Who needs winter temperatures anyway?
Posted: February 21, 2012 Filed under: My attempts at humor, My take on pop culture and me., Skateboarding | Tags: climate change, Global warming, warm winter, winter 2 Comments »
In the past few months it is as if nature decided not to have winter in the NYC area. I’m sure this is the paradise before hell. Maybe in summer it will be over 100 degrees from May to September. I don’t think anyone can question climate change, either man made or the end of an ice age. Whatever happened to the weather, something has gone quirky. It would take a more scientific mind than I have to explain climate change, and I’m sure there are a ton of negative consequences from the temperature rising in this part of the world. However, for this blog entry I’m going to talk about the positives of this warm winter, it’s been great.
First and foremost I’ve been able to skate most weekends this winter. The skaters at NYC parks are really friendly and welcoming. They tolerate older and mediocre skaters like myself. The only thing I don’t like about NYC skating is the mentality that NYC is the best, and all the comparisons to California. California most likely will always be the epicenter of the skate industry because it’s more part of the culture there, and they do not have winters or the brutal humidity in the summer. I don’t think NYC needs to compare itself to other locations, but this lack of winter this year is definitely helping the skate scene here. The parks are packed when I go there, and I notice a lot of people are progressing. On facebook one of my friends said that people are getting better when usually for winter people have to slow down and take a break from skating. I’m sure this year is a fluke, but if for some reason it’s not, and there are 5 or so warm winters like this in a row, I’m sure more skaters from NYC will go pro. The energy and progression at the parks will produce good skaters.
As far as my own skating, I think I’m staying at the same level. That is better than getting worse, which I would get if I took a month or more off because of cold weather. This 3-day weekend, I skated Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. My first day was a flushing meadows and I skated the unisphere with my friend. I didn’t skate for almost two weeks prior, and it was a rough session. I kept missing kickflips. My friend and I had a few games of s.k.a.t.e. that took way too long because neither of us were skating that well, and couldn’t land much. I think I skated less than a few hours. On Sunday after a night out, I went to the Astoria skate park by myself. It took me awhile to warm up, but I had a good session. I’m glad I could ollie down the 3 stairs without too much bailing. It’s such a small drop and not far so my trouble with it is a mental block. I’ll never throw myself down large drops, but I need to not be afraid of things I’m capable off. I also spent some time doing railslides on a low curb. I got a few, and I think I am in more control of that trick. Then on Monday, I simply went to my local park, Forest Park. I saw some good skating, and stayed there about 3 hours. I worked on some things, and it was not too crowded. So I figured out a few lines. By far, the third day in a row of skating I skated my best, and I think the sport is something that the more regularly done, the better people get. If I could skate a few hours every day, I’m sure I could progress even though I’m older. And skating once a week or so during the whole winter is a lot better than skating nothing for the season.
My second point and I guess my last point in why the warm weather has been good is the economy. People here are acting like they all have spring fever. I went out a couple of times this weekend in the middle of queens, and the bars have been packed, and people are walking in the streets in sweatshirts, dresses, and not too worried about wearing coats. I live near a bunch of malls, and people are out shopping. Maybe this winter will end the recession because normally people take it easy during the winter. Now people are out and about.
February is over in 9 days, and usually in March the temperature starts to warm. I’m willing to bet we will not even have a cold dip in the temperature at all. It’ll go down as the year that we skipped winter.
Review of Transworld Skateboarding 30 most influential skaters.
Posted: December 21, 2011 Filed under: My reviews, Skateboarding | Tags: 30 most influential skaters, matt hensley, rodney mullen, steve cabellero, tony alva, Transworld Skateboarding, transworld skateboarding magazine Leave a comment »Transworld 30 most influential skaters , (link to Transworld online article)
I’m not sure if many people review magazines, but I think it’s worth giving a shot. Out of my library I checked out the new Transworld Skateboarding magazine, January 2012, and I think I’ll return it, go to a store and buy a copy.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Transworld they decided to highlight the 30 most influential skateboarders of all time. Thrasher also celebrated their 30th anniversary recently, and it’s interesting they both started around the same time. What makes this issue of Transworld so unique is that they interview all of the 30 people listed, and about 6 additional people about their own careers and the history of skateboarding. Also throughout the main article they have a timeline of important events in skateboarding.
They list Duane Peters, Tony Alva, and Steve Cabellero in the top 30. Duane Peters and Tony Alva are over 50 years old, and Steve Cabellero is approaching 50. All three continue to skate well. In the magazine Steve Cabellero states he now likes getting older because he can continue to push the boundaries and can see how long he can keep at it.
Also listed were several vert and street skaters from the 1980’s. Lance Mountain says some interesting things in his interview, and I also enjoyed Matt Hensley’s interview.
On the timeline for the year 2007 the magazine states this about the Lakai video, “Mike Carroll and Eric Koston prove the 90’s generation is still comfortably in the driver’s seat.” (page 129) I always felt it amazing that some of this guys were popular when I was in high school, and still are pro and testing the limits. Several skaters on this list are from my generation. I think skaters in their mid thirties now that skated through the late 1980’s to the mid 1990’s did see skating become dynamic. In the magazine it states that Rodney Mullen invented the 360 flip in 1987. That was right before I started to skate. That trick must have caught on like wild fire, because by 1989 it was common. Also Blind’s Video Days came out in 1991, and The Questionable Video came out in 1992, and they had a much different image and trick variation with just a year between release dates.
Anyone that would think about the most influential skaters would agree that Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk, and Mark Gonzales would place at the top of the list. Out of the 30 skaters though, I recognized almost all of them, and could think a few important skaters not on the list. It really shows that even though skateboarding is very individual, a lot of people contributed to the progression of the sport. I also enjoyed that this issue interviewed the skaters, and had a long interview with the rated most influential skater Mark Gonzales. A running theme of the skaters that made the list was longevity. Their impact was over a long span, and they still skate.
Anyway I’ll keep this short. If you skate or skated at some point, go get this issue of Transworld.
Here is one of Mark Gonzales’s famous clips:
Review of recent skate videos by Nike, Shake Junt, and SK8MAFIA
Posted: December 17, 2011 Filed under: My reviews, Skateboarding | Tags: chicken bone nowison, NIke SB, shake junt, sk8mafia, skateboarding Leave a comment »Over my thanksgiving holiday a close relative told me she reads my blog posts except the ones dealing with skateboarding. I’m happy for her honesty and perhaps writing on such a specialty does alienate potential audiences. So I need to decide if I’m going to write for skaters, and somehow break into that market, or be more general so that everyone that reads my blog knows what I’m talking about. The whole purpose of my blog is to write regularly and make it a routine. Coming up with ideas more than once a week can be challenge, and skateboarding is one thing I can daydream up ideas about very quickly. So here is a very skate geek out entry on three recent videos I’ve watched. All of these three videos came out at roughly the same time.
