When you find your price
José Vadi provides some forward-looking music supervision, Gustav Tønnesen delights, Jason Ellis puts a dollar amount on his dignity, a Saturday morning omen, 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.
What a delight
Rank: 1
Mood: 🪄
It could be the shape of his body. His arms rarely flail at the enormity of whatever mind-bending trick he's trying, a staid composure that reads more sleepy than skateboarder. For Gustav Tønnesen, one-foots have the appearance of afterthoughts. In his 3:2 video part for adidas, you can find one thrown into a lipslide here, another snuck in the brief moment before a noseblunt there.
There's also the environment in which he chooses to perform. Beautiful, confounding (to those in North America) Spanish civil infrastructure has had its nooks and crannies turned out, revealing skate spots that are only skate spots if you are Tønnesen. A wavvvvy bench, a loading dock previously good for nothing but imports and exports, whatever this thing is.
However, what makes Tønnesen ascend into the realm of a select few is the sense of completion. He skateboards as if he's beaten the game and is on New Game+. In a sense, he has. Is there anything Tønnesen cannot do on a skateboard? It seems unlikely. He's overpowered, familiar with the maps, and knows where he can find all the loot. It's why he needs to do things like nollie-180-one-foot-manuals to keep it interesting.
Many people tire of skateboarding. The routine bodily damage, the frustrating limits of one's skills, but not many find themselves in a place of control so complete that they need to jailbreak the act to stay fresh. Daewon Song, Chris Haslam, Gustav Tønnesen. Names that make sense when bundled together, no further context required. Andy Anderson could slot in there, too, though he seems to belong to a different space entirely; not pushing to entertain himself, but pushing to see what else is out there.
Tønnesen proves again, as if we weren't aware, that he is an oddity. Ahead of the curve and his time. He's so far beyond that he looks bored with it all, the shape of his body expected, not excited. But that's not true, is it, because you can see something else if you look close enough: a delight at leaving us in awe.
Suggested music for future video part soundtracks
A special correspondence by José Vadi
There’s been a lot of necessary chatter about the state of skate video soundtracks, which is great because there are still skate videos to talk about. Economy be damned, the culture is still releasing a solid clip of videos for scenes and brands alike. But considering song choices today seems like an uphill battle for some.
This is an exercise in envisioning some pathways towards different sonic skate landscapes. By projecting skaters into songs, and songs onto skaters’ future parts, here are some ideas of what our audiovisual future could hold, if we care to listen.
Paul Rodriguez Jr. – Los Angeles Negros "Tú Y Tu Mirar...Yo Y Mi Canción"
He already skated to a Nas instrumental; let's bring it full circle with the Chilean legends Los Angeles Negros’ classic, once sampled by the one and only, Jay-Z (“My 1st Song”).
Rodriguez Jr. — in his early 40s, SAG-card waving, cigar-smoking Papi era — deserves the right to be joyfully sad in true last call tragedy/success. This is the song for that era. Grown folks live in the grey area between heartbreak and lust, and metaphorically pray into the doffed cap of this song's obsessive thoughts about a lover who just doesn't understand, with guitar twinges and electric keys tickling the song along to the next round, which has to work well against a sick switch backside smith grind.
Milton Martinez – Tori Amos "Cornflake Girl"
You might think you're in for a classic rock banger with the opening bars of Tori Amos' "Cornflake Girl," but this song that soundtracked a million Letters and Science college degrees has a dynamic depth that stuntman Martinez, a PhD in Hellride, would excel in. It's surprising there hasn't been more Amos in the wake of the Cocteau Twins trend post-Jim Greco's recent films, but Amos was always popular and seemingly underrated in her prime. Here’s one way to prevent over-metal-izing a career of video parts.
Alternate track: Ghetto Brothers “Mastica, Chupa y Jala”
Alternate Skater: Julian Lewis
Georgia Martin – ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead "Days of Being Wild"
In a forthcoming career-defining, gnar-to-the-wall part, Martin defies the Dischord Records expectations of Tum Yeto and goes straight early 2000s hipster core with Trail of Dead's raucous show stopper track. Known for destroying their instruments multiple times per show, with each concert measured in equal parts talent as bottles of wine, the raucous build-up of the second half of the song could highlight and back up how powerful Martin's skating truly is.
