Rumor has it that Rip City Skate’s indoor facility will be opening as soon as this weekend. MC saw some progress being made. Built in accordance with legendary Portland miniramp zoning ordinances, this picture doesn’t quite let you know how tight this spot is. It’s going to be challenging, but fun. I still haven’t made to Epic yet. I need to check both of these out. Enlarge-o-rama.

Wow. I can’t believe this one flew under my radar for so long, but it was released a mere year after Thrashin’. I’m not sure what this movie is about, but it’s got two Playboy Playmates and a skateboarding goon (Hey! that’s Russ Howell?1) who meets a spectacular untimely demise. Is it because he’s doing handstands down the middle of a highway, or because he’s spinning 360’s with an inflatable doll? Both valid reasons, to be sure, but not there are other extenuating circumstances. Playmates are well known for their acting chops, so you know this clip is… not going to feature them. – Thanks to Skate D for the tip.

We’ve featured the ramp handywork of Tim Kulas here a few times. His latest ongoing project is something called the Goat Ramp. It’s a sectional miniramp made from vacuum-formed laminates… I think. The sections are sturdy, but hollow and comparatively lightweight, so it can be transported and set up at a place like this beach. Slide show with gratuitous bikini shots after the jump.

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.

Skaters for Eugene Skateparks has posted three video fly-throughs of revised design concepts, as well as some still renders. There’s also a feedback form which is accepting comments until November 22nd. They want this to be a destination park, so… feel free to comment, but maybe you could tip them off if you’re not a resident. The videos really help give you a better feel for the design. For instance, I was more likely to vote in favor of the weird flower bowl until I saw the way the outer walls were considerably higher than the inner ones. The video really helped see how it might ride out better than just viewing the overhead view. Fly-throughs should be mandatory for all skatepark proposals. I imagine in the not too distant feature we will be embedding the models in web pages directly, allowing users to drag the point of view wherever they want. Check it out.. – Thanks to Sarib Khalsa for the tip.

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.

So I did not have a lot of time to shoot footage for Halloween plus you are always so distracted by the Show. I did see a lot of good stuff that did not make it to the camera. The weather was great, awesome turn out. There is a sort of weird good family vibe at that Burnside Banks. I feel like if my kid got lost people would try to help him feel okay and get him help. Just to set the mode when I pulled up Red had the music so loud it almost hurt you ears and the song was the song from the bar scene in star wars where Luke and OB-1 meet Han Solo. Who would of thought that could hurt your ears. If you didn’t make you missed it. – Skate Off, Grover. P.S. Some of you may have seen this already, I put this together last week and got tired of waiting for Kilwag to get his site running again – See this video.

PHL is the airport code for Philadelphia International Airport, the same place you can find this 1988 installation by Vito Acconci, called Flying Floors. These cellphone snaps are courtesy of 1998 Tom Jacobs, via Brian Baade. There’s another overview shot here, and here. As long as we’re blowing it out… U.S. Airways area, Terminal B. That’s one hell of a roll in. I love public art.