Around the time of YS 2‘s official release, the QS office was winded from year-end #content, and on a much-needed vacation. This, unfortunately, resulted in the new release desk being unable to give Yardsale’s second video the analytic accolades that it deserved. There are only a select few video series that feel wholly of their own world, and the YS videos syphon your eyes into a dimension away from their contemporaries.
In consolation, the Yardsale boys were kind enough to allow us to share some raw footage from Jake Church’s ender part with everyone.
An interesting quarantine contest would be best rendition of Fred Gall’s phone call to Tony Hawk, which Boil the Ocean just transcribed for posterity purposes. That means comic book renderings, live action re-creations, claymation, anime, abstract art, whatever. Kinda like a skate version of The Simpsons “Steamed Hams” remixes. Yes? No? Do we call a Zoom meeting to figure out logistics?
“The only TV show I’ve been watching is FaceTime with Mitch B.” Will Marshall is the latest guest on The Bunt. Will has a tactful ability to almost *go there* but he never quite goes there, unless of course, you skate for Bones Wheels ♥
Chrystie NYC’s first full-length video, Chapter One in now live on Thrasher. Features an ender part from Aaron Herrington, a bunch of footage of that dude Kuae Cosa who’s been popping up in Cons edits, the up-close angle of the other way ollie at the Crosby Street Vespa Bump… and that ride-on grind at LaGuardia High School is insane.
“The guys in the video don’t give a fuck about the American industry anymore. We were also all listening to a lot of Tupac at the time and getting kicked out of spots in Cali, then jumping into the van and blasting that Tupac song kind of cemented it.” Ok then. Free has a full retrospective on one of the seminal skate video imports of the 2000s, Lordz’ They Don’t Give A Fuck About Us (and answers the question we were asking a lot back in 2013: what happened to William Phan?
Steve Mastorelli made a rad Silvester Eduardo remix. Actually missed a bunch of this footage before. Syracuse nollie flip was sick.
These Bunt episodes are getting pretty long. Kerry Getz is the latest guest. Love a level-headed, smart former pro. Shame that the angry, “everyone screwed me over” curmudgeon types tend to get all the attention though.
Copenhagen and Malmö still got Paris beat on the whole “skateable obstacles integrated in public spaces but not exactly skateparks”-thing, but yeah! What they said! But for New York! Would trade like 3-4 New York skateparks for just that little red plaza on the side street in Berlin.
Quote of the Week Charles Rivard: “He skates like he’s on coke, and parties like he’s on weed.” Rob Harris: “More like he skates like he wishes he had friends.”
The more accurate translation of “there are no spots in New York anymore” is “we’re just sick of the spots we have.” I remember having a conversation with someone — I forget who — from a plaza-abundant city, and expressing jealousy over their ability to skate a Straight Fucking Ledge™ in an unconfined city space. The response? “Yeah, but at least there are slappy curbs everywhere you go…I wish we had that.” The grass is always greener on the other side, but one or two bust-free ledge spots for miles of metal curbs seems like a pretty no-brainer trade on our end.
For us, this devolution into “crust” happened in the early 2000s because all the “normal” spots became busts (part due to post-9/11 security, part due to more skaters skating them.) And now, with reinvigorated Midtown Manhattan coverage and footage of people charging in security’s faces, the pendulum seems to be swinging the other way. Rather than navigating sixteen cracks and a seven-foot sandpaper roll-up, people are going back to the same front desk facing office building spots three times in one hour, just hoping to crack the code. And it’s understandable: most of us over trying to figure out how to skate Mambo Bar in its third generation of skatestopping attempts.
The greener grass convo came to mind watching Yardsale‘s new east coast tour video. Now, London is by all means a crusty skate city, but being based there, these guys are an hour or two-hour flight to any marble European plaza you can name. Instead, they’re electing to fly across an ocean to skate the stoops of abandoned rowhouses, and courtyards of Jersey City project buildings. Their video is the antithesis of a “six-state east coast trip” in that they could not be less interested in skating Muni, that spot in Princeton, or Pulaski. (I saw the shot of the Capitol Building and thought, here it comes. But nah.)
