gorilla flicks

the dimitry elyashkevich photo show interview!

Stop the presses! A phrase that is now as outdated as rollerblades, I suppose, but I bring you great tidings of joy: Dimitry Elyashkevich is having a "grand re-opening" of his photo show at the Door Gallery (next door to the world famous Burgundy Room) in Hollywood, California. So, if you read the review earlier this week (unlikely) then here's a bonus interview with Dimitry on what exactly constitutes a "grand re-opening," as conducted by Rick Kosick, who, incidentally and technically, was Dimitry's boss while the two worked at Big Brother skateboard magazine back in the way back (or at least until Dimitry came up with his own job title: Executive Director of Photography). So come along… and enjoy! —Sean Cliver

Kosick: What made you want to do a photography show?

Dimitry: I’ve got a lot of stuff, and people always bug me about it. I have photos that no one has seen or someone has only seen once. What’s the point of taking a photo if you can’t share it?

Is this your first show?

This is my first show ever.

How many years have you been a photographer?

Well, I got my first camera back in 1989 or something… I think I was 14. I had one before that, but I broke it. I ran with a SLR, tripped, and smashed the camera. Then my cousin’s husband gave me a camera and I started taking pictures of my friends skating. I just followed them around on my 10-speed bike. Then I started skating and put the camera down. I wasn’t good enough to go any further on my board, but it was fun and I liked it so much that I still wanted to be a part of it, so I started shooting photos again.

When did your photography really start to take off for you?

They had a contest at the Brooklyn Banks in 1993. All the pros from LA came out. I didn’t know how it worked back then, so I shot a bunch of photos, printed them at school, and wrote “proof “ on the contact sheet with a Sharpie. I sent it toSlap, TransWorld, and Thrasher. I never heard shit from anyone then a couple months later an article comes out in Thrasherand there’s a photo that I shot of Tim Brauch—rest in peace—doing an inward heel-flip and it’s got Adam Wallacavage’s name on it. I was like, “What the fuck?! I know that’s my photo, I have the negatives.” I thought they scanned the photo and removed the word “proof” in Photoshop. But when I started getting my photos back, if you just rubbed your thumb across it would come right off. So I wrote a two-page letter to Bryce [Kanights], and sure enough, the next issue there was a little paragraph with an apology. I was like, “Damn, I’m the shit!” because I thought they jacked my photos. So that was the moment I realized I could make a living and see the best skateboarding and travel the world on someone else’s dime.

Did you have more fun taking pictures of the skating or the lifestyle that revolves around it?

It’s all one, dude. Skating is a lifestyle. But everyone has seen my skate photos. Everyone has seen the Peter Bici ollie at the World Trade Center… the Joey Alvarez switch heel at the banks. Everyone has seen that shit, but no one has seen these [in the show].

So lets talk about your show.

It opened last Friday. It’s connected to the Burgundy Room in Hollywood, which is a bar. The show is running every day until the end of the month from 8pm–2am. This Friday—because I’m still finding photos—there’s going to be a grand re-opening with at least a hundred more point-and-shoots. All of these photos are just prints that I already have, because I’d already committed to doing a show there and it was a matter of convenience. At first I was trying to figure out what to do and I was picking negatives thinking, “Oh, I’m going to get this printed and this printed… ,” like every other show, which is cool, you know, to see a print that’s big, but that’s expensive. Plus the show was supposed to be up the Friday before it opened, but I just couldn’t figure out what to do. So I was said, “Will, you have to push it.” Poor guy had taken down all of the art from the previous show and had to put it all back up—sorry, Will. I love you. Anyway, so I’m going through the point-and-shoots and I was like, “These are hilarious, they’re already printed, and there’s thousands of them. I can cut this down and put them on the wall with Sharpies hanging next to them and people can leave an Insta-comment.

So what were some of the comments that people left that you really liked?

There were a lot of good ones. Then there was some when people got mean, I would take it down. I’m pretty sure Mike Kassak is responsible for a lot of them. But there was one with Johnny Knoxville in a picture with Avril Lavigne from a time when all of us were in Miami for some MTV awards. Someone wrote, “He was a skater boy, blah blah blah, a skater boy, but oh, he doesn’t skate.” And there was one with Pontius as an old man smoking cigarette. Someone wrote, “Best man at my first wedding, solid dude.”

I had to take down a bunch of other stuff, because the first night it was open I had a spread of—and I’m not going to say his name—but it was like six photos of his dick. Some girls were like, “That’s too much dick,” and I was like, “You know what, you’re right.” So the show keeps changing and evolving.

So why do you keep changing your show?

Because I keep finding new shit. I’m still going through my shit.

But I feel like you’re still adding things during your show.

So what? Am I not allowed to do that? I’m trying to make it the best show possible. There’s more shit. I have ten-times the amount of shit that’s already up on the wall now, so why not? Do you want to see the best shit or what I was just rushing to put up? So it’s up until the end of June. If you don’t what me to do that then I won’t. Rick doesn’t want me to make the show better, everybody! Well, I don’t care. I’m making it better. So everyone come through this Friday for the grand re-opening and it’ll keep changing so you can come by and check it out any night.

Have thought about putting a book together?

