The Baltimore Art Examiner reports that city workers “accidentally” destroyed a skate ramp known as the “Pants Ramp” that was part of a year long outdoor art exhibit called “Outdoor Lounge.” The City’s story might be more believable if it weren’t for the fact that the demolition took place at 3 am in the morning, and it was apparently the only part of the exhibit that was harmed. No word on if Baltimore favorite skater hater and golf cart driving police officer was somehow involved. Get the full scoop. If you can put aside the skate harassment angle for a second, it’s intersting that the Pants Ramp was designed as a prototype first hole of a putt-putt golf course where each hole would be skateable. Yes today is mix an match skateboarding with (slightly more) mainstream sports. – Thanks to Stephanie Murdock from S.O.B. for the tip.

There are a lot of charity board auctions these days, and they tend to get lost in the shuffle. I checked out some of the offerings for Good Wood and found several that I liked, not all limited to the one I chose for this post. Winner for the “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?” category is Jeff Mullin’s Back to the Future deck. Hello McFly! Check out the Good Wood.

It’s called Good Wood 2008 – “Give Back”, an auction-cum-party presented by Aww Sweet & Alldaybuffet at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn. 50 artists will be auctioning off one-of-a-kind custom skate decks to support Stoked, an organization that mentors kids through action sports.

On Saturday, July 26th from 7 to 12 pm, bid on a custom deck (all priced below $500), dance to beats by Brion ISAACS (33Hz and ShindigNYC) and help prove that “one teen at a time, counterculture WILL change the world.”

Full flyer and info after the jump.

Andrew Lewicki made some very fetishistic skate art objects, namely this gold plated grind rail and a walnut launch ramp. Said the tipster:

“Even Norm Abram from The New Yankee Workshop would say ‘This is fucking gay!'”

Well, I don’t know if he would use those words exactly… I’m not sure where in the price scale the next item falls. Tom Sachs made a life size quarterpipe that was cast in bronze. Somewhere I thought I had seen a solid bronze casting of a skateboard. I thought it was Burnside muralist Jay Meer, but I might be wrong. What if you wanted a four foot tall bronze statue of a girl on a skateboard? Well, you’re in luck, provided you have $2,000 to spend. When will we see the inevitable gold plated skateboard?

There’s a documentary on skateboard graphic in production called SK8FACE. The web site was down for a while, I think they got blown out from a mention on the Skateboard Mag. Sure, everyone’s favorite book on skateboard graphics, Disposable has already tackled the subject, but from the trailer it looks like SK8FACE might have more of a 20,000 foot view as opposed to Disposable’s more obsessive compulsive approach. It’s hard to say actually. After watching the first couple seconds of the trailer I was afraid it was just going to be A Wes Humpston tribute film, but there are plenty of other voices in there such as… well there are too many to mention. Notably absent so far are two of the figures who arguably had the biggest impact on skateboard graphics, Vernon Courtlandt Johnson (VCJ) and Jim Phillips. Let’s hope they can get those guys on board. I can’t find any information about who is actually behind this project, or when it’s scheduled to be released, so after you’ve watched the trailer you’ll know as much as me. Yes, they talk about eBay, and speaking of eBay and Disposable, Sean Cliver was supposedly working on a book about collectors or collections or something, but I haven’t heard anything about it lately.

UPDATE: The high res trailer at the web site is getting hammered with traffic. There’s a faster loading YouTube version after the jump.

– Thanks to Kvon for the tip.

Peggy Sue is a painting by David Mann who used to do a lot of work for Easy Riders until shortly before his death in 2004. His first gig was illustrating posters for Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s Choppers magazine. I poached this from Max Schaaf’s 4Q Conditioning. There’s a gallery of David Mann paintings online but this particular image is a bit larger. Wikipedia says his centerfolds started appearing in Easy Riders in 1973, so I’d date this picture from the mid to late 70’s.

I don’t read Thrasher with any sort of regularity anymore, sometimes I flip through it at the hippie grocery store in my neighborhood. however, I bought the last issue so I could check out an alleged Naked Raygun interview. Since I had already bought the cow instead of stealing the milk for free, (or maybe I was there to buy milk) I read the rest of it and was really surprised. A couple features caught my attention, especially a China/Vietnam tour diary by Michael Burnett. I had it in the back of my head to make a rainy day post about how I might start reading Thrasher more regularly. Cue plate of shrimp coincidence. Michael Burnett is having a book release/photo show/reading at Cal’s Pharmacy in Portland tomorrow, July 11th from 7-10 with live music by Yes Father. The book appears to be called… The Outskirts of Awesome. DISCLAIMER: I took the liberty of replacing the original photo on the official flyer with a different picture I poached from his web site. Artists really love it when you appropriate and mess with their vision. Don’t let them tell you any different. Even if they seem like they are getting irate about it, they’re really just pulling your leg. I know this for certain because I went to art school. Just give them a knowing wink. It can be our secret. Check out the official flyer after the jump.

Watch this brilliant video called Opus 11: A Real Fake Skateboard Video by Alexis Milant. After you watch the video, click through to read the rest of this post. Spoiler Alert!

– Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.

Issue number three of Preparation S is courtesy of the collection of Sonny Robertson of SPS fame. Preparation S is from Palestine, Texas, circa 1987. It’s all meticulously hand lettered, and almost every page is covered down to the last bit of white paper. This issue is mostly comprised of the “Staff” of Preparation S, except for a spread on Art and Steve Godoy, and a few other pics of Texas locals like future Zorlac pro Rob Mertz.

No idea what this is about, it came in off the wire late last night.

Sorry for the short notice but that’s how we do stuff over here. If you took part in last years’ Go Skateboarding Day “Search for Mikey Chin Video Challenge” than you need to make sure to stop by The Dept. tonight @ 8:00PM for the premiere of the footage and the crowning of the champs. If you get this info and were on a team, make sure to let all your other goofy buddies know.

Perfect for the Ryan Sheckler’s in your life:

A Must For Teenage Skate Boarding Fanatics ! Is it a skate board…………. no it’s a Mirror ! For those who like the quirky side of life, try our skate board mirror… to be admired but definitely not to be ridden!

It costs £110.00, and at today’s exchange rate, it can be yours for about $215.