Alternate Dischord Records track: Lungfish, “Nothing Is Easy”
Antonio Durao & Karim Callendar joint part – Depeche Mode "Nothing"
Whenever I hear Depeche Mode, I envision lead singer David Gahan dancing his 501 denim ass off in the studio. Few skaters are as bombastic and talented as the nearly stanceless Durao, while Callendar’s form expresses the energy and chaos behind his every trick. Why not soundtrack it to this four-on-the-floor banger from the album Music for the Masses?
Alternate track: Roberta Flack ft. Donny Hathaway, “Back Together Again”
Kevin Bradley – Fiona Apple "Shadowboxer"
Bold, audacious, honest — we will wait and be thankful for Kevin Bradley's footage. So too did the world wait for Fiona Apple to release the follow-up albums to her debut and sophomore classics "Tidal" and "When the Pawn..." Apple has made skate cameos before, notably in the 411VM #22 credits section, but it's "Shadowboxer" from Tidal that stops time in bedrooms and bars alike. The song has all the drama and austerity we want and more, with Apple belting the song's title at the chorus' climax. The verses give us time for slo-mo hammers but also breadth for KB to do whatever the hell he wants. His next part has to be soundtracked by something with an unbridled bellow as gnarly and heartfelt as his skating.
Alternate track: NNAMDï, "Wasted"
When you find your price
Rank: 4k
Mood: 💵🏷️
At the end of 2023, in Simple Magic's annual "betting on the future of skateboarding" column, I wagered that "A once-notable skateboarder becomes a regular guest at Tim Pool and Richie Jackson’s Bigot Berrics, bumming out child you."
At the end of 2024, I called that bet a "bust," unconvinced Ricky Glaser counted as "notable." A reader would later point out that Cody McEntire is a common fixture at The Boonies, which should retroactively turn my loss to a win, unfortunately. While I may have been wrong, right, and partially cashed, really, I was just early, as the past few weeks have shown us.
Last week, The Boonies' Instagram account began promoting "Skate Night 1," which takes place tomorrow, and appears to be an event featuring livestreamed games of S.K.A.T.E. at The Boonies indoor skatepark. In the headliner, Shaun Hover takes on Jeff DeChesare, the latter having become something of a cult favourite in recent years.
DeChesare, a regular user of the SLAP message boards who goes by the username Pine, attempted to explain himself to the Pals piling on him in a subsequent thread discussing the news.
Yeah I know you guys are bummed to see me in this but the money is too good. They’re giving me $1k just to show up and $3k to win one game of skate. Plane and hotel paid for as well. Losing a little bit of dignity on this one but hey your boy is down in funds right now haha.
I’m literally just going there to do this game of skate. Im not joining the Boonies or anything. Like someone else said I’m just going in to get the bag and that’s it.
For those unaware, Tim Pool is a prominent far-right media personality and grifter who uses his substantial platform to demonize the LGBTQ community, particularly trans people, as well as immigrants, minorities, and whatever other vulnerable community has become the target of the self-perpetuating culture war ecosystem he helps to keep swirling like a backed-up toilet. Then he monetizes that messaging, his vile content finding fans among mass shooters.
Pool also went out of his way, and nearly a million dollars out of pocket, to alienate his local skateboarding community by purchasing the land a local DIY sat on after they rejected his advances (the offer of a large cash prize for a skate contest). He was also recently caught in a national scandal where it was revealed that he and a number of his contemporaries were "unwitting" recipients of vast sums of money funnelled from the Russian government to promote certain topics and to generally keep doing what they were doing in their efforts to deteriorate our shared social fabric.
Cole Nowicki
Cole Nowicki
The Boonies is Pool's proudly admitted plan to "take over skateboarding." To associate yourself with it in any way, even something as anodyne as a game of S.K.A.T.E., is to help burnish his disgusting political project. He uses "names" to help validate his own. It should be telling that he has to pay people to spend time with him. Less important, but the actual skateboarding aspect of The Boonies is corny as hell, as Pool doesn't get skateboarding in the slightest.
For those like Hover and DeChesare, they are willing to overlook all of that for a maximum of $4,000, a small sum of money to "lose a bit of dignity" over. I'd contend it's more than a little. And for someone like former professional skateboarder Jason Ellis, who is the main subject of the SLAP thread DeChesare faced criticism in, he has abandoned all pretenses.
