Movies I've been watching

[nuggetsvolume1]

Watched "Stoked" which is the Gator skateboarding documentary. This is the second time I've seen it: gotta be honest, I don't really get it. I know break ups are gut wrenching when young, but never have I ever assumed raping and then killing my ex's acquaintance (they weren't even that close) would be a good revenge. Also confusing how his Christian faith somehow gets wiggled into this and almost used as a scapegoat. Very confusing murder case for me, but the dude must have been nuts. They did a decent job showing his rise and fall. I think it's full on youtube if you get bored.

[Spacecase Records]

Two-Lane Blacktop. I'm currently restoring a '56 Chevy 210 Handyman Wagon.

Mark Rogowski was all over the place. I've skated my whole life. I've chatted with a couple of folks who knew him. I got tattooed by Eric Dressen and he had great Gator stories before he started going off the rails. Gator committed a heinous crime, but there were a number of skateboarders from that era who imploded. Suicide with Jeff Phillips, long prison stretches (Josh Swindell, Hosoi, etc.). That whole period was very bleak for skateboarding and at that time, skateboarding really did "attract wayward youth" as Stacy Peralta mentioned. Some of those guys were clocking $200,000+ per year in 1980s dollars and then immediately lost everything. Beyond all the bullshit endorsements (Swatch Watches, etc.) there was gravy-train money being extras in movies and commercials. That kind of money at 20 years old. Some of those guys got busted cuz they didn't understand that you had to file taxes. I won't name names, but I've heard it all. When I started skating in 1995, your average pro was working a part-time job and no one gave a damn about skateboarding.

Obviously, I'm not trying psychoanalyze Gator or explain his actions. I'm just saying, the early 1990s was the spiritual and financial bottom of skateboarding. The transition from vert to street was another element. There were only a handful of guys like Danny Way and Chany Jeanguenin who could skate street convincingly, equally as good and with a fluidity of style that matched their vert skating. You were pretty much a non-entity in 1993 if you skated vert -- this in the midst of a dead industry. Very rough. If you have a background in skateboarding, you can contextualize the film better. 

[Spacecase Records]

Add Alphonzo Rawls to the vert/street ATV category. He ripped.

[nuggetsvolume1]

Thanks for the background. I do think being that big of a deal for a short period of time and then fading out into nothing can really mess up your psyche. The film touches on that. I can't imagine being that famous and successful and then having it snatched away from you. Would drive a man nuts.

[Spacecase Records]

Again, I'm just trying to contextualize the environment of early 1990s skateboarding. A lot of guys didn't make the transition, no pun intended. I don't think many of them understood that the good times could possibly end. The ones with foresight/guidance started little companies of their own and were successful for a decade or more (Lance Mountain, Hawk, T-Mag!, etc.). It's not like there weren't people who made it out. But by the time I started, some of them became cautionary tales. I remember in the mid-'90s Gator sent Thrasher a letter from prison, talking about he was changing his life and getting into upholstery. I think Phelps just clowned him in response. 

[Laurent Bigot]

Who Can Kill a Child?, never saw this 1970's Spanish horror film before and we're lucky to have it back in the movie theaters here. Less trash/gory but more intelligent than expected.

[Sukebe GG]

Yeah, Tony Hawk was very well guided = How a dude with zero style became the skate legend...Hosoi is another too much, too young story. Haven't watched his doc. tho...

[nuggetsvolume1]

Hosoi doc. is full and free on youtube. As far as I know, he went hardcore Christian and is living a clean, normal life now. He's been on youtube within the last few years. Doing good for the community, etc.

[Spacecase Records]

My friend lived in the same condo complex as Hosoi -- said he was a great guy -- and I saw him at a RVCA after party for an art show shortly after his release in early 2005. I didn't think it was him skating their massive mini ramp -- I thought he was still in prison -- but he fucking tore it up like Ben Schroeder. He walked past me later that night and I swear to god it felt like he glowed. People say the same thing about Alex Chilton. They exude charisma. Hosoi really was born to skate.

[nuggetsvolume1]

Besides Gator (who is locked up), the worst case I have seen of skaters going downhill is Duane Peters. I know he's done stuff with bands and is still active, but he never seems to be sober or off drugs. Who else besides these guys really went down hill from the skate world? I'm not the most knowledgeable about it.

[Richie]

Besides Gator (who is locked up), the worst case I have seen of skaters going downhill is Duane Peters. I know he's done stuff with bands and is still active, but he never seems to be sober or off drugs. Who else besides these guys really went down hill from the skate world? I'm not the most knowledgeable about it.

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/gqyewx/lennie-kirk-and-the-insane-side-of-skateboarding-381

[Spacecase Records]

So, the second skate video I ever purchased was Best of 411 #2. I bought it from Rip City in Santa Monica. I was 13 and Lennie had a Rookies Profile in it. He switch backside 5-0 grinded Hubba Hideout. I thought alongside Matt Reason, Lennie was going to be the future of skateboarding. Time Code came out in 1997 and it was really weird as he had made the switch to Born Again Christianity. But this was pre-Internet for normal people, so there was no info out there on how to contextualize this/figure out what happened. Was he joking? Serious? What the fuck?

When Lennie went dormant, meaning to prison and no one talked about him, I would tell younger folks, "Get into Lennie Kirk's Time Code part. He switch backside 180 nosegrinds Hubba." When he got out initially, some of the younger local guys moved up to SF. One of them sent me a photo of Lennie just hanging out at his house -- a total skaterat flop pad. I got him into Lennie. Not long afterwards, the legend of Lennie began to spread. And then he went back to prison.

Lennie was pretty wild and he had a Gonz-like eye towards skating. What others deemed impossible, Lennie thought it could be done. He was right some of the time. But that dumpster slam was life changing.

ALSO, Rich K., let's get this going, dude.

[Sukebe GG]

Bill Danforth popped up in my head but he looks to be doing fine...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f7qRqaFF7o

[Ray Sharky]

i just watched Trashin' for the first time after i found a copy at value village I defy you to find a better skate movie. Its got the red hot chillie peppers in it lol.

I kid i kid. Although i do love that movie

Welcome to hell and fulfill the dream are the only skate videos i can remember from my youth. Steve olson was a mad man

[nuggetsvolume1]

I remember my cousin would always have those old Bones Brigade VHS tapes and we would watch them. Old skate videos were probably must first exposure to punk.