Frame by Frame part 3 - Fabien Chaigne

"Another goddam disciple of Satan!"
Such were my words at the opening of the part. Because yes, Satan is definitely in since the rise Deathwish era, partly thanks the exceptional promotional work made by disciple Sammy Bacca and disciple Lizard King. I was then expecting the logical consequence of such an intro: Black Sabbath ringing out into my hear while a Dickies&Vans enthusiast blasted airs and hammers. How easy am I to fool!
It does no harm just this once, it was actually Jay Hawkins that I heard screaming his funky music into my hears. What?! If Jereme Roger fears no man, Greg Dezecot fears no criticism for he had the boldness to brave the rigid conventions of skateboard-editing.
Even worse, instead of a fat angry dude, I realized that Fabien was actually a light-footed Nate Broussard look-alike who had the tendency to do long and fluid lines on architecturally awkward spots. But that funky rythmic music on such fluid skateboarding? How dare they?
How ignorant was I in those days! After intense reflexion I finally made the connections and understood the stakes of Fabien' part. Satan + "Africa gone funky" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins = Voodoo!! Fuck yeah! Voodoo, the exotic version Satanism! This makes sense, especially if we include the cool arty black figures that the editor included.



What conclusion should we draw then? By his advocating of Voodoo, Fabien shows how he proceeds to produce such skateboarding. You take one popular skateboard-trend (Satanism) and your add your own touch (exoticism) and come up with something unprecedented: Voodoo! Shall we apply this theory to his skateboarding, we will find that Fabien mixes "modern east-coast" type of skateboarding (wallies and wallride) with 90s inspired tricks (fs crooks, sw bs 5-0). In this post-9/11 era we shall label this type of skatebaording as post-modern, for it shows assimilation and mastery of the codes of the various eras, and a deep consciousness of the stylistic mood the skater evolves in. The Voodoo thing only reinforces this phenomenon for it creates an interaction between the skater and the editor. Thus the editor, by bending the rules of editing, higlights this post-modern aspect. Although, and in my humble opinion this is to deplore, the post-modern style has not come fully to maturity yet for Fabien tends to drifts more towards the modern way.
Not sure if the reference is intentional, but this subtle mix of class, violence and Voodoo is not without remembering Guy Hamilton's untemporal Live and Let Die. Should we interpret this as an implication that Fabien is as elegant on a board as Roger Moore with a gun in hand?

We shall leave this question unanswered, however the simple fact of raising it already means a lot.