clear as mud

chuck b gave me my first proper job when i lost his camera on an errand

he couldn't be arsed to go to a trade show so sent me to take pictures of product, which i duly did, but on the way home i couldn't resist skating the high street kensington banks.

rookie error: someone stole my bag, but instead of stressing chuck kindly offered me a saturday job to pay him back. once i had, he offered me full-time employment and for that i will be eternally grateful

anyway, chuck is still fucking epic and today i walked into my house to discover this parcel

not enough space to recall every rad story about mr b (him and dave curry terrorising soho rooftops is a fave, though).

raising a glass to you tonight, holmes

23 years young

slam city skates is 23 today. not bad going for any shop, let alone a skateboard one

over the years they've been nothing less than a fucking quality outfit. i still remember going into the portobello road store 23 years ago and being dissed by the guy behind the counter (someone called sunman or something) for being the cocky little shit i was

since then they've been rad on the regular for the london, uk and worldwide skatescene, hooking up some of my favourite skaters ever including curtis mccann, rob dukes, simon evans, ged wells, will bankhead and many, many others

here's to at least another 23!

blabage

photographer par excellence mike blabac has a show running at the maverick gallery. get down there now to see some truly epic work


some quality heads turned up for the launch, like these two LSD warlords



sometimes you gotta take advantage of a situation, and if that means letting steve douglas punch you out, so be it



random epic quote: "not sure i ever fucked up six dudes at once. there was one time i went toe-to-toe with a golden gloves boxer. eddie reategui was there"


the book is nothing short of gorgeous, full of jaw-droppers with every turn of the page. the man himself was on hand to sign and generally be cool as fuck



dave was hyped

the dreaded £66.66 note

you know the cabbie's bummed when you drop this bad boy on them

camel flu

been laid-up with manflu the past 2 days. word of warning: whilst feeding zoo animals is epic, watch out for ones that leave your forearm covered in mad saliva

gazumped

jake's alley totally beat me to this



spot the tanner

crowd control

separated at birth?

missy and keyboard cat. coincidence?

eye knows

the term renaissance man is thrown about so willy-nilly that it's almost become a joke. paul gonella is no joke and he certainly qualifies as a renaissance man

the passion seeps out of his work, and with interest. take a peak at any or all of the following: monster network, quiet corners, skateboarding is, tweaker, forever circling, life of sundays

when you throw in the fact that he's a gentleman and a scholar and you might just want to hate him, except he's cool as fuck and his humour's seriously on point

it is a true privilege to call him my friend

paul's books "shoreline was just a ghost" and "pacifica" are available from the quiet corners store now, as well as zines and prints of equal epicness

proper english

ron english is at the elms lester gallery until 6 june