POWELL PERALTA

Powell Peralta is running a contest to win an autographed Bones Brigade poster. It’s super easy to enter… Here’s the official lowdown from the Powell camp…

We’re running a sweepstakes for three posters that are autographed. They’re signed by Lance Mountain, Mike McGill, Rodney Mullen, Stacy Peralta, Steve Caballero, and Tommy Guerrero.

This is what you have to do. Email us at PPFB@skateone.com. Let us know who your favorite member of the Bones Brigade is and why. We will randomly choose three people that will each receive a poster. The last day to send an email in is Sunday, February 5th. We will announce the winners the the following day at about 12:00 pm PST.

Last week Flixist.com published a great review of Bones Brigade: An Autobiography and today they have released their top five best and worst lists of the entire Sundance Film Festival. I’m not sure how many films screened at Sundance but I would imagine it’s gotta be a ton and Flixist has ranked Bones Brigade: An Autobiography at #3 on the “best of” list. Awesome!

Says Allistair Pinsof from Flixist…

Bones Brigade is the type of documentary I love watching. It takes you to another place and time, completely immersing you in the joy, drama, and adventure these guys went through. By the end of the film, I feel inspired and full of life in the way only a great documentary can. Bones Brigade was the team Peralta was destined to form, and this is the story he was born to tell.

This past Saturday, January 28, Vans held the “Vans Mini Ramp Rumble” at the Vans Skatepark in Orange, CA. The top competitors battled it out and Powell Peralta am, Steve Reeves came out victorious with the first place spot and a oversized check for $2000. Congrats Steve!

The Sundance Film Festival has come and gone. The Bones Brigade documentary screened six times and it looks like it was a huge success for the crew while they were there. Here is part 3 (and probably last) of the photos from Sundance. Enjoy.

Stacy intoducing the film in Salt Lake.

Q&A session after the film.

Autograph session after the Q&A.

McGill, Cab and Lance out for a snowmobile ride.

Cab.

Cab and Lance.

Cab coming down the mountain.

Snowmobile crew.

Cab with Todd Richards and Ken Block.

Stacy.

Lance on a snowboard!

Cab.

Lance and Cab. The best.

Cab and Lance with a fan.

Stacy.

McGill.

The Mutt.

The City Boy.

Cab.

Lance.

“Where we eatin’?’

Todd Richards.

Packed house for a Bones Brigade screening.

Another Q&A session.

Chatting and hanging with fans after a screening.

Lance.

Cab and Stacy.

McGill and Cab with George Powell.

Lance drew this artwork on Tommy’s guitar.

The sixth and final screening at Sundance.

McGill with Lynn Cooper and family.

The Bones house at Sundance.

Lance and Stacy signing posters.

Wired.com has published their review of Bones Brigade: An Autobiography entitled Bones Brigade Exposes Skateboarding’s Golden Age. Also features exclusive quotes from Stacy Peralta. Read on…

CLICK HERE to read the review.

Thatsthehookup.com caught one of the screenings of Bones Brigade: An Autobiography while attending the Sundance Film fest and has published a review…

The standouts of the movie are Rodney Mullen and Lance Mountain who really open themselves up to the camera, giving viewers and fans a real idea of what life was like for some awkward kids trying to make it with an unusual talent. Rodney Mullen is a sweet savant who dedicates hours upon hours to perfecting his craft. He seems to be too smart to be a pro-skater, but it’s what makes him happy and that is a beautiful message for today’s youth. Lance Mountain admitted that he didn’t think he was good enough to be a pro-skater and never knew why he was on the team, but Lance Mountain is the reason I stuck with skateboarding because he made me feel like it was ok to just enjoy it and never be completely amazing at it like Tony Hawk. Mountain was also inspiring because he was working 3 jobs while being a pro-skater to support his wife and young child.

CLICK HERE to read the full review.

Powell Peralta has published two more photo updates on their website covering all the action of the Bones Brigade at the Sundance Film Fest. I’m loving all of this coverage. So cool to see.

CLICK HERE and HERE to see the updates.

FIlmjunk.com has published a review of Bones Brigade: An Autobiography and gives it 3.5 stars out of 4.

For nostalgia geeks, like myself, who grew up with Powell/Peralta posters on my wall and a board under my feet, the film is both a trip down memory lane and a surprisingly different point of view as to exactly what went down all those years ago. But, for outsiders, the film is a tale of losers who banded together and went out to create something new that they could be winners at. Peralta, himself, was the guiding force in all of this, a key figure without whom none of it would have happened. And so, while this film is sure to be labeled a vanity project by some, there is really nobody better to tell this story than Stacy Peralta.