For what?

So your friends can buy it.

My friends can go to the show.

But what if they want a nice coffee table book?

Well, they can print the photos and make their own damn book.

Don’t you think it would be cool to have a photography book, though?

Maybe later, but right now, what I really want is to hit up some of these corporate skate companies. This show would be so fun to take around the world to see what skaters in New York think of it, or London, or Brazil, or Australia, and have new mounting boards put up at each show so people can leave comments in their native language. It would be so sick!

So you’re seeing a vision of taking this show around the world to different countries?

Yeah, what up Nike, what up Adidas, what up corporate skate America?

Wouldn’t it be fun to do the show in Russia?

Yeah, everywhere. Tokyo, Russia, everywhere. I would rather do it in Minsk… that’s where I was born. I just went there for the first time since I left when I was 4-and-a-half-years-old. For me it was awesome. Shit was cheap, it was super clean, there were no fat people. There’s a bunch of shit to skate. If a book happens, it happens. I’m not worried about that. Right now, I’m just dealing with point-and-shoot film, but I also have slides. I want to do a show with slides, and then I have digital shit, like all of the Wildboyz shit is digital. Plus, there’s video for years that nobody has seen that’s in the vault because it’s incriminating. It’s endless.

So this is basically “Dimitry’s Last Call”?

What do you mean?

Like how we did in Big Brother magazine, the “Last Call” section, but this is “Dimitry’s Last Call.”

No, they’re art photos, and this is definitely not my last call.

(Portrait of the artist by Rick Kosick; 2018)

earl parker update: the 2018 edition

If you managed to catch the romcomdocudrama Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine on Hulu then there is absolutely no doubt in the world you were fascinated with one of the staff's most enigmatic characters: Earl Parker. Rick Kosick caught up with him recently at his place in Hollywood and this is a transcript of the ensuing conversation (and that's a fancy ass way of saying interview).

Kosick: What’s been going on with you lately?

Earl: Not really that much.

Why is that?

I do top secret stuff and I can’t talk about it.

You can’t give a little indication was to what you’ve been doing?

No, I can’t tell anybody.

So, what, just like roaming the streets taking photos, being a detective?

Ah, different types of stuff. Actually, I was taking a lot more photos in the past, and I would show them to people in the building and this old lady. I would just show her some pictures of random girls and stuff and this old lady asked me if I was looking for somebody.

How would you describe your photography style?

I haven’t been doing that lately.

Yes you have.

Not with my camera. Just with my phone.

So how would you describe your style of shooting with your iPhone?

I don’t know if there is one. I don’t really have much of a following with that kind of stuff… you would have to talk to somebody else.

Follow Earl, aka Alex, aka Thomas, on Instagram at @sheesh_capeesh.

I think you have a following. People just need to know more about you and what you are doing. Do you consider it to be like abstract or street life?

I guess so. It’s pretty boring and I don’t go many places. It’s just like around LA and stuff.

What other kind of cameras do you have?

I have two rangefinder cameras and a digital camera. I’m kind of losing interest in photography. There are so many cameras available that I just get tired of looking at pictures of them. I’ve been reading about cameras for a long time and I’m happy with what I have. I have everything all figured out, but then people have objections to what I’m into because everybody has a different idea of stuff. If you hang out with people they tell you to buy like a new camera and stuff and it goes on forever and I just don’t really care anymore. I’m just trying to give up on being interested in stuff like that.

With all the photography and writing you’ve done, do you have any heroes or someone you look up to?

Not really. I’m not that interested in America anymore. I want to go to some different countries and experience different types of cultures. I used to go over to Mexico. That’s really fun, but it can be kind of dangerous.

How’s Mexico dangerous?

I don’t think it is, but they say it is on the news. They were having drug wars for a while and people said don’t go there.

If you went to Mexico, what would you see yourself getting into?

I would just probably take pictures, eat tacos, and drink beer. Go to the bars in the afternoon with all the crazy drunks.

Maybe visit a brothel or two?

Ah, maybe, but I don’t go there for that reason. I’ve met people who are into that kind of stuff, but I would mainly go further into Mexico just to get out of places that have McDonalds everywhere. You have to go into central Mexico where it starts to get more exotic with different types of murals on the walls.

What’s the furthest you’ve traveled into Mexico?

I once sold an article to TransWorld publications and jumped on a bus through Texas all the way down the east coast of Mexico to Veracruz. It took two days and then I came up through the middle of the country and stopped at various cities and ended up in Tijuana with 600 dollars and I still had money when I came back. And then one time I didn’t have a place to crash, so I jumped on a bus and went to Calexico, California, which is straight east. You can walk over a bridge into Mexicali, which is the capital of Baja California. Pretty wild. The border towns are kind of sketchy. Groups of frat guys walk by and yell at you.

Have you every gone to Juarez?

I would never go to that place. You’re not supposed to go there. It’s not a nice place. But Cancun has problems too. I sit around and read the news all the time and I hear that people are getting sick at the resorts in Cancun and Cabo San Lucas. Recently there’s something about the beer that is making people sick, which is kind of strange, because the only reason I go there is to get one dollar beers. I don’t know… the more I read the news the less interested I get in traveling. I used to be more into it and then terrorism has been getting really big and I felt like I wasn’t missing as much anymore.

