For those of you that are not familiar with South Bank, it is one of the most prominent skate spots in the world; recognized globally by people in and outside of skateboarding. Whether it be for a “perfect urban location” in a motion picture production, a commercial, or immortalization of the South Bank spot in numerous of video games; it has always served well as a public space.

There are currently demolition proposals to clear the area and build shops in the existing space. While filming for one of his earlier videos, Josh Kalis (a reputable pro) was haggled and confronted by a Philadelphia city employee about property damage done by skaters at Love Park, his rebuttal was essentially:

- “I guarantee you that more tourist come to Love Park for skateboarding during the Summer, than tourists come just to see Love Park. I also guarantee you, if you ask any of the storeowners if they want skateboarders banned, they’ll say… No”

A few points I’d like to add here:
- The park was junky ridden and bursting with criminal activity, long before skaters took notice of its phenomenal architectural layout. I’ve seen fellow skaters come to the park with brooms to sweep up before a day long session.

- A few of the skate trips I’ve personally been on to Love Park (prior to it being illegal to skate on the premises of the park grounds), I noticed top notch pros come from California to make a Love Park pilgrimage.

- Present day Love Park is completely ilegal to skate in. The city of Philadelphia has spent more money installing planters to block grindable granite ledges, than they actually spent on renewing the “skated and destroyed” ledges.

- Today’s Love Park looks corroded and in decay to say the least. Aside from the junkies that still frequent the park daily, it’s empty with just an occasional passerby here and there. Previously, tourists would walk into the park to watch skaters preform; as opposed to now where they just walk in for a moment, snap their “default Instagram Love Park sign” photo and leave.

- I would be more surprised if the businesses surrounding the park aren’t hurting more now, than when 30 to 40 skateboarders were in the park across the street on any given day.

- DC Shoes tried donating 1 million dollars to the city of Philadelphia that could have went to the process of revamping Love Park, their only guideline was to decriminalize skateboarding in Love Park. The city declined the offer (dipshits). I guess these high-powered imbeciles didn’t realize kids will still skate this spot and they will still perceive these teenagers as criminals.

- A lot of these “law-breaking teens” come from broken homes. Some come from the “not so safe”, lower-tax bracket neighborhoods. I’m one of them. We utilize skateboarding as the ultimate outlet in empowerment. It can be a form of releasing negative energy, a physical activity that surely beats sitting in front of a TV and a creative outlet above all else.

Not to worry, not going off on a tangent here. Just make an analogy. This post is about South Bank, Love Park is just a good example of what kind of decline is going to happen to tourism into South Bank.

If you skate I would assume you care enough to fill out this online petition or this one. They both take literally a minute to complete, don’t pretend you’re busy.
If you don’t care enough to complete this petition or don’t skate, that’s fine. Just remember there’s a possibility your very own children some day can take up this awesome hobby/lifestyle of being a “criminal”.

As Thick As Thieves creates a peanut butter and jelly level of collaboration. You take some of those morose, heavy, Americana vocals from Lana Del Ray, you add some slow motion shots of a dude skateboarding around a city…Boom. Emotional content. First you think you’re just gonna watch dude just do some tricks while you eat a ham sammich, next thing you know, three minutes have gone by and you’re deep in the pensive thought. The chin scratch.

Wondering what happeened to the days when you used to spend all your time skating? Wondering what happened to your youth? What happened to that one kid, what’s his name…dude that had the fucked up teeth and an Aaahh! Real Monsters tattoo. What’s he doing right now?

Shit’s real man. Too real for a video you’re watching while you eat a lil thin ass white bread, two slices of ham, and American cheese sandwich. But, you’re trying to save money these days, maybe take a trip out to California, because your man lives out there and he just had a baby. Actually, that baby is like three now. Damn time fucking flies dude, time-fucking-flies.

The Threatz video is finally here!! These are the visuals for the brand new single off Denzel “Aquarius killa” Curry‘s new album Nostalgic 64 which is coming soon. The video is brought to you by frequent collaborators and the homies Unkleluc & FXRBES and takes place deep in the Florida Everglades. The settings are a creepy abandoned Military base, abandoned warehouse, and also the wilderness surrounding it. When I say creepy I mean shot gun shells and bullet casings everywhere, swamps, and who knows what else creepy animals were out there and is literally in the middle of nowhere. We all showed up moshed, showed out, and over all got hype as possible and had a blast doing it.

My Sortahuman right hand man and partner in crime Joeybagadonutz and I actually made the adventure down to Miami from Huntsville to politic with all the Miami homies and fellow artists and to also be a part of the video and man am I glad we did. As you can see, we turned up for this one and the finished product turned out dope. Raider Klan, Robb Bank$, Shuttle Life, Metro Zu, Pouya and his crew , Fway Nation, Drug Flock, Indigochild, plus skaters, fans, four wheelers , and cute chicks all showed up to rep BRK and it really turned out to be an epic moment. I dig how Miami hip hop scene has a sense of community and we felt a lot of love and good vibes down there. Get buck to this and remember, the Klan and SS be the set, and they don’t take kindly to threats!! Dat, bum bum bum, turn up!! Be on the lookout for Zel’s new tape very soon and you will definitely be seeing more of him and the whole BRK in the future.

