This was going to be a thread about the trend of municipalities closing down skateparks when they get tagged as an incentive program to stop vandalism. I was going to highlight that a new nearby park in Vancouver Washington is going to experience such closures: our park maintenance office has decided to handle graffiti removal at the park the same way Battle Ground does at their skate park – by closing the entire park to all users until all the graffiti is removed. Depending on the severity of the graffiti, this could require several days of closure. I was then going to ramble on about how it was obviously not the real skateboarders doing the vandalism, most likely kids that were on the periphery that might own a skateboard in the same way they would own a bike or a pogo stick if all their friends had one. Look at the picture above. It seems like a fun place to skate right? It’s sheltered from the elements, and it’s not even illegal. If that was my local spot I’d want to take care of it, but the Creekside Underground locals are pissing it all away.

To placate our massive Dunedin Florida reader base, here’s a link to an amusing video of Tampa Bay’s 10 News coverage of the Stirling skatepark. It’s the complete package. There’s a before and after advertising spot for senior citizens choosing medicare coverage (It is Florida), and an over earnest reporter who makes Bob Burbank sound understated. He also gets on the old stunt wood for the first time (Liar!) since 1989. My personal favorite, when they quote the town council as saying the half a million dollars was money well spent as the camera pans to reveals a skatepark devoid of life except for the reporter and one skater. Good stuff. – Thanks to Tito for the tip.

Welsh Pete wrote “while some skate kids are smashing store owners in the face, others are rescuing babies from dumpsters…” So in the interest of fair and balanced reporting: Four skateboarders found a crying infant girl – the umbilical cord still attached – wrapped in a blanket and left atop a trash bin Monday night in Queens, authorities said. So check out the skateboarding guardian angels (not to be confused with the skateboarding Charlie’s Angel) in the New York Daily News. AP Video available as well. Lest any of our regular readers think we are going all soft, that’s one of the teenagers, Christopher Moncada in the shot above, and he looks little bit like a pudgy 10 year old girl. Guardian Angel art, sans skateboard, from Sykel Enterprises.

Jason Jesse has a few choice things to say about the “documentary” on his life (Pray for Me) and David from Shitbird who made it. First off, I don’t get the cult of Jason Jesse, but I don’t begrudge anyone of their right to identify with him. Jesse comes off as a bit unstable at times in this video appearances (come to think of it, maybe I’m just thinking about a trailer I saw for Pray for me…) Also, I’ve only had very minimal interaction with Dave, but I’ve heard some questionable stories and read a lot of unsubstantiated crap about him on the Interwebs™ – all hearsay, mind you. The video is made by some Japanese cats, and it’s basically Jason Jesse on camera stirring up a shit(bird) storm about Pray for Me and Dave Shitbird, who he accuses of admitting to being an informant for the FBI and in general just being a lying scumbag. Take this video with a grain of salt, and watch it for some pretty amusing quotes from Jesse as the interview gets going. He maintains that Shitbird has gotten some sort of revenge on Jesse just by infecting his life. Jesse has resigned…

You may have noticed banner ads in rotation for Razorcake magazine here on Skate and Annoy. It’s originally the brainchild of Todd Taylor, author, punk rocker, publisher, skater, drinker and general all around good guy to know. Razorcake is bigger than him now, it’s a non-profit organization for baby Jesus’ sake! Issue #41 has a seven page article, How to fight for a skatepark that has heroes, villains and an epic tale of struggle, much like Homer’s Odyssey – mostly because the villains seem to have the intellect of Homer Simpson. Imagine you are tied to a railroad track in the middle of a dessert, and you can see the smoke from the locomotive approaching over the horizon. You think to yourself, surely someone will find and help me, right up until the point where you can see engine approaching, and feel the rails rumble. Todd Taylor was tied to the tracks just blocks away from his apartment as the Red Tape engineer of the City of L.A., The Cho-Bot, and Teflon were intent on railroading prefab modular skateparks from a playground company down the throats and up the collective asses of his L.A. neighborhood’s skateboarding population. It’s a good…

Fuck, man. It was a stroll down memory lane for me seeing this thing. I loved so many of these bands. There’s plenty of great footage and music. and lots of funny anecdotes. Gang Green touring with a skateboard ramp on stage, remember that?

This week’s late Shot of the Week is Jack Grover killing two birds with one stone, playing a skateboarding video game while standing on his skateboard. At least he’s not sitting on the couch. I have to admit I chose this picture after running out of ideas seeing a shot of little kids goofing off on a skateboard on Skate Daily, last week I think. Check it out.

From the San Jose Mercury News The five suspects, who are ages 18 to 22, burst into the store on their skateboards and began to ride around in the aisles, according to police… …”They did it for the thrill of it,” Pleasanton police Sgt. Jim Knox said. “They were trying to videotape themselves.” OK, so you’re trying to make your own Jackass tapes. That’s fine, just don’t beat up the store manager when he asks you to leave. That’s when one of the suspects, who police believe is a juvenile, walked up to the manager, picked up his skateboard and struck the manager in the face with it. The manager suffered minor injuries that included cuts and bruises to his face, wrist and hand. Now you are officially a dick, and not a very bright one, since they managed to get your buddy’s license plate as you drove away. More skateboarding dicks after the jump. Photos (Unrelated and with no editorial comment intended) are from Rebel Skates, although seems like I’ve seen the slogan on the left shirt somewhere, sometime… Oh yeah, Cow Skates in the 80’s.

I caught Ryan Sheckler’s episode of Firsthand on Fuel TV the other night. If you haven’t seen the series, it’s basically an hour long ride along with one Extreme!™ sports personality per episode. I’ve seen a few of the skateboarding episodes and they are generally worth checking out, even if you aren’t familiar with the skater in question. They offer a little more insight into personality without all the hype of a typical skateboard video setting, and of course they actually talk. Take Sheckler’s episode, it was shot when he was 15 and originally aired in 2005. His backyard skatepark is kind of ghetto compared to his new digs, and the hype hasn’t reached the level it is at today. In particular, one good scene catches him having a dork session at a local skatepark with one of his friends. There’s no front of attitude or image. He’s a surprisingly level headed and generally likable kid who doesn’t cry when he places lower than first. Sure, he’s got a meathead father, but at this point in his young life, he comes off like just a hard-skating successful teenager without an overblown ego. If you already like Sheckler it’s a no…