Volume 4, Number 3

a skateboard

erly. culture quart

T. N. JOSEPH HARIGER. O O T A K S A S .

S ET OLD ANDREW REYN PARD. CHRIS HASLAM. PRIDW W.K. P E E BRADLEY SH S. SHOOT TO THRILL. ANDR JOEY WILLIAM

a skateboard

erly. culture quart

T. N. JOSEPH HARIGER. O O T A K S A S .

S ET OLD ANDREW REYN PARD. CHRIS HASLAM. PRIDW W.K. P E E BRADLEY SH S. SHOOT TO THRILL. ANDR JOEY WILLIAM

a skateboard culture quarterly.

ANDREW REYNOLDS. SASKATOON. JOSEPH HART. BRADLEY SHEPPARD. CHRIS HASLAM. PRIDE TIGER. JOEY WILLIAMS. SHOOT TO THRILL. ANDREW W.K.

S I R A B S K E L RIND H BS SMIT

FULLY FLARED COMING SOON!

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THE FIRST LAKAI VIDEO FEATURING:

MARC JOHNSON / MIKE CARROLL / RICK HOWARD / GUY MARIANO / JEFF LENOCE / CAIRO FOSTER / ROB WELSH / DANNY GARCIA ERIC KOSTON / ANTHONY PAPPALARDO / BRANDON BIEBEL / SCOTT JOHNSTON / THE FRENCH CONNECTION / THE ROYAL FAMILY LAKAI IS REPRESENTED IN CANADA BY:

TRAVIS STENGER / LEKS BARIS / TED DEGROS / MICHAEL CHALMERS / WADE FYFE / CARL LABELLE / DAN BOCHART Lakai Limited Footwear : The Shoes We Skate : Supra Distributon : 2758 Rupert St. : Vancouver B.C V5M 3T7 Tel. 604-253-0559 : www.supradistribution.com : www.lakai.com : www.crailtap.com : Photo by Tadashi Yamaoda

TD L O

ER N - EATH W L O SH TE THE AY , WHI S AT G W N E CI OR LOR ED DU CO AN SU O COL O N R TIO / T AN INT EDI OWN MARI D E BR LL IT LIM LE IN. SEE A R B A RST AILA UEDE FOUSO AV CK S COM AL D BLA KAI. AN W.LA WW

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N A I AR

ANDREW REYNOLDS frontside flip [ o ] shad.

DEPARTMENTS 8 intro, 14 contributors, 16/18 product toss, 24 show, 30 anthrax, 29 contest, 32 chad vangaalen 33 inspiration bound, 43 parking, 48 faces n’ spaces 52 city, 54 cmyk, 90 first and hope 110 fotofeature, 119 sound cheque 122 trailer, 124 over and out, 126 credits

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with joey williams.

50

of boogie rock, with pride tiger.

60

68

76

82

92

102

108

COVER #1 Art created exlusively for Color 4.3 artby joseph hart

COVER #2 Andrew Reynolds photoby christopher glancy

AN INTERVENTION

SHOTGUNNING A SIXER ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

fashion/irration.

SHOOT TO THRILL

7 crews / 5 spots / pouring rain & 24 hours.

SASKATOON

sucks?

THE ART OF STORYTELLING

artist feature with joseph hart.

BRADLEY SHEPPARD

his own mellow way.

ANDREW REYNOLDS

his own mellow way.

ROCK’S GREATEST EXISTENTIALIST

is andrew w.k.

subscribe at colormagazine.ca

DEVINECALLOWAY SWITCH 360 FLIP. BLABAC PHOTO.

THE PURE FEATURES:

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DC PRODUCTS VISIT: WWW.DCSHOES.COM

MODEL FEATURED: THE

PURE

Skateboarders tend to come in two distinct categories. There are ones that bang off like fireworks, leaving a lot of smoke and some little kids going crazy. Then there are the ones that are like a slow sunset, honest to nature, talented. Most of us enjoy watching fireworks, but probably only for a few minutes, a couple times a year. It’s that feeling of excitement and danger that gets us. Just like watching this year’s tenderfoot jump down thirty stairs with a smoke in his hand. We know he won’t be around forever, but we’re there to watch the action in its fleeting engagement.

Sunsets are the opposite of fireworks. Just like a switch flip on flat from a seasoned pro differs from a rookie’s switch mob down twelve. But none of us are into the calm sundown all year round… so I suppose once again, here we are looking for middle ground. Those anomalous few that can set off fireworks a couple times a year while consistantly keeping their horizons lit up. —alana paterson

i

could sum up this issue by calling it ‘The Modest Issue’ but then how would I begin to explain how proud we are of Volume 4, Issue 3. Modesty is the running theme for this issue though, starting with a long overdue intervention with Whistler’s Joey Williams (p.36), who was sat down and confronted about his problem of thinking that he’s not good enough to be sponsored. He actually refused to be interviewed and was against the idea of even having photos published! In our fashion editorial, photographer Christopher Glancy captured some dirts who stole a car and drove it out to the Mojave desert to destroy it (p.60). From the great prairies of Saskatchewan we bring you photos from the locals, who either have no idea how good they got it, or are just claiming to hate Saskatoon (p.76) so you don’t visit and blow out their spots. Within the shadows of the art world, Nicholas Brown talks with Brooklyn-based artist Joseph Hart (p.82). Surprisingly, we bring you eight pages of skateboard photos from the 35 shots collected during a pilot project, ‘Shoot to Thrill’ (p.68), put together with Red Bull. I, for one, did not expect to squeeze another feature in at all, let alone one of this magnitude that was shot within a 24 hour timeframe... maybe I was just being modest. Finally, we hooked up with one of today’s largest names in skateboarding, and perhaps the most influential skater in the fight against those god-awful baggy pants we all used to rock. Andrew Reynolds talks about his new position as Head Designer for Sole Technology’s Altamont Apparel line, his influences as a kid, and gives us a glimpse into what we can expect from skateboarding’s most modest fashion icon (p.102). And if one individual could personify what skateboarding is truly about and what it means to be modest, it would be White Rock’s Bradley Sheppard (p.92). I’ll take a note from Reynolds now, and end this here. Less is more. ­—sandro

8

Four Point 3.

Nollie Backside 5-0. Stuttgart, Germany - circa 2006 PHOTO: BROACH ©C1RCA 2006. See Sierra Fellers in C1RCA’s first ever full length video “It’s Time.” Featured Product: Web Fleece, Classic Stretch Denim, and the 8 Track in Black/Blue/White.

It’s Time.

Video Podcast now available @ www.C1RCA.com

Committed to Skateboarding. www.C1RCA.ca

[ o ] GLANCY

This is Color 4.3, right here!

Bandanna by aNYthing “All’s Well, that Ends Well “ page 60.

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OWEN WOYTOWICH

SAELAN TWERDY

RYAN McGUIGAN

ALANA PATERSON

CHRISTOPHER GLANCY

His true passions are skateboarding, photography, and Avril Lavigne. When he’s not wrapped up in those pursuits, Owen spends his days singing along to the radio and choreographing dance routines to perform at his next session.

He’ll shoot anywhere, anything, anytime, all the time. He got some great shots of cows and other locals for the Saskatoon article. page 76.

When he’s not writing about music, Saelan pursues his higher education in Art History and Cultural Studies. He spends a lot of time contemplating his future as a penniless, disillusioned aesthete.

Furthering his quest for higher learning, Saelan interviewed Andrew W.K. to talk about music and existentialism. page 108.

Vancouver-based director and womanizer Ryan’s debut film, Modern Love and his much anticipated soon-to-be-released The Green Apple Family Tree, are the products of a creative, crazy mind.

He put his talents to use in our article on Joey Williams, in which the duo take a long hike in the wilderness and sample some of the fauna. page 36.

We sent Alana out to Salt Lake City, Utah armed with a camera and a suitcase full of illegal liquor and dance tunes. Sparing no expense, we put her up at the city’s finest establishment – Lizard King’s Mom’s House. The results are fittingly heathenistic. pages 52.

A photographer, video, and art director, Chris is easily distracted and questions why he has been picked by Dolce&Gabbana to contribute to their upcoming anniversary book. His obvious talents are not lost with us, as we grabbed him to shoot some tweaked out skaters with a thirst for speed in the fashion/irration and portraits of Andrew Reynolds, one of which graces the cover. page 102.

OWENWOYTOWICH.COM

COLORMAGAZINE.CA

RYANMCGUIGAN.COM

contributors.

supradistribution.com

Bloods vs Crips vs Holiday styles: HERETIC 2 shoe. Black PAISLEY TRIANGLE hoodie.

FOS RIDGEMONT slip-on shoe. BOMIN’ SS tee.

All by Emerica.

Black/white PAISLEY hoodie, crew socks, and DELUXE bag by Circa.

Black/white stripes/grey PAISLEY hoodie. LOGAN jacket, red OUTSIDER hoodie, white/grey paisley TAKOMA shirt. Black WESTMORE hat. All By Etnies.

OKG hat, white/purple stripe WALDO tee and PAZE tee, by Krew.

Mystery, BANDANNA deck.

NIK wmns tee dress and BANDANNA, cropped short

by Matix.

DVS, BANDANNA, wallet (doesn’t include forty bones).

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product toss.

supradistribution.com

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TOSH END TOWN NT ELEME S E O SH ODEL M O R P TOSH BLE NOW AVAILA

ELEMENT SHOES HOLIDAY 2006 COLLECTION AVAILABLE NOW CONNECT @ WWW.ELEMENTSKATEBOARDS.COM/SHOES

Kravets/Wehby Gallery wordsby nicholas brown

THOUSANDS OF TINY FIGURES STORM A PRECARIOUS TOWER TOWARDS A GIANT SMOKING HEAD COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF SKULLS; ELSEWHERE, MASSES CIRCLE THE LEGS OF A GIANT, ANTHROPOMORPHIC, GRAFFITI COVERED SCULPTURE, THE TOP OF WHICH SUPPORTS TWO MASSIVE SWIMMING POOLS. EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, MINIATURE FIGURES GLEEFULLY POPULATE A BIZARRE WORLD OF RITUAL, DEATH, DANCE, RAGING POOL PARTIES AND A MULTITUDE OF ART OBJECTS AND LOGOS. THIS IS CHARLIE ROBERTS’ ODE TO JOY.

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he first impression you get from Roberts’ solo exhibition is that it completely overwhelms its surroundings. Kravets/Wehby’s modest Chelsea space can scarcely contain the massive assortment of work, ranging from an eight panel floor-to-ceiling acrylic and oil painting to the giant, circular installation comprised of 112 painted cardboard sculptures. But it’s not merely spatial considerations that give this show the feeling of practically flowing out the door, rather the scale of its content. In Ode, Roberts has continued his preoccupation with grandiose scenes involving hundreds, sometimes thousands of miniature figures.

His paintings, which range from oil to acrylic to gauche are impressive in their immediacy – there is so much activity that it is easy to lose oneself in the dozens of simultaneous scenes, outbursts and cultural references.

From a narrative perspective, the works run from absurd to hilarious, to disturbing in equal turns. It’s in his ability to combine these elements into one unfolding event that Roberts shines: in b, the scene’s action surrounds a tall building situated against an outer space backdrop. Figures stream from the swimming pools atop the structure down throughout its base, a massive salon-style exhibition of paintings, painstakingly reproduced in miniature by the artist. Tracing the eye backwards, it becomes apparent where they’ve come from – these interlopers have arrived from a hole in the night sky, tumbling onto the roof to start the party.

24

show.

Such depictions of movement and interaction draw immediate references to a litany of procession painters, most obviously 15th Century Dutch painter Hieronymous Bosch, whose Garden of Earthly Delights (after 1466) triptych draws comparisons not only in its juxtapositions of revelry and grotesque imagery, but also in its conflations of human and hybrid figures. But in place of Bosch’s moralizing tone, Roberts injects his scenes with wit and dark humour. Additionally, the barrage of cultural and artistic references root Ode in the present: throughout his imaginary environments we see recurring themes of display, (re)representation and creative production. In b and Pyramid, two of the most bizarre environments function as salons, featuring clusters of art works from a wide range that encompasses aboriginal woven blankets hung below a section of paintings that include obvious replications of works by contemporary artists like Damien Hirst, while elsewhere academic style nudes recline next to portraits of the Virgin Mary and Christ on the crucifix. Each of these images is flattened hierarchically not only by the democracy of Roberts’ crude brushstrokes but by their juxtaposition against other forms of cultural production, like skateboard logos, corporate insignias, lines of luxury sedans and sports cars arranged like sculptures (in fact, juxtaposed against depictions of actual sculptures), and perhaps most abundantly, an endless amount of graffiti adorning the many buildings and robot-like sculptures. Altogether, they represent a kind of Museum of Civilization, a venue for and testament to the reckless abandon that rages in their midst.

KRAVETSWEHBYGALLERY.COM

Ode to Joy, 2006. caedboard, arylic and string 112 individual pieces

b, 2006. oil on wood panel, 72 x 48”

Sculptures, 2006. acrylic on paper, 15 parts, 36 x 24” each, 108 x 120” overall

wordsby jennifer macleod

photoby geoff andruik

A COUPLE OF TENTATIVE STEPS INTO THE EXHIBIT AND MY NOSE WRINKLED IN ANTICIPATION OF BEING ASSAULTED

BY THE STENCH OF FORMALDEHYDE AND ROTTING FLESH. THE STATUE-LIKE FORMS AT THE BODY WORLDS 3 EXHIBIT ARE, AFTER ALL, PRESERVED, SKINNED, EVISCERATED, AND SOMETIMES SEGMENTED HUMAN CORPSES. BUT CONTRARY TO MY NOSE’S PRE-CONCEIVED NOTIONS, THE BODIES DO NOT EXCRETE THE STINK OF DEATH – THEY ACTUALLY SMELL FAINTLY OF PLASTIC.

T

his madly imaginative and fantastical display of human flesh, preserved for eternity in the acts of running, skateboarding, and playing chess, are the creation of German scientist, Dr. Gunther von Hagen: a man who wears the daily uniform of a black hat and leather vest, a physician and, in his own words, an “anatomical artist.”

So far, Body Worlds has been seen by almost 20 million people from 32 countries worldwide. And, after flipping through the comment book at the Vancouver exhibit and reading the online comments of people in other cities who have experienced the show, it seems that Body Worlds evokes the same physical and emotional reactions from viewers, wherever it is shown.

This wonderment and awe of the human body are the reactions that von Hagen intends to inspire. In his own words, he seeks to educate the public by “coupling artistic bodies with direct anatomical knowledge”, thereby conveying “health consciousness” in a “reversal of art-representing body into body-representing art.”

