KEVIN LOWRY MATT PATAFIE NÜ SENSAE DIRTY •
•
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art ⁄ fashion ⁄ film ⁄ music ⁄ life ⁄ skate! BEACHES • CARIBOO PHOENIX • RAVEN CHACON
Chris Haslam, Ryan DeCenzo, Mark Appleyard
_ GLOBE RECORD
russ milligan • sean macalister • top8 friends caroline weaver • chris connolly • nardwuar • danny way CDN PUBLICATION AGREEMENT #40843627
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ISSN 1920-0404
JUDO
CARLO
MORE INFO AT LAKAI.COM COLORWAYS AVAILABLE IN APRIL
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50-50. SAN JOSE, CA. PHOTO: CHAMI
no. 2
[ o ] ZENGA
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Not just another walk in the park.
R
ecord-setting achievements are woven into the very fabric of our imaginations; the epitome of what if? Think back to your childhood, long before you were ever a citizen of the world, when you’d spend endless summer days competing with your friends on most laps up and down the fireman’s pole, or how many marshmallows you can stuff in your mouth and still say “chubby bunny.” For many of us, we carry these personal records with us throughout our lives. Maybe you are that guy who once did 40 consecutive Fireball shots, or that girl who can touch her tongue to her forehead. Sometimes even, the magnetic draw of infamy is so great that we risk our health above all else to satisfy the taunts and cheers of our audience.
Yet more powerful still than the addictive rush of public recognition, is the personal gratification that comes from knowing there might just be one thing you can do that nobody else on Earth can. With just over 7 billion people currently living on this planet, sometimes this might mean chugging 4L of chocolate milk while hanging upside down from the wing of an airplane, but
isn’t that what it’s all about? Don’t we all, at some point during our race from start to finish, in that measly gap of time between life and death, strive to find that one thing that nobody else can do? Some call it talent or a natural ability to excel at one thing in particular—be it music, art, skateboarding—but not everyone is convinced. Often what separates one person from the rest isn’t talent, but a strong work ethic and the desire to be the best. Maybe it is that encouragement of friends, family and fans that steers us towards greatness doing something we would otherwise never know was possible. Whether you believe in talent or not, one thing is for sure: we all possess the desire to rise above the minuteness of human existence. Whenever we follow our passions, no matter how trivial they may seem, we make a proclamation of our unwillingness to simply fade into the background. And even if setting a seemingly ridiculous world record is but a mere footnote to the vast history of mankind, there is satisfaction in knowing that, against all odds, you were able to accomplish even this.
Dan Post, managing editor 8
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CARLA POIRIER
SCOTTY MACDONALD
guest typographer
contributing writer
Carla Louise Poirier was born and raised in St. Thomas, Ontario. She is a Graphic Designer and co-founder/curator of an exhibition of typographic artwork in Toronto called Creative Type. She is an OCAD graduate and has worked as a creative director in Hong Kong where she developed a love for long commutes and a bubble gum-free existence. Poirier won’t eat a meal without hot sauce and enjoys novelty baked goods. She currently works as the head designer at The Drake Hotel.
I only recently met Scotty Macdonald, so I’m going to talk about what I know about him. Scotty is about as interesting a human as it gets. He’s excitable, fast-talking, controversial and well-read. He shows up unannounced and exits with a bang. Scotty has had some ups and some downs in life, from burnt bridges to burnouts, but he’s always honest (sometimes to a fault) and his heart’s in the right place, now more than ever. The perfect recipe for a damn good writer. Scotty gets Tattered with Chris Connolly on 130 —dan post
CREATIVE-TYPE.CA
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SENKA KOVACEVIC
NESTOR JUDKINS
DAN ZASLAVSKY
TYLER HOLM
contributing writer
contributing writer
contributing photographer
contributing writer
Senka Kovacevic is the author of Where the Sun Reposes, a collection of poetry set to photographs of her parents in 1960s Yugoslavia. Her latest work of non-fiction is Promenade. She collects and is inspired by the artwork of Randy Pandora. Read her interview with the punk icon on 35.
Nestor is a skateboarder, in as much as he flips his board around and grinds the occasional curb. He grew up in northern California and is a highschool graduate with two semesters of junior college to his name. Not much of a resume, but now that he is a contributing writer in this issue, the future appears ever brighter. He lives in New York City where he wanders aimlessly, basking in anonymity. Nestor chats with Calgary’s Kevin Lowry on 80.
Dan has a problem with unproductiveness and is constantly on the move to get stuff done, which works out perfectly for his career as a skateboard photographer. But even without skateboarding, Dan makes life exciting by just being himself and there is never a dull moment in his company. He has a genuine interest in all aspects of life which is a rare quality that I admire. I love to surround myself with people like Dan, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to live with him. —walker ryan
Tyler Holm’s personality reminds me of a 12-year-old, yet he manages as many jobs as a single mother. A team manager for a beer-sponsored skate team, a comedian and a skateboarder all combined into one man. Seeing his comedic side, you may not see the businessman in him, and seeing the business side, you may not see much at all, but time and time again, Tyler and his harmless intentions come through on top. I salute him for bringing everyone home safe so that he could write about Cariboo’s trip to Phoenix 100. —dane collison
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skate ⁄
EMPTY PARKS & PROMISES On April 5 , Chris Haslam, Ryan DeCenzo and 18
th
Mark Appleyard headed out to set a world record. Follow them and Dan Post throughout the issue, to find out who was the last man standing.
20 MILLIGAN’S ISLAND
Russ is alone in his very own CMYK for five full-bleed pages of trickery well worth the ink.
38 TRUST ISSUES
How does Ottawa’s Matt Patafie deal with his fear of earthquakes, Illuminati and identity theft? By holing up in his parents’ basement with a bottle of brandy and Twitter. Interview by Gordon Nicholas
80 QUALITY TIME
In the online age of distractions, Kevin Lowry prefers to power down and enjoy the simpler side of skateboarding. Interview by Nestor Judkins.
100 CACTI & COOZIES
Tyler Holm and the Cariboo Skate team prove how having a beer sponsor is the only way to make it through the Arizona heat.
—
Columns 08 INTRO 10 CONTRIBUTORS 12 CONTENTS 26 INSPIRATION BOUND 31 PRODUCT TOSS 36 caroline weaver 44 ANTHRAX 52 extra/random 114 FOTOFEATURE 123 TRAILER 124 SOUNDCHEQUE 126 LAST NITE 132 OVER ‘N OUT 134 CREDITS
FROM THE COVER
“When I brought TJ Rogers to this infamous gap, tales of past battles with the raging water were on our minds so I expected nothing more than a whole-hearted attempt. TJ however had anticipated the gnarliness and so planned his session accordingly. Within 20 minutes, he landed this 360 flip and was already asking about the next spot before I’d made sense of what had just happened. That’s just how TJ rolls. Another day, another hammer…” morleyphoto.
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Cody McEntire, 50-50 bigspin.
zaslavskyphoto.
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film ⁄
art ⁄
music ⁄ [ o ] MARVIN
image courtesy of the artist.
[ o ] DUFRESNE
48
74
WHERE THERE’S A WAY THERE’S A WHY For Danny Way, jumping the Great Wall of China with a jacked ankle is just the right thing to do. We unpack Jacob Rosenberg’s documentary Waiting for Lightning.
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THE HORSE’S MOUTH
48
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS
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life ⁄ PANDORA’S TALK
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F AS IN FRANK Faces ‘n Spaces
96
HEAD SHOP Helter/Shelter
98
NARWUAR Next/Best
Mish Way drinks a case of beer with hardcore screamers Nü Sensae then asks them a bunch of tough questions she pulled from a Christian Teen website.
A group of internet artists bring their Tumblr tomfoolery to print with some exclusive pop horror collages. Jenn Jackson gets chummy with Top8 Friends.
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X FACTOR
Sean McAlister walks Jenn Jackson through a Crow’s Nest at Calgary’s Haight Gallery.
[ o ] FETHERSTONHAUGH
20 years ago, a vicious beating left a Canadian punk icon with permanent brain damage. Senka Kovacevic tracks down the forgotten Randy Pandora in Vancouver’s DTES.
TOUGH CROWD
Once Dirty Beaches starts recording in a real studio his dad might finally accept his music. by Mark Richardson.
fashion ⁄
Dig through bins of vintage clothing with Jesse and Drew Heifetz at their boutique shop F as in Frank. by Shawn Lennon
130
CHRIS CONNOLLY Tattered Ten
64
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HONESTY IS THE WORST POLICY
[ o ] STONE
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Caroline Weaver tells Shawn Lennon how she finds the time to make art between growing weed and lacrosse practice.
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AMPED UP
Navajo noisemaker Raven Chacon plays the whole world through a whisper. By Jenn Jackson.
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ARIZONA BARK A scorpion may have crawled into your shoe to escape the sun, but your body plans on living through the summer. Photography by Molly Stone
// USA
something better change
JOSEPH LOPEZ
20
SKATEBOARDING CONTRIBUTOR
12
Offset // Two Thousand Twelve Follow _ jolo_ (instagram)
www.thecomune.com www.change-comune.com
Photos by BEN HLAVACEK // Switch ride on grind
1300 Factory Place // Suite 208 LOS ANGELES CA 90013
RAYMOND MOLINAR
SEA STAR LS
vol. 10 no. 2
wordsby dan post
18
globerecord.
photosby dylan doubt, gordon nicholas, joel dufresne, shawn lennon, zenga bros
Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age. —james joyce
I
n skateboarding, it is a rare instance indeed when physical consequences override the satisfaction of glory. Why else would we ollie between two rooftops, light the coping on fire, or try to hit the maximum possible number of skateparks in a single day? When we first invited Globe shoes team riders Chris Haslam, Ryan DeCenzo and Mark Appleyard to participate in this attempt at setting a world record, they were reluctant to say the least. Even on a picture-perfect morning, when a whole crew of good friends had gathered together in preparation for an unprecedented adventure, resentment still brewed amongst the sleepy skaters who were expected to perform. It was only once they had settled into their vehicle, with all the comforting familiarities of life inside the van, that the motivation to succeed finally materialized. And so it was decided, that even if inspiring adventure in others meant skating for 18 straight hours and risking a blown-out knee or sprained ankle, then by god we were going to see this thing through. continued on p.28 & ten more pages throughout this issue
While the Globe Record on the surface might seem to have been a trivial and frivolous attempt at immortality, a snapshot of the crew that day shows grown men and one woman coming together for one day to enjoy the immense satisfaction that is born only from accomplishing something truly unique. colORMAGAZINE.CA
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RUSS MILLIGAN 180 fakie manual fakie kickflip [ o ] zaslavsky.
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RUSS MILLIGAN nollie frontside flip [ o ] sherbert.
RUSS MILLIGAN fakie hardflip [ o ] zaslavsky.
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RUSS MILLIGAN switch kickflip backside lipslide [ o ] landi.
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M AT I X S T I C K E R S @ SU P R A D I S T R I B U T I O N .C O M
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SUPRADISTRIBUTION.COM
vol. 10 no. 2
T HE
APENEST
ON AND OFF BASS
Open Through the Mindflow
Los Angeles-based Apenest is an experimental collective operated by Cody Hoyt and Brian Willmont. The duo have independently published two volumes of Apenest, both yielding a page-turning graphic rollercoaster of art content including work from 20+ artists, including several past contributors to Color. All artists donate a work to the Apenest online store and the profits offset the production costs so that the collective remains free to produce a publication without distracting ad content. Their experimental approach is one of inclusivity and openly embraces emergent practices. Each hand-numbered issue is produced in an alternative format and with a unique curatorial perspective. Stickers, posters, limited edition prints, exhibitions, t-shirts and publications— Apenest does it all. Wonder what they’ll do next. —jenn jackson
Mike Watt is best known for his time playing bass with the seminal Southern California punk rock bands Minutemen, fIREHOSE and dos. Over the course of his years on tour, Watt picked up a camera and developed a love for taking photos. On and Off Bass presents you with an element of the musician’s life on the road and with each photograph there is an excerpt from one of Watt’s tour journals to accompany it. These photographs offer a side of Watt that might be surprising to his punk rock fans. The photographs are mainly of birds, boats and the ocean. Many of them with have a photo journalist quality to them, while others are abstract compositions; like a portrait of a bird’s head being dissected by its reflection in the wavy water. When juxtaposed beside Watt’s journal entries, there is an underlying tension to the work. In one of his entries from a trip to Vancouver, Watt writes: “The sun’s going down and I’m staring at the water. Once in a while it’s good to be alone like this to get my thinking together. The peacefulness of the boats is in such conflict with the hell in my head.” In On and Off Bass, the beauty and serenity of nature and the calmness of life there, holds hands with the fast paced / fast food, pavement crunching, floor sleeping life of touring.
Up until 1996, John “The Man” Reeves was much more of a go-with-the-wind, wandering adventurer type of guy than a goal-oriented maker of plans. He rode for the culture-defining H-Street Skateboards and helped usher in the new era of modern street skating. Today, JTMR has organized himself enough to put together his first book Open Through the Mindflow.
brian willmont & cody hoyt (thomson press)
mike watt (three rooms press)
APENEST.COM
—justin gradin
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P R ED A T O R Y
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W O R D
john reeves (shookup publishing)
“It’s just thoughts, lyrics and writings that I’ve done over the last decade while traveling and what not,” John tells me over the phone. Thematically, OTTMF is a maniacal whirlpool of addiction, loss, carnal impulses, sweat, blood, fighting, drinking and traveling. Some of John’s poems seem like lyrics, some of his lyrics seem like poems. As a whole, the book follows a stream of consciousness path, leaping from theme to theme. This gave me the sense of John as an R. Crumb character, morphing from human form into a great lascivious eye attached to an oozing, throbbing male phallus before shapeshifting into a sad, lamenting drunk who leaps up into a frenzied song and dance number, wildly swinging between comedy and anger. John’s short stories are genuinely funny and honest pieces of creative personal narrative. He claims that “Me, Bad?,” the longest of
them all, is 73% truth 28% fiction. What I took away from my reading, is that this book represents one man’s bold effort to make sense of the mess of feelings and dirt that the human condition is often known for. “I haven’t done any steady writing or anything; it’s just all vernacular off the top of my head,” John says. “I love poems, I like writing. I’m not a huge reader. I know of authors, I have books that I like. When this book came about it was more, ‘I have images that I draw and I have all this stuff in my head and I’ve got to try to catalogue it all together and present it in a way that is accessible’.” Like most books, the experience will be different for everybody and even for the same person on different days. “It’s not a page turner where you start at the front cover and go all the way to the end,” John says. “It’s kind of like, for when you’re taking a crap and you just pick it up and you read something new and you learn something for that day.” His laugh booms through the phone. JTMR is a natural, enthusiastic storyteller. If you’re a fan of creative writing and skateboarding, then this book is well worth checking out. —john rattray
AUSTYN G I LL E T T E IN THE R E V O LV E R CORD
B U I LT FO R AC T I O N
continued from p.19
[ o ] DOUBT
#1 AMBLESIDE North Vancouver
6:45am
At 6:00am on the morning of the Globe Record, outside the Best Western dawn arrived and turned the sky a sort of cobalt blue. “Who’s idea was this anyway?” said Haslam as he clutched a container of sliced fruit and vegetables in his cold fingers, his hood pulled up over his long hair and his breath visible in front of his face. Inside the lobby, others waited for Chris’ teammates to surface. Eventually Ryan arrived from the refuge of his room, stretching to shake off the early rise. He was chatty and anxious to get going. We waited longer still for Mark, who eventually emerged from the elevator, moving sluggishly towards the eager group with bed head and an armful of new decks. Back on the street, we packed three vans full with filmers, photographers, writers, bloggers and skaters. At this point, special guest navigator Bradley Sheppard had joined the crew. When the vans were filled, we took off in a coordinated convoy that snaked its way through the relatively empty streets of downtown Vancouver, headed towards the first leg of the mission.
Appleyard rarely makes the trip to Vancouver, so unlike B.C. natives Haslam and DeCenzo, many of these parks would be unexplored terrain for him.
The record attempt officially began on the water’s edge in North Vancouver where the normally desolate spot came alive with the rising sun. Haslam, Appleyard, and DeCenzo rolled around the park checking out the obstacles and wondering what they had gotten themselves into. Nervousness and disbelief filled the chilly air, but when a 4th vehicle arrived armed with the Zenga Bros and a 10-foot ladder, the full magnitude of the day really set in.
