Remember Andy Wissman? Well so far he has resisted our offer for a spotlight photo gallery, but he did let us know about the release of Soytruk issue one. I like the zine, it’s got good photography and a sense of humor. Reminds me of the the old Swank Zine days, although a little more coherent. And in color. And presented digitally. Speaking of the presentation, I’m not too crazy about the delivery. The pages are easy to navigate, but the default image size on Flickr hosting (in this case, the pages) are too small. I also want to see the edges of the page. Give me a PDF file that I can download. It may be the lazy way of presenting a zine, but I guess you can’t beat the free hosting. At least he put it out. I’m still sitting on an print issue of Skate and Annoy that has barely seen the light of day. gee, maybe if I spent less time writing about other people’s work… I took a few liberties with his page layouts for the graphic above, so check out Soytruk.

So Josh has been skating since 2000, and has had Skatelife up for almost 3 weeks now. I started skating plastic toys in (Er… cough, cough) 1976 or so. Skate and Annoy has been online since 1996, and first printed in 1985… so yeah, that’s seems right. Go check out Josh’s site. Leave him some comments (Be nice!) and help him get started. I will be doing my part by poaching his story (with credit!) about an unrelated project called The Skate Life, in the very near future.

Apparently we’re in a position to help other people out nowadays. That’s right, you can stop laughing, wipe the smirk off your face and stuff it! We had over 80 thousand page views last month. Not requests for individual files or other inflated BS, this is Interweb™! magic folks! Now that we’re done breaking our arm to pat ourselves on the back, there’s a new online skate, art, lifestyle publication called Mumble Magazine. In their own words:

In plain english: we publish articles that have to do with influential artists, photographers, skateboarders, places, books, shit you can buy, music and whatever as well as some totally random shit that somehow fits into the picture. Headed up by the former editor of Crailtap.com, we’re dedicated to bringing real content back to the internet following the stranglehold that blogs have taken on it. We publish at least two new features every week.

Former editor? Sounds like when I interviewed for a job and said I was laid off from my previous job. I checked it out, It’s got some good stuff there like this feature on J. Grant Brittain and this one on 25 Years of Transworld, plus a lot more for people with a more well-rounded life, kind of like the seemingly defunct Bail Magazine, actually. If Bail isn’t dead, then they are the only skate magazine with a more irregular print schedule than Juice. Ass long as I’m taking the piss, Mumble’s definition of “actual features” is a little lax. Some early features are nothing more than thinly disguised but nicely presented product highlights, such as a bunch of pictures of Nike SB shoes and some free MP3’s. By that definition, we here at Skate and Annoy sometimes publish four or five features a day, even if we use a blog engine to do it. Ok, I’m done busting balls now. It’s actually something I’ve been struggling with here at Skate and Annoy. Our official “Features” posting has dropped dramatically, but a high percentage of our posts are very, very meaty. I’d even say dripping with content. Sure. Otherwise you’re just another monkey recycling links. Check out this skateboarding bulldog. LOL! But seriously folks, have a peek at Mumble Magazine. You’ll recognize some names over there.

(Note: Mumble links removed, original site is gone and appears to be malware now.)

I was surprised to find an article on older Australian skateboarders in the May 2007 issue of the United Airlines in-flight magazine Hemispheres. After reading it something reminded me of an earlier post I made in February titled A civilized way to spend an evening. It turns out this article is almost a word for word reprint of a 2006 article in an Australian publication called The Bulletin. They changed the title, the intro, and little else. One note of interest is the “Cyber Sidebar” feature for this article, which is a link to a United Airlines hosted excerpt of the NCP production Tent City. They also recommend checking out Fruit of the Vine. Well, don’t we all? I hope Rick and Buddy got a good chunk of change for that. United Airlines certainly isn’t spending money on in flight meals or removing extra seats to create more legroom. I was flying back from Florida late last night after spending an entire week’s worth of splendid weather not skating due to a separated shoulder and a jacked elbow. I couldn’t even get motivated to get some local coverage, which might not have been a bad thing since shooting skateboarding in Florida can be risky. You can check out the first page of the article after the jump or read the whole thing here. Also check out Australia’s Charlie don’t skate.

Steve Gump has posted photos from Opening Day at Glenhaven. He has some great shots including this killer pic of Ben Wixon Lien to tail.

Those who were expecting one of the big two to get the contract will be surprised to learn that Gabriel Park will be built by Airspeed. Portland’s parks department made the announcement yesterday. Here’s the unofficial word

…the selection process is set up to judge the specific proposals that are
submitted, and while they take into consideration past experience and performance, the majority of the decision is made upon how well the proposal addresses requests and items in this specific RFP. Unfortunately, not all of the great skatepark builders in the world who excel in the field excel in the realm of putting a proposal document together. Many simply just did not give specific consideration to Gabriel Park’s unique topography, opportunities or needs. Airspeed did.

Toledo has been a surprise hit. That’s Waldport Oregon and Pescadero, Mexico in the shots above, both taken from the Airspeed web site. It’s important to remember that the selection committees are changing for each park in the system. Here’s to variety!

Our friend Rich Burton shot some opening day photos for Skaters for Portland Skateparks. Above: Mark Conahan and Molly Quan hanging out by the Peanut.