Volume 10, Number 3 by Color Magazine

GABRIEL DUBOIS

•

ALEXIS LACROIX

•

JOSH BOS

•

LIL

art ⁄ fashion ⁄ film ⁄ music ⁄ life ⁄ skate! B • THE UNTOLD STORY OF NORTH

_ THE HISTORY ISSUE 23

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CDN PUBLICATION AGREEMENT #40843627

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ISSN 1920-0412

rodney graham • larry kent • jason deary • white lung burger records • philadelphia • colin mckay • jamie tancowny • hugo balek

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no. 3

[ o ] POST

or the same reason I adore skateboarding, I’ve always loved stories, and when you get to be around my age, you pride yourself on having more than a few of them to share.

10 years ago, right around this time, I felt like I was in the centre of it all… Vancouver was a melting pot for skateboarding, as it still is today, but before Berger, Papa, and DeCenzo there was another class of skateboarders who had transplanted themselves here from all around the country to hone their skills. I was lucky enough to watch them germinate with incredible prowess; each one of them developing their own unique personalities. This wasn’t like what I had learned about skateboard lifestyle through videos and magazines at the time, these people had an art gallery in their skateshop and they were out at shows, living just like me! I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was unfolding all around me, so I set out on a mission to make a magazine that represented a movement in skateboarding based upon creativity and the great efforts that were being made in and around it. Sounds simple enough, but at the time, this hadn’t been done before. I certainly wasn’t overqualified to make it happen but I was keen to the challenge, so I made sacrifices and managed to navigate my way through it all because, well, sometimes a story just needs to be told. We consider this issue of Color you hold in your hands The History Issue. Every aspect of its contents has some bigger reason for being there. You will find the untold story of the original North video—a piece of work that defined an entire generation in Canadian skateboarding. For me, North meant a means to the beginning, that skateboarding wasn’t something I had to grow out of, because it was evolving right there with me. Seeing how everyone involved held the highest standard for quality showed me that we deserved a magazine that followed those same ideals.

In this issue, we spill a few untold stories, from an artist feature with Gabriel Dubois, who was right in the thick of it when I was still trying to break ground, to a hopeful young skater who has appeared over the years in videos we’ve helped make with Jeremy Elkin, but has never been able to get photos into any magazines… until now. We learn about Canada’s first indie filmmaker and tell you what happened when we found Moses Itkonen’s old handmade run-ups in the back of a truck and then put them to today’s test. Each time I’m able to see such great features like these materialize, I feel an unexplainable sense of achievement, as if we’ve already succeeded in getting some kind of point across or that another chapter in our ongoing story is complete. Although there are some classic images within this issue, everything you’ll find in this magazine has never been published before, and maybe some needed to be seen now, to refresh our memories and to get you psyched. Digging through boxes containing the last 10 years of Color, it’s been incredibly rewarding to see how we’ve grown and just how much the magazine hasn’t changed at all! It has gotten a hell of a lot better, but still, at its root, it continues to be a direct reflection of the person I’ve come to know as myself. Looking back on 45 issues is literally a time capsule of my own life interests, beginning in 2003. Whether it was something I was able to bring to the table or an artist/musician I was introduced to through the grips of one of the editors, I stand by every damn piece. I won’t say it was all good, but then again, I said it was a reflection of me. And we’re not so different, you and I.

Sandro Grison, publisher / creative director

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supradistribution.com fourstarstickers@supradistribution.com

no. 3

STEVEN GLANVILLE

AIDAN JOHNSTON

guest typographer

contributing writer

Steven Glanville came out of his momma in London, ON with a slice of pizza in one hand and a pen in the other. He holds a BA in Illustration from Sheridan College but he is rarely serious and finds it hard to ever make sense. When he’s not drawing, he’s skating or playing hockey.

Equipped with the gait and smile of a traveling salesman, plus a bag of dirty laundry, Aidan Johnston spends as much time as he can exploring this earth in search of better sandwiches. When he finds some downtime between hitchhiking through Bolivia and being the guest of honour at a wedding in Siem Reap, he skateboards, writes, deejays and gives himself any other titles that can avert having a real job. For this issue he adds Nosey Neighbour 56 and Professional Drinker 120 to his resume.

STEVENGLANVILLE.COM

SHANE TWERDUN

JEFFREY STOCKBRIDGE

contributing writer

contributing photographer

Shane Twerdun was born in the middle of the country—Manitoba, to be exact—and has spent his adult life moving west, eventually making it to Vancouver where he attended film school. He is a filmmaker who has been working as an actor, director and writer for the last 10 years. This summer he begins shooting his first self-produced feature: a reimagining of Larry Kent’s 1962 film Hastings Street. Read about Shane’s special relationship with Canada’s first independent filmmaker. 30

Jeffrey Stockbridge is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where his work crosses the boundary between fine-art and documentary styles with projects focusing on prostitution, drug addiction and abandonment 98. His photographs have been exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery London, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Fleisher Art Memorial and The Wapping Project Bankside. Jeffrey has been skateboarding since he was 12. Go Phillies!

WHITEBUFFALOFILMS.COM

JEFFREYSTOCKBRIDGE.COM

ANNE COTTINGHAM

ANDREW SZETO

contributing writer

contributing writer/photographer

Hailing from foggy Nova Scotia, Anne Cottingham made her way to Vancouver after an 8-year stint in Ottawa where she discovered that she didn’t really dream to be Prime Minister. She holds a BA in History with a minor in Art History from Carleton University and a BFA in Photography from Emily Carr. Now working for a private contemporary art collection and writing independently, Anne is otherwise working on her apocalypse skills (step one: run fast). For this issue, Anne checks out a new Rodney Graham exhibition at the VAG. 54

Andrew Szeto works a 9-5 as an environmental engineer with the Canadian Coast Guard and is about to graduate from the Masters program at Dalhousie University where he based his research on determining illegal polluters in mysterious oil spills in Canadian waters. He rides a cafédout CX-500 Honda motorcycle everywhere he goes and recently had an art show in Brooklyn. He’s been skating for forever, (he once rode flow for Adidas, Raised by Wolves and GEF Skateboards) and now finds love in shooting photos. For this issue, Andrew introduces us to the Bos brothers. 86

Follow Anne on Twitter @ANNECOTTINGHAM SZETOSZETOPHOTO.COM

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CONGRATS TO NEW BLIND PRO MORGAN SMITH. WATCH MORGAN RIPPING THE STREETS OF NYC AT BLINDSKATEBOARDS.COM

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vol. 10

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Columns 08 INTRO 10 CONTRIBUTORS 12 CONTENTS 33 ANTHRAX 121 LAST NITE 124 OVER ‘N OUT 125 CREDITS

skate ⁄

fashion ⁄

CMYK

Extra Random

106

FOTOFEATURE

115

colin mckay Next/Best

Geoff Strelow, Matt Berger, Paul Trep, Charles Deschamps

Never all over again

LARRY KENT

119

TRAILER Video Reviews

INSPIRATION BOUND

JASON DEARY Page 36

RODNEY GRAHAM Show

116

SOUND CHEQUE Album Reviews

We use Moses Itkonen’s old pieces of Skatelite to alter a spot and ask: Does this still count as street skating?

BURLY HOPS

HELTER SHELTER

product toss

Beer and skateboarding come together like never before at Montreal’s La Consigne Beer Chope. By Tim Sedo.

Philadelphia, PA City

100

Jamie Tancowny Red Flagged

120

Tattered Ten

Jam out to some of our favourite looks from the 90s. Photography by Andrew Volk

Shane Twerdun befriends Canada’s indie film pioneer.

art ⁄

Don’t be alarmed by the decapitated Buddhas and strong aroma of melted chocolate, a lot of good things are happening in The Sterling Lofts.

Three skate nerds curate

film ⁄

life ⁄

feat. The Predatory Word by John Rattray

music ⁄

Aidan Johnston gets Hugo Balek to open up about his involvement in the Montreal student riots. FROM THE COVER

Antoine Asselin, frontside 360.

Koko Bunji, 2008 by Gabriel Dubois, acrylic, spray paint, oil stick, spray paint and collage on wood, 110cm x 92cm

zaslavskyphoto.

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no. 3

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Features

A PSYCHEDELIC YEAR Quebec ripper Alexis Lacroix separates himself from the rest of Canada with unique style and a beastly bag of tricks. By Yann Fily-Paré

Trajectory Graff From Beer Bench to Berlin, Jenn Jackson tracks the artistic evolution of Gabriel Dubois.

UNCOVERED Too small. Too dark. Too Sheckler. Here’s a collection of never been used skate photos that almost made the front page.

BROTHERLY LOVE Josh Bos is killing it right now. Of course, it helps that he has two older brothers helping him get it done. Andrew Szeto breaks it down.

NORTH: Unzipped Unseen photos, untold stories and catching up with the cast of the greatest video in Canadian skateboard history.

BREATHE IT IN Justin Gradin discovers that every member of White Lung is a skater, just not the kind you can be friends with.

aCE OF BASED

Is Lil B the real deal or is Brandon McCartney simply taking us all for a ride? Cameron McArthur explores.

102

SANDWICH SHOP Burger Records puts cassettes back on the menu. Gobble up this tasty interview by Justin Maurer.

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Autobiography Chapter: Two, 2012 by Jason Deary, mixed media installation, 120" x 122"

// USA

something better change

JORDAN SANCHEZ 2012

www.thecomune.com www.change-comune.com

SKATEBOARDING CONTRIBUTOR

Photo by Garric Ray // Back 180 nosegrind

OFFSET

Vicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Market: www.youtube.com/user/VicsMarket

vol. 10 no. 3

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GEOFF STRELOW ollie up 360 flip [ o ] nicholas.

MATT BERGER bennett grind 180 [ o ] caissie.

PAUL TREP switch frontside kickflip [ o ] caissie.

CHARLES DESCHAMPS frontside 180 fakie 5-0 half cab [ o ] comber.

supradistribution.com habitatstickers@supradistribution.com

vol. 10 no. 3

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La Consigne

A glimpse of the finest beer from Quebec.

If you thought beer had only 4 flavors you were wrong.

Yanick Nolet, Skateboarder, Biker, Designer & Beer Lover

wordsby tim sedo

photosby babas levrai

anick Nolet is a DIY renaissance man. A pillar of the Montreal skate scene, Nick is a co-founder of Father Skateboards and one of the major motivating factors behind Project 45 “Faites-le vous-même” skatepark. He also lends his freelance graphic design skills to a diverse array of products from skateboards to cookbooks and in late 2011, Nolet added another entry to his eclectic resumé by opening La Consigne Beer Chope—Montreal’s (and possibly the world’s) first skater-run craft beer boutique. La Consigne (or “The Deposit” in its more clumsy English translation) is small and quaint and stocked with over 300 carefully selected Quebec microbrews. Nolet is a self-proclaimed beer nerd and it shows in his exclusive collection of beers from amazing microbreweries that you’ve likely never heard of including: À la Fût, À L’abri de la Tempête, Boquébière, Les Brasseurs du Monde, Le Naufrageur, Pit Caribou and Montreal’s beloved Dieu du Ciel. La Consigne also offers its own rotating seasonal brew hand-created by Nolet. Much like Project 45, La Consigne celebrates local collaboration. Nolet works with neighbourhood restaurants like Le Chien Rose, to create weekly beer and food pairings and he frequently teams 22

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up with Montreal’s celebrity chef and “culinary anarchist” Bob le Chef to create unique and inspired beer-based recipes. In many ways, La Consigne looks and feels a lot like your favourite independent skateshop, evident in the bottle opener/skate tool logo. The atmosphere is unpretentious and non-rushed, the store is stocked with quality products and the staff is friendly and knowledgeable. All of La Consigne’s signage, packaging, t-shirts and posters are designed by Nolet himself and show a clear nod to his skateboarding roots. Best thing: La Consigne is only a 20-minute skate from Project 45—perfect for those Wednesday night old man sessions when corner store beer just won’t cut it.

Beer + food = happy customers

La Consigne Beer Chope 168, Fleury Ouest Ahuntsic, Montréal (QC) laconsigne.ca

(right) Can you dig it? Tailslide at P45 babasphoto.

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vol. 10 no. 3

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Peace in the Middle East Rhianon Bader left her position at Color in 2010, moving across the world to become the Media and Communications Director at Skateistan: a non-profit, nonpolitical skateboarding and educational program in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Pakistan. Rhianon sends her love back to us from the desert and gives all new meaning to getting ‘snaked’ with this selection of sartorial goods—the perfect setup for an ambassador of change.

(clockwise from shoes)

NIKE stefan janoski mid shoe ANTIHERO miorana tread deck CHOCOLATE finish line wheels ROYAL mariano pro low trucks QUIKSILVER switsh sunglasses and sea crew sweater

SITKA elm pants

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QUIKSILVER

SKATEBOARDING

COLLECTION

vol. 10 no. 3

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Tailor Made [ o ] KERR

Mike Tsui (aka “Chui”) was once described around our office as The Chinese Kramer. Since he was going to be around all the time anyway we appointed him as the Music Editor. At that time, he embodied everything we learned about music through skateboard videos—backpack rap to the next level! Thankfully we all grew out of that, but if baggy clothes ever make a comeback, at least now we know a good tailor you can see in Toronto to let those chinos out.

(clockwise from shorts)

GLOBE good stock pants SPITFIRE bighead wheels CHOCOLATE vincent alvarez deck QUIET LIFE five panel hat GRAVIS ashport shoes SITKA tuwa belt

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vol. 10 no. 3

T H E

P R E D A T O R Y

W O R D

Prying open the filthy great wheeled bin of life to study the refuse and waste within

with john rattray

National Geographic, Social Media & Skateboarding in Native American Culture

Party Foreverer

hard drugs & jeffry lee (project space press) I always tell people that they should write more often and take fewer pictures. Wouldn’t it be so amazing to find your grandfather’s notebook in an old trunk someday, not some unmoving sepia-toned photo, but a notebook full of stories and a voice and a real solid interpretation of his life for you to have? How about some of his amazing illustrations plus a 10-track album from a period of his life when he lived in New York? Wouldn’t that be incredible to find? Of course it would, and it’s this excitement, this desire to capture a moment in time with all the clarity and reflection available to creative human beings, that motivates this album of illustrations/digital tracks from Vancouver band Hard Drugs (the word “album” being employed here carefully, with its full meaning for collecting). Sure, 40 years from now your grandkids will be able to look up your Facebook page (and oh won’t that be a treat for them, what, with all those captivating photos of you at a bar), but a bound imprint of you and your closest friends in which you actually reflect on a moment for more than 30 seconds and then write about what that time meant to you and then take your favourite photos from that period and meticulously illustrate them with your own hand, employing a skill you are proud to possess, and then bind it all together for a complete record of your existence… then you’d have yourself something special—a legacy you can be proud of. This shining example of multimedia makes the most powerful argument for the value of print I’ve seen in some time and is a deliberate move away from the single mindedness of digital tunnel vision; a reminder that the intangible feeling of holding a solid something in your hands can simply never be replaced. —dan post

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SKATEISTAN: The tale of skateboarding in Afghanistan jim fitzpatrick & rhianon bader (self-published)

This hefty 320-page book begins roughly five years ago, when 33-year-old Australian skateboarder Oliver Percovich arrived in Afghanistan with three skateboards and an “open spirit.” Having traveled to more than 40 countries worldwide, ‘Ollie’ had repeatedly experienced how skateboarding could bridge language and cultural gaps between himself and complete strangers, so naturally he shared his skateboards with the local Afghani youth. “After those loaner boards came back in tatters,” he recalls, “with the kids screaming, ‘We need more skateboards’,” Ollie understood right away how this simple toy could become a tool to build trust and provide empowerment through a combination of skateboarding and educational activities. This tome is packed full of photo spreads, from Afghanistan’s rugged landscape to heavily armed men huddled against scrubby mountain backdrops, to a young girl in a headscarf riding a skateboard down a dusty street, plus stories that cover Skateistan’s past, present and future as told by the staff, volunteers and students who make up this Kabul-based non-profit organization. But as I thumbed through this book I didn’t immediately see images of Westerners grinning proudly next to their needy Afghani charity cases. It was clear to me that those behind Skateistan had sidestepped the spotlight allowing it to fall directly on the children and communities they set out to serve. This book is an incredible documentation of Skateistan’s history as a revolutionary program that uses skateboarding as the ultimate tool for change and showcases its vibrant and life-changing achievements in the midst of a scarred and war-torn country. Closing reflections by legends Stacey Peralta and Craig Stecyk sum it up best: “A skateboard park and school surrounded by war makes perfect sense in a senseless world, doesn’t it?” —benny zenga

A few years back I was browsing through the AMVETS Thrift Store in Oceanside, California when I ventured down a neglected aisle and discovered a treasure trove of old National Geographic’s dating back to the 70s, hidden at the back of a floor-level cabinet. I picked through them and found the issues that were published in the month of both my and my sister’s birthdays. In my sister’s issue there was an article about a white man who married into a tribe of White Mountain Apaches living on the Carrizo reservation in Arizona. Early in the article the author quotes the tribal chairman: “We have endured as Apache through more than a hundred years of attempts to assimilate us. It is our pledge as a tribal government that we will last hundreds more. We cannot do this by hiding. We must take the best of the white man’s world and blend it with ours.” It’s a galvanizing call to both the worldly and self-aware.

of this photograph. Until a decade later, when I was at the Ramp It Up exhibition on “Skateboarding in Native American Culture” and stumbled upon the Apache i.a.h.s. image on the wall right next to a display about 4 Wheel War Pony: a White Mountain Apache skateboard brand.  Instagram… Twitter… I’m into all that stuff. Social media has given us a new way to talk and share stories. 99% of the time it’s fun, entertaining and even constructive. This day, I posted a picture of my tattoo alongside the original photo I sniped from the exhibition. I wrote a little description: “Kid’s getting towed by his sister on her horse. Never had the bicep to get the entire scene.” Within a couple of hours a comment showed up from @4wheelwarpony: “That is my uncle and he brought skateboarding into my life! Cool tat!”  Then @happyfolkraig jumped in: “This is my grandpa... (: #4wheelwarpony.”

At the end of the article was a photo of a young Apache lad wearing a half-shirt. The year was 1980. Apache in-a-half-shirt was standing tall, arms spread like a great eagle atop a red plastic skateboard just like the one my Gran had once bought me from the department store in Aberdeen. Apache i.a.h.s. was holding a rope that led to a saddle on which sat a girl, whom I assumed was his sister, riding a horse, which I assumed was an American Mustang; a wonderful photograph. I bought the mags and decided I’d send my sister her copy, but not until I had traced the outline of Apache i.a.h.s. in black ink on white paper. I wanted his likeness for a tattoo. In my mind, Apache i.a.h.s. had become a totem symbolizing every sentimental thing skateboarding, at its gliding, turning core, meant to me. He was even being pulled along by his sister, as I had been by mine when I felt heavy and stuck. This was my sister’s birthday issue, rendering this image even richer in meaning and personal significance.

