disposable: random essays on skateboard art

"public domaine" at la gaité lyrique in paris, france

Public Domaine : Skateboard Culture - Teaser from La Gaîté Lyrique on Vimeo.

In two weeks I'll be heading in a northeasterly direction to Paris, France for the opening of the Public Domaine exhibition at the la Gaité lyrique on Saturday, June 18. A considerable step above and beyond your average SKART show, this is a multi-themed approach to portraying the broader cultural aspects of skateboarding from its music and graphics to film, photography, fashion, futurism and more.

Some of those represented in the varied facets of the sprawling show include: Neck Face, Yogi Proctor, Adam Wallacavage, Donny Miller, Deanna Templeton, Cleon Peterson, Michael Burnett, Mike O'Meally, Fred Mortagne, Benjamin Deberdt, Mark Gonzales, William Strobeck, Matthias Fennataux, Ludovic Azémar, Ty Evans, Don Brown, Claude Jutra, Alyasha Moore, Andy Jenkins, Ben Horton, Ed Templeton, Eli Morgan Gesner, Fos, Marc McKee, Mike Hill, Moish Brenman, Michael Sieben, Todd Francis, Winston Tseng, Johnny "Mojo" Munnerlyn, Colin Price, Eric Anthony, Hershel Baltrotsky, Jeremy Carnahan, Michael Coleman, Andy Jenkins, Christian Morin, Andy Mueller, Evan Hecox, Chris Waycott, ILL Studio, Natas Kaupas, Mike Manzoori, DVNO, Rémi Brun, Sade Coy, Cédric Viollet, Edouard Le Scouarnec, Bryce Kanights, Mofo, Kevin Thatcher, Luke Ogden, Rhino, Patrick O’Dell, Jerry Hsu, David Broach, Gabe Morford, Jon Mehring, Cédric Viollet, Brian Gaberman, Taro Hirano, Sem Rubio, Dan Boulton, Deeli, Eric Antoine, Travis Dove, Rich Gilligan, Bertrand Trichet, Buzzy Sullivan, Sergej Vutuc, Gus Duarte, Giovanni Reda, Davy Van Laere, Atiba Jefferson, Sam Ashley, Lance Mountain and myself.

A number of special events are planned throughout the stay of the Public Domaine exhibition (which runs until Sunday, August 7), from concerts and skate demos to parties and such sponsored by Thrasher Magazine, Etnies, Nike SB, Girl Skateboards and more. I think I may be doing a Disposable book signing somewhere during my week in Paris, but have no details at present. If and when something is arranged though, I'll throw up another post with the whereabouts and whatnot.

For further info: http://www.gaite-lyrique.net

marc mckee book release and art show

Finally! And by finally I mean finally a post that's not about me me me! It is, rather, about Marc Mckee, an artist that needs no introduction in these here bloggy parts. Lest you be confused that this is an extended stop of the former "Censorship is Weak as Fuck" show, rest assured it's not. First of all, Marc has a new book coming out and it features not only his commonly known skateboard art but his lesser seen illustrations from the smutty pages of Hustler Magazine! Anyway, the what and where particulars are all up there, so far be it from me to waste anymore space down here. But if you're in the Los Angeles area, the show opens this Saturday night with a book signing by the man of even fewer spoken words than me: Marc McKee! For further online enlightenment, check out this interview with Marc by a man more outspoken than most anyone else I know: Chri$ Negrotaco.

http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/2011/03/10/meet-the-nieratkos-marc-mckee/

new screen-printed cliché skateboards by me and mckee

This is a sorry excuse for a new post after so long, but so it goes in life and passionate pursuits in the name of free. Anyhow, way, or whatever, Marc McKee and I recently did some new work for Cliché in the spirit of the old—screen-printed, no less! Each board is available in two different shapes, but both are limited in run. Find 'em now or forever hold and roll in peace.

