Q&A with Bob Burnquist, pro skater, legend, icon, semi-nerdy looking dude...

Here's a excerpt from an interview with Bob Burnquist. We were in Cleveland at the 2004 Gravity Games (held in Sept.), an action sports and music festival, owned by the Outdoor Life Network (OLN). He ended up placing eighth in the skate vert contest.


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Bob Burnquist has been trying to keep a low profile since arriving into Cleveland, but everyone from fans to fellow skaters to the media hang in his shadow for a piece of his celebrity status. Fortunately when GravityGames.com approached him for an interview, he was in good spirits, and felt like talking about his daughter, skydiving, and flying planes. Oh, and skating.


How's your mood this week, Bob?

I feel happy. I feel excited. I'm skateboarding. I'm healthy. It's getting toward the end of the year, and my body's still going strong, I mean, what can I say...I'm satisfied. And I feel blessed.

So where have you been working – that is, skating – lately?

I have been skating a lot at home. Traveling a lot too, but recently my daughter started school, so I have been spending time at home getting her going. Now I'm here in Cleveland, here to have some fun skateboarding, and have everyone who comes out to the games enjoy watching what we do.

You look like a proud father talking about your daughter. You want to tell us about her?

Her name is Lotus. She's four years old. Today is her fifth day at school and, yes, I'm really proud of her.

Does she realize her dad is a professional skateboarder?

Yeah. We go all over the place with her. She travels with us. She sees dad on TV, and the commercials. She knows Tony Hawk [laughs]. I'm amazed actually – she's so smart, the way she observes things. She even knows the names of some of the skateboard tricks. I have actually learned several tricks with her on the deck. She just loves being out there on the deck with me, and I love having her around. She's been skating since before she could walk, but now, even at the young age of four, she's getting into it more and more. It's a lot of fun.

Outside of skateboarding and spending time with your daughter, what else does Bob Burnquist do?

There's a lot I do. I enjoy just about anything. I'm in the air a lot. Skydiving. Flying planes. I'm just a couple weeks short of my private pilot's license. I can't stand still. Bob can't stand still. I go home, I skate. If there are waves, I surf. If the sky is clear, I skydive. There is an activity to do for every type of day there is.

Can you talk to us about the Gravity Games, and tell us what your approach to this year's contest might be, and maybe a little about your competition?

From me you're going to see a lot of switch tricks. Connecting tricks together switch, and learning harder tricks switch has been my goal. At least half my run will be switch. That's how I skate and the cool thing is, not many others are doing it. Bucky [Lasek] is awesome at switch skating, and he's pursuing that, but he does it in a different way. He connects his switch tricks in between his regular tricks. I'm looking to connect combinations, the whole thing a switch run. Everyone is just so different and that's what's awesome. You've got Sandro [Dias], who is just on a roll. He's got the 900 down. You've got Pierre-Luc [Gagnon], whose runs are absolutely amazing -- so technical, and somehow he connects combinations that are incredible. It's great when everyone skates so well, because it forces the rest of us to step it up. It makes for an exciting time.

Thanks Bob. Good luck this week.

No problem. Take care.

Mitch Allan Interview, Lead Singer of SR-71

I conducted this interview in Cleveland, Ohio, during the 2004 Gravity Games.

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It must suck to be Mitch Allan. His band, SR-71, is beyond cool. His girlfriend, Kelly Hu from X-Men and X2, is everyman's fantasy—a hot chick with superpowers that can take down Wolverine. He is the hip rocker type with great style that only, well, hip rockers can achieve. He is naturally good looking, with perfectly arched eyebrows and chiseled cheekbones, but still gets his own makeup and hair person. And he plays a hell of a mean riff on the guitar. Best of all, Mitch Allan refuses to let success go to his head. As we sat down together before his show at the Gravity Games, he gave off an affable vibe that can be rare among musicians of his stature. Recently returning from the OLN Kelly Slater surf invitational, Allan is happy to rejoin the action sports crowd. We also talked about SR-71, and an off-spin project he's working on, self-titled Mitch Allan, and about the music scene in general.



SR-71 has its roots in Baltimore. What is the rock scene like there?

The rock scene in Baltimore is thriving. It goes off, with respect to all the local bands, and all the shows that are constantly happening. It's definitely a good place to live in your into rock and the night scene.

How did you guys come together to form SR-71?

We were just a bunch of friends that wanted to get together and create some music that was missing in Baltimore. We combined a pop-song style with some great rock tunes; some shit that was more catchy, yet still had some balls. Having the same interests musically, we kind of came together on our own. We didn't want to play metal, and we didn't we to be "out there," acting like a bunch of weird guys. We're not weird. So we just wrote a whole bunch of songs, got a record deal with RCA, put out a record. Had a big hit. It was fun.

Is there a story about how the band got signed?

We got signed at the South by Southwest music showcase in Austin, Texas. It was pretty cool. We played on a Friday, and were signed by Tuesday.

I take it everyone was pumped on the band, then?

Yeah, totally. We were really lucky—we had a great manager, who got all of our music out before we did the showcase. By the time we played, everybody knew who we were, knew the songs. By the time we were set to play it was a matter of, OK, can they perform these songs live, can they actually play. Everyone loved the material they heard before the show—and then we just played a kick ass show. Then we sat back and waited. We sent out a memo laying out our terms for a deal. We signed the next week.