This is why I’m a fan of social media; connections and interactions like this. The internet is a tool which, obviously, expands our ability to communicate and our most obvious common thread, skateboarding, provides oil for the bearings to spin. I replied: “Does he still skate? Is he still around?” 4wheelwarpony told me: “Unfortunately he was killed back in 2002. But he could still tic-tac and 360 like the best of his generation. He inspired our skate Co. 4wheelwarpony. His name was Duwayne Mark Johnson. :)” I was sorry to hear Duwayne had passed and the phrase “was killed” raised questions I didn’t feel like getting into on an Instagram thread. We all have our boundaries and I let the thread die.

My sister’s NG issue got lost in the mail and was never delivered to her. My tattoo then became my only reminder

Hopefully one day we’ll get to resurrect that conversation at a skate spot somewhere. Maybe I’ll tell them about how my sister died without me ever telling her the story of Apache in-a-half-shirt and how the tattoo is now sadly a double eulogy and how our only option as the living is to try to find the bright side of every sad story.

@ratt_ray | www.thepredatorybird.com

vol. 10 no. 3

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Dark Matter Sam McKinlay has been lurking in the shadows between our pages since day one. The first article ever published in Color was penned by Sam. Code of the Hanky objectified skateboarders as fashion trendsetters and took a stab at Jamie Thomas and all his look-a-likes at that time. For our 45th Product Toss we asked Sam to pick up where he left off, only now, a murky marinade of women’s pantyhose, black metal and skateboarding is what is swirling around his mind like a charcoal broth.

(clockwise from shorts)

INSIGHT floral velvet shorts CONVERSE cts canvas sneakers SKULL SKATES hardcore patch ROYAL made for everywhere snapback hat

COMUNE maxwell jacket SKULL SKATES muskellunge of dark island deck

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vol. 10 no. 3

wordsby shane twerdun

en years ago I met Larry Kent and my life was changed forever. I had just graduated from Vancouver Film Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s acting department then I stuck around employed as an on-call maintenance man, moving chairs and cleaning rooms, desperately trying to earn my stripes and make my way onto a set. There was a buzz around Larry Kentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arrival for a two-week shoot, but there was little I knew about him other than he had directed a bunch of important Canadian films and had a reputation for being an embittered, possibly senile, cinematic renegade with a quick temper and a foul mouth. Little did I know that this 79-year-old bear would become one of my best friends and teach me the true value of filmmaking, life and how to become a better person.

(top) On set of Bitter Ash, 1963 frenchphoto.

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On set of Bitter Ash, 1963

“It was home to whores, thieves and drug addicts. I could relate in some way.”

Enter Shane; early twenties, unkempt and walking swiftly. He has a tripod across his shoulder and a confused look on his face. He rounds the corner from the hallway and into the foyer. I encountered Larry for the first time in the foyer of the school. He was standing in front of the bulletin board reading an article about himself. I noticed he was groaning and rocking back and forth on his heels, emitting a noise like a snoring toad. He was short, thick and solid, like a bank safe that had sprouted legs. His doublewide running shoes were—and often still are—untied. His shirt hung low, just above his knees, and was covered in all sorts of stains. His massive hands looked like hockey gloves and swung heavily just above his knees. Hair poked out of his ears like white straw. From behind, he looked like an old ape. I introduced myself and he spun around, giving me the once-over with his eyes. “Do you know how to use a camera?” he asked. I lied and told him not to worry, that everything would be fine. I had no idea what I was doing. “You dorks have no idea how to make a movie. I mean who are these fucking people?” I smiled weakly and he just shook his head and slapped me on the back with his giant hand. “C’mon kid. Let’s go.” Larry Kent was born in South Africa in 1933 and spent his formative years at St Mark’s boarding school in Swaziland. Restless and hungry for adventure, Larry ran away when he was 11, eventually making it all the way to the Belgian Congo, a journey that lasted over a month and covered more than 2500 miles. After school, he made his way to Canada’s West Coast where he discovered the two loves of his life: his wife Mary (who he has been married to for over 50 years) and filmmaking. At that time, nobody in B.C. was making films, so Larry decided to start, becoming the premiere independent filmmaker in Canada and kicking of a long career of firsts. Cut to the basement of a small house. A 29-year-old Larry Kent sits on the floor with pages of paper around him. He hits an Olympia typewriter with his index finger, jamming the keys. In the early 60s, Larry wrote, directed and financed his first film: a 28-minute short called Hastings Street, set in Vancouver’s iconic DTES neighborhood and told the

frenchphoto.

story of Charlie, a young man fresh out of jail after three years. Charlie is steadfast to stay on the straight and narrow, but doing so proves harder than expected. His options to earn a honest living are running out faster than his money, and with his life on the line, he needs to return to crime once again in order to survive. Larry cast local actors and had his friend Dick Bellamy shoot it because he was the only person Larry knew with a 16mm camera. “I can’t explain why I made this film. I’m not able to intellectualize it, I just had a feeling,” he told me. “Hastings St. was a place of alienation; it was a place of people on the edge. It was vibrant in an ironic way. It was home to whores, thieves and drug addicts. I could relate in some way.” As an immigrant in Canada, Larry thought of himself as a person that comes from another country, never quite home and always the other. When Larry shot Hastings Street in 1962, the only other films that were being made in Canada were either documentary films or films that were funded and produced by the CBC. “As far as I know, I was the only person making fiction films. I was also the only person doing it on my own.” But like many trailblazers, Larry’s route was not without difficulty. For instance, none of them knew what they were doing on set. “All I knew was that I believed in the story. I had a connection with it,” says Larry. How strongly did Larry believe in the story? Enough to wait an astounding 45 years to complete it. Principle photography on Hastings Street was done without sound and by the time Larry found someone that knew how to record dialogue for film, he had all ready shot another movie. Larry shelved Hastings Street for the next 45 years, until 2007, when he convinced a group of young Vancouver filmmakers to record the sound and release Hastings Street for the first time. Larry created the most buzz with the release of Bitter Ash, the feature he had put Hastings Street on hold for to create. It was the first feature length independent movie to come from Canada, but credit for creating a new genre was soon overshadowed by the film’s

content. “I was not a guy trying to make a commercial movie, or get a job at the CBC,” Larry says. “My movies come from the gut—this was the kind of thing that I was surrounded by at the time.” Bitter Ash was the first Canadian movie to show nudity and the sexual freedom that was becoming prevalent in Vancouver in the early 60s. Audiences were polarized by the film; some thought it was a breakthrough in cinematic freedom, while others were so against it they contacted the authorities, forcing the film to be withdrawn from screens after just the first day. Newspaper spins onto the screen. Headline reads: “Bitter Ash banned from B.C. screens!” The press was appalled at the graphic sexual nature of the movie. Larry explains: “Canadians were, and still are, very cautious. At the time, they were still reeling from the depression and everyone was selling this American ideal of what life should be. My movies showed that the 9-5 job can be very devastating. I wanted to show the frustration of living like that. I think it upset a lot of people because it was true and they didn’t

want to admit it.” Larry was successful in convincing the UBC student union to allow the film back on screen and they agreed under one condition: it could not be shown to the general public. At a McGill University screening in Montreal, the doors were chained up after the theatre was filled, but the audience outside was so outraged that they couldn’t see the film, they ripped down the doors and flooded the theatre anyways. “We were double full that night,” Larry says and laughs. “People were everywhere, you couldn’t move.” Larry continued to make films that examined relevant political issues like women’s rights, sexuality, drug use, violence and alienation. His voice was singular in Canadian culture and soon began to expand beyond the border to people all over the world. Fritz Lang, Roberto Rossellini and Canada’s own David Cronenberg have all been quoted citing Larry Kent as an inspiration to their work. “I would not be making films if it weren’t for Larry Kent,” says Cronenberg. “I remember watching these movies and thinking: what are these films, who’s making them, and how are they getting made?” When Larry met Jack Nicholson at the Montreal Film Festival in 1967, he found .larrykent

[ o ] MATHIEU

Film stills from Hastings Street, 1962

Festival. At that time, some friends and I were shooting a documentary about Larry called Are You With Me? We had been filming him for a week straight and were getting ready to head back to Vancouver. It was a hot day and we all decided to rest on the steps of the art gallery. I was speaking with Larry about the despair one feels after seeing their movie for the first time on the big screen. I had just suffered a horrendous emotional crash after premiering the film to a crowd of 45 people. I felt a sense of damage and despair when everything we had gone through over the last four years culminated in what I felt was a total disaster. But Larry, for all his gristle and fire, has a very gentle side and he spoke to me calmly, putting everything into perspective. At that moment, I felt incredibly close to him and decided to ask him a question he had been evading me on that entire week.

he had a fan in the young actor. Nicholson agreed to make a movie with Larry, requesting $5000 to cover his alimony and child support during filming. Larry was unable to find the money and Nicholson instead went on to make Easy Rider. For all the attention Larry’s prickly persona garners though, it’s easy to overlook his human side. In 2007, five years after that day we met beside the bulletin board,

Film still from Are You With Me (in production)

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Larry asked me to star in his latest film: an experimental, totally improvised movie called Exley. We shot in Vancouver over the course of three weeks during which time Larry and I would spend up to 18 hours a day together. Each day after shooting, Larry and I walked together for another few hours talking about film, art and life. Larry can almost seem like a cartoon, someone totally brazen and larger than life, but his human side is what makes him a really great director. He understands the subtlety of human nature and he’s fascinated by the inner motivations behind the actions we take. He taught me that this is the place the character really lives. During those talks with Larry we gained each other’s confidence, and in the process, became very close friends. As an actor, you want to be able to trust the director you’re working with, and by the time we were ready to shoot, I would have done anything for him. Last summer I was with Larry in Montreal premiering our film at the Fantasia Film

“What do you think you will be remembered for?” I asked. “After it’s all said and done, what do you think it will be? He leaned back on his elbows and looked long into the distance. ”What do you think?” he responded. Larry is a master at turning the question around and putting it back on the person asking it. “Your persistence. You’ve made all these films without having to compromise you’re vision. You never quit.” “Yeaaaahhh, but you’re wrong and I’ll tell you why.” This is Larry’s favourite thing to say. “I think that’s just the obvious choice, but if I really had to answer truthfully now, and I’m being honest, is that the films for me were about working with the people. There’s nothing in the world better than making a film with people you love. I would say that people were better people after working on a film with me. Going through that process together does something to you that you can’t find anywhere else, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Of course,” I said even though I was a little shocked at his answer and considered it to be a massive understatement. At nearly 80 years of age, he looked back on his life’s work, and saw that it wasn’t about the movies, but about the people he had worked with. His motive all along was to help them become better people. Larry rolled onto his side, offered me his hand and I pulled him to his feet. I had to catch a plane back to Vancouver, but I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. My eyes welled with emotion behind my sunglasses. Larry swung his arms out and said, “Come here kid.” I leaned in and hugged him. “Love ya,” he said. “Love you too Larry.” He let me go and made his way down the cement steps of the gallery. Without turning around, he waved a giant arm in the air as a final salute and walked into the distance, down the cobblestone corridor, the tapestry of the city glowing gold in the soft afternoon light. The hero disappears into the horizon as the sun sets slowly in front of him. Cue music. Roll credits. As you read this, a friend and I will have begun principle photography on a modern re-telling of Hastings Street, with Larry’s blessing. Like Larry said, there was just something about the story that created an emotional connection. It’s a privilege to be able to make a movie, not a choice. You’re always struggling to tell your stories. You struggle with yourself, you struggle with the people around you, you struggle with the logistics of making a film without any money. I didn’t choose to be an independent filmmaker; I became one out of necessity. If you want to make a film, you need to be able to rise above the odds and I don’t think I’d have the faintest clue how to do that if I hadn’t met Larry Kent.

vol. 10

COLOR MAGAZINE ONLINE

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It’s always nice when one mag is stoked on another, so much so they make it a point to include them on their tour itinerary! This was the case when a crew from SF’s LowCard mag made their way to Canada recently for their “Mid-90s Vancouver Invasion” and made Color a necessary part of the voyage. Check out their adventures in the Great White North at colormagazine.ca

E H BERL ELIJA O) FLIP INT (KICK

Yo, what’s up Color. My name is Cody Bray, W I’m from Windsor, Ontario. I have recently TOP VIE finished a photojournalism course at my local college and have come to the conclusion ) TION (B that I want to work in the skateboarding ELEVA FRONT OF IDEA industry. I have been a skateboarder since H THE ESS R WIT THE RADN ETHE MP O A G T R O I was 8 years old and my “other thing” is E T H U UNC AYS) O). D E S ALW LWAYS TO L PAD, A LA RS ARE TH UA SA FUN (A AN LO photography. The thing I shoot most with N (A) HAVE RNITURE (A GE, A MAN E AND CO N TOP OF IO T D A N ELEV LED HAP G O TE A N FU S T A A IN A N K S T S B O S S A IT R U RE my camera is skateboarding and it’s also my FR IT. TO ES; LAG, LING IENDLY ITS 4 SID CABLE TO IAN F E WIL ND FR ON ANAD APPLI favourite thing to shoot. I was just wondering DESCRIPTIOBNO: RN FROM ATEHSTHETICABLE ASKATEABLE AND C ATE! ATIVE SK E CRE PERUVIAN B AN `S IS N T A N O C A ox T LE E gBox FlagB PLISHING VER C TWEEN TH HE AIR. SO if you had any advice or tips for somebody G, Fla HATE M ACCO TEBOARDIN RE) OR W OLORS BE NDED IN T A USPE BEFO ON C looking to come into the skateboarding OF SK TO IT THE COMM IT LOOKS S IN IE (OLL OM , SO BASE ER FR industry as a photographer. Thanks! ANSW TED BLACK WHITE

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Go out and shoot Know your gear Understand the “ABDs” Have a spot book Patience Love it Don’t step on toes Skateboard time isn’t real time When submitting photos, do not be disappointed if they aren’t run, ask questions politely, if inclined No double-dipping the same photos to several magazines Go out and shoot

tj reynolds

[ o ] ORR

We gathered up some tips from around the office and asked a couple visiting photogs for advice on this one. Here’s what we got:

Quik, get the camera! What do you get when you mix together a hardcore thrash metal band, a homemade ramp and a bunch of Quiksilver disposable cameras? The sickest ramp party this side of hell! L.A.’s Trash Talk made their way to east Van recently, where slams and jams made for perfect photo ops all day long. Four disposable cameras were divvied out to the crowd, and these were the best of the best. Head over to Flickr to see the full set of pics from the day, including one fucken rowdy after party (oil wrestling anyone?) flickr.com/photos/ colormagazine

“Build Your Fantasy” Contest Entries

drop us a line

Finally! Summer is in full swing and to celebrate, we asked you to send us your dream skate obstacle design. Entries rolled in daily for over a month, via napkin doodles, AutoCad blueprints and good ol’ pen & ink. Here are our favourites, judged on creativity, badassness and actual skate-ability. Thanks to everyone who entered! Now for supplies… Does anyone know where to find an oversize nipple ring?

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 Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1A4 Canada.

Good luck, man—hope we see your name popping up in our inbox soon. colORMAGAZINE.CA

no. 3

—

Anthrax

Comune x Alana Paterson artist tee Who better then Comune Drop City contributor & long-time Color friend/ photog Alana Paterson to release this rad artist series t-shirt for Comune this fall. Known for her natural depiction of friends, travels, skateboarding and life, this soft tee has all those elements combined. Perfect for long, cold days spent daydreaming about endless summers. THECOMUNE.COM

SLED ISLAND RE-CAP Sled Island is a yearly summer festival that takes place in June in cold Texas (aka Calgary, Alberta). Every year big acts from all over the world come and play, and this year was no different. Highlights for me would have to be the poster art screen printing show at Sloth Records, The Urinals, Baby D, seeing Daniel from Nü Sensae give himself a black eye playing drums and partying with Ymanataka//Sonic Titan in the streets. Also, seeing a homeless man disappear in front of my eyes on the Brentwood train was pretty cool too. Sledisland.com

The Mariano by Lakai

About Time!

A Board in the Hand You may have noticed a new edition to the extended Color family as of late—the multi-talented John Rattray has his own column over in Inspiration Bound 28 entitled The Predatory Word (a casual nod to his popular blog The Predatory Bird). Seems everyone’s feelin’ it these days as now, here in Vancouver, friend and fellow Scotsman Andy at Folk Skateboards has recently handcrafted these Predatory Bird decks featuring John’s own illustrated “bird in hand” inlay design. Limited to a run of 50, the complete features Thunder trucks and custom Predatory Bird wheels. If ever there were a collector’s piece that begged to be taken for a cruise, this is it! Get ‘em while the gettin’s good. Thepredatorybird.com

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Not gonna lie, I’m pretty cheap. Actually, I prefer the word “economical” and I’m gonna guess a bunch of you out there reading this are too. Which is why I totally back Dickies and am stoked that they’ve ventured into the tough-as-fuck skateboard industry. Not only have skaters been wearing Dickies for years for style and durable functionality, but with a guarantee that they’ll replace your gear or give you your money back, these guys are on point! A solid skate team with Vincent Alvarez, Jim Greco, Tom Remillard and Kevin Terpening puts Dickies in a pretty good spot to hold their own in the big/little world of skateboarding. Satisfaction guaranteed! Dickiesskate.com

Step it up a Notch The well-dressed skater gets the worm. Or at least the girl, and probably the most props. U.K.-based photographer Sam Ashley’s blog The Skartorialist features an ever-growing collection of documentary style portraits of skateboarders from Sam’s travels, à la the original style blog The Satorialist. Good way to see what homies in Europe are into and also, nice to know someone’s documenting this phase of skaters looking decent before we all start wearing XXXL tees again. skartorialist.blogspot.ca

Have you ever seen a photo of a shoe and said to yourself, “That will be mine!”? That’s how this one hit the brains here at Color. Simple, padded for old knees and yet enough board-feel for the nimblest of feet. The smooth silhouette, although made for skating, is universal for anyone that admires great design and good looking shoes. On second thought, seeing a soccer mom in them at the local grocery would be horrific. You’d have to give her a highfive and props, all the while resisting the temptation to steal them off her feet as she loaded her mini-van while her kids rummaged through the bags looking for candy. In summary, these shoes are good enough to steal. But don’t. Go to a good shop, that sells good shoes, and buy them. lakai.com

High Performance ‘49ers Function over fashion was the only game in town back in California’s central valley during the gold rush. Omar Salazar’s hometown of Roseville was just a stagecoach stop away from being called Nowhere Ville. Both it and the preferred miner garb, Levi’s jeans, have gone though the rhythm of time and bent to the fashions of the day. Today, Levi’s and Nike have teamed up to produce the 511 skate cut that combines almost a century and a half’s denim knowledge and the shoe technology of today’s top shoe and apparel maker. The result is this new sort of denim, designed with skaters in mind in both breathability and strength. If they can survive Omar’s skating, they can survive yours. levi.ca/nike

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Anthrax

The Mill Project “Everyone thinks this is the oldest skatepark in Canada, but it’s not.” I’m talking to a middle-aged man at the top of the Seylynn bowl in North Vancouver—the bowl that I (and pretty much the rest of Canada), thought was the oldest concrete park in Canada. “There’s another one in West Van, buried underground,” he reveals. “True story, and it’s older than this one.”

