austin skate notes

Wow… Talk about unfortunate syncronicities… Monday I posted that reference to the movie Reservoir Dogs, and this morning I woke up to find that one of the film’s most notable cast members died yesterday. Chris Penn, the actor who injected life into the role of Nice Guy Eddie, died yesterday from unknown causes. For those with a foggy memory, Nice Guy Eddie was the son of Joe Cabot, the crime boss who had organized the jewelry heist. Nice Guy had a hands-on role in the project and shows up in the film’s climax to deliver one of the most memorable monologues in ANY Tarrantino movie.

The reason why his monologue is more memorable to me than say, the watch story in Pulp Fiction, is because of the emotion he adds– from his wide eyed expression to the tiny piece of spittle that flies out of his mouth. I’ve tried many times, but never felt I even came close to reproducing his performance. Christopher Walken just deadpans through his watch speech letting the content of the message make it sensational, while for me, it was Chris Penn’s delivery that makes this such an awesome part of an awesome film.

"The man you just killed was just released from prison. He got caught at a company warehouse full of hot items. He could’ve fuckin’ walked. All he had to do was say my dad’s name, but he didn’t; he kept his fucking mouth shut. And did his fuckin’ time, and he did it like a man. He did four years for us. So, Mr. Orange, you’re tellin’ me this very good friend of mine, who did four years for my father, who in four years never made a deal, no matter what they dangled in front of him, you’re telling me that now, that now this man is free, and we’re making good on our commitment to him, he’s just gonna decide, out of the fucking blue, to rip us off? Why don’t you tell me what really happened?"

RIP Chris Penn. Here’s a nice obituary in the Independent.

Chinese government censors have finally come to an agreement with Google to allow Chinese citizens access to a censored Chinese version of the search engine. Eager to see if the Austin Skate Notes site had been identified as an enemy of the communist state, I ran a search over there for ‘Austin Skate Notes’. The link to ASN at the top of the list suggested to me that we’re either doing something right, or not doing something right enough. I’ll have to think on that one. Curiously, the second link in the list Google thought Chinese people might want to see on this site connects visitors to a collection of photos I shot of a Bush inauguration protest at the Capitol. That ain’t what you get when you search ‘Austin Skate Notes’ on the American Google. We have yet to see if Google also kowtows to the American government censors and how that might affect ASN’s listing.

Micah and Gabe Friedman, of Oklahomies and The Death Squad fame, are in Austin right now holed up at the Banana Farm. It’ll be cool to see what those two have been working on lately. Maybe they’ll come to the Beerland screening this evening to present Micah’s unreleased Skatopia video? Rumor is that Gabe might settle in Austin for a while.

lil’ moot replaced the battery in his iPod in less than ten minutes.

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Max called me late last week to remind me that the first "old school skate video night" will be taking place this wednesday at Beerland. It’s actually quite an evening at Beerland. Starting at 7:30 pm, there’s a screening of a documentary about R.L. Burnside with the director in attendance. Then at around 9:30 pm, the skate videos will begin. Free pizza if you bring your skateboard. Cary Jackson has been programming the content for the event, and he has assured me that the selection for wednesday night will be unique. At a minimum, there’s going to be footage from a Shut Up and Skate contest on the Clown Ramp from 1986 which was never released publicly. Featured skaters include Jeff Phillips, Craig Johnson, Lance Mountain, John Gibson, Lester Kasai, Allen Losi, Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, Neil Blender, Kevin Staab, Steve Caballero, and some other guys you’re going to have to guess on. Phillips throws out a McTwist. Damn, maybe I’m giving too much away. Free to get in. Beer to drink. 21+ only.

A lot of people and city governments have looked at the Kettering skate plaza with wide eyes wondering how much it might cost to get a similar facility in their own communities. Some have tried to go the cheap route by skipping the organic materials like brick and granite in favor of a pure concrete implementation. Others are finding that reducing square footage can help deliver a street skating experience with a meager budget. Check this public street park in Costa Rica as an example.

Of my favorite top 10 movies of all time list, Quentin Tarrantino’s debut film, Reservoir Dogs ranks near the top. In that movie, the character Mr. Blonde (aka Vic Vega) explains why the jewelry heist turned into a bloodbath. "Yeah, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. I told ‘em not to touch the alarm, they touched it. If they hadn’t done what I told ‘em not to do, they’d still be alive." That’s exactly the way I felt when I read this article about the Georgetown public prefab skatepark getting stolen. Stolen! I remember talking to one of their parks and rec guys two years ago warning him against spending their $60,000 on prefab garbage. Doug King even went up there and pitched his own business. If they hadn’t done what we told ‘em not to do…..

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The Austin American-Statesman printed a letter to the editor from some crank complaining about tax-and-spend liberals including skatepark funds in the current bond proposal. You can see his letter in today’s issue and on their website. You can write a response to his letter by using this form. Be sure to fill in all those fields as they won’t print your response without that information. They’ll also call you on the phone to confirm your identity, so give them a valid phone number.

lil’ moot is on his third day of master cleanser.

