We knew when Fuel TV’s Australian mates started including mixed martial arts in their “action sports” content mix in December of 2008, that it was only a matter of time before the American Fuel TV began rationalizing why it was the perfect fit for their audience. And when Ken Block’s Gymkanna 3, Part 2 became the most watched video on Youtube.com last week (with 6.5 million views), it’s almost a no-brainer if young male eyeballs is all Fuel is after.
That’s why we were not surprised to learn that beginning today (September 20, 2010) Fuel.TV will be adding MMA and rally racing to their growing mix of board and motor sports, according to a CJ Olivares interview on Transworld Business. Olivares explains:
We took all of the six core sports and asked ‘what are the things that they share? Who are the participants? What attracts the aspirants to them?’ And we came up of a list of like 10-12 concepts, if you will, that we believe define the audience. . . Things like freedom and defiance, individuality, independence, courage, confidence, innovation, aggression, exploration, and humor. And one that we really keyed in on was risk. Risk became a really central concept in conjunction with the others, because we started to look at the total landscape of sports that are out there. . . . The two that really jump out immediately are MMA and rally car. . . . There’s an opportunity there for us to look at those two sports—and other things—it’s a constant exploration for us to identify: what are those other things? We’re about this new generation of sports where risk is the only rule.
In other words, the business realities of cable television require Fuel.TV to air shows that people want to watch and as we’ve said repeatedly, the mainstream doesn’t really care about action sports. But two sweaty, muscled, nearly-nude men locked in a cage grunting, punching, and hugging each other into kama sutra like poses or dudes driving ridiculously over-powered small cars recklessly; who doesn’t want to watch that?
In a new solo exhibition of Australian artist Shaun Gladwell’s work a Georgia Scherman Projects the cornerstone piece of the show is a video of Kevin Harris spinning 360’s titled: Portrait of a man: alive and spinning
On entering the darkened gallery, the viewer encounters two new video works. The title work for the exhibition documents Kevin Harris, a Canadian freestyle professional skateboarder, performing 360-degree spins. (This video is complemented by Composite Portrait as Boards, a display of skateboard decks leaning against the gallery wall. . .
Looks great, but when it comes to 360s and art we’re still partial to Stacy Peralta.
He may not have landed that inverted huck in the finals against Australian Bede Durbidge, but pretty much everything else Kelly Slater did today (September 18, 2010) was spot on (including his free ride into the quarters thanks to a “sick” Chris Davidson). When Kelly is on there is very little anyone else can do to stop him.
“What can I say? What a week,” Slater said. “We looked at the swell forecast and Pat (O’Connell) and I were talking, going ‘look what we’re going to get this week.’ I told Pat that I’d let 105 people punch me in the face to surf Trestles like this and they’re paying me.”
Bede put in the hard charge, but had some trouble with consistency in the final. Kelly pulled in $105,000 which is reportedly the largest prize purse in surfing history, won his 43 elite tour victory, and moved into the lead in the ASP ratings. Not bad for a Saturday at Lowers.
Chris Brunkhart will be appearing at Laguna Beach, California’s 210 AR4T Space on September 30, 2010 from 6 PM to 10 PM in support of his recently published photography collection How Many Dreams in The Dark.
“How Many Dreams in the Dark” spans two decades at the epicenter of the skate, snowboard and related music and art cultures from Portland, OR to Prague, CZH. From the earliest days of the pioneering Burnside Skate Project, to South American travels with snowboard godfather Craig Kelly, NYC with creative madman Ari Marcopoulos, to Alaska, Japan, Scandinavia and beyond, Chris captures the energy, passion and amazing playscapes of an international tribe of fellow dreamers. . . Says, Brunkhart: “This has been a dream of mine for years: These images tell a story that connects many friends, many places and the world we create in, and I look forward to sharing them with the next generation of creative dreamers.”
Last week Youtube.com began testing some live broadcasts with several different partners. In one of their tests they featured a live interview with Tony Hawk in conjunction with YoungHollywood.com and according to Techcrunch.com no one showed up.
Well, Tony Hawk just finished an appearance on Young Hollywood right now, and the number of viewers never went above 500, according to the view counter at the bottom of the player. For most of the segment, it was much less—at one point I saw 9 viewers, then 81. As a point of reference, when we livestream TechCrunch events, we often get 2,000 to 3,000 concurrent viewers, and that is without being promoted on YouTube’s homepage. So 500 viewers for Tony Hawk is really nothing.
Then again, we didn’t know Tony was going to be on. If he’d told us we could have rounded up a couple dozen more people, no problem.
According to a story in the Daily BreezeBlack Flys is still in business a year after Jack Martinez sold the trademark to the company’s Asia distributor Carrozzeria Japan Co. Ltd.
“This past year we have been doing everything we can to just gain the relationship and trust back from our old clients,” Black Flys Inc. co-manager Cary Hokama said. . . The 32-year-old manager – dressed in a white collared shirt – said the company plans to . . . attract younger customers who embody an “absence of restraint,” in addition to its older, “hard-core” loyalists.
Nike 6.0 has reportedly nabbed the title sponsorship position of the Winter Dew Tour’s Breckenridge, Colorado stop according to a Tripp Mickle story in the Sports Business Journal.
In an effort to promote the first line of Nike 6.0 winter outerwear this year, Nike has signed on as the title sponsor of the Winter Dew Tour’s Breckenridge, Colo., event this December. The three-year deal . . . is valued in the low seven figures annually. . .
It’s nice, but it means we won’t have the Totino’s Pizza Open to kick around any longer.
When a group in Amarillo, Texas tried to burn a Quran on Saturday, September 11, 2010 a local skateboarder ran through and grabbed the kerosene-soaked book and escaped, according to a story on Amarillo.com.
Jacob Isom, 23, grabbed David Grisham’s Quran when he became distracted while arguing with several residents at Sam Houston Park about the merits of burning the Islamic holy book. . . “You’re just trying to start Holy Wars,” Isom said of Grisham after he gave the book to a religious leader from the Islamic Center of Amarillo.
Isom was reportedly carrying a skateboard at the time of the action. We’re guessing it was a longboard. . .
Tony Hawk gets Chaz Ortiz and Dancing With the Stars Louie Vito to demonstrate the new skate-snow crossover video game Tony Hawk Shred, the Swiss Army knife of video games. . . looks kind of confusing.
We knew when Fuel TV’s Australian mates started including mixed martial arts in their “action sports” content mix in December of 2008, that it was only a matter of time before the American Fuel TV began rationalizing why it was the perfect fit for their audience. And when Ken Block’s Gymkanna 3, Part 2 became the most watched video on Youtube.com last week (with 6.5 million views), it’s almost a no-brainer if young male eyeballs is all Fuel is after.
