new for Simple Magic ✨ thanks @colenowicki.com !!

Cole Nowicki@colenowicki.com · 3d ago

This week: @vadiparty.bsky.social on skateboarding in a world whose climate is changing at a frightening clip, I ask if a skateboarding trick can be patented, propose that Plan B is the Boston Celtics of skateboarding, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/natty-nar/

This week: @vadiparty.bsky.social on skateboarding in a world whose climate is changing at a frightening clip, I ask if a skateboarding trick can be patented, propose that Plan B is the Boston Celtics of skateboarding, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/natty-nar/

Natty 'Nar

José Vadi on damp climes, Alexis Lacroix skates cold climes, patently piping it, Plan B = Boston Celtics(?), and more.

simplemagic.ca

I had a nice chat with Lau Willems for the latest issue of Thrasher (Video via Lau on IG: www.instagram.com/p/DdrwfxwFCTD/)

The rare attacked ad

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦@jmcelroy.bsky.social · 5d ago

I promise that you will not expect what Ken Sim is looking at in this new ad he put out

The inaugural issue of SAUCE, "A DIY journal dedicated to the cultural, social, aesthetic, and athletic contributions of skateboarding," is now live. Stoked to work on this with such a talented, smart group of people. www.saucejournal.org/issues/issue...

Issue 1: Magical, Realism

Welcome to the inaugural issue of SAUCE, a journal for skate studies. Skate studies is a field of serious academic research that covers the activities, cultures, and institutions of skateboarding, av...

saucejournal.org

Tired: Manmade child annihilating zipline beyond physics comprehension Wired: Grok maims a man on a halfpipe then gets him fired, patent advice sought

Trying out an audio edition of the newsletter. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify (might still be processing), and wherever else you listen to stuff. rss.com/podcasts/sim...

Simple Magic Audio Companion | Podcast on RSS.com

rss.com

Cole Nowicki@colenowicki.com · last wk.

A supersized newsletter: Grant Yansura on the new WKND video that premieres tonight, in person and for $5 online in The Den, and the challenge of changing consumer habits. Carter Spinks chats about his latest full-length project, Tactics now sells MTG, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/uncs-jits-og...

Also, this month marks five years of writing this newsletter each week. Sincere thanks to everyone who reads, subscribes, shares, contributes to, and supports Simple Magic. Means a lot.

Cole Nowicki@colenowicki.com · last wk.

A supersized newsletter: Grant Yansura on the new WKND video that premieres tonight, in person and for $5 online in The Den, and the challenge of changing consumer habits. Carter Spinks chats about his latest full-length project, Tactics now sells MTG, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/uncs-jits-og...

NEW: For @macleans.bsky.social, I wrote about how Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is fusing corporate and state power to help build what I call the New Authoritarianism. macleans.ca/politics/dan...

Danielle Smith Is Putting Alberta Up for Sale - Macleans.ca

The corporate lobbyist-turned-premier is letting the private sector run the government

macleans.ca

A supersized newsletter: Grant Yansura on the new WKND video that premieres tonight, in person and for $5 online in The Den, and the challenge of changing consumer habits. Carter Spinks chats about his latest full-length project, Tactics now sells MTG, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/uncs-jits-og...

UNCs, JITs, OGs, and Young Fellas

Grant Yansura talks WKND Skateboards' "UNC" and their premiere approach, Carter Spinks on his latest, "OG and Young Fella," plus, can you get free grip at Tactics Card Shop, an anniversary, and more.

simplemagic.ca

This week, the guillotine sits patient and poised above Converse CONS, people are being weird about the new Nora video part, I deliver some high-potency whinging about Things These Days, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/fate-as-a-fi...

Fate as a fixture

Converse CONS feels the sharp edge of "restructuring," Nora Vasconcellos' "Gilda," a dissolution of the Social Volume Contract, and more.

simplemagic.ca

This week, the guillotine sits patient and poised above Converse CONS, people are being weird about the new Nora video part, I deliver some high-potency whinging about Things These Days, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/fate-as-a-fi...