Have you written anything good lately?

No, writing isn’t going very well, but I’m going to start making my own homemade magazine as a solution. If you have to rely on other people it isn’t always that fun.

Do you see yourself as being famous?

I don’t really feel like I live the lifestyle of a famous person. I guess the answer is no. I don’t feel I have a lifestyle of anything.

People know who you are. You’ve contributed to something that’s been recognized.

Well, I just think there should be more of a lifestyle with convertible cars. And they hang out with pretty women and go to movie screenings.

But you see yourself as a creative type.

Yeah, I guess so. I don’t know how rewarding it is.

But you have fun in the process of doing it, right?

It has its moments.

Do you still have an infatuation about Hollywood and what this town has to offer?

Somebody recently said to me that they thought I was fascinated with Hollywood. I guess I kind of am, I live around here because it has cheap rent. But that’s kind of an interesting question… I don’t know how much I’m into that type of stuff. Maybe it would appear that way because of the pictures I take of the Hollywood stars on the Boulevard. I’m sure there are scenesters that are more interested. You would think that’s what it would be—the stuff about the actors in Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe or something—but other people don’t see it that way and have different ideas about what they think of this place. Like some of them don’t care about the Hollywood type stuff. It’s kind of like the people who work at the liquor store down the street don’t seem like they realize their store is in Hollywood.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve come across while walking around the streets of Los Angeles taking photos?

I was walking down Vine Street past the Arclight theatre and there was a small curtain blocking the view from the street, but I was walking next to it and I saw a couple having sex behind the curtain. Yeah, homeless people have sex in the streets. I always hear stories about it.

Do you think people understand your sense of humor or where you’re coming from?

Yeah, that can be a tricky thing with the writing. Like some peoples’ writings have their own style. They can either turn out great and the people love it, or their own particular style they have makes it a less desirable thing where people don’t understand where they’re coming from and they don’t like it. It’s not to say it’s badly written, they just don’t get the idea of it because of the person’s writing style. I’m really tired of all that stuff. I’m just going to start doing it for myself again.

That’s what you should be doing in the first place. I’m doing this interview because I like you and I have history with you. You’re interesting. I don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks, because I think you’re cool and I want to share that with people. I think you should do the same with your writing and the pictures you take. That’s from the heart. That’s what matters most. Did you like how the Big Brother documentary turned out?

Yeah, I liked it. I thought it was pretty cool. Some people right afterwards had some thoughts about it, but I don’t really see myself as one of them critic types.

Did you have a lot of people come up and say they saw you in that documentary?

No, I kind of stay home a lot and I don’t really get out as much as I should.

So the building you live in, it’s a historical landmark?

Yeah, it’s been here a hundred years. The Black Dahlia, that girl who had a famous death, lived here for a few months.

Do you see yourself as a free spirited kind of guy?

I used to be more like that, I don’t know as much anymore. I’m kind of integrated with everything now. I’m more into theories and talking to people and listening to what people have to say.

Do you have any closing thoughts?

I’m hoping there isn’t a bad earthquake. I think one is definitely coming. That’s what everybody says. The last big one, the Northridge in 1994, I was out of town so I missed it. And when I came back to LA I saw the devastation from it and it was pretty crazy.

cyber monday wheeling and dealing

Greetings! Seasonally speaking, that is, because we're here to help fan the flames that fuel the economy with a few gifty (and perhaps even thrifty!) ideas for your friends, family, loved ones, and any other sentient lifeforms you deem worthy of presenting a present. For the most part these items don't fall far from the extended branches of our tree (like most things, including but not limited to fonts, songs, and titles), but so it goes within our cloudy realm of nepotism. On that note, did you know that a nephophiliac is a person obsessed with clouds, like in a very loving and longing way? Consider that your word of the day—a free gift from us to you. Cheers!

If you didn't think this was going to start out with the Wildboyz, well, sister, you clearly haven't been a lifer in this wildery region. The gold standard by which all other shows on basic cable are measured by, Wildboyz was not merely one small step for man, but one giant leap for mankind. The show enjoyed a brief run on Netflix, but a few random Twitter rallies have yet to bring the show back to America's favorite black hole of binge. So if you want to see Steve-O and Chris Pontius streak across the globe in a relatively naked manner, then you're gonna have to do the VOD deal, or—gasp!—acquire the DVDs of Season 1, Season 2, or the collected Season 3 & 4. Learn yourself good!

Did you know there have been like 19 seasons of Ridiculousness so far? Holy crap. What a behemoth Rob Dyrdek did doth make, but when you've got a rectum like the internet crapping out Lincoln Logs of ridiculous clips, what can you expect? No, don't respond, that was purely for rhetorical effect; however, if you're looking for a way to wile away the winter days when the mercury drops below freezing and all you want to do is tell ole Jack Frost to suck it, why not choke on god knows how many episodes until the springtime thaw comes around? Again, that was rhetorical, but now that I think about it this is probably ridiculousness in and of itself to even recommend considering MTV pretty much runs Boston marathons of Ridiculousness all the live long day. Shit. Well, we've come this far so let's just plow on. We all plow on. You can vee oh dee or dee vee dee—the technological choice is your god given American right. Exercise it.

