Mostly Skateboarding

I am going to start this morning off with a link to Danny Falla's Mag Minute. His 5-0 fakie at the Woodhurr hospital spot (the spot in the default image of the video) was legit. That thing is super hard to skate. His front blunt to manual at Vernon was sick too.

I want to roll with these dudes!



This is one of my favorite video parts. It is Eero Anttila's part from the Alis video "Who Cares." I haven't heard anything of Eero since this video came out years ago, but he is now on that new Euro company called Jart.



Tonight I finally get to see Deathbowl to Downtown (Charnoski and Nichols' latest flick) at Columbia. My RSVP got screwed up the last time I went to see it (when it premiered the first time a while back), and it isn't on DVD yet...that I am aware of.

We are not the same, I am a Martian.

You know when you are looking for something on Google Image and then you see something random that catches your interest? It doesn't have anything to do with what you were looking for, but it awesome nonetheless...well, I don't remember what I was looking for yesterday, but I came across an image of some weird super hero that someone created with Marvel's Create Your Own Super Hero application on their site. I made a few of my own.


This is the first one I made and would have the powers of being a bum (can clear a whole subway car in the matter of seconds), armored skin, and super strength (resulting in all strikes at the bowling ally).


This one was modeled a little more after myself. Note that I would develop a belly if I had super powers because I would become lazy from my awesomeness. I would hang out on Mars since I would be a flying reptile. I would use my trust hammer and claws to clear out craters to skate. The scarf is to keep me warm since it is cold in space...so I heard.


This is what Camille would look like if she were a super hero. She would be part cat from a radioactive explosion that morphed her and Kocik (our cat) into one. The radioactivity would also provide her with glowing hands that can heal. Her healing powers will provide an auto-undo to any sun that comes into contact with her skin, preventing any chance of skin cancer and wrinkles.

This was fun. Make your own super heros with that link and let me see!

A couple modifications.

I have posted a couple photos of modified subway ads that I have come across in the past and this is the person behind them: Poster Boy. That link is to his Flickr. Look through it and check out more of his work. There is a big chance you have already seen it if you live in NYC. It made me look at the ads differently, and now I even think up ways to modify them myself...though I probably won't. You can even check out a little walk through of the process with him, watch this:



When you are done, give these My Little Pony mods a look.

It's my birthday!

That doesn't really matter here though. What does matter is that I went up to Washington Heights last night to pick up some Roger Skateboards from this dude, Eugene, that runs a shop out of him apartment. He seemed to be the only one that carried the new Roger stuff. I have been looking for the Ghost with a Boner board for a long time and finally got it!



I also got this one since I will try to save the ghost one instead of skate it:

I hate you commuters!

Everyday that I have to ride the subway is another day that I hate riding the subway. Some people don't know how to be considerate of others. Here are some of the ways that people on the subway make me hate people:
- Eating smelly/loud food.
- Chewing with their mouths open/smacking their food/eating like a horse.
- Clipping their nails.
- Being a smelly, wet bum.
- Preaching about god and the rapture.
- Listening to their headphones on full blast...sometimes I can hear it from half way down the train car.
- Being a fat adult and thinking you can fit in a spot only big enough for a (non-fat) child.
- Coughing/sneezing into your hand and immediately grabbing the railing with the same hand.
- Talking mad loud, saying the "n" word/son/dog/yo every 2 words.
- Sitting with legs wide open, taking up 3 spots.
- Trying to read what you are reading over your should.
- Gawking at anything you do I am guaranteed to have 90% of the train car watching me put a new board together on the train...it isn't that interesting. I am sure the newspaper you put down to watch me in amazement is much more interesting. I think there are some layoff you can read about.
- etc. etc. etc.

I can go on for days about this...one of the worst part about new york. I can also go on about people not outside of the subways. Like the person behind you in line at Wholefoods that either keeps bumping you with their basket because they are so close to you or that ends up standing next to you (as though they are going to check out with you). But I will spare you all of that, as I am sure you have your own experiences and I don't want to bring them any further back to the surface that I may have already. Sorry.

On a positive note, my birthday is tomorrow...too bad I am sick and it is going to rain.

My birthday is approaching.

My Wish List:

- A super 8 camera so that I can be artsy in my "films." They can actually be called films then since it would be shot on film.

- To move to Australia or at least the west coast.

- To be able to get my last few tricks for a part I am trying to put together without being kicked out of 2/3rds of the spots right away.

