Now class, lets start where we left off yesterday. Can someone please tell me where the Kiwifruit comes from and what was it originally called in the West? Yes Bobby, that’s right. It was imported from China to New Zealand in 1906 and colloquially called the Chinese Gooseberry. It was briefly called the mellonette before being changed to Kiwiwfruit in the 1950’s. No Suzie, commercial cultivation didn’t start in the United States unit the 60’s. What’s that Grover? You are correct, from the looks of this hang tag, the first time a Kiwifruit got “radical” must have been some time in the 80’s near Arizona, or possibly the Moon. – Thanks to Andy Wylie for bring this in to Show-and-Tell.

TR853-1™ is a “street artist” form SIngapore who, among other things, puts up these small stencils of skateboarding figures. I think these are most interesting when done in a temporal context. Some of them appear to float mid air without any reference until they are seen at the right time of day or night with the correct accompanying shadow. Another cool thing about TR853-1™, aka Trase is that he’s got the artwork available for free download, so you can make your own. I love stencil art, it’s been a long time since I dabbled. I have a hard time believing he’s doing these pieces in Singapore though, considering their harsh stance on chewing gum. I can’t imagine what would happen if he got pinched mid-stencil. Check out some of his work. – Thanks to Mike Buckley for the tip.

I never saw Full Power Trip from 1990. I did have a bootleg copy of Molecules in Motion though. I’d like to see that again. Here’s some Sadlands action with Blender and Jesse. I think that miniramp was Blender’s. Video quality is sketchy. It’s probably bootlegged, but hey, at least someone preserved it.

Surf Expo has a Sean Obrien interview With Reggie Barnes, former Wlaker freestyle pro and the man behind Eastern Skateboard Supply, whose indoor skate facility we covered a while back. The interview focuses on the business and not his skateboarding career. – Thanks to Michael Brooke for the tip.

See if you can figure out which one of the guys over at Bossco International skates. I can’t imagine how else they were inspired to cash in on the lucrative downhill sliding glove economy, and yes, I say that with tongue in cheek. Apparently these things didn’t sell to well, becasue they are only a year old and seem to have been discontinued. I’m not sure how they failed, seeing as how they were targeting the twin brotherhood of “extreme skaters” and in-line skaters. Do those guys even do downhill? Have to give Bossco credit for innovation though. They could have gone with plastic cutting boards velcroed on a glove, but instead they came up with massive plastic thimbles and rollerballs in the palm. Not bad for a company who’s current product line up consists entirely of LED lights stuck on other things.

I think it’s been over a year since I’ve been to this park. The neighbors have probably chilled out, now that there are more parks in the area to take the heat off. Willis Kimbel at West Linn. Photo by POX at Levil Uniform. I like lens flare, do you? Check out the Shot of the Week.

More things going on in my own back yard that I know nothing about. Portland’s Eden Powers as seen on VIMBY. Some great moves in there, plus a hard face plant on the side of a wall, not to mention a bunch of places that I don’t skate at. I need to get out more. Well, that and a knee replacement.

If only there was a video about the making of the video of the process of turing a skateboard video game controller into a real skateboard. Ripped from the comments of Skate and Annoy, The Tony Hawk Ride controller set up as a real skateboard. I’ve heard a lot of people have problems with the controller on this game. I saw Tony give a demo on a talk show.They had a random kid come out of the audience and try it, seemed like it worked well. Who knows, maybe there was a Wizard of Oz type character behind the curtains with a hand controller. People grouse about the cost of the controller too, but as the folks at Game-TV.com have shown, if you get tired of playing the game, you can always actually, you know, err, uh, ride it. I wish I had a budget at S&A to do thid sort of thing. Maybe they are saving the good video for something else, but it seems like they didn’t make the most of this opportunity. – Thanks to Cory for the tip.

Joni’s Kids, I’ve got Wheels, as found on BizarreRecords.com. From the back cover: If you ride a skateboard or pedal a bike or push a scooter, you already have a lot in common with people in wheelchairs — wheels! Joni Eareckson Tada (pronounced Johnny) dove into some shallow water without realizing it, and was paralyzed as a result. She had some issue with God, and well, ended up founding a ministry over it. I was going to look into picking up this LP on the off chance she talked about skateboards, but all I could find was a CD reissue for $17 and a cassette tape for $30! Aside from the ministry, she also does wheelchair outreach. JoniAndFriends.org. Oh yeah, there’s a green plastic skateboard on the cover. Whee!