During the online days of jackassworld.rip, Johnny Knoxville decided to play dress-up with the "skull and crutches" logo and customize it in a staggering number of ways. Many (actually most all) have gone the way of the dodo, but the offical JACKASS storefront remains open on merchmethod.com where you can pick up a seasonal shirt to wear to Christmas dinner at Me-Maws or Pe-Paws house. Then there are, of course, all the other shirts, hoodies, jerseys, and zip-ups to get goofy on with your mom or dad's credit card, so give a good gander and don't forget to peruse what's under the rainbow as well on the official DICKHOUSE emporium. Totes? Yeah, got them too. 

For those of you who don't live in a world blanketed by the frozen white death, we have just the thing for you! An honest to goodness skateboard deck designed by next year's break out star of the silver screen, the one and only Chris Pontius. Don't have the skills but still have the will to enjoy the art? Hang them on your wall as a decorative fixture! Especially in those awkward narrow spaces where nothing else seems to work aside from broomsticks, fishing poles, didgeridoos, wizard staffs, javelins, two-handed broad swords, bazookas, gigantic novelty pencils, and a giraffe's neck if you severed it off at the base. Bonus: Not only has each of these boards been fondled and signed by Pontius himself, but you can swoop one now at a special sale price! See specs and learn more at paisleyskates.com.

Lastly, and mostly because the children are our future, you should consider clicking on over to gingkopress.com for a big, square, coffee table book of shit that details (sort of) the chronological history of Big Brother skateboard magazine—all the way from crappy Issue 1 in 1992 to the last gasp on Issue 106 in 2004. What does this offer that Dumb on Hulu did not? Words! And lots of them! Many of them so ridiculously small yet still legible with the aid of a magnifying glass and a good deal of eye strain. There's also some other naughtiness we weren't allowed to share in documentary form. That's worth the price of admission, right? Yep, that's right... rhetorical me, bemused you. Anyway, you should really just buy this book for the Issue 17 Mardi Gras spread, and don't forget to tell 'em that Chri$ Nieratko sent you!

director patrick o'dell on the making of dumb

Rick Kosick: So how did you get this gig to direct Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine?

Patrick O’Dell: Hulu called Jeff [Tremaine], and I don’t know if Jeff thought of it, you know, “let’s make a documentary about my magazine,” but I think Hulu thought, “let’s make one about the magazine and how it became jackass.” You know, it’s an interesting story, but Jeff was self–conscious about making a documentary about himself. So I think he thought, “I still kind of want to do it, but throw in a third party.” I’d barely even met these dudes at all, but I do a show on Vice, a skateboard documentary series called Epicly Later’d, and I’ve been making them for ten years. So Jeff thought of asking me to help. It was still third party, but he did hire me. So I think it was Hulu’s idea, they threw it to Jeff, Jeff threw it to me, and then we started shooting.

How did you first discover Big Brother magazine?

The very first issue at Dodge skate park where I skated. The guy who worked there had a copy. When I got it, the cover had fallen off and somebody had done their homework on the cover. It was weird; I don’t think the guy even wanted it. He was just like, “It’s some weird World Industries catalog,” so I grabbed it and treasured it. I don’t hang onto much anymore, or even at the time, but I have it still. I loved it and thought it was cool and great. It surprised me later hearing people say the first issue sucked, because I was already a fan. So that was my introduction to Big Brother—a ripped-up copy of issue one.

What were some of the challenges you faced making this documentary?

Well, one challenge, because Sean Cliver was a big part of helping with the documentary, but he was also part of the magazine. And doing my show and sort of being familiar with the documentary process, I knew we had to streamline the story. It sucks to say, but there would be times where there are things for the people involved that were really important, but I’m constantly listening for places to make things tighter. You want to have each topic segue from one to the next. I can tell a lot of people involved, it’s their life, and certain things happened that were very important to them, but I didn’t think it would be important to other people. Sort of like, these dudes getting drunk for the first time. I don’t think it would be interesting to an outsider, but to them it’s interesting—this is my first tour and it’s the first time I got drunk.  I don’t know how to explain it, but I knew when we got into editing we needed to tighten this up. So I don’t know if it was a challenge, but it’s hard to tell someone, “Okay, that story of your life is not important.” Streamlining something into an hour-and-a-half timeline can be tough. It’s a big story with a lot of people and a lot of different side people need to get their shine. Plus, it’s also for people that are very interested in skateboarding, like there’s things they want to hear, but then there’s also the general audience stuff needs to be explained to people that don’t skate. So it was hard juggling the minutia… the behind-the-scenes footnotes that a fan would want. For instance, we turned a rough cut in to Hulu and they watched it and were like, “We don’t understand who Steve Rocco is, or we don’t understand what a zine is, or we don’t understand this Natas guy?” So we did have to resolve things for a general audience, but also balance it with something a diehard skater would be interested in. It’s hard to juggle those two sometimes.

So how long have you been a fan of the Bomfunk MCs?

