A little slow on releasing this news from the Skate and Annoy Press Desk, but here todays juicy news for a Southern Oregon Skateshop owner now in custody of the Jackson County brickhouse. What sucks is his son Vinny Jr was a good skater, I bet its hard for him to walk around that small town and skate. Now read the sheriffs report with your mouth closed, its gonna be hard.

These skateboard art shows at galleries are now getting to be a dime a dozen. Nobody invites me to exhibit in these shows, but that won’t stop me from mentioning this one that opened today in Chicago at the EXPGallery. There are 40 artists featured in the show, and some money is being raised for Ray Underhill, although the details are slim. Artist reception is June 8th from 6-10. The exhibition runs from June 4th to June 30th, 2007.

I’ll cut a typical crappy skate punk D.I.Y. effort a lot of slack when they show enthusiasm for the music, so why not the same for a rap group? It’s not because I’m a racist, or don’t like hip hop. I have a small percentage of groups like Tribe called Quest, De La Soul, Digital Underground, and Public Enemy in my collection. Sure, that’s a pretty white bread selection, but I don’t dislike the genre on principal. This “group” Board Bangers reeks to high heaven of a marketing decision manufactured by producers trying to cash in on the hip hop and skateboarding connection. unfortunately, it’s most likely at the expense of the kids in the group, who it appears, actually do a fair bit of skating. if there are any doubts, all you have to do is visit their web site to be bombarded with a poorly disguised infomercial “to get this special price you must buy now!”

Santa Cruz sends a cease and desist order to Jim Phillips for unauthorized licensing of the screaming hand logo. Phillips claims he barely got paid and a bunch of guys on Skull and Bones mostly rally to his defense. In fact the hand drawing on the left is S&B user SkaterBonds’ opinion letter to NHS. “Sit on it and twirl” indeed. Lot’s of people weigh in with their opinions including industry insiders and artists such as Sean Cliver, as well as a few others that are not as easy to identify. 9 pages into the discussion someone purporting to be NHS bigwig Richard Novak finally chimes in with his side of the story, mainly that they are willing to work with Jim , he just needs to ask first, and he (Jim) has been and still is getting paid for his reissues, etc.

$150 will buy you one out of 500 Screaming Hand figures made world wide. They must have had some hardcore economists genius, or wizards if you will, figure out the intersection of supply, demand, and price to give the highest profit potential. I’d imagine they could sell a lot more than 500 if they priced it for mere mortals and not hipster lowbrow art speculators. Jim Phillips deserves to get paid for sure, but it would be nice to allow working class fans the chance to appreciate art as well. You can preorder yours now from Garage Works. Then again you can pay a mere $100 for one of these. [Tip off: Doogantown from Old Man Army]

Mike V. landed a gig blogging about hockey for Anaheim’s Mighty Ducks which isn’t a big deal except that in the May 28th entry he claims to have created skateboard hockey. I’ll bet there are a few Jaks who might care to contradict him. I seem to remember skateboard hockey in the mid eighties when mike V was just an amateur. Maybe he just meant that he created it on his own without knowing others were already doing it.

Stock imagery of skateboarding was stock in the 80’s until the last couple of years. Sure, the cheap and free online resources still have a lot of cheesy clip art believe me, I have collected a lot of it, but most stock imagery of skateboarding has gotten a lot more current. I think there was one photo session of an 80’s vert dog skater that was used forever. I recall in the 90’s and early 00’s he was on everything from watch packaging to toys and more. Here are two recent examples of stock houses advertising in consecutive issues of the design magazine Print. Hey Masterfile, that elbow pad probably hasn’t been available for sale in over 10 years.

Through the magic of the Interweb!™ I am able to bring you this heart wrenching tale of a columnist for the Icelandic Review who wants to learn how to skateboard in the worst way. So I’m here to make a plea to the little 12-year-old bros or any of you living in Iceland proficient (and patient) enough: teach me how to skateboard.. I’m not sure why she wants to learn from 12 year olds. Perhaps Icelandic teens have better things to do. She’ll need a loaner board while she decides whether or not she’s in it for the long haul. For your troubles, she’ll take you to dinner or buy you some “skate stuff.” Failing skateboarding, she also needs a place to live, and I’m guessing a date with someone her own age to keep out of jail.

Let’s see, directional surfboard shape and no kicktail or upturned nose. Looks like that skateboard is stuck in 60’s. At least it’s 10 years ahead of the general feel of the comic strip. Did you know that daddy once had a drinking problem?

It’s true, the helmet saved his life. Of course the article doesn’t get into why the kid was laying on his skateboard, rolling head first into the street. Jace was playing at the friend’s house a week ago, riding a skateboard “skeleton” – lying on his stomach and going headfirst down the friend’s driveway and into the street. The “daredevil,” as his mother Julie Muir calls him, didn’t see the car coming. I’m not sure if “daredevil” is what I would call this kid, but I’m glad he’s alive. I can only hope my kids don’t do something that stupid when they grow up.