Recently while aboard a luxury locomotive I gazed out the window to take in the urban decay and peacefully zoned out on the loading docks and warehouses, snapping to after realizing that it had been several minutes and probably it looked semi-catatonic to whatever secular co-passengers might’ve been paying attention. One of those increasingly seldom times when a person can still feel as though these pursuits might set them apart in some fundamental way from the rest of the whoevers, and coming on the heels of the pretty emotionally heavy Oyola “Later’ds,” casts Ricky/Bobby/Traffic and the rest in a whole different light.
I ask you, who but a truly cockeyed optimist looks for and sees potential for good times in a sea of crumbling concrete foundations and pissy public parks and disused traffic barriers? What sort of a person launches a hardgoods affair, in 2011, out of the east coast without Marc Ecko rhino pants money and with a full-time truck driving job? What sort of a person would professionally endorse this company? What sort of person devotes the last decade-plus to filming this stuff for unprofitable video enterprises? Does spot-seeking and those who live the attached lifestyle require a person to be naturally outfitted with rose-colored goggles, or are they earned like a samurai’s blade or a unicorn’s wish-granting powers?
Elsewhere on the east coast, Du Flocka Rant gives the children a reason to believe. (via quartersnacks)
Tags: Bobby Puleo, city-scapes, earnings, Epicly Later'd, fantastimals, Josh Stewart, optimism, pants, Philadelphia, Radiohead, rhino pants, rhinos, Ricky Oyola, ronin, spots, Traffic, urban blight
boil the ocean 
August 3, 2011 at 4:02 pm |
gotta thank o’dell for unearthing these urban legends
August 3, 2011 at 5:17 pm |
…and just a pinch of “no-thanks” for the perpetuation of skateboarding as a “reality show” and/or VH1 Behind the Music. Heck, if all these doods are so “core”, they should be doing interviews via gnarly NYC one-legged carrier pigeon and not in HD.
…just a pinch though
p.s. up next…Jay-Z hands buys local skaters apartments in TriBeCa
August 4, 2011 at 12:55 pm
one person’s perspective/focus on things will never represent reality as a whole (or satisfy blog commenters). like Camus said paraphrasing Descartes, “I judge, therefore I exist.” in other words, it is inevitable for people to hate, it’s in our genes. EL is entertaining, and if o’dell’s angle is a bit behind the music-ish, so be it. and I don’t mind HD, actually, I prefer it.
August 3, 2011 at 11:19 pm |
Oh Poor Ricky the truck driver, maybe he should have taking a class or two at the local community college during his pro career instead of smoking a blunt every morning with Love park vagrants and criticizing people for pushing mongo or ::gasp:: turning around after landing fakie.
August 4, 2011 at 11:28 am |
Captain Hindsight just nailed it.
August 4, 2011 at 12:57 pm
ricky is a black belt in skatebaording, fuck a class or two at the community college.
August 4, 2011 at 4:11 pm |
definitely. get the fuck out with skateboarders having some banal, middle class allegiance with ‘college’; sure, it can and often does make sense, but choosing the unproven path takes balls. it doesn’t have to be overly romantic. squares should not be riding sticks.
August 4, 2011 at 10:38 pm |
I couldn’t agree with you more, fucking hilarious and poignant. Despite what the Wiz tells you kids, daily pot smoking has its consequences. Alright already, we get it Oyola is a pissed off and is owed something beyond his legendary status in skating and obedient following of hundreds, if not thousands of strangers. Oyola’s VBS episode regrettably made me feel more now than ever that skateboarders need to get off of their god dammed high horses. Just because some people are making a killing fucking around on the same wooden planks you grew up fucking around on doesn’t dispute the fact that it’s still just fucking around on pieces of wood. Sure you can read deeper into it as a reclamation of space or as Mullen so aptly put it, “articulation of movement” when describing Willow. However you dice it, skateboarding can not and should not be anything more than having fun all bruised shins and bloody socks included. Ricky comes off sounding not like a douche from Jersey, but an ungrateful child.
Alright we get it O’dell let’s give credit where credit is due but this
August 5, 2011 at 12:20 am |
Ricky definately deserves his dues. We need more people in skateboarding today like him. I haven’t always been a fan of his but I always liked how he spoke his mind and stuck to his principles even if it fucked him up. I think I lot of people today think it good to sell out on your principles for the money and that sucks. As skateboarding gets closer the mainstream so do the views of many skateboarders, sad!
August 5, 2011 at 3:00 am |
I agree that selling out sucks no matter what the motivation is. However I am sick of hearing the sob stories of professionals who are considered “core” and then bitch about everyone who is making it in the industry. If you’re really down for skateboarding you would just skate regardless of the paychecks and recognition.
August 5, 2011 at 9:01 am |
yes, but wasn’t it Nietzsche who paraphrased Danzig when he sang…
There’s some kinda love
And there’s some kinda hate
The maggots in the iron lung
Won’t copulate
And it’s a woah oh oh oh oh
And it’s a woah oh oh oh oh
And it’s a woah oh oh oh oh
I said woah woah oh, oh oh oh
Hear the cats cry
Little tortured babies in pain
Cracked necks by settled limbs
They don’t hesitate
And it’s a woah oh oh oh oh
Baby woah oh oh oh oh
And it’s a woah oh oh oh oh
I said woah, woah, oh
There’s some kinda love
And there is some kinda hate
I’m gonna tell you all about it now
The maggots in the iron lung
Won’t copulate
And it’s a woah oh oh oh oh
Baby woah oh oh oh oh
Baby woah oh oh oh oh
I said woah woah oh, woah oh
August 5, 2011 at 4:15 pm |
You’re fuckin’ awesome.
August 5, 2011 at 11:47 pm |
Oyola should just relocate Traffic to Japan permanently. There he’ll be worshipped like a god, and have reign over an obedient (Far) East Coast army.
August 7, 2011 at 5:56 pm |
i second this.
August 10, 2011 at 3:39 pm
don’t think Bobby Puleo would be too impressed though
August 7, 2011 at 8:59 pm |
from the way a lot of you are talking, the kid at the skatepark practicing his freestyle routines is just as much of a “skateboarder” as ricky oyola. fun, bruised shins, and bloody socks, right? remember, there is a difference between a skateboarder and a kid with a skateboard. if you can’t see that, you are in the latter group.
August 7, 2011 at 9:00 pm |
let’s try this again:
from the way a lot of you are talking, the kid at the skatepark practicing his freestyle routines WHILE HIS DAD IS SCREAMING OUT COMMANDS FOR TRICK SEQUENCES is just as much of a “skateboarder” as ricky oyola. fun, bruised shins, and bloody socks, right? remember, there is a difference between a skateboarder and a kid with a skateboard. if you can’t see that, you are in the latter group.
August 7, 2011 at 10:09 pm |
From the way you’re talking you are misunderstanding what has been said. I don’t think anyone is questioning Oyola’s status as a skateboarder, simply how ungrateful he appeared in his Later’d series. Remind me again of what exactly is fun about parents living vicariously through their children?
August 9, 2011 at 3:23 pm
remind me again for what ricky is supposed to be grateful?