For less than $5 a month you can have space on a web server. For a few bucks a year you can have your own domain name. With a computer at the public library and a plain text editor you can then publish a website that can be seen more or less all over the world. THAT IS POWER. It just requires a tiny bit of knowledge and effort to do your own thing. You should do it.
Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this, but the hill near my house, where I’ve been skating since about 2007 or so, has been jackhammered.
That’s how it goes. Life of a skater. I skate freestyle, ditches, street. I will find a new hill. It just won’t be so close.
I made this today. Filmed at Whataburger. Yum.
Some days an honest cockroach just can get a break.
Wow, I just watched the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: the Force Awakens, and against my better judgement I’m stoked.
Most people seemed to hate the prequel trilogy. I have to admit, it was pretty bad. Starting with Episode 1, the only good performances were from Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn and Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Really, everything else was pretty horrible. As the prequels were churned out, McGregor’s Obi-Wan continued to be the only bright spot. Well, I’ll take that back. All the Yoda stuff was cool. Revenge of the Sith, with its darker vibe, was at least semi-watchable, but the horrendous performances of Hayden Christenson and Natalie Portman just about ruin it. I don’t blame either of the then pretty young actors. I blame George Lucas, who apparently decided to shoot everything in one take. The editing is really bad too. One wonders if the actors had any idea what the storyline of the movie was.
So I’m glad Lucas is no longer involved in the films.
The return of Han and Leia really lends some gravitas to this trailer. It was the charm of Han Solo and cool toughness of Leia that people loved in the original series. I think people overlook Mark Hamill’s acting, but if you watch The Empire Strikes Back, you will see that it was his acting that allowed you to believe that Yoda, a puppet, was a believable character. The dude was good. Too bad Alec Guiness is no longer around.
So I guess we’ll have to wait until December to see if this is good, or an abomination. Fingers crossed.
Well, the time is nigh. Tomorrow I’ll be going to the Philly Freestyle 2015. I’ve been practicing a lot since I got home from Germany in June. I’ve got a few new tricks. New to me, at least. Great lineup of other old guys to skate with in the Masters division.
I’ll get there on Thursday afternoon. Friday afternoon people will start going to the venue to practice. Contest on Saturday.
It will be good to see everyone again.
I’ve come to really enjoy packing my duffel bag full of skate stuff, stuffing my clothing in there too, getting on a plane, and striking out on a skate trip by myself. I find the time on the plane to be good. I enjoy using it to read, write, and just generally reflect. Same with the hotel time before people arrive. It’s a good time to rest, get some nourishment, and write. The laptop/chrombook is my friend in these situations.
Thursday I’ll hit the hotel gym a bit. Same on Friday morning. Will get up, have good breakfast. Chill. Work out lightly. Make sure the body is awake and alert.
I know I write about this from time to time.
I’m a fairly mentally competent person. But simply can’t figure out what the hell Marvel and DC comics are doing. It’s like every month everything totally changes. Are they letting a new group of hyperactive 14 year olds run the company every month?
Damn.
Sunday afternoon I participated in the first Dallas Zine Party, an event created by Randy Guthmiller and hosted at the Wild Detectives bookstore.
The Dallas Observer did a write-up of the event, as did Central Track, which even gave our mag (Broken Fingers: Freestyle Skateboarding Quarterly) a shout-out. I was really happy to see that!
The event hosted several musical acts, all doing super creative electronic/noise/ambient/minimalist kind of stuff. My friends Micah and Shelby, as Kitbashes, were there. It was my first time to hear them live, and I could have used more. It’s hard to describe what they do. Just see them, close your eyes, and let the sound wash over you.
The crowd drew people from various different spheres of influence – the “art” scene, the real art scene, hippies, weirdos, librarians, skaters, literati, etc, etc.
Getting so many creative people together is fantastic. It’s great to see what other people are doing and share ideas.
Can’t wait until next year’s event!
Oh, I should note that my favorite zine is Big Hands. It is uncommon in that it is composed of very well-written autobiographical stories — very engaging. I discovered it on Microcosm Publishing’s website, but the seem to be out, so email the writer, Aaron, and ask if you can buy them.
