a solution against racism? this is so good!

if you are searching for vegan clothing, you may check out the new straightwear online shop. nice people, good products, fair prices. i buy there regularly myself to get the highly skateable  vegetarian shoes canada sneaker.

guess this movie classic by these screenshots, and win a shirt. really!

you may be one of those people living vegetarian or vegan, maybe don’t use a car or try consuming sustainable, aiming to make a little change.
you have good reasons for doing this. many of them based on scientific facts known and confirmed for decades.

even though you regulary get into discussions with others who were not aware of these reasons or didn’t believe in them. maybe this tremendous project will once and for all set the knowledge base for all mankind, even prevailing against all the lobbyist initiatives.
see home and be affirmed or inspired to change things.

we have a winner here: walmart fucked it up big time…

nice done. i can't say it often enough: we all must watch out what we are buying. and regarding skateboarding: can an “alternative lifestyle” really be based on slavery?

…making real shoes in england: new balance uk. be sure to check the video at the end of the article. compare this to the way most clothing is made today…

i always admired tadao ando. his simple, minimalistic approach combined with the strict use of concrete develops true icons of modernism.
so last weekend i took the chance to see alex katz in a building build by tadao ando. what a great combination!
but even greater, tadao ando made a sick skatespot for you!

very nice done. check this movie made by Three Legged Legs.
hint: no skateboarding.

an easy way to buy things. maybe too easy, but what’s the alternative?

i never found larry clark's movies authentic. but somehow i enjoyed his overexposed style with the flair of an outsider trying to understand what's going on.

wassup rockers is his new movie. as always it is focused on youth culture and again it plays with skin deep clichees. or may i say skin tight? because it shows skateboarders with the look of their dad in the 80's: tight pants, long hair and a moustache. very rebelious.

don’t get mislead by the first minutes of this movie. i saw earthlings does not try to shock but to document the relationship of humans and animals. and this is shocking. everyone can do something against this. every little step counts. at least try.

while looking for new running shoes two years ago i noticed that at least the new balance high end running shoes were made in the uk or in the usa. new balance is known for its high quality shoes so i bought them right away, glad to support these guys and getting a good running shoe. however i wouldn't wear them in everyday life since this high tech look isn't really my style 😉 nevertheless i really like the clean looking new balance re-issues of the 80's. and the great thing is that many of them are made in the uk, too. even the dudes at peta are happy.

so why this buzz? well, let's just go to an average shop providing all these sports- and skateboard brands. one “cooler” than the other;-) but do you think any of these “cool” brands managed to produce their “scenish” sneakers any different than in form of mass productions under questionable conditions in china or the third world? not one. may it vans or duffs, converse or adidas, nike or globe. so at least new balance shows some attitude that really stands out. their decision is business driven and they too have products made in regions mentioned above, no question about that, but it shows that it is still possible to produce in countries with social standards, trade unions and organized workers.

by the way, as long as these conditions are guaranteed for chinese workers i have no problems at all. my concerns are definitely not patriotic but ethic driven. now if only there would be a clean shaped new balance shoe to use for skateboarding…

haha, that’s an easy rule, right? but it’s quite hard to put into practice nowadays. ten years ago it seemed to be easier. in the skateboarding or punk community nobody wanted to buy from mainstream corporations anyway. buying products from the communities was a good chance to exclude products from corporate assholes. nowadays we know that:

1. most of the small companies went mainstream long ago with all the corporate asshole practices
2. the mainstream corporations figured out ($$$$) how to look like a small company

so for some time i’m trying to find products for my needs with at least some ethics and values. may it be the proof of credibility in the community, sustainability and responsibility or a fair code of conduct. and because it’s very difficult to evaluate these informations, my rule of thumb is trying to exclude products made in countries, where even human rights are not granted. so if you see a guy in a shop pulling everything inside out in search for the “made in …” label, it may be me trying not to buy from assholes 😉

…not new at all. but after reading this crazy shit about tom cruise and the scientology rules for giving birth to a baby, i thought what jason lee might think about his hungry colleague?

that’s why i love the internet: collaboration. while the nike “major thread” campain itself was a very small attempt to fool the kids with an alternative image stolen from hardcore legends minor threat, they pissed many people off in a very short time. just follow this google search. now nike apologizes. another link is provided here.
oh, you can still find the original nike ad here. needless to say i really believe in taking actions. even in the globalized world we have today.

no, i can’t believe it! ok, i hate nike for being the uncaring, third world producing, child abusing, brainwashing, no morality having, profit guzzlin’, environment destroying industry player, but the new ad campain for the nike skateboarding major threat tour is the biggest exploit of punk history i have ever seen. and this makes me hate nike even more.
but do you know who should be killed right away? this self called art director-whore for shoving nike’s giant, corporate dick deep into his paid asshole!!!! what can be more degrading than selling what you once loved for some dollars to a company, who don’t even know what they are buying, as long as it is authentic, modern and credible?
more to read here…, and remember, sometimes good guys don’t wear white. oh, now it’s featured on the dischord website.

