It's late, and I'm just typing....

[tabaqui]

I have watched, in the last couple of weeks, several different times (ESPN has been showing this, for some reason, nearly every day), a movie called 'Dogtown and Z-Boys'. It's a documentary about the Zephyr Skate team, a group of boys and one girl who were surfers-turned-skateboarders in 'Dog Town', California.

There's a lot of footage that was shot in the early seventies by other skaters, a lot of black and white images and man....

It's a really gorgeous film, really amazingly interesting and a little bitter-sweet.



This is a city that, at the time, at least, was a decaying, abandoned playground. The 'Coney Island' of the west coast that fell on hard times, and the surfers dodged collapsing boardwalks and fallen amusement park rides in search of the perfect wave.

The kids were from broken homes, poor homes, were 'troublemakers' in school, were 'thrown away' kids. They had a fierce sense of neighborhood and ownership. You did not surf if you did not belong, you did not skate if you were not part of the crowd. 'Like the mafia', 'like a street gant'. And - 'A z-boy was always with another z-boy'.

But the *images*.... The thin-muscled, beach-tan boys, with long hair and ripped jeans and Vans, curling into waves or over their own knees, hitting water and pavement with equal grace and fearlessness, 'skateboarding as stream of consciousness'.... And the lone girl who skated 'better than some of the boys' at a time when girls weren't *supposed* to be better....

Now i want fic, damnit. J2 Dogtown Z-boys, up at dawn to surf and sneaking into school playgrounds and backyards to skate empty pools all afternoon. With images like this, who could blame me?




In news that sucks, Chango-the-cat got out of the house two days ago, and we still can't find him. Damnit. It's over 100 degrees out there, and we walked around the neighborhood today calling him, hoping he was just lost and hiding but.... I really, really want my cranky old man cat to just come home.

Comments

[blueswan]

I hope Chango finds his way home safely. It's such an awful feeling when a cat goes missing like that. *hugs*

I'm delighted at your skater post. It's one of my personal micro-fandoms. I won't go on at you about it, but the RPF factor is high in skateboarding, especially for those who like their OTPs to be friendship based. In the name of broadening your experience, I give you Rodney Mullen, the man to whom current street skateboarding owes pretty much everything. Here he is, circa 1988, free-styling and shirtless.

(Ask me about my icon, go on, I dare you.)

P.S. There is some skateboarding fic out there, though not a ton. You should totally write some. *nod nod*

[tabaqui]

Yeah, it's pretty sucky. Thanks, bb.

I'm not into skateboarding as a sport or even as a fandom, really. I just keep stumbling across this docu on the tv when i'm flipping channels, and i've seen it from start to finish now and just....

I dunno. Something about the time, i guess (my own childhood, i was eight and ten and twelve when they're talking about a lot of this stuff) so the look of things is so familiar, and then, like i said.... The images. All these young - i mean, some start out pre-teen! - long-haired, skinny boys doing crazy, sometimes death-defying things, rocketing down hills and zooming up the sides of pools and *no* helmets, no padding, no shoes, good gods.... It's almost got this sort of Outsiders vibe to it, or Oliver Twist, though they really weren't fighting or stealing.... I dunno. It's an amazing docu. :)

And my brain just slots Show J2 fandom in there and dredges up those long-haired pictures of Mr. Ackles when he was a teen, i guess and...yup, there we go, *need* that fic....

So...might that be *you* in your icon?

[blueswan]

Hee! No. That is Daewon Song who is a skater. He's mid-30ish and been at it since he was 15-16 as a pro. I heart him mightily. He's just a lovely sweet guy who happens to be among the world's best as a techical street skater.

I'm an admirer of the speed and skill that it takes to be a skateboarder. It requires an ability to ignore possible injury and laugh off actual injuries. There's no one way to be a skater, there's no rules or regulations, there's no paternalistic association making skaters toe the line and live up to anyone's expectations. It's something someone can do on their own and not answer to the expectations of a coach and team. It keeps kids out of trouble and focused on what they love. Also it is meant to be fun, witness Cheese & Crackers which is pure glee.

