I dragged my family down to see There is Xerox on the Inside of Your Eyelids and my daughter Kathleen took this picture of me next to my ‘zine Bodyslam. And that’s a cool shot of Garry Davis from the show. The Portland exhibition ends Friday, October 31 but it is going to New York next. Opening is November 8th at Printed Matter 195 10th Ave New York, NY 10011 (212) 925-0464 opening on the Saturday the 8th from 5 to 7 pm.

The show will travel to Holland in January.

Ah yes, I’m referencing a decade old Saturday Night live sketch, that’s how creatively dry the well is. Yesterday we got two separate tidbits about two new skateparks opening in New Jersey. GardenSk8 is an indoor wooden park that opens Saturday November 1st, and the other is an outdoor concrete park in Princeton (Ivy league.. well la de dah!) being built by Grindline (not listed) which is the good news, but the bad news is they ran out of money for the bowls and the park will be pay-to-play.

Remember the novelty Sneakers and Lace and the Skateboardin’ USA album? Jefferson Starship has a track called Skateboard on their 1976 album titled Earth. T.Rex had a demo track called Skateboard, but I don’t know the date of that one since it wasn’t released. I think I’d actually rather listen to Sneakers and Lace’ hokey skateboard songs than this serious track from Jefferson Starship. Lyrics and music after the jump. Conahan sent this to me a while ago. By rights this should be his post. Where did you find it MC? [Images – Vinyl Records Collectors Guide]

At first I thought this was a private facility owned by Rob Dyrdek, but it turns out this is the set of his new MTV show titled Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. The show is… right, who cares? But the set looks pretty amazing. I like the fake trees and plants. Nice attention to detail. More photos thanks to Transworld after the jump.

– Thanks to JF for the tip.

Maybe I don’t pay enough attention to the art scene. There is Xerox on the Inside of Your Eyelids, a traveling show of 80’s skate ‘zines opened October 1, 2008 in a small gallery at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. I just happened to spot it tonight when I was teaching a class.

Somehow I missed the invite and I’m guessing it will come down this weekend. On the first Thursday of every month there is a mass gallery crawl in Portland and all the new shows open that night. If you want to see it I recommend you get down there in the next couple of days.
PNCA 1241 NW Johnson St., Portland, OR 97209

More snaps of the installation after the turn.

I guess making a skatepark with foam for the backfill isn’t such a big deal after all. John Kehoe sent in some pictures of a park under a bridge in Holland outside of Amsterdam in a place called Koog a/d Zand. (?) It was built by a Dutch company called Carve in 2005. They cut the foam by passing a current through a wire stretched across wood, like a bow strung with a toaster element. RC geeks use the same method on a smaller scale for cutting wing and fuselage elements out of foam. Although, in a link from the first time we talked about this, some people just use a chainsaw. Pics from John Kehoe after the jump.

Apparently, four insecure jackasses felt the need to hassle someone they knew, repeatedly taunting and eventually beating up a kid and stealing his skateboard. The kid finally pulled out a knife and fought back. One of the attackers suffered some non life threatening injuries, and all four were arrested after the cop took everyone’s story, including onlookers (non-skaters) using the surrounding park. The upshot? If you watch the postage size video reminiscent of the internet circa 1998, you’ll see the commotion has scared off some younger kids from visiting the park again. Hooray! More skatepark for me! But seriously folks… It’s too bad that happened. Gabriel Park is one of the last places in Portland I would have expected that. Hey douchebags ands bullies, keep your quarrels and your lame asses out of the skateparks. Skatepark users, don’t stand for this crap. – Thanks to Welsh Pete and Troy Sliter for the tip.

[Source – KGW NewsChannel 8, Portland]

Yeah, and I am one because I’m trying to keep SnA out of the content filters. But you get the idea.

The OMSA ( Old Men Skateboard Association) writes history again by publishing the first ever Skateboard / Pin up / Porn Calendar. We shot a hot naked Woman who posed in front of some ripping Skaters at the OMSA and the Factory Pool. EVELINE, a Hungarian Porn Star is all naked, blond and shows it all. Not suitable under the age of 18 !!! The calendar is printed on high glossy paper in DIN A 4 Format which is about 210 mm x 0297 mm. It has 14 color pages and is limited to 400 Copies, which makes it highly collectible. Each Calendar is packed in a clear plastic bag. You can order your copy and get more info by writing an e-mail to: omsa1@web.de

Portland’s Ed Benedict skatepark is nearing completion. About two weeks to go according to the boss man on site. Poachers have been a problem so a security guard has been hired. Almost all the concrete has been poured, save about half of the short halfpipe section and a small part of a bank. There’s a lot of granite yet to be installed. It looks pretty amazing. I was overwhelmed when I was on site taking the pictures. Now that I’ve had a night to sleep on it, there’s only a few things that I would take issue with. Mind you, I haven’t ridden it yet. At one of hte entrances to the park there is a really nice looking wedge bank, but it looks like it’s not placed in a very practical spot for hitting both sides. Also, the rest of the banks could use a little variety as them seem to all be essentially the same pitch. Still, there are ledges galore and stairs and rails and gaps. Yes, there is already a line of guys camped out waiting to hit that launch ramp transfer. Portland’s first street plaza is sure to be a hit. Built by California Skateparks and designed by New Line.

Check out the gallery.

If you hear the words “foam” and “skatepark” together, you’d probably think of one of those tick learning pits, not a skatepark construction. I wouldn’t believe it if someone told me about it, but here are the pictures. Apparently, it’s common practice to use styrofoam (or some kind of poly foam) for fill in skateparks in Sweden. I don’t have any details besides these few pics from Placed to Ride, who were applying the theory to a skatepark in Gothenburg, Sweden. The building blocks can be seen here, and the finished result here. I guess it works. If anyone can explain the how and why, I’m all ears.