I lifted this text from a Swedish (I think) blog that linked to Skate and Annoy. I suspect we have Stefan Hauser, who keeps threatening to be our resident Swede, to thank for that. I can’t read a damn thing on the blog, except for the word “plywood”: Vad har hänt idag. Inte mycket med bowlen, men renoveringen av streetytan med ny plywood har tagit fart, trots att Erik.. Come on, the country that gave us Ikea doesn’t have it’s own word for “plywood?” I’m having a hard time swallowing that. I’ll bet they have a word for “particle board” for damn sure. I don’t know what the Swedish equivalent of D.I.Y. is, but you can see it in action on Wavebridge Pioneers

The Unted States isn’t the only xenophobic country. France has been trying to figure out how keep it real, French, that is, sometimes getting very angry about the dilution of French culture. Certainly not helping his countrymen in this respect, pro (?) skateboarder Jean Postec just signed a deal to endorse the Right Guard® Xtreme line of antiperspirant and deodorant products. Adding insult to injury, the French aren’t exactly known for their use of deodorant in the first place. Why don’t you know who Jean Postec is? Because he’s French and a vert skater!

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.

We haven’t written about Claus Grabke for at least a month now, so I had to go searching on my computer for this fantastic piece of work. You can believe the words from Grabke’s mouth, or see the utter truth that is this video.

Polygon is a Swedish company (since 1996) that makes hardware and clothing or something, including funny videos like this one for Future Pads. The web site is mostly in Swedish but for some reason all the video trailers have English voiceovers. To help foreign visitors get the full experience, they have included this helpful bit: We understand the fact that you can’t read our singing language, therefore: if you have any questions or just want to get in touch with our headquarters, maybe you are a fellow skateboard blogger havin’ some kind of link-exchange monkey business knockin’ about or, well ehhh anyway…. No matter, the pictures are in the international language of skateboarding, and these guys (what is Swedish for “dude?”) seem to have a good sense of humor and some good sound equipment. Jerry Svensson skate photo by Jocke Boberg. Check out the vid after the jump. [Update: I forgot to add the link to Polygon. Now I have. Twice. Duh.]

All Claus Grabke, all the time! You know we love us some Claus over here. Check out this video tour of Claus Grabke’s complete pro skateboard model history, from Titus to Madrid to Powell to Santa Cruz to Titus to Pocket Pistols. It’s narrated by the man Claus himself. In this video you’ll learn many interesting facts such as the correct pronunciation for Titus (Tee-tus not tite-us) the fact that Jerry Madrid still owes Claus some money, and of all his 80’s graphics, the Madrid board might have been the best one. Actually it’s hard to tell because the whole thing looks like it was filmed by the light of a match. The screen capture above is highly processed to make it more visible. I was going to post pics of the decks or even re-edit the video myself with superimposed shots, but they are next to impossible to find. I couldn’t find a picture of the early Titus deck anywhere on the web, but we did have a rare Powell socked away in an eBay watch. At this point I gave up. Fortunately, the audio content is enough to make the video worthwhile.

When I saw some of these pictures I thought, geez, for an exhibit on skateboarding, there sure does seem to be an overemphasis on shoes. maybe the source (kick-fiend.com) should have been the tip off. That’s when I realized it actually was an exhibit on skate shoes called Made For Skate put on by the volks at Skateboard Fieber. Translation: The folks at Skateboard Fever in Germany. They are the group that brought us the Claus Grabke Retrospektiv. It strikes me as kind of funny, the thought of people looking a t a bunch of old, worn out and smelly shoes just because people skate in them. That’s OK I guess. Some people are into shoes and some are into Claus Grabke.

More overpriced skateboard based furniture, but don’t take our word for it: Skede-tuoli on saatavana nahkapäällysteisenä tai pelkistetyn teräksisenä. Tuolissa käytetään harjattua, ruostumatonta terästä. Se on saatavana yksivärisenä beigenä ja mustana. Tikkauksissa vaihtoehtoina ovat beige-beige, musta-musta, musta-beige ja musta-pink. Uh, yeah. Available from Tunto Designs for 800 – 1050 € which is about in the $1000-$1400 range according to GoCurrency. If that’s not already too expensive for you Mr Warbucks, don’t forget you’ve got to pay for shipping from Finland. You can get it in plain steel, leather upholstered or without the skateboard even. Although, if you are going to go to Finland to get a chair, you might as well get the deck from the Finnish company Control as well. Looks a little forced and not-so-elegant to me. A couple more pics after the jump. [Source: PadStyle ]

Let’s see, maybe 1992 doing the backpack tour through parts of Europe and I took this horribly exposed slide under the Eiffel Tower or La Tour Eiffel as they like to call it in country. In Paris (duh!) we lucked out in arriving at a rare time when the pools underneath the tower were drained, but we felt like jackasses because we neglected to bring our sticks. See the poorly scanned full frame enlargement after the jump.