-- Leo's gemini proxy
-- Connecting to senders.io:1965...
-- Connected
-- Sending request
-- Meta line: 20 text/gemini; lang=en;
I spent the last week really hyped about skateboarding again. I use to skate a lot when I was a kid, and never really got any good. Rodney Mullen was my idol - the freestyle street skating he does can only be described as **rad**.
I got into a skateboarding kick after watching some movies last weekend while my girlfriend was away. I watched Dazed and Confused, a college favorite of mine. I wanted to revisit it since my girlfriend had never seen it and it had been _years_ since I watched it. I remembered really liking it. It _sorta_ holds up.
What works with the movie is the filmmaking. I think overall it does a good job dropping you into this world and just letting it playout. The film doesn't really get in the way. What doesn't work, for me, is just the era and the muddled messages. In todays US political climate the movie sorta sits in an awkward place. It doesn't really do enough to call out how wrong the conservative oppressive culture (the parents, the coaches, etc) and almost mocks (it feels) the progressive side of things. This doesn't _hurt the movie_ since it takes place in the 70s and was made in the 90s, not the 20s. So you can't hold it against it. Just something that made it a bit... less good to me.
Anyway tangent aside, Joey Lauren Adams is in the film as Simone, Pink's sorta girlfriend. I can't see her and not think of Kevin Smith so I decided the next night to watch Chasing Amy, another movie I was curious how it holds up, because even the last time I watched it the ending still felt like it falls flat. Spoiler alert: it still does. Honestly, Ben Affleck is just _too much of an asshole_ too much of the time. I could relate to the situation of falling for someone who is unavailable, and letting something stupid and pointless get the better of your judgement. But watching the movie, as an adult better in charge of his emotions, the movie was just frustrating. Plus, honestly, the dated early 2000s slang (f*g in particular) can be a bit grating to hear.
So the thing that really got me in the mood was Jason Lee. I was curious since I have never seen him skate before decided to look up some videos of him. I found a 20minute documentary for Video Days, a skateboarding video, Jason was in for Blind.
I basically started down a whole looking at skateboarding videos and stumbled across two documentaries: Dogtown and Z-Boys and Bones Brigade: An Autobiography.
I actuallyed watched this documentary second. But chronologically is the first of two. It was made in 2001 and focused on the Dogtown area of Southern California and the Zephyr surf and skate team. This was a really cool doc to watch because I honestly knew nothing of this generation of skateboarding. It was briefly touched on in the early parts of the Bones Brigade, as this is the generation that brought up Stacy Peralta - the coach for the Bones Brigade. I haven't really seen anyone talk about this surf style skating before which was also really cool. Looking back with the knowledge of today it feels almost like "JUST DO X!" but if no one has done it before, are you really thinking about it? Plus the boards were so different: clay wheels, rollerskate trucks, flat, stiff boards. I am honestly surprised they were able to do such slick and stylish moves. (Well the style came after the poly-wheels). I would highly recommend this documentary if you are into skateboarding and don't know how it all started.
I was mixed on this documentary. I know enough about this era, as it was the era where the greats of my day came of age, to fill in what I felt the documentary glazed over. It felt more like basking in the past, and just being nostalgic rather than a good documentary documenting the rise of what would become modern skateboarding.
But seeing old footage of Steve Caballero, Tony Hawk, and Rodney Mullen was so rad. Learning more about other skaters like Lance Mountain who I have never seen get much coverage (being one of the older skaters).
I think if you're into skating you'll enjoy this one either way. But if you're just a casual viewer it may leave you wanting.
I picked this up when it was released. It is so freaking good. They added some quality of life without changing the actual _feel_ of the original games. I was trying to 100% the game and ended up burning myself out trying to get the perfect lines, since I don't think my technical skill is up to par yet. If you have the original disks it may not be worth grabbing. I have it on PS4 and it plays perfectly.
I picked this up too when it was in alpha (or whatever Steam calls it). I started messing around with it again and had a lot of fun. I was pretty burnt out (check my latest devlog (3?)) on programming so I wanted to do something. I swapped over to my Windows partition and kicked around. Turns out they added replays since I last played it. You can now rewatch previous lines you've done and reposition the camera and stuff.
I ended up making two skate videos for fun to try out the process (each ~30s)
It's a lot of fun. I played the replays back, recorded the game footage with OBS, and edited the videos in Davinci Resolve. It was pretty seemless. You can have all 3 programs up (I play the game windowed at 1080p) and when you land a cool run or trick just hit select and capture it.
I want to make a full length one per park. Pick a track that fits the aesthetic of the map and do some sick lines.
I wonder if its worth picking up some new wheels and bearings and trying to skate again. If I can find a private place to practice to avoid embarrassment and just not bother anyone with my constant repetitive actions I'll be happy.
I also need to find some good street wheels too. If I have to start going into the office again the train is a straight path away so skating to and from would be a nice bit of exercise. Do people have two boards? Do modern wheels not stop at the tiniest of pebbles anymore?
I'd love to hear from anyone who skateboards these days on any advice they have for someone wanting to get back into it. Also where I can buy some out of print decks? There are some classic boards I should've grabbed when I had the chance (but not the cash!).
-- Response ended
-- Page fetched on Wed Apr 24 20:01:12 2024