Into The Thickett, reinvents the entire skate movie genre by taking skateboarding out of urban areas and putting it in the middle of the woods, where dudes can ollie over hibernating bears, antelope, and other woodland creatures. There’s really lush cinematography in this trailer, dudes went crazy with the dollies and steadicams on some extra Scorsese meets Spike Jonze shit. There’s a palpable cinematic quality to the trailer; if art house skate films isn’t a “thing” already, it needs to be.

One of the strongest shots of this has to be the dudes doing tricks on post apocalyptic looking, DIY ramps and skating by lantern light. Fucking lanterns. Like they were solving some Scooby Doo mysteries or motherfuckign spelunking. I’m sure this shit looks extra weird to everyone that grew up skating at schools, parks, and skate ramps, but all those Amish skateboarders are sitting our the bonfire thinking “been had”.

Roll with me, friends. Preferably on four small wheels. We’re happy to be co-sponsoring an event with Common Ground and 5Boro this Saturday, September 22nd, at the Canarsie Skate Park, which is so cool and new that I’m pretty sure it doesn’t even have a legitimate address. But what this concrete and coping filled park does have is an awesome barbecue and skate session coming very soon.

First, there’s going to be a two hour cleanup just before the event. Take the opportunity to give back to the community, especially since you’ll be able to reap the benefits immediately, plus you get to hang out with your skate rat buddies. Then there’s going to be mucho skating and mucho barbecue, including trick competitions (including one for a Мишка deck) and appearances from some Мишка Skate Team members.

Saturday September 22nd, 2012, 10AM-4PM
Canarsie Skate Park
All Ages/Free/Prizes

A few weeks ago, using our Tumblr (future!) we dropped another one of our patented extra-curricular Lookbooks, showing off the best of our Summer 2012 Collection as worn by member of Мишка Skate Team member Spencer Nuzzi. The numerous shots – as captured by photographer Cameron Sanchez – featured Nuzzi doing what he does best: laying metaphorical waste to the streets of the sunnier, lefter coast, gleaming that cube to a blinding polish.

Good news everyone! We’ve now got video of the whole affair, and better yet it’s soundtracked by Snoop Dogg and R. Kelly. That makes everything better. I hope Snoop is flowing in my ear (pause?) as my first child is born. Play some Kells at my funeral (preferably the 10-minute version of “I Believe I Can Fly”). So check out the above video, also shot by Cameron Sanchez, to see Mr. Nuzzi in action.

Spencer Nuzzi for Мишка Summer 2012
Photography by Cameron Sanchez

We love doing Lookbooks. Showing off our clothes on interesting people and in interesting places is an (understandable) vice of ours, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed not only from the quarterly official Lookbooks that accompany each collection, but also the supplementary ones that we tend to pepper in the time between seasons. This time we’ve gone to the skating well, and with the help of photographer Cameron Sanchez, shot this awesome lookbook featuring Мишка skate team member Spencer Nuzzi!

You may remember Spencer not only from the video he filmed for us, but also his trick tip videos. Real philanthropist that Spencer. Wearing the finest wares from our Summer 2012 collection, Spencer skates and suns on an around the beach, serving up tricks and swag in equal measure. Some of the images are, obviously, above but you can see even more over on our Tumblr!

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725

He skates of course! And gets into conflicts with Police, lames on the street, and apparently a pretty touchy library employee who wasn’t down with Johnathan and his buddy’s ‘tudes. That lady is neither bodacious nor tubular. Skaters talk like that, right? I had a Razor scooter once… hurt myself riding it.

This video, Gravity Hammers shows off John and company going from the middle of the city to the edge of the water and everything in between, grinding on loading docks, jumping off rocks, and even flying down the side of a gigantic bottle sculpture. Weird! Keep doing what you’re doing dude.

Denver’s premier crew of dgaf-ing, ruckus starting skate punks (and Мишка fans, shouts) Flaming Shit are back with a new video, their 24th (damn kids are so industrious these days), that’s ready to bounce it’s booty and clap you upside the head with considerable force. Since we last checked in with these upstanding young citizens, it seems their penchants for gleaming the cube and enticing homeless into slurring remain gleefully intact.

Filled with thrills and spills, “FS 24″ finds the gents using cash money for toilet paper and towels, traversing all over the intensely skateable Denver metro area, finding women in trees, and – in a segment set to the enduring classic “No Scrubs” – doing some death defying tricks clad only in their chonies. Never grow up, kids: it’s not worth it.

If you plan on spending any part of Go Skateboarding Day off your plywood , it should be during Klaghaus Gallery’s Cheapskate Art Sale, which kicks off this Thursday at the gallery’s pop up shop at 11am.  The sale features original artistry from the likes of OBLVN  and Grotesk, as well as offerings from brands like Animal Bikes, Death Traitors and yours truly here at Мишка.

Not only is the sale celebrating one of the best holidays of the year, it’s also going down because the Coleman Oval Skatepark has emerged from under the knife looking prim and proper for the summer. Even better, if that pool you spent three hours looking for is too good to stop sessioning, the sale doesn’t end till Sunday, so don’t be a stranger.

June 21st-24th, 2012, 11am-9pm
Klughaus Gallerys Pop-up Shop,
47 Monroe St
New York, New York, 10002