blade or die

So Which is the ‘City That Never Sleeps’?

Street skating edits should — at least I think they should — illustrate not only a skater’s ability to throw some hammers, but their versatility in the terrain they can skate. From switch-ups on perfect handrails to navigating the nastiest of chunked-up bullshit, a great online edit should accomplish to portraying the skater’s diverse ability, but the diversity in the terrain in where they live.

With that said, the latest edit featuring Keaton Newsom — which also happens to be a trailer for the upcoming The City That Never Sleeps video — does just this and does it well. Keaton continues to emerge in talent and style. But what makes his skating stand out in the edit below is his ability to skate everything. It’s one of those edits you get done watching and then want to skate some really fucked up spots afterwards.

Few skaters can do that well. Those that come to mind are: Dustin Latimer, Kevin Yee, Sean Cullen (yeah, I said that), Oli Short and others of their ilk.

Keaton’s Online Profile from Brian Moore on Vimeo.

But the title of the edit and forthcoming movie has me so confused. The City That Never Sleeps? The video is coming from guys in Dallas.

Then later this week, our dear friends over at Shock featured Tony Rivituso from Las Vegas. In his interview, I’ve highlighted something for the purposes of this observation.

Then again, you do want to be careful about what happens in Vegas, and, no, I’m not talking about the town’s slogan that’s muttered way, way too often by too many dumb people. There’s some weird shit going on in Vegas. Like nasty shit where if you spend too much time there — not sleeping —— you might have your feet rot off.

Now, and I’ve never been to New York (which I know is a big mistake), I always thought it is the city that never sleeps. I know the guys at iRollNY and Art of Rolling would back me up on this. And for lack of a better source I’ll just quote Half Baked, because, well, it’s fine in all cinematic qualities. And it was based in New York.

“I mean, they might call it the city that never sleeps, but l’ll tell you this: It takes a lot of fuckin’ weed naps.” — Thurgood Jenkins

Right, and while I know trying to take any title away from New York City is a dumb idea, maybe bladers are reshaping the landscape of America, making every city with a great blading scene one that never sleeps because it’s always too busy doing something else like getting wasted drunk with friends or blading at midnight because the summer sun makes it too hot during the day. Or maybe everyone is taking a quaint slogan and slapping it on their city.

Either way, I don’t think anyone loses. Then again, I’m not from New York.

Because from what I can tell, people are getting lessons on what city is the City That Never Sleeps, like the guys on the Too Much Love 3 tour. You can read and see what they’ve learned about New York through their exploits posted on Be-Mag.

Here’s what I’m guessing happened: Blake Cohen might have said maybe one of the Twin Cities was a city that never slept. Die-hard New Yorker Billy O’Neill wanted to make sure Blake never said anything like that again.

So there we have it. New York wins again. Everyone else is wrong.

Which Shawn is This?

It seems there has been a drought of edits lately that really get you juiced to skate. Sure, there have been a lot worth watching, but few that made you wish your blades were already on your feet. Fucking straight juice edits that make you sweat without moving.

People seem to be up to something that has been worth seeing.

So yeah. Where are them edits? Maybe I’m wrong. Who knows. I might have been missing something.

(NOTE: If you’re over the age of 25, you have to check out ONE’s profile on Craig Parons. The guy is shredding the shit out of things with some Haffey cleanliness at 36 years old. Ho-ly shi-it!)

But one that shouldn’t go unseen this week is one from Shawn Cowen. It’s his Remz flow edit. It seems Kato has been doing a damn good job of keeping skates on all the right flow bladers, like Shawn, the aforementioned Mr. Rivituso, Logan Clark and others. Not to mention a whooping-ass pro team. (In case you haven’t heard, Haffey won the Montreal Classic this weekend).

Shawn shreds really fucking fast and hard in this edit. And, in the newlife blading realm, at 16 years old he’s a mere child. That means lots more in the future and I’m excited to see more of it.

It sucks he has a name that might get him confused with another person in blading if you say it too fast.

Really, we have Cowen, Cohen and Cullen?

Since when did blading turn into a fucking insurance agency?

Making Them Tapes…

The entries for Scumpire’s Mixed Tape contest are coming in, which is friggin’ sweet in the Battle My Crew kind of way. For instance, check out Central Illinois.

Scumpire Mixtape entry: Central Illinois from Bruce Bales on Vimeo.

Not only can those cats shred, they’re a pretty damn good family to having in blading. Same thing with the neighboring (read: share skaters in their scene) boys in Iowa:

Scumpire Mixtape entry: Iowa from Bruce Bales on Vimeo.

Whatever you do, make sure you check out the sort of weird, yet highly entertaining edit from the guys who like bikes, skates and chocolate cake.

4Life in Progress…

The nice thing about living in San Francisco — besides the great weather, food and endless supply of beautiful women populating it’s boundaries — are the huge hammer sessions that go down at random. I mean, Big Name Skating. You know, the only real kind of skating there is because then you get to name drop and grom all day. Afterward, you can write about it and use bold fonts as you see fit. That’s what it’s all about.

Or the future.

Or what others think about us.

Or expanding our sport.

Or getting noticed.

Or some bullshit like that.

For instance, filming Valo’s latest video 4Life happened to get some new additions clip-wise on Saturday. Really. Some really, really good shit that I might be killed if I mentioned. If you want to know more, ask Kennan Scott why Monx isn’t dead at all.

Anyway, back to the point. Big Name Skating. 4Life.

It’s what all the bladers ballers do. Hooking that shit up on the regular is no easy task. It takes lots of hard work and dedication to being hardcore.

Then again, it doesn’t hurt to have the mustache-less Ivan Narez as your roommate so all the people you’d want to skate with are coming by to get captured by his gigantic fisheye. Then again, when you put it like that, it’s the same reason why random truckers and sailors are always coming by to see your mom.

He’s still filming and editing 4Life. It’s going to drop in October. Get pumped. If you have trouble getting pumped off that, let’s talk to another filmmaker: Brazillionaire

Since moving to California, B-Aire had to get a second job when he’s not making the self-appointed best edits in blading. I’m guessing that job is writing for Hallmark or writing material for corporate motivational speakers.

My teeth hurt a bit but I’M READY TO GO!!!!!

With all that juice flowing from filming for Razors’ “Game Theory” it’s going to blow anything anyone ever has or will do or dream into a million glitter and leprechaun jiz-covered bits.I always knew a Razors team video would be good but I was so fucking wrong for assuming it would be anything less than a life-changing experience. I was oh, so wrong at so many things.

Basically, what that means is that everything else you do will never be good enough. All that fun you’re having is so dumb. Big Name Skating is fucking dumb. Everything is dumb.

But be careful when you’re all juiced up around those big names. You’re going to get all sorts of fucked up.

Thanks Matt Murphy for filming it.

Blade or Die,

— Brian Krans