I have an old Pentax K-1000 with a partially exposed roll of film from 2001 - I can’t wait to crack it open one day. Now imagine buying a vintage camera and finding a roll of film from 1939. That’s what camera collector ‘GrayWater’ experiences regularly, giving him the opportunity to see prints for the first time; prints that the original photographer never saw themselves.
Check out the results HERE.
Andrew Wood, 1990.
The amazing Andrew Wood having his way with the west lip of Anson’s ramp.
William Zabka…my god, how could we have forgotten William Zabka? Our list of all-time movie jerks doesn’t seem complete without one of the biggest $#%@$ of the 80’s.
He took bullying to a new level as Johnny Lawrence in Karate Kid, and basically played the same role in 1985’s Just One of the Guys. Zabka pretty much coasted through the rest of the 80’s playing this same character, intimidating protagonists at theaters everywhere.
| Cobra Kai |
This is one of those shots that proves I’m old school, as sessions like this just don’t happen to everyguy skaters anymore. Can anyone get in their car and even drive to a ramp these days?
Matt Gollnick busting a mean frontside over the channel - Summer 1990.
Do you love the movie jerk, or do you want to make him lick the theater floor? In either case, the ‘art of the ass’ will be a film fixture for some time to come. This was a fun list to debate, and will certainly need some fine tuning…your comments are welcome.
Nothing says old school quite like board jumping five corn-fed Greenfield locals. Even in ‘89, Brian Duke had retro chops and the wardrobe to back it up. And while this ancient skateboard ritual may be fascinating, I feel the kid wearing the Africa medallion and fisherman hat might be making an even BIGGER statement — this is rural Indiana after all.
Here’s another old school skate photo from the archives. This is an unknown skater (possibly Matt Gollnick) grabbing backside on the metal vert ramp in Kokomo, Indiana. This shot was taken in 1990, which is evident by the billowing mullet worn by the guy in the bottom left. Ahhh, Indiana!
Our favorite usability expert, Jacob Nielsen, has published his top ten design mistakes for blogs. And while Jacob seems off his rocker a lot of the time, he is incredibly lucid when it comes to simple design issues like this. Below is a quick list of the ten - click the above link for the full article.
I’ve been going through my old skateboarding photo archives, and I’m finding that some shots already look very dated. I’m old school! The youth of today needs to see that life isn’t all about nollie heelflips and switch half-cab varials. Notice the Santa Cruz and G&S stickers, as well as the Lance Mountain deck - classic!
This is a photo of Matt Gollnick busting out a frontside layback on the 12′ monster metal vert ramp in Kokomo, Indiana circa 1990. I’m hoping this ramp still exists, but my better judgment tells me that it did not survive the vert vacancy of the 1990s. If it is gone, the fastest, widest, most well built ramp in Central Indiana will certainly be missed.
Every trip to the Barnes and Noble starts the same way for me: Looking through the ‘Art and Design’ section of the magazines. I look for a new Lurzer’s Archive, flip through the STEP and CMYK, all the while keeping my eyes peeled for something cool. Last week, Look-Look Magazine practically jumped off the shelf like a pet store puppy.
This zine is straight up creativity with no ads (more on that in a minute). The basic idea is to print reader-submitted art from young people. Simple enough, and the final product is amazing.
The cool thing is there are no ads. Well, there are four ads in the back, but the content has been submitted by the same young artists. Here is what Look-Look wrote about the Ad Gallery: “On top of giving us the money to make this magazine, they [the advertisers] go one step further and actually allow young people to create their ads. They are one of the things that is right with this world, and for that we thank them.” Very, very cool.
Look-Look has it all…painting, photos, poetry, essays, and more. Pick up a copy and support the kids yo!
It’s official - my family has grown…this much is certain. Little Brother has moved in, cleaned out the fridge, and taken up residence on the couch. Why would I let three guys from NC do this? Simple: They’ve got the chops to keep my earholes happy. I haven’t been this excited about a new hop-hop CD since De La Soul reappeared with ‘AOI Bionix’.