7:10am
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RYAN DECENZO
frontside alley-oop Kirkstone, North Vancouver
7:30am
8:15am
8:45am
[ o ] DUFRESNE
“Clearly we were dealing with some classic curves here.”
At each of the next few parks on our well-prepared list, it was the same scene: grab the boards from the back of the van, roll down towards the ancient snakeruns and stand around surveying the site. Clearly we were dealing with some classic curves here and so we had to be extra careful with our early morning stiffness. Haslam found high-speed lines through the grungy Griffin bowl and DeCenzo, in an act of unfathomable skill, cracked massive airs over the hips. Mark was the last to jump in, but when he did, we all got to enjoy those famous 360 flips of his. It was likely here, that the professionals left the clearest impression of their skill level on the rest of us. Hype levels were high when we arrived at Seylynn— Canada’s oldest surviving concrete park. Here we reached a moment of nostalgic symbolism made even clearer when Haslam began re-creating the classic covers and iconic photos that had come out of one of our nation’s most recognizable skateable landmarks. Meanwhile, DeCenzo continued to busy himself with effortless and logic-defying tailslides at the tall tops of the lip, educating us all on the mechanics of locking into “coping” as round as a basketball. By the time my highlighter squeaked Seylynn off the pages of the itinerary, we had officially cut a slash across the parks of the North Shore and were well on pace for 20. We had spent hours in the weeks beforehand meticulously arranging a variety of route options for the day. We studied traffic patterns, calculated driving times and in the end, made tough decisions on some really great parks. In our quest for the record, we opted for a variety of styles, but also quantity over quality.
MARK APPLEYARD nollie bigspin to tail Hastings Bowl, East Vancouver
That’s not to say we didn’t hit some of the best parks though too. When we got to the Hastings Bowl, Appleyard came alive on the transition as Haslam fiddled with some little ramp and ridiculous display of D.I. “why?” The rest of us reminisced about Sluggo’s backflips and the coat of paint he layed down over a year ago now. Our spirits were high after Hastings and then another wicked session at the PoCo park that included some cold refreshments and sandwiches—just what we needed to press on. continued on p.45 (here) Mark and Haslam take stock of Confed’ while Ryan goes straight to work with a 10am, 7-parksdeep, frontside flip.
9:35am
10:20am
opposite page (l-r) Ryan decends into the park #2 Griffin Bowl #3 Lonsdale #4 Kirkstone #5 Seylynn, North Van. #6 Hastings Bowl #7 Confederation, Burnaby
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[ o ] NICHOLAS
vol. 10 no. 2
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Life’s a Beach The sweet summer heat can slow ya down, so stick a straw in that girly drink and kick a beach sesh, ‘cause there’s room for two on this towel.
(from top)
ANTIHERO fresh fruit chris pfanner deck VESTAL de luna sunglasses GOOD WOOD small gucci link chain ENJOI son of a beach towel C1RCA crip shoes
All Product Toss photos shot on location at OLLA URBAN FLOWER PROJECT Vancouver, BC
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vol. 10 no. 2
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Flash Your Flora This summer, don’t get caught without this seasons best use of Hawaiian print. The heat doesn’t have to mean you need to expose those hairy twigs; “Keep It Wheel” with the softer side of denim and wax off (and on).
[ o ] NICHOLAS
(l-r)
SITKA womens arbutus denim THUNDER gerwer rocker trucks ALMOST boob wax GIRL keep it wheel tri-colour 51mm wheels GRAVIS slymz shoes
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leo romero ed templeton cairo foster james hardy donovon piscopo stevie perez dakota servold
wick winder distribution
eswic.com
vol. 10 no. 2
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Everything is Roses
We could all just wear black, grey and white, but this season try a little colour therapy. These new Diamond shoes will help you see blue skies on an otherwise cloudy day.
(clockwise from deck)
STACKS rose cruiser deck DIAMOND lo cut shoes SPITFIRE grosso warheads 56mm wheels ROXY coral sunglasses QUIKSILVER slacker slim pants
[ o ] NICHOLAS
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vol. 10 no. 2
wordsby senka kovacevic
photoby gordon nicholas
I
“
never left music, music left me.” Randy Pandora sweeps aside his long steel-coloured hair and describes the terrible beating that left him with a brain injury and forced him to leave the music scene. When punk was defining independent music in the late 70s, Randy Pandora was the statuesque and fiercely intelligent frontman for The Generators and Exxotone. A few years later his memory was gone. Familiar faces became the faces of strangers. Memorizing lyrics and performing live was suddenly impossible. Music may have left him then, but it never forgot Randy Pandora. He’s a living legend hiding in plain sight. You could pass him on the street, distracted by your headphones, and never realize the influence he’s had on the music in your ears. But the moment you do see him you catch the posture of a performer, the charisma of an intellectual, like fragments you’ve seen before in a dream. In fact, Randy is no stranger to your subconscious. The sound and culture he helped pioneer is what music is made of today.
“A voice made for Planet Earth voiceovers and Hollywood’s idea of what God sounds like.”
The Generators’ sound today would be called “art punk,” but in Vancouver’s early scene, punk music was a broader movement that included hardcore, thrash and heavy metal. “We didn’t make the distinction back then,” says Randy. “I was never anybody’s punk. Avant garde drove the scene, influences like the Talking Heads, but also the composer Stockhausen, Philip Glass, Brian Eno, Dave Brubek.” Pandora’s elastic baritone gave The Generators’ sound an unexpected twist. “No one expects me to sound like this,” he says in a voice made for Planet Earth voiceovers and Hollywood’s idea of what God sounds like. Pandora’s drive to create a new genre was much different than what bands strive for today. While new music works hard to recreate vintage sounds, it ignores the fact
that music made to sound old plays on guaranteed emotions. Changing people’s perceptions is a much harder task. “One thing we felt we did with The Generators, is we tried to educate that music could be a little different, that we could use different time frames, we could use different subject matters,” says Pandora. “We sang about a nun with a morphine habit, we sang about the Son of Sam, the serial killer, we sang about gender dysfunction.” The inspiration for his lyrics came from newspaper headlines. The Belgian nun was a real person. She ran a senior’s home and murdered residents for morphine money. The freshness of Randy’s lyrics was an important element of his music. “‘Son of Sam took two years for people to dance to,” says Pandora. “It was a hypnotic trance
kind of a song and the subject matter made it a little unsettling. But we had faith in the song and they finally got it.” The two-year killing spree in New York started at the same time as the punk scene in Vancouver and lasted for more than half of it. In hindsight, Pandora’s songs were prophetic. It’s hard to believe these lyrics were written more than 30 years ago. “We talked about economic collapse, how society was eating itself, the parasitic nature of mankind,” Randy explains. Take these words for example and how they could easily be the slogans for the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements: Money pigs have had their day Haha! Haha! He who like his mighty might Hey hooray! The rats will bite!
As he predicted, the last two years have shown the world how weak violence is in the face of ideas. Randy Pandora’s life tells the same story. Like shouting “fire!” in a crowded room, his work resets your mind to what’s really important. Violence can’t stop that kind of creativity. Today, Randy Pandora is known as a prolific visual artist—a ‘freegan’ who reclaims the materials for his art from stuff that other people have discarded. Though it seems in the future music might once again be a part of his life. For the recent punk documentary Bloodied But Unbowed he was asked to define punk music: “Was there ever such a thing?” he replied. “Isn’t it all just Rock! Rock! Rock! Rock!”
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vol. 10 no. 2
—
Caroline Weaver images courtesy of the artist.
wordsby shawn lennon
L
ucius O’Brien, Frederick Bell-Smith, Emily Carr—all were inspired by the vibrant landscapes of British Columbia’s West Coast, but today resources are often as hard to come by as is inspiration. Luckily for Caroline Weaver, a perfect storm of dopesitting and corporate payouts awarded her the time to develop and the opportunity to create a body of work with scrutinizing detail that combines elements from nature into unworldly compositions.
“We were growing dope and I was alone in the house just really bored,” Weaver told me over the phone about getting back into art after a long break. “I started drawing again and it came back so naturally, so I started trying to paint again.” She was afforded even more time to work on her art when she received two substantial payouts: one from Sony for refusing to take part in an employee racket and another from a solar energy company that went belly up. Weaver continues to support herself in unique ways with a collection of racehorses at Hollyburn Country Club and by acting as den mother for a lacrosse team in Philadelphia.
(top to bottom) African. American. Pangea, 2012 oil on wood, 16" x 20" Shaman-Bulance, 2012 oil on wood, 9" x 12"
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Weaver’s work has been featured in shows across Canada as well as the U.S. Her work ranges from happy and cheerful to dark and sinister but attention to detail is integral, claiming that the “hyper-realistic depictions of animals can be an honest exposé.” With Robert Bateman as a strong influence, animals have been the dominant subject in pieces that were created in both Philadelphia and downtown Vancouver, something Weaver explains as a juxtaposition of her actual mood and environment. In that sense, her recent relocation to the Sunshine Coast should deliver a darker tone in her upcoming show this August at Catalog Gallery in Vancouver’s Gastown.
vol. 10 no. 2
[ o ] GENTSCH
wordsby gordon nicholas
I
portraitsby josh hotz
first heard of Matt Patafie and his fear of earthquakes about a year ago and was instantly intrigued. This past winter I finally got to skate with him and found out there is a lot more to this 19-yearold than just bump-to-bars. Matt is a man of many talents (though going frontside is not one of them), and he can spot an Illuminati plot from a mile away. He’s as foul-mouthed and quick as a comedian and as outspoken and controversial as any politician you might find around his hometown of Ottawa, ON. When talking to Matt it can be tough to get a word in between his claims to fame and stories of Ja Rule, but these old wives-tales he spouts are sure to keep you smiling. The next time you get busted by the cops skating in the Ottawa area, make sure to use his name, everyone else is (according to Matt).
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shazam.
Color: What’s up Matt? Matt Patafie: Dude, do you want any brandy? I’m pouring some right now. I thought you only drank scotch? I couldn’t find any, this is the only shit I had. Was that just in your parents’ liquor cabinet? Ya dude. I don’t pay for this shit. You live in your parents’ basement? Pretty much, just to get away from everyone, ya know? What kind of brandy are you drinking? Some fucking Grand Solage, I dunno. Grand Solage? I think my dad got it for his birthday or something. I mean, it’s pretty trust. Define trust. Trust is me and fucking everything I do, dog. Trust is sick, something sick is trust. Skateboarding is trust. What’s the deal with The Encyclopedia of Trust? Have you started it yet? Or is it just hypothetical? An ideal Encyclopedia of Trust would just be like shit that’s trust and shit that’s untrust. It’s kind of like the Bible, ya know? You’re Italian, what’s happening in the Italian skate scene? Pappalardo’s dead. Gino’s killing it. Guy’s killing it. Who else you’ve got? Paul Liliani’s… well... actually I haven’t heard of him in a minute, but I’m sure he’s killing it.
Have you ever considered taking on politics being that you’re from Ottawa? Dude, politics is a load of shit. I mean like, I think it’s just all fake, I can’t even take it seriously anymore so I’m pretty over it. The skate scene here though, it’s pretty trust, a lot of good things going on right now. Who are all the mega heads out there these days? Aaron (Cayer), Josh Hotz, Terry (Worona) was here, but then he peaced to fucking San Francisco. Sam Lind, Mitch Barrette… I dunno, do I feel like shouting out anyone else?
The quakes? Where did you hear that? Some Illuminati video. Have you ever heard of this HAARP thing they have in Alaska? It’s like some big electronic machine. I don’t even know what it does, I’m not even going to claim that I know what it does, but supposedly they can change weather patterns, make earthquakes and shit, it’s crazy—control people’s minds with it. Would you consider yourself a conspiracist? That Illuminati craze is… I feel like they put it out there so much that they’re just giving us false shit, if you know what I mean. Like,
they’re telling us they’re Satanists and shit but they probably aren’t, they just want us to believe that. Are you’re a member? No I’m not a member… although… I know what they fucking… never mind. Let’s not get into that. How would you become a member? You gotta kill someone really close to you, then you’re in. It’s fucked up. Like Kanye West for example, his mom recently died and people are saying that he had to have her killed just to join the Illuminati.
I heard you have a bit of a fear of San Francisco. Ya dude, earthquakes are fucked up. Terry keeps telling me to go down, but I know right when I go down it’s gonna be the fucking gnarliest earthquake, so I’m just not trying to die. Life’s kinda good right now. Maybe I’ll wait till I’m 30 or something. Do you have some bad kharma? No no. It’s a good time right now. I’m not trying to just fuck it up with some fucking earthquake; I’m not trying to put myself in the way of danger. It’s like elevators: why would you go into an elevator when you might not come out? It’s a tight fucking space, it’s not a good time. If you went to Frisco would you bring an emergency kit? Dude if I went to Frisco, I’d have to stay on the first floor of a building. It’s like the pilot of a plane tells you he’s going to crash the plane before you get on it. Why would you go stay in a high rise if you know there’s going to be an earthquake? Another thing about that is supposedly they’re government controlled.
(opposite) 50-50
hotzphoto.
Switch heelflip hotzphoto.
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Who are some big names? Michael Jordan, George Bush, George Bush’s dad, George Bush’s grandfather was mother fucking Hitler’s banker. I heard Clinton fucks with that shit. Ashanti almost got killed ‘cause she was trying to fuck with it. Was Kony just another Illuminati scheme? Oh ya, c’mon dude, that was the worst. I remember I saw someone posted that 31% of the proceeds actually went to the Ugandan Army to fight this motherfucker. So like, they wanted a million dollars, and they would have kept 69% of the proceeds and only donated 31%? That’s a genius business. Kony was everywhere, people changing their display pictures... They’re so dumb, like how can everyone be so blind? I can’t believe how oblivious people are in this day and 42
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age. They’re putting it out there—them as in the Illuminati—so that they can do some other shit when we’re all distracted on this motherfucking Kony. Supposedly this guy died like 10 years ago. Where do you get your information from? Facebook or Twitter. So it’s probably all wrong; everything I’m saying is wrong. Are you apart of any other social media besides Twitter? Just Facebook, I don’t fuck with MySpace at all. I used to, I mean I probably still have an account somewhere. [Ed. note: Matt’s Myspace account is still active. Look for ‘moses and the mule’] Where’s your favourite place to skate now?
Archives flat ground. Have you ever heard of the archives? Everyone from Ottawa will know what I’m talking about. I’ve heard you can do any trick on flat ground I dunno… maybe that’s a little bullshit… but I just like to skate flat ground. I have like a flat ground area in my basement where I practice all winter long, everyday. You don’t have any ramps set up down there? No, I have a box though. We get ledge savvy sometimes but not all the time. It’s mostly flat ground, that’s all I like to skate anyways. Do you have any tranny skills? No, not at all, I mean if I really tried I could do an axle stall.
(opposite) Frontside smith grind hotzphoto.
Ollie late shove-it nicholasphoto.
Can you drop in? Oh ya, I can do that shit. I can’t do an axle stall to save my life, on like anything. I mean I could do it, just not properly. Like, I think I’m gonna die if I do it. You like those bump-to-bars though, that’s your shit. Every year there’s a new thing. Like two years ago it was smith grinds and last year was just the year of the bump to bar. Me and [Kevin] Lowry skated this one bump-to-bar, and as soon as I ollied and 180’d it, it was on after that, you know? I still remember the feeling of making it over. You know when you’re not going to do something and then you actually do it? That’s what happened and then it was just on. Bump-to-bar-guy.com. Have you ever considered doing stand-up comedy? No man, I hear about that shit. I heard it yesterday. My brother’s friend was like, “You should be a stand-up comedian.” But naw, I can’t be judged dude, I don’t like it. Like skating competitions too—no thanks. Except manny mania on Canada day, that shit’s chill. So you can’t be made fun of? Too depressing? I can be made fun of, ‘cause everyone does make fun of me, ya know? It’s more in a loving way though I’d like to think. I’m kinda like everyone’s little brother. Do you have any good nicknames? Labbe calls me Patate, as in potato in French. Me and Terry just call each other Ja Rule. How did you get into Ja Rule? His name is Ja Rule… if that’s not the worst name you’ve ever heard. He sounds like he has permanent strep throat. But he’s already won. It’s Ja Rule. Did you have a bad experience with cops once?
