EXTRA / RANDOM All info and photos provided by Tyne & Wear Archives Service, Newcastle, UK
Dan Siney found these prison portraits at the Tyne and Wear archives in Newcastle, England. The particulars of each of the prisoners in Newcastle Jail (or Gaol) include name and aliases, description, address at time of arrest, date and place of conviction, offence committed sentence, the date of release and details of any conditions imposed, plus other relevant particulars such as distinguishing markings (such as small-pox scars). The Gaol and House of Correction was built in 1823 in Carliol Square, Newcastle to replace the old gaol in Newgate. The new gaol was to accommodate not only debtors and felons of both sexes but also function as a House of Correction and Sessions Prison. Following the Prisons Act, 1877 the Government took over responsibility for all prisons, and so few prison records after this date are held locally. Newcastle Gaol closed in 1925 and was subsequently demolished.
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JAMES DONELEY age 16
ELLEN WOODMAN age 11
FRANK HAIN age 20
A labourer of Shotley Bridge, James was convicted of thieving three pairs of shorts. He stood 5’0” with a cut on his left cheek and eyebrow. He was sentenced to two calendar months with prior convictions.
Hailing from Durham, young Ellen stood 4’3” with red hair, dark blue eyes, a fair complexion, with no other distinguishing marks. She was convicted of “stealing iron” and sentenced to seven days having no priors.
Franky Hain was from Newcastle and served 14 days for C.J.A “wearing apparel”. Older than the others in this selection, this shoemaker stood 5’41/2” and had brown hair, grey eyes, with distinguishing marks on his back and a mole on his belly.
JANE FARRELL age 12
CLEMENT COYLE age 13
Jane Farrell of Newcastle was convicted J.O.A. for 2 books. Sentenced 10 days plus five years to a reformatory school. She stood 4’2” with brown hair and blue eyes.
An errand boy of Aldershot, Mr. Coyle was convicted of J.O.A “wearing apparel”. He stood 4’9” and had brown hair, hazel eyes, a sallow complexion with a cut mark above left eyebrow. He was sentenced to 14 days plus five years to reformatory school with no prior convictions.
HENRY MILLER age 14
WILLIAM HEADS age 16
MARY GILBOY age 14
This Newcastle shoe polisher was convicted of stealing money. At 4’10”, brown hair, blue eyes, and a sallow complexion marked with small-pox, Heads was sentenced to 3 calendar months with no prior convictions.
A servant of Morpeth, Mary was convicted of C.J.A wearing apparel. She was 5’1” with brown hair, dark blue eyes with a scar on her right cheek and one on her neck. She was sentenced to one calendar month with no priors.
MARY CATHERINE DOCHERTY age 14
ALEXANDER LIDDLE age 15
Mary of Newcastle was 4’9”, had red hair, dark blue eyes and a fair complexion. She was sentenced to one week with no priors for “stealing iron”.
Mr. Liddle was from Gateshead. He was convicted of being a “money person”. He had no prior convictions and served two months. He was 4’111/2 with blue eyes, brown hair and a sallow complexion.
HENRY LEONARD STEPHENSON age 12 Henry came from Castle Eden and was convicted of Housebreaking. He stood just 4’5”, had dark hair, hazel eyes and a scar on his face. He was sentenced to two months.
PATRICK GARRATY age 15 Newcastle native, Patrick Garraty had one prior offence. He was 4’41/2 with blue eyes and a balding head of brown. Patrick was convicted of C.J.A with three shirts and sentenced to one month.
This confectioner of Berwick was convicted of J.O.A. (clothing). He was 4’5”, had brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion with four spots and a mole on his right arm. With no prior convictions, he was sentenced to 14 days
GATESHEAD.GOV.UK
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THE BALANCE OF OPPOSITES VOLUME 02 | CHAPTER 01 S PA N K Y D R AW S H I S O W N L I N E One of the great things about skating is creating your own line. Spanky took this to heart and contributed a signature collection to RVCA this season. In the process, he let us in to see what drives his creativity. Rolling through his apartment is like touring a natural history museum—random imagery and creature effigies fill every corner. Spanky’s fondness of animals is clearly apparent, as is his ability to depict them. See his line in select stores June 1.
R V C A C L O T H I N G . C O M / S K AT E
K E E G A N S A U D E R | K E V I N “ S PA N K Y ” L O N G | L E O R O M E R O | N E S T O R J U D K I N S | R AY M O N D M O L I N A R
AU S T I N S T E P H E N S | C A I R O F O S T E R | DAV I D R E Y E S | E D T E M P L E TO N | E T H A N F O W L E R | J O S H H A R M O N Y
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R VCA.COM | R VCAANPQ.COM
on collecti endure com e entirekateboards.glt shoes th w ie ts V and en er pants, at elem ven, divid denali wo
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Inspiration BOUND
WHAT IS A GIRL? WHAT IS A BOY?
THE ART BOOK FOR CHILDREN: BOOK TWO
Of all the various questions that life throws our way, the question of how to distinguish a boy from a girl is the one burning question that children have always had to face. In 1976, Stephanie Waxman did children of the world the good service of answering that question once and for all. Waxman points out that boys and girls can have the same names, hair lengths, interests and emotions. It’s alright for boys to cry and for girls to play basketball. So if that’s the case, what exactly is the difference? Well, boys and girls, it all comes down the fact that “a boy is someone with a penis” and “a girl is someone with a vagina.” That’s it. Boys will always have penises, and girls will always have vaginas. It’s settled. Sorry to ruin the ending for you, but it’s best that you’re aware of this if you’re considering carrying on in this life. You’re welcome. —jeff thorburn
At first I took this book for a well-meaning failure. It offers children pictures from the medieval to the most contemporary, with indications that it’s intended for “ages 7-11” (is that a joke? Did they do focus-group testing?) but the accompanying text pretty much dispenses with “art history.” Albrecht Durer’s self-portraits are presented as a guessing game (which one came first?) and difficult conceptual artist Marcel Broodthaers is put on display mostly for having a funny name. After a few more passes, though, I had to admit that the book is fun, the pictures selected are always fascinating, and the author actually does a fine job of picking the exact elements that are most likely to arouse the curiosity of her audience. The almost-arbitrary sense of what went in here (Dutch Masters, Gerhard Richter, Rene Magritte, Felix Gonzales-Torres) only serves to highlight just how diverse the world of art really is. If I’d read this book when I was 10, it probably would have blown my mind.
stephanie waxman (peace press)
BAD KIDS MAGAZINE
erik devereux, ben marvin (salbourg) I picked up this odd looking newspaper on my way out of Antisocial one day, where I meant to just grab the newest edition of ANP Quarterly. I was quick to learn that our friends Benjamin, Andrew(3) and Erik Devereux had been up to some greatness to have put this out. While they’re still new in the game of publishing— they didn’t know what that word meant when asked, “Who publishes this?” Instead they politely replied, “This big warehouse in Aldergrove [BC].” What they meant to say was that this was a self-published effort with it’s great proportion inspired by Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, as well as other shocking magazines of the past like Big Brother, and Jim Goad’s ANSWER Me! (underground zine made popular by article like ‘The 100 Most Popular Suicides’). The book is technically a ‘paper’, folding out with up to 22” x 27” twocolour art reproductions and photographs by local and foreign artists alike. This premiere issue includes art by Andrea Lukic, Chris Turner, Martina Baydala and photos by Jody Rogac. Bad Kids is a daytime dose of these guys’ parties, and they use it to promote their events with nudity and shock bringing a dded value to every page. Issue two can be found in American Apparels (if you dare to enter) around Vancouver, as well as other fine stores like Jonathan & Olivia. Contributors include Mish Way from White Lung, Dandi Wind, David Ehrenreich and Andrea from Nu Sense. —
PEACEPRESS.ORG
—saelan twerdy PHAIDON.COM
KRAZY!
THE WAY THINGS WORK
This book acts as an in-depth exhibit guide for the latest major exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It also stands alone as an exploration into the somewhat cultish worlds of comics, “graphic novels”, cartoons, computer and video games, anime, manga and other visual art. Each section includes work by artists who have had a major impact on the genre and a discussion/introduction by one of the curators. If you thought that cartoons were simply about a cat and a mouse throwing bricks at each other, grab this book and find out why a weekly comic strip can be called an “epic poem”. —jmacleod
The Way Things Work is a book for very motivated and fascinated youth. Illustrations are by the author David Macaulay, that assist the reader in understanding the process of mechanics of machines like printing presses and electrical motors. I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on the other book (of many) from the series called The Way We Work. It goes into the functions of our bodies and all the circulatory, respiratory, lymphatic, digestive, nervous, endocrine, immune, musculoskeletal, and reproductive systems in our bodies. These books are almost more helpful than grade 10-12 biology. A class most of us spent doing other things. —mila franovic
VANARTGALLERY.BC.CA
HOUGHTONMIFFLINBOOKS.COM
ed. bruce grenville et al. (douglas & mcintyre)
sandro grison BADKIDSMAGAZINE.BLOGSPOT.COM
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bookreviews.
amanda renshaw (phaidon)
david macaulay (houghton mifflin company)
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cmyk.
frontside 360 shove
it [ o ] norton.
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cmyk.
frontside nosegrind 180 [ o ] allan.
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PRODUCTTOSS the Velcro DVS toddler shoe, to the Element slip-on for the child in you, b a b y s t e p s . From here are some of the tried and true. A sampling of shoes that will never make you blue.
[ o ] THORBURN
ETNIES cali crib VANS big school on the bottom old skool crib shoe on top 36
shoes.
C1RCA alk 50 boys shoe DVS accomplice toddler shoe EMERICA leo romero for youth
VANS sk8 hi DVS gringette slip on shoe DC boys manteca 3 mid shoe
(top left to right)
ELEMENT granite slip on DC court graffik toddler shoe
chocolateskateboards.com supradistribution.com
etnies proudly welcomes tyler Bledsoe to the team. Bigspin front Blunt. see more at etniesskateBoarding.com. photo: landi TIMEBOMB DIST.: 604.251.1097
bells& whistles. Raid this shelf on a rainy day, for Shorty’s cards and dice to play. Find some curb wax and Stussy toys. Even a cute Roxy purse for the young lady with poise. [ o ] THORBURN
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producttoss.
1. 2. 3.
QUIKSILVER 3 square lunch bag DVS z-low dice STUSSY destiny 100% be@rbrick artwork by Futura
4. SHORTY’S playing cards 5. STUSSY kids cmyk bubble bucket hat 6. THRASHER playing cards 7. SHORTY’S curb wax
8. ROXY breezy handbag 9. NIXON tribella watch in clear pink and clear yellow 10. LUCKY dice wax 11. NIXON small lowdown watch in orange
[ o ] THORBURN
h e a d g e a r. Roses are red violets are blue. Cover your head from rain and sunstroke too. Ease your eyes with a pair of hater blockers or two, And now you are the coolest kid on the block, who knew! 42
producttoss.
A. MEGA DESTROYER x ken diamond hat B. VON ZIPPER alotta sunglasses C. ACUPOLCO GOLD camo camp 5 panel hat D. DRAGON gg coffee sunglasses E. SUPER fluorescent green shades F. FRESHJIVE fairfax new era G. SABRE the dude sunglasses H. ALTAMONT crosstown fedora
I. MISHKA seersucker new era hat J. VON ZIPPER rockford sunglasses K. NIXON mandie head wrap L. IS DESIGN mont royal shades M. SPY the blok sunglasses N EMERICA venice cap O. LUXE X RAY BAN sunglasses P. WE sitar headphones
GUY MARIANO NOSEBLUNT SLIDE www.royalskateboardtruck.com ~ www.supradistibution.com
Evo Raw
Wide 5.25�
tGrab i ca rad k deck l e fromt the r utreasure c kchest, s and & a sets ofuwheels ch that suit you best. Put them together, don’t forget the trucks. You’ll find some in there by Royal or Krux.
A
[ o ] THORBURN
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B
C
A B 46
producttoss.
TOY MACHINE sect blow up p.o.p. REAL skateboards starting line, winged one complete ROYAL jawbreaker trucks TECH DECK 96mm collector series Jason Jessee for Santa Cruz, 1988 SKATE MENTAL staba doll deck and forbes doll deck CHOCOLATE jawbreaker wheels
C D
CHOCOLATE piñata series anthony pappalardo deck MOMENTUM bear balls soft 57mm wheels KRUX louie barletta pro 3.5 tall trucks
ELEMENT elemental awareness global warming penguin deck GOLD blow up 52mm wheels
ANTHRAX
[ o ] LEBEAU
a ROLLING PERSPECTIVE, MONTREAL
RAID BILLABONG’S “DESIGNER’S CLOSET” HE KNOWS RAY BARBEE
WESC.COM
BECKY BONES [ o ] THORBURN
The Billabong women’s fall line takes its queue from some of the best trends to hit the designer runways. It features ethnic Indian and Ikot prints, soft textured fabrics, romantic detailing, and hints of menswear tailoring. The line gives an updated twist to original 60s and 70s style with distinct love-in and acid trip vibes. Mix any of the pieces in with your own closet to be on point for Fall ‘08.
Osiris has created an eco-concious brand inspired by and geared towards teens who want to do something good for the earth. On the Becky Bones website you can read the ongoing story about Becky, the creepy skeletal little girl who fell into her town’s polluted river as she fights villains like Lucy Lies, a robot programmed to tell lies about the environment. The line will be releasing dolls, accessories, cartoons, books, video games, shoes and tees and have pledged to donate 25 per cent of its profits to environmental efforts.
u dan mathie geoff clifford gordon ball judah oakes dylan doubt richard hart jeff delong ryan allan eric lebeau devin barrete mike giles jeremy elkin raj mehra tyler maher gauthie r pierre yves ro william cristofa
a Rolling
n
opening receptio
, June 28
Saturday
ive.
Perspect
aiture of self portr group show taylor
mikey ryan smith rd mark appleya john rattray colt cannonuer bob kronba milliga n campbe ll dave carnie paul urich i erik brunettroecho udt jessie van‘rip’ tanaka tomono ri + many more
(289 Ste Catherine
UNDERWORLD 28. O.) 10pm through july Ste Catherine last. showing HOOK (1021 while supplies 8pm OFF THErefreshments provided ntary guests complime TRUSPIN + Blvd.) dj St. Laurent MOTEL (3958 @ BLUE DOG After Party
E.)
OT (3830 St. Laurent
12am GOODFO
Rolling Perspe
ctive Flier_M
[ o ] PYG
Solid v neck, Leena skirt, and Classical purse, (ALIFE public outrage shoes).
Shawn Klym of Selkirk, BC, is either obsessed with Ray Barbee or is the fastest Googler around. His was the first e-mail that came in with all the correct answers for the Barbee trivia. The WESC rider’s last full video part was Can’t Stop the Firm and his last cd was called Ray Barbee Meets Mattson 2. Shawn gets a big prize pack full of Barbee-approved clothes and headphones courtesy of WESC.
Blvd.)
ontreal.indd
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9 6/3/08 11:14:0
AM
6/3/08 11:14:0 3 AM
The Vancouver opening of “a Rolling Perspective” photo exhibit presented by Etnies was a huge success. On the opening night alone over 300 people took in the show at Antisocial, Livestock, and the Sweatshop. They skated between each location being treated to refreshments from Wild Horse Canyon wines and Coors Light. Now the show is cruising on to the next city. The 200 photos from artists, photographers, designers, proskateboarders, and other cool guys and gals are rolling across the country to Montreal, Quebec. The show will be up at Underworld, Off the Hook, and Goodfoot until August 1 when it heads on off to Winnipeg. Each shop has different photos so you have to hit them all up to see the entire show. If you want to order one of the prints you can get them on the Color website or get an order form from the shop where the photo is hanging. 2 ontreal.indd
ctive Flier_M
Rolling Perspe
COLORMAGAZINE.CA
BECKYBONES.COM
BILLABONG.COM
[ o ] TH OR BU RN
READER LETTER
YOUTH WEEK On May 10th, to celebrate Vancouver’s Youth Week, young skateboarders from around the city converged at the Plaza for a day of skateboarding, music, food, and giveaways. The day included a demo by the Kitsch Skateboard team, music by Quest Poetics and The Doers, and giveaways from a variety of skateboard companies. Spirits were high, even when the rain clouds rolled in, leading to an impromptu powerslide contest. 48
anthrax.
