The Essence of Rad

I’m currently in the process of moving everything out of my home office and into a smaller room in my house because my wife decided that my office would be better suited as a baby room. It’s hard to argue with her, since the only thing I really do in my office is look at skateboarding websites and listen to rap music. So the past few weeks I’ve been slowly going through all of the crap in my studio and trying to figure out what to do with all of it. Which is a pretty big task because over the past few years my office has become a landing pad for all of the junk in my life that I don’t know what to do with. Old books, old magazines, old skateboard stuff, old mail, old toys, old stickers…

and old zines. I don’t remember ever setting out to collect zines, but over the past 20 years or so I’ve amassed a sturdy little collection—close to 300 different titles, mostly skate or art related. As I was going through these zines and trying to organize them I thought it might be cool to sporadically share my collection with you, the viewer/reader, in the hopes that you might give a little bit of a shit. Fingers crossed.

Seems like a good starting point would be the Powell Peralta Intelligence Reports that I sent away for in 1989. I don’t think I’d ever actually seen a skateboard zine in person before I got these in the mail, so I didn’t realize that Powell Peralta was actually just borrowing the aesthetic language of the 80s skate zine and using it as a way to advertise their brand. That’s how most big businesses operate. You find out what the cool kids are doing and borrow it.

The boom boom huck man.

“Look forward to long term developments resulting from his talents.” Developments such as: Activision, McDonald’s, Six Flags, Hot Bites, Frito-Lay, and a line of children’s clothing available exclusively at Kohl’s. Some people might call that selling out. I call it steak dinner. Every dinner.

“Look for speed, zing and smiles.” I don’t care how cute his brown eyes are, I don’t want this guy getting his zing anywhere near me. “A skateboarding skateboarder!” Finally.

It’s awesome to me that Powell Peralta used to make book covers for their back to school offering, whereas many skateboard companies today seem to celebrate the fact that none of their riders finished high school. Stay in school, kids. Weed and stupidity will only get you so far in life. (Unless you can rap about it really well.)

This photo is 22 years old but it could easily be in a magazine today. How come? Because jumping in the air with your skateboard is always going to look cool. It’s pretty much the essence of rad.

Faking a blown out Xerox photo for a glossy offset printed publication is kind of like taking a fake polaroid with your fancy cell phone. Using technology to make it look like you don’t have technology. There’s probably a term for that.

OK, movie review time. This week’s movie, The Wild Life.

Cameron Crowe wrote Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which was released in 1982. He also wrote The Wild Life, which came out in 1984. It’s strange to me that they (the movie people?) basically released a weaker, less funny, less memorable version of Fast Times two years after Fast Times came out. Kind of like a band trying to capitalize on the success of an album by making a crappier version of the same album as a follow up. That’s not to say that it’s a terrible movie. It’s just not as awesome as Fast Times in my uneducated opinion.

Eric Stoltz plays Judge Reinhold’s character from Fast Times in this film. He’s a recent high school graduate who has also recently broken up with his high school girlfriend because he’s trying to be a grown up and he thinks that grown ups don’t date high school girls. His ex-girlfriend (played by Lea Thompson) uses her newfound freedom to have frequent underage sex (she’s underage) with a married cop (who has a kid) in the back of the donut shop that she works at (the cop obviously shares David Wooderson’s philosophy concerning adults and high school girls). Eric Stoltz’s younger brother (played by the dark-haired nerd from Weird Science) plays the role of the 80s troubled teenager, and he’s into cool 80s troubled teenager stuff like nunchucks, camouflage pants, loud music, weed, and the Vietnam War. He’s so into Vietnam that he sometimes hangs out with Randy Quaid (Cousin Eddie) who is a traumatized Vietnam vet junkie. Bad parenting in my opinion. Sean Penn’s brother, Chris Penn (R.I.P.), plays the role of Sean Penn’s character, Jeff Spicoli, from Fast Times, but instead of a partied out brain-dead surfer character, he’s a partied out brain-dead jock wrestler character. Eric Stoltz and Chris Penn work together at a bowling alley and at some point in the movie they decide to share an apartment. Sean Penn throws a total full on raging 80s movie style party and gets them kicked out of the apartment complex, and that’s kind of the climax of the film. What else happens in this movie… well, the troubled 80s teenager fucks up a cop car and Rick Moranis unsuccessfully tries to have sex with somebody. Oh yeah, Rick Moranis is in this movie too. He plays a nerd. Big surprise.

Again, The Wild Life isn’t all that bad. It’s just not all that great. If you want to check it out you might have to watch it on LaserDisc because it was never released on DVD due to music rights or the lack thereof.

P.S. – Earlier when I said I listen to rap music, what I meant was that I finally heard Das Racist and now I’m trying to act hip about it. Sad dad.

MICHAEL SIEBEN

Previously – Lick the Walls