Right now the time is past 1 am so this post will be a brief compared to my usual. Last Sunday was amazing. As usual Slappy Sunday was a lot of fun. I filmed some, and was able to make a fun clip out of it, which I embedded at the end of this entry. Quite a few of the Slappy Sunday crew was fortunate enough to get tickets to the NYC premiere of ‘Pretty Sweet’ by one of the most popular skateboard companies ever Girl/Chocolate. I’ll briefly review this amazing video in a few graphs.
After the Slappy Sunday session we usually meet up at a bar called Motor City in the LES. I like Motor City because they play good music, the bartender is really cool, and they have Detroit Memorabilia in there. I’m not sure how many east coasters recognize the importance of a I-75 sign, the major North-South highway from Canada all the way to Florida. But on this Sunday we arrived at Motor City at around five, and were not going to the premier until 9 pm. I decided to abstain from drinking because that is a long time! About 5 of us went to a good Hungarian owned French restaurant. We relaxed and shared an assortment of platter food. It was good to talk and hang out over tasty food. Others of the crew stayed at Motor City.
We all met up at the theater for the premier. I will just say this about some of the Slappy Sunday crew that three of them need to join an uncensored comedy circuit. They were loud, hilarious, and super fast with the comebacks. All three of them are New Yorkers, but even though I was sober I was laughing not stop.
I think everyone was pumped for this movie. I’ll give a little background on the Girl skate company. Most of the riders in 1993 or 1994 split away from the hugely successful but controversial company World Industries. There are four co-owners. Pro skaters Mike Carroll, and Rick Howard own it along with Spike Jonze (not sure on the fourth co-owner other than it’s a woman). Along with other films 1996’s ‘Mouse’ is considered a classic. ‘Yeah Right’ in 2003 and ‘Fully Flared’ by Lakai in 2007 both raised the standards of skating in this century. So the skating of this company is technically advanced and the film work is at a higher standard from Spike Jonze ties to Hollywood.
‘Pretty Sweet’ has been a project for four years. The intro has a lot of stunts. Cameras attached to remote control mini helicopters were used. Confetti or something rains down on the whole group. People jumping from building to building (without skateboards) makes it looks like it’s a farce on old musicals or Bollywood. But it’s all fun, and it’s all from the direction Spike Jonze. I saw him speak at MOMA a few years ago, and he agreed with other panelists that skate videos are not just to document skating. They need to be fun and energize the viewer to go out and skate. So the skits are fun, and a few comedians are included.
As for the skating, it really is groundbreaking again. Jesus Fernandaz does a flip trick into a fakie 5-0, and then does a full cab kickflip out of the ledge, which is unreal. And then Jesus Fernandez does several other variations of tre flips out of ledge tricks. Vincent Alverez has the first part and skates so fast yet tech that it’s a joy to watch. Elijah Berle brings gnar to this company. Alex Olsen in a shared part really skates like no one else. Mike Carroll, and Eric Koston both skate well in their shared parts, they have been on top of the skate world for twenty plus years which is amazing. Marc Johnson is incredible with his smoothness and manual combos. Guy Mariano has the last part. His part in ‘Video Days’ when he looked like a little kid that came out in 1991 was a game changer. In his famous part in ‘Mouse’ from 1996 he skated almost all switch and that part is considered one of the best ever. His comeback part in ‘Fully Flaired’ in 2007 was game changing too. He does plenty of flip in flip out stuff and it’s so good. I won’t name the last trick so as not to spoil it for anyone, but it really has not been done before, and he does it down a 6-stair handrail for good measure.
This comes out in Itunes on November 27, 2012 and I will buy it that way. Also I’ll pay the extra four bucks for the HD version. I think my review does not do justice to how good this skate video is, because like all good skate videos, it’ll take several viewings to grasp all the tricks these pro skaters were able to document.
Sunday November 18th was a good day for the Slappy Sunday crew and every skater that saw the premier!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
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