Tuesday 24 February 2015

Some writing


1.

A man and a woman occupy a sparse, grey cell. They are asleep on two beds, placed at either end of the room. A lion rests in the corner.

Life disturbs the mans face. A few seconds pass. His eyes lift open.

Guy:
“whha” 

The sound has a tone of questioning. He rises to a sit, and stares with slack expression at the wall. A few minutes pass. The mans face tightens, and his head leans to the side.

Guy:
“Am I dead?”

The wall gives nothing away.

Guy:
”Yeah?”

The wall remains silent.

(Pause)

Guy: 
“Well fuck you then!”

The wall is unmoved. The conversation disturbs the girl across the room. A sharp intake of breath follows, as she rushes to a seated position on the side of the bed. Her eyes are wide and a smile is present, before it realises it has no reason to be there and leaves in a hurry. Her eyes fix on the other human.

Girl:
“Where am I?”

Guy:
(Turning with surprise) “Oh.” (Pause) “Hello.”

Girl:
(Looking around) “Where am I?”

Guy:
(shrugs) “I dunno.”

Girl:
(sharply) “For fucks sake.”

The girl goes for the door. It’s locked. She thumps it a few times. Theres nothing there.

The man turns to the wall. 

Guy:
“Maybe we’re dead.”

The girl looks at him. Her mouth is slightly open and her eyes narrow a little. She says nothing.

Guy: 
“Maybe it’s like that thing between-“ (turns) “what?”

Girl:
“What happened?”

Guy:
“I don’t know.”

Pause.

Girl:
(impatiently) “I want to go.”

Guy:
“Yeah...”

Girl:
“Yes.”

The man shrugs again. The girl thumps the door. Silence. 

The girl returns to her bed.

Guy:
“Probably be here in a sec.”

Girl:
“I fucking hope so. What were we doing?”

There is a long pause. Thinking happens. Something is found.

Guy:
“Party.”

Girl:
“Party.”

Silence.

Girl:
“Yeah.” (pause) “It was shit.”

Guy:
“Can’t have been that shit.”

Pause.

Girl:
“I left.”

Pause.

Guy:
“I left too.”

Silence.

Guy:
“What were you drinking?”

Girl:
“Everything.”

Guy:
“Why?”

Girl:
“I was tired.”

Long pause.

Guy:
“Why were you tired?”

Girl:
“My arms hurt.”

Guy:
”Why did your arms hurt?”

Girl:
“Some guy wouldn’t stop asking me stupid questions so I smashed his head against a wall until he shut up.”

Silence.

Guy:
“I was only asking.”

Girl:
“Eh?”

More silence. The girl looks over at the door. The man looks at the floor. The wall stands awkwardly.

Girl:
“Did we do something wrong?”

The man looks up. He shrugs.

Girl:
“I bet it was your fault.”

Guy:
(hurt) “Why?”

Girl:
”You look shifty.”

Guy:
(still hurt) “Cheers.” (pause) “Maybe I’d prefer it if we didn’t talk.”

Girl:
“Ok.”

A few minutes pass. Theres no sign of life beyond the door.

Guy:
“Maybe they forgot about us.”

Girl:
(considering) “Maybe. I watched a documentary about it.”

Guy:
“About what?”

Girl:
“This.”

Guy:
“What happened?”

Girl:
“Somebody got left in a police cell. They were in there for three weeks.”

Guy:
“Jesus. What happened to them?”

Girl:
“They died.”

(Pause)

Guy:
“Right.”

(Another Pause)

Girl:
“It was in America though.”

Guy:
“Oh.”

There is a long period of silence. The girl thinks about trying to lighten the mood. The man wonders if he’s still sleeping.

The wall wishes it was somewhere else.



Wednesday 18 February 2015

Super generic skate stuff

When was the last time anyone reviewed some piece of downhill gear and was like "You know what, fuck this, don't buy it"? I suppose aside from the quarterly kickstarters that seem to throughly celebrate the act of being a wasteman it's difficult to find something truly diabolical.

If somebody bought a Risch and then skated like a watermelon would it affect sales?

Is it always going to be the case that the range of decks for going fast will have a fair degree of shape variation?

Will we ever get to the point where we're like "you know we could keep making griptape grippier but do we really need to?"

You can't spot mindless boards from a distance now.

I'm new to trying to manage how I think about things. In skateboarding it is to a large extent a balancing act involving more or less entirely conflicting thought processes and an exercise in understanding and directing them.

I find it pretty much comes down to being content or wanting to do more.

So for me a useful balance draws on both, veering more toward one or the other based on what is more useful at the time. Being completely content means temporary happiness but later on feeling like there was something missed in terms of adding to what can be done. Wanting to do more without feeling any positivity for what you can already do is an endless disappointment.

It's a case of managing expectation and mindset to achieve the best balance on a spectrum of thought that contains a lack of overall enjoyment at both ends. To manage the way you approach something isn't always possible but learning to do so can be tremendously beneficial. It is also worth considering the way you think about something when you aren't actually doing it.

Sometimes I can't watch any videos of people skating. At those times the thought process is to do with not being able to do something how you would like, and it's too much to even look at the thing. And then it's thinking along the lines of "do I really need this?" Like making art, when I consider it properly, I don't think theres going to be a point where I stop skating.

I don't think I'm ever going to be interested in races without closed roads. I'm not sure if I'm going to be interested in racing at any point, anywhere. I don't see much to find out, I think it would only be entertaining on certain tracks.

I'm pretty excited for the year- without setting out too much, theres a lot of stuff to mess around with. Some different focuses and trying to look at all areas of skating.