Taji Ameen | Quartersnacks

Monday Links: Chauncey Billups Edition

Daily News February 28th, 2011 · 2:30 pm · 5

Last week was a bit slow, as a lot of attention was given to basketball, which has been way more interesting than skateboarding in the past few weeks, especially if this is the sort of thing you have been waiting for since middle school. In further tangential bits, Dylan got robbed for best leading actor, and Chris Bosh was seriously overlooked for best supporting actor. Avatar starring Halle Berry was pretty sick too.

Quantities on tees and cruisers are fairly low at this point, so if you were planning on buying either one, now would be the time to do it. Thanks to everyone who purchased something for their support of the site.

One of the main exceptions to the recent superiority of interesting-ness that eastern basketball has taken against eastern skateboarding, is the increased visibility of Mike Maldonado and Kevin Taylor. Axion has a tour clip up that features both of them with some considerable screentime. Thrasher also has a quick Q&A section up with Maldonado and Phelps, discussing the early history of the Love gap, his ollie over the wall off the bench at the Philadelphia Federal Building in Welcome to Hell, and the key difference between east and west skateboarding: “There’s no, ‘I’m gonna warm up on this six and then go hit the twelve.’ No, you’re going straight to the twelve.” Considering this website abides by a “If you can’t ollie up it, don’t ollie down it” creed, we wouldn’t know anything about that.

Taji put together another post for the Converse blog, this time centering around the world renown Tompkins Square Park, and its rich history. “Q: So what’s the story behind your crew, the Dunions? A: It’s kind of dying out as time passes. They sort of split up between sorta-hood smoker kids and the non-hood skate rats.”

Rob started putting together Diamond Days clips again, and for those fortunate enough to afford exotic girlfriends in tropical climates, the latest installment sheds some light on the conditions everyone in New York has had to endure throughout these past three months. Winter seems like it is on the way out though.

You Will Soon published an open letter to the people of Converse Skateboarding, demanding some answers on a question we have all been asking ourselves…Why the hell is Joey Pepper still on flow for them? Put that guy on the team already, damn. They also touch a nerve with Anthony Pappalardo’s endlessly devout fanbase when they allude to his mode of Marbury-isms that we have discussed in the past as well. *Waiting for half of Long Island / Slap to promise a four-minute tour de force part in the Chocolate video…which will probably be out when Cory Kennedy is in his mid-to-late twenties.*

A quick teaser for the upcoming full-length from Alex Duke’s Wizard Skull skateboards.

Here’s the San Francisco installment from 2nd Nature’s California trip.

Howard Glover posted another installment from his Pre-2k video. This time, it’s a shared part between Rodney Torres, Mike Wright, and Quartersnacks’ favorite, Geo “TOMA!” Moya. Features plenty pairs of Osiris Peter Smolik pro shoes, in addition to footage from what was previously the biggest health hazard to New York City skateboarding, the Chinatown Shit Hubba.

Quote of the Week: “What is anxiety? I think only girls get that.” — Matthew Mooney

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“Tote guns to the Grammys, pop bottles on the White House lawn…”

Daily News February 14th, 2011 · 10:33 am · 9

Flockavelli got robbed for record of the year at the Grammys. But masterworks like that often take years to marinate before people understand their true brilliance. What the hell is this Cadillac commercial nonsense? At least basketball went in a good direction yesterday.

Ok, wait, this is a skate site, right?

You can find QS affiliate, and 360 flip extraordinaire, Andre Page’s thirty seconds worth of tricks from Thanks Camera 4: Jump the Shark on the QS YouTube page. If you haven’t already seen it, go to Thankscamera.com to check out the whole video.

2nd Nature put together a video clip of their whole squad’s recent trip to Los Angeles. Features all of the remaining classic L.A. spots, and QS favorite, Little Chris, who is bound to become one of the best skaters in New York in the next few years. Four years ago, he was doing gnarly little kid kickflips down five sets in the first Watermelon video, now he’s front blunting ledges like a grown man. Just wait until he actually grows up.

Daniel Lebron is absurdly good at skateboarding, and has some of the most well-formed flatground trick execution out there. Watch his new Stacks welcome part a couple of times. The first line strikes such a harmonious balance between classic simplicity, and modern day trick extravagance. It never hurts to toss in a regular stance backside heelflip in the middle of a line.

Taji has a photography feature / interview over on the Converse website. Includes a shot of the East Village lurking degenerate that could probably be chalked up as having the longest-standing allegiance to the green and black flannel shirt.

Allow this to be a warning for anyone not keeping a solid, attentive look-out when spotting for a friend skating a gap into a street. It would be unfortunate if you’re the asshole responsible for a homie landing in the hospital after getting hit by a car because you were too busy checking Facebook or texting.

The digital version of the Philly-based skateboard ‘zine, Skate Jawn is now online. Physical copies are available at KCDC.