For further furtherings into the world of Cliché Skate: http://www.clicheskate.com/

skate rock: mcrad live record release party

Yeah, yeah, I've become a real Mr. Current Events guy lately. I swear I'll get back to the past soon, but for now, if you're in the vicinity of Los Angeles and have fond recollections of sound snippets from the Powell-Peralta Public Domain, Ban This and Propaganda videos, then perhaps you'd be interested in checking out a night with the man behind that music: Chuck Treece, aka McRad. He'll be performing live at Space 15 Twenty in Hollywood on Thursday, June 10th, at 7:00pm.

art show: neil blender, grant brittain and dave swift

Art appreciation is certainly in the Southern California air this summer, as the works of Neil Blender, Grant Brittain and Dave Swift are being hung and slung on this coming Saturday night, June 5th, from 6:00pm–12:00am at Hensley's Flying Elephant Pub. To forgo any further redundancies similar to those I made with the earlier post for Ron Cameron's upcoming exhibition Dismantled Hope on June 11, please take a gander at the Press Release flier above for further details on what will surely be an event studded with skate luminaries from throughout the ages.

meet todd bratrud and the high five skateboard company

From the moment I first became familiar with the work of Todd Bratrud, I was nothing short of envious. Not only did he show remarkable versatility and skill in what he was capable of doing—from graphic design to illustration—but he had ideas. Lots of them. The provocative kind that make you laugh and recall years later, much like the graphic output of World Industries, Blind and 101 circa 1989–1994. Although Todd had been involved with the industry since 1998 (and I guess I even met him once prior to that during a Big Brother road trip to Minneapolis, MN, in 1997), I didn't really get to know him until 2003 when I interviewed him for Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art and he proved to be a very humble character. Just super stoked to be doing what he's doing and eking out a living from it—the skateboarder/artist's dream life.

Twelve years after first getting his foot in the door over at Consolidated, Todd has finally taken the industry plunge and started up his very own skateboard company: The High Five. I'd once entertained a similar idea four or five years ago with a "Disposable" board brand, but soon gave up in frustration after it was more or less explained to me that boards simply can't be produced the way they once were in the '80s—or at least not without a retail price point of a hundred bucks or more. So, once I'd heard about Todd's new company, I was naturally curious about his plans. Here's what he had to say...

For those that might not be familiar with your past, give me the CliffsNotes version on how you first became involved in the skateboard industry.

Around the late '90s, my roommate Billy Kahn was getting boards from Consolidated. I ended up doing a few graphics for Consolidated while Billy was on the team. After about a year I was asked to move to Santa Cruz and full time "art direct" Consolidated, and that's what I did. I was doing graphics at Consolidated for a solid chunk of years, but eventually left over some Nike SB drama and started doing freelance graphics.

art show: ron cameron's dismantled hope

Unfortunately (yet very fortunately) I'm still buried beneath a glut of paying work, allowing me little to no time to dick off for fun with historical ruminations. But seeing as longtime skateboarder/artist Ron Cameron helped me out a good bit on my first book it's only right and natural to pay him back in kind. So, if you're in the area of Encinitas, California, on Friday, June 11, 2010, and can forgive me this run amok use and possible abuse of the comma, check out the opening of his solo art exhibition Dismantled Hope at the Encinitas Library Community Room. Jason Lytle of Grandaddy will be making the sounds while Ron provides all the visual stimuli in the form of paintings, drawings, photos, old skateboards and more. By the way, most all of this information can be read in the above flier, but I felt the odd need to be redundant in these words below. However, if you still feel at a loss for what exactly is going on, then I urge you to go here: Dismantled Hope on Facebook.

full circle: the element ray barbee tribute board

Last November I'd teased the forthcoming Ray Barbee "tribute" board from Element, but it would now appear to be officially out, about, and available for purchase. (Actually, I think it has been out for over a month or so now, but ol' Slow Hand Luke here just got around to posting the formal news.) What I didn't know back then though, is that they still planned on releasing two shapes for the board—one popsicle, the other early '90s-ish*—covering both "OG" color scheme bases in the process. Element even produced a sticker, too, for those of you predisposed to sticking and/or hoarding sticky things. I only know this because I received several packs of them in the mail, and I now routinely include one with every autographed copy of The Disposable Skateboard Bible—now in its second printing!—ordered directly from me (sorry, had to work that in somewhere).

Anyway, my special thanks go out to Todd Francis for the separation assist on the Ray Barbee graphic. There's nothing more humbling in the world than to know your skill set is obsolete, but I guess everyone will just have to pry those last remaining rolls of Rubylith from my cold, dead, arthritic hands one day.

