Black Diamond Skate Park Closes, Kids Opt For Self-Mutilation
Can Rock & Roll Save the Day?
I have spent lots of time hanging around skate parks. The dudes are cute, brave & are especially excellent at acting like they don’t care about all the girls hanging around hoping for attention. Even when I’d fling my panties onto the ramp, they’d just give me a sideways glance & keep on skating.
That’s what skater boys do; they keep on skating.
The skater kids & the sweet lady babies who hang out at the Black Diamond Skate Park in the Moorestown Mall are going to have their boards displaced over the summer. No more indoor skate park in the mall, adjacent to the food court, where everyone can hang out & be active & meet kids from different schools.
When news of this closing first hit the streets, skater kids were throwing themselves off the ½ pipe in revolt, resulting in thousands of broken limbs in the area.
“If I can’t skate at the mall, hang with my friends & ignore girls until they can’t wait to hook up with me, then what’s the point,” one skater said, “I mean, I never gave one care to my body & now I definitely don’t need it. I’m going to destroy everything I am & everything in my path.”
The adult powers that be hoped that by expanding the movie theatre, the kids would be lulled into repose; if they can control their minds with blockbuster bullshit, maybe they could still control the skater population.
“Why the hell would I want to watch movies? I’m a skater, not a movie guy,” said the same kid, whose head hung low, appendages covered in casts.
Black Diamond’s bosses had a better idea: give the kids some rock & roll to inoculate them against the boring drone of life that should not begin until …. well, with the right rock medication, you never have to be subjected to it.
Before the show began, kids were dropping like flies: riding high up the walls, only to allow gravity to plummet them down face first & using their boards as funeral pyres.
Then Philadelphia Lo-Fi band Mountain Lion began growling tunes from their “Feats of Strength” & “Miss December” EP’s; as the rock music’s vibrato built, so did the skater’s confidence. Music ripped through them like metal lightening & the wheels began spinning in the right direction again.
Black Diamond Skate Park gave the kids what they needed to help them keep skating: a rock & roll kick in the pants. & one more chance to score with the girls hanging outside of the ramps.
-Tomata Fortunata
For information about the NEW Black Diamond Skate Park!
Click links on Mountain Lion‘s albums for free audio downloads!
Mountain Lion!
Black Diamond Skate Parks are excellent.
Original Photography by Dena Merlino & Adam Scott
Photos courtesy of http://olly-hazelwod.tumblr.com
Tags: Black Diamond Skate Park, Mountain Lion, philly, rock & roll, Self-Mutilation, skateboarding, thrasher