According to a phone call received by Austin Skate Notes, a Grindline employee named Matt will be in the Austin area today working on two different projects. One involves a meeting with city officials in a city south of Austin. The other meeting is with skaters in Lakeway to gather input for what they’d like to have in their skatepark. That public input meeting is scheduled for 6:00 pm at the parks and rec building, wherever that is (I can’t find it on their website). Sorry this is so vague, but I just don’t have any more details on the input meeting.

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Today, I can finally reveal publicly that Jared Ficklin has been a castmember on a reality TV show that will air in May on PBS. The show challenges the cast to live in the year 1867 on an authentic Texas cattle ranch. Check this article in the Houston Chronicle for more details about Jared’s work on the Texas Ranch House.

Michael Sieben is finally famous. A skateboarding magazine called Thrasher has posted an interview with Michael on its website. It focuses on his inspiration to join up with the Bueno guys. There’s also a cool photo that Kinilau shot of Michael at the Lizard Ditch, but it’s uncredited.

Who is Kinilau? He’s a mysterious figure from my past who suddenly appeared in Austin back in December. My digital camera is broken, so he’s been shooting a lot for Austin Skate Notes. Unfortunately, my photo album is also broken, so I haven’t been able to post any of his shots. Here’s a photo of Kinilau in Tokyo, Japan at a DIY skate spot we had going around 1986 or 1987. He’s the guy in the blue shirt.

Bosco, of Boneless One fame, wrote me with some news. He says–
Shut Up And Skate is back. We had the first one in Houston on 12-3. Next will
be a miniramp contest in Dallas Jan 28th at Grapevine Mills Park. There will be
an after party at TX Underground.

Texas Cold Fusion Sizzler Slalom Race will be a two day event. February 25th
will be the qualifier in San Marcos on Mountain drive. Practice starts at 10AM February
26th will be the head to head racing with four divisions. This one will be at The
AISD Delco Center near Ed Bluestein/183 and Springdale Road.

Zorlac Skateboards has risen from the ashes. The original Texas Bad Ass brand
is back home where it belongs. A double Cut reissue, a long with a Craig Johnson,
John Gibson and Big Boys reissues will be at retail very soon. there will also be
a standard issue modern style logog board in 8,8.25 and 8.5 available with those
reissues. Original replica reissues of classic 80’s shapes on the way

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In case you missed today’s Austin-American Statesman, the city bond advisory committee has decided to submit their proposed bond package to the city council with the same numbers they had laid out prior to the past round of meetings. No money has been added or taken away from any of the existing projects. This means voters will be given the chance to approve $652,000 for a new skatepark and $612,000 for a BMX park in May or possibly later this year (November) unless the city council mucks around with the numbers.

The builder of Smithville’s new public skatepark, Doug King, has flown out to California to help bowl in one end of the indoor DC vert ramp. He’ll also be under consideration for helping out in Hawaii on Danny Way’s mega ramp / bowl complex. Hopefully he’ll be able to split his time between the pacific ocean and Texas because there are a bunch of cities that have been calling asking for skatepark proposals from him. One such town, Lakeway, supposedly has just signed a contract on their skatepark project and construction should begin within a month. Until I get a confirmation, I’m not publishing the rumored builder’s name, but if it turns out to be true, holy crap! UPDATE- It’s Grindline. They’re taking over Texas.

Oh, Grindline gathered input from Houston’s skatepark advocacy group, PUSH, and has posted the design they’ve created based on that input. Fundraising is still taking place, so if you live in Houston and want to see this get done sooner rather than later… contact Barry or Jason over at the PUSH website.

Mabel Davis now has porta-potties until the public swimming pool opens in the summer and those restrooms become available. The parks and rec director told me that if the bond passes in May, he can pull some money out of the skatepark bond money to drop a prefab restroom out there for a pretty reasonable price. No word yet on when the lights will appear.

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Donny has finally convinced the Vox pros to come out to Austin. I think it’s Jt Aultz, Justin Strubing, Peter Watkins, Dan Drohobl, and Ricky Oyola. They’ll be around town probably skating at the Skatepark of Austin, Banana Farm, Austin High ditch, and maybe Mabel Davis. It’d be cool to see them out in Smithville… Oh, yeah, maybe Grinder Ledge!

Carjack, Brandon, and I showed up early yesterday evening at City Hall to plead the case for getting more skateparks in the upcoming bond package. Brandon had a cool-ass video piece he made, but we forgot the right cables to connect it to the City Hall technology pile. Cary Jackson did a great job highlighting the need for more skateparks and I turned in 50 completed surveys that people at Mabel Davis and elsewhere had filled out. Cross your fingers….

Talked to Clay Towery the other day. He says the next slalom contest will be on January 28th and Chris Cook is planning to attend. Other dudes who are professional slalom skaters might come out, too. Damn. Chris Cook! If you can get it to work on your system, check out this short video clip of Cook cutting the ribbon at his hometown skatepark in Pacifica, Cali.

A guy in Lufkin is firing up an effort to get a public skatepark built over there. He’s just starting out, but the local newspaper has already run an article and an editorial piece supporting the effort. Now they’re running an online poll to guage support for a public skatepark. If you wanna help out, go over there and vote. Stuff like this really gets the momentum rolling.

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