Review of Nike’s Skateboard Chronicles Volume 1., 2011
I saw people giving this the thumbs up on facebook before it was released on Itunes on December 10, 2011. But you really had to search sites for free downloads, and to me getting a virus from a shifty site was a deterrent enough to wait. The other two videos I’m going to review had the full-length video on youtube, and were easily accessible. Maybe power house companies like Nike can make sure it’s not shared illegally while the smaller companies are losing the battle.
Film wise this is high quality, they use good angles, I got the HD version on Itunes, and the picture looks very good. Music wise I believe it is uneven. In the year 2011 is Green Day really necessary in a skateboarding part? But for the last three riders: Lewis Marnell, Wieger Van Wageningen, and Grant Taylor the music is matched perfectly. Wieger Van Wageningen, a red haired giant from Holland, skates to David Bowie that gives it a mellow energy. Grant Taylor skates to Slayer and that matches his fast gnar insane skating style.
Skating wise this is impressive. Lewis Marnell is on Almost. Rodney Mullen and Daewon Song, two legendary skaters run Almost and don’t sponsor that many, but try to sponsor the best. This is the first footage of Lewis Marnell I’ve seen, and the guy is smooth and a tech skater. Wieger Van Wageningen I never saw or heard of before, but he has good tech while popping everything. The stand out part is Grant Taylor. Two years ago his part in Alien Workshop’s ‘Mindfield,’ was good, but the guy has progressed into one of the best. I believe he got Thrasher’s skater of the year. He is going big and fast. This part has a lot of huge pools, drops to ditches, and rails. The ender trick is about a 14-stair rail that curves sharply outward at the end. He made it even though so many things could go wrong on a rail like that.
Nike labeled this video volume 1, and it highlighted about 6 skaters. They have an army of skaters and some of the biggest names in the game. Paul Rodriguez, Eric Koston, Theotis Beasley, and Justin Brock are some of the top pros that might be in volume 2, volume 3, volume 4 etc. I don’t think they published how many they plan, but I think the wheels are in motion, and I think these might come out a little more quickly than other company videos because they are probably dropping more money on them.
For a long time I passionately disliked Nike, and I still kind of do. But as skateboarding sustains it’s popularity, and becomes more and more accepted, money will need to be put into it, and the big corporate companies might have the framework for that. This video is good, and it was only 5.99 on Itunes. I’m not persuaded to purchase Nike shoes quite yet, but made me think perhaps they can contribute.
Review of Shake Junt’s ‘Chicken Bone Nowison.’ 2011
Baker, Death Wish, and Shake Junt are under the same company umbrella. They are the degenerate team from my perspective. They are partiers, but they skate with an abandon and are good. Some of them like Andrew Reynolds did the 12 steps and have been sober for years, so clumping them all together might be stereotyping them. But the company image is very much promotes revolving your life around skating and partying. As an adult skater I do kind of worry about the kids that look up to these guys, because that is a hard life to aspire to. But then again, I watched the whole thing straight, and then I watched it again a few times.
To my surprise, shortly after it was released I searched it on youtube and the entire video was there. The video is over an hour, and I didn’t even know that videos that long could be on there. Also most of the individual skater’s part went up quickly too. One night I watched the thing. In the intro they have pot smoking, drinking, and even nudity. This is somewhat like the Jack Ass stuff from a few years ago, but this company does emphasize the skating a lot more that those MTV guys. Neen Williams has the first part, and he’s had quite a bit of coverage lately. The guy is smooth, and they have a funny seventies soul song to it. A lot of the magazines mentioned his heelflips, and seeing it on film, they are very unique. He does them off of massive drops for one, but he does a shifty with it, and that tweaks his front foot forward, and makes it look super cool. But I wonder why they don’t call it heelflip shifties. Dustin Dollin skates like a maniac, and looks drunk or hungover in every clip. And he takes some bone crushing slams. Bryan Herman and Andrew Reynolds, two of the superstars in the video, have a dual part that is smooth.
They are a lot of other individual parts, but then towards the end it’s more of a montage of random footage. One skater who had a good part, did not have his name attached to his part, but they named him ‘Sinner.’ The humor is kind of lost on me, and I simply do not know the name of that skater. A very popular skater called ‘Lizard King’ only had a few tricks in it. According to a youtube comment, Lizard King, and others were saving footage for the upcoming Death Wish video. Overall the video was enjoyable, but perhaps a tad too long, and I’m glad it was free.
On youtube after 5 or 6 days the full-length video had over 50,000 views. To me that seems like a huge amount, and shows that there is an interest in this video. After about the 6th day that link was taken off. Checking again today a newer post of the full-length video was at 25,000 views. So I have no idea if the company is trying to monitor it at all or not.
Review of SK8MAFIA’s full video, 2011
This video starts out with a memoriam of one of the skaters on this team, Tommy Cantrell, who died this year. I was not familiar with this skater, but the footage shows that he was really good. It’s sad to hear about people dying too young, and too many skate videos start out this way.
Some parts of the soundtrack is old seventies stuff and smooth. Jimmy Cao’s part has ‘Soul Man’ and another classic track. Then it has some early hiphop and gangster rap tracks that do fit the style of the riders. But the music does seem all over the place in this. But I don’t think there was any Green Day in it, so they have one point against Nike.
For me, the video was a little long, and I should give it another viewing. I checked today and the full video is still on youtube, so I’ll get another chance to watch it. From what I saw, it does seem to be a throw back to the 1990’s of trying to get the tricks, spots, on film. It doesn’t seem to be a high quality picture, the angles don’t seem to be thought much of, and it is light on the slow motion. I watched Jimmy Cao’s part individually several times. On his part and some of the other parts, there are a lot of lines. Lines are when skaters do multiple tricks in a row. In the high budget skate videos, there are less lines, because they try to get the angle filming perfect, and the skater does the trick flawless. In this SK8MAFIA video I really liked that they did lines of up to ten (or at least a lot) of tricks. If a skater sketched out a little bit, they still let him finish the line. Hopefully this will be a trend, to go back to showing lines, and more genuine skating.
