[br]
Song List
Desert Section: Nine Inch Nails – The Beginning Of The End
Intro: Hopewell – Birds of Appetite
Justin Figueroa: Roky erickson – Bloody Hammer
Shaun Gregoire: The Rosebuds – Leaves Do Fall
Brian Sumner: Tegan and Sara – Living Room
Randy Ploesser: Kelley Stoltz – Ever Thought Of Coming Back
Willy Santos: The Upstarts – Got What It Takes
Jean Postec & Tony Hawk: Cold War Kids – We Used To Vacation
David Loy: The Starlite Desperation – Born To Be Dizzy
Nathan Lacoste, Riley Hawk, Jon Dickson: The Starlite Desperation – Born To Be Dizzy
Derek Burdette: Shocking Blue – Eve And The Apple
Jeremy Klein: Adult – Skinlike
Sean Eaton: Roky Erickson – Cold Night For Alligators
Matt Ball: The Black Lips – Hippie, Hippie, Hoorah
Steve Nesser: Ebony Rhythm Band – Drugs Ain’t Cool
credits: Hopewell – Synthetic Symphony
[br]
Birdhouse’s The Beginning is the follow up to the company’s classic offering The End, released in 1998. The company is well known as Tony Hawk’s own personal palette for creativity, but the legitimacy of the brand comes from the incredible assembly of Amateurs that call Birdhouse their own. Thus the theme of the video is the beginning of something new with their squad of young’ns, and while falling short in the music department for a few parts, the video delivers nice dollops of diverse skateboarding, from vert ramps to Hollywood High. Unfortunately, due to the 17 skaters featured in the video, it’s a bit of a long watch; but sleepless college nights with a case of coke provide the time to watch it multiple times, and document it bit by bit.
[br]
Desert Section
I’m not really sure the point of this section, and it’s easily my least favorite of the video. Shaun White, the multisport poster-boy, shreds an utterly dustly desert halfpipe with the birdman. The song is forgettable, and I wish the intro had actually been an intro, instead of a perfectly skippable vert part. White is boring, and the whole part is in semi-slowmo, although Hawk pulls out a ridiculous hand plant on a bar set above a jeep, and does some ridiculously high-risk channel gaps afterwards, making me ponder exactly how hard it is to land such a blasted ollie on a ramp that just got raped by a desert tornado. He’s not respected for nothing. Unfortunately, it’s just not interesting more than two times through.
[br]
Intro
Yes, the intro comes second. Lots of incredbily painful bails, a surprisingly good song, and the somewhat cliche hype-building techniques in the form of close lands and some glimpses into the illness of the parts to follow. The clip where the lens gets bashed makes me weep everytime, but to their credit it’s quite a good intro, and gets me ready for the rest of the vid.
[br]
Justin Figueroa
Everyone knows him as Figgy. And I am not a Figgy Fan. His opening line makes him look like a slow giant, but his tricks are indeed on point. Perfect front feebles abound, along with some of the ugliest frontside bigspins I’ve ever seen, some refreshing applications of the late frontside shuvit, a beautiful fs feeble fakie a la Jamie Thomas, a fantastic bridge transition line, a surprisingly inventive bank to middle rail feeble, and a gigantic tre flip. I also quite love his kickflip boardslide, but it’s hard for me to get into the hairband and anorexic Shane Cross vibe he seems to have going. Not to mention he’s kinda a dud on handrails, save for a few instances. I have to give him credit in that category for his last two tricks, and also point out the lengthy fakie flip and switch flip right before those tricks. Song gets stuck in my head, but I’d never want it on my Ipod. It brings Foundation’s That’s Life to mind, but it fits.
[br]
Shaun Gregoire
Being an East Coastaholic as I am and being a huge fan of the semi-local scene that makes up the downtown DC skaters, Gregoire has been pretty high on my list of favorites for a while now. That being said, his part is one of my top three for the video. The song is good, it feels like a Gregoire song, judging by the soundtrack put to his Time Will Tell part, a film produced by Allan Danze a couple years back. From his opening tre on the longer-than-it-looks courthouse four set, his part is chock full of east coast gold. Fs Noseblunt in the ditch, Smith to fakie the polejam of death, his freedom plaza line with nollie heel noseslide 270 shuv, feeble fakie the welfare ledge, fs 360 bigspin on the candycane bank, an IMPOSSIBLE trick on the georgetown quarterpipes (I’ve skated these; that trick is impossible, and this is not an exaggeration), his gold rail kickflip feeble that was also his Time Will Tell ender, and his impossible wallie front bluntslide at Wallie Church all are highlights of a short but intensely interesting part. His last trick is pure gold, particularly in the adaptive landing, and I loved how he kept the majority of his tricks local.
