Skateboarding near the Thames — a brief observation today on how world culture functions. I still remember the first time I was at the Royal Festival Hall — trying to remember who was on that night, Jarvis Cocker’s one off Touch of Glass project and then Smog I think — and over in one out of the way corner with just the right amount of concrete and odd angles were a whole bunch of skate rats doing their thing, and I think taking a lot of pictures as well, must have been for some sort of magazine.
It’s the type of thing I’m used to by default, I’m in Southern California and the question is less who skates than who doesn’t among many circles, but seeing it in London was something both surprising and perhaps not all that much — I’d already noticed the elaborate amount of graffiti via some trains that could have just as easily been near the Los Angeles river as the Thames. And some might complain that ‘it’s not the London I expected’ or whatever, but frankly, I loved it — less out of some sort of accidental-touristy “Ah, I know where I am now” as it was a realization that yeah, it’s damn well good fun for those inclined to it, whereever you’re at.