Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

june, 2011, saturday, 2010, the, radish, friday, monday, 13, november, skate, express, 25, 24, 17, december, contributors, links, blog, archive, 5th, annual, beasley, bbq, gonz, ii, spots, of, yor, it, only, hurts, when, walk, slipped, disk, brantford, park, house, fly, effect,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (278), and (116), that (51), was (34), for (34), one (31), but (27), park (25), skate (20), out (20), with (20), some (19), about (17), were (17), had (16), this (14), which (14), more (14), time (14), #beasley (13), have (13), there (13), when (12), like (12), been (12), what (12), skaters (12), just (11), has (11), from (11), off (11), his (11), oldschool (11), even (10), day (10), its (10), not (10), than (10), get (9), myself (9), all (9), around (9), little (9), would (9), inkfingers (8), skateboard (8), they (8), skateboarding (8), over (8), could (8), skateboarders (8), way (8), other (8), neighbourhood (8), june (7), posted (7), are (7), didn (7), through (7), can (7), knee (7), effect (7), how (7), into (7), will (7), downtown (7), who (7), students (7), side (7), skating (7), used (7), hamilton (7), now (6), make (6), look (6), because (6), back (6), feel (6), much (6), them (6), board (6), brantford (6), might (6), left (6), group (6), their (6), skatepark (6), deck (6), november (5), 2011 (5), comments (5), getting (5), yesterday (5), good (5), these (5), doing (5), last (5), air (5), after (5), body (5), year (5), tricks (5), two (5), trying (5), then (5), did (5), actually (5), still (5), kids (5), think (5), skater (5), use (5), down (5), couple (5), our (5), new (5), charter (5), 2010 (4), only (4), things (4), radish (4), days (4), always (4), years (4), where (4), long (4), enough (4), while (4), feet (4), half (4), hour (4), matt (4), difficult (4), kind (4), local (4), having (4), well (4), culture (4), got (4), space (4), designed (4), sure (4), skateboarder (4), area (4), set (4), seemed (4), land (4), also (4), perhaps (4), right (4), better (4), curb (4), old (4), hurts (3), walk (3), spots (3), gonz (3), 5th (3), annual (3), bbq (3), blog (3), older (3), house (3), sun (3), such (3), spot (3), tell (3), winter (3), joints (3), seem (3), fall (3), same (3), him (3), turned (3), most (3), bease (3), another (3), crazy (3), many (3), sat (3), course (3), youth (3), gave (3), see (3), questions (3), public (3), different (3), itself (3), behind (3), pole (3), being (3), point (3), asked (3), standing (3), built (3), walking (3), large (3), kid (3), attempt (3), installed (3), city (3), ledges (3), dark (3), tend (3), take (3), does (3), took (3), store (3), shop (3), highlights (3), outside (3), said (3), saturday (3), members (3), made (3), each (3), your (3), times (3), wheels (3), probably (3), big (3), jordan (3), guys (3), towards (3), today (3), need (3), twenty (3), official (3), signing (3), various (3), event (3), free (3), july (2), september (2), december (2), yor (2), flatspot (2), posts (2), home (2), harder (2), motivate (2), beautiful (2), autumn (2), coming (2), window (2), particularly (2), mastered (2), sweater (2), age (2), wrist (2), ankles (2), fly (2), start (2), summer (2), trees (2), live (2), important (2), slow (2), come (2), making (2), forth (2), meet (2), allow (2), great (2), leaves (2), layer (2), name (2), ripping (2), hump (2), motion (2), since (2), dawn (2), slope (2), ground (2), prepared (2), book (2), guest (2), lecture (2), video (2), whole (2), class (2), branford (2), plaza (2), instructor (2), monday (2), brief (2), thirty (2), university (2), thinking (2), social (2), uses (2), fairly (2), wasn (2), work (2), part (2), traces (2), before (2), strange (2), between (2), upon (2), found (2), why (2), followers (2), really (2), situation (2), started (2), facility (2), model (2), best (2), features (2), location (2), doesn (2), property (2), non (2), save (2), few (2), grand (2), river (2), beside (2), traffic (2), road (2), atop (2), steep (2), row (2), brampton (2), main (2), flanking (2), canada (2), guessing (2), ontario (2), often (2), felt (2), slightly (2), week (2), trip (2), under (2), stairs (2), fact (2), watching (2), comply (2), first (2), try (2), young (2), bank (2), own (2), kickflip (2), darkness (2), metal (2), lights (2), themselves (2), concrete (2), arrived (2), bmxers (2), painful (2), heart (2), longer (2), redefine (2), post (2), bought (2), delicious (2), beer (2), life (2), comment (2), image (2), show (2), included (2), disk (2), arm (2), you (2), makes (2), middle (2), front (2), chairs (2), ache (2), roller (2), worried (2), complete (2), toronto (2), people (2), handrails (2), rail (2), quite (2), went (2), managed (2), owner (2), friday (2), nose (2), nice (2), tried (2), purchased (2), help (2), trade (2), something (2), minutes (2), sweating (2), assembly (2), represent (2), interests (2), groups (2), play (2), picnic (2), dogs (2), brand (2), table (2), boards (2), bearings (2), equipment (2), popeye (2), end (2), brought (2), hsa (2), peter (2), lot (2), mayor (2), landmark (2), joining (2), form (2), express (2), skip (2), 2009, february, august, october, archive, wolfonstilts, tooautistic, weirder, stranded, kulturbot, christian, links, healthy, snack, monster, contributors, subscribe, atom, colder, shorter, though, almost, four, clock, living, room, hitting, couch, angle, reading, napping, desire, put, headed, door, fifty, typing, school, fingers, achy, sore, contributes, call, observed, common, houseflies, spring, act, drowsy, buzzing, against, pane, vestiges, sunlight, odd, humans, insects, plants, garden, circuit, regards, cat, stays, inside, complaining, accidentally, lock, bedroom, likes, curl, weather, fight, slide, hibernation, sleet, snow, soon, oneself, venture, adversity, bracing, inspiring, rally, greater, courage, season, fleeting, beauty, transitional, months, offer, threat, slipping, complacence, housefly, triumph, miss, sharper, fresher, changing, colours, smell, wood, fires, yards, chimneys, scraping, piles, dried, curbside, peeling, outerwear, warms, exertion, spent, fellow, whose, forgot, powerhouse, able, blast, bowl, tech, backside, frontside, 180, heelflips, example, floating, giant, heelfilp, variations, landing, seemingly, effortlessly, flips, crisp, proceed, nadir, flight, rendezvous, scheduled, meticulous, cosmic, train, schedule, precisely, blt, connect, completed, 360, degree, flip, rotation, ride, plank, line, traced, written, eternal, raddishness, delivered, goods, convince, cooperate, tomorrow, deliver, slides, clips, photos, renovation, field, observations, anyone, else, inclined, roll, signed, waiver, tuesday, wilfred, laurier, satellite, campus, talk, history, focused, themes, counter, cultures, incorporation, politics, talked, fourth, walked, nearby, ahead, configured, kinds, reflects, construction, contribute, fashioning, particular, sense, identity, community, late, any, encourage, detective, asking, users, luck, unusually, warm, sundown, ten, confrontation, majority, whom, women, notebooks, backpacks, visibly, aged, professor, figure, acting, singled, leader, immediately, reaching, established, authority, calling, remembrance, poppy, wrong, plastic, occasionally, launching, generally, menacing, subtle, waiving, entire, encounter, haunted, anthropological, framework, seekers, producers, knowledge, confronted, subject, positioned, sort, mediator, worlds, vocal, know, react, every, dynamic, character, include, urban, convenient, involve, damage, private, vacant, notive, sloped, obstacles, mini, ramp, type, enclosure, outdoor, ampitheatre, hill, casino, flanks, sides, busy, artery, gate, across, remaining, buidings, street, buildings, backs, face, recently, torn, dismay, historically, minded, structures, surviving, pre, confederation, storefronts, strangely, sculpted, lookout, tower, perch, zoom, camera, parks, struck, slighter, rougher, others, aggressive, tone, summers, ago, counselor, adventure, camp, marked, threatening, behavior, locals, toward, younger, care, wielding, hailing, somewhat, challenging, fit, general, pattern, previous, experience, figured, prove, worthy, respect, complying, airwalk, relax, presence, audience, spurred, 240, tail, crowd, pleaser, lucky, execute, guy, boneless, angled, interpreted, tip, hat, stylings, universal, measure, separating, truly, merely, quickly, descending, despite, lamppost, yet, told, hadn, repaired, restless, explanation, pointing, scuff, bmx, bikers, slopes, odds, facilities, bikes, faster, quieter, skateboards, easy, collide, pegs, grinding, chip, knew, advantage, envelope, total, easier, bike, bmxer, watch, pebbles, cracks, skatebaord, providing, narration, discovery, channel, expedition, depths, exotic, environment, concealed, hope, fun, ideas, hard, lecturer, guide, insteresting, visit, stay, five, hours, mental, snapshot, struggling, industrial, oriented, western, economy, discount, vinyl, record, opened, earlier, ate, chicken, shawarma, opening, finished, sports, bar, read, deleuze, kafka, listening, golden, oldie, station, distracted, beetle, song