Pause* 1 english

L 18647 - 1 - F: 4,95 € - RD

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avril

mai

Mark Gonzales, entre légende et réalité / Adrien Bulard : un aller-retour Mark Whiteley, photographe et plus / Being Chad Muska / Et quelques autres…

adidas.com/skateboarding Š 2010 adidas America, Inc. adidas, the trefoil logo and the 3-Stripes mark are registered trademarks of the adidas Group.

MARK GONZALES SKATE SIGNATURE EDITION

Zeropolis Skateshop / 7 rue des ponts de Comines / 59000 Lille / 03 28 36 08 26

www.zeropolis.fr

Photo : Vincent Coupeau / Conception : tmn

VALENTINBAUER BACKSIDE NOSEBLUNTSLIDE

Contexte Why a Pause, would you ask?

Because they are necesary, even to the most hyperactives…

Or you’ll end up rushing head first, without really enjoying.

Because if skateboarindg is a physical activity, it has its mental side. Without desire, pleasure not self confidance, not much will happen. All barely tangible elements, in the end. But essential.

So a little break, every two months: a few pages, and as many stories to read, read again, and hopefully discuss with others.

Because you never really skate on your own, in the end, unlike what the legend says. Therefore characters, and subjects questioning what skateboarding means to other, and therefore you. A way to let off steam, a creative outlet, a good excuse to gather dirt, a pure recreation, a group to meet or create: the reasons are infinites.

And all are valid. This is why we go meet the ones that make skateboarding, as much as they do it.

Known from all, ou well hidden in their corner of the world, they are all are another reason to want to go go skate, and sometimes to be able to do it. Because, on your own, it does get hard…

Pause offers a little promenade a bit out the beaten paths that many would like us to never leave, and that we often forget about. By laziness, inadvertently, or lack of time. So, please allow us these pages, a bit of time, and let’s speak about it in a bit…

Thank you for your interest!

Benjamin Deberdt.

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Blueprint est distribuĂŠ par Templar. Contact : sk8@templar.fr

MARC JOHNSON

for more on the matix skate team go to: WWW.MATIXCLOTHING.COM

Directeur de la publication Édouard Dana Rédacteur en chef Benjamin Deberdt Directeur artistique Luc Borho (Jeaz) Publicité Samir Krim (samir@pauseskatemag.com)

Le logo Pause a été dessiné par Thomas Campbell, adapté par Luc Borho.

Ont contribué à ce numéro Éric Antoine, Scott Bourne, Brian Gaberman, Brendan Klein, Gabe Morford, Charley Pascal, Shelley Secomme et Mark Whiteley.

Abonnement/anciens numéros abt.riva@gmail.com Comptabilité Noura Debbar comptariva@gmail.com Imprimeur SAS IMPRIMERIE LEONCE DEPREZ Zone industrielle 62620 RUITZ Tél : 03.21.52.94.38 / Fax : 03.21.52.96.21 printed in France / imprimé en France Les pellicules argentiques sont traitées par le laboratoire PUBLIMOD 26 rue de Sévigné 75004 Paris (01 4271-6510).

Les images sont scannées par un scanner IMACON Flextight 646.

Pause* est un magazine édité par la société Éditions Riva Gérant/Directeur de la publication : Édouard Dana 16 rue de la Fontaine au Roi 75011 Paris Tél. : 01 40 21 82 00 / Fax : 01 40 21 00 21 Tél. rédaction : 0149 29 72 76 E-mail : benjamin@pauseskatemag.com Service ventes Riva Malika Lavergne E-mail : malika.lavergne@orange.fr Chers Lecteurs, si vous avez du mal à trouver le magazine et souhaitez qu'il soit mis en vente près de chez vous, contactez notre service ventes.

Merci à tous ceux qui apparaissent dans ces pages, ou ont suffisamment cru en ce projet pour le soutenir dès ce premier numéro.

Merci aussi à Seb Charlot, Thomas Campbell, Mark Whiteley, Éric Antoine, Samir Krim, Paul Greenhouse, Gio Estevez, V1 Gallery à Copenhague, Vincent Coupeau, Cosa Nostra, Antiz et Cliché pour l’accueil à Lyon, Chas One et Dan Magee pour les cafés, au Baron-Samedi, aux Blobys d’en bas de chez moi, aux voisins de bureau, Christian, Joselyne, Baptiste, Supermaria et Supergato. Il est temps.

Quentin Sené a souvent la bonne idée, mais ne s’en vante jamais.

Discret mais bien vu ollie up (après la mousse anti-skate) avant de remonter en backside lipslide.

Photo : Benjamin Deberdt.

Teneur

En couverture : Mark Gonzales, toujours là où on ne l’attend pas… Frontside wall ride nollie out, aux alentours de San Francisco.

Photo : Brian Gaberman.

www.pauseskatemag.com

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Mark Whiteley

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« Exergue »

Rédacteur en chef de Slap magazine depuis bien avant le passage au tout digital, Mark a pris le temps de trier ses meilleures photos pour en faire un livre, puis répondre à nos questions sur l’évolution des médias.

Des tricks, tout simplement, avec une idée du où et comment.

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Aller ruoteR

Adrien Bulard Si le jeune saute, il ne fait pas forcément que ça de sa vie.

D’où l’idée d’aller rencontrer ceux dont le nom est sur toutes les lèvres, chez eux, et d’en apprendre un peu plus que leur catalogue de tricks.

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Mark Gonzales Légende vivante, est-ce réellement l’activité la plus facile à vivre ?

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Six Stairs Rick Charnoski et « Buddy » Coan Nichols sont vos réalisateurs préférés, mais vous n’êtes pas au courant…

Hors sujet

Chad Muska La célébrité serait-elle la dernière valeur sûre ?

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Neuf

Scott Bourne Un second livre de poèmes, et une minute de réflexion.

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Trésor

Lisa Jacob, Samuel Partaix, Boris Proust

Un livre, un disque, un film, et toujours une histoire personnelle.

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Nez à nez

Thomas Campbell Fortuites ou prémédités, certaines rencontres sont aussi intéressantes que brèves. Et qui de mieux qu’un vieux compagnon de route pour inaugurer cette rubrique ?

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Chez

Jason Dill Certains n’ont rien à cacher, même pas de meubles !

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Abonnement

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Index

At 33, Mark Whiteley is a man of his times…

As one of those working in the shadow, you might not know his name, but his work is one that makes the difference. But, where, will you ask? At SLAP, the US magazine that has always been the more open to the rest of the world (the first one to put the young Sarmientos, Texeiras and many others on the map…). By one of those unlikely but logical twists of fate, the biggest fan of the magazine joined the staff in 1998, to finally end up as its editor in chief. Probably victim of its constant adventurous spirit in a rather cautious skate world, SLAP will end up, having to be the first one to “go digital”. After sixteen years in newsstands, the mag will publish its last issue in December 2008. To focus on a site, that, because of its forum, often seen as a “last corner of truth” by the ones posting or scanning what’s said there, has turned into a barometer of what the skateboard community expects from its media in 2010. The last months of publication, SLAP was printed at 50 000 copies. The site is now regularly visited by 250 000 persons, and reaches for three millions hits per month.

As for Mark, he just published a book of his pictures, portraits and glimpses of life, roaming from the most infamous skate houses of San Jose to the musicians he has crossed path with. We took a bit of time from this young father of two girls to discuss this personal project, as well as other subjects that matter to him. And who else than long time friend, Scott Bourne, to make him tell the whole story?

Introduction: Benjamin Deberdt.

Questions: Scott Bourne and Benjamin.

« The Pink House in San Jose was literally a huge pink house inhabited by many skaters over the years it was going. Parties were non-stop, couches were constantly being surfed. Eventually the last group got evicted and this was the last day: move out/skate the house party.

Last new resident, Emanuel Guzman f/s noseslides the handrail before the session moved to the couch on the sidewalk. » (This Is Not A Photo Opportunity)

Mark Whiteley

« Louie Barletta is known for being really goofy, laughing hard, and having a good time all the time, so this moment of quiet here is a pretty rare glimpse at the other side of Lou that you don't see much: the thoughtful, grown-up one. He looks like an old sea captain staring off to into the waves. Maybe, it's just the hat. San Jose. » (This Is Not A Photo Opportunity)

« […] The interactivity and relationship you can build with your readers on a website is amazing, but books are sacred as objects »

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For history sake, do you see an importance in staying in print? Whether it be a printed photograph, a book, magazine or something as personal as a posted letter.

Yes, in two terms. Again with the object-quality of something in print: you can share things with other people via the computer very easily, but the computer is like a display of the thing, and not the thing itself. You don’t pass along the computer. Having something physical to pass along to people who come after you is still important. Secondly, archiving of digital information is still in a somewhat infant stage and I worry that things online during this period may get lost, or not be as easy to find or reference, until a better way to organize it is found. All that said, I don’t think digital pictures or stories on the web are any less important than their paper counterparts. Both are just different frames for the thoughts or emotions they contain.

Scott

Scott

Why a book? Don’t you already have a website?

A book because books are beautiful. As a proponent of websites being superior vessels for telling stories to a wide audience in today’s world, and as a daily worker on the website platform, I can say that websites are not beautiful in the same way. Websites have many attributes that I’ve found to help paint a more complete picture, and I think the interactivity and relationship you can build with your readers on a website is amazing, but books are sacred as objects, and with less and less of those objects being made they are becoming more important to have. Websites you experience, books you behold. As a photographer I dreamed of having a book, having that time-honored thing in hand to examine slowly and repeatedly, to place on the shelves amongst those from my artistic heroes, to drown out the noise of the world with. Anybody anywhere can put a photo on a website, and that’s great in a different way, but to have a book published by a publishing house I respect is truly an honor. So, a book because books are beautiful objects, and to stand next to those who have influenced and inspired me in a way that makes me feel connected to them.

« While I really love super close fisheye skate shots à la mid-90s Dawes and Morford, I have also grown to admire how people use fisheyes for wide shots as well, especially Joe Brook.

