11.30.2011

chrome ball incident #726: gloria













To this day, I've never seen half as many leopard print garments at the skatepark like I did for an entire month after this interview came out. Anything "mob" instantly became the object of ridicule and fourteen-year-olds wouldn't shut the fuck up about hammer-this and hammer-that.

...I guess that's the mark of a good article.

Classic Greco Pro Spotlight from '01.

32 comments:

Steve M said...

Was never a fan of the Piss Drunx fad, but Grecs' Baker 2G part is undeniably amazing.

juxton said...

Never a fan of Greco. His skating never got me hyped and his over-the-top image and style was always kind of lame. He never let his skating speak for itself, it was always backed up by corny lingo and an obsession with Johnny Thunders. Sloppy style and the same 5 tricks over and over again. I know many would disagree, but I never liked the guy. Just always felt that he tried WAY too hard to to create an image, rather than just skate. Just my opinion.

Leiv said...

^Agreed. It also applies to most of his crew.

Leiv said...

...Jumped the gun.

That said, I thought his 2g part was gnarly, and Gloria is a great song for a part.

Anonymous said...

i can smell a baker argument brewing. It ultimately comes down to opinion like everything and whether or not you appreciate image and persona in a skater. In general i think that grecco and the baker guys are passionate as hell and their devil may care attitude isnt a front at all and it in fact adds to their skating rather than distracts from it.

Anonymous said...

" Never a Greco fan"

Some people just never get it.

Dtj16 said...

Been looking to read this interview for ages! Thank you.

Dtj16 said...

Also, I've always wondered.. Was that cover a bail shot? Or did he just go back and re-film it for baker 3. Same with the emerica switch flip ad?

Dumb questions, but it wouldn't be the first time they used a bail shot cover. (Thrasher : Switch frontside flip lincoln steps/portrait cover)

Leiv said...

"i can smell a baker argument brewing"
Yeah, I debated posting for this very reason, butt fuck it. Even as I type this my common sense is tingling like a muhfucka.

"Some people just never get it."
Hey. That's just, like, your opinion man.
Honestly, what is there to get?
Before you answer, keep in mind that the appropriate angst filled response is "Dude, if you have to ask, you'll never get it."

Giles said...

it's not my personal aesthetic, but this interview and its fallout were a breath of fresh air at the time. skating was really cookie cutter. 11 years later, i find the attention to fashion in skating pretty annoying, but i do think jim along with tnt, helped break down the orthodoxy a bit.

Anonymous said...

Some might see it and some might not, but after seeing the Frankie Hill video and now watching this Grecco video, they have a very similar style in landing tricks, I think. Coincidence these were posted close together?

Jeff Turner said...

Never liked the image he tried to portray, nor the whole "Piss Drunx" thing. I guess if you're into that stuff then he's your guy.

His video parts were impressive, but I always remember thinking about "how can this guy talk smack on mob this and mob that" and then land every trick with his ass an inch off the ground dragging his hand behind him?

Frankie Hill is exactly who I thought of every time he drug his hand on a rideaway. Out of that whole crew of guys I always liked Ellington and Reynolds much better. They weren't on blast all the time and let their skating speak for itself.

TimWilkzseron said...

That nollie backside flip down Wilshire is one of the the most perfectly executed tricks ever.

Dave said...

Can't argue the dude was influential, but I agree with the majority thus far that I was never a big fan of Greco, even going back to his crewneck sweater Zero days. Just never did it for me style wise.

I also agree that he was/is way too into fashion to the point that it seems to contrived. But then again, I remember him talking about how he goes full bore into whatever he is into, and it certainly shows.

K said...

STOP: Congrats to Chops for his shout out at the end of the 1st episode of the Menace Epicly Later'd.

Anyway - It's so funny how many people hate on Greco. Wasnt dude supposed to be on Plan B?
Anyway, hate if you must on the whole Piss Drunx fad, that shit was amazingly refreshing when it happened. Maybe it's cuz I used to spend a stupid amount of time listening to the Stooges and hanging out w/dubious charachters like that. Sho nuff, a lot of those guys are in rehab or recovery.

Everything in moderation, kids.

nate nola said...

He made the switch kickflip after a night of partying
they had a photographer and no filmer, i think theres a different Emerica ad with a sequence, i've seen a sequence of just don't remember where.
They tried to refilm it another time and he didnt get it, i guess thse are the clips from the baker vid.
I have no insight on that cover shot though.

Keith said...

I was never a fan of this guy either. Never got into him. I suppose he did do some gnarly tricks. The fashion chameleon thing is humourous though.

Maybe it's just my age... when Piss Drunx, Hammers and Baker/Bootleg were super popular, I wasn't an impressionable teenager. I already had gone through that phase in the late 80's/early 90's. I was barely paying attention to skating at the turn of the Millenia aside from Crailtap and DNA shit.

