At first I thought this was a private facility owned by Rob Dyrdek, but it turns out this is the set of his new MTV show titled Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. The show is… right, who cares? But the set looks pretty amazing. I like the fake trees and plants. Nice attention to detail. More photos thanks to Transworld after the jump. – Thanks to JF for the tip.

“Only a fool has a pool and keeps it full. Only a traitor doesn’t drain his pool.” US Bombs, “Jaks” Ryan Lochte recently obtained two gold and two bronze medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics for his swimming. He even set a world record for the 200 meter backstroke.  However, the Olympic trials in July were in question for him due to an injured ankle acquired while (skateboarding) dropping from the deck of his house, as noted by the folks at Yahoo!Sports. -Thanks Sarib for the tip

It’s a funny coincidence that I was listening to the Trilobites I Can’t Wait For The Summer To End when I got the email tip about this song. “Summer’s not a bummer. It’s a stunner, and it’s now.” Sure, Marc Bolan was not known for the depth of his lyrics, but rather for being the the supreme effeminate glam rock guitarist and vocalist whose half shirts, onstage mincing, high heels and general rocking cool stage presence and persona were not even approached again until the likes of Prince. Marc must have had a fascination with skateboarding too. This is Skateboard Music features a demo of his titled “Skateboard,” and this video clip performance of “Celebrate Summer” from his UK variety show simply titled “Marc” features skateboarders performing in front of a blue screen. Unfortunately, the song and performance are pretty flat. Not exactly a good introduction to T Rex for the uninitiated. Apparently, Marc was also an advocate for skateparks. You can watch the video and read an excerpt from an interview with Mr Bolan talking about the exciting new sport of skateboarding and what government officials should be doing to promote “skateboard tracks.” – Thanks to Eric Shea for…

Here’s another edition of Skateboard Gossip from My Wife, who incidentally, gets all her info from gay men who write celebrity blogs on the Interwebs™, so you know it’s relevant to this site too. First up, It’s Ryan Sheckler on the cover of ESPN Magazine, although it looks like he’s been replaced already. No, the word “Hot” is not editorial commentary from SnA, rather it’s from Perez Hilton, who seems to have a bit of a non-heterosexual man-crush. He’s reported on Sheckler before. Guess what? He’s officially a celebrity once non-skating gay males start fixating on him. This one is for the haters. From the cover, Sheckler appears to be quoted as saying “I want to give them more reasons not to like me.” It’s official again! Ryan Sheckler is Punk Rock! I’d love to get the rest of the context, but ESPN has some sort of convoluted “Digital Edition” of the magazine designed to annoy people enough to not want to read the content online for free. Part two of our feature is Linda Hogan, wife of Hulk Hogan, visiting their son Nick Hogan who is in jail for pulling an attempted Vince Neil. What did she bring him…

Or at least the character he played as an actor. I’ll spill the beans after the jump.

There’s a new animated Batman movie being released on DVD to coincide with the hype of the live action feature with skateboarding actor Heath Ledger. Batman: Gotham Night has an opening sequence chock full of skateboarding. There was a pre-release rip on the web, but surprise, surprise, it’s been removed. Speaking of copyright infringement, remember the short lived Batman skateboard from Vision? The image above is from the Warner Video where they only show a second or two. If you really want to, you can see it after the jump. – Thanks to Joesf Heffner for the tip

More useless odds and ends. These guys in Massachusetts do touchy-feely performance art called “Zend” on skateboards inspired by stained glass. And speaking of hippies, the Seattle Times wants you to believe that longboarders have a higher calling. Ryan Sheckler gets nominated for a world wide sportmanship award in the action sports category, but loses to Shaun White. I guess there was no category for crying. An interesting note, a guy with the actual name of “Dick Pound” won the “Spirit of Sport” award for his work with the World Anti-Doping Agency. Sounds like spirit alright. According to the North County Times, Andy Macdonald is not a rebel, and he does have a cause. Do you need money? Why not fake getting hit by a car on your skateboard so your buddies can steal a purse while the driver makes sure you are OK? These kids in Vancouver, Washington did. What’s the next Xtreme!™ sport raging in Orange County? Racing Dodge Chargers on electric skateboards. The article “Not Just Any Old Token” does not refer to Dave Chappelle’s race, even if he is the only non-honky in the photo. Some skateboarders in Queens, New York found some humane remains and…

I know these are easy targets, but sometimes there is something to be said for executing the idea, no matter how simple it is. I like these celebrity fuckup models from Think Skateboards. On the left is the Britney Spears series, and the right is the somewhat older Jailbait series. [Source – Sirj Skateboardiing]

Is Samaire Armstrong a celebrity? Maybe not-so-much, but she was in Not Another Teen Movie (Warning, that link is a buzzkill.) and was a regular on The O.C. for a while as well. She posed for some pinup pictures in Stuff Magazine and Maxim, which are both owned by the same company. In an interview she said she regretted agreeing to both photo sessions, and subsequently fired her managers for talking her into it, among other things. Sounds like a weak excuse. I imagine she regretted being forced to pose with plastic skateboards from the 70’s. Works for me though. Maxim decided fight back by removing the pictures from their website. I pulled these off of a site called Sk8 the Planet.

Speaking of the resurrection of our Lord Jebus, and finishing up the Easter Roundup is this shot of Stephen Baldwin at the LA airport carrying a religious-themed skateboard with wheels that are large enough to be some sort of miracle. Verily, His wheels were just big enough for street skating, but when he got to the top of the mount, he worried not, for a miracle had turned the 40mm to 100mm, and there was enough urethane to feed everyone’s hunger for asphalt. This isn’t the first time Stephen has pulled out the skateboard at an airport, and he’s starting to look like an old woman. [Source: Gawker]