Three French Stripes Faster than as you can say, “switch front heel,” Lucas Puig was on Adidas and working on his first pro model. Months later, what you see is the result of his vision plus Adidas’ resources. A torrent of footage has come out since then, highlighting his Zidane-like feet. Inspired by his love of football (soccer) the snug form fit doesn’t fade over the life of the shoe. Coming through with new and basic functional features, this shoe looks different than you’re normal Adidas but skates like a dream. adidas.com

bLIND DRUNK

Corpse Corps

Skaters clogged College Street in front of Toronto’s Blue Tile Lounge on Friday July 13th in celebration of Morgan Smith turning Pro for Blind skateboards. BTL supplied some brown pops for everyone to enjoy and both of Morgan’s brand new graphics were up on display. One had to look quick though, because all 40 sold out before closing time. Once the free beers dried up, our jovial crew of skate rats, Toronto OG’s and Blue Tile alumni, only had to move next door (the Cloak and Dagger) where the celebrations only got more blurry. Thanks for the great night BTL and congrats to Morgan Smith for the much deserved Pro status! —jeff comber

Social Media is a cute little thing isn’t it? Take these guys for example, sharing their adorable little drawings of possessed flesheating cyclops demons and booze drinking, mystic smoking, skeletons floating in the cosmos. Predominately a clothing brand, Corpse Corps operates with a strictly Coffinshaped line of skateboards as well. At 10” wide (insert dead baby joke here) these boards kill, allowing for plenty of nose and tail to be cut and reshaped again and again. If you’re not going to go all the way, don’t bother making a coffin shaped board anymore—Corpse Corps has that market cornered.

blindskateboards.com

Weeks later, on a CBC radio broadcast I learn about The Mill Project—local Emily Carr grad Bruce Emmett’s mix-media exhibit that features an outstanding blend of skateboarding, history, DIY, anthropology and subterranean subculture. In this exhibit he features the actual first concrete skatepark ever constructed in Canada: the 1977 West Vancouver Inglewood “Mill” skatepark. Now buried beneath six feet of rock and soil, Emmett is keen to unearth this mythological creature and explore ideas of spatial histories, through the processes of research, auto fictive writing and material production. In doing so, The Mill Project turned into a full-blown narrative complete with protagonist Billy, a 1984 eleven-year-old suburban punk rock skateboarder. Using a mash-up of personal memories, ground radar images of the buried skatepark, occupation of the historical site itself (housing, at different points in history, The Vedder River Shingle mill, West Vancouver High, and the Inglewood skatepark), Emmett describes the facts alongside an appropriated selection of constructed memories, blurring the lines between that which was and that which is now believed. More photos & info on the Mill Project on colormagazine.ca

corpsecorpsboards.com

Hex-ademy I’ve never been a real ‘tech’ guy, but I’ve started to realize how much of my daily life revolves around gadgets of some sort. With this realization recently came the need to protect said gadgets from my ‘butterfingers,’ or as my girlfriend calls them ba-dum-dum. HEX has pretty much everything I’ve been looking for. New this fall is their Academy Collection—washed grey denim wax coated bags, chill iPhone cases, laptop sleeves—that actually gets me stoked to use my iPad. Er, wait… does this mean I’m a tech guy? Fuck. Shophex.com colORMAGAZINE.CA

vol. 10 no. 3

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Jason Deary

wordsby shauna thompson

ason Deary’s studio often looks like a bomb went off. He works with an intense, restless energy, constantly moving between and among layers. He reacts to moments: adding and subtracting, gesturing, sketching, collecting, throwing paint, encouraging spontaneous drips, distorting, reassembling imagery and objects. He builds up heavy, bold layers of acrylic paint, spray paint, house paint, ink, graphite. He creates collages on canvas and wooden boards, maps, tracings of documents and studies of local architecture. The influence of street art is reflected heavily in the conceptual underpinnings of his practice. Currently based in Banff, Jason originally hails from the City of Roses (Windsor, ON) with a BFA in painting from the University of Windsor. Profoundly influenced by graffiti and street art, Deary balances a creative trifecta of studio and gallery-based conceptual practice, illustration and design work, and guerillastyle public installations, with each element cross-pollinating and informing one another. His current work deals with ideas of place and home in light of contemporary conditions of transience and impermanence. The paintings are inspired by autobiographical sources including maps, travelogues, personal photographs, notes and found objects. Together, they investigate the conflict between memory and reality and how our subjective experiences affect how we view and recall our environment. With an interest in exploring alternative exhibition spaces and blurring the border between his studio and street work, Deary engages in public installations that involve painting on found wood panels which represent and mimic road markers or official signage: the public signifiers of state authority. Deary installs his painted signs in places he’s called home, frequented or passed through. They create a dialogue that contributes to the alternative histories and energies of the city, and while they are, conventionally speaking, unofficial, they stand as indicators of something officially significant.

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image courtesy the artist.

High Five Comics Presents: Adventures of the Insomniac mixed media on canvas, 36" x 60"

Keith Haring was an artist and activist who frequently used his art to speak out about social issues. He was one of the best known among the young artists, ﬁlmmakers, performers and musicians whose work responded to urban street culture of the 80s. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, Haring established the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989 to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations, and to ensure that his philanthropic legacy would continue indeﬁnitely. The Keith Haring Foundation’s mission is to sustain, expand and protect the legacy of Haring’s art and his ideals. The Foundation supports organizations that assist underprivileged children, as well as those engaged in education, research and care with respect to AIDS and HIV.

supradistribution.com alienworkshopstickers@supradistribution.com

learn more: alienworkshop.com © Keith Haring Foundation www.haring.com Licensed by Artestar (New York)

vol. 10 no. 3

m ma ith gr thie ind uph . oto .

[ o ] MATHIEU

wordsby yann fily-paré

t’s amazing how Alexis Lacroix manages to do so much and still look like he isn’t even trying. His messed up hair and laidback attitude makes you think he is some kind of lunatic hippie, but one must never judge by appearances. Behind the beard, this young skateboarder from Montreal is also a brilliant musician, a fashion model, has studied business management and helps out with the family business. The world discovered Alexis when his sensational part in Broke Am was released on the web in spring 2011, but it’s his next part in the third video installment from the Dimestore crew that is one of the most anticipated. I caught up with Alexis on his way back from a cross-Canada tour with Emerica and before he left for a trip to Woodstock with his band. The following interview is but a mere glimpse at the last year of Alexis’ existence, so just imagine the rest. I would recommend not comparing your life to his because you may find that yours sucks ass. So just get inspired… I’m sure it’s what he would want.

.interview

alexislacroix.

[ o ] MATHIEU

(opposite) 50-50 to frontside lipslide. zaslavskyphoto.

Frontside feeble grind. mathieuphoto.

Color: Let’s start by looking back at the crazy year you just had. Tell me about your skating, travels, music and the jobs you’ve held. Alexis Lacroix: Woah, that’s a hard one. I definitely look more forward than back, but let’s try. I obviously skated a lot during summer, then at the end of it I tore my ankle and was out for two months. In December I worked as an elf in a mall to stack some money for an eventual skate trip. I also joined my buddies from my hometown in a band called Shindig and we started doing concerts. I also did a five-week trip to California. I stayed in San Francisco the whole time and Antoine (Asselin) hooked it up good for me when I was there so I got to skate with the DLX crew and meet the right people. How was it compared to other places you had been before? I’ve already been to San Diego and Los Angeles but I had high expectations for San Francisco, not only because it’s a great place with many skate spots, insane hills and colourful houses, but also because I was interested in the cultural aspects of the city. The history, and especially the music from there, is a huge inspiration for me. It is a place that I would have wanted to see even if I didn’t skate. Did you feel like you belonged there? In a way yes, because there are hills to bomb everywhere, concerts in every little bar and the people in general are very open-minded. But I also felt kind of nostalgic for an era that I wish I’d lived in.

I remember I saw you, or at least what remained of you, on your way home from a huge festival last year called “Woodstock en Beauce” where many thousands of people camp in a field around a big stage. I remember you telling me how you had the time of your life. Are you going back this year? Oh ya, my things are packed and I’m actually leaving tomorrow for four days there with my buddies. And 42

interview.

since the bands that will be performing on the big stage this year are quite shitty, we decided that we’d go there and build a mini stage on our camp site, then jam day and night to recreate the true spirit of Woodstock. I hope the campers nearby don’t plan on sleeping too much. [Laughs] That is sick! Back to the true spirit of skateboarding: you are filming a part for the next Dimestore video Turd Season. How is that going? I have something like one minute of good stuff up until now, but I have to be serious about it now because summer goes by fast. The guys are very picky about the tricks that make the cut. It has to be gnarly and clean. Too many funky tricks will not be tolerated so I’m trying to deal with that even if it’s not always my cup of tea. Are you allowed to pull out a boneless here and there? Yes, but they’re counted [laughs].

[ o ] MATHIEU

Are you referring to the peace and love era of the 60s? Exactly. I even went lurking where the Grateful Dead were living in 1967. I smoked an honorific doobie when I was there and almost shed a tear [laughs]. I’m a big fan of Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company and all the bands from that period because they really created something new and I think our society would not be the same today without their influence. I’m stoked to have seen with my own eyes the places where it all happened despite the fact that it is over now and the cheesy souvenirs shops are just milking it.

Ollie, nollie.

zaslavskyphoto.

Well you may end up with a crazy thrash part like you had when you filmed for Broke Am. I may, but I’ve got to film a lot now because summer is already started and I only have until autumn.

the children. For sure, but it kind of killed my magic of Christmas, seeing the way people spend their money and yell at their kids. I find it a bit wrong sometimes.

What is the deal with the elf job? Skate photographer Dan Mathieu called me for this gig he has every year in December where he shoots pictures of kids on Santa’s lap in a mall. There are a lot of people and it is a lot of work so he hires assistants to take orders and manage the crowd. Of course we all have to be dressed as elves in Santa’s Kingdom but it’s good money so it’s ok.

There is always a crooked family jumping over the fence when it’s closed for lunch or just yelling at us for no reason. If I was in town and needed money I’d do it again, but if not, I’ll let someone else have this pleasure. I’m working with the family business now anyways and it’s good.

How do you like it? There’s not much to do but at the same time it’s still work. What about you? (Ed. note: Yann too, has worked as one of Mathieu’s elves.) I think it was my last year. The mall is such a fucked up place but at the same time I totally enjoy seeing the magic of Christmas operating on

Lenoir Lacroix is that it? Yep, my father and his brother founded a coffee roasting company. I’m working as a sales rep and taking care of the clients. What about your sideline with the modeling agency? How is that going? I had a contract once for a Montreal designer and it was all good, but now I have to get some new casting .alexislacroix

pictures to get contracts. With skating, the band, my job, roadtrips and all that stuff, it’s hard to find the time, but I should do it because it’s such good easy money. If I could get a few good contracts and buy a house in four or five years I’d be psyched! Woah, the pay is that good? Yes, it’s possible to make quite a lot of money if you work with the right people. Well good for you because your first contract was with the most famous designer in Montreal: Mr. big glasses, Denis Gagnon. It’s a good start I guess. I didn’t know who he was at all before the shoot, but 44

alexislacroix.

the dude is definitely legit in the fashion world, so it’s good. At least I didn’t have to start with shooting for Zellers. And you got to wear a dress made out of leather... Ah shit, you have seen it! Of course I have seen it, it’s on the internet and posted on Facebook. [Laughs] I was laughing during the whole shoot wearing that. I was saying stupid things about the crazy outfit but no one on the set was laughing at my jokes. It was really serious.

They probably thought you don’t know shit about fashion if you don’t find it normal that guys wear leather robes. I said it was the perfect outfit for taking a motorcycle ride in outer space or simply going to a gothic rave, but no one even smiled [laughs]. Good thing Denis Gagnon wasn’t there. Yes he was! [Laughs] But it was just for fun. The guy is cool. He just didn’t laugh at my jokes. It was a weird experience for me because I don’t really care about how I look, while everyone in the fashion world is all about the style and the look. And it was also a bit funny on the set because everyone was gay, but that’s no big deal.

Switch barley grind backside 180. mathieuphoto.

(opposite) Boneless.

zaslavskyphoto.

[ o ] MATHIEU

Alright, back to skateboarding. Last year you said that your part in Broke Am was the result of your best year of skating ever. Do you still have that momentum? Is your part in Turd Season going to be as good as your last one? Well, it’s different, because we were in the streets all day everyday filming for Broke Am and we just filmed every trick. Like I said, the Dimestore guys are more picky about tricks and I have to think about what I want to do and it has to be a banger. I end up taking less attempts because it’s usually gnarly and I need some recovery time whether I land my trick or not. This year I’m aiming for quality over quantity. I’m also trying to take more photos so it’s not as simple as filming a line, you have to find something photogenic. I already filmed some good stuff last autumn and also in S.F. so it’s quite good up until now. I must say though, I really like going for quantity and skating all day filming every trick. I’m sure The Gonz would be proud. You still ride for Krooked, Thunder, Spitfire, Emerica and Atlas? Yeah man. I’m so happy with the brands supporting me. Have you ever met Mark Gonzales? On a school trip back in high school we went to New York and when we got to the Brooklyn Banks he was there skating by himself so we had a little session and he even told me, “Nice board to feeble.” I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. So what’s the plan now? I want to keep skating and traveling. I would love to see Europe and South America but I really enjoyed meeting all the people from DLX in S.F. and I want to show up there as often as possible because I realized they really are the best guys out there and I’m so glad they support me. Hanging out with Antoine in S.F. I ended up skating with many of the Real guys and it was sick because I never thought it would happen in my life. I want to make that kind of thing happen again.

colORMAGAZINE.CA

vol. 10 no. 3

he sheer number of skate photos that are shot each year is almost incalculable. You’d have to be Stephen Hawking or have access to one of those super-duper computers to come up with an algorithm that would calculate it. Remove amateurs and part-timers, and the remaining few individuals that actually know what they are doing, still manage to amass a staggering amount of useable frames. But not every photo sees the light of day, and for every cover-worthy banger out there, there are hundreds of gems just collecting dust, and we’ll tell you why!

When the digital tide’s deafening roar hit the printed shore it swept away the Land of Film (with the exceptions of a few islands of black and white and medium format). Since then, the digital sea has given us amazingly sharp skate porn in all its glory with short turn around. Trips and tours result in multiple photos of the same skaters doing the same tricks in different spots. A photographer in the right city can spend every day of the week out and about with a new crew each day. Hundreds of photos are taken, and of those maybe one sees the light of day on a printed page. Some are lost with the temperamental hard drives that melt down (speaking from personal experience), or forgotten due sometimes to a better trick on the same day. Shots are set aside because a better known skater did the trick in a video, something didn’t seem

right about it at the time, or any number of reasons that takes away from the impact of the photo. Some of the reasons are stories in and of themselves. Even the most prolific photographers have fallen victim to an unpublished gem. Grant Brittain still has photos of the Bones Brigade that have only just now seen the light of day. In the following pages you’ll see some of these missing frames and read circumstantial stories as told by some of the best photographers. The number of usable photos that are still out there could fill an encyclopedia with tricks, skaters and spots of every variety, but the factors that make up a “good” shot over the others is something only photo editors can explain. I gave up trying to figure it out years ago.

We recognize when a photo might not live up to ones full-ripping potential. Despite the great photo, with a huge bag of tricks and style for miles, this frontside heelflip is all too easy for Theotis Beasley. broachphoto. 46

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BRANDON WESTGATE ollie, 2010 “Westgate was coming to S.F. and killing the hills working on his Stay Gold video part. Looking back, it was a real privilege to shoot with him at that time. He did some gnarly stuff, like the ollie over the bar and then he jumped the entire distance of a house. He came back and was working on a promo for his shoe that was about to drop. We used all the photos in an interview, but for some reason this ollie never got used.” —joe brook

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ALEX GAVIN ollie, 2008 We’re pretty sure it’s impossible for Felix Faucher to suppress his distaste for digital photography. This might play some part in the fact that he’s not out shooting skateboarding anymore. He shot this at a newly discovered spot in Montreal and before he even had time to get the film processed, Gavin got a kickflip there on digital, with another photographer, even “asking my colleague that he use the same vintage point I came up with,” said Faucher. There must have been a point where he considered not processing the roll at all. We’re glad he did, but when Felix mentioned to us that he never saw that kickflip photo, we just about reminded him why he took himself out the game… Luc Baslanti, frontside bluntslide to flat, 2009.

faucherphoto.

When it comes to covers, the old rule must apply. It needs to hit the page before the silver screen. An ender from the Think video, Lee Yankou, kickflip wallride. landiphoto.

SAM LIND frontside feeble, 2011

It’s easy to get caught up in a ripping maneuver at a spot we’ve never seen before. The photos sick too. So why isn’t Nick Garcia’s ollie transfer to 50-50 on the cover?

[ o ] VAN ROECHOUDT

broachphoto.

As much as photographer Terry Worona might like to think, this one wasn’t a case of “the magazine didn’t want to run an unknown skater.” To be truthful (and if the decision-making process sparks your interest) the ‘gnar’ factor was in question, plus the man-made spot doesn’t help. Soon after receiving this photo we received another photo from another photographer who unknowingly shot the same photo. This is where we tell you to shut up and let us do our job! Not really, but listen—when we can use a photo within a story (like the one you’re reading right now) it’s going to get run before any random photo that doesn’t fall into the category of a specific article. While we discussed honoring a first-comephoto (as we always try and do), it got more complicated still. Without calling anyone out, let’s just leave it at that, because Sam got his cover soon after. (above) cover 9.4, Autumn 201

“A few of us, including Andrew, were skating a lot together at this time. He had just quit Flip and was riding for Monkey Stix. We were gathering some photos to try get something together, maybe an interview? Behind the scenes, Andrew was dealing with a lot of shit and it never really came together. His life changed quite a bit shortly after this. I know a lot of people have a ton of stories, or even make up their own about Andrew, but he was really a great person. He was nice, real funny and down to earth. I think the pressure of skating and people riding your nuts all the time kinda brought him to a point where it was too much. Andrew was predisposed to a lot of shit from his family, his brother went through it all too. The skate scene definitely sped up that process. As much as you want to tell a crazy story about him, the most fucked up thing were all the industry people around him and those wanting to spread bad news about him. When it came down to it, not too many people (except for Adam Mancini) actually tried to help him out. Last I heard Andrew was living in the country just chillin’ and doing good. Livin’ the simple life.' —mike mccourt

ANDREW GORDON frontside noseslide, 2002 .uncovered

(top left) If we don’t know for sure, we’re not about to take a chance (we’ve learned the hard way). Tom Remillard, frontside pivot. broachphoto.

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NYJAH HOUSTON frontside blunt David Broach drove two hours on a weekday to shoot a Nyjah photo at a school in La Jolla, when they should have gone on the weekend, but it was deadline for the X Games Real Street video, so this was going down. They got kicked out immediately after arriving, so with the school coach running after him on his first try, Nyjah locked in this front blunt and slid all the way to the bottom. So close to making it, everyone pleaded for the old “one more try,” but were getting nowhere. After getting kicked out three times in one hour (once by a cop who totally recognized “Mr. Houston”) and the coach parking a golf cart at the top of the set, David got in his car and left. “A week or so later,” he told us, “while I was sitting in traffic on the 101 North, I found out that Nyjah somehow managed to get this epic front blunt and I missed the photo.” The crazy part was, the actual trick was the easiest thing about the photo and the coach kicking them out was Nyjah’s only real obstacle that day.

