"Dragging Anchor"
CURRENT ENTRY
THURSDAY, DEC 30, 2004
>> Raymond, Quiet Life is just my clothing sponsor. I always thought Skate Mental was more of a lifestyle company. I really don't see the conflict.
>> I got choked up today while taking Smyth to the bank during our lunch break so he could deposit his vending machine change before the weekend, when it occurred to me that Sam has finally gone legit.
>> Speaking of getting choked up, Carroll's lady friend, Desa has been taking Mike on a cultural crash course these last few months, where he's taken in a couple of operas and an evening with the LA Philharmonic. And just last night I was rushed out of their house as they scrambled to get ready for, as Mike put it, "a modern" version of The Nutcracker. Good job Desa, but if you really want to bring your man up to cultural speed you might want to skip ordering the Domino's thin crust with a side of ranch before the show. It kind of defeats the whole purpose.
>> Sam gives us his last installment of Keepin' It Real for '04.
>> There's an oil-rig in the middle of a parking lot just down the street from our building. Just a single oil-rig in the middle of nowhere. Well, actually it's not in the middle of nowhere, it's right next to a baseball field. Go Torrance!
>> Have a Hyphy New Year
CURRENT ENTRY
WEDNESDAY, DEC 29, 2004
>> We bring you the inaugural CRAIL TAP'S THE YEAR IN PICTURES.
>> I don't know what's more disturbing, Lee showing up at the plant looking like this, or Carroll showing up looking like this.
>> A couple of guys bored in New Jersey made a cool video. Has the Gonz met his match?
QUOTE:
"I skated in sweats on Friday. It felt good."
—Rickk
"I'd be drinking a beer, raw-doggin' it."
—Jeremy
"Killin' time as usual.."
—Colen
CURRENT ENTRY
MONDAY, DEC 27, 2004
>> We had Carroll fill out the answers to his own questions, took him a while and he didn't even get them all right.
>> From Raymond:
"YOU'RE OFF!!!!!!. There's a thing called loyalty. I'm very disappointed. THE TEAM'S GETTING BIG ANYWAY, SO BETTER YOU THAN SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY PRODUCES. YOU KNOW HOW THAT GOES, YOU USED TO EDIT A MAGAZINE. LOSE MY NUMBER AND IF I SEE YOU NEXT, WATCH YOUR BACK."
Raymond, you better start paying your dudes. Smyth has been shopping himself around lately.
>> Lee Smith has a Diddy-Hawk.
CURRENT ENTRY
THURSDAY, DEC 23, 2004
THE HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW CARROLL CONTEST!
Here goes. This one is only for the hardcorest of Carroll aficionados. Copy the 10 questions below, answer them, and email them to us here. Those who get the most right will be entered into a drawing to win a huge Ogio bag's worth of used and new clothes. Mike's keeping the Ogio though. Answers should be in by Friday the 7th of January. Here are the questions:
1. Which other pro skater grew up on the same street as Mike in Daly City?
2. Behind what ear does Mike have a Keloid?
3. Which truck company does Mike currently ride for?
4. How many pro model shoes has Mike had?
5. What is Mike's most talked about "trick" on Crail Tap?
6. What is Mike's favorite fast food restaurant?
7. What year was Mike Thrasher Magazine's Skater of the Year?
8. How many feeble grinds did Mike have in his Yeah Right! part?
9. What kind of car did Mike own prior to the one he owns now?
10. What is Mike's middle name? (Must be spelled correctly)
>> By the way, Carroll's driveway is a good place to take your costumers if you're a male hustler and you need some privacy.
>> Carroll's officially on Royal. Check the site.
>> Got this email from Raymond at Skate Mental:
"Heard you're on Quiet Life bro. Let me know so I can take your name off the site and send a press release out saying you got kicked off. What a stab in the back."
My response:
"Raymond,
The Quiet Life's coming at me pretty hard. I don't know what to do. I'm down to stay on Skate Mental, but they're just coming at me with all they got. If we could just double what they're offering I'll stay."
QUOTE:
"I didn't notice it, so maybe it didn't suck."
—CARROLL
CURRENT ENTRY
WEDNESDAY, DEC 22, 2004
>> A little sesh from back in March at the Brooklyn Projects mini, featuring Scooch, Carroll, Owens, and Dawes. In this video is the world record for consecutive switch flips under coping!