, recaps, football, game, patio, cold, waitress, don, latest, assemblage, technology, tweaked, photo, natus, kaupus, footplant, fence, artist, inc, swarm, next, month, night, wish, grey, floppy, seems, place, messed, reconfigure, piece, slipped, comes, becomes, isomorphic, nature, consistently, differently, switch, punk, conditioning, certain, moving, ordinary, instance, aches, ankle, pain, lower, spine, sometimes, rarely, rest, completely, wrecked, falling, hand, clue, sorry, state, brother, morning, real, chore, wonder, install, those, mechanical, lift, trouble, poses, discomforts, thing, knees, modest, belly, flaps, wind, rolling, until, recite, zen, proverb, seven, eight, case, wipe, 439, drag, yourself, pavement, 440, taking, balanced, activity, erosion, occurred, skates, too, handle, pushing, extra, waste, 1989, thereabouts, friends, starting, hometown, may, rails, learning, short, perfect, friend, decided, far, bravest, runs, onto, again, properly, fell, ass, shooting, however, due, collective, stupor, nobody, catch, flew, car, ran, ever, handrail, suspect, thoughfully, anti, devices, ensure, break, stick, bothering, trevor, wrangle, came, issue, mark, gonzalez, looks, shape, harkens, early, nineties, kicktail, beefy, wide, feets, wheel, base, exist, remember, already, standards, spin, newly, paved, passed, sidewalk, size, least, thought, support, divice, reduce, kneecap, wondering, wears, pants, drenched, sweat, caps, wear, braces, prosthetics, frisby, croquet, here, keeping, together, high, density, elastic, suit, stuff, spiderman, rides, sails, curbs, complies, shove, done, trembling, dragged, nearest, corner, gator, ade, bag, sour, key, candies, drug, addict, shaking, hands, stress, swim, straight, reduces, shambling, mound, bones, flesh, dignified, muster, nearly, forty, man, receding, hairline, greying, temples, fiend, consume, candy, gatorade, convenience, purple, retro, feels, swiftly, flowing, clinging, rock, stream, swept, adulthood, hoping, somehow, pass, interesting, cling, bit, reveals, give, habit, move, let, existence, rodney, mullen, attended, document, breakdancers, steel, drum, band, town, crier, dressed, historic, john, simcoe, information, tents, importantly, hot, cheapo, either, sizeable, meat, sticks, donated, maple, leaf, foods, bring, cleaned, grip, tape, topped, worn, trucks, sets, ridable, rounded, courtesy, given, away, beat, unridable, secured, tools, tent, showed, afternoon, pretty, expressly, invited, everything, association, happy, highlighting, literally, swarmed, eager, requests, fix, oiling, pay, attention, generated, excitement, appreciation, youths, diligently, destroyed, cheering, enthusiasm, during, speech, bob, bratina, mentioned, abandoned, cotton, mills, building, residential, worry, development, plans, conflict, oldest, hopes, protect, giving, recognition, guarantee, future, poorest, neighbourhoods, kept, radar, enjoyed, wading, pool, bail, water, evening, current, grass, roots, effort, renovate, lead, number, additions, improvements, similar, dyi, spirit, collectively, address, needs, responsibilities, stakeholders, struggles, profile, several, generations, grown, larger, importance, cultural, kicked, streets, properties, charters, ceremonies, attendance, positive, step, securing, site, continue, enjoy, rad, sidebar,

Text of the page (random words):
ool that skaters had to bail the water out of each evening to its current form where a grass roots effort to renovate the facility has lead to a number of additions and improvements to the skatepark in a similar dyi spirit the new neighbourhood charter is an attempt to collectively address the needs and responsibilities of the various stakeholders in the area as beasley neighbourhood struggles to redefine its public profile the several generations of skateboarders who have grown up skating beasley park need to represent themselves to the larger city in a way that highlights the importance of the bease as a cultural and social landmark skateboarders are more used to being kicked off streets and properties than signing neighbourhood charters at ceremonies with the mayor in attendance but i think this was a positive step towards securing beasley skate park as a site that skaters will continue to enjoy in years to come posted by inkfingers at 9 08 pm no comments friday june 24 2011 the gonz ii i ve been bothering trevor at the local skate shop to wrangle up an oldschool deck for me and today he came through big time with this re issue mark gonzalez from the looks of it the shape harkens back from some time in the