Monday 30 March 2009

My life is brilliant...

Yep. A shit reference to a very shit song.



Whilst thinking he was off on a stag weekend the following week, Barry was driven to a car park by his boss where the above happened.
He had no idea he was heading to until he figured out he was in Bournemouth at about 8pm and spent the entire journey from East London (in Friday night rush hour traffic) tied up, listening to one James Blunt song on loop.

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

What a cunt.

...unlike this man below.

Wednesday 25 March 2009

In seven hours time...

I'll not be in front of a computer.

I'll be here:



...and I can't wait.

Friday 20 March 2009

Having a blog means you are meant to make social comment.

...which I don't have.

I do have a linky to footage of Billy Marks at the Heath/Mindfield Gap (That sounds like I'm claiming some sort of exclusivity. I'm not).

...its a shame they didn't paint the soles of his shoes black as he may have got away with the little white lie.

Billy Marks is a grower. The sleeper hit of 09, perhaps. Ping Pong videos, games of Skate and now tech roast beef grabs for shits and giggles. It's been a slow, steady build up - so long as we forget that Fallen video opener.

I think I'll go watch that section while having a tea.

Woot.

Monday 16 March 2009

...all change

That Blackbox sighting in January followed by this?



Woo.

...The audio is shitty, but does he mention aiming to get into filming some stuff again?

Maybe we'll get more of this -

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Denise's new show...

LISTEN UP I’VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY
An art exhibition by Denise Hickey exploring the notions of construction, order and shared experience.



PRIVATE VIEW: 17TH MARCH 6.30-9.30PM
EXHIBITION DATES: 18TH MARCH TO 3RD APRIL

VENUE:
The Visual Arts Centre
Brentwood Road
Romford
Essex
RM1 2RR

TRANSPORT:
Buses from Romford Railway
Station 294, 193, 165

CONTACT:
Deborah Holland
01708 447368 ext 238

The show comprises of a range of work through various mediums from subversive knitting and miniature installation to ephemeral notes on a blackboard.

Denise has produced this body of work in response to the appointment as artist in residence at Frances Bardsley School from September 2008. It has been an opportunity for her to further consider and connect with the concept of communal art. While the work offers a variety of aesthetic approaches the concepts of construction, ordering and sharing are present in every piece giving the exhibition a ramshackle sense of unity.

The exhibition will be documented through a variety of communal art interactions by the audience including an ever growing a piece of crochet, a chance to order and photograph your own installation adding to the Polaroid wall and an opportunity to spread and share art by writing and drawing on specially created postcards by the artist which can be sent out far and wide.

The exhibition will run from 18th March to 3rd April 9.30-12.20 and 13.30-4.30 Monday to Friday The artist will be available for artists talks to individuals and groups. It is necessary to confirm Denise’s availability in advance.

The private view will take place on Tuesday 17th March from 6.30 to 9.30pm. This is a free event and all are welcome.

Moving House...

Yep. Everyone else is using Blogger, so why can't I?

http://ducksopinion.blogspot.com/
from here on in.

Truth is, I just find the software far quicker and easier to use...
So all posts will now go up from the Blogger site.

Little MJ? Nope. Little MN.

Yeah, thats a big, big claim...But there is a certain air of Marc Johnson in Mark Nicolson's style.

I've known Nicolson since he was about 12. He used to frequent the Waltham Cross Youth Centre on a Wednesday. It was about three years until he spoke. Actually, I thought he was a girl for pretty much the first six months. Don't tell anyone. It was Tom Ball whop got him talking, if I remember rightly.
I think that the MJ comparison initially surfaced after witnessing an old downhill line at the Diving Board Benches in a Big Worms video. Mellow flick and some clearly very loose trucks.

Check out this post on the Death blog. Passmore's old Focal Point video (another I lent out, never to have been returned) has had the Nicolson section ripped. Good viewing.


More Skateboarding >>


I'll go dig out some pre-millenium Nicolson. I'm sure I have some somewhere...

Two day hangover? Please, God - No.

Busy days...

We've got this, this afternoon:


...and then this tomorrow:



Sunday should be fun at the Dead End Trade Show. Hangover guaranteed.

Talk of the town…

Go and watch Mind Field.

So refreshing. I loved the Lakai video, as did every other skatenerd. However, it's nice to see that Alien are still doing their thing and not conforming. A few nods to old Alien videos and a lot of J. Mascis.

