Archive for June, 2010

Love & Guts began in 2005 as a skate influenced art show. Five years later, the traveling exhibition made its way to New York, at the Red Bull Space in Soho.

Amber and I were in New York to cover the exhibit, which featured skateboard icons Chad Muska, Don Pendleton, Lance Mountain, Pat Ngoho, Steve Caballero, Steve Olson, and a host of other creatives.

“Eyes Wide Open” was the theme of this show, which paid tribute to the unique characters within skateboarding, who sadly, are no longer with us.

Here’s the short film we created, documenting the installation and theme of the exhibition, and below that are links to the photo series by Amber.

Amber B  photos - ART WORK

Amber B  photos - PORTRAITS

Today’s Daily Film Blog: Torey back smiths amongst friends

Oh, hey! I’m Erich, the new guy on the mumbling block.

I’ve been reading the site since Bob began it back in 2007, and the one thing that struck me is “Hey, what about Upstate New York?”  There’s a ton of folks on Club Mumble that grew up there, but moved away and are rocking the West Coast (or other parts), but I’m one of the fools who actually moved there and decided to stick around. And oh, I’ve been here a while.

So I wrote Bob and said, “Hey, we’re doing some cool stuff up here, and I’d love to tell people about it.”

Imagine my TOTAL surprise when Bob said, “Cool, sounds good! Let’s do this!” I was amped.

“So what what makes you so damn cool that you get to mumble?” you may be justly inclined to ask.

Cool? Not much, but I’ve been one of those dudes behind the scenes for years. I’ve been on board for 23 years, (and seen lots of this crazy world because of my skateboard), I spent the last 14 years as the creative director for KRUDCO. skateshop here in Rochester, NY before starting up 1975 Gallery about a year and a half ago. I’m also part of the Sweet Meat Co., an artist collective up here in Rochester that includes an incredible crew of artists, and I’m truly thankful to be a part of it.

Oh yeah, I’ve been bugging about half of the other mumblers on here for years, trying to collect artwork from all the folks that have inspired me over the years. I’ll share some of those treasures as time goes on.

This September, I’ll be hosting a show with fellow Mumbler and amazing human Don Pendleton and the incredibly talented Mark Penxa, and I am beyond thrilled. While 1975 is primarily focused on shining a light on our local scene, Don’s been a contributor to a few of our group shows and a friend since about 2001, and I’m so stoked to finally have access to a venue where I can show his work in a region that usually doesn’t get a lot of love from the folks that have inspired all of us who read blogs like this.

So I’m here to change that.

Stay tuned . . .

Oh yeah, what the hell is up with that photo?
This pic was snapped by a friend, Alex Gagne last summer while I was shooting a RedBull contest here in Rochester. I decided it would be a good idea to catch a knee to the crotch while simultaneously smashing the camera into the cement. Good times! That shocked girl in the background is my lovely lady Angie worriedly assessing my future baby-making ability. You can watch a sequence here or video here (at the 1:44 mark).

Really, I never had a chance.

Four hours north-east of LA is a sacred piece of heaven. It’s 5400 feet above sea level, and the Sequoia trees grow so high that you can barely see their top branches.

Over the weekend was the MAKE IT COUNT contest series, in the Sequoia National Park at theYMCA Element Skate Camp. It’s a place where kids come to learn how to survive in the wilderness, how to succeed in life,  and how to skate their best.

Visually, Skate Camp is absolutely beautiful. Audibly, there were accents from all over the world… Contestants came from  Portugal, Canada, Australia, and cities throughout the United States. And Element’s international offices came out to cheer for their respected regions, as Element Europe, Japan, and Australia were in attendance.

Prior to the contest, we hiked to Stony Creek where the Europe crew, Guy (from Portugal), Levi Brown, and a few skaters were the only ones brave enough to swim in the icy waters.

Todd Larson and Matt Luciani from Elemental Awareness taught us survival techniques, how to make shelter, create our own utensils with hot coals and wood, and make fire from only the bare essentials. Nevertheless, our European brethren Phil and Christian came through with the goods by making the best looking spoons!

Late at night we got to hang out next to the camp fire, where Guy tried to scare us with his Black Bear impersonation, which was met with rolling laughter instead of screams! Hehe… Thanks for the laughs Guy!.

More photos here.

Watch the highlights from the comp here.

An edit of some casually gathered footage by Blueprint filmer Jake Harris during our boy Sam Taylor and Blueprint’s Tom Knox recent visit to Malmo.

Today’s Daily Film Blog post - Pat “Sinner” Pasquale

Here’s the first in a series of Science ad’s for Sidewalk Magazine here in the UK. Sam Taylor with a wallie back tail shove on a skate stopped chunk of stone…A lot harder to skate than it looks.

Being part of the C1TY collective exhibition taking place at 18 Gallery in Shangai in echo to the 2010 Universal Expo. Currated by Les Nuits Sonores. Video projection of some of my video and photo works, with the support of WESC. Click on the picture for the teaser.

Salad Grind inventor turned tattoo artist, OG Venice head and just plain style oozer whose first boards were silk-screened by Ron-Reyes-from-Black-Flag in person, Eric Dressen reminisces his five favorite pro-models, from Dogtown to Santa Cruz, on Memory Screened.