Showing the environment of a spot is always important to me, and you always get these really interesting intersection of lines that way too. Jason Adams, huge b/s air on an impossibly chunky hand-made quarterpipe in SF. »

« I've been lucky enough to shoot some of Jerry Hsu's most amazing moments. He's got 100% dedication when he's doing something, willing to lose his mind and his body, sometimes at the same time. I like the sense of the impending rollaway down the bank in this, you can almost feel the next 10 seconds coming when you look at it. Huge switch b/s 180 in Oakland. »

Recently I saw The Road, a film based on a Cormac McCarthy novel. In one scene the man pulls out his wallet, looks a picture of his wife, and then throws it off a bridge. Is the author/ film maker, using this scene to make a statement about iPhones, Internet gadgets and the importance of print?

I haven’t seen the movie, though I have read the book. I don’t remember that scene from the book, so maybe I’d have to see it in the movie’s context to read anything like you’re mentioning into it (because as it is, I don't…), but, just at face value, I’d guess he was either just cleanly parting with a past that was no longer accessible or important to his present situation, or it was too painful for him to remember his old life and he didn’t want to be reminded of it anymore.

But say we’re in a normal non-Road scenario, and man has a picture of his wife in his iPhone. Say the wife is gone now, for whatever reason, and the man wants to forget. Hitting the delete button on his phone probably isn’t nearly as final or satisfying as tossing the photo off a bridge. Even tossing the phone off the bridge wouldn’t be as satisfying because you can just get another one and the photos are probably on his laptop at home, anyhow. I have an iPhone and use it daily, but I don’t use it to store anything I can’t replace.

Scott

« Another trip, another hotel room, only one Brian Anderson.

These in-between moments are some of my favorite times to spend with people, when their guard is down, nothing is expected of them, and they can relax.

I love how his arms and hands frame his face here, there's something in it that feels like an old religious painting to me. » (This Is Not A Photo Opportunity)

« Hitting the delete button on his phone probably isn’t nearly as final or satisfying as tossing the photo off a bridge. »

Scott

The book itself has virtually no skateboarding in it, outside of a single silhouette. When I look at it I see a more romantic behind the scenes peek into not only the subject’s lives, but also the photographer’s… Am I being the romantic, or is part of its thesis?

Photography is interesting in a biographical sense, because it undeniably comes from the person behind the camera, and so it speaks of and for them, but, at the same time, it isn’t about them at all because for the photographer it is all about these other things in front of them. I was never trying to write myself into the story, so to speak. It’s definitely not focused on me, at least in how I was thinking about it. It is about my experiences and what I saw, but it’s much more about the people, places and moments than it is about anything else. I’m trying to tell visual stories and imply feelings about other people and things, but I guess in doing that, in how I do it and what I choose to include, it does say a lot about me. That’s interesting to consider.

skateboarding there have been people who I once had on that pedestal who after meeting them became real humans and real friends to me, and in that became something better than a hero to me. There have also been some who I had on that pedestal who’s image shattered and crumbled upon meeting them, saddening me to no end, making me wish I had never met them and could still admire them. After a conversation with you, actually, something you recommended stayed with me and I have implemented it into the navigational tools of my life: “leave a few of the heroes you have not yet met alone.

Let them stay as they are in your brain”. And so I’ve shied away from meeting a few people I’d theoretically love to meet so that some of those feelings from my skateboarding youth can remain untouched. It’s kind of heartbreaking and also kind of hopeful at the same time. So in terms of heroes, the kind of people I hold that type of respect and accord for these days are more real-life people- friends and family who have shown me how to live well. Those are my heroes now.

Scott

Do you still have heroes or has your contact with many of your idols destroyed a media presence that was plain and simply false and how do you deal with not contributing to such a false god?

I don’t think I have true heroes anymore, no. I have people I admire most definitely, people who have profoundly inspired and influenced me, but actual heroes, no. In 19

« A poet, a brute, a lover, a fighter, and, above all else, a live wire. Scott Bourne is a teeming mass of conflict, pain, joy, strife, pleasure, indulgence, resistance. Never a dull moment.

Getting "Unleash or live on a leash" across an already full chest at a friend's house. Shot with a borrowed camera ten minutes after getting the call to come by. I like how his face looks like Kramer's face in the poster behind him. » (This Is Not A Photo Opportunity)

In hindsight is there one thing that inadvertently influenced the way you see a photograph before its taken? Was there something you were definitely trying not to do that was key in developing your present style or eye?

When it comes to photographs of people and places, such as what’s in the This Is Not A Photo Opportunity book, I know part of what I’m doing is trying to put some feeling into the pictures, to try to give a sense of the person or moment I’m experiencing, beyond surface visuals. A good portrait lets you glimpse the subject’s vibe as a person. I want somebody looking at one of my portraits to feel like they are learning something about the subject’s personality, or to feel the emotion of what was happening at the time the photo was taken. Basically I want the person seeing the photo to have an experience that goes deeper than just aesthetics. It doesn’t always happen, but that’s what I aim for.

When it comes to skate photos, I never really gave it much thought, until recently. I’ve been thinking about doing another collection of my photos, this time focusing on skate/ action stuff, and in going through the archives and picking things out that I like I’ve started to notice some things about the way I’ve shot in that realm. With skate photos, a lot of the way I’ve shot was kind of reactionary. When I started shooting skating in earnest, it was around the time of the rise of the Hasselblad fisheye, which to me made everything anybody shot look the same and somewhat bland (at least

Scott

« I got heavily into Nan Goldin's photos for a while, and was praying for dramatic golden light all the time. This last ray of the day's sun on Cairo's face after a session was just what I was waiting for. Gunn High School, Palo Alto. » (This Is Not A Photo Opportunity)

at first, later people figured it out much more). It seemed to take a lot of the personal style of the photographer out, and I felt like that was a big loss, feeling like any photo in most mags could have been shot by any photographer. And so, as I started shooting a lot more skating, I was trying to hearken back to the skate photographers from years earlier who I felt a really strong artistic vibe from, using a mix of 35mm fisheye stuff, cross-processed artsy stuff, and b/w documentary style stuff. Even if it wasn’t the “best” gear to be using, I felt like I could be more expressive and make more interesting images that way. So I was unconsciously trying to keep that older aesthetic going, I guess. It's not like I had this in mind when I was out shooting with people, and it’s definitely not that all of my photos fit in that pen, but it's an idea I do see in the mix.

Really, I just wanted to be around cool skating, the rest of it was just what came in the slipstream.

Scott

As we age and are able to actually ride our skateboards less often, how do you think skating will continue to effect us?

The way skating makes you look at your environment is something that will never go away. I think for the rest of my life I’ll never be able to see a bench, a set of stairs, a bump in the sidewalk —any of these and so many more everyday ordinary things— just for what they are. And that’s so weird.

I’d imagine at 75 years old, I’ll still see a cellar door and think of Bobby Puleo before I think of a place to keep your lawnmower. It just gets so engrained in you that probably even when it’s been years since you skated, if it’s still in your heart, you’ll always have the skater’s eye. That alone will keep us connected to it, or connected to what it meant to us when we were young, and so we’ll stay skaters in our minds forever. Whether we like it or not! Just having that connection to a unique way of viewing the world around us is a positive thing, and we all owe skating a debt of gratitude for handing that to us.

« Omar Salazar is such an excellent combination of raw power, skill, unique style and the thoughtless skate mind, and I don't mean that in a bad way at all. He will see something and just attack it without thinking, sometimes resulting in beautiful conquest, sometimes resulting in beautiful self-destruction.

Regardless, it's always memorable. Wallride to backside tailslide on a bridge above the freeway. Sacramento. »

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« Pro skaters Jerry Hsu, Judd Hertzler, Mike Rusczyk and Tony Cox, all with headwear, somewhere in Alaska. We did a travel article with these guys, and it was one of the most laidback adventures I've ever been on. We had a great time just cruising around, skating when we found something good, and mainly just freewheeling. This is a good example of the state of mind people get in after a long time on tour in a van. » (This Is Not A Photo Opportunity)

Benjamin

To someone who has no idea, how would you describe the diversity of people that make the message board alive and kicking? Any moment you were particularly proud of your Slap Pals?

First, I don’t consider them “mine” in any way… The guys on the forum are fully their own group of people, many of whom were deeply involved with it before I really got in the forum mix. I am simply somebody on the boards who kind of serves as the middle-man on some things, letting them know about what we are doing on the editorial portion of the site, hearing what they are interested in and trying to bring them info and features about it, giving some perspective on some things, and doing a lot of observing. The raw opinions expressed in skateshops across the world have found a place to be heard much more vocally on our forum, and what is said there by real people is too much for some people to take, but for others it is a window into the truth. That’s pretty heavy.

I’ve really grown to enjoy interacting with a lot of the people on the forum, which has been a pleasant surprise. Going into it, I had a dark vision of it because it had become it’s own beast and caused me some real headaches —as it still does from time to time— and I didn’t know much of anything about the people on there, but what I found out is that while it is populated with a bunch of loud-mouth kooks, it is more so populated with a really diverse group of skaters who genuinely care about every facet skateboarding.

The entire globe is represented regularly on the forum, and there are young kids as well as old men on there discussing skating and everything else under the sun. It’s so cool to see somebody start a topic about something as simple as “Hey, I’m trying to travel to this place, where should I stay and eat?” and have people who live there help them out. It’s a true community, and that’s its brightest spot.

In a conversation about the Internet and the magazine now being an online daily of sorts, you once described the World Wide Web to me as The Wild West could you elaborate on that idea?

Right now, the internet is wild. There are no real rules, and nobody there to really enforce them if they were in place.

Lots of people are wearing masks and there aren't many sheriffs in town. Each pocket of the internet creates it’s own code of conduct and it’s up to the people in each online community to police themselves as to what’s OK and what’s not. And there’s not much agreement. People are just kind of doing whatever they want, without much regard to real property or intellectual property or what’s good or bad for other people. So there’s a lot of room to run wild right now, and some people will use that for good and some people will use that for bad. Sometimes it’s frustrating and sometimes it’s inspiring. I imagine one day that will all change and the internet police will crack down and a lot of what goes on today will become illegal and things might be better in some ways but they might not be as entertaining or informational and a lot of freedoms will be lost. The internet is one of the last places where you do have a lot of freedom to be totally open and not always worry about the consequences, and that empowers a lot of people but it also creates a lot of havoc. It’s wide open, and it just depends on the kind of person you are as to what you choose to do with those freedoms and opportunities.

Scott

Benjamin

Slap was the first major magazine to go from print to web only. Was it a major shift for you? Now that the change is established, how are you feeling about it, and what would be the most positive sides to the digital format?

