(no subject)
It had been a while since I had felt a creative burst. Maybe it happened because I was so excited about getting an A- on my column about skate videos/music (which you should read in the link below). Apparently my "passion" really came through. Skaterboarders make me passionate. Everyone who knows me knows that. So I started coming up with ideas for my next columns just when I got in bed. I knew I had to write them down to remember them, so I did so in the dark. Writing in the dark seems to be my thing lately too, as I recently made a playlist for a new mix cd, also in the dark.
I've been having a lot of mood swings lately..even when we're out. I've been calling guys on their shit at bars. Such an attitudinal diva! Must admit, it's kind of fun though. Also my new thing is making white guys that cannot dance follow my lead. They still don't know what's going on, but at least I don't have to compromise and look like a toolbag dancing to Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" and only moving my hips from side to side for the whole entire song! Boo! You're boring! And you can't dance to Shakira like that! Anyway, when these douchebags just start to get the hang of it, I switch it up again so they get all confused. This is when I look down at the floor and laugh. Then I dance away and hump on whichever one of my roommates is closest!
Anyone familiar with skateboarding knows good skate videos require good music. Since their existence, punk rock and hardcore bands like Black Flag, the Misfits, and Fugazi have been in constant play in the realm of skateboarding videos. With the music’s raw edge and the aggression seen in skateboarding, it’s only logical that a sick manual or a nasty spill down a railing is best highlighted by the sound of hardcore punk. At the time the now legendary bands were first formed, I wasn’t even born yet. It wasn’t until nineteen years after they originally formed that I heard their music for the first time.
It was 1998, a year when Tony Hawk and the ESPN X-Games were just beginning to gain widespread attention. Suddenly everyone was learning how to skateboard. I never dared try it unless someone was holding my hand, but nonetheless skateboarding infiltrated my life. Coming home from school meant walking into a front hallway lined with beat up skateboards. Walking upstairs to my brother’s room I would find him and his group of friends watching skate videos, and name dropping their favorite skaters left and right. Luckily, my brother was cool with letting me hang with him and his friends, and so I became the girl obsessed with anything that carried a skateboard.
Though I’d seen clips from many videos, I had never sat down to actually watch a skate video. Videos would play but more so as a backdrop to whatever commotion was going on. From shaking up Coke cans and pouring them all over each other for a laugh, to shit talking teachers, there was always something else taking center stage. It wasn’t until Toy Machine’s “Welcome to Hell” that my attention shifted from my brother’s friends to what was flickering from the television screen.
Mike Maldonado hit traffic-filled streets and empty schoolyards to the tune of the Misfits’ “London Dungeon.” Perhaps it was seeing the rhythm of Maldonado’s skating meld with the distorted sound of the 1950's surf rock-influenced guitar riff that got me hooked. The song stuck out from the music on the rest of the video: bland 1970's rock bands, 1980's metal bands, and annoying punk rock whines of the 1990's. It was refreshing to hear the powerful, yet unpolished, voice of Glenn Danzig. My brother and his friends, having gotten the motivation to skate after watching a short fifteen minutes of the video, had gone outside just as a shot of Brian Anderson skating down the sidewalk to Pink Floyd took up the screen. I was left in an empty room staring intensely at the television set.
After hearing “London Dungeon,” Maldonado quickly became my favorite skater just based on music taste alone, and I decided I needed more. I went out and bought the Misfits’ self-titled album, which features the Maldonado theme song as well as nineteen other incredible songs. My CD player had been constantly filled with NOFX, Rancid and The Offspring but the Misfits replaced them all.
Not only did “Welcome to Hell” change the cds in my three-disc cd player, but from then on skate videos became a lot more exciting to watch, especially as a non-skater. I had realized that the music drives the skating. Just as bands have a certain sound and playing technique, skateboarders also have their own styles. Although someone’s skating style is hard to describe, it’s the music that seeks to pinpoint the feel of a skater’s style. The pacing, the timing of a trick, the smooth landings, all of it can be encompassed and emphasized by the song, often picked by the skater himself, accompanying a skater as he executes a perfect frontside boardslide.
While my brother and his friends rowdily exclaimed how awesome a trick was, I was taking in the whole feeling of watching it. I was hooked on the energy behind the skating and how well it translated in fisheye lens shots. Once I’d grown used to the Misfits, Foundation’s “Nervous Breakdown” video turned me on to Black Flag and Minor Threat. It seemed that with each skate video there was another great band waiting to be heard by me. My brother and his friends no longer held much interest for me, as very few of them developed the same love for the bands as I did. I had also developed a habit of stealing my brother’s skate videos when he was out skating around town picking up on awesome, new music in each video that crossed my path.
