From the Internet is Occasional Awesome files comes an excellent story about history, persistence, skateboarding, and a dream deferred.
Dan Rodo is an internet sleuth/content creator/artist who's built an Instagram following of over 360,000 with creative and interesting videos focused on finding the stories behind photographs from events past.
Tony Hawk is, well, Tony Hawk.
The latter has been trying to find the identity of a skateboarder featured in a 1965 Life Magazine photo shoot for a long time.
In April, Hawk posted a picture of the mystery skater on Facebook, asking once again if anyone could help him identify the man in the image. Rodo's followers alerted him to the request, and then Hawk reached out to Rodo via DM asking if he'd be interested in helping find the laconically dapper gentlemen casually shredding old-school in Central Park.
To which Rodo, a passionate skater himself said (once he'd picked his jaw up off the table), "heck yeah", or some variant.
Which launched one of the cooler Instagram series I've seen in a while. Rodo's first episode is embedded below. His eighth just dropped last week. I commend to you the entire arc, both because of its fascinating subject matter and Rodo's meticulously detailed process.
This is the kind of shit the internet was made for. This, and rapping Muppets.
Great find, Rob - love this sort of thing. Skateboarding a thing in '60's NYC - wouldn't have guessed. Happy Hump Day everyone
ReplyDeleteMy skateboarding career ended in 5th grade when I witnessed by best friend break his leg doing an axle drop on his backyard quarter pipe. Young rootsy didn't have the stones for being a real skater.
ReplyDeleteJoey Votto announced his retirement at age 40. 17 years in a Cincinnati Reds uniform and a terrific career. Can’t think of another following suit or that another will. Kudos.
ReplyDeleteI was just pondering whether Joey had hung up the spikes yet the other day. I suspect he’d have kept hacking if he’d gotten the chance. I was hoping he’d end up on the Salem Red Sox before he gave it up.
ReplyDeletelove that guy. very gheorghie.
ReplyDeleteHe’s second on a lot of Reds all time records to Pete Rose and Johnny Bench. Were I a Reds fan I think I’d hold that dude in the highest regard.
ReplyDeletepolitics be damned - if you weren't moved by gus walz's reaction to his dad's words, you're made of stone.
ReplyDeletetoday in "things i didn't expect as part of running a startup business": one of my team members texted me (whatsapped, really) to let me know that there's an internet outage in islamabad which was impacting his ability to get online and participate in a meeting. apparently that's a not-all-that uncommon thing in pakistan.
ReplyDeleteMiddle School open house for my kid tonight. All I do is walk around and point out the classrooms I had different classes in, where fights happened, where kids got busted for weed/alcohol, etc. I’m sure my wife and kid aren’t sick of this yet.
ReplyDeletewhen do we get the post on rob's startup biznass? inquiring minds want to know.
ReplyDeleteand a 1049 pm post from this guy during the week that isn't in early april is worth of a "hi gheorghies"
This post is very cool. I love Tony Hawk! My nephew is a big skater. As to new school year...this is weird - our oldest is a college senior and youngest is HS senior! OMDL. Oldest is back at W&M; he's already there because he's a R.A. In the old frats - his room is what was the frat pres' room in what was K.A. HA!
ReplyDeleteDue our proximity now (after 2 years in St. A.), we all went tonight for last dinner of the 5 of us before I go with middle son to Boston for his sophomore year move-in next week. So - big changes. Next spring will be full of celebrations!
And last update -- saw the ortho again after month+ of PT and first cortisone shot...that shot did NOTHING. Shoulder/arm actually fair amount worse. The news - I have full-blown frozen shoulder. Which is not a nice thing to have. OY! They did diff shot straight into the joint (used a x-ray machine for placement of shot) and new PT schedule with more powerful prescription meds for next month. Here's hoping it works. Something's gotta. This is miserable!