However, documentarians of #theculture have largely overlooked the ancillary dining establishments that fueled — on a molecular level — the innovation and unforgettable sessions at spots like the Brooklyn Banks, Pulaski, Embarcadero and Love Park.
Until the rise of “foodie” culture, Yelp and the general trend of eating healthy and shit, most skaters’ palates trended towards the most convenient fast-casual options.
With that in mind, and in conjunction with New York Restaurant Week (which is apparently almost a month long ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), we present Quartersnacks Restaurant Week — an oral history of legendary spot-adjacent fast food restaurants. Over the course of conducting the interviews, some common themes emerged, i.e. most skaters favored carb-heavy menu options as an easily accessible energy source. In addition, at most spots the skaters and food service workers formed alliances — an interesting anthropological wrinkle in terms of how different cultures interact.
Pulaski, for connoisseurs of plaza skating, offers the most authentic experience left in North America. One is out in the open yet simultaneously in one’s own pocket of reality. The Capitol looms at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue, and the White House stands only a couple of blocks away. The locals know the color schemes of the different law enforcement vehicles that encircle the block and react accordingly. The sheer electricity of the overall experience blows away your local park, no matter how expansive or plaza-like.
Like I said here, the power resides in the marble.
D.C. videography dates back to Sheffey’s A Reason for Living part, but exploded onto the scene via Chris Hall’s New Deal parts and the first issues of 411. Dave Schubert’s camera and Giant Distribution’s willingness to feature their riders at the time offered skating writ large a window into an intimidating but mind-opening scene that overshadowed Love Park for most of the early nineties. In 2018, “east coast” is synonymous with wallrides ‘n shit, but Pulaski locals were just as tech if not moreso than their Embarcadero contemporaries.
In addition to producing generations of rippers, Pulaski has produced as extensive a library of independent scene vids as anywhere — back to True Mathematics’ Prosperity², to the seminal Pitcrew (R.I.P) vid Where I’m From, to the turn-of-the-century classic Pack a Lunch. As computer technology facilitated D.I.Y. video production, more essential documents emerged. Along those lines, we recently caught up with Smalls, the dude behind the longest-standing D.C. video series, to discuss Stop Fakin’ 3 — the third in the trilogy of the same name — and the culture of one of the most prolific scenes in the world.
You can purchase Stop Fakin’ 3 along with the whole trilogy here.
Been slow around here, as recent injuries have taken their toll on office morale, but December is always busy. QS holiday 2017 tees are now available at Supreme Soho and Brooklyn. Arriving at other shops this week and next. Online soonish?
Probably one of the most fried concepts for a recent skate video, but in the best way possible — Kyota Umeki filmed an entire skate video on a Nintendo 3DS with a fisheye taped to it. 90% of it is filmed within like, five blocks of the L.E.S. Park. I also have “Groove Is In The Heart” stuck in my head now, great.
The crew behind Newark’s Shorty’s spot (R.I.P.) was allotted a piece of land by the city, in which they have begun to build a bowl. They’re looking to raise money for supplies, concrete trucks, etc. to speed up the project. If you’ve been to Shorty’s even once, please donate whatever you can so they can continue forward with the Shorty’s spirit ♥
Bobby Worrest has a comprehesive interview with “The Nine Club,” with a detailed discussion re: the lost art of skate spot politics and east coast aversion to wax. (His favorite Bobby Worrest part is also “Looks Ok To Me.”)
QS Sports Desk: Imagine if the Knicks did a subtler trust the process-esque strategy instead of doubling-down on iso-Melo and then trying to force the triangle onto the modern NBA for the past decade? Eh.
Here’s an annotated map of Pulaski by Jimmy Pelletier, one of the spot’s longest tenured filmers. “If you called 202-638-9511 on the other side of the pole, a homeless person would usually answer and you could ask if there were any skaters across the street. If they said ‘yes,’ you asked them to yell one of them over to the phone.”
“The general consensus with the politicians in Copenhagen is that this is a capital, it’s noisy, people come here to party, have a good time and we need to make the most of that. If it gets too noisy, then move to the country: this is a capital city. I’m not even going to take credit for that, it comes from the politicians.” Basically, Copenhagen is the fucking greatest, and we can’t have nice things in the U.S. #FDT
Dude, we love themed video parts. Grate themed video parts, garbage themed video parts, dumpster themed video parts! And there is no more beloved theme to build a video part around than to learn every nuance and cranny of a skate spot by skating it for the full duration of said part. Given the rate at which spots worth learning have been diminishing, we’ve been given reason to celebrate such one-spot achievements more than ever. You think it’s a coincidence that both 18-year-olds and 38-year-olds love Gonz’s “just cruising in the street”-thing from Video Days? Cruising is everyone’s M.O. now, whereas maintaining fidelity to one spot takes extra effort.
With that, a genre has skyrocketed in popularity within the skateboard media marketplace: spot-based content. Whereas since the demise of 411 “spot checks,” the story has 97% of the time been about the skater, the team or the event, spot-based videos are the new way to make us remember that we better learn how to skate walls if we ever want to skate an street object outside of a caged-in skatepark ever again ;)
Atlanta’s checkerboard spot benefits from more lenient “plaza” definitions that we allow in 2016. There aren’t many longstanding street spots with multiple ledges left, so it becomes one by default — though it may be the only Great American Skate Spot™ 2.0 that I have no desire to skate. (Shit looks mad high.) The spot doesn’t have a storied mythology or celebrated culture, and its background is not densely layered with regal civic buildings or skyscrapers. It’s just a spot that has been long enough for us to be forced to respect its status in the era of depleting spots. An all-Columbus Circle part was in order for last year to commemorate its ten-year run for the same reason, until a cop decided to pepperspray a teenager…
Jimmy Lannon, noted “regular” Magenta outlier and 2014 “Best Line at Three Up Three Down” titleholder, paid tribute to the spot’s longer-than-usual tenure in Thread / Headcleaner, with a literal #musicsupervision choice that’s one step removed from Mark Suciu skating to Phil Collins’ “Sussudio” or like, Soy Panday skating to “Panda.”
