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Skateboarding => USELESS WOODEN TOY BANTER => Topic started by: j....soy..... on February 16, 2023, 09:39:12 PM
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This has always been in skating as long as I remember and as much as it’s served skaters in giving them a dry place to skate, hosting camps, or driving kids around…….
I still look for the door the moment anyone says ‘gather around!’
Reading this story hit home in while there may be some good people in the mix…it was fucked up back then and still is…..
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/youth-for-christ-winnipeg-the-edge-skate-park-1.6660569 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/youth-for-christ-winnipeg-the-edge-skate-park-1.6660569)
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If you’re gonna learn Christ Airs, this must be the place…
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I just read that interview with Brian Sumner on Jenkem and I was thinking "what a fucking judgemental kook this guy is"
I don't care if you're Christian, but Jesus hung out with whores, with all kinds of scum of society (for the record I don't consider prostitutes scum at all) and he LOVED them. Brian Sumner is like "let me name drop a bunch of white guys and tell you you're going to hell." Judgemential piece of shit. Also with 3rd grad argumenst against evolution, SMH.
Fuck him and any god that isn't there for everyone. Fuck these hateful assholes trying to infiltrate skateboarding to sell their uninclusive religion.
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I just read that interview with Brian Sumner on Jenkem and I was thinking "what a fucking judgemental kook this guy is"
I don't care if you're Christian, but Jesus hung out with whores, with all kinds of scum of society (for the record I don't consider prostitutes scum at all) and he LOVED them. Brian Sumner is like "let me name drop a bunch of white guys and tell you you're going to hell." Judgemential piece of shit. Also with 3rd grad argumenst against evolution, SMH.
Fuck him and any god that isn't there for everyone. Fuck these hateful assholes trying to infiltrate skateboarding to sell their uninclusive religion.
2nd paragraph you're saying how inclusive jesus actually was, last paragraph you're saying christianity is uninclusive, which one is it?
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I just read that interview with Brian Sumner on Jenkem and I was thinking "what a fucking judgemental kook this guy is"
I don't care if you're Christian, but Jesus hung out with whores, with all kinds of scum of society (for the record I don't consider prostitutes scum at all) and he LOVED them. Brian Sumner is like "let me name drop a bunch of white guys and tell you you're going to hell." Judgemential piece of shit. Also with 3rd grad argumenst against evolution, SMH.
Fuck him and any god that isn't there for everyone. Fuck these hateful assholes trying to infiltrate skateboarding to sell their uninclusive religion.
2nd paragraph you're saying how inclusive jesus actually was, last paragraph you're saying christianity is uninclusive, which one is it?
the first one. it’s tainted by these fuckers who grasp a bit of power, but jesus was the illest
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I’m reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky and Christianity as it is depicted in the story from Elder Zosima and the main character Alyosha make it much more wise and compassionate. Also, at the beginning of the book, the bros’ narcissistic dad makes a glory hole related joke to a priest and it’s fucking hilarious.
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I helped close one of these by buying booze for the teens who hung out. There were kids puking in the bushes of the church.
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I helped close one of these by buying booze for the teens who hung out. There were kids puking in the bushes of the church.
Why would you admit to this?
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church of skatan thread....
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I just read that interview with Brian Sumner on Jenkem and I was thinking "what a fucking judgemental kook this guy is"
I don't care if you're Christian, but Jesus hung out with whores, with all kinds of scum of society (for the record I don't consider prostitutes scum at all) and he LOVED them. Brian Sumner is like "let me name drop a bunch of white guys and tell you you're going to hell." Judgemential piece of shit. Also with 3rd grad argumenst against evolution, SMH.
Fuck him and any god that isn't there for everyone. Fuck these hateful assholes trying to infiltrate skateboarding to sell their uninclusive religion.
2nd paragraph you're saying how inclusive jesus actually was, last paragraph you're saying christianity is uninclusive, which one is it?
the first one. it’s tainted by these fuckers who grasp a bit of power, but jesus was the illest
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The article is disappointing but not surprising. I have never encountered these places before despite always hearing about them.
