Monday, December 29, 2008

I'll ride up your pipe...

Have you seen the new cover of Skateboarder Magazine?!



Louie Barletta is a monster. Loop - full pads (including hip pads) - dudes on the side with pads to throw under him if he falls - roll up and ride away - prefab = amazingly legit!

So I pretty much have banked on Christmas and Camille got me this:


And this:


Now I need to learn to play this:


The funny/coincidental part is that I got her a Guitar, so perhaps we can duel each other...once we figure these things out.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

(Fire) Foxy (Spaghetti) Cat

Here are two more edits I just submitted for The Final Flare Outtakes Outtakes Edit Contest. If you don't know about Spaghetti Cat, YouTube it. I am a fan of The Soup, sorry.



Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Gifs killed the video star (or Christmas Gifs)

Crailtap is having The Final Flare Outtakes Outtakes Edit Contest, which involves using the outtakes of the outtakes to put together your own edit. They provided the few skate clips (though using all of them isn't necessary). Here are my etries:



My second was took another route entirely...another medium to be exact. I introduce the new wave of video editing...animated gifs!



Here are some videos that I have enjoyed recently:


These orange guys are either trying to teach this little kid how to mack or they are trying to mack on him. Either way, it is creepy.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

New Photography

I took a bunch of photos with the LX3 and have edited a few. I was going to upload them to Flickr, however, you only get so much space per month unless you pay for a pro account. Since I already pay for a pro account on Photobucket, I figured that it would just be a waste. So here are the photos I took (hosted on Photobucket):


Smiling sink drain


Box cat



Full moons don't look nice with a wide angle lens


Dragon Vs. Cat


Jenga


Michelle, Camille, Maya


Trashed Romance


Light-proofing


Matt reviewing


Con Ed Banks


Lost daylight


This is America



Large Labia (bush included)


Matt's vagina booty



Tranquil on the outside


Sun sets on LIC


Crossing paths



Time Travel


Once plush


Reality

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

SNL Governor Paterson Impression



So apparently NY Governor Paterson was not amused by the Fred Armisen impression of him on this past week's Saturday Night Live. I guess he was disappointed in how spot-on it was: from the look to how he got into office to his views. Paterson now knows that he has not gone unnoticed. I love how it is all fine and good for any other group to be targeted, but once you come after the disabled, you are going to far. Let's see. SNL has made fun of fat people, retarded people, muslims, woman, blacks, hispanics, jews, gays, WASPs, christians, southerners, the whole state of Illinois (and others), the French, NYers, etc. etc. etc. It seems like everyone is fair game, just don't come after the physically disabled...please. Where were you when they made fun of fat people, Paterson? That is considered a disability now. Maybe they are below you. Afterall, you are proposing a 15% tax on sodas that are not diet in NY. Yeah, that is going to solve all the state's financial problems. Anyway, here is the video:

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Substance Promo

The Substance Skateboards Promo is finally online for your viewing pleasure. There are a few clips that I contributed in there (they just spelled my name wrong in the credits, but whatevs).

Click to watch.

Overall, it is pretty good. Sassa killed it. We need more Alan, Ralph, Rob, and Scottie footage though!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Cloud Spit

I like this ad. Apparently those bikes are between $3-7k.



There are a couple other ones, but they weren't as good as that one.

Speaking about ads, watch this. I really like deadpan humor and I am keen on the delivery. "Two cannibals are eating a clown, one says to the other, 'does this taste funny to you?'" Perhaps it is because I have been a fan of Paul Harvey.



Remember when I posted these shoes months back and said that I wanted some? Well, they are finally coming out, but cost a whopping $110. I retract the statement of me wanting them. I wanted to skate in them so that the hounds-tooth appeared when the denim wore down. But if I even wasted $110 on these, there is no way I would skate in them. Lame.

That is it for now. I just need this rain to let up so that I can get some skating in. My legs are withering away...

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

I'm Outdated

I figured that I had a lot of old, stale footage that I don't want to use on anything legit, so I decided to make a clip of it last night. Some of the footage is fairly recent, but was more throwaway, fun footage than anything. You can tell the age of the clip this way: oldest = dreads, then short hair. The more recent footage is me with longer hair pulled back.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Rainy Days

Remember a couple posts back when I was talking about skating Pathmark with Peter and Paul? Well, here is the footage...



Props to Pete's backside 360 and Paul's line! And yes, we do flatground kickflips in lines...because we can.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Who wants to tumbl(r)?!

