Monday, Monday, Monday
Plus: Roger Bagley contains multitudes, EDGLRD teases the "anti-skate video," Cyrus in Parus, someone sponsor Roman Pabich, and more.
The definitive weekly ranking and analysis of all the skateboarding and other things online that I cannot stop consuming and how it makes me feel, personally.
Are the cyberbullies winning, son?
Rank: -9
Mood: 👎
On Monday, a reader commented on last week's newsletter and asked what I thought of one specific section in a Jenkem interview that'd gone up that morning with former The Nine Club co-host and current The Nine Club behind-the-scenes figure Roger Bagley. If you've been online this week, you probably know the one. I've pasted the section in full below:
How do you deal with polarizing or controversial guests? Like a Tim Poole [sic] type.
I’m behind the scenes, so when it comes down to it, Chris, Kelly, and Jeron are the ones that have to sit and talk to that person. So it comes down to whether or not they are comfortable.
But lets say Skater X just dropped an amazing part. And I’m like, “Dude, let’s talk about it.” And Chris is like, “Dude, I don’t know, what about the allegations and all the other stuff.” I’m like, “Who fucking cares? The dude just dropped an insane part.” Chris might not want to talk to him because he could be afraid that the internet would come after us. For me, it has gotten to that point where it’s like.. Are the cyberbullies winning?
So what do you think the formula is? Do you go against the grain and have people on the show regardless?
It’s fucking crazy. Like, what if Skater Y dropped a part? Are we going to not talk about it because allegations hit him in the past too? All these dudes are constantly living in fear and it’s sad. You have to have the balls to be like, “Dude, what’s up with this?” You know?
What do you think when people say, “Oh, you’re platforming someone bad.”
I just want to give people an opportunity to tell their story. That’s it. Because we don’t fucking know what really happened. None of you idiots who are accusing this person of something were there.
You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t. It’s either “Why aren’t you guys talking about this?” or “Why are you guys talking about this?”
My initial reaction was, "Yikes, what a confusing garbage take." I then replied to the reader:
Yeah, that was a bad answer and also hard to parse. Does he want to talk about tough issues when they arise in relation to a skater or just ignore them and talk about their skateboarding? He appears to make the case for both, but the overall point gets muddled amidst glib frustrations at "cyberbullies."
I can understand that having a platform of their size comes with a lot of challenges and criticism, but treating their subjects and subsequently their audience with nuance and care — and ultimately, respect — isn't an impossible feat, it's just harder then what they currently do in those situations, which is, for the most part, nothing.
In retrospect, that is too gracious a reading of Bagley's response. It elides the casual and aggressive grievances against what he is clumsily dancing around as "cancel culture" by any other name. He displays an inability to understand valid criticism as anything but "cyberbullying." It's also unclear who is "living in fear," his co-hosts who worry about platforming potentially problematic people or the potentially problematic people.
As will happen when someone says something stupid on the internet, Bagley has since been criticized en masse, and rightly so. Given his station at one of skateboarding's premier media hubs, for better or worse, he is a public figure whose opinions matter. And, as a public figure who has spent years talking and posting publicly, as will also happen, people have pulled up unsavoury moments from Bagley's past.
During a 2022 episode of The Nine Club, when Mark Oblow spewed out a bizarre apologia of Mark "Gator" Rogowski's 1991 rape and murder of Jessica Bergsten, Bagley referred to those upset at Oblow's comments in a subsequent Instagram Story as "keyboard warriors." He has a public Twitter history of earnestly responding to career bigot Tim Pool, conspiracy theory accounts, and various and exceedingly corny Elon Musk-related fan profiles. His Twitter "likes" are now private due to changes on the platform, but one SLAP Magazine messageboard user had previously screenshotted Bagley's favourites, and they include a raft of explicitly transphobic posts.
None of this paints Bagley as a particularly sympathetic figure, which is jarring, considering the last time I took in something he was the subject of, was Village Psychic's "Our Day With Roger." In the piece, Bagley is candid about his struggles with alcoholism, mental health issues, and suicidal ideation. He implores others to seek help if they need it. There's a real humanity on display. That humanity appears to be limited. People contain multitudes. Some of those multitudes are shit.
This is where I find the weariness sets in. When a person cannot or will not understand how their actions affect others and refuse to interrogate their own beliefs. This goes beyond Bagley. It's a society-wide rejection of empathy and nuance. Is the online "pile-on" overwhelming if you're in Bagley's position, where errant comments can regularly turn the internet against you? I bet. Calling people out online is also an imperfect solution. It often alienates and further entrenches the person on the receiving end into their series of beliefs if there's no room for forgiveness and growth, or it reinforces their bogus ideas of bloodthirsty social media witch hunts. But to underline it: The criticism here is just that — valid criticism — and it comes from a place of exasperation. Exhaustion. People just want people to care about those around them.
