When he’s not busy impregnating his wife or defending helpless kids at skateparks, Portland transplant Marek Liitnsky spends his time puking in old Czechoslovakian skate videos like this one, Stramplovy Strudl. I would have thought it was the loud shirt he was wearing that made him sick to his stomach, but the I’m guessing “alkohol” in screen crawl doesn’t roughly translate to a Shirley Temple.. I don’t know when this video was shot, but it looks like a couple years have passed. I can tell you it’s 37 minutes long. They even put 22 minutes of bonus material as a separate file. It starts off with the U.S. Bombs on the soundtrack, which took me by surprise. I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe Czech folk music or official Communist Party themes. Watch the vid after the jump. [Source: Cold War]

I’m not sure what the barometer is for art and skateboarding, but the difference between eccentricity and just plain crazy is often a matter of how rich the person in question is. Likewise, you can bet that if Dan Gesmer had put on this performance instead of Mark Gonzales, it wouldn’t have been as well received in the skateboarding world. Jason Schwartzman (the lead in the excellent movie “Rushmore”) has a solo record out and a video for the song West Coast which is made entirely from footage of Cheryl Dunn’s film documenting the Gonz’ 1999 art installation at the Abteiberg Museum in Germany. You can watch the video and read Paper Magazine’s original 1999 article covering the event after the jump.

Sean Mortimer wrote in to remind us about Ray Underhill’s situation. He was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor in 2006. He’s had about half of it removed and is undergoing radiation therapy. Removing the tumor caused damage to his vocal cords and throat, leaving him unable to talk, spit or swallow. He’s in the midst of physical therapy to recover those abilities. Because the tumor is a rare one, he’s had to seek treatment and lodging in California while his family lives on the opposite coast. Needless to say, the whole affair has been quite expensive, and the insurance companies are behaving like they usually do. His friends are organizing a massive eBay auction benefit. The gear offered up runs the gamut from free shoes for a year to artwork to signed boards, re-issues, new, and historical alike. Seriously, the list is getting large. One of the more unique items is an afternoon of photography lessons with J Grant Brittain as teacher and Tony Hawk as subject. And the icing on the cake? The package includes getting one of your pictures published in The Skateboard Mag. Very nice. It’s one thing for someone to pick something out of their…

Our senior Mexico City transplant correspondent (Senior, and Señor) John Aguilar sent in these pics of Dreamland construction going on in Bellingham Washington. This is phase 2 of an existing skate park built by Purkiss Rose It’s a Grindline design that apparently dates back to March of 2006. The rendering shows what appears to be a relatively shallow beginners area. It’s hard to tell from the photos but it appears that they might be digging something deeper than that. Who knows, maybe the plans have changed. It has been over a year. More after the jump

Remember the Experiments in backyard maximilism? I misread Tim’s email and it turns out the bowl was in Orlando after all, which is the perfect excuse to bring up two more videos. One is classic local news crew coverage talking about a secret skateboarding society (I kid you not!) and the other is a collage of sessions that starts with Tim Kulas narrating the story of the ramp over Super 8 film footage. In true D.I.Y. fashion, both the Super 8 footage and the news coverage is captured by pointing a video camera at the projected wall and the TV respectively. Watch the videos after the jump, and don’t forget to check out Bowl Surgeon for progress on the new bowl. I’m sure Tim could use some manpower. [Source: Beer City]

Earth Patrol Media has some pleasant shots of the Prosser Washington park that MC talked about in his roadtrip to Irrigon post. It shows the park from different angles and gives you a better feel for the overall layout. Enjoy!

PR Inside reports: Hip-hop producer PHARRELL WILLIAMS has hit back at his critics in the skateboarding world, accusing them of being ungrateful for the publicity he has given the extreme sport.

That’s no typo in the the title, it’s editorial commentary. The April 20th issue of Entertainment Weekly has a “Style” page with this breaking news: “The latest hip-hop style trend? Skateboard Chic.” Apparently, the style is called Skurban. The layout features a couple DGK decks in the layout, and assorted trite skateboard culture observations. If you can stomach it, you can see and read it all after the jump.

What, no Don’t shred home without it? Err, yeah. Here’s an American Express commercial featuring Shaun White, who needs his credit card to allow him to fly from California to Utah, Canada, Japan and Norway at the drop of a hat. I thought that was what his sponsors were for? Apparently, American Express is trying to tap the demographic for spoiled rich teenagers. Is it just me, or is post-puberty Shaun White starting to look like Howard Stern with red hair? Oh yeah, the gimmick in this commercial is the old skateboarding used as transportation indoors – look at me, I’m radical! Extra points (and $, I’m sure) to Shaun for managing to get a Volcom shirt in the shot as well. Check out the commercial after the jump.

Some enginerds have built a low cost version of an existing skateboard/snowmobile hybrid. It’s basically a skateboard with two tank treads replacing the truck assembly. Even though they might have even used drills to power it, it’s still a step above this, but lowering the cost also lowers the perofmance, as the Sno Deck seems to have a top speed of 2 MPH. It’s no Scarpar, that’s for sure. The best part of the video is when the Beastie Boys cut into the super lame OPM Heaven is a halfpipe song. (Q: Sugar Ray wannabes, how lame is that? A: Very!) Then the action kicks into… well, low gear. These guys can barely stand up on damn thing! Also, look for their semi-embarassed “Engineering”battle cry. Catch the vid after the jump.