Programming Injection.

Skate at night when the sedated robots are watching the television.

Programming Injection was a column by Ed Templeton that ran in Transworld in the 1990s. You youngins might know the name as the title of last year's Toy Machine video. The editors gave Ed two pages each month to do whatever artiness he wanted. I cannot believe I have never scanned one of these before.

What caught my eye about this episode was the photo of Drake Jones. It's kind of an odd pairing with Tony Tieu and Geoff Rowley, but that's sort of how Ed's brain puts things together.

The skate photos are by Atiba Jefferson. Everything else is by Ed.

Transworld - December 1996 Volume 14 Number 12

Jason King.

Unknown entity.

I like the design of this ad. I know nothing about Jason beyond that he was pro for Planet Earth. His part in Silver featured a ton of switch street skating and some mini ramp hi-jinx.

Chris Ortiz was the photographer.

Transworld - September 1996 Volume 14 Number 9

Chet Thomas #6.

Spin cycle.

Chet was the undisputed mini ramp champ of the 1990s. He was riding for Channel One at the time of this trick. Check the Sal Barbier's on his feet, too.

The photo is by Chris Ortiz and the video is by Steve Black.

Transworld - August 1995 Volume 13 Number 8

Oli Buergin #2.

Oli is from Basel, Switzerland and started skateboarding in the 1980s. He has ridden for or worked with Este and Sole Technology over the years. Oli is involved with building skateparks and doing video production. He had one of my favorite video parts ever in the Strongest of the Strange.

Thrasher - November 1996 Volume 16 Number 11

Mike Daher #4.

Florida Gator by way of New Jersey.

Mike snaps a big ollie over a cone on the streets of San Francisco during the Stereo days. A different photo of an ollie at the same spot ran in Mike's 1994 Transworld Pro Spotlight.

The picture is by Gabe Morford.

CCS - Fall 1995 Catalog

Chris Genty #2.

Two bucks for a CD.

Chris was the mastermind behind Global. This was the first ad that I could find. He later started Kingdom after winning some cash from the X-Games. I wanted to include Chris when I did the two weeks of vert skaters to start June, but I didn't stumble upon an ad of him at the time. I figured to even that out by doing a week of Global after finding yesterday's George Nagai advertisement.

Random Odds & Ends

Thrasher Subscription Check: I got the August issue the other day with Nyjah Houston on the cover. I have the July issue with Tristan Funkhouser on the front. That was the first one I received since March. May and June are understandably still missing. I know May's edition was for Milton Martinez's SOTY victory. Did they have Jeff Grosso on the cover for June? I thought I saw that at the Skate Park of Tampa's website recently, but couldn't find it again.

Speaking of the new Thrasher, I dug Evan Smith's interview. Especially the part about how he doesn't exactly have a board sponsor right now and is simply supporting the companies he likes by riding their decks.

Polar Vortex: There was this gem from a recent Pontus Alv interview at the Slam City blog:

"Skateboarding needs to not put out skateboarding because people are tiring of watching it. Instagram every day is flooded with skate clips, daily clips on Thrasher. It’s cool that there is stuff and the possibility but I don’t think it’s healthy. I kind of stopped following and watching things because I don’t find it that interesting any more."

With everything that is going on in the world these days, it's overwhelming to keep up with it all. There's too much of everything (and that's not just for skateboarding) that it becomes impossible to deal with. I identified with this quote because I've hardly felt like watching any skate videos or clips the last couple of months. It's like, "Yippee, another new one. Yawn." Less is often better.

I went skateboarding at least a little every day in June. It's mostly been solo driveway sessions during the week. I've been hitting up the park early in the mornings on the weekends when nobody is around. I think I'm going to be building some new ledge in the near future.

Sound Zone: The new Bill Nace record on Drag City is a great slab of experimental guitar work. C. Lavender created a fine collection of spooky drones with her Myth of Equilibrium album. The Telematic Concert reissue by Pauline Oliveros and Alan Courtis is a fascinating long distance live performance. I've also been listening to a bunch of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine.

Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, July 6th with more stuff from the middle of the 1990s. Have a safe and happy weekend.

Chris Ortiz took the photo.

Transworld - August 1995 Volume 13 Number 8

George Nagai.

The carwash at night.

George is from Goleta, California. He had been sponsored by Acme before riding for Global. His other sponsors included Venture and Vans.

Happy Canada Day to everybody up north!

The photo is by Chris Ortiz.

Transworld - October 1995 Volume 13 Number 10