In more innocent times when there really wasn't any money to be made in skateboarding, many people moved to California in flocks to work in and around the industry. It was all about just being there to experience everything first hand. Pat Canale is one of those people and his story is super interesting. He rose from being the Slave at Big Brother magazine to now being the Editor at Vapors. if that's not from the ground up, I don't know what is. Love him or hate him, you've got to respect anyone that has the balls to speak their mind.

48 Blocks: How did you start working at Big Brother? What year was it and how did you get the job?

Pat: This was in 1994. I was kind of a problem child, which I think was pretty common among skaters back then, before it was mainstream at all. My father had died a few years before, and I think it kind of put me in a strange place where I was always looking for some kind of guidance or direction. So one day, actually the day after I finished high school, I just left my mom’s house and never went back.

I drove in a straight line to LA, 35 hours, no stops. I got there and called up Sean Cliver; he’d given me his phone number while on some Big Brother tour. From there, I’m not even sure I started at Big Brother; I just kind of hung out at the offices till they (Marc McKee, Jeff Tremaine, Sean Cliver) finally were so sick of this kid hanging around and asking them questions that they had me write something in order to shut me up. Seriously, I was a really hyper kid. I really loved Big Brother, and I think I idealized the people behind it. But what the fuck did I know, I was 17. Anyway, Sean Cliver was nice enough to let me crash on his apartment floor for a few days (hardwood, I remember), then those Big Brother guys basically locked me in the World Industries warehouse at night. That went on for a while; I lived there with Earl Parker, my fellow bum. I don’t know what they were thinking locking us up together. So during that time I’d go skate with Socrates while he filmed all the pros during the day, then I’d do scans for Big Brother (no one showed up for work till like two in the afternoon), then go to the World skatepark, then sleep in the warehouse at night. I can’t imagine, being of a similar age now, how they dealt with me, or even why Rocco let me stay there. In retrospect, they were really nice guys. I don’t know if I appreciated the charity then, but I do now. After a few months, Marc McKee kind of straightened me out about what I was doing, and told me to go to college, which I’d pretty much decided not to pursue. I had the grades and SATs to go pretty much wherever I wanted, so I signed up for classes, and after that I wasn’t at World every day, which I think might’ve been Marc’s motivation. Anyway, I started under the title of Slave, ‘cause I wasn’t being paid, and eventually rose to Editorial Assistant or something useless like that.

48 Blocks: What's the craziest thing that you witnessed or experienced while working there?

Pat: Um, I think hearing the news that Big Brother and Blunt were bought by Larry Flynt was pretty wild, when you consider it. I mean, what the hell was Flynt thinking? And then just moving to these gold-accented porn offices in Beverly Hills. Just something so bizarre you would never even imagine it. But in the World days, the thing that was really, really shocking to me was when 101 got axed. I really idolized Natas as a kid, and being there and seeing his face when that happened was pretty harsh. The powers that be told Natas that 101 had never turned a profit, which sounds ridiculous. I don’t need to talk shit, but some of the freestylers not named Rocco were seriously suspect in their business practices and general motivations. Needless to say, Natas is an art and design genius, and I’m sure he does more than okay at Quiksilver now.

Wait, now I just remembered…This one was pretty funny. The first year I was there, Blunt (the snowboard mag Rocco bought from DC, the mag Flynt bought that had Big Brother attached as an afterthought) did a snowboard review. This was the peak of snowboarding as a fad/industry, when there were hundreds of companies, and we seriously got like 300 snowboards. There were only probably five of us at the office. After everyone had their fill, I remember being given like ten snowboards, ‘cause they were just littering the offices—you could barely move among all the snowboards. That was pretty rad. I think I just gave them away to some dudes I went to school with at UCLA so I could crash on their couch or something. I was flat broke, obviously. It was kind of hilarious moving from a warehouse to some college students’ couches. I kept all my clothes in my car, then that got stolen and I was kind of stranded at UCLA for a while, borrowing girls’ cars and stuff. Those were some salad days.

48 Blocks: You pissed a lot of people off over the years, what's the craziest or sketchiest thing that happened to you as a result of something you wrote?

Pat: I don’t remember anything offensive I said to any pros, but I think the person I was most scared of was John Cardiel, which is ironic ‘cause he was one of my favorite skaters. Actually, one time I had written that Scott Johnston had produced a horrible video part for the last Mad Circle video. He was roommates with Dimitry, who was on staff. So Scott came in and started manhandling me—that kid is wiry but strong as hell, and I was being pushed all around. And just when I thought I was about to suffer a humiliating beating with Tremaine and Cliver telling Scott to just pound me, I said, “Honestly, Scott, I like you but your part didn’t even get far enough in the song to when the lyrics started!” He kind of stopped, admitted I had a point, and then we were friendly ever after. I really liked Scott as a person, but I was there to tell it like it was. I thought that was my, like, M.O., my job. Like I said earlier, though, I was a hyper, loud-mouthed brat, I’ll be the first to admit it. Being who I am now, in retrospect I would’ve beaten my ass. But most of the reviews were honest. Some videos sucked, and I said so. I was honest. I gave props to lots of ‘em, too. I never bad-mouthed a Transworld video, for instance, but Ty still hates me regardless.