I've always imagined it's something like this though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ddh3qPKCCE
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I just read that interview with Brian Sumner on Jenkem and I was thinking "what a fucking judgemental kook this guy is"
I don't care if you're Christian, but Jesus hung out with whores, with all kinds of scum of society (for the record I don't consider prostitutes scum at all) and he LOVED them. Brian Sumner is like "let me name drop a bunch of white guys and tell you you're going to hell." Judgemential piece of shit. Also with 3rd grad argumenst against evolution, SMH.
Fuck him and any god that isn't there for everyone. Fuck these hateful assholes trying to infiltrate skateboarding to sell their uninclusive religion.
2nd paragraph you're saying how inclusive jesus actually was, last paragraph you're saying christianity is uninclusive, which one is it?
the first one. it’s tainted by these fuckers who grasp a bit of power, but jesus was the illest
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MrS3uHVlzew&t=5s
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I just read that interview with Brian Sumner on Jenkem and I was thinking "what a fucking judgemental kook this guy is"
I don't care if you're Christian, but Jesus hung out with whores, with all kinds of scum of society (for the record I don't consider prostitutes scum at all) and he LOVED them. Brian Sumner is like "let me name drop a bunch of white guys and tell you you're going to hell." Judgemential piece of shit. Also with 3rd grad argumenst against evolution, SMH.
Fuck him and any god that isn't there for everyone. Fuck these hateful assholes trying to infiltrate skateboarding to sell their uninclusive religion.
2nd paragraph you're saying how inclusive jesus actually was, last paragraph you're saying christianity is uninclusive, which one is it?
the first one. it’s tainted by these fuckers who grasp a bit of power, but jesus was the illest
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MrS3uHVlzew&t=5s
Wait a minute. Is illest Jesus sporting a pair of red Cariumas in that clip?
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Hello I am newbie here. I just wanted to say.. the church is scumbag??? Wow.. what a shocker… who could have known??? This is definitely new stuff. Do they don’t help people?? Wow.. much shocked. So they’re just in it for money? Wow yet again…
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There was a brief period in my youth - an era before skateparks existed in my midwestern city - when a nearby church youth group built a bunch of ramps and let people skate them, no questions asked. My friends and I managed to score a ride once, and I arrived prepared with all my 13 year old atheist arguments, but it turned out that no one cared and they weren't actively proselytizing. The ramps sucked, but some of the Christian kids ripped and there were girls there.
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There was a skate church in my small town growing up. It was the heart of the skate scene every Thursday. Some of my best skating as a youth was done at skate church. Yeah they had a break halfway thru the session to tell you about god. Their message felt more like “JC is here if you want him” rather than “you sinners need to get right with god”. I’m forever grateful to that skate church, it kept skating alive in my small town thru til I graduated high school.
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I feel like Jesus would have been a bmx guy
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I feel like Jesus would have been a bmx guy
i picture him on a scooter or a velociraptor
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Even here churches have a large quantity of after-school programs and of course there has been some jesus-oriented skateboard things. It's always hard to see if their agenda is to provide things to do for kids or indoctrinate their views or something between.
In 2010-ish they had a indoor place next town over. There was a jesus-themed graffitti on the walls and maybe there was some "kids can skate for free if they come to the sermon first" type of things too, but otherwise it was no different than other indoor parks. Also had a killer miniramp that some very-not-heavenride locals build.
The guy behind the place had his own board brand and "sponsored" some local kids, who probably didn't really have the idea that it was a christian brand. IIRC the guy was running for the local council with some very on-brand christian views (eg. anti-gay/anti-vax/etc.) couple years back.
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Yeah I dont think anyone is going to have long term success being lgbtq while trying to promote their zines or whatever through a skate church. Sure maybe some of the younger people who run it have a more progressive way of thinking but the money for the building/park etc is almost always going to be flowing through some old guy who doesnt fuck with lgbtq shit
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One I went to wasnt much of a church but fridays you could get in for free if you attended their church seminar thing (mass?). Everyone had to stop skating to move the obstacles and stuff out the way to help set up chairs. Some goofballs would preach. It was only like 30 minutes long but the preaching was over the top and I refuse to pay to skate a skatepark, so I only went there like twice. They couldnt afford the property/heating costs so they tore down half of the building. And it’s no longer affiliated with religion. Idk why anyone pays money to skate in that cramped little building, it’s always crowded as hell too. There’s plenty of covered parking garages in the area
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There was a church with a mini ramp out back right across the street from a friend of mine growing up. a very nice obese woman drove into his driveway once while we were skating a rusted out flat bar to let us know about it, “yeah we know… but its at a church” she was bummed
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If you’re gonna learn Christ Airs, this must be the place…
https://www.instagram.com/p/CowfxV5Ngkm/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Frame 7
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My hometown park was run by a church. That was essentially where I learned how to skate. It was as weird of a concept as it sounds, but it had its waves of cool, open minded people to shady bible thumpers. Their deal was that on Saturdays if you sat through a short sermon you got to skate for free that week which was a pretty hard deal to turn down. Even at a young age I was pretty resistant to fundamentalism but a lot of times the youth pastor knew their audience and could give a brief message of trying to be a decent person. Can't really argue with that.
