Little Luis

Back before Luis Tolentino was the hot shot am (meant endearingly) that he is, he was know as Little Luis...the little guy with big ups. Here is some footage of him long before Famous and Shut (and even before Official). Enjoy!

Can I Get A Tweet Tweet?

Jereme Rogers is seriously the next Lil' Wayne! Watch this video and tell me you were not as amazed by the ridiculousness of his lyrics and delivery as you were by that of Lil' Wayne. It makes me smile listening to it.

Go Go Go


Another thing that made me smile was this weird viral video thing Nike did with Huf (#1 skateboarder in the world!) for their limited footwear line. I love the awkwardness. Huf genuinely looks confused.



Now watch the Hoon squad (most notable Jake Duncombe) kill it in this video. I can't wait for Jake's part in the Blind video (plus I think he has an interview in the next Thrasher that should be sick).



I haven't been blogging very often because I just finished moving and things have been hectic, but I have been on Twitter since the app for my iPhone makes it easy. Again, I have a Twitter Feed on the sidebar to the right. --->
If you aren't on Twitter, you should sign up. It is more interesting that Facebook these days and you can follow celebrities, brands, skateboarders, industry people, recruiters, friends, me, etc.

I'll leave you with this link that Camille sent me of a little squirrel's struggle to get over a wall.

Oh yeah, and this is from an email I got from Autumn about a McRad show at the Autumn Bowl this weekend:
SATURDAY MAY 2ND 8PM $8 BUKS BANDS ARE McRAD, NO REDEEMING SOCIAL
VALUE, JUMPSHIP AND OVERSTAND BENEFITS

Machine Gun Funk

So Battle at the Berrics 2 is coming up. Have you made your picks for who you want to be in the battle? I did:



As many of you know, Billy Rohan threw another King of Spring event last weekend, but this time it was uptown. He even did a course preview prior. You can find photo recaps here and here and some video via Steve Marino on his site Square Films here, hosted by Rodney Torres (the video, not the event).

As I have mentioned before...working on an all barriers clip, in homage to the Barrier Kult. Just added some much needed bondo to the Greenpoint Barrier the other day...





I'm going to try to session it a bit today...hopefully I can get some fools to come out and skate it with me. Taji might.

So I just saw the new Corey Duffel part that Strange Notes posted. It is pretty sick, style aside. I am a bit bummed, however. At 1:34, he blunt fakies the Korean War Memorial in Tallahassee. I did that 3 years ago and haven't use the footage yet...


My homie Sam sent me this...


I'll leave you with this photo of Kocik frozen mid-bath. She is a curious one.

A quickie

Have you seen the Hi Fi "Full Frequency Promo?" Ben Gore has a dope part and Jack Sabback kills it at the end. Oh yeah, and Supa switch ollies that gap from the basketball courts to the sidewalk over the gate near the Chinatown Manny!


Hi Fi Wheels "Full Frequency Promo" from Stereo Sound Agency on Vimeo.

Also, any NYer with cable knows about NY1 and how they choose an NYer of the Week every week this. Up this week: Billy Rohan. Oh yeah, and Dave Carnie has a new website. Oh, you didn't know Dave Carnie was a photographer (in addition to being the best writer in skateboarding)? Sucks for you...

That's all I have for now.

Caution: Hello Kitty Zombies Ahead

This past Tuesday was Camille's birthday and she wanted me to paint something for her as a present. I considered doing a canvas, but then got the idea to go beyond the traditional painting medium and to customize a toy for her. I was going to get a Munny and work from there, but Camille loves Hello Kitty, so I wanted to do a Hello Kitty variation and the ears would be a problem with a Munny. I went to Toy Tokyo in the East Village and found a Bax Bear:



I saw that Maurice customized a Munny using clay so I called him about it and went to the store and bought some Sculpey to modify the Bax Bear. My idea was to make a zombie Hello Kitty, so I started to mold the head of the bear into a Hello Kitty-esque form with pointed ears, a nose, and a more oval face.



I also gave it a tail.



Then I put it in the oven at 275 degrees for 15 minutes.