The Minstrel Show reminds me of those early, boundless Native Tongue releases. Righteous poets penning scripts about their life, flavor steeped in the neighborhood instead of record label board rooms, and creative interludes (skits) that actually add to the album. These are real guys, delivering real lyrics, intended for real people. If you have fallen under the trance of studio-formulated acts like 50 Cent, this is not the record for you.
I highly recommend anyone who has an inclination towards De La Soul, Tribe, or The Roots to head on over to the iTunes Music Store and give this album a shot. Their debut, ‘The Listening‘, was an instant classic and worth a peek as well.
After many months of teasing and scoffing at countless fakes, Apple finally revealed the new iPod (video). While the gadget itself looks pretty slick - 16:9 screen, thin, light, and in black - the biggest leap forward here is its support of video. And I’m not talking about the music videos available via iTunes in the past, but actual content that you can throw down a couple bucks for.
For $1.99, you can download an episode of Lost or Desperate Housewives. iTunes even has some Disney content available for the kiddies. This is all well and good, but what amazes me is our affinity as consumers to purchase anything - and this anything apparently includes content that is already widely available for free. Paying for TV?
It seems Apple is betting that people will buy TV in small chunks. I’m sure their strategy is sound - afterall, the iTunes music store has sold 8.9 trillion songs and counting. But I can’t help but think of all the people that will end up buying 24 episodes of Lost for their iPod. While music can be enjoyed regularly over a period of years, the same can’t be said for television programming. It’s shelf life is much, much shorter. Because of this, I envision a future army of people screaming at Steve Jobs much like that paperboy screamed at Lane Meyer, “I want my two dollars” (back)!
The world of web site testing just got a little easier, or at least a little more accurate. For years, I implemented various methods for resizing windows to test my site development…even going as far as changing the actual resolution of my monitor to 800 x 600. Well my friends, those days are over.
Do yourself a favor, and download Sizer. This freeware utility gives you a powerful window-sizing tool is a tiny package. Not only can you jump to common screen resolutions via the presets, but the corner dragger will dynamically display each window’s dimensions. Outstanding! I didn’t realize how much I used this little guy until I got a new box at home, and it was missing.
Long live freeware, and long live Sizer!
Direct download HERE.
If you skated in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s, then you are familiar with the golden-age of the basketball shoe as a skateboarding shoe. We would pick up discounted pairs of air-force ones and b&w Adidas at Marshall’s and TJ Max(x) and skate them into the ground. They were cheaper than ’skate shoes’, and lasted much longer. By 1993, funky soles and the ‘air’ trend had ruined basketball shoes for skaters everywhere.
Nike hasn’t forgotten, and now has a rubust line of skate shoes - many of which are nearly identical to those classic flat-bottom hoops shoes we all loved. I picked up a pair a few months ago, and they simply rock. And while I didn’t get the color I wanted (see below), I am very happy with both the function and fashion of these shoes. 5 stars!
I really wanted these - I mean, talk about fresh:
I’d like to think that I can take decent photos (which I can), and that I’m on the level with other photographers who do this full time (which, of course, I’m not.) Proof of this smacks me in the face every time I run across an artist like Loretta Lux.
Her vision is somewhere between creepy and cute, and this somehow forces me to think about the children she captures. Where do they live? Why do they dress like that? Why don’t they smile? Her absolute control over lighting and color is Kim Jong-il-esque. In fact, I would be surprised if she wasn’t using a uranium-enriched 10D.
If you do a little digging, you will find out that Loretta uses a compsite technique to create these stunning visuals. First, she captures interesting settings, and then shoots her subjects with them in mind. This is one way she is able to control the overall palette. However, digital manipulation like this is poking traditional photography in the side with a sharp stick. When does traditional photography end and digital manipulation begin? Can these images be considered true photography? How will history view artists like this?
Whatever the answers to these questions may be, our only burden is to enjoy her fine work.