Landry's Column

The Complexing Nature of Evil

I've been defining any and all opposition these days as evil. It's beginning to turn into quite a complex and while I have not explicitly called anyone out as such, I know it's only a matter of time until I break.


So far I've labeled: the mall, the bank, the city, Regent st., the lines at the grocery store, the local skatepark, city planners, poor drivers, pot holes, bike lanes, ATM machines, credit cards, muffins, poorly cooked meals from a restaurant, my computer, dirt, my hat, bikers at the skatepark, Lionel Richie, random dogs who antagonize my dog, squirrels, car dealerships, the recession, the economy and sidewalk cracks as evil. I'm sure there are more to this list and I know there are more specific people who I consider evil from time to time but I'm unwilling and unable to publish names as it may cause a falling out on facebook and I've managed to accumulate a whole pile of people.

I'm uncertain as to why I continue to add more people to facebook account as I rarely if ever speak with them directly, but I do. I suppose this would make Facebook evil as well according to my flawed logic and temperamental attitude, but I continue on. Just as I continue to use the same bank, I continue on with Facebook. Even though it provides very little in terms of connections and benefits, I remain on a steady path of friend accumulation.

The funny thing about facebook is that it is presented to people as a networking tool. While I can see the book as a nod to a friendship I may have held at some time, I am unable to use it in such a way as to improve my life. Not only has facebook never mowed the lawn for me, it has never been able to find someone from my list of friends who would be willing to mow my lawn for me. It just seems fraudulent to call it useful. I don't know about you but much of the information which is provided from others mainly makes me feel badly about my life. Everyone seems to be doing something interesting and exceptional except me.

I live in the realm of the mundane and while I do manage to venture out into the wide world from time to time, there is never enough room to completely express what went on in my adventure. The whole concept of breaking free has left my body as I'm now almost completely dependent on structure within my day to day regime. I really do need to keep busy in order to avoid depression and I'm not very good at remaining productive on my own. It's easy for me to lose momentum and Facebook makes it all the more easy as I'm perusing about instead of mowing the lawn myself or out in front of the house popping ollies. I guess Facebook just reminds me of my own insignificance and prompts me to withdraw from real activities and instead accommodates my procrastination from things that matter.


Then again, maybe I'm the one who is evil. I'm the one who allowed myself to get dupped into this digital reconnection with others. My own weakness has prompted me to fall into despair and devolve socially. While I was once able to pay attention in a conversation, I now drift off mentally only to return with some paranoia as to what I've missed. I sure would like to talk to Doctor Phil about all of this but I have dubbed him as evil and would only speak in absurdities to see what type of tag lines he would come up with.

Stay strong my friends. Halloween is around the corner and that just means the world will be all the more evil.

-Marc Landry

Plaza Sequence

Here's a sequence that Jeff Delong shot of Kevin Murray doing a switch heelflip nose manual - nollie flip out. Kevin has a solid bag of tech tricks so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of him.

Josh win's ghetto games

Josh Clark just won one of the days at the Empire ghetto games in Montreal the contest looks pretty sick and something different from the usual contest at parks. Also you might notice he's repping a Timeline 5-panel cap.

Quebec spots

Well since it's raining here on my day off that means I don't get a chance to push around Quebec city on my skateboard. But I figured I would post 2 photos of spots that are on the same block as where I'm staying. There's tons of good spots here but I only managed to take photos of these 2 because they're so close.

Marble down/up ledge.



Marble curved ledges

Retro Monday

This weeks video is an oldie from Josh Kalis and Stevie in the Sixth Sense video, this is some real raw east coast style.

Recently

Some of you might have wondered what's going on with the slow down in the amount of posting and the reason is I was working on my own short film and just recently completed it to send out to film festivals. Check out the trailer


Also I'm off to work on a film in Quebec for a month so there's gonna be less posts during that time but I'll try my best to post while I'm there, even if it's just youtube posts. But don't forget to keep checking back for Landry's column.

Landry's Column

"Legit"

Eric could not form a dragon wang despite his best efforts. The glass just wasn’t hot enough for the glass to melt. Justin on the hand did quite well at forming a dragon wang. He waited for the glass to reach its melting point and leaned right into it with a stick. If he had a chance to continue, he would have the opportunity to become a master bottle shaper just like the guys you see in crappy malls. Of course, they are capable of forming entire dragons. Whereas Justin and Eric were starting with just the wang by placing a glass bottle into the campfire and pulling it out in order to shape it.

All of this cheered me up as my current financial state was and is reaching a crisis. Road trips have always allowed me to forget the negative aspects of my day to day life. At the very least they have served as a respite from financial solvency. This trip was no different and even though I had only spent one day on the road, I had already forgotten about my line of credit and depleted savings.

The entire trip started with a facebook invitation from Mark Feero. The entire East Side crew was going to go on a camping trip. While I’m not much of an outdoorsman, I felt morally obligated to participate. Not just because I told them I would but also because I was not being asked to bring my vehicle. When such an obstacle is removed from the equation, I really don’t have any reason to say “no”. As such, I was on my way to check out the new skatepark in Chester, Nova Scotia which is “legit as fuck”.