Anonymous said...

It is interesting to see how far Greco has come...From being seriously hooked on drugs to running Deathwish with Ellington...makes me back him harder. His "look" has calmed, however. One of his current sponsors is Dickies!?!?

And comeback-wise...no one can take that away. Interested in watching the new Deathwish video...

Anonymous said...

Greco is probably one of the most dedicated skateboarders out there...
hate it or love it.

http://skateboardingmagazine.com/pictures/hosoi/images/4.jpg

yeah.

Anonymous said...

If you're not into Greco then you're a square. That's all.

Bif said...

Hey K,
Greco only had a Try-Out with Plan, but he didn't make the cut because the Team thought he was trying to 1-up them during the Try-Out.
On a side note... Greco is the "I bet you can't eat 4 Saltine Crackers in 1 minute" kid in Plan B's Virtual Reality.

Art said...

@ Bif: Pretty sure the cracker story is in the '93 Spitfire video. Definitely not VR.

I'm with all the non-fans. I remember him at a Vancouver contest, pretty sure it was '97, and he was dressed in green Dickies, head to toe, looked like a janitor. Then all the image changes from there...

I don't care about fashion as a rule, and I think it's lame to put so much fucking effort into a "look". And I don't see changing your image all the time as re-inventing yourself, to me it seems more like you're insecure and/or a flake.

I remember one kid I used to skate with going from hip-hop/swishy pants/gold chain to Misfits t-shirt literally overnight, and I couldn't take him seriously.

Then came that Greco interview, and I was bummed at who the kids got to worship in skating.

Anonymous said...

@Art

Style changes can all be accounted as youthful stupid stuff. People change and mature. Today's Greco does not seem concered with style to any serious degree. And his clothing has NOTHING to do with his skating.

Anonymous said...

@ Art

He's into punk music. Which is sometimes, totally about looks, so of course he's going to put effort into it, duh. You saw him in 97, so you saw him when he was 19, 20. What kid is secure in their looks then? Would you say the same thing about AVE? Also, why not have fun and try different looks. You come off like a 70 year old man.

Dtj16 said...

yeah ignore my comment about the emerica ad being a bailshot. I found the sequence in the feb-2000 issue of big brother. Crazy.

Art said...

My point was that all the image changes were lame, and of course that's just opinion. I wasn't saying he was insecure as the 20 year-old Dickies janitor, I only described that "look" to illustrate the ironic starting point for all the subsequent fashion abuse.

At one point he was doing his best impression of the New York Dolls. Trying to remember when that was... His Epicly Later'd? Since I saw that, my opinion of the guy became set in stone, and I've seen nothing of him since.

Punk is "sometimes totally about looks"? That's a shame if it's true. Wasn't always, that's for sure.

Hey, I won't fault anyone for errors in fashion judgement; I was guilty in the big pants/small wheels days. Once again, it's the extreme changes overnight that I'm calling out.

Greco may be able to skate, but he's fake.

Art said...

Oh, and 70 year-old man?

I'm exactly halfway there in a week...

Anonymous said...

@ Art

Actually, yes, punk was always about dressing up, you think The Dolls, Ramones, Pistols, Clash, Cramps etc and so on, didn't think a lot about how they looked?

It sounds like you have personal issues, I dunno, you make it seem as though he concoted this image, as a marketing scheme or something.

Maybe it's your cynical eye, but to me its obvious him and his friends got into music at the same time and started dressing the same way. is Boulala fake? When is someone deemed authentic? Are the Sex Pistols fake?

E.Y. said...

In a world where skateboarding has become mainstream and accepted by the masses, the Baker boys keep it vile and dangerous, the way it should be. Haters always gonna hate, though. You think Greco gives a fuck about you lame ass critics?

BTW, skateboarding and ridiculous fashion have ALWAYS been a part of each other. You fools remember the early 90's don't you?

Art said...

"...you make it seem as though he concoted this image, as a marketing scheme or something."

Exactly, only I didn't make it seem so. Greco did.

"When is someone deemed authentic?"

I don't know, how about when it doesn't change overnight? I'm having to repeat myself here, but it's the many drastic changes that I find annoying, not so much any one look.

If scarves and teased hair and gay glasses and spray-on pants really define a guy, really show who is is and how he sees himself, then that's great. If that whole costume can be dropped overnight (according to friend Andrew Reynolds), then it wasn't authentic.

cold weather commando said...

Now you crossed the line frankie hill is a street god hands down balls dragging go big or go home some people will never get it and if all you know is what you see in magazines and videos then keep your opinion to yourself until you go out and put the fuckin hammer down with grecs

cold weather commando said...

Now you crossed the line frankie hill is a street god hands down balls dragging go big or go home some people will never get it and if all you know is what you see in magazines and videos then keep your opinion to yourself until you go out and put the fuckin hammer down with grecs