His creations have garnered a great deal of attention because of their artistic appeal, but von Hagen is adamant that he is not an artist, but rather a “scientist who embraces art.” This may be, but the aesthetic appeal of the exhibit, the sculptural tone, and the artistic approach taken in creating the posed figures, all argue that Body Worlds can be, and, in fact, is regarded by many as an art exhibit. The parallels between a sculptor and the scientists responsible for the creation of the anatomical specimens are very striking. The only difference between the two is the medium in which they work. Rather than working with marble or metal, the Body Worlds artists mold flesh and bones into visually stunning works of art.

According to von Hagen this unique procedure, that he has coined ‘Plastination’, “unveils the beauty beneath the skin, frozen in time between death and decay” and “reminds visitors to Body Worlds of the intangible and unfathomable.”

Whatever the intention of the exhibit, it is a very emotionally, intellectually, and visually stunning presentation that reveals the amazing creativity and physical capacity of the human mind and body.

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show.

Body Worlds 3 is on display at the Telus World of Science in Vancouver, B.C., until January 14th, 2007

BODYWORLDS.COM

THE ARTO MID PRO MODEL IN SHOPS

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TIMEBOMB DIST.: 604.251.1097

This issue’s contest calls for you to take out your pens and pencils. Send an illustration on Letter sized paper and be one of 10 to win a free subscription and other free products from our sponsors. Mail to: Color Magazine, 105 - 321 Railways Street, Vancouver BC V6A 1A4

LETTER BOMB

SUCH A ‘TEES’

We get a lot of legit mail here at Color. But for some reason the ones that stand out the most are probably the least interesting to you the reader... With this in mind, I’m taking this opportunity to distinguish future annoyances.

Like “Ken”, (he used a fake email alias for some reason.) who thought it would be smart to email our entire staff the same email individualy (note that we did not edit or modify Mitchell’s words):

Looking forewards to my first issue. ive spent time in vancouver too, so I’m curies about your skate and art scene, and there seems to be a good mix of both in your papers. Plus I’m sick of all the ones that all have the same interviews. Do you have t shirts? i need new nice ones. hej, Sweden

Sent: To Colour, My name is Mitchell Duryea from 19 Campbell St Safety Beach, 2456 NSW Australia. You make the best mags and I was just wondering if I could please have some free stuff (stickers or anything) for Christmas. If so could you please send it to the address above.

THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Hej, I’m glad you finally got yourself a subscription to the mag.

We don’t have tees for sale yet, but we’re working on it. Keep checking the website for updates. colormagazine.ca

Re: Hey Ken, what did you do, email every single one of our staff members?

Give me an explanation as to why we should send you anything and we’ll see what happens. Get creative with it!

Sent: Its me again SORRY about that its just that no one ever replys to me so I thought if I send it to everyone the maybe one person would reply to me and thats you.

PS: Just beacause I sent it to everyone I didnt think that everyone would send anything to me im not that greedy.

Re: That wasn’t a very creative reply. We only send packages out to those readers who really impress us or make us laugh. You just clogged up all our email accounts. Sorry. We are all out of stickers, and... Santa’s not real. - COLOR. Sent: You know your not very nice,

I just lost faith in Color magazine when I learnt that all of there worker are complete fags and should be sacked.

Re: Hahaha! Awesome! Hey, I’ll send you some stickers and I’d like to use your email in the letters section of this issue. I want everyone to know that we’re all ‘fags’. if you just would have got that creative in the first place we wouldn’t have had this conversation! Deal?

Sent: This is not my email if you want to know my real email its shark_mango@hotmail.com. Its a deal if you use this email.

Lesson ‘learnt’ and faith restored! - Color

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[ o ] BLABAC

C1RCA VS SKULL SKATES To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Skull Skates, C1RCA has partnered up with owner, PD, to produce a C1RCA vs. Skull Skates shoe using Adrian Lopez’s AL50 as the base for the design. The shoe features a vulcanized rubber sole and the unique graphic element of the Skull Skates logo emblazoned across the tongue.

This anniversary shoe comes packaged in an exclusive box that features photos pulled from 30 years of Skull Skates history.

Adding another event to that 30 year history, the Vancouver launch party for the shoe took place on Friday the 13th of October at the fittingly creepy, Roselawn Funeral Parlor. The party provided the staff at Color the opportunity to check out the new shoe, catch up with old friends, and sample some liquid refreshment. Shoe, friends, and liquids were well worth braving the spooky local.

Keep your eye out for this limited release shoe, scheduled to hit selected stores across Canada and Japan in November.

KING OF NEW YORK: DC TAKES OVER NYC

This past September, DC held a series of contests over 3 weekends at locations in each of New York City’s 5 boroughs.

The end result? DC handed out some cash, a gold medallion, and crowned the King of New York.

Over-coming rain and sketchy locations, the qualifying entrants attacked each venue and contest with nothing but their best. The first spot the amateur contestants tackled was on Staten Island at the ABC Ledges. The opening competition’s winner was Jimmy McDonald, who also took top spot the following day at the Rafael Hernandez Academy in the Bronx. The next weekend, Danny Falla managed to pull out the win in Queens at Flushing Meadows, and Ed Driscoll took the crown in Brooklyn on the mini-ramp at KCDC. Of course, there could only be one King of New York, and this year the honor went to Jimmy McDonald, who won the final event at the Brooklyn Banks, and the overall title. The consistency he displayed over the three week challenge won the respect of the esteemed judging panel, made up in part of DC team members Colin McKay, Lindsey Robertson, and Brian Wenning, among others. The boys rewarded Jimmy with a $4000.00 cheque, a gold medallion, and the title of DC King of New York.

“YOU ARE SCARED, DUMB AND LAZY! BUT YOU LOOK GOOD.” Congratulations to Jean-Yves of St. Jerome, Quebec who took the win for last issue’s “Tell a fortune, Win a fortune” contest. Contestants were asked to build a fortune telling “Cootie Catcher” and send us their creative fortunes for a chance to with a box of goods from Spitfire, RDS, Lakai and Etnies. Along with some bonus-point-making illustrations, here’s the fortunes Jean-Yves sent in: 1. When you’re asleep, your dreams are real.

2. You are scared, dumb and lazy! But you look good.

3. You Should paint over your garden since it doesn’t match your house.

4. Sometimes perfection is in its flaws.

These fortunes blew all of our other entries out of the water, except for maybe number four, which was probably ripped off a cheesy greeting card. But 1-3? Are you kidding me!?

Brilliant!

COLORMAGAZINE.CA

www.supradistribution.com

[ o ] wilkosz / way

“I JUST DON’T WANT TO BE THAT BIG HEADLINING ACT. TO ME, THAT WOULD BE HELL.”

wordsby jill orsten

CHAD VANGAALEN HAS BECOME A WELL-KNOWN NAME IN THE CANADIAN MUSIC SCENE OF LATE. LAST SUMMER, THE MULTI-TALENTED ARTIST ATTRACTED SO MUCH GRASSROOTS BUZZ FOR HIS DEBUT ALBUM, INFINIHEART, THAT HE EARNED HIMSELF A SPOT ON THE ROSTER OF LEGENDARY INDIE LABEL SUB POP, AND FOUND HIMSELF PLAYING OPENING GIGS FOR ACTS LIKE THE PIXIES AND STARS.

V

32

angaalen’s gentle vocals, twangy guitars and arsenal of sounds, clips, and instruments create a uniquely personal sound, but it is not only Chad’s quick rise to indie-music prominence that has made him such an object of hype. You see, Chad plays all of his instruments (except some drums), he animates his own videos, he recorded Infiniheart in his bedroom, he built a whole stash of his own instruments, and, on a whim, he started constructing a skate park in his back yard. So far, he’s just got one ramp, but you get the point: Vangaalen is the type of artist that either makes you grab pencils, guitars or even overturned pails and start creating, or he makes you want to give up altogether.

Either way, Chad Vangaalen is an interesting artist that should be on your radar.

style, the streamlining of content may also have misrepresented Chad’s musical interests. This discrepancy left Chad at an impasse. “It’s no good to attract a bunch of people to your music that sounds one way, then to get on stage with a bunch of weird instruments and ambush them with the creations of your personal experiments,” he admits.

Skelliconnection is an attempt to bridge this gap. The songs definitely have more of a rock edge than those from the previous album, but Chad has expanded his palette, infusing his rock tunes with processed piano and sounds from the instruments he’s built.

In a recent discussion, Vangaalen talked about just this kind of attention and its effect on his new album, Skelliconnection. When Vangaalen recorded Infiniheart, he made all of the music for himself. Of the twenty-nine tracks originally on the album, only nineteen made it to the released CD, cutting out a lot of the atmospheric mini-symphonies that Chad spends most of his time working on. While the deletion of these tracks may have improved the album by making it a palatable length and giving it a more coherent

While ordering a BLT sandwich, Chad Vangaalen tells me about his anxiousness to get back to Calgary.

Right now, he’s on tour with Band of Horses, but he’s eager to get back to his dogs, his friends and his years worth of ideas for projects to work on, like his homemade skatepark. When Chad isn’t turning his large backyard into a playground, he’s working on

music.

animations, which have lately moved from vector and tablet animations to watercolor and collage-based work. In the future Chad is planning to go home and buy a white German shepherd, and perhaps a miniature house-broken pony (yes they exist in 16inch versions for the home). Vangaalen is very excited about building a massive wooden eyeball on the top of his house that patients in a nearby children’s hospital will be able to see from their windows. He is also very interested in solar panels and the possibility of a self-made eco/fun house. But don’t worry, Vangaalen doesn’t plan on giving up music. As he says, “It’s better than a day job. I just don’t want to be that big headlining act. To me, that would be hell.”

Instead, Chad plans to make music that is more true to his original impulses, incorporating beats, strange instruments, and sounds clips, with a good dose of the avant-folk style that made him the household name (on Main street) that he is.

SUBPOP.COM

NOLIMITS.CA 800.996.3327

BOHEMIAN MODERN, LIVING IN SILVER LAKE Barbara Bestor Regan Books (div of Harper Collins) HORSE PLAY – A STREETHORSING RETROSPECTIVE Ryan Galfando We International AB

LEMON MAGAZINE #2 Gum This is the latter of this bi-annual’s first volume. Coming out of Massachusetts with a fine line up of contributors stemming mostly from the realms of film, this issue of Lemon is a fine piece of work. It borders on a fine line of documentary style design vs. art. The publishers, Kevin Grady and Colin Metcalf, team up to combine written content with conceptual design that works. The issue carries a mood of espionage with features with film maker Mike Mills, Ladytron, artist Kevin Christy, JT Leroy, Sonic Youth and uncovers some rare ‘Hammer & Sickle’ prints by Andy Warhol. Introductions to features are welcomed with not a spread, but a small blown-in card like insert printed with metallic ink. The music features are done in the form of a comic book, there’s a foldout, perforated print by Ashley Snow Macomber… There’s so much to talk about here, no wonder they’re sponsored by Adobe. —adam henry LEMONLAND.NET GUMWORLD.COM

SPACE 1026 VOLUME ONE: PULLING TEETH Jesse Goldstein and Mary Chen, eds.

Tonearm Productions

FUTUREOPOLIS C.R. Stecyk III (Arkitip #35)

Philadelphia’s Space 1026 is an art collective, studio space, gallery and clubhouse made up of a sprawling group of artists, performers, musicians and graphic designers. Over the years, artists like Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Ben Woodward, Adam Wallacavage, Thom Lessner and countless others have turned the Space into a legendary site of creativity and community. Pulling Teeth is a record of the years of activity housed within the three story building- the all-night screen printing sessions, the parties, and the endless headaches that come of trying to organize a large group of broke, young artists to do anything (apropos of the book’s title, perhaps).

Composed entirely of photos and small, anonymous testimonies- in true collective spirit- it’s a great piece of cultural anthropology that look’s pretty nice as well.

—n.brown 34

inspiration bound.

The clothing brand we all came to know as “We”, the superlative conspiracy who we now know as WESC, has dropped a big bomb on the streethorsing culture. Popularizing it with a fine hard cover document of this underground subculture, Ryan Galfando took the responsibility of documenting this phenomenon of man and animal interacting with the city’s landscape. Streethorsing Isn’t just sport though, there is a whole culture surrounding it and this is exposed threw this limited edition first run. Attracting many of today’s skateboarders such as Jerry Hsu, Daniel Shmizu, Clint Peterson as well as Jason Lee, artist Chad Robertson and many more.

Rumor has it that Gino’s given up the board all together too streethorse fulltime!

If you’ve ever shown up to your favourite ledge to find that BMXers have ruined the spot with their pegs, or snowboarders put snow on the runway to the rail you wanted to skate, well, now you know who might be responsible for the horseshit at your favourite gap. But don’t make any judgments yet. This is still a fairly unexplored subject that just might restore the playfulness of those we once new as domestic animals. —adam henry WESC.COM

SPACE1026.COM

I hate L.A. I’ll just get that out there. Upon opening the Futureopolis photo essay book included in Arkitip #35 I thought, “Oh great, this is full of pictures of that shit hole.

Too bad.” But there’s hope for L.A. yet, as Mr. C.R. Stecyk III (geez, how noble is that name?) shows with his photos and words in this little number. Futureopolis takes viewers on a trip through the soccer subculture rooted deep within the last place you’d think to look. Stecyk’s stories are interesting and gripping, and though the black and white photos are not the kind to stand alone, together they represent a complimenting realness that makes you realize your own neighbourhood is just as intriguing as foreign lands if you only take the time to dig a little deeper. It turns out, there is humanity in the City of Angels after all. —rhianon bader ARKITIP.COM

Years ago, I got a phone call from a family member who had moved to an exciting neighborhood with steep winding roads like rollercoaster hills. The roads climbed and plunged, with a scenic hill top reservoir and clinging trees, and was an area that was full of beautiful mid-century and newer designed homes by many well-known modernist architects. Though not a rich area with mansions and gated palaces, it resembled hills and basins of design and thought, all nestled amongst the green valleys and scenic views.

It only took me one visit to fall in love with the small part of Los Angeles that is called Silver Lake. We marveled at the houses and shops, the modern meeting the traditional. It was a contrasting area that didn’t clash, an area that was rich in color and visual artistic history.

Until now, there hadn’t been anything published that really brought the whole Silver Lake experience into a cohesive package. But with renowned modernist architect Barbara Bestor’s book, Bohemian Modern, Living in Silver Lake, the highlights and tales of a colorful past and a burgeoning future are told and shown in a well presented and beautifully illustrated book, with drawings by well-known artist Geoff McFetridge, who weaves the book together with illustrations that complement the overall richness of photography and design throughout.

As the Bohemian Modern title suggests, Silver Lake’s roots were laid by the artistic, fringe and ethnic groups that fled the more conservative neighbourhoods of Los Angeles, to be amongst like-minded people, laying the groundwork for the area that would one day be considered ultra-chic and a desired destination.

