The Truth II is coming...

That's right folks, Austin Paz and the Kelso brothers have joined forces once more to create another installment of The Truth series. This time there will be full length profiles on Colin Kelso, Sean Kelso, Franco Cammayo, Austin Paz and.... Murda. There may also be one more but they are keeping that under wraps for now... Keep your eyes peeled!

Time to get faded once again!

That's right folks, Lonnie Gallegos and Brandon Negrete have teamed up once again to create the sequel to Fade Nation under the quirky title of Too Faded. If their last effort is anything to go by, this should be incredible.

Halloween is coming!

Every Halloween I tell myself, "I am gonna carve a pumpkin!" I just realised I am 25 years old and I have still not got round to doing it. So, this weekend, I got myself armed with a carving knife and a pumpkin carving kit and set to work. I didn't realised it would take over 45 minutes just to scrape all of the crap from inside the damn thing. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it would take over an hour and a half to create the face. I would love to say it was worth the effort but LOOK AT IT!!! It's not exactly a work of art. Oh well, there's always next year...

Dan Leifeld isn't impressed...

In response to my latest Be-mag article, Dan Leifeld found it appropriate to email me personally for a little bit of internet fisticuffs.

A little misinformed slice of your Say Word 3 attempt. Are you so overzealous with your new Be-mag publishing privilege that you regard it as your duty to send out attacks within our small industry? I'm sure things look different in Glasglow, but here in Saint Louis it just looks like post grom jealousy. A failure to amount to something substantial by a certain age, built up angst, and feeding into a personal vent. There is a difference between blogs, and Be-mag. And your Say Word 3 review didn't say a lot about the video, but it said worlds about you.





I always find it really funny when people get angry and decide to contact me personally just to say so. Don't they realised that by getting in touch they are simply flattering me by showing that something I have written has had an effect? It doesn't matter if its positive or negative. It worked. It provoked a reaction and made someone take action. Mr. Leifeld, I'm sorry if you dont like me or my views. Actually, I'm not. I don't care... but clearly you do.

Ps. It's spelled Glasgow. I've never been to "Glasglow."

Say Word 3 Review

Check out the Say Word 3 review on Be-mag (www.be-mag.com) and buy this video!

DVD Review: Say Word 3

The people making skate videos these days need to seriously re-think their strategy. In recent years I have found that many videos tend to imitate their predecessors to the point where it appears as though you are simply viewing parodies of earlier creations. For years I have watched as many ‘filmmakers’ simply regurgitate Dave Paine’s Videogroove format and pass it off as their own. If they are not imitating Videogroove, they take a leaf out of Joe Navran’s recipe book to blend party footage into skating montages. And if all else fails, they fall back on the old favourite, the team video.

Thankfully, Say Word 3 does not fall into any of the afore-mentioned categories. The third instalment to Kenny Owens’ Say Word series is an endearing video to watch for many reasons. One if which is that it pays homage to the skate videos that came before it but does not go so far as to blatantly rip them off. For instance, there are snippets of martial arts films blended into some of the montages, which was pleasantly reminiscent of Hoax 4.

If you are a fan of good, clean editing to an interesting selection of hip hop, jazz and left field gems then this is the film with you. I was particularly impressed with The Mouldy Peaches These Burgers and Lil Wayne’s Phone Home. Kenny doesn’t waste time with intricate graphic animations to make his footage look better than it is because he doesn’t have to. The filming throughout the video maintains a high standard and showcases the tricks in their finest form.

This video is not revolutionary. However, it does contain an amazing amount of rarely seen spots across America and even features a France section. The main appeal of this video is that you will get not one, not two, but THREE Montre Livingston sections, each one even more impressive than the last. The talent that young man possesses could induce heart failure. You will also see a vast amount of great footage from Jon Jon Bolino, Will Gordon and Dre Powell. It was also a pleasant surprise to see quite a few clips of San Francisco’s Sean Keane as well. Where has he been hiding lately?

Nowadays it seems as though any kid with a digital camera thinks he is the next greatest action sports cinematographer and it is almost embarrassing to witness some of the new videos that are somehow manage to get distributed throughout our industry. This video sticks to some very simple rules: Clean editing to an absorbing soundtrack with some obscure footage thrown in for effect. Kenny Owens, well done, you have grasped the obvious concept of a skate video. You make skating look incredible.

Say Word 3 is almost an hour long, features over an hour of bonus footage and the entire Say Word 2. Three hours of skating in one film? That’s value for money.

If you have any sense, buy this film direct from Kenny Owens at: www.justsayword.blogspot.com

Advertising Genius!

If you live in the UK, you may have seen this little advert from The Natural Confectionary Company. Now, the gimmick of the company is that all of their sweets are only made from natural colours and ingredients. But honestly, who gives a shit? I haven't tried them yet but I'm sure there is nothing groundbreaking about them. After all, I don't care if my food has artificial colours, preservatives, e numbers or anything else that may potentially kill me in later life. I just want something that tastes good!




However, the advertising campaign is bloody genius. Not only are they pretty damn funny to watch but think about how much money they must have cost to make! I mean, think about it: All you need to create one of these little comedy gems is a video camera, a packet of sweets and someone to do the voice over. The result? One hilarious conversation between an English toff and a complete nutter rambling on about trumpets. The other? A very familiar conversation where one person is always trying to upstage the other, except on this occassion it is two sweets. Priceless!

I could just imagine the advertising agency making their pitch to executives from The Natural Confectionary company.

"Okay guys, I know you gave us a budget of £20,000 to make the ad campaign. So what we did was, we took that money, spent £19,000 on strippers, drugs and binge drinking in some of London's best night spots. What you have before you is what we came up with using the leftover cash."

The agency who came up with this must be laughing their tits off. They created something with such cult status that you can hear people drunkenly mimmick the conversations in bars throughout the country. And they did it all using the most basic premise and ridiculously low budget.

A little message to the complete spastics that made those awful Cadbury adverts: Take note.

Franco Shade on Be-mag!

Check out the new Franco Shade feature on www.be-mag.com created by yours truly. That's right, Joe took one look at my receeding hairline and knew he had to open his heart to someone who understood his pain. We took time out from swapping tips about comb-overs and head accessories to discuss the latest developments within the brand.