Good day, I just wanted to let you know that Michael Christie’s interview [of Rick McCrank in 5.2] was one of the best interviews I have ever read – of course Mr. Doubt’s photo’s also made for some excellent eye candy. Not only could I smell the tea, I could also feel the uneasiness in the air one must feel when not only doing an interview, but interviewing someone they know. I don’t think there is much of an argument that Rick is by far one of the most versatile skateboarders out there, and throughout the interview the reader also gets a snap shot image of Rick the family man doing what dads do best - take care of their kids, this truly painted the picture that no matter how recognizable you are, how good of a skateboarder you are, we are all just people and at the end of the day we all take our pants off one leg at a time. —Kurtis Gramchuk (via email) LETTERS@COLORMAGAZINE.CA
HUMONGOUS The design team of Rob Wigington and Diego Bergia founded Humongous in 2004. Thier love of horror movies with taglines like “a legend of terror is no campfire story anymore!” gave them the inspiration for the brand name as well as their upcoming line The Burning, which will be in stores in Fall ‘08. Going along with the slasher movie theme, there is a dark and somewhat ominous aesthetic to the Torontobased duo’s tees and headwear. The designs, like a horror movie, leave you to create some of the terror in your own mind. They make you wonder if the shadowy figure is coming out of the fog to chop you into little pieces or maybe just devour you whole. HUMONGOUS.CA
HEALTHY SKATER /nature’s path. HAPPY SKATER illustrationby porous walker wordsby kris bentz
Fake Foods to Avoid: Fast food burgers, fries, potato chips, and nachos with fake cheese: fast food joints are the masters of replacing real food content with artificial fillers. Loaded with refined carbohydrates, flavour-enhancing chemicals and preservatives these foods are a disease waiting to happen. They are usually deepfried, saturating them with trans-fats, or nuked, which breaks down important nutrients leaving them toxic or useless. Candy, pop: have loads of refined sugars, dyes and chemicals that can act as food allergens and alter brain function. Real Foods to Eat: Mixed nuts and seeds: have large amounts of complex carbohydrates and essential fatty acids along with some protein. These help to balance your blood sugar, increase energy, and control inflammation. Fruit, especially berries: limit fruits high in sugar [e.g. banana] to one per day, however, load up on berries to increase your antioxidant levels, help you detox, and decrease inflammation. Protein shakes or fruit smoothies: make one up at home, throw it in your backpack and knock it back when in need. I like protein shakes with fruit because they boost your vitamin and protein status. This further helps balance blood sugar and increases brain function.
M
ost convenience foods are loaded with refined carbohydrates, transfats, and numerous chemicals designed to enhance flavour, colour, and preserve them. That is why we feel like crap shortly after eating them. We may feel a really good high initially, but that is often followed by a negative mood swing and energy crash. This crash we experience after eating junk food is mainly due to their large amount of refined carbohydrates [e.g. white sugar, white flour, white potato]. Without reading ingredient lists you may not realize it, but sugar and wheat run rampant in the convenience food industry and are found in the majority of snack foods we consume.
Eating them in large proportions over time causes the body to react to them like allergens. This puts a lot of extra stress on the body and lowers your immunity, leaving you more susceptible to bacteria, viruses and disease in general. After the sugar is digested, it hits the blood stream and causes the body to release a bunch of insulin, which drives the sugar into your cells, leaving the bloodstream relatively empty. The sugar in the cells is used up fairly quickly and soon the brain becomes starved for more sugar, setting you up for a mood swing and energy crash. The trans-fats get tangled up in cell membranes and decrease your cells’ abilities to function properly. The numerous other chemicals make your cells
toxic and lower their ability to produce energy. For example, MSG has been documented as a toxin to the nervous system and food colouring has been linked to ADD/ADHD. The overall feeling from all this is increased stress and emotional ups and downs as your blood sugar levels spike and crash all day long. This leads to a general feeling of fatigue and lack of motivation. Constant lack of proper nutrition over time can lead to mood swings, lax ligaments, brittle bones, and weak muscles and tendons. With regards to skateboarding, this means your performance may be negatively affected, limiting your ability to land tricks while increasing the chance of hurting yourself. This combination usually leads to an injured skater, board chucker, or, even worse, both. With this type of diet the next time you tweak your ankle, slam your hip, or smash your elbow your body is already well on its way to injury. You will have more severe inflammation when you do injure yourself and if you’re unfortunate enough to break a bone, your journey to recovery can be made even longer. Do yourself a favour and quit eating all that garbage that’s wrecking your performance. The energy boost and clear-mindedness you’ll receive from eating right will not only benefit your skating, but carry over into all aspects of your daily life. For information on food allergy testing, nutritional counseling, and treatment of sports injuries contact Dr. Kris Bentz at the Prana Healing Centre. PRANAHEALING.CA
.nature’spath
49
Sheppard Brad
& The Fat Laced.
emericaskate.com
arding! 100% Pure Skatebo
Timebomb Distribution: 604.251.1097 www.timebombtrading.com stickers@timebomb.bc.ca
smith transfer. photo: dylan doubt
ANTHRAX
RED BULL SHOOT TO THRILL a skateboard film project September 5-7, 2008 In an effort to unite the Canadian skateboard community around one common project, Red Bull Shoot To Thrill is back in a whole new format leaving no Canadian maple leaf unturned. Building on its past success, this year’s event offers new opportunities to skaters across the country. When it all began in 2006, Red Bull Shoot to Thrill was a 72-hour photography contest. In 2007 it evolved into a Super 8mm motion picture contest. Moving with the momentum from last year’s film project, which starred such skaters as Rick McCrank, Alex Gavin and Ryan Decenzo, this year’s event opens its doors to the entire country with pro and amateur categories.
VANS CARDIEL X PENDLETON
LIVESTOCK X COLOR TEE This limited edition Rolling Perspective tee is only available at Livestock and through Color’s website. Pick one up to commemorate your roll through the show. DEADSTOCK.CA
MOMENTUM X COLOR WHEEL To help you get from shop to shop and check out the Rolling Perspective photos, Color and Momentum have teamed up to give you this collabo wheel. They’re going to be shipped in specially designed wood boxes by Furni. MOMENTUMSKATE.COM
ook
l-PhotoB
JasonDil
1/30/08
1:52 PM
Page 1
If you know anything about flannels, then you know a Pendleton when you see it. You recognize the way the patterns match up, the softness of the weave and the subtle touches like the top button loop and way the pockets sit. Rumour has it that Mike Watt wore nothing else. The same has been said for the Suicidal Tendencies. You just can’t fuck with quality. A similar set of accolades falls upon Vans’s O.G waffle sole. Seems like there are few grips that boast such a following. Throw John Cardiel into the mix and forget about it. John just may be one of the most sincere dudes out there, and one that deserves every bit of praise. Take your pick of slip ons, sk8-his, old skools or one of each in either the original Beach Boy blue or new red colourway. You may have seen it coming, but who knew it would be so sweet. VANS.COM
Ten selected ‘Pro’ teams from the major Canadian cities will be equipped with a Super 16mm Camera and 10 rolls of film. They will have 72 hours to burn it all in this battle to win $8,000 cash for the best end-product. To spice things up, there will be an additional $2000 prize for the best photo. Due to overwhelming response, and the necessary task of having to pick just 10 Pro teams amongst the sea of talent, the ‘Am’ category has been created to give a platform to our best up-and-coming talents. This division of the contest exists live online with the only difference being the footage shot digitally. Each team’s three to five minute part will be submitted for popular judging online. Winners in the Am division receive up to $3000.00 in new filming equipment. REDBULLSHOOTTOTHRILL.COM
BONES X GRIND FOR LIFE
FUCKING AWESOME X ETNIES Jason Dill put together this glossy ‘zine of polaroids, clippings, and photos to announce the release of the Fucking Awesome x Etnies shoe. There are lots of self-portraits of Dill in windows and mirrors alongside books, news clippings of Lindsay Lohan, and people passed out on the street. Don’t know if you can get the ‘zine in stores, but the shoes are out soon. ETNIES.COM
52
vol6issue3.
Grind for Life (GFL) is an organization that helps cancer patients and their families with the costs that come up when they have to travel long distances for treatment. They also are there to talk to people about their experiences and offer some inspiration. Founder Mike Rogers knows what it’s like to beat cancer, he’s had to do it twice. Now Mike and the organization raise funds through events and partnerships with skateboard companies. The latest of these being with Bones who put out this wheel to benefit the families GFL helps out. GRINDFORLIFE.ORG
ING CONTEST
W
Impress all the kids on the playground with new head-to-toe gear from Vans. Get out your crayons, felts, white glue and safety scissors to win a great $300 prize bundle. All you have to do is customize this Half Cab anyway you want, cut the page off at the dotted line then send in your entry. Extra points for interesting packaging too. Remember to ask an adult before you start cutting. The top five entrants will also receive a year’s subscription.
THIS! N I
$3 00
Mail your entries to: Colouring Contest, c/o Color Magazine, 105-321 Railway St, Vancouver, BC, V6A 1A4, Canada. All entries become the property of Color Magazine and may be used in future online and print materials. Contest closes August 25, 2008
pr
ize
bu
n dl e
! from Vans
www.fenchurch.ca
LATE ENTRY wordsby nicholas brown
milly thompson.
February 8 to April 20, 2008
G
“
oing solo” is a choice inevitably fraught with anxiety, and for good reason. History is filled with forgotten names of individuals who succeeded within the comforts of the group but couldn’t hack it on their own. Late Entry is London, UK, artist Milly Thompson’s debut after her departure from the infamous BANK collective (now disbanded), whose critiques of the past decade’s art stars formed some of the most memorable and viciously funny shots against the Hirsts and Taylor-Woods of the London art circuit. Loaded to the gills with references to performance anxiety, the show nevertheless manages an impeccably assembled and forcefully articulated gesture of intellectual independence and critical flair.
Energy block 4 (a curator’s friend) 22 x 22 x 83cm acrylic gouache on balsa wood, 2008 Energy block 3 (a curator’s friend) 25 x 29 x 85cm acrylic gouache on balsa wood, 2008
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show.
Upon first inspection, the show seems almost too packed for comfort. Within the diminutive Hoxton St. gallery (roughly the size of someone’s bedroom), Thompson has lined the walls and floor with a series of works in media that range from drawing to sculpture, video, photography and printed matter. A tiny monitor in the far corner plays a short video montage (crudely assembled in iPhoto) that juxtaposes a voyeuristic shot of a well-dressed, middleaged woman alone at an outdoor café against still images of various luxury goods such as vases and jewelry, and images of dancers. Entitled Basking in the melodrama of my own self-consciousness (2007), the video sets the tone for an exhibition that is equal parts isolation and desire, ambition and excess. The monitor is placed alongside a set of complimentary drawings entitled The Dinner Party (2004), which similarly depict individuals
surrounded by luxury, consuming wine in solitude (placed together they appear to form the “party” invoked by the title, but each drawing’s border marks the subjects’ shared isolation). Here, as in the video work, success and alienation, luxury and advancing age are set in dialectical tension. If titles like Basking weren’t enough to clue us in that Thompson’s solo project is an ambivalent one, the adjacent photograph of the artist’s studio does the trick. Amidst a familiar mise-en-scène comprising artworks and domestic goods familiar to live-work arrangements (a stereo, wine bottle, vase, coffee pot), sits a human form shrouded beneath a mud-coloured sheet. With just the tips of her slippers poking out, Thompson presents herself as tragicomically selfeffacing. Alongside the video and drawings,
images courtesy of the artist and PEER.
“There was sex, drinking, drugs, theatricality, and of course hordes of admiring acolytes. At 62 I can’t afford to forget that we did that stuff.” what emerges is a push-pull dynamic between ambition and recalcitrant introspection. In light of BANK’s well-established critical position towards the art market and its star system (remember, this is London, where the art world is fully incorporated into mass culture), I am inclined to see such gestures as self-consciously projected upon a much larger system of power relations. Such canny awareness of the artist’s place within a broader professional network is secured by the set of wall-hung sculptures, vaguely resembling three-dimensional colour field paintings. Abstract though they may appear, their title Energy Block (a curator’s friend) (2007-8), suggests the work is little more than grist for the art world mill. Paired up with Opera (2008) – the editioned artist book stacked on a plinth in the centre of the floor – the works support the underlying theme of artistic opportunism. The book takes the form of a long interview, which, along with a historiography of the artist’s work with BANK, contains confident assessments of the artist’s achievements and claims to success in the art world. But it’s impossible to take seriously. The
interview is littered with statements attributed to other people (such as curator Ralph Rugoff, artists Jeff Koons and Fischli and Weiss, and fellow BANK founder Simon Bedwell), but seamlessly integrated into the text, along with obvious falsehoods. At one point, Thompson rebuffs the suggestion that BANK might be considered artist-curators in past exhibitions, stating, “that sounds boring. There was sex, drinking, drugs, theatricality, and of course hordes of admiring acolytes. At 62 I can’t afford to forget that we did that stuff.” The combination of excessive, sarcastic posturing and a premature claim to seniority (the artist can’t really be older than 40), remind the reader that we can’t take such hubris seriously. Statements that betray feelings of anxiety and overconfidence set up a pendulum of extremes that must be approached with caution. Bearing in mind that BANK occupied a position outside the mainstream for the better part of their existence, late to be recognized by the market or the art press, and that their modus operandi was frequently to act as charlatans, putting out press releases for non-existent shows and creating fictitious characters to lampoon
art world icons, Thompson’s gestures can be situated within this lineage. On the other hand, there is a very legitimate pressure now placed on the artist, having been a founding member of the collective. As London art scene pundit Matthew Collings said of another exBANK member, John Russel, in 2001, “It’s a bit tragic for Russel now. Although he’s made a new status as an artist… a lot of works by BANK were based on his input – his jokes, thoughts, ideas, reflections and musings and so on… if you agree to subsume your personal identity within a collective, on ideological grounds – perhaps believing that individualism is bad – then you really can’t complain if once you’ve left the collective, no one talks about your individual contribution.” Perhaps behind the mask of ironic citation and exaggerated frailty there exists an awareness of such very-real circumstances, and we can take this from this first exhibition. That the work is so carefully presented and deliberate is all the more evidence that Thompson’s entry, late or otherwise, won’t be her last. ‘La danse de l’amour et de la haine de soi (The dance of self-love and self-hate)’ 78 x 54cm archival digital inkjet print, 2008 PEERUK.ORG
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PATRICK O’DELL an americano with the conduit. introductionby jeff thorburn
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portraitby jody rogac.
rowing up in Columbus, Ohio, Patrick O’Dell had high hopes of traveling the world with his friends and their skateboards. He got his chance to live out his dream [in 2001] when he was taken on as a staff photographer and writer at Thrasher Magazine. Realizing he’d had enough of going on long van rides with random amateur skaters, he moved on to a position as Photo Editor at Vice Magazine. When Vice started their online television website, vbs.tv, O’Dell was brought on to put together a skateboard show. Epicly Later’d as we know it was born. The show was an instant hit with skateboarders, showing a mix of current interviews and skating, as well as past video clips. Focusing on a different skateboarder each week, the diversity of the subjects makes the show appealing to all kinds of skateboarders. The show’s name was taken from O’Dell’s online photo journal, epiclylaterd.com, which was beginning to gain notoriety beyond his circle of friends. O’Dell makes the distinction between the two different Epicly Later’ds: “My website is a personal photo journal. The show is like skate history, and the show is a public thing. I want more people to watch the show. My website, I don’t really care; I want less people to look at it.”
skate photos with you, but it would make for a good episode.” So, it’s the history behind a particular skateboarder that O’Dell looks for in the makings of a good story. “Then for the personality episodes,” O’Dell says, “you can’t really go wrong with asking Braydon [Szafranski] or Lizard King what they like about Satan.”
Epicly Later’d does two different kinds of episodes – history episodes and personality episodes – and there is usually a clear distinction between them. The criteria for getting an episode is different than, say, getting a part in a Transworld video. O’Dell explains: “If there’s someone, like a young guy that’s really good, and everyone’s really excited about him… that might not necessarily make for a good episode. But you get Matt Hensley and that would make for an incredible episode. It might not make for a good magazine interview, because he’s not going to go shoot some
While in Vancouver recently for the opening of his Altamont photo show “To All My Friends” at Antisocial skateboard shop and gallery, O’Dell was nice enough to sit down for a coffee and chat with us.
The undisputed crowning achievement of Epicly Later’d to date is the John Cardiel chapter. The interviews, old video clips, and new footage of Cardiel back on a skateboard hit a nerve in the skateboard community. Surely if you didn’t know about Epicly Later’d or John Cardiel before, you do after these episodes. Clocking in at 16 episodes, with an average length of six minutes each, the Cardiel chapter quickly took on the life of a full-length documentary. Because of the popularity of the chapter Vice, in conjunction with Vans, decided to release it on DVD. Do whatever it takes to get your hands on this one, because you’ll want to re-watch it for years to come. There is really no clear cut criteria on who will be chosen for an episode. O’Dell truly is a skate fan, so it seems to be a mixture of his personal taste (which, thankfully, is quite good) and that ever-elusive “movie magic”. O’Dell said there are quite a few episodes that didn’t quite make the cut, so those may make it onto the Epicly Later’d DVD that should come out sometime in the future.
Outgrowing the Dream Job “When I was fifteen, I was reading Big Brother, and they would go on these tours. I felt probably the same way people feel about reading John Steinbeck, like ’wow, this guy’s opening up this whole world!’ I would read an article
written by Dave Carnie, or anyone else on those old Big Brother tours, and it would be like watching a cowboy movie. Then to actually go and do it myself was a dream come true. When I first started shooting skate photos, I was very excited about shooting a front feeble on a handrail, or showing up at Tampa Am. Then I got a little older, and started to think, ‘Tampa Am, what am I doing here?’ Getting a good [photo of a] trick on film is awesome. Sometimes you get something special, but a lot of times I’d be at the bottom of the stairs, with a fisheye lens, with three flashes, and some guy’s doing a trick that just so happens to have not been done on that spot, and I’m trying to make the trick look good… and I’d have an epiphany like, ‘This sucks. It’s cold, I’m bored, and I don’t really care.’ A lot of pictures are like that. I worked at Thrasher, and would go on tours, all kinds of skate trips, and do all that stuff. Then it kind of got to the point where… it doesn’t pay that well, and I was traveling almost too much, and the skaters kept getting younger and I kept getting older. I wanted to go on the fun trips, not just a trip with the Consolidated team to Bakersfield. But I couldn’t really pick and choose. Then I got the photo editing job at Vice and thought, ‘Well, this is a good job.’ I had health benefits, and had to show up at work and be the guy. I could still be doing that, because it’s something that you can evolve in. You can be a 55-year-old photo editor, but it’s hard to be a 55-year-old skate photographer. I’m not down on skate photography, but it’s kind of a job tailor-made for a 24-year-old. I was actually really sad when I stopped working at Thrasher. When I called Jake [Phelps] and told him, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ I was depressed about it, thinking, ‘I’m giving up something really special, to go work in an office.’ That sucks.”
