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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

SAVE THE KIKAR - ASAF'S MIND EXPLOSIONS !!!


"The Kikar Hall Of Names” The original heroes.


The first generation: Ron Erez,Arad the "B"(street), Arik Mon & Ori the Macabim crew, Adi Kabus(kavhous) Ido Bar-lev, Ilan goldberg,Uri Richter,Ami livne, Guy Niels, Yaron- Veinberg, Zohar Niv, Ori Segal,Gil Shayer the father of extreme BMXing in israel, Asi Lubin, Israel Yehuda, Rafi Mizrahi,Eitan Hacker,Moti Fux,Ruby Abudi, Guy Useless and of course Useless ID as an entity. Second Generation: Lalo, JAriv,Gili Erez,Dvir, Amit, Nadav Bachar,Nami Zucker,Eitan Zmir,Ido Niv, Eli Elhayani,Yaniv Segal, Nuni yes Nuni the wonder kid!. Third generation:Nuni still there, Aquino,Asafwilly,The local bikers: Amir "brooklyn" & Tal "Willymaster". THE SURFERS GANG: Gilad jin-g(labs), Asaf Shalem, Barak Yakter, Alon Dassa, Ofir ,Yaair Jungo, Yaniv Dar, Amir Alalof, OUR three precious friends that are no longer with us: Shai Malca a great skateboard talent , Ido Zinger one of the wisest most charming souls I have ever met & Ofer Tamir a real mens man. may their souls R.I.P and we will miss them forever. SOME faces that still appear and some that went away and they all seem to have one thing in common: Ralph from Haifa, Menny impossible, Itamar Raanana & Itamar Kfar Saba, Homero,Itay Appel, Yony Etinger,Kashi, Amos shane, Arthur Rashkoven,Grurik, Avi Luzia, Joni (Yoni Kedem),Tomer cohen, Rotem,Hasa, Ido Madaness ido from Rehovot,Yoni light-wave,Yoni From kibutz Gezer, Shai Gitterman,Amit the turtle, Josh Fux, Elhanan, Ran Shani,Aviv Ratzin,Guy Peachon & his friend "asaf Open eye brow" THE energizer bunny kids that still go on and never quit-The fourth generation: Aziz, Michael Levy, Omer Bary, Guy Guerevich, Bonder,Addam, Asaf Ambar, Yoav Nagler,Roy Levin ,Andre, Dani no comply,The first generation golda kids: daniel the DJ Meitar and some forgotten names. Kikar honorary Special thanks to the current generation kids fifth generation by AsafKlafs count: Tal Niv, Dan, Omer,Daniel, Guy, Carmel, Ben and all their friends that I don’t remember their names but they know who they are R.E.S.P.E.C.T 4 evrything they are doing U KEEP OUR LEGACY ALIVE. and of course Alon Ashkenazi although not a skateboarder himself but the coolest skateboarding fan that ever existed in israel who brought the mythologic SC to the sunny afternoon sessions of 1997-1998. lost brothers if you dont see your name here that means we are still looking for you!!! from: "Just another Kikar History Professor".