- New bearings (Bones Swiss).

- Editing skills. There is so much I want to do and so little ability to do it.

- More time, motivation, productivity, luck, skill, reckless abandon.

- A new tattoo. I am trying to draw up a drop bear vs. kangaroo one now. Pretty much done with one, need to work on a second draft though. I will post them when I am done.

This For That

I have been waiting for my entry to be approved and posted to the site before mentioning it here, but I have applied to The Best Job in the World. The job is Island Caretaker for the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef for 6 months. With 30k people applying, the chances of getting selected are very slim...but if you don't apply, they are non-existent, right?

Click here to watch my entry.

It would be nice of you to watch and give me 5 stars...or at least just watch it. I also have a fake/sample blog that I have been doing when I can find time here. The votes don't really count now, but they can help me get noticed. If I somehow make it into the Top 50, which I should know by early March, then votes will really count because the person with the most votes will make it as a wild card into the top 11, with the other 10 being selected by staff. The great thing about the top 11 is that they fly you to Australia to interview in person and to do some group activities...but that is getting too far ahead of myself. First step is to get into the Top 50.

Now that I am done asking for you to do something for me, here is a hilarious clip about how not to speak English (a la Crailtap):



And here are some random photos I took:



This guy was hanging out in the window to some veterinarian's office on the Upper West Side. He was super psyched to see Camille and I in the window.


Autumn Bowl back smith


Autumn Bowl front smith


Storage yard in Greenpoint. This is the space where there used to be a warehouse that burned down in a bad fire a couple years back.


Greenpoint water tower. Someone painted "Free Palestine" on it years back.


From below.


The Polish flag was painted on the other side. In case you are not familiar with Greenpoint, it is a very Polish neighborhood with a history of Polish immigrants coming through it for a long time. In fact, Camille's parents came here from Poland and Camille was thus born here.


The lake in Central Park is no longer frozen, but it was cool to see branches from trees trapped in the ice when it was.

As I type this, it is 64 degrees and sunny outside...the warmest day in a while. It is supposed to rain, but I am hoping that it will hold off until late night as I am looking forward to skating midtown after work. The weather has not worked in my favor skate-wise in a while, and I am hoping it will be nice this one time.

Footage and Review

As you must have heard by now, Christian Bale went off on the DP (Director of Photography) of the Terminator movie they are working on and it was all recorded by the sound guy. And then there was the remix to said recording. And perhaps you've seen the "Christian Bale takes David to the dentist" mash-up I posted on my Tumblr yesterday. Well, now I present Christian Bale vs Pathmark (an edit Peter did with some footage from night/winter sessions at Pathmark in Queens). Featuring Paul Leung, Jay Mullally, another one of Peter's friends who's name I don't remember, Peter Sarne, and myself.





I recently got quite a few skate DVDs in the mail, one of which was the new video out of AZ called Potpourri by Thad Croskey. You can click on the image above to watch some promos for it and buy it, or just watch this trailer:



Yes, they are using Neutral Milk Hotel in it...which is mostly what convinced me to buy it, haha. Also, these dudes roll with Buster O'Shea and the guys from PVWHL and A Happy Medium (both of which I recommend). Well, I just watched the video last night and here are some thoughts:

1) These guys know how to have fun. So much so, in fact, that you will become depressed on your own scene...or lack there of.
2) Arizona is full of amazing spots that, for a second, you might even consider moving to a red state.
3) The best tricks in the video are in the opening montage.
4) You must understand that this is a homie video and isn't at the caliber of the Buster O'shea's homie video previously mentioned. If you are expecting such, you will be disappointed. There is some good stuff, but it won't meet the average skater's standards...even those skaters filming tricks that don't even deserved to be looked at yet think they are the next Ty Evans.
5) The bonus stuff doesn't have a lot of skating, though it is as long as the video itself. However, it is full of entertaining shenanigans that had me laughing.
6) It didn't quite end with a bang. It felt like something was missing.
7) Matt Price footage is entertaining. He has some decent maneuvers for a fat dude.
8) I am still not sure if Peter Vlad is just fooling us all about his abilities and that is the joke, or if his ability is real and giving him a part is he joke. The thing is, every once in a while he does something sick that makes you think that everything else is just to fool us, but I am not sure. It is awesome nonetheless.
9) I am not sure if I was recommend this to anyone to buy. If it were $5 less, then maybe. I don't regret buying it though, but I also buy most videos.
10) Todd Bratrud did some graphics and I want to look into this company Brimley. I remember they had a Bratrud deck a while back with Elmo in a sling that I thought was sick.