True to the neighbourhood’s roots and ideals, the houses, designers and stores that are featured in Bohemian Modern (each with their own individual write up) are dedicated to complimenting the areas history, and to its endless artistic future through stunning design and basic, uncomplicated usability. Bohemian Modern is more than a coffee table book – it is a case study into the preservation of an area’s history, living amongst the naturally occurring elements of a neighbourhood of changing topography, and an overall guide to smart and well-designed living. —s.radnidge

evolution: gloss red / gloss black

[ o ] MCGUIGAN

photosby david christian

wordsby ryan mcguigan

36

[ o ] CHRISTIAN

“JOEY IS SO GOOD YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW. THE PROBLEM IS HE DOESN’T EITHER. HE IS FAR TOO MODEST FOR HIS OWN GOOD.” Craig Rosvold

—

FRONTSIDE BLUNTSLIDE, van hubba.

37

i

t began as a mistake.

Cheakmus canyon. Joey had been talking about it for some time. A year ago on this day, a train derailed, emptying nine empty lumber flat cars and one tank car of sodium hydroxide into the river, resulting in the murder of five hundred thousand little fishies. Big ones too.

So, one night we decided we’d go. The next morning we packed up and were off. McD and Aaron had to work, so it was just Joey and I. I brought my video camera along to capture anything interesting.

We stopped at Canadian Tire for a hatchet. Little did I know how badly I would have to use it. We had to cross a mellow glacier rapid in a one person dingy with gear, a vx2000 and two grown men. I got in first. Joey stacked the gear on top of me and pushed me to my almost certain death. He jumped

in and swam behind me, pushing me while I paddled. “FUCK THIS WATER’S COLD!” he said.

There wasn’t much time to get across before the rapids got too heavy. Suddenly, I felt him go under. I looked back and he was gone. I rolled over, knocked all our gear into the water and dove in. The cold, dark water froze my eyes. I saw his hand, grabbed it and pulled him up. The gear had already made its way into the rapids. My video camera was gone. We made it to the other side, minus everything else.

Joey swore he felt something grab his leg and pulled him under. I knew it wasn’t the mushrooms because we hadn’t eaten them yet. Shaking it off and thinking nothing of it, we started walking along the tracks. I imagine scenes of “Stand

by Me”, which is weird because my dad’s in the loony bin up in Togus too!

We walked for what seemed like an hour. One train came by. I didn’t play chicken. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark object floating down the river. My camera bag. It made it. Waterlogged no less, but it made it. We climbed down to what would be our home for the next 10 days. As I pulled the bag from the water, we saw everything else we had, coming slowly at us. Things were looking good. As for my camera, I had forgotten I had put it in an extremely large Ziploc bag (courtesy of Steve Lyons. Steve and Joey go way back). We started to hang our gear on fishing line between trees. We built a decent fire pit with extensions for tables and drink holders. Joey got all artsy with a mosaic place mat made out of stone and sand. One thing I miss about Joey is his exceptional cooking. Earlier that year we had gone to Spain.

Almost every night he would serve up a spectacular meal for

HARDFLIP, burnaby.

38

“JOEY SCRAPED SCREECHERS OFF THE FOURSTAR WAREHOUSE TOILETS FOR A MERE $25” —Steve Lyons [ o ] CHRISTIAN

SWITCH FLIP, barcelona.

39

KICKFLIP, barcalona.

what seemed like 10 of us. Nightly. When the trip was over he refused to come home, and ended up traveling throughout Europe by himself. Anyways, back to the story. We ate lunch, including mushrooms, and started to climb. The first 10 minutes were bearable. Joey was far ahead of me and I thought I was going fast. He sure could climb well for shattering a knee a few years back. Rocks fell out from underneath Joey and flew past my head. I already had bleeding cuts on my hands, and we had only climbed a quarter of the mountain.

A few more hallucinations and close calls to the ol’ grim, and we make it to the top. Looking down, our drying gear and damaged dingy looked like pebbles. Flintstones ya?

40

an intervension.

Joey didn’t seem scared of what we might come across.

Most likely a bear. Or something worse? After exploring the top of the mountain, we started our descent back down.

Just then I spotted a pile of shit. Panic started to kick in but Joey was still calm, and laughing. Then I started to laugh and recite David Brent for more laughs. A noise came from a pile of bushes. Joey picked up a rather large rock and launched it into the bush. Out from the bushes, emerged a big black bear that resembled a gorilla. He lunged at Joey with a swiping paw to the head, which sent him flying back a few yards. I put down the camera, aimed it at the bear and pulled out the hatchet. I took a running swing at the beast, sinking

the hatchet in the back of its head. He turned around and looked at me. Obviously not fazed by the hatchet, he charged towards me. I turned around and started to run, yet I was not aware of the cliff that dropped 200 feet to the train tracks below and fell right into a packed car of unsupervised, traveling, Swedish cheerleaders. I was taken good care of.

As for Joey, he recovered from the bear attack and is now back with the Chateau posse in downtown Vancouver. You can usually find him on the beach, at Starbucks, or shredding downtown Vancouver, not that you’d want to though.

The guy’s a fuckin’ asshole.

GAP OUT, BACKSIDE TAILSLIDE FAKIE, vancouver.

“JOEY HAS HAD A HARD TIME SELLING HIS SOUL TO THE MACHINE THAT WOULD ULTIMATELY REWARD HIM FOR HIS INCREDIBLE NATURAL TALENT.” —Marc Morisset

To see the Kirchart 4 (shown in Balck / Green / White) win all available colorways, visit emericaskate.com Timebomb Distribution: 604.251.1097 www.timebombtrading.com

the lost, jason crolly returns home.

the vet, jason dill.

“IT’S A PLACE WHERE SKATEBOARDERS CAN DO WHAT THEY LIKE TO DO, WHERE SKATEBOARDERS ARE GIVEN EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED, BUT NOT 10 MILES APART FROM ONE ANOTHER.” —Steve Berra

the new generation, tyler bledsoe.

the am, chris anderson.

the dudes, keegan sauder, danny, sheldon meleshinski.

the pro, mikey taylor.

words and photosby roger

PLAZAS ATTRACT ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE FOR ALL DIFFERENT REASONS. MAJOR CITY PLAZAS HAVE BEEN A MAGNET FOR SKATEBOARDERS FOR AGES. THESE CITY SQUARES PROVIDE A VARIETY OF LEDGES, CURBS AND GAPS. THE DOWNSIDE TO THESE DESTINATIONS IS THE SANDWICH THROWING OFFICE WORKERS, COPS, AND FINDING A PLUG FOR THE GENERATOR AT 2AM. BUT THERE’S A NEW PHENOMENON TO ADDRESS THIS: THE SKATE PLAZA. the loc. brent pielech.

T

he new plaza at The Forks [Winnipeg] has the usual suspects – bystanders, locals, up-and-comers, and pros.

Most people come to this plaza to skate, some come for the public art, while others just to to relax on what they have mistaken for marble benches in a common city plaza.

SK8SKATES.COM

the consumer.

The term street plaza is an oxymoron as the only true street skating is done in the street and the purest form of street skating is searching out new spots and adapting to new terrain. But, bust proof spots to skate are becoming harder and harder to find, skate plazas may be the future of street skating. Street parks have morphed into skate plazas, an attempt to mimic exact real city obstacles. Plazas provide perfect smooth rails and marble ledges.

Now you don’t have to deal with crack’s in the cement, rocks, and for the most part people. Plazas are producing more skateboarders that learn in the parks and then take it to the streets, a park is the training facility.

.parking

43

At July’s grand opening, the plaza at The Forks was initially surrounded by a wall of plywood and flanked by security.

Hours later a blaze of fireworks announced the park’s opening and much skating was had by the seemingly thousands of local skaters. The point of skating is to have fun, and there is tons to do at the 44,000 square foot Forks plaza. It is possible to focus on specific elements of the park and hone your skills on everything from public art/ skate sculptures to the attached bowl area. The Plaza at the Forks is not unlike many traditional city plazas. Since its opening, visiting pros have been dazzling the locals, up-and-commers attempt to make a name for themselves, and bystanders stare and try to make sense of it all.

“HOLLYWOOD HIGH, EMBARCADERO, LOVE PARK...

THESE WERE ESSENTIALLY ILLEGAL SKATE PLAZAS.

NOW WE HAVE LEGAL ONES.” —Steve Berra

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parking.

JAMES VANDAL, crailslide [ o ] neufeld.

wordsby dustin koop

photosby david christian

WHEN YOU THINK SKATE SHOP, YOUR MIND PROBABLY CONJURES UP THE THOUGHT OF A 13-YEAR-OLD SKATE RAT’S BEDROOM, WITH PAGES RIPPED FROM SKATE MAGAZINE’S ADORNING THE WALLS, RANDOM CLOTHES ALL OVER THE PLACE, AND SNOTTY, DRIVELED KIDS ON THE PHONE WITH THEIR FRIENDS WATCHING THE NEWEST SKATE VIDEO. UNLIKE OTHER SHOPS IN CALGARY THAT CLAIM TO BE “SKATE” AND HIDE BEHIND THE FACT THAT THEY ARE SNOWBOARD SHOPS, GROUP SEVEN CHANGES THE STEREOTYPE, WITH THE MOST LUXURIOUS SKATE-FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE THAT IS ASSURED TO MAKE ANYONE’S EYES BLEED WITH SHEER EXCITEMENT.

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faces n’spaces.

CHRIS HASLAM frontside nosegrind

4th Street 22nd Ave SW. GROUP7SKATEBOARDING.COM

g

roup Seven opened up shop earlier than expected in August 2006 to show its support for the first year that Calgary would be host to Slam City Jam. Sporting an indestructible granite ledge and a fully skateable mini-ramp that is built into, and made out of, hardwood flooring, this spot will make you weak in the knees drooling with the urge to ride. In the first two months of being open, the word of mouth among pros to visit this destination to skate has been nothing but positive and proactive.

Skaters such as Chris Haslam, Cooper Wilt, Daewon Song, Marc Johnson and others have been spotted lurking about.

The idea behind opening Group Seven in the saturated market of skate shops in Calgary, was to offer more than just product, they wanted the skate community at large to get excited about skateboarding again. Everyone involved with running the shop has been in the industry for over 10 years and was tired of giving their ideas away, feeling it was time to do something new and refreshing. Owner Scott Sill’s father originally had a racing team called Group Seven, named after the Lotus sevens

CHRIS HASLAM frontside nosegrind

they rode. One may think that there are seven people involved, when in fact there are only six – the seventh spot is reserved to friends and influences. The skate team is small but will be growing soon. With new rider Scott Furkay recently being added to the team, who should be noted for having video parts in Zoo York’s City of Killers and Unbreakable, there is no telling who the next talented kid to be added to the roster will be. Having the store located on the second level in the Mission district of Calgary, they neighbor high-end clothing store Henry that brings in similar clientele. Group Seven carries brands that are fresh to the city such as Greedy Genius, Ice Cream, Crooks & Castles, RBK, 316, and Alife, just to name a few. In the near future, Group Seven will be host to skate art exhibitions and events to get people reunited and starting a new dialogue with a fresh perspective.

When in Calgary be sure to visit and watch a video or two in their larger than life living room.

.group seven

49

wordsby quinn omori illustrationby ben tour

CONSIDERING HOW HARD PRIDE TIGER LIKES TO ROCK ‘N’ ROLL, MIKE PAYETTE IS SURPRISINGLY SOFT SPOKEN WHEN I REACH HIM BY PHONE EN ROUTE TO PORTLAND. HIS RESTRAINED MOOD – THAT ONE MIGHT CHALK UP TO HIS BEING “A LITTLE HUNGOVER” – IS A STARK CONTRAST TO THE LAST TIME I SAW HIM, WHEN HE WAS AMONGST A DOZEN OTHERS, JOYOUSLY CRASHING A GOLF CART INTO THE SIDE OF HIS BAND’S TOUR VAN. “Were you in the golf cart with us?” the bassist asks, his voice perking up a bit. “The promoter came and he was kinda bummed, but our manager was riding shotgun… she totally instigated the whole thing,” he says of the back stage antics at a recent show at the University of British Columbia. The golf cart episode followed a rare occurrence for a Vancouver area Pride Tiger show: Mike and co. playing to anything less than a packed crowd. Like a lot of people outside of the band’s hometown, those college kids don’t know what they’re missing.

“Seattle’s generally… we’ve never had a good show there… at least our roadie was watching us,” Payette says of the night before, the first date on the group’s first American tour.

The band’s in the middle of a short jaunt down the West coast, where they’re saddled with the tough task of spreading the Pride Tiger gospel to our uninitiated Southern neighbours one show at a time. At least they finally have their self-released record in tow.

50

music.

“It’s kind of old news,” sighs Payette, when asked about the label woes that kept Wood, Dahk, Froese, Payette shelved for several months. Explaining how US label, Road Runner Records, retained the option of releasing Pride Tiger’s debut due to guitarists Bob Froese and Sunny Dahk’s former days with Vancouver metal shredders, Three Inches of Blood, Payette says, “Bob and Sunny left the band, but they were still caught up in the contract. It just took some time to get out of that.” With old contracts sorted out, the foursome was ready to unleash their debut on music fans who longed for a little more riff with their rock.

“We just play music people can dance to,” Payette says, understating the sound of Pride Tiger’s debut. Think of some of the best parties you’ve ever been to – the ones with free flowing kegs, shotgunned cans, and Thin Lizzy and Sabbath cranked on the hi-fi – and you might have an idea of what they’re all about. The band was forged when Three Inches of Blood were living behind the punk house that Payette called home, and he, Dahk, and Froese started a printing press in the basement. The print operation would later move to its own digs, morphing into Bloodstone Press, while the threesome would join up with drummer/vocalist Matt Wood to make music that was akin to “the kind of stuff [they] listen to while [they] print.” The result was a melding of Three Inches’ technical chops and S.T.R.E.E.T.S.’ (for whom Mike played guitar) energetic thrash all squeezed through a mold of 70s boogie rock. When Sunny and Bob left Three Inches of Blood (who remain “rad friends”) and S.T.R.E.E.T.S. called it a day, Pride Tiger became the guys’ focus. Payette, however, still retains some things from his days with the punk outfit, whose

acronym of a moniker stood for “Skateboarding Totally Rules, Everything Else Totally Sucks.”

When Payette is asked for his opinion on the best places to skate in Vancouver, he replies, “On the roof of my van, or doing acid drops off the overhang of the Cobalt.” As with most things – whether it’s skating or music – the answer stays true to the East Vancouver neighbourhood that Pride Tiger calls home. “Steve [McBean] from Black Mountain… the Ladyhawk guys… Dan Bejar from Destroyer lives in the neighbourhood. I wouldn’t call it a musical community or anything, but there’s definitely a bond,” he says, listing off some of Pride Tiger’s hometown allies. He also asks me to make sure I give “props to Jesse Gander at the Hive. We wouldn’t have gone anywhere without him.” Gander, who currently plays in Ghost House, recorded Pride Tiger’s LP at the same studio where Ladyhawk, Black Mountain, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, and countless other Vancouver bands put tunes to tape. Payette might not call it a musical community, but it’s hard to deny that there’s a lot of talent coming from the loosely affiliated artists who make their home on the grittier side of Canada’s third largest metropolis. “It just seems like everyone’s known each other for so many years, and by chance everyone’s band is doing good,” Payette states rather modestly.