In all fairness, these companies are different, and the only reason I review them in the same blog is that their videos came out at the same time. And I happened to see them while they are brand new.
Thankfully I get to skate tomorrow.
My weekend: active days and reflective nights.
Posted: December 12, 2011 Filed under: My good days. Diary/log, My life, Skateboarding Leave a comment »
More than a week has past since my last blog post, but I’ve been busy. My understanding is like everything the more consistent and regularly a blog posts are the better. Since it’s late, and I don’t want to spend too much time typing I’ll go with my bread and butter. And that is simply recapping my weekend. Yes, sometimes my blog is just a diary log.
Friday night I read. For work I have a book club on Monday, and I read a good portion of it on Friday. Between chapters I would watch youtube music videos, skate videos, and checked facebook about thirty times. As winter approaches I’ll do this more, just have a nice lazy night in the comfort of my apartment.
Saturday I slept in and skated Flushing Meadows. I told my friend I’d meet him at the unisphere at 2:30. I got there a little early and felt I couldn’t warm up. Somehow a hoodie with only a t-shirt underneath felt drafty. There were a few whippersnapper teenage skaters filming. There were good, but cursed every time they missed a trick, and one kid focused (broke his board in half) for really no reason at all. I felt glad that I’m not a teenager anymore, but worried that my session would not be that great. Before Saturday I did not skate for a full two weeks. When I don’t skate for a little bit my imagination becomes deluded of my skill level. I think I’m a lot better than I actually am. So when I do get skate reality sets in, and I feel I can’t do anything. It can take me up to a half hour for me to warm up. Warming up consists of rolling around, and not really trying much of anything. It takes me several minutes to even try kickflips, something I can do fairly consistently.
My friend came and quickly I started to enjoy my session. We stayed in the unishpere, and we both practiced nose slides. For me the ledge is high, so I’m glad I can do them decently. I sized up the grate, and there is no way I could noseslide across that whole thing. It’s like 15 feet across. The speed needed to make that is ridiculous for me. I think the noseslides I was doing on other parts of the ledge were 3 to 4 feet tops. But I’m happy with that. My friend and I played a game of s.k.a.t.e. that loosened me up to were I felt comfortable.
We walked to the skate park. The park was super crowded. I wanted to try a wall ride on the steep bank by the 3 step. On my second try I did it, and that was enough of the skate park. I didn’t even take off my jacket. Near the unisphere there is a little bank to ledge. To describe it to people that don’t skate is difficult but I’ll try. It starts with a curb, but it’s lower that a curb, then there is a slope maybe at a 30 degree angle, and a small curb, edge on top. It goes in maybe a foot and a half and might be a little over a foot high. You can approach it straight, ride up it, do something on the top, and roll down. With this approach I did an ollie 180 to disaster, and revert out. I did a nosepicker on it. After many tries I did a switch ollie 180 to rail, to revert out. My friend can skate transition, and did a lot of combos. For some reason, I like this spot, and feel confident on it. Approaching it like a normal ledge I did 50-50’s on it with decent speed. Instead of popping out of the 50-50, with the ledge you could roll out of it. Rolling out of a grind was fast and fun.
After that we skated in one of the rectangle fountains that is the size of a football field. In another game of s.k.a.t.e the sun started to set. I took one picture here, because the stature with the unisphere in the background looked good. We could see the lights at the unishpere, and we walked over, and it was perfect. Bright lights flooded the entire famous spot. We skated in the lights for about 40 minutes. Someone put a focused board in a crack pointing straight up. My friend quickly rode up the board deck with a little pop. Quickly he did a 180 out of it. I never did anything like that, but he told me it was easy. I did a few of them, and even did a sloppy 180 off of it. Saturday was a great skate day, to be out for 3 to 4 hours felt great. I went home and read the stories for my writing class Sunday.
On Sunday my story was work shopped in my writing class. The class did give some very positive encouragement while also giving me pointers too. A class has a lot of value, because as a writer you think of one way for a story. When several people read it, there are multiple scenarios for most stories. Also another student’s story work shopped was a revision. This revision was a complete rewriting of the original based on the structure, language suggestions from the first workshop. This gave me a valuable lesson. My idea of revision is cleaning up the typos, fixing a sentence here and there. But revision looking at the whole story can be a complete change or rewrite. I think I’m going to sign up for a class in winter. This class has inspired my writing. I had two completed drafts of fiction, when I haven’t written fiction in years. I need to keep the momentum, and my goal is one story a month.
After class I took the E to downtown and went to the Tribeca skate park. This is a small park and gets crowded easily. The level of some of these kids is amazing. They have rails and big ledges going down. But I had few conversations and some of them were nice and seemed happy to be there. For a little bit I watched, after a near collision, I decided to wait a bit. It did clear out some. The obstacles in this park are not scary like the Chelsea Park, but they are big enough were I don’t try much new tricks. On the euro gap I can ollie it okay, but last May almost fell on my face when I tried a frontside 180 over it. So I’m careful on that. As the day progressed I warmed up, and simply practiced backside 180’s from the slope to flat. I’m not good at backside 180’s, but felt I got a few ones with decent height. On flat I barely have any height to them. I also did a little noseslide to shove-it out. Tribeca forces me to practice the basics. Once in awhile that might be a good thing. If you do the basics better, than everything will improve. One can only hope.
After that I read in a café for a little bit and then had great noodles with my sister for dinner. My sister can really put things in perspective, and I’m happy I get to see her and my little nephew once a week. After that I came home. I finished The Assistant by Bernard Malamud for my work book club, and it should be a good discussion. Overall my weekend was good. I had two active days and reflective easy nights.
My thoughts on Rodney Mullen’s ‘no stance’ goal.
Posted: December 1, 2011 Filed under: Skateboarding | Tags: rodney mullen, skateboarding 2 Comments »One of the beautiful things about facebook is that people post links on there from other parts of the Internet. From my library friends I get a lot of career related articles to read through people posting links on facebook. And my skateboard friends from Baltimore, Ohio, and now New York City post interesting clips on there too. This gem of a recent interview of Rodney Mullen someone I knew in my teenage years posted a few days ago, and I’ve watched it several times since then. Now I’ll blog about it and hopefully embed it correctly onto my entry.
