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.

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.

Okay, they called it a Skateboard Design Workshop and it’s connected with the China Design Now exhibit currently showing at the museum.

Saturday, November 21, Learn the art of spray-paint stenciling with Steven Uppinghouse. Bring some favorite images to turn into stencils and then spray paint the design onto the skateboard. Skateboard decks will be provided. Sign up online

I searched for Uppinghouse and found him as a design student at U of O. Hey, the $35 workshop does get you a skate deck and some stencil time.

Been a while, huh? This is the work of Argentine fashion photographer Basilio Silva, undoubtedly inspired by a certain Dwarves album cover. That shape looks very familiar… The first and last links in this post are NSFW.

[Source: Ben Trovato]

The “skateboard” key word channel on my DVR picked up a show on Current TV. I was a bit confused because to get to it I had to FF through 10 minutes of a segment titled “Why we shave down there,” with a bunch of women talking about, well, you know. There was indeed some skateboarding, a fun little street sequence featuring skateboarder and artist Mark Warren Jacques. Turns out he lives in Portland is a partner in a gallery that is about 10 blocks away from where I live, yet I’ve never been in there. I guess I’ll have to remedy that. Catch the clip by Joe Lumbroso and info about some upcoming exhibits after the jump.

I can’t believe the site has been up for almost 24 continuous hours. This Skatekeyboard is courtesy of Free Art & Technology, AKA F.A.T.. What better way to welcome S&A back to the land of the online living than with a thank you to Daddy Yo for the tip!

Your Mercury Wave is a 13 ply relief sculpture skateboard that has been chromed or somehow made to become mirrored. Or rather, it’s one of 110 produced by Mekanism Skateboards under the direction of Danish/Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Mekanism rings a bell… oh yeah, Space Invaders.

– Thanks to Julian Gilbert-Davis for the tip.

Actually, I think the momentum has swung away from Satan, what, with TV shows like the Uprising. This illustration found on Flickr references the old Trident gum TV commercials. I think SNL or someone else did a bit about those commercials. Maybe it was Kids in the Hall. In any case, I’m not a big fan of Satan, because if you beleive in him, then you have to believe in Jesus too. I’m more of a Bob Dobbs or Touched by His Noodly Appendage guy. That shouldn’t stop your from checking out YAIAGIFT’s flickr stream of illustrations.

– Uh, thanks to MC for the tip.