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Vermont.
Alex Olson.
Camera Shy
Eccentrics
Diversified Skateboarding
“There have been a few people turn down [appearing on] the show, but nothing too outright. I don’t hold grudges, so whatever. A couple of people didn’t say no by physically saying no, but they said no by not calling me back, and then pretending like I didn’t ask. I don’t want to put any of these people on blast, but a couple of times I’d have their bosses call them. These bosses would be like, ‘Who do you want to do an episode about on the team?’ So I’d say, ‘Well, a couple of people haven’t called me back.’ Then an hour later I’d get a phone call like, ‘Hey Patrick, sorry, I was… on a tour.’
“Honestly, when I think of all of the episodes, and think, ‘What’s my favourite?’ Jim [Greco]’s is pretty up there. That was a cool one.
“Back when EMB and Love Park were cool, skateboarding was so strict. You had to be a certain way. Now, what’s so great about skateboarding is that you can have Corey Duffel and Brandon Biebel sitting in a car together.
One person that always says no is Dan Drehobl. He makes a big production out of saying no. It’s funny, he’ll tell everyone, ‘I will never do that… skate documentaries are so stupid. Fuck the Hosoi documentary, fuck the Rocco documentary.’ But I’m not even hurt by it, because I know that he watches the show.
Jim’s really… [very, very long pause] flamboyant. He studies a lot of documentaries of rock stars that he likes. I think of all his posters being up in his house, those are like his gold records. He doesn’t think about things in the same way. He’s just in his own world, and that was perfect for the show. There’s so much magic. When we went into the clothing store, and the guy there was like, ‘Oh my fucking god. Jimmy Greco… I love you!’ I was filming and thinking ‘movie magic!’”
Early on, I might have been hurt if someone said no, but now I’ve got so much momentum. I’ve got Julien [Stranger] on; I’ve got Gino [Iannucci], and Cardiel, Gonz, [Eric] Koston, Guy Mariano. I’ve managed to maneuver good enough that I’ll call someone out if I have to.
I was filming Erik Ellington’s episode, and Jim had previously said no to doing one. Then he sees Erik getting one, and Andrew [Reynolds], and then he’s like, ‘What? Wait, tomorrow, come over.’ And that’s why we begin Jim’s episode with Erik opening the door, and Jim pulling up. He’d called me and said, ‘Patrick, I’m pulling up. You might want to get a shot of me pulling up in the Caddie.’
On early trips in my skate photography career, I remember just wishing someone would break some rules. I like that now people do. I like Cardiel, and then I like Jim Greco, and then Anthony Pappalardo. Like, ‘Wow, I’m getting Anthony?’ And obviously, he’s the opposite of some of those other guys. And I love it. The only thing that I don’t like is when you watch someone and they just blend in. Someone like Gino Iannucci doesn’t have to be eccentric, but you watch him and he doesn’t blend. There’s magic.”
“When you’re young, and you look up to someone, they’re larger than life. I don’t talk to someone like Mike Mo and get intimidated, even though he’s gnarly and one of the best out there. But younger kids at the skateparks are like, ‘Mike Mo! Sign my board!’ It’s an age thing.
Bryan Herman.
anamericano.
I remember when I first started shooting skate photos, and I’d see certain pros skating a mini ramp or something, and I’d say, ‘We should go to a pool to shoot a photo’. And I’d hear something like, ‘Nah, I don’t do that slash-do shit.’ It’s like, come on, if you can grind a pool, grind a pool. Certain people started doing that, like Jamie Thomas, but back then it wasn’t really cool.
It’s An Age Thing
Leo Romero gave an outright no. Not because he hates the show, or we’re not friends. We are friends, I like Leo. It’s more like with Braydon, you can point a camera at him and he’s like ‘rah, rah, chicks, rah, rah’. That’s not Leo’s personality. You can’t make him. He doesn’t mind if he’s in the picture, but he doesn’t want to sit down to an interview and look like a jerk. If someone else had a show, and I was a pro skater I might say no. Doing an interview, I have to really force myself, whereas someone like Braydon loves it.
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Pat Washington.
So with me, during the Gonz/Hosoi episodes, I was off camera thinking about my life. I couldn’t believe that these people that I looked at in magazines were in front of me, talking to me. When I did the Daewon Song episode, I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe we are at the
Braydon Szafranski, Philadelphia.
Andrew Reynolds with daughter Stella.
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Tennessee.
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interview.
Knox Godoy.
Nick Dompierre.
“It’s Cardiel, what are you, stupid? What are you watching instead?” place in Love Child where…’ I was honestly like, ‘How has my life gotten this good? I’m in this car with Daniel [Castillo] and Daewon, the guys from Love Child, talking about Love Child.’ Even when I’m with someone like Bryan Herman, who’s extremely gnarly, I just remember him as a little kid, going on the first Baker tour, not even on the team yet. So it’s hard to look at him and go, ‘wow’. It’s generational. I’m really proud of the Wild Ride episodes. That was fun – we got to do a lot of tangents with Heath [Kirchart], Andrew [Reynolds], Peter Hackett, Justin Figueroa, Spanky, and Jerry [Hsu]. I have a feeling that kids between 15 and 21 really like it. That’s the demographic that’s really going to be psyched on those guys. I know that older skaters probably aren’t watching the Justin Figueroa episode. That was, for me, made for a young skater to identify with. You’re watching, you’re young, and you want to be sponsored and know what it’s like to be a kid, and go from flow to amateur. That was for those kids. The Cardiel series was meant for older skaters. For people to go, ‘oh yeah, remember when they drove around the Tenderloin?’ I did that maybe also as a little education. Not just that reason, but I was also thinking that it is important. I try to juggle it. I’m not afraid to do an episode on a younger guy, and know that an older skater is going to hate it. I’m just trying to be diverse.” All Hail… “Going over to Cardiel’s… you don’t even know. I went with Chris Grosso, from my show, and we’d be asking John stuff, and then he’d leave the room and we’d freak out. Then he’d
come back and I’d say, ‘So anyway, tell me about Fucktards.’ Then he’d leave and we’d be like, ‘No way! We just watched Fucktards with John Cardiel!’ I didn’t plan on the episode being that long. Chris and I showed up at his house, and I’d barely met him before, but he was just so open. I was planning on waiting to ask about the injury, in case he didn’t want to talk about it. It turned out that, even to him, the injury was just another thing that happened. It was just another little bump in the road. It was weird; it didn’t feel like a tragedy. So we just kept talking and talking, and he just said so much funny stuff. Those Anti-Hero videos just live in my sub-conscious as the most important things, because not only was it about skateboarding, but also it was about the adventure of skateboarding, especially at a time where maybe people weren’t doing that as much. Cardiel was so funny. He would do impressions of people, and not only that, but all of the people that he knows are amazing. So, when I showed up at his house, it wasn’t a conscious decision to make it long, it just happened. I have so much reverence for him; it was hard to make it any less. It was also nice to do something bigger. A couple of times, I was almost insulted when the skaters didn’t know about the Cardiel episodes. But maybe I’m speaking from the standpoint of someone that watched it, too. I’m like, ‘Wait, you call yourself a skateboarder and you haven’t even watched the Cardiel?’ As if I didn’t even make it. I’m like, ‘It’s Cardiel, what are you, stupid? What are you watching instead?’ I don’t know if it sounds conceited, but I feel like it’s just a conduit. I’m like a conduit between the good thing and the audience. I remember the first time I saw Dan Wolfe. I was like, ‘whoa, Dan Wolfe, he made Eastern
Exposure, that’s the guy!’ I think I even went up to him and said, ‘Love the video.’ And he even said to me, ‘You know, that video’s pretty much only good because of Ricky Oyola, and Fred Gall, and Donny Barley.’ I almost have that same reaction now, like, ‘You know that I just pointed the camera at Cardiel, right?’ It’s almost like people get confused, just like I got confused. Maybe it happens because Cardiel’s pretty intimidating and they’d never go up to him, but they’ll go up to me. It’s definitely weird.” Animal Avenues “I did a video for Panda Bear, from Animal Collective. He watches the show, and said, ‘Do a video for me. I like skating.’ So he sent this video to me called Crystal Voyager, a surf film, and it was all trippy. It looked to me like Gnar Gnar, the Krooked video. So I just asked Sam, who made Gnar Gnar, to help me make a music video that looked like that. I was either going to rip him off, or invite him to participate. So that was the process of that. So it’s been good – the show has opened up some weird avenues that I didn’t expect.” Originally, O’Dell didn’t think that people were going to find Epicly Later’d all that interesting. It’s safe to say now that his uneasiness was unfounded. “Luckily, we’ve kind of found our niche. Which is, make the show really nerdy, but also make it kind of funny, and try to make it cover a little bit of ground.”
See Patrick’s latest work in the new Morrisey music video he directed. Yet another dream come true for O’dell, expect more O’Dell x Morrisey work to surface in the future. EPICLYLATERD.COM
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photosby dan mathieu
montRéal “I once found an abandoned tent on the top of Mount Royal in the dead of winter, it was so nice and cozy inside.”
—other
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“One of the best things about Montreal is the summertime, lots of raw natural skate spots to enjoy for all styles of skaters willing to take the risk to skate and destroy! vive la Montreal... the tarnished city.� —barry walsh
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city.
"If it was Wednesday I'd say free Museum night at the contemporary." —mike giles, furni creations SPOTS. Berri berri metro station An open meeting space with marble ledges and homeless Québecois. Namur behind the pier 1 imports building at the namur metro stop. A loading dock with metal coping for days with no bust factor. Peace Park st-laurent blvd, south of stecatherine st.. With all the condos popping up in the neighbourhood, it’s not what it used to be but you have to stop there. Ideally on the first of the month. Long marble ledges under an allée of trees with a congregation of wasted homeless. The Big O olympic stadium, metro viau Between Pie-ix and Viau metro stations. Transitions, flatground, hubbas, ledges, banks, sets, and, of course, the famous pipe. It has a backyard style, with long-term locals, good vibes, tight concrete transitions and endless fun.
Phil’s Colour Benches st. léon elementary school in westmount. Three knee-high, metal coping plastic benches under the shade with some east coast pavement. Parc Lafontaine sherbrooke street Luscious flatground space with ledges, a four-flat-four and a gap over the wall to drop. Lots of random obstacles, marble benches, a gap to street and a gap to ledge and the new warm up/meet up spot, L’obelisque. La pool location confidential you’ll have to get approval in the streets if you want to skate the pool. The Streets There’s always plenty of undiscovered nooks scattered in various quarters of the city that have yet to be shredded. 1/4 pipe to wall near chabanel and parc ave built by an anonymous brother.
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“If you want to taste Quebec cuisine, check out Chez Claudette.” —bob le chef EATS. Euro deli 3619 st-laurent Great Italian food on St. Laurent. Schwartz’s 3895 st-laurent The best pastrami sandwiches in town, if you don’t mind the line up. Mr. Steer 1198 rue ste-catherine o. A great tasting hamburger joint situated between two strip clubs on St. Catherines. Chez Claudette 351 laurier st. e. The prices are cheap and it’s open 24hr The Montreal Pool Room 1200 stlaurent blvd, across from peace park
“When walking into Off The Hook pay very close attention to the sign above the door that clearly indicates the mentality that the store was built upon, which reads “No Half Stepping Allowed!” —sterling downey
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montreal.
The Pool Room is one of this city’s great greasy institutions. If you have a skateboard, you get a better discount than what the cops get. La Popessa 3801 st-denis street Create your own pasta meal. Really good and affordable. La Banquise 994 rachel street e. Best poutine. Taqeria Mex 3820 St-Laurent street Not many mexican joints in MTL. this one is my favourite.
SHOPS. Infiny-t 6976 sherbrooke w. Empire 1111 st antoine w. Underworld 251, ste-catherine east Everything a skater could want from a retailer. In the east end near Berri. Temple 1201 st. dominique Montreal’s oldest skateshop, now relocated facing peace park.
Off The Hook 1021 rue sainte-catherine ouest Solo 1328, avenue laurier est. Sample sales all year round. Boutique Ka 4482 Fabre st. Katia Dion is the woman behind Boutique Ka. She has been working her ass off for years to promoting quebec’s best designers.
“[Go to] Blue Dog! We own the club, so the drinks are free for us.” —team canada djs NIGHT LIFE. Blue Dog 2958 st-laurent blvd Foufs 87 rue ste-catherine e. A classic. mini ramp on wednesdays. Bifteck 3702 st-laurent Remember Roy bar? Biftek is the anglophone version with more pool tables. Cheap pitchers! Kafein 1429z rue bishop near crescent Basement shisha bar.
Square St. Louis avenue laval, near st. denis nighttime summer hang out spot. Coda 4119 st-laurent Trendy but cool, crazy dave greets you at the door. L’amère à Boire 2049 st-denis A craft brewery located in the heart of the latin quarter, awesome menu.
SLEEP. Montreal Greyhound 505 boul de maisonneuve In the summer just put your stuff in the bus station lockers and drink until you drop. Couch the skate community in MTL is super friendly so it is pretty easy to couch surf. Hook Up even better, if you got a little game Maybe you’ll get to share a bed with a cute quebecoise. Frenchie’s Floor if all goes wrong and you end up alone in the streets at 3am Chances are you will crash here, which is okay if you don’t mind cat pee. The St-James 355 rue saint-jacques If it’s good enough for Madonna, it’s good enough for you. So if you like to plan ahead, take note: Montreal is on an island and I’ve
never heard of a campsite, but there’s loads of nice boutique hotels. Lord Berri 1199 rue berri you are right in the heart of the city, the rooms are legit and so are the prices. Hotel W 901 square victoria This is also worth mentioning. Not the hotel but the bar at hotel W. Many reps can be found here sipping on eight dollar pints while skaters sit curbside with a 40oz wondering where their packages are. Econo lodge 2060 st dominique Better known as the Ghetto lodge, this is where many teams stay while touring. Find a B&B st-hubert street just a two minute skate from Berri square, the receptionist may look at you weird cause they usually rent rooms for no more than three hours. .city
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TEAM MACHO wordsby leah turner photosby jeremy janson captionsby team macho
headquarters.
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ccupying the corner block beneath a railroad overpass, just north of downtown Toronto, sits a dilapidated former munitionscum-yarn factory. In typical urban fashion, the building is now occupied by, alongside other tenants, artists who have claimed and customized the spacious, exposed brick and pipe lofts. Among them is the art collective known as Team Macho, which has constructed its formidable studio and living space here. A sweatshop and deep-frying kitchen before the group took over the space in 2004, it resonates with a history that speaks of labour. Perhaps appropriate living quarters then for five ambitious, industrious artists.
(l-r) Nicholas, Lauchie, Chris, Jacob.
By all accounts, the space is now a veritable lost boys lair, complete with a revolving cast of artists, mentors, friends and lovers. Least of all being Punchy (Spaghetti Arm Punch Claw the Seven Toes of Destruction), the rather mythical-sounding 23-toed cat. Otherwise known as “the spirit of Team Macho,” the beloved stray wanders as he pleases, often returning smelling of a stranger’s perfume.
“When we first moved into our space, Stephen didn’t like the idea of constructing a bedroom and instead opted to live in a large tent. This is believed to be due to his nomadic upbringing on the vast steppes of Mongolia and North Toronto.”
Comprised of members Nicholas Aoki, Stephen Appleby-Barr, Chris Buchan, Lauchie Reid, and Jacob Whibley, Team Macho has been working and exhibiting together since 2003, developing a practice that spans the often tensely acquainted worlds of fine art and illustration. Ranging from the naively drawn to the exquisitely painted, and from graphite to airbrush, Team Macho’s work is an engaging, captivating clash of styles, subjects and personalities. Always amusing, often bitingly clever, deliberately offensive, and sometimes sickly sweet, their drawings weave imagination with autobiography. A random selection of drawings might include a lovingly painted portrait of Freddie Mercury, a herd of neonpatterned deer, Satan enjoying a nighttime canoe, robots in full-blown battle mode, a monkey-man caught in a storm of colourful cupcakes, or a tearful, personified watermelon. Visitors enter Team Macho’s studio through a ground-floor window, descending into adjoining, wonderfully cluttered studio rooms.
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heltershelter.
Followed by a kitchen, bathroom, workbench and the all-important Xbox 360 console. A dusty, narrow corridor leads past a series of resourcefully constructed, elevator-sized bedrooms, culminating in a cave-like master bedroom of sorts – Appleby-Barr’s bed, nightstand, and dresser arranged inside a permanently pitched camping tent. There are few domestic comforts here, yet if the piles of paper and books, stacks of frames, seemingly limitless filing cabinets and shelves of paints and brushes are any indication, the group has everything they need. Their home, like their artistic endeavors, expresses a definitively unorthodox, irreverent and inspired approach that seamlessly integrates art and life. For Team Macho, life itself has become collaborative artistic process, resulting in the creation of a highly personal visual rhetoric and vocabulary, brimming with inside jokes and absurdity. In a less than harmonious attitude toward collaboration, the group thrives upon maintaining a certain degree of well-meaning antagonism. Theirs is a highly competitive process, where the very success of a particular drawing may stem from calculated and spontaneous subversion of each other’s efforts. As this series of photos demonstrates, Team Macho’s personal possessions are subject to the same laughable storytelling that colours their artwork.