Seems like there are many protestors against Bush and his politics. Here’s another interesting site… please click here

grabbed from an email conversation:
“hätte mir jemand an meinem ersten tag auf dem skateboard gesagt, dass ich siebzehn jahre später immer noch auf dem teil durch die welt rollern würde, hätte ich ihm wahrscheinlich nicht geglaubt. auch jetzt kann ich mir nicht vorstellen, damit aufzuhören. ich meine, ich liebe diesen scheiss! dennoch werden die möglichkeiten weniger, werden eingeschränkt. kopf und körper spielen streiche, schwächen skateboarding in mir. aber nicht nur in mir, überall um mich herum kann ich es sehen, bei den jungs, mit denen ich gross geworden bin; bei den jungs, die schon seit ewigkeiten auf dem brett stehen. es ist wohl der lauf der dinge, der gerade seine geschichte erzählt. doch solange wir uns immer wieder aufraffen, uns auf die paar stunden auf dem brett freuen, wir in diesen seltsamen zeiten unseren spaß haben, ist alles okay. dann ist alles so, wie es schon immer war. dann ist alles so, wie es sein sollte… wie es immer sein wird. skateboarding. und auch HIER gilt: rebuild yourself! rebuild skateboarding… im laufe deines lebens, wenn deine knochen anfangen, “nein” zu schreien und deine liebe zum skaten ihnen den mund zuhält. rebuild, marc. rebuild…”
26. Juli 2004 17:56:19 MESZ
learn german and dive into the heartbreaking words of mhueller…

some nice quotation today, and if you ask me what this has to do with skateboarding i only feel sorry for you:
“in our society, “youthful rebellion” has become a ritual: every generation is expected to revolt against the social order for a few years, before “growing up” and “accepting reality”.
this negates any power for real change that the fresh perspective of youth can have; for now rebellion is “just for kids”, and no young person dares to maintain their resistance into adulthood for fear of being thought of as childish.
this arrangement is very much to the advantage of certain corporations who depend on the “youth market”. where is your money going when you buy that cd, that chain wallet, that hair dye, leather jacket, wall hanging, all those other accessories that identify you as a rebellious person? right to the companies that make up the order you want to stand against.
they cash in on your rebellious impulses by selling you symbols of rebellion that actually just keep the wheels turning. you keep their pockets full, and they keep yours empty; they keep you powerless, busy just trying to afford to fit the molds they set for you.”
maybe just some hip anarchist utopia, but this book often is amazingly on point.

Right! Tinkin

Punk Voter’s first goal is to convince rock fans to not vote for George W. Bush. There are many reasons to be angry with Bush the Younger. One could list off a number of domestic issues, but it is sufficient to mention the 448 dead American souls (as of 12/12/2003), the 11,000 maimed American servicemen, and the uncounted number of dead and mutilated, yet liberated, Iraqis (tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, it is difficult to know) that have resulted from an invasion originally advertised by the Bush Administration as necessary to protect Americans against Iraq’s WMDs. If, on March 19, 2003, the American democracy in fact unleashed its massively destructive weapons on another nation, Iraq, that did not possess any weapons of mass destruction (as her foreign ministers had protested profusely for months in advance), was this invasion & conquest really necessary to protect Americans? For further details go to:Punkvoter

i tend to preach that skateboarding is so much of a mind thing. not only trickwise but because it puts yourself in a completely different context of your environment. just find your way to capture your viewpoint and maybe someone may decide to call it art. who cares, just have fun doing it. besides the fact that nowadays everybody and his mother wants to be this artsy bohemian, there is still excellent artistic output made by skateboarders.
a nice overview might be the exhibition “beautiful losers”.
and here some true words:
McGinness tries to explain the attraction of the skateboard scene to artists: “I think it ties into this Do-It-Yourself mentality,” he says.” “It wasn’t the industry it is now,” he says. “It was the outsiders who skated and designed and hand painted their own shirts and made their own zines and shared their own zines.”
unfortunately ohio is to far away for me 🙁
BeautifulLosers