Lost and Found
It was in about 2006, whilst on hiatus in Queens’, that I decided to try and start reliving the golden years, AKA the 90s. There are many steps involved in this process. Finding all those albums you once had would be one of the hardest things to do. Fuck me! God only knows why I took them down to Cash Converters every time I wanted ins on a twent’ or a pack of smokes, haha. Another step I took was buying up DVDs from the aforementioned era. My mate Raph worked at the local music store and had access to most discs available, even if they did cost a small fortune. The first DVD I ordered was one of the classics, Larry Clark’s Kids. I remember going to a midweek screening of this in the Square as part of the annual film festival in either ’95 or ’96 with all the homies. We mobbed deep in the theatre not quite knowing what to expect. I think we were most hyped on the fact that the movie was jam packed full of skateboarders: Harold hunter, Justin Pierce, Lavar Mcbride, Billy Valdes, Javier Nunez, the list goes on. It was like a game of eye spy, spotting the cameos by all the skaters as they came on screen. The movie was essentially focused on the lifestyles of teenagers growing up in New York, dealing with day to day shit like drugs, sex, partying, etc, and is filmed in a ‘day in the life’ sort of style. There was quite a lot of controversy drawn around this film, most of which was aimed at director Larry Clark. I have read articles with many of the skaters involved, who have all said a lot of the film was ad-lib, and Larry just let them be themselves, which involved smokin’ weed and drinking. There is also the question of Larry Clark’s love of younger teens and their ability to take their clothes off on screen. One thing I do remember was walking out of the theatre fairly pumped, as growing up in Christchurch we used to cop a lot of flack from little street thugs, always trying to jack us for our boards or gears. There is a scene in the movie where a group of skaters deal to a dude in slightly similar situation. It gave us a bit of hope as skateboarders. It also spawned the careers of both Rosario Dawson and Chloe Sevigny.
As for when I got my copy of the DVD some ten or so years later, well to be honest, it kinda made me cringe to watch it. I almost felt like I was watching some bad apples go even more sour. I guess I grew up at least a little bit (though I am a professional teenager at heart). I was talking to Dave the other day and it’s like he said, when he went to the theatre to see it, after ten minutes everyone except the people he was with had walked out. I showed it to a couple of my UK homies who were living in Queenstown at the time and I’m not too sure what they got from it. I definitely wasn’t as pumped as I was when I first saw it. Still, if you are a skateboarder and you haven’t seen it, give it a whirl. Bearing in mind that it is R18, kids please ask your parents first. I don’t want to be responsible for any sort of influence you may get from the film.
OGs
Casper and Telly
E-Clipse
It was super good to hook up with longtime homie, the legendary master Foo last week in the grid city. I don’t know if he knew what he was about to endure when staying in Christchurch, as we had two major earthquakes whilst he was here. I took my laptop over to his hotel to show him some stuff the following night and when we had finished with the average new videos we watched (yes, I do watch it all, believe it or not) he pulled out his iPod. Now, I wasn’t quite prepared for this. Bernie had a lot of OG heat on there and it got my mind racing into a frenzy again. To celebrate this epiphany I’m pulling out a double e-clipse this week.
There was this company that folded, and I kinda don’t understand why. It’s name was Mad Circle and it had a pretty mean team. They released two vids and I’m giving you two parts from their latter release 5 flavours. First up is a man who needs no introduction – Rob Welsh. Don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure it was his first full section. Welsh was definitely on top of his game then (he still is) and this was an eye opener when it came out even though it is a very short part. It was set to a mean tune too. The reason I brought up Bernie is because of the second part. I had kind of forgotten about this guy and Bernie had all these parts of him, but I remember this being one of my favourites around that time. You should most definitely go out and YouTube his name if you haven’t heard of him and check out his other parts. More preferably the older ones, but his skating has never changed and that is why he deserves the utmost respect. His name is Bobby Puleo.
Mad Circle 'Five Flavors'
Fine Tuning
As I think I once told you, Nasty Nas is number one in my books. I was manualing through the internet the other day (I’ve never learnt how to surf) and stumbled upon this wee gem. I figure you need to share these things with the world, otherwise they seem to fly by somewhat unnoticed, as if they never even existed at all. This one is courtesy of cookinsoul.com and is one of the best things I have heard this year. Have a good look through Cookin Soul, as it’s a mean site with many links to mixtapes, etc. (There’s a dope Gil Scott Heron tribute tape that’s well worthy of a download.) There’s also a load of interesting info on the game. Here’s Nas The Lost Tapes 1.5 by Cookin Soul X Don Cannon. I’m gonna throw you in a bonus Nas clip too this week: Street Dreams from the album It was written. Another dedication, this time to my homeboy Mikey shields. It’s all you G!
Click here to download the mixtape.
Nas Lost Tapes 1.5
http://youtu.be/8jxDMlAUkcQ
Stomping Grounds
There was a time when it was all bout the beefiest tongues. For me it still is that time as I still put an extra fila tongue in my shoes to this very day for added swag. Shoes were usually made to cater for this market. I think Stevie was one of the first dudes I saw ‘tonging’ his maroon Etnies Skols (Dan Kircher’s favourites at the time if, I remember correctly) in the Element industry section of 411vm #8. I swear he only laced them to the second loophole and just had ‘em all flaring out. I’m also pretty sure a lot of us fell victim to one of the most ultimate no-nos in the game, the old tie your laces behind your tongue trick. Almost worse than the choke your shoe to bits AKA death to your kicks via strangulation.
I don’t know about you, but fuck, I love my tongues! A shoe that came about in ’94 was the Etnies SLB (Salvador Lucas Barbier) and it was probably the first skate shoe dedicated to the full flare of the tongue. Virtually straight away every dope cunt in the game was sporting these bad boys, even if they had a sponsorship with another company. Again, they were a hard to find item in New Zealand, well at least in the Dirty South anyway. Anyone who had ‘em was instantly put on a pedestal. I remember one of the first times I ever saw B. Foo he had the baby blue ones. So farken fresh! Another funny thing about this shoe is that they were originally an Etnies, then when éS came around (who are part of the same company Sole Tech) they switched them over to éS. I have provided the ads underneath. I do believe in ’09 Etnies pulled out a re-release of this shoe. Tut tut tut. What did they also do? They slimmed the entire shoe down and reduced the tongue size. Also, they gave you the vulc sole option, which is pretty standard these days, but not what the actual shoe’s vibe was at all. It was about the shape and the tongue. Oh well, you gotta make a dollar somehow. Another outstanding feature of the shoe was the embroidered 23 on the side of the heel. Sal later went on to have a board company called 23 but that’s a whole different story in itself, we will keep that for a future Wednesday. As another bonus for this week I thought I’d throw another one of Sal’s shoes at you because it also deserves an honorable mention.
Etnies Sal Advert
éS Sal 1
éS SLB