CLICK HERE to read the full review.

Trevor hale has published a cool story about meeting the Bones Brigade at the Sundance Film Festival. Oh yeah, he saw the documentary too.

CLICK HERE to read Trevor’s cool story.

The Sundance Film Fest has just posted this great video interview with Stacy Peralta and the Bones Brigade. So awesome to see more clips from the movie and get some insight from the guys.

The Chrome Ball Incident has just featured a post on Mike V. Lots of classic Powell Peralta imagery is featured as well as his interview with Poweredge Magazine in 1989 which was pretty much the last time we saw him on Powell Peralta before he left to help form World Industries. Also features links to some classic Mike V video parts including his break out part in Public Domain.

CLICK HERE to check it out.

The above collection of Powell Peralta stickers is on display in Chicago as part of DB Burkeman’s Stuck Up show featuring his enormous collection of rare, hand drawn and printed stickers. If you live in the Chicago are be sure to head down to the Maxwell Collete Gallery to check out it.

Can’t make it to the event? Then be sure to check out DB’s book, Stickers- from Punk Rock to Contemporary Art AKA Stuck-Up Piece Of Crap featuring over 4000 stickers by more than 1300 artists including a lot of Powell Peralta stickers and an interview with Lance Mountain.

Believe it or not, 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of Steve Caballero’s pro shoe from Vans, the Half Cab. To celebrate Vans will be releasing a different and limited edition Half Cab every month for the year 2012. Here’s the press release from Vans…

If one thing is abundantly clear clear from Vans’ storied 45-year history, it is this: Vans is at its very best when listening to the needs of skateboarders. Originally released as a mid-top version of the classic Vans Caballero high top, the Half Cab was created in direct response to the demands of a new generation of skateboarders changing the game and taking skateboarding back out into the streets after the vert-riding heyday of the 1980s. “In ‘91, I noticed that a lot of street skaters were cutting my shoe halfway down and wearing them that way,” Steve Caballero remembers. “So in ‘92, I gave Vans the idea to make a lower cut shoe and call it the Half Cab.” Vans listened and a new silhouette was introduced, an icon was born and countless other shoe companies would eventually go on to release their version of this original Vans classic that has remained in Vans’ line-up to this day.

2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the Vans Half Cab. In celebration of this occasion and skateboarders’ knack for challenging the status quo and making their voices heard, Vans will be dropping one new and exclusive limited edition 20th Anniversary Half Cab colorway every month throughout the course of the year.

Beginning in January, Vans and Supreme take us back to where it all started with a limited edition (20 pairs worldwide!) hand-cut and duct-taped Vans Caballero high top. Each pair individually cut, numbered and signed by Cab himself and available on Saturday, January 28, exclusively at the following select Supreme stores while supplies last: New York (5 pairs), Los Angeles (5 pairs), London (5 pairs), Harajuku Tokyo (5 pairs).

CLICK HERE to view the video.

They were the ones who brought us the sneak preview of the movie, now the Hollywood Reporter brings us their review. Another positive review…

CLICK HERE to read the review.

Outsideonline.com has a great interview with Stacy Peralta all about, you guessed it, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography.

CLICK HERE to check it out.

Powell Peralta hasn’t really kept us in the loop on skateboarding wonder kid, Killian Martin since they announced him joining the team last year. But today they gave us an update of sorts…

Spanish skateboarding website, Go-Skateboarding.com has published an interview with Kilian. Unfortunately it’s all in Spanish. CLICK HERE to check it out and if you’re dying to read it there’s always Google Translate.

Powell Peralta has posted it’s third update on the week’s festivities at the Sundance Film Fest.

Check out the thirteen photos and report right HERE.

At the beginning of the Sundance Film Festival, Stacy Peralta sat down with rapper Ice-T and famed photographer, Glen Friedman for an insightful panel discussion. Check out this great video.

Steve Caballero posted this message about the Bones Brigade documentary. Great stuff as always from Cab.

The webmaster over at Skull & Bones had a contest to win two VIP tickets to see Bones Brigade: An Autobiography at the Santa Barbara International Film Fest in Santa Barabara, CA. Watch the video above to see if you have won!

Five more reviews of Bones Brigade: An Autobiography have come my way from the screenings at the Sundance Film Fest. All the reviews are super positive. Can’t wait to see this movie. Click on over for the reviews and take it all in…

CLICK HERE to read the review from Variety.