SAM LIND frontside feeble, 2011

It’s easy to get caught up in a ripping maneuver at a spot we’ve never seen before. The photos sick too. So why isn’t Nick Garcia’s ollie transfer to 50-50 on the cover?

[ o ] VAN ROECHOUDT

broachphoto.

“A few of us including Andrew were skating a lot together at this time. He had just quit Flip and was riding for Monkey Stix. We were gathering some photos to try get something together, maybe an interview? Behind the scenes, Andrew was dealing with a lot of shit and it never really came together. His life changed quite a bit shortly after this. I know a lot of people have a ton of stories, or even make up their own about Andrew, but he was really a great person. He was nice, real funny and down to earth. I think the pressure of skating and people riding your nuts all the time kinda brought him to a point where it was too much. Andrew was predisposed to a lot of shit from his family, his brother went through it all too. The skate scene definitely sped up that process. As much as you want to tell a crazy story about him, the most fucked up thing were all the industry people around him and those wanting to spread bad news about him. When it came down to it, not too many people (except for Adam Mancini) actually tried to help him out. Last I heard Andrew was living in the country just chillin’ and doing good. Livin’ the simple life.' —mike mccourt

ANDREW GORDON frontside noseslide, c.2002 .uncovered

(top left) If we don’t know for sure, we’re not about to take a chance (we’ve learned the hard way). Tom Remillard, frontside pivot. broachphoto.

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wordsby justin gradin

illustrationby ben tour

hite Lung is a Vancouver punk band formed by a bunch of exfigure skaters. Mish Way sings, Grady MacIntosh plays bass, Anne-Marie Vassiliou drums and all three of them pick on the token male member, Kenny “Mr. Ice Cream” McCorkell, who may have earned his nickname because he owns several Häagen Dazs jackets or because he too was once a figure skater. White Lung is always ready to destroy you sonically and despite coming off as intimidating or dauntingly serious in band photos or in their live performances, when you actually talk to them, most of the time they are having fun teasing each other and cracking jokes. They finish each other’s sentences and love to party together; a good thing since they will be spending a lot of time together in the future, touring extensively behind new album Sorry—an upcoming full-length follow-up to 2010’s It’s The Evil.

Color arranged for a meet-up and beers with White Lung in a downtown Eastside artist’s loft to discuss Sorry and their upcoming tour. Anne-Marie arrived first, then when I heard knocking at the front door I said, “I think they’re here,” and Anne-Marie said, “No, that’s not them. They’re not the types to not call first.” When I went down to check it was Mish, Grady and Kenny. So how well does White Lung really know each other?

“It’s the same story every time: people on drugs.”

Color: Okay, here’s a test. Mish, without looking at Kenny, what colour are his eyes? Mish: They’re like brown and hazel-ish. I’ve looked into those baby soft eyes a million times. Grady: [Laughs] Baby soft? Anne-Marie: Heart to heart talks. Anne-Marie what, if anything, does Grady collect? A: Toiletries? [Laughs] G: No... Toiletries? Come on! A: It’s not a bad thing, I mean like… G: I don’t collect toilet paper. So far Mish pays attention and AnneMarie does not… Kenny, how tall is AnneMarie? Kenny: 5’ 7” A: I think that’s correct. Grady, what size is Mish’s… A: Oh god. Shoe? G: Eight. Boom. A: That’s ‘cause they’ve shared shoes before. M: No we haven’t! Grady’s a size six, I can’t fit into her teeny tiny Barbie shoes.

G: Nobody knows anything about me. Mish, what do you think AnneMarie’s favourite T.V. show is? M: I know you used to really like Intervention. A: I haven’t watched it in a long time, it’s not good anymore. M: What do you mean “anymore?” It’s the same story every time: people on drugs. Have they changed the plot? What do you guys think makes for an interesting band? M: You don’t mean good as in interesting, you mean interesting as in interesting? I mean it any way you want to take it. M: I think live performance is really important. A: I think personal life. Find people that do crazy things, find people that live on the edge. [Laughs]

You have a new record coming out and you tried to write twelve songs but only came up with ten? M: What did Kenny say when we were writing it? K: I said it’s better to have ten plates of filet mignon than twelve plates of sloppy cheeseburgers. M: It’s true. Cut the fat! That was the theme of the album—trim the fat so all the shit was taken care of and it was lean.

For the full interview including some harsh words for Seattle, head over to colormagazine.ca

You should have called the album Exercise instead of Sorry. M: [Laughs] Ya, well, Sorry happened. colORMAGAZINE.CA

no. 3

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Outta Sight, Outta Mind

Do wooden run-ups have a place in modern skateboarding?

photosby gordon nicholas

hen Paul Machnau bought Moses Itkonen’s old truck, it came with three big sheets of Skatelite in the flatbed. Unassuming to the naked eye, these portable little scraps (originally harvested from the now defunct RDS park), were carefully engineered to interlock for setting up and creating spots out of otherwise unskateable terrain. “I wanted to be able to have interlocking sheets,” explains Moses, “so you could have a longer smoother runway and the chance of a gap between the sheets pitching you down the stairs headfirst would be less likely.” This kind of DIY spot-making was all the rage back then. Look carefully back at old photos and videos and you might see those very pieces of Skatelite right there at the top of some of the monster handrails.

But the times, they have changed, and the recent reappearance of these spot-makers had us wondering: is this still acceptable in modern skateboarding? “Wood run-ups and landings were the biggest step in street skating,” says veteran photographer Kyle Shura, “How could it possibly be that they are un-street?” It seems there’s a fine line these days, where cutting off stoppers and kinks is regarded on the ‘don’t do’ end of the spectrum, while Bondo and DIY concrete is on the ‘by all means’ end. Keeping in mind how many tricks would have never been done it was “uncool” to have faux run-ups, we leave you with this banger from Barton and a question of our own: Where is the line between real street skating and this old school brand of spot-making? 52

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A straight cut would mean the sheet wouldn’t work at most spots, because the run-up is never really exactly straight. Curved interlocking sheets provided the best solution. Skatelite isn’t cheap but regular masonite bonded to ¼” plywood underneath would work.

Zach Barton, switch frontside bigspin boardslide. colORMAGAZINE.CA

vol. 10 no. 3

wordsby anne cottingham

T —

Rodney Graham at Vancouver Art Gallery

This small but punchy exhibition features seven light box works and one film, all previously unseen in Canada. The majority of the elaborately staged light boxes depict Graham as some sort of character, from a model dressed as French National Guard in the 19 th century to an exhausted and depressed sous chef; people drawn from the past or still attached to it. The title work, Canadian Humourist (2012) features a 60s-era professor type, teetering on the edge of hip (it’s probably the bushy Pierre Berton-esque hair fluffing out of the side of his head). Betula Pendula ‘Fastigiata’ (Sous-Chef on Smoke Break) (2011), provokes thoughts of accepting your limitations and what you can and can not 54

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ime is a bitch. The funny thing is though, despite how adversarial it may seem, time is on your side; it just needs a little finessing and experience to become as subjective as art. Time is fluid and constantly changing based on the perception of the individual. Consider nostalgia then, as an off-shoot of time, and we see that it too is subjective; based on past and expected experience. Rodney Graham’s exhibition Canadian Humourist at the Vancouver Art Gallery summons these concepts of time and nostalgia. Graham’s characters are stuck in an era where all they seem to have is time, and yet, somehow it is still not enough.

achieve in the time you are given. The sous chef is dressed in classic 1970s kitchen garb, but is the photograph supposed to be set in the 70s, or is it a reflection of futility and how out of touch this man has become in his quest for greatness? Modernity breeds aspirations, but the reality is not everyone will reach the top of the ladder. Graham is concerned with the many problems of the modern world and the humour of his images originates from purposely avoiding a depiction of a truly modern, technological society. He references the digital age without having to depict anything digital by playing with ideas of

nostalgia. In Small Basement Camera Shop circa 1937 (2011) Graham is dressed in a comforting bow tie and sweater, the hair on his head sticking out every which way. He stands at an old wooden counter surrounded by the Kodak logo, their box cameras and film. The image looks back at a time when people had only recently begun to photograph themselves. A Kodak ‘Brownie’ box camera (or one similar) is employed in lieu of a studio professional, yet the photographic examples in this shop are all studio portraits—the shop has only just caught up to the new equipment but not the new possibilities of the quickly changing medium. The mom and pop camera shop itself has now become obsolete, completely changing

“How out of touch this man has become.”

our relationship with our images and the recording of our personal history. In the past with film, we shared our lives with the technicians and staff of our local photo printer. Today, you can print your own photos, eliminating the need for further human interaction. At the same time, the internet makes it possible to share images well beyond our local communities. Somehow, in the shift from film to digital, we have managed to de-personalize our lives.

Canadian Humourist is certainly a must-see, especially as much of Graham’s work is sent straight to exhibitions in New York, London or Zurich, with next to no immediate opportunities for viewing in Canada. I particularly liked the creation of such a small space within the Vancouver Art Gallery to showcase a small number of works. It made the exhibition very intimate, akin to a showing in a smaller, local institution and I hope they continue to share smaller exhibitions with a Vancouver community that is starving for more international contemporary art. If I were to point out a fault, it wouldn’t be in the work, rather in its placement as an appendage to the summer blockbuster Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore—a peculiar attempt at spatial consideration that almost makes Canadian Humourist an afterthought. That said, perhaps it is intended to try and introduce the average art lover to Graham’s incredible and thoughtful work, especially in light of its commentary on the modern world. Graham has been using himself as a model for his works since 1994, and though that limits the characters he can realistically represent, the possibilities are still almost endless. Can of Worms (2000) depicts a rusted paint tin sitting open on a stone wall and is one of only two light box works in the exhibition that do not include the artist. I wonder if this piece, especially when situated amongst a number of light box works that Graham does appear in, represents the artist’s realization of the Pandora’s box of options he has opened by choosing to be the model. A tongue-in-cheek jab at himself; Canadian humourist indeed.

[ o ] LIVINGSTONE

image courtesy of Vancouver Art Gallery. [ o ] TOPHAM

The Green Cinematograph Programmer 1: pipe smoker and overflowing sink (2010) also tackles film, though not in terms of technological changes. Projected into the corner of a small room, this 16mm film cuts back and forth between Graham leisurely smoking a pipe and a sink that overflows with great glacial chunks of bubbles as time progresses. Graham has edited these two disparate happenings together but they are not necessarily meant to mean anything to each other, and yet they do. Just as the pipe smoker is reaching his most relaxing peak, the bubbles climax over the sink and collapse to the floor. He is so focused on his pipe he doesn’t care about the sink and there is something oddly satisfying in that. The lasting image of this work however, is not the play between the pipe smoker and the sink, but that of the massing bubbles and the shadow of the film bubbling off the reel in loops behind the old-style projector. It is as if Graham has found a way to include three narratives by using only two films: the pipe smoker, the overflowing sink and the simple beauty of film mechanics.

(clockwise from opposite left) Installation view of Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition Rodney Graham: Canadian Humourist. Artist’s model posing for “The Old Bugler, Among the Fallen, Battle of Beaune-la-Roland, 1870” in the Studio of an Unknown Military Painter, Paris, 1885, 2009. painted aluminum light box with transmounted chromogenic transparency, 182 x 138 x 18 cm The Green Cinematograph, Programme 1: pipe smoker and overflowing sink, 2010 custom film projector with looping device, 16mm colour film, silent dimensions variable, 5:35 duration Installation detail of Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition Rodney Graham: Canadian Humourist. colORMAGAZINE.CA

vol. 10 no. 3

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Sterling Lofts, Toronto 1.

Garret Gardiner, miller flip brownphoto.

wordsby aidan johnston

photosby adam beck

bereft fire pit sits in an arid field and charmless delivery trucks line the street outside the Nestle plant. All your magical childhood notions of candy factories are ruined by the abandoned warehouses that surround you and still echo shrill, depression-era cries of ‘Where’s the money?’ Meet the neighbours of Sterling Road. While this strip of land located amidst the convergence of railways and roads just before Roncesvalles in Toronto’s West End may seem like the equivalent to Monopoly’s Baltic Avenue, there is at least one priceless property housed here. Something has risen out of nothing in the lofts of the unassuming building nestled at 163 Sterling Road, now a hub for musicians, artists and designers alike. The stark corridors of its interior are lined with open concept studio spaces. An ajar door reveals the aftermath of a ‘zine release party. In another room, home to Tomorrow Gallery, a contemporary exhibit by NADA NYC has begun mounting. Down the hall, the sounds of bandsaws and routers transforming wood into refreshingly un-Ikea items emanate from Julian Villasenor’s custom furniture studio. Meanwhile, what looks like a casting call for 56

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an “indie movie” is actually a crowd forming outside Muttonhead’s clothing studio for one of their many collaborative sales. Back outside, painted red curbs serve as a conch shell gathering for skaters coming from across town for one of their famous ‘Slappy Sunday’ sessions (see Color 9.6) and a ramp recently cemented from scratch beckons for a crypt keeper session under the nearby bridge. To the casual top hat, boot or other game piece that might stroll by, there’s nothing to see here—the painted curbs and a Spanish daycare in the façade are the only indications of activity—but for the rest of us, this is a place to skate, listen, watch, create and corrupt. Long may it remain so.

10. 1. Various Buddha sculptures adorn the pathway on the north side of the building, including this one which just had its savings emptied. 2. In the shared sculpting studio, molds are filled for an especially playful piece commissioned by MOCCA. 3. A collection of knick knacks form Muttonhead Clothing’s inspiration board—the original Pinterest. 4. The inviting space at graphic design studio Arc & Co could be the home of an art gallery gift shop. 5. An old sewing machine atop a built-in record player is the ideal gift for your ‘impossible to buy for’ friends. 6. A rack of hopeful samples await their chance for production. 7. Labels lay waiting at the studio of homegrown unisex clothing label Muttonhead. 8. Throwing in the towel after a long day of sculpting. 9. A stray deck discovered in the adjacent field. Disturbingly, the hardware matches dental records of trucks found at a nearby beach. 10. Residents turned this batch of rubble into a Friday night bonfire faster than you can say ‘kumbaya’.

{ sitka }

Jess Atmore Zach Barton Brett Stobbart Sheldon Meleshinski Chris Haslam Colin Nogue Fabian Merino

{ sitka }

Jess Atmore Zach Barton Brett Stobbart Sheldon Meleshinski Chris Haslam Colin Nogue Fabian Merino

vol. 10 no. 3

PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREW VOLK hair and Make-up JENNA KUCHERA Models EVY at rad kids, and FINN

QUIKSILVER beanie ROYAL sweatshirt

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(opposite from top) SITKA henley SITKA top

ENJOI button up FUCT top GLOBE pants ADIDAS sandals colORMAGAZINE.CA

(opposite) SITKA top

(opposite from left) COMUNE jacket SITKA henley FOURSTAR pants NIKE shoes INSIGHT dress

SITKA pants CONVERSE shoes Vintage top colORMAGAZINE.CA

vol. 10 no. 3

Wherever the truth may lie, Lil B has developed a loyal following that accepts all permeations of his character as earnest expression. When levels of absurdity reach a saturation point and abstraction begins to meld into parody, he gravitates toward traditionalism and records East Coastcentric hip hop with focused mature content. Lil B is no hoax, nor is he an elaborate social experiment; he’s the king of a generation raised on the internet. Starved for attention with an addiction to disposable immediacy, there is an individual within The Based God just trying to find himself.

wordsby cameron mcarthur

photosby matt dixon

il B hoists a pair of worn out Vans above his head as enthralled fans scream out, “Thank you Based God!” The music begins to fade and the audience rushes the stage to pose with the rapper; chopsticks and chefs hats in their hand. Soon, Instagram and Twitter will be flooded with photos and hashtags like #BASED and #RARE. These brief euphoric interactions, married to the worldwide web, exemplify Lil B’s character just as much as the hours he spends on stage rapping. His dedication to releasing music has been matched only by his focus on social media and the exploration of his everevolving oddball persona. Fans consider him an eccentric artist, embracing new technologies; detractors accuse him of exploiting cheap controversy and viral marketing.

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Backstage after the show, Lil B transforms back into Brandon McCartney and the rapper’s demeanor shifts from excited and manic to collected and focused. The bright pink bandana and bare chest are replaced by a loose UC Berkley hooded sweatshirt and an impression of red lipstick on his right cheek is the only visual reminder that The Based God was ever really there. At just 22-years-old, the California native has already invented and reinvented himself countless times over. In just a few short years, Lil B has catapulted to the forefront of modern hip hop, it seems almost solely on the merits of a viral online presence. Google “Lil B” and you’ll find home videos of teenagers mimicking his signature “cooking” dance, countless tweets aimed at @LILBTHEBASEDGOD and a slew of video comments left by young men begging Lil B to “Fuck my bitch!”

In order to understand the Lil B phenomenon, you have to examine it all: the songs, the performances, the tweets. “People have to see all sides,” he says. “I think they want an honest person and I just try to be as honest as possible, let people just know me, and that’s what the people know: me.” Still, some question Brandon’s motives and the authenticity of his work. As someone who challenges rap traditions and utilizes the internet in ways that many corporations have harnessed as a marketing tool, Lil B is open to the critics who say that he has little interest in artistry and is more concerned with garnering fame and money. Given that there is no record label maneuvering behind the scenes, it seems doubtful that Lil B is a marketing ploy and more likely just the unfiltered expression of a unique young man. “Where I’m from, there’s a lot of independents and a lot of thinkers,” Lil B describes his experience growing up in the Bay Area. “[There’s] a lot of people that’s very accepting down there and you can really be yourself and have a voice.” That voice and individual spirit can now be heard repeating nonsensical mantras of celebrity worship on “Ellen Degeneres” or comparing himself to deities on songs such as “I’m God” and “Look Like Jesus.” You do find these recurring religious themes and imagery in B’s music, but he views himself as a free spirit and uses religion strictly as a reference point. He explains, “My mom wanted me to go to Church; I did it, but it was just kinda too long for me. I was raised just to be myself.”