ETNIESGIRL.COM
TIMEBOMB DIST.: 604.251.1097
Crossbow “We got this crossbow from a really great artist in Chicago named Stephen Eichhorn as a trade for an artwork. We have yet to get his drawing to him, so he probably hates us. We still like him though. A lot. We use it to shoot pencil crayons at bad drawings.”
Hand coming out of hole “This is a hand reaching through the wall from The Void beyond it. The Void is an incomprehensible cesspit of sorrow and agony. A cold breeze flows through the cracks in our wall from The Void. On it one can smell true despair.”
Dog Statue “This statue of a dog is a statue of the noble black panther. We relate well to large cats, because we also spring onto our prey from the concealment of the jungle canopy. It was given to us by a friend.”
Team Macho portrait “We have family portraits taken of us every year. This was our first and it is a nice reminder of our first exhibition, Friends for Life. Which sucked.”
Above “We have a lot of friends and have had many memorable moments with them and each other. This wall is a visual record of time in our studio, particularly delicious meals we’ve eaten, excellent outfits, death-defying feats of pantslessness, and other moments we wish we remembered.” Team Macho will be exhibiting new work both at home and abroad this fall, at Magic Pony in Toronto and Sid Lee Gallery in Amsterdam. TEAMMACHO.COM
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DISTRIBUTED BY ULTIMATE PHOTO:RHINO
dirt n’ roll to fakie
ASLAM
In Santa Monica skate park, there are tight regulations. The Skate park is surrounded by a fancy cage, pads and helmets are required and you pay to skate there. You are not allowed to bring food or any drink other than water. One day I saw a man was drinking a Gatorade in the park and security yeld at him to throw it away. This kid Even Berle is a local skater at this park. In this envoiroment, smoking chocolate tobacco is about as ‘rad’ and ‘punk’ as it gets.
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tomonoritanaka.
wordsby jay revelle
D
escribing his actual profession as a “professional hangerouter,” Japan’s Tomonori “Rip” Tanaka doesn’t label himself with a word like 'photographer' or by any other professional moniker some of us might feel inclined to wear, even though photography is a very large part of his professional life. Rip, as many prefer to call him, is just basically a dude, or in his words, “a piece of shit skateboarder” who sees the shutter as a means to a thrilling ride. However, his recent release of a photography book titled Rip Zinger – West Americanized Tour wasn’t conceived from some longterm plan of one day being published. It simply started from the innocent goal of coming to the West Coast USA in search of his own personal Animal Chin, all to be documented on celluloid while riding a newly discovered piece of wood: Krooked’s Zip Zinger deck, hence the name of the book. What he didn’t know was that he’d soon get a publishing deal from Stussy, and that the concept of his photography book would begin to take form within the first three weeks of landing in Los Angeles, seemingly all by itself.
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When I was these kids’ age, a skateboard was just a simple toy to me. Things were simple in our minds back then. Sometimes you can have more fun on a bench even when there’s a huge skate park in front of you. It’s not only about being good at skating, it’s also about having an imagination to skate the unskatable. Zach Wolf, boneless launch off bench in front of Santa Monica skatepark.
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Kids in Minneapolis This was right after a Girl/Chocolate demo on the “BADASS meets DUMBASS” tour. These kids were in line to get autographs from their super heros on tour and then they came up to me asking, “Are you the guy from Super Champion Fun Zone?” We had a really exciting day and it was getting to be twilight so there was super amazing light spotlighting the wonderful kid’s shiny smiles filled by joy.
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Robert Torres In the summer, My friend Bennett Harada was doing private skate camp for kids. One day our van got a flat and we were stuck for three hours at this parking lot in middle of nowhere. While Bennett was stressed out from AAA’s stupid treatment, This little kid was just having fun being away from school and his parents. (opposite) High risk, high return Fail, bail, tumble, injure. Skate at your own risk. Self responsibility is one thing you learn from skateboarding that your probably wouldn’t playing tennis or baseball. Kiyoshi broke two bones at same time, Jimbo Borland bit his tongue, David Gravette got himself a beat up face and scraped everywhere from skating at this Trifecta contest in 06’.
a Rolling Perspective, group show of self portraiture will be showing in Montreal, QC at GOODFOOT (3830 St. Laurent Blvd.) UNDERWORLD (251 Ste Catherine E.) and OFF THE HOOK (1021 Ste Catherine O.) through the month of July, and in Winnipeg, MB in August. Look for ‘Rip’s new book in a finer skate and book boutiques.
Tanaka has had a long history of “professional hanging-outing.” Aside from skateboarding for 20-plus years and being involved in scenes both in Japan and America, he based himself in the streets of Tokyo, a photographer shooting the city and the many skaters, artists, and musicians coming from abroad. He realized they needed someone to help them navigate through the thick cultural soup of his home country, and began contracting his services as a tour guide, coordinator, and translator. Dignitaries such as Tommy Guerrero, Mark Gonzales, and those within the Girl skateboard family soon became his contemporaries. Rip’s first experience with the Zip Zinger came in the form of a gift from Gabe Morford while on a Fourstar tour. Rip started zipping around, and soon discovered a new way to get around Tokyo, much like zipping down a mountain on a snowboard. Although seemingly obvious, all it took was a new slant to reignite the fire of just simply 90
tomonoritanaka.
riding a skateboard. Carving down the streets of Tokyo, he began to wonder where this board came from and why, and therefore, realized it was time to take the Zip Zinger to America. “The Zip Zinger basically gave me a new reason to wake up in the morning,” Rip remembers. To Rip, and of course to us all, skateboarding is not just about landing tricks but also about all the times spent with friends before anyone even steps on a board for the day. Thus, Rip depicts in his book the moments between thinking, the essence of good times unplanned, with most of his subjects unaware he was shooting at all. His camera is not in front of him, hence the “photographer” nonlabel. His camera is in his back pocket, waiting for the right moment when his feeling for shooting presents itself.
Rip’s approach to photography is interesting. He is not the type to use elaborate flash setups and contrived direction, and his concept of what the actual act of photography consists of expands further into realms one might not consider. To Rip, taking a photo is like doing a trick, but even harder. If in one moment on the street he wants to see the car whiz by, a skateboarder pushing, that one person walking while glancing, and the plane in the sky, for example, taking that one photo that catches them all in the right light gives him the same indescribable feeling we all get from landing that one trick with our feet perfect. However, for someone skating, there is usually another try to be had. Unfortunately, the city never remains constant, never to present the same cityscape twice. To Rip, photography isn’t necessarily about the photo you get in the end, it’s about the feeling he gets when he actually shoots, and what he can capture. However, his concept of photography doesn’t end with that, nor does it end with making a perfect print with all the right ingredients inherent, he
asserts that the act of photography is not complete until somebody else sees the photo and receives something from viewing it. Rip Zinger – West Americanized Tour is a portrait of an atmosphere, an ambience, while also a private documentation of the good times he’s had. His Japanese perspective is innocent and unique to those who grew up skateboarding in Japan, although also highly relatable to Canadians, since both our skate histories grew up outside the fame and fortune of US-centric skateboarding. His photography is the story of the determined eyes skaters get just before they make the big trick and the hoots and hollers of all their friends after landing it. It’s Rip’s take on the highways, the random spots, and the inner journey and adventure of the American skatescape, all enjoyed while innocently zipping around on his “Rip Zinger”. RIPZINGER.COM
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USEFUL WOODEN TOYS 13 kids getting down and growing up.
wordsby mike christie
pasted illustrationsby robin cameron
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” —Corinthians 13:11
A
week before starting junior high, I was in my room muttering little explosion sounds, playing with my extensive Lego collection when something disturbing and life-changing dawned on my little pre-teen brain: You can’t have toys anymore, people will laugh. Frantically, I started boxing the evidence and dragged it to the basement, telling my mom I just got bored with them. And to be honest, I missed my toys and was bummed. But then school started and I was busy trying to not get punched while figuring out how the place worked. It was around that time I found myself skating more and more and definitely didn’t miss any old toys after that.
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Growing up ain’t easy. It’s a wonderful, terrible and terrifying handful of years. Kids are faced with a whole new set of problems and many respond by shedding their childhoods about as fast as they can, while others seem to linger there, not wanting the big show of adolescence to begin. Well, here we have 13 mini-interviews, with 13 mini-dudes, each of them with some big-time skate talent. Some of them are kids, some of them mostly aren’t, but all of them are in that same middle period between child and adult, between toy and sport, between cartoon and horror movie, between calling for a ride and driving yourself home. A time most of us wouldn’t want over again, even if it meant getting a fresh set of knees. So, we could say they will definitely grow into the great skateboarders of the future—as many of them probably will—but we’ll save it. They’re kids, playing with a toy that’s not a toy, a childish thing they never have to put way, and there’s no need to rush them into adulthood quite yet. They have lots of time. Oh, and we learned: Kids really, really, love cereal. This I can’t stress enough.
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HAYDEN KELLEY
doesn’t need
for me.” to Taco Bell, “They’re always there to cook for himself, he just goes ts a ago (“Now I got girls,”) and doub ages toys with ng playi ped He stop you seen the X-Games, it’s n’t have no, “Hell ay, anyw toy a skateboard is asked ah Montana “is sick”, and when an ‘Extreme’ spor t!” He thinks Hann and Bits.” This les Kibb se “Tho gely, stran said, what cereal he likes best he er, BC, and een Point Roberts, WA, and Ladn 16-year-old splits his time betw baseball use beca and do, to else ing noth started skating because there was wasn’t ball base that ed notic I n’t hit the ball, wasn’t working out, “After I could happenin’ for me.”
Frontside flip.
[ o ] ODAM
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[ o ] ODAM
MATT BERGER
Hardflip.
lives ckey because team ho d an cer Fourteen-year- old soc it qu hates reading and and when asked in Kamloops, BC, ry twice in his life, ng. He’s done laund I’ve made thi nk his thi I n’t n, are ma rts h, spo , “O himself, he replied for He and .” oks ich co dw he d san foo ese what maybe a grilled che p, sou he said, of le,” wl ab bo a pp myself like e, “We’re unsto d Halo 3 on Xbox Liv eal goes, he’s hooke cer as Hayden Kelly shred far As it.” much time on a day.” He also wls bo r fou “but I spend way too like ate I nch, “Af ter I had it y you should on Raisin Bran Cru blic, “I don’t see wh it with his folks in pu arded.” k ret kic t to jus s red at’ Th sca ’t ts. ain ren chilling with your pa r ove d sse rra ba be em
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Frontside feeble.
[ o ] GARSON
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shazam.
SAM LIND
n about replied to my questio ON, and when , awa Ott “Obvi,” in s live 14, ld do laundr y. He’s his first whether or not he cou es it to his dad. To get big in contests he giv med bum s He’ in.” e gav he wins stuff that’s too finally a bit, then ol’ gramps that ied and “cr on, he, d ked oar sto teb s ska he wa ky and The Brain, which was stoked on. also that they cancelled Pin he ich wh , ada cereal in Can seeing they discontinued Trix says, “I always end up r parents is sketch,” he “Going places with you I’m with ‘em.” someone I know when
[ o ] HUTTON
Backside 360.
BOBBY DE KEYZER
is 12 and lives in Whitby, ON. He can cook Pizza Pops, has no idea how to do laundry and doubts he ever will. He think s skateboarding is more like art than playing with any old toy and even quit socc er because he wanted to skate more . Also a fan of the Fruit Loops, he admires Nick Trapasso for his good style and trick choice. When asked if he is embarrassed of his parents in public he said, “No, unless my Mom tries to use skateboarding words like butter, stee, street cred, copped or gerber.”
100 usefulwoodentoys.
WILL FYOCK
[ o ] DA
UGHTE
RS
has lived in Carlsbad, CA, for each of his 12 years so far. He’s got laundry dialed and microwaves himself a pizza when he’s hungry. When asked if he gets embarras sed being with his parents in public he said, “My parents are cool, so I don’t care.” Also a fan of the Reese Puffs, he thinks the Fresh Prince of Bel Air is sick and likes to watch Boyz in the Hood as well as Spongebob. He’s never done any other spor ts, “skating’s alwa ys been my passion,” and would say to hims elf 20 years from now: “What a great experienc e I’ve had skating, and what good times I’ve had with all my homies.”
Switch inward heelflip.
RYAN CONNORS
[ o ] DO BL ER
one brave enough to adm was the only it to having a nightmare: “On ce I dreamed there was a hole in my knee and there was green slime com ing out of it and Bob Marley was there. Bob was the cool part.” He’s nine, lives in Claremont, CA, and gets embarrasse d of his dad only when he has his shir t tucked in. When asked what cartoon s he watches, he replied, “100% Spongebob.” He doesn’t know how to do laundry but he “kinda” kno ws how to fold. His favourite skater is Daewon Song, “because he’s really nice and he shreds.” Also, he’d like to thank his grandma who passed awa y a few months ago.
Ollie.
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Frontside ollie.
[ o ] ANDREWS
102 usefulwoodentoys.
WILL CRISTOFARO
[ o ] THO RBU RN
in Repentigny (a suburb lives of Montreal), QC, and like s every single Rocky movie. He whips up som e cereal or toast when he’s hungry, preferring both Fruit Loops and Che erios. His first skateboar d was a plastic one his grandpa found and gave to him, “My dog ate the wheels,” he said, “I skated it until my dad’s friend bought me a real board.” He rode horses a little kid but would ofte as n just end up skating in the barn, “There was this little cement alley in the middle, with horses on the side.” When asked he was embarrassed of if his parents in public, he said, “No, if they weren’t there, I wouldn’t even be there.”
Frontside ollie.
An adolescent of
BEN BLUNDELL few words,
my questions wi th tex t message responded to mo stuff like: “naaaa st of Calgary, his favou ” or “o yeeah.” He rite show is Three ’s 14, lives in ’s Company and Loops. On being his favourite cerea seen with his pa l is Fruit rents in public Be asked what he’d n says, “I hate it,” say to himself if and when he read this 20 ye ars from now he replied,
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Frontside nosegrind.
[ o ] THORBURN
104
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When asked what kin
d of food
MACKENZIE RITCHE Y
cooks for himself, he replied “strictly cereal ,” and though he tries, clothes when he washe he ruins s them himself. He like s That 70’s Show, has nightmare in a long tim n’t had a e, and sometimes get s em barrassed of his parent public, “Depending on s in where we are.” He sta rted skating early, he was and got his first board four, from his mom and gra ndma, intrigued by his neighbour. He’s 14 and skating lives in Lynn Valley, No rth Vancouver. His fav cereal: Honey Nut Che ourite erios.
[ o ] NO RTO N
ALL H S R A M L L WI
“Sadly, no,”
ry, he When hung do laundr y. ilk n m ca e th he e er us ning wheth esquik, beca or ts, but said concer e cereal, “N sp r m so he ot up y lf an were doing whips himse od.” He never played s in my area go use of his ther gerber ca “o af ter it is so be e, us ite ca ur vo ing be ar as his fa ON, and in l, ol al star ted skat M d nw or on C ts Raym r- old lives in s, he said this: “I ea -y it.” He coun 15 is tricks. Th Potter book deep bag of ad the Harry d if he’d re worst.” e th e er when aske w e, but they tried one tim
Varial flip.
106 shazam.
[ o ] JIVCOFF
Backside lipslide.
107
JAMIE HARMER
ON, and doesn’t rememb lives in Kitchener, er his dreams. He found his first skateboard on his neighbour’s lawn and has skated ever since. He cooks hot dogs, can do laundry but really like ’t s watching Southpark. With respect to cereal, prefers Cocoa Puf fs for he their chocolaty goodne ss. He’s 15 and doesn’t mind his mom driving him right up to the spot bec ause his mom is “cool as hell.” If he doesn’t end up as a pro skateboarder , Jamie thinks he’d like be a cook. to
[ o ] ZAK HAR OV
“I see it more as my spor ts equip ” like a lacrosse stick or golf club,
CHAD WILSON
ment,
d is replied when asked if a skateboar rs a toy. As far as cereal goes, he prefe good,” y’re “The use, beca Puffs e’s Rees ders, and when it comes to skateboar of Mike he prefers Girl’s one-two punch Deck Mo and Sean Malto. Even if a Tech playing is a toy, he said he’ll never stop miniature with them – he even built some 15, He’s . class p -sho wood in s ramp calls doesn’t have nightmares anymore, d Peterborough home and when aske years what he’d like to say to himself 20 ng, from now he said, “Never stop skati until it’s physically impossible.”
Backside smithgrind.
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[ o ] NORTON
Switch backside 180.
CO BRANDON DEL BIAN
red out, “I just to have laundr y all figu At 17, Mississaugian n’ Cheese and seems c Ma I’ll throw it all r an afte me n a the up and ips , wh it out is not exactly a kid. He some soap and wash r of skating. pou way and k the sin in big got a it e thes in and quit hockey becaus s shove all my dirt y clo ent You can par . toy his a of d oar sed skateb er embarras , “I guess I consider a in the dryer.” He’s nev a coach telling you e s a toy, Brandon replied hav wa ’t d don oar teb you it, ska h a if When asked at ever you want wit it.” on it all day and do wh it’s what you do with basically just have fun g is your own thing and din oar teb ska do, to what to do or what not
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I
i’m listening to antsy pants.
