Nothing to do with Bam Margera:

BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) is a multi-arts center located in Brooklyn, New York. For more than 150 years, BAM has been the home for adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas—engaging both global and local communities. With world-renowned programming in theater, dance, music, opera, film, and much more, BAM showcases the work of emerging artists and innovative modern masters.

BAM is screening a film series on skateboarding including documentaries, straight up skate videos and hollywood dramatizations. These 19 films date from the 60’s to present day. There are the usual suspects, as well as a few I’ve never heard of. Skateboarding is Not a Crime started September, 6th and the last screening is on September, 23rd.

Social boy mens club visit to the Desert. To extend summer. Come join us. Details in the following transmission.

The left deck is an ‘Autex Sports’ complete. The graphic is a crazy mix of the Rob Roskopp 3 from ’85  (designed by Jim Phillips for Santa Cruz)  and Powell’s famous Ripper (by VCJ). It all looks pretty ridiculous: a violent Ripper seems to have eaten the monster and is almost strangling himself with a chain, acting all clumsy and the flames make no sense at all. The right ‘Alpha’ deck is clearly a counterfeit of Rodney Mullen’s Mutt deck from 1981, it even says ‘Mutt’.  The board was relisted on eBay, since it ‘only’ reached $200 in the first auction, but that wasn”t enough for the seller.

Thanks to christopha80  for the tip and Omar for the pictures.

Big O is officially “open” for skateboarding again, after a two year absence. What was going on for two years? A new soccer stadium was being built, and the spot was supposed to be demoed with the old stadium. The community saved it by raising the money to have it physically dug up and relocated. It sounds absurd, but it’s true. Check it out on Exposé.

– Thanks to Kevin for the tip.

Above Coping art show benefit at Commonwealth Skateboarding in Portland, OR on August 30th.

Vice magazine has an interview with sculptor C.J. Rench who was chosen by the Red Bull panel (including Torey Pudwill) to construct a skateable sculpture for permanent installation in Seattle. Sounds like a good plan, the city gets art, the skaters are allowed to skate on it, and a corporation gets to pay for it. Red Bull has a short video on the “skate space” that shows the other artist who made it to the finalist position, as well as examples of both of works. From the sculptures shown, I’d say the chose the wrong guy. Granted, I wasn’t on the board, but the other guy’s portfolio ( W. Scott Trimble ) had some pieces in it that already leaned towards an impression of being skateable. On the other hand, CJ’s work to date appears to be they type of stationary sculpture that is isolated in a presentation space and not part of a larger environment. In fact, looking at the scale model and rendering, the sculpture appears to be marginally skateable at best. There’s a telling clue in the Red Bull video, a big part of the decision appeared to be based on who could get it done on time for an unspecified and possibly arbitrary deadline. Let me simplify my position on this. I’m all for Red Bull paying for public art under the stipulation that it will also be accessible as a skate spot. It’s just that the (admittedly limited) representations of the final design don’t appear to have considered the actual skateboarding part of the requirement. Show me some alternate views and prove me wrong!

It’s been a while since we checked in on Gene’s My DIY backyard project. Looks like it’s done except for the decks. Additional coverage available at Confusion. Looks super fun.

Danny way dropped in off that helicopter in a different decade, so it’s not the first time, but Bob has taken the helicopter thing a step further, also using it as his personal tow-in rope. It’s pretty amazing as far as mega ramp action goes, but there are a couple times when I’m actually more impressed by the pilot in the helicopter. The helicopter doesn’t make an appearance until the last quarter of the video, and the rest is filled with typically high skilled skating that you’d expect from Bob Burnquist. It’s part of a series he’s making called “The Dreamland Series.”

– Thanks to Simon Woodstock for the tip.

I can’t remember why I had this bookmarked, or how I found it, but it must have been for a good reason. Must have been because it looked fun. Lots of cool banks.

Check out Volume2 issue one of Spunk Skate Zine online. It’s got a good mix of content including street, park and vert photos, interviews with Tim Kerr, Kira Roessler, Sam Hitz and Nora Vasconcellos, plus Keith Meek talking about his iconic slasher graphic. Lots of recognizable names in the masthead too. There’s a bit of a bug in the html code, you might have to wiggle your browser in order for the page navigation links (top right and left) to show up.