That was a song that drove me insane. Now I like it, I’ve got to be honest, I’ve come around, but the theme song is something Jeff had been trying to use. He had this song and was like, “Check this out,” and I was like, “I hate it. I don’t like this at all.” It sounded like Prodigy or something to me. And Sean was like, “Oh yeah, he tried using this for the Wildboyz theme.” Jeff has been trying to use this song on a project after project and it never works out. Now there’s been a couple of revelations that where something I didn’t like, I learned to realize this is cool because we’re in Jeff’s world, like his creation, and putting things in like that it becomes like Big Brother—this weird song becomes like part of the story. Plus everyone else liked it and I was the only holdout that didn’t. Now I’ve got to admit that I’m happy the theme song is the Bomfunk MCs' “Freestyler.” I like it now.

Big Brother has been around for ten plus years, do you feel like you covered the whole span of the magazine existence in 90 minute documentary?

No. I really wish Clyde Singleton was in it. I hear Pat Canale was interesting. Rosa, she wasn’t Big Brother, she was Shorty’s, but still a big part of Big Brother. There are a few people missing and it sucks, you know, but my theory is that there are always more outlets for people to learn more about those things. Like this interview, we can talk about Clyde, or Jenkem can do a thing about Rosa or the “Washed-Up Skaters” article. There’s all kinds of stuff that people can talk about elsewhere and it doesn’t have to all fit in one documentary.

At any point did you feel like you crossed into the Twilight Zone and became a part of the Big Brother staff?

Yeah, there were definitely a couple times. And of course I was a fan of the magazine, I read it from cover to cover every issue, so when [Chris] Nieratko sent in an angry email about something, at first I was bummed and then I was like, “Oh, this is sick, I’m in Nieratko’s world.” Their various little arguing and in fighting. I would be sitting there and Jeff would throw footballs at me, like almost at my head, but it was cool to time warp into a thing I was a fan of.  

If there were to be a DVD version of this documentary, what would be your top three deleted scenes?

For sure the thing about the “Washed-Up Skaters.” It’s so funny, it’s like [Mike] Valley being still salty that he was on this washed-up skaters list. Ed Templeton talks about it, Tony Hawk talks about it, and it’s really funny. Vallely was still mad about it, but then he looks at the issue for the first time and he was like, “It wasn’t that bad.” If there was a DVD, I would probably demand Jeff buy me a plane ticket to North Carolina so I can interview Clyde Singleton, because he was hilarious and a big part of the magazine. The geographics and the budget kept us from really having him in the movie. It was regrettable, so I would add him to the bonus section. I’d like to give Clyde his own mini doc. And always more with Earl. I watched the video you made about Earl and I loved the dude. It’s hard to explain even why I’m a fan of Earl, but when I see him I get stoked. He’s just interesting. He’s a character from that time and he hasn’t changed. He still even dresses the same, I feel like he has blue-tinted glasses or something. He could use his own documentary. And Marc McKee is tough, because he’s really quiet on camera, soft spoken and a little odd, but he was such a big part of changing the way skateboarding is and was one of the owners of Big Brother. He did all those graphics, he changed everything, and he’s a little underplayed in the doc only because of how he talks on camera. Some of these big personalities make a bigger presence in the doc. Marc gets a lot of credit but he should get more because if he never existed could you imagine how skating would be? Especially on the art side. So I would include more on Marc. And Rosa. I’m interested in Rosa, because she was skateboarding first and probably only sex symbol ever. It’s interesting, people said some funny stuff about how much they liked her.

A short featuring Earl Parker directed and produced by Rick Kosick.

How did it feel getting invited to Robert De Niro’s house and having the TriBeCa film festival premiere the movie?

I was stoked. Jeff had mentioned at one point that we were going to try and submit this to some film festivals and I was like, “Oh my god, you’re so insane that you would think this movie would be in festivals.” Plus it was early on and I was still nervous how this was even coming out. It was kind of rough and wasn’t very far a long and he’s like, “Yeah, I’m going to submit to TriBeCa,” and I thought he was high. Like they wouldn’t have it. The fact they did, I couldn’t believe it. The only odd thing, and this is me personally, I wasn’t too shocked by the documentary. You know, I was pretty used to all of the poop and the Poocano, Johnny Knoxville shooting himself, and like satanic stuff, I’m kind of used to it. But because it got into TriBeCa, my wife’s mom was like, “Oh, I want to go.” So we invited my wife’s mom and then she told my parents. So my parents are like, “Hey, we’re coming to your documentary at TriBeCa.” And then my nephew came and my sister came and she brought her nephew. I didn’t think much of it, and I was like, “Oh, cool.” They wanted to see this doc, because it was in TriBeCa and it was on their radar. And then watching the documentary in front of a crowd… in front of my wife’s mom and my parents… and my nephew… it kind of made me realize how gnarly the documentary was. The whole time I’m thinking like, “Oh, my parents are seeing this,” and it was a definitely a new spin watching it through their eyes. It made me nervous the whole time. And that was a huge crowd at TriBeCa. It made it a way bigger event that I wasn’t expecting when we were working on it. That was trippy.

Patrick interviews cutting room floor casualty Giovanni Reda.

So you interviewed a lot of different people for this documentary, how did you decide who stayed in the picture and who hit the cutting room floor?

