Birdhouse Skateboards are quietly establishing a seriously exciting team over there this year. You’ve seen Jaws and Raybourn go pro, now get on this new section from Oklahoma born Clint Walker shared by Independent Trucks today as this is guaranteed to put a smile on your face instantly. Hit play for an inspiring Skate Edit of the Week.
The Emerica team will be visiting the UK this week with Andrew Reynolds, Bryan Herman, Jerry Hsu, Tom Knox, Rob Maatman, Oscar Candon and Casper Brooker all present at demos and signings. Check the dates below for the full schedule with activity planned in Newcastle, Manchester, Derby and London as this will be one not to miss.
We have a pair of these brand new Emerica Bryan Herman G6 shoes plus an Emerica HQ420 Washed tee-shirt for one lucky winner to wear this Spring. All you have to do is answer this question and ‘like’ the Crossfire Facebook page to enter, as we will contact the winner through there once the winner is randomly selected. Good luck.
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The mainstream media proved once again this weekend that it only takes one article headline to push skateboarding into having the bad rep that it has always been tarnished with over the years. This particular piece in the Guardian/Observer refers to the Boston bombers who wreaked havok across the pond last week with their horrific plans to blow up as many people as they could at the Boston Marathon.
This newspaper ran with the headline that depicted terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a “skateboarding weed smoker, who flirted with jihad”, even though in the same article Tsarnaev was said to have been interested in various other normal pastimes and sports. Boxing and football were mentioned but the newspaper chose to categorise the Islamist and box it up as youth gone wild. There’s no doubt that this guy’s outlook had long gone walkies due to his participation in this dreadful atrocity, but tarring skateboarders with the same old brush that has been dipped in the sticky pot of media bullshit once again rang loud bells this morning. Why should skateboarders be brought into this tragedy? Why do journalists always feel a need to stereotype us?
This monolithic entity has demonized our scene as much as they have glamourised it over the years and with skateboarding being so popular right now across mainstream media and brand campaigns take this as a reminder that there are still people out there who believe that what we do is the work of the devil himself. Most skateboarders are, and always will be creative, like-minded individuals who will always bring fun to this planet whatever age they may be. It’s about time that those media whores who categorise us wake up and live in the year 2013 rather than being stuck in the 1980s when skateboarders listened to their records backwards, wore leather gloves and spoke of ‘rat bones’ and ‘dudes’.
Speculation is the initial basis of journalism; the raw speculation is sifted and examined to find potential truths. Like it or not, 24-hour rolling news means that much of that speculation is aired in public, and sometimes we as skateboarders lose.
Bomb hills not people.
(For the record, I am aware of exactly what the article itself states about the character of the offenders. This rant came from the headline as stated in the opening sentence as it will allow readers to stereotype and could also lead to skate spots being tightened further by security guards.)
The Berrics gets annihilated by the Royal Trucks team this week. Click play for a crazy Guy Mariano, Mike Carroll, Justin Eldridge, Wes Kremer, Jose Rojo, Mikemo Capaldi, Daryl Angel, Jerry Hsu, Trent McClung and more.
There’s only one winner here. Dylan Hughes takes 15 from the Cardiff Plaza’s curves and crete.
Death Skateboards have some new mini ramp footage of Ryan Chamberlain enjoying a session at the Campus mini ramp and is now on Death flow. Click for an edit put together by James Harris.
Zombie Surf Party Zine are throwing an art exhibition this May with various illustrations and skateboard photography from Guy Jarrett, Michael Biddulph, Matt Musk, Helena Long, Liam Clark and Becci Atkinson. These 5 met through skateboarding in the Norwich area and have various goodness to share. This will be set up for you to pop into from 2nd-12th May at the Basement Gallery, (under Lomography) at 117 Commercial Street, East London, E1 6BG.
Black Sabbath
‘God Is Dead’
www.blacksabbath.com
It took 35 years for Black Sabbath to write and release a new track and here it is, an 8:51 minute heavy metal journey for 2013.
‘God Is Dead‘ is the first piece of music released last night from their new album ’13’, Black Sabbath’s first studio LP with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978. The question is though, is this any good?
The song was produced by legendary producer Rick Rubin, famous for his work with the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Slayer and plenty more. It was said that he asked the band to deliver something for him to work with that would be up there with the first 4 Sabbath albums. On reflection, ‘God Is Dead’ has taken elements of those classic breakdowns we all know so well; the graveyard production and those trademark Iommi heavy riffs and even Ozzy’s voice sounds like he just about gets away with it, although some will argue that he clearly has nothing left to give due to the effects on this recording. For me, the end section of this track is where it all comes together. Seven minutes in, Sabbath are absolutely flying, Ozzy is on point and you are shipped back to 1970 where it all began.
You have to give it up to them on actually making this record. We are talking about 60 year old men here. Most old codgers can’t even make it to the john in time, let alone write and record a nineteenth album. The Stooges made a complete mess of their comeback record this month; in comparison, this track kicks its arse.
The chances of this song going down in rock history like classics such as ‘War Pigs’, ‘Iron Man’ or ‘Paranoid’ though is slim. ‘God Is Dead’ lacks any of the songwriting skills needed to be logged in the Sabbath hall of fame and lyrically it’s about as entertaining as the news of Rolf Harris being arrested this morning. The fact that the band have left drummer Bill Ward out of the band for this whilst he is fully active in Orange County and added Audioslave’s Brad Wilk adds more mental torture ahead of the release of 13, but have a listen and make your own opinions.
Overall, this tells us that metal’s darkest lords could have have some good stuff up their wizard sleeves and with the positive force from Nietzsche here on their cover, maybe their new album scheduled for release on June 11th will pull off a miracle we never thought would ever happen.
It’s pretty amazing what you can do with your phone these days but Raymond Molinar seems to have cracked that retro feel with this new iPhone edit with skating from Anthony Schultz, Austyn Gillette and Johan Stuckey. Check out the Boyz filmed with and iPhone, a snap on fisheye lens, and a filter.
The X-Games is currently going on in Brazil right now with mega ramp comps setting new monstrous records as ever. This time round Jake Brown is back in the news, not for falling onto the flat bottom though, instead he is the first person to pull a 720′ ollie as captured on film here.