First I’ll sum up Rodney Mullen as being the most influential person to the progression of skateboarding. Ollies on flatland, kickflips, 360 flips, impossibles, and perhaps a hundred variations were first done or created by Rodney Mullen. He learned these tricks as a freestyler skateboarder throughout the 1980’s. In the late 1980’s and to present day he continued to innovate street skateboarding. So in the 1980’s with a smaller freestyle board he invented the standard tricks, and then in the 1990’s took on trick progression on obstacles and street skating. In 2005 he wrote his autobiography called, “The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself.” I read that book, and he details his life experience of skateboard tours, and it ends with him being financially successful from the sale of World Industries in 1998, an infamous and famous company that he co-owned.
About a year ago Tony Hawk interviewed Rodney Mullen, and that I also viewed that because a friend posted it on facebook. I should try to find that interview too. This interview that I saw this week, shows that Rodney Mullen still has the drive to innovate, which is amazing to me. He looks young but is in his mid forties I believe, and already has done so much for the sport. To me it shows that skating on that level has creativity that maybe other sports do not. Writers can write into old age, and I think skaters could probably imagine variations of tricks forever, but the question is how long can the body continue skating as one gets older. I think Rodney Mullen and people a little bit younger are the first generation of street skaters, so I don’t think people know. You look at a lot of the top pros and they are a lot of them well over thirty, so it is not simply athleticism. This interview also shows that there is very much a thought process to thinking up new tricks.
In this interview and the one with Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen talks of ‘having no stance.’ There are two basic stances in skateboarding. Regular is with the left foot in front, and Goofy is with the right foot in front. Over thanksgiving on a family walk I bought my skateboard with me. My oldest nephew is 12, my niece is 9 and my younger nephew is 5. All of them had fun learning to ride on a board for our hour or so long walk. I told them to stand the way they felt more comfortable. My two nephews gravitated to regular stance, and my niece chose goofy stance. My niece is left-handed so that might have something to do with it. In general people are more comfortable with one stance as opposed to the other when starting to skate. As people progress they start to do things ‘switch’ is simply in the stance they don’t usually ride. So good skaters ride both ways, but still have a dominate stance.
By the time I was in my prime of skating, at like age 17, in 1993, I was good at switch and tech tricks. As an adult unfortunately I’ve been off an on with skating. Every time I start back up I can ollie relatively quickly, then I get my kickflip back, and few other tricks. But even though I want to be good switch and tech tricks, it takes a long time for me to get comfortable with switch when I’m relearning. Sometimes I can switch ollie a couple of stacked boards and sometimes I’m not even close. So regular stance is by far my preferred stance, and what I’m comfortable with.
I think everyone is more at ease with one stance as compared to the other. In this interview Rodney Mullen talks of breaking down the stance so there is no stance. That seems like a weird thing to think about, but what he is trying to say is what if skating was a continue flow with no limitations of tricks from stance or anything else. He also says a draw to skating is the idea of learning things new and the feeling from figuring nuances of new tricks out.
I do think that Rodney Mullen is forward thinking to the future of skating, and I’m glad he’s not simply resting on what he already has done. There are still major skate videos were the riders do not do much switch tricks, and concentrate of going big. The future is more fluidity of tricks from all stances, including fakie and nollie tricks. It already has gotten to the point that it’s hard to tell with some skaters what their stance is in videos, that’s a good thing.
Skate shoes, I’m skeptical of Nike
Posted: November 18, 2011 Filed under: My reviews, Skateboarding | Tags: skateboarding, skateboarding shoes 2 Comments »
Watch any full length skate video produced in the past 3 years, and go to any skate park in America and you’ll see the Nike swooshes on so many people’s feet. Nike, Adidas, and Converse effectively pushed through to profit from the skate industry. They all sponsor some of the best skaters in the world, and maybe no one cares anymore. For the sake of argument I’m going to explain the skate shoe history to the best of my ability, and show it’s a shame that the big companies probably will dominate the shoe industry in a few years. Perhaps I’m a hypocrite because I’ll eat at McDonalds and shop for clothes at Kohls, but I think there was something good about skate only brands.
Recently in the news, I learned the cofounder of Vans, James Van Doren, died at the age of 72. He and his brother started the shoe company in 1966, and with the emergence of skateboarding in southern California in the 1970’s Vans was the skate shoe of choice. If you watch the documentary Dogtown and Z-boys and the later movie, The Lords of Dogtown you’ll see that Vans along with the invention of the urethane wheel set the sport in motion. Vans is a huge skate shoe company to this day, has many good riders, and has had some of the best selling skate shoes including the Half Cab. The Half Cab shoe was introduced in around 1991 or 1992 and still sells well today. To me Vans does not produce skate videos, something that the other brands do, and a reason for me not to be into them.
Instead of researching for this blog entry on the real history of skate shoes I’ll fast forward to my time as a skater. When I started in 1988 or so there were four skate shoe companies: Vans, Airwalk, Vision Streetware, and Etnies. The shoes were bulky high tops. Perhaps my ability was not good compared to later, but these shoes lasted awhile for me. Looking back it was not a stylish era at all. Vision Streetware was extremely popular but looked like Chuck Taylor with an ugly stitched label on it. I gave no thought on if these companies were good for skateboarding or not. With the exception of Etnies these shoe companies were owned and operated by businessmen and not skateboarders. Perhaps it is unfair to expect today’s kids to care at all about the shoes they ware, who owns them, and things like that.
In the early nineties the companies were still few, but the styles changed. Baggy clothes were in and the bulky low top skate design was created. Eventually this shoe style became popular with non-skaters as well. Somewhere around 1992 it became popular to skate in shoes not designed specifically for skateboarding. A model of Adidas shoes, and a model of Puma became popular to wear. People would search for different colors in these shoes. I believe these shoes were popular in the hip hop crowd and skaters picked up on that trend.
Around 1994 to 1998 was an important time in skate shoe history. DC, Adio, DVS, Es, Globe, Emerica and other skate shoe companies came on the scene. Skateboarding became popular again and some pros in the skate industry took advantage and started companies. Danny Way and Colin McCay started the huge company DC. Adio was Tony Hawk’s company after he broke off a long sponsorship with Airwalk. DVS, Es, and Emerica I assume are skater owned, but I’m not sure. So in a short time, the skateboard consumer had a lot of choices, but a lot of them were legit choices. Everything one could buy in a skate shop was made and promoted by skateboarders for their own companies.