Seth Casriel, our editor who’s awesome, he made a lot of calls like that. I feel like he would get in there and edit everything and then I would watch it. A lot of the editing is sort of up the discretion of the editor in a way, because there was so much footage. I would interview each person for 45 minutes—and I’m not talking about Jeff and you and Sean—I’m talking about dudes who were in it only a little bit. It would get boiled down to like two quotes and there were a few people who were cut altogether—it sucks. But yeah, we interviewed so many people for like 45 minutes to an hour each, and when we got into the editing room obviously things had to go and it was tough.

Can you explain why this movie is only on Hulu, so everyone will stop asking why it’s not on Netflix?

Hulu paid for it. Companies like Hulu do that so people will subscribe to their platform and that’s how pretty much how any bit of media ever gets released. Like HBO pays for it and it’s on HBO. Or ABC pays for it and it’s on ABC. Well this one was Hulu. Hulu paid for it and it lives on Hulu. I feel like most people have Hulu. I already had Hulu, because I’m a cord cutter myself and I don’t have cable.  I just have Hulu, Netflix, and HBO.

When Andy Roy’s video surfaced demanding to be in the movie, were you a little bit nervous that he was going to Google your whereabouts?

Actually, I was scared. You know, it’s weird, I knew he was joking, but there was a little part of me that still wasn’t sure. Like is he joking, or this serious? I was a little nervous. I was 80-percent confident it was a joke and 20-percent a little shaky.

Setting up the shot to talk getting shot with Johnny Knoxville.

So what are some of your favorite parts of the movie?

One thing that was tough… I love Johnny Knoxville and I’m a huge fan. He’s gnarly and a great guy and has a good presence with his voice. To listen to him tell the story about how he got his start and he had a baby and the baby motivated him to shoot himself for a stunt—it was interesting. But one of the problems with the doc is once Johnny Knoxville shoots himself in the chest with a gun and a bulletproof vest, it was hard to then show anything after. It was basically like if it was a skate video and he filmed the last part, the after black hammer.  I remember Dave Carnie and Chris Nieratko wanted more stuff in the movie from their years of Big Brother, and I had to be like, once Johnny Knoxville shoots himself I don’t know how we’re going to show anything that gnarly. It was tough because everything is going to look lame after this dude does that. One of my favorite parts of the documentary is Johnny Knoxville narrating that stunt, and it gave it so much more intensity, so that’s one of my favorite parts. And we have Nieratko fucking with Ronnie James Dio right before that—that was so intense to watch that footage for the first time. Just being in the editing room and getting the tape and sitting through and watching it. That was my favorite zone of the documentary.

Looking back at everything, what would you have done differently?

I’m pretty happy with it. There were things I was nervous about and now that it’s released I’m not nervous anymore. It just makes me want to interview Clyde for something else or do something else with Clyde… it’s the one thing I regret. Other than that, I’m stoked on it. We all did our best. I also feel like if there’s anything missing, there’s the Big Brother book, there’s The Chrome Ball Incident with so much of Big Brother scanned in that you can find out more, or you can buy some of the issues on eBay. I don’t know, I’m pretty stoked on it.

(Photos by Sean Cliver; 2016)

last call: the dumb screening at cinefamily

In Los Angeles. Last Friday. And Saturday, actually, but that was more of a public affair, whereas the previous night was the VIP extravaganza (with an extra helping of the vaganza). Anyway, as always, here is a smorgasbord of people photos to pick through and feast upon, kind of like the fried macaroni and cheese balls that Cinefamily served up as eventide whore dervz… or hors d'oeuvres, I suppose, if you want to get all fancy-pants about it.

Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine has since launched on Hulu and can be streamed on-demand in the privacy of your own home. Please be aware that this documentary features lots and lots of naughtiness, defecation, and full-frontal nudity—male full-frontal nudity—so maybe take Jeremy Klein's advice and not watch it with your mother. Historically speaking, Big Brother has never fared so well with the parental types.

Thanks again to Cinefamily and Hulu for pulling out all the stops on this West Coast event! Now on with the faces and traditionally dumb captions.

Left to right: Giovanni Reda may have wound up on the cutting room floor, but he was nominated to be the moderator of the post-screening Q&A; Johnny Knoxville was fresh off the boat from filming in South Africa; The Q&A panel consisted of almost all the mag's former staff, sans Chris Nieratko.

Left to right: Bret "Scan Boy" Banta with his twin-ish brother Bayard; Aaron "King of All Skate Nerds" with Mother Fuckin' David Deery; The Mansfield audio dudes.

Left to right: Rick Kosick curated a photography and ephemera show for the Cinefamily patio gallery; Keith "Blind Date" Hufnagel; Dave Carnie, Marc McKee, and Dimitry Elyashkevich anchored the left-side of the Q&A shitshow.

Left to right: Heather Lee Jones is now Heather Lee Dixon after getting hitched to Kenny; The one and only Earl Parker with Scott Manning, Jason Jessee, and the Carn Carn; Shanna Zablow Newton with the time zone-punched Chris Pontius.

Left to right: Longtime Dickhouse and Gorilla Flicks men Matt Kosinski, Barry Smoler, Seth Casriel, and Mike Kassak; Loomis Fall poses beside an original Wee-Man photo from 1995; Andy Roy did not have to goggle Dumb director Patrick O'Dell after all.