Lil B used this independence to nurture his creative side and in 2004 he formed The Pack with teenage friends Young L, Lil Uno and Stunnaman. The Pack was signed to Jive Records by rap legend Too $hort and achieved national success with their single “Vans,” but the group eventually slowed down their creative output. Around the time The Pack began their unofficial hiatus in 2010, Lil B began uploading videos to YouTube and releasing free mixtapes online. He quickly amassed a catalogue of songs in the thousands, with topics ranging from sex-laden improvised “Based Freestyles” to introspective tales and poignant social commentary. As the number of recordings increased, so did his profile. Newly converted fans, glued to computer monitors, began to look to Brandon not only as a benchmark for all things considered “swag,” but also an emotional and philosophical inspiration. Here’s a scary thought: Could political leadership one day be within Lil B’s reach? “I have an interest in exploring politics because I do want to understand it more,” he says. “I voted Obama.” Like all areas of his life, Lil B seems concerned first and foremost with being a truthful person. This approach seems to

“I have an interest in exploring politics.”

encourage his ADD-like pace and his evershifting focus. Earlier this year, he sold out a lecture at New York University in which he bounced back-and-forth between ideas in the same fashion as he raps, discussing everything from babies and music, to love and friendship. He says of that day: “I really didn’t do too much preparing,” choosing instead to spend his time with his audience offering his own brand of ruminations on the human experience as a whole. “I can’t prepare what’s in my soul.” Then he makes a quick digression to discuss the animal kingdom. “I love animals, I always have. They’re really pure.” Here again is that trademark humorous warmth the social media universe has come to expect from Lil B. His childlike innocence and openness feels genuine and perhaps just as important to him as his actual music. Brandon is comfortable allowing the world to get to know the real him. When asked to discuss his “Based” philosophy, he struggles to clearly define the concept. Although he mentions the importance of having a positive mental attitude, his personal view cannot be summarized so simply. In one sentence Lil B can boast about how many “hoes are

on his dick” and in the next sentence he’ll empathize with the objectification of woman. But it’s all good according to Brandon, as long as you are forthright about your flaws and your motives are pure. Lil B’s future may be difficult to predict. Whereas some rappers like A$AP Rocky have used YouTube hits to catapult themselves into a lucrative major label record deals, Lil B is comfortable as an independent artist and the freedom it affords him. We might even see a reemergence of The Pack again in the near future. “We still Wolfpackin 100%,” Brandon says with Lil B creeping back into his voice. “We still here. We already got music. We got a lot of songs. It’s just about getting them out.” And since Lil B has always moved in an organic direction with his musical tastes, we may even see a Canadian collaboration. “I keep my eyes open,” he says, then in a stream of consciousness style typical of Lil B, he begins to rifle off Canadian pop culture shout outs: Drake, Kardinal Offishall, The Weeknd, Grimes, Teagan & Sara. Lil B is always ready to challenge our perceptions of rap stardom. #ThankYouBasedGod colORMAGAZINE.CA

vol. 10 no. 3

[ o ] DOUBT

wordsby sandro grison

photosby kyle shura

Tony Ferguson, on set. c. 2002

hen we decided that this would be our ‘History’ issue, I wanted to be conscious about not getting carried away with all the ‘where are they now?’ nostalgia. The obvious choice isn’t something Color has been known for, but for me, North was just one aspect of our past that couldn’t be avoided. This video changed how I thought about myself as a skateboarder, and thinking back on it now, the high caliber of its contents and dedication to quality certainly had an effect on my decision to start this magazine and the direction it would take.

Like many of the skaters in North, I’d moved to Vancouver seeking opportunity (not to mention milder weather) with hopes of finding a career in the skateboard industry. At 20 years young and with no real world experience, it meant either rolling a tape gun and packing boxes in a warehouse full of your favourite shoe company’s product, or wearing a smile on the sales floor of a skate shop. After work, it was back to whatever respective skate house you claimed a piece of. Around the dawn of the millennium, 66

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two of the most affluent skate houses were known as The Chateau [Dundas] and The Dorm. The latter was actually championed by Vancouver native Geoff Dermer (now owner of Kitsch Skateboards), who at this time had recently celebrated a video part in Jeremy Pettit’s Big Guns—the first real ‘bros’ video from the Lower Mainland. Geoff remembers returning to The Dorm from a day at the warehouse to see the backs of his roommates leaving in a van for their next filming mission. Of the 20 or so bodies that occupied The Dorm, well-qualified and eager to film, only two were slated to have parts in this new video. Filmer/director Jeremy Pettit knew there was something happening on the West Coast and it had nothing to do with beer bonging or the ‘fuck shit up’ mentality. So he rounded up a colourful lineup of talented individuals, that no company would be able to capture, and set out to do it himself, on his own terms, his way. The intensity of the energy that was circulating was something I’d never felt or witnessed before. Jeremy had just wrapped filming and editing a major company video and having learned what it takes to make something on

that grand scale, he was eager to couple that with what he had previously done with Big Guns and put something out in a cinematic way that would represent the finer things in Canadian skateboarding. This was an exciting time with a lot of fresh energy around. Everyone was pushing each other, but it was Pettit’s ability to take charge that really got skaters motivated. Of course, it wasn’t an easy thing for him to accomplish on a shoestring budget funded mainly by his girlfriend who, at the time, supported them both while he followed his dream. But whether it was for the betterment of their futures or simply because life/skateboarding/friends just might not get any better than right then, the skaters involved were ready. North chronicled an entire generation in Canadian skateboarding in under a year’s time and sold thousands of copies worldwide, yet never received the media exposure it deserved. I wondered if it was just me who felt this way or if North had impacted any of those skaters as much as it had myself. So we dug up some never-beforeseen photos and decided to track down the major players to chat about this special time, finding out what it meant to them and where they’re currently at.

[ o ] DOU BT

“It was a big collaboration of all the best skaters, and those guys knew it.” —GEOFF —GEOFF DERMER DERMER

[ o ] DOUBT

“I was backing Ted from the beginning. I thought he was going to get on Girl.” —TONY —TONY FERGUSON FERGUSON Ted De Gros, tailslide frontside kickflip. c. 2002

Of all the skaters with parts in the video, Ted De Gros had the least to worry about. His potential was well known and he was stacking footage at a rate that afforded him a considerable amount of time spent perched forward with a game controller in his grips. Nollies over barriers and Cab 360 flips… according to veteran pro and North alum Tony Ferguson, Ted was one skater in particular that stood out in his mind for pushing the limits of his own skating. “Ted was rad. There was a time we were trying to get him on Girl,” Tony reveals. “I thought he was getting on.” If there was anything negative to say about his skating it was that maybe he set the bar too high, leaving nowhere to really go from there. These days, Ted’s a pretty hard man to find, but we tracked him down at his home outside of Berkely, California where he lives happily married and works as an arboriculturist—a profession that keeps at least one foot still stuck to wood and him actively climbing to new heights. He doesn’t like to talk about skateboarding much anymore, but when we asked him about Jeremy, he opened up. “He really took it seriously and when everyone got on board with that and started taking their own parts seriously, it all came together. You could tell you were watching a video where the people that were involved gave a shit.” Of course, we had to ask him the obvious question. “I still play Perfect Dark. Fucking love that game.” .north

When Mike McDermott moved to Vancouver, he didn’t know anybody in the city, but it wasn’t long before happenstance found him skating in front of Rick McCrank, Jeremy Pettit and Dylan Doubt. Mike remembers McCrank filming, Pettit pointing the 16mm and Dylan shooting off rolls of fiIm, trying to get a sequence. It’s important to point out that these were the days before digital sequences, so every attempt counted and mirrored a measurable expense in film so the pressure was on. “I wasn’t on Antisocial yet,” McDermott remembers, “but I was like ‘Holy fuck you better land this, kid. You’re filming with 16mm and Rick McCrank is staring you right in the fucking face.’” Luckily McDermott’s skills were well-demonstrated and he had a good sense of humour. “I think I made [McCrank] laugh that day.” McD had no trouble making people laugh on a consistent basis and coupled with a genuinely honest persona, this has played a major role in the current success of his Winnipeg skateshop Green Apple. To this day, he remains as humble as ever citing his part in North and the breakthrough Canadian videos that came after it, as the reason why Green Apple is the lively thriving business it is today. He also made sure to note that he’s particularly grateful for the relationships that formed during those days of North— particularly with the other mop-topped Mike of the time, surname: Chalmers.

[ o ] DOUBT

“Holy fuck you better land this, kid. You’re filming with 16mm and Rick McCrank is staring you right in the fucking face.” —MIKE —MIKE MCDERMOTT MCDERMOTT

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Sascha Daley, 50-50. c. 2002 (opposite) Mike McDermott, switch pop shove-it. c. 2003

Keegan Sauder

Mike Chalmers’ peers refer to him as some kind of genius and compare his natural ability on a skateboard to that of Tom Penny, but like a lot of the guys we talked to, Chalmers is quick to shine the light on someone else. Hailing from Roberts Creek on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, Mike started taking the 30-minute ferry across to West Van back in his early teens, to meet up with AMB local Russ Milligan. “I used to come just to watch him,” Chalmers remembers of the ledge killer. “He was so good, even way back then. You could just see it. It was insane.” Eventually the two began talking and hanging out, skating together more regularly when they began filming for Jeremy Pettit’s previous projects.

“I could see them getting to travel and hanging out in the streets all day, having good times. I wanted to be a part of that.” —SASCHA —SASCHA DALEY DALEY Russ Milligan

Mike still skates regularly, but on his own watch, free from having to answer to sponsors. He prefers to buy his own shoes now. Since North, Mike has been known to wear many different hats (or gloves). Road hockey warrior, UBC student and professional online poker player—he does it all. Today, Mike resides on Vancouver’s North Shore along with two other North grads, Sasha Daley and Aaron “AJ” Johnson, who told us about a recent discovery of Mike’s latest endeavour. “I got some community paper type of thing and he’s got an advertisement: I’m Mike Chalmers, come train cardio with me,” recounts AJ. “I’m like, ‘What the fuck… Cardio guy?’ I saw him at the skatepark the other day and I said, ‘Hey you’re the cardio guy, I saw you…’ He was like, ‘I’m over it,’ and I said ‘What? You took out an advertisement, that’s your small business, it should be your thing.’ He said ‘Naw, I’m over it. Everyone’s such douchebags.’ Classic Mike.” colORMAGAZINE.CA

Aaron Johnson, boneless. c. 2004

Nobody put more of themselves into North than Aaron Johnson. Prior to moving to Vancouver, AJ dropped out of school with the sole purpose of making a video like North. At this point in his life, only one thing was for sure: he wanted to be a pro skateboarder and North, he believed, would get him there. The concept of making a creative Canadian skateboard video that could stand on its own on the world’s stage, coupled with Pettit’s pledge to give AJ the last part, inspired him to make the video as good as possible. AJ was the first person filming for North to throw down at Vancouver’s iconic “Black Double,” something he describes as a goal-setting thing. “I wanted to do it. It was scary. I got kicked out lots, you know, bruised my heels…” He likens it to the old cliché that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. “It’s something to look back on and it motivates me now because I fucking went to that set so many times. It was fucking hell. I was trying tricks down it and getting mashed up. I didn’t think I could do it sometimes.” But he did. He flew down the street from one block up, carved into the runway and sailed down that set with a gargantuan backside 180 that would only be matched by his kickflip, and then backside 180 kickflip a year later. “AJ was on a mission,” said Chalmers. “I remember on this one trip he’d get 3 or 4 tricks every day. And big stuff too—just skating really big shit and putting everything down really fast. It was pretty impressive.”

“North was the only real fucking thing I ever did in skateboarding.” —AJ —AJ

outof.

One guy who AJ insisted on getting into North was Wade Fyfe. Wade moved to Vancouver from Ottawa after attending Slam City Jam with his shop sponsor from Edmonton. He started out living in a car with Nathan Olokun behind the building where Color all began. “We’d go to the community centre and shower,” Wade told us about those days. It certainly wasn’t the kind of lifestyle that included extra money kicking around to buy a plane ticket if you should feel the urge. When Pettit and a couple of the guys left for Alberta on one of just two trips made outside Vancouver for the filming of North, one of the skaters got injured and Jeremy made the decision that he wasn’t going to let the trip fall apart. So, with only a couple hundred bucks in the bank, he flew Fyfe out, not knowing if it would be possible for him to throw together a part in just two short months.

[ o ] DOUBT

All that battling and hard work paid off though, as North resonated with people around the world including one Cairo Foster. He’d been headhunting Aaron Johnson for the newly formed Popwar Skateboard company and had traveled to Vancouver in 2002 for the North premiere. It turns out AJ was right about being in Pettit’s video—it was the perfect vehicle for companies to look at for talent because it wasn’t selling anything. It wasn’t a company video, just some friends working together with an emphasis on quality. Not only did North launch AJ into international sponsored status, his role as the mascot beaver provided him with a reel that would land him an acting roll in a major television commercial. This got him out of his part-time gig at the warehouse and eventually landed him a career working as a technician in the film industry. But for all that acknowledgement, AJ never imagined that he’d be looking back ten years later and see North as the highlight of his skateboarding career. “That was the most fucking fun I ever had skateboarding.” Afterward, he got into filming for company videos and had parts in videos like Digital, but it never felt right to him. “It sucked and it just sort of petered off from there. North was the only real fucking thing I ever did in skateboarding.”

They picked him up from the Edmonton airport and the only question was, where to skate? Wade told them about a spot he had in mind. The spot: a steep square rail with a bar at the end, so if you stuck and had to jump forward, you’d be impaled. “He fucking nollie noseslid that rail,” exclaimed AJ. “Which… like… nobody would even fuck with that thing.” As a first-time producer of an internationally distributed film, Jeremy had got his money’s worth on that first trick and it was starting to look like he may avoid living out of a car himself. “I just tried my hardest, had fun and did anything Jeremy asked me to do,” Wade said even though it wasn’t his healthiest years. “I skated six-hour days, barely ate, chain smoked and smoked weed.” For him, and everyone else in the video, they were just pumped to be a part of such an honest project. Today, Wade’s gone full circle, opting to work within the simple confines of a warehouse again where he can work among friends and continue to skateboard the way he wants to. He has a pro model out with Studio Skateboards and a new video part released this year. Wade Fyfe, backside tailslide. c. 2003

[ o ] DOUBT

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Just about every skater in this cast of carefully selected characters reached a level where they saw their name on a skateboard and had their picture on the cover of a magazine. Whether or not that was the goal they set out to achieve, they continue to do what makes them happy, skateboarding for a team or just for themselves. Of the eight major players in the original North video, Russ Milligan has outlasted them all when it comes to taking skateboarding as seriously as they all did ten years ago… all but one. Keegan Sauder, who migrated to Vancouver from the Kooteneys, stood out as much then as he does today, for his distinct skills in transitions, pools and Vancouver’s famed Hastings bowl. It may be no coincidence that both skaters were the only two who skated in their North intros, showing just how serious they were. Both currently reside in San Francisco and are unarguably two of our finest ex pats. Neither Russ nor Keegan have changed much over the years, solidifying their place in skateboard history through clear authenticity.

Keegan Sauder, ollie. c. 2002

[ o ] CAIS SIE

Perhaps a clear attention to individuality was the greatest strength this little independent video possessed, something that not even those creative skits and intros could quite capture. Each skater fostered a serious degree of heart and Pettit was able to bottle it up in the form of a skateboard video. The essential difference between this and a company video is perhaps just that: It wasn’t about sales quotas, it was about just being happy skating with your friends, being creative and experiencing what it means to be a skateboarder. You can tell when something is as authentic as North was, and still is 10 years later. If there’s one thing that everyone can agree North had, it was direction, and if there is just one message we can take away from reminiscing with all these guys about this great time capsule that chronicled a generation in Canadian skateboarding, it’s that at the end of the day, authenticity is the only thing that matters.

“You can tell when something is as authentic as North was, and still is 10 years later.”

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(l-r) Jeremy Pettit, Mike Chalmers, Mike Has tie, Chris Kendall, Paul Mac hnau, Russ Milligan, Edmonto n. c. 2002

Ted De Gros

wordsby jenn jackson

abriel Duboisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; studio and palette exist in the alley, at home, in the backyard and occasionally (as Color found him, scribbling on napkins almost a decade ago) at local watering holes. Around the time when this magazine was just getting off the ground, Gabriel had transitioned from graffiti artist to experimenting with new forms and assemblages as part of the Beer Bench Gospel Collective that included the likes of Jonny Cloud and Ben Tour. The collective eventually went their separate ways and Dubois ventured out into the world. Taking his affinity for alternate spaces on the road, Dubois has since expanded his practice beyond the script of graffiti to include: sculptures, structures, paintings, works on paper and print. We tracked Gabriel down in Berlin where he has been living on and off for over a decade, to see what heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been up to since Vancouver. It turns out quite a lot.

Mother Tongue, 2011 acrylic, spray paint, enamel and collage on galvanized steel

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images courtesy the artist.

Exhausted and frustrated, we would usually head back to the pub after a few hours The Motion in My Ocean, 2011 acrylic, spray paint, enamel and collage on galvanized steel (opposite) Can’t Save Email, 2009 mixed media and collage on wood,

Raised on the North Shore of Vancouver, Dubois spent his summers skateboarding and running naked through the forest. At age sixteen, he discovered a passion for graffiti and began engaging with a whole new community of writers, both locally and around the world, drawing inspiration from street and graffiti artists working in places as far away as Japan and the Czech Republic.

linguistic logic. Dubois removed written meaning and replaced it with text-like lines, abandoning translation. It was around this time that he also began to experiment with alternate surfaces, media and methods. Scavenging material from peripheral neighborhood spaces, Dubois began painting on anything that he could find, often opting for discarded pieces of wood.

In his late teens, Dubois shifted his attention from the painted word to the cursive aspects of textual representation, focusing on the spaces that exist between each letter and imagining alternative meanings. He told me, “There was a turning point when I began breaking the imagery down and a kind of dissection and re-assemblage process occurred.”

