Portable FIlm Festival is showcasing some Buddy Nichols & Rick Charnoski shorts. Six Stair is going to be the new name for what used to be known as NCP FIlms, but what the heck is Portable Film Festival?

The Portable Film Festival is a daily online film channel. We profile one great new release each day, every day of the year, plus hunt, tag and collect random great web-based films spotted by Portable Film Festival curators. This is the Portable Film Festival’s serious commitment to international screen culture and to broadcasting and distribution models outside of traditional old media channels. Through our site, quality international releases will find audiences online, every day, all year round.

So.. It’s a web site with films. Check out the Six Stair showcase from the reigning kings of capturing skateboarding on film, the 18 frame per second kind. If you are in Australia, you can catch the premier of Deathbowl to Downtown at the Melbourne Film Festival in August.

A lot of people are excited about this book. Disposable was reprinted in several editions with additions. The Disposable Skateboard Bible (Or Disposable II, depending on where you look) is available from Gingko Press. I’ve got conflicting information on cover art and page counts, but I’ll find out soon enough when my copy arrives in the mail. (Update: The Gingko site has prerelease information and graphics, as they are in the middle of a site re-design.) The scope of the book is supposed to be broader. I asked Sean Cliver if the new book encompassed the first one, and here’s what he had to say:

…it’s an all-new book. a complement to the first, really. 1) Includes 60s/70s stuff; 2) Includes a lot more 80s stuff that didn’t fit the first book; 3) Includes new artist/rider stories from like VCJ, Greg Evans, Art/Steve Godoy, Gator, etc.; 4) much more of a “collector” bias in its opening words. on that note, it’s also far less wordier than the first book with more pages devoted to board images (a total of like 2500 i think?).

Can’t wait to see it. He’s been working on this for a few years now, and with high level the bar was set at by the first Disposable, I’m guessing this one is going to be…. brilliant as well. I was going to say “anything but disposable”, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Except I just did.

If you thought this was beautiful, wait to you feast your eyes on the best commercial in the entire world, ever. Yeah, that’s right, the results are in, and this commercial for the skate bike has won hands down. Check it out after the jump, with a bonus advert for the product as printed in a couple of 1984 issues of Thrasher. While you were out… Thrasher has brought the complete back issues online up to 1985. I wish they would go back to the old method of making it a single pdf download. For one thing, the image size was bigger and even the tiny print was legible. I guess they get more page views that way.

– Thanks to Matt Beasley and Ben for the tips.

Three bits of iPhone related skateboard news at once. First up, Apple’s advertisement for the video shooting and editing (!) capabilities of the the new iPhone. Check it out here. Somebody built a nice miniramp for that hurricane wall studio setup. I wonder what happened to it afterwards. Next up, Made for Skate has launched an iPhone app version of their collection of skateboard shoe history. Aside from the massive historical archives at your fingertips, you also get free updates, a store locator, etc… If you are obsessively into skate shoes, this would seem to be your go to app. Not bad for two bucks. Made for Skate web site has been recently updated with new pictures from their ongoing exhibitions, and wallpapers for your desktop and phones. Lastly, there is an iPhone app called Go SK8 that is the high tech equivalent of those hand held golf counters or ball, strike out clickers that little league baseball umpires use. It does more than just keep track of your letters, it will also randomly pick your tricks. You can choose three different skill levels and three different terrain types (flatground, rails and transition) I suppose that would be a good way to force yourself to mix it up.

If you can believe it, this adult film uses skateboarding to sell itself, yet according to one review, if you blink you’ll miss the brief instance a skateboard actually shows up, and they make no mention of in the dialogue. It’s almost as if, (gasp!) the plot is entirely unimportant to the movie.

Jim Murphy has organized a Native Skate Jam on a six-foot high half pipe at the the Smithsonian Institution (Potomac Atrium National Museum of the American Indian). The session is on Friday, July 3 through Sunday, July 5 at 12 and 2 p.m. daily. The skate jam is in support of “Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America” that is open through Sept. 13, 2009. Speaking of Ramp it Up, Betsy Gordon sent in some snaps from the exhibit.

Well we’ve got skateboard lighters, so sure, why not have skateboard knives? So says Snake Head Kives, the “Maker of the world’s first Skateboard Knives.” These two are already available, or at least they exist, as there doesn’t appear to be a way to buy them. They have three new styles in the making as well. Meanwhile, Dogtown Skateboards has a limited edition signed Jesse Martinez model. I didn’t realize Dogtown was a real company again. They’ve even got re-issue Bigfoots. I’m still more than a little turned off by the Dogtown fashion line. Track suits anyone? This was a couple years ago, and it was in an asian market, so who know if it was even legit.

– Thanks to William Buckley for the tip.

This just in, from the San Francisco Chronicle:: Physics discussion ends in skateboard attack.

A homeless man is on trial in San Mateo County on charges that he smacked a fellow transient in the face with a skateboard as the victim was engaged in a conversation about quantum physics, authorities said Wednesday.

I know GVK, Rich and I have almost come to blows in the car on the way to a skatepark, but we’re usually arguing about how to raise kids instead of quantum physics. They want to build a particle accelerator in my neighborhood, but I’m organizing a petition against it because it will just attract scientific method graffiti and discarded lab jackets and pocket protectors littered on the surrounding lawn. Stephen Hawkings image from Nerdtests.com. Also check out Einstein skateboards on Zazzle and Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, Einstein’s Skateboard.

– Thanks to Tito for the tip.

The Brain Injury Association of America wants you to wear a helmet while skateboarding. Who knew there was such an association? Do you have to have a brain injury to join, or do they give you one when sign up? Maybe someone with brain damage chose the name, because it sounds like an organization in favor of brain injuries. It’s obvious that the art director who chose this skateboarding butt shot had a brain injury. “Mom, Dad, I’m going to be on a poster!” – Thanks to Danimal for the photo.

So… you can get t-shirts printed up and then compressed into the shape of a skateboard, among other things, and then covered with a promotional graphic and encased in shrink wrap. In other words:

Get air with a skate theme that targets the teen scene.

Errr.. right. Three models available, all of them not quite right.