Before we part, I ask Mike what the future holds for the band.

He pauses before answering, “Trying to drink as much free beer as possible,” with a slight laugh. If there’s any justice in this world, there’s a lot more than some twelve packs of

PRIDE-TIGER.COM

words&photosby alana paterson

IT ISN’T A LIE. SALT LAKE CITY HAS A GIANT SALTY LAKE. IT ALSO HAS THE BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS. IT SITS BETWEEN A DESERT AND SOME OF THE BEST SKI HILLS IN NORTH AMERICA, HENCE A LARGE POPULATION OF PARTY CRAZED SNOW SLIPPERS. ONCE WE THROW IN A GANG OF MORMONS, A GRIP OF SKATEBOARDERS AND LIZARD KING WE’VE GOT QUITE A BIT OF SPICE NOW, HAVEN’T WE? THEY ALL MANAGE TO GET ALONG THOUGH, AND YOU CAN NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT VARIETY. SO GO CHECK OUT SALT LAKE: BETWEEN RELIGIOUS RADICALS AND THE GREENROOM GANG, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

52

SHRALPS.

EATS.

CHOPPING.

BINGE DRINKING.

Bump over barrier, 6th st south Gap and u ledge, 5th st. south The pit, 2nd west 800 south Jersey barrier, 600 south off freeway Fairmont skate park, 9th east and 2400 south Barrier spot, east 600th south (right by jersey barrier) Gap and U ledge, 500th south

Boston Deli, 5968 s. 350w.

Ruth’s Diner, 2100 emigration cny.

Mazza, 1515 south 1500 east (middle eastern) Park Café, 604 east 1300 south (good breakfast) Oasis Café, 151 south 500 east (vegetarian) Hires Big H, 835 Fort union blvd (home of hires root beer) Bombay House, 2731 Parleys way (east indian) B & D Burgers, 7793 State street

Pibs Exchange, 2144 Highland Drive Grunts & Postures, 779 E 300 Street Decades Vintage Clothing, 627 S State Street Black Chandelier, 602 S 500 E Milo, 3119 east 3300 south BC surf and sport, 3601 Constitution blvd.

The Jackalope Lounge, 372s. state street Cabana, 34 east 400st. south Brewvies (beer and movies) 677 south 200 west

city.

SLEEPS. Uinta forest and national park, (camping) Lizard’s mom’s house

Claiming sequences as Art not Video, since 2003

54

BRIAN WHERRY, fs 180, fakie pop shove

[o]

comber.

RUSS MILLIGAN, nollie varial kickflip

[o]

zaslavsky.

55

56

TRAVIS STENGER, bs 180 kickflip fakie manual 180

[

o]

christian.

.CMYK

58

CMYK.

GEOFF DERMER, bs lipslide, 5.0 shove it

[o]

christian.

Starring:

Directed by:

Dirt, Sloppy, and T.C. Christopher Glancy

DIRT WEARS EAGLE BELT PRINT TEE BY FOURSTAR.

.fashion/irration

61

SLOPPY WEARS HORTON SKULL TEE BY RVCA, SLIM 5 POCKET JEAN BY WESC AND SHOES BY CONVERSE. DECK BY MYSTERY.

62

all’s well that ends well.

SLOPPY WEARS BECKER TEE BY DC. T.C. WEARS PAISLEY TEE BY VESTAL DENIM BY KR3W , SHOES BY CONVERSE. DIRT WEARS FIEND SHORTS BY EMERICA, TEE BY RVCA.

63

DIRT WEARS THREAT TEE BY ZERO.

SLOPPY WEARS MATIX MIXED MEDIA TEE. DENIM BY WESC. DIRT WEARS ST PIRATE FEDORA BY FOURSTAR. T.C. WEARS TEE BY DC.

.all’s well that ends well

65

wordsby sandro grison

LIKE THE 15TH CENTURY FURRIERS, SEVEN CREWS OF SKATERS, INCLUDING UP TO THREE SKATERS AND A SINGLE PHOTOGRAPHER, SET OUT ONE RAINY DAY IN AUTUMN NOT TO BROTHELS OR STRIPCLUBS, BUT TO THE STREETS. EQUIPPED WITH A LIMIT OF FIVE ROLLS OF [MEDIUM FORMAT] FILM, THEY HIT UP FIVE DESIGNATED SPOTS AROUND THE CITY OF VANCOUVER TO BRING BACK ONE PHOTO FROM EACH, WHICH WOULD BE JUDGED ON CREATIVITY, DIFFICULTY AND ULTIMATELY UPON THE ARTISTIC MERIT OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER.

CAMBIE:

Sheldon Meleshinski, taildrop into a rocky bank [ o ] christian

BEST TRICK:

Jordan Hoffart, taildrop, Cambie bridge [ o ] christian

.shoot to thrill

69

WILD CARD: KEVEN WHELEN, nosepick [ o ] rich odam.

This was the spot in the contest where we left it open to the teams to decide what they wanted to do. So teams had some tricks up their sleeves, spots they wanted to go to, and some just decided to photograph something other than skateboarding (or maybe they found that stripclub). Rich Odam wasted no time bringing out the gels to add a little colour to a rainy day, and stole my vote by uncovering a spot that’s under every one’s nose but few know about.

RILEY BOLAND, kickflip [ o ] gordan nicholas.

Team Nicholas consisted of his brother Graham and Riley Boland. Along with an other helping hand (which is fine because they only had two skaters on their team, they took it indoors to their art studio to find shelter from the rain and build this gap that both Riley and Graham tore up.

B

ased on a golfer’s pastime called Skins, made popular in the 1980s, this gambler’s game pits participants [in teams] against each other. Each spot carries a value and the winner of the spot takes the amount [or ‘skin’]. Other than a lot of high-fives being passed about, the origin of the Skins name is likely to have derived from Scotland centuries ago.

In our research, the most common explanation of its origin was summed up well by The Straight Dope [www.straightdope.com]: “According to legend, furriers arriving in Scotland from other countries, having sailed for months in leaky boats with other smelly sailing men, icky sacks of decomposing hides, rats, and other privations, would, instead of looking for female companionship, a bath, or a decent meal, opt for a round of golf…”

These honest pirates didn’t deal in money though.

Like amateur skaters, they didn’t have much to their name except product! They would gamble their pelts or ‘skins’ and the name stuck throughout the centuries.

70

shoot to thrill.

Some speculation surrounds this theory of origin, based on the sheer lack of logic that people see in the idea that furriers who’d been at sea for months really hit the skate park – I mean, golf course – before heading to a pub or brothel. As a skater I don’t find it so impossible to believe. Keep in mind that they lived to collect pelts, so naturally the furs would lose value in their minds after a period of time. How many times have you watched as a friend sold a brand new deck out of his stack for $20.00 to buy a six-pack. Or trade a box of gear for an 8th? While skeptics find it hard to believe that after months of trapping animals for their hides, and months upon months sailing the open seas to and from distant lands, the furriers would gamble their livelihood away out of sheer fun.

Team Kronbauer’s Morgan Hystad and Scott Ypma take a Wild Card break.

ARRON JOHNSON, ollie [ o ] brian caissie.

71

TNT: SASCHA DALEY, thread the needle [ o ] brian caissie.

You might be thinking, “Grab? Why did he grab?”

Well he did ollie it, but if you could see the snowboard run up to this spot you’d understand the vibe he was in.

BEST TEAM:

Brian Caissie with skaters Sascha Daley and Arron Johnson Each photographer had the option of having three skaters, and Caissie accumulated the day’s best team with only two. Despite multiple photos going down at each spot, if we printed them all we would need to chop down more trees. It was Caissie’s calculated series of photos that made their team the best. Each skater had one longlens and one fisheye photo to their name. But that’s not to take away from the unbelievable feats they pulled off in such a tight timeframe.

Team Caissie finished up in under eight hours and Brian still had time to come join me with Gordon Nicholas and his crew for some jump ramp sessions over a real skeleton.

72

shoot to thrill.

To make this even more relative for photographers, consider that on tours they have a responsibility to come back with impressive photos from each skater. But when your results lay in the hands of the skater and if they aren’t performing then neither is your camera. Perhaps the most challenging task of the photographer is coordinating and motivating these guys. A little bit of money on stake and the idea of getting out and making something happen on a rainy day was motivation enough to give seven photographers and fifteen skaters the most exciting day of shooting [on a rainy day] they’d ever had.

Other prizes went to Evan Chandler Soanes who stepped out of his comfort zone and borrowed a medium format camera to participate in the event. Unluckily for his team [Ricky Mars and Adam Christensen], none of their photos turned out because 120 film can be a tricky one to load if you aren’t familiar with it. Also worthy of note is our very own David Christian who acquired a repair bill after finding that a piece of his camera had fallen into the bottom right frame of every shot he took. But Dave, how will you fix missing Sheldon’s ollie off the high-dive at UBC’s pool in his underwear?

POST OFFICE: BRADLEY SHEPPARD, wallie [ o ] david christian.

The idea of holding a contest around the city at different spots means that it’s not just about the tricks that go down, it’s also about enduring the elements. There was construction going on at the Post Office making it nearly impossible to skate. Take that then add security guards and you’ll know why this was the only photo submission from the Post Office. Other photographers tried to shoot quickly without having time to set up their flashes before the security guards kicked them out. Bob K’s team somehow made their way inside the Post Office and promptly found out how serious it is to shoot photos inside a government building.

When we met up the morning of the event to discuss whether or not to continue with the contest although it was raining, this was the first spot to come to mind that was under cover from the moisture. It’s fresh, and new and there’s so many different ways to skate it (although any of which are insane because of how rough the ground is and how unstable the transition is). We knew there would be some conflicts having seven teams fighting to skate the same spots, and maybe some rivalries, but nobody expected how far Scott would take it to be sure nobody would get to skate TNT after he was done with it.

WORST SHIT:

SCOTT YPMA, TNT bank [ o ] bob kronbauer. [ o ] CHRISTIAN

[ o ] LANG

.shoot to thrill

73

JORDAN HOFFART, tailslide [ o ] david christian.

UBC: RILEY BOLAND, treeride [ o ] gordon nicholas.

BEST SHIT: This is a young spot at UBC. Last issue we had Ryan Decenzo doing an ollie down it as the first man on campus to do so. But don’t mistake this spot just because it’s young, it’s seen some crazy shit in its short life, such as Sascha’s frontside 180, upon the impact of which he landed a shart in his shorts.

A huge thank you goes out to Ken Macintyre and Red Bull who made this possible. We’ll see you all the same time next year.

74

[ o ] CAISSIE

This is where the power of creativity overcame habitual skateboarding. With so many spots around the area of UBC it was a tree that had probably never been skated before, and it was the fallen leaves that made it so perfect and made this photo stand out.

SASCHA DALEY, frontside 180 [ o ] brian caissie.

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[ o ] COOMBS

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saskatoon.

TRENT YOUNG feeble grind ollie out

wordsby Owen Woytowich words&photosby owen woytowich photosby firstname lastname

INITIALLY I HAD THIS “GREAT” IDEA ON HOW I WAS GOING TO WRITE ABOUT MY HOME CITY OF SASKATOON. I FIGURED IN EVERY CITY SPOTLIGHT OR CHECKOUT IN ANY MAGAZINE, PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS GLORIFYING THEIR CITY AS THE BEST. “OH, WE RULE BECAUSE ___” OR “OUR CITY CAN BEAT UP YOUR CITY IN ___ AMOUNT OF WAYS.”

Seems sort of played to me, I figured. I’ve been guilty of doing it myself, so I decided to change up my angle. I sent out a mass email to Saskatoon residents and people who frequent it, and instead of getting feedback on why Saskatoon is awesome, I asked simply to finish this line: All the negative responses more or less echoed these sentiments. After thinking about it though for a bit, what person after living in one place for any span of time doesn’t get sick of their spots? Who besides the Spanish or the Californians have perfect skate weather year round?

What city doesn’t have injuries and frustrating footy missions? What place doesn’t have a “deadly guy scene” – you know, the bros that roll thick white sunglasses inside and out and rock the dopest boardshort/ popped collar kits (aka The Pat doods)?

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saskatoon.

[ o ] COOMBS

CHRIS KENDALL frontside180

DANNY ROBERTSON crooked grind

“SASKATOON SUCKS BECAUSE OF THE COLD WEATHER ALMOST ALL YEAR AND ALL THE GOOD SPOTS NEED PLYWOOD FOR THE LANDING OR THE RUN UP” —Justin Schwan

.sucks?

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[ o ] COOMBS

After I stepped outside the box and really analyzed the situation, Saskatoon, it would seem, has the same issues as any other metropolis. Some of the problems we have are uncontrollable, such as the weather, whereas other problems simply call for a change in routine and some motivation. Meaning, you get what you put into it… not really a city’s fault, the responsibility lies with each person individually.

So if it sucks, chances are, you’re sucking too.

And wouldn’t you know, after it was all said and done, about 90 per cent of the emails were in favour as to why Saskatoon doesn’t suck. There’s some weight behind that. As monotonous as certain things inevitably get over time, one thing remains true. To those who stick it out, or perhaps have traveled abroad and returned, generally the consensus is exactly how both Corey Neufeld and Dan Watson put it: “Saskatoon sucks because people think it sucks – but it really doesn’t.”

If you’ve been here before, even briefly, you’ll agree that it’s impossible to ignore the city’s attraction. The pleasant mellow atmosphere by the locals, skateboarders or not, is refreshing compared to the popular arrogant and inhospitableness seen in most big city centers.

The city itself stands out as generally being quite clean. All one has to do is take a walk along our riverbank on a quiet calm night and see how breathtaking it really is. The fall colors with all the trees, the incomparable sunsets, the northern lights that stretch across the sky for miles, the bridge architecture across the river... all these things are just a few of countless examples as to how enjoyable Saskatoon has become in its humble 100 year existence.

Situated in the middle of the province also proves to be an advantage for the city. There isn’t anything that isn’t a four or five hour commute from Saskatoon. We’re surrounded by skate spots and interesting communities, province-wide. The capital city, Regina, is just south of us, and it too has a thriving skateboard scene and nightlife. An hour north takes you to Prince Albert, which is home to Blare Morgan, Sir Rob Dawg, and one of the best skate plazas built. Head east and… well… there’s farms.