CLICK HERE to read the review from Film Threat.

CLICK HERE to read the review from Daily Film Dose.

CLICK HERE to read the review from Twitch Film.

CLICK HERE to read the review from Milk Made.

Element Case (looks like Billy Ruff is involved) has partnered with Powell Peralta to release some classic Powell Perlta graphics on iPhone cases. Here is some info…

Element Case has partnered with the legends of skateboarding and Powell Peralta to bring the iconic deck graphics of skate history to the iPhone 4. Combining the legendary graphics of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s with three of Element Case’s premium iPhone 4 protective cases lets you represent your favorite rider’s graphic on your iPhone.

All iPhone cases come with the choice of a Skate Deck Graphic backplate. The Vapor Pro and Vapor Comp consist of a fully screen printed Lexan backplate with a reusable adhesive. These backplates can be easily removed to switch out with other backplates. Individual Skate Deck graphic backplates will be available.

The Formula 4 case backplate is not removable and is specific to each case. All Element Case Skate Edition Cases come complete with a free Skate Legends bio card and Element Skate sticker.

Check out all the info HERE and HERE.

Osiris Shoes has just released this clip of Chad Bartie having a warm up session at Bishop Skatepark in Oceanside, CA.

Ozzie Ausband has a great article/interview with OG Powell Peralta rider Teddy Bennett on the Blue Tile Obsession website.

CLICK HERE to learn your history kids and keep up the great wok Ozzie!

Stacy Peralta sat down with host Aamer Haleem for an interview with the Sundance Channel yesterday. Hopefully the interview will end up on the web somewhere for all of us to enjoy. But for now you can check out a few photos HERE.

ESPN has just released an article on Stacy Peralta and his two films at Sundance 2012: No Room For Rock Stars and Bones Brigade: An Autobiography.

CLICK HERE to check it out.

Here is the next installment of photos of all the action at the Sundance Film Fest with the Bones Brigade. Looks like they’re having a blast! Enjoy!

Variety interview and photo shoot.

Sundance press kit. I need one.

Tommy and Lance being interviewed for HBO and Cinemax.

Cab and and McGill’s turn for the HBO and Cinemax folks.

Lance, TG and Cab.

Lance and Stacy in the hot seat.

Stacy interviewing with the Sundance Channel.

Banksy sighting at Sundance.

Cab and McGill with William H Macy.

Lance.

Cab.

McGill.

TG.

The Mutt.

Lance adding his own personal touch to the Banksy piece.

Glen Friedman, Lance and Rodney doing press for the film.

Ticket!

Third screening of Bones Brigade. This time in Salt Lake City.

A fan’s Animal Chin tattoo.

Everywhere I turn on the information super highway I come across another review of the Bones Brigade documentary. Here’s the latest review from Flixist.com written by Allistair Pinsof.

Bones Brigade is the film I wanted Dogtown and Z-Boys to be. I wanted to hear about the origin of the ollie, the rise of Tony Hawk, and the commercialization of skateboarding. Yet, I feared director and pillar in the skateboarding community Stacy Peralta would appear in lethargic form, as he mined similar material again.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Bones Brigade is a masterful documentary that tells the story of a group of misfits who became the stars all future misfits would want to become.

After forming the foundation of skateboarding in the ’70s, Stacy Peralta wanted to create what he always wanted for himself during his prime: A team of like-minded skaters who would elevate each other’s craft and form life-long friendships. Where skateboard manufacturers and investors built teams from established skaters, Peralta created a team out of young unknowns — some of which were as young as ten years old. He taught them everything he knew and set them on a journey across the world. This group eventually became known as the Bones Brigade.

As the ’80s progressed, the definition of skateboarding became broader and the sport became more accessible. No longer were skaters limited to skate parks — parks that were torn down with alarming frequency in the early ’80s — now, skateboarding evolved on the streets of American suburbs. And, most every influential trick came from the Bones Brigade.

Peralta’s film tells the story of the group’s origin to where the members are now, leaving few gaps that need filling. As the sport became more open to new styles, new personalities attached to skateboarding. Every member of the Bones Brigade is a fascinating character; the same can be said of every talking head that helps tell the team’s story.

