Stacy Peralta talks frankly about Tony Alva on his instagram

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Tony Alva circa 1978. Tony is one of the few individuals whose skating talent literally took my breath away. On numerous occasions I saw him do things that stopped my heart dead. He was stunning and spellbinding to watch. He skated with a form of aggression that was backed by pure emotion and furious desire and that was coupled with a physical style that was magnificent in its perfection of the human form. — And yet for so much of the time we spent together I hated Tony. I hated him for his arrogance and his ego and his need to be the center of attention at all times. But I probably hated him most for making me a better skater. He made me better. He made all of us better. He was so deadly serious about what skateboarding meant to him, that if you weren’t living up to how he saw it, then he was going to make you pay by humiliating you with his talent. I saw this happen time and again. — Over the years I’ve come to appreciate Tony for the person he is now and the person he was then. He was chosen to play a very large role in skateboarding and it was a role destined for him. No one else could have done it. His abrasive and intense personality was as important as his skating talent because the young sport needed a compelling rebel figure like Tony to help define it. More than anyone from our generation, Tony had the innate ability to set on fire the hearts and minds of skaters the world over and he did it through his living example. He was the ideal skateboarder in its purest form. And more than anything, and this is where my appreciation reaches its highest level; Tony was able to recognize, develop, contain and focus the extraordinarily powerful gift that was given to him at such a young age. Responsibility comes with gifts; the first is to figure out how to develop that powerful and precious gift, the next is how to share it with the world. Tony did just that, he infused the gift he was given with love and fury and he shared it with all of us, and I believe we are all better for it.

A post shared by Stacy Peralta (@peraltastacy) on Nov 28, 2018 at 2:22pm PST

The Charlie Blair story "GET BACK UP" a short film by Stacy Peralta

The Charlie Blair Story: A film short by Stacy Peralta. Life will knock you down, but you have to GET BACK UP!

Stacy Peralta on my Instagram

STACY PERALTA doing a "Bert" at Kenter Canyon School Yard 1976, still riding his Zephyr board, using Sims Pure Juice wheels, original Bennett trucks and those VANS prototypes (the first shoes made for skateboarding, designed with Stacy). Probably one of the earliest 35 mm film photographs i ever made. This was my local spot and hence my favorite place to skate until they massacred the asphalt to plant trees along the top of the bank and then a few years later installed bleachers in this very spot where Stacy is laying out... One day i hope to be able to recreate this spot somewhere, somehow. This photograph appears in my co-authored book "DOGTOWN - The Legend of the Z-Boys" as a full pager, get it while you still can! #skateboarding #fun #sidewalksurfing #bankskating #embankment #surfskating #ZEPHYR #ZBOYS #DOGTOWN #SKATETOWN #KOSHERCANYON #KeepKenterKlean #inspiration #revolution #whereitallbegan #SkateBoarderMagazine #personalrollercoaster #StacyPeralta #MyRules #FuckYouHeroes #SIMSpurejuice #VANS ##DogTownTheLegendOfTheZBOYS

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Aug 8, 2016 at 4:44pm PDT

Bones Brigade An Autobiography Documentary Sunday

here's a good one for your Sunday pleasure...

ThrowbackThursday:Clip from the time I Interviewed Ice-T and Stacy Peralta at Sundance in 2012

A Bit More From the Sundance Film Festival

Here's a short clip of the panel I moderated, as well as a great clip of Peralta and some of the Bones Brigade talking about thier film.





Rodney and Lance are fucking HEROES!

Saturday at Sundance - Not to Miss!

This Saturday at 9:30am I will be moderating a panel at the "Cinema Cafe" in Park City Utah with old friends Stacy Peralta and Ice-T.

As part of the Sundance Film festival. Stacy will be premiering his new BONES BRIGADE: A Biography and Ice-T will be making his directorial debut with Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap - I'll be at both of these premiere screenings later the same day. Should be cool.

check the current very rough trailer clips:
(neither of which do the films any justice at all, but at least you get a taste)

"The Bones Brigade Video Show" cont. (part 3)

To continue from Mondays original post on the forthcoming "Bones Brigade" documentary, here's the last set of stills from the interviews, and a few more shots from my own unseen archive that may appear in the film.