>> It boasts to be, "The 'feel good' skateboard video, that happens once every 17 years'." That kind of over-the-top bravado will get you on The Tap. So if you're in the DC area, check out "The Summer of the Cicada" premiere.
MINI TOP 5
The Top 5 Email Subjects currently in my inbox:
1. "Today No Good," sent by Meg 2. "R U Fucking Serious," sent by Ty
3. "Scandalous Ass Bird," sent by Meg
4. "Pool Commandos," sent by Dawes
5. "King of Frisco," sent by Smyth
QUOTE:
"You look like Frankie Galland."
—Reda to Patrick Fugit
CURRENT ENTRY
TUESDAY, DEC 21, 2004
>> Lotti got wasted, Smyth brought a toy, and Jenkins made a speech. The Girl Christmas Party.
>> This is kind of creepy in a Daniel Gesmer kind of way. But who could that be under the Gyrotonic section in the center photo?
>> Meg, totally into Reda right now!
QUOTE:
"I'm over turkey."
—Jeremy Carnahan
CURRENT ENTRY
MONDAY, DEC 20, 2004
>> A photo gallery of a semi-eventful weekend.
>> Do you think it's weird to enter your third decade of life and you're skating with someone who was young enough to have owned Buzz Lightyear merchandise?
GUESS
WHO'S TAT
(click on image to reveal)
QUOTE:
"My toy is the sickest!"
—Ty
CURRENT ENTRY
FRIDAY, DEC 17, 2004
>> Someone got their sword!
>> Rudy gives us a Ban This classic in the park (676k quicktime). First try!
>> While Ty edits the new Fourstar catalog Da VD, the Crail Store makes an unbeatable offer on the old one.
>> Rickk was supposed to go to court today but he's postponed his date because Mueller's here for only one more day before the catalog needs to ship. Thank God we have an understanding judicial system.
>> Have you ever heard Sammy Hagar sing David Lee's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live? Straight sacrilege.
QUOTE:
"Great, we pay 9 grand a month to see Swifty's Pod."
—Rickk
CURRENT ENTRY
THURSDAY, DEC 16, 2004
>> Smyth's veins are pumping with hate, as usual. Sam if you're gonna tell the higher ups to call me at home and check up on me, make sure you're not giggling in the background.
>> Someone wrote in and referred to Reda as God. If God is covered in hair, drinks four cups a day, repeats the same stories to each person he knows at least three times, and gives ethnically motivated wedding speeches than Reda is absolutely divine.
>> Schnurr's back on a board. Watch out (quicktime)!
>> If you ever need to find a place in SF to jump a car, Jovontae is your man. Sorry I didn't call you back, I was out of town.
>> Rickk come meet us to film, your making me look bad.
GUESS
WHO'S TAT
(click on image to reveal)
QUOTES:
"Music is universal dude."
—Rudy
"I think reality is fucking awesome."
—Abeyta
CURRENT ENTRY
WEDNESDAY, DEC 15, 2004
>> I thought that I'd answer some of my neighbor, Sanger's questions for him. I know they're rhetorical, but these columns don't exactly write themselves, so:
"What's going on with Daewon's hair?"
Well it's looking a little crunchy and a little blonde, but if you can do switch 360 flips to fakie manual to fakie 360 flip out, you could have a ferret on your head and I'd still have to think you looked cool.
"Quadruple means "4" right?"
It does mean four. It might seem like there were only three participants, but I'm counting Colen's push across the screen. I normally wouldn't count pushing as a trick, but if you've seen him skate you'd understand.
"Andy Mueller's white, isn't he?"
The whitest.
"Last day for Crail Store X-Mas shipping is today, you cratchets."
Not really a question.
"Does Stecyk still write Trash?"
Only the parts about Ancell and the Fletchers.
"How hard has the Shermenator become?"
Ask Greco.
"Snoopdog plays a dog in a talking animal movie?"
He's done Girls Gone Wild, he's done porn, and he coaches his son's football team, so I don't see why not.
And I got one of my own, Sanger. What does the "F" in CFS stand for?
>> To borrow a line from The Onion, "Another fond childhood memory ruined."
>> Carroll contest, only suitable for his most hardcore fans, coming soon!
Quotes:
"Monday is the Girl Christmas party and I think it would be weird if Rickk and I blew if off."
—Meg
"How do you live with yourself?"
—Colen
CURRENT ENTRY
TUESDAY, DEC 14, 2004
>> Doubles lines have always been a little homoerotic, but a quadruple run (1.8meg quicktime) is just an orgy of gnar.