Dubois studied at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, a college at the time, but his tenure as a student did not last long. Despite this short post secondary chapter of his life though, his time at Emily Carr gave him a foundation of new mediums, including access to the immaculate print shop where he studied etching, lithography and screen printing— influences still present in his current representations of print culture. It was also around this time that Dubois met artists Ben Tour and Mr. Cloud

This shift materialized in artwork that formally examined both the fluid and disjunctive gestures of 76

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chumming around The Cambie pub. Together, this trio of comrades made little drawings on wet napkins and “sang like Scottish sailors,” recalls Dubois. It was the start of something special; something which became known as the Beer Bench Gospel. Beer Bench grew from a trio to a quintet with the addition of Sandro Grison (who Dubois lovingly refers to as Twinkle Toes) and Fontski, another Color alum [see titles: Color 1.3 and 5.6]. The group collaborated on paintings together, reverting, recovering and reassembling each other’s contributions. “We were going over each other relentlessly,” said Gabe. “Exhausted and frustrated, we would usually head back to the pub after a few hours.” The first Beer Bench exhibitions were hosted by Misanthropy 80

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Gallery and the space became the grounds for experimentation. The collective began a process of installing and arranging found objects into diverging narratives; a process familiar to the structures, works on paper and “outside art” (as Gabriel calls it) that he produces today. The intuitive forces Dubois employs within his work seems to always reference his free spirited youth—a freedom that is apparent today in his sculptural structures. Reminiscent of naïve architecture, his buildings cull memories of fantastical fort construction where every component represents an alternate vantage point. All of his scavenged materials are imagined into new forms. There is an immediate sense of escape and solace

(previous spread) Horn Ok Please, 2009 mixed media and collage on wood,

There was a turning point when I began breaking the imagery down

(clockwise from opposite left) Wall paintings in India Untitled on paper, mixed media and collage on paper, Untitled, 2012 acrylic, oil stick and tape on wood. Untitled, 2012 acrylic, oil stick and tape on wood.

built into the playful four walls, window and door in each of his structures. They embody a retreat and a gesture outside of the institution where they are free to shape-shift. Many of Dubois’ structures are site-specific often produced for festivals, constructed with the help of friends. They offer an environment for social happening, discourse and dialogue. DuboIs explains, “For me, they symbolize a simpler life, sanctuaries for retreat, vessels to escape time and the daily grind.” There is room for personal engagement, frivolity and intimate exchange. Take his Hamburg, Germany project The Pickled Herring, 2008 for example. A sabbatical from the normative workweek, the space functioned for three solid days as a pub. Accompanied by a seven-piece band and a continuous flow of patrons (never dipping below 50), the space was certainly inviting. When it comes to naming his structures, Dubois enjoys this as much as the building. All of the namesakes (Kayserie Manti, Instant Harmonica, Das Kykkeliky Eingang) come to represent an imaginative .artfeature

Edel Assanti Project Space, 2010 London, England Pickled Herring, 2008 Hamburg, Germany

story. Instant Harmonica came from a 70s harmonica notebook. The colour-coded cover translated into paint choices for each structural component. Happenstance and coincidence also play a major role in titling. Kayserie Manti for example is a word play on an organic bakery on wheels. Gabriel’s belief in textual power and background in graffiti is a quality that continues to anchor his current practice. Much like his sculptures and installations, Dubois’ works on paper also reflect a particular attention to composition, models of structure, geometry, texture, scale and colour theory. The difference though, in Dubois’ words, is “The works on 82

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paper are created quickly and therefore arrest an impulse more immediately.” It is a quieter study and their ephemeral presence gently persuades attention. For Dubois, a work on paper is reflective of a note whereas a painting parallels itself to an unconventional essay fixated on duration and shifts in context Although systematic, the repetitious nature of Dubois’ work alludes to an intuitive sensibility, which is a much-needed quality when working in unfamiliar territory. Of the five artists that made up the Beer Bench Gospel Collective, Gabriel is the only one who carried on a nomadic lifestyle, which

(clockwise from left) Untitled, 2011 acrylic, oil stick and tape on wood Lower Case Apparatus, 2010 acrylic, spraypaint, and enamel on wood London, 2011

They symbolize a simpler life, sanctuaries for retreat, vessels to escape time and the daily grind .gabedubois

Untitled, 2011 mixed media on paper (opposite) Studio view london, 2011

has garnered tremendous influence over his work. For Dubois, there is a feeling of both comfort and excitement when moving through new environments. He describes: “When you’re traveling through new environments, your senses are heightened; you get excited constantly and process information more rapidly.” He likens his painting to encountering a new city, taking on influences at a gradual pace like a casual stroll. As we found out, Dubois still continues his street art, only now within a category he defines as outside art. His current wall murals exist in a realm somewhere between graffiti, architectural drafting and sign painting. In many cases, the wall paintings blend in subtly with the surrounding architecture. In others, they pop right off of the desolate unimaginative surfaces on which they are often painted. In both cases the works thoughtfully consider space and offer an appendage to the already existing structures. Within these works it appears that his application of foreign pigment is sanctioned—an uncommon predicament for a graffiti artist. Dubois selects spaces that have an immediate impact on him. Locations include, but are in no way limited to, countryside villages, city centres and abandoned industrial lots. His murals offer an illusion of three dimensionality; it appears you could step right into them, as though the structures which they support, could not exist or stand without their carefully placed lines. The public response to his paintings varies from place to place. When he was painting in India, people loved his murals and often invited him to paint the exteriors of their own home. But in Europe and North America, Dubois is more selective about his canvas and permission is not something he frequently considers. Under these conditions, the work transforms and finds itself again aligned with the realm of graffiti.

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From his early days on the walls of Vancouver to his current studio practice in Berlin, all of Dubois’ works exhibit a hieroglyphic tendency and demonstrate his love for calligraphic gesture and contemplative colour blocking. He pushes the infinite potential of textual representation beyond its functional capacity, exercising an extensive imaginative language with a potential for infinite translation. As I spent time with his work, I noticed a subtext: a commentary on current affairs, the global economy and the longing desire for a model lifestyle reduced of its contemporary baggage. I think in some ways Dubois has achieved a certain freedom many people aspire to. Drawing from personal referent and happenings, it is clear Dubois finds comfort in the process of intuitive meandering. Signs and symbols intersect within his patterns to create a geography of personal cross sections where each implied narrative

is abstracted just enough to lend to alternate imaginations. Gabriel Dubois’ work is always telling a story, but like any good story teller, there is plenty of room for the viewer to insert themselves and their own narratives. His art is an open platform where the formula from beginning to end always takes a different route. “I often flip and turn them throughout the process, to find new solutions;” both a literal and metaphorical comment on his own works. Like running naked through the woods, or skateboarding through the alleys, the bursting vibrancy of Gabriel’s projects operates on many levels. From filling the empty, to remembering the forgotten, the margins are always highlighted to encourage a most important pursuit: a venture outside the lines.

I often flip and turn them throughout the process to find new solutions

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vol. 10 no. 3

words and photosby andrew szeto

he Bos brothers are a package deal. Between the three of them (Josh, Jake and Adam) they have all the angles covered. Josh is the youngest and he does the skating. Adam, the oldest brother, is the man behind the VX and Jake, the one in the middle, well you could say that Jake is the guy that makes it all happen—hyping up the sesh, defending against security and promoting their production company Neighbourhood Watch as much as possible. Wherever they go, these Kingston, ON locals always roll together as a pack and support one another without the help of any sponsors. They might also be the best-kept secret in Canadian skateboarding.

I met the Bos’ four years ago in the parking lot of a Wendy’s just off the 401 in Kingston. Terry Worona and I were meeting them for a quick, day-long skate trip. This was before I had started shooting skate photos—a shame really, because that day Josh got three or four tricks for what was to be his Lo Def part. These spots were either super gritty or fairly sizeable and I don’t remember even rolling up to them to try anything. I was blown away by Josh’s natural talent and by how stylish he looked on his board. Not to mention Adam and Jake were at Josh’s side the whole time, filming and looking out for traffic the way they always have. I was left with a permanent impression of Josh’s underrated abilities on a skateboard and strangely, I never really saw too much more from them in magazines, videos or anywhere for that matter. Until this past fall, when I reconnected with the brothers Bos at the While You Were on Facebook premiere in Ottawa. By this time, I was now shooting skate photos and living closer to Kingston and since Josh’s breakout video part, Wash.Rinse.Repeat. had just put the Bos name on the map, I figured it was time to help reveal all that undiscovered talent just waiting to explode. Once we had made plans to spend that spring traveling between Ottawa and Kingston shooting a few photos, it became clear to me that these guys were incredibly passionate about skating. Since then, the Bos brothers have absolutely blown me away. Between Josh’s amazing array of tricks at the most creative spots and a hospitality that you don’t normally receive from any single skater (let alone three), these humble brothers represent everything good about skateboarding today.

(left to right) Josh, Adam, Jake Bos

Fitted with a warped 7.6-inch Toy Machine that Josh got on sale for $25 and the same VX1000 that Adam has always used, the Bos brothers are on a tear and thoroughly enjoying this moment in their lives. I had a chance to sit down with all three of them together (naturally) to chat about their unique family dynamic, their secrets for scoping spots and what to expect from them in the future. colORMAGAZINE.CA

tripleentendre.

Color: How many years have you guys been skating together? What’s the story? Josh: It all began in 2001 when I started skating. Adam was skating a year before me and in 2002/2003 we started filming. We ‘dad cammed’ it. It’s been just us three doing this for over a decade. Adam: I actually have the Hi8 tape of Josh’s first ‘sponsor me’ video that we ever made. We didn’t have an editing system, so what I would do was film a trick and if he didn’t land it, we’d rewind and film over it again. That was how it all started. Describe the dynamic between you three when it comes to filming. Adam: It’s different depending on where we’re at. When we’re in a city, the three of use are constantly looking for a spot.

Jake: I basically scout out spots and play goalie, so Josh doesn’t get hit by a car. Josh: We’re just having fun and when we come across stuff we want to film, we just try our hardest and film it. Adam, you’ve always been like a ‘skate dad’ of sorts, working construction to buy camera gear and helping out with buying boards too. Josh and Jake, what do you guys think of the role your older brother plays? Jake: Adam’s always there for us and has been a huge support, especially with Josh breaking a million boards. Josh: And I’ve always grown up with a lot of problems with anxiety and OCD, but he has always been there to help comfort me. I couldn’t have asked for a better brother.

(opposite) Frontside tailslide. Ollie-up 5-0. Montreal. .thebosbrothers

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I remember when the W.R.R. video came out, I saw it crop up everywhere on Facebook and it was Jake who was spreading it around. Can you tell me about Jake’s role? Adam: Jake’s the hype man. It’s good, because I’m the filmer and he markets it. I don’t really care for Facebook or that kind of stuff. Josh: Likewise. He’s the enthusiast and I’m too nervous and wouldn’t ever want to be cocky about the stuff. Jake: [Laughs] Where Josh is skating and Adam’s filming, I’m more the observer and I am just so stoked on it and love to put it out there and get it to the right people. What’s in the works right now for the Bos brothers? Any projects to look forward to? Adam: We’re trying to make a video right now, something under Neighbourhood Watch productions, like a feature that we’ll be able to sell in shops. What I’m trying to do is film for a year and I’m thinking a 10-minute video would be cool. Parts will come from Josh and we’ve been in touch with a few skaters in Ottawa about the project as well. Speaking of Neighbourhood Watch, tell me a bit more about it. What’s the deal with the name and when did it start? Adam: When I made my first video, I wanted a cool logo that people would associate with the street. So I thought the Neighbourhood Watch logo was cool and it was the name of the first video I ever made up. I’ve stuck with it ever since. That video came out in ‘06 and then I started making various montages under the same branding. It’s cool because all the actual street signs sort of serve as marketing for it [laughs]. Do any of you have aspirations to move to bigger cities? Josh: I wanted to go to Toronto for animation, that’s the career that I’m trying to go for, but I am not ready to leave. I’m still pretty young and I’m not quite looking for a career just yet. For skating, I’d move to Boston. I have a lot of favourite movies, so I go to where these movies were filmed and look for spots.

Ollie. .tripleentendre

Ollie-up frontside boardslide (opposite) Gap crooked grind.

tripleentendre.

Adam: Well The Town, starring Ben Affleck, that’s your movie. He bought it initially when it came out, then he bought the Blu Ray edition and then when the Ultimate Collectors edition came out, he bought that too. It’s only been like a year or two since it’s come out though, how is there an Ultimate Collectors edition already? Josh: I don’t know man, but I need those extra deleted scenes. Because of my OCD, I just got really obsessed with it. There’s something about it. It’s my comfort movie and the setting got to me. The movie was centered around Charlestown and we went and filmed two tricks there for Wash.Rinse.Repeat. Raymond Molinar just had a few tricks

from there in his recent Converse part too. We love movies. Gone Baby Gone is also one of my favourites, which was also out of Boston. So you talk about looking for spots at these cities you love from the movies, do you just drive around looking aimlessly until you find one? Josh: I actually go on Google Earth and look for spots before we go. I’ll see spots and just write down the exact address and destinations. But it can be tough, there are times where things aren’t quite to size. Also alleyways and side roads aren’t quite mapped on there either and that’s the type of stuff I like to skate. For Boston, I think I spent 12 hours searching on Google Earth instead of doing homework.

So about home now. You guys talk about putting Kingston on the map a little more. Obviously parts like W.R.R. help, but are there any other ways you’re trying to put the city on the map? Josh: That’s why most of these photos we’ve got are from Kingston. The people from Kingston will know exactly where these spots are. I just want to open up more opportunities for myself too in some regards, because a lot of Kingston spots have rails in them and that’s not necessarily the type of stuff I normally skate. I want people to see these spots and start traveling to Kingston a little more too. Any random stories from any of the trips you‘ve been on? Josh: We were in New York, skating around the Central Park .thebosbrothers

area, and this guy was there with a huge canvas. I don’t know if he was actually struggling or faking it on purpose, but this guy was asking for our help to carry it to his apartment. So we decided to walk over and help him with this thing. We go into his apartment, which was super ritzy and nice, and we ended up taking the canvas up to the guy’s room. The guy then started hitting on Jake, asking if he had a girlfriend and then asking us if we wanted to go have a drink with him. The questions only got creepier from there, where he would make remarks about how handsome or cute Jake looked too. Anyhow, a mid-day skate session in New York somehow ended up turning into some guy hitting on us for an afternoon. How do you guys see things changing between you over the next few years? Josh: Part of my main anxiety is that we won’t all be together forever, hanging out and doing this. I’ve literally had sleepless nights thinking about this, but I’m not worried about it because everyone has to do their own thing eventually. If I want to take up animation as my career, I am eventually going to have to leave. I’m never going to fall out of skating or anything like that ever. It keeps me calm, and I don’t have any anxiety when I skate. Adam: I’m pretty close to paying my car off too. When I pay that off, who knows? I may move away to go film. I’m stoked on that! Josh: I’m just happy we’re all still together skating. I’m done school and at this point in my life, I’m kind of scared of the next step, but I know we’ll all be skating and that comforts me big time. If it wasn’t for Adam or Jacob I’d probably just be pushing shit-foot down the side of the road.

(opposite) Backside smith grind. 94

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vol. 10 no. 3

words and photosby jeffrey stockbridge

P —

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 98

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hilly is like the Wild West—there is a certain amount of lawlessness one feels when walking down the street and seeing a gang of young teenagers riding ATV’s and dirt bikes at top speed through red lights. It doesn’t matter what neighbourhood you’re in, if you live here, you’ve seen it. Abandoned buildings and vacant lots allow for creativity to move in and set up shop. Following those before me, I set up my photo studio in a warehouse in the neighborhood of Callowhill. Remember those apocalyptic scenes in Eraser Head? That’s Callowhill. Across the street is the abandoned Reading Viaduct that local artists and residents have petitioned to turn into a High Line park. At the end of the block the recently opened Trestle Inn is the newest staple in the neighbourhood offering whisky-a-go-go. Sitting at the bar, having a classic whisky sour and homemade beef jerky while a buxom dancer on the platform in the corner moves to alternating funk and French pop, I can’t help but feel equal parts nostalgia and anticipation for Philadelphia’s past and uncertain future.

EAT. The Pope 1501 E. Passyunk Avenue South Run into your friends and have a drink. Cheap food and great beer selection. The Royal Tavern 937 E. Passyunk Avenue Great local bar with the best burger around.

Prohibition Taproom 501 N. 13th Street GRILLED CHEESE!!! And lots of beers. Grace Tavern 2229 Gray’s Ferry Avenue Blackened green beans! Serves food late.

DRINK. The Trestle Inn 339 N. 11th Street Dark atmosphere, classic whiskey sours, gogo dancers.

The Dive 947 E. Passyunk Avenue Dirt-cheap beer and pool table on the 3rd floor.

The Dolphin 1539 S. Broad Street Two pool tables, old school dance floor and a little taste of south Philly entertainment.

Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar 1200 E. Passyunk Avenue Ray’s opens at 7am, so have a beer for breakfast, it’s always somebody’s birthday!

The Republican 1734 Snyder Avenue When you need a beer after 2am.

DANCE. The Barbary 951 Frankford Avenue Variety of deejay nights featuring the best Glam, Punk, Soul and Rock n’ Roll. Making Time 1221 St. James Street Big fun dance party, live music and deejays at various locations.

GALLERIES. Fleisher Ollman 1616 Walnut, Suite 100 Showing works that range from contemporary sculpture, to intricate drawings. Vox Populi 319 N. 11th, 3rd Floor One of city’s best collective galleries, specializing in a wide range of conceptual works.

SKATE. Bodega 253 N. 3rd Street Artist-run exhibition and performance space committed to presenting new art and serving as a platform for cultural exchange. Little Berlin 2430 Coral Street Artist-run collective working on unique curatorial projects as well as hosting music events, performances and badminton tournaments.

Grizzly Grizzly 319 N. 11th Street Philadelphia project space devoted to emerging and underrepresented artists. Space 1026 1026 Arch Street A network of dozens of artists who‘ve had studios at the Space, past and present.

Silk City 435 Spring Garden Street A diner and a club, connected at the hip. 700 Club 700 N. 2nd Street Livingroom dance party & bar in a Philadelphia row home.

WILD CARD. Peg and Awl 116 N. 3rd Street Husband and wife duo specializing in handmade goods from art and jewelry to home and garden.

FDR Pattison Avenue and S. Broad Street No need for an explanation here.

Pops Park E. Huntingdon Street & Trenton Avenue Small but fun.

Columbus Ave Spot 401 Columbus Boulevard Concrete jersey wall on the water.

White Hall 5000 Tulip Street Fallen into a bit of disrepair but Jesse Clayton recent hooked up of a sweet concrete bank to ledge.

Caste Salvage 2133 E. Harold Street Building and fixing old motorcycles.

Alter St. Warehouse 1702 Alter Street Indoor bowl (Members Only).

Comedy Dreamz (At the Barbary) 951 Frankford Avenue Philadelphia’s funniest comedy team.

8th and Poplar N. 8th Street & Poplar Street Good warm up spot, plenty of ledges/rails.

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vol. 10 no. 3

—

Jamie Tancowny words and photosby gordon nicholas

t 3pm I got a call from Jamie Tancowny saying he was on the bus from L.A. and would be arriving later that evening in Vancouver. He needed a roof over his head for the evening, then he was flying back home to Edmonton the next day. It must have been midnight when he finally, somehow, made it through the border with no passport or any photo ID. How he managed to cross into Canada with nothing more than his birth certificate, I’m not entirely sure, nonetheless Jamie was finally back in the Great White North. He made sure not to waste any of the 24 hours he was in the city and no sooner than rolling away with a varial heel flip over the Hot Spot rail, I had him back in the car on the way to the airport for his flight home to Edmonton. Of course if border security wasn’t going to hold him accountable, somebody had to grill him before he got on that plane.

What is your citizenship? Canadian.

Who were you staying with? Dustin Dollin.

What brought you back to Canada? My friends and ‘cause I’m sketched out by the States. The States are fucking sketchy.

What did you skate? Big rails.

How long are you staying in the country? As long as possible. What do you have with you? A bunch of Happy Hour shirts, my skateboard and one pair of pants. Cash? Zero. How did you get to Canada? Fucking 48-hour Greyhound.

Why did you leave the States? ‘Cause I lost my fucking passport. How did you lose your passport? Got drunk for three days in Atlanta and lost track of it at the DGK playground. What were you doing in Atlanta? Partying. Who were you with? I was with [Jamie] Thomas, my homie JT Rhoades and his brother Lanny Rhoades.

Did you meet anyone on the bus? I met this old black lady named Jackie; she made me call her Momma. I met this other lady named Kelsey; she had a two-year-old kid and is 20 years old and is ‘G’ as fuck. And I met this fucking illegal immigrant Mexican named Juan, who’s from Compton and got stabbed twice right before he got on the bus. He still had scabs.

Where are you going next? Home to my bed because it’s been a while.

How long were you down south? A month and a half.

When are you heading back down south? In a month.

What did you do while you were there? Fucking shredded and got hammered.

Are you taking anything back to the U.S. with you? Some nudie mags and good times.

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Are you planning on leaving anything here? Of course. What are you going to leave? Good times.

“I met this old black lady named Jackie; she made me call her Momma.”