The video did make me want to skate, however...and that is what matters. Too bad the weather is pulling at my heart strings. I guess I will sit at home and watch skate videos and movie until it is not so wet out there. Speaking of, watch Vicky Christina Barcelona, it is the best movie I have seen in a while. It is better tha Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, (that boring movie) Frost/Nixon, etc.

Up and Down

Wow...it has been Mind Field Mania this weekend. You can't seem to go anywhere without hearing about it, or even seeing it playing. If you haven' gotten the DVD, I suggest you do that ASAP! The bonus stuff is not throwaway; it is legit footage. The main reasons I can guess as to why most of it isn't in the video are:
1) It was gotten after the deadline
2) It was cut out for timing purposes (the video was an hour long)
3) They were crazy...some of the stuff was better than some of the footage that did make it in.

Well, I finally got around to getting some of my photos on the computer. Here are the few photos I took at the premier:


Gregg Chapman, Jake Johnson, and Jeremy Scott Cohen.


The screening room in the Tribeca Grand.


So it begins...



On a less festive note, Saturday marked the 2 year anniversary of Sho Ma's death. Some of us gathered at the regular spot to get together in honor of the person that brought most of us together in the first place. Here are a few photos:







I have also updated my Flickr with some photos for this month and also added a couple of the photos left over to my Tumblr.

Mind Field Premier

Did you go to the Alien Workshop “Mind Field” premier last night at the Tribeca Grand? Maybe we walked by each other with the thousand kids piled in there. While I got there too late to get a stamp for the first showing, I (or should I say Jeremy?) talked my way into getting a stamp for the second show. However, when time came for that showing, horded of kids just bum rushed the spot, which rendered stamps useless, since they couldn’t possible check them at that point. They cut off letting people in with the person in front of me. I was fuming at that point and almost left but Jeremy convinced me to stay and get into the next one. Geo (Moya) was in the same boat and was there longer than me. By the time the next showing came around I jetted down the stairs and was one of the first ones in this time. Here is my rundown:

Omar Salazar
I felt scared for him, fearing that he would eat it going 80 mph on wobbly trucks. He definitely had the wow factor with most of his tricks, with spot/trick combos that few others could probably do.

Jake Johnson
New York City has been rendered unskateable. Jake did sick tricks on NYC spots that you couldn’t skate…and he did it switch at times. I may be bias because he is a homie, but this was one of the top 3 (maybe 2) parts in the video. Wallrides down double sets on straight walls (no slants)?!

Arto Saari
With Arto joining the squad so late into the filming process, it is no surprise that his part wasn’t very long. He did decide to leave a very clear message, however: Arto can backlip anything. I think his double set (kinked) long handrail ender proved that. Solid part, but I still get queasy watching him slam as hard as he does. Please stop showing it.

Jason Dill
I heard rumors about Dill’s part involving no ollies, which set the bar really low as for what I was expecting. It is safe to say that he exceeded my expectations, though not by much. While the rumors weren’t true, they weren’t that far off. He did a few tricks that involved ollies, though his part was really saved by his manuals. His ender was siiick!

Rob Dyrdek
I’ll just get it out of the way: worst and shortest part by far. There were a few good tricks but it was mostly boring. Did you expect anything else?

Steve Berra
I admit, I didn’t have much by way of expectations for his part. I thought it would be like Dyrdek’s part (as described), but it was surprisingly good, albeit short. Lots of flip-ins and some tight lines. Only bad part: switch mongo pushing. I guess it is a pet peeve of mine but it can ruin perfectly good skating for me. Dyrdek’s “part” was also scattered with it too.

Josh Kalis
Contrary to Berra’s part, Kalis didn’t quite live up to my expectations…though to be fair, my expectations were pretty high for it. His part was really good though; don’t get me wrong: switch front heel over a gap, bigspin backtail (on the pyramid ledges nonetheless), PLUS he skated super fast! But again with the switch mongo. Three parts in a row full of switch mongo pushing was a bit much for me in one dose. And his song was misplaced for the video and kind of bad anyway.

