FREE FALLIN'

Getting up this morning and watching The Bones Brigade documentary recalled one of my fondest Xmas memories. The year was 1989 and the distinctive plastic rattle of one package in particular could mean only one thing: my first skateboard video cassette. Bear in mind that in this pre-interwebs Dark Age I was reduced to watching MTV solely in hopes of catching 5 seconds of skateboarding in an INXS or Tom Petty video. So one could hardly expect 13 year old me to contain my excitement until Christmas morning. 

By the time the 25th rolled around, I had already unwrapped, watched, and rewrapped the Blockhead Splendid Eye Torture video every single day, probably some twenty times. In addition to the amazing skating in early parts from Rick Howard and Steve Berra, its soundtrack taken exclusively from the Dischord catalogue set the basic course for my musical development for decades to come. Now that I think about it, the song in Howard’s part was probably directly responsible for my first musical purchase that soon followed - the Fugazi Margin Walker tape I bought after taking the ferry and making my way up Capitol Hill to Fallout Records and Skateboards.

Nice work ma!