Magenta Hill Street Blues 2

This past weekend in San Francisco saw a crush of skateboard-centric events ranging widely from the easily-accessible-to-the-uninitiated Dew Tour to the humbler presentation of a new film by free-wheelin' French dirts Magenta Skateboards.

And while the latter definitely catered to those more apt to drink tall cans of Tecate out of brown paper bags than bubbly yellow corn syrup and/or monstrous concoctions of taurine/caffeine/etc., both, indeed, were displays of total ripping.

Check out the Magenta trailer:

The scene at the show.

The premiere, held at Book and Job Gallery, proved to be popular amongst the Bay's dedicated street-slashing set. Alongside the video was a two-floor installation of photographs by Color Magazine's Isaac McKay-Randozzi, John Lindsay, Stereo-pro and friend-of-Magenta Ben Gore and others. The photographs, many of which depict the stunts/spots/skaters featured in the video, read less as a catalog of production stills than an earnest endeavor to capture a sense of the attendant adventure inherent in skateboarding: the triumphant rollaway, the migratory hit-and-run approach to city spots (and non-spots, too), the often unnerving clack-clack-clack of racing the sidewalk's approaching end into a blind intersection--an essential expression of skating's violent bliss.

And at just 16 minutes, it's well-suited for pre-schralp viewing. Order a copy from Theories of Atlantis by clicking here.

And if you've yet to see the Dew Tour stuff, click here.