Stacy Peralta, Feb 2011

Tony Hawk, Feb 2011

Tony Hawk, early 80's

Alan "Ollie" Gelfand, Feb 2011

Alan "Ollie" Gelfand, late 70's

Alan "Ollie" Gelfand, late 70's

Tony Alva, Feb 2011

Jay Smith, late 70's

Myself, Feb 2011

Now that the first round of interviews have been done, the film is currently only in it's earliest stages of post production. There is no trailer or anything like that even close to being cut yet. Any new information should turn up at powell-peralta.com before anywhere else, so keep your eye over there if you're interested.

And you can bet, as soon as they have a trailer or teaser of any kind i will have it up here too.

"The Bones Brigade Video Show" cont. (part 2)

To continue from yesterdays original post on the forthcoming "Bones Brigade" documentary, here are some more stills from the interviews, and a few shots from my own unseen archive that may appear in the film.

Craig Stecyk, Feb 2011

George Powell, Feb 2011

Rodney Mullen hanging out with Minor Threat at Kenter Canyon School, Early 80's

Rodney Mullen, Feb 2011

Steve Caballero and Rodney Mullen, early 80's

Steve Caballero, Feb 2011

Steve Caballero, early 80's

Ben Harper, Feb 2011

Christian Hosoi, late 70's

(I will post a few more images from the production and my personal unseen archive tomorrow, for the last installment)

Now that the first round of interviews have been done, the film is currently only in it's earliest stages of post production. There is no trailer or anything like that even close to being cut yet. Any new information should turn up at powell-peralta.com before anywhere else, so keep your eye over there if you're interested.

"The Bones Brigade Video Show" cont.

First word.

In case you haven't heard, Stacy Peralta (former Z-Boy and more recently award winning film maker) has begun his latest documentary, looking back on the crew that got him to pick up the video camera for the first time. A film that is going to take a look at the years and lives of the original "Bones Brigade" that he so masterfully put together in the late 70's and the through the 80's, as well as the time and the sport itself, what it went through and how it survived a complete commercial breakdown and then flourished.

Post Zephyr/Dogtown days Stacy became the world class spokesman for the sport, that he always seemed to be cut out for. Soon after his own skateboarding was no longer to be in the forefront of his personal agenda, he began to put together a team of skateboarders from far and wide, that he would hand pick and coach, to become some of the most influential and inspiring skaters in the history of the sport. By the early 80's he became the defacto cameraman, director, and editor of his own teams' videos, the very first ever made in the skateboard industry. The impact they made can not be downplayed at all, even from the least interested but knowledgeable skateboard history skeptic. Along with collaborator Craig Stecyk, whom Peralta befriended since the early Zephyr days, they would continue to make skateboarding, via the "Brigade" a world class attention getter, and an outlet for creativity in art, design as well as performance.

I was one of the dozens of people he corralled in late february to sit and talk for a while about the skaters, the era, and the videos, not to mention the lives, and the drama that ensued. What I can say is that on the day I was interviewed it was a ton of fun between Stecyk, Steve Olson, Tommy Guerrero, Alan "Ollie" Gelfand (yes he's the one who actually invented the trick) and myself. But from what i've gathered in the weeks since, and now that Stacy has had time to go over all the transcribed interviews, this flick is going to be a fucking monster. The emotions and lifes stories that spilled out of the guts of these guys, most totally unexpected, have revealed an underbelly of the "boy scouts" that they seemed, from the "den father" down, to an incredibly dedicated, heartfelt, motivated group of perfectionists who would do anything to promote the sport because what it had done for them, through the good times and bad.

Here's an exclusive peek from the set of some of the folks that have been interviewed, as well as a few vintage shots of my own that may make it in the film.

Stacy Peralta, Feb 2011

Stacy Peralta, late 70's

Lance Mountain, Feb 2011

Lance Mountain, early 80's

Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero, early 80's

Tommy Guerrero, Feb 2011

Duane Peters, Feb 2011

Mike McGill, early 80's

Shepard Fairey, Feb 2011

(I will post more images from the production and my personal unseen archive over the next few days)

Now that the first round of interviews have been done, the film is currently only in it's earliest stages of post production. There is no trailer or anything like that even close to being cut yet. Any new information should turn up at powell-peralta.com before anywhere else, so keep your eye over there if you're interested.