I
n a small town in France that he calls Kidderminster (maps call it something else), there lives a 15-year-old boy named Leo. He’s a mini-troubador who specializes in drums and the left-handed ukelele, and you might already have heard one of his songs, recorded with Kimya Dawson and her husband as a group called Antsy Pants, on the soundtrack to Juno. Leo’s first band (formed when he was only 12) was called Bear Creek, and he and his pal Alex also have a band called the Matching Cubes, but his main project at the moment is playing drums and singing in Coming Soon, a band he formed wih his older brother Ben Lupus and a bunch of their mutual friends. Their music is sweet and naive, wry and dirty, and sung in English – they grew up on British and American music and, as everybody knows, rock music just doesn’t sound right en francais. It’s got an effortless cool that’s half Gallic charm and half Strokes-y self-confidence, but it’s as unpretentious as your average 9-yearold, full of dirty jokes and a quirky sense of fun that recalls their friends in the Moldy Peaches. They’re touring all over France this summer, and their debut album, New Grids is out now on the French label Kitchen. Leo took some time to talk about what it’s like living the rock n’ roll dream before you’re old enough to drive.
Color: How old were you when you started playing music? Was it your parents or your older brother that got you started? Leo: I was six or seven when I started playing – I was playing drums on boxes and stuff by then, not on a real drum kit. My older brother and I share the same room, and he was playing the guitar, so it came very naturally to me. I started playing ukulele & recording songs of my own three years ago. Do you remember what the first album you really liked was? How about the most recent one? Who are some of the musicians you most admire? Well... I think the first album I really liked was The Doors’ Strange Days – or maybe The Strokes’ Is This It. The Moldy Peaches also were very important to me. And for the most recent one, I’m a big fan of Alopecia, by Why?, it’s so good and powerful! I admire Daniel 110 interview.
wordsby saelan twerdy
photosby fred mortagne
Johnston, I love his songs, and I was really moved by The Devil & Daniel Johnston. I used to go to a lot of Herman Düne shows when I was younger, and it influenced me a lot. I love Stanley Brinks [aka André Herman Dûne], who used to play in the band, and now performs as a solo act. He’s a good friend and he really knows what a good rhyme is! We played a show with him two days ago, we had a lot of fun. I’m also really into Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, it’s a strong reference among the members of Coming Soon. And I really like Adam Green, I like the kind of guy he seems to be. From what I can see on the internet, Kidderminster is a town in the West Midlands of England, not in France. Care to explain? We come from a small French town. There’s a lake and mountains all around. We grew up there. The older guys in the band once got bored with it, and when people asked them where they were coming from, they picked up a name from a map of the UK,just like we all changed our name in the band, it’s a rite of passage. It doesn’t mean more than that I guess. It turned out to be a good name, it sounds a bit German: Kidderminster. How did you meet Kimya Dawson? Do you talk to her often? Kimya’s husband, Angelo Spencer, comes from the same small French town as us. He’s a musician and he used to set up shows here. He’s the first who ever helped us in getting out of our basement; he used to set up shows for Kimya and the antifolk people [Jeffrey Lewis, Schwervon!, etc.], so that’s how we first met all these amazing bands and musicians. Kimya really appreciated my music and she helped
me spread it all around. I don’t talk to her that often, but we keep in touch and she usually spends some time around here in the summer with Angelo and their baby, we have picnics and hang out, it’s pretty cool. Was Antsy Pants a one-time project, or do you think you’ll get together for more recordings? When we started recording songs with Kimya, Angelo, and the other members of Coming Soon, we didn’t even know we were going to make a whole album. So to be honest we have no idea about the future, but it sure would be fun to record more songs all together. Maybe this summer! Is Coming Soon your main project now? Yes, Coming Soon is my main project. It’s the most important thing for me right now. Recording our first album New Grids was one of the best experiences of my life, and now touring is even better! It seems like you spend a lot of time playing and working with people who are a bit older than you. Do you have many friends your own age, or do you prefer to hang out with an older crowd? Do you play any music with younger kids? I’m 15 years old, it’s not that young! I spend a lot of time with people older than I am, indeed, but they are my friends, and hanging out with them is pretty fine. I also have friends of my own age, from school. Some of them are even starting to play music. It’s cool to have afternoon jam sessions with them too.
[ o ] MORTAGNE
“Everyone is not so attractive in France, we’re just lucky! And most people still call us weirdos.” (opposite) Rocking the dock: Leo and Coming Soon hanging out on the cold shores of Kidderminster. Clockwise from top left: Mary Salome, Ben Lupus, Billy Jet Pilot, Alex Banjo, Caroline van Pelt, Leo Bear Creek, Howard Hughes.
Do you feel like your bandmates in Coming Soon “treat you like a kid”, or are you all on the same level? I don’t feel like they treat me like a kid or a baby. I was one of the first members of the band, along with Billy and my brother Ben – the others came later, they ought to show me some respect! I’m just kidding... I think we’re all on the same level, yes. Have you ever tried skateboarding? Yes I did, and I like it a lot. I’m a bit scared though, because my brother broke his ankle a few months ago while skateboarding. He’s a guitar player, he was lucky he didn’t break his wrist. It would be hard to play the drums with a broken ankle or wrist. Alex [Banjo] is the best skateboarder in the band. We are glad and proud to work with Fred Mortagne. He’s a friend and a great guy. We love the French Fred style! Do you go to a normal school? Do people know about your bands or do you keep it a secret? I go to a normal school – I try to be good at school so my parents and my teacher are not too upset when I can’t go to my classes. My friends know about my band, some other people too; it’s not a secret, but I keep it quiet. Everyone in Coming Soon is really welldressed and good-looking. Where did you find these people? Is everyone in France so attractive? Ben [Lupus] is my brother, we have a natural charm and style. Ben met Billy [Jet Pilot] in highschool, they both loved the Velvet Underground and Richard Hell and looked like weirdos back then! Howard [Hughes], who is Billy’s brother, joined the three of us later.
Alex joined us a few weeks before Howard. His sister Caroline [Van Pelt] and our friend Mary Salomé joined a year later. I don’t know what you mean by well-dressed and goodlooking, but I’m sure we are! Everyone is not so attractive in France, we’re just lucky! And most people still call us weirdos. It looks like you’re going all over France this summer! Have you had the chance to do much touring before? We did a bunch of small tours in France, in small venues or bars; we went to Switzerland, Belgium, and Berlin once. We’re going to the UK in July, we’re all pretty excited about this. We’re going to play with our favourite English band, The Wave Pictures! And we’re also playing some really big festivals in France and Switzerland.
Do you think you want to have a career in music when you get older? Do you think you might ever get tired of it? André Herman Düne wrote a pretty good verse about that once : “I play in a band and the music is fine/ We sit together all the time/ Talking shit about bands and people and shit/ And I can’t think of an end to it.” That’s it!
Coming Soon’s New Grids is out now on Kitchen Records, available from Olive Juice distro (as are Bear Creek’s albums). Antsy Pants’ album is available from Plan-It-X records. Coming Soon is touring France for most of the summer. MYSPACE.COM/STARSOON MYSPACE.COM/LEOBEARCREEK
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tiny masters of today and the rise of kid-core.
T
he name’s no joke: Tiny Masters of Today are pretty little. Ivan is 14 and his little sister Ada is 12. Tender as their ages are, though, they’ve already been playing together for four years. They put out their first single on UK label Tender Trap back in 2006, and last year the highly-respected UK label Mute released their full-length album, Bang Bang Boom Cake, which features guest appearances by Nick Zinner and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kimya Dawson, Fred Schneider of the B-52’s, and Russell Simmins of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, who played drums on the whole album.
wordsby saelan twerdy photoby leia jospe
Kid bands aren’t a new phenomenon, of course, but from Hanson to the Jackson 5 onwards most teen (or pre-teen) groups of the past have been mainstream pop outfits fabricated by their parents or by impressarios with an eye for young and impressionable talent. Tiny Masters aren’t courting the American Idol audience, though – they play brash and scrappy indie-punk and cite the Stooges and the White Stripes among their influences. Reminiscing about his musical roots, Ivan says, “I know my first favourite record, but I didn’t buy it. It was my dad’s. Does that count? The first Clash album, I really liked that a lot.” His current favourite, he says, is a three-CD Yo La Tengo box set. Partially, their taste and ambitions are a factor of time and place. Ivan and Ada are from the hip Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, a haven for creative professionals like their father, who works for indie label Caroline, and they aren’t the only kids on the block to have been raised with the punk and indie-rock of the 80s and 90s on the stereo. Ada tells me about her friends in Seattle band Smoosh and Brooklyn band Care Bears on Fire, who have played with Tiny Masters and a number of the other “kid-core” bands in and around Park Slope, like Magnolia and Fiasco (the latter of which counts Steve Buscemi’s son Lucian as a member). As young bands proliferate, so do all-ages shows, but Ada admits that there still aren’t as many as she’d like. “Even when we play shows that aren’t all ages,” she says, “we have to play the show and leave. We can’t hang out at all.” For example, Tiny Masters played South By Southwest this year, sharing stages with Kimya Dawson and Lightspeed Champion, but they aren’t old enough to get 112 tinymasters.
“Kids didn’t start no Vietnam/Kids didn’t build no atom bomb/ Kids don’t wanna hurt no one/Kids just wanna have some fun!” into most of the venues. “Sometimes they let us backstage,” Ada admits, “but a lot of the time they’re just like, ‘Get out.’” So it’s tough being a kid, which is what most of Tiny Masters’ songs are about. On “K.I.D.S.”, Ivan and Ada chant, “Kids didn’t start no Vietnam/kids didn’t build no atom bomb/kids don’t wanna hurt no one/kids just wanna have some fun!” over a driving twochord punk riff with the distortion cranked to eleven. Their version of punk is a blast: it’s enthusiasm served straight-up, pure rock fun without angst or pretensions. Even if they’re occasionally irritated by the stupidity of adults (their song “Bushy” takes on the President) or the meanness of kids, their music isn’t really about rebellion. Their parents still make them do their homework, Ada admits, but they “aren’t very strict.” Having a dad in the music industry probably didn’t hurt when they were looking for a record label, but Tiny Masters’ big break really came when Russell Simmins heard their music on Myspace and got in touch with them, which led to him joining the band as an honorary member and producer for the recording of Bang Bang Boom Cake. Ada says that, “It felt kinda weird at first ‘cause he was older
and stuff, but he’s, like, an amazing drummer, so it was pretty cool to play with him and I think it made us much better.” Since then, they’ve recruited a new drummer, Jackson, who is their own age, but not before recording a video for their song “Hologram World”, directed by Karen O and Barney Clay and featuring a huge cast of guest stars including all of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers, Mike D from the Beastie Boys, Simmins (of course), and Sam James from the Mooney Suzuki. In the video, Ada and Ivan (looking uncannily like a young Thurston Moore, with his long, shaggy hair and Ray-bans) crash a cocktail party full of snooty adults and unleash kung fu mayhem, only to have the adults return as zombies. There’s a food fight, and Karen O gets her face shoved in cat poo. Naturally, it’s awesome. I asked Ada what they used for the cat poo, but she just says, “They brought in this box. I didn’t ask, because I didn’t really want to know.” Ivan, Ada, and Jackson are currently working on their next album. Bang Bang Boom Cake is out now on Mute, and the video for “Hologram World” is on Youtube. If you’re in Chicago in August, you can catch Tiny Masters of Today at Lollapalooza. TINYMASTERS.NET
A tall handrail becomes target for animal urges, as he goes “all the way� with a frontside lipslide.
[ o ] PRICE
[ o ] ACOSTA
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[ o ] PRICE
All of a sudden you are in Beverly Hills. As soon as too much money gets involved, just like in anything, the art or creativity gets lost somewhere, I mean, not always, but unless you’re involved in all aspects of the film start to finish, budgets, deadlines and the number of exchanging hands can leave you with something that doesn’t resemble anything like what you set out to create. Which is the ultimate suck.
A child star is caught shooting through the darkness via frontside shove-it.
I heard you were in a reality show. We did this pilot and were pitching it around to different producers. Basically, we were kind of bummed how the Life of Ryan portrayed a rather skewed vision of the life of a skateboarder. As we both know, the mass majority of skateboarders definitely don’t live lavishly like it’s shown in his show, and a lot of skaters don’t share the same mentality either. How we actually live on a day-to-day basis is something that I think a lot more people could relate to. You know, skate houses with six people on the living room floor, kids coming from all over the country giving up everything just to try and make something happen with skateboarding. No money, no job – because that’s pretty real. So, we had this film crew come in, friends of ours, and shoot our lives day-in and day-out for about a week: waking up, going to the park and warming up, learning the trick you want to try, picking out the spot, driving there, finding out if it’s a bust or a go, setting up the lights at night, the camera gear, warming up, getting the trick, and then, the celebration. Then, there’s taking the photo to the magazines, making video deadlines, editing parts, and shopping it around for sponsors – basically a detailed view of what actually goes down in a day or week, or month or year, for that matter. I just really don’t think anyone has a clue how much effort goes into getting just one trick. That’s pretty much what we were trying to show. But now that I think about it that might not be such a good idea, for pretty obvious reasons. .interview 131
kickflip noseslide... Freud would have NO idea.
Who’s winning nowadays, the kids or the grown-ups? Sadly, I think the adults are winning, for the most part. Outside of the skateboard world, I can’t think of another industry where the performers have so much say concerning the direction of the industry. Not to say the adults don’t run shit in skateboarding, but there always has to be an ear to the streets as to what’s really going on with the kids. I speak with a
lot of my friends from high school, hearing about what they are doing now, and it’s like they don’t even care. I get answers like, “I’m getting my plumbing certificate and gonna start apprenticing at so and so’s, yeah, it should be good money!” Then, I’ll tell them what I’m doing and they are totally jealous and stoked. Like, “Sweet dude, you get to skate for a living, god, you are so lucky!” And that’s just it, dude. They think it’s all luck! Sure, that’s partially true, but,
[ o ] NUNEZ
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[ o ] NICHOLAS
dude, I made a choice early on because I found something I loved to do and stuck with it. I think the real luck is having parents that actually saw that I had a passion for something and supported me all the way. That’s just my point, I don’t think there are enough parents or adults that are helping kids find what they love to do and reassuring them that that’s what they should be doing. I think that stems from the adults not really
getting to do what they love because they were told what to do and who to become and to “contribute” to society. They were told they gotta make money. It seems that’s what it’s all about these days. But I’ll be one of the few to say it again, until you start living a life of passion and purpose, the one you initially intended to live, no amount of money will ever satisfy you, and you’ll just be another sucker putting up with the demands of the man. Straight up!
Is grinding your skateboard a deep-rooted, Freudian desire for sex? Nope. This Vancouver 50-50 is pure shredding!
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What’s your advice to kids in general nowadays? I wanna say “find what you love and stick with it,” but I could say that to a kid and I don’t think he’d necessarily understand. Like, what do you really love? Some kids fool themselves or try to fool themselves. Like, “I like smoking weed, so I’m just
gonna smoke weed.” No, that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s like… you’ve got to understand what I’m really talking about. That’s a scapegoat, almost. It’s like, “Well, he said to do what I love, and I love smoking weed. Why can’t people understand that, you know?” Or, “I’m just gonna be a porn star, fuck it, you know?” But it’s like, you know when it’s right. Something clicks, and you know what you are supposed to do. The thing that really gets me is that people think, for example, that there is no money in it, or “I gotta think about a career”, but if you really love something, you will find a way to do it and be successful at it. For the majority of people, it doesn’t come overnight, and there will be a lot of people that will say to you, “What are you doing? You’re not making the figures.” Whatever, you know? You gotta just have the courage to believe that shit is going to work out. Don’t get caught up in what other people are telling you to do. You know what you should be doing and what will make you happy, and that’s what you should be doing. Who do you look up to in life? I look up to free thinkers, and my mother and my father, who are two of the most genuine free thinkers I know – ones that believe you can become what you dreamed of and that no goal is unreachable. I believe that too, but it’s important to remember to think of the people around you when achieving these goals. I have morals and boundaries and believe there is always a mature, responsible way to obtain your goals. We live in a society of manipulation and lies. It’s really hard to decipher fact from fiction. The power mongers spend a lot of time and money keeping us oppressed and demoralized so that we think we have to depend on them for guidance. But you know what? It’s straight-up bullshit. Everyone is born with a brain but not everyone uses it. I encourage everyone to question authority and seek their own truth. Are you planning to have a kid? Yeah, for sure – I just hope this planet doesn’t flood or blow up before I have one.
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[ o ] PRICE
Jordan smokes a noseblunt in Mallorca, Spain.
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“There is going to be that day when I might never become what I dreamed of as a child.�
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[ o ] FICK
Jordan Hoffart, ollies straight in. Who cares about handrails?
