“NO SHITTY ADS” is a comprehensive 1980’s skate zine retrospective presented by FACT. and the Skateboardmuseum Berlin. It opens this weekend at Commonwealth LA, and features a rich treasure-trove of handmade zines covering a wide variety of DIY skateboard culture.
As skateboarding started to be criminalized and reviled by the mainstream during the Reagan years, skate park after skate park was bulldozed into oblivion.
Skateboarding culture, which had been more grounded in general American sports culture, started to change, just as the locations shifted from concrete pools into wooden backyard half-pipes. Skating that originally was backed by the sounds of funk and disco changed to punk and New Wave and the glossy, benign skateboard magazines faded away and went out of business.
In their place came a new player. Thrasher skateboard magazine started up as a newsprint zine that encouraged the readers to start a zine of their own. They told their audience that it was time for “a new energetic spirit with radical ideas to further expand previous established barriers. Take a pen in hand and draw upon this untapped energy and record the action from the source.” (Thrasher, June 1981).
The first known zine to follow this call to action was called Skate Fate, which was followed by hundreds of zines with cool names and DIY aesthetics in the following years. The style was punk, the content was a mix of the informative (skate tricks, news, photos of ramps) and the fun (photos of parties, original art, comics). Famous skateboarders like Steve Caballero, Tod Swank, Claus Grabke and many more created their own zines, contributed to others creations, or both.
The exhibition will display original zines from all over world, including Skate Fate, Swank Zine, Death Zone, Skate Punk, Speed Zine, etc. This will be complemented with DIY, punk and New Wave-inspired apparel and the option to look into selected zine reprints. Keep reading for the details on the opening, and some preview images of the installed show.
NO SHITTY ADS (LA)
OPENING RECEPTION: SAT DEC. 16, 6PM - 9PM
DRINKS AND PIZZANISTA
RSVP: LA@commonwealth-ftgg.com
commonwealth-ftgg.com
OPEN: SUN DEC 17-31, 11AM - 6PM
COMMONWEALTH LA
2008 E 7TH STREET LOS ANGELES, CA 90021
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
More from L.A. TACO
How Your Business Can Benefit From Sponsoring L.A. TACO
When your company sponsors L.A. TACO, you receive a variety of quick and cost-effective benefits for far less than what we price our traditional advertisements and social media mentions at.
Juárez-Style Burritos Have Arrived in Southern California, And They are Already Selling Out In Less than An Hour
The month-old strip mall taquería in Anaheim make all their flour tortillas from scratch using both lard and butter, resulting in an extremely tender vehicle for their juicy guisados like carne en su jugo, carne deshebrada, chile colorado, chile relleno, and chicharrón. Every tortilla is cooked to order, too.
Urgent: L.A. TACO Falling Short of Fundraising Goals and Needs Your Support
Emergency. This is not a test. This is not a ruse. This is not a marketing scheme. We need your support if we're going to make it and every single membership counts.
What To Eat In L.A. This Weekend: Mexican-Style Pastrami, ‘Trashburgers,’ and Flamin’ Jim Morrisons
Plus, a new shawarma spot in Tarzana and the country's first wine festival dedicated solely to orange "skin contact" wine happening in Hollywood.
