On my way back from CVS this past week in the evening, the art piece above exhibited in the window of 440 Gallery (located at 440 6th Ave, Brooklyn) caught my attention. I immediately thought of “a tempest in a teapot,” but this was a tempest erupting out of a tiny cardboard box. I learned that it a work by Fred Bendheim titled, “Out of the Box.” There’s always interesting things like this on display at 440 Gallery.
Behind the Gold House Restaurant at 135 N Main St. in Nahunta, Georgia, there’s a small skatepark with mini ramps, curbs, and other surfaces to skate. It’s right on the edge of a thick wooded area.
I want to wish my LGBTQIA+ friends, coworkers, students, and people of the world a Happy Pride Month! It’s a celebration of those folks’ accomplishments and contributions, and remembrance of the hard work, struggle, and loss for liberation that unfortunately still isn’t over. I stand with LGBTQIA+ folks in the fight for liberty and equality for all.
Before the tariffs (are a tax) and plummeting markets, I wanted to liquidate some of my belongings to have more cash on hand because [waves hand]. As a part of that, I sold my prized possession: a 1989 Powell Peralta Mike McGill woodgrain complete skateboard this past weekend on eBay. It’s in transit to the buyer now.
My maternal grandmother and grandfather–Wilma and Papa Gerald–gifted me the McGill after I picked it out and its hardware from a full-page mail order ad in Transworld Skateboarding magazine. Everything arrived in a big, long box. I needed help to apply the grip tape and install the trucks, wheels, and bearings. I took it out to ride as soon as it was ready.
I loved the artwork of the skull and snake by Vernon Courtlandt Johnson. He did most of the major artwork for Powell Peralta during that era, including the “Ripper” logo on the top of the deck.
Due to the age of the skateboard deck and how it might have been stored over the years before I got it, it had developed a twist, which you can see in the picture above. While the deck is concave, toward the front of the deck, it can been seen to have a rightward twist toward the camera. It wasn’t too bad and for normal riding it probably wouldn’t be noticeable.
With this one that I assembled with new hardware, I applied the grip tap but left the Powell Peralta logo on the top of the deck exposed like I did with my original one.
I got the same brand trucks like I used to have–Gullwing. However, I went with 9″ wide Shadows instead of the Pro III’s that I used to have. I figured that if I rode this skateboard, it would just be for leisurely getting around and therefore didn’t need something higher end. Going for a matching color scheme, I added 1/4″ risers in neon green.
Again, thinking about how I might use this skateboard for riding on the street, I got large, soft wheels. These are Bones’ Rough Riders with a 80A hardness, 59mm diameter, and all-terrain formula. The bearings are generic ABEC5 with spacers in-between.
For the tail guard and rails, I installed them using “Rat Nuts” (aka T-Bolts or Sex Bolts) so that none of the hardware dug into the wood–the top sleeve passes through a hole and a screw meets it from the bottom. The rails were a generic brand with a hole pattern that matched those already on the board. The tail guard was an authentic Powell Peralta 9″ Tail Bone that I found for sale as new-old-stock.
I can’t for the life of me remember what happened to my original McGill. I might have given it away or sold it before going to college. I just can’t remember. Before I found this deck and kitted it out with all new hardware, I wrote about assembling a reissue of an earlier model McGill that had the bowl/fishtail shape but without the angled nose of the 1989 model (which I sold to help finance purchasing this original McGill some years ago).
It’s a good skateboard even being 36 years old. I hope that it brings happiness to its new owner.
Unfortunately for me, it feels like I can’t enjoy things like this in this life–not with things being so precarious and uncertain.
Before this Wednesday’s upcoming forum discussion, I wanted to revisit Richard Powers’ Galatea 2.2, which I had read 14 years ago for my PhD dissertation titled, “Brains, Minds, and Computers in Literary and Science Fiction Neuronarratives.” On rereading Powers’ novel, I paid more attention to the iterative development of Helen. What I’ve learned about AI and developments in Generative AI in the past three years provided a stronger foundation for considering the technical aspects of the narrative. Lived experience gave me a better understanding of some of the non-technical aspects of the narrative, too.
