Joker Skate Shop got Robbed, Kick Balls, Shark Bait and Mark Gonzales

First of all, the local skate shops here in Memphis have been robbed three times I know about. The first one was Cheap Skates. Some African American dude walked in the shop, picked up a bunch of boards and some other stuff and just ran out of the shop. I think you call it Dine and Dash if you are at a eating establishment. The Second robbing happened with MidTown Skate Shop opening its doors as a new shop. Hunter, the owner, had not installed bars on the big store front windows when he opened. In the first week some body smashed the glass and stole a bunch of stuff. So he boarded the window up and a week later the other window got smashed with it more merchandise stolen. Brand new shop gets robbed twice with in its two week opening. Good job you deviants who think that stealing is a solution to a means when you don't have enough money to buy something you want. Go get a job you worthless pieces of shit and quit taking somebody else's hard earned cash. But this shit has been going on for years. The end looks bleak. I mean, Mark Gonzales, my favorite skater ever bought his first complete board from some guy in a parking lot. He said he strolled into the park, after his purchase, and one of the guys in the park yelled at him and said give me my board back, or something like that. Mark bought a stolen board basically.

Ok, so last night I was working on my skateboards. I get an Instagram, I have been tagged in some photo taken with a security camera. Its a picture of one of the dudes that robbed Joker Skate Shop this week. Apparently Gnarman tagged Hornlaker in the picture and accused the Hornlaker of robbing the joint even though, as Hornlaker pointed out, "I live in Hornlake God Dammit its just not possible, unless I could teleport, quit heckling me!!" Though it was to late by then, Ryan Sheckler had posted the same picture and BabySkylurker also posted that the person in the photograph was the Hornlaker several thousand miles away. By that time Ryan Sheckler had tried to friend the Hornlaker on FartBook while the Hornlaker was receiving droves and droves of new follows on Instagram. That's how I found out about the thieves in California.

Kick Balls!!

Then I got the new Shark Bait zine in the mail yesterday (its a first read for me but this is issue 47 for them). As I read it the theme the writer is conveying is about how he loves his surroundings, that he is never jaded. The writer is originally from somewhere in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is not known to be a desirable place to move. Nobody says "Yeah, lets move there!!" The writer is living and skating in Albuquerque, New Mexico presently. Have you ever been to New Mexico?? I drove to Santa Fe once and then up to Colorado after a sleep over just so I could see Santa Fe, it was great. Really laid back. I also had this friend once from Albuquerque, he always said it was the best place to grow up, even though he lives in California now. So back to Shark Bait, the writer expresses how he can't get mad or angry at anything in Albuquerque, everything is so positive and forgiving. The people, the environment, the skating (tons of ditches and parks), everything is at peace. Then he compares growing up in Oklahoma compared to growing up in Albuquerque. In Albuquerque, "You want to skate and start a punk band in the garage? People's parents here would probably not only condone it, they would encourage it and try to make you listen to the Melvins or some other 90's nightmare." And that is what I am talking about parents, no, don't move to Albuquerque because I am. Seriously, here in Memphis, the heart of the Bible belt, God's Country, if it ain't in the bible you can't do it. If you don't go to church you are a Heathen. The South is known for poor people, dumb bastards and Preachers. I am not hating, I love the South because I know what is good about it, you should know if you have ever read this blog. But it is true, because of the poverty and because of the narrow minded brain washing there are a lot of bad parents. But that shit is everywhere you know every where. Encourage and support, I love it. Albuquerque is living proof. Maybe less people would steal if they were from Albuquerque, maybe....

And back to Videos, did you think I would forget, I love You Tube. I am addicted to it, I need help.....?

maybe not.... I encourage it and support it, hah.. And here is one for Gonz, thought I had seen this but I have not. I watch like a dozen other videos of skaters that rip so hard then I watch Gonz and my thoughts are saying "The Gonz invented most of what they are doing". Which I could be very wrong about since I do not claim to know anything. This guy has such grace on and off the board, its like watching ballet but gnar. I mean there are a couple of tricks that no one has done or I have seen. Late.

Skyler Lost the Charger!!! H-Street and More...