Tony Hawk is the earnest geek who wants all the cool punks to like him; instead, every new influential trick he creates only make the naysayers angrier, going as far as spitting on his face at events. Rodney Mullen is the introverted genius who single-handedly reinvented the sport by creating the ground ollie. He is one of the most captivating interview subjects I’ve ever seen in a documentary. He speaks pure poetry with a grave intensity that had me hanging onto his every word. Lance Mountain is the group’s clown, who unexpectedly became a celebrity overnight through the invention of skateboarding VHS tapes. The entire cast is fantastic, full of great lines, quirks, and stories.

Beyond these spirited interviews, the Bones Brigade’s story is told through a wealth of archive footage cut together brilliantly with a killer soundtrack that perfectly captures the era and tone of each segment. 120 minutes fly by with ease. There is so much of this story to tell and it’s all told so well. There are some heavy emotional moments that are properly setup and some pretty big laughs delivered.

Bones Brigade is the type of documentary I love watching. It takes you to another place and time, completely immersing you in the joy, drama, and adventure these guys went through. By the end of the film, I feel inspired and full of life in the way only a great documentary can. Bones Brigade was the team Peralta was destined to form, and this is the story he was born to tell.

The reviews of Bones Brigade: An Autobiography keep pouring in! This time, Noel Murray at A.V. Club has reviewed a grip of movies from day 5 of Sundance including the Bones Brigade doc. 

It’s interesting to see Rodney Mullen’s story from the movie being a stand out part like many other reviews have mentioned.

Says Noel…

Bones Brigade: An Autobiography

Director/Time: Stacy Peralta, 90 min.

Headline: A groundbreaking skateboarding team tells their story

Indie type: Oral history

Report: Stacy Peralta has made multiple documentaries and feature films about the history of skateboarding and surfing, subjects he knows from firsthand experience as a pioneering pro. It’s surprising then that it’s taken him this long to get to Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, a doc about the formidable team of teen ‘boarders that Peralta assembled in the ‘80s. Assembled from old video footage and new interviews, Bones Brigade tells the story of how the team thrived throughout the end of pro skateboarding’s first big wave, and helped keep the sport alive in its dark ages, before skate-videos, street-skating and middle-of-nowhere events helped revive the sport first as underground culture and then as big business. The repetitive shots of skaters in bowls and half-pipe keeps Bones Brigade from being as consistently thrilling as it should be, but for anyone who’s ever wanted to know how tricks like the “Ollie” and the “McTwist” came to be, or how exactly Tony Hawk became a superstar, this movie is highly informative and even inspirational. (Suggested alternate title: This Film Is About A Superhero Named Tony.) It’s surprisingly emotional too, as grown men look back on the days when they were competitive, easily bruised kids, calmed by Peralta’s avuncular presence. Nowhere is that clearer than in the story of Rodney Mullen, a driven youngster who like Hawk spent hours designing and perfecting tricks that no one had ever imagined before, all while dealing with at-times-crippling anxieties. Bones Brigade captures the camaraderie and creativity of these times, scored to ‘80s punk and New Wave; but even more, it gets how seriously these men took their craft, and how their devotion spawned an industry.

Grade: B+

CLICK HERE to read the whole article.

Venkman over at Geek Tyrant has a great review of Bones Brigade: An Autobiography that was published today. Says Venkman…

Peralta brings his fourth documentary to the Festival and continues to display an uncanny knack for fusing style and substance in his films. BONES BRIGADE works on a number of levels and will blow the minds of anyone who grew up emulating these guys, but it also resonates for anyone who ever found a family or a purpose in an unexpected place.

CLICK HERE to read the full review.

Univision news has just posted a great and in depth review of Bones Brigade: An Autobiography. Here is just a sample of Miguel Tamayo review…

“In all, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography succeeds in capturing the genius, originality, and eccentricities of these teenage prodigies who put skateboarding on the map, while at the same time skillfully revealing the experiences and relationships that molded them into the men they are today.”

CLICK HERE to read the full review.

Scott Murphy from Saltlakecitymag.com has reviewed Bones Brigade: An Autobiography and lets us know that it is a “must-see for skaters.” Here is Scott’s review…

If you’ve ever wondered why skateboarders call certain moves “McTwists” and others “Ollies,” the new documentary “Bones Brigade: An Autobiography,” will prove very informative. 

If you know the stories behind those two names already, you may not find much new in the movie, but it’s likely you’ll enjoy seeing the old home video clips that are featured throughout the movie just the same. 

Directed by Bones Brigade team founder Stacy Peralta, the movie features such skateboarding icons as Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero and Rodney Mullen, (originator of the flatground Ollie).

