Hey everyone, quit reading this blog and head on over to Disposable: random essays on skateboard art. Take this extra on the passing of Bernie Tostenson. Bernie did some great graphics for Sims before starting Brand X. Brand X had a crappy wood shop, but the the screen printing was second to none. For instance, I have a Brand X Weirdo hanging on my wall in my living room. I’ve looked at it thousand times, and tried to dissect the print work that went into it. I figured it was 6-8 colors with a few blends in it, because when I contemplated the larger possibilities, it gave me a headache. I couldn’t handle the truth. Twelve colors? Holy cow. I learned that on Cliver’s Disposable blog. Add him to your bookmarks. The Disposable blog makes a great companion to the book that is a great companion to the first book.

So stick with me here… Some Kentucky-based friends of the site known as the Concretins live in the Louisville area and sometimes session with a BMX rider named Zach. Still following? So Zach’s dad sent the Concretins some pictures of skateboard graffiti in Lexington, Kentucky, and now they are up on Skate and Annoy. I guess the paint crews are Powell fans in KY.

Skaters for Eugene Skateparks has posted three video fly-throughs of revised design concepts, as well as some still renders. There’s also a feedback form which is accepting comments until November 22nd. They want this to be a destination park, so… feel free to comment, but maybe you could tip them off if you’re not a resident. The videos really help give you a better feel for the design. For instance, I was more likely to vote in favor of the weird flower bowl until I saw the way the outer walls were considerably higher than the inner ones. The video really helped see how it might ride out better than just viewing the overhead view. Fly-throughs should be mandatory for all skatepark proposals. I imagine in the not too distant feature we will be embedding the models in web pages directly, allowing users to drag the point of view wherever they want. Check it out.. – Thanks to Sarib Khalsa for the tip.

The California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica just opened a show called “SKATEBOARD: Evolution and Art in California.” The shot at top is thanks to a friend of Sam at SkateOregon. The exhibit runs until the end of May, 2010. You can catch a description of the artifacts and lenders at the official museum site, and you can see some photos at CtotheJL.com (Photo: bottom right) or The Smogcheck. The “museum” is actually located in an historic house in Santa Monica. The contents appear to be the usual fare, but I never get tired of looking at that stuff.

Some rich jerks in the Dominican Republic have an incredible house on the beach that also happens to be skateable. You and I can take comfort in the fact that there is a kink where the transition meets the flat, or maybe they were trying to recreate the “ka-chunk ka-chunk” experience of prefab street ramps. Even the roof looks skateable. Check it out on SpaceInvading. I did some Wikipedia research on the Dominican Republic because the only thing that came to mind was sugar and a few natural disasters and/or riots. Interesting facts I learned, The U.S. invaded the D.R. in 1916 an occupied it for six years. This after failing to annex it twice before. Abraham Lincoln wanted to buy it so the slaves could have a place to relocate. Recently, as much as 8% of all cocaine smuggled into the United States comes through the Dominican Republic. The service industry has overtaken agriculture as the biggest employer segment. I think they make T-shirts there. They have an advanced telecommunications network, a lot of poor people, and at least one very cool, skateable house. – Thanks to Skate D for the tip.

PHL is the airport code for Philadelphia International Airport, the same place you can find this 1988 installation by Vito Acconci, called Flying Floors. These cellphone snaps are courtesy of 1998 Tom Jacobs, via Brian Baade. There’s another overview shot here, and here. As long as we’re blowing it out… U.S. Airways area, Terminal B. That’s one hell of a roll in. I love public art.

Scout Magazine out of Vancouver BC has some shots of a Victoria renegade park in progress. From the looks of it, they appear to know how to work the concrete. I hope the press doesn’t blow it for the locals. It’s bad enough that they have to worry about kooks in Oregon posting pictures, let alone local mainstream (alternative) publications. On that note… Uh, this project is in Tennessee. UPDATE: Oops! Forgot the link. Just added it.

In the dark days leading up to the apocalypse of Skate and Annoy’s web meltdown I featured the Carvells video for L.A. Run. Well, of course that led me to do some further investigating on the internet, and by “investigating,” I obviously meant draining my Paypal account by having a record shipped from the U.K.. In the meantime, House of Neil uncovered a contemporary (at the time) cover of L.A. Run by the Swedish band Magnum Bonum. And yes, it’s in Swedish.

What they lack in market share, RealPlayer is willing to make up for in nostalgia by being on top of what was popular on the internet about two years ago. They’re still doing skateboarding dogs.

As a kid I always loved Richard Scarry’s books. Something about those chunky little anthropomorphized animals with their stubby arms really appealed to me. It might have been the detailed surroundings of Busytown or the inherent sense of humor in the illustrations. Now I dig reading these to my kids. This panel here is from a board book called “Huckle’s Opposites,” and it features one of my favorite characters, good old Lowly Worm. He’s only got one shoe, yet he still manages to ride a skateboard. He may push mongo, but his skateboard is stylish. Hang on, how does he push at all? Is that a Chuck Taylor? You can investigate the answers yourself by picking up your own copy from the dollar bins at Target.