the twenty-year anniversary of everything from Welcome to Hell, to E.E. 3 to Mouse, SMLTalk has a retrospective of all the seminal 1996 videos in two parts. Also kinda hard to disagree that Tincan Folklore was a precursor to a lot of the shit going on in videos today, even moreso than its exalted predecessor.

After the demise of Love, the Sabotage boys took a southern trip hitting a string of the few remaining plazas left in the U.S: Pulaski, Raleigh Courthouse, Legislative (safe to say this is probably the best spot in the country at this point?), Blackbox, etc.

The 917 team dropped a midwest tour video in anticipation of their Nike collab.

“Pure Moods” is a new half New York / half S.F. montage from Waylon Bone.

NY Skateboarding posted part three of their Huf interview, which discusses the rebirth of Metropolitan Wheels, the Marc Johnson v.s. Choc beef, etc.

Um, Ghetto Child Wheels is making a comeback, with almost the same team. And the god Peter Smolik already left the rebooted Menace before the reboot even got to booting in order pursue his own skateboard business venture. Godspeed to the god.

Quote of the Week
Pryce Holmes: “I probably spend $30,000 a year on booze.”
Ben Blundell: “I’ve never made over ten.”

Spots From the Internet

philly

Via Philly

Creature dropped an official “Welcome to the Team” part for Jon Gardner, which features a whole bunch of his best moments from Bruns 2 — or at least a handful of the most shout-at-the-screen inducing ones. You should still buy Bruns 2 though. Shout out to that phase Marquez went through in 2008 when he tried to film a Creature sponsor-me tape and would drive out to Sayerville 4x a week :)

Hopps put their “Saturday” commercial from the Polar premiere online. Features footage from Keith “Loudest Cheer at Any Premiere” Denley, and Brian Clarke skating the always cool-looking Museum of Natural History benches.

QS crowd fave Derm takes a step back from the crust and does some lines at L.E.S.

New iPhone video via Genesis featuring the N.Y. Ramp Co. quarterpipe, double-curb rainbow concoction at 12th & A, Keith Denley’s first clip of 2016, and other notable developments to occur in lower Manhattan skateboarding this past month.

An interview with Tony Choy-Sutton, the guy behind the lens of Heaven’s Gate, 2016’s frontrunner for spot selection and best avoidance of noted #traps.

Green Zine interviewed Nick V. from LurkNYC. Shout out to Non Fiction.

Boil the Ocean sorta reviews the Polar video, sorta ties it back to Henry Sanchez’s recent “I’m still skating” revelations, and dwells on the big-ification of small companies.

Filed under: “Skaters who seem strangely even more relevant to what’s going on today than when they were actually putting out parts.” Whatever happened to Jake Rupp?

New one from Canadian #skatevideohouse thinktank, CLUBGEAR.

Photojournalistic piece on the skate scene in Iran via Vice.

An artsy and subdued remix video of 2013 Q.S.S.O.T.Y. Leo Gutman’s last part.

The GX1000 video premieres in New York on next Tuesday, April 19th. No info on venue yet, but *assuming* it will be where every skate video premiere in New York is :) Teaser here, and GX photo feature here.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Seventy two, and bumped Kobe Bryant’s final NBA game to ESPN2 in favor of a prospective seventy three.

Quote of the Week: “I heard having heavy ankle weights is actually really bad for you. You’re supposed to work your way up.” — Daniel Kim

#TBT when street skaters had vert sections in the middle of their parts.

LurkNYC without the NYC: Cyrus Bennett in ‘Braindead’

lurknyc-cyrus-wallride

Photo via @lurknyc on Instagram.

As recently discussed, nobody from the northeast really escapes to Miami anymore. People go to L.A., sure, but San Francisco has become a go-to winter refuge for those easily dissuaded by that traffic-laden city some 400 miles down the coast. (Cue up every person who’s ever said “S.F. is a lot like an east coast city, except _____.” Maybe we make it out there one day and discover just how inaccurate of a job rappers and FTC videos do in portraying it.)

Nick vonWerssowetz‘s new video is a twelve-minute project filmed during a three-week hideout in San Francisco. It has been online for 48 hours, which means it’s pretty old by today’s internet standards. There are standalone versions of every other Cyrus Bennett part on YouTube, so why not? Below is his closer from Braindead.

You can watch Braindead in full here. There’s a Kingpin Skinny Pimp song in it. (Also why hasn’t someone skated to “One Life 2 Live” yet? Seems like a missed opportunity, especially given the past few years worth of videos’ heavy indulgence in lo-fi Memphis stuff. Night footage edit to “Midnight Hoes” maybe?)

Yo, so like, Blind Jeans are obvs back, but so is color blocking it seems…

P.S. Whatever reputation for, uh, “eccentric vagrants” San Francisco may have — New Jersey has it beat, at least for this week.

Grit & Grind

d wade d reider

Apparently, D. Wade is a D. Reider fan. He’s not the only one.

Chrome Ball’s 900th post is dedicated to the Brooklyn Banks — “A testament to the resourcefulness of skateboarders when they can just be left the fuck alone.” In case you weren’t going on the site several years ago, we posted a series of interviews about the Banks in 2010, after the spot got completely shut down for bridge repairs.

Nick vonWerssowetz’s new video, CCTV, is great. Mostly filmed in New York, save a part in San Francisco. Great spot selection, presentation, and a soundtrack for all those yet to embrace Future / the future. Features Shawn Powers, Adrian Vega, and others. The DVD is for sale online and at Labor Skateshop for $10.

Check out Hopps Skateboards’ spring/summer 2013 collection on their new website.

Taji interviewed Galen over on the Vice site about his latest arthouse triumph, Mmm.

Were things better when Habitat’s logo was busier?

Mandatory reportage of Corey Rubin and Loose Trucks Max sightings: A sixteen-minute bro cam clip of the Brooklyn homies. All they wanna do is have some fun.

Zered and Eli shred around New England and go lobster fishing in the new Converse commercial.

Notable New York-based web parts: Pat Galloway for Michigan’s Plus Skateshop and Jordan Trahan in WeSC’s “Boroughs to Bayous.”

P. Rod v.s. the Bayside Ten in Queens, 2008.

ICYMI: The second chapter in a tumultuous month for sponsor resignations.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Tayshaun Prince dunks on three Thunder players at once. You know what’s weird? Prince has been in the conference finals seven times in his career; Kobe and Duncan have eight appearances.

Quote of the Week:

riri vs jr

— Badgalriri responds to a devout J.R. Smith fan. Unfortunately, she was right.

Thanks to everyone who linked up the Forrest Edwards edit. Let’s go Grizzlies.