Dave Parrick is your favorite editor’s favorite editor’s favorite editor. A lot of the stuff that really made him a household name is before me. Videos like Homeless Trash, Dirty Deeds, S&M Inferno, all real substantial videos in their own right. Videos that the godfathers of today cite as their favorite growing up as kids. But it’s Nowhere Fast and Etnies Forward that we truly remember him today for. Both absolutely epic videos that will be cited as one of the best moments in BMX history for its entirety. Dave Young. Rodeo Grind. Taj manueling with his dog. DJ Shadow. All things that can be traced directly back to the work of Dave Parrick. Then after that he was gone. I don’t remember him being this media figure so he just kind of dropped off the map. I’d say the majority of anyone under 25 will now know who Dave Parrick is today. Or even a lot of his videos which I’m not gonna crap on cause i don’t know who edited Dorkin’ unless I google it. He sort of resurfaced with his name being attached to the new Empire video and it created a lot of hype.
The combination of what Dave Parrick is able to create and the scope of what EmpireBMX is seemed like a match made in heaven. EmpireBMX is the largest BMX shop in the world. Maybe not in size which I certainly think it is that too but just the caliber of the historically famous scene that surrounds it and the riders it bolsters created an iconic brand out of a mail order/bike shop that rivals and is bigger than most industry brands. I mean look at the names listed below. These are the guys who didn’t get full sections. One dude’s from Spain and legit lives in Spain. It felt like EmpireBMX had a foundation where Dave Parrick could truly create another epic and for a few long years that what people were thinking.
You heard rumors of his eccentric ways and meticulous behaviors. Things you’d imagine someone like Stanley Kubrick behaving and with the videos that he produced before, Dave Parrick seemed like a mad scientist in the works. A teaser came out actually using the Clockwork Orange song, a Clockwork Orange being one of the more famous movies Stanley Kubrick directed. There was crazy hype at this point by the vocal old heads who were informing the new school. The first Empire video and Chill Bro were absolute masterpieces headed by Joel Moody. I think they were both nominated in some way through Nora Cup but I’m kind of shaky on that.
Bad Idea was nothing like what Dave Parrick created before and I think it was too transformative and Dave Parrick to noteworthy for people to have a solid opinion on it. Let’s start out with saying Bad Idea is probably one of the most cinematic videos in BMX. I don’t know if it’s cause Dave Parrick was doing commercial cinematic work when he disappeared that style carried over but it definitely was it’s intent. There’s definitely a lot of thought that went into this. The tempo of the song matches the pace of the tricks. When the Metallica song’s guitar parts are drawn out, there is definitely a preference for slow-mo and longer cuts. When it goes fast it, the opposite happens. In the Agent Orange song, it’s a quick hardcore punk song and all the clips are noticeably cut shorter than before and move in real time more often. I mean you’ll get those videos where the people sync a good song to the riding but I don’t think anything on this level of meticulous.
To me Bad Idea is like Requiem for a Dream. That crazy heroin movie with that one scene I’m not gonna mention but anyone who watched will know. I’m glad I watched it. Will I watch it ever again? Probably not. Bad Idea was a strange approach to BMX videos that has never been done before or after. People can do the whole cinematography heavy video as long as it’s 4 minutes but Bad Idea was a full DVD of that. It’s definitely product of it’s time. A lot of slow mo, a lot shooting long and wide. It also had a crazy epic soundtrack that really pushed the pace for the video cause without it, it probably would’ve moved slow. Not to say that’s bad cause that’s clearly the direction of the video. I do applaud Dave Parrick for trying something different and new. Cause maybe this wasn’t a final masterpiece that outdoes everything he ever created before it but it is still a work that really pushed boundaries in a different way than what most of BMX will ever be capable of doing. It’d be the worst for Dave Parrick to make something that was just as good as everything else that year. He risked it and the payout is whatever the viewer gets out of it.
Danny Hickerson, Chris Doyle, Morgan Wade, Tony Cardona, George Boyd, Hanson Little, Sergio Layos, Dylan Smith
Fade to Black by Metallica
Bloodstains by Agent Orange
Empire BMX - Bad Idea (2012)
Edited by Dave Parrick
