Inventive

I found this...



looking for something else and it made me laugh. Chas one told me about this...



and you need it in your life. You can get the Sneakers and lace
here and you probably should. That's my New Year's tip off and post number six hundred and sixty six out of the way. Have a very happy New Year's eve...



whatever you're doing out there and I'll see you all next year

Moment of respite

Today has been crazy so not much of a post coming your way. Freezing, wet, very busy, temperamental card machine...



over it! It's not really that bad but it was nice using a high jump picture in that context. Happy New Years eve eve

Well documented

Much of Jensen's youth can be seen through the footage Magee has committed to video. Seeing old footage of Nick is of no surprise but is certainly a trip down memory lane. I'm sure he has tapes in the cupboard we have never seen of him skating with his brother, first flip down the seven etc. Maybe we will see them one day, old footage is the best. Whilst sifting through his old computer over Christmas, Rob found some gold dust of
Nugget Imagine how sick it would be to have footage of your first 360 flip! It seems like a long time ago Nugget met Ches in the Alley...



Yes Ches!



Bring on in the New Year

Dead zone

It's that no-man's land time period. We are on the bridge between Christmas and New Year. Judging by the day I have had in the shop and a brief walk through my town after skating today, shopping is the order of the day, shopping as feverishly as possible. Oli pointed out the other day quite rightly that as soon as an item has a sale tag on it customer's treat said item with even more disregard than normal. Shops I spent a short time in did have more than a few tell tale piles of discarded clothing. For the next couple of days I'll be behind the counter but our sale has yet to kick off so it will be business as usual. With little to blog on about today's post is just to comment on this time of year, these transient days sandwiched between two big events. Strange isn't it? Here's an image that's been on my desktop for a while now that I thought I'd share with you... I like giraffes a lot.

"Oi Bruv" etc

Christmas put a lot of twenty pound notes into a lot of young hands. This literally rendered Slam today a...



so apologies for a late wafer thin post. Let's hope for some good weather tomorrow

Happy Hanukkah

My Christmas day had a definite theme. I received this gift from Rob...



and spent most of the day's free time watching the programme. Here's a good quote from the book from Bill Scheft....

"I remember one time I asked Larry, 'Did you get into any confrontations today?' And he said, 'I have not gotten in one in two weeks, my friend!' And then I could almost see his mind clicking: 'Okay. Today I had a little problem.'"

Larry's out there fighting these demons for all of us. Here's a nice boxing Day clip for you before I try to salvage a skate...



See you tomorrow

Blue Christmas

This guy...



has spent the last little while editing you this Christmas
gift The gang shine through, have a good one

Christmas is...

"I'm sorry I ruined your lives, and crammed eleven cookies into the VCR."



"Yeah and I can get another midget too"



"No, you are a hallucination, brought on by alcohol. Russian Vodka, poisoned by Chernobyl"



"I don't want to sleep with Fuller. You know about him, he wets the bed. He'll pee all over me, I know it"



"Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?" Auntie Chris if you're out there in snowy Alberta reading this here's a related image for you...



I'm signing off. Merry Christmas one and all...



See you for a Boxing day skate

"Just relax and let your mind go blank...

..That shouldn't be too hard for you" When I saw the trailer for this I was underwhelmed but...



...I saw it last night at a hair brained 10.30 pm showing with my brother. It is what cinema was made for. Honestly it's the most incredible thing I've ever seen in a cinema, I was transported to another world and left pretty much speechless. I'm recommending you leave preconceptions at the door and take down a 3D showing, unbelievable. I know I've maybe cried wolf a few times in many peoples opinion as to the merits of certain films but take a chance on this one. News from the frontline is Shier's back. We've traded business cards already- Who'd have thunk it...



Graham has paid us a visit bearing gifts...



The new Vice magazine is in. Jackson is stoked because temporarily his Vans box back rest has a magazine pile footrest to accompany it before the rest of them are picked up...



Pick one up I suggest you do. This months issue contains a Wolfboy story and a selection of Olly Todd's poetry so that's a Christmas treat in the bank. On a related topic Olly's new boards drop in just under a month and here's a peek at them...



I'm typing this with bleeding fingers so I'm going back to the war zone, over and out

Snowball fights

If you didn't make it last night you missed out on a good one. The usual antics went down with the added bonus of intermittent snowball fights which were enjoyed by all. The downside of this was the snow which made these possible crippled public transport and made my journey from home, door to door last two and a half hours. Half way to New York? No, Bromley to Hoxton street. I'm glad I got there in time to play some music. Settling on a Neil Young song/Bruce Springsteen song pattern I thoroughly enjoyed myself. For me the highlight was getting to hear this song through a decent system. The album version is seven minutes long, you get nine...



Luigi was obviously a highlight but getting to see Danny Sargent play was the best thing...



They smashed it. Watch this space for news on your next chance to see them live. To see more photos from the night Jackson shot on his Uzi 35mm
click here Christmas time means this guy will be in the building very soon...



Be sure to check
The Berrics the whole of this week to see what him and his Blueprint comrades got up to on their recent reign of the new park.

The E Street shuffle

Christmas starts here. Hope to see all of you here...



My compact disc jockying career begins at 8. Arrive early for dissapointment

Randall Boggs

We had a good visit from this guy today...



A.K.A...



Alongside the monsters inc appearance he has a long lost sibling...



and has recently designed a board for Heroin. Investigate Paddy's world
here

"I knocked myself out once"

Quote from Luigi there. My hunch is that it may have happened more times than that. The Slam Christmas party will soon be upon us...