I didn’t really have a mid-life crisis at 40 or 50. I didn’t have the urge to buy a sports car, unbutton my shirt a few bottons down and wear a gold chain with a big gold medallion, have a face lift, or start going to church because I’m afraid I might die some day.
I just came to this simple realization about myself:
I am 50, and except for the things I enjoy doing and the people I enjoy being around, I simply don’t give a fuck. And that feels good.
I got an iPad Air a few weeks ago. Actually, I got it for my mom, who didn’t like it, so I inherited it.
I put the Kindle App on it. After an hour of reading, got a migraine.
I have not been reading much this year. I switched to reading that same book on the Kindle Paperwhite.
Paperwhite is the clear winner. It is just sooooooo superiour to the iPad for reading.
I like to “just go out and skate”.
However, I also go out and practice. I mean practice. I may be in the minority on this. Part of it is that I’m going to this contest in Philly, and I want to go back to the Paderborn Germany contest next year, so I want to get better, and I want all my stuff locked down tight.
So I went out last night, and after a little warm up, I ran through all my “main tricks” 10 times in a row each. The idea is to increase consistency. I do 10 in a row. If I miss one, I continue, but add one to the necessary count. So if I miss number 7, I keep going and have to makes numbers 7-11. Yes, I know this is antithetical to the fly by the seat of your pants “Jay Adams” way of doing things. I don’t care. I know for a fact that Jeff Phillips PRACTICED. He practiced in the 100 degree Texas summer heat while everyone else was inside (this was when he was about 19 or 20).
I’ve been told to “skate for fun” and don’t be so serious. Well, it is a lot more fun to skate when you can do all your shit 98% of the time.
Anyway, I was stoked that I can actually get through my main tricks adding only 1 or 2 to the 10 now and then, and mostly after I’m getting tired. It’ still summer, after all, and still well above 90 when I’m skating from 6-8pm.
All the practice is definitely paying off. Not just in consistency of tricks, but just in overall flow and interconnectedness of lines and whatnot. In the last 2 weeks I’ve learned 2 new tricks that are now in the solid 95% range, and am within striking distance of several others that will be really nice to get. Would not be there if not for the practice.
I’d like to say I’m really going to kick ass in Philly. There are 8 people in Masters division so far, and really we’re all pretty evenly matched. I can only try to do my shit, skate the way I skate, and have a good time. I will at least be prepared. And I will take joy in the killer skating of everyone else — we are all friends, and when they have a ruling run, it is the best thing ever!
I never really entered freestyle contests in the old days. I wasn’t sponsored, and I didn’t travel. It is fun to do that kind of thing now.
Here’s some stuff from yesterday.
https://plus.google.com/111210050896952275753/posts/8jRfwr2VXcX
For the record, real street skating is very rad. That’s my opinion on it. By “real”, I mean skateboarding done on the actual streets.
I’m a skateboarder. I love skating ditches, street skating, parks, freestyle, hills. I don’t do slalom, but I think it’s very cool. I used to skate a little vert, but simply didn’t have the grapes for it. So my point is, to a great extent skateboarding is skateboarding, but there are “borders” between disciplines, even if those borders are often a bit porous.
In the past I have fluctuated on the relationship between freestyle and street skating. There’s a part of me that really appreciates the ability to get on your board — one non-specialized board – and skate everything. Up until about 1977 or 1978 it was kind of like that. The specialized freestyle board was still evolving. You’d still see people entering freestyle contests on boards that were essentially the same as what they’d ride in bowls or in their neighborhoods. So, yes, I do have an appreciation for the modern street board and its best practioners, who can ride it on almost any surface or terrain.
That doesn’t mean I dig all of modern street skating style. That part of it, for me, depends on the individual skater I’m watching.
There used to be kind of a joke about old vert skaters trying to skate street. A lot of them weren’t very good at it. Street was in, Vert was out, and many of the vert dudes simply weren’t good at street skating. Some were, however. I have street skated with Jeff Phillips and Dan Wilkes, and I can assure you they both had/have great street skating ability with great style.
What does this have to do with Freestyle? I’m getting to it.
Sooooo…seldom do you hear anyone but crusty old guys joke about street skaters riding vert. How horrible their style often is. There are of course some really good ones, but man, the street skating approach to vert can be fantastically ugly even when it is technically successful. At least to my critical and judgemental old eyes.