A massive shift, both mentally and functionally. We had no idea how to do it, but we were up for the challenge. SLAP has always been down to try new things that hadn’t been done.

We, as a magazine, have a pretty stout adventurous spirit.

We dove in and made it happen. It’s been just over a full year now, and even in that time it’s evolved a lot. I’ve had to learn what works for a website as opposed to what works for a magazine, and adapt to that, as well as adapt to what people want out of SLAP, in this age. Growing up reading SLAP, and then making it myself with that original spirit and vibe in mind for so long, it’s been hard to allow it to change, but necessary. And I think we’ve done a lot of great work in the past year. Having the whole world of video and audio open up to us on top of what we were already doing with photos, words, and design has really allowed us to tell stories in a different and more complete way. I love all the options we have now: traditional mag-style articles, plus video stories, audio stories, immediate and interactive things with the people on the forum, just any way you can think of to get across info to people is now available, and we’re trying to make use of them all. I love magazines and books for different reasons, but I do feel that what we have happening with the SLAP site is, in many ways, the future. We might be fumbling around with it a little too early for a lot of skaters, but I think it’s the right thing to be doing.

This Is Not A Photo Opportunity is published by Gingko Press www.gingkopress.com And you can find Mark Whiteley hard at work on www.slapmagazine.com

« The raw opinions expressed in skateshops across the world have found a place to be heard much more vocally on our forum. »

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Adrien Bulard

Aller ruoteR

The idea was to spend a couple days to meet Rouen’s scene,

and amongst the other locals, see what Adrien Bulard was about on his home turf… That was forgetting about the infamous odd point on the curve: Adrien, himself.

The day starts almost early (14h30) in front of Bud, the local institution. Arnaud Bremard is going to play hype man, guide, veteran and driver all at once. Not bad for one man, but Arnaud is always willing to skate, and has spots nobody has ever seen before. Not bad for a full time bank clerk that lives 110 kilometers away.

This is when Adrien appears, at the end of the cobblestone street, riding his moped in cut off jeans… The season is still nice, but rumor has it that Adrien has cut every single one pair of trousers he owns, and some wonder what will happen when winter will finally hit. He seems to have other things to worry about, including setting up a board. Which is going to see hell real soon.

By Benjamin Deberdt

Nouveau trick et nouveau spot.

Backside 360 comme ce n'est pas possible.

First spot for our unlikely caravan (the Brazilian transplant, Wolnei Dos Santos has joined us) is a sharp turn right after a train track tunnel, bordered by a steep cobblestone bank. The idea is do tricks into it, from the roughly asphalted platform of a parking lot that tops it all. Arnaud and Adrien go at it, Adrien opting for a backside bigspin, meaning he’s landing fakie and blindsided in between some tree roots and a manhole. His nonchalance is well known, but seeing him throw himself into the bank without an idea of where he’s going is quite astonishing. His trick landed in a full asleep at the wheel mode, he runs up the other side of the tree, to look at a possible tail drop. Wolnei and the others are dubious, as the landing is way worse on this side. This is when Adrien decides the actual thing to do is roll on the wide as a board ledge to ollie into the bank!

He doesn’t even worry about a lens being pointed at him while he tries it. He’s feeling like it, therefore just goes with it!

Just when everybody begins to feel this is a rather good start for the day, Adrien remembers that he’s actually supposed to hop on a train tomorrow morning to reach Bordeaux and enter a contest. As the day is quite advanced, already, the general mood turns grim… And grimmer when Adrien’s board lands at the bottom of little canal running alongside some tiled bank spot. A rather perfect pop shove-it 360 gone wrong… Adrien is bummed, but wants some more.

When the strange option of going to “warm up” at the skatepark makes us drive through a charming industrial area, along the Seine, the conversation switches to graffiti, a newest passion for Adrien. An infatuation that reaches its paroxysm when the name Bite is pronounced. A name repeatedly written all other the area… Those graphic feats put our co-pilot to unexpected joy, to the point where he starts imagining the different steps that could lead him to “fuck it all up like Bite”: stocking spray paint, learning to draw, then reclaiming those streets… The self-named Bite not having a Wikipedia page, I am not able to tell you more about the character, but keep in mind he is a major inspiration for Adrian. [An interesting side note for our foreign readers is that Bite actually stands for Cock in French language]

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When finally turning around the corner of the park’s building, we stumble upon a full on spray paint session! Disappointment: a quick glance ensures us Bite is not up in this piece. We still enjoy the show, amongst other attentive observers, in a mood that could be qualified as heavily “testosteroned”… Some cars pull in and out, as Graff colleagues come to check out the work being done, in a deathly silence only rhythmed by sporadic “cli-cli-cli”. Adrien finally pushes the door of the park…

He is clearly home, but the session quickly turns to unreality.

The long double-set, known to have no run up, is dwarfed with a couple backside 360. A trick he learned a couple days ago, allegedly. And it’s already time to backside nosebluntslide the long round rail and break a ply of his board. Back and forth, and it’s landed perfectly. Feeling rather “warmed up”, we head out, back in the Bremard-mobile.

Adrien and his buddy guide us toward a perfect red rail. At least, that’s the plan, as we try to avoid traffic jams. As the debate on the values of the said rail advances, its shape and form modify in our heads. If it maintains its color, the number of stairs varies from 7 to 15, while its height makes it perfect for a backside lipslide, or a spot to try a manly 50-50. In the mirror, I can see Arnaud’s eyes widening, as well as a little vein pulsing more and more visibly on his temple…

A couple wheel serves later, here we are facing the rail. It is red, sitting in between two buildings parking lots. Made of gravel. A slightly thicker gravel at the landing. You could also state that it is very high, but it does not really matter…

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The discussion turns to the advantages and inconveniences of spots that nobody has actually ever skated, to turn to a double-set recently spotted. Let’s go!

This one does exist also, but its skatability is more evident.

Nothing perfect, either, apart from its size. The run-up implies a sharp turn just before popping, on a ground that rolls really well, but does not forgive anything else. Adrien could care less, he’s already ollieing it, hitting his tail on the last stair for lack of speed… He’s already back up, rotating the called 360.

A few heads pop up from an upstairs terrace. The spectators wont have much to wait to witness Adrien’s very first street backside 360.

After that one, it’s difficult to refuse him a ride back to the park and his moped, where his friends are waiting to celebrate. Unless he feels like skating there some more. Probably a mix of both! While Arnaud and I wave good-bye, a scream informs us Adrien has left his phone on the ground, next to the double-set…

Ollie, sans élan, et sans réfléchir non plus.

By Benjamin Deberdt (unless stated).

Mark Gonzales As he sees fit…

M

ark Gonzales likes words… But seems to prefer toying with them, a Sharpie in hand, and his dyslexia slung over his shoulder.

Probably tired of answering the same questions over and over, from one magazine to the next blog. And this might be where being a legend reaches the boring point…

Because, even when you lead a life as free and creative as Mark does, you still only have one to tell! And, Mark, as a professional skateboarder since he was 15 has had many occasions to tell his life…

Some days can’t go wrong, just by the crew you’re rolling with: Seb Daurel, Will Agnès, Julien Bachelier, Lem Villemin and Mark! After ollieng the Créteil blocks first go, way past the 40

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years old mark, it was time to hit the brick banks near by. The cracks there can be more than treacherous, and a casper is definitely not the first trick that comes to mind.

I won’t replay the movie where, along Natas Kaupas, that guy invents skateboarding in the streets, or, more so, with the streets. Before those two, you were going from one point to another, or at least trying to. Or you were doing tricks in a space as much devoid of variables as possible.

Never the two at the same time. Mark, poor kid from Los Angeles, having to skate long distances to reach the skateparks where he could replicate the tricks from his idols —the concrete park skaters of the 80’s— would end up developing a synthesis of both his dreams and his reality, paving the way for all the others, until now.

A now that sees him still as active, in a sphere that forgets so fast usually.

Which says a lot on the power of fascination he has. Which also leads us to wonder how many interviews our phenomenon must have answered during all those years… Too many, probably.

In order to spice things up a bit, for him and for you, I had passed the word that we had enough photos of Mark toying with his board to interfere with his life, one of a young dad but also one of an “old” legend always ready to get off his pedestal to hit the streets, often quite literally and head first… « What question would you like to ask Mark Gonzales? »

Brian Gaberman

The idea seemed rather good, but neglected the fact that we do forget quite fast, and keep on asking the same questions over and over. To the same persons. The end result was not as expected, and definitely not the in-depth interview I had planned. But, then again, the life and career of Mark Gonzales have been heavily documented, and you’ll find them dissected on various sites obsessed with the past (which, let’s be frank, I am an avid reader of, just as you are!)…

So, let’s speak more of a snapshot of the still hectic life of Mark Gonzales, recently relocated from New-Zealand to New York, where he’s been living for many years now, and where he keeps on drawing his own path, slaloming around the rules, while trying to keep that freedom that he can states himself as his weak point.

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That customized ditch is located near San Francisco, and belongs to the rough grounds type. Mark took a fall that would have sobered up quite a few, but kept on skating, while blood dripped along his businessman socks.

After that nosepick, he borrowed a BMX from a local kid, and attacked the same spot with it!

Ph : Brian Gaberman

It’s late in Paris, when a ring indicates that Mark is trying to reach me, through the net. When his face pops up on the screen, I sensed he’s not in chatty mood…

I quickly explain people he knows, and also strangers, have sent me questions for him, and proceed to ask them…

Christian Roth

I'd like to know what made you pick up a skateboard. How did you get started?

My uncle did it, so I got into it like that…

What year was that, then?

I’m not sure. I’m 41, now. [turning to his girlfriend] Am I 42 or 41?

I’m 41.

Scott Bourne

How old were you, then?

Hmm, seven.

Who was the first person that you ever idolized on a skateboard?

Mark Richards, the surfer. And Jerry Lopez. Even though it wasn’t skateboarding, I idolized them. I thought they were cool!

Did you ever surf, actually?

No! [Laughter] So, what made those guys cool in your eyes? Where would you see them, actually?

In magazines, riding big waves.

Did you live by the beach in Los Angeles, then?

No!

Jérémie Daclin

What's your favorite French meal?

I’m not sure…

Did he ever try to make you eat some strange French recipe? He always does that…

Yeah, cold snails!

Cold ones? That’s a strange one… Did you like it?

