THOUGHTS: September 2012

Doing it for the streets TRUTH by mungbot

A critique of TheLevelBelow

From it's inception I had my doubts about what it would become - the level below, TLB. My optimism got the better of my intuition and I went with it, supported it, and hoped that it would be what Jeff said it would be. But over time, and particularly from this current trip, I've realized how much of a farce TLB actually is. The inauthenticity of it is so pervasive that it's hard to decide at which point I should even begin my critique.
The header to the website reads: "BMX, skate, art, lifestyle, tattoo, milwaukee, travel, adventure, artists, and more!" To anyone who has checked the website it's obviously hardly gotten past the first word, bmx - so let's start there. The popular bmx culture as a whole is clearly narrowminded to anyone who cares to examine it, but rather than countering that trend Jeff has fully embraced it by actively ignoring the most unique aspects of the crew's riding. He blindly accepts the general standard of judgement in bmx today: whatever can briefly hold the attention of the masses of 15 year olds. Thus he is very limited in the media he produces: video, editing and songs, words and thoughts, since sharing anything other than the most predictable mediocrity wouldn't be safe. Big rails wow young kids for a moment, but since they may not understand a unique interaction with architecture these experiences are almost always omitted. This assures a continual dumbing down of the bmx culture as a whole.
Along with ignoring much of the uniqueness of the riding of those on the crew, he ignores entirely all of the other categories that he initially claimed he would represent: art, travel, adventure, etc. In the last year alone myself, Anthony, Cohl, Logan, and Little Jon have embarked on some serious long term travel adventures. Behind those adventures are interesting experiences and reflections, not just about freestyle bmx but about a freestyle way of life. Of course the bmx culture as a whole ignores a lot of that, but with TLB the initial intention was to integrate these aspects of life (for those who still remember..) - and it has been a complete failure. Obviously, the header of the website - the only place that would even tell you what TLB is about other than a nonsense logo - is a lie. And I recently learned why.
I spent a week with Jeff while in Portland and I realized why he omits from the website so many of the most beautiful, nuanced aspects of the crew's lives: it's because he omits them from his own life. I witnessed him waste the majority of his trip in front of the television or video game screen, even on sunny afternoons. Riding with him it felt like work - even when on vacation Jeff is on the clock. I listened to his refusals to explore the city in any capacity other than searching for bmx spots. I imagined that the life he was leading here was identical to the idiotic life he leads at home. Yet the luxury that he has been afforded through his luck with bmx is nearly unprecedented in human history: the ability to go anywhere anytime, to do anything he wants through connections around the world. A freedom that will never be known to most humans on this earth, a freedom that others would risk going to prison over to gain. But he wastes that opportunity and what is left of his precious youth ignoring the infinite world around him, remaining quintessentially a spoiled brat with an overinflated allowance. That is why the whole idea of TLB is bullshit and could never be anything else other than the pathetic thing that it has become: being incapable of recognizing his own possibilities, how could he possibly recognize them in others?
But we need only look at the actual activity of TLB to reveal its truth: it's just another company trying to squeeze some milk-money out of teenagers by putting a nonsense logo on a crop of low-quality made-in-china gear. Jeff's formula is like everyone else's: consistent, predictable mediocrity. The only authentic thing about TLB is the people that mistakenly got roped into it - he basically branded a crew of friends that he doesn't even ride with around ideas he doesn't even believe in. It's a running joke that he only comes out when it's his time of the month to get clips.
Of course there is a real crew, a real group of friends that ride together, chill together, explore together - a crew that grew organically over time. Jeff has used that crew as unwilling prostitutes. He has an agenda. He's there to get something, to be somebody. Having sold himself, he must constantly answer the question that the spectacle of bmx commands: "What have you done for me lately?" What he doesn't realize is that the people in his "crew" have not forfeited their lives in the same way. Through TLB he attempts to force his corporate vision of the world on real people doing real things, and like all things forced it was doomed to fail.
The worst part is that he is doing a lot more than selling himself or using his friends - we can deal with that just fine - but he is also selling out the minds of countless young kids for his own benefit, oplike far too many others. Rather than challenging anything like the state of bmx, conceptions of bike riding, or the corporate influence that has rotted bmx from within, rather than trying to teach kids what is good, to empower them, to inspire them in any authentic way, rather than challenging this bullshit capitalist-spectacle culture that bmx so successfully challenged for so many years, instead he participates in the wholesale brainwashing of kids into believing that the only thing worth doing on a bike is sending oneself down rails and posing like a fucking fake for another face shot. Through his image he convinces kids that this is what is important, that the very best things in life are not even worth mention.
I survived this sick, fucked up society because the people I looked up to DIDN'T sell me out. All of my heroes: Luc-e, Taj, Castillo, Scerbo, Sinisi, the Gonz, etc, they all just did what they did. They still do. They didn't play like some fucking diva in front of the camera or promote a bunch of senseless gear to hype their own pathetic images. They rode bikes and made videos sopmetimes, videos that still inspire me to this day, not just because of the tricks but because they were authentic. Our egomaniacal society oforgets that no action exists in a vacuum - that selling out yourself hurts a lot more people than one could imagine. One need only look at how rotted the culture has become in so short a time for evidence. The people that kids look up to most only think of themselves and it shows. So fuck you, and anyone like you, who uses authentic experience for your own egotistical aims. And fuck you, and anyone like you, who sells out the minds of kids for your own image and some meager paycheck. I can forgive a young kid for falling for it, but a grown man doesn't have one excuse. At what point do people grow up? I would hope before they hit the age of 30.
What was once something that the world watched, midwestbmx.net, has devolved into a for-profit website dedicated to exploiting everything and everyone without any real sense or purpose, pushing the same tired one-dimensional viewpoint, reinforcing bmx monoculture and just adding another drop into the bucket of nonsense that bmx has become. Of course, anyone paying any attention already knew that and was just too scared to admit it.