Theres is a Spike Jonze vid Fully Flared, I think you'd love. It's got a real apocalyptic vibe to it.

The "sport" (many skaters refute that it is a sport) is chock full of characters and truly unique individuals. I'm positive J2 would fit into that world beautifully. (And I am sorry to bore you to tears, but at least I didn't get going on the love story of Daewon and Daniel. *G*)

[tabaqui]

Yeah, i'm way too partial to my skin to want to skateboard. It just feels so out of control. I loved rollerskating as a kid, but a skateboard always felt...too wild. Of course, not like we had anything remotely decent to skateboard *on* - it was our patio and our road and sometimes a sidewalk and wow, that was not easy. (And speaking of not easy, omg, they were surfing in all this debris, these dock pilings that were falling down, rebar and crap in the water, just...insane.)

I loved how the Z-boys were the *first* doing this stuff, but of course, at the time, they didn't even think about it, they were just *doing* it. Adapting skateboard moves to surfer moves, because they were surfers first, and that's what they knew, and since the waves 'ran out', so to speak, at like ten in the morning, they had the whole day free, so filling it in with skateboards was what they did.

There was a surfer, Jeff Ho, who was doing all this new stuff where he'd touch the waves, turn back on his own wake, stuff like that, and that was so *different* and new, so the z-boys were skateboarding with his style, crouching down on their boards, hands on the ground in their turns, doubling back.... It was so neat in the docu to see them 'discovering' all these new moves and styles and not really caring or *knowing* they were innovating, they just wanted to *skate*.....

So neat. :) *goes to watch vid*

[blueswan]

I've long wanted to see Dogtown. One of these days I will. Thanks for telling me what you loved about the movie and listening to me ramble on about some of the skaters I enjoy. It was lovely.

[tabaqui]

I'm just glad i got to babble! I don't do 'sports' - as in, i don't watch them, don't know much about most, and don't really *care*, but every now and again, something will hook me.

I love to watch the old black and white footage from when baseball was just starting out, for some reason it fascinates me. And then this...just too cool.

I caught it again last night and i was geeking so hard and there was *nobody* to talk to about it, so - yay for a listening ear. :)

I really must own this dvd, heh.

[yourlibrarian]

Aw, sorry about the kitty, hope he turns up soon :(

I recall there was a J2 fic I read about how Jensen was a skateboarder? Maybe I'm confusing it with the long series where Jared's a tattoo artist and they end up with a semi-adopted teen. And I recall there was also a fic where one of them was a surfer, again Jensen I think and Jared may have been part of a group that came to stay at a beach house and that's how they met.

[tabaqui]

Me, too.

I remember the one with the semi-adopted kid. I think i've read a couple fics sorta like that/about that. But i really love this Dogtown scene. :)

[de-nugis.livejournal.com]

I hope he comes home safe. A trick that some people say often works is scattering used kitty litter in the yard, if you have some you haven't changed. It's gross, but it's a strong territorial scent for them.

[tabaqui]

The thing is, i don't think he's near our house at all right now, or he'd have come out when we were calling for him. I dunno where he is, and it sucks.

Thanks, bb.

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

I've heard it said that cats that are 'lost' are usually nearby the whole time. Maybe something scared him into hiding, or maybe he's shut in somewhere.
Both times our cats got lost, we put a message on the local radio, and put up laminated "wanted" posters on lamp posts nearby, asking people to check their sheds and garages. Both times, the cats came back, though I don't know whether the posters helped or not.

[tabaqui]

Every time i go out, i call for him, so if he's close he can hear me. I dunno what he'd get himself into around here, but you never know. I was hoping he'd come running out from under some shed when we walked around the streets yesterday, but not even a peep.

Bleh.