So we went to Oxford Mississippi this past Sunday to hook up with Austin and Andrew to name a few.  We got to try the new camera out which works spectacularly. We even got to eat some kickass Mexican food just down the street from the park. But the thing that stands out in my mind the most, as I sit here and ponder my words, was the H-Street board that some kid was riding at the park. I had actually seen the kid riding this board before but this time I asked Garner if he had ever seen a H-Street video from the late 80's called Hokus Pokus?? He had not heard of H-Street to much and had never seen the video. I had not seen it in a very long while my self, I just remember being blown away back in the day. I mean you got all these young kids doing the same tricks as Barbee and Gonzales except with a different twist. As I watch the film today I see the future of skateboarding happening around one video. Its like they took all these tricks and made them more technical. Then when the 90's hit, vert dies, Rodney Mullen skates street and we have the birth of the main stream Popsicle. I guess the question is whether we are seeing were the skating was going within the movie  that shaped modern skateboarding..........or, is it because of the movie ??  I can't speak for everyone but this film blew my mind at one point in life, I mean blew it. Freaked me out:



So the whole thing is on You Tube broken into seven glorious parts. It would not be much longer after this video was made that you would stop seeing vert in films. Even today a lot of these modern skate vids only have stair set after stair set and no Transition skating. I mean, some do.


But that was Creature, they are Gnarly. That is all I am saying, I get sick of watching tech trick after tech trick, it gets boring as hell. Variety and interesting camera shots. I mean look at this Gonz video, he is so Gnarly the VHS player can't handle it. Late.

They Know About Al Town

Who knows about Al Town?? Well, Leo Romero knows about it if you have forgotten. I remember a couple of weeks back, somebody posted a Ad from Thrasher Magazine that had some Pro climbing out of Al Town, it was the buzz for the day but I forget who it was or which company. Maybe it was the same one that posted this Video at Transworld that has quite a lot of Al Town with in its compilations.



Pretty snazzy little film didn't you think. Well played and professionally done. Best yet, it had many Memphis street locations. To bad no one hit the wall ride Cheezburger, well, at least no footage we saw. I want to know when somebody is going to put Kanis in their film.

Then there is Dustin Dollin and the first Epicly Later'd. Not a whole lot of skating in this video but I was captivated from beginning to end never the less, it was mostly about the videographers fascination with Dustin's ability to skate Drunk.  Interesting guy that Dustin and he likes regular libations a lot.



And actually my journey was backwards. I started with this rather lengthy, crapply shot video of Dustin meeting up with the Gonz in Paris. They just skate around to a few spots and go have a drink. Then I started finding other videos, anyway, there you go. Just fun Stuff.


Well I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. All this makes me wish I could just travel around and film skating and write about it. Dam, wouldn't it be nice waking up in Barcelona, having some fresh coffee, some top-pas and then go skate. Yep, dream big!!

You Hate Lil Wayne

I was perusing the Interwebs the other day and checked in on the Team Pain web site. If you do not know who Team Pain is, well they arguably build the best skate parks in the United States and a few in Europe. Team Pain's attention to detail, quality, gnar factor and over all flow goes with out saying.   The site contains a News section and had a interview from MTV with Lil Wayne this last Tuesday. The interview takes place in New Orleans inside Lil Wayne's private indoor skate park that Team Pain built. So I thought it would be funny to post it on one of my friends (he lives in the swamp down there) time lines on that blue white colored site and ask if he ever skated that junt.



Well, you might have watched the whole thing, maybe you need to go back, but there is a little discussion on the Hating of Lil Wayne. Then on top of that my friend who lives in the swamp down in Orleans tells me he hates that @%& and that he shot himself in the chest to get street cred!!  When Wayne was asked (@4:54) what he thought about the haters, FWC (Fuk Wheezy Campaign) his response was he did not care, he gunna keep doing what he is doing.  Then I found this skate video with the guy with kookey ass eyes. I mean the eyes!! WTF

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So that got me to thinking that I did not know enough about the fella and whether he deserved all the hate that all these pranksters have been throwing around. This last guy, Hopsin, seems like a decent guy who hates on LW because he is a famous rapper (He passed Elvis Presley as the male with the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 109 songs as of September 27, 2012), lets say so famous that his casual hobbies get lime light in the media. So he is not the greatest skater in the world although is one of the most popular Billboard Pop Icons since Elvis.  Then you read his history, the where he came from and what he did. Its impressive and unimpressive at times but over all impressive. I can 't say that I am a huge fan but I find no reason to not go skate his Team Pain skate park. I am sure wikipedia does not tell all of the story. And he did not shoot himself for street cred, no, he accidently shot himself in the chest when he was 12.  People just want to hate and he makes it easy sometimes but he does not seem to care. The guy sounds like he smokes to much weed, he donates huge money to charities, he gets skate parks built and wants to help progress the sport of skateboarding. Yeah, real bad guy. An ass sometimes like in the next clip, but what ever haters. Here is thread that explains it well in my opinion. 

