If you didn't go, you better be dead or in jail. This year's Chilibowl was just about perfect. This was, by far, the biggest Chilibowl yet. Huge turnout. From the looks of the crowd, lots of Dolores Park locs were on Lurker Hill overlooking the park. Potential Halloween costumes and/or those that look like they were in a thrift store explosion were everywhere. I'm not much for contests in general but this is the only one I make a point of attending every year. Hats off to Toad and Salmon for putting it all together. Also, thanks for having it at Potrero again this year and not Crocker Amazon. I didn't get good shots of everyone, just some of my personal faves. Good times. Eric Shea killing it with his "Chili con Barney". Check the McGill sticker, patron saint of all Barneys. He actually stayed in character all day. Keep an eye out for his Concrete Wave interview soon. Small Beating honcho Chad "Chud" Jackson spooning his brau. A sensible lunch at my 2nd favorite tacqueria. Chris Henderson, proper tuck-knee frontside air. 8th place, seriously??? Morris Kyle f/s 5-0 Raven Tershay, b/s disaster. Mason Merlino, b/s boneless Tony Trujillo & Trixie of Bad Shit doing an unannounced set right before the finals. Robbie Russo, f/s 5-0 Robbie Russo f/s smith Jerry "Man Baby" Gurney, f/s smith The pride of Livermore and Chilibowl winner, Brad McLane, b/s disaster Raven Tershay, b/s smith Raven Tershay, b/s ollie Raven Tershay, f/s air. Nuts to this.
Yet another DJ fave of mine. The French beat god, Antoine, so great with Les Problemes, so terrible without them. His solo stuff sounds like a 3rd rate Dylan. Dylan is awful, much less someone imitating him. I'm looking at you, Donovan! Enjoy.
This should have been a skate post today but I didn't bring my camera on the one day I find a giant and extremely surly sewer rat in the bowl at Potrero. Oh well... I'll just have to go with this amazing footage of my favorite group. None of this footage is officially available. This clip has it all: the group minus Pete being driven around while listening to "I'm A Boy" and making fun it, the French host talking to his pet mynah bird, a cameraman 3 inches away from the group, Pete Townshend flipping off said cameraman during "My Generation" and good ol' Entwistle looking bored to tears as usual.
Featuring Keith West on vocals and post-The In Crowd and The Syndicats but pre-Yes and even craptacular Asia, Steve Howe on guitar. They only recorded one amazing self titled album. Here's a taste.
Skateboard bowl contest and chili cook-off at potrero del sol park. 25th and potrero (near cesar chavez (army).
skateboard and chili registration opens at 9 am. skate contest starts at noon. chili judges start tasting chili at 2pm. finals of the skate contest at 330pm and awards at 430 pm.
OK, "art week" here on the site wouldn't be complete with something on my main man Neil. This is probably going to be the biggest post I'm ever going do but when I started gathering material for this it just kind of snowballed. Here it is, "The Loaf" meaning Blender by the barrel-full, an all-you-can-eat buffet of tastiness. After that whole debacle with the lame messenger bag company using Neil's famous "Coffee Break" graphic for their $400 bags I felt like a part of my childhood got raped. I felt personally offended that someone would take something that's such a fond memory for me and completely ruin it for the sake of greed. Back in the summer of 1986 just as I was turning 12 I saw Neil's artwork for the first time. It was the Picasso-influenced "Rocking Dog" board. The ad was in the August issue of Transworld. The ad was for a mail order skate shop and his graphics immediately stood out from all the skulls, 80's neon art damage, monsters, etc. that were on most of the decks. I've been into his art ever since. I only had one Blender deck when I was a kid, the "Coffee Break" one of course circa 1987. G&S wood just wasn't up to snuff with the John Lucero Schmitt Stix deck I had before it so I pretty much stuck with Schmitt Stix/New Deal after that. These days I'm riding a Small Beating deck made by the PS Stix woodshop a/k/a Schmitt Stix. Neil was even the reason that I begged my parents to let me build a mini ramp in our backyard after I saw his footage in Santa Cruz Speed Wheels "Speed Freaks". (see clip near the bottom of this post) I think I have about 10 of Neil's paintings and prints now, not nearly enough I think. One of my favorites, "Traffic Games", I got when I traded Neil a very rare 1970 Yahama 12-string acoustic. If you know anything about guitars, you'll know that these sound about as good as a vintage Martin at a fraction of the cost. Just make sure to get one made in Japan, not Taiwan, way better quality. These days Neil sells his stuff through eBay ever since he shut down his The Heated Wheel site. The Heated Wheel is still around but you can only get it from Neil on eBay. There's not always stuff up there but it's worth the wait. Nobody skates or creates art like him, a total original. Basically, Neil rips. ***This is going to be an ongoing post with updates any time I find new material by Neil. "Should We go In There?" "The Kids" acrylic on cardboard "Worm Trainer" acrylic on denim fabric, photo: Neil Blender "The Third Profile" lino print "Volvo" with my cat Daisy checking it out. "Traffic Games" acrylic on denim fabric, photo: Neil Blender "The Slide" "The Owl" I got the "Squirrel" lino print on wood in Dino jr. color combo The entire run of these prints. photo: Neil Blender "Skim" "Go-Kart" on canvas photo: Neil Blender "Flower Guy" lino print on wood. An earlier version of this drawing was used for a G&S sticker. "Distant City" watercolor "Without A Sound" cover art "BMW Hatchback" (2 panels) "Am I The Guy You've Been Trying To Draw?" "The Third Profile" on canvas Alternate cover art for Dinosaur jr.'s Greatest Hits album
"Fish Wrangler" "Tarp Art 1" "Tarp Art 2" Thrasher Magazine February 1985 cover Black Label Kristian Svitak Black Label Wade Speyer deck Black Label Omar Hassan deck AWS Duane Pitre Schmitt Stix Joe Lopes deck G&S "Snake & Lattice" G&S "Sketchy Dudes" G&S "Coffee Break" AWS Duane Pitre G&S "Rocking Dog 1" pre-dates the later Picasso-esque version with the man holding the dog. According to Neil only around 100 were made. G&S "Pow Pow Pow" Firm Lance Mountain deck AWS Duane Pitre AWS "Karate" BBC Jeff Phillips R.I.P Black Label Matt Hensley Black Label Matt Hensley Black Label Omar Hassan Black Label Jim Gagne "The Fox" G&S "Dead Cat" G&S "Rocking Dog" AWS "Bo Turner" Black Label team deck Black Label Salman Agah AWS Duane Pitre Consolidated Steve Bailey Alien Workshop Scott Conklin Firm Ray Barbee G&S Steve Claar AWS "Speakers" AWS Josh Kalis Black Label Salman Agah G&S 2nd pro model "Falling Dude" Driven team model AWS Bo Turner The Heated Wheel "Squirrel" linoleum print deck, 2006. Neil's last pro model to date. G&S "Scorpion" artwork by Eric Gordon G&S "Prayer" aka "Picasso" AWS Duane Pitre from the "Notebook" series The Heated Wheel "Coffee Break" hand-painted numbered run of only 50.
