November 30, 2005
“A Little Decorum Please”
By Rob Brink
This is another piece grad school. Written in May of 2000. I can't remember for the life of me what class it was for, but I am leaning towards Fiction Seminar 2. I think I was instructed to creatively write about a historic event. I found it slightly amusing (and dysfunctional) that a guy like Budd Dwyer would steal lots of money while holding a position in political office then decide to shoot himself in the face on national television. So I wrote about it. Not sure what grade I got either, but I graduated, so it couldn't have been too poor. It might benefit you to watch the video of Mr. Dwyer getting crazy, this way you know what inspired me to research the event and ultimately write this story.
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November 28, 2005
Stirring
By Rob Brink
This piece was written to fulfill a memoir requirement for my grad school Creative Non Fiction class in March of 2001. It was the first piece I submitted for the class, which happened to be composed entirely of females, to read and critique. And yes, it is a true story. I'm not totally positive what I got on the piece, but I think it was an A—seriously. Hey mom, don't read any further. I mean it.
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November 27, 2005
Books, Pandering, Fan-dom, and Chuck Pala-"how do you say his name?"
By Rob Brink
ChuckPalahniuk.net June 2002
Dennis, the webmeister of ChuckPalahniuk.net (official site of author Chuck Palahniuk) asked me to write this story once he found out I had attended Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby book signing at the 2002 Book Expo America in New York City. This is how it appeared on the site.
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November 27, 2005
In case anyone out there ever wondered what it would be like to read my Cashing In On God article in Russian, now you can do it right here.
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November 23, 2005
DC Pro Team Bios 2
By Rob Brink
dcshoes.com June 2004
Here's the final batch of team bios I wrote for dcshoes.com in the summer of 2004.
Rob Dyrdek
If you mention the word “entrepreneur” in relation to skateboarding, Rob Dyrdek most likely comes to mind. He founded and operated his own hip hop record label, P-Jays. He started Orion trucks and founded Reflex bearings. He's the man behind the revolutionary Rob Dyrdek/DC Skate Plaza concept/operation; he has appeared in music videos, Rolling Stone and Playboy magazine and made cameos on multi-platinum records. He has starred in his own DC television commercial; he has action figures that bear his likeness. He is in video games and on trading cards.
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November 21, 2005
Brian Wenning: Photo By Ryan Gee
DC Pro Team Bios 1
By Rob Brink
dcshoes.com June 2004
Here's the first batch of some dcshoes.com pro team bios I wrote. Danny, Colin and Dyrdek to follow...
Brian Wenning
In the mid ‘90s, there was an explosion of skateboarders from the East Coast coming onto the skate scene from Philly, New Jersey, Boston DC, and New York. A gander at Dan Wolfe's Sub Zero's Real Life video or Eastern Exposure 3 will attest to that. As time passed, so did the craze of hunting out East Coast riders to add to West Coast teams. New Jersey's own Brian Wenning (and friend Anthony Pappalardo) was at the forefront of the next batch of East Coasters to start taking skateboarding by storm. A pro for Habitat since its inception, Brian has also been on DC since 2001. Somewhat elusive and avoiding the spotlight, Wenning possesses board control that is nearly unmatched, innovation and trick variations that most people envy—and then copy, manual, ledge and flip trick precision and consistency that'll make you laugh because it's so insane. And don't forget he switch backside 180 ollied and nearly switch heelflipped it (everyone knows his bent axle-induced slam landing is near as good as making it) the LOVE fountain. Perhaps skating would like to see more of Brian Wenning, but quality, not quantity is what makes him shine.
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November 21, 2005
DC Am Team Bios
By Rob Brink
dcshoes.com June 2004
Prior to my stint at DC Shoes as their copywriter, I was asked to write bios for the team pages on dcshoes.com. Here are the Am ones. As you can see by reading them, a lot has changed since June 2004 when they were written. To the best of my knowledge, most of them are still on the dcshoes.com website.
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November 21, 2005
The Changing Role Of Contests
By Rob Brink
Skateboard Trade News October 2005
Despite mixed feelings from pros, media, and other industry folk who either embrace them or avoid them like the plague, contests have existed since skateboarding's early years and remain vital for a multitude of reasons. Contests bring skateboarders together while showcasing skateboarding so outsiders can watch, learn, and hopefully get stoked and start skating themselves.
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November 18, 2005
Manufacturers And/Or Distributors
By Rob Brink
TransWorld Skateboarding Business June 2002
Hypothetical Scenario
Giant Distribution calls me one day to ask how my shop is doing on inventory, and to let me know that they have the new issue of 411VM and the new Element Tosh Townend Welcome board in stock. But I don't go direct with Giant because I can get all the Giant brands from AWH. I am a loyal customer there, and also get terms and free freight. AWH is also the only place that has Monkey Business, and they have Lib Tech. However, they don't carry enjoi, Blind, Deca, or Darkstar, so I get those products direct from Dwindle, who gives me a free deck for every twelve I buy, and some free wheels depending on how many sets I order. Sometimes the Dwindle orders take over a week to get to the store, but AWH does carry Tensor and Speed Demons, so I leave that out of my Dwindle order to get it here faster.
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November 18, 2005
America's Public Skateparks:
How do municipalities' parks, rules, and laws measure up?
By Rob Brink
TransWorld Skateboarding Business October 2003 / No Comply: Skateboarding Speaks on Authority
This piece, along with my Cops vs. Security Guards piece, are scheduled to appear in No Comply, which hits stores on December 1.
With the number of public skateparks steadily increasing in the United States, the legislation and laws that go along with the building and management of these parks is quite varied from state to state.
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