No, I didn’t like it! [Laughter]

Jérémie Daclin Tim O'Connor

You're almost the first one and one of the last , why?

I have no idea!

What your worst injury from skateboarding has ever been?

Broken collarbone.

From skateboarding? Where and when was that?

In Fresno, at the airport, I run into a pole. I was tying my shoes while skating and I run into a pole…

When we finally got kicked out of this round-about by a police patrol, their main point was respect for the sculpture, followed by the punch line: “I know it’s hard to believe, but it is art!”

If even the police can’t seem to believe it…

Anyway, along the sketchy runup and the steepness of the bank, Mark ended up being the only one with a trick at this spot, with this frontside ollie.

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Wait, you never had any other major injury over all those years?

No…

Billy Rohan

Have you ever landed the bike kickflip?

Not yet. I’d like to try it on a mountain bike, but I don’t think I’m going to make it, though… I gave up.

What do you think you’d need, a bike of a certain size?

No, I just can’t do it!

You think someone will ever land it?

Hopefully they’ll do it like on a skateboard, you know, make it flip similar to a skateboard flip.

So, kicking it with your foot…

Yeah, and bunny hopping, not off a ramp, or off a launch.

From flatground.

Mexico City, Distrito Federal.

This was the first spot Mark eyed while rolling to a more evident one. First drawn to it by the sculpture with no rigth hand, he sensed the potential of the kicker by blasting out this early grab. Then, the idea of a backside 360 ollie popped up, leading to some gruesome slams. Mark gave up with his palms skin broke out. He has a phobia of anything lying on the ground.

We were good for a quick trip to the pharmacy…

The helmet was mandatory to even enter the high-security compound of the Paris skatepark. We came to check out the concrete bowl there, but a quick eyeing was all it got. A feeble revert on a long rounded handrail later, Mark borrowed my board to hit the BMX Wall and throw that screeching frontside thruster.

Bobby Puleo

What happened to you in that clip in Video Days where you’re coffining through traffic in downtown L.A. and you’re on the left hand side of a car that's about to make a left hand turn? It looks like you’re surly going to get run over but then the clip just ends.

[Laughter] It’s a mystery!

Bobby will love that, he’s all about mysteries…

Buddy Nichols

What was the best year in skateboard history and why?

I have no idea…

Buddy Nichols

Who is the coolest skater ever and why?

Whoever can ride one is cool!

Buddy Nichols

Why do you still skate?

It pays the rent.

Buddy Nichols

If you ran into Jean Michel Basquiat walking down the street what would you say to him?

Where are you going?

Buddy Nichols

Who is cooler, Julien Stranger or Julien Schnabel?

Julian Schnabel…

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Mark’s girlfriend is from New Zealand. They spend a few months a year on this land so far away that nobody really ever recalls it, apart from remembering Lee Ralph, maybe.

Mark actually regrouped with his former Vision teammate there, and they sometimes go for a skate. No info on if Lee skates with shoes on, nowadays, though…

Mexico City, again, on an “official” spot this time. And with the “tank board” as some refer it to!

Nobody seems to know where Mark has found that board, but it does have proper concave, tail and nose. Everything you could need to do a kickflip on a steep bank that gave a hard time to everybody else that day.

Gio Estevez

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Despite scorching heat, Mark kneeboarded that vert ramp on the tank board, while warped up in a winter jacket. Everybody was boiling just by looking at him. On the other hand, when it came time to boost a frontside boneless over the channel, no one could imagine what it’d feel like.

Ph : Brian Gaberman

Compared to having their own way of speaking… Do you When I met you, you were visiting Jeremy Henderson in think it’s a good or bad thing?

New York, in the early 90’s. Don’t you think the city has Indifferent! [Laughter] changed a lot, since? His neighborhood was really crazy back then…

Gio Have been drawing done drawing with your son?

It’s the same, but more global now, though… New York Estevez No, I don’t draw him. I never draw him… used to have a more ethnic feel to it, but now, it’s more No, he meant drawing with him. I think he’s asking for an global. With the internet, and all the information that can exhibition of you and William together. go quicker, it’s more global. It’s ethnic still, but most of the No. [Laughter] people speak more of a universal language. There is less of a New York accent. People are changing to a global accent, Matt What would be the first thing you did if you could be 16 compared to when they had an East Coast accent, a New Irving again?

Jersey accent, or a New York accent. Before New York was Wanting to be 17! coming to a whole different country, now it’s the same as coming to Paris, especially with the skateboarders because Matt What does New York offer to you that nobody would be they all go on the chat lines, so everybody is talking to each Irving aware of ?

I like the car services. other the same way.

Mark had the Circle Board idea, back in the Blind days. He has built a couple ones over the years, and has mastered it enough to ride it back home through the streets of Paris, after an art performance at the TrocadĂŠro during sunset.

Clubbers and street sweepers

that came for the view got an extra dose of surrealness that morning. This thing is probably one of the most dangerous things on wheels humans ever invented.

Matt Irving Jahmal Williams Olly Todd Alexis Zavialoff

How has being a Dad changed your life?

I’m more cautious now, in general.

What music have you been listening to, these days?

The Staple Singers.

Who's your favorite rapper?

Old Dirty Bastard, cause he sounds crazy.

What is your favorite word in Spanish, Mark? And why?

Guapo. I don’t know, it sounds funny!

You know it means handsome, right?

No, I just like how it sounds.

Fos

Mathias Thomer

If Krooked and Real didn’t exist anymore, who would you be sending sponsor me tapes to?

Cliché!

What is the feeling that you feel when you step on a board, that never change over time? And why?

I always want to feel off balance. I’m always balanced, so I want to feel off balance.

I wanted to ask you about the Krook3D video, is it really going to be all 3D? Yeah.

How do you do that? Is that a special camera, or software?

I’m not sure how it’s going to work, we are still working on it.

That’s something you’ve been doing more lately, videos, I saw that video you’ve done for Masson Jennings, how did that come along?

It’s just for fun… My friend has a song, I like the song and I make a video for it…

As I start asking him about the circle board session in Paris, Mark cuts me out…

Is that good enough? I’m kind of over it…

A quick promise to ring me back later, Mark has hung up. We’ll miss each other a few times in the following days, which, in the end, does not really matter. Mark has many, many other things to do, and discussing them is not on the top of his list.

So, enjoy what he has to offer, every time you get the chance. It makes it all more precious, and probably more fun, also.

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Rick Charnoski et Buddy (Coan Nichols) sont

Rick Charnoski and « Buddy » Coan Nichols are

B

uddy and Rick. Rick and Buddy. You will rarely hear one’s name without the other’s right after…

Quasi inseparable, if you are a bit of a traveler yourself, you will have, most likely, crossed their path, a camera in hand. Deep in an empty swimming pool somewhere in Los Angeles’s No Man’s Land. In a recording studio of Kingston, Jamaica. By a freezing winter day in the middle of Central Park, in New York. Or traveling through Europe, with no goal, nor money to pay for their rental car…

Always hunting for transitions, as steep as possible, Rick and Buddy, Buddy and Rick, are also looking for stories. The ones they’ll want to tell you, after.

As this is all about one thing: true stories… Of skaters, most of the times closer to you or me than the latest super hero proclaimed by the profession. Just humans they have met and found interesting. A documentary process, then, to which Six Stair, their production company created in Los Angeles in 2003, has stayed true to, until now, even when working for outside projects in fashion or for Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park (the dream scenes are theirs…). Until their latest production, Deathbowl to Downtown, or the impossible tale to tell —the skateboarding history of New York City— that came out in 2009… And, mostly, until Blood Shed, a Z-rated B-side (or do we say “bonus” nowadays?) for Hesh Law, the Creature skateboards production, and their first betrayal of truth, as it is a fully scripted horror short.

You will not learn how to make pieces of zombie flesh, or how to survive to a month long camping trip across Australia with the full Anti-Hero team (yes, they did Tent City, also!), but the following pages will get you a better idea of this unconventional duo. Hey, cinema should keep a bit of mystery, no, if the magic is long gone?

Buddy and Rick, Rick and Buddy, two personalities rather different, as you’ll find out, but that work together perfectly. Keep an eye on their work, you won’t regret it…

By Benjamin Deberdt.

Blood Shed making-of pictures: Brendan Klein.

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Buddy didn’t like me at first. It was hard for him to deal with my strange skin color and shape of head… So, it was rough in the beginning, then, we clicked and began rolling pretty free. It was an organic experience… We never tried, or had too many expectations. It was all free-flow action.

Buddy

What made you interested in filming, at the very beginning?

I started getting interested in shooting video back in the early 90's when I moved to Spain, and met Fernando Elvira.

He was doing really cool stuff with video and he showed me how fun it could be.

Buddy

Really, I had no idea about you knew Ferdi! When was that, and what were you doing there?

I moved to Spain in 1993 to teach English at one of those language academies you guys have all over Europe, and, luckily, ended up right outside Bilbao in the same town Ferdi lived in. I actually met Thomas Campbell there, first. He was staying in a squat with Ferdi and he introduced us. Javier Mendizabal was just a little 15-year-old kid at the time, and he was already an insane skater, though. When I met Ferdi, he turned me on to so many things. He is one of the best people in the world and an amazingly talented dude.

Buddy

Did you get started with Super 8 cameras right away, and for what reason? Availability or a conscious style decision?

I got my first Super 8 camera because it was cheap to buy and I couldn't afford a video camera. Once I watched the first roll of film I shot I was hooked. Film is cool and you never know exactly what you're going to get when you shoot Super 8. So it started out as availability, but it turned very quickly into a conscious style choice.

For our younger readers, can you describe what is a Super 8 camera, and what is the process involved in using one?

A Super 8 camera is an old consumer quality film camera that was popular throughout the 1960's and 70's. The format basically died in 1982 when the portable video camera was introduced. Using them is a bit of a pain in the ass, because you only get three minutes per roll and then you have to develop it and, then, transfer it to video. Nowadays, all

Buddy

Buddy

Rick

Buddy

Could you give us a quick rundown of both of you guys’ history?

My name is Coan Nichols, but everyone calls me “Buddy”. I grew up skating, first, in Boston and, then, moved to Portland, in Oregon for high school. I got into skating when I was a kid because my older brother skated. I think I am having as much fun skating now as ever…

I came here from Mars, in 1952. I just kinda ended up here by accident, and, then, found out about punk rock and skateboarding, and that was it! Philadelphia and NYC were first, now L.A… I’m always looking up at night for friends in the sky.