At one point I was on their "team" and someone told on me for not being a Christian. When I got confronted about it I was honest about how I felt about Christianity and we ended up agreeing on more things than not. It was nice.
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There's this group of Christian skaters in my city, they'll show up to a park on a Saturday and bring coolers and a grill, hand out hot dogs and drinks to anyone who wants one. They'll mention that they're a church group and drop the name of their church, and at some point they will all "gather round" but as far as I've seen so far they never directly ask anyone to join in.
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One I went to wasnt much of a church but fridays you could get in for free if you attended their church seminar thing (mass?). Everyone had to stop skating to move the obstacles and stuff out the way to help set up chairs. Some goofballs would preach. It was only like 30 minutes long but the preaching was over the top and I refuse to pay to skate a skatepark, so I only went there like twice. They couldnt afford the property/heating costs so they tore down half of the building. And it’s no longer affiliated with religion. Idk why anyone pays money to skate in that cramped little building, it’s always crowded as hell too. There’s plenty of covered parking garages in the area
Wait are you talking about the Skatuary in Colorado?
I tried to go to that free Friday thing once and it was so crowded I left after like 5 mins. I know one of the guys running the place did that crazy 50-50 on the S handrail to open up the montage in Modus Operandi. He had dreadlocks and gave off awful born again Christian vibes but was friendly enough. Not sure if it’s the same people running it but there’s a Skatuary in Steambutt now.
Now in the half park that’s left some of the guys who work there wear Cariumas, which is almost as bad.
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There’s a church next to our family vacation spot that has a little skatepark in their parking lot. You don’t have to sign in or read a Bible or anything. You don’t even have to talk to anyone. Just show up and skate and don’t do any obvious dumb shit. Pretty cool.
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Despite the fact I’ve just done it in this thread lumping them all together, I recognize that not all skate churches are the same. At the same time the story I posted is a reminder that just because something serves me (I dunno it wasn’t that bad, they have a good flatbar) doesn’t make it right…..
If they want to make programs like this work they have to get with the times, and open them up for everyone…. And if the skater wants to find god….we know where to go…..
One last thing…I’ve never drank or done drugs and peer pressure drugs/alcohol has nothing on peer pressure Jesus…
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didnt have that where im at. but i definintely skated at lots of churches. one time this guy kicking us out said "Why do you guys always have to skate at churches" to which my friend replied "Why do you guys have to keep building such bomb skate spots at em?" ;D
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Just saw this thread now. Thanks for starting this thread, J. I was going to post it awhile ago.
So, I'm part of the MB Skateboarding Coalition. I'm not one of the key members, but I'm helping them out by donating money and goods and writing letters to MLAs, politicians, etc. notifying them of the cause.
The skatepark in question in j soy's initial post/link - run by YFC - was the only indoor park out here. Tons of outdoor parks during the warm months - and only one for the winter months. That's messed up as it is, but that's not the main issue. Although, of course our collective mental health during the winter months would be significantly improved if we had a reliable and comfortable place to skate indoors.
Essentially, YFC wasn't/isn't inclusive toward 2SLGBTQIA+ people. Veiled discrimination was at play. This was brought to light so much so that during this winter, they shut down the park and only allowed kids 17 and under to skate there. The whole community is upset for many reasons about the way things have been handled. Including myself, I don't see myself ever stepping foot into the YFC facility again.
