"For careers you say you want to be remembered for your art."
Marc Johnson recently passed away at the age of 49. He started as a teenager from North Carolina who moved to California in the early 1990s for the sake of skateboarding and became one of the best to ever do it over the next three decades. The ups and downs of his life are well known and there's no need for me to restate any of it.
There's something innocently wonderful about these old Maple ads. Skateboarding was improving in 1994-95 and yet it still retained that smaller underground DIY charm. You could tell from the assorted photos and interviews that Marc was bringing something unique to the table. As he grew older and established himself, his philosophy on skateboarding developed fully. He injected humor and levity into the skateboard world at the end of the 1990s when it was needed and that shaped things going forward.
For all of his videos parts and achievements, I always come back to the first third of Marc's part in Lakai's Fully Flared from 2007. I stick to the front end because as the part moves along the skateboarding crosses the line from being fun to being work. He skates to "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus. I had never knowingly heard that song before and figured it was of the era without realizing it was from 1988. It's a great tune that fits exactly with his tricks and personality. The melody of the song sets a mood that is somehow both melancholic and comfortable. Some of my favorite moves from the part include a frontside 50-50 to back foot flip, a rock to pivot on a natural transition in Australia, and a straight nollie over a bump to bar. I'm not adding anything by saying that a really good part in an important skateboard video is really good, but it's fine to appreciate nice things without overthinking why they are nice things sometimes.
And with that the Shampoo Lounge is closed.
Ed Dominick took the photo in the overseas ad. He might have taken the some of the other pictures, too.
Progress: Transworld - June 1995 Volume 13 Number 6
Television: Transworld - July 1995 Volume 13 Number 7
Sunset: Transworld - December 1995 Volume 13 Number 12
1 comment:
I was surprised these hadn't been scanned as far as I could tell. Chrome Ball Incident usually scans everything for the bigger names. The folks at Maple were definitely learning the craft of graphic design at the time so the ads are a tad unpolished, which is kind of a whimsical thing to see. Ah, the 1990s.
Here are a few footnotes I wanted to mention that didn't really fit in the main post:
1. Good Times Operation (GTO) was a San Diego clothing company that was around in 1995. Maybe a little longer, maybe not. The team was Marc, Brad Hayes, and Tony Tieu. They possibly had a women's line called Ethyl. Marc was always wearing their shirts.
2. The crooked grind in the first ad was in Marc's part in Maple's 1995 promo video. He skated to "U-Mass" by The Pixies.
3. There was a rumor Jim Greco also wanted to use "Goodbye Horses" for a video part and Marc beat him to it. Nothing against Jim and I'm sure whatever he had in mind would've been good, but the song pairs better with Marc.
4. There was a 2013 concert in Berlin where classical pianist Fortunato d'Orio played the scores to assorted video parts. One of them was Marc's "Goodbye Horses" section from Fully Flared. This confirmed my bias that you really only need the front end of the full part.
5. Louie Barletta on Marc and the return of enjoi from Slam City:
"When we got into serious talks about buying enjoi back, I had put out a bunch of feelers to reach out to Marc and I never got any response from it. It's been that way unfortunately for a few years now.
For me, personally, I think the concern of Marc being at enjoi is very small potatoes to me in comparison to. ‘Where's my friend Marc at?' ‘Is he ok?' Obviously, if Marc ever wanted to be part of it, of course he's 100% in."
6. "Marc Johnson was my favorite skater for so many reasons but I think the most important was that he treated skateboarding with the correct amount of sincerity and sarcasm. He knew it was equally magical and dumb and built his entire career within that juxtaposition." - Josh Ballew via Bluesky.
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