[baudown.livejournal.com]

It's a fantastic documentary. Don't know of any fic, but there's a fictional movie version called Lords of Dogtown. Not nearly as good as the documentary, but it does have the benefit of starring a young Heath Ledger.

[tabaqui]

I saw that while i was looking at some pictures and i sort of went 'no, no! Documentary! No fiction!!!' Hehe.

I'll probably end up checking it out, at some point.

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

Wow, for some reason that photo hit me hard enough to get me tearing up.

I miss SoCal so much, but is it even there anymore? And, really, was it even there in the first place or is it a fantasy memory I've built up over the long years of miserable winters and standoffish Northeasterners and summers too hot and humid to even enjoy and so-called beaches that are nothing more than rocky strips of land on the edge of the Long Island Sound?

[tabaqui]

Aww.
*hugs*

You need to go to Crane or Hampton beach, bb, or Plum Island. So pretty, and not rocky!

*that feeling of longing to go home, oh. That's so hard to bear.*
*hugs*

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

*HUGS*
I know how upsetting it is when a pet is lost. Hope everything will be okay.

This J2 idea sounds so perfect, it's crazy. I wish you would write it, it's just the kind of thing that you'd take and turn into an amazing, beautiful, break-my-heart-because-it's-so-damn-good kind of story.

[tabaqui]

Thanks, bb. I miss my old man!

I can just almost *taste* that fic, you know? Arrgh!!
*flails about*

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

If you decide to tackle it, I would help anyway I could, I swear! I mean it--my brain is yours!

[tabaqui]

Oh, gods.
Reassurances that i'm not nuts, probably.

I need to buy that dvd.....
*twirls you*

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

I WILL HANDHOLD LIKE A BOSS.

yeah, Jimmy, just 'cause he's pretty. :)

[tabaqui]

Heeeee.
Jimmy? I can't see that face well enough to have a clue who that is. :)

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

ah, James Dean! ♥

[tabaqui]

Oh!
*squints*

Okay. :) Gods, i need new glasses. I'm oooooooold.

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

Heeeeee! *squishes* Never!

[tabaqui]

*twirls you*

[riani1.livejournal.com]

Silly old cranky cats.

[tabaqui]

But we love them so.....

[entrenous88.livejournal.com]

I hope kitty makes his way home okay! *hugs*

I loved that documentary when I saw it. Did you have a chance to check out the Heath Ledger film based (not sure how loosely) on that group? I haven't seen it myself but I wondered how it had turned out.

[tabaqui]

Thanks, bb.

I saw the film title, didn't know it was him in it, sort of recoiled from a fictionalized account, heh, when i was all in 'documentary!' headspace.

I might have to check it out, though.

[mustangsally78.livejournal.com]

Hope he comes home. I used to have a cat who would hide about 5 feet away from the house and we'd NEVER find her until she was good and ready. Let's hope he's just having adventures.

Fingers and paws are crossed.

[tabaqui]

I hope, too - it's just so damn *hot* out there, and Route 66 is so busy....

Thanks, bb.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I hope the cat comes home soon!

[tabaqui]

Me too!

[mclittlebitch.livejournal.com]

Hi, um, total random, but if you want more Z Boys stuff there's a TV documentary from 1978 about skateboarding/skate culture that features some of them (and a hilarious narration that makes them sound like lions on the Serengeti or something) here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL877D1658EC7C75BE

[tabaqui]

Hee, neat! Thanks!

[mclittlebitch.livejournal.com]

Glad to share, I've been rewatching Dogtown and Z Boys a lot too as a distraction from waiting for Stacy Peralta's sorta-followup Bones Brigade doc.

[katbcoll.livejournal.com]

I hope he comes home soon! *hugs*

[tabaqui]

Thanks, bb.
*hugs*

[lostakasha.livejournal.com]

Now that I'm in Cali, anything J2 in Cali makes my mouth water!

Sending lots of 'get back home' vibes to Chango, sweetie.

[tabaqui]

It's a pretty picture, isn't it?

Thanks, bb!