early nineties big kicktail beefy nose a nice wide deck for my large feets the wheel base is even longer than my old gonz which followers of the blog if they exist will remember was already quite large by today s standards but i took it out for a spin found a newly paved side road and tried to get used to it a couple older guys passed on the sidewalk and said that s about your size or at least that s what i thought they said yesterday i purchased a knee support divice and it actually seemed to help reduce the ache under my front kneecap i m wondering if rodney mullen wears one on each knee and that is why his pants are always drenched in sweat over the knee caps i used to tell myself that the day i need to wear knee braces or other prosthetics was the day i d trade in my board for a frisby or croquet set or something but here i am keeping myself together with high density elastic if i could get a complete body suit made of that stuff i d feel and probably look just like spiderman but the new board rides nice it sails over curbs with no complies and the nose is good for the oldschool no comply shove its still after twenty minutes of skating i was done for sweating and trembling i dragged myself to the nearest corner store and purchased some gator ade the owner gave me a bag for two sour key candies i was trying not to look like a drug addict with shaking hands but the stress of skateboarding has that effect on me i can swim for an hour straight but twenty minutes of skating reduces me to a shambling mound of bones and flesh i sat down on the curb and tried to look dignified but it was more than i could muster a nearly forty year old man with receding hairline and greying temples sweating like a fiend and trying to consume candy and gatorade on the curb outside a convenience store purple retro skateboard beside him more and more it feels like time is a swiftly flowing river and i m clinging to a little rock in the middle of the stream trying not to get swept into adulthood hoping that old age will somehow pass me by but it s interesting to cling to a little bit of youth with all one s might because it reveals things about who we think we are and what we do to feel that way i d give up my skateboard habit if there seemed to be something to move towards but i m worried that if i were to let it go then the best days of my existence would be behind me posted by inkfingers at 5 14 pm no comments friday june 17 2011 skate spots of yor back in 1989 or thereabouts my friends and i were in toronto just about the time when people were starting to skate handrails in a big way in my hometown there may have been a couple good rails but for learning a short steep rail like the one outside of this bank in downtown toronto is just about perfect so my friend jordan decided to try it out he was by far the bravest skater of our group he took a few runs and got onto the rail but didn t land it myself and two other guys were standing by the curb watching on what was to be jordan s last attempt he again didn t quite land properly he fell on his ass as his board went shooting out towards the curb where we were standing however due to some kind of collective stupor nobody managed to catch his board and it flew out into traffic where a car ran over it i m not sure if jordan ever managed to land a handrail after that i suspect he probably did the property owner have thoughfully installed anti skate devices to ensure that no more skateboarders break their stick on these handrails posted by inkfingers at 6 38 am 1 comment monday june 13 2011 it only hurts when i walk there comes a point in a skateboarder s life when walking around becomes more painful than skating around perhaps the non isomorphic nature of skateboarding the fact that you tend to use one side of your body consistently differently than the other side even if you do half of your tricks switch like some young punk has an effect over many years of conditioning the body to a certain way of moving around that makes ordinary walking more and more difficult for instance my right knee aches more than my left but my left ankle hurts more than my right some days the pain in my lower spine is on the right side and sometimes it is on the left rarely does it rest in the middle and my front or right wrist is completely wrecked from falling on it so many times while my other hand has little clue of what a sorry state its brother is in getting down the stairs in the morning is a real chore and i wonder how difficult it would be to install one of those mechanical lift chairs to save