When he’s not busy impregnating his wife or defending helpless kids at skateparks, Portland transplant Marek Liitnsky spends his time puking in old Czechoslovakian skate videos like this one, Stramplovy Strudl. I would have thought it was the loud shirt he was wearing that made him sick to his stomach, but the I’m guessing “alkohol” in screen crawl doesn’t roughly translate to a Shirley Temple.. I don’t know when this video was shot, but it looks like a couple years have passed. I can tell you it’s 37 minutes long. They even put 22 minutes of bonus material as a separate file. It starts off with the U.S. Bombs on the soundtrack, which took me by surprise. I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe Czech folk music or official Communist Party themes. Watch the vid after the jump. [Source: Cold War]

I’m not sure what the barometer is for art and skateboarding, but the difference between eccentricity and just plain crazy is often a matter of how rich the person in question is. Likewise, you can bet that if Dan Gesmer had put on this performance instead of Mark Gonzales, it wouldn’t have been as well received in the skateboarding world. Jason Schwartzman (the lead in the excellent movie “Rushmore”) has a solo record out and a video for the song West Coast which is made entirely from footage of Cheryl Dunn’s film documenting the Gonz’ 1999 art installation at the Abteiberg Museum in Germany. You can watch the video and read Paper Magazine’s original 1999 article covering the event after the jump.

I have been interested in drawing comics for a long time. But I have never been able to do a long-form piece like a comic book, My comics have always been more like newspaper comic strips or sunday funnies style one or two pagers. For me at least, the story has always been the challenge. Victor Giannini commented on one of my comics and pointed us to his project. The web samples of Skatefast Dyephun originally seemed crude and juvenile to me. Kind of reminded me of this. The website had a couple of problems too but after I read through the sample pages I found the project crude and juvenile but in a really compelling way.

Dave Tobin sent this photo of Jay Meer painting a sign for Glenhaven. Jay is the artist responsible for the mural work at Burnside over the years. Five more days and the sucker is open!

Sean Mortimer wrote in to remind us about Ray Underhill’s situation. He was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor in 2006. He’s had about half of it removed and is undergoing radiation therapy. Removing the tumor caused damage to his vocal cords and throat, leaving him unable to talk, spit or swallow. He’s in the midst of physical therapy to recover those abilities. Because the tumor is a rare one, he’s had to seek treatment and lodging in California while his family lives on the opposite coast. Needless to say, the whole affair has been quite expensive, and the insurance companies are behaving like they usually do. His friends are organizing a massive eBay auction benefit. The gear offered up runs the gamut from free shoes for a year to artwork to signed boards, re-issues, new, and historical alike. Seriously, the list is getting large. One of the more unique items is an afternoon of photography lessons with J Grant Brittain as teacher and Tony Hawk as subject. And the icing on the cake? The package includes getting one of your pictures published in The Skateboard Mag. Very nice. It’s one thing for someone to pick something out of their…

I am bumping this post back to the top to remind you. It’s a week from Saturday Click the register here link below to go to the site and sign up to help. Maybe you can apply this toward your community service hours or at least your karmic debt. April 28 is Earth Day and various organizations including SOLV (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism) will observe the day by doing things like graffiti abatement. Friends of Pier Park is coordinating the event. They want us to sign up at the SOLV website. They will be able to use anyone who shows up but SOLV will provide water and Clif bars based on how many people sign up at the website. I will be leading two efforts, skatepark graffiti removal and litter pickup around the skatepark and along the road boundary behind the skatepark. You can sign up and then help with those specific tasks. Then show up at the covered picnic area and they will send you off with Mark Conahan. The event lasts from 9:00 to 1:00 and will be followed by a barbecue. register here It should be very satisfying to clean up the graffiti. Parks will provide…

Our senior Mexico City transplant correspondent (Senior, and Señor) John Aguilar sent in these pics of Dreamland construction going on in Bellingham Washington. This is phase 2 of an existing skate park built by Purkiss Rose It’s a Grindline design that apparently dates back to March of 2006. The rendering shows what appears to be a relatively shallow beginners area. It’s hard to tell from the photos but it appears that they might be digging something deeper than that. Who knows, maybe the plans have changed. It has been over a year. More after the jump

Nick writes: The checkered grip–amazingly–has held up almost perfectly. I lost one or two of the half-squares on the edge, but otherwise, it’s all there! I am actually known for some ridiculously intricate grip tape art. Since I only weigh like 140 and don’t really skate street anyways, I tend to have boards forever, so I figure it’s worth it. I’ll attach a photo of my last board which had my favorite grip job to date.