I take one day off from Skate and Annoy and I’m getting pummeled by this video of a Baltimore police officer berating and briefly abusing a kid. I think he’s just pissed because he got stuck driving around in that ridiculous glorified golf cart instead of a real police cruiser. He talks about the kids disrespecting the badge and the Police Department, when really he’s more disrespectful of both by being an overweight slob and a bully. Keep watching to the very end to catch the punchline. I actually first got this from Stephanie Murdock, president of Skatepark of Baltimore. S.O.B. (Their acronym, not my doing!) is a nonprofit organization trying to get an appropriately large, well designed and constructed skatepark built in city of Baltimore. She’s sent out a sort of a press release with some intelligent thoughts on the matter. I’ve included it with the video after the jump. Please, let’s try to discuss this constructively. If you can’t be constructive, at least be amusing.

Green skateboards and now green skateparks? In Portland there are two new skateparks breaking ground in 2008. Both proposals mentioned a need to minimize the environmental impact, mostly concentrating on water runoff. Seems like a minor part of the project to me, as none of these parks are located near waterways. But what do I know? I’m not one of those science doohickeys. Coincidentally, Airspeed Skateparks has the contract for one of those new parks and they are also featured in the newest issue of Concrete Wave Magazine. The article titled The New Cooldown – Skate Green: Design and Build Smart is available as a PDF download. There’s more to this green skatepark than you might imagine. Aside from skateparks the article also talks about sustainability in skateboards, clothing and shoes. – Thanks to Don Whitaker for the tip.

There are quite a few bamboo based boards out there. According to some sources (more on that in a few) the skateboard industry has surpassed the hardwood floor industry as the number one world consumer of hard maple trees. lets put that into perspective. If properly cared for, a hardwood floor can last 100 plus years in house, while a skateboard isn’t going to last a year unless you’re just using it for transportation. Now consider that a maple tree takes 28 years to mature for use commercially. Sustainability is big in industry right now. It’s even creeping into skateboarding, mostly through the red headed stepchild of skateboarding, longboarding. I’ve seen a few of them up close and they don’t look quite ready for prime time, at least as far as short boards go. It sure would be great if a decent shortboard could be made out of bamboo. There’s a TV program on the Science Channel called Invention Nation where a bunch of hippies the show’s hosts travel the country in a biodiesel powered van and investigate cottage industry inventors of green technologies. It’s a short bus, but it’s green, not yellow. Comet Skateboards was featured on the Less…

Remember the Texas Skatepunk Scrapbook? Bill Daniel has been on the road touring with his many artistic endeavors. He had a show with the same base of material under the title Texas Punx Pix. Check out the link for coverage as well as a chance to buy some prints (old school darkroom, not digital!) for the very reasonable price of $25. That’s my kind of art! The show pics are different form the ones we host on Skate and Annoy. I think Bill said he has something like 10,000 negatives to chose from, so it’s a different show all the time. He basically photographed every band, local or touring, that came through his part of Texas in the early 80’s. What do you shoot when there are no shows to go to? The skate scene! Photos Clockwise – Top left: Pfluerville ditch, Misfits, Back Flag.

There is Xerox on the Insides of Your Eyelids is the title of the skate art show happening this month at Needles & Pens gallery in San Francisco. An art exhibition exploring the realm of 1980s Skate Zines & Xerox Art featuring the zines and art of the original makers with work from : Garry S. Davis (skate fate), Tod Swank (swank zine), Thomas Campbell (joke), Chris Johanson (karma boarder), Andy Jenkins (bend), Bernie McGinn (tiki), Kevin Wilkens (7 zine), John Dettman-Lytle (naughty nomads), Mark Waters (408), Rich Jacobs (skate-edge), Jocko Weyland (elk, revenge against boredom, author of: the answer is never), Dennis Remsing (rem zine), Dan Esabrook (contort), Tim Kerr (Big Boys), Chris Shary (burly obsession zine-uk), Ron Cameron (dope zine- a blockhead mag, and skate slate), Mofo (thrasher mag photographer ), Rodger Bridges (grim ripper, powerhouse, dancing skeleton zines) Dang, I have a bunch of those zines and know some of those cats… Still something is missing… oh yeah Kilwag and Skate and Annoy! Fine! Be that way. I’m going to take my toys and go home. – Thanks to GSD for the tip.