[br]
Brian Sumner
I know Tegan and Sara are supposedly cool, and I love the song, but I would not have put it in a skate video. Nonetheless, The UK’s christian boy Brian Sumner comes through with a refreshingly clean and clear cut part, with an annoying reference to his Reliance religious buddies in the middle. Sumner sticks to tried and true tricks, so don’t expect innovation or super tech. He has a never-ending bench line that I’m pretty sure half my crew could do. That aside, I love his 180 nosegrinds, his handrail bluntside, his ender, and the polejam line over the pathway.
[br]
Randy Ploesser
Is ST. Louis considered east coast? Ploesser skates like an east coast man. Another of my top 3 parts. I’ve loved him since seeing Pretty Skateboards Girl Talk, I think it was called. Lots of original spot usage, and alot of sweat go into his part. I love his wallie to grind clips, his bluntslide and back tail on the white bank, his tailblock wallride, switch vertical pole jam, blunt flip on that blue arizona bank…… there are honestly too many highlights to highlight. He has a delightful love for fence bashing, and some of his lines make it evident that he needs a better filmer at times. This is the kind of guy who thinks about his tricks, and the results are rewarding to say the least. He strikes handrails, a flyout, plenty of wallrides and lots of weird tranny. Hats off to his Fully-Flared-esque ender.
[br]
Willy Santos
The inventor of the wretched Willy Grind is getting a little old by my understanding. Not really feeling his song, feels a little too much like ghetto elevator music. But I was pleasantly surprised by the skating the part contained, particularly his super clean fakie pivot heelflip, fs shuv fakie to blunt fs 180, bigspin pivot bigspin, one footed tree jam, some surprising fence foot plants, a manny wallride, a nose manny through a tight spot, and of course his last two tricks, which are too good to ruin. The part is dedicated to his father, and is worth a watch every time you pop the DVD in. Plus, you gotta love a skater that still rocks the look of the millenium, with the fat shoes and baggy hoody. I miss D3’s. I do.
[br]
Jean Postec/Tony Hawk
I’m not sure what’s up with the first line, but the filming is distractedly horrible. The kid stills pulls some good stuff, but then birdman sweeps in with impossible fakie nosegrinds, cab lipslides, tail to tail and lip to lip slides, and an amazing mastery of the channel gap grinding maneuver. My favorite trick of Hawk’s would have to be his beautiful tre flip grab fakie, the extension is undescribable. Again, not sure what’s up with the song, amidst the 540s all I hear is just depression as thoughts of a western saloon plague my brain. It would have been better off in We Own the Night than a skate video, for sure. And NOT hyped on his ender, after what Danny Way did with tre flips, no vert tre should ever be an ender ever again. Ever.
[br]
David Loy
I hear the kid is a tool, and from his ratty looks, I believe it. However, he’s surprisingly well rounded, and a roll-in and a wallride to blunt fakie impressed the ears off of me, along with a steezed out high risk lipslide. I have to say, I hate 50-50 to smiths, and this part has a perfect example of why. He still is suffering from some Greg Myers-esque little man style, but seems a little more in the vein of Collin Provost with his pool stairs lipslide, fs noseblunt, and fs 360 to rock. I notice he sports a Road to Perdition style hat in a couple clips, which I would deem as an unwise fashion statement. But hey, if he wants to look like the 1920’s urban version of a cowboy, that’s his business. Though somewhat of a sleeper part for me, with a song thats a bit too volatile, his ending ollie and a green kinked hubba tailslide are worth the watch. A bit too long, for sure.
[br]
Nate Lacoste/Riley Hawk/Jon Dickinson
Lacoste is obviously the gold of the bunch, with a fantastic stairset tucknee and perfect style on every trick in his brief segment. Then we’re on to Riley Hawk, who skates nothing like his father, unless Tony has been out busting hurricanes on handrails and no comply flips lately without me knowing it. I like Riley’s back 180 nosegrind and lipslide shuv and fs board 270 bigspin, then it’s on to Jon Dickinson. He pulls out some surprises, such as an over-the-ledge kickflip to switch fs crooks and 180 fakie 5-0, not to mention his closing hardflip down the same set Figgy blasted a tre bomb down. However, though not plagued with Riley’s lack of style, he suffers from poorer trick choice and sketchier, bulkier steeze than Lacoste, and is less interesting because of it. Another song not worth listening to, as well.
[br]
Next we get treated to a vomit-inducing clip that revolves around the drinking of a condiment mixture. If eating, skip.
