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The Book of Cool
Without a doubt the coolest present I've ever gotten is The Book of Cool, which is really a set of DVDs (plus a companion picture book) on how to do... cool tricks. You might not want to learn rope tricks, but how about rugby tricks, bar flairing, card & magic tricks, or my favorite--skateboard tricks?
Besides being cool--it's also a simple and elegant example of video instruction. I've been trying to learn the newer skateboard tricks for quite some time (my tricks are all from my old-school days, where I--very briefly--rode for the Santa Cruz skateboards team).
There's something for nearly everyone in this thing and it's quite a lot of fun to watch, even if you don't want to learn how to do a fake reverse thumb spin with your pen.
My co-author/conspirator Beth Freeman sent me this for Christmas, and I'm having too much fun with it.
Posted by Kathy on December 29, 2005 | Permalink
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» Wanna Be Cool? from Casual Fridays
The Book of Cool
Ingenious.
The Book of Cool is actually a set of DVDs and a book which document how some of the worlds coolest people perform their coolest tricks.
This is like the Cliff Notes of cool.
The conce... [Read More]
Tracked on Dec 30, 2005 11:06:41 AM
» Book of Cool is a DVD of neat tricks you can learn from Boing Boing
The Book of Cool sounds excellent. It's a set of DVDs and and accompanying book of photos that teach you how to do lots of different tricks and stunts. Without a doubt the coolest present I've ever gotten is The Book of Cool, which is really a set of D... [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 3, 2006 11:46:12 AM
» Book of Cool is a DVD of neat tricks you can learn from Boing Boing
The Book of Cool sounds excellent. It's a set of DVDs and and accompanying book of photos that teach you how to do lots of different tricks and stunts. Kathy Sierra reviews it in her blog, "Creating Passionate Users." Without a doubt the coolest presen... [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 3, 2006 11:59:43 AM
» Learn how to be cool with the book of cool from KiNK.se
If you want to be able to reel your skills like Napoleon Dynamite you should check out the Book of cool. The book is actually a set of DVDs and a picture book.
So what is it? Well its basically an instruction video of how to pu... [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 3, 2006 2:11:22 PM
» The Book of Cool (How-tos)... from MAKE: Blog
This looks like a great DVD full of how-tos, here's a review from Kathy Sierra - "Without a doubt the coolest present ... [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 8, 2006 1:51:26 AM
» The Book of Cool from Rollernews.com
Learn from the wisdom of 35 of the worlds most talented sportsmen performers as they teach you to master over 250 of their coolests tricks, skills and moves.
... [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 8, 2006 6:23:46 AM
Comments
You rode for SC? Around what time? Ever skated with Jason Jesse?
Posted by: huphtur | Dec 29, 2005 4:17:03 PM
Sounds very cool!
wait...
Posted by: Rob | Dec 29, 2005 4:40:10 PM
Ordered. Thanks for the tip, looks really cool!
Posted by: Bob | Dec 29, 2005 7:04:07 PM
huptur: Hmmm... I don't recall Jason Jesse, but I'm so giving away my age when I say that John Hutson was on the team at the same time I was skating, and I believe he was the world champion in slalom then. I was living in San Luis Obispo at the time, but a "coach" from the team came down to work with me every other weekend during that time. My event was freestyle (which then meant "girl tricks"), but the pressure was on when it was rumored that a teenage girl named Edie Robertson (now a rather famous chef in Santa Barbara) was able to do a kickflip pirouette, so my coach said, "well then YOU have to do one" (at that time, no females had ever done one in competition), so I started working on it... slowly. But just as I was starting to land it about 50% of the time, I blew out my knee on a bad landing -- and ended up spending almost a year in casts and surgeries.
After that, it was strictly for fun, and only the less-dangerous tricks--none of this rails and stairs crap ; ) I have heard that flatland tricks are kind of making a comeback, and I'm THRILLED to see some of the old-school boards in re-release as a result of the whole Dogtown/Z-Boys thing.
OK, that's way more than you asked for with that question... but I don't get much opportunity to talk about skateboarding--Skyler *refuses* to even try it, although her last two boyfriends were serious enough about it to have sponsors!
Posted by: Kathy Sierra | Dec 29, 2005 7:30:32 PM
WOW!!! I remember riding my Santa Cruz Rob Robskopp (Spelling) trying to be cool with the neighborhood skaters. The good ole days!
Posted by: Jason | Dec 29, 2005 8:48:41 PM
"Rugby tricks"
Hmm you catching up on NZ culture for your visit there next year :)
Posted by: Johannes de Jong | Dec 30, 2005 1:27:22 AM
First time seen it two months ago and ordered this morning - thx for remembering ! Must be a great piece of work.
Posted by: lounger | Dec 30, 2005 2:14:39 PM
Kathy: that was a rad story. Sorry to hear about your knee. It seems you skated before my time, but I work (in the skateboard industry) with a lot of people from your era. Did you know that most skateboard companies are run by ex freestylers?
Posted by: huphtur | Dec 30, 2005 9:27:28 PM
Kathy--
I just discovered your site and have added it to my bloglines sub for the usability stuff but I have to say that though I'm not a skater (or any sort of an athlete) I am a fan of urban "street" culture and have an appreciation for its asethetic influences on the larger culture. But that's not why I decided to respond to your post. Santa Cruz is! I lived there for a while in the 80s but my fondest memories of the town are from before then--summers visiting my grandparents on Darwin Street. Back when the streets were almost all made of white concrete patched with a soft gooey tar that you could stick your toe in on a warm summer day. Back when SC was still sleepy and the only thing moving on a foggy summer morning was a barefoot surfer with a board tucked under his arm heading for the beach. Thanks for reminding me.
Posted by: cl | Jan 1, 2006 1:08:20 PM
What did you think of the Footbag section? :)
Posted by: Allan | Jan 3, 2006 11:11:42 PM
Jason Jesse! Rob Roskopp! Man, I loved all that old SC stuff. Wheels of Fire/ Streets on Fire. Pure class.
And huphtur - I remember your name from skate newsgroups (was it alt.skate.board?) 10/ 12 years ago. Good to see you're still around.
Nostalgia: I caught Future Primitive on satellite TV the other day. Took me right back. Still a great video.
Anyway, great blog Kathy.
Posted by: Ben | Jan 10, 2006 7:36:28 AM
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