According to Wikipedia (my librarian colleagues are shaking their heads if they bother to read this) Nike tried to start to sell skate shoes in 1997 but failed to break into the ‘specialty’ shop market. In 2002 they started their brand Nike SB, so that is almost nine years by now. In the late nineties to the 2000’s a couple of other skate shoe brands came out, mainly Lakai and Fallen. Lakai is owned by the same pro skaters that own Girl Skateboards, mainly Mike Carroll and Rick Howard. Fallen is owned by the pro skater Jamie Thomas. In 2007 Lakai put out a very acclaimed skate video called Fully Flared which made them very popular for awhile. Since 2007 at least three of their riders left for competitive companies. Eric Koston, who is a very influential skater, left for Nike. Luis Puig left for Adidas. And Alex Olson left for Vans. So even though that 2007 skate video was one of the best of all time, these riders found more lucrative deals with the larger more mainstream companies.
In the past month it was announced that Es is going out of business, when around the year 2000 it was the biggest name in skate shoes. One of my favorite skate shoe companies, DVS, seems to be in less of the skate shops in NYC. I like DVS because their shoes are comfortable, and the skate videos they produce are fun but progressive as well. I also see less skaters wearing Lakai shoes at skate parks these days.
A few years ago a friend who owns a skate shop in Ohio told me how Nike runs their business. They used to make local skate shops buy the full line of skate shoes Nike offers in every size. The stores can’t return any of the shoes for credit, owe for the whole amount, and have to sell the majority of the stock to make a profit. My friend pointed this out when I said that I see a lot of skate stores in NYC with not many decks for sale. He said there is a good chance if they have Nike, they might owe Nike a substantial amount of debt. And because of that debt to Nike they can’t stock skate decks. My friend is a good source, but I hope that practice has changed in the last few years. I liked the ideology of a about a decade ago of skater owned local skate shops and skater owned companies. In that world the people that love skating can profit from it too.
All of this said, maybe I’m getting old, and shouldn’t judge anyone for the shoes they wear. A few days ago I was watching a video and pointed out a pair of Nikes to my roommate. He made the observation that you can’t blame these sponsored skaters. Skating everyday to get to that level means sacrifices like not working full time. So perhaps the big corporate companies are making it possible for this generation of promising skaters. Also on the skate industry radar, Nike has an anticipated skate video to come out soon. They do have a stacked team, and maybe I’ll buy the video, but I won’t wear the shoes. I prefer a simple plain shoe without swooshes, stripes or other nonsense designs.
The future of skateboarding videos, indvidual vs. group, itunes vs. free
Posted: November 14, 2011 Filed under: My reviews, Skateboarding | Tags: Nyjah Huston, Pual Rodriguez, skateboarding videos 3 Comments »
On November 11, 2011 or 11.11.11 something happened in the skateboarding world. Element skateboards, a huge company, dropped a full part from the prominent skater Nyjah Huston straight to Itunes. Nyjah Huston is 16 years old now but grew up in the skateboarding limelight. His parents were skateboarding rastafarian vegans in California, and raised him to skate. A few years ago he left Element skateboards to start his own company with his father. After that failed he went back to Element last year. He won 3 out of 4 street league tournaments this year televised on ESPN, chopped off his dreadlocks, had a full interview with Transworld, and has been the talk of the industry. So his part has been anticipated and well received by fans. To me the whole Itunes format raises questions on how the industry will handle new footage.
First of all, I purchased the part called Rise and Shine. It runs about 8 minutes and cost 2.99. There were two options, regular for 1.99 and HD for 2.99. And another choice was explicit versus censured. Of course I chose explicit and without much knowledge on the difference I chose the HD version. In one way, the tricks he does on big handrails, makes this part phenomenal. A few tricks I haven’t seen before like a backside 270 to noseblunt side, and a backside bigspin to hurricane. It’s amazing to have variations of new tricks introduced on 8 stair rails. Nyjah Huston takes some serious falls on here and it shows him getting back up and then getting the trick. His determination to push the limits and boundaries are apparent in this part. The skating is ground breaking, but I would have liked more variety. There were only a few short lines and never more than three tricks in a row. Using the slow Lil Wayne song forced this part to go too crazy with the slow motion. In my opinion the less slow motion in a skate part the better. So that is my evaluation of Nyjah Huston’s part and now I’ll go on to the bigger questions.
One of the bigger questions I have is why the insistence on a Nyjah Huston part and not release an entire Element Video. Element is stacked with a lot of skaters including Evan Smith and Mark Appleyard. Ten years ago there would be a push with that collective of skaters on the same team to put out a video. I’ve read in some of the magazines that big production videos are not as lucrative as they once were. To fly a team around the world, pay for hotels, film and other things is a challenge. The recession definitely affected the industry, and the online medium distributes this stuff for free. There is probably more filming going on because skating is popular, but less people pay for DVD’s. One thing I noticed this year I think contests the notion that video releases do not make the companies money. In spring, Real released Since Day One, a full length acclaimed and popular film. At the skate parks in NYC this spring and summer I saw so many people riding Real decks than before. So I’m convinced they sold the DVD and Itunes well while getting more people to buy their skateboards. Skateboarding has always worked like that, a good video would make the company more known.
Nyjah Huston is not the only skater to drop a solo part on Itunes. Last winter or spring, Pual Rodriguez and his company Plan B dropped an Itunes part. I think at one time I watched this online on a Chinese website, and then that disappeared. These companies once on Itunes do seem to control the distribution on other sites, at least youtube. After I purchased Njyah Huston’s part and started to think of the Itunes question I decided to purchase Paul Rodriguez’s part too. This part is phenomenal because he pushes the tech skating and has a smooth style. Last year I saw Paul Rodriguez twice in New York City, at Maloof 2010 and at a Plan B demo at the LES skate park. He is one of my favorite skaters. To me this was also worth the 2.99 Itunes charge. Individual parts are probably cheaper than full company videos. I do wonder how much Paul Rodriguez and Nyjah Huston’s parts will bring to their perspective companies. If there are 13 million skaters in the United States and these are anticipated parts would they sell 100,000 downloads? That’s a nice chunk of change. But then how much goes to Lil Wayne and Kanye West for using their songs? If it’s on Itunes the music artists get paid too. And how much of a cut does Itunes take? My point is that maybe it can be profitable for skate companies to sell on Itunes.