Left to right: Lionel Boyce makes a dwarf of Jeff Tremaine; Proud pee-er Kendra Gaeta and the barely present yet still accounted for Sean Cliver; The Beastie Boys were there! No, no they weren't. That's just Matt Probst and Josh Lingenfelter.

Left to right: Jason Shelton, Jason Searcy, and Bill "Not a Jason" Weiss; Duh, obviously; Photographer Tobin Yelland, artist Chad Muska, and musician Dave Roen cover all the creative bases.

(Photos by Rick Kosick and Jennica Abrams; courtesy of Cinefamily)

last call: the dumb big brother premiere at tribeca

I don't think any of us ever imagined a documentary about Big Brother skateboard magazine would find its wayward way into a film festival, but by god it did! The Tribeca film festival no less. So it was with great grandeur and a little red carpet that several of us (and Tony Hawk!) kicked Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine into the spotlight at New York City on Thursday, April 27th. A jam-packed Q&A session followed the premiere, during which time questions were asked, some were answered, and a brief but ludicrous debate ensued regarding the metal talents of Dio versus that of Ozzy in Black Sabbath.

Unfortunately the formal after-party will not go down in history as a legendary Big Brother shit show, as so many have in the past, so there are no new tales to tell of tallied up damages. Several more screenings and Q&As followed in the days after, but now the documentary is back in the can until the wide release happens June 3rd on Hulu.

Photos left to right: Tony Hawk was always a good friend to the magazine and he proved it once again by happily talking us up on the red carpet; And here Tony proves yet again how good of a sport he is by making ridiculous poses for a press feature on the premiere; Oddly enough, and appropriately enough, Dimitry Elyashkevich was the only one to wear Dave Carnie's signature pro model DC Shoes shoes.

Photos left to right: The Q&A session that followed the premiere was not the shit show it was widely anticipated to be. Rick Kosick was the monkey in the middle of all 10 dudes with varying levels of hair gel or loss at play.

Photos left to right: Dimitry poses with Alex Corcoran, a staple feature of the New York skate scene; Fun fact: Brendan Canty, the drummer of Fugazi, did the original scoring for the Dumb documentary, and he's shown here interlocked with Supervising Post-Producer Volney Howard IV; Assistant editor Lacey Reilly and Associate Producer Lizbeth Gonzalez hang tough with Director Patrick O'dell of Epicly Later'd fame.

Photos left to right: Former Big Brother editors Dave Carnie and Chri$ Nieratko; Steve-O was perhaps the most handsomely dressed dude of the night; Travis Pastrana and Lyn-z Pastrana made an East Coast leap to attend the event and sit beside the right arm of Gorilla Flicks, Shanna Zablow Newton.

Photos left to right: Former Big Brother editor Sean Cliver with fiancee Donna Stack; Former Big Brother art/editorial director Jeff Tremaine with wife Laura; Scene-stealer and maker Atiba Jefferson with the man who was pretty in pink, Steve-O.

Photos left to right: Portrait of a man asking a question at the post-premiere Q&A; Matt Deis, Jess Margera, Brandon Novak, and Raab Himself brought an air of CKY ambience to the affair; Can you spot Rick Kosick in this photo from the world famous bathrooms of Max Fish?

(Photos by Rick Kosick, Donna Stack, and Sean Cliver; 2017)

last minute holiday shopping guide

It's that festive time of year again where we bring you some semi-biased gift-giving and get-me-this ideas that are near and dear to our collective heart. Most all can be bought with a simple click and a valid credit card, so knock back some eggnog and do your online shopping part to keep this cyber economy butt-chugging along. Why? Because we're all in this together!

For starters, it's no mystery that we've got jackass and dickhouse shirts, hoodies, zip-ups, and totes (totes!) available over at merchmethod.com. If it is a mystery to you, well, I just don't know what to say other than that you really haven't been paying attention to our social media spree of late. Then again, algorithms are the devil's plaything, so who knows what Facebook or Instagram are allowing you to see or not see, because free is as free fucking does! Check the selections at merchmethod.com/jackass and merchmethod.com/dickhouse. 

Next up, the gift of laughter. No, not just Chanel's, but the giddy joy you will derive from watching humans go boom and bust on the interwebs, as commentated and critiqued by Ridiculousness creator and host Rob Dyrdek. Multiple seasons are now available via direct download or certifiable hard disc, aka DVD, and you only have to click on any of these brightly colored words to have them at your loved one's fingertips or mailbox: Ridiculousness Volume Two, Ridiculousness Volume Three, Ridiculousness Volume Four, Ridiculousness Season 14, Ridiculousness Season 15, Ridiculousness Season 16, and Ridiculousness Season 4—just for starters, as you can rabbit hole from there until you get all the way to China or Watership Down.