Mitch was skating this roof gap and some cop thought I was on the roof, so she wrote my name down. Now every time a cop sees me and types my name into a computer, this thing comes up and they’re like, “You’ve been told before,” so I try to just avoid the cops when I’m skating. So you have a bit of a bad rap out there? I’m pretty sure people have used my name to cover up. Like, how much of the worst is that? That’s the people I used to surround myself with.
just hurt the next day when I couldn’t skate them. But that’s life right? Hey, so where do I send my shout-outs? I’m thinking I need about two pages. DateSkaters.com, man. Fuck. That is the worst. You known who probably owns that? Sheckler. Read more of Matt’s outrageous commentary and his encyclopedialength list of shout outs online at colormagazine.ca
Chris Connolly is your cousin. Do you have any good stories? I remember he gave me these Indy trucks and I was so hyped, but they were two different sizes. I figured that out the next day. No disrespect, but that was a G-ass move, it colORMAGAZINE.CA
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What a Way to Party Not only do we feel mighty special that Vancouver was chosen to be the second city to premiere Danny Way’s Waiting for Lightning, but showing him & the rest of the DC family a good time while they were in town totally stoked us out. After the premiere came party buses to Glory Days, where Josh Kalis hit the decks, the groms Polaroids by Matt French came out to party and the night courtesy The Impossible turned into day… Project, more at: colormagazine.ca
This’ll Make You Appy Is your day sack too full already for an actual copy of the mag? Go paperless with our new custom iPad app! This version of the digital edition will cut straight to the content, has enhanced features, you can download the app directly from the iTunes store aaand it’s in HD. What’s not to love? Let’s get digital dude!
COLOR COOZIE
Gravis Insta Giveaway
What’s This, You Axe?
Every so often, we like to think in terms of mathematics: let’s say you Instagram at least 5 photos a day. There’s about 30 days in every month. That makes 150 photos that could possibly be netting you a pair of free Gravis kicks! Started in early spring, this ongoing contest has Gravis giving away a pair of shoes to the best Instagram photo that comes their way. Follow @gravisfootwear and tag your favourite photo #gravisphotocontest. Bonus: Arto Saari is the one picking the winner. Open to North American residents only.
Don’t you hate it when your axe doesn’t fit into your glovebox? I know I do. That’s why Sitka’s BRAND NEW Gransfors collaborative axe is the perfect solution to all your chopping needs! Featuring a hand forged steel blade and hickory handle, this compact axe will cut, slice, split and chop just about anything – even a tin can! WOW! (This really is a fucken rad axe – I’m pretty sure I could give Vince Shlomi a run for his money).
She’s a bit tight, but if you get ‘er wet, it’ll slide right in. Seriously, don’t even think of jamming a warm beer in there—pull one outta the cooler instead and keep your hands dry for texting, rolling j’s, double-fisting…. Bottom’s up! Grab a Color coozie from our Corner Store on colormagazine.ca
SITKA.CA
GRAVISFOOTWEAR.COM
Ace’s High, Shut ‘Em Down
Young Bloods
The last time I was in N.Y.C, it was 24 hours of mayhem that ended up with us rolling into an all night breakfast joint at 5am to watch the sun come up with a bunch of greasy skids and Jewish chicks from Yonkers at the next table. Ahhh, New York. Fuck, it would have been great to cruise back to a room at the Ace on this deck Shut Skateboards & Ace Hotel have teamed up to create for this year’s Go Skate Day. Featuring the state’s eponymous motto “Excelsior,” we’re pretty sure New York City is gonna get gnarly on June 21st. See ya on the L.E.S.
With a name that could easily be mistaken for a mediocre metalcore band, Blood of the Young is actually an awesome DIY publishing house from Toronto that has been rolling out handmade ‘zines, artist’s books and wearables with the fervour of an alley cat in heat. On top of their game with contributing photographers & artists by the likes of Jeremy Jansen, Alexis Gross and Marco Hernandez, BOTY recently released their 75th ‘zine and are in the midst of a gritty European tour as you read this. Meet the Hamburger Eyes of Canada. No Pig Deal.
Available exclusively at Ace Hotel New York, Shut Skateboards N.Y.C. and online at SHOP.ACEHOTEL.COM
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Jamcouver II legit to quit If you are feeling nostalgic for skateboarding’s younger years when wooden-ramp-makeshift-back-alley competitions were a dime a dozen, then start getting stoked for Jamcouver II! Cariboo Brewing, Know?Show, OLIO festival and us here at Color are excited to bring you the second annual Jamcouver on August 11th. With a whole new set-up including new obstacles, skaters, judges, cash and prizes, this unique event is the essence of creativity within skateboarding and an excellent opportunity to see the locals kill it alongside some of Canada’s finest shredders. Keep your eyes & ears peeled for more info dropping soon!
continued from p.29
CHRIS HASLAM
[ o ] DOUBT
nollie bigspin heelflip fakie nosemanual 180 Port Moody: Yeah he touches down, but he’s still got 20+ parks to skate this day, give’m a break!
10:55am
11:29am
Lower Mainlanders are fortunate indeed to have so many parks with an average of ten minutes between them, but not all can be as amazing as others. Midway through the day we hit a depressing run of poor excuses for skateparks; the type of disproportionate, sketchy gravel pits and modular disappointments that you unfortunately find are the only parks in many small town across Canada. With Hastings and PoCo still fresh in our minds, the gratitude of having so many more options to choose from out here became integral to our day. continued on p.47
#10 RAILSIDE Port Coquitlam
12:17pm
from top (l-r) #8 Appleyard throws down at Port Moody park, allowing the others to truly shine at the next stop on the list: #9 Coquitlam Town Centre #10 RailSide #11 Settlers #12 Pitt Meadows
Speeding through public areas is just one of the liabilities Guinness won’t be held responsible for when considering World Record endorsement. Benny Zenga holds a ladder so it doesn’t completely fall off while en route to the next stop.
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Anthrax
DROP US A LINE Got something to say? Wanna send us some quality goods to roll in… er, review? Hit us up at info@colormagazine.ca or snail mail to 105-321 Railway St., Vancouver, BC V6A 1A4 Canada
Living the Life, Quietly
Girl x McCrank x Penxa
Brigada Back for More
It’s been through the heat of Las Vegas and the cold frozen temps of a Wisconsin February and it’s still as soft as after the first wash. I’ve had a Quiet Life shirt for so long that the once bright Kelly green has been dulled to almost pastel, a sign of good luck in any threaded item! It’s become my lucky travel shirt, so I was stoked to find QL’s newest batch of wearable goodies hadn’t lost any of that good ol’ fashioned quality and craftsmanship. When you have Aloha in your heart nothing can stop you!
With every skate graphic cliché in the book you know this board is going to sell sell SELL! The Art Dump outsourced to talented illustrator, Mark Penxa (see our 2010 online feature interview “Mark Penxa and his Rejects” on colormagazine. ca) for something that only his deft hands could create. The ultimate skate graphic! Nudity, drugs, death, violence and more. This board has it all going off like Rick Howard’s Canada Day party. Pick it up at your local shop and if they don’t have it, tell them to get’r in!
Riddle me this: What allows one person to see right through them, while others wonder what they hide? With a new skate team and more experience under its belt, Brigada is back and bringing affordable sunglasses to the masses. Lightweight and steeped in the blood sweat and tears of Ellington, Greco, P-Rod, Lizard King, Andrew Reynolds and Terry Kennedy, rock these shades at the park without having them roll off your face.
THEQUIETLIFE.COM
GIRLSKATEBOARDS.COM
BRIGADAEYEWEAR.COM
Man, I could really go for a BTL right now…
OffSet from the Rest
One MoFo of a Cab
Toronto in the summer, eh? Lessee... The words HOT and STICKY come to mind first and foremost. Good thing two of the city’s fixtures recently came together to release this chill photo tee just before things get a little too uncomfortable. Blue Tile Lounge and photographer Jeff Comber paired up when Jeff bought an old 50s-era German “Rollei-Cord” camera and started snapping photos with its sticky advance. A grimy and double-exposed video surveillance/sewer rat made the cut. Grab yours from BTL in the shop or online while they still got em!
If it’s at all possible to be more then totally stoked (what comes next?), we feel it for Comune’s newest video offering, Offset. Featuring a new team and new direction, the film’s individualist approach will give each rider his own visual aesthetic that creates a separation from the rest of the pack. Featuring Al Partanen, Nial Fredericson, Joseph Lopez, Josh Murphy and Jordan Sanchez, the bulk of the names aren’t household yet but most likely will be soon. Watch for Canadian premiere dates soon, plus an exclusive viewing on colormagazine.ca for a limited time!
For a shoe to last through twenty years of the fickle skate market it has to be something special. The year-long 20th anniversary celebration of the Vans Half-Cab continues with the June edition designed by a legend in skate photography, Morizen Foche. The first photo editor and one of the founders of Thrasher, he also shot the iconic silhouette that appears on every Half-Cab. His photography has produced some of the most classic images of the 80s and early 90s and influenced nearly every skate photographer. Just like every shoe company has been inspired by the Half-Cab, there is only one original.
BLUETILELOUNGE.CA
COMUNE.COM
VANS.CA
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continued from p.45
1:45pm
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“In our quest for the record we opted for a variety of styles, but also quantity over quality.” 2:42pm
[ o ] NICHOLAS
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this page (from top) When one of the filmers realized a bag full of thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment had been left behind, Sandro raced away from the Thomas Haney session to go back for it and the photographers used this opportunity to squeeze in some tricks of their own. Dylan Doubt Texas plant, Maple Ridge #13 Thomas Haney #14 Walnut Grove #15 Old Langley #16 Cloverdale Youth Park #17 Cloverdale Athletic Park
Despite the run of poor parks, there was a moment for me when Michael Jackson came on the radio in the vehicle and as I looked around at my companions—Stefan Shipmaker (the originator of this crazy idea, knee-deep in his own record of drinking a beer at every park) trying to convince Color’s Linda Ounapuu about the fallacies of global policy, while Shawn Lennon struggled to keep his weed from spilling off the book in his lap as our driver Dustin Adams [Globe Canada] pulled highspeed U-turns in the middle of a busy intersection —I realized what a perfect storm this all was. A strange and contradictory sensation washed over me as I understood that we were accomplishing something that nobody had ever done, and yet the fun of it all was essentially something to which all skateboarders and their friends can relate.
Our first real hiccup came in Cloverdale, when our train nearly came off the tracks. Raindrops had begun to fall and we’d lost the most important van in the convoy—the one with our pros. Stefan, now on his 16th beer, kept us entertained by corralling kids on Razor scooters until eventually the guys arrived with fuller bellies and coffee in their system. They busted a few quick tricks and then got back in the van to make up for lost time. continued on p.70
Rob Rickaby, guest skater/ Vehicle 5 captain. If anyone knows their way around the Lower Mainland skateparks better than Bradley Shepard, it would be this man.
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images courtesy of the artist.
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#TOP8FRIENDS wordsby jenn jackson
F
or TOP8 their medium is media. Their infamous TUMBLR page is composed of Internet refuge, a culling of material from every direction. They are obsessed with all things virtual— collectors and reapers of the web, who harvest old, new and most often, used imagery to compose alternate narratives. My browser often crashes when I visit the Top8 site, so we brought them to print for the first time.
(opposite) DreamscorescratchnsniffY2K12 PhaethonReduxInfiniteGig
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“TOP8 is a dream where wanting and happening intersect.”
Slimeburth
The visual language that they have incorporated into everything TOP8 is of a specific aesthetic, one of fantastical virtuosity that will continue to increase momentum. With a constant pulse of contribution, they put together a dialogue of frenetic foundations. Fetishism, fantasy and youthful freedom find employment within their neverending jump cuts and juxtapositions. Their persuasion privileges specific margins and is difficult to put a finger on. In a movement of escape, TOP8 has captured a particular interval in history and a North American condition where biding time and awaiting a shift in conditions is celebrated by infusing endless energetic possibilities. If I had to describe TOP8, I would say ‘teenagers’ and ‘no common sense’ mixed with a punch of ‘consciousness’. Of course, at the heart 50
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of every teenager’s life are their friends. Even the name TOP8 salutes Myspace, the inventors of the top eight friends category. Only TOP8 departs from any exclusivity, making their club open to anyone and everyone, and the associative subjects that they gravitate towards include everything and anything. Intuition and gut reactions collide in the effortlessly constructed enactment of desire. TOP8 is a dream where wanting and happening intersect. When I asked TOP8 how they supported themselves, they responded with a link to IMDb. The movie: Party Girl (1995). The quote: “Do you realize how broke I am? What do you want me to do? I don’t have a job. I’m a loser. Shoot me.” An active anecdote for the turn of global economy. When you have nothing to do, do something else.
no. 2
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Nikon F
A
ll photographers have their go-to, their mule, their camera of choice. Regardless of who you are or what you’re shooting, there’s always that one body you find yourself reaching for time and time again. Whether it’s that subtle light leak or a simple sense of nostalgia, what’s more important still are the connections we make between these cameras and the final images that keep us going back for more.
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The Nikon F was left to me when my Grandpa died. He loved it, and it accompanied him wherever he went. It drove the rest of the family bat-shit crazy having him pointing it at them on every family get together and vacation. Unfortunately he passed away before I got to know him very well because I think we would have had a lot in common since I now drive my friends crazy by pointing this camera at them along our travels; both good times and bad. This is my go-to camera because I love old, well-made things—be it bikes, furniture or machines. Their quirks and imperfections add a depth of excitement (and sometimes frustration) that isn’t found with their newly built replacements. This camera has been with me for over 20 years now and has been through 9 countries, flew off the back of my motorcycle at 40 miles an hour and has been abused by sand, but it still shoots and works beautifully. I had an old man tell me these were the cameras journalists used during the Vietnam war era, due to the fact they were practically invincible. War photographers even hung them around their neck above their chest, believing that it was possible the camera could slow a bullet.
Leaf River is part woodchuck, part prairie dog and full travel trout. He lives in San Francisco.
I’m pretty sure my Grandpa would be happy with the impression he made on me by giving me this box of mechanisms and mirrors. —leaf river
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wordsby jenn jackson
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eepthroat, masking tape, magazines, breakfast, a breakin, kittens, skateboarding, an axe and a studio by the train; these few memorable details are what I recall from my first few encounters with Calgary artist Sean MacAlister. I became acquainted with Sean after a friend dialed his number and handed me the phone. Cold-calling someone that you don’t know from a number that they recognize is fun. They almost always answer and since they already know you share friends, it’s likely that they’ll be open to talking to you. It is at this point where I began my conversation with Sean and my exploration of his exhibition Crows Nest at Haight Gallery.
[ o ] FETHERSTONHAUGH
Sean MacAlister at Haight Gallery
(opposite top) Hey Tony, 2012 byrata rag prints mounted to birch, 23.5" x 15.5" Wreath ll, 2009-2012 erasure refuse copper pipe, dimensions variable
Haight Gallery is a space that requires a bit of insider knowledge. The chances for a random encounter are limited in the suburban North West corner of Calgary. Those that attend Haight’s exhibitions only know about them by word of mouth; a friends of friends kind of thing. On opening nights, Matthew Bourree, the gallery’s founder, can be seen adorning the front lawn with one-foot tall black letters: HAIGHT GALLERY. The gallery is located around back of the house, in one half of a stand-alone garage. First time visitors can’t help but feel as though they are trespassing.
images courtesy of Haight Gallery.