The movie takes a fun, informative look at the semi-Beatle-mania that surrounded the group during their heydey in the late ’80s and how they helped transformed what was once considered a fad into a multi-million dollar industry with hundreds of thousands of participants and fans. 

For those who weren’t 15 in the mid-80s and didn’t realize that was when skateboarding exploded in popularity, difficulty and in the number of wow-inducing moves, the movie serves as a great tutorial for how skateboarding went from backyard ramps to X-Games televised events. 

At its best, you’ll wonder why you never paid more attention to skating and their unique subculture, this movie provides a great introduction and for anyone who knows what a McTwist is as well as they know their address, it’ll provide a good look behind the scenes of what these occasionally tortured young performers and athletes endured. 

This is a cool documentary and will likely become must-see viewing for anyone who spends or has spent their afternoons perfecting an Ollie.

The Sundance Film Fest has been having “guest tweeters” using the Sundance Film Fest Twitter account for an interesting perspective of what goes down at Sundance. Well, just yesterday Stacy Peralta was workin’ the tweets and here’s what went down for Stacy and the Brigade on January 23rd…

Rodney Mullen skating a bowl in Gainsville, FL in November 1979. Photo by Jim Goodrich.

Ozzie over at Blue Tile Obsession has a quick Rodney Mullen / Stacy Peralta / Sundance Film Fest update for us all to enjoy.

CLICK HERE to view the photos and read his update. 

Powell Peralta has just published two photo updates on their website of all the action that’s been going down with the Bones Brigade at the Sundance Film Fest. It’s great to see all of these photos.

CLICK HERE for part one.

CLICK HERE for part two.

Sneakerhead website, Solecollector.com is reporting on a rumor that is going around in the sneaker scene: an Air Jordan 1 x Nike SB Bones Brigade shoe to coincide with the release of the Bones Brigade documentary and the 10 year anniversary of Nike SB.

As we all know, Nike flowed the Bones Brigade some Air Jordans (sans Hawk who wore Vans) while filming The Search For Animal Chin and Lance is currently sponsored by Nike SB so I guess it makes sense. Time will tell.

Sole Collector reports:

Rumors of an Air Jordan 1 x Nike SB collaboration resurfaced last week, suggesting a release coinciding with Nike SB’s 10th anniversary.

Further details emerged today via N-SB and the twitter account of Dom DeLuca (Brooklyn Projects), revealing that a campaign is in place that will kick off with the February release of the upcoming film, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography. 

The above photo by J. Grant Brittain, taken in 1987 during the filming of Powell-Peralta’s The Search For Animal Chin, shows Bones Brigade members Steve Caballero, Mike McGill and Lance Mountain all skating the original Air Jordan 1 (with Tony Hawk appearing in Vans). As the story goes, the production crew sought to replace the beat-up shoes of the young cast, and were unable to find a solution with the skate shoe brands of the time. A connection at Nike sent over a shipment of the Jordan 1 to the Animal Chin set, leading to several swoosh sightings throughout the film.

25 years later, will we see an official Air Jordan 1 skate shoe? Stay tuned to Sole Collector for updates.

This rumor is also being reported by 24hourkicks.com.

The Ride Channel is really hooking up the current Powell dudes for their trick a day videos. So far they’ve featured Jordan Hoffart, Kevin Harris, Aldrin Garcia and now Chad Bartie. In this episode Chad teaches us blunts to fakie. Shred it!

Left to right: Lance Mountain, Mike McGill, Steve Caballero, Stacy Peralta, Rodney Mullen, Tommy Guerrero.

Bones Brigade: An Autobiography so far has screened twice out of it’s scheduled six screenings at the Sundance Film Festival. Within the few days of the festival so far there hasn’t been a lack of blurry cell phone photos to hit the web.

Here is a collection of some of the photos that have hit the web so far… The premieres, the q&a’s, the interviews, the hangouts and I even included pics from the No Room For Rock Stars premiere and Peralta’s seminar with Ice T and Glen Friedman. Enjoy.

Stacy hanging posters in Park City.

Rodney and Stacy hanging posters.

Merch!

Ice T, Stacy and Glen Friedman.

Again, Ice T, Stacy and Glen Friedman.

Cab’s credentials.

The golden ticket.

Stacy giving the boys a pep talk.

Stacy and the boys before the first screening of the film.

Cab and Stacy.

TG, Stacy, The Mutt and McGill.

Stacy, Cab, Sean Penn and McGill.

Stacy introducing the film.