myself the trouble but then getting in and out of chairs poses its own discomforts the strange thing is when i get on the skateboard i tend to feel much better sure my knees still ache and my modest beer belly flaps in the wind but rolling around makes the joints feel better until i fall off and have to recite the zen proverb fall down seven times get up eight or in my case wipe out 7 439 times drag yourself off the pavement 7 440 i ve been thinking of taking up some more balanced activity like roller skating 4 wheels good 8 wheels better but i m worried that the erosion to my joints has occurred in such a way that the even back and forth motion of roller skates would be too much for my body to handle i d probably take off the left skate and start pushing myself around on one skate just to feel better and then what would i do with the extra left skate it would be a complete waste posted by inkfingers at 9 04 pm no comments saturday december 4 2010 slipped disk this is my latest assemblage which features some oldschool technology as the ground for a tweaked image of an oldschool skateboarder the model for the image was actually a photo of natus kaupus doing a footplant on fence post it s at the hamilton artist s inc members show swarm for the next month i made it in a one night and now wish that i had not included the grey floppy disk which seems out of place each time i look at it i also messed up the arm a little perhaps i ll reconfigure the piece when its back from the show posted by inkfingers at 12 32 pm 1 comment saturday november 13 2010 brantford skate park last tuesday i did a guest lecture about skateboarding for a course on youth culture at the wilfred laurier satellite campus in brantford my talk gave a brief history of skateboarding and focused on the themes of counter cultures incorporation and the politics of space i talked for about an hour then the whole class of about thirty fourth year university students the instructor and i walked to the nearby brantford skate park to see what we could see i had prepared some questions ahead of time which were designed to get the students thinking about how public and social space is configured what kinds of different uses it reflects and how the construction of space itself might contribute to the fashioning of a particular sense of identity and community because it is fairly late in the year i wasn t sure there would actually be any skaters at the park so the questions were designed to encourage detective work on the part of the students asking them to look for traces that park users might have left behind as luck would have it it was an unusually warm day and by the time we got to the park a half hour before sundown there were still about ten skaters there it turned out to be a strange confrontation with a group of thirty university kids the majority of whom were women with notebooks and backpacks and one visibly aged skateboarder professor figure acting as the go between for the students and the local skateboarders at the park i was singled out as the leader immediately upon reaching the park and one of the skateboarders established his authority by calling out to me that my remembrance day poppy was on the wrong side of my sweater i think it was this same skater who was skating around the park with a long plastic pole that he had found occasionally launching it through the air and being generally menacing in a subtle pole waiving kind of way the entire encounter was haunted by an anthropological framework in which the seekers producers of knowledge confronted their subject as other with myself positioned as a sort of mediator between these two worlds at one point the same vocal skater asked why my followers were just standing around i didn t really know how to react to this situation so i started skateboarding every skatepark that i ve been to has a different dynamic and character the branford park is a beautiful facility built in a skate plaza model it s designed to include all the best features of an urban downtown into one convenient location the use of which by skaters doesn t involve doing damage to private property a non skater walking through this area when it was vacant might not even notive it was a skatepark save for a few sloped obstacles and a mini ramp type area set off to one side it s built in the enclosure of what used to be an outdoor ampitheatre the grand river is just over the hill to one side and a large casino flanks another of its sides it is beside a fairly busy traffic artery and from the gate of the park off across the road and