MacAlister’s exhibition Crows Nest is committed to the tension between public and private. I spent the months leading up to the exhibition culling details from him about his practice, production and personal preferences. Studio visits, telephone calls and coffee provided the material for me to draw from when I finally
saw the work organized within the gallery space: a meticulously converted garage complete with polished concrete floors and a pristine white cube effect. The newcomer’s breach of the residential space (home, backyard and garage) is thematically parallel to the first work in the gallery. Hey Tony is a photographic diptych where subjective references to he first act of invasion arrive as a common white paneled steel door, closed and without motion. It is the protagonist of the image, a piece of masking tape, which cues disruptive movement. In the first image the tape seals the door shut, in the second it is uncomfortably broken. Both images dictate a closed door, a simple document of fear. In stereoscopic synchronicity, Hey Tony combines two perceptions initiating a coercive construction of narrative. I immediately imagine the circumstances in which one might employ tape in attempt
to secure peace of mind and security of space. Detective movies with strategically placed strands of hair and security alarms in the form of a bottle on the door handle cross my mind. MacAlister provides further details as to the inspiration for the paranoid photograph. He describes the location of his studio and home in North East Calgary, a place I had visited on a sunny Sunday a few months earlier. He told me that when he first moved in the landlord informed him that the suite had been burglarized the night before. The culprit of the trespassing crime was well known in the neighborhood. He had broken into numerous homes around the block, never to steal anything, just to temporarily inhabit the space. The police had been called on several occasions but the charges never seemed to stick. Tony the Terrorizer inspired MacAlister to sleep next to an axe and place tape on the frame of his door. .seanmacalister
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Spines 1-41, 2009-2012 sculpted magazines, hooks, and pins, dimensions variable
The second work in the show, Spines (1-41), was culled from a collection of magazines his friend’s father had dropped off at their shared residence several years earlier. For years, Sean had used the magazines to construct collages and what he calls “thin sculptures.” He told me that the sentimental value of the spines was greater than he could part with. I was also privy to know that the floor sculpture, Wreath II, located between Spines (1-41) and Always, a collection of replica playing cards all missing their margins, was a composite of eraser shavings and magazine residue produced in the construction of Spines (1-41). The last and final works bring us back to the beginning. Deepthroat 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 are the strongest of the suit and their affiliation to one another is that of a royal flush. I quickly combed the five works, flipping back and forth, acknowledging the similarities and differences. The most notable concurrent detail appeared as the assemblage of two strips of masking tape, the formation of a cross. Each framed form eluded significance beyond its original materiality. A sense of marking and mysticism motioned further consideration. Deepthroat 4 and 6 hung adjacent to 1, 2, and 3. Their separation gestured further symbolic suggestion and a comparing of materials. The subject matter is obscure to say the least. Deepthroat 4 makes reference to a transgendered child and Deepthroat 6 to the convoluted mechanics of contemporary border control. The perpendicular placement of tape signals metaphoric proposals of places that meet, yet are divergent and send my imagination on a trip of crosscuts and contexts. I ponder the capacity for intersection amongst fact and fiction. When I asked Sean to elaborate on the repetitive form of Deepthroat 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 he described an obsessive investigation into the formal properties of tape on tape; how he started doing it as a quick gesture on the wall, floor, door and window. The discussion flips on its head when he inserts 56
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the symbolic significance of the gesture in relation to the hit television series the X-Files, another left field inclusion of detail. He explains the characters Mulder and Scully, and how they would make contact with their informant, Deep Throat, by placing two crossed pieces of tape in their window. My navigation of Crows Nest was complimented by both MacAlister’s presence and intimate space which the work was installed and while the information he provided me is exceptionally satisfying, sometimes the longing to know is equally satiating. In the artist/informant’s absence, the viewer is left with a longing for further information, a desire to understand. When the comfort of confirmation is absent, the work is forced to stand on its own two feet. In a time of pluralistic embrace, the onus to comprehend is often pendent upon personal initiative. MacAlister’s practice explores the place between knowledge and misinformation and the authenticity of the authorial is bound up in peripheral accounts of the personal and in reflection dependent upon subjective understanding. A friction between abstract signifiers and concrete evidence produces a potential for dialogue and in search of cues, clues and keys, the work requires an observant seeker.
“He had broken into numerous homes around the block, never to steal anything, just to temporarily inhabit the space.”
MacAlister is currently the Artist in Residence at the University Fundacao Armando Alvares Penteado in Sao Pauo, Brazil. To keep up with his alternate making, research and everyday meanderings, check out his blog at http://seanmacalister.tumblr.com/
(l-r) Deepthroat 1-3, 2011 relief applied to found magazine pages, 12.75” x 16.75” Deepthroat 4, 2011 found window, mirror, masking tape, and inkjet print, 23.5” x 31.75”
PHOTOGRAPHY MOLLY STONE
Stylist ANNIE CASTALDI & BRITTNY MOORE Model ABBY BROTHERS
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black vintage sheer dress // INSIGHT black and white leotard // CONVERSE red high top sneakers colORMAGAZINE.CA
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(left) HOUSE OF MATCHING COLOURS white fringe leather jacket // INSIGHT burgundy denim shorts // SITKA ring (right) RAQUEL ALLEGRA gray ombre tee (top layer) // INSIGHT denim shorts // CONVERSE red high top sneakers // SITKA ring
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(left) INSIGHT blue muscle tank // VINTAGE MISSONI stripe bikini bottoms // KAREN WALKER sunglasses (right) ANN DEMUELEMEESTER white beater // SUMMERBUMMER olive bikini bottoms // COMUNE gray jeans // CONVERSE red high top sneakers // BONES AND FEATHERS gold necklace // SITKA ring
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[ o ] DANGER
vol. 10 no. 2
wordsby jenn jackson
W
e drove away from Calgary, into the cold darkness of an open sky, my friend and I on our way to The Club at The Banff Centre to see Raven Chacon’s solo acoustic and electric noise music performance. That night, it seemed the cold had made the February air thinner, the stars brighter. Time slowed as we ventured out into a pitchblack landscape. Looking up, I’m certain I have never seen so many stars. Then, as suddenly as it had slowed, time sped back up and we were late for Chacon’s show. In a dizzying hustle we arrived on the side of a mountain and drove into the parkade at the venue. The show was in the basement of a theatre complex. We ran through a labyrinth of hallways doors and a variety of decors from every decade, only to arrive at a black door entrance. colORMAGAZINE.CA
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(previous page) Postcommodity Antler-Cello (clockwise from top left) Sign Tone Generator Mouth-delay Snare Oscillator Antler 66
ravenchacon.
The performance had just started. Raven Chacon was on stage, hunched over a table of wires, pedals and indecipherable electronics. His long, black hair blocked his face. A tube hung from his mouth, the other end attached to one of the electronics. At the edge of the table beside him was an elk antler. Rhythmic noise oscillated inside the room, harkening the feeling of a slow, gradual airplane take off. Tonal shifts were subtle; the volume slowly increased then withdrew in tidal progressions. Without warning. the transcendental wave was dramatically interrupted with influxes of cruel pitch. Chacon was drawing the audience to a standstill with his mystical narrative. Minute gestures, (a flashlight’s beam drumming against a sensor, the dragging of an antler across a soundboard, Chacon’s breathing into a long tube) were amplified to a crushing crest. In an instant, these apexes of sound would be abandoned in exchange for a prolonged plateau. The sequence of sounds continued for an incalculable duration until without cause, it stopped. It was as though the room had emptied and a magical spell had lifted all of the furniture from the floor, then slowly gravity regained control and everything fell back into its rightful place. Several weeks earlier I had attended a lecture from Chacon. It was equally as mesmerizing and I couldn’t help but stay behind to coordinate a studio where I spent the next afternoon with Chacon learning about his practice and background.
Raven studied chamber music at the prestigious California Institute of the Arts where he completed his Masters of Fine Arts in Music Composition. Classically trained, Chacon has an astute grasp of formal composition. His holistic improvisation doesn’t prescribe to a particular style, but rather immerses itself into many parts. Chacon allows for his diverse spectrum of interests to intersect with experiments in noise and ventures into electronic composition. He credits much of his far-ranging musical tastes to his upbringing in the American southwest. He was born in Fort Defiance, Arizona and is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. He considers Albuquerque, New Mexico his base, with stations in Los Angeles, Phoenix and the Navajo Reservation. Chacon’s Navajo influence has postulated itself within much of his artistic endeavors. Modern Native Ensemble // Field Recordings is one of my favourite works by Chacon. These four distinct soundscapes (“Window Rock, Arizona 4:00 a.m.,” “Sandia Mountains, New Mexico 11:00 p.m.,” “Canyon deChelly, Arizona 10:00 a.m.,” and “Ventura Beach, California 5:00 p.m.”) were collected amongst the quietest environments and each is marked by a place and time, much like a historical or anthropological specimen. These recordings have been amplified twenty times their accurate range. The magnification of each picturesque landscape enacts a grating soliloquy of details. All the invisible elements reach forward with distortive force; the gentle breeze becomes a hurricane, the birdsong a tsunami.
“The gentle breeze becomes a hurricane, the birdsong a tsunami.”
Chacon’s penchant for amplification refers to invisible histories, those of cultures past, present and future. For Chacon these histories focus specifically on a shared indigenous perspective. When he captures peripheral space, silence, he demands your attention and consideration. Within the mechanics of recording, Chacon encodes an ode to the capacity for loss. When he projects these small sounds, the quiet spaces encounter a distorted distention. One must consciously unpack the sound to decipher its true origins. The transition of a happening into a record, whether it is sound or the details of a past occurrence upon paper, inserts an undeniable absenteeism. Something is always missing. There is a gap between the original and its reverberation. Think of what it takes for Justin Bieber to pop out a top 40 hit. There is an extensive amount of equipment that collects, organizes, examines and transforms the original track. Though the moment of oration is secondary to encounter, we consume it as an acceptable construction. The gesture of amplification is a reminder of the capacity for recombinant narrative within marginalized histories.
A composer in every sense of the word, Chacon’s keen sense of organization and intuitive ability to arrange, synthesizes a plan for both constructive and deconstructive compositional models. The history of chamber music is one of great depth and duration. But how has this focus impacted his practice as a whole? Chamber music is composed for small instrumental ensembles and is performed without a conductor. Performances are often intended for the performers’ own individual pleasure, free to extend beyond the expectation of the listening audience. Chacon’s compositions take this virtuous position; breaking open the systems and the structures. This happens through a
dissociative recombination of sound. He takes many parts and postures them in a way that forms a greater picture: an infinite possibility of fragmented encounters. Raven Chacon finds satisfaction, a distinct feeling of accomplishment, in exercising composition and categorization. For many, this impetus stretches back to our first cognitive associations. I’m thinking of the childhood game one of these things does not belong here; the formula of association that can be applied to almost anything. The production of art, music and even history, finds relationship to composition. They are all part of a process involving selection and structuring. For Chacon, this selection finds its foundation within personal narrative. His idiosyncratic postulations command importance through the transitioning of a subjective individual voice to that of a collectively amplified position: a reverberation that I consider to be the sound of difference.
images courtesy of the artist.
Raven is also a member of the American Indian artist collective, Postcommodity which functions as a vehicle for artists to work outside of their individual art practices. The mandate for collaboration results in materializations that proliferate a sense that the whole is much greater than the sum of its original independent parts. Their many ephemeral site-specific work functions as a shared indigenous voice comprised of innumerable narratives. As a collective, Postcommodity is determined to promote the interconnectivity of everyone and everything. Chacon brings these influences to his teaching practice. With faculty positions at the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project and most recently the Trading Post residency at The Banff Centre, Chacon is keen to share his milieu of interests, working to extend a dialogue of traditional forms beyond the conventional boundaries of shared discourse.
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vol. 10 no. 2
wordsby mish way
portraitby gordon nicholas
Color: Who in the band do you think is least likely to succeed in life and why? Daniel: Probably me. I’m such an overachiever that one day I’ll realize it is not worth it and just give up. What’s your pet peeve? What turns you off about people? Andrea: I hate people who think they are avant-garde. I like boring people. Daniel: I hate people who can’t enjoy pop music. You know, people who flip out because you put Britney on during the count down. It’s New Years Eve! What do you want to listen to, noise records? Please. If you can’t like bad pop music you are insecure about what you like. AL: Why do you have to challenge your ears all the time? What separates “bad pop music” from good music? Britney obviously has talent, but it doesn’t make her good. So where’s the dividing line? AL: I think just in the music. Let’s be real, all pop stars are vessels and I don’t really have a problem with it as long as the music is good. Say for example David Cassidy’s “I Think I Love You.” That’s one of my favourite songs of all time and the guy is no original guy—he’s a tool, an actor and pretty far from anything sincere, but the song is one of the best and he delivers it. Then you get someone like Lady Gaga whose music is really flat and quite boring yet she’s constantly trying to prove she’s an interesting tool/vessel/artist. Music first. Do you consider yourselves talented? DP: Probably by somebody’s standards. Brody: I don’t know much about talent but my grandma once told me I was “pretty cool.” AL: I think I’m ok. What’s the one talent you wish you possessed?
DP: I wish I was a mechanic. AL: I wish I was an opera singer. BM: I wish I could do magic. Real magic.
DP: I’d tell him that a lot of people are using his name wrong.
AL: I’d buy a basketball team because it’s a good investment. I’d also buy a castle.
What kind of animal would you like to be? BM: I’d be a cat in outer space. AL: I’d want to be something that is feared and reclusive or wait… top of the food chain. I’d want to be a lion. No one would fuck with you. DP: I’d want to be something that is really taken care of. BM: Like a gerbil? DP: No, something endangered, with wings so I could fly away.
What would you do in the castle? AL: Everything I like and everything about my personality, I’d times it by a billion. BM: I’d take this old, broken house that’s on the corner of my street and drag it out to the country. I’d move to a small country place like in that movie Funny Farm where everyone is fucking crazy, and I’d sit on a porch with a shotgun. Final question: You are going to prison for life, but you can pick one famous serial
[ o ] MARVIN
T
wo is a party but three is Nü Sensae. After nearly four years, three 7-inches and one critically acclaimed LP TV, Death and The Devil (Nominal Records), the Vancouver punk two-piece comprised of Andrea Lukic (vocals/bass) and Daniel Pitout (drums) have added friend and guitarist Brody McKnight to amplify their sound. McKnight (formerly of Sex Negatives, Mutators and now playing in Heavy Chains, also with Lukic) joined Nü Sensae just in time to add his mirrored guitar riffs to the band’s powerful punk sound before they wrapped up recording their follow-up LP under new label, Suicide Squeeze records. I hung out with Nü Sensae during a quick rest before they headed out on a U.S. tour in March (5 dates opening for Pitchfork darling, EMA) and even though I’ve known Nü Sensae for what feels like a decade, this was my first time talking with the group as a trio. Our bands have toured together many times in circumstances ranging from luxurious to dire. I’ve seen the good, the bad, the ugly and the mental. So how do you professionally interview your friends? You don’t. Instead you play Truth or Die and drink a case of beer.
If you could read people’s minds what would you want to know? AL: Okay, you know what is really crazy that I started doing? BM: Here we go… DP: Andrea has a new game. AL: This woman on the bus kept looking at me and I had this weird feeling that she knew what I was thinking. It freaked me out. She kept looking at me more and smiling. So now when I go into a busy place, I think the worst thoughts possible, anything fucked or obscene, and see if anyone looks at me. DP: You are trying to discover mind readers? [Laughs] AL: The words, mind readers and expose yourselves flash when I play the game. What’s your best emotional attribute? DP: [Laughs] I’m a very sensitive guy. Actually, we’re a very sensitive band. We have band fights and Brody has to tell Andrea and I to calm down. We’ll all storm off, but a few minutes later we all come back saying sorry. Maybe it’s good now that Brody is in the band to help with the fights… BM: I was originally hired as a therapist. I just happened to play guitar as well. If you could change your first name, what would you like to be called? AL: Calestamie Bag. DP: Colostomy Bag? AL: No, Calestamie Bag. You know what’s a cool name? Television. “I’m Television, but people call me T.V. for short. They call me The Tube when I’m acting crazy.” If you met Jesus face to face, what would you want to say to him? AL: I’d be like, “Set them straight, Jesus!”
“I was originally hired as a therapist. I just happened to play guitar as well.” Would you ever do a commercial as a band? What would you advertise for? DP: Coca Cola. I’d want free Coke for the rest of my life. AL: I don’t know. I think if it came down to it, the politics and everything, you wouldn’t do it. DP: Come on! What would I rather do a commercial for, Green Peace? There is no commercial that doesn’t have politics involved. If you got famous, what would you do with the money? DP: Sorry, if? Now that we are famous… I’d buy myself a house. I’d buy my parents and brothers a house. AL: Boring. DP: But I would also buy an apartment in Vancouver and let my friends live in it for free, or dirt-cheap.
killer to share a cell with. Who do you choose? BM: Charles Manson. He’s interesting. We’d make records together. AL: Martha Stewart. She’d cook you such good meals, make you a nice sweater. DP: Martha Stewart was not a serial killer. You know who I think is so sad? Jeffery Dahmer. AL: I don’t know if you’d want to put that cute little body of yours in a cell with Dahmer. DP: I don’t want to end up in a jar or anything, but he’s the one serial killer who was so demented that he did all his killings out of love. He ate his victims because he didn’t know how to show love. But Daniel, if you went around eating everyone you loved… DP: I’d be a fat man.
