Another wissy.

We went north again. Short and sweet.

Wissy again. from David Thomas on Vimeo.

Missed by a day.

Last day of summer, pshhhh. More like Jacksons birthday! Missed ya by a day little bub. Dude Life owes you some drinks.

Well, That Was Nice

That it happens every year doesn't make the end of summer any easier on us. And since this was such a fine one here in Chicago, let's have us a look at Josh Kalven's timelapse of our fine city's finest season. Then lets go skate before winter comes with her teeth and knives and hideous visage.

Summer Sped Up (A Chicago Timelapse) from Josh Kalven on Vimeo.

Sprachspiel

Today we spent a few hours sitting on David U's not unpleasant front steps. We ate burritos from Mary's, just up the street, and Dave T and I fiddled about in the very same street. The Sears Tower (fuck a "Willis") loomed large and soon Ryan arrived on his bike with a camera that didn't work until he "rubbed it a little bit," and then worked like a charm. Wittgenstein is good on the concept of "waiting." I recall one of his famous language games asking readers to consider just what exactly the term denotes, what it means that we bandy this word about without it really meaning much of anything. Wittgenstein, however, never met Randy Ploesser or Ryan Sublette. Point as some of us might at the Davids for being enemies of the clock, these two are in another league entirely. Well done, gentlemen. Enjoy the north country.

Also, Kevin Radley is a beast.

A demo. (Elwood and ?)

Elwoodemo... from David Thomas on Vimeo.

The Elwood team (most of them) did a nice demo for the kids in Chicago in June at Wilson skatepark. Tons of tricks went down and you should look for an edit by Mark Stewart coming soon on the Elwood site. So your probably wondering if there's no footy of the Elwood dudes then who was killing Wilson? Joe Herbert, that's who. Always great seeing ya Joe!

Scrollfest! Photos from Wisconsin a Few Weeks Ago...

Kyle O. was there but Kyle O. got sick.
Dan's only sickness is his sickness.
Dave Thomas burger in the cafe / giftshop / Davezone.
Here, Ryan has no shirt.
Here, Anders holds a pen. Work trip, friends. Write-off.
Nick's way more fun these days.

And with Dan's lipslide, we bid this second summer Wisconsin camping festival a fond farewell. Thanks to the Laurin family for the big car and thanks to Ken from Uprise for ollieing over and into the big Lake Delton wall. That, that was rad.

A Few Days to Recover

I can't remember ever experiencing anything like the video of Steve Berra discussing the (BATBOX) damage suffered during his warehouse flood, and discussing it over the extremely affecting sounds of Bon Iver and their Emma song.

Watching it provides an entirely new emotional response. It is a genuine extension of the human experience, like the first time a pet dies. Or like having an old buddy who you've known for years one day suddenly get really into, say, sewing. This would feel new and different, a new experience. Except with Steve's video, here, the new feeling has that familiar Steve sheen of self-righteous manipulation.

So maybe imagine the same buddy from above sitting down over a beer and explaining his sudden interest for sewing by saying he wants to sew a shirt for someone out there in the world who needs one. That, look, it's a cold world, the wind cuts like a bitter knife or something and your buddy, being a good buddy, has got a person for whom he's gonna sew this free shirt. He's giving away the shirt to a person, thus the sewing. Or several persons. Several shirts!

But then later you learn that as a matter of fact he hasn't been sewing philanthropic shirts, but actually sewing a very complex LARP outfit for himself. That the so-called gift will never leave his own, sewy hands. Imagine this feeling. It'd be new.

Steve explains: as an apology to the shops for the delay (caused by flooding) in the Berrics promotional BATBOX / DC campaign, he is throwing in free Berrics backpacks and t-shirts, which say BERRICS on them. In the first video, Steve was dumbstruck and sad, and asked for some time to recover. But by this update video's end, Steve has chippered up some, and after a little soccer Steve's feeling good and easy-going again, and just happy that nobody was hurt. Now the rooftruck is turning from lemons to -ade right in front of our skateboarder eyes! Also newsworthy: this flood.

Bad taste, Steve. Your flood was perhaps dramatic to you, but no need to linger when real people are suffering and dying and displaced! Dude Life (just me in the office right now) supports your American right to promote and sell your goods. But let's not go grab-assing all over the minds of impressionable (stupid) young skateboard consumers. Joe Camel was a dick.