Natas, Martinez, Stranger & Mic-E.
Came across this on Chris Hall’s blog. Old 16mm footage from Goin’ Off. Pretty mind blowing. Its 88’ or 89’ and look at the boards these dudes are riding: wide, flat with tiny noses. Then look at what they are doing. These guys were trailblazers in the truest sense. Along with Gonz, they literally were street skating, meaning that they were creating what street skating would become in the next 10 years. Watch Natas work the school yard banks, benches and walls, he was years ahead of everybody. That is OG Santa Monica surf and street style. Shit, I’m getting all choked up just writing this.
Posted on October 29, 2007 at 11:20 AM | Comment (2 comments)
Lucky Dube, Reggae Freedom Fighter, Dies at 43.
The New York Times article and the Independent article on Lucky Dube. Photo by Aktualne.
Posted on October 29, 2007 at 10:33 AM | Comment (1 comments)
About halfway through the summer, I sprained my ankle doing some dumb shit at Tompkins. With no health insurance, I kept it old school with an ice pack and some dynamite reefer as my medication. Because I’m an old man, the shit took about three months to fully heal. Luke told me about a spot in Chinatown on Mott just south of Canal. He’d gone there to get his knee worked and said it really helped get it back to normal. So I went to check it out: $25 bucks for a half an hour of full on, sometimes painful, hands-on therapy on my ankle. At one point the lady was beating on it, no joke. Punching my ankle as hard as she could. Hitting it so hard the point that I had to motion her to ease up because it was hurting so bad. I’m sure she knows what she’s doing though. Throughout the whole thing, she was dousing my leg with this Tiger Balm-like oil. Dousing like it was hot sauce. I was so convinced by this potion of Chinese healing power, I bought a bottle on my way out. Skating away from the place, both my legs were a mentholatum-numb from the knees down. Felt kinda crazy. Two days later, after the soreness from the beating, my ankle felt so fucking good. George Bush and his overpriced healthcare can kiss my numb ass. I’m skating again and I want to thank Chan Yat Hing and the people at the spot on Mott for that.
Posted on October 28, 2007 at 03:10 PM | Comment (1 comments)
Two interviews with two dudes that have New York City skateboarding in their blood. The first is a conversation with Shane Bovell and Ted Barrow. The second is with Steve Rodriguez on 48 blocks. Good stories and history of New York City skating in the late 80’s and 90’s. The photo below is from a 1995 Transworld, of Joey Alvarez switch flipping at the Banks. In high school, I had this hanging on my wall. I wish I lived in NYC at that time. Good shit.
Posted on October 28, 2007 at 02:16 PM | Comment (1 comments)
Or is Carly Simon looking really, really hot right here?
Posted on October 27, 2007 at 08:59 PM | Comment (6 comments)
Brooklyn Banks, Driscoll & Yuri.
My man Driscoll stylin’ a such a sweet switch wallride at the Banks. Photo by fellow 12oz blogger and photographer Yuri Shibuya. Everything about this photo is talkin’ to me in all the right ways.
Posted on October 27, 2007 at 08:27 PM | Comment (2 comments)
I read an article about Prince shopping his music around to different record labels in the late 70’s. Legend has it that one of his conditions was that he had to have complete creative control over pretty much every aspect of the record: writing/arranging the music, playing all the instruments, even directing the album art. Warner Bros. was the only label that was willing to let him do that. They might have regretted that move when on his second self-titled album, Prince appeared on the back cover, naked on a pegasus. Yes, a pegasus. And the shit looked real. No matter how you feel about naked dudes on a pegasus, he’s obviously a creative genius of a rare kind. Dirty Mind (1980) was his next album and it is a banger. As the title implies, this is a raunchy, dirty, freaky and funky masterpiece of 80’s pop/rock/funk. Stephen Erlewine writes, “Prince left nothing to hide—before its release, no other rock or funk record was ever quite as explicit as Dirty Mind, with its gleeful tales of oral sex, threesomes, and even incest.” It also appears, again, that Prince was in full creative control of all aspects of the project. Including styling himself for the cover shot in uh. . .uhmm. . . some kind of high-riding speedo thing. The crew shot is official with Dr. Fink himself (who is credited with the title track) holding it down with the signature surgical mask. Andre has his fly halfway down and Lisa is probably naked underneath that trenchcoat. Just one listen to the first ten seconds of “Uptown”, and you can tell that this crew was on their own shit and doing their thing exactly the way they wanted to do it. “White, Black, Puerto Rican / Everybody just a freakin!” But were is Wendy?
Posted on October 20, 2007 at 02:31 PM | Comment (2 comments)
Last month, the New York Times ran a feature titled ‘Wild at Heart, and Seventeen’. Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t yet. Being an old man at 31 years of age, you can forget what its like to be 17. The article takes a cross section of kids in the City, all from different neighborhoods, religions, economic and ethnic backgrounds and really just lets them talk about their life in their own words. Boris from Bensonhurst knows whats up, “I could talk to them in the street and I could hang around with them in the park and school, and I could still show them how I play the piano in school. I mean, if they want free private lessons, then maybe they should come to my house. Or if I want to date hot chicks, maybe they should also come to my house.” Some serious, sometimes funny and honest talk from the future of New York City. Photo by Damon Winter / The New York Times.
Posted on October 03, 2007 at 10:14 AM | Comment (0 comments)