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continued from p.47
5:05pm
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6:19pm
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this page (from top) #18 Fleetwood, Surrey #19 Fraser Heights is a rarely skated beauty located just off HWY 1. It was a compromise from our mapped-out plan, but a wise one on account of the great tricks that went down at this improvised stop, including some freestylin’ from Haslam. #20 Guildford #21 Ryan DeCenzo tosses up a lofty backside kickflip at Chuck Bailey while locals try and make sense of what exactly is going on.
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[ o ] NICHOLAS
“As our driver pulled high-speed U-turns in the middle of a busy intersection—I realized what a perfect storm this all was.”
7:24pm
Somebody spotted a little park down the street as we drove away, so we made another quick stop to make up some numbers. After a run-in with a screaming soccer mom in a tracksuit, we headed to Fleetwood where we had an unexpected and welcome run-in with some familiar faces. Mike “Hashbrown” Shulze, Dustin Locke and John Hanlon had a sick session already in full effect. DeCenzo’s reunion with Hanlon (his Darkstar teammate) coupled with that feeling of being back at home, must have stoked Ryan up again. Appleyard on the other hand took a vicious slam and swapped his skate for a game of “keep up” with a soccer ball and half of the film crew. continued on p.78
CHRIS HASLAM
frontside hurricane Chuck Bailey, Surrey
(above) #22 Kwantlen Haslam jogged up to this wooden wasteland, took one look around, and decided to pop this backside noseblunt then get the hell outta there.
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[ o ] HLAVACEK
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COLORMAGAZINE.CA
vol. 10 no. 2
—
F as in Frank [ o ] LENNON
Drew and Jesse Heifetz
Drew frontside ollies at the warehouse ramp.
nicholasphoto.
wordsby shawn lennon
J
esse and Drew Heifetz, owners of the multi-faceted vintage clothing company F as in Frank, spent much of their youth playing in their father’s warehouse jumping from the rafters into enormous piles of old clothing. It comes as no surprise then, that when it came time for these brothers to take the reigns of a business created mostly from their father’s innovation, they used their in-depth knowledge of brands and their skill for forecasting trends to become a valued source in the relatively untapped market of collectible clothing. It all started with their father Dave Heifetz’s bookstore in the 1960s. The store was located on campus at the University of New Hampshire and although commonplace now, Dave was among the first to start buying textbooks back and reselling them. His entrepreneurial mind led him to open another shop off-campus where he focused on counter culture books and magazines, along with papers, pipes, bongs and other head shop accessories. A fashion-based used clothing market barely existed at the time, so it wasn’t until a pile of Sergeant Pepper-style Marine Corps jackets, bought from an
old prop house, sold out from his shop at an alarming rate that the gears started turning. Before long Dave Heifetz was immersed in the underworld of the used clothing business and became one of the pioneers in establishing what is now known as the modern day vintage clothing industry. His son Drew recalls, “Clothing is obviously one of the first things people started , but it wasn’t a fashion-based thing until around the 60s, early 70s.” David eventually honed his business on wholesale, but when his eldest son Jesse took over and
discovered both ebay and specialty markets, Jesse led the company in a new direction and called upon on his brother Drew to join him. “We’ve been best buddies growing up so I was like ‘bro you gotta do this.’” Drew was already operating the first F as in Frank location in Whistler, catering to the growing popularity of retro ski and snowboard apparel. By 2009, they opened their second location on Main St. in Vancouver and since the closure of the Whistler location in 2010, have expanded to Toronto. F as in Frank also developed their own clothing line called Snap, which creates modern designs from 100% recycled materials. On top of expanding to retail markets, the company’s wholesale and online sales continue to grow as does their client list. They now distribute to Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Europe,
as well as provde pieces for design inspiration to companies like Ralph Lauren, J Crew, Abercrombie & Fitch, Wrangler, Penfield’s and Supreme. Along with notable designers, F as in Frank has also attracted visits from artists like Raekwon, Mac Miller, Young L, P Thug, Odd Future and Beyoncé. Sound like serious business, but behind it all the Heifetz brothers are still out there picking whenever they can. They’re driving around the U.S. and Canada mining a new form of gold everywhere from mom & pop department stores to abandoned houses. It’s the reason Drew Heifetz says is, “why we do what we do, and why we love what we do.” F AS IN FRANK is located at 2425 Main Street in Vancouver and at 418 Queen Street West in Toronto. Their online store can be found at www.fasinfrankvintage.com
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vol. 10 no. 2
wordsby dan post
portraitby matt french
It dwelleth too close to the seat of the clouds; it waiteth perhaps for the first lightning. —from “Thus Spoke Zalathrustra” by Fredrich Nietzsche
D
anny Way is going to die. Gasp. Yes it’s true, everyone does, but unlike you and I who are not jumping 75 feet over the Great Wall of China on a skateboard, it’s likely going to happen sooner rather than later. Or so a title like Waiting for Lightning, Jacob Rosenberg’s new documentary on Danny would imply. So what motivates a man to continually push himself to the brink of destruction, to continually look death in the face for the world to see? Danny and Jacob may be the only two people on earth who can truly answer that question, so we asked them.
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[ o ] DUFRESNE
Rosenberg almost framed his entire film around the X Games, but after a suggestion from the film’s editor, Rosenberg decided to focus on China and Danny’s jump over the Great Wall of China. He told me that he wanted to tell a heroic story and the jump was a big part of that, but aside from all the stunts, tragedy too plays a major role. ”Danny’s life is a hero’s journey. He’s been presented with obstacles that he’s overcome in order to accomplish his goals
We asked him about where he is at mentally during these intense moments, either at the top of the ramp or dangling out of a helicopter, and he said, “I think every time I experience those situations where I have to get into that mindset, go deep and get into that place, it is kind of a spiritual experience, because it is such a pure focus place. You don’t really feel or hear the external distractions around you.” While the intense physicality of what Danny does may seem like an unorthodox type of inner peace, for him it just works. “It draws you in so deep, that everything else becomes a blur around you,” adding, “I try to find that place often, without being physically engaged, and it’s harder to find.” Rosenberg too, understood this deeper side of what Danny does which is perhaps why he titled the film after a passage in Frederick Nietzsche’s proverbial text Thus Spoke Zalathustra. Here, a man tries to climb to the top of a mountain, and even though he suffers innumerable pains and consequences along the way, he continues to push on. The wise sage who accompanies him is fascinated in how even if he made it all the way to the top of the mountain, the only thing left at the peak is lightning. “Danny has that primordial drive to achieve,” admits Rosenberg, “but that achievement always comes with a cost.”
and to achieve a sense of enlightenment. I wanted to make a film that was inspiring.” The film shows a lot of the darker sides to Danny’s life, from the loss of two different fathers (one dramatic scene even shows Danny taking his father’s ashes with him to the top of the ramp), to his brother Damon’s careerending injury. Skateboarding then, became both a release for Danny but also a way to prove himself. He learned at young age to block out the pain by pushing himself to new heights, which to this day, is very much a spiritual experience for him.
The agony of failure though becomes greater than any physical pain Danny might endure and he understands full well what those consequences might be. “How far do you want to go with this?” he asks himself at the top of an 80-foot roller, “I obviously know what the repercussions are.” So why then, even with his mother and his children watching, does he constantly put himself in harms way? Surely they are reason enough to know when to call it quits. “I do weigh out those consequences and go ‘wouldn’t it be selfish of me to maim myself to the point where I couldn’t do activities with my kids?” says Danny. But he feels it’s his job to lead by example in his own dramatic way. “A part of me
wants my kids to realize that if they have a passion, and a dream and they really have their heart and mind set on something that they should achieve it.” Not everyone would have the courage to look their mother in her teary eyes and tell her their going for one more try, but as Danny says, “At the end of the day, you have to be selfish at some point or you’ll never achieve what you truly want.” Rosenberg also recognized a larger public with much to learn from this film, and not just skateboarders. Essentially there are two audiences: those who skate and the general public. In both cases, Rosenberg feels the reactions have been, “I don’t know what I was expecting to see, but I wasn’t expecting that.” People who don’t skate have been taken aback because, as Rosenberg explains, “they can see the evolution of modern skateboarding unfold. They see this one man with his desire and passion pushing things in [a certain] direction.” For skateboarders however, the ones who are familiar with Danny’s abilities dating back to his street skating days in the Questionable video, it’s not as awe-inspiring to see these jumps again, but Rosenberg says, “The way the story is told, and the emotion that is in the story, I think skateboarders really appreciate that and connect with that.” Both audiences can learn from Danny’s mantra. Obviously he has a talent for mental strength and not everyone is going to be able to accomplish things in their life on the scale that he has, but through his skating and this film, he wants audiences to know that, “Everybody has an equal shot at being good at something.” Talent then, becomes more a statement of possibility and less a staked claim on individual prowess. Danny says that if he doesn’t push through the broken bones or swollen ankles, then he’s going to have to dwell on the what if? “That’s my main thing,” he says, “getting rid of the what ifs.” In light of the many negative things he endured growing up, kharma owes Danny Way the chance to keep going, and after seeing Waiting for Lightning, I can’t wait to see what’s next. As the film closes, we see him once again achieving another milestone on his newly-minted mega ramp in Hawaii. With a topsecret 5-year plan in the works Danny admits, “it’s not going to stop now… it’s going to be a constant evolution of things that allow me stay on this path.” Perhaps feeling just a bit of that solipsistic drive that we all have, Danny closes our interview with this bit of insight: “I like to be a pioneer at what I do… I like to be the first one through the door, but I also like everyone to follow me through the door. I’m not trying to shut the door on everyone, I just like to get there first.”
Find out what’s next for Danny Way in a behind the scenes video from our interview with the phenom + clips from WFL now available on ColorMagazine.ca
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vol. 10 no. 2
[ o ] BLACK
wordsby mark richardson
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“Talent and hard work are very different things. I prefer to work hard than to think I have a natural talent.”
I
n 2011, Dirty Beaches (known to his family as Alex Zhang Hungtai) thought he had finally made a record that his father would enjoy—the critically acclaimed Badlands. When his father heard the debut vinyl LP though, he admitted to not caring for the lo-fi, paranoid rockabilly featured throughout. This came as a disappointment to Hungtai who had clearly looked up to his father, evident in the sepia-toned photos of him as a young man that adorn the covers of the early Dirty Beaches 7-inch singles. But Hungtai moved on from this blow and accepted the fact that he might never be able to satisfy his father deciding then to focus on what would please himself before anyone else. He told me, “Whatever I make next, I don’t give a fuck if he likes it or not.” Hungtai’s father may have all but ignored his son’s music, but eager bloggers and websites like Pitchfork certainly started to pick up on it. By most accounts, Hungtai himself was a late bloomer who didn’t get involved in music until his early twenties. His formative years were spent in Hawaii, though the isolation and constrictive culture there caught up with him. “Sadly, there’s really nothing there if you wish to pursue something in the arts,” he said. This eventually pushed Hungtai to leave the comfort of the island state in search of others who would share his creative endeavours. Soon after landing on the mainland, Hungtai began his metamorphosis into Dirty Beaches. He tours constantly and
since 2005, he has lived in New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Montreal among others. He performs and records solo while releasing music at a furious rate across a handful of boutique labels. He dabbles in a myriad of styles though most of Dirty Beaches’ music has retained a lo-fi quality to it like some sort of combination of necessity and aesthetic. Perhaps this is a product of not having a proper studio to work in, something Hungtai said has a lot to do with finances but may soon be on the horizon. “I was invited to record at a beautiful studio in Ravenna, Italy for free to do a 7-inch single for my friend Chris at Bruno Records. Any chance I get I would love to record in a real studio. I just can’t afford it yet, but when I can, I will.”
I asked Alex if having access to a real recording studio and better equipment would change the way he makes music, wondering too if there’s a limit to how far one’s own natural talents can take them. “I think it would change the way I make music,” he said. “Depending on what kind of equipment I have access to can change my music radically.” But Hungtai is uncomfortable acknowledging that he has natural talents for making music, citing instead his value in work ethic. “Talent and hard work are very different things. I prefer to work hard than to think I have a natural talent.” Dirty Beaches draws from a wide swath of rock and roll trailblazers and incendiaries, sharing a kinship with Roy Orbison, Gene Vincent, Gun Club, Elvis and protopunkers, Suicide. Propelled by his heavy reverb and repetitive guitar lines, as well as his rudimentary drum machine and the occasional sampled loop, Dirty Beaches flips from heartbreaking crooner to snarling greaser so easily, that he comes off like a man possessed by so many of rock and roll’s past demons. This possession best describes his live show as well, where Dirty Beaches often pushes his performance to extremes, shrieking into the mic while
seeming to stare right through the shocked crowd, or even squeezing his eyes shut throughout an entire song. “I prefer to have my eyes closed so the audience doesn’t distract me, though I can still hear them. That makes it even more intense because the whole experience could be warped based on your own interpretation of sounds. [I’m] just trying to live in the moment,” he explains of his performance, “not think about anything else but live inside the music for an hour.” But, often being a very physical show, “Of course, I open my eyes when I move around, so I don’t fall over,” Hungtai adds with a laugh. In direct contrast to that Dirty Beaches persona though, Hungtai himself is as humble as can be in person—appreciative of his fans and often engaging with them immediately after a show. This combination of fierce workaholic and approachability has helped elevate him above the margins of the CD-R and cassette subculture where he got his start. And even though he was never able to capture his father’s ear, Hungtai has continued to pick up many more listeners along the way.
Read Mark Richardson’s full interview with Dirty Beaches online now at colormagazine.ca
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continued from p.71 [ o ] NICHOLAS
“I can’t tell how fast I’m moving.” At the setting of the sun, we arrived at one of the finest stops on the list: Queensborough. DeCenzo found his line through the dusk-lit moguls even though he exclaimed, “I can’t tell how fast I’m moving,” as he careened through the bowl to hit the extension kicker of a massive hip. At each miss of his gigantic fly-outs, the ground trembled under his heels and the impact was taking a visible toll on him. After 13 hours of skateboarding, Ryan with one last assertion of sheer will, threw himself even higher in to the twilight sky until he had satisfied his inhumane thirst for amplitude. This was to be DeCenzo’s final performance of the day. It was full-on nighttime when we made a quick stopover at a spot across the street from Haslam’s parents house. From there we set out for the Richmond park where Chris first honed his talents, but fatigue was well upon us and nobody expected much in the way of tricks here. “Do you want me to follow you?” our filmer Dave Ehrenreich asked Chris. “Sure,” he replied, “if you can keep up.” What followed next was nothing short of remarkable. Nobody knew that a ball of energy had been burning deep inside Haslam like a hidden ember in the pit of his stomach, the kind that only the return to a hometown park can ignite. We all have that one place that we know better than most humans because of the sheer amount of hours, days and nights we spend figuring out tricks and discovering things not just about skateboarding, but about lives and ourselves. It’s something that any skateboarder who’s ever been stuck in their town, with nowhere to go but the park, would understand. Reunited with his old stomping grounds, Chris poured what seemed like every ounce of his final fire into our 25th skatepark of the day. He took off toward the wall of concrete quarters and banks and gained momentum through the trannies, as Dave (who is no slouch on a skateboard himself) struggled to keep up behind him. All eyes were on this supernatural assault as we watched in disbelief how, even after a big slam that would easily take out any man on a regular day, Chris charged back at the park determined. After the dust settled, it seemed as if we had just witnessed the end. We asked Chris what he wanted to do. He stared wistfully down at his torn hands in silence. After much deliberation he spoke: “We have to do 30.” Onwards to glory. continued on p.95
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RYAN DECENZO 8:04pm
#23 Queensborough At some parks he was itching to keep the pace, at others we just couldn’t get him to leave. Good thing we stuck around here long enough for him to get this massive indy. (right) #24 Garden City #25 Richmond
8:48pm
9:23pm
vol. 10 no. 2
wordsby nestor judkins
W
portraitsby guillaume anselin
e have encountered a paradigm shift in the last few years with how we consume information. Yet somehow, within the continuous feed of info that we speed through, endlessly hitting the refresh button to bring up more, more, always more, Kevin Lowry has found the space to breathe. He takes the time to figure out what he likes and doesn’t like and then follows only that. Kevin puts in the time working at Calgary skate shop The Source so that he may travel the world on a whim. Lucky for us, Kevin skates true to his character: calm, powerful and unaffected by the latest hype.