Oh yeah, I have a tumblr account now. I guess I am going to start micro-blogging there. Feel free to follow me on it, or just check in on it if you don't see any updates here. I will definitely be updating it more often then this, but the updates will be much shorter (hence the word "micro"). I will add it to the "other outlets" area on the right of this blog so that it is easy to find.

http://elasticback.tumblr.com/

Anything good on? Not really.



Penguin escapes whale attack by jumping onto whale watching boat.


Cardiel...just because.


Sorry, not much to post. Maybe this sums it up well.



I plan on shooting a lot of photos and whatnot over the weekend. I might even put together a skate clip.

Last night I skated with Peter and Paul (not the apostles, but the next best thing) at Pathmark since it was raining. For those of you who don't know, Pathmark in Queens is one of the few NYC rain "spots," since it is an indoor parking garage for the grocery store. There isn't much there besides a manual pad, some curbs, and some barrier you can jump over, so usually the sessions are mellow and mediocre (at best). However, last night was super fun. I think we ended up skating there for like 3 1/2 hours and Pete brought out his camera to get some fun bro-cam footage. We got some some fun stuff captured in motion picture. I found the base of a freestanding handicap sign that I flipped over for some fun wallie action. Paul even got a pretty legit line for the session we were having. I think Pete might edit something together this weekend. If he does, I will post.

I will leave you with some Band of Horses.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

You're All I Need



I just bought a new camera on Tuesday, this one:



It is the Panasonic LX3. I got it in silver (mostly since they were out of black, the silver was $20 cheaper and I didn't want to wait). I have been looking into this camera for over a month now, but kinda pushed it back in my mind and didn't really think of it until Monday when Allen Ying IM'ed me about my thoughts on it. Basically we convinced each other to get it and met up on Tuesday and bought them from B&H. I have been reading through the manual and this camera is pretty much amazing for a digital point and shoot. I just need to put it to the test. I took some test shots yesterday in the park during my lunch break. You can check them out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elasticback/

Now that I have a good p&s camera, I will be totally making more photo updates than I have been.

If you wonder where I have been, I have been hanging out on the Thrasher Message Boards. Go register and get down. Type and Destroy!

Here is a promo for North End (not sure what that is, but the promo is sick):


Now listen to this and get as hyped as you did in '95!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Watch this...

A quickie.

Watch Nate Broussard make skateboarding look pretty.

And read how Bobby Puleo can sound arrogant.

Psyched on this!

Clip of the week: Hellrose and Wetboys!

Monday, November 24, 2008

My family...

This is for my family...a video of my nephews and niece from my trip to Charlotte.



Everyone else, I will make a better update either today or tomorrow.

Monday, November 17, 2008

And this little girl right hurr ain't scurred of nobody

I just got back from visiting my family in Charlotte, NC this past weekend. There was typical family drama, lots of 2nd hand smoke, and a lack of skating, but it was good to see everyone and play with the kids. I got some footage of the little ones and will probably post something later, though that will mostly just be for my family. I think it is funny that my nephews and niece still think that I live in an airplane and just fly around all the time until I visit them. On my way to the airport yesterday my oldest nephew (turning 4 in a week) asked me if I live in the big plane with all of my friends. Haha.

Anyway, I watched three of the many videos (that I recently got) during the trip: Beez Vol. 1-3, Shake Junt, and Why Wouldn't You.


The Beez videos are made by a group of guys in Wisconsin or someplace as equally irrelevant as that, however, their videos are amazing. They have lines that involve them not even standing on their boards! Think handboarding with a real skateboard. These guys are definitely have more fun filming that anyone you know, and I can say that with great certainty...even if you are in the Tiltmode Army! One of my favorite tricks in the video is simply someone dropping their board into this tube thing and jumping on it as it shoots out the bottom. There are 4 videos included on the DVD and each one just gets more bizarre and more amazing. I was watching this on the plane on the way to Charlotte and the guy sitting next to me kept looking up puzzled, like he didn't know what was going on. This video has opened my eyes up a bit and has given me some ideas for expanding my horizons when it comes to skateboarding. While the skaters in the video were not the most skilled (there were some exceptions), they are some the most creative bunch I have ever seen. Good job guys. Beez 4? Anytime soon? Can I please have a part?! Hahaha.


