Minor Media

Too many skaters, too many clips, too many videos and not enough auteurs.



Instead of watching footage of Berra vibing Juliette Lewis, ten years later it comes down to watching him getting half vibed by some Canadian tweens who won the latest video contest. While Berra stretches out the footy by showing himself presenting each and everyone with their Gatorade trophys, I can't help but get a bad bad case of second hand embarrassment.



So what if these kids are good (double shuvuts, fakie tres, bomb tres)?? They still skate like every other fifteen year old "post tech" skater. All these kids are so identical. Every clip is banged out perfectly, but the video and the kids still come off as sanitized as ever (the generic Biggie song for the generic park montage only seals the deal).



What problems do I have with the Berrics? For one, their motto: "We don't report the news, we are the news." Since they are probably the leading internet skate outlet, it is obvious that they are insistent on confining the whole skate world into a small warehouse in Southern California. Obviously, watching randomly generic Canadian kids do calculatedly generic moves suffices as "the news" for Berra and company. Documenting pros getting out of their cars and filming them reading text messages also qualifies to them as "the News" as well.



In an age of media super-saturation, Berra and company are mostly part of the problem and offer no effective/ realistic solutions. Their idea of spicing up Mike Vallely's Battle Commander for instance, is by renting a Trans-Am, filming that and then making that the intro. And like all the rest of their videos, there's nothing really tangible to grab onto, even in the feeble attempt of articulating Mike Valley's latest identity crisis.




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