thinking about community

as I mentioned in class, the creation of a mind map made me realize just how distinct the two communities of park skaters and street skaters are. Joe (my first informant) posted this video on facebook recently and it got reconsidering my statement, though the video itself doesn't actually "state" anything relevant to what I said.

if you don't feel like watching it, it's essentially a montage of different guys skateboarding in cities and parks. even to a blind eye, all the boys in the video are at least acquaintances. since I know a little bit about Joe and his skateboarding (though not a lot, just peripheral knowledge I gather from bits of social networks) I know that all of them are friends and travel to specific places together to skate together. I enjoyed the video a lot both because I like skateboarding and it was impressive and because it made me a little envious of the closeness of the group. I've never really been a part of any small community like that and I can only imagine how much fun it'd be to do something like skate around a city together.

In my interview with Joe we mainly discussed the Owen Bell skatepark and his park skating, but clearly this video is fairly street/city skating based. I don't know any of the boys personally besides Joe but I want to say I've gleaned that they began park-skating (all at different parks, though exclusively at none), which makes me wonder: though they travel to street-skate, I wonder if their initial connection was founded upon their similar "park skating" communities. I'm not really sure how to phrase it and already my words feel sort of shrouded.

I guess what I'm thinking about now is just how distinct the social/what-have-you dichotomy between street-skating and park-skating is, whether or not they are two corresponding playing fields or if they are somewhat substitutable depending on the person -- or if the mindset of a park-skater permeates the atmosphere of street-skating when a (former?) park-skater is doing the street-skating. I know my friend Connor said that he preferred street-skating because it was less competitive, more relaxed, and less eyes were on him, but the video makes me think that it just depends on the group of people. I'm confusing myself here. Hahahah. Oh well.

A poem

I'm not a skateboarder
I just see myself as a person
rolling down the street

in the zone
you finally get it
and it's fun
and easy
and relaxing

I don't have to
impress anyone
you learn
you fail,
for fun

you know
you start to ride or have fun
to do a trick and
I skateboard
and you don't call me a skater
but it shaped me
the same

a poem I pieced together using bits of dialogue from my interview with Connor. it presented a much more poetic and artistic view of skateboarding than I had originally interpreted through his words. it makes me think a lot about self-perception vs. outward appearance  in regard to activities. perhaps what you consider yourself to be is the conclusive factor that makes you that thing.

interview #2!

I am actually pretty excited about how this went! it was with one of my friends, whose name is Connor. it was interesting to talk to him about something he's passionate about in a semi-academic way. he had a lot of good things to say, and it was a neat experience because we hadn't really had a conversation of such depth before. I think I improved my execution of follow-up questions this time around as well as balancing out open and closed questions. this second interview made me realize how impersonal my first interview was and how much I didn't ask Joe (I can justify that with it being my first interview or that I don't know Joe personally but I can also blame myself for not putting enough thought into the process).

Unlike Joe (though he implied that he was in the middle of a skateboard shift), Connor is exclusively a street-skater. he prefers to skate alone and, like Joe, sees skateboarding as a sport, but also utilizes and treats it as a performance art rather than a competitive activity (something I wish I had inquired about when I was interviewing Joe -- oh well). the conversation tied in very well with my literature review, which I tried to make about the relationship between skateboarding and "space" (internal space, i.e. "headspace," and external space, like location). Connor even referenced the [internal] skateboarding "zone" which one of my sources referred to and I further tried to elaborate on in the paper. the literature review helped me frame the space in which I posed my interview questions, I think. I also think I might have taken a few steps closer to a more specific "focus" for this project over the past week.

interview #1!

woohoo. so I had my first interview, with a skateboarder (and photographer) who goes to the Owen Bell skate park frequently. this also counts as my first interaction so I'm hoping that my next visit to the skate park will feel a little less awkward and I'll talk to a few more people. though Joe and I basically hadn't talked since middle school, it was pretty casual and not as uncomfortable as I anticipated. It made me happy that Joe seemed to be very accepting of all skaters (of all ages/gender) because I was half-expecting to hear about ageism (not necessarily from his perspective, but just in general at the skate park). I liked hearing about the community at the skate park and in the skateboarding world.
However I do feel that I could have had more of a structure or theme to my questions. It wasn't the interview itself that did it but just my uncertainty with my project so far. Joe provided me with some good information so I need to spend some time analyzing his answers as well as researching for the literature review to try and find a smaller focus! hmmmmdhfuimshdufami