[ o ] STEWART
the silver jews come out from the black patch.
wordsby saelan twerdy
T
he Silver Jews should need no introduction. Over six albums and more than fifteen years, David Berman’s kinda lo-fi, kinda country group has been through hell and back and become an indie-rock touchstone along the way – and that’s with virtually zero touring and an absolute minimum of live performance prior to just a year or two ago, when the Silver Jews finally hit the road. Like Will Oldham, Smog’s Bill Callahan, and Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus (who was Berman’s roommate in college, and a frequent contributor to Silver Jews albums), David Berman has become one of the voices of his generation. Notoriously plagued by a drug addiction that, in the last couple of years, he’s finally overcome, Berman’s songs have always looked into the darkest voids of human experience and come back to tell the story with a dry sense of humour and sublime self-possession rivalled only by the likes of Johnny Cash and Lee Hazelwood. A great American humourist and storyteller in the vein of Mark Twain, Berman is also a published poet whose book, Actual Air, sits on a lot of nighttables as the only volume of contemporary poetry that a lot of right-thinking people will admit to liking. His newest album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is, to be brief, a total fucking triumph. If 2006’s Tanglewood Numbers was his first foray into a world beyond personal catastrophe, this album is him taking on the world at large. As he sings in “Strange Victory, Strange Defeat,” the album’s centerpiece, “We’re coming out of the black patch/we’re coming out of the pocket/we’re calling into question/this virtue gone to seed.” He was kind enough to take time out of his current European tour to answer some of our questions.
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Color: You said that your last album, Tanglewood Numbers, was you first shot at documenting what life might be like after hell. Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea seems to have the same feeling. More of it, even. It’s not like you’ve turned into a happy-go-lucky guy, but it feels like a very open, optimistic record. Is life still treating you well? DB: I am a lucky person, I know that. I seemed to have backed myself into a valuable life. Nihilism is graphic ingratitude to my ears. I react negatively to the easy cynicism I hear in Radiohead and detest in British culture in general. Despite its sophisticated tenor, it’s as common and deadly boring as the smalltown boosterism of my childhood. This is my third way. You used to talk about how touring really wastes a musician’s mental resources, but you seem to have made some peace with the life of a working performer. Would you say that you’re tour-positive now?
I’m positive about it but not converted. If I had done this as a young man, I would have never become an artist. I think musicians add the feedback of audiences in to their art way too early to sustain an artistic career. Musicians are usually helpless to write after age 30 because they never had a chance to get control of their art. Praise comes in so fast, the person has no incentive to push themselves, to edit themselves harshly enough. Especially today, musicians are held to such a low standard, so little is expected of the poor chaps that they never achieve for very long. There’s been a lot of rumours over the years about a sequel to Actual Air. It seemed like there was a time when you considered yourself a poet first, or at least were more concerned that you might be more remembered for your poems than your songs. How do you feel about that now? I was always screwed up about this because as a poet I received little resistance. People
“My sophomore year I bought from a dealer named JR who sold me ‘love boat’, which was dipped in PCP.” liked what I wrote fine. It was as a songwriter and singer that I’ve had to fight to convince myself that I was even qualified to consider myself an amateur. Only lately have I come to override the opinions of those who don’t like the Silver Jews or who wish the project ill. Insofar as I’ve come to see the massive indifference to the written word over the years, songs more and more became my focus. Now I only have to fight massive indifference to meaning in general. I saw a drawing that you had in the Lots of Things art show that Dave Eggers curated. It looked like a bunch of cows or horses with their heads dunked in buckets labelled «cum». Is there anything going on there besides a good napkin-doodle joke? Didn’t you see the baby intern creature looking on as the “adults” demonstrate what they have to teach about “working”? So is there anything going on? Just the same kind of social critique happening in a song like “Strange Victory, Strange Defeat.” It’s supposed to be funny. I don’t make big claims for the drawings.
This record seems so sturdy and unimprovable as it is that I can’t imagine you needing any further help with it. Out of curiosity, though, where was Malkmus? Was he unavailable, or was there a deliberate decision to not have any of his axe-work on the album? He was invited but he didn’t wanna. Same with the tour. I have always wished that he was up for more co-writing but he is leery of it for some reason. It’s pretty recognized that your music is “lyrics music”. It takes time and attention to appreciate, because you really need to hear the words. You’ve even gone so far as to criticize bands that aren’t lyricsoriented. You said to the Village Voice, “When bands are doing lots of harmonies and reverb, I think it’s a drawing back from the foreground, from having to say anything.” Do you really think that music has to “say” something all the time? You can say, “I want people to have the experience of time stopping when their eyes hit a phrase that stops time,” but isn’t
On various occasions you’ve suggested that you think writing fiction is kind of pointless. Do you actually feel that way? No. I feel like I have read all the fiction I’ve intended to read over the last twenty years. Of course it’s an incredible way, the best way, to learn how humans think, to learn empathy as well. Now at this point in history, reading new fiction is a waste of my time. I don’t watch movies either. I don’t want to take my eyes off the world for that long. I’m afraid I won’t hear the sirens. Of course I love stories. In the short form of the tale, the fable, the parable, the prose poem, the story song, etc.
You’ve claimed that you smoked PCP every day in your sophomore year of college… in addition to crack, cocaine, and a lot of vodka. How did you ever get started on such heavy drug use? Were you actually going to class? How about when you were in grad school? In college we did acid and smoked weed. My sophomore year I bought from a dealer named JR who sold me “love boat”, which was dipped in PCP. I had no idea. My roommates and I had many sword fights with real cutlasses that year. I wasn’t such a wreck in my twenties. In grad school I wasn’t so bad. In my thirties I went overboard with the powders and pills.
What have you been reading lately? History, philosophy, politics, and poetry. There was a documentary, Silver Jew, made about your tour in Israel. Is it going to see any kind of wider release? Drag City will put it out as a DVD in the fall. I haven’t seen it because if I did I know I would never allow it to be released. So I have consciously decided to let it go. I had a few friends vet it though.
When was the last time you had a day job? In 1994 and 1995 I had a couple of teaching jobs which helped pay my way through school.
What are your plans for after this tour is over? That’s when I’ll be making plans!
What have you been listening to lately? Any favourites from this year so far? This is terrible but I can’t think of a single record worth mentioning.
I’ve heard that you spend a lot of time reading, and that it’s mostly non-fiction.
[ o ] STWEART
Do you like David Shrigley? Is he over 50 per cent excellent? I’m not sure.
that feeling just as easy to achieve, maybe more so, without language? I don’t think music has to say something all the time. Just a little bit of substance would please me. I guess I am saying it would be nice if some of our music told stories when almost none of it does. It seems that your feelings are the majority opinion. I am only saying that some of our music must have meaning. Surely you aren’t arguing that music’s non-verbal communication capacity is underrated? It seems that everybody agrees that great songs can have bad lyrics. Extrapolating from that that lyrics don’t matter is just stupid.
The Silver Jews touring band is David Berman (voice and guitar), Cassie Berman (bass and voice), Tony Crow (keyboards), Brian Kotzur (drums), Peyton Pikerton (guitars) and William Tyler (more guitars). They’re touring Europe in the summer and North America in the Fall. Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is out now on Drag City records. SILVERJEWS.NET
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HAIRCUTS TO HANGOUTS the mammalian diving reflex. wordsby sarah milanes
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M
ammalian Diving Reflex isn’t exactly a traditional name for a theatre company. Then again, Mammalian is anything but traditional. And if there was any doubt, just take a quick look at its latest production, Shortcuts and Hangouts. The performance joins students from Toronto’s Parkdale Public School with a group of Queen Street West residents, creating what Mammalian’s producer calls an “urban geography from the perspective and authority” of regular kids. Rolling a portable amplifier down the streets of the economically depressed but culturally vibrant neighbourhood of Parkdale, the kids and their Queen Street neighbours showcase the area’s best and worst, revealing what attracts them to certain hangouts like a stunning graffiti alley where a dismembered body was once found.
Best known for playful works like Ballroom Dancing, an all-night dance party where a similar group of kids filled a gymnasium with 2700 balls and deejayed the night away as part of Toronto’s 2006 Nuit Blanche, Mammalian has focused on working with children for the last two years. The theatre company’s collaboration with children first exploded with the 2006 production of Haircuts by Children, which empowered Parkdale Public School students by teaching them how to cut adults’ hair – reversing their traditional roles. In their newest project Parkdale Public School versus Queen West, Mammalian is the school’s resident theatre company, developing a multi-piece performance with the students. In a province still reeling from the Harris government’s cutbacks on education and after-school programs in the mid-90s, Mammalian helps to fill this artistic gap in public education. Another gap exists in the locale of the performances, Toronto’s Queen West neighbourhood. A bridge at the intersection of Queen and Gladstone creates a physical and psychological divide between two communities – the condo-dwellers, artists and businesses on the east side and the diverse community of low-rent-seekers on the west side – both parties rarely venturing into the other’s territory. If you stand just underneath the bridge looking east, you’ll see economic growth happening so quickly that the construction landscape of what’s being torn apart and built changes on a weekly basis. Look the other way and the only economic change you’ll see is the construction for potholes (although a westward push in real estate development suggests this can only last so long). Mammalian’s Parkdale Public School versus Queen West project addresses these economic concerns, attempts to make civic engagement fun, and tries to make the gaps between students and hipsters, businesses and artists, institutions and individuals, just a little bit narrower, one small project at a time. Color Magazine spoke with Mammalian’s artistic director Darren O’Donnell about working with kids, self-serving agendas and trying to save the world.
Color: Haircuts by Children has traveled across Canada as well as to Australia, the United States and Britain. This year, the show will travel to Italy. You say there aren’t many differences when it comes to where the show is performed, whether it’s in Parkdale or Los Angeles. Why is that? DO: Kids all pretty much share a similar culture. The only kind of atypical kinds of kids were Chinese kids who were themselves immigrants about three years ago. That boiled down to a smaller vocabulary, but a big similar dynamic with the adults when they’re cutting the hair. You once said that you’re interested in atypical encounters between strangers and the public sphere. How do you gain the trust of kids, especially in foreign locations where you don’t speak the language? Trust is something that fades over time and kids are really super trusting. The kids we were working with during the shoot, we would just take them away and work with them in another room. We’ll take them and they’ll come along willingly because the teacher said that you can go with them. There are elements of theatre, community art and performance in your work. How do you respond to people who would like to stuff Mammalian into one category? Large institutions that are creating theatre like the PuSh [performance art] festival have given their stamp of approval that this is theatre. More and more, contemporary performance includes dance, live arts. We’re just one of a bazillion things that are like that. The stuff we are doing is hybridized. You don’t usually perform on a stage that separates the public and performer. How did you choose that platform for Haircuts? Up until 2003 we were a very theatre-based company. [After 2003] Mammalian’s social acupuncture wing was designed to generate atypical encounters between people and the public sphere, and create new social works of being together. That was just a research realm of the company. But the work was so interesting to people… that wing of the company caught fire so we focused on it. images courtesy of Mammalian Diving Reflex
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Birmingham.
What draws you to the concept of performances told through public school children? My interest is what happens when adults find a way to consistently create a way to collaborate with a group of kids. I mean I could create a drama club… But this is working with kids that live around [me], the same way that artists I work with live around me – working together and generating stuff. It’s about creating my life here in Toronto… I want to see the [students’] school as a partner. Even though it involves working with members of the community that include artists, institutions like the school and children, there’s still a strong selfish and self-serving agenda behind your projects. Totally selfish, completely selfish. I’m trying to make my world a better place. I want my world around me to be fun, full of fun people who know each other and who know me. Like walking to school and all the kids know my name. They give me high fives.
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Los Angeles.
Other projects for Mammalian, what do you see for it? What we’re trying to do is a shift in a conception of the company. Thinking of the company as an atelier, with project leaders, projects on the go, some stages in development. Where projects can be assembled and disassembled or contracted in whatever scale. Where it can be adapted, with different people coordinating it. Like with a play, you have to send the same actors or train new actors and that’s really time consuming. With this, the team can be mixed up. We’re making a bunch of projects that can be interchanged, the stuff is more project-based than theatre. People want the social aspect. MAMMALIAN.CA
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Birmingham.
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FOTOFEATURE
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KYLE DESAULNIERS nosegrind [ o ] doubt. 147
148 MICKY PAPA switch kickflip [ o ] odam.
BEN BLUNDELL fakie thruster [ o ] vandenbroek. 149
150 WILLY LAVIGNE 360 flip [ o ] brown.
PAUL LILIANI backside heelflip [ o ] norton. 151
152 TEAL SEAFARER kickflip [ o ] doubt.
EVAN SMITH backside 5-0 frontside 180 transfer [ o ] stanfield.
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154 BYRON READY switch heelflip [ o ] jivcoff.
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156 DAVID GONZALES [ o ] allan.
LIKE KIDS IN A CANDY STORE Flip ams get ballistic. wordsby rhianon bader
photosby ryan allan and tommes gentsch
Q
uito, Ecuador, is far, far away from the epicentre of the skateboarding industry. The downtown streets are always packed with assorted vendors, bumpin’ salsa music, heinously decorated buses and gringo tourists like myself. There are not many skateboarders, and the street spots are fun in a rundown, security-guards-with-machine-guns sort of a way. There is, however, a pretty fun skatepark called Parque Carolina… This is where I first saw Flip’s newest pro, 18-year-old David Gonzales, skate a few years back. He was probably 12 or 13 at the time, visiting Ecuador from neighbouring Colombia on a skate trip with some older compatriots. A crew of us went skating around the city, and it was quickly obvious that Gonzales was oozing ridiculous talent that you could spot a mile (or a continent?) away. I wasn’t really that surprised to learn he was getting stuff from Flip, but I remember thinking “how the hell did they find this kid?”
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CURREN CAPLES When Rowley asked Curren Caples to ride for Flip he, unsurprisingly, said “Hell, Yeah!” He says that even though skateboarding does feel like a job, the filming and traveling has, if anything, only made skating more fun for him. Currently home schooled, Caples has been out in his ‘hood and the San Fernando Valley filming for Extremely Sorry, and has been getting really into surfing in his free time. Skateboarding is a “family thing” for Caples: his parents own a surf and skate shop and both back his budding skate career 100 per cent. When Caples, who is only 12, was “super young” his favourite skater was current Flip teammate Bob Burnquist – now he’s into the skating of dudes like Rowley, Koston, Appleyard, Glifberg and Dollin. Caples likes when people recognize him at skate spots but says it gets old when kids ask him for free stuff because they know he’s sponsored by Flip. His least favourite thing about being sponsored by a big company is “all the haters that you have to deal with.” Caples says “being on Flip is gnarly” and he’s constantly pushing himself when he’s not skating with the other little bros so that when they get together to skate he can “hopefully hang.” His five year plan is to work towards going pro for Flip and getting his own pro model.
“Hell yeah!” Curren. Frontside lipslide.
[ o ] ARTO
That’s what has really set Flip apart from other companies over the years. While others are looking at the kids already skating in the big am contests or getting published in national/international magazines, Flip has always had a keen eye scanning the globe for skaters with not-so-hidden potential in sometimes well hidden places. The company has a notable knack for uncovering massive skateboarding potential in kids hailing from Europe, Australia, Canada and Latin America. Co-owners Jeremy Fox, Ian Deacon and Geoff Rowley are all involved in selecting new ams, but it’s also the Flip riders who serve as the eyes and ears of Flip, taking part in the constant search for new talent... Ali Boulala (Sweden), Arto Saari (Finland), Bastien Salabanzi (France), Danny Cerezini (Brazil), the late Shane Cross (Australia) and Gonzalez are just a few young-buck ams that Flip introduced to the world, blowing many a mind. All have been forever stamped
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by the good omen that is a place on the Flip team. Their legacies are beyond the usual measures of magazine coverage and ongoing video parts. Rowley says a successful skateboarding career comes down to finding a balance between the constant outside pressure to progress and maintaining one’s love for skating. “Long term [the balance] is a hard one to maintain and very few individuals within the industry make it, let alone at Flip! But I will say that if a professional skater wants to remain just that for a long period of time, he must do it for himself, nobody else.” The need for Flip riders to have personal drive is a key aspect of what they expect of their pros and ams alike. For instance, when asked how Flip decides whether to let an am go or turn them pro, Flip team manager Harry Bastard says the motivation to push oneself and stay stoked on skating is crucial, “If you don’t have the love or drive there is no point turning them pro, is there?”
[ o ] ALLAN [ o ] GENTSCH
Frontside nosebluntslide.
Featuring some of the best street and vert skaters, from unknowns to legends, over the years Flip has engineered and maintained perhaps the most diverse, international and, basically, gnarliest team in skateboarding. The range of talent displayed in 2002’s Sorry, and 2003’s Really Sorry pretty much prove this. The upcoming summer 2008 release of Extremely Sorry will let Flip’s current up-and-comers knock a couple more socks off. Unsurprisingly, the current batch of ams live up to the Flip tradition: they’re young (no Man Ams), versatile and hard working. Shredders Curren Caples, 12, and Louie Lopez, 13, are California boys (Oxnard and Hawthorne, respectively), and newest am Luan de Oliveira, 17, emerged a virtual unknown from Porto Alegre, Brazil, only to win 2007’s Goofy Vs. Regular contest.
Caples has an insane bowl in his backyard (You
Tube it, you’ll be jealous), Lopez is the laid back G of the crew and supposedly has some of the coolest parents around, and de Oliveira is an energetic, skate-obsessed kid with “some damn quick footwork to boot.” The ams all fit together on the Flip team due to similar goals and skills that set them apart from the masses, helping to make the company the success that it is. According to Rowley, getting a spot on the team comes down to “a strangely unique combination of talent, personality and willpower to succeed. That can come in many forms: Louie is quietly driven, Curren is more vocal, Luan is happy-go-lucky.”
Flip photographer Ryan Allan has perhaps spent the most time out with the new end of the team and says that what stands out is how each kid has their own distinct style that reflects where and what they grew up skating. At the same time, it all comes down to a common passion that overrides any concerns about .getballistic 159
[ o ] GENTSCH
“Damn quick footwork” Luan. Switch 180 5-0 backside kickflip out.