...lets say Skater X just dropped an amazing part. And I’m like, “Dude, let’s talk about it.” And Chris [Roberts] is like, “Dude, I don’t know, what about the allegations and all the other stuff.” I’m like, “Who fucking cares? The dude just dropped an insane part.”
Given his role on a program that talks about skateboarders and skateboarding videos, Bagley should care if the people his show features have serious allegations made against them. If he really wants to, he can talk about some "insane part," but talk about those issues first. It's that simple. The Nine Club have a responsibility to their audience not to gloss over these things and to treat their viewers with respect. If they don't, those issues get pushed to the wayside and become secondary to status. And, eventually, irrelevant. Chris Robert's concern about someone's "allegations" is important. At the very least, it shows an awareness. What is lacking is action.
On Monday, former UFC champion Conor McGregor strutted onto the court at a Milwaukee Bucks game and started antagonizing players on the bench. He was later given a courtside interview. McGregor is an adjudicated rapist, found guilty of sexual assault by a jury of his peers in Ireland late last year. He is currently facing another civil suit for sexual misconduct following an alleged incident at a Miami Heat game in 2023. Those are just two instances of many. Yet here he is, getting preferential treatment by another NBA team. Attending presidential inaugurations. Doted on like nothing is amiss.
That's the endgame when people and the media are compliant or silent. When accountability, and, increasingly, reality becomes a gnat to swat away, monsters form and roam. We have all of history to look back on as proof. Now, the concerned become "woke" or "cyberbullies" and not people wanting better from those around them — a less cruel world. If you've been paying attention to the news lately, cruelty is the common currency.
It might seem overboard to go this long and to hold some dumbass comments from a niche interest podcaster alongside the ghoulish lives of literal criminals, but it's part of a whole, the whole mess we're in as a culture, where dehumanization continues to be accepted and institutionalized at a rapid, rabid pace.
You have to have the balls to be like, “Dude, what’s up with this?” You know?
Yeah, what is up with this, Roger? Can you have that conversation? I hope you come to understand why people are upset or at least attempt to empathize. The reaction to your comments isn't censorship, cyberbullying, or whatever else. It's people grasping for something more from an industry and media that generally gives them nothing. The option to care is always there.
On Monday, that reader asked for my thoughts on the "moral failings of the skate industry," which perhaps assumes those in roles like Bagley's are trying and then failing. Hopefully, we can start with trying.
The "anti-skate video"
Rank: 31
Mood: 🚫📼
On Monday, Culture Counsel, the "strategic consultancy" firm that does promotion and PR for organizations like A24, Lexus, and the Whitney Museum, sent out an "embargoed" press release and story pitch in relation to an upcoming project for one of their clients. I first heard rumblings of it online from a few fellow skateboarding writers, but soon after, Zach Harris broke the embargo(!!!) and relieved my curiosity by posting a screenshot of the email on Twitter.
Hi Kyle,
I thought you might be interested in a story about EDGLRD Skate, the skateboarding arm of Harmony Korine's Miami-based tech-design collective that's revolutionizing movies, video games, advertising, and skateboarding.
This Friday, January 31st, EDGLRD will release their first skate video, Point Cloud, an "anti-skate video" designed to reshape the visual language of skate culture, featuring pro skaters like Eric Koston, Sean Pablo, Vincent Touzery, Rezza Honarvar, and Elijah Odom. The video will be available to view on YouTube.
Please note this news is under embargo until Friday, 1/31.
What a fascinating document. It starts with a bang, as its subject line claims the information revealed in said subject line is embargoed. Then, the representative from Culture Counsel mistakenly refers to Zach as Kyle (Beachy?). Then it confirms what EDGLRD's skateboarding arm is called "EDGLRD Skate." lol. Then it reveals that EDGLRD has produced an "anti-skate video" that will be available on... YouTube.
Marvellous! All of it. What a time to be alive. An "anti-skate video." Is that, I dunno, anything other than a skate video? An episode of The Try Guys? Who knows, whatever it is, maybe it's cool. Perhaps it "disrupts" skateboarding. I wouldn't be opposed to a bit of a refresh. Is EDGLRD, a company that hires a PR firm to promote its projects and takes in money from various nasty billionaire backers — amongst other things — the one to do that?
Point Cloud should be out by the time this newsletter reaches your inbox, so I guess we'll find out.
The kickflip. That kickflip.
Rank: 1
Mood: 💆
On Monday, a good thing also happened. Ben Chadourne uploaded BLACKOUT TRY to his YouTube channel, which, to the blessing of us all, is four-and-a-half minutes of new Cyrus Bennett footage.
