Chris Miller #14.

"Jason Celaya’s vision of the reinterpreting my old boards in a new way, it’s been incredible. I love it. It’s been a great collaborative partnership the whole way through and I’m stoked on everything we’ve done so far."

I like how Welcome is doing the Planet Earth style modern versions of boards for Chris and Brian Lotti. I swear I will take a break from Welcome posts now. I've been feeling kind of unenthusiastic about skateboarding in general lately and they are one of the few things that was inspiring to me so I stuck with 'em.

Random Odds & Ends

Shout out to Mostly Skateboarding for a link. Also props to them for keeping a Blogspot going.

Niels Bennett and Griffin Gass have been welcomed to the pro ranks over at Girl.

Austyn Gillette is back on Habitat after formerly wandering around the wilderness without a deck sponsor for a couple years. I guess the Cheap Perfume video was good. The skateboarding itself was great. It could have benefited from editing out the dumb crap and an improved music selection. Austyn still makes difficult tricks look graceful.

On a slightly related topic, Platinum Seagulls updated their site with an essay on how everybody is good and what all that means.

I've been sticking with the solo driveway skateboarding sessions during the week and trips to the park early on weekend mornings. I built a new ledge back in July. It's six feet long and a foot high. I scored a six foot piece of angle iron at the big name hardware store so that made it easy. I think I finally got the hang of the thing. The toughest part has been figuring out the proper spot to put it in the driveway. The issues have been getting the speed right and avoiding the seams in the concrete. I haven't taken any pictures of the ledge, but I probably will sooner or later. I'd like to build more portable obstacles in the future. I might have to scour the old videos for ideas. I am not a carpenter by any stretch and not overly fond of working with wood, yet I enjoyed making the ledge once it started to come together.

Sound Zone: I have not bought much new music since the last time I did one of these. I've got a bunch of stuff on pre-order so the mail should be coming in hot over the next month. I'm looking forward to the upcoming album from Mi'ens on Kill Rock Stars and the latest set of releases on Not Not Fun. Collected Methods by Nail Club is a fine batch of synth driven low tech noise pop. Noveler is back with a new album of ethereal guitar soundscapes. I'm happy that psychedelic noise duo Yellow Swans - pictured - are making their sprawling catalog available on Bandcamp as well as doing selected physical reissues.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, September 14th.

It will be a look at Toy Machine from late 2001 and most of 2002. Have a safe and happy weekend.

The quote is from the recent interview with Chris at the Chrome Ball Incident.

The photo is by Grant Brittain.

Thrasher - August 2015 Volume 36 Number 8