Thrasher on it’s website is dishing out skate parts for free. On July 4th Torey Pudwell, also on the Plan B team, had a skate part debut on Thrasher. This was a good part and showed his technical versatility. This was as good or better than the average part in any video. He skated well and showed that he was having fun in the process. Torey Pudwell and Paul Rodriguez could be considered among the best, and they are on the same company Plan B. Ryan Sheckler, PJ Ladd, Danny Way, and Colin Mckay are all very well respected and part of this Plan B team. In 2009 they ran some teasers online of an upcoming video to be released in 2010. Now 2011 is almost over and I’m still waiting for the Plan B video. They had some riders quit or some team changes, but this company needs to put out a video. Watching a brand new full-length video is so much better than the individual parts. I think this company could put out the best video ever, and I hope that is still on their agenda.
Thrasher also recently released free on their website a 20 minute company video. The company is Foundation and they have been in the business for 20 years. I felt the video a fun watch especially with the music collection. Foundation is a popular company, but not the most popular, and I wonder why they made the decision not to try to sell it on Itunes or in DVD format. Could the video in association with Thrasher free to all generate more buzz and peripheral sales for the company than if they tried to sold it? I don’t know, but I hope that videos can get these companies some profit. Es shoes used to be a staple brand in the skate industry, and this year it is going out of business. Skate shoes are a whole other topic in these changing times, but I mention them because if videos do not generate money for the companies it does not help them at all.
I think as long as people are fascinated with skating it will be documented through film. But I do not like the shift to focus on the individual skaters as much, and I hope films that feature a plethora of riders will continue, whether they ride for the same company or are grouped together in some other way.
I’m a park skater, and I don’t have a problem with that.
Posted: November 7, 2011 Filed under: Skate and workout goals, Skateboarding | Tags: park skating, skateboarding Leave a comment »
Recently on facebook with a skateboarding friend’s post the question of street skating versus park skating came up. A few skate nerds including me discussed what is better. My point was that pros or sponsored skaters should push the limits with street skating, but for an intermediate level skater like myself the parks make a lot more sense.
People that do not skate might not think this a big difference. With street skating you find ledges, stairs, rails, and other objects not designed for skating at all. This could be on public or private property, but from the creativity of the skaters they make use of it. When I was growing up in suburban Baltimore and then later in Toledo, there was no other alternative because the parks either didn’t exist or were inaccessible. I have great memories in Baltimore County of simply spending all day on York Road, a major road. We would skate the spots we knew, but always be searching for new spots. When I was older in Toledo with a car, I’d explore so many parts of Northwest Ohio that it always felt like an adventure. On the downside is that at 14 I was handcuffed for skating a parking garage, and would be kicked out of places for skating numerous times. I think there were summers that I’d get kicked out of somewhere every day. So I think street skating fuels creativity and a sense of adventure, but can also lead to conflicts with authority and an over the top sense of rebellion.
My friend’s recent post emphasized standards in skating, and that street skaters are better. Watching new skate videos is an experience, and they are dropping from heights, doing technical tricks, that are better than the mid 1990’s skating. Some of these recent films take years to film. Real’s Sense Day One, Flip’s Extremely Sorry, and Alien Workshop’s Mindfield all took over three years to film. In the 1990’s the tricks were the highlights, and they would show several shots of the same place. The famous skate spot in San Francisco ‘Embarcadero’ was overused in the footage back then. Great skating went down there, but the films now have a lot of variety. There are a lot of spots throughout the world in a skater’s part. It makes it interesting visually to watch, and if the parts were simply in parks, they would not be as good. I was drawn to street skating early on for the variety. I’ve also been scared of vert, but a ramp part looks repetitious. I keep reading that these big budget skate videos are less lucrative for the companies because they don’t sell as many copies because the internet makes it so easy for people to share without paying. I hope there will always be skate videos, and street skating well dominant the content of these.
Today I went to Chelsea Pier 62 park in Manhattan, and ended up mostly watching. This is a transition park, and it downright scares me. I realized my ability is limited, and I’m definitely not an all around skater. At age 34, at an intermediate level (I hope), I simply enjoy being able to skate. I’m mostly able to skate on weekends, and that’s not nearly enough to progress greatly, so I shouldn’t even worry about meeting the standards or what people perceive as the correct way to skate.
Let me tell you about yesterday, which to my mind was about perfect. A friend that lives nearby started back skating. He has a wife and young baby, so prefers to skate in the early morning, and he has a car. I learned about a new park in Far Rockaway I wanted to check out. Transit would take a long time, but by car we got there in a half hour. We skated from about 9:15 to 12:30 with only one break to get a bite to eat. By 12:30 it was packed with a lot of skaters, and people were amped for the park. It is a nice park with small transition elements and some serious ledge action. I’ve seen several of these parks open in New York City open, and all the skaters take these openings with pride and enthusiasm. Skaters are finally getting respect by the city building places to do it without the hassle of knowing where or where not to skate. At a skate park you can skate, and it’s great to have a sanctioned place for it. I landed and worked out a few things I was working on, and had a great session. My friend who just restarted has improved greatly, he did a roll in which means he could drop in no problem. The Far Rockaway skate park is a great addition to that area, and I think several young skaters will progress dramatically there.
Around two I was still itching to skate, so I texted another good skate friend, and we decided to meet at Flushing Meadows. On the 7 train, I saw a small army of teen skaters, and in another subway car saw two skaters about college age. When I got off the stop for the park the two college age skaters asked me how to get to the skate park. We started talking and they were from California. Over the next few hours my friend and I showed them the unisphere and the little bank to ledge spot within the larger Flushing Meadows Park. After awhile we walked them to the skate park, but that was too crowded so we went to skate at another area. The two California skaters that were good stayed at the skate park. It was cool to see skaters from California stoked on Flushing Meadows in Queens. My friend and I had a good session, and even though we did not skate the actual skate park, it was still in the safety of a park where general play in allowed, and in this point in time that includes skating. So even though the unisphere is a famous skate spot I don’t really think it’s street skating, because it’s in a park. Skating is allowed there, so to me this is such a great thing, to have to skate park and the larger park. I said it before but I think Flushing Meadows is some type of skate paradise. Towards the end of the day I sat and watched my friend skate, and listened to the Hispanic music from a soccer game. I just really like going there.
With skating an average of only on weekends, it is still important to have variety in what I skate. Smaller cities that only have one skate park, you might not get variety at the one local skate park. But in New York City, which is nearing 20 parks, going to different parks does the tricks. In Queens we have three of the best in New York City: Flushing Meadows, Astoria, and now Far Rockaway. The city is doing an amazing job with building these, and I’ll support it by utilizing them.
