whiz-bang

I learned a valuable new skill yesterday: feigning interest and excitement. I think this will help me socially and professionally. I think most people my age have already learned how to do this. Either that or they really are interested in so much lame and boring shit. But people lie to themselves in order to lie more convincingly to others.

I went on the Nature Cruise of the Century in Glacier with the BMG and friends. I have stories and pictures, but since it happened over a week ago I'm not really interested in it anymore. You can look at pictures here. The weather sucked but it was still incredible, I want to go back.

I think I'll go skateboard in the rain now.

buggery

Man, I don't know if you've ever tried to get $600 cash together at 1 AM on a Monday so you can bail a friend out of jail, but it can be frustrating.

UK's Loves and Hates, Vol. 2

Loves:

Apparently Kurt loves this song.

Hates:

Punk-ass kids from the suburbs that pretend to be poor. They know they're lives are pathetic and they respond by living like Sal Paradise. They typically hitch hike, eat leftovers, and have malnourished dogs with them.



And, in related Jarvis Cocker news:

bad beef (farts)

There was supposed to be a bitchin' bowl jam today. But then the sky turned dark and pissed all over the city, ruining the fun of every fully-padded 30+ dude. Suck. It's nice out right now, though.

I saw this, and I just want Evan to know that I done kickflipped into that shit 4 years ago. That is the proper and most appropriate way to skate that space, at least until we can get a jersey barrier there and quick-crete a DIY quarterpipe.

It looks like Pete uploaded some dank-ass construction drawings. It'll be nice to have some fresh Dreamland obstacles in Helena, maybe. It seems Dreamland has been on point recently with street shit, The Glenhaven park is close to perfection. But Dreamland also poured Butte, so don't get your hopes too high. Also, I realize that I'm going to step on some toes by saying this, but who's idea was it to add stairs. Stairs are the worst obstacle to put in a park. They are completely one dimensional and kill flow. You might as well just make it a bank, I mean you can still lump down it if you really want to. It also looks like they're planning on filling in our beloved wedge gap and taking out that goofy kicker-ramp-mini-gap-with-tall-ledge thing. (Why haven't we come up with a clever and succinct name for that turd of concrete?) A lot of people will probably miss the wedge gap, I just need to make sure I get the gap to lip on it before they start construction. The new tranny should be loads of fun, that's one thing Dreamland has on lock. Of course, keep in mind, what's on the drawings isn't necessarily what will be built. Dreamland (and Grindline) has a reputation for just building whatever the fuck their coke-addled brains think will be cool. I'm pretty excited for Helena.

bummy bag bag

I'm assuming that everyone that looks at this site knows and loves the Ultimate Kurt. (That's this Kurt, not this Kurt.) So I feel honored to present a feature that hopefully happens frequently known as UK's Loves and Hates. The concept is that he tells me what he loves and hates with an explanation which I then editorialize. Let us begin.

UK's Loves and Hates, Vol. 1

Loves: Mojitos

A mojito is a white rum based cocktail flavored with mint and lime that is as delicious as it is refreshing.

Hates: Meow-jitos

The meow-jito is a modified mojito that replaces mint with catnip. It is neither delicious nor refreshing. Don't order one. The meow-jito was born when one of the insane dudes that hangs out at the property thought that the catnip growing at his house was mint, which is not an easy mistake to make. The result was a bitter and repulsive drink that ruined the rum.

flash 'em back

I guess I'm stuck in the early oughts week. My last post was about 7 Year Glitch (Ricky Oyola's part is sick, right?) and I'd like to dedicate this post to Arto Saari. When Sorry came out Arto was pretty much the hottest shit in skateboarding, Menikmati was still in the collective consciousness and he had just won SOTY. He was the natural candidate for last part in Sorry. The skating may seem tedious by today's standards, but this part was probably the pinnacle of gnarly handrail skating.







Things to note:

- Where has Tom Penny been?

- That ambidextrous beginning shit is still pretty amazing.

- "Was that Bam? Weird."

- Arto rides for Burton now (AWS, Analog, and Gravis are all owned by Burton), which probably means the beginning of the end of his career. More info on that here.

i like flowers

New Deal's 7 Year Glitch falls into the category of forgotten-but-awesome. I'm guessing it was overshadowed by Dying to Live and Sorry when it was released. I know I didn't see it when it came out, but thanks to the endless entertainment of YouTube I've been able to get acquainted with it. It's really a shame that New Deal went under because I think the skating in this video has stood the test of time better than most videos that were released in the handrail hammer heyday. Anyway, here are some select parts that I enjoyed.

face punchers

This is old news at this point, but last week Mount Sentinel burned right next to my house. It was moderately exciting as my fabulously well-to-do neighbors worried about their pleasantly manicured lawns getting singed. I sat on the stoop and had a beer and watched the flames for about 3 hours. It was more interesting than most movies I've seen.

There are a lot of white people in Missoula. I'm one of them.

There's documentation of the Indy tour in MT over at the Thrasher site. I'm particularly fond of this image.

I've noticed that this site is getting kinda slow and just in case Dan decides to pull the plug on it, I've reserved a new blog space.