Amongst the several tons of mails we receive everyday, one particular question proves to be recurrent: "Do you guys happen to skate sometimes instead of disserting all day about agressive urban skateboarding?" Well, let me tell you my friends, we do. Sometimes. I mean, when it's sunny and my setup is looking good. And when the spot is smooth and welcoming. This is why this excursion to the sandy hereabouts of Claouey was an unusual one for the reporters of La Lodge, being more used to the softness of our couch than the roughness of this 70s ungrateful skatepark.
It is now a fact that the second decade of this newborn century is characterized by a post-modern approach to skateboarding. The frontiers between time periods have been blurred through mastery of an ever-enlarging panel of tricks. Briand Anderson's boneless to fs smith is probably the most blatant example of the liminality that affects skateboarding these days. Three time periods reunited in one trick. The boneless, key trick of the unforgiving era of fluorescent shorts, finds itself articulated with a fs smith, which at its heyday (1994? )could be performed more than 40 times in one session. Finally, the metallic context provided by the handrail is not remembering the hammer race of the early 00s that ruined the limbs of so many promising talents. And still, should we find it surprising, on behalf of a man who dared riding for Toy Machine and Axion at the same time? It seems that BA is not one for rigid categories and we appreciate that very much in the office of La Lodge. This notion of porous bondaries might remind some of you of the debate about BA's blurred gender identity and sexual orientations. This is a debate we will not enter for we do not give a shit about it and are already "gay" for Brian.
Shall we take a look at the teaser of the soon to be widely acclaimed Blueprint visual production, we will hear Audrey Hepburn' lyrical voice singing: "All I want is a room somewhere/ Far away from the cold night air." If we transpose this original predicate to the year 2010 and the city of London, we can draw the satisfaying conclusion that the Blueprint team is composed of a bunch of dirty bums living in a cold-ass city. Danny Brady's elegant appearance and his healthy breakfast seem to confirm this thesis. But what are we to do of the recent addition to the team, Arizonian manual acrobat Marty Murasky? Indeed, the conception of Englishness does not give much room for sun, cactuses and ditches in the middle of the desert. Will his professional debut be tarnished by a renunciation to his origins to the profit of the grayness of Old England? We can see the complex problematic that Make Friend With the Colour Blue lays, for, despite a self-proclaimed British identity, the brand is slightly trying to take over the world. We will not attempt to solve the issue, for we good-heartedly leave it to Dan Magee. Nevertheless we shall bring him support by getting drunk with cheap beer while discovering his work.