>> Congrats go out to our friend and Choco man Richie Mulder who proposed to his lady last week, and has since sent out a mass email to tell us. Good job Richie.
>> I've been ordered to clean up my office and well, Colen, your toy had to go. And this time don't leave me a heartfelt voice message with a lump in your throat like you did when I tried to re-gift the same toy before. And just because you're obsessed with D&D and all that shit, don't try to push it on the rest of us.
Save it for your friends at the next Dream Theater show.
QUOTES:
"It's weird that there are girls that will still go home with him."
—Rickk about Bird
"My only hope is that he gets into cocaine at the club."
—Burnet
CURRENT ENTRY
MONDAY, DEC 13, 2004
>> You ever have lunch with a fellow employee who is going to play a white rapper in a movie and he's reciting his lines all through the meal. Yeah, pretty annoying. He asked me not to mention his name, but he used to live in SF, he runs one of the companies here, that doesn't make boards, and that company is named after the hardest and most imperishable precious stone in the world. Guess who that might be. He also tried to call shotgun in someone's car for an entire month.
>> The Podium Christmas party was a full rager but you couldn't tell by this picture of a cross-eyed Dimitry and Kelly Bird doing his best impersonation of a club owner? Or club promoter?
>> If you're interested in hearing about two grown men splitting up because one likes hip-hop and the other one doesn't, than you might want to read Smyth's Keepin' It Real number 15.
QUOTE:
"Someone said, 'I'm just like Peter Sellers.'"
—The Gav
CURRENT ENTRY
FRIDAY, DEC 10, 2004
>> Crail, Lakai, and Viacom get big ups at Brooklyn Projects.
>> In preparation for his game of S.K.A.T.E against Gav, Schnurr is on a pretty regimented workout plan. Here it is in full detail:
1. Ten miles of riding his exercise bike while watching Texas Holdem on TV
2. Have a bowl of Cinnamon Life
3. Run errands
4. Hermosa Skatepark for an hour and a half, claimed he back 50ed the hubba ledge, in full pads.
5. Starbucks run
6. Another five miles on the bike, while watching Lord of the Rings
7. Wait for Gav to get off work to play an hour of racquetball with him
8. Sirloin tips over veggies and rice for dinner
Sounds like someone needs to get a job. Maybe he should take up Greg's offer to put completes together.
>> Happy birthday Jenks!
QUOTE:
"I'm 31 and burning out at Girl like it's the old days. I guess I better get a job."
—Schnurr
CURRENT ENTRY
THURSDAY, DEC 9, 2004
>> Max Schaaf beaned out on the last day of the Fourstar catalog shoot and sent his lawyer to clean up the mess.
>> MJ landed the cover of the 150th issue of Slap. Congrats Slap and MJ.
>> Speaking of covers, Carroll pulled some strings and got himself on the cover of Bird's little baby, the Lakai catalog, which again repurposes the departments of the various mags. Skate Coach putting Scooch, Rickk and Carroll on blast alone makes this a must read.
>> When Eric Anthony was kid his dear mother told him that his blond hair and blue eyes were attractive to Mexicans looking to abduct children and sell them into white slavery. True story!
>> If Smyth were attending Real World College he'd be smack in the middle of midterms right now. Here's his 14th straight week of turning in case study after case study on the subject of six strangers, picked to live in a house, and, as Smyth would put it, "Get Gay." Keepin' It Real number 14.
QUOTE:
"I still dream about model homes."
—Larson
CURRENT ENTRY
WEDNESDAY, DEC 8, 2004
>> Wade, you've scared Smyth into submission. Unfortunately for Sam and Diana their photo album won't have a proper Halloween photo in it. Shame.
>> It only took him four months to do it, and it might take you that long to read it, but the Reda Top 5 finally lands tomorrow. C'mon yo!
>> Don't you hate it when the proper authorities tell you that you need a permit to shoot photos and film on the premises and then once you ask them to be in the photos it's a totally different story and they get all stoked about being in a photo. So much for film permits.
GUESS
WHO'S TAT
(click on image to reveal)
>> Lar-Dog is going to be in art show this month called Greatest Hits.
>> A contest coming soon involving the team rider with the most female fan letters
QUOTE:
"I don't think it ever had wings."
