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The most fun thing : dispatches from a skateboard life / Kyle Beachy.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Grand Central Publishing, [2021]Copyright date: © 2021Edition: First EditionDescription: ix, 301 pages ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781538754115
  • 1538754118
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Preface: On benches -- Part 1. For whom is the fun thing fun? -- You're not me -- On firsts -- A chronicle of doing it -- On direction -- The deep seams -- On bad kickflips -- A very large puzzle -- On this ugly world -- Making up legends in the era of zero-budget skateboarding -- Part 2. On the obvious -- Toward a poetics of skateboarding -- On nostalgia -- Pretend we haven't grown -- On narrative -- A most mundane perfection -- On how -- Clearing a space for meaning -- On younger -- "Nearly" -- On bafflement -- Part 3. On Bitul Zman -- Good Old Street League -- On the technology of a secret -- A day with Chaz Ortiz -- On Tampa -- Primitive progessivism -- On pushing boarders -- Seriously: Mark Suciu -- "The Burning Monk" -- Part 4. Seven small bafflements -- On animal play -- Inappropriate places -- On decisions -- The Dylan period -- Still -- Epilogue: Loveletters.
Summary: "In the tradition of Barbarian Days, THE MOST FUN THING is a memoir in essays of Kyle Beachy's decade-long quest to uncover the hidden meaning of skateboarding-a search that unearthed fresh insights on marriage, love, loss, and American invention. In January 2012, creative writing professor and novelist Kyle Beachy published one of his first essays on skate culture, an exploration of how Nike's corporate strategy successfully gutted the once-mighty independent skate shoe market. For a decade and counting, Beachy has been skate culture's freshest, most illuminating, at times most controversial voice, writing candidly about the increasingly popular and fast-changing pastime Beachy first picked up as a young boy and has continued to practice well into adulthood. What is skateboarding? What does it mean to continue skateboarding after forty, four decades after the kickflip was invented? How does one live authentically as an adult while staying true to a passion cemented in childhood? How does skateboarding shape one's understanding of contemporary American life? Of growing old and getting married? Answering these questions and more, Beachy offers a deep exploration of a pastime, often overlooked, regularly maligned, whose seeming simplicity conceals universal truths. THE MOST FUN THING is both a rich account of a hobby and a life and collection of the varied lessons skateboarding has taught Beachy-what it continues to teach him as he struggles to find space for it as an adult, a professor, and a husband"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 796.2209 B365 Available 33111010553028
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR * Southwest Review * Electric Literature



Perfect for fans of Barbarian Days , this memoir in essays follows one man's decade-long quest to uncover the hidden meaning of skateboarding, and explores how this search led unexpectedly to insights on marriage, love, loss, American invention, and growing old.



In January 2012, creative writing professor and novelist Kyle Beachy published one of his first essays on skate culture, an exploration of how Nike's corporate strategy successfully gutted the once-mighty independent skate shoe market. Beachy has since established himself as skate culture's freshest, most illuminating, at times most controversial voice, writing candidly about the increasingly popular and fast-changing pastime he first picked up as a young boy and has continued to practice well into adulthood.



What is skateboarding? What does it mean to continue skateboarding after the age of forty, four decades after the kickflip was invented? How does one live authentically as an adult while staying true to a passion cemented in childhood? How does skateboarding shape one's understanding of contemporary American life? Of growing old and getting married?



Contemplating these questions and more, Beachy offers a deep exploration of a pastime--often overlooked, regularly maligned--whose seeming simplicity conceals universal truths. THE MOST FUN THING is both a rich account of a hobby and a collection of the lessons skateboarding has taught Beachy--and what it continues to teach him as he strugglesto find space for it as an adult, a professor, and a husband.

"In the tradition of Barbarian Days, THE MOST FUN THING is a memoir in essays of Kyle Beachy's decade-long quest to uncover the hidden meaning of skateboarding-a search that unearthed fresh insights on marriage, love, loss, and American invention. In January 2012, creative writing professor and novelist Kyle Beachy published one of his first essays on skate culture, an exploration of how Nike's corporate strategy successfully gutted the once-mighty independent skate shoe market. For a decade and counting, Beachy has been skate culture's freshest, most illuminating, at times most controversial voice, writing candidly about the increasingly popular and fast-changing pastime Beachy first picked up as a young boy and has continued to practice well into adulthood. What is skateboarding? What does it mean to continue skateboarding after forty, four decades after the kickflip was invented? How does one live authentically as an adult while staying true to a passion cemented in childhood? How does skateboarding shape one's understanding of contemporary American life? Of growing old and getting married? Answering these questions and more, Beachy offers a deep exploration of a pastime, often overlooked, regularly maligned, whose seeming simplicity conceals universal truths. THE MOST FUN THING is both a rich account of a hobby and a life and collection of the varied lessons skateboarding has taught Beachy-what it continues to teach him as he struggles to find space for it as an adult, a professor, and a husband"-- Provided by publisher.

Preface: On benches -- Part 1. For whom is the fun thing fun? -- You're not me -- On firsts -- A chronicle of doing it -- On direction -- The deep seams -- On bad kickflips -- A very large puzzle -- On this ugly world -- Making up legends in the era of zero-budget skateboarding -- Part 2. On the obvious -- Toward a poetics of skateboarding -- On nostalgia -- Pretend we haven't grown -- On narrative -- A most mundane perfection -- On how -- Clearing a space for meaning -- On younger -- "Nearly" -- On bafflement -- Part 3. On Bitul Zman -- Good Old Street League -- On the technology of a secret -- A day with Chaz Ortiz -- On Tampa -- Primitive progessivism -- On pushing boarders -- Seriously: Mark Suciu -- "The Burning Monk" -- Part 4. Seven small bafflements -- On animal play -- Inappropriate places -- On decisions -- The Dylan period -- Still -- Epilogue: Loveletters.

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