The repudiation of nihilism and other things to do with skateboarding

It continues to amaze me that each time I run into imperfections as a result of analogue photographic processes, each can somehow be fully rationalized and rendered oddly perfect and beautiful. Something inside me is deeply content with each and every imperfection and I somehow believe that it was just meant to be that way. I am by no means a fatalist. If I were, it wouldn't make sense to care about much of anything. I would probably resort to full-blown nihilism and hate everyone. Clearly though, this is not the case. I love most all people and give a damn about all sorts of things. So, having thrown out fatalism, and by extent accepting free will, why am I not fucking pissed off that a series of frames later in this post were completely "ruined" in my rushed developing? Maybe you have an inkling.

Quick, to the Batmobile! Err, I mean photos. Skate photos first.

Ariel Perl - Late Night Wallride

Jason Ross - Polejam, featured as a Focus Skate Mag "Wallpaper"

That's all for now. Other must be kept under wraps... shh. 

Somewhere around 6:30am - Just after the first swim of the season, and in the middle of a wonderful 36 hours of awake life. 

Somewhere around 7am

somewhere around 10:30 am, showing Malden park some love with two of my favorite people to skate with and shoot

During a recent skate trip to Providence, RI... 

With two carloads of skate rats, a proportionate amount of disregard for the rules of the road and knowledge of directions to a local spot that is reciprocal to said disregard *. We decided to turn down what we believed to be a small road to input an address into my gps which allegedly would then lead to the discovery of skateable locations. To my dismay, upon turning onto this road, we were greeted with about 5-6 police motorcycles heading towards us in formation. Having a natural tendency to avoid the law, we turned into a private driveway to let the piggies pass by. The carload of skate rats following us did the same. Befuddled by what we had just witnessed, we proceeded to input data into the GPS in a slight daze. Pulling out of the driveway a few minutes later, we found that we were all of a sudden in the middle of a small local marathon. After fruitless attempts of driving in unison with the runners, we decided that out only option was to wait the entire damn thing out.

* We here at the Kiln are concerned about your ability to decipher near nonsensical, vaguely mathematical grammar containing unnecessarily loose syntaxes. This is one of many opportunities we allow you to practice this vital skill. 

This weekend holds the first big skate trip of hopefully many this summer. The gang, or at least part, shall embark for New York to meet up with the one and only Familgiani, Mister Figler himself, to skate the cities bricks, cellar doors, cobblestones, metal plating and assorted rubble while disregarding anything that shows signs of actually being a legitimate spot. What follow are 3 photos from a skate weekend in NYC last summer. Oh fond memories. 

Matt Lane - Fs Noseblunt 

Ryan Quigley - Bs Boardslide

Ryan Quigley - Bs Tailslide

While we're on the topic of NY, Quartersnacks recently release a list of suggestions upon hearing that Slap will be doing a New York edition of their tried and true attempt at a skateboarding reality show which most recently allowed for massive amounts of internettery. The suggestions may seem overboard and even blatantly sarcastic at times, yet hold the key to understanding NY skateboarding; if ever there were such a thing. 

coast to coast photo roundup

Since last Thursday, I have been blatantly absent from the skateboarding world both in person, and to a lesser extent, in spirit. I have been immersed in the culture of mammarial plasticity and a lack of respect for matrimonial sanctity. In simpler terms, I have been working on set at the Laconia Bike Week version of the Full Throttle Saloon and have had little time for much of anything else. In this short span of free time before work today, I am posting a few photos that have been neglected either due to delays in processing, or digital overloads. But first, how about a little more Iowa?

These cows had to be herded

This was the method

Kyle took us to see this bridge

Kyle's stall here could easily be a Creature ad

What follows is the aforementioned collection of heretofore neglected photos. 

Here, Dave provides us with a superb example of enjoying life as he grins from the bed of Fred's truck in the midst of a Boston session. Add one to the format jar: shitty cell phone. 

And I wanna liquify everybody gone gone dry...

 

No dryness Mister Famiglio himself 5-0 stalls Slab CIty

3,000 miles away, and 1 1/2 months ago, this happened. 

As did this

Back again to the east coast, Quigs Bs Boseblunts the rattiest of waterlogged wooden ramps

Skatecars. Jason is a sticker champion.

I can't wait to get back to all you wonderful people from whom I have been away. 

The adventure begins, has began, began, will begin, would have had begun, will have begun; am I missing any?

The start, inception, beginning, commencement... why do we have so many words for things and tenses in which to use said words? It's really pretty silly if you ask me. Russian, for instance, doesn't even employ the words "a" "an" or "the" whatsoever. They're pretty unnecessary if you think about it; even if you don't think about it. Anyways... / grammar tangent. The following photographs are from the first leg of the trip across the country; they lead right up into my first impressions of Iowa, where I had the distinct honor of staying with Kyle Bunker, skate photographer extraordinaire / farmer. Please do view these large by clicking on them. They look much nicer that way.

 Somewhere in shit-nowhere Nebraska I shot what I am pretty sure is the first and only photograph I have ever shot of a sunset. 

After sleeping in my car at a rest stop (highly recommended if you have lots of beddings) I shot this on my drive to Iowa. This is now the official Chemical Kiln logo, because here at the Chemical Kiln, we are very keen on keeping things orderly and official; Bureaucratic is the whole vibe that we strive to achieve. Kevin Leslie, who runs the Eastern Boarder Blog in addition to ripping (more on that later) put up a link to this blog for which we are all very thankful. The ratings will certainly reflect this. 

This railway runs through the farmland of Newton, Iowa. The town is famous for having had the Maytag factory which, when in business, had employed a majority of the town's population. It is now gone and the town reflects it. This aptly named thread features photos shot by Kyle Bunker of the abandoned buildings of Newton. 

Lots of farmland. Little of roads. Move along, nothing to see here. 

Iowa has these wonderful things called "Level B" roads. These are roads that have been determined to serve no public good and are therefore not taken care of by the city, county or state.

More on Iowa next time. For now, we proceed to skateboarding things. Focus Skate Mag recently began a new online segment which features downloadable desktop photos for your computer machines. Check out this link for the full feature. The following photos were used in this edition and feature Kevin Leslie and Matt Lane partaking in The cheapest of thrills. 

Kevin Leslie - Backside Heelflip

Matt Lane - Frontside Boardslide

Matt Lane - Ollie

The Cheap Thrills crew has been going on missions nonstop lately. You can be sure to expect a multitude of brand spankin' new footage for the video. 

Finally, a few fancy lads have in the works a video that promises to not be the new Coliseum video, nor the new H street video. Aforementioned fancy lads are premiering aforementioned fancy video this Sunday, and the info can be found here. 

good night / good morning / good afternoon / good day / good life