Varial heelflip. Vancouver. colORMAGAZINE.CA

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vol. 10 no. 3

n 2009, a few friends from local power pop band Thee Makeout Party set up a record store in their sleepy college town of Fullerton, California, at the heart of Richard Nixonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Orange County. Since the 60s, Fullerton has been a home of suburban counter culture; a university town where Fender Guitars was founded and 80s punk icons such as The Adolescents, T.S.O.L and Social Distortion fueled SoCalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boom of punk and hardcore. Today, from inside an unassuming storefront, Burger Records is making waves on the west coast by almost singlehandedly resurrecting the cassette format, selling thousands of copies by notable garage bands like Nobunny, Apache, Clorox Girls and King Tuff. Fueled by marijuana, tacos, burgers and cheap beer, the guys from Burger now have over 200 releases (mostly cassettes) and thousands of vinyl records in their shop, and on top of that, they host events all across the metro Los Angeles area and present scores of bands every year at SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. On a balmy Southern California night, behind a storefront pulled seemingly out of thin air, Color spent time with founder Sean Bohrman to find out how Burger Records has become a mecca for vinyl junkies and a NeverNeverland for the kids of the black hole.

wordsby justin maurer

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photosby olivia hemeratanatorn

Online now: Listen to 4 new tracks from Burger artists Audacity, Summer Twins, Natural Child and The Tough Shits exclusive to colormagazine.ca

Color: First off, how was South By Southwest this year? Sean: This year I handled shit and it felt good. Everything ran on time, we fit new bands in. Our Spiderhouse show, Burger Mania, reached capacity and sold out which was great for us. Bill Murray was there and we hung out with him, which was one of the highlights. He introduced the Nerves and he really liked the girls in Summer Twins. That was the only reason he talked to me. [He] was buying Summer Twins and all these girls vintage clothes from the clothing shop in the venue. What’s been the best part of your year so far? In San Francisco we had a festival, Burger Boogaloo, and I accidentally booked a Southern California festival of Burger bands called Burger Rama for that same day. We sold out both Burger Bugaloo and Burger Rama. There were like 1500 people here at the SoCal show—young kids and older rockers like Ric Menck who played in Velvet Crush, Springfields, Choo Choo and all of these 80s bands we really love. He played with his new band The Tydes. He felt happy about music again, just being a part of Burger and having all of these kids excited about his new band, dancing all stoked. He told us something is happening here with Burger that hasn’t happened before and he’s been involved in the music scene since the 70s. Do you guys identify as an indie label? We just do what we want to do, we didn’t set out to be what we are, but it’s happening and we’re just rolling with the punches. What separates Burger from big record labels? I think we’re different because all of the (supposedly) independent labels that we are becoming peers with, are owned by these big labels like Sub Pop and all of the smaller labels are owned by the medium labels. That’s what sets us apart; we have complete control and there’s nobody telling us what we can or can’t release. We can put out tapes and have them distributed and heard by people, and that’s great, because it’s so cheap to make tapes and to put out anything we want on tape. It could be a joke and people can still listen to it. Do you think if Capitol or Columbia or Matador made an offer to buy your label you would accept, or would you turn them down? It depends what they offered us, we would need complete control over everything. The main goal besides remaining independent

and doing what we do, how we want to do it, is to get the music heard. If there’s any way to make that happen, we’ll do it, but we won’t sacrifice ourselves. Do you think that with free downloads and the new found popularity of cassette tapes, that indie labels now have more control and credibility? Definitely. Oftentimes with bigger labels there are too many cooks in the kitchen. You have ten or more people thinking about an album and how it’s going to look and how it’s going to sound. It gets jumbled with too many ideas. That’s why, when we make tapes, we like to keep the people who made the music in charge of how it looks and everything. We want it to remain their vision. And that’s how we can be held accountable. If anything is fucked up, it’s only on us and I’d rather have it be that way. Burger is in a special position of power with turning people on to cool music. In what direction do you want to steer the Burger public? I just want everybody to be included and listen to music and feel happy and excited. It’s sad that people are afraid to be excited about things, wasting their time hating on bands. It’s okay to be excited about music and records and nerdy things. I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. I like what I like and I will stand behind it. Even if I know it’s not “cool” or I know there are flaws, I’ll like it anyway. ‘Fuck you’ if you hate on me for liking something. Guilty pleasures are not something we believe in.

work with Burger, I feel like I’m wasting time. I feel like I need to do it now, everything happens now and we need to do it now, no matter how crazy the ideas are that we have. Recently I’ve been so over money. We do okay, we keep the ball rolling enough to stay afloat, but it’s fucking paper. They are trying to rule our lives with it. It is definitely the root of all evil, it really is. But like I said, we have to keep the Burger machine rolling. Every cent we make goes back into Burger and that’s how we manage to put out 150 releases a year. I noticed you guys also do some charity work? We have Katenge Mduduzi Mufuzi, he’s

our adopted child from Zambia through Children International. We started that with the Nobunny cassette a couple of years ago. We charged an extra dollar for the 500 cassettes we pressed. It sold out in a week or so and we were able to raise enough money to increase his family’s income for two years. So we continue to support him. He draws us pictures and sends us letters. We also do Action Against Hunger, which is a charity we contribute to with our Feeding People LP. The proceeds go to them. We’re going to get more into charities. I can’t reveal any specifics but there will be some real big charity events happening with us... like big things. I wish I could say more, but I can’t. It’s going to be big.

“It’s okay to be excited about music and records and nerdy things. I don’t believe in guilty pleasures.”

Where do you see Burger going in the next five years? Obviously we gotta keep the momentum rolling, keep the machine rolling. As far as where it goes, there’s something new every day. I open up my email and it’s a new surprise all the time. I never know what’s going to happen or what’s going to fall into my lap. We’ve been lucky with that, with the whole history of Burger. We’re going to tour the world, we’re going to take over, keep putting out 100 or more releases a year. This year we have 150 new releases. Last year we had 100. This is all we do. This is our entire life. Before Burger, I liked to play video games, I liked to go see movies. I liked to do things for myself. Now I don’t do those things anymore. I feel like there’s so much going on and we’ve created something important that needs constant attention 24 hours a day. I need to keep building, it’s an obsession with me. I can’t stop working. When I’m not working and I’m doing something that’s not colORMAGAZINE.CA

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dennis

busenitz

50-50 to pole jam busenitz pro

www.adidas.com/skateboarding

ÂŠ 2012 adidas america, inc. adidas, the trefoil logo and the 3-stripes mark are registered trademarks of the adidas group.

vol. 10 no. 3

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IAN TWA switch backside nosegrind revert pop-over [ o ] furkay. 107

NICK MOORE ollie [ o ] nicholas. 109

MIKE VINCE nollie 180 [ o ] caissie.

MITCH BARRETTE backside nosegrind [ o ] worona. 111

112 MIKE ANDERSON frontside kickflip [ o ] acosta.

Have Color delivered by messenger eagle*

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1 YEAR = 4 ISSUES DELIVERED TO YOUR HOME *Color is not actually delivered by messenger eagle, but a really nice postal service worker. Your first issue will arrive in 8-12 weeks. Shipping is included. All prices are listed in CDN funds. Make all cheques payable to fourcorner publishing inc. and mail to #105-321 Railway St., Vancouver BC, V6A 1A4. If you have any questions, please call us at 604.873.6699 or email us at sales@colormagazine.ca

Nestor Judkins & Clark Hassler / Color 10.1

colORMAGAZINE.CA

vol. 10 no. 3

See all the photos from Ryan Smith’s ‘Lost Roll’ online at colormagazine.ca/features

VANCOUVER SPOT

ALBUM

— Always / Resevoir

— It’s G.O.O.D / Jay Z ‘My Lifetime. Vol. 1’

VIDEO PART

CITY TO ESCAPE TO

— Guy Mariano ‘Pretty Sweet’ / Guy Mariano ‘Video Days’

— Los Angeles / Nelson, B.C.

DISTRACTION

PRESSURE FLIP

— Instagram / Beer bong

— NBD on vert / Armando Barahas

MAGAZINE COVER

CONTEST

— Sheckler Costa Rica / George Faulkner North Van

— BATB / Any Slam City

HELLACLIP

PRO

— Tomorrow / Everyday

— Ben Raybourne / Ryan Sheckler

COLIN MCKAY

SESSION WITH DANNY — Today / They’re on video.

DRINK

— Water / Jus de l’orange.

SKATE GANG

— There should be more gangs. / C’mon

SHOE

— All black / All white

introby dan post

photoby ryan smith

e were digging around a box of old photos when we came across a lost roll of film circa 2001 that Ryan Smith had shot on one of his first trips to California. He’d been at the Megaramp the day Colin Mckay was shooting the nollie flip into the roll-in that ended up making the cover of Transworld. When he got back to Canada, Ryan gave his roll of film to Kyle Shura, who “tucked it away” and never thought of it again. To this day, Colin continues to be a tastemaker as one of the driving forces behind Plan B and Hellaclips—likely the web’s most popular skate video site, drawing thousands to its homepage each day. We showed Colin this photo by Ryan and got him reminiscing about some of his best times as well as what’s next on the icon’s radar.

— Evan Smith / Evan Smith

ENTERPRISE

— Menu Skateboard shop. / You own it just pay me each month.

BOARD GRAPHIC

— Graphics are boring these days / The Plan B one with the big B on the bottom.

STREET TRICK TO BRING TO VERT — Flip in flip out I guess / Switch back tail shuv

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vol. 10 no. 3

WHITE LUNG sorry (deranged)

White Lung’s new full-length Sorry is a definite leap forward for the band and embodies a mixture of sounds from nü age muscle music to steampunk to rap metal, all with a neo-feminist twist. Just kidding! (Did you believe me?) They’ve really pushed their songwriting here with a much faster tempo mixed with those lovable disjointed fish ‘n chips guitar lines and intricate bass thunder tips. Vocalist Mish Way has even changed her style from “drowning sasquatch in heat” to “a picnic with Jesus on Cinco De Mayo.” A greater focus on melody is apparent in songs like “Bag” and “Glue.” Ten songs, all of them movers and shakers, will leave you feeling happy, or sad, or mad. Maybe even hungry. The point is, you will feel something, unless you are an emotional coward like me. The record also features the best album cover I have ever seen with my own eyes. —bobby lawn

Tassels

pressure mounts (pour le corps)

Vancouver has been overflowing recently with creative upstarts concocting leftfield electronic music. Think: Babe Rainbow, No UFOs, Teen Daze and Blood Diamonds, to name just a few. Despite getting his start around the same time as the aforementioned, Sean Orr’s Tassels project has started to gain steam. New cassette and vinyl boutique label Pour Le Corps offers up the second official Tassels release, Pressure Mounts: a schizophrenic drive through Orr’s laptop of sonic experimentation that filters a myriad of styles into a wholly listenable record. Orr dabbles in acid techno before quickly moving on to riddim-heavy soundscapes, recalling everything from Underworld to Aphex Twin. Album highlight “Shake Them Shackles” uses a clever sample snipped from a recent Crystal Stilts song while adding skittery beats and a stuttering sample of a child trying to describe a dream. Such a wide array of motifs probably wouldn’t have normally worked in the hands of many, but Orr pulls it off by keeping the pieces short and incessantly addictive. —mark richardson

BLUES CONTROL

EL-P

valley tangents (drag city)

Three years have passed since Blues Control’s last long player Local Flavor and now, with Valley Tangents, the Brooklynbased duo release their most accessible record thus far. While earlier albums were anchored in a mysterious psych fog, Valley Tangents is practically a smooth jazz record in comparison. Russ Waterhouse employs the kitchen sink of effects here, including synthesized flute lines, ray gun sounds, regal horns and a whack of hard-to-place electronics. Of course, his trademark soaring guitar lines are ever present, lending the record an anthemic quality. Cho’s virtuoso piano playing, which is pushed to the front of the mix, help the record stay grounded and keep it from becoming too chaotic. The twopiece still straddle the line between a myriad of genres, leaving the group on their own self-created island, with little comparison to any current acts. —mark richardson

With his label Definitive Jux, El-P came out swinging with an industrial strength and futuristic take on what rap could be. His own Fantastic Damage LP and Cannibal Ox’s Cold Vein (which he produced in full), were one of very few high watermarks in rap during the early 2000s. Since then, Def Jux has folded and many of the label’s artists have fallen off the map (Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox and Camu Tao come to mind). However, El-P hasn’t been slacking in the five years since his last record and now, signed to Fat Possum, he returns with the vicious twelve-track monster Cancer For Cure. Still intact are the sci-fi riddled beats that he’s become synonymous with and he’s certainly not lost any of the venom when it comes to his MC skills. Cancer For Cure isn’t as much a late-career renaissance as it is an affirmation of the man’s stature within modern hip-hop. —mark richardson

NENEH CHERRY & THE THING

this looks serious (hozac)

Based out of Austin, Texas, garage threepiece Rayon Beach finally delivers on the promise of their two-year old debut EP. With the flurry of releases that Hozac have been issuing in the last couple years, a band like Rayon Beach could’ve easily slipped through the cracks. Luckily, the wait has come to an end and we’re better off for it. This Looks Serious advances on the mechanized punk-garage of the Memory Teeth EP with a slightly slicker sound, pushing the hooks to the front while keeping the bite of the band intact. While the pop elements culled from garage rock lore are evident throughout Rayon Beach’s sound, it’s the dystopic, skewed and drugged-out punk methods of bands like Chrome and Swell Maps bubbling up under the hooks, that warrant the attention of those seeking something other than the myriad of third-tier garage rock imitators that are currently clogging up record bins everywhere. —mark richardson

PEAKING LIGHTS

V.VECKER

lucifer (mexican summer)

the cherry thing (smalltown supersound)

What do you do if you haven’t released an album in thirteen years? Well if you are Neneh Cherry you release an album with tons of diverse covers from groups like The Stooges, Suicide, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Martina Topley-Bird and MF Doom, then sprinkle in a few original compositions by yourself and The Thing’s saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and voila, you have an album. The Thing must be excited too as they took their name from a piece by word/free jazz trumpeter Don Cherry who just happens to be Neneh Cherry’s stepfather. The wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round. Jazz trio The Thing and Neneh Cherry met in London in 2010 for a recording session and decided after a live performance in Stockholm that it was worth documenting the collaboration on record. The results are a very interesting mix of styles on these eight tracks that make you wanna move to Sweden and buy a pair of blue jeans. The only thing that could have made this album better, and it is great, would have been a twenty-five-minute free jazz freakout of “Buddy X.” —bobby lawn

Rayon Beach

cancer for cure (definitive jux)

Peaking Lights had a banner year throughout 2011 with the release of 936, which garnered heavy praise from trainspotting blogs all the way to snooty UK mags like Mojo and Mixmag. The husband and wife duo, recently transplanted from Madison, Wisconsin to Los Angeles, gave birth to their son before recording Lucifer, and his influence looms large over the record (see “Beautiful Son”). The recordings this time around are much more polished, with Indra’s soft, cooing vocals pushed to the forefront rather than being washed out in the background. The duo still revels in their favourite motifs of krautrock, dub, analog synthesizers and subtle dance music, though the blending of the disparate genres is much more seamless than before. The title Lucifer is a bit misleading for a record as heavenly as this, but the duo refers to the Latin translation of Lucifer, a reference to the planet Venus. This Lucifer certainly has much more to do with celestial observations than it does with the devil. In fact, this might be one of the best stargazing records ever laid to wax. —mark richardson

in the tower (majorly)

V.Vecker is a man about town. He used to be found on the barstool of any given dive bar in the downtown eastside, but now you are more likely to find him running around a soccer field kicking a ball, even though this is still the man that got fired from Lulu Lemon for saying his long term goal was to “eat pizza and smoke.” This record was also recorded at the media club where V.Vecker is a bouncer, and this made me think, “Why don’t more bands record at their work?” My next record is gonna be recorded at Dairy Queen. V.Vecker used to mainly be an ensemble of guitars conducted by the man himself, but now the project is a lot more rounded out, instrument-wise, with V.Vecker no longer conducting, but instead tickling the teeth of a young organ, lending for a much more interesting and original sound than the previous concept. The ensemble is also made up of Vancouver stars from numerous bands, the most notable being the funky beats provided by the glistening lips of Brian Adam’s cousin, drummer Cory Woogler. He will take you to Woogletown, and you know what, you might not want to came back. —bobby lawn

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GRASS WIDOW

advaitic songs (drag city)

OM’s newest release starts off with “Addis,” a spiritual eastern sounding vibe that puts you in a kind of head space similar to laying on a pallet in a warehouse with two broken legs, next to a pipe and a Chinese senior citizen. Then just like that, it jumps into track two’s “State Of Non-Return” with full volume and all the sludge-groove of a Sleep song. The song trudges through, then near the end, that same Chinese senior citizen returns and says, “It’s round two but don’t worry, I’m buying brosef.” Leading us into track three “Gethsemane,” with that same feeling of pleasant warehouse gut-rot, but this time it starts to turn evil with a drum beat. When the vocals kick in, you can’t help but to think that if Satan is real he probably listen’s to OM and he’s probably super lazy, but lazy in that funny way. Like he’s eating chips on a foldout lawn chair by a stream of lava then he grabs his lemonade to take a drink, and when it gets up to his lips, the ice is all stuck together and rushes towards his mouth at the same time spilling the lemonade all over his brand new TapOut t-shirt, and he totally just laughs and shrugs. And that’s why lemonade is America’s #1 beverage. —justin gradin

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS worship (dead oceans)

First off, let me start by saying that back in February A Place To Bury Strangers put out an amazing EP, Onward To The Wall—a super loud, self-produced album, engineered, mixed and mastered by the band themselves. Maybe if more bands did that we wouldn’t have such audio-puke floating through the universe. Worship starts out like a Suicide song getting sexually assaulted by an 80s goth band. Many of the guitar parts are reminiscent of Phychocandy-era Jesus and Mary Chain. Once again the songs are violent and catchy and have an overall sense of completion and consideration. You know when you hear a song and you think, ‘I would have done this here,’ or ‘I would have done that’? Well, you definitely don’t get that feeling here. The foot is a size eight and the shoe is a size eight too, hummina hummina. And once again, this album is loud in the sense that even when you listen to it quietly it still sounds super loud and blown out. I wouldn’t listen to it quiet though. I would turn this up as loud as possible. —justin gradin

BLACK WALLS

internal logic (hlr records)

acedia (pleasence)

Despite releasing records on indie staples like Captured Tracks and Kill Rock Stars, San Francisco’s Grass Widow have remained on the periphery of the DIY girls-in-the-garage scene while the Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls have garnered most of the Pitchfork attention. Sure, their earlier and much more ramshackle records were easy comparisons to female post-punk pioneers like the Slits or the Raincoats, but Grass Widow have come into their own with Internal Logic. Long time listeners (the few of you out there), will surely notice the immediacy and newfound intensity of the eleven short tracks here. The complex interplay between bass and guitar takes several listens to fully digest, as well as the heartbreakingly gorgeous three-part harmonies these ladies lay down on every track. The results sound effortless and damn near breezy despite the complexity within the record, proving Grass Widow have been hard at work perfecting the craft. Utterly addictive, Internal Logic should bring the band the attention they deserve. Bonus points for releasing it on their own label.

