gorilla flicks

the great dimitry elyashkevich photo show

Be it my lowly Wisconsin origins or an unfortunately shallow embankment of brain cells, I'm certainly not above a little journalistic Cheez Whiz. So it's without much care or concern that I make the widely clichéd Warhol-attributed reference, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes," because anyone, really, could have a 15-minute photo show nowadays. Once upon a time, no lie, it used to be a real pain in the ass to be a photographer: dealing with all that pesky film stuff, the inherent frame limitations to a roll, not knowing what the hell you got or if you even got it until all that tedious developing and processing crap... let's just say it wasn't for everyone. Obviously, that's not anywhere near the current case, and it would probably be quite the mind-blowing statistic to know how many photos are taken the whole world over in the period of just one single second. Boom! Even in the act of pondering there went the last of my synapses for the day. One or two more vaguely constructed paragraphs like this and I'll need to shut down and recharge my neural capacitors to deal with tomorrow's daily struggle.

Left to right: Tremaine on what could have been any night in the mid-late ‘90s; Rick Kosick and Chris Pontius, full metal ninja turtles; Kosick and a gold lamé Dave Carnie, post-Russian strip club destruction on the eve of yet another ill-fated Big Brother-sanctioned event.

But there existed a window of time in the '90s, just prior to the digital age of chaos, when the consumer-grade point 'n' shoot film camera reached the apex of its soon-to-be-meteored evolution with the Yashica T4. It was a magical pocket device indeed, and both professional photographers and commoners alike snatched them up at a very affordable price. This was especially so in the world of skateboarding, where it serendipitously coincided with the height of decadence right before the industry's li'l butt pucker was ruptured by the mainstream and all the booby-traps and pitfalls that came along with the unholy coupling (once the term "athletes" was heard and used in all seriousness, it was Crystal Clear with Capital Corporate Cs that the end was nigh and the doomsday clock was two minutes to midnight for the fuck-all-show-it-like-it-is rag that was then Big Brother skateboard magazine). For a few priceless years, though, it wasn't uncommon to see everyone out in the bar with a beer in one hand and a T4 in the other.

 

Left to right: Mike Crum was a darling of the "Last Call" parade of party photos in Big Brother, all thanks to the omnipresent lens of Dimitry; Scott Johnston, Jeff Tremaine, Dimitry, and Sean Cliver—all cleaned up and ready for the post-Y2K world at a respectable, no-nonsense Chocolate premiere at the DGA theater on Sunset Blvd.

I only embark on such tangents, because the late great photo show of Dimitry Elyashkevich this past weekend at the Door Gallery in Hollywood not only embraced and celebrated this slaphappy snapshot period in skateboarding, but embodied it in spirit as well. If I heard correctly, the show was to open at 9pm, yet by 7:30 that night there was still nothing on the walls?! I walked in at 9pm, at which point the sweat was pouring and the first words—as well as probably the next 20 or 30 or so—to come out of Dimitry's mouth to me were, "NO PHOTOS. NO PHOTOS. SERIOUSLY, NO PHOTOS." Apparently, no one was supposed to take any photos of the photos on display, because there were indeed some that may not have even been run in the pages of Big Brother when they were taken at the time. And that's saying a fuck lot. It's not like anything was that incriminating, but 20 years have since passed and everyone within the swath of Dimitry's lens back then is now a legitimate grown-up with families and respectable jobs—none of which was the responsible case in the ridiculous span of globe-trotting and partying years showcased in his buckshot blast of 4 x 6 prints taped up on the wall with Sharpies hanging beside them for anyone and everyone to add descriptions, word bubbles, and random comments in general. On a hypothetical comfort level scale of 1–10, it's safe to say this one went to 11 (but probably could have gone to 13, knowing what he has in his vaults).

Left to right: The El Rey Theatre, circa 1997, hours before all sorts of shit hit the fan before, during, and after the premiere of the Big Brother video number two; Faces in the crowd of aforementioned premiere.

So yeah. You're not seeing any of the really hot shit photos here; just the few that Dimitry let us take to share a few innocuous looks at the way we were before everything else transpired in life. —Sean Cliver

This last one, of course, is more of an inside joke than anything, but if you happen to be a stickler for skate trash lore then you know at one point in 1993 I found myself on the wrong hand of the legendary Sean Sheffey—and not entirely by my own doing. The truth would have been exposed in the dumb Big Brother documentary on HULU, where in a previous rough cut there was a section talking about the more "physical repercussions" to occur with the magazine staff, the crown jewel of which being my face-palming incident with Sheffey over a caption that had been blamed on me (a situation akin to being sentenced to death for a crime you didn't commit). Anyway, at the end of it all, Tremaine admitted that he was in fact the one who wrote the caption and then stood silently by as I brushed with death, but the segment was cutting room-floored after a note from HULU that it seemed like an unnecessarily negative side street to go down and detracted from the zany chase of the story arc. However, please let the record show for all of Interweb eternity that I was in fact innocent in the matter—case fucking closed. Oh, this photo, incidentally, was taken years after the OG confrontation, maybe 5–6, give or take a drink or two, at one of those great gala DC/Droors holiday affairs of the late ‘90s.

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)

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