So this past weekend John Carroll and I went to Paramount Pictures studios to checkout the
Van's Downtown Showdown. Although John was telling me he had seen better obstacles in the past (I suck at staying in the loop with shit like this), I was pretty stoked on the whole thing. The whole event was in the middle of one of their largest sets; a city street set with the whole nine yards: this place looked totally real if I hadn't known where we were. It was strait out of scene you'd see in the big city, just with goofy ramps in the shape of pentagrams, and crescent moon and stars. First night there I got carded at the practice session and pulled the I'm from out of town: don't have an ID... but I was not slick enough, dude totally knew the score , but gave me a beer anyway. Trust me to find my way to a drink. We got there late because some bird decided it would be cool to fly into one of the engines on the plane before take off. Getting there late, we ended up not hanging around too long during the practice session. Steve Van Doren was cookin' up a mad storm behind the grill as usual, and I stuffed my face with a quesadilla slice, before we called it a night and headed to the hotel.
After getting lost, even with Carroll's trusty map at hand, we ended up making it back to the hotel.I thought it was pretty rad, and got suckered as soon as we opened the door, cause I thought our comforters for the beds were made out of real zebras! Much to my disappointment it was just a print, but hey it fooled me for a second. This hotel even went so far as to hang artsy, high-res photos of tits and legs and hang them above our beds. I called tits right away; If you see the photos you'll know what I'm talking about.
Carroll made some good points on how Hollywood isn't really the glamor you'd expect unless your an idiot without eyes. It was weird, there would be a liquor store, shitty retail joints, a pollo loco and then some famous place you'd never expect to see next all this crap. Hollyweird for sure.
The second day was the real adventure, we stopped by all the shops near our hotel: SLB, HUF, Supreme, Alife, undefeated, Stussy, The Hundreds, and I think Flight Club too. They were all next to each other, so it was like hitten 8 birds with 2 stones (we used the car twice). SLB was rad as fuck; reminded me of index because we got to hangout and shoot the shit with Sal Barbier. When we stopped by Supreme we ran into John Humphries, photographer for SLAP, and nike, and Jason Dill. That place is pricey... I wish I could charge someone $80.00 for a baseball raglan shirt. Cool experience non the less. I wish I could have skated the bowl in the back, tht thing looks so fun to skate. I love the idea of having a bowl in the shop sort of floating behind the camera...
I think we had not taken a piss in 4 hours or so and it would be about another 2 or so before got to. We were hungry and looking for an in and out burger and somehow the shit turned into Harold and Kumar; we searched so long for that fuckin place... oh yeah and then I lost the map by this time. I figured since Carroll was a Native American he would bust out his navigation skills, but it didn't happen. We after saying "screw lunch, we'll be late" we got over to Paramount studios and got to see the madness unfold...
Van's Downtown ShowdownIt was definitely a different vibe than I thought I would see, but it was rad. Everyone is friends out there, and everyone was just hangin' around at the competition, either skating, or enjoying a beer with some friends. I liked that part: just to see all these people I've only seen in magazines all in the same area, but like just normal people at the same time. It really brought the whole seeing a pro down to earth. I've never really fanned out and being able to see all those dudes was cool because it was like seeing anyone else, but I recognized the fact that I've watched them skate since I was a kid. Everyone was throwing there bodies down or over the obstacles like carcasses, and I started to feel a little lazy like I don't try to hard when I skate. Either way it was bad ass to see proper execution of tricks on some ridiculous stuff. Some thing funny I just remembered is that we were eating with Johny Layton's grandma for like twenty minutes before we realized Johny was her grandson. We were just talking about this and that and she kept referring to grandson who was skating in the thing, but we didn't ask. A few other relatives come over and sit down, and before we knew it Johny Layton rolls up and says hey to the family. I thought it was pretty sick his whole family was there supporting him and hangin out with everyone. Layton is a pretty sick dude.
After the event was in the award announcing stage, the night seemed to be winding down, but little did I know what would be in store afterwards. We said our goodbyes to everyone and made way for some long awaited In and Out burger... I swear that place is always busy, doesn't matter at what time of day that place is packed. We ate those burgers quick and went back to the hotel. John was hangin out up in the room checking internet stuff, and I was in the bar mingling it up. I was already a little worked at this point. Some dude walked by and dropped off a stack of get in free cards for the gentleman's club down the way and I talked John into it since, I had never been to one. By the end of the night I was broke and well on my way to a sizable headache for the morning to follow.
After it was all said and done we checked out of the hotel ad enjoyed one last car ride done sunset blvd. I was passed out on the plane and it felt like a 45 minute flight... As soon as we landed I realized that the good life was coming to a halt and I would once again return to the world of reality and responsibilities. It was nice to be back though, but I loved the trip.
Special thanks from me and John Carroll go out to Scott Pfaff, Steve, and Kristy Van Doren for opportunity and hospitality. We had a great time, and got to see some rad stuff.