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[ o ] MAPSTONE [ o ] GENTSCH
“The little dudes haven’t figured out about girls, weed, money, etc…” money or photos that older dudes have. After finishing an all day photo/filming session they’ll still go skate the park. “The little dudes haven’t figured out about girls, weed, money, etc…” says Allan, “So they are eager to go out and skate all the time. It’s pretty pinnacle to be around that as a photographer.” Indeed, there’s a lot of other stuff that comes along with pursuing skateboarding as a career. Although, as Allan jokes, “the real world” of minimum wage labour is a lot nastier and backbreaking than anything a skateboarding career can serve up, it’s obvious that there is a darker side to which amateur skateboarders
tend to get drawn in. Bastard says that a lot of ams don’t realize how far they can go with skating if they stay focused. “The instant fun factor of drugs and alcohol is a very easy route to get stuck on. I’m here to make [the ams] aware of what they have and what they can have,” he says.
LUAN DE OLIVEIRA As Ryan Allan says, Luan is “the mysterious kid” of the group. Being the newest Flip am and being based in Porto Alegre, Brazil, means that De Oliveira’s remained largely off the radar for most of us. Brazil’s long had it’s own thriving skate scene, however, and De Oliveira’s been turning heads in his homeland for quite some time. Described by Rowley as the “classic skate mental type of kid” who lives and breathes skating, it was only a matter of time before he would start to blow up. Winning both the 2007 Goofy vs. Regular contest and the super competitive Qix Am contest in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, earlier this year (he won a brand new car, but doesn’t know how to drive yet), De Oliveira doesn’t just skate well, he skates consistently. We tried to ask him a couple questions, but dude has no home phone or cell phone and isn’t quick on the e-mail replies. He’s probably been too busy shredding and getting some final tricks for his part in Extremely Sorry to answer some silly questions, anyways. If he’s anything like teammates Lopez and Caples I’m gonna bet his five year plan involves skating and lots of it.
Until the video drops, you’ll just have to take our word for it. Kickflip backside smith grind.
Although Flip knows the importance of helping kids avoid the bad influences in skating, Rowley says that, in the end, kids are still kids – no matter how good at skating they are – and the guidance of parents plays a big role in keeping ams on track. “[Flip is] more like the big brother, and skateboarding is like taking them into a candy store full of good and bad things – having parents around at this time is a good thing. Especially .flipams 161
LOUIE LOPEZ
Louie, “quietly driven.” Inward Heel. (opposite) Backside smith grind.
[ o ] ALLAN
Louie Lopez, who got hooked up with Flip on the recommendation of Lance Mountain, says that even all the traveling and filming for Extremely Sorry doesn’t make skateboarding feel like a job, it just gets him more stoked. Aside from skating he fits school into his schedule, listens to music and hangs with his friends from “the dirty” (Hawthorne, CA). Although he has to catch up on schoolwork when he’s away traveling, he says, “At the end of the day it’s all worth it because I get to skate.” He’s looked up to Rowley since he first started, and doesn’t see any negative aspect to being a Flip am. Lopez and the other riders skate together a lot, and he says he likes that “it feels almost like a family and we all get stoked and push on one another to try different stuff.” Getting to meet people through traveling is his favourite part about being a Flip am, and his five year plan is simply “traveling around the world to skate.” His parents are supportive of his skating and will be as long as he’s having fun doing it. Since getting on Flip Lopez says he gets more attention at parks and spots, but that “it feels nice being noticed.” Oh, and just to make you feel old, the first skate video he saw was Rodney Mullen Vs. Daewon Song II.
“For some reason, little kids get a bad rap. I guess you have to be older, bitter and barely skate to get some love.” ones like Louie’s parents,” he says. Regardless, the ‘bad things’ don’t seem to be an issue when it comes to Caples, Lopez and de Oliveira.
162 flipams.
[ o ] ALLAN
With the Extremely Sorry DVD coming out this summer, everyone will no doubt be talking about these three in no time. As Allan points out, being young and absurdly talented isn’t always as easy to deal with as you’d think. Their Flip parts may even change the mentality a bit in the skate world towards young ams. “Everyone hates on little dudes right now,” says Allan, “For some reason, little kids get a bad rap. I guess you have to be older, bitter and barely skate to get some love.”
[ o ] ALLAN
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Welcome to the team.
JOHN REED age 15 A Glassmaker of Gateshead, he was convicted of J.O.A wearing apparel. He stood 4’11” with light brown hair and grey eyes.
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TONYCERVANTES
BENJAMIN$ - 24 CARAT GOLD - LIMITED EDITION
WEAPONS GRADE ALUMINUM
> DESTRUCTOTRUCKS.COM
DISTRIBUTED BY ULTIMATE
DASHWOOD BOOKS
David Strettell
faces n’ spaces.
I
n the fall of 2005, David Strettell opened the first independent bookstore in New York City devoted entirely to photography. Prior to Dashwood Books, Strettell was the former Cultural Director at Magnum Photos, a member’s-owned photography agency with offices in London, Paris, Tokyo and New York. Over the twelve years of working at Magnum, he developed extensive relationships with publishers, galleries, museums and photographers all over the world. Tired of working for others, Strettell called it quits at Magnum and took some time off before deciding on what to do next. On a trip to Japan he was inspired, however, by a bookstore carrying Japanese rarities and realized something similar was non-existent back home in New York City. While many other tangible products such as CDs and magazines face stiff competition from digital equivalents, the firsthand beauty of photographs presented in a bound book that one can flip through while eating breakfast continues to create a demand for a tangible space to find and purchase such items. This is where Dashwood comes in and most certainly excels. Tucked away below ground level, Dashwood Books is an unpretentious store on Bond Street (between Lafayette and Bowery) in the East Village. David and his assistant Miwa Susuda are extremely friendly, funny and knowledgeable. Dashwood’s collection is hand-picked by Strettell, who carries books that span the price and genre spectrum, attracting a varied clientele that includes young, aspiring photographers,
words and photosby seth fluker wealthy collectors and many within the fashion-industry. Due to lower production costs than ever before, photography books have multiplied to a number far greater than the rather select photography publications available only decades ago. Dashwood has taken the initiative of wading through the junk to present carefully curated shelves consisting of rare collectibles, hard-to-find wJapanese publications, popular contemporary monographs and self-published ‘zines. Over the last two and a half years, Strettell’s store has become a vital force in New York’s photography community allowing for lively discussions about image making and book signings with leading contemporary photographers such as Stephen Gill, Ari Marcopoulos and Roe Ethridge. In March 2008, David ventured into the publishing market releasing The Chance is Higher by legendary Dutch photographer Marcopoulos. David’s aim with his new endeavor is to carefully produce books with photographers and designers that will compliment his store’s inventory. The books are printed in small editions and sold through Dashwood Books and other likeminded bookstores around the world. To see what’s currently in stock and to keep up to date on future publications check out their website or visit Strettell at his store: 33 Bond Street, New York City. DASHWOODBOOKS.COM
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LAST harold NITE
h u n t e r d a y.
This event was made possible by Zoo York, New Era and the HH Foundation along with a great list of New York based brands and organizations.
words and photosby darren irwin additional hotosby kimou meyer, alessandro zuek simonetti
O
n May 17th, 2008 New York’s skateboard community paid tribute to the animated life and times of NYC skateboard legend Harold Hunter, who sadly passed away in 2006 form a cocaine over dose. Most people know Harold for his roll in Larry Clarks mid 90’s indi film Kids, where he plays essentially himself. As a young teen Harold established a reputation as a major player in New York’s skateboard scene. Harold’s talent on the skateboard was second only to his charisma and ability to fit in with anyone and everyone. He will be forever remembered for the larger than life footprint he planted on New York City.
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On this unlikely sunny Saturday afternoon, skaters from every borough poured into Manhattan Bridge Skate Park to pay homage. Even Pete Rock dropped by to throw down a four hour set while team members from Zoo York lit up the driveway. “Great day to skate” Said friend Chad Muska, who had painted the words “FOREVER” and “I will never forget” On his deck in memory of Harold. The only rain that fell all day was that of the product toss, which seemed almost never ending. As the days events came to a close the crowd relocated to KCDC Skate shop in Brooklyn, for a party, which featured a tribute slideshow by old friend Giovanni Reda and an art installation by Cinik. The spot was alive with Harold’s spirit. He shall forever be remembered for the way he turned Manhattan into his own personal playground. Long live the memory of Harold Hunter.
ROW 1: DQM and Jefferson Pang. Product toss (below). NY’s finest Pete Rock. Chad Muska. ROW 2: Homies for Harold. La familia. 5boro souvenir. HH tribute piece by Cinik. ROW 3: Eli Reed and crew. Jay Maldonado, Let the good times roll. Legends never die. Pint sized swagger. Shut family. Torres, Westgate and Shetler. Huge crowd. ROW 4: Ron Hunter. ‘Nuff Said. Ladies love Adam Gianotti. Sam, Will and Marley. Papa Suski, Rio and Leo, Brandon Westgate and Tato Feliciano. Jay and KT.
HAROLDHUNTER.COM
LAST leo NITE
fitzpatrick at blastramp!
Blastramp! happens every Thursday night at the Bourbon - 50 west Cordova street in Vancouver, BC. It’s made possible by locals: Color, Livestock, and Superchampion as well as the Blastramp! champ resident deejays my!gay!husband!, Benjamin, and Ian Wyatt.
words and photosby sandro grison additional photosby jennilee marigomen
A
of flipping tracks from groups like Fugazi to Raekwon to Morrisey has brought people to their feet and Leo to clubs all over North America and more recently in France.
Leo’s been deejaying for about ten years now off and on. Although he admits he needs his breaks from time to time so not to burn-out, his old school ways
This was Leo’s first time to Vancouver, and the city treated him well with happy party goers accumulating in the masses to fill this 300+ venue on the lower east side of downtown Vancouver. With sunny weather then snow the very next evening, Leo got a taste of it all, while Vancouverites got to put on their tightest of hipster gear and kick it to some sounds we could only hope would last til dawn. Inevitably, 2am did roll around and while most were still ready to party (including Leo), folks took it to the streets and left it to the universe to take care of the rest of their nights entertainment.
ltamont Apparel presented a very special guest at Vancouver’s best skate night in the city as a pre-party for “To All My Friends”, Patrick O’dell’s photo show. O’dell’s show took place the very next night at Antisocial. With a show title like that, it just wouldn’t seem right if he didn’t bring his long time friend and fellow NYC staple Leo Fitzpatrick along. It just so happens that the man known best for his acting and made famous in Larry Clark films such as Kids and Bully, knows how to get the party started too.
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ROW 1: Altamont’s Justin Regan keeps it green, Leo casually mixing with some Patrick O’dell BGPs. Jeremy Pettit, Nate Evans, Alexi Baris and Cody Rawlinson each have their own taste for alcohol. ROW 2: Sole Tech’s Brooke Pedersen and GMAN. A view from the booth, my!gay!husband!, party hair. ROW 3: Cody Meleshinski, girltime, Dan Fong and Aritzia’s Beth Richards, Timebomb’s Henri Brisard and Jonathan Ramos, Wings + Horn’s Brian Mendoza and Finale Clothing’s Matt Miyagawa. Andy Larkin. NLA’s Kristie Forwick and Danny Vermette, Sole Tech’s Brooke Pedersen and NLA’s Wu Gangon. ROW 4: Mila Franovic and Wade Fyfe. Dustin Montie and Chad Dickson. Craig Laviolette and Gentle Fawn’s Danielle Requena. No Limits’ Chad Iverson, dance party, NLA’s Derek Skaggs and Tony X, boobs and more.
SOUND CHEQUE
NO AGE
MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS
nouns (sub pop)
A mere year after releasing their triumphant debut, Weirdo Rippers, No Age drop another whirlwind of lo-fi indie rock in the same vein as their early 90s predecessors. In fact, their debut was actually a collection of EP’s, which gave it that freewheeling, slapdash feel that fans and critics alike ate up. Nouns, being their proper debut, is more focused and cohesive than its varied and experimental predecessor. There are still those short, warm instrumental passages but now they feel as if they have intent, like a moment of reflection before you bounce out of control, again. Fuzzedout, ecstatic riffs recorded on the cheap still permeate their sound, but the once-muddied vocals stand out a little taller, giving the record a great shout-along vibe that has truly been missing in modern indie rock. Nouns still has that naïve and youthful nature that made Weirdo Rippers such a pleasure, but now it really feels as if the duo have struck the jugular of how to create a classic full-length.
dystopia (siberia)
Coming straight outta Melbourne’s prolific blog house scene (Cut Copy, Muscles, the Avalanches, et al.), the Midnight Juggernauts fuse dance-punk, ELO-esque prog rock and a disconcertingly earnest interest in outer space to create a record that mostly captures but fails to expand upon the band’s thunderous live show. Dystopia opens with a barrage of dancefloor-ready bangers like “Into the Galaxy” that show the band in its most favourable light: straight-ahead and subtletyfree. The synth riffs are instantly memorable, the lyrics are shout-able and the beat always drops when you expect it to. In the end, though, you’re reminded of the restrictions of the band’s limited palate. With so few moves to make, Dystopia’s rehashing of the same beat drops, synth lines, and dreamy vocals eventually grates. While it might make for an admittedly powerful stage show, on wax, it feels a little more than played. —graham preston
—mark e. rich
QUIET VILLAGE
SUBTLE
silent movie (!k7)
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
exiting arm (lex)
If you want this whole review in a sentence: this is the album that’s going to make downtempo lounge music cool again. Even shorter: Quiet Village are the Avalanches for 2008. Don’t remember the Avalanches? Want a little more information? Okay, Quiet Village is Matt Edwards from Radio Slave and master crate-digger Joel Martin, and Silent Movie is a virtuoso collage of samples culled from an immense library of records – mostly funk, soul, and film soundtracks. Initially buzzedabout in the Balearic-revival and cosmicdisco circles that have given us the likes of Lindstrom, Hercules & Love Affair, and Map of Africa, Quiet Village are actually a far more diverse enterprise than most of the retro dance music making the rounds these days. From gooey, bedroom-eyed orchestral romance to sawtooth car-chase funk and smooth light jazz, all of the above slathered in layered oohs, ahhs, and croons, Quiet Village are changing minds everywhere. Because this should be cheesy, but it’s not. It’s just right.
Anticon, which primarily started out as a forward-thinking hip hop label, has been releasing electronic, folk and rock records for the past several years. It is no wonder that Doesone, who helped launch the label, has all but left and taken his group, Subtle, to Lex records, another forward-thinking hip hop label. It may actually be quite a stretch to strictly label this hip hop – this is music that your rap-hating mother might be able to get down with, and that’s not a bad thing. Acoustic guitars mingle with fuzzy electronic beats, violins dance with synths and, of course, there’s Doseone’s distinct hyper-nasal flow that tells the story of Hour Hero Yes, who has been the central character of all three Subtle full-lengths. Each song is brimming with so many ideas that it may cause some fans of mainstream hip hop to scratch their heads in disbelief. In an age where lazy, underachieving hip hop rules the chart, it’s great to see a group like Subtle push the boundaries of a seemingly static genre.