Q&A after the film.

Dinner reservations.

Stacy and the Brigade heading in for screening #2.

Cab, Tommy, Lance and Mike ready for screening #2.

Stacy introducing the film at screening #2.

Q&A after screening #2.

Stacy with a fan.

Autographed ticket stub. Worth millions.

Mike, Cab and Lance. Classic!

Cab’s ticket.

Stacy introducing No Room For Rock Stars.

George Powell and Steve Van Doren at the No Room For Rock Stars premiere.

Lance!

Cab, Austin Peralta, McGill and Stacy.

Photo train.

Being interviewed by the Sundance Channel out on the slopes.

The crew at a Variety event.

Wow there was a lot more than I thought! Still haven’t had enough? Check out more photos from Lance Mountain right HERE.

Blogger Donna K was at the premiere of Bones Brigade: An Autobiography at Sundance and has written a review of the film on her blog, Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then. Says Donna…

“The Bones Brigade were sort of the (marketed?) underdog, clean cut riders who revolutionized the way kids skate, literally defining the terms in the modern skate lexicon. I can’t really explain the skater’s complicated relationships they have with the thing they love, still as adults moved to tears by their passion- so so moving- you just have to see it! The film as a whole was a normal documentary format whose interesting content was decisively edited from hours and hours of skate footage & interviews yet still managing to include everything; the lives, the stories, the sport, the nuance, and even the historical context (the movement from concrete skate parks, to backyard ramp competitions, to freestyle street skating to today’s combination of them all)! It really was an intense sweeping survey of a group of people who love what they do and managed to create that into a way of life, for themselves and others, even in the face of all of life’s pressures.”

CLICK HERE to read Donna’s full review.

The newest issue of underrated skate rag, Juice, has just been released and it features the first installment of the Bones Brigade Chronicles with interviews with Craig Stecyk and Ray “Bones” Rodriguez. Hopefully the Bones Brigade interviews will continue into further issues just like Juice did with the Z-Boys when the Dogtown & Z-Boys film was released.

Pick up issue #69 of Juice at your favorite skateshop or purchase it direct from Juice right HERE.

Producers Stacy Peralta and Agi Orsi.

Besides being busy as hell with Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, Stacy Peralta is the producer of another film that premiered at Sundance. Entitled, No Room For Rock Stars, the film is a documentary about the touring lifestyle of the Vans Warped Tour.

Transworld Business has a grip of photos from the premiere and after party at Sundance. Check them out HERE and watch the trailer below.

Theater locations will be announced in the coming weeks at www.noroomforrockstars.com.

Following the one-night theatrical event on March 1, 2012, No Room For Rock Stars will release on iTunes on April 2 and DVD on May 8.

Steve Caballero at the premiere.

Lance Mountain has been sending cool photos from the Sundance Film Fest to Ozzie Ausband for inclusion on a cool blog over at Blue Tile Obsession. Incase you have been living in a cave, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography is showing at the Sundance Film Festival this week in Park City, UT.

CLICK HERE to see all nine of Lance’s photos.

Here’s another trick tip video from Tony Hawk’s Ride Channel on YouTube. This time Aldrin Garcia teaches us how to do hardflips.

NYMag.com has a quick recap of “Some juicy, star-filled movies that have acquisitions execs buzzing” from day three of the Sundance Film Festival. On that short list is Bones Brigade: An Autobiography. Here’s what they had to say…

Bones Brigade
Plot: Stacy Peralta (Riding Giants, Dogtown and Z-Boys) flashes back to the 1980s to profile Bones Brigade, his team of wunderkind skateboarders that counted Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen and Tommy Guerrero among its original crew. Between Peralta narrating and the team members, now in middle age, reminiscing, the film shows how Peralta groomed a group of relative unknowns into a team that “paved the way to make money in skateboarding.”

Reaction: The skills and tricks are awesome to behold, even in grainy ’80s footage, but it’s not just about the tricks: This is as much a coming-of-age film as it is a sports documentary. The team members endear themselves to you as they tell tales from the good ol’ days, while touching on the stress of being a teen (and contending with parents who disapproved of skate culture). It helps that these guys are extremely likable — they’re funny, honest and, in the case of Mullen, downright poetic. Bones Brigade is also an interesting account of the evolution of skateboard culture, from formal skate park competitions to backyard half-pipe parties to today’s freestyle revolution. It’s not Peralta’s most riveting or adrenalized documentary, but it has a lot of heart.

