This ain't it
Plus: EDGLRD's "Point Cloud" happened, Barney Page blessed us, more sponsored skateboarders lose sponsors, IPath might be... onto something, 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.
This ain't it
Rank: -5
Mood: 👹👶
The prevailing positive — if you want to understand it as such — sentiment surrounding EDGLRD Skate's debut video Point Cloud, which was released last Friday, is that it was different. Different in the sense that visually, sonically, and perhaps even spiritually, it was unlike most contemporary or historical skateboarding videos. That is mostly true. The "brain-rot" aesthetic of Point Cloud, which, up to this point, has also been the scaffolding of EDGLRD's entire media operation, is novel, to an extent.
The sensory attack that is Point Cloud, where it's near constant digital effects, most of which, one assumes, are made from its "AI" slop tech, does poorly what progenitors like Alien Workshop's Timecode (1997), most Bronze 56k features, or Ryan McGuigan's Green Apple catalogue, and in particular, Video X, achieved in 2012.
In Video X, through jarring interstitials of newsreel and internet ephemera, supplementary visual effects, and an almost suffocating sound design, there is a tension that often rolls into discomfort as scenes of literal, visceral violence course through its 43-minute runtime. Both Video X and Point Cloud feel consistent in their overwhelming intent, but where McGuigan's vision seems to have purpose in what he wants the viewer to feel (the tension between discomfort and awe at great skateboarding), Point Cloud, whose executive producer is EDGLRD frontman and filmmaker Harmony Korine, feels aimless.
Choppy framerates, epileptic flashes of aliens and demon babies, filters that turn the skaters on screen into goblins or skeletons — even as far as "brain rot" goes, this feels lazy. Brain mold at best. A slight browning.
To be fair, after watching Point Cloud, I'm pretty certain that I'm not its intended audience, which is fine. That said, I'm not sure who the intended audience is. In late January, a high-profile PR firm on behalf of EDGLRD reached out to a number of writers in the skateboarding space to see if they were interested in doing promo for the video, which they touted as an "anti-skate video" set to be uploaded that week. A month and change later, with no explanation for the delay, it dropped to crickets and head scratches.
So perhaps the "anti-skate video" turned out to be a literal device. An effort to alienate themselves from any skateboarding audience at all.
Point Cloud does contain some solid skateboarding from a legitimately interesting team, but the children's choir soundtrack that runs throughout most of the film doesn't set a tone or an atmosphere that their skating is able to live in, it's just grating. Along with the AI slop aesthetic, the cumulative effect of the edit turns watching skateboarding — that act of which the EDGLRD brand hangs itself off of here like a damp, musty towel — into something less of an experience than a task to fulfill.
Ultimately, that's what Point Cloud is: a chore. There are numerous ethical and political reasons not to like EDGLRD and its various productions, but on its merits alone, Point Cloud is simply asking too much of the viewer while giving little, if anything, back. It is an affront for affront's sake — fitting for an EDGLRD, I guess — and demands that we find something in its nothingness. In that way it also feels defeatist. Art created by and for losers. By that I mean art created by people who think there's nothing left to strive for but this. No greater goal than slop. Drivel. The boundary that's pushed isn't toward the original, aspirational, or even anything interesting, but an acceptance of the void that capitalism and the commercialisation of everything down to our DNA has left in place of a shared culture and society.
To his credit, Korine is aware of this, as he'd tell 032c Magazine in January.
You could make the argument that everything now is post-meaning. All of culture – literature, poetry – the meaning of it has been obliterated. Attention spans have been destroyed. The way people are processing things … I mean, you could even get into transhumanism. What even are we, at this point? Is there anything that means anything, beyond just the vibe? When you boil everything down, it’s just about what’s “based.” Like … how based is it? There’s nothing else.
There is always something else, something more, but this ain't it.
The greater good
Rank: 1
Mood: 🍊
You know what's good, though? Barney Page.
In the pantheon of unheralded professional skateboarders, Page features prominently, which I guess would be antithetical to the point I'm trying to make about Page not getting the shine he deserves since he would be "prominently" placed in this hypothetical pantheon, even if it's for being overlooked? What I mean is that Page is at the top of the list when it comes to being at the bottom of the industry's attention... I don't think I'm nailing this.
How about this: To celebrate his new "PROJS" from OJ Wheels, Page did a backside-smith-grind off of a roof. It looks great. It has style. How can someone execute such a stunt and it looks good? The death-defying is often plagued by survival's visual cues. When Dave Bachinsky kickflipped El Toro, his ass nearly touched his skateboard on impact. Necessary compression is hard to spin into the stylish. But Page does it. Everything he does looks good. Every spot he skates, too.
Carefully curated, woefully underappreciated. We must right this wrong. Everyone watch a Barney Page video part today, okay? It's for the greater good.
Instability as the only constant
Rank: -2
Mood: ☹️
Sure, business is business and all that, but it does strain the limits of rational decision making when a company like Emerica footwear lets go of a talent like Norway's Kevin Bækkel, who, in every measure, embodies the ethos of the Emerica brand and is one of the most talented stunt-centric skateboarders that there is.