This record is very beautiful and sad, even though in the opening track I thought he was saying “I didn’t know Eddie Vedder,” which made me laugh, though what he’s really saying is, “I didn’t know any better.” Beautiful acoustic guitar melodies flowing over the occasional dark bursts of a distorted under current, causes a tension in the songs and presents a depth and intelligence that makes for very mature songwriting. Did that sound cool? The third track, I think it is, starts off with guitar and a kick drum thumping and I thought the record was skipping, but it was just the song. Trippy, yes? This guy Black Walls is also a skateboarder and a lover of skateboard culture. One of the songs on Acedia, whatever that means, is dedicated to sk8r boi Brian Lotti, whom I am assuming is one of this dude’s favourite skateboarders. There is even a soundbyte on here of a guy talking about when he first started skating and it’s really short and presented like a song/poem. This shit is fucking with my head gear. I really like this record. I am slowdancing to it, in an adult diaper, with my dog.

—mark richardson

—mildred smith

AVENGERS

NICE FACE

2CD retrospective (water records)

During The Avengers’ brief existence between 1977-179, the band only released one, three-song seven-inch EP on Black Randy’s Dangerhouse and everything since then has been compiled by the band and released posthumously. On this double CD retrospective of the band’s work we find the once lost, but now found, two-inch 24-track masters from the Steve Jones (of the Sex Pistols, duh!) sessions, as well as some better live material and some studio versions of songs that have never been heard before. I used to drink with one-time Avenger member Brad Kent at the Old American and he used to tell me stories about Darby Crash and Jello Biafra. He told me he had every L.A. and Bay Area single from 1976 to 1984. He told me to meet him in the back of the bar the next day and I could buy them. I never saw him until a year and a half later. He had a black eye, was wearing gum-boots sweat pants and a jean jacket with no shirt. The records were long gone. —justin gradin

horizon fires (hozak)

This album started off and I thought, ‘this sounds like the teenage version of Alan Vega singing over a Casio recording of Andrew W.K’s “She Is Beautiful,” but then the chorus came in and I says to myself, hey wait, this is neato. These catchy synth-punk jams make you wanna get busy with your boyfriend even though your dad forbids it. The second track reminds me a bit of 80s Iggy Pop, even though I was born in 1995. Horizon Fires can be dark at times, but for the most part, cheery enough that I get damp in the pantaloons for Thomas and I hate my dad for not letting me see him. I want to have my pelvis destroyed to the rhythm of the drum machine. I could see this album being really popular with punks who love tennis, or with people who really love their boyfriends, yet for some reason, even though he has a job and his own money, you are forbidden to see. I guess I will have to find another way to you know what in the you know where.

TY SEGALL

slaughterhouse (in the red)

It’s pretty much official. Ty Segall is the hardest working man in garage rock. Fresh off his collaborative effort with White Fence and less than a year after his last triumphant LP, Goodbye Bread, Ty returns with an old cast of San Fran mainstays to push his garage rock intensity even further into the red. Featuring long time collaborators Charlie Moothart (of Charlie and the Moonhearts), Mikal Cronin and Emily Rose Epstein, the four-piece are absolutely on fire throughout this double ten-inch mini album. While recent Segall records have seen the man mellow out a bit and unleash the groove and swagger of his inner Marc Bolan, Slaughterhouse takes it back to the blown out intensity of Ty’s earlier releases. Even “Wave Goodbye,” which begins with a simple unassuming bassline, ends up in a dense whirlwind of duelling guitar solos and thrashing drums. Despite the calamity, he still manages to work in hook after hook, keeping this record afloat above the din. —mark richardson

Dinosaur Jr. i bet on sky (jagjaguwar)

Of all the 90s indie rock reunions (Pavement, My Bloody Valentine and Pixies come to mind), Dinosaur Jr. are about the only band that have gotten back together and issued new material rather than tour based on the back catalogue. I Bet On Sky is the third record since the original trio of J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph reformed back in 2005 and it’s definitely the mellower of the three. Mascis effortlessly peels off his signature snaky and wah-heavy guitar lines on tracks like “I Know It Oh So Well” and “Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know,” hearkening back to the stoned majesty of mid-period Dino albums like Without A Sound. Lou Barlow rounds the album out and injects a dose of energy with his two obligatory uptempo tracks. Dinosaur Jr. certainly aren’t breaking any new ground here or winning over new fans, but a few minutes into I Bet On Sky and you’ll remember why you fell in love with the band the first time around. —mark richardson

—mildred smith

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vol. 10 no. 3

Red And Yellow

dan askew, nick owen, ryan lovell (escapist) The ‘local’ video has got to be the greatest channel for skateboarding. When a group of people naturally come together, and they also happen to be great skateboarders, with the right guy behind the lens to coordinate and capture the shit-show, it’s hard to get bored. Red And Yellow, the new Escapist video from Kansas City, continues this tradition of showcasing an extremely solid line-up of mostly unknown rippers skating a city and spots that you have rarely, if ever, seen before. Rod Harper opens the vid with a two-song part while Joseph Lopez hangs his twinkle-toes right over the edge of some death-defying drops. As career advice (and in the name of plain ‘ol aesthetics) I suggest that Sean Malto and Tyshuan Johnson only ever be allowed to share parts. You know that guy in the local video that just flat out does some shit that you have never seen before? Well, for this video, Ryan Pearce is that guy. Watch this video and then one day when you get stuck in a layover at the Kansas City airport, consider coming into the city and checking it out for yourself. —ben hlavacek

5-incher

colin kennedy & luis cruz (almost) As much as I wanted to do a Nieratkostyle review of Almost’s 5incher video, telling tales about the fun world of penisia, the actual video is definitely more worth talking about. Quite often while watching a skate vid, there will be a guy (me) who will constantly be claiming, “I could do that,” but with a perfect mix of technical splendor and heavy hammers set to a solid upbeat soundtrack, that won’t be happening. As for Daewon, having already conquered every amount of asphalt/picnic table combo imaginable, it seems he has decided to only skate rocks, trees, gutters, walls, drains, lamp posts, swamps… or just land right on the stairs. Surprising to some maybe, that the final part goes to Chris Haslam and not Daewon, but after hearing about how he just skated himself into a hospital stay following his Globe Record attempt, he’s earned it through dedication. With solid parts from up-and-comers like Youness Amrani and Germany’s Christoph “Willow” Wildgrube, (plus three what-the-F tricks from the future of vert, l’il Mitchie Brusco) the only complaint I could possibly have about 5incher is, maybe it could’ve been, ahem, longer? —stefan shipmaker

OFFSET

jordan minardi and noel sinclair boyt (comune)

Hicks on Sticks

To be honest, as I watched Offset and wrote this review, I had morphine coursing through my veins. Not in a cool, street-wise and edgy fashion, but in a medically necessary, postmajor surgery fashion. Nial Frederickson opens the video with a wonderful combination of style, trick selection and some really sweet looking spots, and also achieves something very difficult to pull off: he makes skating in shorts look good. Joseph Lopez hippy jumped into my memory with a talking interlude where he says, “Just fucking get alien-wasted in Roswell New Mexico!” (again: morphine), while Jordan Sanchez left me wondering if I was indeed watching a pipe dream. Aside from skating amazing, rugged spots including trees and stumps (all the rage these days), Jordan boggled my mind with a frontside wallride on a bus, before he no comply kickflips over a curb, clears a gap, and wallrides to fakie on a barrier. Al Partanen skates what I could only call the gnarliest pool I’ve ever seen, or even imagined, then Josh Murphy closes it out with a song choice, Pavaratti’s “Nessun Dorma”, that solidifies his part as my favourite overall. Put it all together and you have a wonderful skate video—with or without morphine. —scotty macdonald

The first time I watched Hicks on Sticks, it made me sad as fuck. Why would anyone want people to know about their ‘99 homemade skate ramp tour of 8 Western Canadian towns that failed miserably, bankrupted their company and epically punctuated the perils of doing business with friends who also happen to be skateboarders—the worst planners on Earth? The second time I watched the film though, at the Vancouver premiere screening, it was in the company of a hundred people from the Kootenays who were very close to these ‘hicks on sticks’, including the late great Josh Evin, whose presence in this film serves as the single best memorial to his incredible heart, personality and talent on a skateboard I have ever seen. As the crowd that night erupted into cheers every time he landed a trick, I realized something. This was the crowd that Hicks on Sticks needed in those parking lots way back then, and not the small handful of groms and soccer moms that trickled down to see what it was all about. If not for Josh, (or to learn a really hard lesson in mixing business with pleasure) watch this film for its role in narrating the history of the Vancouver skate scene including the birth of Leeside.

soren johnstone & mike babiarz

—dan post

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vol. 10 no. 3

—

Hugo Balek wordsby aidan johnston

photoby brent goldsmith

ugo Balek might be from Montreal—it depends who you ask. He’s been described has a mutant (a McGill University experiment gone horribly right) and a distant relative of Cro Magnon man; thawed out of the Quebec glaciers after centuries of slumber, awaking as a brutish neanderthal oozing all the charm of Encino Man. My impression however, is that Hugo is too progressive to be from the past and that the best explanation for this creature is perhaps that he’s come to us from the future, where the stylized violence of his skating is forbidden and has him wanted by authorities for street spot murder, forcing him to flee from the ‘time police’ into our present. Despite which of the Hugo Balek origin theories are true, what is certain is that he’s one of a kind. Since they no longer have Jameson in 2633 CE, Hugo was delighted to try some of mine while we teetered through 10 questions about his past, present and future. 1. Were juicing on Jameson right now, but what do you normally pre-drink with before a night out? I never got into beer. I started drinking kind of late. I just drink hard liquor. Gin and juice/ Gin and tonic. I want to say mojitos, which is kind of fruity, but lately I’ve been getting into Royal Mojitos. It’s rum, mint, sugar and champagne instead of tonic water. Every sip just gets you fucked. 2. How long will it be between now and your shirt coming off at the bar? That’s just when I’m on vacation. I did it on my birthday, you know, just flexing at everybody and looking like a fucking fool. Sometimes you see shirtless people and they’re being serious, but I just love doing dumb shit, just to fuck around with people. One night my homie ripped my cords off and I was basically down to my boxers. I just rocked around the bar like that all night. 3. What’s your go-to ice breaker when meeting girls at the bar? It’s funny asking for rubbers right off the bat, especially asking random girls: ‘Do you have any magnum condoms?’ Never got a girl like that, but a girl that would get like that would be the best, ‘cause your asking for magnums so your confident that you have a gnarly dick. 4.What’s the most challenging line to pick up with? Last week, midday drunk, my buddy pulled this one out. He goes to this chick, and she’s not hot but kind of pretty, and he screams “Yo, are you tight or is it me who’s drunk?” Like, he pretty much means she’s fat, but saying it in French, in the deepest, scummiest voice. We’ve done a lot of dumb

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shit with girls man. We just like being idiots. We just scream at girls as loud as we can when skating down the street, we’ll bark ‘em out. Howling is what makes them remember. Sometimes they’re bummed, but it’s worth it when you get that smile. 5. What’s the story with the tattoos on your right leg? It started with one last year and now I’ve almost got the whole leg done. All my homies called it out. Pretty much every week I just did a different spot throughout winter just ‘cause I had nothing to do. It started with a stick-and-poke, then I started looking for a meaningful tattoo, but I didn’t want it on my arms so I thought I’d just get it on my legs. I got this Czech crest, ‘cause it’s my background. So I got the crest and then I started being like, ‘I want this one and this one and this one,’ and my legs just started filling up. It’s fun dude. It hurts, but it’s fun. 6. Where’s the sketchiest place you’ve gotten tattooed? This homie, we call Famous, he’s epic as shit. You can’t hate him. He’s got tats everywhere. One time I wanted to get a tat from one of my homies Alban and I was going to get one of his drawings on my leg, but he was like ‘dude this is too sick, we gotta do it somewhere else.’ So I said, “Fuck it, let’s do a ribber.” The whole day I was stressing and asking, “Does it hurt on the rib?” Then Famous walks in, and like I said he’s tatted everywhere, and I ask him if it hurts on the rib. He lifts up his shirt and he doesn’t have one on his ribs and the dude has neck tats! 7. Did the Montreal student riots change skating in the city?

“One of the cops dropped his baton, so I charged at him and he tried to hit me with his shield but missed.” Dude, the rioting is the gnarliest shit. Police pop like flash bangs and throw pepper spray, so if we were skating around downtown we’d sometimes get caught up in it. This one time, my homie Seb made the cover of The Montreal Journal. We were walking with like 200 people and at one point we look behind us and there’s a wall of 40 riot police banging their shields, then we look in front of us and there’s 20 of them waiting. They closed in and like 30 of us got cornered. Just 5 of us skaters cornered in with these protestors; we were scared. They’re coming towards us slowly, and then we hear 15 of the protestors start chanting: “3… 2…. 1!” And they just charge the cops to get out. So all the cops start beating people down and I see just two or three people ahead of me are getting beat. So I’m stressing and wondering, ‘do I stay or do I run?” While this was all going on, one of the cops dropped his baton so I charged at him and he tried to hit me with his shield but missed, so I made it out. But when I get out of the circle, the pepper bombs hit. So my eyes and nose are leaking and I’m worried that there are more of these cops. I run like two blocks and look behind me, and the homies Phil and Dam are there, but Will Marshall and Seb got caught. Seb was on the cover of The Montreal Journal and they had to pay a $600 fine for something they weren’t really involved in.

8. If Dimestore was going to sponsor someone who wasn’t a skater who would it be? It would be Gary Sinise, and he would ride a Falcon skateboard: Todd Falcon’s company. Dude’s a horror film director who also puts out freestyle videos in his garage. And Relic trucks—Sinise would ride those for sure. Actually, fuck Sinise. Big Lurch instead. Big Lurch is a rapper in jail for life in Texas for a PCP trip. He was found naked in the street chanting satanic verses covered in blood. He raps about PCP. He’s fucked, but that’s why he would fit on Dimestore. 9. How’s gambling on games of S-K-A-T-E been working for you? I love betting man; it just makes everything more fun. I never go into casinos though; I’m bad with money. This one time I stayed at Justin Czank’s house and I wake up and in the first ten minutes I lost my last 30 bucks, a board and a set of new wheels. Fuck. My mom manages my money because I’m an idiot. 10. You watch a lot of documentaries on the end of the world. If it came to that in your lifetime, how would you spend it? I’d have a good bunker; I’d be prepared. But if not, I’d just fucking enjoy it, get on the rooftop with some homies and blunts and enjoy the fire in the sky!

vol. 10 no. 3

H —

Waldorf Ramp Jam

ave to give it up to The Waldorf on this one. Once again, they let us set up some handmade mobile ramps in their backyard and invite a bunch of rippers down to shred it. Hell, we even pushed our luck this time by inviting L.A. hardcore band Trash Talk up to Canada to play the afterparty, and even when they were literally swinging from the rafters inciting mosh riots below, not once were we told to leave. Of course, we weren’t the only ones who though this was a good idea. Vans, Creature, Sitka, RedBull and Quiksilver came through with cash prizes and giveaways, with top honours going to Ace Sugimoto; a virtually unknown skater who just showed up out of nowhere only seconds before registration closed then proceeded to drop jaws all over that place. Let’s do it again sometime; you name the place, we’ll bring the ramps!

[ o ] NICHOLAS, LENNON, YAQUBIAN

SKATERS Ace Sugimoto, Adam Hopkins, Allan Handley, Colin Nogue, Damon Kerr, Dan Pageau, Eric Timmins, Geoff Dermer, Jeremy Wallaan, Jonny Byers, Matt French, Nate Lacoste, Rob Rickaby, Sheldon Meleshinski, Steven Bearance, Trevor Houlihan 1st - Ace Sugimoto 2nd - Nate Lacoste 3rd - Adam Hopkins Color Best Trick: Rob Rickaby Doubles: Ace Sugimoto & Eric Timmins Barefoot: Dan Pageau Spine Transfer: Adam Hopkins, miller flip Color Bank Trick: Rob Rickaby, heelflip body varial Best Coping Dance: Allan Handley

(left to right, top down) Adam Hopkins - backside 360 melon; Ace Sugimoto - Kickflip; Trash Talk; Ace Sugimoto; Damon Kerr; Daniel Pitout & Isabel Ford; Danny Marshall; Trevor Houlihan; Sandro Grison; Ace Sugimoto; Adam Hopkins; Geoff Dermer; Sheldon Meleshinski; Sean Orr & friend; Brandon Smith; Nori

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vol. 10 no. 3

W —

Lazy Tuesday: Field Trip

e should really think about changing the name of this night, because every week things seem to get less and less lazy. This time: a trek out to Leeside for the Vancouver premiere of A Test of Mettle. Now, if there’s a better way to debut a video than projecting it on a wall at Leeside, we don’t know what that is. It has all the elements: under a bridge, DIY concrete and a real feeling of skateboard history, which worked really well considering that this was the site of the ATOM finale, where Chris Haslam made a little history of his own setting a new World Record for Most Skateparks Skated in a Single Day. Skaters, neighbours, and a few curious people who just jumped on the free shuttle bus because it sounded like a good idea, crowded Leeside and set off a wicked skate sesh and film screening, clogging the shit out of Instagram feeds along the way. Stay locked on our social feeds for deets on another showing of ATOM.

[ o ] NICHOLAS, LENNON, YAQUBIAN

(left to right, top down) Sean Lowe & friend; Keith Henry; Ian Twa & Brett Gifford; Magda Kirejczyk & friend; Jamie Bizness & Natasha Lands; Dave Ehrenreich & Chad Dickson; Baxter; Excited bus riders; Stacy Matthews; Baxter, Jamie Maley, Shari White & Rose Athena; Jorden Murray, Joe Buffalo & Joe Lynch; Matt Munn; Conlan Killeen - blunt fakie Lazy Tuesday - Every Tuesday at London Pub (700 Main Street, Vancouver BC)

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insight51.com /art/fraser-amderson/

INSIGHT51.COM

us.insight51.com/store/

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vol. 10

SANDRO GRISON owner / creative director

GORDON NICHOLAS photo editor DAN POST managing editor DAVID KO graphic design MILA FRANOVIC fashion editor JUSTIN GRADIN music editor JENN JACKSON arts editor BEN TOUR illustration PRE-PRESS joel dufresne MATT FRENCH creative relief INTERNS ali yaqubian, nikki stephens BENNY ZENGA media manager

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

jeremy elkin, steve marentette, adam beck, morgan brown, ryan smith, brent goldsmith, scott livingstone, rachel topham, ali yaqubian, shawn lennon, jeffrey stockbridge, babas levrai, dan zaslavsky, brian caissie, jeff comber, keith henry, scott furkay, anthony acosta, terry worona, matt dixon, dan mathieu, robert french, olivia hemaratanatorn, andrew volk, joe brook, david broach, kyle shura, dylan doubt, andrew szeto, coey kerr, erin ainsley, jesse van roechoudt

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

aidan johnston, andrew szeto, anne cottingham, ben hlavacek, cameron mcarthur, jeffrey stockbridge, john rattray, justin maurer, mark richardson, scotty macdonald, shane twerdun, shauna thompson, stefan shipmaker, tim sedo, yann fily-paré

ISAAC MCKAY-RANDOZZI contributing web editor

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

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Dylan Rieder | Quarters

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