"The Official Kikar Dictionary"
here are some catch phrases from the past present and future some slang that infiltrated the scene and some that didnt: "Aussie" - 360 flip by Ido Bar-lev!! did u know that?...That is according to "Arik MON". "The Thrasher" - the wallride next to the stairs was named after a graffiti. the original graffiti done by.... .... & .... ...... in 1987(the information stays with the system for legal reasons. dots represent real names see if u can guess) and was later remade by .... & ......in 1996 "The Anti Ars Association" or the: AAA - formed by first generation Kikar kids against the "?????? ????" that used to live in the Kikar for some time in the late 80's "The old lady" - damn no words required here for explaining!!! "Mishter Evil" ????-??" - "Mr Evil" 5-0,Pigs "Stole session" - just stalling on the kerb and everyone gets to show off. "The sleeve ??????" - this is a rather new phrase by the new generation for the manual pad that is on the top of the stage. damn that is a decieving little monster!!."Old school session" - when a lot of oldskoolers showed up together by surprise for a session in the mid 90's."Skate Catch ????? ?????" - Just fun stuff that kids do."The gap" - well over the grass ??????? from the high stage. "Low crue" - Nuni & Aquino 1996 "The wonder years" - A sacred historical film from late 80's begining 90's that is for now lost. it was played endlessly in Street cult. featured: Ido Bar-lev, Ron Erez,Arad Bert,Ilan goldberg, Uri richter,Jariv, Lallo, Gili Erez, Nuni (yes NUNI! "the wonder kid" with his 360 shoulder rotations from behind the back)Eitan Zmir edited it. "Yeha" - "Yeha" "No skating after 11" - Yeah right!! "Ahamed mission ????? ????" - to clean the kikar with a broom "Team Ahamed shoes ????? ??? ????" - in the days that Ron Erez used to buy his shoes in "Shook Hacarmel". his shoes looked like crap!. they got torn within a session so he would glue them put masking tape around and use metal wire instead of shoelaces so this is how we named them. "I think i broke my arm" - and he did!! (Kabus)"look at me!!! is there something wrong with me??????"- Nuni When he broke his nose, after he & Yaair Jungo molded into each other for a moment. "Do you have wax?" - well the Kikar is "Hardcore"!. "Commit suicide ??????" - usually involved "Thrasher" + grind/ or slide or just a crazy trick over something that involved dying. "Bullshit Skating" - just going nuts with the imagination and inventing crazy shit that u probably will never land."i was a champ ????? ????" - What The Ars that comes out of nowhere would say and then ask you if he could have your board for a minute."Surf'S Up ?? ????" - as strange as it sounds back in 95-97 most of the Kikar's population was mainly the "surfers gang". So if you came there during this period and you found yourself skating alone you knew that surf was up and that u r a sk8er."Plant "?????" - that is of course when you crash so hard into the floor that you actually make a hole in the ground get planted in it and grow roots like a plant."Gulgulim" ????????" - or in other words "tree crap" the fig trees in the kikar are favourite for bats and they have those fruits that turn hard a black and then they fall on the floor and are nasty to bump into with a skateboard."ShaSha" ????" - getting your shoes to the electrical cables "High voltage ShaSha" - aiming to the high voltage... not many people succeded. but when someone did succed.. no one in Ramat-Hasharon was kept in the dark from their success (or did they?) "Stop!!! black widow!!" - Ori Segal saved kabuses ass in Street cult when he almost wore a pair of pants with a black widow in them (oouch!!) "Melet" ???" - the one thing the people that built the kikar forgot to put in so many important places(by kabus)."Retired "???" - That is when you came the Kikar to skate and someone was never there again. "look at me im a CAT im a SNAKE ksss" ???? ????!! ??? ???? ??? ??? ??????? .....Torette syndrome kid. Well this was just this kid that was way out there. i dont remember your name but dude if u read this i hope that you are sane today and not wearing a stray jacket.Here is some more from him: "Oh oh Zubi Zubi oh oh" "?? ?? ???? ???? ?? ??"

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

The KiKar - Written by Ilan Goldberg. A dear friend.


....

Dear Friends of the Kikar,

I am writing you from a far corner of the earth, several years after retirement, and with mixed emotions. Although I can still walk, I do suffer from a dislocating shoulder, two herniated disks, and a bad hip – chronic pain galore, and I’ve also been told that there is something wrong with my brain. I blame skateboarding for all of these. Yes, let us remember the Kikar’s medical costs. Who can forget those wonderful trips to the hospital? Hi everyone, I’m Ilan, and I’m a skateboarding addict. I didn’t have to suck dicks in order to skate, but not being able to walk more than two kilometres without pain is a big cost to pay. It is because of this that a part of me hates skateboarding, and the Kikar, which for me mean the same thing.

However, as with any recovering addict, I still miss the high. Going through what you fuckers wrote brought back a lot of good memories. The Kikar was my home after all – I too had the privilege of guarding its hallowed grounds. In those few years when my generation reined, I doubt anyone could have loved such an ugly piece of architecture more than we did. You and I were there for hours every day. When we had to go home to sleep, we would dream about skating there. When winters came and the Kikar was flooded, we skated on the higher ground, and between the puddles. We always guarded it. Its true, you could skate there alone. But even when there was nobody there, we had our guards. We could trust Arad to keep an eye from his watch-tower (also known as Mom’s kitchen, yum I can almost taste the pasta). Or else Ron would watch from Steven’s while munching on a couple of family-sized pizzas. The Kikar was the center of our lives – it had power and it changed us. For us the Kikar was sacred, it was our Axis Mundi, the literal center of our world, where heaven and earth meet. When the years passed, and time came to nurture a new generation to take the reins of power, we were happy, and we carried out our duties with love.