Leaders not followers.

...and Arto skating to Battles? Epic.

Volcom Red Neck Rampage - ISPO 09

UK expedition, Ahoy!

I headed over to Munich with Aaron Sweeney, Marc ChurcHELL, Greg Nowick, Shitknees (AKA Powley), Ben Powell, Andy Scott, The Next Big Thing (AKA Nordberg), GeggsMan (AKA Rye Gray), Rob Smith and this thing pictured below...



Ben Raemers.

The kid was feeling the redneck vibe. 100% sold on the idea.

Don't believe me? Check it out:





Rye Gray also got the footage up four seconds before the event actually started. He's that quick.
Raemers can be spotted in full flow, dungarees and all throughout that clip.

Sans dungarees, Dennis Busenitz hit up the mini ramp a few times. He clearly travels without an alarm clock, as he showed for the competition at 4pm (Just as the finals we're getting started), apologising profusely.



"The Next Big Thing" was also a little more up for it than usual. I guess a new sponsor will do that to you. Let the message boards run wild.



Sweeney fucked his knee pretty early on. Shame as we was pretty close to Bustergrinding this fucker:



Another wee bit of Ben...





Volcom 1, 2, 3 innit.
Alain, Ben and Ivan.

Ben would have won that, had he not knocked the shit out of himself halfway through the finals. Actually, thats a good point - to come second and only skate half of the jam? You know you are going good.



You should check out this clip (and the Sidewalk one which I've linked to a couple of times above). That has the Andy Scott/Rob Smith fridge destruction. To ride up that thing into a pivot is beyond me. It was also beyond anyone else on the ramp, too...aside from Andy of course.



Ste Roe also made it over.
Powley came dressed as him:



Whereas Ben Powell came dressed as Seasick Steve:



I'm sure I'll end up digging more photos up from ISPO. I know Rye's got a bit of footage to come. Most of all, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens over the next year. I mean, Volcom went by this theme at ASR, too. As much as it was a bit of fun, I can't help but feel that some kid somewhere is watching the coverage thinking that this is the next big thing and if they are smart they can jump on early. Enter the mini ramp shredders in dungarees at your local park.
That's not some wild claim - It happened before. Just look at Ollie Todd. Portraits came out, London followed. Godfather of the Cardigan Movement.



Edit: All shitty photos by me. All the skate ones by Jelle Keppens

"Gritty Action Sequences"

I sat down to finally watch Quantum of Solace last night whilst battling the last of the Manflu and I'm not entirely sure what happened. Y'see, its those "Gritty Action Sequences". Do they actually make any sense? It's all close ups, zooming cameras and spinning around Matrix style. Cameramen gone wild. God knows what goes on and who's winning - you just know its all gone mental.

...and then you accept it all as you see Daniel Craig walk away.

Are Hollywood that far behind? Didn't we learn that was wrong with Attack? Jesus. I remember seeing that straight after the H-Street Bootleg. Even at the tender age of thirteen, I knew something was very wrong.

It hasn't aged well, either...


If I remember correctly...

...this would have been the final trip I went on whilst completely skint.

That's not to say money is great right now - but if we're out of milk these days, chances are I'll go buy a bottle and not hope someone else will take care of it. Know what I mean?

Excuse the blandness of this post. I'm ill as...cooped up on the sofa filled with medicines.

All of the edits use Small Faces songs. Vans have this list of songs they've already got cleared. It's actually a pretty fucking good list. I think it contains all of the good Maiden albums and plenty more. Trouble is, the fun we we're filming didn't exactly suit Maiden. Any tour which avoids the pub in the evening needs something other than metal set to it, right?

Part 1.
Oh - that Vans mention a minute ago wasn't random. I should point out that this was their little UK team 5 day trip around the South East of England. I think this was also the first time a lot of the team met Dave Watson. We got to hit up a few of his local spots before travelling out to these odd places I had previously pretty much only hit up with Si Skipp and Tom Ball.
Ste Roe's Alley Oop Disater Wallride thing ended up as his last trick in Savoir Faire a year later. That came out of nowhere...One of those sessions where it was all winding down and then someone gives something 5 tries only to up all that came before it.



