Another newspaper story, this one from The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the shocking fact that people over 30 years-old are regularly riding skateboards. There are some interesting details about how they organized and paid for their indoor facility and I did enjoy reading: “Skating doesn’t make you a skateboarder,” he says, quoting Lance Mountain, a skateboard legend in the ’80s. “Not being able to stop skating, that makes you a skateboarder.”

Tony Hawk interviewed on another skateboarding web site? Nope. Try Digg.com’s Digg Dialogues. He’s still famous. Tony is interviewed with questions from the Digg community by the site’s founder. Conahan once suggested that I forego “Gratuitous Tony Hawk” references for Sheckler, but Tony’s in the media more, still. Watch it after the jump.

I think I was working on Grover’s miniramp when someone in the crew go the call that there was an upside down car in Burnside. I briefly contemplated going down to check it out, but even with supposed firsthand knowledge, it still seemed highly unlikely. Well, someone on the the Jalopnik blog checked it out. Jalopnik is the automotive branch of the Gawker Media blogging empire. You might have noticed a few links to their gadget site Gizmodo on select S&A posts. What happens when a car sits upside down for a period of time? Oil and other fluids start to leak out. Fun! Someone, somewhere, will blame this on BMXers. This is not the first car I’ve seen (secondhand) in Burnside. There’s video footage of some 90’s era hijinks on the punk wall. Holy cow! This site has been up for more than an hour,without being hacked and I’m actually making an update for the first time in a week. I’m testing the waters here, and I may have just jinxed it. – Thanks to Dave Arpin for the tip.

If you weren’t paying attention to the Wall Street Journal’s article on how Portland became the skateboarding capital of the world, you might have missed the tab with the interactive graphic that is supposed to display America’s Best Skateparks. The graphic is actully kind of cool, but predictably, you have to take their selection process with a grain of salt, and cringe a little when they show a BMX photo for the illustration of the Athens Ohio skatepark.

There’s a teaser up for an upcoming Paul Rodriguez video at Nike SB. There are a couple of celebrity cameos. I enjoyed seeing Lance Mountain as one of the cops. Ice Cube makes and appearance too. It seems Paul Rodriguez is blowing up (even more). Boston.com says he’s “ramping up” his exposure. They’ve got a short interview with Paul that’s informal and somewhat interesting.

Back in June we reported on the Stardolls online Ryan Sheckler dress up doll. It looks like they’ve added Tony Hawk and Bam Margera too. Sheckles must have pitched a fit, because he’s been removed from the site, and hold on, in the short delay since I first found out about the new additions, Tony Hawk has been removed as well, but maybe that’s because his celebrity likeness looked more like the test tube spawn of John McEnroe and Jimmy Carter. [Source: Examiner.com]

He’s Bobcat! (Cue theme song.) Master of Sleestak, unicorn-lover, Seattle scenester and magick DJ. He’s being interviewed byJohn Doe Zine tomorrow at 5pm Pacific tomorrow (7-22-09), and you can call in to listen live. Get the details over here. John Doe zine has been doing a lot of these call-in phone interviews. It’s intriguing, and with Bobcat on the line, I’m going to check it out. If you want more I’ve got a stream of consciousness history of Seattle skateboarding coming up soon.

Ryan Sheckler is a doll, and I mean literally, or at least virtually. Check out the Ryan Sheckler dress up doll at Stardoll. Sorry about the knee pads, couldn’t resist. Sheckler is the only other skater available, but they do have Dennis Rodman. I still love Dennis Rodman. Yes, I want to gay-marry him. You can even make your own dolls. I tried to make a GVK dress up doll, but all them ended up looking like a very crazy looking girl. – Thanks to Ben Roberts for the tip.

Funny how often skateboard is used as shorthand for culture clash. Why don’t we ever see a headline like Skateboarder wears a top hat and monocle to get radical?

Time was, when there was a big contest coming up you’d learn about it in advance from Thrasher, then have to wait one or two months after the event to read the coverage in the magazines, then another 3-8 months before you could rent the video from from your local skate shop. Remember when skate shops would rent videos? Does anyone do that anymore? The price of skate videos has gone down, for the most part. In 1989 you would have paid $29.99 for Public Domain. . You can get the Thrasher videos for a really reasonable price. Don’t you agree that all skate videos should be $15 or less? Getting back to the point, in my day we had to skate uphill both ways in the rain, on clay wheels that were missing 35% of the open bearings… Nowadays you can just get on the Interwebs™ and watch the contest live, through a series of tubes, as is the case with the Tampa Pro contest at SPOT. Tune in to Fuel TV on Sunday, March 22nd from 12-6pm EST.