I did have some problems with the angles in the feet melting and making it fall over. The instructions were for a Munny, which doesn't have creases at the feet. Now it doesn't stand that great, but it does (you just have to angle it just right).



Then I began to paint it. It took a few layers.







I used a gold marker to draw the eyes, whiskers, and detail.



Then I used some more paint to add the battle wounds.



I wanted to give her a bow that could be taken off and a weapon, so I molded them and threw them in the oven.



Then I took some markers and used a blowing technique to splatter two shades of red over her.



Then I coated her with some glossy lacquer to finish it off.



I found those bunny shoes at Michael's. I think they are for dolls, but they just barely fit her feet. It fell a few times and I need to fix it up, but she was pretty happy with it. Speaking of Camille, she just sent me this:

Cliche "Cle" Review (and a couple other clips)

I got the new Cliche video "Cle" last week. They call it "a live and unplugged video," I assume because there is some live music used in it instead of all pre-recorded songs (though there are some like that). Overall it was good, not great for a Cliche video, but good nonetheless.

I loved the opening shot with the camera moving around the city blocks with Dany LeBron playing the guitar. It kinda reminded me of that shot Ty did a while back with Vincent Alvarez. Here it is. The live music was great and made for an interesting change of pace for the video, however, I was disappointed in JB Gillet and Lucas Puig sharing a part. I understand that filming for Fully Flared probably affected Lucas' part, but he has enough good footage scattered through other sections to justify a full part alone. Either way, the skating on both Lucas and JB's part was very good...which is mostly why I felt like I needed more. Flo Mirtain (not to be confused with Flo Marfaing) is the new guy on Cliche and he had the second part. Flo has a nice, clean style and definitely fits in with the rest of the team's smooth skating. I especially liked his big flips. As expected, when given the opportunity to thrown down for the Cliche video, the flow riders put it down hard. Javier Mendizabal is the most underrated skater on the team. I could have done without that line where he pushes switch mongo the whole time, but his ender ollie into that gnarly banks was ridiculous. Ricardo Fonseca had some good footage, but it seems like it was over when it started (it was short) and I feel like I have seen most of Cale Nuske's footage somewhere before (maybe I did).

As for Joey (the American), I respect the patience it must have taken to land a lot of those manuals, but there was to much switch mongo pushing and he skated pretty slow. I did like that bank to bank transfer he did on those yellow curb cut looking things and the nose manny to backside tailslide on the next ledge up. It was a decent part, but it wasn't up there with his Hello Jojo part, for sure. The second to last part went to Charles Collet. Honestly, his music stressed me out (a band called Duracell). And who's idea was it to make the first 1/3 of his part all slams?! When he finally did get to skating, it was good, but it was not one of the best parts. They should have cut out all the slams and let him share a part with JB, giving Lucas a full part. Last part when to the soon-to-turn-pro Andrew Brophy. I like Brophy's skating a lot. He has big snaps to get on high obstacles and can take his ollies the distance. My favorite part was when he skated that bent I-beam sticking out of the ground. It is also apparent that he has blunts on lock. His part was sick, but it was a bit short.

Placed in the mix within the video were two tour sections. While they both had some proper skating, they seemed too much like bonus featured that were just dropped into the mix to make the video longer. The Discover Oz Tour was a bit better than The Wheel of Fortune Tour. In the Oz Tour I was stoked on the flyouts to grass rides a lot. These sections are where Lucas had enough good footage to have justified a full part. Also scattered about where Easter Eggs with other bonus features. I hate Easter Eggs. I don't want to interrupt my viewing experience to watch something else and I don't want to have to go through the video again to find them. I wish they would have just placed them all in a bonus section of the menu with the tour sections.

Overall, the video was 51 minutes (including the credits). That is quite long, but it could have been easily consolidated to half that time. The video was good, but as held to the bar of other Cliche videos, it didn't quite measure up. At $16, it was appropriately price and definitely worth the money...however, add $5-10 to the price and that is another story.


On another note, check out the Pusher Wheels Promo for a lot of Philly and NYC footage. Also, get weird with William "The Mile High Ninja" Spencer's new part: