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	Listen Family Volume No.2 Issue No.16 May 2006 The intro to this month's newsletter should be a breeze for me. My birthday is in May. I turn 32 this month. I was born on the same day that Malcolm X was born, just a different year. I'm going back to Philly to watch the Phillies beat the Red Sox on my birthday with my dad. Everything was going good until I got word that Fausto Vitello passed away. At first, I didn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it. I never want to believe that
	anyone that I know has passed away. Dealing with death never gets easier no matter how many times you deal with it. This year alone, it seems like I have known someone to pass away just about every month. Trevor Prescott, Harold Hunter, my Aunt Jessie Laird and now Fausto Vitello. Instead of me writing about everything that Fausto has done for skateboarding, I won't because someone can do it better. I will, however, leave everyone with a story about my first encounter with Fausto. The year is 1995 and this is my first trip to San Francisco, actually this is my first trip to anywhere other than the north east coast. I'm with Sergei Trudnowski, Kaii Laws, and Matt Reason. We are staying with Chris Senn out in the avenues. Matt Reason was riding for Adrenalin, Thunder and Spitfire at the time, all of which were owned by Fausto. Matt wanted a raise in pay in riding for Adrenalin. Although Adrenalin was Chris Senn's company, Fausto was the man that made all the money decisions. Matt calls Fausto all morning but can't get in touch with him, so we go out skating. When we get back to Senn's crib later that night, there's a message waiting for him on the answering machine. Matt plays the message and that's when I heard The Voice. His voice was so scary and intimidating that we all stood frozen in place as the message played. The message said something along the lines of, "Matt, this is Fausto Vitello. Call me when you get this message." That voice sounded like The Godfather. Not like Marlon Brando in The Godfather, but it was more like the voice of a man that ran shit. And Fausto definitely ran shit in the skate industry. Matt got in touch with Fausto the next day and received his raise, but not only for Adrenalin, but also for Thunder and Spitfire. It wasn't until years later that I was able to put a face with his voice and meeting him was just as scary as the first time I heard his voice on Senn's answering machine. But underneath his larger than life image, was a nice, down to earth person that I was lucky enough to have shared some drinks with at a certain Skater of the Year Party that I went to with his son, Tony in a limo with some Hubba models. Although I didn't know him as well as the people up in SF, I did enjoy the few moments that I spent with him. Our thoughts and prayers from the Listen family are with Tony, Sally and the rest of the Vitello family in their time of mourning. Check www.thrashermagazine.com for more letters and info about Fausto. Mags Speaking of Thrasher Magazine, Rob Gonzalez has our Listen ad in their latest issue which features my favorite mini-ramp skater on the cover, Jon Goeman. Peep his frontside feebles on mini-ramp. Back to Rob Gee. This mother fucker is all over the place! He's got a buttery ass photo in the Trans World 2006 photo book. He also has our ads in Skateboarder Magazine and The Skateboard Mag. Danny Montoya also has a bangin' photo in that same issue of The Skateboard Mag which has a certain skater on the cover doing a switch backside tail side that was seen wearing a Listen and Destroy shirt while out skating a few days ago. Also in that issue is an ad for Ignition. Check out our logo in their ad, then go to their website, www.ignition.tv, and download our logo. Now I know I mentioned this last month, but I have to ride with it until the next issue comes out. Unless you have been living under a rock or on a deserted island for the past few weeks, then you have noticed Rob Gee on the cover of Skateboarder Magazine. If you flip to the contents page, you will see Rob Gee all up in that piece. And if you take a look further, you will see Rob in our Listen ad. I told everyone that Rob Gee was about to blow and my boy is blowin' up! Next to blow up, Brian Brown. He will be featured in the next issue of Trans World, The Am Issue. Trips/Tours Rodrigo Petersen will be headed back to Brazil on May 9th for a 2 week Nike trip. From there, Rodrigo will be meeting up with Danny and Rob who will be in NYC filming with Brian for the upcoming Listen Video. Rodrigo will be picking up from where he left off. Nike had an apartment out in NYC for a month and word on the street is that Rodrigo broke some shit off on what was his first time in the big apple. Danny and Rob head out to NYC on May 18th and will be there until the team goes to Minneapolis on May 27th to meet up with flow rider Jamiel Nowparavr and homie Steve Nesser for some more filming. While out in Minneapolis, Danny and Brian will meet up with the rest of the Adio team for an event to be held at Steve Nesser's new skate shop called Familia. Check www.familiaskateshop.com or www.adiofootwear.com for info on this event which will be held on June 2nd at Familia skate shop in St. Paul. Contests Straight from Nesser's skate shop event right to Damn Am. Damn Am will be held at 3rd Lair skate park June 2-4. Check www.damnam.com or www.3rdlair.com for more info on this event. Seems like I was just out in Minneapolis for the Top Shop contest, but I don't mind going back out. Minneapolis is one of my favorite cities and anyone who's been there can agree with that. If you haven't been there, go there once and then you too won't be able to stop going back. On the topic of Top Shop, Jamiel Nowparvar got best over all run of the entire weekend out of 200 skaters and took home $250 for doing so. I had nothing to do with that since I gave Jamiel lowest score out of all 5 judges so it wouldn't look like laying favorites. Cal Surf took home first place and rightful so. There was a good turn out as 40 shops were there to compete this year which was a big jump from the 23 shops there last year. The guys at 3rd Lair want to see 50 shops make it out and hopefully there will be that many. Shops from as far away as Washington, Maryland and Florida made the long drive out to Minneapolis. Check www.3rdlair.com for pictures and stories from the weekend. See all you 17 year old girls in the dunk tank at Damn Am. Videos Listen Promo Video, now playing in your local skate shop. Go and check it out now. We have gotten some good feedback so far. Go check it out if you haven't already. It's also available for pod cast. I have it playing on my video Ipod. The Benji Meyer video, Weekend Warriors is out now and it's amazing. Our flow rider Jamiel Nowparvar has a part in it and it's awesome. Get it now while it's hot. The new 411 14.2 is also out now and available for purchase through us. I recommend you see this video. Jamiel has some tricks in the chaos section. So this is what you’re going to do. Buy the new 411 to get a sample of Jamiel if you haven't seen him skate before, then buy the Weekend Warriors and watch his full part after you see what you like in the 411. Misc. Birthdays, I mentioned one in the intro. Danny Montoya June 1st. I know it’s early but we will be in Minneapolis celebrating his birthday so I'm writing about it now. Trans World awards and video premier June 1st in Hollywood. Brian Brown will have some tricks in the video from a trip that he went on to Australia. Go and check it out. Check out the Malakye’s INDUSTRIAL PROFILE with our very own Shimrit Swartzon. http://www.malakye.com/asp/front/CMSPage.asp?TYP_ID=1&I D=393 and listen to what she has to say in her first interview ever. And last but not least, we here at Listen would like to announce the latest addition to the family, Melissa Hatton. Melissa comes to us from Dallas, Texas after her long journey with Fast Forward. She will be our newest In House East Coast Sales Representative and we are proud to have her join our family. Peace out April '06 March '06 Fabuary '06 January '06 December '05 November '05 October '05 September '05 August '05 June '05 July '05