snowdeal.org > ex machina: gator, media hat tricks and promotional stink

ex machina

gator, media hat tricks and promotional stink

it's hard to believe that is has been around 13 years since i was sitting on curb rolling gently back and forth on a skateboard talking with friends about how odd it was that mark "gator" rogowski had confessed to killing his girlfriend. even stranger is the fact that that the event is now the basis for a documentary which has nearly scored a media hat-trick by being featured on the terri gross show and two, count 'em two, articles in the new york times [ see, "A Skateboard King Who Fell to Earth" and "The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of a Skateboard Star" ]. the terri gross interview was fairly compelling, but i've been suckered once into paying hard earned money to take a walk down memory lane with the barely mediocre "dog town and the z boys" and newsday pretty much confirms my worst fears with its skewering of "stoked" :

"On a strictly mechanical level, even skateboard fanatics likely will find it embarrassingly self-congratulatory, particularly about the alleged glory days of '80s skating; the skateboard illiterate will wonder why so much time and effort are being spent on such an insignificant, uncharming subject. And anyone even the least bit cynical will smell the promotional stink behind the social criticism, as "Stoked" promotes the very outlaw life.style it pretends to stand against."

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8/21/2003 09:28:00 PM 0 comments

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