Tuesday, April 10, 2012

A Bloody Mary With a Splash of Awkwardness


 Before I begin to even write anything in this post I just want to say one thing. Don't get me wrong, Peter Line is Peter Line. In my opinion he can pretty much do/say whatever he wants as far as snowboarding is concerned and it's fair game. The dude has undoubtedly paid more then his dues within the progression of snowboarding and as a staple of the culture itself and this alone gives him a green light to do whatever he wants within snowboarding. It definitely seems as though he too has recently came to that realization, which is evident in his Heated Discussion segments on the Snowboardermag site. The series has recently wrapped up and I'm still not quite sure to make of all of them, which I'm sure is the same way the guests feel about the episodes. They are weird, really weird. Not really even funny weird, just weird. I'm all for a good dose of daily weirdness in my life but these segments find themselves in some entirely different category all by themselves. Being a journalism student myself, I totally understand that the traditional model for conducting interviews; one in which the interviewer poses a pre-prepared question only to wait for an appropriate response from the guest, is stale, uninteresting unless the guest is actually interesting and for the most part been done to death. That being said however, I'm not sure what it is with the snowboardermag's affinity for strange and awkward interviewers talking to people that I'm pretty sure most snowboarders are actually interested in hearing from. The internviews were equally awkward in their own right, but I felt as though at least in those segments Jade was legitimately trying to evoke interesting answers from the guest, for the sake of the viewer. Unfortunately the same can't be said about these kooky clips. I get that Line is laced in these clips and that his laissez faire, I could give a shit about you attitude is supposed to elicit a hilarity from the viewer, but I don't think this was ever actually achieved.

Every single episode I watched, I was waiting and waiting for him to at least ask some kind of comprehendible question to the guest, but alas this never came to fruition. At first the continual references made to his clanking collection of X-Games medals was surprisingly dryly funny, but this wore off quick. After each successive mention I found myself wondering even more intently why I keep watching this shit. I'm a snowboard nerd though and much like a flame engulfed car crash, I couldn't look away.

The list of guests he had throughout this series' short existence was actually pretty bowsey and that's why it's a bummer we didn't actually get to hear from any of them. Louie Vito (he was unsurprisingly definitely not stoked lol) Pat Moore, Eddie Wall, Louif Paradis, Jamie Anderson, Elena Hight and Dan Brisse all took a spot on the couch infront of the fireplace, with not so much different results.

Vito was obviously confused as fuck, and as I could give a shit about contests and predominant contest riders, I actually thought this was pretty funny for the first episode. Then I realized that it wasn't Vito that was necessarily the kook factor in this interview, but perhaps the interviewer himself. Re-watching these I really get a Jake Phelps vibe from Line in the interviews. As much as Phelps too is a fucking whacko, at least his insanity is genuine and doesn't seem forced. Kind of lame.

Pat Moore seemed a bit more familiar with Line's personal brand of retardedness and seemed to take the whole thing a bit more lightly, but as a far as an actual interview is concerned, still super whack. At least Moore joined in on the festivities, even cheersing Line with a bloody mary. I don't blame the dude, I would have to be absolutely shitfaced too to sit there and talk to this dude, without busting his ass. It was kind of strange when Moore was trying to describe in the inclusion of Real Street only to have Line reply "Do you often speak for kids who live in cities"and kept pushing the point. I give Moore a lot of credit for not giving a shit, a true testament to how mellow this dude is. He actually tried to engage Line into speaking more coherently by asking about his own contest runs and cab 5's etc. I'm guessing these guys are homeys and shit so it makes a bit more sense to bust Moore's balls but dude still comes across as pretty lame. Sooo rad at the conclusion when Line asks Moore if he wants an autograph only to have Moore crumple it up and toss it in the fire while claiming "maybe if you gave this to me 10 years ago it would have been worth something." Killed it, best part of any of the episodes hands down.

Being a huge Eddie Wall fan since I was a little kid, I'm always stoked to see any coverage of the dude, whether it be web content or not. So when I logged onto Snowboarder and saw that he was one of the guests, I couldn't help but hope that this episode utilized a slightly different narrative strategy. Once again I was completely wrong and Peter Line was no more interesting or engaging then he had been in any of the previous eps, maybe even more so. As whack as Line once again is here, I'm glad to see Eddie Wall not take part in the stupidness and actually talk like a normal person, kind of rad. Eddie Wall, unlike Peter Line is actually funny, I'm always psyched to hear him talk and the shit he talks about preparing for judging the X-Games was legit hilarious. 

The climax of this sentiment that Peter Line, when not on his snowboard, is fucking annoying as shit, is best displayed through the interview he conducted with Jamie Anderson. This chick was so over it, she didn't even try to hide how lame she thought the whole thing was, which I can definitely respect.  She straight up told him he was whack then peaced out. Best reaction I saw the whole time.

The only dude who actually seemed to relatively enjoy, or not even enjoy, but not end up being completely annoyed was Dan Brisse. I don't actually think that he enjoyed the experience or that he was indifferent in some way, I just think Brisse is actually just way to nice to do anything but laugh and smile. I like it that he can't really get a negative reaction, makes me like Brisse even more.

This website is not here as an outlet for talking shit. I don't even like talking shit at all. I think there are a lot of positives in snowboarding these days and that's the stuff I want to talk and write about. I think all the snowboarders that sat down for these fireside chats are relevant, respectable and legit snowboarders (perhaps with the exception of one who will remain nameless) and I truly would have enjoyed hearing about their seasons and about their lives in general. So I'm not necessarily talking shit about Peter Line, more so just saying that I think the show had the potential to be something rad but somehow it turned out being super lame. But I suppose this is often the case. Jamie Anderson said it best "This is, come on, retarded." Truer words have never been spoken.

But oh yea, Dude did rip!!

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