I know you might be thinking, "Well what did everyone expect, it's a Christian/religious organization and religious communities have always been exclusionary in this regard." Yes, that's true - but I don't think a lot of people really knew how deep the problems went. I didn't. I never felt totally comfortable going there, but it seemed inclusive from what I saw on their website in the past.
So, the Coalition has been running a campaign to get an inclusive indoor park built and operating regularly. Like I said, I've been pitching in whenever I can to help them out. Going back to writing letters to politicians, one of them actually got back to me recently and supported the indoor park cause, saying that we'd have their support.
If anyone can donate to or share the cause, it would be greatly appreciated. The funds raised so far only total about half of what's needed: https://www.gofundme.com/f/build-an-indoor-skateboarding-space-in-winnipeg?utm_source=widget&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet
Thanks, everyone!
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I helped close one of these by buying booze for the teens who hung out. There were kids puking in the bushes of the church.
Why would you admit to this?
Why not? I’m almost 49 and these “kids” are now in their mid-30s.
The skate scene here at the time already had a sizable DIY park situated downtown, the university campus, and some other strip mall curb spots. The church spot was superfluous and definitely trying to exploit and indoctrinate.
I didn’t buy them booze with the intention of them getting hammered at the church. It was just a happy accident and a sight to behold.
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Dang, you guys had skate churches? When I was a teenager, most of the youth oriented churches in my area were more hyper focused on “christian metalcore” shows than anything skateboarding related. It was definitely as bad as it sounds. Despite my aversion to religion (my entire family are Jehovahs witnesses and I realized it was all utter bullshit at a young age), I would have been down to skate at some of the places you guys have described. Especially the ones that don’t prioritize proselytizing.
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I grew up very Christian, and having a skate program was huge for me. I was able to have an outlet to be creative and get my energy out that had nothing to do with feeling guilty about so many things or esoteric theology. It had the opposite effect the church intended unfortunately, skateboarding led me to meet lots of people of different walks of life and i began to question why the church has so many discriminatory views about them. Thanks for giving me a path out!
Unfortunately with the church linked, this is an incredibly common branding exercise that so many modern evangelical churches engage in. They appear inclusive, young and progressive in their marketing materials and social media, but at their heart, they still see LGBTQ+ people as sinners and refuse to allow openly queer people to participate in church activities or leadership unless they are either celebate (a standard that literally no other church member who "struggles" with "sexual impurity" is held to) or "convert" aka not gay/trans/nb. It's incredibly ignorant and harmful, and many young queer people that grow up in the church are saddled with self loathing or sent to a gay conversion camp which are basically torture camps for queer people.
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I grew up very Christian, and having a skate program was huge for me. I was able to have an outlet to be creative and get my energy out that had nothing to do with feeling guilty about so many things or esoteric theology. It had the opposite effect the church intended unfortunately, skateboarding led me to meet lots of people of different walks of life and i began to question why the church has so many discriminatory views about them. Thanks for giving me a path out!
Unfortunately with the church linked, this is an incredibly common branding exercise that so many modern evangelical churches engage in. They appear inclusive, young and progressive in their marketing materials and social media, but at their heart, they still see LGBTQ+ people as sinners and refuse to allow openly queer people to participate in church activities or leadership unless they are either celebate (a standard that literally no other church member who "struggles" with "sexual impurity" is held to) or "convert" aka not gay/trans/nb. It's incredibly ignorant and harmful, and many young queer people that grow up in the church are saddled with self loathing or sent to a gay conversion camp which are basically torture camps for queer people.
well written.
It is incredibly disheartening to see churches have such a black and white judgement on outsider groups such as the LGBTQ+ community. The historical Jesus spent almost all of his time outside of the church, caring for those who have been deemed as "sinful" and concludes that even in their "sin," those outsiders were generally more accepting and caring than the church leaders.
The judgement that church (many individual christians) have today is not much different from the ones who were responsible for the death of Jesus. I find it ironic and sad that an institution that boasts inclusivity and love still struggles with the same surface level judgement and problems of a civilization that lived 2000 years ago.
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I grew up very Christian, and having a skate program was huge for me. I was able to have an outlet to be creative and get my energy out that had nothing to do with feeling guilty about so many things or esoteric theology. It had the opposite effect the church intended unfortunately, skateboarding led me to meet lots of people of different walks of life and i began to question why the church has so many discriminatory views about them. Thanks for giving me a path out!