Grant Taylor
His part was a bit short, but it was packed with some big tricks. I remember seeing a sequence of his line where he kickflips a monster set followed immediately by an ollie over a wall to drop, but the footage makes it out to look super gnarly. His ender was impressive too: front board on the top of a gate door! Imagine hanging up on that…

Dylan Rieder
Dylan is one of the uber image conscious skaters and that vibe seeped from his part, which is unfortunate because he had some nice skating in it. Personally, I think his bank/tranny skating ruined it. It’s not that the tricks were bad, because they were actually really good, but because they seem too planned and/or typical. His flip tricks are on point though. The kid has a fast flick. My favorite trick of his was the backtail kickflip out on that bank that turns into a tranny thing in some LA ditch. Oh yeah, and his elf/peter pan shoes were a bit much…though I can image the board feel is great with them, haha.

Tyler Bledsoe
Why would they ruin a perfectly good part with such a wack electronic song?! It was too distracting how bad it was. Justin Strubing was sitting behind me and he was saying the same thing. Something to the effect of, “Aw man. They gave the worst song to the best dude.” Another stand out trick that appearing in a mag before was his gap to back tail on a bench in the middle of a dirt gap to backside flip out. The footage was super proper. I know there were some other standout tricks but I was too distracted with a bad song or something, sorry.

Mikey Taylor
There is something about Mikey. He can do no wrong with his skating to me. Perhaps it is his good style or his solid tricks. Whatever it is, he didn’t really have stand out tricks but his part was amazing anyway.

Anthony van Engelen
Wow! I can’t think of anyone else that can both skate as fast as AVE AND as tech…separately AND simultaneously. Ave kills! Best part. As you may know, he likes to skate handrails straight on, none of that skating from the side nonsense. The end of his part was filled with so many sick tricks back to back that I was overwhelmed to the point where comprehension stopped. I totally need to watch his part again…and again…and again.

Heath Kirchart
Heath still has it. Age hasn’t affected his ability to jump down thing better than dudes half his age. I can’t think of many people that have nose blunts comparable to Heath’s. While he had a lot of old footage in the part there was also a lot of new stuff where it was obvious that he went for it harder that most of the others and definitely deserved the last part (note: my favorite part of any video does not correlate to the part that should be last, hence this part deserving last part over AVE’s). His ender involved being towed by a scooter to launch a massive backside flip from a bump over a gap with deserved that second angle for sure. Glad to see Heath killing as usual!

The video as a whole was done very well, but at times it seemed a bit too methodical, as though they had a formula from Photosynthesis that they wanted to reuse. Obviously there was lots of 16 (or 8?) mm footage and sculptures and whatnot. The animations were kind of weird thrown in at (what seemed like) random times. There was this colorful light segment where these dots dance around on the screen…which was longer than (and possible better than) Dyrdek’s part. Lots of Dinosaur Jr. (also as expected). H even made a couple appearances in it too (playing instruments and skating). With the exception of a couple songs the soundtrack was pretty good, but I am a Dinosaur Jr. fan. Great video. I totally recommend that you buy it on Friday (2/6), when it comes out on DVD. Don’t disservice yourself by watching a crappy version online.

*I am not sure if this order of appearances is correct since it is just from memory but it is approximate.

Running on 4 hours of sleep...for 2nd day in a row.

I made a 60 second infomercial. You will see it in due time. Trust me. Haha.

In case you haven't been following, I have been updating my Tumblr here and there since I can do that from my phone. However, I have just gotten on the iPhone bandwagon, so that should lead to even more updates. I think the camera is better than the one on my Blackberry anyway. Speaking of photos, I have taken some photos with my camera recently that I am kinda stoked on. I will try to get them up soonish. I have just been so busy with other things that I haven't had much time to edit photos...much less take them off my camera.

I did, however, have a decent skate day on Sunday with the weather touching 50 degrees, even if it were only for a second. It is amazing what the nice weather can do. Not only did it bring some other skateboarders out of the woodworks, but it also resulted in me actually filming some stuff. I hope that groundhog is right, because this winter needs to get a move on (the snow outside is not looking good for that wish). The new Alien Workshop video "Mind Field" is premier today in NYC and I am stoked on it, though the lines for it leave something to be desired, I can imagine. I imagine lots of Dinosaur Jr. for some reason. Haha.

I wrote this article things that I was going to submit to Thrasher, but upon a second reading, I am not so psyched on it and will just post it here instead. I think I will do so tomorrow.