La Luz

A film by Jay Maldonado

Capicu Productions

I’ve spent one-third of my life in the suburbs of Long Island;

one-third in Ozone Park, Queens; and the other third in and around Brooklyn, New York. This means that I used to have an actual driveway and backyard; I used to have a “Free John Gotti” T-shirt; and I speak an ugly, bastardized version of “white boy in da ’hood” Spanish. Basically, the latter knowledge usually consists of ordering food and telling girls on the A train how beautiful they look. Unfortunately, I have no idea what “La Luz” means, though.

All I know is that La Luz is the name of the best burrito joint in Fort Collins, Colorado, and that longtime NYC ripper Jay Maldonado named his new video after the restaurant–I think. The two Luzes do have several subtle differences, however. The burritos at the restaurant are very long, fat, and filled with good stuff, whereas the film is shorter, phatter, and overflowing with the shiznit. The burritos feature rice, beans, salsa, and a secret sauce. The ingredients for Jay’s video consist of one very delicious part Bobby Puleo, two parts Anthony Shetler and Geo Moya, and topped off with the East Coast’s best-kept secret sauce–Danny Falla. Of course, both the food product and the flick are rounded off nicely with a plethora of other hearty spices and seasonings.

Aside from lust, my favorite sin is gluttony, which is why I dream of one day eating a La Luz burrito while watching La Luz. I suggest y’all do the same, you couch burritos. ¡Yo quiero La Luz!–Andy Seifert

When you look through a kaleidoscope, you can move the lens cover and it changes what you see. When you watch the video, Kaleidoscope, produced by Julio De La Cruz and Larry Balma, you can sit back and watch and the changes take care of themselves.

The video basically consists of three parts from three companies with three different vibes, but it’s not your average video to say the least. The very first part of the video is the “friends” section–good lookin’ out. The rest of the video’s broken down into company riders, but since a lot of the riders are on more than one of the teams, you’ll get a pretty good dose of everybody involved.

The skaters are primarily representing from the L.A. area, and most of the spots you’ll be able to track back to that general location. However, the tricks are off the map. Leave it to kids in L.A. to develop the techest tricks–the rest of us will just try to keep up.

Now, go give your little brother his kaleidoscope back and get a copy of Kaleidoscope the skateboarding video–a real feast for the eyes.–Jared Loveless

Was it me, or was 2000 the year to hold out on video releases? Well, Guilty–Shorty’s follow-up to Fufill The Dream–was finally unveiled to the public featuring its all-star cast: Chad Muska, Steve Olson, Peter Smolik, Brandon Turner, Toan Nguyen, Jesse Silvey, and Sammy Baptista.

Shorty’s latest offering is a little much, though. If you cut off the excess fat of the interludes and bad-acting segments, Guilty has some exceptional skating. The Muska’s part is exactly what you think it is, Olson broke off the Shorty’s training facility throwing every flip trick into the flat bank from a perch, Brandon Turner made a comeback after breaking his other leg, and ams Sammy Baptista and Jesse Silvey showed their technical abilities. I’m not sure what to think of the rap-video/skate part from Peter Smolik. It did bring laughter to the room between the serious segments of the Shorty’s crew escaping from policce custody, though.

Pick up the video by a company that started off selling hardware and see what the Shorty’s crew is guilty of.–E.S.

The first hint of what you’re getting into is right on the cover of this video. The company that put it out is justifiably going under the name “Blue Collar” distribution, which, if you go through the trouble of looking it up, means “a class whose tasks are carried out in work clothes and usually involve manual labor”–perfect. And the title of the video, Death Trip 2001, is apparently carved into an incinerator that’s being filled with dead rats–beautiful. But that’s not to say this video isn’t worth watching–it’s actually worth way more than you’ll pay for it. You can consider it a “roots” lesson in skateboarding.

From the looks of it, the person who put this video together didn’t start out with a list of exclusive tricks that’d be carried out at secret spots and stored away safely until the world was ready for it. I’d say they started out with the intent of taking a trip to have fun and document any worthy skating along the way. And they succeeded.

You’ll see people and spots you recognize in the video, but you’ll also see spots you’ve never seen and spots you thought you’d never see again. There’re even some skaters you thought you’d never see again. (Watch the very end.)

What’s most important is what you won’t see, though. You won’t see blatant corporate brainwashing, you won’t see special effects, and you won’t see strictly hammers. You’ll see one person’s effort toward keeping skateboarding what it should be–strictly for the fun of it. Call (978) 425-6681 to get your copy, and support skateboarding’s roots–the working man!–Jared Loveless

The lineup: Jason Adams, Chet Childress, Neil Heddings, Eric Dressen, Chris Swanson, Crazy Eddie, Aaron Harrison, Sam Hitz, Tony Loco, Tony Trujillo, Jub, Patrick Rakestraw, Jerry Haffner, John Ponts, Steve Nesser, Wes Tonascia, Pigpen, and Ricky Espinoza.

The format: Digital, High-8, and 16mm.

The terrain: Streets, parks, ramps, and pools.

The outcome: Some of the gnarliest heads in skating are shown representing the dirt-dog style in support of the clothing company 1984. They start you off easy with some street and park footage, and then gently ease you into tranny and pools, so even if you lean toward the “fresh” side of things, you won’t feel like you’ve stumbled into a time machine (you know–slash, carve, slash). The end result is an eclectic mix of raw, unrehearsed skating.

The rating: Four stars.–Jared Loveless

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2003 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Magazine. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.