Unfortunately with the church linked, this is an incredibly common branding exercise that so many modern evangelical churches engage in. They appear inclusive, young and progressive in their marketing materials and social media, but at their heart, they still see LGBTQ+ people as sinners and refuse to allow openly queer people to participate in church activities or leadership unless they are either celebate (a standard that literally no other church member who "struggles" with "sexual impurity" is held to) or "convert" aka not gay/trans/nb. It's incredibly ignorant and harmful, and many young queer people that grow up in the church are saddled with self loathing or sent to a gay conversion camp which are basically torture camps for queer people.
well written.
It is incredibly disheartening to see churches have such a black and white judgement on outsider groups such as the LGBTQ+ community. The historical Jesus spent almost all of his time outside of the church, caring for those who have been deemed as "sinful" and concludes that even in their "sin," those outsiders were generally more accepting and caring than the church leaders.
The judgement that church (many individual christians) have today is not much different from the ones who were responsible for the death of Jesus. I find it ironic and sad that an institution that boasts inclusivity and love still struggles with the same surface level judgement and problems of a civilization that lived 2000 years ago.
Some of Jesus' harshest words in the new testament are reserved for the pharisees and people who used the church to profit off the needy or exclude people he saw as needing salvation. Sadly these are most of the people who have gained prominence in Christian culture. Swindlers, the uber wealthy, MLM scammers, crypto currency snake oil salesmen. All of these people are not only welcome but incredibly popular. And much of the texts that Christians use today to persecute LGBTQ+ people are either levitical law that literally no one follows to the letter, the letters of Paul (who was not Jesus and just an early church figure, but go off i guess), or Sodom and Gomorrah (which has more to do with a mob that wants to rape Lot's guests than being gay specifically)
Not that any of that matters. So much of church structures are completely calcified, and skewing older and older as more young people peel off when they realize that a lot of the core of current evangelical culture is racist and discriminatory. And many people would rather leave than try and reform because the structure and the people who populate it is so rotten
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I just read that interview with Brian Sumner on Jenkem and I was thinking "what a fucking judgemental kook this guy is"
I don't care if you're Christian, but Jesus hung out with whores, with all kinds of scum of society (for the record I don't consider prostitutes scum at all) and he LOVED them. Brian Sumner is like "let me name drop a bunch of white guys and tell you you're going to hell." Judgemential piece of shit. Also with 3rd grad argumenst against evolution, SMH.
Fuck him and any god that isn't there for everyone. Fuck these hateful assholes trying to infiltrate skateboarding to sell their uninclusive religion.
#metoo
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I grew up very Christian, and having a skate program was huge for me. I was able to have an outlet to be creative and get my energy out that had nothing to do with feeling guilty about so many things or esoteric theology. It had the opposite effect the church intended unfortunately, skateboarding led me to meet lots of people of different walks of life and i began to question why the church has so many discriminatory views about them. Thanks for giving me a path out!
Unfortunately with the church linked, this is an incredibly common branding exercise that so many modern evangelical churches engage in. They appear inclusive, young and progressive in their marketing materials and social media, but at their heart, they still see LGBTQ+ people as sinners and refuse to allow openly queer people to participate in church activities or leadership unless they are either celebate (a standard that literally no other church member who "struggles" with "sexual impurity" is held to) or "convert" aka not gay/trans/nb. It's incredibly ignorant and harmful, and many young queer people that grow up in the church are saddled with self loathing or sent to a gay conversion camp which are basically torture camps for queer people.
Thanks for the insight, Dale. Wasn't Moses Itkonen part of one of those gay conversion camps?
Edit: yeah found it: https://www.slapmagazine.com/index.php?topic=120542.msg3819195#msg3819195
Skate_or_dingus quote
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I’m reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky and Christianity as it is depicted in the story from Elder Zosima and the main character Alyosha make it much more wise and compassionate. Also, at the beginning of the book, the bros’ narcissistic dad makes a glory hole related joke to a priest and it’s fucking hilarious.
I finished that book not too long ago, and without wanting to spoil it, man there is definitely not a satisfying ending. Dostoyevsky jumps around a lot and has great character development, but I think the story line may suffer as a result of wanting to include too much information and asides. The Possessed is a good Dostoyevsky read if you're digging his style.
