it’s hard to believe that is has been around 13
years since i was sitting on curb rolling gently back and forth on
a skateboard talking with friends about how odd it was that mark
“gator” rogowski had confessed to killing his girlfriend. even
stranger is the fact that that the event is now the basis for a
documentary which has nearly scored a media hat-trick by being
featured on the

terri gross show

and two, count ’em two, articles in the new york times [ see,
“A
Skateboard King Who Fell to Earth”

and
“The
Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of a Skateboard Star”

]. the terri gross interview was fairly compelling, but i’ve been
suckered once into paying hard earned money to take a walk down
memory lane with the barely mediocre
“dog town and the z
boys”

and newsday pretty much confirms my worst fears with

its skewering of “stoked”

:

“On a strictly mechanical level, even skateboard
fanatics likely will find it embarrassingly self-congratulatory,
particularly about the alleged glory days of ’80s skating; the
skateboard illiterate will wonder why so much time and effort are
being spent on such an insignificant, uncharming subject. And
anyone even the least bit cynical will smell the promotional stink
behind the social criticism, as “Stoked” promotes the very outlaw
life.style it pretends to stand against.”