“Who’s No Age?” asked Catherine Keener. The actress was at the Museum of Modern Art’s PopRally party, “An Evening of Skateboard Videos with Spike Jonze and Patrick O’Dell,” held in conjunction with the current film exhibition Spike Jonze: The First 80 Years. No Age, of course, was the musical talent for the evening, but Keener, who stars in Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are, wasn’t really having it. “I’m just here to celebrate my good friend Spike!” Fair enough.
After the flannel-clad hordes sat through screenings of Jonze’s early skate videos and a panel that included legendary skateboarders and filmmakers Jake Phelps, Lance Mountain, Greg Hunt and Mark Gonzales, they filed out into the lobby to watch the band play and drink the complimentary Colt .45. One attendee, toting a pink knapsack, said to me, “Skateboarding is all about breaking from established institutions, but MoMA is an established institution! What’s that about?”
Proving that skaters and institutions can get along, Jonze himself was hanging out, kibitzing in the corner with former Zoo York photographer Giovanni Luigi Reda. I approached the pair and Jonze brought up the 1995 Video Music Awards, where the Weezer “Buddy Holly” video he directed won Best Breakthrough video but not the coveted Video of the Year award. Considering the $30 million-plus his Wild Things pulled in on opening weekend. I think he’ll be OK.
As No Age took the stage, drummer and vocalist Dean Spunt shouted, “Wasn’t it fucking awesome?”
The crowd seemed to agree. Panelist Phelps, clad in a Texas Longhorns sweatshirt, chunky glasses and a furry hat, said, “The best people I met in my life were skaters and I’ve met everyone—druggies, you name it. Skateboarding in 100 years will be the new Michelangelo form. Even Einstein would agree.”