The Drop In vol.02

North Hollywood - Movie Review

I wanted to like this movie. I REALLY wanted to like this movie. From the minute I heard Illegal Civ is doing a full-length film, to when I saw the first trailer, I was stoked to see what the boys at IC were putting out.

Illegal Civilization, a skateboard/film company founded by Mikey Alfred and friends in 2008 and has been a fixture in the skate community ever since. With their latest skate video Godspeed, which was in my opinion, the best skate video in 2020, had me all the more hyped for North Hollywood.

Then I watched North Hollywood.

I opted to shell out the $9.99 to purchase the film rather than just rent it for $5.99, because of course I'm going to want to watch it again and again like I do with other skate movies, right? Wrong. I sat down and wasn't even able to make it through the whole thing in one sitting.

The movie starts out decent enough with a group of friends skateboarding in a well staged and lit skate spot, but from there it aimlessly jumps from scene to scene with no flow to an overall plot with awkward and forced character interactions and little to no backstory as to why anyone should care about any of the thinly crafted characters.

If you like skateboarding and you are a fan of Illegal Civ, I'd say go ahead and watch it (which I'm sure if you are either, you already have) with lowered expectations.

For a first attempt at a full length film from 26 year old Alfred, I'm willing to give it a pass and will definitely watch anything else they put out. One thing I know for sure is that I wasn't doing anything near this ambitious when I was 26.\

I spent this past weekend camping on the Superior shore of Northern Minnesota and was delighted to discover Num Nuts (hah); small-batch roasted nut company founded by Chika Griswold out of Edina, Minnesota.

Simple and flavorful were the two words that came to mind after I devoured this 8oz bag of yum. Using only organic ingredients such as sea salt, maple syrup and rosemary, Num Nuts will be a go-to for all future camping trips.

So Much Plastic, So Few Companies

I'm not going to pretend I know anything about how Internet algorithms work, however they do, I started seeing a bunch of articles pop up on all my social media feeds about a recent report from an Australian foundation called Minderoo. 

I read 3 of said articles (so you don't have to) and here's a few of the most interesting facts that I took away from the study.

• 90% of plastic waste comes from just 100 companies
• 55% comes from just 20
• Leading plastic waste offenders
  • Exxon: 5.9 million metric tons
  • Dow Chemical: 5.5 million metric tons
  • Sinopec: 5.3 million metric tons
• Single-use plastic is projected to account for 10% of all greenhouse gases by 2050
• The average American is responsible for 110 pounds of plastic waste/year

It's easy to come away from a study like this and think that "why should I reduce my plastic when it's not even a rounding error for the amount these companies waste." But I would argue, the reason these companies continue to produce this much single-use plastic is because there is a market for them. 

I'm not saying that as an individual and your reduction in plastic is going to make an impact on its own, however if you stop using plastic and your friend does and their mom does and their co-worker does and this trend continues across the globe, it will have an impact.

If we as consumers chose to not purchase or use single-use plastics (as much as we possibly can) or support companies that produce that much waste, any responsible company (I use that term loosely) will see that the market has shifted and reduce their production as well.

It's all about that supply/demand, baby.