When agent orange stormed the scene in 1981 with the realease of there first LP "living in darkness" they werent just giving birth to the skate-punk song ideology, they were documenting the fall of punk rock additionally thier indefinable sound launched an intirely new genre which later became known as "hardcore" they were very different from everything that came before them but thier influence can be heard in much of what has become thier wake.
While visiting some old friends recently some of which are non skaters i was asked "it seems like your sport is dying. what is going on?" i was shocked in a sense they were right i had no idea how to answer them even though i know that collectivly we are getting our shit together in the most underground legit sort of way to the outside layman rollerblading is a dead fad reserved for "i love the 80's" on VH1 and serious throwbacks in denial of an impending change in social norms but instead of trying to cram all of my prerspective down there throats when they probably were only feigning interest to be polite all i could muster was "were too young to die."
looking back at my choice of words i realize that we have gone though a hell of a lot of changes in our short lifetime and while the money an attention have waned the love for what we do has if anything grown more powerful when you see another rollerblader you know you are looking at someone who has enough integrity to make thier own decisions they didnt jump on the popularity train they found something they liked to do and stuck with it.
The willingness of so many skaters to keep skating despite the labels of "uncool" or "fag" or whatever is probably the most important thing about our culture at the moment this insulation from the rest of society (and its expectations) is exactly the sort of catalyst that makes "normal" people take a second look as long as we conti nue to be true to ourselves it is only a matter of time before the public realizes how real this shit really is but dont start counting your chikins before they hatch or take out a stupid-big loan to buy that escalade with the 22" diamond studded rims that youve always wanted realize that changing the world takes time and that rollerblading is young but with every passing year our continued laughter in the face of adversity will eventually be our saving grace being a rollerblader is being defiant to the power of pop culture. I advise you to stand yuor ground.
- Daily Bread magazine V14 N2 -JE
p.s. ill be at tomohawk (weeklong scout camp) from july 30th until august 5th