It was a heavy topic of discussion this past week, so you have probably already seen it, but Casey Rigney deserves a plaque of some sort for the feats he accomplished on the streets on New York in his most recent web part. Not really mad at the Cappadonna soundtrack either.

Time capsule clip of the moment: The New York section from Transworld’s Transmission 7 video. Thanks goes to whoever dropped the link in the comments.

If you want a quick shortcut to the straight skateboarding section from yesterday’s post of the Love Park On Video documentary, we threw up an upload of just Stevie and Kalis’ section on YouTube.

Quote of the Week: “I want my party footage to outshine my skate footage.” – Pad Dowd

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“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”

Daily News January 17th, 2011 · 9:55 am · 8

Not that much happened on the internet this past week. Everything related to skateboarding was eclipsed by Daewon Song and Brandon Westgate, while all other non-skate news was put aside once Gucci tatted an ice cream cone on his face with his trademark “Burrr” misspelled (notice the ‘U’ or lack thereof.) But either way, here are some things that surfaced, which you have probably seen.

If you’re active on Tumblr, please re-blog this initial post of the Quartersnacks cruiser board to help get the ball rolling on it. Depending on how FedEx pulls through, they should be at the door sooner than later.

A two-year-old, but seldom seen clip that reinforces this website’s opinion that the T.F. is one of New York’s finest cultural institutions, regardless of what ups and downs it has been through these past several years.

Although as of late, Taji has been focussed on his journalist / documentarian grind and thus on the board a bit less, you can still catch footage of him with the Acapulco Gold squad ripping at the House of Vans park.

KCDC Skateshop re-designed their website and draped it out with some new content.

The thirteenth installment of the T.C. mixtapes from out in Michigan is more than worth ten minutes of your time. Witnessing insane things being done on ledges is always more fun to watch when there’s some sketchiness involved, in that it adds a tangible and human feeling to the skating. None of us are ever coming close to landing anything Shane O’Neill manages to casually pull off, so it’s good to sometimes remind ourselves that imperfect rollaways exist in the terrestrial world. All-around solid video with a musical affinity for remixes as opposed to original versions, but whatever.

While on the topic of ledges, allow me to quote one of my associates: “When you talk about ‘style icons,’ we think about Rob Welsh.” His first line at Third and Army in Madness remains to be one of 2010’s brightest moments, but you already knew that.

The (big?) 360 flip debate. Where you stand invariably has to do with what decade you were born in. Dylan looks so wonderful doing it “the new school way,” so we’re kind of torn between a choice over here.

Quote of the Week: “We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.” If you’re in, about to go, or going back to college, read this one. It’s important, and for the attention span deficient, short.

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The saga, Sega, network and bodega

Daily News November 22nd, 2010 · 1:39 pm · 2

Things for Monday that may be of some interest to you.

Christian Hosoi was recently at the House of Vans in Greenpoint for a commemorative skate jam held in light of the Autumn Bowl’s demise. Taji put together a “Taj Cam” clip of the evening, and Billy has a more candid iPhone clip involving pastrami sandwiches and car rides.

The scaffolding is gone at IBM Ledge. They also kept the planters away from the ledge, so there is a lot more space to hit it if you are heading backside for regular / frontside for goofy.

Speaking of skate spots, if you have been skating Midtown on a regular basis for over a year, you are probably aware that almost everything becomes an unforgiving bust in the period between a few weeks before Thanksgiving, all the way through the new year, due to the heightened security presence meant to give directions to tourists and kick you out. That basically means Ziegfeld is a total bust right now, with a special guard posted up there for all previously skate-friendly hours. Consider yourself lucky if you got more than ten minutes there these past two weeks. This night was fun though.

Quiksilver Canada trip clip by Pryce Holmes. Features Torey Goodall, Alex Olson, and Pat O’Rourke. You can catch the first clip from the trip here.

Reasons you should watch this John Wisdom for Ready Amongst the Willing clip: 1. He skates to what’s probably the best song off Liquid Swords, which is saying a lot. 2. He skates in camo pants. 3. The skateboarding is really, really good.

Here is a re-edit of Luis Tolentino’s footage from the past year or so that has surfaced in various commercials, web clips, etc. Edited by Eli Gesner. Probably the closest thing to a full part from Luis in recent memory. Luis is one of New York’s finest athletes, and more than just high ollies. He has always ripped, and here’s his section from Flipmode 4 as a reminder. The trick at Pyramid Ledges may very well supersede many of the other, ledge-related endeavors accomplished there. How one does an ollie going down an incline over something very high, and nestled between two narrow brick pillars boggles the mind to this very day.

Belief Skateshop is holding a contest at the new Astoria skatepark on this coming Sunday (the 28th.) Flyer here.

Quote of the Week: “It might be funny when you get hit by a car, but not when you get run over by one.” – Rob Campbell

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