Hokey smokes Bullwinkle! Walking up to the Subterranean to see Naked Raygun’s not so secret show under the Ukrainian translation of their name and we see Seattle’s Briefs on the bill as well. With the Bomb also playing… What a stellar line up!

One good backyard mega-ramp deserves another smaller, hopefully less expensive one. Mini Mega Ramp or Mini Mega Ramp? Makes no difference as I poached this from Antigravity Press, who poached it from Old School Skateboarding.

I’m outta here for the weekend. Back to Chicago to see not one but two shows by Chicago punk legends Naked Raygun. The first one being a formerly semi-secret but now blown out show under the assumed name of Holyy Lazarski Nahane which is Ukrainian for… Naked Raygun. That’s yours truly on the right, stinkbugging a frontside air on a Naked Raygun skateboard. Say what you will about the Haggerty-less lineup, I’m excited about this show. Day two is Riot Fest. Also looking forward to seeing Chicago’s Effigies as well. No idea what the lineup is. Some other two bit punk group will be playing…oh yeah, 7-Seconds! They have a pretty darn good recent release so I’m looking forward to that too.

Matthew Sefton has checked in again with this write up complete with pics and video of an event called Middle Age Shred Northern Mafia Jam, which took place in Leeds Works Skatepark, Saturday 28th October 2006. The blokes name in the picture is Trawler. He looks like he’d be a Burnside local, but Leeds is more U.K. action in case you haven’t gathered. Check it out.

Got a tip from a reader about Skatemontana.com, which he says the natives (Montanians? Montanites?) are proud of. With good reason too, it’s sharp looking and has some top notch photography. Nice logo. Do you think they eat meat out there? Skate Montana? I believe I will. Thanks to Jer for the tip. See you out there this summer. Now go see why Montana is the new Oregon (except for Portland!)

Portland transplant Marek Litinsky is back in Czechoslovakia working for the KGB selling used skis. Don’t ask me, apparently it’s enough money to make it worthwhile. While reports have been almost non-existent, he had this to say: I also entered national championschip in bowl and ended up third. so I had money for a party. I love Czechs. Pilsner Urquell on tap for $1.50 with tip…. The picture above was featured in the print version of the the Czech skate mag called Board. I couldn’t find a link to a story or anything but you can Czech out a larger version here. Nice shirt Marek. Czech, Czech, Czeck. One-two, Czech, Czech. It’s fun to say and type. Photo credit: the Unknown Czech.

After weeks of faking Grover’s video Korner in hopes of getting him to contribute to the site, Grover finally coughed up this video footage of the skateboarding tryouts for the Guz Van Sant film Paranoid Park which is filming in and around Burnside. His first installment is both hard to watch and riveting. A star is born, ladies and gentlemen. Without further adieu, I give you Steve’s intro. (Ahem, adieu: I hope to get him posting these directly, bypassing my sarcastic comments entirely, but MC managed to get this posted before I could! ) Hello everyone welcome to my blog I will try to keep it current. It will consist of stuff I find interesting. So (tune out-drop-in) and get your blog on as I get my blog on. Peace off Grover. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Paranoid Park Tryouts on Grover’s Video Korner

If you’ve ever owned or frequented a backyard ramp you’ve probably seen the attempts to ride the neighborhood gas powered scooter or small cc dirt bike on a half pipe before. It usually ends in a lot of pain or hole in the ramp. Somewhere there’s a guy in a cube getting paid to send emails to sites like this one in hopes of instigating a buzz about a product. It’s called viral marketing and it’s either ingenious or insidious, depending on how you look at it. In any case, it’s kind of fun to imagine the possibility that there are guys out there somewhere taking Extreme!™ to the next level by freestyle car driving on half pipes. Who knows, maybe some day someone will do something like this on a really basic level. Most of the videos are really well done. The screen captures are difficult cause the car is only is barely ever in frame with the ramp, which is why it sometimes works. When it doesn’t work it looks like crap. The official site is still being coy about what they are really advertising. Captain Obvious says it’s an upcoming video game. You guys owe me a…

The NY Times has a two page article on Bob Burnquist’s backyard mega ramp titled “Huge Skateboarding Ramp Beckons Daredevils.” It has some good pictures and video. I knew they built these things for Danny Way to play on and then tore them down. It was only a matter of time before someone with a lot of land found a permanent place for one. I wonder if he has the traditional crappy chain and padlock on the flat bottom. I’m picturing an amusing scenario where Bob pulls up to his mansion in an SUV and has to yell “You damn kids! get outta here!” to all the groms barging the mega ramp, except they are all laying in a shattered pile at the bottom of the landing ramp. Hope he’s got good homeowner’s insurance. Maintenance on that thing must be a royal pain in the wallet too. How much does a mega ramp cost? $280,000. Well, it was either that or spring for his and her 24k gold plated Plasma TVs. Thanks to EPM for the tip off. Now go read the article.

Motorola is the latest consumer electronics company to use skateboarding to help market it’s products. In this case, a cell phone. I’m not sure which object in the picture they are trying to fetish-ize. Poached from Engadget who poached it from Phonearena.com. Not quite as impressive as a 24K Gold TV huh?