Links Worth More Than Money

lil stevi

No clue who took this photo, sorry :( Photo by Adam Wallacavage

Nieratko goes back to Love Park and City Hall (now reconstructed) with Stevie Williams for the latest “Skaters in Cars Looking at Spots” installment.

Damn, someone tell this dude to learn how to skate.

Skateboard Story has a cool interview with James from Labor about the insane prospect of starting a skate shop in New York.

No Ray Barbee, but the 12-minute version of Propeller is pretty good.

TWS has a quick proof sheet photo feature with the bro Mike Heikkila.

Lurk NYC went HD.

Philadelphia’s Sabotage crew didn’t go HD.

Did you ever think there was ANY chance they wouldn’t knob the shit out of what was temporarily the best new spot in midtown? The mini hubba ledges over the stairs are all still good to go as of this weekend, but expect those to get capped next. There’s also more outdoor security than when it first opened, so…

A recap of this past weekend’s Bobshirt show in six seconds.

Here’s the lookbook for the upcoming Bronze and Huf collaboration.

Damn, when’s the last time you bumped some Muska Beatz?

“Mike Vallely alternately over the past 30 years has functioned as the hot-shoe am; deck-shape innovator; Steve Rocco cohort and nemesis in turns; launcher of at least six different board companies; slam poet; pro wrestler; pro hockey player; three-time rider for George Powell; vegan advocate; maniacal tourer; ‘Beef’-style DVD star and vicarious defender of skate honour; Black Flag manager; Black Flag singer; titular performer in Mike V and the Rats; founding father of Revolution Mother; supporting actor to Paul Blart; podcaster; and more recently, streetstyle helmet-endorser.” …damn, and y’all thought Alex Olson wore many hats ;)

Yo shout out to Jersey City.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: 6′ 10 writer pretends he got drafted by the Utah Jazz last Thursday night, takes selfies, makes it onto the floor of the ceremony, and then hooks up with some chicks. He get into 1OAK though?

Quote of the Week: “I hate how phone cases feel. It’s like wearing a condom. Why would you do that?” — [Name Withheld]

Gucci Mane actually still top five dead or alive (ok, maybe top eight.)

Farewell, Rolls-Royce Ledges

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(A.K.A. Wachovia or Wells Fargo to you younger guys.) Another view here.

The 49th Street side of the building is under construction, and it looks like the 50th Street side and the long manual pad facing Madison Avenue will be soon. There are some crummy mock-ups on the front of the building that show what lays ahead. It might contain a marble ledge over steps (that’ll inevitably be a bust.) The adjacent Driveway Ledges spot has also been under construction for years, so maybe that will yield something cool :) Thanks to Gerry for the tip.

By most estimations of what a “good” spot is — this place sucked. Chunky ledges that never grinded in their entire history, choppy ground, and a horrible eight stair aren’t the best things midtown has to offer. However, the spot was an anomaly in the neighborhood because it wasn’t a colossal bust. This means that more hours were clocked here than other midtown destinations over the years, simply because it was a last resort before conceding defeat for the night. Only the (also defunct) 45th & Lex Wendy’s can lay claim to logging more skater hours this past decade-and-a-half.

The spot is also notable because Geo Moya maintained a career-long allegiance to skating the awful eight stair here. The landing was into a hill going the wrong way, and that hill was made out of the worst ground ever. Moya’s three lines from Jay Maldonado’s La Luz video remain the only examples of someone refusing to acknowledge how genuinely bad this set was. Add that to Moya’s list of underheralded accomplishments, along with the Times Square 20-stair noseslide, the switch front nose over the Flushing grate in ~2000, and pioneer status as the first known person to attempt the “cherry” ender rail

When was the last non-“Banned From T.V” time you were reminded of Nature’s existence? “Ultimate High” still goes.

New Year’s Eve Links

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Philadelphia is on the verge of having to close 37 public schools. It’s a good thing Philly’s City Council spends time on real issues like raising skateboard-related fines.

Pappalardo’s eight seconds of footage in the Pretty Sweet bonus features.

The end-of-the-year issue of The NYT Magazine has a feature on influential people who passed away in 2012. One of them profiles Larry Stevenson, who invented kicktails on modern skateboards, and is thus responsible for every big flip in Pretty Sweet and every crooked grind combo in Parental Advisory.

Speaking of Pretty Sweet, Manolo Tapes put together a funny, all lifestyle rendition of the video entitled Pretty Soft. The magic of editing…

Joe Cups put together a Super-8 / VHS New York video of this past summer that features many names from the Lurkers franchise.

This James Pitonyak part is gnarly. He destroys just about every spot in Trenton.

The first, all Mini DV installment of the Death Video series. Not to be confused with Death Skateboards; it’s just a bunch of kids ripping around the city and indulging confrontation with security more than they probably should.

An iPhone Christmas clip from the young’ns.

Brian Brown and the 2nd Nature crew ripping around Westchester and Connecticut.

ICYMI: Billy McFeely in Outdated, Jason Carroll in Outdated, Forrest Edwards in Wild Power, and Ben Kadow in Mama’s Boys.

Matt Mooney put his abundance of free time into creating a Seinfeld Tumblr.

Spot Updates: Rolls-Royce is surrounded by scaffolding.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Darren Collison’s buzzer-beating, overtime-forcing desperation three v.s. Oklahoma City. J.R’s buzzer-beater v.s. the Suns was a leading candidate, but all Knicks plays from the past week got disqualified based on how hard they blew it against the Kings on Friday.

Quote of the Week:

hsu skate videos

— Via the Skateboarder Tumblr. Not sure of its origins or how old it is. Solid analogy.

Happy New Year.