PopRally Presents: An Evening of Skate Videos

eh . . . too cool!

Skateboardanimation from Tilles Singer on Vimeo.

HBO Documentary - Making it in America

The Get By

New Music from The Dead Milkmen!

New Skateboard - I'd say quite a suitable graphic for me!

Gotta Love it!

Reese on Stacks - it's Official!

Reese Forbes is my unofficial "claim to fame". I met Reese when I started skateboarding some 20 odd years ago. One of my friends had come by with this little kid with crazy blond hair. He had a pretty ragged board and super small, worn down wheels (this was just a little before small wheels were in!). We skated a bunch of times together in and about the neighborhood and he was one of the first people I ever photographed skateboarding. He was so sick! To this day I wish I had skated as much as he did, who knows, maybe I could have gone pro too (I doubt it, but once you have a dream - that first one never goes away . . .).

Every once in a while I will run into him, I believe the last time was at the Mike O'Meally photo exhibit opening in NYC a few years back. He came in with one of my all time favorite pro's of the 80's, Natas Kaupas - I was just in awe! I truly admire the career Reese has had and that he is still going strong. Although we really don't keep in touch, I'm glad that when I do run into him from time to time, he still calls me his friend - Thanks Reese! Best of luck, I'll be here supporting you! -m

Sade is back!

New Music Video: Sade - Soldier Of Love - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

No, not that iPad . . .

No, not that iPad . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK2drIylnDw

Only in NYC - Awesome, of course until the cops come . . . .

BLKOPS-122009-loRes from jsjcreative on Vimeo.

Another Kelby training seminar, the one, " creative suite 4 UNLEASHED!".

Spike Jonze at the MoMa - Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009

Just got back from NYC. I made a special trip up to the Big Apple to check out "An Evening of Skate Videos" - an event held by Poprally in support of the Moma's exhibit honoring the work of Spike Jonze, co-owner of Girl Skateboards and director of "Video Days" ( the epic Blind Skateboards video), and director of "Where the Wild Things Are." The panel included a who's who of the skateboarding world, they included Spike Jonze, Patrick O'Dell (MC for the evening), Mark Gonzales, Lance Mountain, Jake Phelps, Tobin Yelland, Ty Evans, Greg Hunt, and Ed Templeton. Some other notable's that showed up included Giovanni Reda, Steve Rodriguez, Steve Olson, Jason Dill, Mike O'Meally, and Pitcrew Local Tyler Tufty. It was a great night of some classic skate videos and a great chance to get some great comments by those that were involved with them. Following the event, the band No Age put on a kick-ass show while the Colt 45 flowed.

Good Times!

MAC, PC, What's the difference . . .

King of Series from Hill Street on DC Shoes website

Although I didn't get the photo credit, my pic of everyone that came out to skate and support the riders at the King of Series held by DC Shoes last Saturday is up on their website. Big thanks goes to Tim aand Malcolm at Pitcrew and Jeff Pang with DC for putting on a great event.

Check out the site here:

http://skate.dcshoes.com/king/#/Chicago/News/271

More photos like these can be found on my site too:

mleongphoto.com

18th and K st nw

From the photo it doesn't look like much, but I think this could be a
fun hip to skate.

Decisions, Decisions

After about 48 hours of trying to make a very difficult decision between the Hyundai Santa Fe and the Honda Element, I retired the Rodeo for the Hyundai Santa Fe . . . I think I made the right choice!

Element's "Make it Count" Tour

It was super hot for the Element Demo yesterday - starting at 3 p.m. for the signing, I waited for 2 hours to get in. The actual demo didn't get started until 8 p.m., with no video premiere to follow. Either way it was a good demo, and the whole team, including Bam's parents were great. I even made it onto their website - yeah I know, I'm a geek! (http://www.elementskateboards.com/makeitcount/?p=470)

Photos of one of my photos being signed by Collin Provost, me with a shot from Back to the Banks and a team collage. My Photos coming soon!

Ron Allen 1989 - 2009 Still Killin' it!

Here is one of the photos of Ron Allen from 1989 and one from this past sunday at Lakefest in Oakland. Keep kill'n it Ron - it was an honor to meet you!

What about Sunday?!?!?

Sunday I met up with my friend Nina. Whenever I come to SF, I always try to find time to hang out with Nina. She used to work at GW in DC and moved to Oakland for graduate school. Oddly, we didn't really become friends until she was in the process of leaving GW for grad school, but that is a whole other story. Anyway, she suggested that we check out a festival that was going on in her neighborhood called Lakefest. I was like "cool", sounds like a plan. She also mentioned that there were a bunch of bands playing and a litlle skate contest going on there too. That got me even more psyched! It turned out to be the Hood Games - basically a local contest, started and supported by Karl Watson and Organika skateboards, that promotes skateboarding in a positive way and is trying to the city to put a skatepark in Oakland. Now I was getting even more excited - Karl was just in DC on the Battle for the Nation Tour - I had met him last year, seen him in NYC in June and had given him a copy of my book during the BFTN Tour. He was pretty stoked on it, so I was hoping to see him at the Oakland contest too, just to keep the line of communication open. Karl is an awesome guy and I would love the opportunity to go out and photograph the Organika team on the road. Sure enough, he was there - his 2 sons in tow. The contest was cool - local kids just having fun - like it should be. I bought a Hood Games deck to support the cause and got Karl to sign it. I started taking some photos and I recognized one of the guys skating - it was F-ing RON ALLEN - legendary H-street rider from back in the day! Talk about stoked! I ran over and introduced myself and showed him a photo I shot back in 1989, while he was on tour in Baltimore. He was lov'n it- as much as I was. Talk about having an awesome time! Much thanks to Nina - I love you and wish we could hang out more often!

Final days in SF

I never really got a chance to fill you in on the rest of my trip to SF, so here it is. Besides checking out a bunch of stores in the city - Chrome, Calumet, Pedal Revolution, Mission Skateshop/Pushbike (cycling gear), Box Dog Bikes and of course - DLXSF, I got a chance to hit up 3rd and Army (actually Ceasar Chavez if you are looking for it on a map). The first day I went by, I specifically went to try to get some skate pics. Believe it or not, the place was empty! Yep, empty. Only a little while later some guys showed up - a crew out of San Diego. I guess they were earlier because this one dude tried to heelflip the round rail, but couldn't quite get it - good attempt though (I couldn't do it!). MondayI came back to skate it. I guess when you skate some where new, it takes a while to get used to it - however, I never did. I almost killed myself like 5 times. Again it was pretty empty, until about a half hour after I started skating, some other guys started showing up - one of which was Raymond Molinar - and Ameatur for Stereo Skateboards. Didn't take any photos of him, but I did say hi and showed him a photo I shot of him skating during the red bull Manny Mania in NYC this year. He was pretty stoked.