I know I haven't updated this shit in a long time. My camera malfunctioned so that's why there is no new footage. Or maybe I don't care to tend to a blog. Anyway, after longtime hibernation I give you an interview with none other than my good friend, Ben Stephenson. Expect more boring interviews that you won't probably read from others. So check back. Mind the grammar and typos.
1. Name/Age/Sponsors?
ben stephenson/20/no one homieee
WAIT 21
ben stephenson/21/my parents
2. What’s been up the past bit?
i've spent a little while taking a break from life in most forms. i ran away to vancouver for a long time and chilled with you and steve(Macleod), tried to get some footage, worked on writing, got into some creative writing courses in halifax and now we're just enduring the -30 degrees.
basically, i left art school and then wound up becoming an even bigger art fag than i already was.
3. We took a break from Vancouver and went to San Francisco for a trip. What were some highlights?
getting to choose between the motel room with the hookers getting slayed nextdoor or the one that smelled like piss.
taking a third as much luggage as you and steve and watching you guys carry it around all the hills all day long on our last day.
SEEING GERSHON MOSLEY.
skating wallenberg, the pier, everything.
the whole thing was a highlight.
4. Why does Steve rip so hard?
steve rips so absolutely hard because he knows exactly how to stand on his board at all times, i think. his feet just sort of mesh with his board in a weird way that allows him to carve into tricks at turning radiuses like sports cars.
he has a habit of only doing stylish tricks in teh first place, and pulls them off with a very non confrontational but still confident style that says "i have no idea how good i actually am".
Ben all of sudden says be right back. Obviously he doesn’t think this is important enough. Although this interview could be the turning point of his career. AND he’s back after a phone call from his girlfriend.
5. What's the best part of being friends with Simon(Richards)?
the best part about being friends with simon is knowing someone who at any given time has both the capacity for philosophical debate and freestyle rap. one minute you're discussing fate and nihilism and God and the next he's telling you that "bitches think i'm crazy cause i be smackin dat ass".
also, he doesn't get drunk like most people, he always seems to be calmly out of control.
6. What are your plans for the summer?
as of right now, the summer plan is to head to the ladn of the french canadians, montreal, so hot right now, with you and steve. get our skate on, get our chocolate cake on, forget about growing up for a few more months. And to never wear sleeves the entire summer, that’s my plan.
7. Tell the reader why you said “get our chocolate cake on”?
well somewhere in the 6797 era, we formed this tradition where one of us would take turns buying cake mix (always chocolate, don't even think about vanilla), and having a nice little family cake bake. i think it started the day we were trying to film a 'day in the life' montage and felt like our lives were super boring when it came to be evening time. then the fasle image we created for our lives, about making cakes all the time, gradually turned out to be our real life, and that was epic.
8. How is your aloe plant holding up?
oh shit, thanks for reminding me. it's in kind of rough shape.
9. Why do your eyes always tear up?
i don't know if i had some horribly traumatizing experience with the wind when i was a kid or what, but whenever i step outside, there's a 80% chance that i'm going to start crying. if it's windy, i cry, if it's cold, i cry. if it's too hot, i cry. it kind of sucks. i want to look into tear-drop surgery, kind of. i really think that i lose half of the water that i could be using for hydration because i'm constantly crying. and everytime i meet someone new, i have to like break the ice and tell them, like "i'm not crying, this just happens everyday." it's the worst. sometimes when i'm in a melancholy mood it feels like maybe i really AM crying, and then i wonder what the difference is.
also, i might really just be crying because steve is so good.
10.What is your obsession with grinding the bottom bar of rails?
that started because i always thought about it when i'd see a handrail that was built like that, i always thought it would be kind of funny or cool to grind the middle of a handrail and pop out, it would be like something from a tony hawk game. but the problem was that i told you about that idea, and we both said we'd never really seen anyone do it before, and then it became like something i had claimed without really meaning to, and now i can't walk by a handrail without you or stuart or someone being like "ohhh ben, grind the bottom!" i claimed that trick on a lot of spots but it only worked out on one very lucky one. i guess it was inspired by ed templeton, and anthony pappalardo maybe?
11.When was the last time you washed your hair with shampoo?
the last time i washed my hair with shampoo was about exactly a year ago now, january 2008. it pretty much stopped when i moved to vancouver and was growing my hair and never bought shampoo. i think the first couple days there i used steve's shampoo and then gave it up once we started hanging out with such amazing heshers. i was in an environment where hair washing wasnt necessary and that was really nice. hahah, what am i supposed to say? im not going to start shampooing it any time soon, it's so much healthier and sexier like this.
12. A lot of people were shocked by your 365 days later part. Why do you think that was?
i think that the reason that some halifax people were shocked by it was because it's like an entire minute of me not falling off my board, which is something that you would never ever see in real life. i think they were like "whoah, he lands tricks?" i really don't know.
i think that sometimes people have this mind set of you as this sort of average, inconsistent, fucking around skater. and then you go out on the streets and you have something inconceivable in your head you want to do and you pull it off after a few broken boards and kick outs. but that's what is so sick. you have this amusing thing about your skating that is unique and very enjoyable to watch. There is an awesome story behind every trick.
hahaha, i'll take those as compliments. it would be nice to not break boards, slam, break ankles, etc. etc, but thats just how it happens. i'm going to have to say that you are the opposite in some ways, where i can look at every trick you did and point out exactly why it's so perfect. everything i land has at least one thing about it that's fucked, and to me, i don't want it to be like that,
but what can i do?
nothing, it's your style. i love it. Okay moving on…
13. What is the next video project your filming for?
uhmmm i guess i'm still filming for spencer's video, which has been in the works for a long time now, i don't think he's got a title for it quite yet, but yeah. it's going to be amazing, because spencer has some natural knack for filming things from original angles and capturing the best of people's style, etc, and he wants to make something a little different than the average fully flared 4.
also, you're going to have a part, and onjay kozlowicz is going to have a part, in the same video, so how could it be bad?
14. How do you escape from the messy Halifax weather?
you mean like, what do i do in the winter time?
Yeah, to get away from the bleak/depressing times.
well the first halifax winter, i think that we both just kind of said "fuck it" a lot more, and embraced the weather. we like filmed entire montages where there was snow on the ground and frozen breath in every shot. the next winter, i guess i ran to vancouver halfway through, wimping out, but this winter it's different. i think that it's important to have projects to work on, for me, to keep from feeling the winter blues too much. so i've just been writing this book. the winter feels really repetitive to me. i wake up, i make instant coffee that most people would puke for, i eat oatmeal or cereal, i think about writing, i tell people i'm writing, then sometimes i might actually "write." so, writing, this year. it's good for the ankles. and also, well you know very well about our secret training facility but i don't want to blow that up too much, haha.
15. Alright I guess we can wrap this up. Shout outs, thank you's, words of advice?
thanks to God, first of all, and my family and real friends. thanks to everyone that i skate with who puts up with me making weird noises everytime i land or don't land, and giving way too many weird compliments. thanks to jon "uptown" beallsy, spencer "i dont have enough money for a girlfriend" clayton, steve and you, shout outs to everyone in vancouver, all my old skate friends from the teck krew, gershon mosley, and that's it i guess. words of advice? don't do anything the way that i do it.
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