Ugh, it must be that time again, time to write the rant. Well I gotta say we had a pretty significant amount of hate mail from the last Concrete Wave-bashing rant. We don't get that much hate mail (or any mail for that matter) here at Concussion HQ so it's nice to know people read this drivel. You longboarder/downhillers sure know how to get letter writing petitions going. Shit, with that kind of organization I'd think y'all would be working on a coordinated surge to get your boy Huckabee into the White House. Just kidding, I'm sure not all of you are Republicans from Texas. Anyway thanks for the feedback, we'll get right on all of your suggestions to get some ditch articles in the next issue of the mag. And yes, I do know that a lot of people who pretend to be my friend actually are just using me to get in the mag. I noticed that shit about seven or eight years ago when we went from a shitty zine printed at Kinkos to a shitty zine printed on a real press. No big deal, if this stupid mag gets me into more skate spots and some free gear, I'll take it. Anyway thanks, I'm sure Concrete Wave will still be putting out Helmet Buyers Guides long after we're totally over it for reals, so you guys will can have the last laugh.

In other notable Concussion news, our "Art Director" Lee Charron has officially thrown in the towel. If you didn't know, aside from me, Lee and JHay were pretty much the original dudes that started this lame-ass mag with me. And thanks to Lee you've been forced to endure many additional years of Concussion, because he talked me out of quitting several years ago when I was over it. He said something like, "C'mon dude, if we quit now we won't get any more free shit," or something to that effect, which sort of convinced me. But then Lee moved to SF to get into the "art scene" for a second, but before he had a chance to get all art partied out he managed to knock up this hot blonde chick who worked at Java Junction in Santa Cruz and he had to move back to Santa Cruz. Actually he moved back to Santa Cruz because he never quit working at NHS and was over commuting from SF three or four times a week. And shortly after this, Lee started up Creature again. Being the dude who initially did all the graphics, managed the team, did the ads, and all the other blah blah blahs that go along with herding a bunch of dirtbags from spot to spot, he didn't really have time to play paddy-cake with me four times a year on this stupid waste of time. So in reality Lee has been out of the deal for over a year, but now it's official. I feel like we should have a party or something, but I suppose that would mean that we'd have to go hang out with JHay for an evening, and I know we don't want to do that. Tell you what dude, I'll buy you a couple beers next time I come down to Santa Cruz to go out to lunch with you before I go on a product pillage through the NHS warehouse. Those are good times. But seriously, Lee being over it has made me sad inside. After he ran out of art dudes to interview, he was the dude that took it to the next level layout-wise, and forced us to turn the corner from shitty looking layout zine to sort of decent clean layout style, which is a world better in my opinion. All that Photoshop layout stuff is cool when you're smoking a ton of weed and you think it looks really trippy how the photo blends into the background, but in reality that shit is really lame. It's too bad Lee couldn't have done the same for the quality of writing in the mag, but to put it kindly, spelling is not Lee's forte, so we're still one of the most illiterate college-educated skate mags around.

Writing this sort of feels like how it was towards the end of Big Brother, when every other issue you'd read about how one of those dudes was quitting or got fired. Except for the main difference: we have no future, we're not going to be making a million bucks working with MTV like Jeff Tremaine, and we're not laughing til your ribs hurt funny like Dave Carnie or Neiratko. Anyway, thanks for the memories Lee. I'll never forget the times we got high in the shed in my back yard, or the time I tried to give you that gray cat we found but you had to give him back after a week because your existing cat became too traumatized, or the time that we met Carmen Elektra at that geeky robot thing on Treasure Island. Or the time you got that stupid Concussion tattoo. Dumbass.

Well now that I've composed myself again, looks like I've got one more paragraph to fill. Um... I went snowboarding for the first time in three years, and guess what? It still sucks and is still is for rich, white kids who don't skate but like to wear DC and Indy sweatshirts on the slopes. Lame. Other than that same old shit. It's been raining buckets this winter but we have a new vert ramp to ride (five minutes from my house) if you're into that sort of shit. I kind of am, but only when it's raining and there's absolutely nowhere else to skate. At least I was, but now I heard Steve Bacon has started showing up every week so it's pretty much a bag if that guy will be there. As Phelps said in his Most Hated Skaters, "If that guy shows up do yourself a favor and leave." Anyway whatever, fuck this shit. Enjoy the issue, it's sort of an interview issue with a bunch of mainly unknowns, except for Ben Krahn, who you should be familiar with if you have any sort of clue. Peep the center spread, it's pretty classic. Speaking of which, I'm off to Fresno. Later.

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