Music News

Enough of that, all I can think about is making this at some point over the weekend. Its either this garbage or Nachos. This is a Belgium style treat with sausages, broiled potato, chili, onions  ketchup and mayonnaise all mixed together for a agonizing night of heart burn because you washed it all down with horrible tasting American BUSCH Beer. A don't know, all depends but if you plan on coming to my house this weekend make sure you bring a bag of potatoes, stock up on Bratwurst and steal your parents condiments (ketchup/Mayonnaise).

Oh wait, I almost for got to leave you with my November signature, Can you guess what it is with out spoiling my fun?? yep, videos for days...Oh wait, sorry this may take a while, I mean look for Gonz and all but I decided what the hell, its the whole Krood3D vid. Remember to applaud after its over, its that good.  - Hollar!! 

LunchTIME!!

Nomadic Chowder Eater!!

I love chowder, how can you not like a milk base soup that contains what ever you can throw at it, usually seafood and vegetables. Serve it with thick slices of bread and probably some brandy. Afterward I sit in my big warm chair and sip Hamms from a can while watching reruns of Chips. Hmmm..... Then there is a Nomad. I talked about people who leave the glorious south and go up to the "Northwest" to live, skate and act weird. Sometimes they don't make it and find them selves living out of a box because Denver caught their fancy. But these are transplants not necessarily nomads, unless you are really living out of a box then you got props. The true nomad is sort of homeless, or suppose to be. Anyway, I watched this yesterday and my mind was blown. I mean what in the hell, I have seen extreme wing suiting before by Dean Potter but this is taking it to a new level.

Speaking of the true nomad, this next film puts it perfectly. Your a Nomad when all you got is your skateboard, a six pack and your weed. Don't forget you will need a driver's license, a vehicle and probably gas money, other than that.....

Where is part One you ask?? Its right here butt diggers!

Another day, another dollar. Another Gonzales video, he just never gets old to me.

Catch and Release with rare Gonz footage

I got this new Camera, the Canon Vixia HFS100. I really wanted its younger brother, the HF G10, but a shortage of funds made me go with the other. We will see how she performs in the coming weeks. The Canon line of camcorders get rave reviews and special operating points in low light conditions. Good operation in low light, high to medium quality optics and we should be good. This camera has no hard drive, SD cards only, no big deal. Its really amazing when you put a 32g hard drive on a camera how the price jumps up. So I have to keep up with SD storage, cool with me. Better than MiniDV tapes since I can hold 60 Gigs in the palm of my hand.

So speaking of Cameras and Filming, I can't stand it... So I found another film of Kevin Kolwaski shot up in that place they keep calling the Northwest, like its special or something. I am not bagging on them up there, apparently they have tons more shit to skate and that's all on them. That's why people move out of the South, because the skating is not as good. Not enough parks or DIY, pfff!! Its understandable but stuff is happening here in the South, we just tend to move at a slower pace when it comes to getting things done. The cost of living is cheap, so we save our money and spend it on gas to get to stuff to skate. Just wait, we gunna have to film some southern style trip that will surprise you at what we have found in our backyard here in some of the rebel states. Its what defines the South geographically. We don't carry around rebel flags, drive pick up trucks and stare down minorities. Hell no, we are a minority that gets the stare downs. Anyway, there is some sick ass shit around here but you have to drive to get to it.

So I was watching this Kolwaski vid.... Notice that while it is a decent film the camera quality stands out for me on this one. That is not to say that they were not doing the best with what they had at the time. Believe me, you have to know the limitations of your equipment to get the most of it. All the skating is very good in this vid, the shots, the editing and choreography. Look:


Then fast forward two years and I think the Camera Quality improves. Here is a film shot by the same guy, Nomadic Story Teller, which has elemental similarities of the previous film but the picture quality improves his shooting style immensely.



Of course I am not going to leave you just hanging like that. No really, this is not some skateboard video review site, I am just amusing my self and trying to learn how to shoot good video. Decent equipment, clean lenses, good camera work and and then I have a ton of good guys ready to skate. Can't wait to shoot some more footage that I want to post. We will have something soon. But until then always enjoy a little Gonz on me. But this is a special treat, I found a video of Gonz at his own art opening. The Video work is horrid, I mean its a mockery of photography but what you catch is amazing. What does Mark Gonzales do in is art opening, well look for your self, its freaking amazing.