I'm learning to DJ on the night. If you like this guy...



or this guy...



you'll be in clover. If you don't I think my set will finish at nine so turn up then. The kind folk over at the Daily Street have been good to us this year. They have a competition running with a lot of stores including ourselves contributing to the booty. Pay
them a visit and sign yourself up for a chance to win.

Culture Vulture

If your evening is free tonight Mr Jagger has something to fill it with...



My evening will be filled with this...



Mail order of the week went out to this address...



It checked out and everything, Fraggle Rock the place exists and will soon house Slam City Skates product. Make sure you check out
Little Wednesday Baker, the author of my favourite minutes on the site has a mini edit up on there courtesy of Ches and since typing this a nice Bus Stop photo. The weekend is going to be crazy, see you in the mad house

"Who's Bill Murray?"

Back to back Prince Charles visits. Caught this yesterday...



Funny stuff. The Bill Murray appearance is fantastic. Today I watched this...



Possibly the saddest animated adventure I've ever seen-serious onion potential. Inspector high brow signing off

Role reversal

The man behind Slam City Skates' web action...



Mark Jackson (photo courtesy of Gorm) is holidaying in Barcelona, funnily enough the setting for one of my favourite Mark Jackson back smith stories. Whilst out there and hot off the presses is this evidence of Jackson flipping the script on a man normally the other side of the lens. Sam Ashley-backside 50-50 180 out BCN...



Meanwhile on home turf Dan has slipped effortlessly into character...



I'll leave you with some more Mathieson handiwork as per usual. My Monmouth coffee of choice would be a Black Americano, the rest is courtesy of Rob...



Go and watch Where The Wild Things Are if you haven't already

Finally

I've set this evening aside to enjoy seeing these guys...



When I've seen The Nolan's name roll by on the credits I intend to return home and actually watch The Fall. Estimated intake till sleep last night would have been about eight minutes. Spike Jonze evening it is

Whirlwind

The Christmas rush is in full swing hence today's late post. Frantic mail order, Jackson on his hols in BCN and a shop full of custom and deliveries today. Last night we enjoyed a concert at the borderline. Neil "the Baron" Baron is a friend of Ian Broudie who played there with Starsailor's James Walsh. He kindly organised our evening's entertainment for us. Gigs aplenty of late, that's the way it needs to be. Having packed many a mail order today it was a pleasant surprise to come across one for me when I opened the door...



Ordered eons ago it's good to finally have it in my grasp. Every home should have one. If you haven't seen this...



you need to because it really does cover all the bases. Lucky for you if you are a Monday night Alley visitor I may have saved your evening. It's on Channel 5 at 11.05. If even one of you gets to see it having not because of this post my work here is done. I have a disc of it in the vaults so won't be watching that tonight. Instead following a Chuck Young 101 recommendation I acquired a copy of this...



Looking forward to it

The basics

I've always thought the state of a shop's sticker book to be a reflection of the quality of the store itself. Our last one went missing briefly but was found before anyone was accused. This proved to be a blessing in disguise because this project I undertook and Rob decorated...



has become the healthiest and most successful one to date. Come and have a look, there are some gems in there

The Bow Tie

This is my favourite thing right now...



Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good

Cheese jokes

Two cheese themed jokes led Toddy and myself to create a joke we declared the most whimsical jape of the season. The punchline involved...



and...



You can fill in the rest

Out there

Last night was amazing. Probably due to a lack of publicity I'd say the Garage was about a third full. We caught the end of dead confederate. Pleasant surprise last night was the wall of Stoner Rock provided by this band...



The San Franciscan sextet
Sleepy Sun were instantly loveable. Moments of delicate beauty were carefully contrasted with rib shaking riffage and ascending percussion. This nicely set the scene for J Mascis and the Fog. Two minutes before they took the stage we sauntered into the spot we had stood in before three people from the front of the stage.Half way through the last song in Sleepy Sun's set Mascis walked out from backstage, stood next to us, listened for a second and disappeared again. That's the kind of show it was the opposite to the last time I saw him play where a drink/toilet break left you back to square one, stranded behind a sea of humans. The stack of Marshall amps looming in the corner of the stage were soon given a work out. J Mascis and the fog put on quite a performance. They covered a great deal of their material as a band with hardly a whisper between songs. Mascis looked happiest stood in front of those amps working his way through improvised solos which were my favourite part. The unmistakeable familiar noise he has feels like home, there were a lot of smiling faces in the crowd. Some Dinosaur Jr tracks got a run out towards the end my favourites being Freak scene, thumb and the final encore the title of today's post. I'm happy I got to see him play in that kind of situation, it was pretty special. Enough music nerd stuff for today. If you have randomly researched any kind of web space for the PWBC of late you may have found yourself knee deep in shuttlecocks at the Paddock Wood Badmington Club headquarters. No longer. Bookmarks at the ready. Rob set up a Blog and enlisted a group of authors including myself so it could be a mammoth, regularly updated affair. Click away for all PWBC related nonsense
here

Giggidy Giggidy Giggidy

Continuing this weeks Gig fest I'll report back from last night. Deer Tick smashed it, they played for ages, way past curfew. Their party approach to the show was refreshing with the lead singer dealing out shots of Jack Daniels mouth to mouth. Fully recommend catching them live if you get the chance. Last night's surprise was seeing this guy there...



and getting to see him play electric guitar for this band...



Laurie Sherman is a talented man. These guys are playing frequently at the moment before embarking on a US tour. Research the
Treetop Flyers and try and catch one of their shows. Tonight your favourite wizard and mine is in town...



He's bringing the fog with him not Bob. Supporting are Luigi's favourites...




Dead Confederate