Rick actually grew up in Pennsylvania right between New York and Philly. He grew up skating backyard ramps and even had his own for a while. His brother is a rad skater as well! Rick has been into shooting and making videos forever: He can be seen holding a Super 8 camera in an old Bones Brigade video at a ramp contest after Tony Hawk does a McTwist! When we originally met in 1990, we were both on skate trips from opposite sides of the country, but, a few years later, we met back up in New York and we had both started getting more serious about making videos. We were still skating, so we started hanging out and helping each other with projects and, then, I got Rick working on some TV production, and, then, we were working together. This gave us time to talk about film ideas and that's when we came up with the idea of making our first film together about skating in backyard pools. We were both interested in making a film about an underground side of skating. This was when the X-Games had started and skating was starting to go more mainstream. After a few months of planning, we hit the road for three months, and shot our first film.

Rick

Deberdt.

« Basically, we interviewed about hundred people, mostly skaters but also historians, city planners, architects, etc… »

Andy Kessler, who passed away in 2009, was a member of the Zoo York Crew long before it was turned into a brand, many years later. Wall ride, deep in the Meat Packing District of Manhattan, in 1977.

Ph : Shelley Seccomme.

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B u d dy, f r o n t s i d e g r a b over a real love seat. 2010.

Ph : Gabe Morford.

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Buddy

Explain the projects you were involved in, until you decided to work on the New York documentary?

Collectively we have been involved in tons of projects before Deathbowl to Downtown. Fruit of the Vine was our first film together. It’s about skating in backyard pools. Northwest was about building and skating concrete parks in Oregon and Washington states. Tent City was made with Anti Hero on a month long trip to Australia. We also made a film with the band Pearl Jam called Vote for Change and we also did some smaller projects and also a few collections, etc… You can check out our website to see clips from all these films.

Rick

together, it costs about $90 per three minutes of footage. So, it is a pain in the ass and expensive. The good part is that it teaches you discipline and there isn't so much crap to edit!

I remember you speaking, in an interview, about how the sponsored/pro thing is always pushed in the skateboard media, but only apply to 1% of the skaters, if not less. You want to elaborate on that?

That's funny that you remember that… I always say that when people ask about our films. Just like there is more to skating than the actual tricks down the stairs, there are more people who skate than the two hundred or so pros. I love watching regular skate videos and I have no problem watching the best skaters in the world being showcased for what they do, but that is a very small part of the whole world of skateboarding.

When working on a subject you do know inside out, like skating, do you come up with a storyline first or just start filming?

Knowing every second of film does cost money…

Either way. Sometimes, we have an idea and set out to tell a story and other times its just shoot, shoot, shoot and then make something in the edit room. We don't have too many rules.

Buddy

September 11th had a big impact on skating, as it made a lot of downtown spots unskatable first, then heavily guarded, but that time period is not mentioned in the movie. Is this still a time too touchy to really investigate?

It’s not touchy. It was just too much for us: we were trying to explain the evolution of skating in the city, not really tell a complete history of every year. Basically, we interviewed about hundred people, mostly skaters but also historians, city planners, architects, etc… Out of those interviews, there were about twenty stories/themes that almost everyone mentioned. Those were the stories we told in the film. If you see the film, you will notice that every story builds on the

Rick

Rick

Rick

Buddy

Now that the documentary is out, what kind of feedback have you been getting from the locals?

We have gotten lots of positive feedback from New Yorkers and also some negative, which is fine too… Maybe there is more negative stuff we don't hear about, but I think the overall vibe is that people were stoked that it was done.

I think people liked it. I’m not sure, though… I hope not.

« By the way, she said she’d never watch it because she hates her voice. » Buddy

Rick

Buddy

Indeed, the NYC scene is not necessarily the easiest to “infiltrate”! Was it difficult to navigate in between so many generations and crews?

NYC is difficult for sure, in many ways… We had both lived there for years and, between us, we knew good people from every generation. We certainly didn't know everyone but had a good knowledge of the scene. The different generations have different points of view, just like in any scene, and different things they felt were important, so it was hard trying to balance giving equal time to all eras.

It wasn’t that difficult. It was just difficult getting the enthusiasm sometimes to go bang on doors, like a vacuum cleaner salesman.

Buddy

Buddy

What made you pick the New York skate history as a subject, the actual place or the possibilities the subject offered?

At first, it was just a short little thing someone asked us to do, for a screening… Then, we got into it and decided to tell the evolutionary process that skateboarding has gone through, but tell the story from New York instead of the obvious choice, which would be California. It was not easy…

Buddy

Buddy

On a lighter note, how did the Chloë Sevigny connection happen, actually?

We decided we wanted a female narrator because almost every person interviewed in the film is a dude… We figured it would be nice on the ears, and stand out a bit, if a woman did the story telling narration. Chloë's connection to the scene was that she knew lots of skaters from the Kids days [The 1995 Larry Clark movie which casted about all the NYC skate scene of that time]. I think Rick just called her up and asked her. She asked a few questions and then said: “yes”.

She was totally down, and was really easy to work with.

I just called her and met up with her for a drink, and she said she was down. She really helped us out and work well with our words. Thanks to Chloë for being so cool! By the way, she said she’d never watch it because she hates her voice. It’s such a bummer cause otherwise she’d dig it. Oh, well…

What drives you guys to the documentary format?

Personally, I have always enjoyed documentaries and Verité story telling. It’s fun to start with nothing and tell a story based on what you can find.

I always thought fact was more interesting than fiction.

Now, I’m going the other way, hence Blood Shed.

Buddy

When you started Deathbowl to Downtown, did you know from the beginning you were going for a lengthy project? How long did it take, actually, in the end?

We started with the plan of spending six months on the "New York Movie" as we called it, and then it slowly escalated. It was originally only going to go from 1975 to the mid 1980's or something, but it just got out of hand. We ended up covering the entire evolution of skating and spending about three years making the film.

last one, making it into an evolution.

It was handled in more of a general way with the “Changes In The City” chapter. We could have gone there, for sure, but we had to choose our battles and know that whatever direction you go, you got to make it connect and mean something, and be relative to the story. So, we just let it get lost in the “The City Today” area.

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Another staple of the New-York scene that recently died: Harold Hunter, switch frontside heel flip, may 1996. One of the golden ages of the city, which would propel East Coast style skateboarding across the planet. Ph : Deberdt.

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« Narrative work is pure imagination and creativity…

Basically, it’s like playing god, in a small way. »

Rick

Rick

I read you filmed everything with no permits whatsoever. How do you get away with that, in L.A., where cinema is just the main industry and therefore super regulated?

I didn’t want permits, for the street scenes. I wanted to go raw and see what happened. It was so fucking rad running around making it all happen on the fly.

We have always gone renegade style with the stuff we shoot, just going for it, and hoping for the best. If the cops come and shut you down, just move to the next block and continue: it’s just like skating! Have you ever asked a permit to skate a spot that's a bust?

Buddy

Buddy

So, how did Blood Shed, a full scripted short film, happen, then?

Was it your idea to go for some different outlet, or an opportunity you ran with?

That was Rick's baby… He had wanted to do that story forever [The script is based on Operation Infiltration, a fiction written by Mofo for the November 1981 issue of Thrasher] and Creature had been asking us to do something with them for a while… One day, it dawned on us that this was the perfect opportunity to do this film.

I was ready to start writing weird shit… More fictions, and imaginative stories. Bloodshed was the first chance to fuck with that. It was like starting from scratch, in a lot of ways.

Dealing with a crew, actors and sets… It was fun. I just want to continue and make movies, and better movies.

Buddy

How did you know the guys from Creature? From skating pools?

The Creature guys are dudes we skate with regularly anyway… I have known those dudes from the vert ramps days: Darren, Sam, Al and Cranny are all good buddies.

Rick

Buddy

What’s the main difference in the filming process when you are doing a project like Blood Shed compared to a docu thing?

A narrative like Blood Shed requires tons of work before you even start shooting, where a documentary requires tons of work after you shoot… It’s the difference of putting the whole story together first for a narrative, and putting the story together after for a documentary.

Here’s my theory: documentary work is trying to tell a story that already exists, using content that already exists, and if a part of the story doesn’t physically exists, you need to invent ways of telling the story, and do it creatively and in such a way that it connects and keep the viewer interested. It’s like a game. Narrative work is pure imagination and creativity…

Basically, it’s like playing god, in a small way. Everything you want happens, and there’s a crew of people running around trying to make it all work. It’s a huge responsibility and you need to deliver a good film, so that everyone feels like their hard work was worth it.

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« So, really, you're just watching a big ad […] »

Buddy

Rick

That’s interesting! What projects are you working on, this year?

Are you going back to more docu stuff, or trying to expand in other directions?

I’m making a surf movie out of someone’s Super 8 archives, from the 70’s. A skate film for Vans. Some work on Cameron Crowe’s Pearl Jam documentary. That’s what we have now.

It’s gonna be busy.

Webisodes…

Buddy

[Laughter] Is that the future of humanity, webisodes?

I am going to go out on a limb and say that the internet is here to stay!

Call it webisodes or online videos, whatever, soon the TV will become the computer and vice versa. There will not be a distinction between the two. Good: get rid of one piece of electronic crap in the living room! It doesn't matter if you are watching stuff off a projector, or a TV, or a computer, cool shit is cool. I like projectors, but that’s not too practical…

Actually, how difficult in these days of “everything should be available for free on the net” to get the money to produce films?

Is making documentaries worse or better, on that subject?

It’s just like taxes! No one wants to pay for shit that they think they can get for free, but everyone knows nothing is free. If you don't pay taxes, then your street doesn't get fixed and, one day, you’ll run over a big pothole and you’ll have to pay for your car to get fixed. If you don't pay for content, then you get to watch crappy content that is made to sell you some product, so, really, you're just watching a big ad, and you learn nothing and you become a robot that can be easily controlled by the man. Nothing is really free. But, yes it is hard to get paid these days, but people are figuring it out…

Buddy

Buddy

Rick

Actually, I have… What would be your favorite horror movies and for what reasons I like old horror classics. Hitchcock, off course is the most obvious choice. I like crappy old horror films, but never really had much of a thing for horror particularly. I just like blood.

