Friends With Fred

“Never give up. Stick with it and keep trying. Don’t get discouraged by shitty attitudes. Just keep going, man. Don’t look back… And stay off hard drugs.” Fred Gall, 2019. Not sure who shot this photo? Maybe Mehring? Photo by Reda.

Figure there is zero chance anybody who is a QS Monday Links reader would not have already seen Fred Gall’s “Spiritual Healing” part, but it would also be sacrilegious to not mention it.

“You needed to bring a mattress there ’cause you run right into a brick wall and you’ll die without a mattress.” Thrasher also posted up Brian Anderson’s interview with Fred Gall.

…aaannndddddd The Warm-Up Zone — the internet’s leading Fred Gall scholars — compiled a recap of the past 18 months of Freddy’s achievements leading up to the part.

It’s a week with both a Naquan and a Johnny YouTube upload ⚱️

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Whatever You Do, You Have To Keep Moving Forward

Cyrus, Antonio, Bobby Worrest, and others on a Nike SB trip skating around somewhere in the middle of the country.

The only regret from 2018 that came into the QS office on the first day of 2019 operations was not editing the second half of last year’s “Best of” clip to “Thank U, Next.” Kyota has us covered in his winter iPhone montage though. Borough Hall, L.E.S., the new 11th Street manny pad, etc.

Had no idea what this was upon click, but it’s pretty sick: “Massapequa Keith Garbarino Mixtape” via Matt Schleyer. Switch back tail shove at Riverbank was fire.

“The city could have blindly purchased a half-pipe but have instead commissioned a sweeping concrete amphitheatre and painted tarmac hill. The expressive architectural gestures exist without the need for an explicit purpose, allowing children, families, cyclists and skateboarders to develop their own relationship with the space.” You already know most of what it has to say, but this is a nice article about cities embracing skateable public space.

Lucas Puig has an iPhone part for …Andale Bearings.

Paul Grund has a quick photo feature over on Skate Jawn about him, Bobby D, Hjalte, and Nik Stain’s voyage through Eastern Europe with Ben Chadourne. And yeah, there doesn’t seem to be much use skating anywhere else in Prague.

Even almost two years after its demolition, there’s no lack of “last days of Shorty’s” content, but this mini doc on Tommy Cuba, one of the original Shorty’s crew members, is probably shot way better than the rest of them.

Raw Deals #008 via Tombo from roughly around ~2003 A.K.A. the era of rough fits. The “fashion” from this time period is really something else. Half the people are dressed like they’re getting a greasy hungover bagel in Murray Hill on a Saturday morning wearing their girlfriend’s Ugg slippers.

There’s some condo over on 61st and Riverside that has its own private mini ramp the same way it’d have like, a swimming pool or a gym. That thing will definitely get a ton of use. (There’s a rail and a few ledges in front of the Soulcycle that you get some time at, though.)

These edits from Swedish slappy lords Poetic Collective are — along with the POP Clips — some of the funnest Euro edits going right now. Never not hyped to skate (and book Euro tickets) after watching one.

The Bunt is back with a new season. Their first episode is with Pedro Delfino.

Rest in Peace to the Lower East Side Guy in All White.

While everyone has a reinvigorated interest in Soulja Boy given his recent, um, media blitz, we feel obligated to point everyone in the direction of this Endless Shrimp mix that Shrimp C did back in 2017 (it was the last episode of the show he ever did.) He listened to literally every Soulja Boy song in existence, and narrowed the best ones down to an hour-long playlist. There are a couple omissions, but to each their own.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: The game itself was ok, but the end of Sixers v.s. Thunder was the most fun all last week.

Quote of the Week
Inquisitive Gentleman: “How the hell do you even know that guy?”
Sean Kinney: “I went to his wedding. He has nipple rings.”

We post this every MLK Day, yes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Die Linked

Tompkins local via @dickrizzo on IG

Sick N.B.D. over the Bond Street Gap.

Somehow only catching this one now, but Embassy Skate Shop (Columbus, Ohio) put together one of the best videos of the year thus far. It is tightly-edited, each skater is distinct from the other, and it maintains a tight-knit hometown vibe even though ~half of it is filmed in S.F. Add this and Adam Bos’ “Steel” to your morning rotation.

“With this risk spectrum in mind, when I see a skateboarder do a trick while smoking a cigarette, I can’t help but feel inspired by the sheer audacity involved.” Here is a brief reflection of cigarettes’ role in skateboarding, though it inexcusably writes Mr. Butts out of history. “To young kids, don’t smoke. It’s a horrible habit.”

