I never know what sort of reactions a post will get. Sometimes I can be spot on with a prediction, and other times when I hesitate to make a particular post, the comments flood in when it goes live. I made a quick public service announcement on Friday about the opening of Gabriel Park skate park, and it touched a nerve. Shortly thereafter I received a comic from a source that wishes to remain anonymous. All things considered, it’s pretty damned funny, so I’m posting it.

This edition of Saturday Starrs is a 1978 California Free Former demo at something called Cal Jam II which was one of those outdoor mega concerts that purportedly had an attendance of 350,000 people. The skaters are legends Ty Page, Laura Thornhill and Brian Beardsley. Can someone be considered a legend if they aren’t well known? I’m certainly not up on all the 70’s pros, but who the heck is Brian Beardsley? (UPDATE: OK, Brian Beardsley) Right. There’s freestyle, highjump and halfpipe footage from one of the plexiglass Firestone Ramps. At least one of those Firestone ramps was still being carted across country for demos as late as 1988 or so.

It’s a done deal. Rich from EPM took some real live action photos. I’ll link to them when he gets them up. Until then, the session is on! Nothing to skate here in Portland. UPDATE: EPM pics are up.

This is a few days old, but Jay Adams is a free man once again. Fuel Tv has the scoop. If you’re inclined to help Jay stay out of jail for good, you can always buy his photo book, Jay Boy. Come on Jay. Go easy… Step lightly… Stay free…

[Source: Skatedaily Photo left: Wikimedia]

Peggy Sue is a painting by David Mann who used to do a lot of work for Easy Riders until shortly before his death in 2004. His first gig was illustrating posters for Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s Choppers magazine. I poached this from Max Schaaf’s 4Q Conditioning. There’s a gallery of David Mann paintings online but this particular image is a bit larger. Wikipedia says his centerfolds started appearing in Easy Riders in 1973, so I’d date this picture from the mid to late 70’s.

We’re looking forward to more progress at Brotherhood Plaza in Stockholm Sweden. I may have had a Swedish girlfriend for about 15 minutes once in the 90’s, although I ‘m not sure she’d agree. I’d like to see something like that here. (The DIY street plaza, not my Swedish pretend ex-girlfriend. She said she was some sort of youth sailing champion. Elena, where are you? No, don’t answer that, I’m married with kids.) I did hear back from David Krug, the man behind Brotherhood. He shed a little light on the D.I.Y. street plaza project. There’s a lot of photos on the official site, but not a lot of actual information. In fact I think his short email says more than the official site, at least in English.

In the Surprise Guests at Pier Park post I mentioned the fact that we missed David Gravette ollie transferring from the small bowl into the deep end at Pier. Turns out I got it wrong. He was ollieing from the naturally occurring launch ramp that separates the two levels as seen in this picture from John Aguilar. John also swears that he made it. I actually think this is gnarlier than the bowl transfer. to get an idea of what he was doing, see the larger version after the jump.

I don’t read Thrasher with any sort of regularity anymore, sometimes I flip through it at the hippie grocery store in my neighborhood. however, I bought the last issue so I could check out an alleged Naked Raygun interview. Since I had already bought the cow instead of stealing the milk for free, (or maybe I was there to buy milk) I read the rest of it and was really surprised. A couple features caught my attention, especially a China/Vietnam tour diary by Michael Burnett. I had it in the back of my head to make a rainy day post about how I might start reading Thrasher more regularly. Cue plate of shrimp coincidence. Michael Burnett is having a book release/photo show/reading at Cal’s Pharmacy in Portland tomorrow, July 11th from 7-10 with live music by Yes Father. The book appears to be called… The Outskirts of Awesome. DISCLAIMER: I took the liberty of replacing the original photo on the official flyer with a different picture I poached from his web site. Artists really love it when you appropriate and mess with their vision. Don’t let them tell you any different. Even if they seem like they are getting irate about it, they’re really just pulling your leg. I know this for certain because I went to art school. Just give them a knowing wink. It can be our secret. Check out the official flyer after the jump.

Tito from Team Pain sent some pics of a wooden bowl they are building for Modern Skate & Surf in Detroit. OK, looking at the Modern web site, it looks like the closest location they have to Detroit is in a suburb called Royal Oak, so I’m guessing that’s where this is going, even though they currently have a skatepark in Grand Rapids.

Watch this brilliant video called Opus 11: A Real Fake Skateboard Video by Alexis Milant. After you watch the video, click through to read the rest of this post. Spoiler Alert!

– Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.