Travel and hour to the west though, and you’ll find yourself in Curtis Bear and Clayton Crockett territory. (PS, shout out to my sponsor Kristen.)

BILLY GALLAGHER kickflip frontside boardslide 80

The more time that one spends meditating on wherever they’re from, the more one realizes that despite any bad memory suffered, or time lapse in between visits… home is still home. And, just like Saskatoon, it probably doesn’t suck.

“Saskatoon doesn’t suck “ —John Osback

[ o ] COOMBS

.saskatoon

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wordsby nicholas brown

Symbolic Map of Me and You, 9 x 12”, mixed media on paper, 2006

THERE’S SOMETHING REFRESHING ABOUT LOOKING AT A LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN THE YEAR 2006 AND SEEING NEW AND UNEXPECTED THINGS. IT CAN BE TOUGH FOR SOME VIEWERS TO LEAVE ASIDE NOTIONS OF THE GENRE AS AN OUTDATED CONVENTION, LOST IN THE ARCHIVES OF CIVILIZATION MUSEUMS AND THRIFT STORE DOLLAR BINS. BUT IT IS WITHIN THE FAMILIAR AND THE FORGOTTEN THAT BROOKLYNBASED ARTIST JOSEPH HART HAS FASHIONED A DENSE AND EXPANSIVE WORLD THAT PLAYS HOST TO A DIFFERENT BRAND OF VISUAL STORYTELLING. Hart’s representations of rural architecture, public monuments and sprawling natural elements are set against a flowing and unstable environment that frustrates simple identifications. Just what is happening here? What kinds of questions can we ask the countless figures in Hart’s compositions, some of whom float across the landscape, others gazing into the horizon, and others still functioning as elements of the architecture? Hart explains, “My goal is to engage the viewer at first glance, then lead them through my narrative compositions, underscoring a sense of journey, discovery and mystery.”

Indeed, it is through repeated viewings that threads begin to emerge: the role of the individual in a broader social and cultural framework, the burden of history in everyday life, and the mythologies that permeate and bring meaning to cultures.

Firm Enterance, 17 x 23”, mixed media on paper, 2006

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One of the most striking aspects of Hart’s cast of characters is the way they are fully, but uncomfortably, integrated into their environments, often overshadowing buldings and trees, sometimes shrinking into the background. Characters seem to repeat, just as familiar elements like trees and buildings crop up constantly, their identities shrouded in mystery. Hart explains, “[these] works focus on belief and value systems related to faith, human capacity, and mythology… in the face of uncertainty and change.”

Identities are fluid and figures are often fragmented: a head floats, or perhaps pokes out from behind some imperceptible hiding place, while another character, a man, bends on hands and knees before a wide open expanse. Here, environments and figures coalesce into a narrative whole.

While the concepts might seem large and overarching, it is in the smallest moments that these ideas converge: in Bonzo’s Montreux, a group of heads, most without bodies, turn inward beneath a massive, black orb (is it a sun, a moon... a black hole?). In the distance lie several smaller circles that resemble hot air balloons—presumably containing yet more members of this imaginary community. There is an aura of prayer, of communal submission to faith. But this faith is disturbed by unstable elements such as the reclining female form to the left of the frame—her gaze is mapped by a line that extends into nothingness. Stepping back, the line also functions as part of an organizing principle, a set of intersecting diagonal lines that converge at the center of the massive oval form that unites the image, its center the focus of the cast of heads. It is at once a gesture of stability and of fracture: beneath the woman is a familiar tree branch, broken at the middle by one of the upturned balloons. Of the tendency of these images to fluctuate between grid-like order and chaos, Hart explains, “I like to use map iconography (edge lines, road and trail lines, etc.) to help form connections between things, and also help steer the viewer from one place to the next. I would argue that my compositions are sometimes slightly unstable, or out of balance. They are more interesting to me this way.” Through the logic of edge lines and ruler-precise markings, Hart’s landscapes are given room in which to expand and overlap, never truly conforming to one’s expectations of physical proportion and depth.

Map, 9 x 12”, mixed media on paper, 2006

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Alexanders Head, 24 x 24�, mixed media on paper, 2005

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Bonzo’s Montreux, 22 x 30”, mixed media on paper, 2006

Despite the imaginary appearance of Hart’s world, it is still curious that such a topography would characterize the work of a Brooklynite. Add to this the seemingly naïve style of draftsmanship, applied as it is to a studied and concept-heavy body of work. So it’s unsurprising that Hart is leery of terms like “Folk” and “outsider” to characterize his style: “Folk art and outsider art have certainly been important in my aesthetic development and are a great source of inspiration,” he concedes. “I appreciate the honesty, overlooked sophistication… it’s approachable too, which is unique in the world of art. In addition, I come from an arts oriented family that has strong traditions in painting, wood working, quilting and other New England crafts, so these environs have certainly been influential, too. With all that said, I do not identify as a folk or outsider artist.”

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It is perhaps this marriage of an accessible, familiar style influenced by folk art traditions, in the service of a complex visual environment that makes Hart’s work so captivating. At every turn is something to contradict the viewer’s impulses, from the use of colour – scraps of bright, geometric paper are laid over an otherwise muted plane – to the defamiliarizing tendency of his use of the human form – faces repeat, but do not necessarily represent the same person or idea, others embody Classical tropes or stand in for monuments lifted from art history books.

Rather than mystifying, these works function on different levels of communication: “Colour, content, images,” Hart reminds, “all of these things are devices for sharing information… take from it what you will.”

“COLOUR, CONTENT,

IMAGES.

ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE DEVICES FOR SHARING INFORMATION… TAKE FROM IT WHAT YOU WILL.”

Beneath The Layers of Schist, 14 x 18” mixed media on paper, 2004

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joseph hart.

Archaeologist, 22 x 30� mixed media on paper, 2006

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wordsby scott radnidge photosprovidedby first and hope

“IT’S WEIRD HOW CERTAIN PEOPLE AND PARTS JUST STICK WITH YOU THROUGHOUT ALL THESE YEARS.” —Palmer Brown

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KENNY ANDERSON, frontside air

1st and Hope is the first installment from The Way Back When Project from Elwood, a series of films that aim is to showcase the history of street skating and its global progression.

BRIAN LOTTI BEST DESCRIBED 1ST AND HOPE WHEN HE SAID THAT HE “WANTED TO TREAT A FEW SKATEBOARDERS AS IF THEY WERE SMALL BOATMEN TRAVELING THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS OF THOSE CLASSIC CHINESE INK-AND-BRUSH-LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS,” SOMETHING AKIN TO SKATERS FLOWING THROUGH THE URBAN FABRIC OF A BUSTLING CITY LIKE WATER DOWN A STREAM. The fluidity he speaks of

has all but vanished in modern society, as well as in most modern skateboard videos that showcase trick after trick, and nothing but the trick, with the skating finely spliced together and meticulously edited. The fluidity of the journey that Lotti craves differs from the sensory overloads that are commonplace in videos and the media. As the motion plays out in 1st and Hope, there is no overall theme of flow, just a bunch of carefully edited sequences in no linear order, leaving the question of “how did the skater get to the point of the trick?” Most people don’t stop to think about the means to the ends.

Revisiting a theme can sometimes be tricky, and in Color 4.2, we touched on the concept of the 1st and Hope project, a skateboard journey that was best described as “the quality of the roll”, as well as the desire to “PLAY the city as if she herself was an instrument like a guitar”. But over the last few months, the movie has morphed from its humble original idea, to a movie that’s concept has traveled far and wide by word of mouth, partly because of the fact of the concept of the “roll”, an idea that draws the attention of both old and new, as well as the fact that it will also be released alongside a new album from Beck, who wrote the original music for the 1st and Hope film.

While more of a traditional skate movie than a glitzy video, 1st and Hope aims to deliver a view of skateboarding from a skateboarder’s perspective. Starting the film off, Brian Lotti and Kenny Anderson meet up at 1st Street in Los Angeles, with the end goal of making it to Staples Center before sunset. “Throughout their journey they are joined by some of the most influential skateboarders of yesterday and today,” says associate producer Palmer Brown, “together they tell a story which reveals the spontaneity and artistic flow of skateboarding as we watch the skaters bridge the gap between the true originators of modern street skating (Eric Dressen, Matt Hensley, Ray Barbee and Brian Lotti) to some of the most creative and innovative talents of recent years (Kenny Anderson, Mike Carroll, Shiloh Greathouse and Paul Rodriguez).” I posed some questions I had about this concept of the roll, and the overall feeling of awe from skating with so many of the greats of street skating, past and present. This is what producer Palmer Brown had to say.

Color: Brian Lotti’s words of wanting to “Play the city as if she herself was an instrument like a guitar” seem really true to this film. Did it feel that you were “playing the city” from the start of filming through the long editing process?

Palmer: Yeah it did. You know, before we started filming and during the off time of filming, Lotti and I would skate around downtown a lot. Sometimes while filming we would get caught up in one area trying to get the shot right. We would spend a whole day there. Lotti always had a strong vision about what he wanted and I saw it. So the “playing” part was real natural to us. It was amazing to see the transitions flow so well during the editing process and actually capture the feeling Lotti is talking about with that statement.

The skaters that joined you ranged from old school pioneers to modern day pros. What was the vibe like as you skated from place to place?

That was probably the most amazing part of filming this movie. It was so different with each person. They all individually put off there own vibe. It was always so positive.

Each day was a new day and every session was so unique.

Like skating flat with Paulo [Diaz] one day and then having [Eric] Dressen fly by you doing 100mph the next. I remember having to do a few extra takes with Ray Barbee because I was watching him the whole time instead of skating. Like I said before, I think we all share the same passion for skateboarding. We all skate differently and we all come from different generations, yet we were all able to get together for the sole purpose of skating.

With such a unique concept, was it difficult to gain interest from skaters to join you in the filming?

It was hard for some. Everyone has other projects they’re working on and their own schedule in life so we would try to plan accordingly. I think we all share that same passion for skateboarding. So as the film was talked about more and more you kind of got sucked into the story. It takes you back to when you first started. It seemed like everyone had a lot of fun and was happy to do it.

So what skate videos inspired you when you were growing up?

Old contest videos. It was cool seeing all the pros in one place skating together. Seeing Gonz skate. Powell videos.

Watching Ray Barbee push. Anything with Lance Mountain because he always looked like he was having fun. Streets on Fire. Neil Blender, Natas, Julien and the soundtrack. It’s weird how certain people and parts just stick with you throughout all these years.

Do you hope to see more videos like this in the future, a return to the more traditional skate videos?

Not necessarily. I think every film should represent the way [the creators] look at skateboarding. Not everyone sees it the same. There are a small amount of skate videos already out there with a similar vibe. The companies I’d expect to portray skateboarding like this will most likely continue to. As long as they do... I’ll be happy.

FIRSTANDHOPE.COM

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Bradley Sheppard, pivot-fakie

BEFORE INTERVIEWING BRADLEY SHEPPARD I DID SOME DIGGING AROUND, LURKING ABOUT ASKING PEOPLE WHAT THEY KNEW ABOUT HIM AND WHAT DIRT THEY COULD DIVULGE. UNFORTUNATELY TO THIS WRITER’S EARS, NOBODY COULD OFFER ANY SCOOPS, DIRT OR SHADY BACKGROUND – AT LEAST NO OFFERED SKELETONS IN CLOSETS OR SECRET IDENTITIES CAME MY WAY. BUT THE ONE THING THAT EVERYONE AGREED ON WAS THAT ALTHOUGH VERY QUIET AND UNINTERESTED IN DIVULGING HIS DIRTY LAUNDRY, BRADLEY SHEPPARD IS A SOLID GUY AND ABOVE ALL ELSE, SOMEONE WHO TOTALLY LIVES SKATEBOARDING 24/7, ALBEIT QUIETLY AND IN HIS OWN MELLOW WAY. wordsby scott radnidge photosby david christian portraitsby jon west

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Switch Ollie.

B

eing from White Rock, or from any small suburb near a major city, can be a daunting task for a skater to come out of and make their name known across both city and small town.

Most kids get real good in their own environments, but feel uncomfortable in the bigger ponds that the cities have to offer. But with Bradley Sheppard, that doesn’t seem to be a problem, whether ripping in small town White Rock or any large city, it doesn’t seem to matter. Talking to him, his words show an ability to remain unfazed about the overall picture, about skateboarding’s pressures and annoying trends and habits. He seems to be able to roll with the everyday, while just focusing on the skating, without crumbling under the massive giant that the skateboarding industry has become.

With the few skaters who do make the transition from fishbowl town to ocean size city, they usually swim tooth and nail upstream, and never look back, choosing to stay where the big scene is, and try like hell not to end up back where they started before their unlikely journey began.

This is where Bradley differs again, from being a part owner of the Board Kennel in White Rock, to renting out an old barn on the outskirts of the outskirts to house a personal mini ramp in, he has remained true to his environment without being holed up and secluded there, happily living with the best of both worlds, from what home town skating has to offer as well as the big city’s endlessly paved streets and parks, keeping both at his fingertips.

Although quiet and not one to reminisce about the old days or look back and wax on poetically, you can see the appreciation he has in his words for skating and music, skating and life.

To him, it’s all about the skating.

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“AT FIRST GLANCE YOU WOULD THINK BRADLEY WAS A CREEPY GUY. MOST OF THE TIME HE’S THINKING RATHER THAN TALKING, AND HALF THE TIME WHEN YOU LOOK AT HIM HE’LL MAKE SOME FUCKED UP HANNIBAL LECTOR FACE AT YOU. BUT DON’T LET THAT FOOL YOU, HE’S ROCKING A BIG HEART BEHIND THOSE SINISTER EXPRESSIONS.” —Colin Lambert

Frontside Flip.

“The ramp was going to be so good...

...I went back there to work on it, the whole fucking barn was toast.

Burnt down.�

.his own mellow way

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“HE DOESN’T QUITE GET THAT THE THINGS HE DOES ARE KOOKY AND NOR DO I THINK HE CARES. SUPPOSEDLY HE WIPES HIS BUTT STANDING UP, BUT DOES HE CARE IF THAT’S WEIRD? HELL NO! THAT’S JUST THE WAY HE DOES THINGS.” —Colin Lambert

Switc

We featured you as an amateur in spring ’04. What big things have changed in your life since then?

Still skating all the time, riding my motorbike.

Traveled a bit. I dunno, man, just living I guess... I think I lived with my family for my last interview and now I don’t. It’s weird, I don’t see them as much as I used too. It’s a lot different not living with your folks… I never really worried about bills and food. I definitely use to rely on them a lot, now I guess I rely on myself.

Back in ‘04, you were into kickflips and pop-shove-its. What’s getting your juices flowing now?

I still love skating the bowl at the White Rock park. Mini ramp never gets old… I guess just tranny in general. You could skate it till you’re old and grey. I wish I had an empty warehouse where I could build a miniramp.

