Star Maps - Post 2 - Glass-ride spot at Wilshire and Stoner.
The second unofficial Star Maps post. This spot on Wilshire is a few blocks from the apartment we have lived in since around ‘99. The year after we moved in Donny lived with PJ Ladd on Brockton Ave, a block over. After Donny’s Eastern Exposure 3 part dropped in early ‘96 and he got on Toy Machine, he moved out to West LA (Brian Anderson would also be around visiting Donny) and joined up with the Hot Rod Skateshop and Crust House/Dust House crews near UCLA. Prior to moving to Brockton, Donny lived on Goshen and Westgate and would be around Westwood, West LA and Brentwood filming for Welcome to Hell with Tim Dowling. At our Westwood Landfair apartment where we lived prior to West LA, he ollied the roof gap into our carport for a separate trick in the part. His line with a wallride on this glass window on Wilshire ended up starting out the part as the Black Sabbath ‘Megalomania’ lyrics “Suck me!” chime in. This spot remains untouched in 2024 and I was able to skate it when they boarded up the windows with plywood during the Covid-era civil unrest and protests after George Floyd was killed by police.
Original Caption: Glass-ride spot from @donnybarley’s Welcome to Hell opening line. Wilshire and Stoner.
Date: Jan. 16, 2014
Related Hashtags: #welcometohellmaps #barleymaps #papajohnswallridemaps
Star Maps - Post 1 - Jan. 2014; The Ponds, Santa Monica, CA
This was the first crude split screen #skatenerdstarmaps post from Jan. 2014. This precedes the numbering system and the hashtag so technically it is Post -4 (Maps -4 BH aka Before Hashtag). I began shooting photos of old skate spots to pass time while taking my baby daughter Luca around West LA and Santa Monica. Building the posts began as something to do while she napped. Photo of Guy Mariano ollieing the rock gap at The Ponds aka Douglas Park in Santa Monica shot by Spike Jonze in 1991. The Duck Ponds or bottom portion of Douglas (the top portion has the small oval plaza with the low ledges featured in Love Child [‘92] and Tim n’ Henry’s Pack of Lies [‘92]) stayed empty from around 1990 through ’96 and the spot was featured in videos like Santa Cruz’s Troops of Tomorrow (‘91 Eric Dressen’s part), the New School video, and later even had a spot check in 411 Video Magazine. I first got to skate there in ’94 when a fellow UCLA student named Meter (Dimitri) brought me there.
Original Caption: Then/Now. #theduckponds #91to14 #pondsmaps
Date: Jan. 9, 2014
Related Hashtags: #pondsmaps #guymaps #cultofspike #wilshirestarmaps #santamonicastarmaps #lovechildmaps #timandhenrymaps #troopsoftomorrowmaps