G&S 'Driving" Hand painted Larry Bertleman, Lance's tile art is below. AWS "Shooters" G&S "Coffee Break" sticker AWS Scott Conklin G&S "Heads in a Row" The Heated Wheel "Boost" hand painted decks photo: O, fakie ollie tail grab 1990 photo: Jim Goodrich, frontside invert Victoria, Australia Ohio Skate Out contest 1988 Tail block fakie f/s rocknroll, Suzuki Banks, photo: O
photo: O, bean plant to tail, Neil's backyard ramp photo: Greg Baller, sadplant, Border Wars contest, Vancouver, B.C. 1985 photo: Miki Vuckovich, b/s ollie, Sadlands, Anaheim, CA photos: Hagop Najarian, Tuck-knee f/s air and lien air, Mountain Manor, Alhambra, CAf/s ollie, Sadlands, Anaheim, CA photo: J. Grant Brittain, f/s nose pivot, Vancouver, B.C. 1986 photo: Mofo, f/s 5-0 Terror in Tahoe Contest, Lake Tahoe, CA 1985 frontside invert, Clairmont YMCA layback air, Del Mar keyhole photo: Mofo., b/s air, 24th & Mission BART station. One of the raddest photos ever. 1984 Tuck knee, St. Pete, FL. photo: Chuck Hults Varial invert, St. Pete, FL photo: Chuck Hults Mute Air, Skate City, Whittier, CA. photo: MRZ Lien air, Kona, Jacksonville, FL: photo: Chuck Hults Fastplant, Skate Ranch, Vancouver, BC photo: O photo: Chuck Hults hand out, Sacto, CA Andrecht, Mountain Manor Ramp, Alhambra, CA photo: Hagop Najarian, Go Skate contest, Sacto, CA 1985 photo: Eric Nash, invert, Whittier Skatepark, Whittier, CA photo: J. Grant Brittain, f/s hand out, Vancouver, B.C. 1986 photo: Michael Burnett, Ho-Ho plant, S.U.A.S contest, Houston, TX 1987 photo: O, b/s ollie, Neil's ramp photo:Hagop Najarian, tuck-knee eggpant, Moutain Manor, Alhambra, CA and f/s rock, location ?
Andrecht, Skate City, Whittier, CA, photo: MRZ air to fakie transfer, Vancouver Skate Ranch, Canada G&S "Snake & Lattice" sticker G&S "pow pow pow" sticker G&S "flower guy" sticker Don't Mean Maybe cover art Madonna, Del Mar Skate Ranch keyhole f/s invert Del Mar Skate Ranch keyhole fakie ollie hang up, Del Mar Skate Ranch keyhole f/s crail block, Del Mar Skate Ranch keyhole Andrecht hand out, Clairmont YMCA "A portrait of the artist as a young man" floating beanplant "Step By Step",Thrasher Fastplant fakie, June 1986 Pro Spotlight, TWS, photo Goodrich
b/s ollie at Sadlands, Anaheim, CA. photo: Vukovich nosestall. photo: O Eggplant. photo: Grant Brittain Heated Wheel "Name This Painting" contest 4/16/10 Ollie, San Berdo, CA Method. hand out. photo: Goodrich photo: Grant Brittain FLA. photo: Chuck Hults
Eric Shea killing it with his "Chili con Barney". Check the McGill sticker, patron saint of all Barneys.
He actually stayed in character all day. Keep an eye out for his Concrete Wave interview soon.
Small Beating honcho Chad "Chud" Jackson spooning his brau.
A sensible lunch at my 2nd favorite tacqueria.
Chris Henderson, proper tuck-knee frontside air. 8th place, seriously???
Morris Kyle f/s 5-0
Raven Tershay, b/s disaster.
Mason Merlino, b/s boneless
Tony Trujillo & Trixie of Bad Shit doing an unannounced set right before the finals.
Robbie Russo, f/s 5-0
Robbie Russo f/s smith
Jerry "Man Baby" Gurney, f/s smith
The pride of Livermore and Chilibowl winner, Brad McLane, b/s disaster
Raven Tershay, b/s smith
Raven Tershay, b/s ollie
Raven Tershay, f/s air.
Nuts to this.