I am not a big horror movie guy.

Buddy

Oh, where does the Six Stair name come from? Is that your personal ollie record?

[Laughter] Actually there is a set of stairs across the street from our studio that is a six stair and we named the company after it… But it is a joke. The name of our company is super confusing to people who don't skate. It’s Six Stair and no one knows what the hell it means…

You can get a better idea of those two’s work on their site, where you’ll find more than five hours worth of viewing pleasure. www.sixstair .com 50

Rick, frontside grind in the deepest of a Los Angeles pool.

Ph : Klein.

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Thomas Campbell Nez

à nez

Thomas is one of those long time friends, the kind you don’t cross path with every other day, but always enjoy reuniting with, when things align…

As he’s not the kind to stay still.

As a young buck at Transworld magazine, he was in charge of interviewing the difficult cases, like Julian Stranger or Karma Tsoecheff! Always scoping scenes and talents far from his Californian roots, he’d be the one announcing the likes of JB Gillet, Stéphane Larance and many other Europeans in the pages of magazines then totally focused around what was going on at a certain brick plaza in San Francisco.

A painter about to hit a wider recognition, he grabbed a 16mm camera in 1996, for the first time, and realized A Love Supreme, for the renown NewYork skateshop, a video whose 16 minutes are a cult classic to these days.

Before definitely getting bored of carrying a giant photo bag, he’d participate in re-launching Skateboader Magazine, the following year.

Since, he has been focusing on his art career, while also deciding to apply his film envy to another childhood love: surfing. Sprout, The Seedling and recently The Present have contributed to breath fresh air into a dying counterculture. And, when he wasn’t traveling the world, searching for waves to capture on films, he was sessioning the quarterpipe lying in front of the little bit of paradise he lives in, overseeing Santa Cruz…

But, it seems like Thomas might be back… Where? Well, amongst us! Still skateboarding, off course, but also interested in adding another chapter to our story. So, while he was in Copenhagen, installing an exhibition at V1 Gallery, we went to ask him what he had been up to! Oh, and we also begged him to draw our logo…

By Benjamin Deberdt.

So, what was that strange beast you were building when I arrived in Copenhagen?

Woody ? It’s kind of a play on creatures I’ve been drawing for a while, and it’s been something brewing in the back of my head for years. Alex Kopps came to Copenhagen to help me doing some assistant work, and shoot a little film he made for Gravis about that show. I was trying to think of a project of some sculpture that he could build the structure for, and I would take care of the detailed stuff. So, I figured this was something that could be done in the time we had allowed, which was ten days. It was pretty challenging, actually.

Making skateboard ramps is how we made the structure for it, making ribbings, and transitions. Yes, if it wasn’t from the experience of building skateboard ramps, while growing up, I don’t think I wouldn’t have been able to think about it so easily. Which wasn’t that easy at all, actually! [Laughter] So, we could say that this is what you’ve been doing since you disappeared from the skateboard world radar, concentrating on your art?

OYeah, pretty much, just working on art works and exhibitions. Doing that, and I also made three surf documentary feature films. I worked in skateboarding for… I started skateboarding in 1974. I started making zines in 1983, then I started working for Transworld in 1986 or 87, and I worked all the

way to 1998 where I was the photo editor for Skateboarder, and at that time it had been so much time documenting skateboarding, that I just wanted to go skateboarding.

Not wanting to be the guy at the bottom of the stairs dealing with people freaking out, which at that time was fashionable, to totally lose your mind [Laughter] when you’re not making something… I’m sure it still happens, but you know what I am talking about, right?

At that time, people thought it was cool to lose their mind, so I wasn’t too much into that, and I wanted to go skateboarding…

And just have fun…

Yeah, I still skateboard…

I was going to ask you about the quarterpipe in front of your house, you’ve learned or relearned any new trick on it?

Oh… Peter McBride [former Santa Cruz pro] made me a little quarterpipe for my 40th birthday and it’s about 1 ½ foot high and it’s called the Wusspipe, for the Forty and Over Club. The rad thing is about it is that the transition and coping are just about so you can do anything on it. And in about 20 minutes, on this, I could probably do every trick I ever did on a skateboard, but as far as learning anything new… [Laughter] I don’t know!

Any trick you thought was really gone that came back on this?

Honestly, I could do any trick I’ve ever done: blunt disasters, frontside 5-0 to tail, sweepers, I don’t know… [Laughter] Actually the best thing to do on it is a frontside pivot. But, the people that shredded it the most are Peter McBride and Rip [Japanese photographer made famous by the Super Champion Fun Zone video]. They probably took it apart the hardest. Rip is sick! I think Peter did a backside noseblunt backside revert. I don’t know how you do that! [Laughter] I don’t know either… [Laughter] Speaking about the freak-outs that bothered you when you were still a skateboard photographer, any good story that you might recall? Some moment you felt really embarrassed being there, or something? Give us some names!

No, I don’t want to give any names…

That means they are still around! [laughter] They’re not, I just don’t care… I think at that time, what happened is I went through it and I thought, I’d rather go skateboarding and do some other things. That’s kind of what happened with surfing, also. I documented it for that amount of time, and now I don’t feel like I have anything more that I want to document. I’d rather go surfing than being on the beach, filming. Actually, as far as being inspired in wanting to document skateboarding, again, I did work on videos then, I worked on the SMA Debunker video, 54

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and I made this small film for Supreme, so I did shoot a little bit of moving pictures of it, like when I did that little movie for Tommy Guerrero’s music, Ear Eye Data Poop where I shot Max Schaff. But, I think it was a year and a half ago, I was filming some stuff for my wife Tiffany. She makes surf films also, and made one of the best women skateboard films, called Getting Nowhere Faster four years ago. And in her surf film, she did have a skateboarding part and I went to this all girl skate day thing and I filmed Vanessa Torres, Amy Caron, and I filmed it on film. It came out really pretty and that got me excited to film skating again. I’m just really excited about where skating is these days, and it just seems the view point of many people is really open to all kinds of skating transitions and street. It seems a lot mellower than when I exited documenting it. Then, it was very segregated, you had the tech street dudes, and the transition dudes and they weren’t really together… Robbie Russo, TNT, Rick McCrank, Javier Mendizabal, or street kids like Malto…

In this issue, we have a feature on Six Stair and they explain the whole pluses and minuses on filming project on film compared to video, and how much you have to plan what you want to do because not one second of film is “free” at all. Is this whole project going to be 16mm?

No, not all it, but a good majority of it, for sure. So, you need to plan it and get proper backing, so it’s functional. Things are getting together, people are interested, so once I’m done with this big thing I’m working on is done…

What are you working on, actually?

I have a show opening on the first of April, for a month and a half in SF at the Gregory Lind gallery. A solo exhibition, where I have paintings, bronze sculptures, wooden cutout structures I’ve been doing, sewn pieces and limited edition silkscreen prints. So, I’m trying to finish this and, then, get on the film project. Things are looking good!

Yep, they skate everything. Malto can skate transition, just like Vincent Alvarez, he’s the street tech guy but can destroy transitions.

He’s so good! And just the attitude: kids are having fun! You go to the all the parks in California and kids are shredding! It’s so cool! I think it has a lot to do with the public parks. Before we didn’t have any, so this thing was more exclusive. The people that rode transitions were a tight knitted crew and they looked for pools, while kids were on the street. Opening parks has opened up that language, which I’m exited to make stuff with.

It’s a very good time, now, when really young kids will be excited to hear about Dennis Busenitz or Javier if I shoot with them, where four years ago, maybe, they would have barely understood what their skating was all about…

I need to add Busenitz to my list!

From what I understood the surf movies were about three to four years of work, right, and all being done on film, is that what you are looking into for this skateboard project?

I would imagine this one would be about two years… I started a little bit, but I’m in art mode, right now, so I need to get done with this stuff then start on this one. I was supposed to start last summer, go on a trip with McCrank, and a few other people, then Rick hurt his ankle. But Javier Mendizabal was over, about a month ago. We did film a little bit, but mainly hung out, we hadn’t seen each other in a while. We went skating and talked about things to do. I have a pretty good idea about what I want to do, but don’t want to speak about it, yet [Laughter]. But it’s about being smart about it, I make most of my films on film, so it’s quite expensive, and I end up usually losing money on those, to make something really good, so I’d like to do that one so It’s not a big loser…

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« Exergue »

Clark Hassler Clark déniche un spot au cœur de Manhattan, l’un des endroits les plus épluchés de la ville depuis des années. Ollie, alors que les sans-abri, habitant ce coin du parc, lui donne des conseils, et du « Tony Hawk ! ». Clark les en remerciera ensuite.

Ph : Benjamin Deberdt

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Gauthier Rouger Gauthier est souvent là où on ne l’attendrait pas. À Chypre, donc, et en backside 180 pour replaquer dans le sens idéal pour aller percuter le deuxième rail. Ce qu’il aura évité avec sa finesse habituelle…

Ph : Antoine

Shadi Charbel Shadi profite d’un cours passage à Paris pour abîmer quelques monuments locaux.

Le tout avec un genou avant dont la taille fluctue en fonction des glaçages. Nollie frontside noselide quelque part dans le labyrinthe de Beaugrenelle.

Ph : Deberdt

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Lisa Jacob Lisa et le flip qu’elle voulait très fort. Une planche cassée, un allez-retour au shop et quelques bonnes boîtes plus tard, elle le fait, à la stupeur des quelques témoins profitant des derniers rayons de soleil en bord de Seine.

Ph : Benjamin Deberdt

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Hors

sujet

By Benjamin Deberdt.

SUnder the Manhattan Bridge, the crowd is colorful… And multi generational. The idea is to celebrate the memory of the late Harold Hunter, and all generations of the New-York scene have gathered, more or less active on their boards, in a mood that reminds of a family fair. Unless an, obviously large, member of the security - standing squarely in his Timberland’s - feels like he is not being taken seriously by a crew of young BMXers quite outraged to show up at the park to see, that today is a no-no for them. Right away, words gets heated, and quickly shoulders drops…

Being Chad

Muska

A rather quiet day, in a way, if you don’t take in count the amount of local celebrities gathered, skating along the kids from all five boroughs. Javier Nuñez, the prodigal son, has even come back from Los Angeles, where he now resides, to land a 360 heel flip over the whole pyramid! This is about when things take a strange turn…

He shows up, unannounced, on his bicycle. A normal bicycle, actually, with brakes, and even a basket where to put your shopping in, on top of the handle! In a matter of seconds, the rumor grows, and a group gathers around the wicker basket.

