Monday, March 28, 2005

Word of the day: TENACIOUS

Now at Fakiegrind you get TWICE the blog entries for your money; and since it's a free service provided BY the aged and decrepit FOR the aged and decrepit, that's a pretty good deal. Provided that the 30+ skateboarders out there actually know how to read. Skip too many English classes to practice 180 bonelesses in the parking lot behind the school? Not to worry. I'm sure we'll figure out a way to add pictures sooner or later. OK, enough acerbic abuse for now.

If you detect a note of spleen in my diatribe today, it's because I just got back from a two day Easter celebration in Toronto. It was actually pretty nice. There was lots of food and merriment. People were speaking Polish and German and even some Chinese. Like Kil-Joy, I too have a cold, and over the weekend it nestled into my throat making the act of speaking any language painful when it was even possible. I did manage to make it out skateboarding yesterday morning, despite the phlegm. There is a downtown school I like to skate with some ledges and ramps. A couple little city kids were there working on kickflips and eating begels. What they lacked in skill they made up for in attitude. Some older guys were playing soccer on the field beyond the pavement. The sun was out and the ground was thawing. My knees felt pretty raw.

At the house where I was staying there lived a skaterguy who showed me some recent DVDs: the "Environment" video with lots of Toronto footage, and a 411 issue with a story about Love park in Philladelphia. I didn't get to skate with him because there was too much going on for Easter. I think if we had have gone out, I might have had a hard time keeping up. I'm not one of those cool bigcity skaterguys. My shoes are all chewed up and I only paid twenty bucks for them in the first place. The tail of my board is all ground down and it's getting into the unridable zone. I don't have any money for new shoes or decks or hip clothing, and I don't do any of the tricks you see in videos made after 1992. I'm pretty much just an overaged freak who is unwilling to let go of adolescence and merge with the rest of society. But I'm nothing if not stubborn, tenacious even. Like the Phil's Tenacious Oil I use on my bearings. To quote Beck, "I'll just hold on to nothing, and see how long nothing lasts". I'd like to hear his latest album, to see if embracing the void paid off for him.

1 comment:

flatlander said...

In ancient medical theory, there were four "humours" of the soul that corresponded to four fluids that were thought to circulate through our bodies. The four were: melancholic, sanguine, choleric and phlegmatic. (http://www.kheper.net/topics/typology/four_humours.html). Each character type had its positive and negative aspects, phlegmatic being as good as any. The ideal is likely to have them in good balance.