Part 2.
The second part has a little session on the now defunct Rainham kicker. I hated that spot. You can't see the kicker on the run up, you need someone on it to spot for the lorries doing 60mph on the run out - and the kicker wasn't much more than board width. Chris' Backside 360 ended up in Savoir Faire, too. It's pretty much the only one he's ever done. Not a bad effort.
There weren't any photo's from this session (nor the Dagenham and Skipps Ditch sessions in Part 1) as Silent Will and Grove had been out the night before in Sheffield and forgot that they had to drive down the country the next morning. Truly professional.



Part 3.
The Sound Mirror. Chris Oliver and I had been up to the other Sound Mirror on the east coast a few weeks before the tour to film some bits. He ended up with a Kickflip fakie which was in his Kingpin interview as well as his Savoir Faire part.
With the Vans team we decided to try to hit up the ones a little further down the coast. They were far bigger, and far harder to skate. I'll put up the footage from Chris' session soon just so you can see the size difference.



Part 4.
Okay, illnness is returning fast. I need more medicine, so I'm going to get this post done fast.
I'm amazed we got to spend all day at this spot. There is still so much to do there...We tried to go again but got the boot by the police after 5 minutes, which sucked. It's a long way to drive from my place just to get the busted.
I don't think we were meant to find it again, actually. We were told it was in such-and-such-a-town and were driven out there. I remember someone sitting in the car and saying that "We've already driven past that hotel once already". We were also taken down a lot of back roads. Fairs fair. Those guys didn't know us for shit and they were giving up their gold. The only reason I feel comfortable writing this is because everyone ended up being really good mates with each other afterwards (James even ended up travelling the world for a year with Pas).
The thing is, that place is huge and blue and so long as we knew it was by the sea, we'd be able to find it on Google Earth.

Check Dave's Nollie Flip. Amazing.



Part 5.
The vert/mini deathtrap. Joe Sandland took us there. The place was wrong. One fuckup and you'd slice a hand off under that tired sheet metal surface.

Theres not much to say about this stuff. Broadstairs, Margate and thats about it. Tyreman came into his own here. When he knows what he wants to do, he gets on with the job. He had so much coverage around this time and it's no wonder.
Grove's double set ollie was the last thing we filmed on this tour We saved it for Savoir Faire. Ollie Ollied the double set (Woah. Weird sentence). I should dig that out. I think Ben was eyeing it up and Ollie thought he'd try it. Not only did he do it first shot, he also shinned Grove by zooming his board at him just beforehand. Clever move.



More shit when manflu passes...

Shoe-boxes full of tapes, Vol. 1

I guess the point of starting this blog is to finally get some of the footage I've had chewing up space all this time out there into the wide world...

They'll end up in no particular order I'm sure. In fact, this one is going up first as it is a tiny file and pretty much just a test to see if I can get the 'ol bloggins working.

This is Mattias Nylén.
He'd been asked to film for the Krooked DVD and only had a little time to do so.

We had some bits which had only been seen in the UK - or had ended up as clips here and there. Cobbled together, it would have made a pretty good, short intro part to non-European viewers.

However, in classic Mattias style, he let me know of the deadline the day the DVD was premiering in the US.
So, with only a few new clips we decided we could film a part and get a video going ourselves (There was among other ideas, an idea of a UK concrete video if I remember correctly), but Mattias was fluctuating in commitment - and to be fair to him, he was also traveling a lot and knocking on all doors to see if he could get something good going and a bit of solid cash coming in.
So, rather than sit on footage which may never see the light of day, I spent an evening stealing logos and artwork from the internet (Google images is and always has been amazing, eh?), nabbed a bit of Sonic Youth feedback and threw together this trippy piece with a view to it becoming a DVD extra, if I could get it over quick enough.

For one reason or another, it didn't go on the DVD - Probably because it just bastardized Krooked's art output with some rider who's only half on. Not the best sell for us, eh?
It ultimately ended up as a web clip on www.dlxsf.com. I' also guessing (hoping?) the DVD was authored on footage deadline, too (as they are always with skateboarding it seems). Therefore, internet was the only place for the clip of the rider who didn't get it together* for the DVD.

From what I can make out on the tape logs, the Stale Eggplant (or infact, all of the clip) was filmed on the 18th July 2006. Bay Sixty6 Vert Ramp, London.





*Although to be fair, he did have a trick in the credits. As filmed by his girlfriend.