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Frontside boardslide
woytowichphoto.
(opposite) Backside 50-50 anselinphoto.
What’s up Kevin, where are you right now? I’m in S.F. at Russ’ (Milligan) house right now. I just got here this morning and it’s raining. But I was just in Portland and Seattle, and it was raining there too. Do you like traveling like that more than organized trips? I’ve never really gone on organized trips like that, maybe one or two. But I like it like that—there’s no schedule, no single person running the show. It’s better than jumping in a van and going to wherever and then, “Oh, we’re going for dinner now.” So you get to experience it more on your own terms. How often do you think you’re
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away from home? I would say like, six months of the year.
like 250,000 people there. It was pretty small, but it was good too.
Damn. How do you swing all these trips? I work a full time job when I’m at home and then I usually stay with people when I’m on the road so that eliminates a lot of staying in hostels. I’ve made lots of friends all over.
How old were you when you moved to Calgary? 15
Do you have a hometown crew, or do you buckle down to work then hit the road? No, I skate at home a lot. I’ll usually go with someone from home. Maybe if I go to Europe I’ll go alone, but it depends. It’s kind of all up in the air.
So did you start skating in Saskatoon? I started there and then kind of stopped from age 13 to 17. I just slowed down; I would skate to the store and stuff but would never really go skating or try tricks. I was kind of into riding bikes, but then I got back into skating again and just went head over heels into it.
Where did you grow up? I grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It has
What got you back into it? I had a lot of free time on my hands. I was
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going to high school but didn’t really talk to anyone there so I would just skate a lot, at lunch break and then after school. I would just end up skating all the time. I would skate until like two in the morning for some reason. Was it a choice or decision to let skating take over? I think it was a slow transition, but I woke up one day and it seemed as if I had been skating nonstop for a few months and thinking this makes me happy so I am going to run with it. If skating wasn’t fun or keeping me happy I think I would have to slow down. So you just got yourself back into skating? Pretty much. I just knew that I missed it and it was a good thing to come back to and a good way to meet people in a new city. 84
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Did that kind of play out later in your traveling? Like go to the local spot? It’s a pretty easy way to meet people. So then around 17 was when you got hooked and wanted to skate all the time? I met these guys who were a lot more into skating and they were like, “We’re going to go to Europe for two months.” I had already been to Europe—I went to Ireland when I was 10—but I never really thought about going skating in Spain or anything like that. So then we went on a big trip to London and France, and spent a month in Barcelona. I didn’t really know much about the spots. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into, then I just saw a whole new world. Did that make you want to travel a lot too? That was definitely pinnacle. Ever since then
I kept going back to Europe a couple months every year. Was there a favourite city you’ve been to, or trip you’ve been on? London last spring would have to stand out. I met up with my good friend Jacob Harris and stayed at his house for five weeks. I had never met Jacob before; we got put in touch through Dan Magee. We got along great right off the bat and had a lot of good times skating and just living day-to-day life. It wouldn’t have been the same with out Jacob Harris and Tom Knox. So when did you get into the sponsored side of skating? I tried to ask the guy at the shop because all my friends skated for the shop. I was like, “Hey, can I get in there?’ and he said
(opposite) Half cab
doubtphoto.
Frontside 5-0
zaslavskyphoto.
“Naw.” Then we went to Spain, which was my second time with a bunch of guys from the shop. I stayed longer and when I came home he was like, “Oh, the guys said you got a bunch of footage, I’m going to meet up with the filmer soon and I want to take a look. ”I didn’t really understand, so I said sure. I saw him later when I went to buy a board and he said, “We want you to skate for us and all the guys do too.” It just went from there. He was helping me out, giving me shoes. Then when I was 19, I started getting Blueprint through a Canadian distributor. Was that also through the shop? They asked me about it because they knew that I was into them. I would always watch the videos because I bought them when I was in Europe. So the distributor had just got the brand into Canada and he told me that we should send them my tape. Between Blueprint, Wesc and Adidas, you have some pretty international sponsors. It just kind of worked out that way. On my first trip to London I met Danny Brady, [Nick] Jensen, Tuukka [Korhonen] and Neil Smith. Those were pretty much the first pro skaters that I’d met and they all seemed pretty cool, so I was stoked. Then the others just fell into place really. With Wesc, I was skating in Montreal and met some of the guys who skated for them. Then I started staying with one of them and he introduced me and they were keen. They only had a small amount of guys and no one from the middle of Canada. It was kind of a similar thing with Adidas because they are pretty particular with placing their dudes. In Canada we’ve got one guy in Vancouver, one guy in Toronto and one in Montreal, which I think is cool because most people who are sponsored live in Vancouver and that’s where all the distributions and all the magazines are. So I think I kind of lucked out like that, the token Saskatchewan prairie/Alberta dude. Actually, I use to skate for èS but wasn’t too happy with what was going on. All of my friends skated for Adidas and I didn’t really know any of the guys that skated for èS. I’m much happier now.
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(opposite) Backside kickflip anselinphoto.
Ollie over backside 180 zaslavskyphoto.
Wow, that first trip really had an influence on how things spanned out. It seems like you put in some effort, where as now you could just put up a video on YouTube. I just wanted to skate. I mean I don’t even have a YouTube account. All that stuff seems crazy now, like you see a 12 year old doing a 900? Okay… Do you think the Internet makes things too immediate? It’s crazy; I watched something earlier on the Internet from a friend of mine. He just put out this web clip; I was there three days ago when he filmed one of the clips in Seattle. I was a little weirded out because it just happened like three days ago.
Does it seem better when things are more spread out? It seems better to work on a project for a longer time and have more of a filter than just put everything out. I don’t think an artist or a writer puts out every single thing they do. Quality over quantity? It just seems like there’s no filter now. Do you think the Internet/social media is the future or is there still going to be room for the core skate video and spending a decent amount of time on it? I think it is the future, but I think that you’ll see videos that are still filmed over four or five years that are being released on the .interview
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Frontside blunt transfer thorburnphoto.
(opposite) Ollie
caissiephoto.
Internet. I think it’s all who’s behind it really. I see a lot of things that seem immediate, like in the younger generation, but older guys who work on a video part for a couple years, it doesn’t come out on the Internet like that. It’s something with a little more impact, or it’ll come out on hard copy too. Was your last part in Elephant Direct? It had a good aesthetic with a lot of night footage and lines with solid skating. Is the way you skate influenced by older skate videos or did it just come out naturally? That was the last one that came out. I don’t
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know, I would say I definitely prefer to watch older videos, but I never found it very fun to try a trick for like three hours, going four times back to do some insane combo. When I like to watch skating it’s when someone looks like they’re going to the store or something, but they hit some curb cuts or just go fast and solid rather than sloppy, slow and insanely mind-boggling. Just to be put up on YouTube and then forgotten in a week. I do respect it, but to me it just doesn’t seem as fun.
Do you believe in raw talent or hard work? I think talent exists for sure. In reference to skateboarding, I think with a lot of guys who are really talented it comes too easy for them so they just forget. I see a lot of really talented skaters just party way too hard or move on to something else because it’s just not a challenge for them. And then, for a guy who’s training, a guy who works really hard at a trick or a line, it seems like more of an accomplishment. You see those guys that can just do whatever they want and it doesn’t even faze them.
Growing up, was there a certain person or influence that shaped things for you? When I was young my family friend, Jude Grieble would give me loads of old Girl boards and lend me videos. It was almost like a skate library down the street. I could bring back a video and take another and so on. This helped me see loads of skating early on. But a number of people influenced me. I think I would take little bits from many different people I’ve met. You know, take things from each person and come up with my own ideas on a way of life.
In the way that everything is changing, what does it take to become successful today? I think a lot of hard work will pay off in the end. I think people need to go outside of the box too, instead of just hiding in their city or only skating with their friends. You can learn a lot from different people and cultures. I mean, skateboarding is very different in Europe than it is in Canada, or even in the States. You can take a little from each to make your own. It’s funny because in skateboarding you’ll see the new hottest trend and everyone’s doing it for the
next couple months, like some clothing or something, and it’s just funny: a bunch of androids copying each other. It’s like one big fashion show. I see everyone wearing camo now. What, like Kalis in old Workshop videos? Skateboarding repeats itself. Like five years ago dudes were skating really tech and then now I find a lot of people are taking the more simple approach. It’ll probably go back to really tech and big puffy shoes.
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Will the kind of skating that makes you want to go out and roll around always exist? Say you watch something simple and fun and it makes you want to skate, it brings you back to when you were younger. But then, you watch a huge handrail or an insanely tech manual and it kind of goes over your head. I’m never going to try a three flip nose blunt down a handrail. It doesn’t even compute. I think it’s a lot more about the way tricks are done than what they’re done on, so not so much going to the most famous spot and one-upping the last guy. I find a lot of people get in a van and say, “I’m going to L.A. and I’m going to Wilshire and I’m going to do this.” It seems strange. Only trying just to get recognized? Like their big break? Ya, and then put it up on the Internet later that night. You have video cameras of your own right? I have a VX1000 and a camera light and an HVX too, but I don’t really use the HVX that much. I actually enjoy filming, and I always go on so many trips where we don’t have a filmer, so I’ll just bring my camera or film second angles. I don’t really use it that much, I could use it more. It’s cool to have, I would 90
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never get rid of my VX. I’d like to open the backpack in 20 years and know that this thing has been around the world with me and has seen a lot of funny things. My dad has this old record player that he’s had forever. It doesn’t even work but he still has it. Do you plan out your future or take the next month as it comes? I don’t have a huge plan. I just want to keep traveling and do that as long as I can until I have to grow up and get a job. I did start a retirement fund already. It’s not much, I just take like 50 bucks from my paycheck every two weeks and put it in a fund. An older friend of mine suggested it. You may as well start somewhere because it’ll add up down the road. That’s good because sponsored skateboarding is such a temporary thing really. Well, I don’t get paid to skateboard. I work in the skate shop at home. I’ll get photo incentive or something, but that’s also why I go on a lot of my own trips, or do my own thing. It’s also like a vacation. Anything you want to add? Just to get the main point across that I’m skating for the fame and the chicks, you know.
Wallie backside 5-0 anselinphoto.
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© 2012 ADIDAS AMERICA, INC. ADIDAS, THE TREFOIL LOGO AND THE 3-STRIPES MARK ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THE ADIDAS GROUP.
FAKIE FIVE-O HALF CAB FLIP
BUSENITZ PRO / / / ADIDAS.COM/SKATEBOARDING
DENNIS BUSENITZ
Feist / The Hold Steady / Archers of Loaf / Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks / Andrew W.K.
/ Reigning Sound / The Sadies
Timber Timbre / Thurston Moore / Russian Circles / The Antlers Craig Finn / The Spits / Tim Hecker / Trust / Bonjay / Lou Barlow / Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet / YAMANTAKA// SONIC TITAN / And So I Watch You From Afar / The Strange Boys / Samantha Savage Smith / Willis Earl Beal / Hayes Carll Jolie Holland / Hooded Fang / How To Dress Well / Nomeansno BadBadNotGood / Duchess Says / Prince Rama / Doldrums Joe Pernice / Larry and His Flask / Young Empires / Parlovr Madcowboys / DJ Mr. Jonathan Toubin / Night Beats / Snailhouse Indian Handcrafts / Terry Malts / Todd Barry / Tim Heidecker
illustration: Chris Zajko
Neil Hamburger / Hannibal Buress
continued from p.78
10:00pm
At the Kensington Bowl the darkness of night had also taken a dark and strange hold of this record. Outside of the camera lights that were cast into the bowl, we found Deer Man of Dark Woods lurking in the shadows of the periphery. After even more superhuman shredding from Chris, we broke into a new park that has yet to be opened, to satisfy our own curiosity for the new digs and to get a quick trick from our sole record setter. From here we continued to downtown Vancouver for a stop at The Plaza. Motivation was disappearing faster than our crew, so after a few runs from Haslam, those who remained set off for Strathcona. After a quick shred, exhaustion began to play a cruel joke on our memory. Was that 28 or 29? To avoid the risk of heartbreak in the morning, when the numbers were officially crunched, we decided to throw in the old China Creek relic for good measure before heading to our finale at the appropriately DIY 10:25pm spot—Leeside.
10:41pm this page (from top) Christian Zenga, fs air #26 Kensington #27 Mount Pleasant #28 Vancouver Plaza #29 Strathcona #30 China Creek Even though Haslam showed up without the beard, he skated like a beast to the bitter end. A true warrior.
10:53pm
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continued on p.112
vol. 10 no. 2
—
SUD Skates [ o ] GOLDSMITH
(clockwise from left) The Wall of Fame Jamie Thomas, lipslide Will Santos, Tony Hawk, Joe and Deb Wing at the Birdhouse demo in 1992 Joe did these wooden signs up by hand when SUD needed them for a big pro/am vert contest in the late 90s. After the contest, they were put up in the indoor park. Kids steal banners… but they can’t steal a wooden sign.
T
he wall of fame in the front hallway at St. Catharines ON’s SUD Skates, went up in 2008 and was supposed to be a temporary installment during their 20 th anniversary events, but shop owner Joe Wing kept them there to remind everyone of all the amazing memories. Over the past 24 years, hundreds of pro demos have gone down at SUD, either on the Hydro ramp (the original vert ramp on which the beer-fuelled term for a session—“sud skate”—was initially coined) or the closequartered indoor park that remains relatively unchanged from its original inception. This collage of photos captures some of the huge names and local legends that have rolled through over the years, but we asked Wing to fill us in on a few untold stories.
SUD had something many other shops didn’t: prime location (the first stop over the border for touring U.S. companies) and a skate park. Demos had become an important part of the skateboard industry back then because they gave kids a chance to see and meet pros in person. Demos generated higher sales for those brands and countless memorable moments.
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“Invisible Skateboards rolled through almost every year in their old ass RV,” Wing remembers. “They had a huge following in town (especially with the girls), but a tough time with the stronger Canadian beer. Brian Young didn’t drink and would get more annoyed as the night went on. While bitching at John “The Man” Reeves one night, John stood up and clocked him, right out the RV door onto the ground on his back. It almost ended the tour, because John had done the same thing to Jamie Thomas earlier on that same tour causing Jamie to promptly leave.” SUD still continues to draw huge pro demos and has even produced a few rippers of their own, like Cory Wilson. “I never would’ve dreamed any of this would ever happen,” says Wing, “but it’s a pretty damn good feeling.”
[ o ] GOLDSMITH
“Back in the early 90s, Sega hockey was the shop game of choice and every match came with a bet,” said Wing. “When Birdhouse rolled through for a demo, Tony [Hawk] bragged that he ruled at the game. During the after-party several games went down and we ended up winning all the beer from their van. Tony was good, but he didn’t know the 5-hole-pass-from-center glitch.”
“We ended up winning all the beer from the van.”
Ghostface Killah / Color 9.4
[ o ] LANDS
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vol. 10 no. 2
PHOTOGRAPHER
LOCALS ONLY SPOT
— Bev Davies who I have collaborated with on two Punk Rock Calendars. The most recent being the “Busy Doing Nothing (Better late than Never) Calendar” that is inserted in the Busy Doing Nothing compilation LP. She is probably the only photographer in the world to have taken pictures of both 60s garage legends The Barbarians and 70s Punk Gods The Dead Kennedys!