What is that sassy wench trying to tell you? Isn’t it already completely obvious that hot chicks collect skateboards and eat cheeseburgers? Sometimes a skateboard can be the central element of a commercial, but more and more they are becoming just a small part of a bigger concept, getting lumped in the background with a bunch of hobbies whereas they used to be more of a crazy radical lifestyle commentary. So here’s two currently running commercials that feature skateboarding, one from Gatorade and one from McDonalds.

Late night downhill racing in the dark anyone? Portland is probably nearly as famous in the bike community as it is in the skateboard community. I’m not talking strict BMX, I’m talking anything with a crank and pedals. There is a large core of people out there that consider it a lifestyle in much the same way that many skateboarders do. In my neighborhood there is a weekly bike polo (hockey?) game held in a disused tennis court that is pretty aggro and can often be heard from several blocks away. The Zoo Bomb phenom is usually a bunch of crazy bikers that meet to bomb down a hill near Portland’s zoo, hence the name. They get into trouble sometimes, but the City of Portland has been relatively hands off, all things considered. I’ve heard all manners of motorless transport are welcome. As part of Minibike Winter and one of many events on the same night, the official unofficial entity of Zoo Bomb is holding a skate race on February 15th. They’ve got different classes for wheel size, gravity powered only, and now skateboarding as one of them. In their own words: Skate the zoobomb hill. Prizes, trophies, glory.

This Week’s Shot of the Week is Marc Haziza at the newly opened Skatepark of Paris, taken by Frederic Lannois. Check out the full size version. Look at those seams and you’ll see it’s a prefab concrete park. But, hey! Check out that roof! Sure could use one of those around here.

So Guess what? It’s that time again; more of the same shitty photos of the same dudes at the same shitty park in nowhere Wyoming. I bet you’re so stoked. One thing you won’t confuse this zine with is Success. Not with all the guys going to prison, bloody fights and stepdads burning down houses… Excess is like COPS, only in skate zine form. Excess hails from Wyoming, but for some reason I was able to pick up issue #4 for free at our local indoor park in Portland. I couldn’t figure it out until I saw the fat Bacon advert spread, so now it makes sense. One of the jailbirds featured, Handsome Jack Mackeral (pictured above) also spent some time in Portland so there you have it. It’s actually a pretty good rag. Mixed in with all the depressing details of their local scene is some intelligent writing and a sense of humor. There’s a surprising feature on How to Fuck a Feminist. Instead of a bunch of crude jokes (don’t get me wrong, I like a good tasteless joke), it actually contains dating advice if there is a feminist whose pants you want to get into. I’m married…

Man, I had to get some actual skating up on this site today. Sonny Robertson sent in a few pictures a long time ago: …my favorite part of skating has always been that sense of identity in time, place, friends, music, etc. that comes from a scene, be it centered around a ditch, a ramp, skatepark, etc. We had a ramp in our small town YMCA – the Box Ramp – that was in a raquetball court, touching all four walls, and we would get people dropping in from all over the place and it was just so great to be a part of. And then to go to Dallas or Houston and see the scenes at places like the Clown Ramp, which was in a sketchy-ass section of town, was just the coolest. The whole Zorlac scene was just nuts. Wish I had been a little older at the time. I have plans to add a section that will roughly equate to “this is/was your scene” but you know how it goes with so-called plans. Rather than let them rot in my inbox (?) I’ve posted them here for your enjoyment. I’m holding out one of them for a…