Despite an unfortunate choice of subtitle which the author says was chosen by the publisher, The Skateboard. The Good, The Rad and the Gnarly looks promising. It’s not the first time the subject has been take n on, but it’s probably the most in depth to date, even though there is a good deal of overlap with Disposable. The Skateboard (TGTBATG) is less of a visual catalog and history of board graphics and more of a collection of essays on the history of skateboarding. The photography (by Lucia Griggi) is good and thankfully the grunge look is kept to a minimum in the otherwise clean layout. The Author Ben Marcus is a writer and former editor of Surfer Magazine. Ben put a lot of effort into interviews and fact checking through the skateboard community. His real desire is to put out a book for each decade, and he gathered information like that was going to be the end result. MVPBooks is the publisher, and you can see some excerpts on the book’s Facebook page, or check out a few spreads after the jump.

If you’re a regular reader you know we cover skateable architecture here, even when it’s only marginally so. Many skaters have/had the adolescent fantasy of being rich enough to design your own house and make everything skateable, but nobody has really done it. I imagine if you find yourself in a situation where skateboarding is paying for your custom house, you’d probably want a bit of a break from it. Pierre Andre via Etnies funded a small prototype of a a design by architect Gil Le Bon Delapointe (scroll down). It features furniture from the Skate House Study collection. if it gets built it will certainly trump a certain domicile in Athens, Greece. The protoype was part of the Public Domaine show in Paris, France, the same one with the clever video of board graphics. Check out the action video and interview with the architect after the jump. – Thanks to Marek for the tip.

Again with Natas from the Public Domaine show in Paris. Maybe he came up with the idea but it looks like someone executed it for him. What a cool thing to have in your reel of motion graphics. Hat’s off to Emil Kahr Nilsson, and Natas for his role. – Thanks to Betsy for the tip.

Nardwuar the Human Serviette, recently posted part 2 of the The History of Skate Rock. I haven’t listened to it yet but the tipster says it’s more on target this time, and does include some talk about eBay action. The show isn’t archived on the offical Nardwuar site, but instead on WFMU.org. – Thanks to Dale Pidlisny for the tip.

Check out this public art installation in Munich, Germany. It’s a regulation size basketball court with a mogul field surface and a light saber sticking out of center court. It’s from the firm Inges Idee it’s called 3D2. Looks like it would fun to roll around on. Photos: Marcus Buck. [Source: Yahoo Sports ] – Thanks to Max Davis for the tip.

It’s a big weekend for Burnside. Saturday is a jam packed day of skating, raffles, contests, tacos, after parties and other fundraising activities. Sunday is a chance to lend some elbow grease with a work party. Check out the full flyers after the jump.

It’s going to be one parade of lameness here on Skate and Annoy today, so you better brace for it. Kicking it off are these lovely fraternity flavored longboards, as seen here, although it’s not evident that any of these have actually been produced because all the links are dead. – Thanks to Kelly Robertson for the tip.

This week’s shot of the week is a Joe Stevens shot of Colton Carnahan at a Vancouver, Washington spot that is essentially a dirt quarterpipe that must have been made for bikes but is hard packed enough to skate on. This is actually a detail from the shot. I need to switch over SOTW so you can see the images bigger. Check out this week’s Shot of the Week.

No info on this other than it might be from the Public Domain art show in Paris. The YouTube post has Natas Kaupas in the title, but maybe that refers to the Natas board? Not sure, but it’s super-cool. Does anyone know what the scoop is? – Thanks to Eric for the tip.

So, welcome to episode #100 of eBayWatch, or episode #98, depending on how you’re counting it up! I’ve done 97 of these monthly reports and 2 specials on the $6000 Hawk and the $6099 Strople. So that makes this either #98, or #100, depending on how you count it up. Either way, it was shaping up to be a pretty dismal month until an industry player sold a bunch of stuff at the end of May, boosting what was a pretty lackluster month of 80s stuff into an interesting one after all. The 70s section was always very strong though, so that’s good. Add to that the usual number of bargains and a ridiculous article of clothing, and it all ending up coming together pretty nicely. And no worries, from what I’m seeing so far, June is shaping up very well too!