Next I watched Shake Junt, a video of Baker Beagle's crew. This video had a Baker section and parts for a lot of the Baker flow guys. I was pretty disappointed in this video. Granted, I had little kids climbing all over me as I was watching it, it just didn't impress me. The Baker section was better then the rest of the video in sum, which is kind of sad since the Baker section was fairly short and had mostly throwaway footage. The video was edited in a Baker-ish style, which is unfortunate since it just resulted in a low-grade knockoff that probably would be lucky to survive the Canal Street of the skate world. There were a lot of bangers and big tricks, but that was mostly boring and nothing really stood out to me. I will leave it at this: not worth the money.


Lastly, I watched the Why Wouldn't You video out of Portland. This video made me want to move to Portland even more. It may not have covered all the basis of Portland skating to be completely representative, but it came closer than an other video (yes, even the Pharmacy video...obviously). Josh Falk had a decent part (it started slow but unfolded into something sick at the end), Ben Krahn had a sick part, Wildcard had a part (which is sick since he is deaf park rat that used to live in the park), Brent Atchley had a part better than his Element part, Red got ridiculous in his full part, and Mikey Chin had the last part. I think I actually witnessed his ender a year and a half back too. The introductions in the video were pretty weird and I would get uneasy when the chainsaw came out...especially when he was trying kickflips while holding it (on). The video totally could have been a bit shorter, but was worth the money by far. Now to figure out the next trip to Portland!

If you want to bump, let's go...



If you have time to waste, click through to the YouTube page and watch some of the video replies in the "related videos" area.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Motta and Jaws parts from A Happy Medium

These will likely get pulled soon, so watch ASAP.

John Motta


Jaws


Don't be a jerk though. Buy it! You can order it here.

I am waiting on mine to be delivered.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Celebs and Updates

I was looking through some of the popular videos on YouTube and came cross a video by Hayden Panettiere. I think she is one of the girls on The Hills or one of those shows.



Don't worry about listening to the whole thing, just listen enough to get the feel for it. I thought that it sounded pretty familiar. It seems like she is use the same person to write her songs as Paris...not positive, but they sound very similar.



No wonder I have trouble find any new music worth listening to.

Anyway, to skateboarding. I randomly thought about that Way of the Warriors contest that the Wetboys won a couple years ago and searched it out. Click here to check out the entries for 2008 and see who won. While the entries were good, I just didn't see any that stood out as "having it" this year. There is always next year...and depending on where I am living, I may want to enter. I wanted to enter this year but forgot...oh well.

Justin has updated Popills with a 16mm clip from his recent trip to Chile. Speaking of, the New Thirsty video is now available for sale. If you don't see it in the shops, click on the picture below to buy it online.



I don't know if I have posted this before, but watch this clip from Post22. I want to skate that satellite dish so bad. I think it is in Raleigh, and while I am going to Charlotte this weekend, Charlotte is nowhere near Raleigh.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

WE x 48 Blocks - Pandemic Review



While visiting FTC Skateshop in SF, there was a video chock full of SF spots playing on the TV. I was told that it was a video called Pandemic – a Western Edition and 48 Blocks collaboration. I think it only cost $5 or something, so I picked it up.

I hadn’t gotten a chance to watch the video until last night, but it definitely made up for the time I wasted watching that movie Hard Candy right before it. First off, the soundtrack was pretty great. There was maybe one song in the bonus stuff that I didn’t like, but other than that it was prime hip-hop, instrumentals, and classics. From Masta Ace to InI (you can never go wrong with InI). The filming was fairly constant throughout, which is not the case with most videos (which are a mashup of many filmers and missions). However, the editing was probably what tied the whole video together very well. It wasn’t overly done, but the transitions and scenic shots were done very tastefully.

Nikil Thayer had the opening part and came through with his smooth, clean effortless style. It was a solid part with no filler. The next part belongs to Joey Johnson. I think Joey is a victim of circumstance, because his part was good…it just wasn’t up to par with what the others were doing. Lavar McBride is one of those ‘90s classic skaters who somehow managed to put out timeless parts as a little kid. Well, Lavar is all growns up, and it shows. He still skates like the old Lavar in respect to doing almost everything switch (and slightly sketchy), but his style is a bit more mature and he isn’t hoping down things as much. While I am not a fan of his pushing (and definitely not of his switch-mongo pushing) his part came together in a way that maintains his credibility. The last part went to Nate Keegan, whom I have not seen much of to date. His last part positioning was truly well deserved. I am definitely a fan of this Nate now. The way Nate skates is original in that he approaches things differently. He may not do the most creative tricks on the most creative spots, but his approach and trick sequencing is what sets him apart and makes him memorable…plus his two songs were pretty great to top it off.