— “Thunderbird Radio Hell” on CiTR Radio fm 101.9. Week after week, for years local bands have been playing live on this radio show. Pretty much anyone that ever wanted to play gets to play, and it doesn’t get better than that
Musical genre
Meal
— History Rock. I just love Canadian History. On the new Busy Doing Nothing LP The Evaporators even have a song called “Pig War!” about an almost Canada-U.S.A. war incited by the shooting of a pig in 1859
— The Skookum Chief Hamburger from the Tomahawk BBQ in North Vancouver. What’s on it? Egg, bacon, weiner, meat, and cheese. Basically three meals in one C
M
CITY
Film maker
— North Vancouver! Mainly because it had the first set of electric street lamps north of San Francisco. And it was where Nick Jones of the Pointed Sticks went to high school
— Rob Leickner. He put together Everything Louder Than Everything Else which is kinda based around life at The Hive Recording Studio in Vancouver
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
ARTIST
Instrument
— Jason Mclean who I first met through Robert Dayton’s (also a great artist) rock band, July 4th Toilet. You might have also seen his work on a Mutators LP
— Organ. I once got a Vox Super-Continental organ from the Mayor of West Vancouver’s son
NARDwuar
Venue
— Record stores. Vancouver has had so many great gigs at places like the Zoo Zhop and Neptoon Records
STYLE/TREND
— No Trend. A great Washington, DC Hardcore Band
Book
— Vancouver’s Charted Songs, ‘56 to ‘78. It’s 654 pages of just what the title says
Song
— “Lies Lies Lies” by Chains of Love 98
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introby justin gradin
N
photoby gordon nicholas
ardwuar the Human Serviette is a Canadian staple. Although he is also a singer and keyboard player with The Evaporators, Nardwuar came to fame as a music journalist, with his quirky personality and talent for digging up unlikely background knowledge of his subjects. When I asked Nardwuar if he we could turn it around on him for a Next/Best, he was quite reluctant, stating that he is an interviewer and not an interviewee, and that he is not qualified to tell the kids what is hip. “When I am interviewing people, they know the answers, not me!” He felt weird being asked about the next big thing. So we have no Next, but what we do have is Nardwuar’s Best, and with the amount of research this man does we can only believe that what he is telling us is the truth.
Movie
— Food of the Gods a hilarious 1976 AIP Horror Movie filmed on Bowen Island, B.C.
Mindset
— “The first 50 years is the worst.” (Something my Dad told me)
Musician — Evan Symons
Words of wisdom
— Doot doola doot doo… Do it Yourself !
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vol. 10 no. 2
wordsby tyler holm
O
photosby gordon nicholas
n the last day of our trip to Arizona, the Cariboo team woke up in a battlefield—Corey Klim’s clothing torn from the previous night’s drunken shenanigans, the sounds of beer pong and wrestling still echoing off the walls. Through a haze of smoke and settling debris, Nick Moore was found barely hanging on by a thread. Somewhere in this house was the rest of the team (Sheldon Meleshinski, Mike Shulze, Kyu Tae Kim, Arte Lew, Dakota Allison), a couple of friends who’d made the trip with us (Jordan Repin and Dustin Locke) and a handful of local college girls who’d stayed the night. Somehow I had to get everyone but the girls onto a plane back to Canada in just a few hours. Problem was, the landlord who rented us the place had left me specific instructions about how the house needed to look before we left. We did what we could, but in the end, perhaps not enough. I received an email from the landlord that read: “If I knew you were a beer team, I would have never rented to you,” then finished off with, “your parents did a horrible job raising you.”
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102 trip.
Nick Moore, Frontside 180.
Jordan Repin, Smith grind.
This trip to Phoenix was the first real trip for the Cariboo skate team and a test of sorts for my work over the past few years. Since I assembled this group of skaters for (arguably) the first beer sponsored skate team in Canada, all eyes have been on us to see how this social experiment will play out. But despite the pressure, there are no high expectations for the team—all that is ever asked of these guys is to continue drinking beer and skateboarding, something everyone in this crew is down to do. The boys have been killing it from the start and looking back on this trip I couldn’t be happier with how everything went, even at the expense of an angry landlord and a blown-out rental house. .phoenix 103
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EVERYBODY MAKES BAD DECISIONS, BUT THAT JUST KEEPS THINGS INTERESTING.
Arte Lew, Switch frontside flip.
Cory Klim, Ollie.
Arizona is hot and sunny everyday and rich with spots. Each morning the guys loaded into the van and toured around from spot to spot, peering out the window at deep ditches that stretched for miles then quickly kinked out to flat like an old man’s back. Hubbas, hydrant gaps, stairs sets, handrails, parks… the skating was plentiful. But coming from Vancouver’s climate, the Arizona heat made us thirstier than ever and perhaps all those beers influenced a few bad decisions. .trip 105
It was only then, as I watched Sheldon fly through the air, that I realized how lucky I was.
One day, Sheldon dropped into an enormous bank and shot himself into a small lip that launched him into a hill covered in jagged rocks. It was only then, as I watched Sheldon fly through the air, that I realized how lucky I was to be on this trip with this group of guys. Everybody makes bad decisions, but that just keeps things interesting. The guys would be failing as a beer team if they made too many good ones. The trick is in having a good team of guys that are all on the same page and want the same things, something we are lucky to have. 106 trip.
Tyler Holm, Backside smith grind.
Jordan Repin, Noseslide 270.
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108 phoenix.
We all had an amazing time in Arizona and these photos should be proof enough that a beer team is capable of both partying and producing. This trip was a great way to show Cariboo that a skate team is an investment well worth their time and in turn, we’re proud to fly the Cariboo flag wherever we go. With how much they’ve done to support the skate community over the past few years, coupled with their commitment to plant a million trees in B.C. by 2020, we really want to return the love by being out there making them proud of us misfits. People can think what they want of a beer company sponsoring skateboarders, but in the end, the guys that are down are down and everyone is having a good time. Who knows, maybe it will catch on and other beer companies will step into the skate scene, but until then at least skateboarding has Cariboo. Nick Moore, Blunt.
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{ sitka }
continued from p.95
112 globerecord.
[ o ] DOUBT
#31 LEESIDE 11:45pm
CHRIS HASLAM
switch backside feeble frontside revert
Fueled by the dark energy of his old friend Deer Man, Haslam dipped once again into his neverending stores of energy for the final hurrah. After a barbaric battle with the barriers that went on much longer than it technically needed to, it was over. Chris Haslam had set a world record for Most Skateparks Skated in a Single Day: an astonishing 31.
There are so many more sequences, stories and breathtaking photos than even an entire issue of the magazine could offer. Head to colormagazine.ca for the Untold Stories of the Globe Record and stay locked for the video premiere on Go Skateboarding Day (June 21, 2012)
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JORDAN HOFFART backside tailslide [ o ] deville. 115
116 CHARLIE BOWINS frontside rock ‘n roll [ o ] hotz.
MAX FINE nosegrind [ o ] hotz. 117
118 BEN PATERSON backside smith grind [ o ] morley.
LEO GRACEFFO fakie 360 flip [ o ] dufresne.
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120 ELIJAH BERLE backside 50-50 [ o ] chami.
PIERRE-LUC GAGNON 540 melon grab [ o ] mathieu.
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WATCH THE FULL FILM DOCUMENTARY JUNE 21, 2012 - GO SKATEBOARDING DAY AT COLORMAGAZINE.CA/GLOBERECORD
vol. 10 no. 2
OUTDATED
Join Or Die
Business as Usual
The Cinematographers Project
It’s unbelievable how many skaters own video cameras on earth. Less than a quarter of them produce videos and the rest of them leave their footage stacked on their dusty disk drives for years before releasing personal projects. Many are scared to risk the feat and in turn, be forever judged based on their project. Yet, the few indie films that get thrown into the wild, often paint a picture of a particular scene from whatever era. New Jersey’s JP Blair has been “making a video” for as long as I can remember. He has been contributing footage to videos for quite sometime, while hanging on to his best clips for roughly 6 years now. I’ve witnessed him pushing through the streets with his green backpack strapped to his coat since 2005, and like the rest of my friends, have always wondered if he would someday premiere a film of his own. The result is an awesome video entitled, Outdated. Brian Clarke, Yaje Popson, Jason Carroll and Kevin Tierney have memorable parts as you would expect, all of which are tightly edited without aggressive effects or ramped slow motion. It’s worth purchasing merely for Jersey Dave’s first ever part. The montages include skating from all the usual N.Y. and N.J. locals, transplants and visitors, but it’s the overall homie-feel of the film that’ll make you want to go skate. If history repeats itself, JP’s next video will come out in 2019. Please go out and get your shop to order the video, so that you can support skaters who actually skate everyday. —jeremy elkin
In an age where the tomfoolery of indoor practice facilities meets the overlyromanticized visual aesthetic of today’s videos, Join Or Die feels like a raw bastion of hope. Here, 5BORO once again introduces us to that classic feeling that comes from teetering on the edge of danger and entertainment. Willy Akers and Dan Pensyl skate revolting spots that would otherwise be impossible to navigate if it wasn’t for their deranged commitment and altered view of reality. Danny Falla and Guillaume Dulout bring their south-of-the-border and European onslaught stateside, leaving the viewer feeling slightly clammy, yet wanting more. East coast pillar Jimmy McDonald undoubtedly attains full blown silent-butdeadly status with this part, forcing one to ask the question: “What made pistachio nuts?” As few speculated and even fewer believed, the curtains were given to none other than Smokin’ Joe Tookmanian. His finesse and force was enough to close this visual chapter and bring us back to a time we all admired and towards a future we all fear. There is no would have, should have, could have, and no ifs, ands or buts about it… this video is primal street skateboarding.
Can I be frank, as in outspoken, truthful and blunt? Too bad, it’s what I do. If you weren’t yet excited about Think’s newest video offering Business as Usual you’re an idiot and you should just walk away from skateboarding. Just put your board down, buy a pair of pleated Dockers and walk away. Not only does this video feature two generations of Canada from both coasts (Russ Milligan’s technical prowess and effortless switch monster pop and Toronto’s great red hope, Lee Yankou who has grown into a merciless skateboarding machine) but also a talent pool so diverse it makes ‘understatement’ an understatement. Think has always been a dark horse, existing on the periphery of the industry doing shit their way and throwing caution to the wind and this video is no different. I’ll wrap this up with a checklist. Legit street skating: check. Great soundtrack: check. Mix of classic spots and unseen gems: check. Diverse array of styles: check. Fucking amazing video: check, check, check. Looks like it’s check mate, bitches! —scotty macdonald
The best part of this film festival of a DVD is that it is not overly flashy, meaning it allows filmers and skaters to stay true to their vision and do what they are best at. The video’s surprising length goes by quickly but the overall diversity here is enough to satisfy just about every skater. Without going through all thirteen sections and their specific contents, I can say that this graying goat here was most stoked by Chewy Cannon, Dennis Busenitz, Jake Donnelly and the artist formerly known as Fat Bill’s sections. Nick Broserio, the scattered Dylan Rieder tricks and the entire Alien Workshop part forced me out the door to skate at the end of my first viewing. On the production side of things, there is a connection between the filmers and sponsors of the video, which is not too surprising, but it makes you think of how much this foreshadows what is coming down the road. The bottom line for judging any skate video is how much it makes you want to skate. Clean your bearings and take some Aleve because you’re going to want to go fast. —isaac mckay randozzi
jp blair
tom collabraro (5boro)
(think skateboards)
(transworld skateboarding)
—noel sinclair boyt
colORMAGAZINE.CA
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vol. 10 no. 2
HUSH ARBORS/ ARBOURETUM aureola (thrill jockey)
Is there a genre called Choo Choo Rock yet? If not, I’m coining it right now. On the prog-folk, pychedelic rock tip (Choo Choo Rock) we got Hush Arbors joining forces with contemporaries Arbouretum. Both bands are familiar with the improv zone: Hush Arbors having played with Sunburned Hand Of The Man and Thurston Moore, and Arbouretum with the looseness of their always changing live show. Here, both bands focus more on the folk song structure with the occasional blast of acid guitar psychedelic fuzz slide boner attack, creating an overall mellow feel (Choo Choo Rock). You can almost hear the songs as if they were distorted through a stack of amps, which would mutate it into a much heavier psych-rock five star hotel fire. When I close my eyes and listen to this, I picture the singer to be toothless and singing into a photograph of a baby boy, with every song ending in the regretful tears of a wandering hobo. —justin gradin
BLACK DICE
mr. impossible (ribbon music)
For almost fifteen years, Black Dice have been terrorizing audience’s ears with their ever-mutating style of noise rock. While the group has had a few personnel changes over the years, the core members have been streamlining their sound into a more cohesive and listenable take on mutant electronics, all while maintaining their penchant for creating otherworldly outcomes. While the past few releases have dabbled in making their noise-rock somewhat more danceable, the results have been mixed or even fallen flat, but with Mr. Impossible Black Dice have finally pulled it off. Opener “Pinball Wizard” piles on oddball vocal effects, buzzing keyboards and a strangled and heavily affected guitar line, all of which is eventually propelled to the dance floor by an off-kilter drum machine that sounds straight out of an early 90s Warp record. Most of the tracks here come together like this, and it’s not nearly as cluttered as you might think. Mr. Impossible is one of those records that you can get down to and yet still be confounded by. —mark richardson 124 colORMAGAZINE.CA
LIGHT ASYLUM
s/t (mexican summer)
Light Asylum played at my house, the MIME SCHOOL, in Echo Park once and they were absolutely amazing live. Now, after listening to their self-titled debut on New York’s Mexican Summer, I think they might be even better on record. You really get to hear everything, all the little details and nuances of the songs. These guys sound like the grim reaper riding a wild cloud and listening to Grandmaster Flash on a huge boombox in the middle of the night during spring break. This is break dance music for Goths! This Brooklyn duo shreds out the synth-blasted dark wave that is sure to make you dance even if you have a case of the pouty lips. Singer Shannon Funches’s voice is the real destroyer here; strong and confident, and inflected with the right amounts of attitude and total conviction. A no brainer for fans of blah, blah, blah, or even for fans outside of blah, blah, blah. —justin gradin
OFF!
s/t (vice records)
After releasing their first four EP’s and getting in the van and handling a number of tours, OFF! deliver their first full-length album, and it’s a beauty pageant for children of a punk/hardcore party-hug record. Once again songs are brutally short, and in the vein of early 80s Southern California punk rock. Songs like “Borrow and Bomb” clock in at 43 seconds and most of the songs on this record are not much longer, some even shorter. “Jet Black Girls,” “King Kong Brigade,” and the album’s opener “Wiped Out” are the only three that break the minute mark, and they do it just barely. If you are a fan (I know, I know, here we go again) of early Black Flag (obvious!) or Circle Jerks (is this for real?), then you should like this, as it is pretty much the exact same stuff, just a new incarnation of it. Don’t wanna sound like a dick or anything, but that’s what my opinion is, and I should know about these things cuz I got my BFA at Sprott Shaw Community College. —bobby lawn
MAC DEMARCO
rock n’ roll nightclub (captured tracks)
Mac Demarco stayed at my house once. That night he was so loud outside of my house that my neighbor, a gigantic Mexican dude, said if they didn’t quiet down he would shoot them. The next night we went to a bar and Mac told two morbidly obese girls that he was in town playing bass for his band Broken Social Scene. They got his number and he got theirs, and later on, back at the house, he decided to call them. But before he called them he hooked his phone into our P.A. system. When the girls answered the phone Mac immediately jumped into conversation about how he wanted to “eat their assholes” while the whole room listened in on their reply of mindless giggling. Rock n’ Roll nightclub is a departure in sound from Mac’s last band Make Out Videotape, but not a departure from Mac’s overall mindset and attitude. Also, look for this album in its cassette tape life via Green Burrito. Holla atchay boi! —justin gradin
DANTE Vs. ZOMBIES buh (neurotic yell)
Los Angeles, California garage/party/glam rockers Dante Vs. Zombies release their follow up to the Yes, I’m Stalking You 7-inch record with their debut full-length Buh. There’s a wide variety of musical influences from all over the map, like the tropicali of “My Poor Old Parrot” or the 80s dance floor inspired “Horror Stories For Whores,” and the anthemic “Watermelon Iodine.” Dante Vs. Zombies is definitely a fun band to see live with their weird costumes and Dante’s hyperactivity in full swing, but it left the question of whether or not the high energy show would transfer over to record. And the answer is yes. The energy and excitement for the songs is definitely captured and transferred from their minds to their fingertips, limbs and vocal cords, to their instruments, into microphones, into some type of recording device, to a mastering studio, to a vinyl pressing plant, to distributors, to record stores, to your hand, to your record player and to your ears. —bobby lawn
TERRIBLE FEELINGS shadows (deranged)
Seems like there is a lot of good punk rock records coming out of Europe these days. Here’s a great example of one brought to us by the Canadian hands of Deranged records. Terrible feelings play very much in the vein of old school punk, taking hints from rock n’ roll riffage, and not obsessively focusing on tempo as many punks seem to be fixated with. Take the song “Wicked Skull PT.1” which is 47 seconds long, and not a superspazz freak-out of blast beats, but a beautiful guitar piece accompanied by what sounds like a harmonica. Then it jumps into “Wicked Skull PT.2” which sounds like it could have been pulled off of The Circle era Wipers. Shadows is an amazingly well-written album with lots of hooks, and a singer who is actually singing and kind of sounds like a female Chi Pig! This is one of those records you will end up playing more than once. Good job Sweden! —justin gradin
SILVER DAPPLE
english girlfriend (forchristsake)
After seeming to pop up out of nowhere and blowing away unsuspecting audiences during the mid-2011 cross-Canada Wyrd Fest tour, Montreal’s Silver Dapple finally unleash their debut longplayer via their own FORCHRISTSAKE label. The term ‘shoegaze’ is often attributed to this band, but while they do have a penchant for bringing the volume out in their live set, English Girlfriend isn’t really as ethereal, all-enveloping or pedaldependent as other bands of that genre tend to be. Led by songwriter Emily Diemert and her sweet, direct and unaffected vocals, Silver Dapple manage that fine line between noise-pop and relentlessly driving indie rock. While this is hardly an original combination (think Black Tambourine or The Swirlies), it is the memorable and addictive melodies of Diemert that make the four-piece stand out from the myriad of bands clogging up the underground with forgettable records. Extra points allotted to the band for getting this LP out on their own label rather than waiting for a label like Slumberland or Captured Tracks to sign them. —mark richardson
fIREHOSE
lowflows: the columbia anthology (’91-’93) (columbia) Hey, remember these guys? Remember fIREHOSE? Mike Watt and George Hurley’s post Minutemen project after the tragic and accidental death of D.Boon, remember? Well in case you forgot, here is an anthology of the fIREHOSE Columbia Records years (the band started on SST Records) and of course, IT RULES. The guitar work of Ed “fROMOHIO” Crawford, lends perfect compliments to Watt’s frantic bass playing and Hurley’s complex drum lines. These guys had a lot more of a mellow vibe going than the Minutemen, but still deliver a large pizza when you are feeling lonely and hungry. It’s almost funny when you can hear an album (or albums) of music played by actual musical wizards. You will even hear the occasional cowbell on some songs. If you are a skateboarder or a fan of skate vids you should check out the Santa Cruz Skateboards video series “Streets On Fire.” It features a number of songs from fIREHOSE’s “Ragin’ Full On” which is an SST release, and has nothing to do with this anthology release at all, but is still a neat lil’ thing to peep at if you have the time.