There have been some changes in the band. Can you tell us what those are?

Actually, I'm the only original member. The band that originally got signed no longer exists. In the middle of our first record we changed drummers. Toward the end of the second record, we changed the bass and guitar players.

So is the new and improved SR-71 keeping busy?

We have been in the studio for the last year, producing a record that's going to come out after the first of the year. It's called "Clawing My Way to the Middle." It's actually not going to come out as SR-71, but it's going to come out as Mitch Allan. It's a little bit different than what SR-71 does. Rather than change everyone's perception of SR-71, we'd rather just do something that is slightly different. Something new. Now it's going to kind of split up into two bands. We can do SR-71 and keep putting out the same great, fun, pop songs. And then we'll be able to put out great singer/song writer stuff under Mitch Allan.

How would you describe the differences? What can we expect to hear when Mitch Allan is released?

I think the lyrics are going to be more heartfelt. A little more about stuff that is very autobiographical to me. A lot of bullshit that I have gone through in my life—more of an outpouring for therapy than it is for just going out, having a good time and getting drunk on Saturday night.

The band's present name, SR-71, isn't that the name of a spy plane?

It is. My father was in the air force, and the SR-71 is the fastest plane ever built. It is a US Military air force spy plane. Actually, they retired the plane back in 1992, but they built in back in 1972, so it had a nice long run. Anyway, my dad was a mechanic on the SR-71. And when you're a kid, you love airplanes. At least I did. I loved fast airplanes. I had pictures of the SR-71 everywhere in my room. I had always thought SR-71 was a badass name, so when it came time to pick a band name, I gave it to my band.

Being here in Cleveland at the Gravity Games, how does the band fit in with this type of crowd?

I have a lot of friends who are big into these sports. Being from Baltimore, everybody used to skate when we were younger. I've watched the sport turn into something so amazing. I mean, the things these guys are doing today. I used to ride BMX, and I didn't come near to what these guys are doing. They are incredible. What they can do on a bicycle blows me away. Same with skateboarding. I went to Fiji not to long ago with Kelly Slater on a surfing trip, and those guys—same thing. What they can do with a surfboard just blows me away. I'm just appreciative of the lifestyle and the sport. I think they are great athletes.

And It Came to Pass...That House Shall Rule the Earth

House music was meant to be heard live. When Mark Farina and Derrick Carter were young boys, they would pray to God and ask to grow up to be DJ legends. God, with his three-way pray technology, summoned the two and, speaking in a four/four beat tongue said, "Doest thou have feeling? Then hearken unto the glorious deep groove thang, and let thy people be moved as it as moved my pious soul. Tho remember, my earthly DJ sons, to play it live, lest thou be played out."

Om, never a record label to defy the words of God, went forth with His eternal plan, and straight outta house music heaven soon arrived a double live LP, featuring the ever-angelic Mark Farina, and the boomptyboomp warrior Derrick Carter.

Recorded live last Valentine's Day in San Francisco at the Mezzanine, this is a club with a system so powerful that if you step outside into its seedy Sixth Street neighborhood, you can actually see the crack heads trying to hold their cardboard boxes steady against the wrecking ball bass lines thundering from within.

Two discs, a sweaty night of love and forty tracks later, an album was born, including some fine classic styles from the To-Ka Project, Daft Punk, and JT Donaldson, amidst others.

Farina starts this party on the flare, and later on the flange, but it's about halfway in that his mix really starts to build up. Known best for his Mushroom Jazz series, he takes instrumental hip-hop beats and bites of soulful jazz to create a refined yet hip, down-tempo ambience. His live set combines this sound with his stricter, more formulated Air-Farina house texture. Seamlessly he brings it all together, layering in silly samples and quirky voices, which add that upbeat Farina feel.

To contrast, Carter starts it off raw and dirty, deep Chicago house, played as it should be. They call him the "King of Jack," for his stylized, booty shaking sets. Just to look at Carter (or imagine looking at him), comfortably at home behind his turntables, brings forth a kinetic energy, and makes even the most disjointed want to shake it. He throws a couple funky surprises toward the end (funkiness is requisite at five in the morning), bringing in acts like the electronic, hip-hopping Jungle Brothers, ending it with a Rob, not so Mello remix.

Check out the night's video footage at www.om-records.com/events.php?event=7

The Sun Also Rises

Just completed Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises." What a masterpiece. Nearly eighty years later, generations and ages apart, the book's message personally resonated with me, and were my friends to read it, they to. Thing is, they're a bit to close to the minds' of these characters, so it's my guess they won't find that resonation, save someone were to lead them directly to it.

Before this, "Old Man and the Sea" had been the only novel I had read of his.

I can see why this book took on biblesque status among college-aged students in the late 1920s. This is pure bohemia, manifest with every new adventure these drunken protagonists encounter.

The lead figures of the book, it is my understanding, are based on real American writers of the '20s. Character Robert Cohn represented writer Harold Lobe, and portrayed an ill-mannered and ill-sober bore of a jew. As one of the characters might have put it, he was always "tight." Harold Lobe published a rebuttal to the characterization years later in a book "The Way it Was" (1959).

Testing my new blogger

Well, well. I just learned my first lesson about blogging. The hard way. After writing what began as a test paragraph turned into a commentary on what brought me here, to blogger land.