The honest truth is no one else had the balls to say shit. TWS was saying everything, from T-Bone to D-3s, was GREAT! FANTASTIC! What? C’mon!? No editorial integrity. I’ve worked for some sell-out shit, but even then I didn’t just outright lie to readers. Furthermore, I don’t even understand why there was any hype or focus on what I, some punk kid, had to say. In hindsight, I think the reason was that Thrasher was pretty obsolete then—no one even looked at it—so people looked at TWS for the pics and read Big Brother. Honestly, I was reading everything skate-related from Europe and beyond, and I wasn’t even seeing Thrasher at that time. That was before Michael Burnett saved them. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again here: Jamie Thomas deserves all the credit for keeping Toy Machine alive (who was on the team before Jamie Thomas added Josh Kalis, Muska, Barley, B.A., Elissa, Maldonado, etc? Panama Dan?) and Michael Burnett saved Thrasher. I admire Jamie Thomas and Michael Burnett, they’ve contributed a lot to skateboarding. I’ll also say Seu Trinh is the man nowadays, though. Props to Seu, he started at the bottom, put in the time, and he’s definitely got the skills. I can usually tell a Trinh because I literally stop and admire. That’s special. And Oliver Barton. Also big ups to Rob G and Montoya, as long as I’m giving props.

48 Blocks: What caused you and Big Brother to ultimately part ways?

Pat: It’s kind of like Big Brother ended up taking the direction that I said Thrasher was going, just out of touch. I don’t think we parted ways formally, I was never fired, Big Brother just decided not to go in the direction of skateboarding. I mean, Big Brother’s skate photography was tired, obviously, and they never wanted to look at anyone new. They could’ve hired Seu or Frankie or anyone and righted the ship. Seriously, no pro wanted their great new photo to end up in Big Brother, none of the good companies at the time (Flip, Alien/Habitat, Girl) would even advertise. The mag got thinner and thinner. When Cliver and Tremaine went off to do Jackass, they hired Carnie and Nieratko to replace them. They’re both great writers and I think they’re both great people, but they have similar styles, and their combined knowledge of modern skateboarding and their style of coverage was—I don’t know, it just wasn’t pertinent anymore. Skateboarding was blowing up on the street, and they were writing about everything but skating. Big Brother once had the best skateboarding and the best humor, and it lost the skateboarding. That’s my interpretation, at least. They could’ve done tours with Mariano, Marc Johnson, whoever, but they didn’t. They were just not in touch with skateboarding. It pains me to say it, frankly, because I loved the mag and I really love Dave Carnie, but it just didn’t evolve properly, and it hit a dead end. Even if I was on the outside at that point, it was still the end of something that had been part of my life. I was sad and I felt bad for Carnie and Nieratko. I’m sure they did their best. Thrasher righted their ship when it went off course, but Big Brother just didn’t.

48 Blocks: Did you or do you have beef with Chris Nieratko, if so what's the story behind that?

Pat: Well, at the time when this one-sided beef with Nieratko started, he was a pretty volatile person. Anyone would tell you so. I know he was on all kinds of pills and stuff, because you could read about it in everything he wrote. One time I gave him a ride to cover some contest in Lake Havasu (I was working for another magazine, and he was doing Big Brother) and he flipped out on me and my friends, including Cameron Postforoosh and Mackenzie, who’s now at Transworld. Just acting insane, it scared the shit out of all of us. None of us understood it. Then I saw Dimitry in Havasu, and he just told me to ignore it, and we ended up having the time of our lives. Chris just wasn’t totally stable then, I think. Not long after that, he was under the impression I’d stolen something from him, I think it was an Arcade skate video? Yeah, it really was something that trivial. And he flipped and declared some kind of personal fatwa on me. After that, I saw him a couple of times, always pretty intoxicated, and he’d threaten to shoot me and stab me and various stuff. I was pretty shook, honestly, ‘cause I didn’t know where the line was with him. Obviously, since then he’s moved back to Jersey and has a great thing going with his shops and books and everything. I haven’t seen him in years, but I have nothing bad to say, no grudge. I think he just hated living in LA and maybe got in over his head—wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened. Or maybe I’m way off, and it was something else entirely. This is just what I perceived. I hear he’s sober now, though, so that kind of makes me think there was a reason. I don’t know if he’ll ever forgive me for whatever he thinks I did, but I wish him the best. He’s talented, funny; he’s got it made.

