Apparently we’re in a position to help other people out nowadays. That’s right, you can stop laughing, wipe the smirk off your face and stuff it! We had over 80 thousand page views last month. Not requests for individual files or other inflated BS, this is Interweb™! magic folks! Now that we’re done breaking our arm to pat ourselves on the back, there’s a new online skate, art, lifestyle publication called Mumble Magazine. In their own words: In plain english: we publish articles that have to do with influential artists, photographers, skateboarders, places, books, shit you can buy, music and whatever as well as some totally random shit that somehow fits into the picture. Headed up by the former editor of Crailtap.com, we’re dedicated to bringing real content back to the internet following the stranglehold that blogs have taken on it. We publish at least two new features every week. Former editor? Sounds like when I interviewed for a job and said I was laid off from my previous job. I checked it out, It’s got some good stuff there like this feature on J. Grant Brittain and this one on 25 Years of Transworld, plus a lot more for…

I was surprised to find an article on older Australian skateboarders in the May 2007 issue of the United Airlines in-flight magazine Hemispheres. After reading it something reminded me of an earlier post I made in February titled A civilized way to spend an evening. It turns out this article is almost a word for word reprint of a 2006 article in an Australian publication called The Bulletin. They changed the title, the intro, and little else. One note of interest is the “Cyber Sidebar” feature for this article, which is a link to a United Airlines hosted excerpt of the NCP production Tent City. They also recommend checking out Fruit of the Vine. Well, don’t we all? I hope Rick and Buddy got a good chunk of change for that. United Airlines certainly isn’t spending money on in flight meals or removing extra seats to create more legroom. I was flying back from Florida late last night after spending an entire week’s worth of splendid weather not skating due to a separated shoulder and a jacked elbow. I couldn’t even get motivated to get some local coverage, which might not have been a bad thing since shooting skateboarding in…

Those who were expecting one of the big two to get the contract will be surprised to learn that Gabriel Park will be built by Airspeed. Portland’s parks department made the announcement yesterday. Here’s the unofficial word …the selection process is set up to judge the specific proposals that are submitted, and while they take into consideration past experience and performance, the majority of the decision is made upon how well the proposal addresses requests and items in this specific RFP. Unfortunately, not all of the great skatepark builders in the world who excel in the field excel in the realm of putting a proposal document together. Many simply just did not give specific consideration to Gabriel Park’s unique topography, opportunities or needs. Airspeed did. Toledo has been a surprise hit. That’s Waldport Oregon and Pescadero, Mexico in the shots above, both taken from the Airspeed web site. It’s important to remember that the selection committees are changing for each park in the system. Here’s to variety!

I can’t find much about Simon Woodstock on the web. There are a couple of reviews of his religious tract disguised as a zine, but other than that, just this video clip, Skim the Fat doesn’t have a single listing of him, even if IMDB lists him as appearing in Boob. STF lists 154 skaters in that video, but no Simon Woodstock. It’s like he’s been blacklisted. Simon was in the limelight at a time when I wasn’t following the industry rags, not that I am now, but through the Interweb™ I sometimes find out about things whether I want to or not. I remember reading about some legendary shenanigans and talented skating in the past tense. What I get from this video is a heavy CKY vibe. Just as some people can’t stand Bam, there are lot of Woodstock bashers out there. You’d have to be blind to say he had no talent. Watch him ride both a skimboard and snowboard set up as skateboards while wearing appropriate attire and shredding as effortlessly as if he was riding a short board. Then there’s the clown suit. Funny stuff, but I can imagine it wears thin after a while. So…

The rest of the, err, staff seems to be on strike while I’m on vacation. So this is the best I can come up with. If you hear “Blondie” and “skateboarding” in the same sentence, you’re probably more apt to think of the band. The rest of today’s Blondie had nothing to do with skateboarding, and wasn’t funny anyway. What can you expect from a 77 year old comic strip? Click to enlarge.

I was going to title this post “It’s reigning Jesus” or “It’s raining (religious) men” but instead I used a quote from an article in the Anchorage Press titled “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.” It’s a heartwarming tale of an 18 year old kid in Anchorage who is fighting the Alaskan weather and racial prejudice on journey to become a professional skateboarder. Sounds like a Hallmark movie. Oh yeah, the whole point of this post is Stephen Baldwin in Russia (!?!) holding a religious-themed skateboard [Source: Perez Hilton] and even better, (Is that possible?) a series of Jesus action figures engaged in Extreme!™ sports, not to mention panhandling (?!) , bull-riding, and in army fatigues(!!?!?!). All this plus a Jesus in skateboarding roundup, or hoedown, if you will, after the jump.

Portland designer Maple (not affiliated with Maple skateboards) makes earrings, bracelets, rings and purses from used skateboards. Sure, that’s been done before, but this is a slightly different take. It’s mostly geared towards gals, but I could see the bracelets going over well in some circles of skateboarding, like the Ipath crowd. The hexgaon shaped one looks cool. Is there a macho word for “bracelet?” Maple is at the mercy of finding used decks with dyed plies to make her craft more interesting. Extra bonus, part of the proceeds from some sales go to a skateboarding charity to be determined. Both owners of the SPS acronym ( 1 and 2 ) were being considered. Maybe Maple can fill in the blank. Check it out.

Oops. Too late. Our civilization is doomed if these are our future leaders. The video is called “mitch hittin himself wid a skateboard” [sic] and is described as “mitch tryin 2 be like jonny knoxville off jackass.” Oh wobble94, I don’t know where to start. Let’s hang out together.

Glenhaven opens tomorrow? Wait, how did that happen while I’m away in Florida? I am really dropping the ball as far as Oregon skatepark openings. First I missed Irrgon and now Glenhaven, which is only 15 minutes from my front door. EPM doesn’t have these problems. I guess it will be there when I get back. Get your super limited edition shirts at the event tomorrow. Hey MC! Sign me up for an XL… Oops, they only have large and medium. Must be a result of all the unsold memorabilia they have left over from the Pier Park opening. Maybe Conahan will have them both there. Buy a cool shirt, help us get a roof over a skatepark. Details.

Recently I posted some construction pics of a new upgrade to the old Bellingham Washington park. I remarked that the digging seemed to be a bit deep, considering than the plans on the city’s web site only showed a shallow street park. Reporter John Aguilar got the scoop. I had a little chat with Sage today. He said the deep end of the bowl would be around 10 to 10.5 ft deep and then a shallow end and a over vert pocket, and on the other side of the existing sk8 park is going to be the street course that is the actual concept image that shows in the city web site designed by Grindline. So the street area is the one in the city of bellingham web site , but as Sage said the bowl is the bonus hehe!! Very nice, indeed! Sometimes you get more than what you pay for. It’s not as sweet as it could have been, but it will certainly be better than the steaming pile of Purkiss-Rose that they have there now.