Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Gleaming the Cube

My researches into the dark side of the Cube are taking their toll on my soul. I used to be a good person, but looking over the last posting it seems I have made fun of religion in the very first paragraph, not to mention sending that old couple from the future to the Video Mines of Central Ohio, there to dig for old Betamax format cassettes (which, it turns out, can be melted down to form a sort of hallucinogenic lotion that bestows cinematic visions on the user).

On the plus side, the heightened mental powers I've gained from spending hours unlocking Rubic's mysteries have given me new insight into an oddly named skateboard movie from 1989, Gleaming the Cube.

Example
Slater stand-in busts a one-wheeler

I remember there was quite a bit of speculation when the film came out as to the meaning of the title--it seemed to bear no relation to the plot of the movie whatsoever. I now know that Christian Slater's character gains his seemingly miraculous skateboarding abilities through clandestine manipulations of the Rubic's Cube.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I was a sophomore at The School of Visual Arts when the movie came out. My friend Richard and I went to Time's Square so see the movie (I have no idea WHY we went to Time's Square--it was a hell hole back then-- or WHY in God's name we went to see THAT movie). The 'theatre' consisted of folding chairs and a collapsable movie screen (like the kind your 8th grade science teacher used). Since this was the late 80s in NYC, I was waiting for a couple of things to happen while watching the movie:

1) For someone to come from up behind and strangle me with a tiny metal wire
2) For the movie to have turned out to be a porno. We were in Times Square, after all.

The movie was bad. Christian Slater was bad. The atmosphere was bad. Hhhmmm...Thanks for bringing this memory back into the foreground, buddy!!!

:P

flatlander said...

Sorry to revive difficult memories, Bhakti. Oldschool skate photographs from the 80's are hard to come by, so I had to make the link.

Whatever happened to Vision Streetwear? They made one of the best freestyle skating shoes I've ever owned (lots of toe re-inforcement and laceguards). The shoe was so good, they discontinued it. I should have bought fifty pairs!

Unknown said...

I was joking! I love thinking about the good 'ol grimey Times Square days. Hhhmmm...I wish I could remember some of the names of the 'movies' that used to be up in lights. The only one I remember is 'Rambutt' (instead of Rambo)...

Those good 'ol '80's!!

flatlander said...

I've only been to Time Square once, and it was cool. There were real, live breakdancers doing their thing nearby. That was in the 90's.

That night I saw a shooting star over the Chelsey Hotel :)

Ah, New York! Someday I will get to visit your fabled streets again.

Unknown said...

A shooting star over The Chelsea Hotel?? I only saw people shooting heroin outside the hotel, never a shooting star above it.

BTW...There's an AWESOME lookin' guitar shop right next door to the hotel...I've never bought anything from them, but it just looks so cool from the outside.

flatlander said...

I think I saw that shop--or was it in a Dylan video? It all gets tangled up in blue.

Unknown said...

I don't know if it was in a video; but it possitively wasn't near fourth street.