Back in 1991 in Blagnac, France, the H Street team came and did a demo. We all got really perplexed when we saw that Danny Way didn’t bring a vert board. Instead what he carried was one of these straight-railed, round-tailed, mini-wheeled (and no riser pads ! The heresy…) set-ups that hadn’t really reached France yet. “He just switched to street skating,” we thought, right before D.Way dropped on the monstrous vert ramp and killed it like nobody before –two tricks from that day even ended up in Questionable. Just one out of a million anecdotes testifying D.Way’s progression-oriented mind, as I’m pretty sure a certain documentary will soon assess better than my unsignificant 2-cents… For the rest, from H-Street to Plan B through Alien Workshop and Blind, Danny found a bit of time to discuss his own five favorite graphics. It’s all on Memory Screened.

I’m really stoked on the Allister Lee x ATLAS decks.  Each of the two decks in this artist series is signed and numbered in an edition of 50 and comes with an original piece of art, shrink-wrapped with each deck.  Get them at Atlas Skateboarding in San Mateo and check-out the fine installation that Allister and the Atlas crew setup in their shop. Up until March 12, 2012.  Mahalo to Allister and to Ryen, Mike and Nick at ATLAS! 

ATLAS SKATEBOARDING
209 2nd Ave.
San Mateo, CA 94401
Tel: 650.401.7110

Decks are also available at Equal Dist., where you’ll find Allister Lee’s infamous 500 Marker Poster as well as original artwork inspired by his love and expertise in the dark-arts.

Talk about a well-curated skateboard shop…!  Allister Lee also designed the ATLAS shop-decks shown below. 

The Quiet Life’s Facebook photo contest is down to the final six. Go to their Facebook page and vote for your favorite!

Fresh paint for 2012!
www.nonstndrd.com 

“We thought Solitary Arts and their 50mm 87A “Black Eggs” wheels were rad. So much so that we were inspired to create this clip and bridge the gap between 2 skate crews: Solitary Arts and Circle A.” Featuring Sean Connolly, Rich Hart and friends.

Thanks to both Nato and Makoto at Maxwell Distribution for their shared support and for putting this into action!

Ken Goto came through and snapped photos of both Geoff McFetridge (in LA) and myself for the Solitary Arts in issue 09 of SLIDER Magazine out of Japan.

The cover for this issue of SLIDER is the classic J.Grant Brittain photo-cover from Transworld (June 1987) of Tod Swank. Issue 09 features 6 luminaries in skateboarding photography and a photo retrospective of their works, along with a 20 page article on Tommy Guerrero, Ray Barbee, Matt Rodriguez, and Chuck Treece’s (BLKTOP Project) most recent tour of Japan, all shot by Goto.  You can order it through their site as it’s well worth it. Comes with a nice calendar too!

Below, Geoff McFetridge and Yong-Ki Chang, shot by Andrew Paynter. Thanks Andrew!

Fellow Mumbler, Don Pendleton did a series for Stereo that will be in shops soon. If you’re any sort of fan of Don or Stereo, you know how awesome these are. Nice one Don. Stereo’s full Spring ’12 catalog.

The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts presents Share Your Beauty, an exhibition of 120+ artists from around the world representing the community of creative individuals involved in the You Are Beautiful project. In conjunction with the exhibition, MCCLA will be hosting a number of workshops. I’m proud to be exhibiting with this incredible community project!

Share Your Beauty, a You Are Beautiful exhibition
January 14th – February 25th, 2012
Opening Reception: Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 6:30pm – 9:30pm
The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
2868 Mission Street, San Francisco CA 94110

Dreamland, an Exhibition of Artworks by Claudio Kirac.

‘Dreamland’ revolves around two key themes; the thrill of travel and the longing for home. While ‘on the road’ for periods at a time, and mostly without the leisure one would assume with travel or ‘holidays’, Claudio grasps the moments around him; wholly embracing local cultures and traditions, venturing ‘off the beaten path’ and stepping outside the comforts of everyday life. While befriending strangers and capturing those special moments one only encounters on ‘the journey’, work and play blur into one. Soon comes the challenge of missing the familiarity of home, the everyday norm, the common voices of close friends and the touch of a loved one. But it is this that makes us appreciate the everyday and helps restore our balance and soon we are home again where we can reflect on the journey and the places that became home for those moments in time. The works of ‘Dreamland’ express and investigate many of these notions.

Feb 23rd – March 6th 2012
Comb Space Gallery
Kirra Point, 23 McLean St, Coolangatta, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.

Photo © Arto Saari / Artofoto

Proudly hailing from Liverpool, no wonder Geoff Rowley’s career has been maculated with various winks at football culture -the most famous being of course his use of Gerry And The Pacemakers’ “You’ll Never Walk Alone” song in his Really Sorry part, which doubles as Liverpool Football Club’s anthem, duh. How did that one tune come into the picture? Geoff explains on A Visual Sound.