Cole Nowicki
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colenowicki.com
Cole Nowicki
@colenowicki.com
Wrote some books, publish others.
https://colenowicki.com/

A weekly newsletter about skateboarding, the internet, and other means of escape: https://simplemagic.ca/
Pinned
It’s the third annual SSOTYs, an effort to catalogue and celebrate some of the best skateboarding-related writing in the year that was 2024.

Happy reading.

www.simplemagic.ca/ssoty-skateb...
SSOTY (Skateboarding Stories of The Year) 2024
An incomplete collection of the year's best writing.
www.simplemagic.ca
The Stupiding of Steve Caballero's Mind
November 26, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
approved despite over 600 speakers signing up to speak to the budget, with all but a tiny number strongly opposed, and following a public engagement survey that found the majority of respondents supported a property tax increase to avoid cuts.
Vancouver's 2026 draft budget has PASSED.

Approved on a 7-4 vote on party lines, with ABC in favour and councillors Fry/Bligh/Orr/Maloney opposed.

Property tax freeze, $50 million more for VPD, and cuts to Arts, Culture, Planning and Sustainability departments, among others.

Full story to come.
November 25, 2025 at 10:22 PM
For the afternoon's spiritus mundi
November 24, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
You should always read this series when it comes up. Christian’s close reads will come on after the Ted Barrow Radio Hour on Skate NPR someday.
November 24, 2025 at 6:23 PM
@cnkerr.bsky.social is back with another beauty, this time stepping into the gyre of W.B. Yeats' "The Second Coming."

www.simplemagic.ca/waxing-poeti...
Waxing Poetic #3: “The Second Coming”
Christian N. Kerr navigates the widening gyre of society and skateboarding through William Butler Yeats' post-war poetry.
www.simplemagic.ca
November 24, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
Good Monday Morning @colenowicki.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:21 PM
I've been putting together the 2025 Skateboarding Stories of the Year for the 'sletter. If you read a piece you loved or wrote something you're stoked on this year that is about or even tangentially related to skateboarding, lemme know.

www.simplemagic.ca/tag/ssoty/
SSOTY - Simple Magic
The Skateboarding Stories of The Year is an annual effort to catalogue and celebrate the best skateboarding-related writing published per annum.
www.simplemagic.ca
November 21, 2025 at 11:13 PM
For the afternoon molluscs
November 21, 2025 at 11:07 PM
This week, I just finished writing the newsletter at the Tim Horton’s in the Edmonton International Airport

www.simplemagic.ca/seeking-help...
Seeking help from molluscs
Titillating roster goss, Mike Arnold is playing games, Distinctly Generated Kontent, Eetu Toropainen is centimetres away, and more.
www.simplemagic.ca
November 21, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
"We must not overcomplicate what’s going on here."

Thank you @melwoods.me for this important @xtramagazine.com essay about how the Alberta provincial government is overturning trans rights.

thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...
Danielle Smith Goes Nuclear on Trans Rights | The Tyee
Alberta’s premier is overriding Charter protections. Here’s a fact check on her claims.
thetyee.ca
November 20, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Worth entering The Spectral Realm for
November 20, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Brickbanklunchbreaksunsout w/ @curbisland.bsky.social
November 19, 2025 at 9:47 PM
UPS sent me an email, along with a photo, to let me know they've delivered my package to The Spectral Realm.
November 19, 2025 at 7:25 PM
This is a beautiful speech, and it was moving, heartening, last night to be among, as Saeed said, a community of "artists who will not allow their ambition or their vanity to supersede their principles."
November 19, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Brickbanklunchbreak: Crisp November Edition
November 18, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
Listening to Ken Sim’s @cbcstephenquinn.bsky.social interview and it’s kind of surprising his team doesn’t prepare him better for this tough interviewer.

He says the police board has said no to some budget asks and the police have cut back their spending - but can’t name examples. #vanpoli
November 18, 2025 at 3:29 PM
That’s one way to break the news
November 17, 2025 at 8:48 PM
For the afternoon crowd
This week, we are flooded with content (nice), AI products continue to get pushed in the workplace (bad), a nollie-hardflip-boardslide (whooaaa), and more.

www.simplemagic.ca/warning-seas...
🚨🚨🚨 WARNING: SEASONAL CONTENT DELUGE 🚨🚨🚨
A lot of videos, a Jake Ilardi video, a frictionless future, a nollie-hardflip-boardslide, and more.
www.simplemagic.ca
November 14, 2025 at 11:55 PM
This week, we are flooded with content (nice), AI products continue to get pushed in the workplace (bad), a nollie-hardflip-boardslide (whooaaa), and more.

www.simplemagic.ca/warning-seas...
🚨🚨🚨 WARNING: SEASONAL CONTENT DELUGE 🚨🚨🚨
A lot of videos, a Jake Ilardi video, a frictionless future, a nollie-hardflip-boardslide, and more.
www.simplemagic.ca
November 14, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
very impressed by COPE Councillor Orr for reporting summaries of every speaker for this budget, and actually staying until the end unlike most ABC councillors

my crude count is there were less than 10 in favour, roughly 260 opposed, with around 330 more speakers to go.
269: in favour. Tune out noise if fear mongers who say sky is falling. This is not drastic cuts to budget. Wants full budget transparency. Heard about services but don’t know what a necessary sevice is. Scope creep.
November 13, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
HALF OUR GRANT GOES BACK TO THE CITY IN POLICE COSTS

— Vancouver Folk Festival
246: folk fest president. Advocating for increased funding for arts. Arts is a necessity. Festivals under threat. Many have folded. We bring in millions of dollars to economy. We bring joy in world of despair. Half of our grants just go back to city in police costs.
November 13, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
We can do better. We need to be more transparent. I pass the mic. 235: David chudnovsky (former COPE guy and MLA). I know about governance and budgets.,short term pain does not lead to long term gain. Today’s housing crisis was caused by what we were told was short term pain. We are still paying
November 13, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
You can tell Ken Sim directly what you think about his budget by filling out this feedback form, it takes 1 minute! tinyurl.com/mabec78b
November 11, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
no one involved in this case disputes DULF has saved many lives. shutting down initiatives to prevent consumption of poisoned drugs leads to more preventable deaths. sad to see the law used as a cudgel to justify killing people through government inaction & indifference
Founders of Vancouver’s Drug User Liberation Front Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalinin have just been found guilty of drug trafficking.

Justice Murray rules CDSA exemption didn’t include procurement & distribution.

“There is no doubt all of DULF’s actions were for one purpose.”

@pressprogress.ca
November 8, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Reposted by Cole Nowicki
This week, some words about Kevin Wilkins, a person who gave a shit and whose writing reached far.

www.simplemagic.ca/smoother-pla...
Smoother plateaus
Rest in Peace, Kevin Wilkins. Baekkel wins SSOTY, if you must collab pt. 3, a shoutout to autumn, and more.
www.simplemagic.ca
November 7, 2025 at 6:15 PM