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I’m reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky and Christianity as it is depicted in the story from Elder Zosima and the main character Alyosha make it much more wise and compassionate. Also, at the beginning of the book, the bros’ narcissistic dad makes a glory hole related joke to a priest and it’s fucking hilarious.
I finished that book not too long ago, and without wanting to spoil it, man there is definitely not a satisfying ending. Dostoyevsky jumps around a lot and has great character development, but I think the story line may suffer as a result of wanting to include too much information and asides. The Possessed is a good Dostoyevsky read if you're digging his style.
I think Crime and Punishment is second to none.
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2SLGBTQIA+ people
I know it's boomer tier to complain about the acronym being too long but... come on... surely there is a less complex way to say this
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I know it's boomer tier to complain about the acronym being too long but... come on... surely there is a less complex way to say this
I thought they called it the Alphabet Mob or Alphabet Gang.
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I know it's boomer tier to complain about the acronym being too long but... come on... surely there is a less complex way to say this
It's meant to be an inclusive acronym so people feel represented.
Other folks just say queer as a catch-all.
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One I went to wasnt much of a church but fridays you could get in for free if you attended their church seminar thing (mass?). Everyone had to stop skating to move the obstacles and stuff out the way to help set up chairs. Some goofballs would preach. It was only like 30 minutes long but the preaching was over the top and I refuse to pay to skate a skatepark, so I only went there like twice. They couldnt afford the property/heating costs so they tore down half of the building. And it’s no longer affiliated with religion. Idk why anyone pays money to skate in that cramped little building, it’s always crowded as hell too. There’s plenty of covered parking garages in the area
Wait are you talking about the Skatuary in Colorado?
I tried to go to that free Friday thing once and it was so crowded I left after like 5 mins. I know one of the guys running the place did that crazy 50-50 on the S handrail to open up the montage in Modus Operandi. He had dreadlocks and gave off awful born again Christian vibes but was friendly enough. Not sure if it’s the same people running it but there’s a Skatuary in Steambutt now.
Now in the half park that’s left some of the guys who work there wear Cariumas, which is almost as bad.
Haha yea I was talking about Denver skatuary
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9To0Qqqe-rs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9To0Qqqe-rs)
Had some skate churches around in my youth. Actually, now that I think about it, those were the only skate parks in my town. None of them were good enough for me to actually think of when we were trying to figure out where to skate. They also had helmet requirements.
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I’m reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky and Christianity as it is depicted in the story from Elder Zosima and the main character Alyosha make it much more wise and compassionate. Also, at the beginning of the book, the bros’ narcissistic dad makes a glory hole related joke to a priest and it’s fucking hilarious.
I finished that book not too long ago, and without wanting to spoil it, man there is definitely not a satisfying ending. Dostoyevsky jumps around a lot and has great character development, but I think the story line may suffer as a result of wanting to include too much information and asides. The Possessed is a good Dostoyevsky read if you're digging his style.
I think Crime and Punishment is second to none.
Have it on my nightstand, next in line to read!
On the topic of skate churches, there was one that had some prevalence in my hometown for a few years as well. Started off as JUST an indoor skatepark - sick. The owner was an ex-corporate guy in his late 30's who lived an extravagant lifestyle, but left the corporate world after cheating on his wife in an elevator with some chick from his office. Forgot to mention they also had a very handicapped child who was not expected to live past 5. So his wife is at home taking care of their child 24/7, while he's out buying sports cars and hooking up with strangers. After his extramaritals were brought to light, he salvaged his marriage by "finding god again" and quitting his corporate job to....open an indoor skatepark as God had instructed him to.
He had a company called "Glory skateboards", which actually used to hook up Eduardo Craig back in the day and somehow had a decent team. He had toyed around with owning a skateboard company prior to corporate life, but abandoned it for the corporate job as it probably was a time drain and costing too much. This dude was a total "I used to skate" type, who could roll around on the ramps and not much else.
