Non-Stop Poetry: The Zines of Mark Gonzales is a book made up of a plethora of his work that has been shared in over 145 of the the zines he has made since the early 90s.
This collection of his work opens with a foreword from Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon and has words from Harmony Korine and many more alongside Gonz’ infamous doodles, words and much more. Available from here.
9. Carry bolt cutters everywhere.
10. Thwart institutional cowardice.
11. Ask for forgiveness, not permission.
12. Take your fate into your own hands.
13. Learn to read the inner essence of a landscape.
14. Ignite the fire within and explore unknown territory.
Werner Herzog – A Guide for the Perplexed.
Riding a skateboard is hard and dirty, often anti social and habitually painful. It’s noisy and obnoxious and you spend most of your time covered in the shit and detritus the modern urban sprawl leaves in its wake. Up until fairly recently, it was also about the least cool thing you could spend your time doing. (As a kid, I’ve been decked more than a couple of times whilst out on plank, for no other reason than being a kid, out on plank, and was steadfastly called a greb all throughout comprehensive school, which was admittedly a fair few years ago, pre mainstream usurping/commodification of skate culture and fashion.)
If you ride a skateboard, you know this; it’s your day in, day out existence and if you don’t, it really doesn’t matter and you don’t need to know about it. The same can be said about Anti Hero. It’s exclusive in a completely non-wanky or pretentious way. You either know, or you don’t. Get involved and get some, or don’t bother and don’t worry about it.
I recently spent sometime out on the West Coast of the U.S.A., hitching-hiking, skating and drifting about the spiritual home of the useless wooden toy with my plank, my tent and not much else. It was my Al Hajj, and it was pretty much perfect.
Skating down N. Fairfax Avenue in LA beneath huge billboards advertising Diamond and D.G.K. and what have you, surrounded by the celebrity oi polloi of Twatplankville was kind of a trip, but was a million miles from what I know and hold dear as skateboarding. Skidding, falling over and boozing with the SF scumbags down on Potrero Park and Lower Bobs, watching Andy Roy et al. screech about the place made more sense.
There’s an investment in and a thirst for life with those guys; for the kind of life that means getting off ya arse and making the world around you the sort of world you want to live in, which instantly makes posturing or vogueing or whatever fad is in that week null and void, completely redundant.
Lower Bobs, the DIY spot out in West Oakland that the 18/Our Life guys poured on a bit of wasteland squeezed between the highway and Pine St. perfectly encapsulates what I’m trying to get at here, except in blood, sweat, ‘crete and grinds, and is a hundred times more profound than this hokum and jive. Language is pointless stood up next to wailing slash grinds and speed lines at that place.
Skateboarding doesn’t need words or sports companies, or limited edition collabs…it needs action. Go put Fucktards and 2 Songs and Destination Unknown in ya pie-holes, get stoked then go get some.
Xavien Francis is uploading seperate sections from the Skrimp video online so if you want some of Kilian Zehnder and Douwe Macare’s joint part, then hit that play button.
Petr Tanko focuses on MACBA as the center of skateboarding in Europe in this new 10 minute docu on the Barcelona scene and the attraction to many worldwide to head there and soak up the many spots on offer. Paul Rodriguez is also involved in a story where the much documented popularity became an issue for locals.
If you have ever loved the Jameson 2 Eco shoe from etnies from their previous incarnations you may want to check out their new variation of it that has become Julian Davidson’s signature colorway this week.
It’s a suede canvas mix with a thin padded tongue and Soletech’s STI Evolution Foam midsole for impact and looks like a solid option for those who prefer skating in a light weight shoe. Comes in maroon, black, brown and blue colourways.
Check out Davidson’s switch skills in this new edit.
Part deux has arrived from NYSkateboarding‘s couch interview with Jason Dill and Gino Iannucci. The subject matter of the inevitable story of Gino leaving Chocolate to the new FA graphic selection process and colours are discussed amongst more.
5BORO Skateboards have worked on a new deck range called the 5B Airline Series, a collaborative project illustrated by German artist Stefan Marx.
This series consists of six planes, five of which have a unique registration number representing one of the five NYC’s five boroughs, (5BNY-BK-1996) consisting of 5boronyc’s brand/boro abbreviation and establishing year, 1996.
These should be making their way to skate shops over the next few weeks, order from your local store this weekend.
Sizes:
5B Airline Series Brooklyn 8” X 32”
5B Airline Series Bronx 8.3” X
5B Airline Series Manhattan 8.25” X
5B Airline Series Queens 8” & 8.5” X 32”
5B Airline Series Staten Island 7.8” & 8.125” X 32”
5B Airline Series JFK 8” & 8.25” X 32”
It’s not often that skateboards are blamed for fire related incidents but recent reports from firefighters in West Yorkshire confirmed that Josh Jarvis’ deck started a freak blaze in his parents home last month.
Following an investigation, fire chiefs found that a skateboard (sitting idle for over 4 years) had been in contact with central heating pipes over a long period of time until ‘pyrophoric action’ kicked in, igniting the wood.
It seems absolutely ridiculous but apparently “the temperature variation of the heating going on and off cooks the wood like charcoal and eventually if the combination is right it will go into a smouldering fire and then will ignite something,” says Fire Investigator Mark Whitaker. The fire wrecked a room and into their hallway but did not spread to the rest of the building thankfully.
Skate Police are said to be making enquiries to possibly charge the kid for negligence as leaving your rig for so long without a schralp should be a crime. Lesson learned here: Never leave your rig alone for no longer than a week or risk it setting fire to itself in protest.
Photo: The culprit kid who left his deck unskated for 4 years poses with firefighters.
Sit back and take in what Paris has to offer from this 8 minute edit from Pierre Prospero. Skating coming from Hakim Shérif, Thomas Busuttil, Jon Monier, William Moreau, Guillaume Moquin and Donger.