It would be impossible for me to recount all the special memories I have from the Kikar that survived my years of smoking. I would like to mention just a few. Where to begin is easy: RON. Ron was dipped in the waters of the Kikar just after birth. As he grew up he was fed on a diet which consisted of the sand, grass, and broken glass of the Kikar. Ron was never far away from the Kikar, and preferred to sleep there whenever possible on a nest he built on one of the trees. When all of us had to skate uphill to reach the Kikar, struggling against gravity and dangerous pedestrians, Ron’s skateboard would carry him there effortlessly, as if he was sitting on an invisible ski-lift. Ron scraped his flesh on every inch of the Kikar. His blood still sits there now. Ron was a true innovator in those days. He showed us that it was possible to skate without a tale. Or without four wheels: you could skate with three, or two, or even just one wheel. You could even skate with broken trucks, or a broken board. You could even skate with half a board, or even barefoot, without wheels or trucks, on a broken board! All this was second nature to Ron – a true skater if ever there was one. These lessons taught us that a skateboard was not necessary. Skateboarding is in the heart, in the mind, and in the blood. This lesson serves us well in retirement.

The Kikar was also an open but very distinguished club – a club of friends. To be a member there was only one requirement: you needed a skateboard. Even if you were a little piece of Lego playing shit, if you had a skateboard, we would accept you as our own and mould you in our image. I recollect several instances where a kid would arrive to the Kikar with his Mommy, his pants up to his neck, thick glasses, and snot running down from his nose. But – and this is a big but – he had a skateboard! Quickly we would bring him in and instruct him on Ollies and proper decorum. This nerd, who had a horrible life in front of him, was now given self-respect and confidence. He was cool, with a positive outlook on life, and a great bunch of friends. The Kikar saved him. I know this to be true: I too was one such nerd. There were others who will recognize themselves in my words. For us the Kikar meant family.

The Kikar gathered around it a very creative group. The Kikar was a creative outlet, which nurtured our creativity, and channelled it into positive directions, until we were free to unleash it on the wider world. We realized over the years that every one of us was creative, talented, and different. Many of us were good with drawing, painting and the like. Being able to practice our skateboarding art, sometimes in solitude, for hours a day, perfecting our skills and always attempting to break new ground, attempting to land the impossible; and being a part of a subversive subculture, all this kept our minds open, ready, and willing to be different, to create, to be who we are today. I doubt that our creativity would have been nurtured if we played soccer instead. Think about it, without the Kikar we would have all been frustrated wife-beating accountants.

The Kikar was a place of enormous joy. It was very hard not to smile in the Kikar. I think smiling was the normal facial expression there, even though, as we all know too well, it saw more than its fair share of contorted faces screaming in agony. When we were not skating we were having a laugh, or planning some ingenious ploy to have a laugh. I remember doing 101¼ rounds of non-stop driving around the Kikar with Arad just because Rafi did 80. Do you remember the Anti-Ars Association’s midnight raids? Blowing up the sprinklers with the firecrackers? Nothing was off limits. We were a depraved lot – living la dolce vita without a care in the world. You had no trouble when you were in the Kikar. The outside world with all its worries was erased. We achieved Zen in our wheelies – pure being. And when we rested, camaraderie kept us high. Skateboarding is not a zero-sum-game. There is no opposing team to win: no one to outdo. We were truly in it together.

The Kikar was a circus, and we were its performers. We often drew the attention of onlookers. Sometimes one or two, sometimes a cheering crowd of dozens – cheering us to further risk our life and limb. Young skaters beware: Injuries usually occur when there is a good looking Bettie watching! Do you remember the old man who couldn’t believe that the skateboard is not attached to our feet? We had to slowly explain to him the physics of the ollie, with several demonstrations, for him to believe us. And I’m sure you will all remember those annoying “show us a trick” kids. We all enjoyed a good performance. But that wasn’t what drove us. The leader of our sport calls it progression. But I always had problems with that term. It is hard for me to put it into words. No matter, we all felt it when it happened. When we landed something that we have been labouring on for weeks. When we did a long combination of tricks without screwing up. When we cheated gravity by staying in the air one fraction of a second longer. We knew it alright.

The Kikar was a place of pilgrimage. Like the great Olympia, distinguished athletes would come to the Kikar from all corners of the country in their search for skateable concrete. We would welcome them with open arms, with what we call skaters’ solidarity. Oh’ yes, another warning for young skaters: If you just bought a falafel and a skater is walking towards you with a big smile talking about skaters’ solidarity, but looking at your falafel, tell him you will leave him some at the end. Don’t fall for his trick. Spitting on the falafel doesn’t work: he will eat half of it anyway.

