Skatepunk

[These journal entries were archived from the original Skatepunk.net, untouched]

Skateboarder Magazine is back, now, and is published bimonthly. Mike Ballard is the photo editor, Jai Tanju is a senior photographer, Sean Mortimer is editor and Mike Vallely is a senior writer. The first issue isn't up to the standards of the other magazines, but as far as a first issue goes, it rocks. There's a great photo spread on style with awesome silhouette photos, a Rodney Mullen interview, good photos, and Jamie Thomas is on the cover. I'm looking forward to another good skateboarding magazine... I subscribed.

Playing today: Verbal Assault "On."

Skull Control broke up. That sucks. I never got to see them, never got to hear them. Yet. One more week till their record comes out.

Playing today: Gang of Four "Entertainment."

> > Today we spent the day at Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station. F-14's taking off and landing about 100 yards away, helicopters doing insertion and extraction exercises close by, and another awesome day in the sun. What a difference a day makes. I went from Thursday night in the dumps to the start of a great weekend, high as a kite.

Playing today: Avengers Died For Your Sins.

> > A beautiful day today, and I was trapped inside for all of it. Can't wait till tomorrow when we'll be outside, near the beach, and it'll be a glorious day in the sun, working up a sweat.

Playing today: the maximum rocknroll comp reissue CD "Not So Quiet On The Western Front."

> > It's been said in a lot of other places, and a lot of people have said it better, but I really miss my friend Tim. He died three months ago. I still feel like he's still here, and I just haven't seen him for a while. I think about him every day, and I hope I will for a long time. I don't cry about it anymore, but I do get sad. But sadness brings happiness, and I think of the good things, the smiles, the trips, the skating, and Tim was about good things, not bad. So I concentrate on those things, and it makes it not so bad.
Playing today: KFI AM 640.

Erik Bork is another young soon-to-be-pro ripper who will leave his mark on skateboarding. Others have called it, I'm calling it now. This kid is 19, he's got the right attitude, and he's nice as hell. Not that that effects his skateboarding, but it sure helps good skaters get a little farther. He's not afraid to get ballsy on big rails, but he's got good pop going on as well. I shot photos of him doing nollie flips and switch flips down a gap over a barrier, and a 9-long flat-9 stair rail yesterday (the one in the Santa Cruz ad in the last 411) and the guy charges. He made everything, didn't complain or make excuses, and was having fun. That's nice to see. Plus, the guys got his head on right: as the former owner of a skateboard company called Persona, (it's now out of business) he's been through some learning experiences most 40-year olds haven't. Erik will be around. Santa Cruz is lucky to have him.

Playing today: the maximum rocknroll comp reissue CD "Not So Quiet On The Western Front."

Caine Gayle was on the cover and interviewed in a magazine called TMR. It's some sort of lowered car/big pipe car magazine about mostly Hondas, Acuras, and window tinting, loud sounding mufflers, those roll bars in case you flip your car, and generally about turning a $14,000 car into a $25,000 car by spending money on things you really don't need. It shows Caine ollieing and kickflipping over his car off loading docks, and some cuuute photos of him with a cute girl in a cheesy skimpy outfit. Nothing new in the interview, but still worth reading if you're one of us who likes to read everything they can about skateboarding.

Playing today: Tanner "Ill-Gotten Gains."

Dr. Laura Schlesinger, a nationally syndicated talk show host/moralist/entertainer, went into a skate/surf shop in Costa Mesa, California earlier this week, and picked up a copy of Big Brother skateboard magazine as she waited for her son to pick out some gear. She was at once dismayed at either the content, the publisher's name, or both. Feeling the magazine was "pornographic in nature," she went onto her show Tuesday, and spent an extensive amount of time railing the skate shop, the magazine, and skateboarding. Thursday morning, Howard Stern, having heard about Laura's show, went on an equally amusing tirade, roughly stating that he and Larry Flynt, the publisher of Big Brother, were going to "get that bitch!" It will be interesting to see where this one ends up... and somehow skateboarding gets caught in the middle again!

Favorite live shows of all time: (in no particular order)
Fugazi/Fishwife/Pitchfork at La Paloma, 1990
Bad Brains at Iguanas, 1989
Bad Religion at Iguanas, many times
Dead Kennedys, JFA, Sun City Girls, at the On Broadway, 1983
Tanner's last show, the Casbah, 1997
Drive Like Jehu at the Casbah, 1994
Rocket From The Crypt, the Casbah, Circa, Now! era
Rancid, at SOMA, Out Come the Wolves tour
No Knife, pre-Drunk On The Moon
The Clash, SF Civic, 1983
The Faction, many times, 1983-85.
At The Drive-In, at the Troubadour, 2000.

Daniel Shimizu is an eighteen year old marvel on his skateboard. This kid from Rosemead, California, is going to be a fixture in skateboarding. I've had the good fortune to take some photos of him recently, and he rips. Frontside hurricanes down handrails, kickflips over big gaps, kickflip-frontside boardslides, and big, ballsy grinds will place Daniel on the proverbial map. He rides for Foundation, listens mostly to indie-rock, and is a pretty nice normal, smart-ass kid. A good combination.

If you liked Circus Lupus, then you probably know about the Monorchid, who unfortunately broke up. But now Chris Thomson is back in the band Skull Kontrol. They've got an album coming out in August on Touch n Go, and I haven't heard it. But I have heard that it kicks ass, and I'll be in line to buy it when it comes out.

Brad Staba has an interview in the new Transworld. It's actually a pretty good reflection of Brad: he doesn't elaborate too much on his answers. Mostly Brad would want to get to know you before he hears all your problems and dumps his on you, and he realizes that interviews are only good for so much. However, the photos are testament to Brad's
underdog prowess on a skateboard, and the upcoming Foundation video, "Nervous Breakdown," should back that up even more.

1999 Randumb Notes Archive Check Out