This week, Thrasher Magazine’s editor in chief, Jake Phelps, is clearing the air on his famous list of five skaters that he permanently banned from the magazine. This week-long feature entitled “Five Days of Hate” details why Benji Galloway, Tony Farmer, Frank Hirata, Choppy Omega, and Billy Pepper were excluded from coverage. Love him or hate him, Phelps is maintaining his reputation as an outspoken and brutally honest figure in the skateboarding community.  Will his words expose injustices in skateboarding?  Or will he simply go on a  slanderous rampage?  This week will showcase Phelps in his true form. Above picture taken from thrashermagazine.com

The diffusion of skateboarding into the popular culture as a fashion trend always tweaked me but blue jeans and t-shirts were popularized by poseurs trying to look proletarian. Any thoughtless aping of an idea is to be despised. That said, I will admit to fascination with all aspects of the history of skateboarding. This looks like a well designed book about skate shoes. Great photographs of the shoes are juxtaposed with magazine layouts and ads. Based on the collection of the Museum of Skateboard History in Stuttgart, Germany which we posted about before. I found the book here but you can also find it at Amazon

I always thought Xeni Jardin seemed cool with that spiky while hair. Turns out she’s actually a punk rock survivor. She does an interview with Glen Friedman on Boing Boing TV. Looks like Glen Friedman had a show at Shepard Fairey’s gallery in LA. Fairey’s interview last week was pretty great too. I was wondering about the skate photos in the background. You tube version embedded after the jump.

Mike V has a supporting role as one of the bad guys in the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and he’s pimping it hard on his web site. He’s go the trailer, a couple previews, three TV appearances and and some production stills on his web site. Mike did more than just stunts, he’s a real character in the movie. One TV commercial for Mall Cop shows a split second of skateboarding. I figured it was not a big part of the movie. But apparently, the “bad guys” are all terrorists who happen to be good at extreme sports… Good thing is a comedy and not xXx. Sounds corny? According to Vallely in an Buzzine interview: More importantly, Vallely said James and the entire production crew went out of their way to understand the perspective of skateboarders and BMX riders. “The most important thing for us is that everyone wanted to this right,” the skateboarding veteran said. “Usually people don’t get skateboarding. The stunt team and production team learned a lot from me, but I also learned a lot from them in terms of how to work on a Hollywood movie.” Who esle is in it? Jason Ellis, Rick Thorne,…

Here’s a short webvert with a skateboard theme for an unlikely business. I don’t wan to spoil the surprise, so check it out after the jump.

Here’s the first of three panels in a cartoon drawn by Keith Knight, which is known as the K Chronicles. He’s got a couple that are skateboard -centric, Return of Ye Olde Skateboard and Skateboarding Is…. That second one looks familiar. MC might have covered it already. The drawing style is half Wizard of Id and half Bloom County.

The magazine Fast Company is all up in Shaun White’s business. Sure, Tony Hawk was in Success magazine, but leave it to Shaun to appear in a “hipper” business publication like Fast Company. I happend to catch an episode of MTV’s Run’s House where they were trying to figure out in a very contrived way how to make one of Run’s kid’s feel better about being heckled for skating. Run had a contrived inspiration to have Tony Hawk come and visit, but one of his sons had a contrived idea that it had to be someone cooler, like Ryan Sheckler. He might have said fresher or even younger, I can’t remember. Anyway, what a coincidence, Sheckler just happened to have a show on MTV at the time. Poor Tony. First he suffers form age discrimination on MTV, then his Mad Dog pajamas catch on fire. With a name like “Mad Dog,” you’d figure they would be Tony Alva pjs. I think my nephew might actually have a pair of these. [Source: Boardistan]

With numbers like that, industry insiders say some brands will disappear and the economic undertow will pull down a number of mom-and-pop shops, considered the backbone of the business because of their connection to the core action sports customer. Extreme!™ Bankruptcy! The San Diego Tribune takes a sobering look at the state of the industry in the article titled Economy wiping out some action sports firms. ASR attendance is down about 50% from what it was last year this time, and “industry insiders” are predicting about a third of action sports businesses will shut down by the end of this year. Bad news for skateboarders? I’m going to say no. Your favorite shop may close, which will suck, but there are shops out there that have weathered the storm on multiple occasions. Most of the core shops are probably going to stick it out. Some big names might decide drop a product line or two, or even pull out entirely, but that wouldn’t be any great loss. They’ve done it before, no need to point them out. Ultimately, the kids (and old men) are still going to ride their skateboards.Skateparks and DIY spots will still be made. Some little guys…

I’ve recently gotten two emails promoting different skate spot maps on the web. The idea is that you sign up and add spots in your area, and if you are traveling you can find spots on the way. I suppose the idea is useful for the casual skate tourist. Say you’re in a town on business or with family. If you got a break you could use these services to see if there is anything nearby. Of course you’re limited to what are probably the most blown out spots in the area, but it’s better than nothing if your are without a guide and don’t have a lot of time to explore. One service is a very slick one called New Breeders that’s pretty fancy, but has a some interface problems once you dig down. Also, it’s not limited to skate spots. The promo vid show surfing and bmx, so who knows what else is in there. Oh wait, I do. It’s got everything extreme!™. The second is from a web site called SubPublic, and it’s got much less eye candy, but it’s strictly skateboard related. SupPublic doesn’t require a login, but New Breeders does. What do you get for…

Mandy and Dandy Dude are the official mascots of the Duda foods Dandy brand of oranges. One one side of this bag of clementine oranges, Dandy Dude is taking green skateboard technologies to another level. Unfortunately, Mandy isn’t skating on the other side. When are we finally going to see parity (not pear-ity?) for female mascots in world of extreme food marketing? A tip of the hat to my wife for picking these up at the grocery store.