I haven’t been reading my Google alerts, but a little birdy (Thanks Matt Beasley) told me that Etnies GvR and the Soul Bowl contents have been cancelled this year thanks to the lame economy. That’s OK, because the 5th annual Vans Protec Pool Party will be shown live on Fuel TV. The Combi Bowl contest purse is $90,000! Fuel TV has some promotional interviews with some of the pros getting ready for the contest, such as Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg and the often entertaining Steve Olson on How to Judge a Clusterfuck. Live HD Webcast. May 16th, 1-9 PM, Pacific Standard time. Whet your whistle with this trailer.

We reported on the rumor a couple months ago, but the possibility has become a reality. Concussion Magazine is back on the newsstands. Regular photo contributors Brendan Kline and Brooks Fritz have in effect taken over the publication of Concussion. Davoud and Jonathan are still there in an advisory capacity, or as “training wheels” as they say, for a couple issues. I didn’t know what to expect when I opened the envelope. I half expected it to have a new masthead. Issue #41 looks the same and different from Concussion (Classic). The first thing you might notice are few seemingly out of context color ad spreads, which appear to be one time only deals and are dutifully explained in Davoud’s editorial. I thought I detected an extra dash of artsy-fartsy in the new layout/content as well, but it may have been my subconscious talking. All in all, it’s great to see it still going, and I imagine quite a surreal experience for Davoud and Jonathan. Davoud succinctly summed it up: “…but I am no Kevin Thatcher and Brendan and Brooks are no Jake Phelps. Thanks God.” Good luck guys!

I had never seen, nor heard of this TV show called Sledge Hammer! that ran for two seasons from 1986-88. I watched a clip of it online and it was pretty good, certainly calling to mind the short lived TV show Police Squad from 1982 that ended up turning into the Naked Gun series of movies that ironically came out in the last year of Sledge Hammer. What I really want to talk about is the very excellent Star Trek spoof series from 1979 called Quark. At least I remember it being excellent, but on the other hand I recently tried to go back and re-watch some episodes of another show I recalled as being brilliant, The Young Ones, and found it hard to sit through. Enough about Quark. An episode of Sledge Hammer! features the time-tested comedy archetype of someone jumping on a skateboard without having complete technical mastery, in this case, an nice looking Alva Street Fire. – Thanks to Mike D for the tip.

Halifax Canada weekly The Coast, tackled the mounting malaise caused by the Halifax Police departments increasingly draconian enforcement of helmet laws for skateboarders. Whew! That was a mouthful. Sign me up for journalism school. They’ve gone so far as to use undercover police officers in sting operations. The article is aptly titled Skate Free and/or Die. The cover features a very nice Riley Smith shot of Dale Hussey helmetless, doing a proper straight-armed layback air. Nice cover parody of Thrasher, by the way. I guess they normally don’t do the fake cover gimmick. On the right is the now out of date cover of What’s Up!, a monthly newsprint magazine dedicated to covering the music scene in Bellingham Washington. I had no idea there was that big of a music scene there. The skater illustrated is rumored to be ex Lib Tech rider Ryan Williams. Catch the covers after the jump. – Thanks to Greg Baller and John Aguilar for the tips.

For only $150 you can buy this light that says to all who enter your domicile, “I like to skateboards and I have bad taste.” I was going to say this would be perfect for the Xanadu, House of the Future, but that would be insult the whole Wisconsin Dells region. Which made me curious… and then sad. The Xanadu hoses have all been demolished! Check out an old prom vid for Xanadu Homes after the jump, and mourn the future that never was. Where are those damn flying cars already? [Source: Arcadian Lighting]

A few skateboarding stills from the 1976 movie Car Wash, starring Richard Pryor and George Carlin, thanks to Josef Heffner. Man, that is one narrow board…

I can use “potpourri” right? I mean it’s core, isn’t it? Clockwise from the top left. Tony Hawk shows you how to ollie on one of CNN’s iReport videos. Nice PR move, as if an ordinary citizen gained a private audience with Tony in his training facility and captured an impromptu interview. While we’re talking about CNN, I need to repeat how annoyed I am with CNN’s recent fixation on “iReporters” and call in opinions. It’s supposed to be the news, not amateur talk radio. Next: More pool skating mortgage forclosure pieces, this time via the BBC who took a camera crew out for a very, very short video. Rumor has it that the Reader’s Digest is also working on a rehash. Next: Weird Al Yankovic collects Vans… Err, OK. Lastly, the New York Times Home & Garden section highlights a skater owned property that cost a pretty penny. Who knew that the team manager position for Think Skateboards paid that well. – Thanks to John Aguilar, Rich Burton, Dean Tyrell, Corey Nelson and Aaron Shims (via Bordistan) for the tips.

From cave man straight to bowl rider, skipping the mongo period all together. Here’s a commercial for Extra gum as spotted by frequent (and frequently funny) reader JAKE AND ANNNOY. It’s a video camera pointed at the TV, but the highest quality I’ve ever seen. Ah, techmology…

Dean of Team Shralp/100 points out this preview of an upcoming project. The clip is chock full of amazing pool skating. Dean is a bike rider who has been a real supporter of the skatepark effort in Portland, coming out for meetings and raising money. Sorry about the Ed Benedict thing dude, vert riders ahd nothing to do with the bike ban. Check it out after the turn.

JF Fullum sent me some pics of the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a while, outside of the hole in Mark’s back yard. It’s a giant chocolate skateboard that his mother gave him for Easter, and mind you, he’s a grown man now, but I’m just jealous. It came from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. so I guess I can cut my mom some slack.