Before the web, X-Games, and general societal acceptance, skateboard culture relied on magazines, VHS videos, and demos to keep the kids stoked. Old-timers in Lexington still wax nostalgic about a few legendary demos at Champs Roller Rink, The Lexington Mall parking lot, and The Ice Center. During a recent trip back home, I ran into one of those guys, Chris Steinrock, who was once a member of the city’s skateboaring elite. Eating at Bellini’s Italian (owned by old-schooler, John Marletta), we explained to my parents that there was once two factions that dominated the Lexington skate scene: El Loco and Phillip Gall’s. Downtown vs. Suburbs. Punk vs. Prep. Both of these shops held demos and kids came from miles to see their favorite pros and beg for stickers.
It’s hard not to feel a little of that excitement as I anticipate what may be one of North Carolina’s sickest demos ever: Flip and The Firm, November 19th, at Project 58 in Raleigh. Raleigh’s skateboarding institution, Vertical Urge will be hosting the two teams. Who’s coming? Tom Penny, Lance Mountain, Ray Barbee, Geoff Rowley, Mark Appleyard, Rune Glifberg, Rodrigo TX, Burnquist, Ali Boulala, Javier Sarmiento, and more.
October 29th, 2005
I badly wanted to like Cameron Crowe’s “love letter to Kentucky”, Elizabethtown. With nods to Kentucky traditions like Ale-8-1 and Ear-X-Tacy, a My Morning Jacket cameo, and the Versailles footage, it seemed like a sure thing. Like others, I enjoyed it, but I was ultimately disappointed. I wanted an iconic Crowe film like Say Anything! Thankfully, Kentucky escaped the typical Hollywood caricature, but Crowe’s “eccentric Americana” treatment seemed fake too. It was a little surreal to view the film in Hamburg Pavilion, just down the street from where much of Elizabethtown was filmed. Hamburg, a nightmarish maze of big box stores and frustrated shoppers, is the antithesis of the film’s humble, earnest, quirky little town.
Next Up: Glory Road. Glory Road is the story of the ‘66 Texas Western team that beat Kentucky in the NCAA tournament. Texas Western was an all black team. Kentucky was all white, and coached by Adolph Rupp. Gulp. This one’s going to be brutal. Actor John Voight recently phoned Rupp’s son to warn him. Rupp said that Voight “didn’t think it’d be a particularly popular film in Kentucky.”
October 25th, 2005
Jill’s new store, Unbridaled, has opened in South Austin. “Unbridaled brings you vintage inspired, creative, colorful, casual, one of a kind, special order and ready-to-wear bridal fashions that fit your style, size, and budget.” Congrats!
October 25th, 2005
Most people wouldn’t bother applying for a job if they’re not qualified. After all, it’s common sense to presume that the organization is looking for someone with a proven track record. There are necessary requirements and criteria for employment and if you lack the appropriate experience, then you understand that you probably won’t be invited for an interview… Unless you’re looking for a job with the federal government and happen to know the president. Now it seems that being underqualified is actually a selling point. The most recent example, Ms. Harriet Miers, was described as “the best person I could find,” by President Bush. Although cronyism has always been around, something is different now. The New Republic explains:
The Bush era has taken government out of the hands of the hyper-qualified and given it back to the common man. This new breed may not have what the credentialists sneeringly call “relevant experience.” Their alma maters may not always be “accredited.” But they have something the intellectual snobs of yore never had: loyalty. If not loyalty to country, then at least loyalty to party and to the guy who got them the job. And their loyalty has been rewarded: Even if they fail, they know they can move up the chain until they find a job they can succeed in or until a major American city is destroyed, whichever comes first.
But we’re not just removing the requisite standards for our elected and appointed leaders. Take the evolution vs. intelligent design debate. Unlike creationists of an earlier era, the ID camp seeks scientific credibility. As TNR writer Noam Scheiber has pointed out, “the only way to claim that something empirically false is scientifically true is to question science’s capacity for sorting out truth from falsehood..” In other words, if you can’t win on accepted standards and absolute truths, change how you’re measured. It’s a strangely postmodern, relativistic approach. Remove the standards. Then anything is possible.
October 5th, 2005
Earlier Posts »
I couldn’t believe it. I was transfixed. I heard the count in and then ‘Sitting Still,’ and by the time they got to the first chorus, it was packed shoulder to shoulder… The beauty is that it was in Athens on a warm Saturday night, with the band on the floor with no production… I had three old disco mirror balls and they hung them up — that was the extent of the lighting show.