Over the last 20 years, Ellis has been a media personality himself. Recently, as the co-host of the Hawk vs. Wolf podcast with Tony Hawk, which went on permanent hiatus at the end of 2024. He remains the host of the long-running The Jason Ellis Show, which ran on SiriusXM from 2005 to 2020 and now lives on in podcast form. He has also been trying his hand at stand-up comedy, which is perhaps too generous a description of whatever this is.
On August 17, Ellis excitedly announced via Instagram that he is coming out of retirement as a professional skateboarder to join The Boonies as their latest PRO. This followed Ellis' appearance on Pool's The Culture War podcast. Since then, Ellis has been busy on social media, hyping up his new sponsorship, most often while skating Hawk's vert ramp, clearly using his friendship and association with the biggest name in skateboarding to lift Pool's noxious brand.
This week, Ellis, who as recently as 2022 recounted harrowing details of being discriminated against and losing career opportunities for being bisexual, posted an excerpt from his podcast on Instagram where he says that he is "not gay," while appearing to blame his sexuality on addiction, and sharing that he is now living by "conservative values" while sporting a Black Rifle Coffee Company t-shirt.
Why would Ellis feel the need to record something like this? Is it because the new community of far-right dipshits and propagandists he's ingratiating himself with are hateful bigots and he wants to convince their audiences to come to his "comedy" shows, listen to his podcasts, and subscribe to his Patreon? I can't say for certain what Ellis' motivations are or how much his dignity was worth, but Pool seems to have cut him a cheque he was happy with.
It's impossible to live in this world without being witness to, a subject of, or complicit in some horror or exploitation. Capitalism ensures it, our consumerist culture demands it, and our society has softened us to this reality, which it perpetuates and exacerbates. However, we still have choices; we don't have to willingly debase ourselves. Ellis has made a conscious decision to lean in, which is what happens when you find your price.
Saturday morning sun
Rank: ...
Mood: 🐭🌎
Still dazed, moments removed from sleep, I looked out the window onto my third-floor balcony to find, sitting in the Saturday morning sun, what could only be an omen.
On the balcony railing, a mouse, not moving. I brought my face to the glass and squinted to confirm it was no longer breathing. How did this fragile little being find itself so far up? And so dead. Had it climbed, only to be spooked, and its pin-prick-sized heart stopped? Was it prey for some winged beast who lost its grasp? I poked its body with a set of unused takeout chopsticks still in the plastic. There were no puncture wounds, no signs of foul play, as far as I knew the signs to be.
What did this mean? For me, specifically. Was it a reminder that life is small and precious? A warning that life is small and precious? This wasn't the first animal-related mystery to take place on this balcony. There had to be a takeaway here, some spiritual or moral conclusion. If not, why else would the creature come here to perish? Or maybe that was the message: the sickness of centring humanity as earth's whole. That mouse may have had a rich inner life, a robust social circle spread throughout the building. Lovers upon lovers upon lovers all fucking in the walls while I slept.
It could have lived all the life there was to live and the road simply ended — nothing left to experience, gluttony the only beyond.
I gently guided its carcass into a dustpan with the chopsticks. Life, with its cruelties and indignities, remains pocked and blooming with the divine. You cannot see one without the other, each always in view. Sunlight shot through the leaves of a nearby tree, a gleaming peridot. The mouse, flung from the dustpan, a fuzzy meteor crashing back to earth.
Something to consider:
Albert Burneko
Good thing:
Alex Fazekas-Boone
Another good thing:
The Editors
From Toronto, another good thing:
The good things don't stop:
Snack
Ha! Yes, another good thing: 'sletter fave Vitoria Mendonça has come correct, once again, this time for Venture Trucks.
A good boxing thing:
Ben Fowlkes
Some interesting Tyshawn Jones insights:
Cole Louison
Some interesting Corey Glick insights:
Some good Tyler Surrey musings:
Lockwood, the author, not the schoolyard, is back:
Alexandra Schwartz
Speaking of books: Natalie Porter's Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides is out on September 16! Pre-order that thing now.
Some lovely new music: Wao, a new record from 'sletter friend Joseph Shabason, Nicholas Krgovich, and Tenniscoats, is out today, and it's a beauty. (I got to write the album blurb, so I've been listening to it heavily. Would suggest!)
a_woolsey
Until next week… surprise a friend, family member, or lover with something nice — a gift, an experience, a phone call. Do NOT extend this toward your enemies. That's for next week.
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 called it a "local book set to make a mark in 2024." The CBC said it's "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.
Photo via The Palomino.