CLICK HERE to see the full list of movies on the buzz meter.

Bones Brigade: An Autobiography just premiered at Sundance a few hours ago and Hitflix.com has wasted no time getting their review online. Writer Daniel Fienburg seems to have enjoyed the film a lot. Read on…

It’s been over a decade since skateboarding pioneer Stacy Peralta brought his partially autobiographic documentary “Dogtown and Z-Boys” to the Sundance Film Festival and walked away with an Audience Award and a prize for his direction.Since then, Peralta has successfully chronicled big wave surfers in “Riding Giants” and street gangs in “Crips and Bloods: Made in America,” proving himself to be more than just a one-trick pony as a documentarian, but rather an astute chronicler of men who live extreme lives on the fringes of the mainstream. Peralta returned to Sundance on Saturday (January 21) night for the world premiere of “Bones Brigade: An Autobiography,” which isn’t exactly a sequel to “Dogtown and Z-Boys,” but still follows the next chapter in the filmmaker’s life, as well as the next chapter in the history of skateboarding as an athletic pursuit and an art form. As he did on “Dogtown and Z-Boys,” Peralta is making a film about himself and about the people who were closest to him, but as was the case with the earlier film, proximity yields refreshing honesty and candidness rather than a self-aggrandizing puff piece. The skaters featured in “Bones Brigade,” several so legendary that even I’ve heard of them, see no purpose in being coy or precious with their memories and reputations. For purposes of honesty, it helps that the story being told in “Bones Brigade” is almost unnervingly functional. Nobody really has all that much to cover up or be ashamed of and the subjects of the documentary are practically competing to distribute the highest compliments. As you might imagine, all of that admiration and respect isn’t always so great for drama and “Bones Brigade” lacks even the traditional spiral of egos that pushed “Dogtown and Z-Boys” to its conclusion. In the place of stakes and tension, Peralta gives us a cast of at least a dozen colorful and often hilarious characters, plus a seemingly bottomless treasure trove of period footage. That was more than enough for this viewer whose interest in the skateboarding milieu is minimal at best. “Dogtown and Z-Boys” focused on the birth of swimming pool skate culture and the rise and fall of the Zephyr skate team, particularly early stars like Peralta and Tony Alva. In “Bones Brigade,” we pick up in the early ’80s and Peralta already looking for new career avenues in his early twenties. Deciding he wants to be a coach and mentor rather than a star, Peralta joined forces with skateboard designer and manufacturer George Powell on the Powell Peralta team. Their goal? To sign up a group of unproven young skateboarders — later dubbed “Bones Brigade” by photographer Craig Stecyk — and turn them into the future of the sport. Among the people on the team? Alan Gelfand. You might know him as the inventor of the ollie. Mike McGill. You might know him as the inventor of the McTwist. And Tony Hawk. You might know him as Tony freakin’ Hawk. The Bones Brigade had six core members and at least 30 satellite members and they weathered the decline of the first wave of skateboard culture and helped push the sport in its current direction, leaving it more popular than ever before. While that Peralta/Alva generation of skaters had a competitiveness that was both fruitful and also toxic, “Bones Brigade” argues that these new youthful skaters were constantly motivating and inspiring each other to push the edge of the envelope and the boundaries of balance and gravity. The film opens with each of the core Brigade skaters explaining what drew them to the pastime, practically forming a recruitment video with their stories of finding a place in the world in which they were no longer outsiders and in which they could express themselves. The subjects are a fascinating lot. I knew basic things about Tony Hawk, but I didn’t have a sense of how and why he was hated by fellow skateboarders when he first hit the scene. In great detail, Peralta is able to explore the compulsions that forced Hawk to stockpile new tricks and to advance his technical wizardry, illustrating Hawk’s rivalry with his skating opposite Christian Hosoi. While they’re presented as kindred spirits within the Brigade, Hawk seems composed and at ease compared to freestyle mastermind Rodney Mullen, whose crippling self-consciousness and obvious genius makes him a captivatingly twitchy interview subject. Mullen’s perfectionism and compulsive dedication to his craft are only the tip of a psychologically complex iceberg that includes issues with his father that might take a whole additional film to unpack. Self-effacing clown prince Lance Mountain, rambling-yet-brilliant Stecyk and a number of familiar faces from “Dogtown and Z-Boys” also make appearances. And Peralta remains endlessly affable, though I’m becoming more and more convinced that he may just be a character played by either Jeff Daniels or Dave Coulier. “Bones Brigade” also features cameos from the likes of Shepard Fairey, Ben Harper and Fred Durst, whose every appearance earned loud and vocal derision from the premiere night crowd. The interviews are all shot in a warehouse decorated with skating memorabilia and the subjects are uniformly animated, cracking jokes, telling stories and remembering one story after another. Because of Stecyk and Glen E. Friedman and many other photographers and videographers, the Bones Brigade was documented to a degree that even exceeds what one might expect in our current media-saturated age. Whenever a talking head mentions a specific competition, it’s a guarantee that editor Josh Altman will be able to reach into the vault and find footage. Altman also has the daunting task of illustrating the torrent of skating jargon discussed by the subjects. This is a world with its own vernacular and an ever-expanding catalogue of skill-sets that are hard to appreciate if you weren’t raised on Bones Brigade videos and X Games highlights, but Peralta and Altman make sure that the language is understandable. For a brief moment after watching “Bones Brigade” tonight, I could have explained to you how Gelfand’s ollie led to Mullen’s flatground ollie and how that, in turn, evolved into the street skateboarding culture that’s still visible today. And more than just making the language understandable, Peralta and Altman make it easy to find the feats impressive, even if you can’t tell any of the maneuvers apart. And if that fails, “Bones Brigade” has no shortage of footage of people wiping out, plus unbearably hilarious clips and outtakes from the cult classic “The Search for Animal Chin.” As entertainment and suburban anthropology, “Bones Brigade” never falters, with a tremendous soundtrack smoothing over a few chronological rough patches. What’s missing are the tragic twists we’ve been trained to expect from this genre. But nobody does drugs. Nobody resorts to a life of crime. Nobody’s depression leads to a suicide attempt. Nobody complains about their finances. Tony Alva, who had a less wholesome team of competing skaters, mocks the Brigade as boy scouts, but Lance Mountain maintains that they were all just getting the rush they needed from their skating. He may be right, but without those signpost events, Peralta’s movie glides along without act breaks or turning points. I can’t say if that lack of ebb and flow means Peralta needed to use a sterner authorial hand or if that’s the way events actually played out. I don’t know if Peralta’s skateboarding life has a third act that he’ll be able to document 10 years from now, but after two entertaining installments, I’d still be ready to watch it.

