In spite of the onerous responsibilities of blogging/living life, I would nevertheless be remiss in my duties as a commentator of ideelz if I neglected to mention the [c]upcoming tour/documentary [video preview sort of] about meth-dealing, Bible-slinging Christian “Holmes/Christ” Hosoi narrated by Dennis Hopper of E-Z Rider fame and featuring commentaries from all the expected skateboarding legends.
The path of Hosoi’s career starts, for ideelz, back in 1988, when my parents bought me Skateboard Superstars (Holy Goddamn this Google Video provides nearly all of life's necessities), a video featuring mainly Rodney Mullen and Christian Hosoi, but also some New York groms who skated downtown and did handstands on Broadway because it was the 80s and no one really knew how to ollie yet. Despite the lack of Gelfland-inflected skate style, the video marked my first foray into pro-skater admiration/envy and helped to cement skate aesthetics as a primus motor for most of my adolescent and even adult actions/activities/critiques.
In the video, a narrator explains that Hosoi is the biggest thing ever to happen to skating, and that he’s a role model admired by many. Although my critical faculties were pretty good at age 5, I didn’t know that at that time Hosoi was also busting chops à la present-day-or-late-90s artiste-heroes/degenerates like Dustin Dollin, Ali Boulala, or Jim Greco (who is now supposedly and awkwardly clean). The video wisely airbrushed the druggy haze that was also part of Hosoi’s life for the benefit of its young audience, parents still bought kids boards, and everything went along pretty well.
By 1997, when I got back into skateboarding due to an exit from frustrated middle-school nerddom/not sure what girls were/weren’t, Hosoi had already plummeted out of the picture, due to the ollie revolution, Koston, Daewon, tech, baggy pants, 540 flips, and picnic benches. I’d forgotten about him anyway, because I’d picked up a Transworld and saw people skating handrails.
During this time, Hosoi was presumably crawling along the dark underbelly of lapsed fame and drug-addled torment. By 2000, he was arrested in Hawaii for bringing to the airport enough meth to erupt a volcano. In jail, he underwent a Malcolm X-style conversion, except he found Christianity instead of Elijah Muhammad and, thanks to his preaching to other jailbirds, was released early for extraordinarily good behavior, thanks in part to a letter-writing campaign. (Eventually there will be a blink piece about born-again skaters, a powerful and unlikely segment of the legendary lineup, which includes most prominently Hosoi and, of course, Jamie Thomas, but isn’t limited to them [I think Austin Stephens is also Christian].)
This ties in nicely with the whole 5vs1, lapsed Catholic, Hold-Steady, fame as depression and vice versa, get saved, fast revulsion and redemption theme, of course.
Anyway now Hosoi's out and he skates again, and like such other vets as Alva, Caballero, and definitely Dwayne Peters (who probably will garner his own post eventually, whether or not there is a time peg to render it “meaningful”), he’s got a world-weary edge to his skating and just oozes “respect this life I’ve chosen.”
This documentary promises to bring legit footage, and to promote it, Quicksilver is also sponsoring a tour with free screenings and demos by such incredible pros as Arto Saari and I believe Holmes himself. If you’re near a town that is carrying this tour, I highly recommend a visit. Cover it for your local alt-weekly etc.
Tour Sched (cribbed from Skateboardermag article):
8/17: Huntington Beach, CA
8/19: Wilson Skatepark, Chicago, IL
8/20: River East Arts Center, Chicago, IL
8/22: Mt. Trashmore, VA Beach, VA [!!!! If you live in DC and have a car and read this please email me or comment so we can road trip out to DO THE THING!!!]
8/23: Fairman’s, West Chester, PA
8/23: Chester County Historic Society, West Chester, PA
8/27: Knitting Factory, NYC, NY
8/29: 3rd Lair, Minneapolis, MN
8/31: Bluebird, Denver, CO
9/1: Denver Skate Park, Denver, CO
9/3: Pacifica Skate Spark, SF, CAli
9/3: The Log Shop, SF, CAlicious
Keep in Touch BABY!
IDEELLLZZZZ out.
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