Once I had this barn, just outside of White Rock, that me and some friends rented off this farmer for $300 a month. Jon [West] and I would give the other kids boards that were in on it, for our part of the rent. It had all cement flooring with an upstairs living room.

There was this pyramid set-up and some other janky ramps. Me and Jon wanted a solid mini ramp in there. So we got all these pallets for the base, so when it rained the bottom of the ramp didn’t get soggy and what not. I think we stole a bunch wood from construction sites and bought a bit too. The ramp was going to be so good, we were about to put the Masonite on. I think the next 96

.his own mellow way.

week or something, I went back there to work on it, the whole fucking barn was toast.

Burnt down. Never really figured out what happened, maybe the farmer, maybe some kids. Fucking shitty though. Building the ramp was fun though.

Doesn’t the White Rock bowl scare the shit out of you? (I fractured my hip there...)

It can be scary. I’ve seen some gnarly slams over the years. Little kids dropping in for the first time makes my stomach drop. My first experience with the bowl was funny as shit.

When I got my first board my dad took me and my brothers there. I remember it being so big to me back then. We got there and were standing around, holding our trucks and shit and my Dad says to me “gimme that thing, I can do this shit”. He gets on it and is slowly nudging himself in, rolled in, hits the ground so hard he broke his wrist.

It was kind of funny cause he was laughing and trying to play it off all cool like it didn’t hurt or something. Also, I remember one time Garry Bone offered Spike a watch, if he switch flipped into the sun and he fucking did it. That’s probably one of the gnarliest things that has gone down.

You’ve been skating since you were quite young. What has been the biggest change in skateboarding you have noticed over the years?

I wouldn’t say it’s changed too much, I guess the industry’s always changing but that’s not really important. To me it’ll always be the

same. It’s what you make of it.

I heard you refer to White Rock as “Wrinkle Rock”. Why’s that?

Ah… you know… it’s all the old people here… people move here to retire so the scene is pretty mellow. There’s all this development going on and I think all the older folks are bumming on it. It’s going to change so much in five years, it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

I remember there used to be a vert ramp down on the main drag, way back in the mid 80s, do you remember that?

Yeah, I remember that… I remember… oh, I was really young… but yeah, I’ve talked to a lot of the older guys about it… telling me about all the stuff that went down there… I was talking to Dylan [Doubt] about it and he said there was a contest there, with a clear half pipe and no flat bottom, fuck, I wish I was around for that. I guess there was a skate shop there… I think it was Sun Dogs or something... no… it was Barnacle Bills and Dylan was sponsored by them. I’m pretty sure that Sun Dogs was like a surf shop or something and the owner’s son skated, so he started a skateshop in uptown White Rock – the Board Kennel.

What is it like working and part owning a skate shop? Do you have to put up with a lot of shit? Does it ever tire you out of the “skate scene”?

Running a skateshop has its pros and

cons. I’m not that into it, ya’know, being a businessman and whatnot. It’s like there’s no creative outlet in it. I mean there is in some ways, but they’re not for me. Like art, I realized a long time ago that me and a pencil don’t get along too well. My family always seemed to be so business and about making money. I have always been the opposite. Just wanting something more. That’s probably why I’ve always kept at skating. There’s such a small scene in the ‘rock. Seems like everyone that skates these days has a hook up for getting cheap gear or whatever.

We hook up a lot of friends. Seems to me the skateboarding image has no appeal to the general public. For a while there it was crazy how popular it was, the industry was booming. Seems like it’s been on downwards slope for a while. I realized that this is all just a long turning point in such a huge industry.

It’s just like anything, ups and downs. And yeah, it gets tiring. Being saturated with anything so much will get exhausting. I don’t really get caught up with the skateboard world so much anymore. I’ve been over it for a while. I try to apply my time and energy into other things, whether its music, motorbikes or whatever. I always have to be doing something, ya can’t skate all the time.

How long have you been involved with the Board Kennel?

Well… I’ve worked there around four years, been part owner of it for about a year and a half.

ch Ollie

Ollie Impossible.

Bradsky Brewski...

is a name that defines a layer deep, deep within the alcohol-driven psyche of Bradley Sheppard. A layer which cannot be understood completely and wholly, unless truly seen and experienced in the presence of its own greatness. Upon knowing the original “Brad” for its shy, mysterious, yet uncommonly humble personality, I was taken with wide eyes and great surprise on the first evening when confronted with this suddenly glazed eyed, and grinch-like smile from ear to ear as it told us of its great tales and stories from the past and present. For Bradsky Brewsky is a personality unlike any other. Its unpredictable and wizard-like capabilities are an astounding accomplishment, which can only be described as outstanding, sometimes mortifying, often astonishing and yet simply fantastic – in every possible sense of these words.

So, if you get a chance, make sure to deposit your quarter in the form of beer to the Bradsky magic wish machine, and bear witness to the incredible exploits, haunting laughter, and ramshackled personality... of the one and only Bradsky Brewsky. You’ll simply never be the same.” —Mike Mckinlay

..bradley sheppard

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Is it hard being an independent store with all the “mall” skateshops sucking up all the kids?

Oh totally… you know, there’s shops closing down because they can’t compete with the big stores… Like Speedies Skate Shop just closed down… I talked to Derek about it, and you know… the big stores are selling boards for so cheap, and the small shops just can’t compete with that. I think that’s just what happens when industries get so big.

Things gotta change when there’s such a high demand.

Who was an influence to you when you were younger, back when you started skating?

Pretty much all the older generation that skated for Board Kennel. Plus I’d watch skate videos religiously, so anyone who was in a video was amazing to me. I liked Ethan Fowler a lot because this Stereo video, Ride On, that I got from Slam City Jam. I remember going to Slam City at Plaza of Nations, seeing all the pros, being just in awe. It was awesome back then. The skate world was so new to me.

What about now? Who do you look to as people you think rip it up?

I don’t know really… I guess whoever’s around. I like Quinn [Starr] a lot, but I think he’s everyone’s favorite. I like seeing people go fast. Watching my friend Simon skate the White Rock park is rad. He hasn’t been skating very long and he’ll just chow around the park so fast, tail sliding lips and hittin’ random shit. It’s awesome, he skates so spontaneous, and he rips. He blows me away every time we skate. I guess just anyone who skates fast and spontaneous – I appreciate that a lot more then the usual shit you see.

Recently I heard that you were riding with Geoff Dermer and Jesse Booi for Kitsch skateboards. How did that all come about?

Geoff has worked in the industry for so long.

He’s a good man for the job. I guess he just figured it was time to do something on his own. He got a good artist involved, he knows so many people across Canada, has connections, I guess everything just fell into place. Jesse and I are psyched. There seems to be a positive vibe. Should be fun.

What is your involvement in Kitsch?

Geoff gives me boards… He calls me all the

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bradley sheppard.

Frontside Crooked Grind.

time asking my opinion on things. It’s cool having a voice in a company.

long as there are people around and there’s a good vibe, then it’s always fun.

Earlier, you said that you’ve got into riding a motorbike. Who do you ride your

Have you gotten to travel and skate?

What’s the best place outside of the Lower Mainland that you have skated?

I went to Barcelona with some friends.

That was pretty dope. Just got back from Montreal. That place rules. Seems like there are so many untouched spots. I’d like to live there for a while and explore the city a bit more. I also had the pleasure of watching Marc Tison and Barry Walsh skate the big O, those guys fucking rip that place. I heard it’s getting torn down, I want to go back there and skate it before that happens. I’m not worried about what or where I’m skating, as

Have you ever entered a skate contest?

Well that’s kinda why I went to Montreal, for that Am Getting Paid contest. I never really skated in a big contest before, so I was kinda nervous. I had fun though. I knew a lot of people there so it was a good time. I think I placed 74th or something (laughs). It reminded me of when I used to skate in the local contests. I kinda like that nervousness feeling sometimes… I don’t get that too much when I’m skating, so it was kinda fun for a change. I’m not one to put pressure on myself, there’s no need for it.

motorbike with? Do you have a posse?

None of my friends in the ‘rock have bikes yet, so I’m kinda solo most of the time… But having a bike is great, so much better than driving. I sold my Festiva cause I was so sick of driving. I ride with Jon [West] once in a while and we went up to Squamish a couple times to skate the park. The ride up there is so nice. I’m going to ride somewhere farther than Squamish eventually. It’d be crazy to ride across Canada or something. I was also thinking of buying a bike in the UK, fly over there, and ride it around Europe, like down to Spain or something. That’d be so rad.

Ollie.

“I’m not one to put pressure on myself, there’s no need for it.”

Kickflip Backside Tailslide..

Are you into art?

Well, skateboarding has been my life for as long as I can remember. It’s really the only piece of art that I really set my mind to. Nothing has really compared to it on the same level. I try to dwell outside of this little skateboard world I’m in as much as possible. Keep things fresh, I feel like a different person everyday. I used to be into music. Played the drums when I was younger but I liked skating a lot more, and I applied all my time to it. Eventually the drums kinda fizzled out. Lately I’ve been trying to play more. My step dad and I jam 100

his own mellow way.

once in awhile, it rules. Playing easy songs like “My Generation” is so much fun and easy, keeping a beat can be hard though.

I always had troubles keeping a steady beat.

I’m thinking of taking lessons again.

On that note, whose beats get you going the most?

Well... I watched that Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus DVD and The Who play that song “A Quick One While He’s Away”... watching Keith Moon got me so stoked to play again. He rules... he just has such good style when he plays. I was playing again that night [I saw him]. Bill Ward is sick too.

But you play the electric drums, so classic rock drums or modern?

Classic rock!

In the next five years, what do you want to accomplish, do, or try?

Whoa, that’s a tough one. I guess just keep on living, doing what I’m doing. I don’t really have any goals at the moment.

I just want to enjoy life, try not to be too stagnant and see the world while I still got my youth.

Thanks to everyone. Kitsch Skateboards,

FS Boardslide, Gap 270

If you ever meet Bradley and he ignores you it’s not that he’s a prick, he’s probably just engaged in a conversation with Gordon Bombay in his head. Give him a second chance and you’ll see that his character is as intriguing as his skateboarding and we all know how amazing his skating is. —Colin Lambert

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“WE WERE ON DRUGS, WE THOUGHT WE WE’RE SOME SORT OF ROCKSTARS.”

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Dressed For Success wordsby rhianon bader photosby christopher glancy

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ashion and skateboarding seem to be an anomalous combination. Most would agree that image prevails over function in the fashion realm, whereas for skateboarding, function should (though often doesn’t) override image. More skaters than would like to admit have been at least a little bit upset about tearing a hole in their favourite pair of jeans or jacket when they fall while skating.

Maybe it’s the fact that the difference between skateboarding and just living isn’t as defined as the separation between daily life and other physical activities. Whereas a skater often goes to school/work, then skating, then out at night in the same outfit, you couldn’t say the same thing about a hockey player or a swimmer. We are street-dwellers, and so not only do we need clothes we can skate in, but clothes that express who we are just as any other non-skater.

Andrew Reynolds has been one of skateboarding’s most influential figures for years, and his unique fashion-sense hasn’t gone unnoticed either. He says that growing up as a skater he found himself looking up to a lot of guys that dressed a certain way and had a style that looked really cool.

When he found himself in the industry taking the place of those he looked up to he made a point of trying to look a bit different than all the rest, and keep up with what seemed to be the next new thing. Definitely one of the forerunners of the tight pant, 70s rockstar look awhile back, Reynolds helped to paint skateboarding black again, not to mention inspire thousands of teenage boys to buy tight women’s jeans (not exactly an easy feat, when you think about it).

“I don’t know what we were doing. Just thinking, ‘We’re in L.A.’. We were on drugs, we think we’re some sort of rockstars and stuff so we started to play up the look and do the whole thing – leather jacket, tight jeans – and then it just caught on for everybody,” he explains, “all the skater kids started dressing like that.”

With this trend-oriented background in mind, it’s not really all that surprising that Reynolds should end up as head designer for a new limited-edition clothing company: Sole Technology’s Altamont Apparel Ltd.

Reynolds’ home jewels and gems.

“I think that whether skaters want to believe it or not, they act like ‘Oh, I don’t give a fuck what I wear,’ you know, but they care what they wear. They want to look a certain way, or they wouldn’t go to all that trouble to make their clothes look like that if they didn’t care. They’re very fashion forward in this world,” says Reynolds, adding that he often notices skatetrends slowly leaking into popular culture.

and I found a feather on the ground, and I got these gold pins and I just started messing with it… it was fun. So then when I got home I just started going around to bead stores and stuff like that and finding little trinkets and different stuff I could make… even as a kid I was into it. Like my mom’s way into jewelry, and when she’d wake up and go to work she’d put on all of her rings and necklaces.”

Altamont’s vintage/DIY-oriented line couldn’t have fallen under the command of a more qualified and enthusiastic designer than Reynolds, who has managed to master the art of balancing function and fashion when it comes to clothes you can skate in, or not. He says he intends to “learn this industry, learn how the stuff is made… and make sure I can get this clothing line looking perfect. Because I’m not saying I’m some pro at this or anything.”

This little quirk will also be included in the Altamont line, with a feather and dagger broach-like accessory accompanying each pair of pants. What you do with that sucker is all you.

Other lines like Marc by Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney for Adidas have included custom accessories, marking a definite landmark of skate fashion challenging its limits and breaking out into the broader ‘monde de la mode’.

Though obviously created with skaters in mind, the collection is unconventional and unique, accessible to all who just want something different to wear while they do what they do… be it music, art or otherwise. Listing his fashion influences, Reynolds says it’s not even so much what a person chooses to wear, but how they wear it, specifically citing Baker teammate and friend Erik Ellington who can put on anything and make it look cool. “It’s just in the person and the way they carry themselves.”

As far as influential designers go, he doesn’t pay much mind to the current talents, but does appreciate Helmut Lang’s well-fitting, fancy suede suits and clothes from Yves Saint Laurent. “The thing is that I don’t keep up with that whole world and I don’t care to,” explains Reynolds, “I know what I like – skaters don’t care about that stuff. If I’m gonna do it I’m just going to do what I think is cool – what I see out there. I’m not gonna try to get into this whole fashion thing I’ve never been into.”

Some more observant Reynolds fans may have noticed his tendency to wear gaudy, sometimes sparkly, thrift shop accessories. His trinket fascination took off on a Baker tour a few years ago. “I was in the middle of nowhere and I bought an army jacket from a Goodwill and it was kinda plain, so I went in the thrift store and I bought a bunch of old jewelry

Reynolds is seeking to capture the essence of those irreplaceable wardrobe gems that are so comfortable, fit so perfectly and look so hot that you can’t help but wear them to death. His personal prized garment of the moment is a one-of-a-kind faded Bob Markey collage t-shirt that is falling to pieces. The Altamont line features hand-picked, broken-in creations from a mix of premium with surplus and vintage materials that are made to be stylish and comfortable. And if Reynolds is involved you know there are quality denims too.