Park City Television has a cool video interview with Stacy Peralta at the Sundance Film Fest and the topic is, you guessed it, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography. Check it out!

More Sundance press… Flixist.com brings us a five question interview with Stacy Peralta all about Bones Brigade: An Autobiography.

CLICK HERE to read the interview.

The fine folks at Powell Peralta have kicked down some info letting us know about some recent Steve Reeves media coverage. First up and I’m not sure what skate rag this is from, is an ad for Dekine Bags. And then hot on the heels of the clip he uploaded last week, Steve is back with a shared clip with his friend Johnny Turgesen. Watch it below and get stoked!

The webmaster over at the Skull and Bones messageboards is offering up two tickets to see Bones Brigade: An Autobiography at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. All you have to do is post who your favorite member of the Bones Brigade is in THIS THREAD.

Here are the official rules from Slob-Air…

Powell Peralta debuts the BONES BRIGADE: An Autobiography film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival at the Arlington Theater on Feb. 2, 2012 (Thursday night) at 8:00pm. Red carpet begins at 7:00pm. 

I had to turn down VIP tickets to the show as I just can’t be there on that date so Powell Peralta has been most gracious in allowing me to raffle it off exclusively to members of S&B. 

This contest is free to enter but… 

DO NOT ENTER IF YOU CANNOT BE IN SANTA BARBARA ON FEB. 2 FOR THE VIEWING 

The VIP tickets are not transferable.

To enter, simply post in this thread with ENTER ME and below that indicate which one of the 6 Bones Brigade members on the poster below is your favorite. That’s it. Simple! 

Entries will be drawn out of a hat on video next weekend. The video will be posted here and I will inform Powell Peralta who will make the tickets available to the winner at the Arlington Theater’s Will Call booth. 

If you have any questions, PM me. Otherwise, good luck!!!

12 hours after posting about the Herbivore Clothing Ripper spoof below, this shirt has been sent my way…

The people profiting off of Dee Dee Ramone have made a spoof of VCJ’s Ripper and are selling it on a t-shirt. Says the Dee Dee Ramone website…

“Featuring a reproduction of an original painting by artist Lucas Lasnier aka Parbo of Buenos Aires, Argentina.”

CLICK HERE to check it out.