atop a steep slope one can now see the remaining row of buidings of brampton s main downtown street this is because the flanking row of buildings the backs of which used to face the park have recently been torn down much to the dismay of the historically minded as these structures were some of the last surviving pre confederation storefronts in canada built into the park area is a strangely sculpted lookout tower which i m guessing would make a great perch from which to make a skate video if one had a good enough zoom on the camera out of the different skate parks i ve been to in ontario brantford s has always struck me as slighter rougher than the others i ve often felt a slightly aggressive tone in the air there and a couple summers ago when i was a counselor for hamilton s week long skateboard adventure camp our group s trip to the park was marked by threatening behavior from a couple of the locals toward some of the younger kids under our care so the pole wielding skater s hailing me in a somewhat challenging way fit with the general pattern of my previous experience of the park and i figured the only way through the situation was to do some skating and prove myself worthy of the respect of the other skaters there i did a couple oldschool tricks no complying up the stairs and an airwalk or two and the other skaters seemed to relax a little i think in fact that the presence of an audience actually spurred them on and they started doing some crazy tricks for the group of students who were watching my 240 no comply to tail is always a crowd pleaser and i was lucky enough to execute one off on the first try one young guy did an oldschool boneless over the angled bank in what i interpreted as a kind of tip of the hat to my own oldschool stylings another kid asked me if i could do a kickflip the universal measure separating the truly oldschool from the merely slightly oldschool i didn t actually land my kickflip attempt but i can do them darkness was quickly descending upon the park and despite there being a metal lamppost the lights themselves had not yet been installed atop of it i asked one of the skaters about this and he told me that the city still hadn t installed the lights i repaired back to the now restless group of students and did a little more explanation pointing out the scuff traces skateboarding leaves behind on concrete ledges now that it was getting dark some bmx bikers had arrived and were doing tricks on the ledges and slopes of the park bmxers and skaters often are at odds about the use of park facilities the bikes are faster and quieter than skateboards and so it is easy and painful to collide with one the metal pegs that they used for grinding ledges also tend to chip the concrete making it more difficult for skaters to use but i m guessing that the bmxers knew that the skaters could not skate well in the dark and so arrived at that time to take advantage of the brief envelope before total darkness set in also perhaps it is easier to bike in the dark a bmxer does not have to watch out for little pebbles and cracks as one does on a skatebaord i felt a little like i was providing narration for a discovery channel expedition into the depths of some exotic environment concealed in the heart of downtown brantford but i hope the students had fun and took home some new questions or ideas about public space and its uses it s hard to tell what effect one is having as a lecturer skatepark guide brampton itself was an insteresting spot to visit i didn t stay much longer than five hours just enough time to take a mental snapshot of the downtown of a city which much like hamilton is struggling to redefine itself in the new post industrial oriented western economy i bought some discount vinyl at a record store that had opened a week earlier and ate a delicious chicken shawarma at a shop that had just had its grand opening that day i finished my trip by having a beer at a sports bar trying to read deleuze s book about kafka while listening to a golden oldie s station but i got distracted by a beetle s song a day in the life and recaps of the highlights of a football game on tv i would have sat outside on the patio because it wasn t all that cold out but the waitress said they don t allow that in november posted by inkfingers at 5 09 pm no comments monday november 8 2010 the house fly effect now that it is getting colder and the days are getting shorter it s harder to motivate myself to get out of the house even yesterday though the sun was out and it was a beautiful autumn day i almost didn t make...