Fate as a fixture

Converse CONS feels the sharp edge of "restructuring," Nora Vasconcellos' "Gilda," a dissolution of the Social Volume Contract, and more.

simplemagic.ca

Sunny Sunday + sunflowers

Reposting for those who are also curious if it's an ethics violation for the mayor of a mid-sized American city to use their status as a public servant to promote their private interest, three-day, $10k business course

Cole Nowicki@colenowicki.com · 3w ago

This week: I attended Mikey Taylor's "free training session" for business "operators," plus some reminiscing about jump ramps and some appreciation of the incredible Asahi Kaihara. www.simplemagic.ca/ramped-up/

This week: I attended Mikey Taylor's "free training session" for business "operators," plus some reminiscing about jump ramps and some appreciation of the incredible Asahi Kaihara. www.simplemagic.ca/ramped-up/

Ramped up

The magic of a homemade jump ramp, it's just $9,997 to use Mikey Taylor's Exit Ramp, Asahi Kaihara's ramp magic, and more.

simplemagic.ca

new blog on Balam Acab, anxiety at shows, and the Etnies video ::: josevadi.com/02-balam-aca... big thanks @colenowicki.com for the editorial support ✨

Balam Acab in “PROMO” by Etnies

Blog 02 – August 31, 2026I saw Balam Acab, the musical identity of Alec Jeffrey Koone, live in San Francisco at the height of the so-called witch-house movement, on December 17, 2011, at Publ…

josevadi.com

The etnies promo and Cole Nowicki’s Simple Magic are this week’s topics on the Mostly Skateboarding Podcast with @mmunzenrider.bsky.social, Templeton, and @colenowicki.com. Listen on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or at the link below. www.mostlyskateboarding.net/2026/08/etni...

This week, Etnies is switching things up at 40 years old, I go shopping at my locally owned Home Hardware franchise, a spell of Remembering Some Guys, thoughts on going Double Tables, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/fantasy-appr...

Fantasy approaches reality

Etnies PROMOtes themselves well, I'm in love with my local hardware store, the raw pleasures of the feed, Jake Hayes goes Double Tables, and more.

simplemagic.ca

Verdict: that’s gonna have to do

For those who prefer to read their morning newsletters in the afternoon

Cole Nowicki@colenowicki.com · last mo.

This week: people are confused and lusting after an AI skateboarder, Leo Romero has been focused and grinding big rails for a quarter century, DVS looks backwards to its future, the Skate Board Association stalls, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/tunnel-visio...

A default Sim right before I tell him to go swimming and delete the pool ladder after he gets in

Linux Guy@lasergiant.bsky.social · last mo.

This week: people are confused and lusting after an AI skateboarder, Leo Romero has been focused and grinding big rails for a quarter century, DVS looks backwards to its future, the Skate Board Association stalls, and more. www.simplemagic.ca/tunnel-visio...

Tunnel visions

Leo Romero, you beautiful bastard. Also, checking in on the Skate Board Association, some thoughts on moving house, moving backwards in time, and being moved by AI.

simplemagic.ca

I was firing on all cylinders with this guy

Cole Nowicki@colenowicki.com · last mo.

Flipping through a sketchbook I had as kid. Concerning but also pretty awesome

Flipping through a sketchbook I had as kid. Concerning but also pretty awesome

This week, @farrangolding.bsky.social reports on the potential of a big ol' beautiful slab of concrete www.simplemagic.ca/a-great-leve...

A great leveller

Farran Golding on reconsidering the skatepark, changing your approach, and embracing the MUSKA.

simplemagic.ca

I love the idea of Ryan Sheckler being such a fan of how "convenient" LegacyCasino is that he just had to team up with them and post this AI-generated ad

Cole Nowicki@colenowicki.com · 2mo ago

The people are united in their hatred for sketchy online casinos and the bozos who promote them

The people are united in their hatred for sketchy online casinos and the bozos who promote them

The Google Maps reviews of this prefab piece of shit park is filled with pictures of dudes demonstrating how uneven and jank the obstacles are, and it's probably the funniest skateboard-related thing I've ever seen. 😂

Wrote about James Gandolfini for The Small Bow www.thesmallbow.com/p/eulogy-jam...

Eulogy: James Gandolfini

“He’s drinking more, not just some rowdy nights but something closer to gone, way out there, disappearing for longer and longer.”

thesmallbow.com

Pleased to be in Hell World today with an essay that also features some photos I took that have been sitting on a hard drive since 2009

Luke O'Neil@lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Today @colenowicki.com writes from Canada on their tech industry's cooperation with ICE, the indignities of working in the digital content dump (and at the literal garbage dump), and how "A.I." is making everyone's job prospects somehow even worse. www.welcometohellworld.com/i-felt-clean...