48 Blocks: What are you doing these days?

Pat: Man, oh man. It all started innocently enough…Long story short, I took a crappy job at Transworld doing Stance. It was a nightmare, I thought I’d sold my soul. Then it got worse, and I was writing for men’s magazines—really bad shit. Then I ended up doing Scion marketing. I edited the car brochures, did magazines, stuff like that. That was cool. I flew around the world, Amsterdam to Tokyo, and made a lot of dough, met interesting people like GZA and Premier and David Choe. Then I started doing marketing stuff for another car brand, which was back to the nightmare. Scion was pretty hands-off. Needless to say it wasn’t worth the money, although it was a nice bit of money. People fault me for taking the money, but let’s face it, you can’t live in LA or NY or SF on a salary of less than $60K before taxes cut you down, and good luck milking that from a skate mag. So I went for the dough for a few years, hit six-figures, bought the Rolex and the Lexus and whatever, lived trife enough for a pseudo-yuppie. But then I came around and realized I was a lot happier working with people I liked and respected, dealing with skaters and the like. I mean, these MBA guys at corporations are ruthless; they think because they can draw a better venn diagram on a dry-erase board, they can stuff everyone else and take credit for just about anything. I don’t know how they sleep. I got tired of these kinds of people. I would way rather deal with Clyde Singleton on a daily basis, like I do now, than deal with MBAs. So anyway, now that this short story has gone long, I’m doing Vapors. They offered me the job a couple of years ago, but my boss at Scion wouldn’t allow me to do both gigs. So my man Maurice stepped down and just handed me the reigns, easy as that. You’ll just have to pick the mag up to see what happens. It ain’t gonna be Big Brother, but I’m going to make sure it’s good. Right now, on my desktop, I got the last interview with Prodigy before he goes to jail for three years; some rant from Clyde about brothers wearing Ed Hardy; Leland from 48 Blocks interviewing Huf; interviews with Berra, Nick Tershay, Dante Ross, Guy Mariano, Alex Olson. We got a story with the Baker house and Beagle next issue, Clyde’s talking big game and we’ll see what he comes up with, too. I’d be really psyched to get that Nick Trepasso in the next issue—kid is killin’ it, and he’s funny as hell. I’d love to do a story about Sheckler just from other skaters’ mouths, but I think that’s stirring up too much shit. But his MTV show causes me grievous emotional pain, and it’s not because I have any sympathy for him when he cries on camera.

48 Blocks: What's the status of the beef with Ty, are you guys cool now, is he still pissed? What if anything became of that?

Pat: I really don’t think that matters. Well, maybe I’m skirting the issue or lying to myself now. But it’s been years, Ty’s had a baby, he’s super successful, I’m sure he’s moved on. I never said a bad thing about him or his videos, for the record; I made fun of a rave I went to with AVE. It was when Van Engelen and Jason Dill shared a Transworld video part, and the premiere was at a rave full of 14-year old girls. We all went together and we all left before the video started. The rave was bad, I’ll stand by that much. But I handled it badly after that, and that’s what made it worse. We were skating together, with Jeremy and Jonas Wray, in New York, then Philly, and I shook Ty’s hand because we recognized each other, but he didn’t know who I was apparently. I knew who he was, but he just thought I was some kid. I guess he was really pissed about that rave shit I wrote, which I understand now, but didn’t then. So shortly after New York, at the contest in Tampa, we were both drunk and I guessed he asked Carroll or someone and figured out exactly who I was. He tried to fight me, but I had a broken collarbone and I just kept saying I was sorry. It was a pretty pitiful scenario, he was pushing me around, trying to duke it out, but didn’t realize I could barely move one arm, and I’m screaming over the music, “Sorry, I can’t fight, I have a broken collarbone!” But really I owe him a big apology. I never meant for shit to get that out of hand, I was just a dumb kid. Then again, he dragged me a lot harder than I did him; I never wrote Fuck Ty or anything. But having people I didn’t know start hating me really made me think about what the fuck I was doing. I was so depressed about it at the time that I stopped skating and I stopped going out of the house. Guys I’d known forever suddenly despised me because Ty did, like the whole skate clique suddenly hated me. Even my friends, like Robbie McKinley, Chris Roberts, Dirty Dan, started distancing themselves from me. But all things considered, I guess I owe Ty some gratitude for setting me straight, because I was being a dick. Looking back so far, I don’t know if I was seeking approval from Tremaine and Cliver or what when I was acting out like that, maybe looking for attention, but I did a lot of dumb shit and hurt some people’s feelings. I can’t undo it, but I am sorry for it.

48 Blocks: Could you give us a brief Canale-style review of Fully Flared?

Pat: What, me brief? Short on words? You shitting me? That’s not Canale-style. I’m seriously not trying to plug, but I said what I have to say in the next Vapors. I featured Ty and Fully Flared as setting the new standard, and in the first issue of Vapors I’m editing. I hope Ty accepts that as a compliment, because it’s sincere. I’ve always respected him, and I really think it’s an incredible video. Last year, Kelly Bird and I ran into each other and got into a really long talk about the video, like a two-hour conversation about Guy and Ty and everything. It meant a lot to me, because he’d shunned me since the whole Ty flap. He told me how good it already was back then, so my expectations were high, and the finished product exceeded all expectations. Enough said.

In closing, sorry if you were looking for some shit talking. I guess I did say Thrasher was lagging for a minute, several years back, and I did say I despise Sheckler’s “reality” character on empty-V, which I’m sure is unlike everyone else, so see if you can blow that up and get Sheckler to write Fuck Canale on his Red Bull lid.