Sammy Younan
Girth Radio Presents…
Tony Hawk!!
I so made tea for this episode don’t even doubt that. My generation got to witness (and build up) The King of Pop…the other MJ (Air Jordan) and Tony Hawk. We’ve seen the best of the best. How astonishingly blessed are we! Icons! Renegades!
It’s why so many of us struggled in school…teachers keeping us down like gravity. And winter…boo to winter and snow. I grew up on the wrong coast…
Ketchup:
Artst Tlk Episode 1 with Ben Mezrich & Andy Greenber
Artst Tlk Episode 2 with David Salle & KAWS
Artst Tlk Episode 3 with Alex Gorlin & Daniel Arsham
1:30 “then when I found skating I just found this way to do my own thing, at my own pace…create my own style.” Tony Hawk #YES
2:26 Dogtown era!! Check out the utterly outstanding 2001 doc Dogtown and Z-Boys narrated by Sean Penn: Trailer.
2:55 flight captured Tony Hawk’s imagination, flight was the spark that set him on his path. Jordan = flight. Don’t let gravity keep you down.
3:59 pre-YouTube, pre-videos it was how you competed. That sounds sublime! Winner (singular) and losers (plural!).
4:53 crowds + hype = rock star status
5:49 “I found myself having a job…” ugh the worst: to go from that freedom to the desk…the cubicle. This was during a downturn in the 90s: once again the Artist Like is a zero sum game: Big Money or hardly any money. It’s difficult to be a creative person living a middle class existence; it’s generally not how it works.
7:41 community!
7:45 Skate deck art…much like the pinball backsplash…comic books…it’s amazing any of us grew up to be graphic designers!
10:02 sell-out! Is this still a bad thing? Or have we justified it now? Both?
10:57 “I learned that people call you sell-out when you stuff finally sells. And people are finally interested in it.”
12:05 Tony Hawk Empire Recommended Reading: How Did I Get Here: The Ascent of an Unlikely CEO by Tony Hawk and Pat Hawk
22:09 Tony Hawk and the Smithsonian.
22:26 “The stuff I get to do…I didn’t dream of any of this stuff because it just wasn’t on the radar…” the ongoing evolution of dream big! We’ve gone from free stuff, getting a photo in a magazine to “Youtube Stars.” Now…you want a video to go viral. You want Likes, followers. That’s not how I define success much less quality. I’m a grown-man what the hell is a retweet gonna do for me?
23:02 The Simpsons! Remember when Homer battled Tony Hawk? #GoodTimes
23:45 Quicksilver…filed Chapter 11. In Toronto the showroom is closed and worse…the Carl’s Jr beside it also closed (and the Carl’s used to be an HMV!).
23:56 YouTube Ride Channel
4 episodes won and done!