Don't want to sit in front of the TV? Feel like living life in the great paved outdoors? We have just the thing for you: skateboard decks featuring the art of Jeff Tremaine and Chris Pontius. Tremaine's is a gorilla-sized slick-bottom board measuring 8 3/4" in width for all you big-foots, while Pontius comes in a screen-printed, slimmer 8 1/4" width for maximum pleasure. Don't have the skills but still enjoy the art? Hang them on your wall as a decorative fixture! Especially in those awkward narrow spaces where nothing else seems to work. Bonus: each and every one of these fine boards has been fondled and signed by the artists. See specs and learn more at paisleyskates.com.

Feeling dumb? Need to be learned? We've got documentaries coming out the wazoo to enlighten you about the world we live in and the kick-ass people that populate it. First, go big with BMX legend and all around awesome human Mat Hoffman on The Birth of Big Air. Then go even bigger with the larger than life personality of Evel Knievel in the aptly titled Being Evel. And to totally go out of the world—or at least as near to out of this world as you could get as a truck driver and exotic pet dealer who moonlighted as an amateur astronaut in a time when space was still very spacey—with the tragic yet inspiring tale of Nick Piantanida and Angry Sky. All directed or produced by Captain Kickass himself, Jeff Tremaine.

If you're feeling sinister, please bypass the minister and go straight to gingkopress.com for a big, square, coffee table book of shit that details (sort of) the chronological history of Big Brother skateboard magazine—all the way from crappy Issue #1 in 1992 to the last gasp on Issue #106 in 2004. What does this have to do with the price of a corporate tea in Starbucks? Well, to put it bluntly, without our origins at Big Brother it's likely that the course of mankind would not have been sullied or altered from its upwardly mobile course by a little thing called jackass and all the dumb shit to follow (including a full blown documentary on the magazine that will be debuting on Hulu next year). Buy this book if only for the exclusive new piece written by Chris Pontius, because every penny is worth it for that alone.

And lastly, of course, we have the wildcard (and thematic!) gift for the person who has everything, especially stress, and needs an adult coloring book to sooth the pottymouth beast within. Don't be a tool and just give them the book, though, because nothing is more annoying than getting one gift that requires another item to be purchased to actually use the damn thing. It's kind of like giving someone a vibrating pocket dildo without the batteries, but in this instance, markers or colored pencils would be a most welcome accompaniment so do the right thing.

paisley skates and the artistes of big brother

Theologians and religious scholars will tirelessly war against the theory of evolution, but every once in a while it's scientifically proven that bodies do collide and will give birth to something new. Actually, this happens every day. It's called sex. Men take their private parts, rub them on a woman's private parts, there's an explosion—BANG!—and that's where babies come from. It's not a miracle by any stretch, but the mere fact that Big Brother skateboard magazine came to be and managed to exist for 12 years is almost as mind-blowing as a box of magnets. What few people understand about the magazine, however, is that the staff was entirely comprised of classically trained artists, and that's why I've chosen to interview myself about this extra special, extra arty release from Paisley Skates. This is, after all, the Age of Enlightenment*. —Sean Cliver

Sean: First things first, what is Paisley Skates?

Sean: Great question. Real journalism 101, Norman Mailer. Regardless, I'm glad you asked, because it's a snappy little skateboard company I co-founded with Paul Urich. Our first set of boards came out last November and we've somehow managed to release a few more since then, thanks in part, or possibly in whole, to a small collective of friends and like-minded thinkers, like Nick Halkias and Mike Pipito, who have generously donated their time, talents, and esoteric interests to accelerate the cause.

merde in paris with carnie and cliver

Today's debate: What does one do when offered a free flight and lodging in the city of Paris, France? Actually, there's no debate whatsoever. You simply say, "Fuck yes!" and that's exactly what my former Big Brother magazine colleague Dave Carnie and I did this past week, courtesy of the European branch of DC Shoes. Sure, nothing is ever truly free in this world, but this vacation came pretty damn close aside from one day filled with an intensive round of interviews that spanned the accented gamut of UK, French, Spanish, and German journalists. Compound the multinational revolving door with copious amounts of wine—primarily from the Bordeaux region—and this made for some impaired speech, challenged thoughts, and limited scope of judgment that ultimately dribbled into an underground evening of skate nostalgia, fat-chewing, and the occasional penis drawing, all in support of the recent DC Shoes x Big Brother collaboration. Photos? But of course. But first—butt first!—in traditional inside Big Brother aside manner, the peg boy is indeed a real thing—or at least as real as anything can be when researched on the internet. —Sean Cliver

a chat with chad muska

Every era of skateboarding has its legends and the mid- to late- 90s was personified by Chad Muska, a skater from Las Vegas who went from being homeless in Southern California to virtual rock star status and lifestyle in a span of just a few short years. The Muska later went on to become a shoe designer for Supra and a creator of art in general. Rick Kosick gets the scoop on where he's at now in life…

Kosick: So what’s been going on since we shot the “Deconstructionism” video?

Muska: Well, like my life, there’s been a never-ending amount of different projects all going on at the same time and it’s been about balancing all these different things that I do. A lot of it has been focusing more on Supra, helping design and work with them, and on top of that I moved from the flat into a new space downtown a while ago which was in Lincoln Heights. I started working there, continuing the idea and the expression of what was happening, but the space unfortunately sold after a year and we had to get out. This led to my current space that I’m in now on Melrose, creating a new adventure similar to what we did over at the flat.