The Kikar was a house of pain. The spills that come to mind right now are Asi “ata ba la-rampa” Lubin’s half somersault from the launch ramp landing on his head. That was a good laugh (Asi don’t get me wrong, I love you man, but that was a fucking good crash). Ron’s triple or quadruple shiners. The time I landed on a little girl. Her poor dad must have shit his pants. There were numerous skateboards in the balls – that’s always a good laugh. The time I crashed on my shoulder. That was really too much. I think I repressed a lot here. Perhaps you could refresh my memory.

The Kikar was also a nuisance. Were you there when the old lady came down to beat us with her rod? She had some balls on her. We had a good laugh, but we should have been more sympathetic. I think we gave her a heart attack because I never saw her after that. The sad truth is that we were very noisy. We gave the neighbours of the Kikar a lot of grief, and we made the Kikar even uglier – a real eyesore. But we all know that these problems can be solved without banishing the skaters. A visionary town council would realize it, but even a normal one, full with the usual gang of dimwits, could be made to understand it.

We always knew that the Kikar was too good to be true. Several of us had nightmares where the Kikar was destroyed and made unskateable. Town councils came and went, but we were always there, if not in body then in spirit. Even today when I visit I always come to the Kikar. Even when I’m just driving through I check it out, looking out for skaters. I don’t care if I don’t skate it ever again. Today I look at the Kikar, perhaps like a gold-medallist would look at the arena where he stood at his moment of triumph. If that arena was now torn down, it will also tare a piece of his heart with it. The Kikar was my home, my family, my sacred space. It was where, for many years, I experienced my greatest heights and my deepest lows. I grew up there, met my friends there, and said my goodbyes there. I’m sure several of you would feel the same. So many of us were touched by the Kikar. So many skateboarding generations, for so many years. I would want this to continue. There are more kids who need the Kikar.

So should the Kikar be changed? To that I emphatically answer YES! It needs its sewage system cleaned so that it will actually work in winter, and it wouldn’t flood. It needs some holes filled, and some tiles re-laid. Some areas of sand and grass are clearly not functional for skating and should be changed. Although I do thinks that some grass to lounge on should be kept. It needs some shaded areas, and a water fountain. It needs cleaning more often because some neanderthals enjoy braking glass bottles on the floor. Generally, it needs more maintenance, like every good skate-park deserves. For all of these, I think skaters would agree not to skate between two and four in the afternoon and after, say, nine at night? Skateboarding is an established sport. There are numerous basketball and soccer fields in Ramat-Hasharon. But there is only one Kikar. I applaud you for fighting for it.

Best of luck

Ilan.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Mr.Bungle and the meaning of Sounds...


zipp

....Right...




I'm going into my old school music resample search quest of suddenly I found my favorite Mr.Bungle first CD, before I knew it I was jumping all over again, checked the www.cdnow.com to see what people think about the album and to my astonishing surprise a fine man wrote exactly what happen to me when I first head the album, so instate of trying to make it up I just simply going to copy paste what he wrote !!! I can't explain it more then that..it's like the words came out of my own mouth...




Here we go:




This record has destroyed my fragile little mind., May 8, 2000Imagine the following situation: Its 1991, Mr. Bungle is suggested to me from my brother, who is currently discovering cool music in college. I'm in ninth grade. That night while doing my homework, I popped in Mr. Bungle. I remember everything up to this point very clearly.
The next hour is gone.
What I do remember is the true Fear that I felt when the album stopped spinning and I came to. Fear of how closed minded my musical sense was. Fear of what I didn't know or understand. My head hurt. How could someone have even thought up this delightfully evil music? Who was this Vlad Drac fellow and what planet was he from? The only reasonable explanation at the time was that I had witnessed the music of Satan, himself.
So, I quickly called all of my friends and within days, I distributed about 20 more copies of Mr. Bungle throughout my high school. To say the least, it affected us all on a life-changing level.
Granted, I was at an impressionable age but Mr. Bungle changed the way I look at everything in the music industry. Once tolerable, Bungle has proven that the Top 40 is completely worthless. Music isn't for fun anymore. I can't apprecite it unles it affects me both mentally and phsyically. Bungle has raised the bar on what I consider worthwhile. A catchy tune will never be enough again.
I have a bitter sweet love for Mr. Bungle. They forced my mind to expand long before it was ready. I really wish that I could sit in my car and bob my head to the latest Matchbox 20 song, or makeout with some Celine Dion blasting in my living room, but I can't.
Mr. Bungle, thank you for pounding the last nail into my pop culture coffin.
Be careful with this record. It will change the way your ears work.




!!! So true, thank you Alexander D Victoria you totally reminded me what unbelievable music is!!!




Adida The Fallen Angle