The Predatory Bird got started while I was on the narcotic painkiller Oxycodone. In a series of post-surgery visions, the swooping screaming gulls of my childhood shrieked the words “Blaaaaaawwwwwgggg!!! Blaaaawwwwwwgggg!!!”
Since it’s beginnings I’ve found gull culture and skate culture to be more similar than I ever expected and I am no more insane than you are. Both gulls and street skaters are reviled and misunderstood by mainstream society. They’re noisy, they make a mess, they wax ledges, they shit on cars, they terrorize the elderly. Both are compelled beyond their will to do what they do. Both are on an endless search to satisfy some deep primal urge. Gulls feast on food discarded by humans who often think of themselves as above and better than gulls. Skaters feast on tricks more radical than the last, often at spots that the mainstream (whom often thinks of themselves as above and better than skaters) fail to fully appreciate. “Handrails used for something other than hands? Cannot compute, system overload, malfunction, malfunction!”
Gulls are gangster as hell and I have collected photographs on The Predatory Bird’s Facebook page which seek to prove this. Skaters are also often gangster; DGK, Menace and Sk8 Mafia are 3 great manifestations of this. Misfits band together with a common goal. What do you think? Is this all just a torrent of bird shit?
P.S. Here be Tee Shirts
Comments
8 responses to “WTF is The Predatory Bird?”
[…] this man hopes to document And we’ve already discussed the striking parallels that exist between skaters and gulls. They are reviled as a nuisance by the mainstream But I’ve come to recognise them as truly […]
Wow! " …the seagulls annihilated the insects, ensuring the survival of some 4,000 LDS pioneers who…" would later travel door to door preaching to all who would listen.
Gulls are gangsta on a whole'nother level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_gulls
[…] on July 4, 2012 by admin Ever wondered on the meaning of The Predatory Bird? Rattray explains all here. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged John Rattray. Bookmark the permalink. ← […]
i will be having one of those tshirts john
i have feeling we will see a gull on a skateboard soon
l like the gull.
The relationship between gulls and human beings goes back a long way in history (Fisher and Lockley 1989).
i think what you wrote above is an amazing observation and just super fucking awesome! imma totally cop a shirt!
::)
p.s. the predatory bird ist rad!
I always like when a skate company can almost show what they are about just in the name of it, the parallel between gulls and skaters as an outcast and misunderstood group is a great one! Our brethren in the sky.