[br]
Derek Burdette
I had not heard of this guy until I watched this, and he reminds me of a sketchy Lamare Hemmings fused with Chima Ferguson’s trick selection. Look out for a long fs 180 in the beginning, a steezy fs 180 disaster front rock, a massive wall to bank backside flip, a high risk Hollywood smith, a super stupid line in yellow shoes which fits in no way whatsoever, and some mindblowing tricks on that curved handrail that Spanky skates. Also watch out for the helicopter whirl his flailing arms produce. Another annoying song, feels like its been used before.
[br]
Jeremy Klein
I believe this is supposed to be his last part, and according to my cover insert he broke ribs, his ankle, and his foot whilst filming this. He seems to have a thing for Japan, and the yellow chompers on the japanese chick in the intro is a little overpowering. However, as we watch Jeremy kill himself trying to drop in on things not-meant-to-be-dropped-in-on, you soon forget the girls natural gold grill. The song is a bit different, but fits with the overall feel of the part pretty well, to the point where I think I actually like it aside from the techno-emo vocals. Not much has changed about this burly veteran; he still hucks himself at dangerous and sketchy setups, still drags his hands on his sickest tricks, and still impresses me. A hip to hip bench 5050, a backside nosepick, his few successful drop-ins (which annoyingly are always prefaced with a bail), a ftall-as-me fs nosepick, an impossible ollie into bank, and an interesting use of a shed all make the part memorable, although his ender didnt feel like an ender by any means. This seems to be a recurring theme for this video. As his part wraps up he pushes off into foreign traffic and we move into the next part listening to the serial-killer-esque lyrics of the pseudo-techno soundtrack.
[br]
Sean Eaton
This man is a godly human. Good song, again. And lots of different rare tricks. Due to him being a rare heelflip man, he’s quite interesting to watch compared to some of the other paid skaters out there today. Heelflip pivot, heelflip wallride, fs smith fs 360 shuv, a proper fs heel, feeble bigspin to fakie, burly solid style, and great spot selection contribute to my feelings for his part. Other clips of interest include a sick fs nosebluntslide, a switch back lip on the same obstacle, some textbook nollie heel variations, a double flip wallride, switch lipslide down Clipper, and a mammoth sized back lip. Again, Great part. Can’t stress that enough. The third part in my top three. He shoulda been a contender for last part if you ask me.
[br]
Matt Ball
Can’t stand this guys song, nor his rippin’ Emerica Harley dirty style. The intro reminds me of the menu screen of This Is Skateboarding, and that’s not a good thing. He’s like a sketchy Leo Romero through the first half of his part, and I swear that 5-0 polejam was accidental. I hate layback landings on halfcab noseslides, that means they dont count. Keep that in mind, Mr.Ball. He also varial heels that street gap that’s been annihilated, I think Carroll bigspinned it in Fully Flared, can’t remember. But varial heel? That’s basics man. Pretty sure thats been done switch. I know its been lazer flipped. That’s all you need to know. I pretty much hate his part. It’s boring and generic and sketchy.
[br]
Stever Nesser
Wretched song, again. I suppose it works ok but for a last part, it’s not a winner song-wise. Thankfully, Nesser has some killer style and is pretty underrated. A switch wallie fs 180, beautiful kickflip to bank, some landings in gravel, a wavy back 3, some wise uses of transition, good variety terrain-wise, and some impossible looking spots add to the allure of his segment. Though I’m not sure ender was deservedly given to him, there’s some very good clips in here. Other favorites are the kicker to frontside wallride, back nosegrinder into the weird round thing, fs wallride down a set, and a massive wallride blunt fakie. His ender puts long rails everywhere to shame. Sick, but doesnt feel like an end part. And after that last clip, you’re left pondering what youve learned, and who decided to end it that way.
[br]
The credits are slow and cliche, that’s all you need to know.
[br]
Though great parts are delivered by the feet of Gregoire, Ploesser, Eaton, Nesser, Santos and Klein and good parts leak through the rest of the video (with the exceptions of the poisonous turds of Matt Ball’s part and Shaun White’s dreadful presence), Birdhouse comes through with a decent offering, definitely worth a couple plays merely for the trifecta of sickness offered up by Gregoire, Eaton and Ploesser. Song selection and questionable filming aside, Birdhouse managed to make a legitimate video, and while perhaps not up to par with Smoke and Mirrors, Fully Flared, And Now, and Ride the Sky, it’s still got its own contributions to make to the modern skate video pool. Check it out, grab a copy. They’re like seven bucks at CCS on clearance.