—saelan twerdy
—mark e. rich
water curses (domino)
Okay, this one’s not brand-new anymore, but Animal Collective are always so good at these little between-album EPs and I think they fly under the radar a bit too much. Water Curses is a welcome detour from their last couple albums’ (slightly) more conventional indie-rock, with heaps of the freewheeling experimentalism and wide-eyed exuberance that’s always characterized their best work. The title track starts with a burble of jungle noises before a Brazilian-sounding flute loop and rushing percussion propel it up and over a cliff-edge of hoots and hollers. “Streetflash” is a gently lulling apology for staying out too late, buoyed by heavily delayed acoustic guitar and some of Avey Tare’s least affected vocals, and “Cobwebs” is one of the best (and weirdest) pop songs they’ve ever written, coasting on a jagged talking-drum and organ-wheeze beat before flowering into a distorted chant-chorus of “we’re not going underground”. Indeed, it gives a person hope for the overground that Animal Collective has managed to attract such a considerable following with music this fantastically alien. —saelan twerdy
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LYKKE LI
COOL KIDS
youth novels (emi/ll)
From ABBA to Peter Bjorn and John, the Swedish have always had a knack for bubblegum pop. It’s a real community. Here, we have American Idol. There, pop stars apparently all hang out on street corners and in bathrooms playing each other’s songs. Do a search for Lykke Li’s videos on Youtube – there’s no place her band won’t play and seemingly no instruments that can’t be used to arrange her songs. This sense of fresh personality and DIY cameraderie is part of what makes new Swedish pop star Lykke Li’s debut so exciting. Produced by PB+J’s Bjorn Yttling (truly one of the great pop geniuses of our time), these songs put a series of diversely clever arrangements (ukelele and steel drums rub shoulders with vocoder and club bass) at the service of Lykke Li’s breathy murmurs for an album that’s rapturously catchy all the way through. I predict massive fame coming her way very soon. —saelan twerdy
bake sale ep (chocolate industries)
You’ve probably heard of Cool Kids already. Aside from the internet hype, they’ve already had songs in two video games and a TV commercial and they’re signed up for the Rock the Bells tour (which has a pretty sweet lineup this year!). Antonie Reed (aka Mikey Rocks) and Evan Ingersoll (aka Chuck Inglish) rep hard for ‘88, and their stripped-down beats and drawly, deadpan flows do justice to a simpler era of rap (i.e. Erik B and Rakim, Run DMC), but to those unschooled in hip hop history, the Clipse would be just as valid a reference point. It’s easy to imagine Mikey and Chuck as a couple of smart Chicago kids trying to jack the mainstream’s obsession with obsessively minimal beats and materialist lyrics for their own favourite topics: bikes instead of cocaine, more or less. It’s not wholly original, but it feels fresh and these kids sound hungry. Expect big things. —saelan twerdy
SALEM This duo is shrouded in mystery, but the word on the street suggests that one of the guys from Summer Lovers Unlimited is starting a new label, and these guys will be on it. The sooner the better, too, because their fusion of dubstep’s haunted bass-scapes and The Knife’s warbly, pitch-bent android disco has me desperately craving more than the tiny handful of tracks scattered around the internet. Their cover of Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelhia” has to be heard to be believed. MYSPACE.COM/JJHHMM
MEGASOID Megasoid are the first wave of what some smartass critic decided to call “lazer bass”, which might be meaningless as a genre tag but actually pretty adequately describes what Megasoid sound like. At the moment, these Montreal boys operate as a “live PA/remix soundsystem” which means that they destroy your favourite songs live, smashing together rap, reggae, electro, and whatever club subgenre you care to throw at them, and they’re starting to move from throwing parties and distributing mixtapes to actually doing legit remixes that slay. If they ever decide to actually do the proper “producer” thing and put out an album, look out MYSPACE.COM/MEGASOIDKULT
PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT
BORIS
MATMOS
smile (southern lord)
Back in the days before the internet came along to level the consumer playing field, few things were more infuriating for a music fan than Japanese import releases. You dutifully marched down to your local record store to purchase the latest album and how were you rewarded for your obedient consumerism? With the news that our friends across the Pacific got a couple of unreleased extra tracks on their copy of the record you just bought, seemingly for no particular reason. Even though anybody with a passing knowledge of computers can probably track down either version of Smile, there’s still something a bit irritating about the fact that the Japanese and North American versions of the latest Boris record are completely different. Worse still, while neither record is as relentless as the fuzzed out attack of Pink (and few things could be) the US version takes an even larger step away from the Altar of the Beat than its Asian counterpart, due to differing production. Oh, and in addition to losing some of the bollocks during the mixing and mastering stage, we also ended up with one less track. Domo Arigato… for nothing. —quinn omori
supreme balloon (matador)
If you’ve ever wandered the cable TV wasteland in the middle of the night you’ve probably stumbled upon Treehouse. I’ve always wondered why there’s a 24-hour kids network – I mean, whose kid is up at 3 a.m.? And given the surreal, even demented nature of some shows, who’s the target audience? There’s a stoner’s playtime aspect to some kids’ programs, especially ones stuck in the 3 a.m. time-slot. I kept thinking about this while listening to Matmos’ new release. It’s a departure of sorts: here, the conceptual constraint was to use only synthesizers to produce the sounds. Since they’ve never been afraid of melody or hooks – even when sourced from liposuction clinics or antique instruments on earlier releases – crystalline shimmers, arpeggiated pulses, and showers of rainbow glitter create a soundtrack perfect for the Kids Issue. Like the aforementioned programs, the effect is delightful, but with an unbalanced, sinister edge beneath the day-glo colours. Supreme Balloon also works as a history lesson, giving nods to modular synth pioneers like Perry & Kingsley, Wendy/Walter Carlos, and the wonky electro-acoustic made by folks in lab-coats at the BBC and Columbia University back in the day.
John Darnielle from the Mountain Goats recommended this, and after reading his amazing book about Black Sabbath, I’m ready to do pretty much whatever he tells me. Prostitute Disfigurement are from the Netherlands and they play “horrifying death metal”. Sure, you could pick from dozens of bands who draw the letters in their name to look like gore-crusted surgical instruments and name themselves after some kind of grievious blasphemy or physical trauma (when Grievious Blasphemy get around to releasing their debut, we’ll let you know), but today, why not choose Prostitute Disfigurement? Don’t tell me you’re only into black metal right now. That’s lame. MYSPACE.COM/PROSTITUTEDISFIGUREMENT
FREE BLOOD Is there any kind of band more painfully cool right now than the avant-garde disco duo? Mu and Delia & Gavin were the early adopters a few years ago, and now you’ve got the Knife, the Chromatics, Invisible Conga People, Salem (see above) and, most recently, Free Blood. These guys are the types that like to list a million obscure bands in the influences section of their Myspaces. I think the jury is out on this. On the one hand, it’s really pretentious, but on the other hand, you can be sure they know their stuff. And Free Blood know their stuff. They’re a guy (who sings a bit like Tunde from TV on the Radio) and a girl (who’s quieter), and they belt out crazed soul vocals over strange, stripped-down beats that leave me without adjectives and groping for disparate band names: This Heat? Pharaoh Sanders? Grace Jones? Cutting-edge stuff. MYSPACE.COM/FREEBLOOD
—christopher olson
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TRAILER
JUS LIV’N
BAKER HAS A DEATHWISH
Unless you watch Sk8mafia Saturday’s religiously, chances are Kellen James isn’t a name you’re familiar with. Kellen’s been in the game for some time now and it’s strange that he’s just finally getting some love. As far as the DVD goes, James holds it down proper with a solid part – lots of tricks you don’t see every day, and done with style. Be sure to check out the bonus section of the DVD too, there’s a bunch of good Sk8mafia footage in there. Is it just me or does Kellen look like Common on a skateboard? Either way, Kellen’s tight, check out this vid. —joel dufresne
This review was easy to write. The disclaimer at the beginning pretty much sums it up.
sk8mafia
baker/deathwish
Warning!!! this is not the new baker or deathwish video. this is just a promo video full of leftovers, hijinx, pot, actin a fool, and a bunch of other bullshit. strictly for the diehard fans. another cult classic brought to you from the degenerates of the skate industry. enjoy This video fucking kicks ass just as you would expect it to. Grab this shit now! —craig rosvold
THE MUPPET SHOW
jack burns, jim henson
CODA SKATEBOARDS coda skateboards
Coda Skateboards’ first video is a bit like a map of rugged New York City spots. You hear all about these hard to skate banks, ledges, and cellar doors, but this video gives what may just be the most comprehensive glimpse to date of the city’s hidden gems. Rough gems, but gems nonetheless. The Coda ensemble of Pat Smith, Jerry Mraz, Lurker Lou Sarowsky, Conor Fay, Jay Burton, Dave Mitchael, and Rick Espinoza skate the worst of the worst, and although it sometimes seems like it must be hard on the mind and body, it also looks like a heck of a lot of fun. One thing’s for sure, nobody in this video is skating a wheel smaller than 54 millimeters. Everybody’s skating is great. The common style seems to be a mix of skating fast, loose, sketchy, and raw. All this was made even better by my realization that these guys probably all have real jobs outside of skateboarding. They are not living some sort of “sponsored-skater” dream, they are just blue-collar guys that go out and skate most nights after work. They all just happen to be really good and are primarily into skating interesting spots. Coda backs that. I back that. You should back that. Get this video at your favorite skateshop. —jeff thorburn 178 videoreviews.
“It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights, It’s time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight. It’s time to put on make up, it’s time to dress up right, It’s time to meet the muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.” A couple years ago an incredible YouTube clip of a drum battle between the Muppet Show’s Animal and Buddy Rich refreshed my memory as to just how good the Muppet Show was. That clip launched a fevered string of Muppet Show searches as I sat in a van in front of a friend’s house, hungover, with a couple friends, lost in a sense of humour that is most comfortable when things are already a bit off. In this time we enjoyed Fozzie, Gonzo, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth et al. as they were joined by the likes of Peter Sellers, John Cleese, Elton John, Vincent Price, Debbie Harry and others. Now you need not be limited to the lo-res, internet version. The first two seasons are now available on DVD with bonus bits aplenty. Now go out and search for that killer drum battle. The version I saw was heightened by Kermit speaking in Spanish, a version absent from the DVD, which is possibly the box’s only oversight. —dylan doubt
DUDES DUDES DUDES dvs
DVS’ new promo video, available to watch for free on their website, includes footage of the whole team, save for Keith Hufnagel. The video kicks off with Paul Shier, who I’d say has one of the most distinct styles in skateboarding. Andrew Brophy backs him up with amazing pop and great style. He may well be added to a lot of people’s ‘favourites’ list in the near future. Some other possible international dudes blew by, which included a nice helping of Mark Baines, who never disappoints when he pops up in a video. Moving on, Kerry Getz has the flick, while Zered is thick and continues to shred the New York streets hard. A large portion of the team went by quickly at this point, and then Daewon arrived. Short but sweet – you’ll have to re-watch a lot of his tricks to fully comprehend them, as is usually the case with Daewon. The closing part goes to Torey Pudwill, and deservedly so. Young Torey is really going for it, and considering that he will likely have a full-length part in the Alien Workshop video, this part was amazing. This is a great video that includes a great bunch of Dudes. Log off the message boards and Facebook for a half hour and give it a viewing. —jeff thorburn
words by sandro grison
I
hung out with Gonz once for an entire day without exchanging two words with the man/the legend. I just couldn’t handle it if somebody I respected so much dissed me, so why take the chance? Quite the opposite in the case of Rob Welsh. I hung out with him for no more than two drinks and we were on our way to the back room to clock some interview time. Bringing a flat of drinks, Dusting Montie, Joey Pepper and Color’s Craig Rosvold with us, that little red light on the recorder didn’t flash for long before we were just a group of sloppy assholes talking shit about whatever came to mind. Lucky for me, I wasn’t the only one being dissed.
1. CR: Do you want a smoke? RW: No, I would literally stop smoking right now because it is a bad habit. But you know what? I stopped smoking when my car broke down and I was like “if my car makes it back to where I need to be, I will fucking give up cigarettes and I will put my cigarette habit per diem, or whatever I give myself, you know… I’ll put it into a fucking car payment.” 2. What do you drive now? On record I can’t say. It’s so gay [laughs]. I smoke at least the same amount of dollar value per month as my car payment. Oh dude, I’ve been smokin’ since I was fuckin’ nine, c’mon. Well, whatever’s the fourth grade when you first put your lips to that fucking crack pipe. So you did tell me what you drive. I didn’t tell you shit!
180 robwelsh.
photo by ian jolin-rasmussen
No, you did because, well, let’s see… twenty bucks a day on smokes, 30 days a month, that’s 600 bucks… Dude, when I started smoking it was a buck seventeen a pack! … A lease payment on a 600 dollar per month car – you could get a nice Caddy for that, you can get a Lexus, you can get a nice IS350, like 600 bucks… I drive a fucking Prius, alright! I went green. On the record though, I started smoking mainly because of Dan Drehobl. Dan Drehobl, when I was fucking pre-teen, would pick me up from my parents’ house, take me to the fucking skate park, smoke me out, be like “I know your dad’s gonna be waitin’ for ya, grab your board and grab your pads so when we get to your house I can bail.” I would get out of the car — gullible little fuck — go to grab my shit, the fucker would take off. I’m like, alright, well, I got my board and I got my pads and whatever, fucking Dan just broke out on me and I’m
“This is fucking Rob Welsh? What a fucking asshole.” fucking 14 years old going home baked out of my head. My dad [would be] waiting up for me because I’m coming home at ten, waaaay past my curfew… unbelievable. And I never puked smoking marijuana until I met Dan Drehobl. 3. SG: Do you ever feel embarrassed to ride a skateboard? Why, because I got some gray hairs in my beard? I mean, every day I feel embarrassed if I go street skating, are you kidding me? The worst case scenario is Dan Drehobl. This is a story I heard from Greg Smith [Thrasher]. I think he told me this story, but I’m not 100 per cent sure, but [Drehobl’s] skating the Berkeley [CA] park and some fucking dad comes up to him and asks him which one his [kid] was. [laughs] Like Dan’s just cruising around, taking a breather probably… he’s got a Camel Light in his fucking mouth or whatever the fuck he smokes and some skate-dad comes up and is like “which one is yours?” to make small chitchat or whatever. 4. Do you have ad quotas where you need to have a photo for a brand by a certain date? Actually right now because I’ve been trying to compile and get stuff together if I wanted an ad I could probably have one, it’s not like I’d have to go out and shoot one because I have stuff that hasn’t been published yet. I’m not going to go out everyday and shoot some miraculous thing. That’s the thing, when you get to be about my age it’s kinda like, well, if it’s gonna happen it’s gonna happen, but you’re not going to fucking call your buddy up to go shoot something if it’s not worthwhile. Like when you’re younger you’re like “I’ll make anything happen, dum diddy dum dum dum… I’m gonna fucking jump down whatever, hey, how you doin’ - I’m flying through the air…” It’s more like, well, if I’m gonna fucking do this trick then let’s do it and you fucking call your buddy up or whatever, your photographer friend. 5. CR: I watched the Aesthetics video today. Fuck, I think that video rules! But from a marketing side, it was called Volume 1, but all the kids out there, we expected a vol.2, vol.3, vol.4… and we never got it. It was a dope time in skateboarding and shit was different than it is now. That video literally was not that hard to do. It was all kinda bro-cam. Brendan Conroy helped us film and he’s the filmer and maybe team manager for Alien [Workshop] now. For me and him, it was like “let’s do this” and I was probably such a son of a bitch at the time because I didn’t give a fuck. He was the new
guy on the scene at that time and I was like “I’m gonna fucking film a video part” in my mind, but to him it was probably like “this is fucking Rob Welsh? What a fucking asshole.” And I was. I was a fucking prick to him. I want to apologize: Brendan Conroy, I apologize. I didn’t mean to be such a dick. I was out for me. DM: You had that quote in the Aesthetic video, ‘Just one bad wheel’… Oh yeah, you don’t remember ‘the bad batch’? They had a bad batch. 6. SG: Where did you skate mostly when you were a kid? Did you just skate street back then or did you skate pools too? I skated at my high school. The first pool I ever skated was my neighbour’s pool. I never even really knew how to do it, I was in the shallow end and I knew I shouldn’t be in it and I knew it was my neighbour’s. But, I mean, having a concrete pool back east is weird, man, like everything is above ground… poverty. I had a similar experience skating a pool when I was younger. I don’t think I had ever actually skated anywhere besides my own driveway, but it was instinctual when a neighbour’s pool was emptied for the winter that I should be in there and skate it. Yeah, I don’t think I even went in the deep end. I probably had the ability to do a frontside grind I think. I mean it was later, I might have been in Arizona. I think I might have been on a trip with Sal [Barbier] or something. It was weird, like way later in my life. Going over the light was not a feature we had back east. All the parks back then were masonite. I’ve been skating since I was like five. It’s always been like vert skating and just all skating. 7. You recently moved from Arizona to San Diego. How’s that going? Well, I’m only going to be in San Diego for a minute, I think. How long before you skate for Skate Mafia? That’s a really good question. I’m stumped [laughs]. I’m actually looking for a way to get out of San Diego, thank you very little. 8. TJ’s just steps away. You golf, right? Are you any good? This fucking asshole [Joey Pepper]… This guy will not sign my fucking card. I parred a fucking pitch-and-putt and I’ve got the fucking ball saved and he won’t sign my fucking card!
But you did par it? Ask fucking dickhead. Why won’t you sign my fucking card? JP: I would, you just haven’t shown it to me since that day. Do you remember that day? Your horse was way too high that day. What do you mean my horse? I fucking parred the course! Why haven’t you signed my fucking card? Because I was waiting for the dust to settle, you were way too cocky that day. Well, fucking eh, dude, that card may get lost or something, I want that shit to be on my wall! 9. CR: What’s it like filming with all those Lakai guys for Fully Flared? [Sarcastic] Awesome [laughs]. Yeah, all those fucking European trips, I was there! I’m working on a new video where they just kind of take me out and I drink beer with you guys… You know, trying to get a video part done here, but it’s hard to get a video part done when dudes are switch backside flipping up like nine stairs. 10. Is the Life of Ryan show anything like your life? Oh yes, it’s identical. C’mon guys, take a good look at me right now and then picture me in that TV show. Can you guys find a home for me in Hamilton? SG: Hamilton, Ontario? Yup. You want to live there? Yes. Does Justin Bokma live there? Yes, he does. Can I live there with him? Let’s get us both a fucking bachelor pad and do some sort of, can we do a kind of Life Of Awesome in Hamilton right now? Can you just throw Bokma… maybe me, but a Life Of [Justin] Bokma? He’d be doing something awesome and I want to be a part of that. Where did you meet Bokma? The first time I met Bokma, I think it might have been his 27th birthday and – no, dude – this is bad, I can’t say this. Okay, new story. Bokma met me at 850 Bryant in SF in a Mustang, picked me up with this one girl and I got a HJ in the fucking hole in the bathroom. The one you put a fucking 25 cent token in. Yeah, that’s right. Justin Bokma is probably the coolest Canadian I know. Visit us online to hear all the hijinx!
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OVER N OUT [ o ] PETERSON
Let me tell you a few things about John Hicks. He was born in 1998, his shoe size is 2.5 and he has been skating since he was three. I don’t know about the Corona, but once we found out that his nickname was Fetus we couldn’t resist using his Acid drop as our Over N’ Out. See you in the future!
over & Out 186 littlegoldbook.
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“Nah dude, that’s his dad!” “Alex pro?! I thought he was already.”
“I promise to never focus my own board.”
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