Lastly, even though I know my limitations, I do want to progress and get better. At parks you know you can practice whatever you want, as long as you want. With street skating you need to know where the spots are, or spend precious time looking for them, and worry about being kicked out. I used to skate at the bandshell spot in central park. A lot of people skate there, and they allow it, but there is so much foot traffic that it’s an accident waiting to happen. I saw one friend fall on a trick, and his board almost flew into a baby carriage. At skateparks everyone there is taking the mutual risk of a collision or injury, but someone walking in a park, sidewalk, or street should not be injured from a skateboard or skateboarder. On that note, I respect people’s property now, and skating a ledge late at night that is right by an apartment complex is a jerk move.
So if I need to be defined I am a park skater as opposed to a street skater. More importantly I am a skater.
A History of Falling, not always gracefully
Posted: September 3, 2011 Filed under: a history of sorts, Skateboarding | Tags: falling, skateboarding slams Leave a comment »
My mother has stated several times with pride that I lost all of my baby teeth in unnatural ways. In one instance in a perfectly logical attempt to propel myself into a flying superman from a rocking chair I knocked out a tooth. Running in the house I knocked another on a corner of a counter. Because of loosing my baby teeth like this and other instances in my early childhood I got the nickname ‘crash.’ So in this masterwork of a blog entry I’m going to detail all the ‘crashes’ of my life.
Monkey bars are dangerous and this one was my sister’s fault. I must have been 6 or 7, in an oblivious state of childhood abandon and happiness in our backyard in New Mexico. The ground in the backyard was sand, dirt, and rocks. Throughout my childhood my parents gave us the freedom to play outside until dinner. Next to our Albuquerque house was an empty lot that had all sorts of treasures like a cement wall and soft sand to jump on. In our backyard we had monkey bars to climb up and have fun. With my childhood dimensions it was really tall, perhaps 6 to 8 feet. I’m not sure. But on that day my sister was at the top of it, and I climbed up. All the sudden I was falling, she pushed me. I don’t remember the aftermath of that except I remember clearly looking in the mirror and seeing that one side of my face was skinned off to make a huge scrape.
Also in Albuquerque, in fact in that same backyard, a younger friend of mine was learning to throw a baseball. At least he told us he never threw before. I believe he was suppose to throw to my dad but instead he hurled the ball to the side directly at me. I was only 5 feet away or so, and it whacked me right in the nose. Blood poured freely, and perhaps this is why I snore to this day. Lastly for the early childhood years a pain I still remember from the New Mexico was being severely sun burn while at a friend’s house. I think that is the only time I woke up crying in pain.
At age 8 we moved to the Baltimore Maryland area, and a few years later I got introduced to skateboarding. This greatly expanded my chances to hurt myself. I look at my eldest sister who ran at college level by pure dedication and practice. I don’t think people in my family are natural or gifted athletes, but we’ll practice hard enough that we can be fairly good at something. There is a documentary on street and skate artists called ‘Beautiful Losers.’ I only watched half of it, but in that someone said that skateboarding is a harsh thing to learn, a skater does the same thing over and over to then perhaps learn it, falling while at it. The guys in the doc stated nothing comes easy and nothing is given with skating. Then they went into how that effected their art which lost me. But I think the initiation into skating is an experience, and probably the majority of people that try don’t get past the awkward stage. I started skating at 10 or 11 and I don’t think I got decent until I was 14. But I took a lot of good slams.
In Baltimore County in my neighborhood that had a rural feel to it being near a reservoir there was a large steep hill. It was fun to skate but the road was not smooth as in other parts of the neighborhood. Plenty of people fell on it, and it was something to bomb the hill from the top. Shortly after I started skating I would sit on the board and go down the hill. It’s a normal thing to do. However I friend of mine decided we should both sit on the same board. Maybe he was standing, I don’t remember. We were having fun, both of us were on one board. Soon we picked up speed, and I moved my hand which was gripping the board. My wheels and board rolled over two of my fingers. Of course I stopped, screamed, and cried. I looked at my fingers and both of the fingernails came clean off. I went to the hospital, got bandaged up, and was fine. Today those two fingernails grow a little lower than the ones on my other hand.
Maybe a year later, or even less time I was getting a few kicklips. I had my Jim Thiebaud SMA deck, which means it was 89 or 90. On a kickflip attempt the board flipped fine but my back foot slammed on the tail and the board propelled upwards at alarming speed. The result was a lot of blood and about 5 stitches in my eyebrow. The line is still there!
Those two falls in my learning years are my most dramatic skateboarding injuries. So to keep the blog short, and since it really is less exciting I’ll briefly tell the rest of my injuries in no more than one paragraph, which is this paragraph. In Toledo I had a few ankle sprains from 1992 to 1995 but nothing that dramatic. In 1998 or so I had to wear a velco cast when I went with my dad to a beach in San Diego. I was hobbling on that beautiful beach, the only time I’ve been to California as an adult. In 2000 or thereabouts, at the Blissfield skate park in southernMichigan. I almost had a fantastic trick. There was a steep bank to bank hip. The hips were not at a large angle but I liked it that day, and I landed a few tricks. It was a hot summer day and I had my shirt off. From the marathon training I felt okay with skating without my shirt on, something I wouldn’t dare do now. Anyway on this hip I almost had bigspin heelflips. I rolled in a bank and had a lot of speed. After a few tries I knew I was coming close. On the last attempt I landed on the board but immediately jumped off in a type of dive right into the ashphalt pavement. My arm was scrapped and my chest was scrapped too. My dad recommended I go into the hospital and get a technis shot, which I did. Finally in 2008 I hurt my ACL in my knee. I was skating a pyramid at the L.E.S. park trying frontside shovits fast, on a bail I stepped on my board and did a severe split. That sucked, I did the physical therapy and did not skate for a year.
On the internet Girl skateboards has a website called ‘crailtrap’ where they ask pro skaters all sorts of silly questions. It is for entertainment for skateboard geeks. Anyway on one they asked Rudy Johnson ‘what are 5 things that make skateboarders different.’ Among his answers was that skateboarders fall, fall a lot, and fall hard. Someone who skates will fall more times in a week than a non skater will fall in his or her entire life. Falling can be good. I think it tells of character for some one to fall trying something and then not stop until they get it.