“They put them through so many washes,” he explains, referring to the garment production process, “and they do little paint splatters on them and staining on them and it ends up coming out really proper. I’m super harsh about everything and when I see something come back that’s just right – like the t-shirts so soft and the hoodies all faded out – man, they’re really doing a good job.”

Don’t worry though, just because Reynolds has set his sights on a new career path in fashion design, it doesn’t mean he’s leaving behind his roots. “I have a lot to learn,” says Reynolds when asked about future plans, “I think I got a good eye for this stuff and I just really want to concentrate on the brand and then skating… just skate. Just get out on the board, do what I do.”

dressed for success.

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The name Altamont itself is inspired by the Rolling Stones’ legendary free concert, with Hell’s Angels as security, at California’s Altamont Speedway in December, 1969. The concert, during which four people died, is seen by many as the end of the hippy era and the birth of punk and metal. Altamont Apparel Ltd. is an embracement of the realization that idealism only goes so far if we neglect to recognize the dirty truths in the world around us.

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dressed for success.

Altamont is releasing a limited Holiday 2006 and Spring 2007 debut line, with a full line to follow in fall 2007. andrew reynolds, frontside flip [ o ] shad

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xamplfilms.com

Âś 2007

words bysaelan twerdy

photo byr. jayne r.c.u.

FROM THE MOMENT THAT HE FIRST BURST INTO THE PUBLIC EYE WITH 2001’S I GET WET, ANDREW WK HAS BEEN A PUZZLING AND DIVISIVE FIGURE. YEARS OF VIRTUALLY NON-STOP TOURING HAVE SERVED TO MAKE ANDREW’S UNIQUE IMAGE, OVERTHE-TOP MUSIC, AND ULTRA-POSITIVE “PARTY HARD” PHILOSOPHY WIDELY RECOGNIZED, BUT IT’S DONE LITTLE TO RESOLVE THE CENTRAL DEBATE ABOUT THE MAN: IS HIS ACT SO-DUMB-IT’S-SMART OR JUST MINDLESS? IS HE A BRILLIANT MARKETING STRATEGIST OR SIMPLY A VERY MOTIVATED ODDBALL? MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHERE HAS HE BEEN THIS YEAR?

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n 2003, he released The Wolf, in 2004, he hosted an “extreme advice show” on MTV called Your Friend, Andrew WK, and in February of this year, he released a live DVD called Who Knows?, but for the first time in five years, Andrew WK played only one North American show in 2006. The reason is that Andrew has been recording and touring (along with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth) with To Live and Shave in L.A., one of America’s most notorious and experimental harsh noise groups. He’s also been in Japan and Korea, promoting his new Asia-only release, Close Calls With Brick Walls. The album is his most offbeat to date, packed with Zappa-esque absurdity, instrumental piano reveries, and the kind of epic motivational anthems we’ve come to expect. It’s also part of Andrew’s ambitious plan to release three albums over the next two years, each in a different region of the world. Albums entitled Young Lord and The Carrier are currently slated for release in North America and Europe and all three will eventually be available worldwide, but for now, if you want a copy of Close Calls, you’ll have to order it from overseas.

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andrew w.k.

“What’s the difference between acting and acting like someone who’s acting like themselves?” there inherently.”

On the phone, Andrew WK spoke eloquently and at great length about his intentions, with the same full-bore intensity that he brings to his songwriting. It’s important to note that he wasn’t always like this: at fourteen, a punk and hardcore enthusiast already acquainted with the leading lights of what would come to be the Michigan noise scene, he was shy and reclusive. The Andrew WK project was conceived, in part, as a way for Andrew to defeat his shyness by taking on the persona of the most “awesome” person he could imagine. In a way, his whole career has more of an aspect of performance art than music per se: by blurring the boundary between his reality and his ideal through a sort of personality experiment, Andrew hopes to inspire people to consider what would happen if they were willing to challenge themselves to the fullest and experience the true awesomeness of self-realization.

He just might be rock and roll’s greatest existentialist.

“If anything,” Andrew enthuses, “I hope the experience of listening to this album makes people feel like anything is possible, or gives them a big jolt of possibility. Even if they didn’t like it, maybe they could feel that anything is still possible. It’s just that sensation of possibility, which is, again, the definition of a human. As some could say. It’s the limitless possibility, due to our own ability to be self-aware – not that other animals might not have this – but as far as we’re aware at this point, humans are able to think, and then think about what they’re thinking about, which creates that Moebius strip, the loop, and then reflects infinitely, and points towards infinite intelligence. So, thinking on those terms and then making this music, it’s continued to be a major contradiction, where I’ll think, ‘These very ideas that we’re talking about now, are these supposed to be expressed literally in the music or is it implied just in the spirit of the sound of the song, or is it implied even just in the spirit that someone made the song?’ I think it’s probably there on all those levels. And I’m not nearly as concerned now with getting these things across because I think they’re

Andrew is a great believer in the power of music as experience. That being the case, he’s not much concerned with what people say about his music, or even whether or not they like it or not. “I think, in any culture, a lot of time is spent in reflection, and in discussion, and in description, and in the secondary modes of experience,” he tells me.

“And I’m using secondary very clearly there, not as higher or lower, or better or worse than primary – but it is secondary. I became very excited by my own need to understand what I’m doing, and then to say, ‘I don’t need to, because this is the one thing that doesn’t need to fit into my understanding of the world through language.’ And that safety or security that I used to really rely on, from being able to sum something up or being able to contain it within my mind or file it away and organize it in a whole filing system of secondariness.

And I need to say, okay, this is all fine and good, but the reason I did this in the first place was because of that – maybe very brief, maybe very small, but very powerful – element of experience that is not ever going to be able to be explained or summed up.

And that also went along with my need to sum up all my experiences, sum up people, classify all realms of what was going on, because I felt threatened otherwise and I felt that things were going out of control. And now I’m trying to contradict that by pushing myself to be in a more open place. I’ve been more excited about trying to de-classify, de-regulate.”

Right now, the most exciting “open place” that Andrew is getting himself into is cable access television. This fall, he’s beginning work on a series that will air in New York, but also be made available on the internet and, eventually, on DVD. “There’s no concept,” Andrew relates. “I’m trying to make it as subconscious as possible. Which is sort of how that last album was. It was done immediately, without a lot of preconceived ideas. I really don’t want to have any idea or plan for it, because that’s what I did on the MTV show: this huge plan, but there was really no creativity involved at the end of the day, because we had to have this very hard concept to be able to sell the show. But what I would like to do is think of it as an open canvas, with the TV screen, and I’m just

going to put things on it.”

“Part of that’s been odd – not having a game plan,” he continues, “but I’ve been working like that for the past few years and I’ve been happy – I’ve been very, very happy – with the results. Because it doesn’t allow me to edit myself out, and feelings and ideas and tones that I might not have let come through, come through. It’s more exposing, I think, and more vulnerable. And that’s been a main tone in what Andew WK’s done from the start. Exposing oneself completely. Like you’ve already brought up, it was a way for me to confront shyness or to create an alternate idea, like ‘Who’s the coolest person in the world?’ I used to make decisions like that sometimes. Like, What Would Jesus Do?, except that I wouldn’t think of Jesus, I’d think of an idealized person. I would think of what that person would do and then I would do that thing. So that was a way of really taking myself outside of my experience. And if someone had told me then that this is what I would look like, this is what I’d be doing, I don’t know what I would have thought. I don’t think I ever could have imagined it.

Some part of me might have said, ‘Yeah!’, but it was so specifically done to contradict how I felt as an individual that I don’t think

I could have imagined it. And I think that’s very different in some ways then, because it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I wanted to be this kind of person and then I did it,’ it was more like trying continually to not be what you are, and realize that you are not anything other than that. Like, when someone says, ‘Just be yourself! You’ve changed! Why can’t you just be who you are?’ What could that possibly mean? Other than, ‘You’re not behaving in a way that I’ve come to take for granted as who I think you are’. Those kind of ideas really became liberating. That I am nobody, that I am nothing other than what I decide to do. And ideas that might chalk themselves up to be integrity or having a moral code that you live by – it’s still choice. You create who and what you are every second, based on what you choose to be. And there’s no inherent – well, that’s to be argued – but there doesn’t seem to be any inherent nature to anyone, even if there’s a chemical structure to their brain that lends them a certain personality, they still have the choice to contradict that. Just like someone can say, ‘You’re shy,’ and I can say, ‘Yeah, but I can still act like this!’ So what’s the difference between acting and acting like someone who’s acting like themselves? I’m sure you andrew w.k.

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MIKE COLLINS, kickflip

[o] odam.

CHRIS CONNOLLY, backside flip

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DEREK SWAIM, backside tailslide

[o] oakes.

JORDAN HOFFART, 50/50

JEFF FALCONER, switch shove-it

[o] worona .

MIKE FYFE, switch backside nosegrind

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GRAHAM LANDEN, backside wallride

[o] christian.

GAB EKOE, frontside flip

JESSE “THE DEVIL” HUGHES: FRONT MAN, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL

DESTROYER CASE: OVERSIZED STAINLESS STEEL BAND: STAINLESS STEEL BUCKLE: STAINLESS STEEL SAFETY CLASP CRYSTAL: SOLID CURVED MINERAL MOVEMENT: STANDARD 3 HAND WATER RESISTANCE: 5 ATM

604 276 9425

V E S T A L W A T C H . C O M

6 0 4 - 2 7 6 - 9 4 2 5

WRIST: THICK

BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY

MASTODON

The Letting Go (Drag City)

After over a decade of the most celebrated work in the world of indie singer-songwriters, Will Oldham deserves to sit down. Easing off his usual antiquarian musings on explicit sex and the impending gloom of death, The Letting Go is mostly devoted to laid-back love songs and pleasant country rambles. Recorded in Iceland with a string quartet and the haunting backup vocals of Dawn “the Faun” McCarthy (of the witchy, gothic folk group Faun Fables), this set of songs sees Oldham, if not exactly happy, then at least in a peaceful mood. The album drifts by smoothly, lacking the coiled, electric vigour of last year’s collaboration with Matt Sweeney, and only a handful of these songs rank with Oldham’s work on I See A Darkness or even Master and Everyone. It has a pastoral charm and filigreed assurance of its own, though, and Oldham is such a distinctive and eloquent songwriter that even his filler is still worth your hard-earned dollar. The Letting Go may not be a classic, but it’s a welcome addition to the Bonnie “Prince” Billy catalog. – saelan twerdy

BURIAL

s/t (Hyperdub)

In Britain, they have a thing called the hardcore continuum (or ‘ardcore, if you really want to get vernacular). It’s what connects drum n’ bass to jungle to 2-step to garage to grime.

And now, to dubstep, which is what you get when you slow your grime beats down, dub them out, and usually strip away the vocals. Which means that it essentially sounds like Massive Attack. It appears that we’ve come full-circle from 90s rave culture, and trip-hop (or a new variant of it) is cool again.

Cinematic, post-apocalyptic urban soundscapes are the order of the day, and Burial’s self-titled debut is the toast of South London, despite (or perhaps because of) his refusal to give interviews or reveal his identity. Already hailed by bloggers as a landmark masterpiece, Burial is, without a doubt, a powerful document of loss and melancholy, phrased in phantom dancehall with paralyzing bass. If the pirate radio airwaves are haunted by the ghosts of industrial blight and decay, this is their song. – saelan twerdy

Blood Mountain (Reprise / Relapse) Mastodon’s last record, Leviathan, was great enough for anybody who was even a little interested in metal to buy it, and commercial enough for the guys at Warner to take notice. So Blood Mountain could have been Mastodon’s sell-out album, if you’re still punk enough to believe in rubbish like that, but it’s turned out to be one of the few glimmers of hope in recent mainstream metal. Tempering tech with boner-inducing riffage, Mastodon is starting to front on old-school Metallica’s territory. I don’t want to up expectations too much, but Blood Mountain has the weight of a classic. Randoms won’t be put off by too many screams – the vocals here are melodic but harsh, giving the listener easy access to Brann Dailor’s incomprehensible drumming patterns. The guitar work impresses when it has to, but usually Kelliher and Co. leave the wanking to your imagination, choosing instead to provide a groovy background for your metal fantasies. Only time will tell whether Blood Mountain joins the pantheon… well, time and me. If this isn’t still in rotation twenty years from now, the banger soul of the world will truly have been extinguished. Says me.

GRIZZLY BEAR Yellow House (Warp)

When Warp got a new A&R rep and signed Gravenhurst last year, it seemed like a concession to the times: if the kids want folky acoustic music, then that’s what we’ll give them. Always on the cutting edge, Warp knew what was good for them. When they first signed Grizzly Bear, the band was the one-man bedroom project of Edward Droste, a lo-fi pop prodigy with songs fully submerged in aquatic murmur. Under Warp’s wing, the band has hatched into a four-piece, and Droste’s song sketches have been elaborated into ornate baroque mini-epics, still cushioned in shadowy dream-atmospheres, but brimming with layers of Beach Boys vocal harmonies. As a near-perfect hybrid of Vetiver, White Magic, and Elephant 6-style psychedelia, Grizzly Bear have returned on Warp’s investment with the finest mellow melodies of the year.

– saelan twerdy

– naben ruthnum

BOB DYLAN

Modern Times (Columbia) Bob Dylan’s latest album, the thirty-first studio record in his career, has been referred to as the third installment in a trilogy, following on the heels of Time Out of Mind and Love & Theft. In terms of sound and the crew Dylan has surrounded himself with, Modern Times has a direct link with his previous two releases.

