austin skate notes

The guys behind shot-on-film gems ‘Northwest,’ ‘Fruit of the Vine,’ and ‘Tent City’ have another one in the can. This weekend at the Alamo Drafthouse, you can see Nichols & Charnowski’s newest skate doc, ‘Deathbowl to Downtown.’ It’s about the New York skate scene, which I actually have experienced first hand, and have little respect for or interest in. But Nichols and Charnowski are talented cinemakers, so perhaps they captured something of note in that steaming craphole of a city. I guess there’ll be some shit about Harold Hunter partying and dying. Brooklyn Banks’ evolution into an ‘approved’ skate park. Zoo York, woot. woot. Oh, and maybe there’ll be some graffiti crap.

I’m probably jaded. I grew up skating in Tokyo. It kind of takes something more than NYC to get me going about big city shit.

Trailer.

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The band list has been announced for Fun Fun Fun Fest! Although last year was amazing, this new roster looks like the result of a strain to collect cool bands willing to perform. Last year, I purchased a full-on pass without any more consideration after hearing that the Angry Samoans were playing along with Neurosis. This year’s FFF Fest lacked any over-the-top bookings for me, but if they would have had the bands Graham Williams booked at Red 7 on October 3rd, it would have affected me like last year’s band listing. Dayglo Abortions and the Accussed. Damn. Why couldn’t they have been included in FFF Fest?!?! Well, guess I’ll save some money and just go see them in a club setting.

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Yeah, Patterson looks like it’s surrounded by grass… Almost ready to ride, but not quite yet. Please stop screwing around with the telephone poles.

I asked for a mission, and I got one. It’s a doozy. But if it weren’t, they wouldn’t have called for me.

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Radio and television broadcasts have been filled with descriptions of the destruction leveled upon Galveston by hurricane Ike. I really wonder how that city can rebuild after this. Perhaps a light at the end of this tunnel is one of the things that wasn’t destroyed: it’s recently opened concrete public skatepark. Bring your buckets…

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Design the Board Competition

Lots of people say they want to contribute to get more public skate spots like the mini ramp in Patterson distributed across the city. Well, here’s an opportunity for those community-spirited skateboarders. Austin-area designers have created concept skateboard graphics that will be featured in a show at ‘Design Within Reach‘ and all proceeds from the showing will be turned over to the Austin Public Skatepark Action Committee for the purpose of building more free skate spots throughout Austin.

Event Description
Map to Location

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Finally, an update on Patterson. Yeah, the grass looks awesome. That’s the result of over a month of watering EVERY evening and morning. Seed planting. Sod laying. Fence raising. But yet, there are still some bare spots. The city won’t accept the project as complete until all the park area disturbed by construction is covered with grass. Hopefully it will be soon. Your best bet to make it open faster is to volunteer to help water. Send an email to seth[at]austinskatenotes|dot|org if you want to get involved.