Bækkel's release happened around the same time Caleb McNeely announced on his since-deleted Instagram account that he had been let go by Converse Cons, his shoe sponsor. In a lengthy post, which can be read in full below, he'd explain how cold the experience was and that he felt the business of skateboarding had usurped the soul of skateboarding.
this is a post I’ve been on the fence about making for the past couple weeks. As of a couple weeks ago I was let go from a sponsor that had played a very important role in how skateboarding affected my life, it offered me the opportunity to travel the world, pay my bills, and be around a bunch of talented and creative people and I will forever be grateful for that. I was let go completely out of the blue and with absolutely no warning. This is something that has been happening more and more recently in the skate world, friends losing jobs, families being affected, and it is seemingly so far from the ethos that I thought the industry was founded on. The lack of a sense of community, the hidden agendas, it’s something that I don’t think many skateboarders see the full scope of. Behind closed doors this is a business like any other and the people who call the shots are getting these orders from a slew of investors, not people that actually care about the wellbeing of skateboarding and its integrity. Since when was posting a 15 second Instagram clip more important than a video part? This shit is honestly disgusting and so far from the culture that made this thing so special in the first place. I’m not out to bash anyone, I just want an eye opened to a dark time that needs to be pulled out from under the rug. I have decided to part ways with all of my sponsors and obligations in hopes of finding the purity again. If you made it this far thanks for reading
There are certainly realities to be aware of on both sides of this equation, those sides being the company and its sponsee. The skateboarding industry is suffering through a genuinely tumultuous time. Brands, shops, PRO and AM skaters — most of them, who I've talked to anyway, are feeling it.
Companies are trying, and struggling, to stay afloat. Adapting to the shifting winds of both intraculture trends and the economy as a whole has proved difficult, and it has never been easy. On the marketing end, should a 15-second Instagram clip be of more importance than a well-thought-out video part? No. But there are metrics that can be easily analyzed and replicated on social media. When the people holding the purse strings at companies big and small are asked to dole out cash by brand managers and the like who, if they're worth their salt, are fighting behind the scenes to get people on the team and to pay for trips and projects, those money handlers want results in a measurable form. They want to feel like they are getting something out of the resources they're putting in.
That is, in a way, understandable. However, it is also an inhuman way to gauge success and an exceptionally flawed one in the skateboarding space, as social media engagement doesn't always correlate to financial or cultural relevancy. If anything, it's a placebo for a number of more significant, unaddressed structural issues. McNeely, the cutty-spot savant who releases video parts when they're good and ready is doomed in this reality. But, so is Bækkel, a marquee wildman who produces consistently and regularly goes "viral" for navigating down quintuple-kink handrails or slamming with unsettling seriousness. Ultimately, no one is safe.
That instability leads to cruelty on the labour side, where skateboarders who have risked their personal well-being to promote a brand are increasingly and often unceremoniously relieved of their already low-paying duties so their former sponsor can limp on another day or meet some inane revenue projection.
I don't have a tidy way to wrap this up, but I've been working on a standalone piece about the state of the skateboarding industry for a while now that should be out in the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure it answers any big questions, but hopefully it provides more context as to what's going on.
More shoe stuff
Rank: 2
Mood: 🌿👟
At the risk of overdoing it on shoe stuff today, I'd like to note that this is the marketing power of the skateboarder in relation to the skateboarding company:
At least for me, after watching Evan Smith's Welcome to IPATH video, which tapped into the feel of the brand's past output but with the welcome and appreciable touch of Peter Sidlauskas in the editing suite, I came away feeling like IPath might be onto something here. Is that true in any sense beyond the whispy vapours of vibes? Who knows. But you can tell when a brand and a skateboarder put their back into something, which is, at the very least, appreciated.
Grok talk
Rank: -60
Mood: C'mon, bro
In no sense is it surprising that the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, a partner of the Columbia Journalism Review, found a spread of the most popular Generative AI search engines "Collectively, provided incorrect answers to more than 60 percent of queries." What is surprising is how many people use those products as if they're competent and dependable. According to a recent survey, that could be almost a third of people in the United States.
With Google's flagship product — its search engine — collapsing under the weight of the company's greed and hubris, it's expected that people might reach for something different. Even Google's "AI Summary" feature, which had an embarrassing debut last spring, still struggles to scrape and summarize correctly. However, it's important to underline that the different thing that a third of America is trying is bad, which is maybe a tidy summation of the state of things.
All of this to say, if you're out there googling around for specific video parts, skateboarding-related trivia, or anything else, for your own well-being, and if you don't do this already, after you google something, go to "tools" at the bottom right of the search bar and the change the selection from "all results" to "verbatim." That will divert you from the slop that Google feeds you now to hopefully more helpful results.
Some things to consider:
Spencer Ackerman
Samer Kalaf
Good thing: The Mostly Skateboarding crew talked to skateboarding print media stalwart Kevin Wilkins. Great chat.
Posted by
Templeton
Another good thing:
A good book launch thing: Maen Hammad's photobook Landing, which you can order here, is launching at the Toronto Palestine Film Festival in April if you're in the area.
Can you spare a minute to help this other good thing:
That is correct, another good thing: Foundation Skateboards have turned their longtime filmmaker and creative mastermind, Don Luong, PRO. Or they commemorated his impact on the Tum Yeto faction with a guest board. Whatever the case, Don rules.
Read more about him here if you like:
Cole Nowicki
One more good thing, I swear:
A thing from last week: I was back in The Tyee again over the weekend and wrote about going to Slow Impact, travelling to America during "these times," the power found in our communities, and some light hockey talk.
Cole Nowicki
Until next week… if you see a father and their small child communicating via banana phone, ask them who their service provider is. How much do they pay per month? Honestly, I'm tired of the smartphone and would love to go back to something similar. Simpler. Biodegradable.
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.