Describing the appeal of Bennett's skateboarding is difficult if one is trying to avoid gaudy cliches and superlatives. "Power" and "grace" come to mind immediately and stay there. No matter where he is — Paris, New York, Budapest — he will always be moving as fast as possible toward some obstacle that no person concerned for their personal well-being should attempt to skateboard on, especially at those speeds. He will then lift off of the ground and stay in the air for however long he needs, his body contorting but also warping the world around him like fog or a sunbeam — a presence we can witness and admire but cannot take hold of. It leaves as quickly as it arrives. A flash.
The kickflip. That kickflip. Caught like it could only be this way — an archangel descending from the heavens to get a clip. In each video he finds himself in, there is at least one of these. Power. Grace. We can all see it. What else is there to say about it? Should we just watch it? Perhaps on a loop? Let's.
Self-addressed stamped envelope
Rank: 2
Mood: ✉️📼
Following the demise of Umaverse, the board company formerly known as Uma Landsleds, who announced their shuttering on January 3, a grip of interesting and marketable professional skateboarders were left without a home. Evan Smith, Cody Chapman, Maité Steenhoudt, and Roman Pabich are now free agents. That's without even mentioning über-AMs like Treveon Wade and Leon Chapdelaine.
It's an unfortunate development for a number of reasons. First of which, people have lost income streams. Also, Uma was a fun outfit. They put out a good video, their graphics were better than most in the field, and they had just started to settle into a niche — a freewheeling creative brand that was equal parts silly goose and gnarly.
It was only in March of last year when the company was forced to rebrand after apparently receiving a cease-and-desist for trademark infringement from what many assume to be Puma footwear.
Now they're done and Roman Pabich is releasing some of the best footage of his career in a video part titled Sponsor Me, ostensibly under the banner of Homies, the video series revolving around his friend group of other top-tier professional skateboarders. Both poking fun at his situation and, one assumes, a legitimate plea, Pabich finds himself in an unenviable spot: he's a sensational talent in a contracting industry. In all likelihood, he'll land somewhere, but for how long and for how much?
This probably isn't helpful, but when I was a kid, my plan to get sponsored was to mail my footage on VHS tape along with a self-addressed stamped envelope to all the board brands whose graphics I thought were the coolest in the latest edition of the Transworld "Buyer's Guide."
Scrap it
Rank: eh
Mood: 🗑️
I had written a few hundred words about the news of a Los Angeles area police officer recently trespassing on someone's property and then breaking their skateboard for no apparent reason, but after all of the above and the way things have been going this week, I decided to scrap it and give us a reprieve from wanton, stupid cruelty. Instead, here's a song from Will Oldham's new album that I've been enjoying.
I just watched the music video for the first time yesterday and it turns out there's some skateboarding in it, so there you go.
Something to consider: Preordering Landing by Maen Hammad. From the publisher's website:
Landing by Maen Hammad explores the lives of Palestinian skateboarders in the occupied West Bank as they navigate the layered realities of Israeli settler-colonial domination. The book offers a thesis on skateboarding as a form of resistance to a headspace of violence. Documented between 2015 and 2022, it captures the fleeting moments of escape and the indomitable spirit of skateboarding. Through an interpretive dance of imagery and text the book presents a powerful counter-narrative — a taste of the Palestinian refusal to succumb.
Good thing:
David Roth
Another good thing:
A. Grizz
A good thing about a not-good thing:
Becca Lewis
Until next week… try moving things around. Reorganize your bookshelf, closet, or cupboard. Do your Sunday chores in reverse order. Pick a different song at karaoke. Stand under the waxing moon and follow its light where it grows.
Laser Quit Smoking Massage
NEWEST PRESS
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My new collection of essays is available now. I think you might like it. The Edmonton Journal thinks it's a "local book set to make a mark in 2024." The CBC called it "quirky yet insightful." lol.
Book cover by Hiller Goodspeed.
Right, Down + Circle
ECW PRESS
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I wrote a book about the history and cultural impact of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater that you can find at your local bookshop or order online now. I think you might like this one, too.
Here’s what Michael Christie, Giller Prize-nominated author of the novels Greenwood and If I Fall, If I Die, had to say about the thing.
“With incisive and heartfelt writing, Cole Nowicki unlocks the source code of the massively influential cultural phenomenon that is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and finds wonderful Easter-eggs of meaning within. Even non-skaters will be wowed by this examination of youth, community, risk, and authenticity and gain a new appreciation of skateboarding’s massive influence upon our larger culture. This is my new favorite book about skateboarding, which isn’t really about skateboarding — it’s about everything.”
Photo via The Palomino.