Yet, though the title refers to the here and now, Dylan sounds more than ever like a traditionalist; an outcast at the edge of town. While the tempo of the music is upbeat with a loose, New Orleans-infused swing that ebbs and flow throughout the ten tracks, at its lyrical core the record is a blues album that is as gloomy and dreary as it gets. Discussing familiar themes of faith, labour and heartbreak, tracks like “Workingman’s Blues #2” and the elegiac epic closing song “Ain’t Talkin” are solemn and ghostly, as Dylan stalks the night declaring that he “ain’t talkin’, just walkin’.” Yet amidst all the doom and gloom, Modern Times is still one of the most accessible Dylan records in years, as the backing players, lead by skilled guitarist Denny Freeman, bring a little light to the dark shadows of Dylan’s lyrical lament for the modern world. – matt goody

THE HIDDEN CAMERAS Awoo (Outside Music)

With the opening notes of the Hidden Cameras latest album, Awoo, an odd feeling was triggered that I couldn’t quite place. After many subsequent listens, I finally put my finger on it. Like their name, The Hidden Cameras’ music sounds like a snap shot of many bands of indie and mainstream past. Starting right off with the album’s first song, “Death of a Tune”, where the vocals are a dead ringer for anything on Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, to later on in the album, where the big kicker comes on the track “Lollipop”, which sounds like a personalized mash-up of REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” and any Husker Du chorus ever recorded. And maybe that’s The Hidden Cameras thing, to take little tidbits of pop music and twist it with their music box jangles and quirky vocals. But it seems a bit odd that every song on Awoo had me singing a different song by another artist that was embedded in my memory long ago, long before the Hidden Cameras were making music. – scott radnidge

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OUTKAST

Idlewild (LaFace/Zomba)

Give credit where credit is due. Before Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Outkast had a run of four classic albums – four records that were solid from front to back – a bit of a rarity in the world of mainstream hip-hop. Plus, while their double disc set faltered as Big Boi and Andre retreated to different sides of the bedroom, they managed to come up with one genius single each. Idlewild is neither a classic, nor is there a “Hey Ya” buried in the exhausting 80-minute running time. It’s not that the album is terrible, but the funky march of “Morris Brown” and the depression-era bounce of “PJ & Rooster” aren’t enough to save a record that suffers from too many mediocre tracks. They (barely) crammed things onto one disc this time around, but it’s still a mostly segregated affair; you can tell which tracks are whose, and you keep wishing they’d start working a little harder at working together again. At the end of the day, bad Outkast still one-ups most people’s best effort, it’s just a shame to have to say that about two guys that used to be so goddamn good. – quinn omori

Owusu & Hannibal Living With...

(Ubiquity)

lyrics that run the gamut from shallow to brainless, and it sticks mostly to one thing: slicker, smoother, disco fillers.

However, in spite of it all, Pieces of People We Love is the Rapture’s strongest release. You could fault them for going with the same formula throughout, but the album is so utterly enjoyable from end to end, who cares if the band plays it a bit safe? Similarly, do you need poetic genius when you’re whirling around the dance floor of your local discotheque?

And, yeah, there’s no single of the decade, but “Whoo! Alright-Yeah… Uh Huh” just might be the single of the year. The ode to partying also sums up the Rapture’s new MO: screw the art, let’s have some fun. – quinn omori

Ratatat Classics (XL)

The problem with Ratatat has always been that they work better as wallpaper than entertainment, but all the same, they really tie the room together. Sticking with the same instrumental, guitar-bass-and-drum-machine format but glitzing it up with a broader sound palette, Evan Mast and Mike Stroud fail to really nail the hits that their frequently brilliant riffs suggest they’re capable of (I swear, they could be the ultimate amalgam of Air and the Fucking Champs if they just tried a bit harder), but they still get the job done – the job being the manufacture of chilled-out but punchy mood jams with interesting details that keep you wanting more. If you need some anthems in the style of 80s TV theme songs, with shamelessly cheesy hooks and 8-bit beat stylings, this is your band.

Subtle For Hero: For Fool (Lex)

By now, Dose One probably needs no introduction. As a founding member of cLOUDDEAD, Themselves, and now Subtle (and one of the most active members of the Anticon crew), he’s been called one of the most talented and original vocalists in any genre and also widely decried as a) too smart for his own good and b) not a real rapper. For Hero: For Fool isn’t going to resolve any of those debates, but it just might be Dose One’s most fully-realized project to date.

Even more than Subtle’s first album, For Hero: For Fool confounds genres, mixing crushing hip-hop and industrial beats (courtesy of Jel) with live drumming, sampling, electric cello, guitars, three keyboards, squealing free-jazz saxophone, and Dose’s astonishing, mile-a-minute vocals (which get run through a vocoder more than you’d expect, making for some of the album’s catchiest hooks). With barely a breath between songs, the multi-talented band careens from fist-pumping chorus to wistful ambience with the art and pop factors both cranked to eleven. It’s a forbiddingly dense album, but it pays off if you’re willing to invest the time. A major accomplishment by almost anyone’s standards. – saelan twerdy

M. Ward Post-War (Merge)

– saelan twerdy

Imagine if Justin Timberlake had never been in the Mickey Mouse Club and he was an indie hopeful instead of a smug mainstream icon, or if Chromeo wasn’t joking, or if Hot Chip were more than just pasty Brits with a Stevie Wonder fixation.

That’s a pretty good starting point for what to expect from this Danish-American duo. Lush disco strings and shiny, 80s-flavoured synths nod reverently in the direction of Prince and Michael Jackson, but Owusu and Hannibal’s goals are futurist: they weave subtle glitch beats with acoustic guitars and digital disco in the vein of Prefuse 73 and Metro Area.

Consistently surprising and inventive, this album darts artfully between its influences and comes out with a hybrid form of pop that’s too subtle for the radio, but perfect for dancing in your living room. Neo-soul usually just reminds you how much better this kind of music was in the past, but Owusu and Hannibal offer hope for a more soulful tomorrow. – saelan twerdy

The Rapture Pieces of People We Love (Universal/Motown)

The Rapture’s latest, Pieces of People We Love, isn’t Echoes.

Their much celebrated breakthrough album was a smarter record. It at least tried to reach further than Pieces does.

And perhaps most significantly, it boasted a little tune called “House of Jealous Lovers.” By contrast, their latest has 120

sound cheque.

The Roots Game Theory (Def Jam)

The Roots have stepped back up to the plate after two dismally-reviewed albums and hit a post-Katrina homer. Original sessions for the album were recorded in New Orleans and then scrapped when the hurricane swept through town.

Game Theory is their darkest and most vibrant since 1999’s Things Fall Apart. Since then, The Roots have released two unfocused albums, were dropped by Interscope, signed to Jay-Z’s Def Jam, and survived a decade of jiggy posturing.

Perhaps the circumstances have caused them to refocus, because this is one of the most accomplished albums of their fourteen-year career. Game Theory features a bevy of Roots alumni including Rahzel, Malik B and Dice Raw, along with mixtape all-star and fellow Philly native Peedi Peedi and newcomer Porn. The varied flows, along with a reinvigorated Black Thought leading the pack, help lend the album a muchneeded jolt of life. The Roots have created an album that, while being overtly political and filled with dark imagery, still manages to be uplifting. Game Theory will appease Roots fans who may have been disappointed with recent releases and it should also please their new boss, who demanded that The Roots bring “that artsy shit,” which they do quite well.

– mark e. rich

With a title like Post-War you’d expect a folk singer like Matt Ward would be addressing the current political climate head-on while looking forward to a bloodless future. Yet, Post-War is really more of a personal record with an aura of war hovering over it as the songs survey the effects and aftermath of conflict. Ward laments the toll war takes on relationships, looking to the homecoming, and pondering, in songs like “Chinese Translation”, “what do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?” This the first record where Ward has surrounded himself with a full backing band, giving the record a sense of grandeur and a rich sound that wasn’t as prevalent on his sparser, more intimate earlier records. Accompanied by his friends like Jim James of My Morning Jacket and Neko Case, Ward creates lush harmonies and great sing-along hooks like “Magic Trick.” Warm and accessible, but not heavy handed or preachy, Post-War is clearly one of the best singer-songwriter records of the year. – matt goody

ELEMENTALITY VOLUME 2, Kirk Dianda Imagine a company with a team and a range of artistic projects that could pull off doing its own video magazine every few months and offering it for free for everybody to watch. Well, you don’t have to imagine it.

Kirk Dianda (creator of ON Video and, more recently, director of DC Films) is now at the helm of Element Skateboards’ AV department and he’s working on bringing you a new (free!) Elementality video as often as you’re hoping, and that’s quite often. This first installment, Volume 2, shares a similar vibe of the first full length Elementality video, but with more of a loose feel to it. More of a video magazine feel. And it works. It’s fun to watch. You can watch it online or find one in a shop down the street, and keep a look out for Volume 3 to be released... um... soon? – chess black ELEMENTSKATEBOARDS.COM

CALVAIRE

Fabrice Du Welz Tartan Films One night Dylan Doubt invited me to the premiere of Calvaire, but being my agoraphobic self, I decided to stay home and download it.

After a successful gig, Marc Stevens, a quiet, reserved performer, who seems to sing only to the elderly, hits the road to his next destination: a Christmas concert. En route, his van breaks down in the middle of nowhere amidst pouring rain.

A young man looking for his lost dog appears and agrees to take Marc to the nearby Hotel, but he must be quiet. The hotel owner Bartel settles Marc into his room and kindly tows in the broken down van the next morning and offers to fix it.

Over the course of the next ninety minutes, the viewer and Marc undergo quite ‘the ordeal’. Bartel warns Marc to stay out of the village, but doesn’t say why. The tension grows as Marc realizes what he’s gotten himself into. Calvaire is filled to the brim with desolate foggy scenery, sheer eerie cinematic brilliance and absolutely no soundtrack save for an unforgettable dance scene among the villagers in the local tavern. Approaching the last 20 minutes I had to go outside for a breather. I came back to witness the most horrific climax I’ve seen in some time, Filmed by Benoit Debie, who was responsible for the ghastly imagery in Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible, which is another gem that should be seen if you haven’t already. – ryan mcguigan CALVAIRE.CO.UK

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trailer.

SHEITAN

THE RUN UP

Kim Chapiron Studio Canal/120 Films/Mars Distribution Being a fan of Vincent Cassell, I couldn’t wait to feast my eyes on this one. After reading an interview with director Kim Chapiron, who claims LSD fueled the film, I was more excited than a pig in shit. Or… A pig in porno.

Christmas Eve, a group of drunken teenagers inhabit a French nightclub while one of them is bottled(reminiscent of Rod Ferens getting bottled at Shine on his birthday of all days), they get tossed and hit the road. Eve, one of the girls, invites everyone to her parents country home. Upon arrival they are greeted by Joseph (Vincent Cassell), a yellow toothed, creepy, yet welcoming caretaker. Eve shows them around and takes them to a hot spring tucked away in a cave, where they meet a few young villagers. Back at the house, Joseph tells a tale of a peasant, possessed by Satan, or in Persian “Sheitan”, who impregnates his own sister. This makes the guests a little uncomfortable. When darkness falls all hell breaks loose. Accompanied by an exceptional soundtrack mainly consisting of French hip-hop.

Shaun Roberts and Joey Garfield, Dir. Upper Playground/Fifty24SF Gallery If anyone has ever wondered what art has to do with hip hop, skateboarding, punk rock and toy dolls...well, they’re not alone. Upper Playground has brught together a diverse gang of artists, ranging from contemporary design-inspired figures like Ryan McGuinness and Cody Hudson, to old schoolers like Ron English and Futura, to street artists like Swoon and Jose Parla...the list goes on. Hearing Maya Hayuk awkwardly attempt to express her painting process flip to Futura geeking out over gadgets and video games, then over to Swoon breathlessly describing the days leading up to her first solo show at the massive Deitch Projects space, give the impression that the artists are themselves as varied as the works they produce. And while the vignettes are well edited and the interviews and footage seamlessly blended into narrative, ultimately the success of the film hinges on the words of the artists-- some interesting, some less so, but altogether a nice snapshot of the variety of artists that so easily are lumped under the umbrella of ‘street’.

– n.brown UPPERPLAYGROUND.COM

If seeing a woman give birth standing up in a hallway, and then the fetus being pounced on and eaten bothers you, this may not be for you. Try Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.

Smoke some weed and hang out. – ryan mcguigan LE-SHEITAN.COM

NEIGHBOURS

Geir Allan Hove and Oyvind Aspen

HOSOI, Cesario “Block” Montano I just watched an amazing, gripping, gritty documentary about a famous vert skater gone astray when vert “died”.

It chronicled his downward spiral and how his true psychopathic character was revealed for all to see as he rose and fell in the spotlight. It was called Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator, which was a lot more interesting than this one.

It had a real lesson to be learned, some insightful thoughts on what happened and why, and the overall production was just a lot more impressive. Forgive me for comparing the two, but the comparison between Tony Hawk and Christian Hosoi in this documentary added to the boringness of it all. If you’re a hardcore Hosoi fan you’ll find it interesting, but if you’re a hardcore fan of compelling documentaries you should just go with Stoked. – chess black

Typical of many skate videos to come out of Europe, this one is packed with amazing street spots, little-known skaters (to us north Americans) and of course a given amount of footage shot in Barcelona. Neighbours: a Nordic skateboard video showcases a dozen guys from Norway, Sweden and Denmark and reveals some definite talent. Setting it apart from other well-produced European videos is the multitude of footage shot in the Nordic countries, revealing lush forests and some incredible architecture, giving off this calm, ordered ambience that is often lost in the Spain-centric videos. Among this cast of well-dressed young men, stand out parts in my opinion go out to Love Eneroth and Jani Laitiala (who also happen to be the big guns of this DVD), but the others are definitely up there too. Neighbours gives the impression that these guys have fun doing what they do, which, coupled with the great filming, makes it one to check out if you can find it.

– rhianon bader NEIGHBOURS-VIDEO.COM

PIERRE LUC GAGNON kickflip crooked grind gap over the channel at the late RDS park, Richmond BC, 2006. RIP

124

over and out.

SANDRO GRISON

DUSTIN KOOP

editor / creative director

graphic / title design

CRAIG ROSVOLD

NICHOLAS BROWN

sandro@colormagazine.ca

dkoop@colormagazine.ca

advertising director

arts editor

DAVID CHRISTIAN

MICHELLE CARIMPONG

craig@colormagazine.ca

senior photographer

dchristian@colormagazine.ca

BEN TOUR illustration

tour@takemetoyourprom.com

JUSTIN WAITES pre-press

justin@colormagazine.ca

JENNIFER MACLEOD circulation

jmacleod@colormagazine.ca

WEB chris baril

cbaril@colormagazine.ca

nbrown@colormagazine.ca

fashion editor

mcarimpong@colormagazine.ca

SAELAN TWERDY music editor

music@colormagazine.ca

SCOTT RADNIDGE senior writer

sradnidge@colormagazine.ca

RHIANON BADER copy editor

rbader@colormagazine.ca

INTERN kathy ager

intern@colormagazine.ca

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS dan zaslavsky, jeff comber, chad coombs, bob kronbauer geoff andruik, shad lambert, brian caissie, roger allen gordon nicholas, david lang, dan neufeld, rich odam alana paterson, christopher glancy, wilkosz / way r. jayne r.c.u. owen woytowich, ryan mcguigan jon west, terry worona, judah oakes

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Color welcomes submissions for Photo and Editorial content, but is not responsible for unsolicited material or liable for any lost and/or damaged material. Please provide a return envelope with postage with your submissions. Color Magazine is published by fourcorner publishing inc., printed four times yearly and distributed direct to retailers throughout Canada and to newstands by Disticor Distribution. Subscriptions can may be ordered individually or in bulk by retailers for resale. Subscribe: 4 issues for $26.99 in Canada, $46.99 CND in the United States, $86.99 CND for all other countries. Contact Color Magazine with any subscription inquiries or visit us online: www.colormagazine.ca

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