EVAPORATORS
busy doing nothing (mint)
The Evaporators strike once again with a new record Busy Doing Nothing, that’s both compilation and original. Nardwuar and the gang put forth an LP with a large list of bands/friends including Andrew W.K., Franz Ferdinand, The Cribs, Faud and the Feztones, Kate Nash, Jill Barber and Sage Francis all paying homage to Vancouver bands like The Dishrags and The Pointed sticks among others. There are also originals on here, as well as collaborative efforts like Andre W.K. and The Evaporators’ “I Hate Being Late When I’m Early.” Along with the theme of celebrating and preserving West Coast punk culture, this LP also comes with some beautiful visuals in the form of a Bev Davies calendar. The calendar has amazing photos from both U.S. and Vancouver bands and includes some great photos of Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains’ “Skunks.” This is a wonderfully packaged and thoughtful record, so if you are a fan of West Coast/Vancouver punk/garage, or UK bands, or maybe if you are a calendar enthusiast, then this could be the record for ye. —bobby lawn
TY SEGALL/WHITE FENCE
SPIRITUALIZED
sweet heart sweet light (fat possum)
hair (drag city)
San Francisco natives Ty Segall and White Fence combine their mutual affection for jangly, 60s-inspired psych and garage rock with Hair, their first collaborative effort. While Ty has always maintained an unhinged approach to that era, White Fence’s Tim Presley has primarily stuck with the acid damaged and folk-y end of the spectrum. So with the two mining the same period but coming from opposite ends of it, you might think this would be an incongruous fit. Well, you’d be dead wrong. In fact, neither Tim nor Ty change their styles here much at all, instead ramming the two headlong into each other. Six of the eight tracks on Hair are sung by Presley, who comes off like a long-lost psych-folk troubadour. Meanwhile, Ty shreds on his guitar throughout Hair, adding in some subtle backup vocals when necessary. When Ty does jump in, he follows Presley mellow lead and sticks with a plaintive and slightly stoned approach. Hair is a triumph for the both of them, which is saying something considering the consistency and length of their back catalogs. —mark richardson
Spiritualized is back after 2008’s Songs In A&E with Sweet Heart Sweet Light that has been two years in the making and one year of mixing! The first single off the record, “Hey Jane,” sounds like a young Bob Dylan singing over a Lennon and McCartney song with a choir of churchies chirping along. The album eventually kicks into a much more pop-oriented album than past Spiritualized material has offered. With that said, there are still noise-infused tantrums and shoegaze elements placed throughout, with the songs’ length never in mind. There is also a very strong gospel/drug thing going on, but I guess that’s nothing new here. “So Long You Pretty Things,” the album’s closer, features Jason Pierce’s (J.Spaceman) eleven- yearold daughter Poppy Spaceman on vocals, and she is even credited as penning the opening verse. Wow. A model, actress, singer and songwriter. My eleven-year-olddaughter can barely even drive the car to pick up groceries and the dry cleaning with out complaining about it. So lazy. —bobby lawn
—justin gradin
IMAGES
thought patterns 7” (water under the bridge)
Images are three virile young men from the South Bay area of Southern California. This is their debut 4-song 7-inch single on San Pedro’s Water Under The Bridge Records (Minutemen, Reactionaries, Todd Congelliere). Immediately, this sounds like it has come straight out of 1979, harkening back to U.K. punk/pop gods Generation X, Undertones and Buzzcocks. But then it has a distinctly Southern California feel to it. This guilt by association brings to mind early 80s L.A. “Ramones on drugs” acts like The Quick, The Dickies, Simpletones and The Crowd. The lead guitar simmers like an egg being fried on hot asphalt, the bass lines hypnotize and the drums and backing vocals keep the Images train rolling towards the end of civilization, the corner of the earth that falls straight into the Pacific Ocean. Somehow Images manage to blend old and new seamlessly. “Can’t Get Enough” is the standout track, pushing forward with sexual energy and young men’s vitriol. In mining the well of English and L.A. punk gems, Images made this music their own. —justin maurer
VEX RUFIN
eulogy (stones throw)
Vex Rufin were signed to Stones Throw based on an unsolicited demo (apparently a first for the hip-hop label), which eventually led to 2011’s criminally overlooked Crash Course twelve inch EP. Perhaps it was his strange brew of post-punk and new wave, flourished with a slight touch of hip-hop, that threw off the fans of the label who were maybe expecting another Madlib-associated release. Instead, Vex is carving out his own sound within the confines of modern rap and adding in hints of genres that you may never have thought would mesh well with hip-hop. Here, Vex borrows heavily from Public Image Limited’s skeletal dub, connects it with a minimalist approach to early 80s hip-hop and even adds in some goth-tinged leanings. Backed by a simple drum machine and even simpler guitar lines (he claims to be able to play only one string at a time), Vex sleepily raps, sings and mumbles his way through these six bleak and funky soundscapes. Eulogy is an excellent companion piece to Crash Course and perhaps a primer of what’s to come —mark richardson
CAFETERIA DANCE FEVER
danceology (hovercraft records)
Danceology sums up the last eight years of Cafeteria Dance Fever releases. Originally from Ohio, brothers Tim and Mark Janchar relocated to Portland where they formed C.D.F. with Cain and Sacia. In the beginning, they weren’t unlike fellow PDX partners in crime The Hunches and Phantom Lights, but in later years they honed their sound down to a lo-fi pop garage punk vibe. The dueling shouty male and female vocals remind us of Blatz, if Blatz were actually good. Certain tunes are a much better, poppier versions of Blatz with excellent songwriting that incorporates great, tough old school early 80s O.C. punk riffs but mixed with a Pacific Northwest garage punk sensibility and sometimes goofy song titles like: “A Rainbow That Shoots Nunchucks at People” and “Jonathan Taylor Thomas Is Too Good To Be True.” The best track of the album is “Gorilla Escapes Zoo,” then after “School Sucks” the CD’s 24 tracks gets a little tedious, but if tracks 1-12 were on a standalone album, it would be a damn good one. —justin maurer
THEE SPIVS
black and white memories (damaged goods)
On the merry isle of England, a place obsessed with aping the Strokes and Libertines and headband electro, dance rock like MGMT and Vampire Weekend, music has lacked one thing in the last 10 years: balls. In London garage-punk nights at Dirty Water Club and Corn Rocket Club have been bringing the best of garage and punk to London for a few years, but there hasn’t been a young London band worth noting until Thee Spivs! On this second album Black and White Memories, Thee Spivs have thrown some acoustic guitar and keyboard into the mix to give it a sing-songy football chant feel, but they have retained their ballsy 1977 glam punk roots. Ben, Steve and Dan have just nailed on the head that snarling perfectly catchy ‘77 punk feel without sounding cliché or tired. They’ve also managed to inject some ferocious amphetamine into the mix. Their second album reminds us of a time when punk used to be full of rhetorical questions (“Is This the Thanks I Get” and “What’s the Use”) and really, this is the most fun music has sounded in years. —justin maurer colORMAGAZINE.CA
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vol. 10 no. 2
F —
Collective 45, DIY MTL
or the past couple years, Montreal’s Project 45 has been trying to come up with unique fundraising ideas to keep building new spots and supporting the city’s growing DIY skate community. On April 5th, 2012, hundreds of artists, skaters, media and the curious alike descended upon Underpressure Gallery to attend the first of what will hopefully become an annual event: Collectif45, DIY Montreal. With more then 20 participating artists, photographers and skaters from all over the world, including Pontus Alv, Gershon Mosley and Julian Deniau amongst others, the month-long exhibition was bigger then they imagined it would ever become and gave Project45 the recognition they deserve to keep helping others DIY for years to come.
[ o ] LAVRAI
Hugues Lauzier
Jai Ball
Oliviero Fontana
Kevin Vaillancourt
Annie Guglia & Pat Dallaire
Julien Brunet-Schmidt & Annie Guglia
Dickson Li The Broke Ams
Phil Daoust
The Skirtboarders
Etienne Tanguay
Sebastien Petit
Gabriel De Lery & Julien Brunet-Schmidt
Jonathan Michaud-Levesque & Alex Forbes
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Gershon Mosley & Sonia Khenfech
Zian Misciosca & David Dallaire
Snail Mail: 105-321 Railway St. Vancouver, B.C. V6H 1A4 contest@colormagazine.ca
Top concepts will be published in Color 10.3 with the top 3 designers receiving a nice box of product from Jamcouver 2012 brand partners. BONUS: if your design gets built for Jamcouver 2012, you will be flown out to Vancouver to skate it* alongside Canada’s best skaters and you favourite pros!
*some conditions apply
Post your design to: facebook.com/colormagazine
quarters lx/ brown wax/ gravisskateboarding.com
vol. 10 no. 2
—
Chris Connolly wordsby scotty macdonald
photoby gordon nicholas
O
ur decision to throw Chris into the Tattered Ten gauntlet was an easy one. Not only is Mr. Connolly known for cutting a swath of devastation on a board, but he also has a reputation for drunken destruction as well. When I went into this, I knew of Chris’ legendary exploits, but I was still given a caveat: Chris harbours a Dark Passenger—the Black Out. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to get the goods before the Dark Passenger rose. But rest assured; rise it did. At first there was only minor damage: throwing things around, focusing chairs, I was hit over the back with the metal racking Chris tore out of the oven. But then, after the ventriloquist dummy was stuffed in both the oven and the dishwasher while both appliances were running, he picked up my terabyte hard drive and threw it against the wall destroying its contents. Tattered might not be the only word that can sum up my encounter with Chris Connolly. 1. What’s the worst rumour you’ve heard about yourself? I heard a rumour that I didn’t ever sleep, which is sometimes true when I’m partying, but it wasn’t as bad as I heard—they meant I never slept, ever. 2. Could this be tied to your penchant for blacking out? Because sometime people could confuse the two. Your body’s awake but your thinking mind is asleep with only zombie Connolly driving the machine. Could be, but I don’t know. I’m blacked out. 3. Have you ever started a rumour about yourself? I seriously can’t think of anything and this is not going well. I think I’m too sober. Let me have a couple in a row. 4. You once drunkenly told me that when you were first skating, long before you knew about the world of skateboarding and were just a starry-eyed kid with a skateboard and an imagination, you invented—without ever seeing—backside heelflips. Is this true? I did. It wasn’t divine inspiration. I knew what heelflips were and I knew what a backside 180 was, so I brought the two together. And I was totally cut off from the wider world. I didn’t watch videos, I didn’t read magazines, I just skateboarded. So one day I decided to bring the two together and the next thing you know: backside heelflip. For awhile I thought I invented it. People were probably doing it for years but I didn’t know. In my mind, I invented it. In fact I thought for
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sure I invented it. It was only when I started reading magazines I realized I didn’t. 5. I was with master park builder Trevor Moncaster earlier and he asked me to ask you something. He told me that before skateboarding you were a rollerblader. And even better, you were sponsored for rollerblading. What say you about these shocking accusations? Oh, it’s worse than that. My rollerblade phase was during skateboarding. I used to play street hockey and all the kids started playing on rollerblades, I got a pair so I could join in. Around this time, my parents decided they wanted to get rid of me for a summer and send me to a camp, I guess to improve my rollerblade skills. So one day, we ended up at a skatepark and there just so happened to be a rollerblade team doing a demo. It was all kind of satellite to me so I just started cruising around, doing 360s and shit and next thing I know they’re asking me to be on the team. So for the summer of my tenth trip around the sun, I was a sponsored rollerblader. And like I said, the worst part was that it wasn’t a momentary indiscretion before I discovered skateboarding, I already skated. But it was only that summer and I eventually came to my senses and quit. 6. Obviously you need to follow that up with something gnarly to help repair your street cred, why don’t you tell us about your time in jail? It was all a misunderstanding if you think about it. I had a warrant from a mischief charge I had. I kicked in the windshield of
“This went on until I’d been in jail 4 separate times on the same warrant.” one of the bouncers from the Bourbon and ended up spending the night in jail. When I was let out I didn’t realize I’d been charged and had a court date. So I missed my court date and on “Should Be Just Like Any Other Day,” I was going home to get my board and I got on the SkyTrain without buying a ticket. Just my luck, SkyTrain police get on to check tickets and I was already bummed about getting a $173 ticket but when the cop ran my name, boom—he’s putting me in handcuffs. So instead of Go Skateboarding Day it ended up being, “spend a couple of days waiting for my next court date” day. 7. I don’t remember a “Free Connolly” grassroots movement. Who bailed you out? I had to wait until I could see a judge and then when that happened, I had to agree to his terms. First I was supposed to go pay the damages on the bouncers car… 8. And how much was that? I can’t remember. I do remember the day I was supposed to go do that I decided to go hang out at the bar instead. So that’s how I got warrant number two. They came and found me and put me back in jail. It gets boring after this because it’s just the same repeating event. Get out of jail, forget to
do whatever was part of the conditions of my release, have the police come pick me up and take me back to jail. This went on until I’d been in jail 4 separate times on the same warrant. There was probably a failure to appear one in there but if I paid attention to that shit I wouldn’t have went in so many times. Finally I was given community service and it all took care of itself. 9. How did the cops know what bar to find you in after your initial release? No, no. The cops didn’t pick me up at a bar when I skipped going to pay for the damages. What’s funnier is, when I kicked in the bouncer’s windshield I proceeded to just sit down on the hood and chill. 10. Well how come you’re such a lousy criminal? How did the cops find you without you doing something to attract them? One time I was driving and they ran my plates. Warrant, cuffs and goodnight. One night they came right to my front door. I was just getting ready to go to work at the Rickshaw and ten minutes before I was going to leave there’s a knock on my door and it’s two cops and I’m in cuffs and heading back to jail.
no. 2
—
Jamcouver II, August 11, 2012 ...see you there
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