I am sure lot of people thought they were a waste of money, but Christo paid over 20 million bucks for the whole project out of his pocket and it didn't cost NYC a dime! He also hired a bunch of local people to set the exhibit up and at the same time stimulated tourism in New York which helps out the service industry.

The Gates were a reason for me to get up to the park and skate around. I went by Strawberry Fields where the John Lennon "Imagine" mosiac is located, and saw his morning fans whose numbers never seem to wane and thought to myself, "Well I guess the gates are cool if they bring people out and they see things like the Imagine mosiac that they would have not bothered to have visited on it's own."

So when re-evaluating if it is art or not, I will now say it doesn't matter. Did the project help New York? I would have to say yes. Even through my crusty cynicism, I found deeper meaning and beauty from The Gates well beyond the orange draped frames that were nailed to the Central Park sidewalks...

Imagine if everyone rode a skateboard, it's easy if you try...

A nice italian dude snapped this pic of me by the gates...

Skating downhill past "The Gates"

Today was skate or die. So at about 9 a.m. I headed to the Autumn Bowl for a standard Saturday morning session. I made it a point to really concentrate on my Frontside Kickturns on the Mini-Ramp. My objective with this is to eventually do Frontside Grinds, and then progress to Frontside Airs. I hit a few small FS Grinds last time I skated, but I felt like I had slipped a few steps back since not skated for such a long time.

The Mini-Ramp is way more tiring than riding the bowl! You have to constantly pump up and down. When you slam it seems to hurt more than a slam in the bowl. You can't get your body into position to fall properly on the Mini and this leads to hurt body parts.

I kept dropping in and just turning frontside over and over. I am slowly getting it but I think I am going to need a slightly longer wheelbase on my board. It is going to take a while for me to get comfortable doing it, but I think I just need to keep riding the Mini-Ramp more than the bowl to get some of the basics down. I love riding that bowl though!

A crazy skater's point of view of Frontside Kickturns...

Carl is a really great guy and is lucky enough to skate the world over and has even discovered some new unknown skate spots. We didn't get a chance to skate together, but we will when he returns to New York in the summer. We had many beers and chatted about skated, music, and life for a really long time. He is the essence of what a skateboarder is - just having a great time and looking for new terrain to shred...

Gnarly Dude 2 has been receiving some great reviews and Punk 4 Life had this to say about the CD:

"'Gnarly Dude 2' is a various artists CD. There are 23 tracks on the CD in total that range from Electonic, Thrash right through to punk. Well this is a punk website so i'll tell you about the punk stuff. The bands are a mixture of both UK and US bands most of which you probably haven't heard of before. I must admit to only knowing anything about one of the bands and that is AFS whose own CD I have reviewed on here before. The bands featured on this CD that I would put in the punk catagory are MC Rad, Auberon Phoenix & The Dirt Box Fiddlers, Lostribe, K-Line, The Fraction, AFS, Leiana (With Chuck Treece) and Joe Popp. Some of these bands are very good and you probably wouldn't be able to get hold of these tracks anywhere else. Best song on the CD for me was 'Spitfire' by Joe Popp which is really good."

Carl Arnfield of Middle Age Shred and me hanging at Twins Public House...

I headed over to the Autumn Bowl by myself. Gil and a friend of his Boyd were there already getting their carving techniques down in the bowl. I took a few runs but decided today was the day I was going to hit a Frontside Grind on the mini-ramp if it killed me. Using Armando's advice, I brought my front foot back behind my front truck bolts a little bit and pumped up and down on the ramp. I had a nice smooth flow going, Kick Turning higher and higher on each transition. After a while - it happened. The very thing every old school skater considers a milestone - the Frontside Grind! Frontside is when your body is facing the coping of the ramp. It is a little scary because if you fall, you come down backwards, hence the apprehension I have had trying them. Some skaters say they are easier than backside, but I strongly disagree with this!

It was such an amazing feeling getting just that tiny scritch on the coping frontside and I slowly built my confidence up to hit a few more. Of course no day is complete without the obligatory crash and after a little overconfidence, I was humbly deposited on my left shoulder which never seems to get a chance to completely heal from the great crash of June '04.

All in all it was a weekend of firsts. My new daughter visiting NYC for the first time, and her old man doing a trick he has been wanting to do for about 20 years. With all of the war, hate, and violence that seems to permeate every second of every day, the world can still be a very beautiful place kept afloat by the tiniest of dreams...

My dream girls...

When I arrived there I was immediately blown away! He has this innovative technique that fuses stencils, tattoo techniques, airbrush, and graffiti. He was displaying several works that he did all with in about a month!

It is incredible that this guys that skates with me, drinks a few beers and makes me laugh with his skateboarding analogies is alos a very talented artist.

Dylan has been hurt for a while with a hairline fractured femur and a few bruised ribs, but he said his injuries helped him to focus on his art. He is itching to skate again but after seeing his artwork, I can help but think the skate gods gave him a little shove...

Truly great art with a heart from the gritty streets.

Click here to see Dylan's stuff: Dylan Blue Stone

Dylan in front of a piece titled Buttertiger...

It wasn't terribly cold and I enjoyed skating with the guys that I met when I was first getting into skating again. Craig had never been to the bowl and after much prodding from Armando, he finally dropped in and caught some really nice frontside grinds.

Armando helped my with my frontside kickturns and gave me the advice of bringing my front foot back behind my front truck bolts so the front of my deck would not be so hard to lift. This helped me greatly and my frontsides instantly became much easier to execute. I did notice that when I rode Armando's board that my feet automatically fell into that position so I am contemplating going back to an old school board without a kick nose on it! I don't really do nose tricks anyway and I love the way the old school decks look.

Hmmm, we shall see...

We had a great hamburger lunch at Diner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and felt great to have skated together as we have done so many times in the past.

Me, Armando, and Craig representing Bulldog Skates...