There were two montages thrown in at various points, one for 48 Blocks and the other for Western Edition. They both had great footage from friends and teammates that added to the very SF vibe of the video. AND it didn’t seem like most of this was throwaway that the friends just gave them because they didn’t care about it.

I’m backing Pandemic. I mean, what else are you going to spend the $5 on? A gallon of gas? That won’t get you down the block. Pop this in and get psyched to skate across the city!



Oh yeah, Brad Comer is on Krooked. Click here to watch his introduction footage. (Click the Quicktime symbol on the bottom of the page)

I have never heard of this kid before, but he rips!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Modern Love Review

I’m not sure what it is, but I love most Canadian video. Perhaps it is the aesthetic, perhaps it is filming quality, or perhaps it is the level of skating. Favorites include North, North 2: Port Moody Blues, and the Anti-Social video. While Modern Love (by the Green Apple crew) came out in 2005, I have yet to find a copy until my trip to SF. I was psyched to see it since I have had such a good, consistent experience with the other videos. I finally got the chance to pop it in last night and give it a watch.

I was actually kind of confused while watching this. I was pretty sure that it came out in the last 3 years, but I couldn’t find the date anywhere on the box and it sure didn’t seem like a recent video. While there was random, nonsensical, old VHS and/or Hi-8 footage thrown in, I was more concerned about the quality of the DV footage. The filming was sketchy, the lenses were dirty, and there were plenty of suspect makes (Baker Makers, if you will). I can handle all of the above, but, again, I had a preconceived notion of what a Canadian video should be, and it wasn’t this.

The video started off with Mike McDermott’s part. Again, expectations were thrown for loops. Mike McDermott is known for being tech and super clean, however, this was not the case for his part here. He did put down some good stuff, but it almost seemed like he was trying to work on a grimy East Coast style. Maybe I am looking into it too much.

I am pretty sure that I have expressed my dislike for horrid pushing and awkward footing in the past, but I am going to have to reiterate for a couple guys. Aaron Blatt has what I can only think to call banana feet…or perhaps thunder feet. Basically he just seems heavy footed and his feet look misplaced on his board. It is just weird, regardless of the tricks he was actually making. Another perpetrator is Paul Spencer. Paul doesn’t have awkward feet, but he likes to skate switch a lot. But somewhere along the way when he was learning all these switch maneuvers, he forgot to learn how to push switch. What has resulted is a part full of mongo pushing…he likes do full lines switch.

Jason Crolly actually had a really good part. He has his frontside noseslides down and can slide them much longer than you (or I) can even imagine holding them. The funny thing about Jason is that he looks like some older guy that you would think should stick to bowls and low impact transitions, but no. He is hucking overcrooks and back lips down handrails.

Rod Ferens is a funny character. At first look, you would think that he is some baseball/basketball fan that plays Madden ’08 or something with his homies, smoking blunts and eating crap junkfood. This may all be true of the tubby bald guy in the jerseys and headbands, but what I wouldn’t have thought at first glance is that he has high snaps and a quick flick. His tricks are solid and his contradictory exterior actually makes him more likeable.

Last part goes to Travis Stenger and his flawless kickflip backside nose grinds. This guy has all the tech stuff on lock: flat, mannies, ledges. His skating is more in line with what I have grown accustom to with skate videos from our neighbors to the north.

One name that was on the box with all the other names of guys with full parts was Mike Christie…but he didn’t have a part. I think he had a couple tricks in the friend montage, but it is obvious that his name was on there just to sell more copies…but that is not new to skate videos. Now the million-dollar question: was it worth the money? It’s funny because I don’t remember what I paid for it, but if it was more than $10, then no. If it was $10 or under, then sure. Not an expounding yes, but a simple sure. The last three parts are definitely worth watching.

Monday, November 03, 2008

More than red pigtails

In case you haven't seen it, Bryan did his own edit of the Halloween clip too. It is a little shorter and has a couple addition clips in it. Check it out.

Also, SkateDaily was kind enough to link to the video for us.



Speaking of Freddie Kruger (like that segue?), check this!



Dave Thomas (no, not that Dave Thomas) sent me this clip. I thought it was pretty funny. Corny, but not too corny.



Now to a more serious tone. Tomorrow is the big election that everyone is talking about. Please vote for who you want to be president, don't vote for the lesser of two evils. Hopefully you know that there are more than two people running. I am endorsing (for what that is worth) Ralph Nader since he more closely represents my views on politics. I will not go off on a rant as to why you should vote for him too, but if you want to see his views you can just click here. Defensive voting is an insult to the constitution and yourself. Real talk.

