I haven’t uploaded any commercials in a while, among other things. I’m so far behind and there are so many occurrences of skateboards in commercials these days that I’m going to gang a few together each time we post. This installment features 5 Hour Energy Drink, Kohls department store, Kashi cereal, Axe deoderant, and LIV dolls.

Here’s some footage from the Oregon State Fair Open. First annual, I guess. I forgot to post about it until the day of the event, sorry guys. Described to me as “Raw , blurry and , well, crust.” Don’t worry Albany locals, I’ll get to your contest too. I’m still behind a Trifecta day after all. Sheesh. – Thanks to jesus Crust for the tip.

OK, first of all let me apologize for this being so late. I went to a family wedding in England and was gone for 2 weeks mid-August, and that’s thrown everything completely off for July and August. I was thinking about combining them, but I have so many decks that I didn’t think that would be fair and it wouldn’t make sense. So here’s July, and August should follow in a couple of weeks, but be aware that I missed 2 weeks of auctions, so I don’t have as many auctions as usual for August. SO if you won anything for big dollars, or if you got a huge bargain in August, let me know and send me the eBay link and I’ll include it in August. There will be no music review this month because I’m so behind. Sorry about that. I was going to review Disposable 2, but I may not do that at all because I found it fundamentally flawed on many levels, but I’m sure it was a ton of work, so I’m going to leave it be.

Momentum Wheels has released a wheel benefiting the Don Hartley memorial fund. Don was a legendary fixture in the Vancouver BC scene, and he died n July after sustaining a head injury at the also legendary Seylynn snake run in Vancouver. BC Skateboarding has a nice eulogy, including video footage of the Mad Carver, as he was known. Style for miles. He was 52 when he died, and usually wore a helmet when he skated, but didn’t on that particular day.

One man’s discarded toy is the best thing that ever happened to another little kid. MC origianlly had plans to have some sort of mega session with people over at his place skating the new bowl and the old miniramp, but he got over that idea sometime shortly after the coping was set. The more deck he poured, the more irrelevant the miniramp became. Now it’s leaving the H.O.M.O.S. compound and relocating to GVK headquarters. We had a lot of fun on that miniramp, and I’m sure it will be a lot of fun a t Grover’s house when it gets reincarnated, provided it doesn’t get reincarnated as a stack of rotting wood that never got assembled in his back yard.

So far, three contests coming up in the Northwest this September. First up, Dokument is sponsoring a contest inside the Oregon State Fair in Salem TODAY. KGW has a video preview. Later on – September 19th Ravage is sponsoring a contest in Aumsville, Oregon. That’s right, contests are back in Aumsville. We’ve talked a lot about the lame goings on in Aumsville in the past year, that’s why we decided to get on board and sponsor this one. Time to put up or shut up. Trying to do do something positive here. Aumsville is a great park after all. That same weekend, Lib Tech is throwing the “Duh-Bowl Trouble” contest series in Port Angeles and the Forks, Washington. Be on the lookout for teenage vampire fans in the Forks… Fliers after the jump.

Well, shucks. I’m speechless, other than to say I didn’t know Skateboarder mag was still going. This is what they call rad. Look at those shoes. I’ll bet that smarts the suits at Adidas that decided to can Lance. – Thanks to Bob Mechtly for the tip.

Here’s a flyer for something called the Scion Garage Fest that features the Burnside project for an event that has nothing to do with skateboarding as near as I can tell. Burnside = Portland. CHeck out the whole flyer at the Portland Mercury. – Thanks to GN for the tip.

X Board Illuminators as seen on the shelves at my local Toys-R-Us. These guys get around having to add the extra height by placing the batteries along side the baseplate of the truck instead of underneath. These guys even have a “pro” rider named Doug Brown. Who the hell is Dug Brown? I don’t know, but then again I don’t follow the skate mags, so maybe he is someone other than the guy who started Skate Straight, an organization that would make Ian Mackaye proud, and could probably do something for Andy Roy.

I’ve been pouring through these two books lately. The first one is the Disposable Skateboard Bible, which is exactly what it says it is. No great surprise how good this one is, considering how well done the first one was, I wasn’t expecting anything other than excellent, and i wasn’t disappointed. Of particular interest is a wealth of 60’s era decks not covered by anyone else to date with the exception of Rhyn Noll’s disappointing collector’s guide. Disposable even has a red ribbon in the binding that you can use to mark your place in the book, just as fancy editions of the actual Bible do. What I did find surprising is how much I am enjoying Made for Skate. I’m not a sneaker freak by any definition, so I didn’t have high expectations, but was pleasantly surprised by how engrossing it was.