Anyways, the park is pretty fun at first, but the guy in charge is just too much for a lot of the older kids who are immediately turned off by him. He criticized clothes kids would wear if they were the wrong brands, music kids would listen to, hairstyles, tattoo's and piercings, etc. Just tried to clown on you if you weren't right with the lord. As you can imagine, skate church began to become a thing. 30 minute sermon on Friday nights, get to skate for free for 2 hours and he bought pizza for everyone - super cool. Sermons at first were generally agreeable topics, be a good person, do the right thing, God loves you. The cracks started to show over time though. One of the older guys who helped with the park, really great guy actually and he shredded, was doing 360 flip noseslides down hubbas in the late 90's, was giving a sermon one night and favorite bands came up. One kid said ACDC and the speaker said something along the lines of "not my taste, but hey good for you for listening to older music and having an open mind". Really nice inclusive feeling. Afterwards, the owner stopped everyone before they got up to go skate again and made it a point to say that ACDC is the Devil's music and he needed to stop listening to it immediately. The kid who felt validated moments prior, then got bright red and was immediately just ostracized and embarrassed. On a different day, he did a whole sermon about which brands are against god, and I don't recall the whole list but do specifically remember Volcom being on there. The argument, Volcom stands for anti-establishment, and the establishment is an extension of god's will. Anti-establishment = hates god.
The pizza stopped coming. 30 minutes turned into an hour. Friday nights became Friday night AND Sunday morning. The "free" session afterwards only applied if you had paid to get in BEFORE the sermon. Half the park was then taken out for pews and a stage. No skating anymore on Sundays at all. The ramps fell into disrepair, holes went unpatched, screws left sticking out, wax was nowhere to be found.
Church started having guest speakers and shit. A lady came in once who was teaching people how to speak in tongues. "Just let the heavenly spirit flow through you and take over your body." A line of people formed up to the stage, and one by one they were all "taught how to speak in tongues". That was pretty much the moment I thought to myself, "What the fuck is this? These people are all lying, is this a cult?" The owner began passing out a form that was for "minimum required donations" based off your household income. I just stopped going altogether.
I had an interesting personal relationship with the owner during my time there however. He sponsored me and some friends, had us skating demos, even flew me out to Indiana for a skatepark opening one time. The demos were so wack for the most part. He would charge people hundreds of dollars (if not more) to rent out his "professional skateboarding team" for events. This entailed us stacking wooden ramps Tetris style into the back of a pickup truck, and driving to the location, then pulling everything out ourselves and setting it all up. Some event's were cool, we did demos at some schools, and some festival type settings, once at a mini golf course. Some were so extremely awkward I'm embarrassed now even. We did a birthday party in San Bernardino once and there was an immediate language barrier. Myself and the other kid skating + the teenager (non-skater) who drove the truck did not speak Spanish. We didn't bring any ramps to this one at all. For some reason, the birthday kid's mom thought we were bringing the loop and other crazy shit, she got Tony Hawk Boom Boom Huckjam napkins and assumed we would be doing that type of skating. There was a group of kids maybe 3 years younger than I was at the time, skating a really jankie flatbar they had. We skated the rail with them, with not much more than small talk being made. tried to find objects to skate over, so we started stacking empty beer cans from the family eating in the backyard. Ollied over a few kids. We were pretty much just guests that nobody knew. The family was so nice though, they fed all of us a great meal. As we left, the mom came up and handed us an envelope with $500 cash in it for our demo. Felt so bad taking that money. We were never paid for anything, other than the reeeeally shitty boards he gave us. Broke 3 in 1 day one time. We still had to pay for own grip too, so the boards weren't really even "free".
Looking back now I realize it was ripe with manipulation and child labor issues. I was about 14 during this period. I just completely ghosted the owner after I stopped going to the park. Wouldn't answer his phone calls. Saw him at Walmart a few months later, and we made eye-contact, then he just walked right past me with his nose in the air without saying a word.
Eventually he completely destroyed the skatepark, and made the entire inside of the building a church. There was an article in the newspaper about a year later detailing how he was shut down by the city for tax evasion, or zoning issues, something weird and corporate style shadiness. The city and building owner approved the use of that space for a skatepark, but it was now completely a church and for some reason created a huge issue.
TLDR: church bad, religion bad, skating better.
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I know it's boomer tier to complain about the acronym being too long but... come on... surely there is a less complex way to say this
I thought they called it the Alphabet Mob or Alphabet Gang.
GANG !