The murmur turns into a scream: “Muska!”

Chad Muska, himself, is here, and already totally circled. You may think that, even as a part time resident, he certainly does not concur for the most idolized skater of New York City, a place that doesn’t necessarily hands out free love. Especially, in this end of the first decade of the XXIst century. But… But every person under the age of 18 present that day throws

himself at Muska and orders for an autograph, which he will get.

Chad is not crazy, after all!

When later that night, the showing of Muska at the Harold Hunter day, and the riot that ensued it, is discussed, a clever comment drops: “And why not? He’s never done anything bad!?”

That’s a point, right there.

As true as the fact that Fulfill The Dream came out in 1998. So, to everybody whining about kids of today not doing their history homework, eat your heart out!

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Scott N

euf

Bourne

Y

By Benjamin Deberdt.

ou cannot not know Scott, or ignore that he spent a great deal of his time, nowadays, torturing a typewriter. A novel awaiting to be published, a second one almost completed, columns in various publications around the world, no blog… And a passion for poetry! Eclipse: Dark Lines From The City Of Light: is the second volume of prose he just published with the help of Carhartt, following suite to Cheating On The Metronome that came out early 2009.

A man of details, Scott pours over 128 pages about what his Parisian life has inspired him. With words, and more, as the book replicates the actual production of the texts, typed over whatever paper is lying around —that includes Fed-Ex receipts— more than often crossed out and scribbled over…

A beautiful case for a diamond as rough as its author.

That called for a coffee with our next-door neighbor, Scott…

Scott showing originals from A Toast To The End Of Time , the third volume to come.

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Why write poetry in 2010?

Maybe that’s the problem with the 21st century… All the poetry has gone out of the people! Everyone is locked into their I-phones, or the internet, blogs and MySpace pages that share their every moment with an exterior world. For me, the poetry is what’s inside of me! It’s the individual, not the crowd, the mass, the hive! I have always said that loneliness is the desire to escape oneself. It’s the person that always goes out, or is always on the phone… Because they are scared to be alone, scared to face themselves. I love being alone, facing the man I am, or at least approaching him. I knock on doors inside myself and ask questions to the people I find on the other side. I have a very firm perception of self and I think the world is losing that… The individual!

Being a part of any group, society, team, club or movement of any kind is destructive to the individual will. That’s why I write poetry… It can only be done alone… In the solitude of self. It’s me asserting my own will.

The design and production of the book is really thought about, how much input do you have in those?

The entire aesthetic is mine! There isn’t much going into print in these days and I feel certain that there will be less and less in the future. Having books in your home, especially a hardcover, will really mean something. The idea behind the book itself was to give it a biblical feel. The gold etching, cover, and ribbon, dress it up for the ceremony, so to speak.

Books are a thing of beauty, in essence… The design is antiinternet, anti-flat. It’s an object, tangible and real!

Is that something you are interesting in, apart from writing, publishing?

Certainly! For me it’s like a woman. The initial thing that attracts one to her is her look. If you are fortunate enough to get her in your hands, you may be taken by her feel as well,

then should you open her up… It is there that you find what makes her tick. This is god’s design, the way he’s made the world work. I have just taken great interest in the feast. The idea that food taste better on fine China, with nice silverware, in a beautiful setting, than it ever will on paper plates beneath fluorescent lights.

I know you have other book project coming up?

Yeah! Right now we are about to launch a book called East Of The Adriatic on a small independent French house called 1980 Éditions. It’s basically my journal from a trip we took to the Balkans a few years back, combined with several photographers… Bertand Trichet, Sergej Vutuc, Lars Greiwe and Jaka Babnik. Pierre-Francois Vilanoba wrote a great forward, and we got Romain Pareja to do the cover and illustrations through out the book. So it’s a crazy mash up of all sorts of great people I know. It’s basically unedited raw journal stories. The book itself has little to do with skateboarding outside of the fact that we all are skateboarders. What I wanted to capture is what actually happens on these sorts of trips outside of the realm of skating. The wonder-lust, adventure, drunken nights, the women, the strangeness of a new world and unspeakable language, music, dance, good situations, and the bad ones! On top of all that, the guys really captured a lot of photos of things I was writing about. So to know it was all created independently of one another and assembled into one really shows something special. Again, it’s a 200-page hard cover object, and I have to say that it looks beautiful!

Is the next coffee on you, or what?

Chances are slim… If we can sell a few thousand of these books, I might be able to spring for the next one.

Any last words?

Follow no one !

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Samuel Partaix

Trésor

Nous parle de sa découverte du Transformer de Lou Reed (sorti en 1972).

M

« es parents ont cinquante ans et, du coup, c’est un peu leur génération. Ils sont toujours eu beaucoup de vinyles qu’ils n’écoutaient déjà plus quand j’étais gamin, parce qu’ils étaient passés aux CDs. J’étais super intéressé par les disques vinyles. Les pochettes étaient tellement grandes, tu avais envie de voir et d’écouter ce qu’il y avait à l’intérieur. Et j’ai eu de la chance, ma grand-mère m’a offert une sono vinyles, cassettes, CD, la totale. Du coup, j’ai commencé à fouiller dans la cave, et chez mes grands-parents, mes oncles et tantes. Ils avaient tous abandonné leurs vinyles. C’était l’époque Téléphone, Patty Smith, Lou Reed…

Ma mère avait tous les David Bowie, et comme elle habitait à Paris, elle allait à tous les concerts et gardait les places dans les pochettes des disques. Du coup, j’ai tout récupéré !

« Les pochettes étaient tellement grandes, tu avais envie de voir et d’écouter ce qu’il y avait à l’intérieur. »

Photo : Deberdt 72

Lorsque j’ai écouté Transformer pour la première, je ne connaissais pas du tout Lou Reed. J’avais 13 ans, et j’ai vraiment kiffé le son de l’album, et son petit air Bowie [qui l’a d’ailleurs co-produit avec Mick Ronson, son guitariste de l’époque, NDLR]. C’est resté mon album de Lou Reed préféré. Vicious, I Am So Free, Take A Walk On The Wild Side, tu as un paquet de chansons que tu peux écouter, réécouter, et réécouter encore, dix ans après. Un classique énorme.

Au fur et à mesure du temps, j’ai vu que je n’étais pas le seul à kiffer. Dès qu’on fait une session vinyles chez moi, celui-là passe direct. Comparés aux CDs, et tous ces trucs qui vont se perdre, les vinyles ont vraiment un son particulier.

Mon oncle, c’était plus The Sex Pistols, The Clash, tout ça. Du coup, j’ai découvert plein de groupes super jeune, par moi-même. J’écoutais les vinyles à la chaîne, sur ma platine.

J’écoutais à la va-vite et dès que j’avais un son que j’aimais bien, je le met-

tais de côté. Je n’avais aucune notion du groupe, de s’ils étaient connus ou pas. Je n’étais pas influencé par des vidéos, ou je ne sais quoi. J’avais cent vinyles devant moi et je ne pouvais pas tous les garder, donc je sélectionnais ceux que j’aimais. En grandissant, j’ai découvert que beaucoup de ces groupes étaient super connus, du genre que tu ne peux pas rater.

Donc, dans la vidéo Nozbone RendezVous, j’ai utilisé « I Am So Free » de Transformer pour ma part. J’aimerais, pourquoi pas, utiliser un autre morceau de Lou Reed pour une prochaine vidéo. J’aurais aimé le voir concert… À l’époque ! »

Boris Proust Trésor

Je l’ai vu sur le net, c’est en visionnage libre, tu tapes Earthlings/Terriens et

Nous raconte comment Earthlings, tu peux le regarder en entier. C’est un de Shaun Monson, (sorti en 2005) documentaire américain, avec Joaquin a changé sa vie.

Phoenix en narrateur.

C

« ’était MDV [Nicolas Levet, NDLR] qui m’en avait parlé, il y a de ça trois ans et demi, mais j’avais juste maté l’intro, vite fait… Quelques mois après, je me suis dit que je n’avais rien à faire, et là, la nuit, à deux heures du matin,

"[…] C’était la nuit, j’étais tout seul, et ensuite, j’ai ouvert le frigo et j’ai vu un morceau de viande dedans." je me le suis maté en entier, tout seul, dans le noir… Ça m’a foutu le cafard ! Et depuis, je ne mange plus de viande. J’ai arrêté direct…

C’est un documentaire d’une heure et demie qui parle de l’industrie alimentaire, et de tout ce qui touche aux animaux, y compris les animaux de compagnie, bref de l’exploitation des animaux, et de comment ils sont traités dans tous les domaines…

[La version francophone s’intitule Terriens, et est narrée par le hockeyeur végétalien Georges Laraque, NDLR] Photo : Charley Pascal 74

Je ne pensais pas que ça allait me mettre le cafard comme ça. Je t’ai dit, c’était la nuit, j’étais tout seul, et ensuite, j’ai ouvert le frigo et j’ai vu un morceau de viande dedans. Ça m’a dégoûté, et depuis, je ne peux plus…

Je regarde pas mal de documentaires, mais celui-là, d’un point de vue cinématographie, n’a rien d’exceptionnel.

Beaucoup d’images sont en caméras cachées, filmées à l’arrache, pour certaines, on dirait qu’il les sort de YouTube, presque. Donc, d’un point de vue filmographique, ce n’est pas quelque chose qui m’influence.

J’aime bien les documentaires sur des gens, ou la condition animale. Tout ce qui est politique, je m’en fous un peu…

Quoi que Michael Moore et compagnie, j’aime bien, en fait. J’aimerais vraiment, plus tard, filmer la nature, si j’en avais l’occasion. »

Lisa Jacob Trésor

Nous explique en quoi, et quand, L’Attrape-cœurs de J.D. Salinger (publié en 1951) l’a touchée.

C

« hoisir de parler d'un livre en particulier, c'est exclure les autres. Pour cet article, j'ai d'abord pensé à un Flaubert ou un Huysmans, parce qu’en littérature, j'attache plus d'importance à la forme qu'au fond. D'ailleurs, je préfère de loin les vers à la prose. Et puis, j'ai pensé à ce livre que je lis depuis des années pour d'autres raisons qu'esthétiques : L'Attrape-cœurs (The Catcher in the Rye) de J. D. Salinger.