Lastly, I’m wondering if I should knock on wood with this entry and I hope it doesn’t bring me bad luck. I know people that won’t return to skating because of the injuries they had. People have gone through much worse, and except for the missing fingernails these are not that far out of the ordinary. Also I haven’t lost any of my adult teeth, so it’s not that bad. But for some reason I thought about injuries, and that is what a blogger does, thinks about something and then puts it in an entry.
My Uncle, Richard Allison, recently digitized my grandads photos which are really cool. The photo on this blog was taken by my grandad.
Andy Kessler Day + Gotham Writers = Good Weekend
Posted: August 8, 2011 Filed under: My goals for self improvement, My good days. Diary/log, Novel attempt/updates, Skateboarding | Tags: Andy Kessler Day, Good weekends, Gotham Writers Leave a comment »
My weekend was good with a skateboard event I attended Saturday and a Writing Workshop I took all day Sunday. Two interests in my life were covered. Maybe having a full schedule can combat boredom and keep me out of trouble. So I’ll make on entry here on my thoughts of these two things from this weekend, and come up with a game plan for future weekends.
On facebook I became aware of the Andy Kessler Memorial skate jam at House of Vans. A lot of people are skeptical of facebook and call it a waste of time. One of the positives of facebook and future social media, if you have an interest, hobby, or passion it is so easy to find out what organizations or people are doing with that activity. I feel connected to the New York City skate scene without being that involved in it or making an effort. Through NY Skateboarding, a few skate shops, Steve Rodriguez’s page, and other skaters I know of various events going on. Most of them I pass on, but this was for a good cause.
Andy Kessler passed away a few years ago from a bee sting while skating. He was involved with New York City skating since the 70’s and in the 90’s helped start the building of parks. There is a foundation in his name that carries on his goals. According to the website it promotes music and art as well as skateboarding. This event on last Saturday said they suggested a 5 dollar donation and participants could skate the new House of Vans park in Brooklyn, so I decided to go.
The House of Vans is a private indoor and outdoor park owned by the very successful shoe company. Since it’s private not everyone can skate it usually. I think it was nice for them to open up the space for this donation drive event. Being able to skate and see this park was probably a big draw for a lot of the attendees. Plus they have pool skating there, and according to the documentary, ‘Deathbowl to Downtown’ Kessler and other skaters brought that California type skating toNew York City.
Probably the most positive thing about this event was that people showed up for it, and a lot of older skaters did too. I am a spring chicken compared to some of the guys I saw. And it was a high energy skate jam for a memory of someone they cared deeply about. I think people just skating was a good statement.
They had bands playing too, but I focused mostly on the skating. I think I learned a lesson, in that it’s okay to be a spectator at events. I tried to skate and got nervous from it being so crowded. I did not hurt myself, but did get in some people’s way. I am not at ease in crowded parks, and there would have been no shame to simply watch the good skaters. People that cut me off or skate faster than me are not jerks, they are just better skaters, and I should recognize that I don’t need to prove myself in a crowded park. I think it’s safer to avoid skating in super crowded parks or at events. Since my skate time is limited, most days I should go to the parks and not events. But this was a special occasion.
From going to parks regularly for the past few years I’m starting to know skaters here. I noticed and said hello to at least 10 skaters if not more. For about half an hour I skated a little flatland area with some of the crew from the Forest Park skate park. I like feeling part of something outside of work and I think that is healthy. I was at the Andy Kessler Memerial from about 5:30 to 8:00 and I’m glad I went.
Now to shift gears and talk about the great workshop I went to today. I few weeks ago I looked up Gotham Writer’s on the internet. I found a workshop for Sunday August 7 and thought why not, I have Sundays off. I realized that I have not been instructed in writing since I was in undergrad over a decade ago. Also I noted that since I started writing my blog a few years ago I stopped writing fiction or essays. I have not sent anything out in years. So my ambition was to take this class and then write fiction or something to send out from what I learned. This workshop met and exceeded my expectations.
Early on the teacher, Michael Phillips, explained the structure of the story. In my own words it starts with the everyday of someone’s life, then something significant happens, a goal or problem to solve is set and steps taken to achieve that goal or handle the problem, goal is resolved or problem solved in a positive or negative way, and it ends with how this happening changed the character’s life. I wrote down the terminology and took notes, but I feel I grasp it now. I’m sure I learned this in my college creative writing classes, but now it makes sense. I feel on my previous attempts at fiction I simply wrote in a way that I thought stories should work. I’m hoping with a better understanding of structure I can plan out and execute a story better. That in itself was worth the price of the one day course to me.
One coincidence made me happy early on in the day. The teacher heartily recommended “Writing Fiction’ by Janet Burroway. I already have this from my undergrad creative writing class. In that college class we read parts of it that pertained to the different weeks of the course, but my memory is hazy. I really think that I may have a better grasp of learning this stuff now. So I will read this book cover to cover and see if it helps.
The teacher put a lot of time explaining ‘sensory detail’ which is to describe sight, sound, taste, smell, and feel. On the exercise for this I did not do well. I concentrate from moving the story from point A to B, and don’t think of how a particular action would feel if experienced.
There was a plethora of information given, and maybe to try to retain it, in a few days I will type out the notes. I won’t bother to write out my exercise parts, but I will write down what the scenarios were. They did make one think. Such as one of the later exercise on point of view was this: Write a scene of a person getting mugged from and objective viewpoint, write the same scene from the perspective of the victim, and lastly write the scene from the perspective of the robber giving him some redeeming quality.
I found with the ten minute time frames these were difficult especially with my awful hand writing. But if I typed all the other notes, and those ten or so practice exercises I could practice on my own time.
The practice writing was good, and afterwards people would read what they wrote. I read a few, and got feedback. Listening to others was interesting too, and I realized on a few that I didn’t fully follow the instructions. So I learned from that too, in that stories are layered. A description of a box in not just words but needs to have a place in the story.
Lastly one advice the teacher had was that in a short story every sentence needs to move the story along and is an important part of the story. So published short stories can go through 50 to a 100 revisions by the author. For my blog I never revise. A long time has passed since I wrote something to send out. The stuff I got on hackwriters I revised those pieces perhaps 5 or six times. So my new goal is to write a first draft of a story on my vacation next week, and then revise it no less than 50 times. On revisions though I won’t do my usual typo check and slight tweaking, but change scene orders, delete and add, and try to make it the best I can do.
This weekend was good because I kept busy, so I’ll book up my time and plan out my weekends better. In fall maybe I’ll set up a weekly class of some kind, perhaps with Gathom Writer’s.
That’s all.