—Bird on the snow barge
CURRENT ENTRY
TUESDAY, DEC 7, 2004
>> Whenever I leave, I come back to something new in my office. Once it was the Skateboard Mag's ad rate card posted to my wall. Another time it was a clock with birds on it, which has since disappeared. Now it's this painting. All such
roads lead to the Ringer or Larson.
>>
Ty's favorite artist in my favorite magazine.
QUOTES:
"I
was known for my mixes."
—Smyth
"He's
pretty much my hero. He's Alexander the Great."
—P-Rod
CURRENT ENTRY
MONDAY, DEC 6, 2004
>>
We're in SF right now for the Fourstar catalog shoot, and it's randy!
>> Spike and Rickk are having a serious discussion about Jamie
Foxx right now in the room next to me.
>> You learn a lot about people when you're traveling with them.
Here goes:
RICKK:
Can't power slide towards a camera without kicking his board out and
hitting the filmer in the head
SPIKE:
Likes to punch people instead of hugging them or shaking their hands
TY:
Sleeps with the TV on, and likes Neck Face
CARROLL:
Picks good Chinese restaurants with the help of his girlfriend, of
course
PJ:
Hopes to move to LA one day
KOSTON:
Sometimes he has to leave trips early to go to a twenty-minute sales
meeting in Puerto Rico
GONZ:
Knows Neck Face personally
MAX:
Is going to have his motorbike in a magazine that features motorbikes
SMYTH:
You can point to any landmark in SF and he has a story about being
inebriated there
P-ROD:
Lives in the city where my lady works, Chatsworth, the porn capitol
of the world. She don't work in porn though, neither does Paul
BA:
Never shaves with a razor, just with an electric shaver with no guard
MUELLER:
Is a good outfielder in kickball
RAYMOND:
Would rather play kickball than skate
BROOK:
Needs to lose 25 pounds, he said it not me
But most importantly, you learn about yourself: Giggles too much while
filming
QUOTE:
"He's
better than you guys."
—Staba,
to Koston, Carroll, and Rickk after watching Chris Haslam's part
CURRENT ENTRY
FRIDAY, DEC 3, 2004
MINI TOP 5 WITH MIKE CARROLL
Top
5 Reasons He Hasn't Been Checking the Tap
1. Because Desa already told me all the material
2. Ty making me pretend that I'm actually going to skate a rail
3. Too stressed about the bulldozer's in front of my house
4. Taking course on DWP to get free trees
5. Because just like in real life Aaron's starting to repeat himself
GUESS
WHO'S TAT
(click on image to reveal)
>>
I
gotta go. I'm in an email battle with Sean Cliver.
QUOTES:
"I
got an appointment with a crazy spiritual guy."
—Rudy
"You'll
hate it, though. You're a picky, critical bastard."
—Sean
Cliver
CURRENT ENTRY
THURSDAY, DEC 2, 2004
>>
Slightly less
entertaining than Snake Boarding. Since it's based off video games
I knew at least Colen would love it.
>> Check out T-Ferg and his New Era hat collection in the new
North 2 video Port Moody Blues. Mitch's collar popping was my favorite.
>> Yet another achievement
in advertising.
>> I would have written more today but Gav took us out to a
two hour lunch at BBQ restaurant where the waitress wear nothing but
a bikini and chaps. And also because Meg and Hime came into me office
to talk shit for an hour. And yeah Buscemi, we talked about you.
QUOTE:
"Burton,
Dude. Burton."
—Hime
CURRENT ENTRY
WEDNESDAY, DEC 1, 2004
>>
Gnarly facials, a loose fitting tie, and all the hot hammer spots.
Should we put him on Girl or Chocolate? I
say Girl (7.2meg quicktime).
>> Wade is back in the Featured Email section and he brings
the scary meter up to about six. Good thing we've been posting these
so Smyth will have a paper trail for the cops when he needs to file
that restraining order.
>> All of The Hime's emails end with this list: Four Days Inc.,
Nixon, Girl/Chocolate, Fourstar, Vonzipper, Es'/Emerica. Pretty impressive,
Hime. But if you're gonna list your sponsors don't forget Ride Snowboards.
>> Coincidently, The Gav's emails don't end with "Best
Regards" anymore. Ah, the end of an era.
>> Have you ever eaten pizza under heavy surveillance?
QUOTE:
"Here's
a contest question: Who did Carroll forget to invite to Thanksgiving
dinner? Me."
—The
Hime
See past Randoms