“Among the improbably growing ranks of skateboard filmers, the thrill of the hunt tends to scale alongside duration.” Since everyone is pissed about our Artforum MasterCard coverage of the Converse video, perhaps you will find Boil the Ocean’s take on Purple less triggering — and maybe laugh at the phrase “something of a freethinking homicidal” as much as I did ;)

Andrew Wilson and some European friends spent a windy week in Marseille.

Hey you’ve probably seen it, but here’s Yaje’s new part that dropped last week.

Connor Champion ♥ has a new edit for Grand Collection *airhorn*:

Even though Shorty’s has been demolished for nearly a year, the “last days” clips are still coming out. It’s with Freddy and Tommy Cuba, so nobody’s complaining :)

Life before cell phones = keeping a foldable card of every skater you’ve ever skated with’s handwritten number in your wallet.

As was the case with Pretty Sweet, the release of Purple has already been supplemented with some cohesive Kenny Anderson remixes. One is exclusively his Cons video footage, whereas another covers all his output from the past two years.

Can’t say Helly Hansen was at the top of the imaginary list of brands to collab with a skateboard company, but they chose a pretty perfect crew to do the “wear test” video for it. QS Budapest 2019…we out?

Yo, big #respect to all the Fast Minds™ out there who think outside the box.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: This week, the Rap Desk is filling in for the Sports Desk, and giving the P.O.T.W. to to Young Dolph. (Do you think people will ever stop overreacting to Lebron losing a game in a playoff series? This shit happens every year and it is so annoying. Still hating Lebron in 2018 is like not being at terms with Drake in fucking 2018 — like, who has the time to hold onto some stupid 2011 grudge? Just let go and move on in peace ♥)

Quote of the Week: “She’s like the Jamie Foy of lying.” — Charles Rivard

Forgotten summer classic. Girl you know that Juiceman ride around on all this chrome.

When Quarters Cry

Just as promised

Kurt Havens, the Academy Award winning filmmaker behind 2012’s Twomanji video, is back with another full-length VHS / Hi-8 / old camera (?) project entitled Ballhog. It’s pretty much a vintage-tinged Bronze B-cam video from the past couple years, and features iconic parts from Mark Humienik, Billy McFeely, and Josh Wilson.

Gang Corp, Frog, Humble, The Skate Kitchen, and Hardbody all have spreads in the new issue of Japan’s Eyescream mag. Probably won’t do you much good if you can’t read Japanese (the Google Translate camera feature is sick though), but still rad to see nonetheless. Shout out to everybody.

Oh, and Genny posted the raw photos from the Humble pages.

Jesse Alba made a loving tribute to our #MCM, Nolan Benfield, and then Frog Skateboards went and posted some quick extras from their trip to China last year.

Show me, don’t tell me.

Damn, imagine wanting to skate the Veteran’s Memorial 12 that bad? ;) jk. Marco Kada covered a lot of ground across the city and outlying areas (who even remembers the last trick on the Jersey City Hamilton Park five block spot…Zered’s Vicious Cycle part?) for his rad “New York Nice Guy” part.

Habitat has a clip of Fred Gall’s final session at Shorty’s.

Listen to your mom, but also listen to Zalfa — who once ruptured his crank skating the Big O in Montreal, peed blood, went to the E.R., came out a few hours later, and shot a photo of Max Palmer while wearing a bloody hospital gown. He has an interview over on Skate Jawn. Don’t ever ask me who my favorite photographer is again.

“You know he’d get his mental health check and go straight to Ralph and drop two grand on a fucking moleskin pair of trousers or something.” Some Monday motivation for anyone currently living on a couch in an apartment they don’t pay rent for: Free interviewed Lev Tanju about all the cool shit Palace has been doing in London these past couple years.

There’s a Bobshirt documentary. Can’t tell if there’s new footage tho.

Some more Elkin extras from Leo Gutman’s 2013 Q.S.S.O.T.Y. run.

Old parts, new uploads: Connor Kammerer in Spirit Quest + Dustin Eggeling in Static 4. This is a really pointless observation, but it’s kind of wild that the last Static video is already almost four years old.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: And then Russ thought…”fuck that overtime shit.”

Quote of the Week: “My celebrity crush is Ali from Travis Porter.” — Pad Dowd

Can’t say the QS Rap Desk has actively been checking for new Wayne songs these past ~five years, so a bit “late” on this one (came out on Christmas), but wowwwowow.

There’s a fire remix video dropping on here tomorrow Wednesday ♥