Stephanie Murdock sent in some pics of La Caverne from back in 2006 before it was what it became. Mostly interesting from a historical standpoint. I don’t know if everyone else appreciates the “in progress” type shots as much as I do, but I’m going to keep posting them anyway. Is it just me, or does this look like a stage set for the next Johnny Rad gig?

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“…It was rad as hell, kinked as f#@k, rough as an alcoholic tongue, but it was our spot!” - an anonymous creator of La Caverne

In Marseille, France there lies a dark, dingy abandoned warehouse beyond the view of the common people. The telltale graffiti and discarded trash of society’s undesirable class littered this area, and as a result the former site of productivity seemed more like a cave than a building. It is no surprise that skaters, who are often associated with the mantra “Skate and Destroy,” would create a place to express their styles without the regulations of a system that failed to understand them.

La Caverne’s beginnings operated in a similar fashion to the Grimm Brothers fairy tale “The Pied Piper of Hamelin;” the rat catcher enticed the rats.  The abandoned warehouse attracted artists from all over France, and a tagger by the name of Nours, who also skated, told his friends about it and the work began.

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I get sent a lot of contest results and tour coverage articles from various companies and I usually don’t bother to post about them, but I liked the photography in the examples from this write up of Volcom’s Wild in the Park Sweden stop. Maybe you will too. Maybe I just have a thing for Sweden, but I’ve never been there. John Romo BS Smith, Photo: Fyledal. Check it out.

I came across a cool t-shirt on the internet of the drawing on the left. (reacharound to Monoscope) which led me to a short piece by the artist. Oh yeah, and Huck magazine, which seems to be one of those all action sports mags from the U.K. has the shirt in their store.

Sure, we’re all about Japan here, but when are we going to cover something that often gets overlooked, like, oh, i don’t know. Say for instance, the Northwest bowl scene? Bailgun is a video put together by Steve Reeves. So this was submitted (Not by Steve) as a potential palate cleanser after watching the Overground Broadcasting clip. I’ve often wished cheap video cameras were available when I was a wild impetuous youth, but then after watching some of the scenes in Bailgun, I’m kind of glad I didn’t film all my, errr… escapades. Bailgun is not without charm, but it’s a bit long. Did you know the U.S. Army had a weapons program where gun howitzers were tested for firing nuclear bombs in artillery shells? You can see one in action, mushroom cloud included, in the opening credits of Bailgun. Awesome, and very disturbiing. Watch it after the jump.

Completely unrelated Bailgun news: Bailgun Magazine #7 is now available for viewing and download. Bailgun is based in Germany, and #7 is the Swedish issue.

- Thanks to Daniel Evans for the tip.

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Wrapping up some longboard-centric items. First up is fashion designer Adam Kimmel’s promo film Claremont consisting of a couple of beardos screaming downhill in suits we can only assume were designed by Adam Kimmel. I’m not exactly sure how the tie in works, but it seems to be getting people talking. The right people? I can’t make that call. I thought it was a hoax at first, as far as Adam Kimmel being in the fashion industry, but it would have to be an elaborate one. The downhill action looks insanely fast. These guys even pass a car as well as passing the camera between themselves and shooting backwards. I don’t know how they do it, but my helmet is off to them. They make a certain German downhiller look like a wuss in comparison. Supposedly, German police are on the lookout for a man assumed to be “a professional stuntman” in full leathers who reached 62 MPH on a two mile stretch of the Autobahn after getting a tow in by a motorcycle. Pfffft! Talk to me when you do it in light blue polyester. Lastly, there’s the L.A. Times article titled More skaters switching to longboards, from the Health section no less. Because it’s the internet, you can watch both videos in the same place.

- Thanks to sk8norcal, Jake, Colin and Micheal for the tips.

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“I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.  It is not so desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.” -Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849

On August 29th, Derek Anderson (Mark Conahan’s age) committed a breach of peace when he scaled a 300-foot crane located in the beer garden of the Doghouse Public House.  This act of civil disobedience was an aim to shed some light on a particular subject: the Dudhope Skatepark, pictured above courtesy of Google Maps user ihatetechnology,  in Westport, Dundee, UK.

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Two countries that are alike in so many ways… at least if you are mostly going by the fact that I’ve never been to either, but that doesn’t stop me from being vaguely connected to people there through the magic of the Interwebs™. After the jump catch two videos sent to me through various global dealing of Skate and Annoy. We’re huge, you know.

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We’re looking forward to more progress at Brotherhood Plaza in Stockholm Sweden. I may have had a Swedish girlfriend for about 15 minutes once in the 90’s, although I ‘m not sure she’d agree. I’d like to see something like that here. (The DIY street plaza, not my Swedish pretend ex-girlfriend. She said she was some sort of youth sailing champion. Elena, where are you? No, don’t answer that, I’m married with kids.) I did hear back from David Krug, the man behind Brotherhood. He shed a little light on the D.I.Y. street plaza project. There’s a lot of photos on the official site, but not a lot of actual information. In fact I think his short email says more than the official site, at least in English.

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Here’s two, one from the 80’s and one that would have been at home in the 80’s but just came out. On the left is a new Concrete Wave patch with Jim Phillips artwork that originally appeared on a Pocket Pistols deck, but has also recently appeared as a poster and cover of Concrete Wave magazine, not to mention a magnet as well. On the right is a patch from Monster Skateboard Magazine of Germany, from back in the late 80’s. I originally go this from a skateboarding friendof mine (Ray Johnson) who was in the Air Force who got stationed in West Germany. Yes, by all means, we are accepting scans of skate patches for a future gallery.

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