Toy Machine's Tom And Jerry - news about skateboarders

Thrasher Magazine, Dec, 2001 by Bob Burnquist

TOY MACHINE'S TOM AND JERRY ARE NO LONGER AS Brian Anderson is riding for Girl and Brad Staba has signed on with Enjoi. Upon hearing the news, Elissa Steamer put in her two weeks to ride for the newly conceived, highly secretive Baker off-shoot Bootleg Boards, whose other team riders are rumored to be recent Zero quitter Alex "Trainwreck" Gall, IE hot shoe Anthony Mosely, Euro-exile Ali Boulala and OG Warner Mobster Shane Heyl. Who knows how much any of this is true.

Other rumored free agents are two of Birdhouse's heavies (hint: not The Birdman or Willy), whose endorsement services axe the subject of a bidding war by a handful of distributors who want to launch the two's flagship brand(s).

At this year's poorly organized and sparsely attended Concrete Challenge contest, Colorado extreme sports-marketer/organizer Adam Longnecker went berzerk and attacked Thrasher staff writer abroad Rich Johnson, breaking his foot with a large rock Apparently miffed about. Johnson's article coveting last year's crappy event, Longnecker first tried unsuccessfully to pay Brewce Martin to beat up Rich, and then went in with the small boulder. Johnson suffered three broken bones in the assault and was given no forewarning from the crazed Longnecker who muttered, "Sorry about that," as he walked back to the hospitality tent. Longnecker has denied all knowledge of the event which was witnessed by several perplexed skaters including Martin who said, regarding Longnecker's attempts to purchase his muscle, "I can't be bought." Johnson is the long-time producer of John Doe 'Zine and the main skater behind the redesign of the public skatepark in his hometown of Chayenne, Wyoming. Longnecker is a kook who can catch a beatdo wn.

The recent ASR trade show was mildly notable for its desperate attempt at being skate "friendly," as the surf industry again appears to be teetering on the edge of collapse. Tired-ass bikini models paraded to empty aisles while overweight hucksters presented their faded aloha wear to audiences of none. This hegemony of mediocrity was challenged by the blinging and banging of numerous skate entities who didn't go with the bland and norm. The DC stretch Hummer rode over all in its path. Turn Yeto pulled off its Coup D'Etat by taking over a club on the comer of L Street and 5th. Todd Swank personally presided over the armed guards and the stringent credentialing process for this self-proclaimed "undermining of the ultra establishment." Once in there was free liquor, skating, female nudity, undercover pigs, catered food, product, pass outs and assorted other variations of genuine frolic. Business for skate concerns in general was strong. Even responsible elements of the movement such as the International Associat ion of Skateboard Companies provided draught beer and seminars, whore Jim Fitzpatrick and Brian Schaeffer did stand up routines. On another level of connectivity, Andrew Reynolds got his teeth punched out (in?) by Gershon Mosley in some sort of trade show debacle involving booze and revelry.

In Disney news, the Mousecorp-ABC-ESPN-X-Games in Philadelphia were shrouded in duplicity and controversy as Matt Dove filed a protest and lobbied his way to a gold medal in the Best Trick event, claiming something about official notification of run time. Bob Burnquist, who was deprived of his top ranking and 11,000 dollars in prize money stated "If there's such controversy, I don't really want that medal." A couple of years back when Tony Hawk completed a 900 alter the time had run out ha was granted tha gold.

Obviously the only game at X is television.

The much-chronicled Dogtown and Z Boys film continues to show up at odd places for extremely limited engagements. It played one night in San Diego at the Pacific Gaslight Theatre for a decidedly upper tier industry audience. The crowd was races and receptive. Hundreds were present. Some of the most obvious included James Muir, Lance Mountain, Steve Sherman, Fausto Vitello, Larry Balma, Paul Schmitt, Greg Carroll, Kelly Collins, Joel Tudor, Chris Malloy, Mike Perry, Ed Riggins, and the ghost of Wes Humpston. The enclave was roasted by one particularly vocal manu who was screaming about how ho used to "own Dogtown." Steve Van Doren smuggled in copious amounts of contraband libation for the troops. Additional screenings of the 35mm digital sound print are going off at locales like the Chicago Film Festival, the American Film Festival as well as a three day stand in downtown Los. Andy Kessler and Ivory Serra attended the Toronto Film Festival to see it and then drove back to New York in tire for the attack, where Kessler had the ASPC rescue unit dispatched to extricate his dog.

The Aaron Rose Alleged Gallery opened up in Los Angeles, debuting an exhibition of Mark Gonzales' latest. Some fine examples of Dadaesque Gonz were purchased by exalted personas such as Donny Barley and Salman Agah. Also amongst the celebrants were Bruce Gilbert; The Sake Bomb Twins, Ian Rogers and Takuji Masuda. An illuminating sidelight to Gonz' show--not to mention the American Dream--occurred when ex-Rage writer Zach De la Rocha was singled out close to the opening by some gym rats and asked if ho were "an Arab Muslim."