With the new boom of skateparks, there are some skaters now that can do it all. I love that. They can do it all and do it all with good style. I think that the pure street dudes still outnumber the all-terrain rippers though.
Which brings me to the subject of freestyle skateboarding and street.
My friend Keith Renna and I have had this discussion, and I’ve often found myself in agreement with him. The top street pros are sooooooo frickin’ good. They have such fantastic board control, and such a total lack of fear. What would happen if even one of the top dudes got into Freestyle? Would he/she kick everyone’s ass?
I have often suspected that would be the case. It’s not that the best freestyle guys aren’t fantastic, but there are just so many great street skaters. When you have probably hundreds of thousands of skaters in the potential population of spoilers, compared to a few hundred at most in the freestyle world, the laws of large numbers just seem to indicate the current freestylers would be overwhelmed by an onslaught of ultra-talented street skaters.
But I think I have changed my mind.
You might be able to find plenty of amazing street skaters who could quickly learn some tricks, but my mind drifts back to the ugly spectacle of street skaters riding vert. It’s just ugly. Sorry, but it is. The body positioning that works so well in modern street skating looks like an ape taking a dump when transferred to vert. I think the same thing would happen in freestyle.
But it isn’t just a matter of body positioning and style. It’s a matter of mind-set and discernment. Most of the best freestylers I know have the ability to discern good stuff from shit. A good landing from a shit landing. A good trick from a stupid one. A trick done well from the same trick done poorly. In the age of 50 Trys for 1 Make video street skating, I don’t know if that same standard applies. Maybe it does. I don’t see it.
What is freestyle? What is good freestyle? The answers to those questions are of course subjective. I know ’em when I see ’em. I think most of us know when someone is “doing freestyle” and when someone is just doing a bunch of tricks. How we know I do not know.
What I’ve seen when I see street skaters attempt freestyle, even very good street skaters, is a very clumsy version of freestyle. That’s not really meant as a criticism. Just a fact. Someone may have a killer 360 flip, but really not have any smoothness in what were once some very basic movements, like end-overs or walk-the-dog. What I see a lot is street skaters overpowering things where subtlety is needed.
It’s just a different, though related, art.
But – I am always stoked to see new people working on freestyle. At a freestyle contest, having street skaters enter is cool. I encourage everyone to give it a try. I just don’t think freestylers should sell themselves short regarding their craft. There is nothing inherently greater about street skating skills, and freestyle as the art and the “event” needs to be preserved and honored.
Had a good session last night. Here are a few tricks. This is how I practice. I roll back and forth doing tricks for at least an hour. I start with simple footwork, then eventually get into flip tricks and shove-its, etc. The trick at the end is new. I just learned it last night. Simple, but it has a nice flow and is fun.
I’m very much looking forward to the Philly Freestyle contest, in October. I entered this contest back in 2013 and it was very fun, so I’m anxious to see everyone and skate again. I’m anxious to skate tonight — as I am every day.
Then there’s the side of me that enjoys Winter. Too cold to skate, I retreat indoors. Aikido three times a week, and the rest of the time inside, reading, doing audio projects and podcasts, etc. About this time of year I start to miss that.
Other stuff:
The Henry & Heidi podcast, from Henry Rollins. It is mostly just Henry telling stories to his longtime assistant Heidi, but Henry has some good stories. Lots of them. I’ve been listening to it since #1. It’s pretty new.
Yesterday was Sunday, and I waited all day to go skating once it “cooled down” after 7pm.
At 6pm, it was still 103 degrees F. So really, at 7pm, it was going to be well over 100. I’ll skate until it is 100 if I am in the shade or the evening, but when it gets to 101 I’m done.
So I went to see Ant-Man. I was pleasantly surprised. It was cool. I was thinking it would be a good attack if he shrunk down, went down into somone’s chest cavity, and then hit the “Grow” button. BLAM! Hell yeah.
I started writing this, then deleted it all. It was just too bizarre to really summarize. Not even gonna try.
Edit: you know your blog is really off the radar when you can say not very nice stuff about the Republican candidates and no attract any hate comments in the first 24 hours.