C'est ma soeur, Katia, qui m'a parlé de ce livre quand je devais avoir dans les quinze ans. Comme elle avait déjà été de bon conseil en me recommandant The Basketball Diaries de Jim Carroll, je me suis empressée de lire ce nouvel opus. Et je ne l'ai pas compris.

Photo : Deberdt 76

Quelques années plus tard, je suis retombée dessus et, ne sachant trop pourquoi, je me suis mise à le relire.

C'était toujours les mêmes mots, la même tonalité sarcastique et désabusée, mais quelque chose avait changé.

Sans doute comme ce qui fait que l'on devient accro au café alors que, enfant, l'on n'en supportait pas même l'arôme. Les sens évoluent, s'affinent avec l'âge ainsi que la perception, et l'on se soucie de détails que l'on n'aurait pas remarqués, comme l'on reconnaît aujourd'hui ce que l'on contestait hier. Les choses ne changent pas, mais notre rapport à elles évolue. Et L'Attrape-cœurs est devenu ce livre que je ne cesse de relire, année après année.

Je crois que beaucoup de gens se reconnaissent dans le récit de cet adolescent perdu qui se cherche une place dans une société où les valeurs ne sont pas les siennes. C'est l'histoire d'Holden Caulfield, jeune garçon dont les qualités sont des défauts dans un monde où les vices sont un marchepied vers le trône de la corruption. Il existe deux façons d'appréhender cette œuvre.

Si l'on se focalise sur Holden, l’on devient témoin d'un authentique drame existentiel dans lequel l'inadaptation

affective du personnage est le vecteur de sa chute. En revanche, les autres personnages sont, pour la plupart, les acteurs d'une véritable comédie des moeurs où, à la manière d'une caricature, Salinger accuse le moindre détail dans une terrible fresque des vanités humaines. Et tous sont coupables d'exhiber cette prétention qui fait de l'amour-propre un ridicule, l'ambition.

Si bien que l'on ne sait plus bien si l'on doit rire ou pleurer dans ce capharnaüm émotionnel. Ce livre est une leçon amère sur le passage de l'enfance à l'âge adulte : Holden est un Peter Pan qui ne peut, ou ne veut, quitter son pays imaginaire, pourtant déjà en train de s'effondrer. S'il veut y survivre, il doit lui-même se faire pirate et abandonner les garçons perdus. J'ai encore l'âge de m'identifier à Holden, et ce livre est comme ma propre biographie psychologique. Peut-être que, dans quelques années, je le relirais avec, cette fois, la nostalgie de quelqu'un qui voudrait retrouver son innocence, une fois suffisamment corrompue pour pouvoir l'apprécier.

Salinger ne nous sert pas un inventaire de figures de styles et autres ornements littéraires. Il n'en a pas besoin.

Il s'exprime à travers un garçon de seize ans dont la familiarité et les tics de langage sont autant de marques de spontanéité et d'éloquence. Le narrateur, victime de sa confusion émotionnelle, reste souvent vague et imprécis, mais nous fait ressentir les choses bien mieux que n'importe quelle phrase bien ciselée parce qu'il est un orfèvre du cœur. Et ses réactions, parfois démesurées, mais toujours vraies, valent toutes les associations d'idées. »

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Jason Dill

By Benjamin Deberdt

Pathological nomad, or local arriving at his spot on

the exact same time even on snowed out days, skaters can also be described by where they decide to lay their heads…

The day Indian Summer turns into autumn. Air is starting to sting a bit, when it turns into a Manhattan wind tunnel. The sun is still shining, but coldly now…

First surprise: in a city where moving out is a way of life as much a necessity, when rents keep on chasing regular people further and further from downtown, Jason Dill has his name engraved under a copper buzzer, at the bottom of a rather stern looking building, lost between China Town and the recreational center for lost tourists known as Little Italy. Astonishing for a patented eccentric, regularly proclaiming the fact that he doesn’t own neither a computer nor cell phone…

The staircase is as steep and depressing as the building front was forecasting.

Jason apologizes for the cold, and turns on the gas stove which has been making up for the central heating system that went out of order a few days ago… The visit is as quick as the space is small and empty. Dill doesn’t believe in private property, and only get excited about his drawers full of photographs - most of them stolen more than taken - and memorabilia from friends, some of them recently passed away, or from his ex-girlfriend.

Like a Winnie The Pooh snowball, preciously preserved.

In between the San Pellegrino bottles and his stock of film (including a stash of Polaroid cartridges courtesy of Chris Carter, the co-creator of Alien Workshop), the fridge is empty. It’s time to hit his usual lunch spot, on the other side of the street from the Dactyl Foundation, an art gallery he’s a regular fixture at.

On the way, he signs his name in the grime of a loading truck slowing down at an intersection - a secret message sent to his friends, wherever they might be in the city.

Dill hasn’t washed his hands. I suspect he orders the exact same squid plate every day. Meanwhile, he smiles at the fact that Fucking Awesome, a joke he started with his buddy Mike Pisticelli, is actually turning into a street wear brand… Then, gets upset about the global smoking ban, and mostly that the French, out of anybody, have accepted it! End of the day, nothing is cool. But it doesn’t matter that much…

How long have lived in your apartment? How did you stumble upon it?

I have lived in my place for about four years… I had a guy named Mr. Fong show it to me when I was house hunting. It was the first one he showed me… My rent is very low for my part of town. It’s not the East Village, or the West Village: it’s in the middle.

How would you describe your neighborhood?

Gentrified… And the pizza place across the street is an eye sore. All bad wheat paste poster art… I hate that shit with ALL my heart.

What's your favorite thing about your place?

I actually hate my place… But, I have some good memories in there… And bad ones… My fire escape is big enough to barbecue on it. Not that I would.

Walk to your window and describe what you're seeing out, now.

I can't. I'm not in my place right now… If I was at home I suppose I would be seeing all the cabs and cab drivers hanging out at the cabstand I live above.

In case of a fire, you can only grab one thing to save it before running out. What would it be?

A box of photographs… Or Winnie the Pooh. Dunno.

What do you go through the most on a daily basis there: coffee cups, cans of spray paint or San Pellegrino bottles?

Newspapers are the bulk of my daily trash… I eat every meal outside of my house, so there isn't much trash.

What's the longest you've ever spent no walking out of your apartment?

About a week… A very bad week.

You can swap apartment for a month, in any place in the world.

Which city would you pick up?

Tijuana.

At this point of your life, would you move out of NYC? I don't fucking know… What is left anymore? I'm an old dried up drunk, still cleaning up the ashes… Petite pute.

Actually, was it your first apartment in NYC? I believe you've been living there for many more years, right?

No, I have lived in about five different places, over the years.

79

Central, Ouest et Sud-Est: sjosten@gmx.de Est, Nord-Est et Rh么ne-Alpes: xavierstaal@hotmail.fr cleptomanicx.com

Index

1

avril mai

A

G

M

T

Adrien Bulard 25 Alexis Zavialoff 41 Alex Kopps 54 A Love Supreme 53 Amy Caron 57 Arnaud Bremard 25

Gabe Morford 15 Gauthier Rouger 61 Georges Laraque 74 Getting Nowhere Faster 57 Gingko Press 23 Gio Estevez 38 Gregory Lind 57 Gus Van Sant 43

Malto 57 Mark Gonzales 30 Mark Richards 34 Mark Whiteley 12 Mason Jennings 41 Mathias Thomer 41 Matt Irving 38 Max Schaff 57 Michael Moore 74 Mick Ronson 72 Mike Ruscyk 22 Mofo 49 Muska 69

Téléphone 72 Tent City 43 The Basketball Diaries 76 The City Of Light 70 The Clash 72 The Present 53 The Road 18 The Seedling 53 The Sex Pistols 72 The Staple Singers 41 This Is Not A Photo Opportunity 12 Thomas Campbell 44, 53 Tim O'Connor 34 TNT 57 Tony Cox 22 Tony Hawk 44 Transformer 72

B Billy Rohan 37 Bite 27 Blood Shed 43 Bobby Puelo 21, 37 Boris Proust 74 Brian Anderson 18 Buddy (Coan Nichols) 37, 43

C

H Harold Hunter 68 Hesh Law 43 Holden Caulfield 76 Huysmans 76

J

David Bowie 72 Deathbowl to Downtown 43 Debunker 57 Dennis Busenitz 57

Jahmal Williams 41 Jason Adams 15 Javier Mendizabal 44, 57 Javier Nuñez 68 JB Gillet 53 J.D. Salinger 76 Jérémie Daclin 34 Jeremy Henderson 38 Jerry Hsu 16, 22 Jerry Lopez 34 Jim Carroll 76 Joaquin Phoenix 74 Joe Brook 15 Judd Hertzler 22 Julien Schnabel 37 Julien Stranger 37, 53

E

K

Ear Eye Data Poop 57 Earthlings 74 Eclipse : Dark Lines From 70 Emmanuel Guzman 12

Karma Tsoecheff 53 Kids 47 Kramer 19

Cairo Foster 20 Cameron Crowe 50 Cheating On The Metronome 70 Chloë Sevigny 47 Christian Roth 34 Circle Board 40 Clark Hassler 58 Cormac McCarthy 18

D

F Fernando Elvira 44 Flaubert 76 Fos 41 Fruit Of The Vine 44 Fullfill The Dream 69

L Lance Dawes 15 Larry Clark 47 L’Attrape-cœurs 76 Lee Ralph 38 Lisa Jacob 65 Louie Barletta 14 Lou Reed 72

N Nan Goldin 20 Natas Kaupas 33 Nicolas Levet 74

O Ol’ Dirty Bastard 41 Olly Todd 41 Omar Salazar 21 Operation Infiltration 49

P

V Vanessa Torres 57 Vincent Alvarez 57

W Wolnei Dos Santos 27 Woody 54 Wusspipe 54

Paranoid Park 43 Patty Smith 72 Pearl Jam 50 Peter McBride 54

Q Quentin Sené 10

R Rick Charnoski 43 Rick McCrank 57 Rip 54 Robbie Russo 57

S Scott Bourne 34 Shadi Charbel 62 Shaun Monson 74 Six Stairs 43 Soma 70 Sprout 53 Stéphane Larance 53

81