Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Independent's 30th Year Anniversary Tour DVD

This is the DVD that came with the last Concrete Wave. Today, due to the boredom of sick days, I finally got around to watching it.
All I can say is bravo. These guys are really pushing the mold. They are so cool, and this DVD is like no other the skating world has ever seen. The skating was ok, but the style was bar none! A couple people had pretty bad style and skating though, like Lance Mountain and Christian Hosoi, and the DVD had a little too much of them in it. The other skating was so progressive though, it was amazing. It really shows what amazing things can be done with Independent trucks, especially their carving abilities.
The lifestyle shots really showed me how cool skateboarders are. This would be a great DVD to show to people who have a negative rep about skateboarding, to make them learn how good it is. From close-ups of trashy girls trashily dressed, to nearly hitting cars, to a large amount of fireworks in nearly every scene!
The videography in this was definitely something to write home about, but was nothing compared to the amazing music. Really, this music was the least cliche music in a skateboarding video ever. I could just listen to the music and it would make me happy.
/sarcasm
Don't waste your time, this movie sucks, period.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Amazing Day, So Happy!

Well, today my ceviche arrived. I will have a review up soon as I get a good feel for the board.
But, as surprising as this may sound, that was not the highlight of my day. Here's the story:
So, a couple of days ago I sent Adam Colton the link to this site in hopes to get it on the loaded newsletter. This is the email I received on sunday: 
hahah sweet blog bud,

You know what I like about it.  You are honest and down to earth.  Very good.  Shall have Louis post this in the newsletter to give you some more traffic.

Tigers,

Adam
So yesterday (January 5th), Longboarding with Philip was in the Loaded Newsletter! Oh Joy!

In other news, here is a great dancing video. Definitely the best I've seen in a while.
See ya later alligator!


Thursday, January 1, 2009

Western Sessions

Well, here it goes, a review of the Original Skateboards mini-series Western Sessions. Find it here.
Well, there were some great points to Western Sessions. The scenery was amazing. It has beautiful shots of the pacific coast, mountains and great sunsets. The roads and skate spots were amazing. Tons of ditches, banks, perfect turns and traffic-less roads. Western Sessions takes you through some of the best skating locations and cities in the world. The music was pretty good. Some songs weren't very good, but skating classic 'West Coast' by Coconut Records was included, and that alone made up for any bad songs.
Now that sounded like a pretty good review, didn't it? GOTCHA!
Sum Western Sessions up in one word? Boring. Sum it up in two? Boring boring. This pattern doesn't break. Nor does the pattern of the riding. Back and forth. To and Fro. Like a metronome. There is one trick. It's a nose manual into shuv-it down a bank. That was cool. It was also the only trick. I could count the amount of slides on my fingers and toes. Take away my toes? That leaves me with the top speed of the video.
We can't blame the riders though. I truly believe that it's the trucks fault. They turn too much, plain and simple. I know I wouldn't want to go over 10 mph on one of those things. Nor would I want to land anything on them. So let's decide to forgive them for that part, ok?
Something unforgivable though, is the amount of 'lifestyle' footage there is. I would say it's over half. For instance, let's take the sixth episode. It is 8 minutes and 10 seconds long. There was no longboarding in the first 4 minutes and 46 seconds of the video. That means in the first half of the video, there was NO riding. This would be ok if the riding was amazing, or if the 'lifestyle' shots were funny, interesting, or even entertaining. But they weren't. At all.
The last part of the review is on the post series, but I'm not even gonna talk about it. I'm just not.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Awesome Sector 9 Video


Sector 9 Teaser from CRE8TURE on Vimeo.

cred to archy

New Website

join!
I know, I know, it's pretty crappy, but so was silverfish when it was a youngin!

Flexdex Videos

So, awhile ago, I wrote a disappointing review on Flexdex's new drop through board. I was scared of harassment when I saw that Stephan Reinhardt (spelling?) had commented on it. I didn't want it to be like the Street Swell comment.  But it wasn't, Stephan is a cool dude, and he asked me to do a review on some of Flexdex's videos. So here it goes.
Hit or miss is a very good term. So is amateur. In need of filming and editing classes is another good one. 
As a whole, the videos leaned to the miss part. Stephan had about half of his tricks very stlylish and well done, while the other tricks were pretty bad. The other people were pretty bad. Most of the songs were pretty bad, while Fortress by Pinback was in one of the videos, which is a very good song.
The filming was bad, the editing was worse. The music and riding had no coordination whatsoever. The filming was shaky, and the light was terrible in a majority of the clips. I want to know why the person who edited their videos decided to include the barely landed or unstylish tricks. Most of the videos were what would normally be considered throwaway clips.
Amateur. This describes alot of the riding. If I worked for Flexdex, I might sponsor Stephan if he had a very good application, but wouldn't consider anyone else from the videos. Alot of kids on the fish have better skills and better videos than these people.
So to sum it up, hit or MISS is a good term. But just note how miss is capitalized and hit isn't.


On other notes: Merry Christmas! Feel free to share what skate related gifts you got! or un-skate related things are fine too I guess. A review of western sessions should be coming up soon.
Also, I hope to have a very intellectual post with interviews with some big names comin up soon.
And I know, it's been months since I have last posted, my new years resolution will be to post more!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Longboarding + Halloween Costumes = Free Stuff + Amazing!

http://originalskateboards.com/costumecontest/

Get pumped!
My entry is gonna win though, so there's no use in you trying.