This one line became the means through which to describe everything, and would never have been attributed to the park at all if one of the locals hadn’t used this term to describe the manner in which his friend was jumping a series of girls on a couch with his bike. It was quite a sight. So much so that his friend made a point of saying “that was legit as fuck.” I guess he felt he had to stick up for him since his friend went to great lengths to plan this stunt. Not only did he bring the couch himself with a van but he also had to set it up, have a group of underage girls sit on it, ask every person there to clear the way and cross a busy street to get enough speed to clear the couch. As you can see, it really was “legit as fuck”.

It’s always nice to pick up new lingo when you’re away on a trip. It allows a person to extend his or her vocabulary and boost the overall sentiment in regards to a particular issue. If I were to visit New England, a kid might say “that was wicked awesome” or if I was in Norcal I might hear a kid say “that was hella tight”. It all depends on your geography. Now that I had ventured deep within Nova Scotia, I was now familiar with a new saying that I can apply to almost the entire trip. For example, the camping was legit as fuck. Everyone froze in their tents except for me because I borrowed a Mountain Equipment Coop sleeping bag from my sister. Even though I didn’t freeze, it was still legit because I still slept outside. Our breakfast at Tim Horton’s was legit as fuck because when it comes to our Canadian identity, you can’t get much more legit than Tim Horton’s. It well outnumbers any other fast food franchise. Skating at Truro and Lunenburg were legit as fuck. They both had underage girls who were making their parents proud by becoming locals who lurk at a skateboard park, as well as cars that would spin out upon departure. It is these nuances that make all the difference in a trip and it was no different here. The local colour with their charm and good humour reminded us all of what it means to be a tourist.

So did the police officers who informed the entire crew that helmets are to be worn at all times. In New Brunswick a person can skate at a park without a helmet at all but not in Nova Scotia. In fact, it is legal to skate in on the streets in Nova Scotia as long as you are wearing a helmet. Alan Muir told me this and I had to believe him because he lives in Nova Scotia and skates regularly. Unfortunately for us, a few of our crew members decided to tempt fate by not wearing a helmet while rolling around bikers in the skatepark. This nearly led to one person in particular going to jail for the evening. It wasn’t so much the skating without a helmet that got this lad in trouble but the fact that he was getting mouthy. If there is one thing police officers hate it’s someone being mouthy. They find it insulting and a direct challenge to their authority. I didn’t want to challenge anyone’s authority. I wasn’t skating though because I fell onto my leg. This fall has caused a bruise the size of a hockey puck as well as some time spent as a “limpy mcgee”. Fortunately, it’s all clearing up now.

Overall, the trip was a success. There were no fights, only people getting lost on the highway.

-Marc Landry

Josh at Kimble

Josh is on his way back to Montreal now but before he left we got a couple clips from a kimble park session.

Mr. Magnifier

Yesterday I stumbled across this video on youtube, It's so bizarre and weird but hilarious.

Retro Monday

This week's video is Darrel Stanton's part from the Real Roll forever video this was his last good video part before he fell off.

Sequence

Jeff Delong sent in this sequence of Kevin Murray doing a varial heelflip manual.

Landry's Column

Moonie is a magnificent beast with the ears of a champion. I always use this line in order to describe our family dog. When you read or hear the text it doesn’t tell you much. It does draw attention to his ears but it says nothing about his personality. The word “magnificent” is somewhat vague. I guess it means exceptional and in many ways Moonie is exceptional. For one, he looks vicious but is really kind. For another, he protects our house from harm. I’m not sure what these have to do with his personality though. You may now be wondering if he is exceptional, why would you include the word “beast”?

Well, he is very beast-like. He’s missing his tail, he has a broken canine tooth as well as brindle colouring in his fur which makes him look vicious in a pit-bull type manner and finally, he has gigantic ears which stand on alert. You could easily substitute Moonie with one of the creatures from “Where the Wild Things Are”. At the very least, you could design one of the creatures according to his likeness and achieve a perfect representation of a monster from Monster Island.

Did I mention that Moonie has a lot of friends? He does. All the kids in the neighborhood know him and he often gives toddlers a kiss in the form of a lick to let them know that they are down with his scene. I’m certain many of the kiddies and their parents would like to take Moonie home to live with them but it’s not going to happen as Moonie has established himself as an integral member of the nuclear family here in Marysville.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Moonie is friendly and despite his rugged and vicious looking exterior; he manages to win people over with his friendly demeanor. He never uses sarcasm to make fun of others or argues with authority, he takes others seriously and appreciates their opinion. I have used this tactic in the past with police officers and other authority figures and let me be the first to tell you: it works.
I know it’s easy to become angry with security guards or other random pedestrians but this is only because they are judging a book by its cover. They take one look at an individual on a skateboard and they see irritating, immature, vicious, sadistic beasts and I’m here to tell you that it’s time we shatter this image with kind words and friendliness on the streets. Now you don’t have to give random people hugs or anything like that but you might want to try to listen and respond to others in a friendly manner. It’s a short cut to improved relations between the vicious beasts and the crazy humans and while the vicious beasts may never get their kennel (a New Line skatepark), we can definitely become included in the crazy human category
someday.

-Marc Landry

New Clip

Josh is back in town for the week and there's no place better to skate than the plaza in Saint John. Here's a clip with Mark Feero and Josh Clark.