Friday 29 May 2009

sing the blues

soph moved back to sweden this month, it was a horrible day.
we spent the day together had a long chat and said our goodbyes. it was the hardest thing i've ever had to do. just to see her leave and to have no power over it.
i would have done anything in the world to make her stay or for her to say "come with me"
but she didn't.
my heart is still broken in half

Wednesday 6 May 2009

still devastated

i know nobody ever reads my blog so this blog goes out to myself,
i was a happy man when soph was around, now i'm not.
lucky i have really good friends and family around me and of course my skateboard. every other thought is about soph, my true love that slipped through my fingers. everyone keeps telling me to move on but i'd rather move back to when everything was chushdy. when we lived in sweden, those were great times that i will never forget, i am starting to forget how it felt to wake up actually feeling good, wanting to get out and tackle the day.
elephants are like humans, they never forget. we never forget! thats pretty deep blue sea.
I wish i had done more to keep her around, she obviously wasn't living the dream like i was.
till next time,
Tony

Friday 20 March 2009

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Hyena men from nigeria

This is a crew out of Nigeria that sell concoctions and amulets etc.

BaGaladima Ahmadu, who controls a hyena named Jamis, explained that the handlers wear 'bante' dress and charms. 'If we give onlookers the charms, they can play with the animals as well and they won't be harmed,' he said. The concoctions sold to the public are meant to protect against snake, hyena or monkey bites, while the charms and amulets shield people from the antics of witches and wizards, which many Nigerians believe are responsible for their misfortunes.
They trap wild hyenas, monkeys and gnarly snakes too and put muzzles and chains on them.
When setting out on an expedition to capture a hyena, Abdullahi and his partners drink a protective potion and also bathe themselves with it. They travel to the caves and forests of northern Nigeria accompanied by hunting dogs which assist in sniffing out the animals. The young men use a powerful torch to light their way through the darkness, believing that the potion they drank has made them invisible to the animal. At the entrance to the animal's lair, they chant incantations and blow clouds of white powder, a traditional African tranquiliser, at its face, rendering it senseless and easy to subdue. Sometimes, the powerful light from the hyena's eyes might damage the bulb of the torch, but the men eventually have their way

'We use a heavy stick to hit the hyenas on the head when they misbehave,' Abdullahi said. 'We knock them down on the ground. All of us hold the sticks in case the animals become aggressive.'

The entertainers have also been accused by the Nigerian police of using the animals to threaten or intimidate members of the public into parting with money or possessions. In June 2004 a report in Lagos newspaper This Day claimed that an armed 'gang who used a hyena and a monkey to rob their victims' had a shootout with police. The paper reported that two gang members were killed and four arrested, while a policeman ended up in hospital after being bitten by a hyena. The hyena and a monkey were shot.

Abdullahi Ahmadu gives a different side of the story: 'We refused to stop at a police checkpoint, so the police opened fire on us, killing two hyenas and two fellow policemen. To protect themselves, they fixed a charge of armed robbery on us. Thank God, the case has died a natural death.'
Just search hyena men on google or the tube and you get shit loads of images well worth a look at.
Text and images taken from Pieter Hugo'Gadawan Kura' - The Hyena Men
http://www.michaelstevenson.com/contemporary/exhibitions/hugo/nigeria_index2.htm

The barstards even tried cross breeding with the hyenas!


Thursday 11 September 2008

Joe makes it back to manchester


After a brief stint in turkey with his girlfriend kirsty, Joe takes a break from playing tug of war with donkeys and belly dancing (no lie) to skate back to Manchester.

Monday 8 September 2008

Fruity monday

Look what i found inside my strawberry! It's me Anthony Paul Da Silva!

Dedicated to G.M. products.

Grove's got some hot B.G.P's.
Ben's just placed 4th in the UKSA skate comp. which is very respectable considering you wouldn't class him strictly as a comp circuit dude.
Ben generally rips on a skateboard and is a proud member of the Creweyork family.

Sunday 7 September 2008

The Creweyork Bootleg



About 10 years in the making, the Creweyork media group created this little gem. Edited on my T.V.A.V. this promo is from 2006 and features skateboarding from Wayne Capper, Jay Bebbington, Tony Da Silva and Timmy Crompton.