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]

Threadless is a t-shirt site that has visitors vote on what designs they will sell. My brother spotted this one and sent it my way, I couldn’t find it when I went to the site. I would have voted for it.

Poached from the Stakbot. Click to enlarge.

The April 2008 cover of Seattle Metropolitan magazine features another skateboarding business dude used to illustrate the 14 hottest company to work for in Seattle. I quickly leafed through a copy at the airport, but I didn’t see anything else skateboard related in the article. Perhaps I missed it. I couldn’t bring myself to fork over $5 or $6 for this thing at the time and I forgot about it until I opened the cover image on my cluttered desktop. This issue isn’t on the newsstand anymore, so if by some odd chance anyone has a larger scan of the cover, please send it in.

Unbeatable Banzuke is a physical obstacle course Japanese game show (Kinniku Banzuke) that airs in reruns on the G4 network in the US. Apparently the original show was cancelled in 2002 after two contestants suffered serious spinal cord (OK, cervical vertebrae) injuries. The “Skeboarder” episode features a skateboard obstacle course that looks like Grover’s wet dream. An enterprising individual has captured some of it in the time honored fashion of pointing a video camera at the TV. Check it out after the jump. G4’s site has some footage but they don’t do anything to make it easy for you to find out when a particular episode will be on. “TV that’s plugged in?” Hardly. The course looks really fun, actually. One of the contestants has his occupation listed as “Skateboard Salesman.” I wonder if he goes door to door. – Thanks to Rich for the tip.

We mentioned Tom Fain in a piece about the defunct Skatepark Magazine since he was on the cover posing with his eight wheeled skateboard under the caption “Why every community could use a Tom Fain.” and I made the joke “Really? Every community could use a guy who is seemingly completely out of touch with skateboarding culture?” because he was on an 8 wheeler, and most kids can’t relate to a board that is wider than 8 inches, let alone an eight wheeler from the 70’s. Well Tom eventually saw the post and wrote to me. He’s got a good sense of humor and wasn’t annoyed by the post at all. He sent in a bunch of pictures of him not being out of touch with skateboarding culture, as well as some scans of the article about him in Skatepark magazine. Tom has a web site devoted to his ministry and skateboarding called SAP Skateboards if you are interested.

Coan Nichols and Rick Charnoski’s newest film Deathbowl to Downtown is a documentary on the history of skateboarding in the sprawling giant New York City. They are celebrating a screening of it with a photography (and art) show titled The Moving Image – A Photographic History of Skateboarding in New York at the Etnies Show Room (29 Greene St., NYC). The opening reception is invite only, but there is a public viewing on May 10th and 11th from 12-6pm and 12-5pm respectively. I don’t know if this means the film is has been released or not, but it must be getting close. If you’ve never seen their work, the word documentary doesn’t do them justice. May I suggest starting with Fruit of the Vine and then moving on to Northwest? It ought to be obvious to anyone that New York City has a rich history of skateboarding to draw from, so the NCP films treatment is essentially a guaranteed winner. And who knows, if you look real close in the credits you might see a certain web site mentioned. I contributed some commercials from the SnA archives that they had intended to use in painting the big picture. Of course…

CNN has a video piece on helmet safety and skateboarding. It’s the usual not very-in-depth filler complete with a couple who lost their son to a head injury to pull on your heartstrings. What’s not clear is what the kid was doing, from the limited amount of information they give. I think he was possibly just traveling from point A to B as his family walked behind him, but speculation is pointless and the tragedy is not diminished. However, the couple and CNN’s tone seem to be implying that video game characters and magazine pictures should all be wearing helmets too. I mean really? Is that how much baby sitting we need now as a society? Are seatbelts going to be mandatory in driving video games as well? What about games where you battle the undead or perform similar unrealistic maneuvers? It’s the same kind of asinine mentality that places those disclaimers on the bottom of TV commercials that say “Professional drivers on a closed circuit, do not attempt” or “Exaggerated driving conditions. Not a performance claim.” Really? I can’t drive up the side of building in my Geo Metro? I shouldn’t base jump off the Sears Tower in search…

What’s wrong with this picture, besides the fact that you can’t figure out why it’s here?