It’s been years since I’ve seen any skate videos. Though I don’t actively watch them, or even skateboard myself, I still listen to the Misfits at least once a month. I have often wondered if they’d have had the same effect on me if it hadn’t been for skate videos, but I like to think skate videos made all the difference.
I've been having a lot of mood swings lately..even when we're out. I've been calling guys on their shit at bars. Such an attitudinal diva! Must admit, it's kind of fun though. Also my new thing is making white guys that cannot dance follow my lead. They still don't know what's going on, but at least I don't have to compromise and look like a toolbag dancing to Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" and only moving my hips from side to side for the whole entire song! Boo! You're boring! And you can't dance to Shakira like that! Anyway, when these douchebags just start to get the hang of it, I switch it up again so they get all confused. This is when I look down at the floor and laugh. Then I dance away and hump on whichever one of my roommates is closest!
Anyone familiar with skateboarding knows good skate videos require good music. Since their existence, punk rock and hardcore bands like Black Flag, the Misfits, and Fugazi have been in constant play in the realm of skateboarding videos. With the music’s raw edge and the aggression seen in skateboarding, it’s only logical that a sick manual or a nasty spill down a railing is best highlighted by the sound of hardcore punk. At the time the now legendary bands were first formed, I wasn’t even born yet. It wasn’t until nineteen years after they originally formed that I heard their music for the first time.
It was 1998, a year when Tony Hawk and the ESPN X-Games were just beginning to gain widespread attention. Suddenly everyone was learning how to skateboard. I never dared try it unless someone was holding my hand, but nonetheless skateboarding infiltrated my life. Coming home from school meant walking into a front hallway lined with beat up skateboards. Walking upstairs to my brother’s room I would find him and his group of friends watching skate videos, and name dropping their favorite skaters left and right. Luckily, my brother was cool with letting me hang with him and his friends, and so I became the girl obsessed with anything that carried a skateboard.
Though I’d seen clips from many videos, I had never sat down to actually watch a skate video. Videos would play but more so as a backdrop to whatever commotion was going on. From shaking up Coke cans and pouring them all over each other for a laugh, to shit talking teachers, there was always something else taking center stage. It wasn’t until Toy Machine’s “Welcome to Hell” that my attention shifted from my brother’s friends to what was flickering from the television screen.
Mike Maldonado hit traffic-filled streets and empty schoolyards to the tune of the Misfits’ “London Dungeon.” Perhaps it was seeing the rhythm of Maldonado’s skating meld with the distorted sound of the 1950's surf rock-influenced guitar riff that got me hooked. The song stuck out from the music on the rest of the video: bland 1970's rock bands, 1980's metal bands, and annoying punk rock whines of the 1990's. It was refreshing to hear the powerful, yet unpolished, voice of Glenn Danzig. My brother and his friends, having gotten the motivation to skate after watching a short fifteen minutes of the video, had gone outside just as a shot of Brian Anderson skating down the sidewalk to Pink Floyd took up the screen. I was left in an empty room staring intensely at the television set.
After hearing “London Dungeon,” Maldonado quickly became my favorite skater just based on music taste alone, and I decided I needed more. I went out and bought the Misfits’ self-titled album, which features the Maldonado theme song as well as nineteen other incredible songs. My CD player had been constantly filled with NOFX, Rancid and The Offspring but the Misfits replaced them all.
Not only did “Welcome to Hell” change the cds in my three-disc cd player, but from then on skate videos became a lot more exciting to watch, especially as a non-skater. I had realized that the music drives the skating. Just as bands have a certain sound and playing technique, skateboarders also have their own styles. Although someone’s skating style is hard to describe, it’s the music that seeks to pinpoint the feel of a skater’s style. The pacing, the timing of a trick, the smooth landings, all of it can be encompassed and emphasized by the song, often picked by the skater himself, accompanying a skater as he executes a perfect frontside boardslide.
While my brother and his friends rowdily exclaimed how awesome a trick was, I was taking in the whole feeling of watching it. I was hooked on the energy behind the skating and how well it translated in fisheye lens shots. Once I’d grown used to the Misfits, Foundation’s “Nervous Breakdown” video turned me on to Black Flag and Minor Threat. It seemed that with each skate video there was another great band waiting to be heard by me. My brother and his friends no longer held much interest for me, as very few of them developed the same love for the bands as I did. I had also developed a habit of stealing my brother’s skate videos when he was out skating around town picking up on awesome, new music in each video that crossed my path.
It’s been years since I’ve seen any skate videos. Though I don’t actively watch them, or even skateboard myself, I still listen to the Misfits at least once a month. I have often wondered if they’d have had the same effect on me if it hadn’t been for skate videos, but I like to think skate videos made all the difference.