MagPile: HBD BCD ! ABD/NBD ?

 Stories are cool, here's one......     Back in 97' I went on my 1st ever trip to California with my good friend Ben Demoskoff. We took the Greyhound from Reno, where my family was living at the time, over to San Fransisco for a few days of skating with Ben's friends Lucian and Jesse.  I think the 1st spot we skated was the old jersey barrier one that was popular at the time, and I rolled my ankle good right away. Not the best start, but SF is an amazing place so I made due. 

  Ben seemed like he was made to skate there, having the same sort of eye for creative skateboarding that Lucian and Jesse clearly possessed. I spent most of the time filming on account of the ankle, which turned out to be some of my favorite footage I've ever shot. We skated all over the city for several days, checking out classic spots such as Fort Miley, where we met a young Brian Wenning and his buddy Tim Achille. They ended up calling us every day at like 8 in the morning to skate.... I think they must have been about 15 or 16...... ripping. Got some good clips of those boys. 

  So what does all this have to do with a Sonic skateboards ad of Louie Barletta Hurricane Grinding Hubba Hideout ?  Well.....

  We convinced Lucian to begrudgingly bring us to Hubba one day, pretty much as skate touristy as you could get. I know the more recent generations of skaters can casually ollie over cars off flat, but Hubba is massive. My mind was blown that people could pop their tricks that high. The ground was perfect, but you've gotta have whatever trick you're trying on choad-height ledges to get on there. Lucian, Ben, Brian and Tim were all skating... that one session produced a lot of clips, including a Hurricane grind by Ben. Wenning and Tim even had a photo dude with them who shot it, but I have no idea what ever happened to that guy.... I think his name was Joe. Wasn't Hammeke or Brook though. 

  So we got some good clips, had a great trip, went home.... pretty much end of story. But then yesterday at work I'm looking through some old magazines that were going to be thrown out, and I find this Louie ad in the September 1997 issue of Transworld. I don't think I ever saw this, or at least I don't remember it. I could care less about NBDs, ABDs or whatever.... skating is fun, do what you want. Louie is the MAN, one of my personal favorites. Still, I had to wonder if maybe Louie had actually beat Ben to a trick we thought hadn't been done.... we were always so stoked that one of our homies got a new trick on an iconic spot we grew up watching pros skate in videos. So I asked Ben if he knew, and he said that he wrote his initials "BCD"on the ledge before we left. I looked at the ad again, and lo and behold, there it was. Ben is a tagger ! Hahahahaha ! Happy birthday buddy ! 

  Wait..... didn't Brian Anderson do a Hurricane on Hubba too ? Who cares.... all awesome skaters. Great minds think alike. 

Park Report: No Country for Cold Men

The white devil destroys all that he touches.

Still Jammin'

 Earlier in the summer I had a chance to witness and track the rare Demoskoff Ben-jammin in it's natural habitat, carefully keeping my distance as it jammed onto and off-of everything in it's path. A sighting of this duration hasn't occurred since the turn of the millennium, when the Demoskoff mysteriously took flight from it's urban enclosures and ventured for parts unknown. 

  Enjoy these few images of a real live Demoskoff.... and who knows ? Maybe, if you lurk in the right spots,  you may catch a glimpse of it's mystical maneuvers...... and click on those photos to enlarge em' fools ! It's Benny D !!!

Off The Record #14 - Behind the Wall of Glitches

Among some of the more intriguing records in my collection is this 2002 Black Sabbath Past Lives reissue, put out by Earmark on 2 - 180 gram LPs. Seeing as Sabbath is playing in Vancouver tonight, I figured this little story would be fitting. 

 What's curious about this album is a strange anomaly that occurs just after the drum break in "Behind the Wall of Sleep".... the album skips, but it's not a physical imperfection in the grooves causing the skip - it's a digital glitch recorded directly onto the album when it was pressed. That can only mean the album was recorded from a CD master... HA ! The album hype says it's remastered and enhanced... too bad the dudes at Earmark were out back having a "safety meeting" when the CD started to skip. I wonder how many copies made it out like this ?

  It's kind of cool to have this weird rarity. I took the time to record the song (well, just the last bit with the glitches... and I could have done a better job. Sorry, rushed it) directly from my vinyl copy so you can hear for yourself.... enjoy !

The Holy Glitch by Ac/Dtz on Mixcloud

 I'd feel bad if I didn't at least do the guys justice by putting up a non-glitched version of "Behind the Wall of Sleep".... let's go with the original album version...

 On a positive note - the album was a deluxe double gatefold with a sick photo of 250,000 people crammed together on the Ontario Motor Speedway in Califonia to see Sabbath during the 1974 "California Jam" concert. It's hanging up in my hallway. 

 Good luck tonight Ozzy ! Don't forget to cook your bacon ! (guess the reference, win nothing)

Park Report: Foreshadowing

 Sonny, back in my day we used to grind those curbs with no paint on em', uphill !

Vanity Insanity

Self portrait Saturdays using the timer..... 21 beeps..... this one wasn't easy. East Vancouver.

Off the Record #13 - Wild Flowers

 Addicted to Fuzz ? Try this screamer...... so surfy. This is one of the albums I bought early in the Psych Rock stage of my record digging pursuits. Pebbles ain't quite Nuggets, but there's always a few good tracks on their comps. "Love", by The Live Wires - whoever they were - is a standout on this vinyl version of volume 7 in the series. 

 Trip out man ! Gotta put the psychedelic ear parade on outer spaced emerald green clear vinyl for the love children of the sun.... or whatever. Looks cool. See ya on the flip side....