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* I was just informed by Todd that it will be a couple more weeks before the old school shape is in stock at Element.

alien workshop and the past and present ghosts of andy warhol

Back when I first started this online extension of the Disposable books one of my goals was to begin covering and promoting new skateboard graphics as well as wax off all nostalgic about the old. I sent out a "press release" (if you can even call it that ... it was more like an annoying mass email to a selection of contacts in my address book) to announce this altruistic intent of mine—okay, and to maybe net a few freebies along the way—but few responses came back aside from the usual English quip or two from Don Brown at Sole Technology. Well, a week later I did receive a free copy of the Bones Bridage Video Show Special Edition DVD, so this hasn't been a total wash ... but on the same hand it hasn't exactly flourished into anything beyond a glorified online toilet to flush my occasional burst of sentimental diarrhea. So it goes.

 

The other day, however, I finally received an honest to god press release. My first one! I'm not special, of course, I know. Lots of other Interweb sites received the very same email and have since plastered it days ahead of me, but it is nice to know I made it onto someone's mailing list—especially when it's that of Alien Workshop, a company whose aesthetic I've long admired and respected. Anyway, the release pertains to an upcoming series of decks showcasing ten iconic pop works of Andy Warhol that are strictly on the up-and-up. By this I mean Alien Workshop actually went ahead and worked directly with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. to license and produce the designs. That's right, they're not just ripped off in the favored skateboard tradition of yore. Then again, I'm not surprised, because I've always considered Alien Workshop to be the Minor Threat of skateboard companies when it comes to their graphic approach.

What's funny about that chosen Warhol quote—"Art is what you can get away with"—is that it can kind of be twisted to define the skate graphic mentality in the '90s, when a lot of companies got away with a lot of stuff they would never get away with today because the entire industry was very, very much under the radar then. Times have indeed changed, though, and I know of many companies that are no longer so devil-may-care when it comes to biting off more than they can feasibly chew in a copyright court of law.

confessions of a teenage video pirate

I've made jokes about my technological incompetence before (although, sadly, they really aren't jokes), but once upon a time I was a pirate force to be reckoned with in electronic waters. Soon after I started skateboarding in the fall of 1986 in the city of Stevens Point*, Wisconsin, I realized that my meager paper route earnings were not going to suffice in funding what undoubtedly was my new purpose in life. Skateboards were not cheap, nor were the countless—and mostly useless—plastic accessories that I was suckered into believing were an absolute necessity. For this I give due credit to the companies for their marketing prowess and savvy (cut me some slack ... I was an impressionable Midwestern kid, no different than those gullible idiots that became America's worst milk chickens in the '90s); however, it did force me to turn to a life of crime at their expense.

I was fortunate to have two VCRs in our family household at the time, the combo of which I learned to hook-up and make duplicate copies of VHS tapes, give or take a generational degeneration. And with winter about to drop its chilling, white blanket of frozen death upon our scant supply of local terrain, the only lifeblood that remained for area shut-in skateboarders were the few skateboard videos that existed in our town at the time. Primarily the Powell-Peralta classics The Bones Brigade Video Show (1984) and Future Primitive (1985). Someone had a copy of Summer Sessions, too, but aside from the T.S.O.L. soundtrack it wasn't exactly what you could call a source of inspiration.

I was already watching these videos three-to-four times a day, so running off copies while doing so was by no means a waste of time. And the guerrilla entrepreneur in me charged a buck per bootlegged copy to local skaters—the grand sum total of which probably afforded me a pair of Powell-Peralta Short Ribs and, quite possibly, a Tracker lapper. Maybe even a "Board to Death" sticker, too. So although the money was ill-gained, it was equally ill-spent and went right back into the industry pot.

Unfortunately this business acumen did not stick with me in life—such is my half-brained lot as an artist—and this new online deal of mine is simply further proof. I suppose I could have sought out some other company to host this. Better yet, maybe even a company that actually paid me to do it. But no: it's simply another extra-curricular "labor of love" that I'm going out of pocket on. Not that I mind, though, because the other day in the mail I received a complimentary copy of The Bones Brigade Video Show Special Edition from Michael Furukawa at Powell (technically, I guess the company is called Skate One now, but old habits die hard).

I'm not sure if I was meant to review this or not, but it does seem like the right thing to do after my former crimes against the company as a profiteering teenager. Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure there is a statute of limitations on that stuff, right? There better be. If not, perhaps this review will wipe the slate clean and we can both call it even, because the last thing I need right now is Interpol knocking down my door on an obsolete video format charge.