Friday, October 31, 2008

New York, New York Big City of SCREAMS!!!



So I have finally finished the Halloween clip. I present the cinematic debut of...wolfman and friends!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Just posted, but...

Taji just showed me this clip of him, Charles Lamb, and Billy Rohan from the Acapulco Gold/Instant Winner trip to Europe from this past summer. Check it!




Oh yeah, and Black Dave got a Check Out on the Transworld site.

Ras Trent

Watch this:



Tell me that wasn't amazing...especially when he walked by the real Rastas. Haha.

SkateNC put up a new clip:




Brett Abramsky! Blunt-front pivot-fakie!!! (52 seconds in)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Better without a costume

So much skating went down on Sunday for this Halloween clip that my right leg has been so sore since. Do your thing, Tiger Balm. The good news is that we have plenty more footage for the clip, which is to be completed by Friday.

So I came across this new site: Beware of Sasquatch. I think these guys are based out of Seattle, but they have some sick stuff on the site. I like this teaser a lot:



Watch the Check In with Alex Moul (from Strangenotes) below.



Kickflip late shuv?! I had to replay that a couple times. The blunt backside kickflip out on that weird sculpture playground thing in AZ was legit too. Too bad you don't see more footage of him these days.



This event looks mad fun. Hopefully it doesn't rain because I would love to throw down in costume!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Skate Recap

So I am slacking in getting all my photos from my trip to the northwest half of the country organized, so I will just follow suit with what I did for my last trip. Since this was not a skate trip and skating was very minimal, here is a short recap.

I didn't really get any pictures of skate spots in Portland. I did get a chance to skate Burnside for a little bit, as well as this nice bank close by it. Some photographer b-boy that was walking by with his camera and stopped to shoot some photos of me skating the bank. If he post them up then I will share them here. Either way, here are the two photos I did get in Portland.


This spot was super hard to skate, but now it has been skate stopped. While it was hard, it was a pretty fun spot. RIP. Oh yeah, Alan Siegler got a trick on here that you probably wouldn't even think to try...just saying.


This is one of my favorite spots in portland. There are all these rock formations that make for some fun wallrides, nose bonks, and wallies. Last time I was skating here with Leonard, Chet Childress rode by on his bike. This time Camille and I were there and an AIDS walk went by us in route. No correlation between the two...just saying.

We decided last minute to make a quick trip up to Seattle to check it out since we squeezed a lot into the Portland trip in a short amount of time. Since we weren't in Seattle for long, we only went by one skate spot. I have been wanted to skate that bank to wall spot with the pebble handrails for a long time and took advantage of this opportunity. I didn't skate the handrails because I was too tired from skating the wallride, but the wallride was really fun. It is much taller and steeper than I had imagined, however. I was pushing as fast as I could to get less than halfway up the wall. How Gravette wallrode over the corner is a mystery to me.






I slide one out down the bank on my ribs. Ouch.





These are some funny shots Camille took of me coming down. The first one looks like an abstract painting of me zooming past her and the second one looks like a cartoon. I ran that one out and my legs just looks crazed.

While there were a couple other destinations, they were not skate type of destinations. Let's move on the San Francisco.



While we weren't looking for Pier 7, we stumbled on it while walking by the water.



It was skate stopped, however.




No skating here.



Someone tried to liberate it, but I don't think anything is going down here.



The main spot that I wanted to see in SF was Third and Army. This is definitely my favorite spot now. I wish that I got more pictures of the rest of the spot, but, unfortunately, I did not. This section is the highlight of the spot anyway.



Doing ollies on this was so fun, but it is not easy to get up to that railing. Props to Drehobl on that.



After a bit of searching, we finally found the China Banks.



Too bad they were closed off...



My one attempt at bombing a (sub-par) SF hill.



Went to The Embarcadero. It was knobbed like crazy.




Found two semi skateable things in the area to skate for a minute.

Overall, all three of those cities have some amazing things to skate. Portland is one of my favorite cities to skate in general, though I hardly did on this trip. I wasn't in Seattle for nearly long enough to get a grasp on the scene at all, though I did see quite a bit of potential spots in passing. San Francisco definately has many possibilities and spots that would make for some epic skating (no wonder so many companies are based out of there). I also forgot to mention that I got to skate the new Potrero Del Sol Skatepark they built there in July. That is, by far, one of the best concrete parks I have skated. Just watch this clip to get a grasp!

Unrelated to this trip, you should check out the new Jake Johnson interview on the Alien Workshop site.