AG + RS + VE + ML

We at Amall are proud to FINALLY introduce a reason to look forward to Monday’s (Well this Monday at least) As an interim host to Brian Krans’s infamous writings, we present to you AGRSVEML Blade Digest #1, so enjoy it.

BLADER DIGEST: A Digital Pulpit

A BIG THANKS to the Aggressive Mall family for letting me drop some text on their blog. If you think I’m an idiot, please don’t take it out on them.

ONE Skater of the Year:

There is democracy left in the world, but ONE Magazine’s Skater of the Year (http://www.believeinone.com/?p=596) will surely, no matter what, cause some controversy as if we were electing a president.

There is, without a doubt, a million reasons why each single skater should be on that top 10 list, each one repeatedly proving their abilities on a regular basis.

If the post-Bittercold fallout proved anything, there’s surely a way for people to wrap their minds around ideas that don’t make sense — especially rigged contests and conspiracy theories — only to fulfill their need to always be right, even when they’re amazingly wrong. I’m sure there will be some of that with the SOTY.

It’s awesome that a publication even has a skater of the year, but to people that will get their undies tied up in bunches over their head because their favorite skater didn’t win, just remember, it’s just a contest based on opinions. It’s decided by skaters.

So, if your boy doesn’t win, then there won’t be a neat little group to blame except for all of us. And good luck with that should you go shaking your fist at the skies at the end of it all. But don’t worry, the world won’t end.

The Empire Caesar never saw coming:

Out of all the random things I collected at Bitter Cold, a single matchbook surprised me. One side said, “Stay calm and blade on.” That was good enough marketing to get me to visit Scumpire.com.

Other Web sites have tried creating a community dedicated to blading where you don’t have to hear about people’s lover of the day, their horoscope, or imaginary farm, restaurant or anything to keep them from doing anything tangibly productive with their lives. By the initial look of it, Scumpire appears to be doing it right.

Two minutes — which THANK GOD, includes verification from an e-mail address to avoid a certain level of anonymous retardery — and you’re set. The gold in it all is for smaller scenes so they can create their own pages to get together and session.

But immediately I was juiced to join when I clicked the “News” tab and learned of a Haiti benefit blading/skateboarding contest Brian “BFree” Freeman and Josh “Gogo” Castillo organized for Saturday in Texas.

Bladers doing good makes the butter in my arteries melt. Also…hmm… two skateboard sponsors and 11 blading sponsors? A big THANKS goes out to all the companies supporting that cause.

Your weekly serving of Juuuuuice!:

It was awesome Rollernews picked up the edit below because after watching it I immediately thought… “Hey, that’s like…”

Taz Edit!!! from Stephane Julien on Vimeo.

…that crazy Canadian Mathiew Ledoux who throws down with the parkour/blading hybrid stuff. And a little-known blog asked a few questions of the man who turns some heads with his skating— http://efficiencyiskey.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/coe-interview-mathieu-ledoux/. Love him or hate him, Ledoux makes blading his own thing, which isn’t that the point?

Wait…but…Ouch, that stings a little

If you’re not wasting valuable company money checking humor Web sites while on the clock, then shame on you, Mr. Productivity. If you are, then CollegeHumor.com is a staple and hopefully you’ve come across the musings of Kevin Corrigan. He recently shared a sprinkle of knowledge on the Internet cupcake on his Twitter (http://twitter.com/kevincorrigan):

Sure, we could all get up in arms about someone, in essence, saying blading is dead. Then again, we all know better and that’s all that matters. But, at least he was funny about it.

And Mr. Corrigan also posted the following video on his blog. Maybe it’s leftover St. Patty’s spirit from this wannabe Irishman, but it’s a better message to those bent on spreading hate, rumor, conjecture, and disinformation about our beloved blading.

You know who you are, Little Lion Men. Listen to the lyrics.

WARNING: Below is what some would call a nonsensical essay about some lingering thoughts related to the infamously-beaten dead horse that is BCSDX. Should you skip it — and no one would fault you for that — then thanks for braving through thus far.

Our darkest hour: What BCSDX taught us about ourselves

The original T-Paine.

This year was long hailed to be the comeback of rollerblading. Somewhere, sometime, many of us saw the lull in blading to end, the most passionate, strong and dedicated rising from the ashes of diminished participation and leading the way to stronger numbers and even a more connected brotherhood of bladers.

The Father of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, began his inspiring pamphlet Common Sense with the immortal words, “These are the times that try men’s souls…”

Rollerblading stands on the eve of a revolution — a point where weaker men will cower while adversity and tiring labor hover over them, while visionaries will stand tall.

When the Bitter Cold Showdown celebrated its tenth anniversary it was a legendary and spectacular event, but one marred by an ugly and bitter fallout. These words come long after the competition has ended. We’re all home now. We’ve seen the edits. We know the tricks.

I never thought I’d see Haffey, one of the best skaters the sport has ever seen, being booed by a crowd of people. I never thought I’d hear such outlandish and sweeping conspiracy accusations — the contest was rigged for various reasons including not wanting a Nimh rider to take it two years in a row, having Haffey win for a TV pilot and so on.

The judges I spoke with said Nimh nor television was even an issue. Yes, there was a split on who had first, with everyone in the Top 4 — Haffey, Bolino, Aragon and Broskow — could have gone home with the mallet.

But, while the crowd might have lifted Bolino on their shoulders, as I have learned with every contest I’ve ever attended, there will always be discrepancies with judges’ decisions. But you don’t know a contest until the edits are in.

Contests are hectic places, with skaters flying around everywhere. Even if you were there, you missed a lot just by the sheer insanity of everything happening at once. The judges, in their consensus, had more pairs of eyes on the comp.

In the end, the winner was Haffey. He took to the course in a way other skaters did not. He skated the park the only way he can — turning obstacles into ones bigger than they were designed for. Haffey delivered hammers and bangers, pulling his way to first place.

Afterwards, there was a fallout, including a call for a boycott of future events. I shake my head at that idea, not only in disbelief but also in contempt.

I firmly believe that while discourse will only keep blading stronger by challenging the norm, there is a certain kind of talk in the sport that needs to end. It seems that as rollerblading stands on the cusp of its own revolution, there is a divide against those who believe things should be one way and those accepting of what is.

What does our sport need the most? A little common sense.

Blading is strong because of passionate, hard-working people that prove themselves on a regular basis. People outside the industry — corporations, skateboarders, haters — can’t diminish us and that’s been proven repeatedly.

However, the only way blading will die is from suicide. The rumor-spreading, in-fighting, name-calling, back-stabbing and general lack of disrespect needs to go. Constructive criticism needs to remain strong so we all know where each and every one of us can improve, but when we stop seeing ourselves as a connected brotherhood then we all will tire and forget why we began skating in the first place.

This year can see the return of blading in larger numbers but only due to hard work and perseverance. It will go nowhere but fall into oblivion with rumors, hate, and disrespect.

But that’s just my idea.

Cheers,
— Brian Krans (briankrans@gmail.com)

This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 12:28 pm and is filed under 2010, Blade Digest, Brian Krans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.