Speaking of long awaited reissues, Van Halen is on tour with David Lee Roth. I love Van Halen. OK, I’m out of the closet now, in terms of rock and roll. Van Halen requires David Lee Roth to be considered the real Van Halen. Others need not apply. Are we on the same page here? Good. Now someone please tell me where this old picture of David Lee Roth on a skateboard came from. This is the largest size I have, and everyone knows Diamond Dave is larger than life. Actually, any larger and you might be able to see some brains peeking out. Nice sack, man! This is as good as an excuse as any to call for celebrity skateboarding photos. Send them in. [Photo: Right – Official Van Halen]

When I first got a copy of Wire’s Pink Flag album I was hypnotized. The music was unlike any of their punk contemporaries, but it still made perfect sense to a kid in the suburbs of Chicago in the mid-80’s. It was kind of like the missing link for me. Minimal, but incredibly rich at the same time. Catchy but abrupt and confrontational. Discovering music used to be a much more sensual experience. It required considerably more effort than it does today. After buying a record I would usually pour over every minute detail of the artwork while listening to the turntable. It was an experience that deserved my full attention. When you were in a cultural desert like the suburban Midwest was, you savored every morsel you got. The back cover of Pink Flag has fake biological data about the band, and one of the things I couldn’t get past was the drummer’s name, Robert Gotobed. Everyone else had regular enough sounding names, so was Gotobed a goof or what? Anyway, it fascinated me. I desperately wanted to meet him – remember, cultural desert… Others have waxed on about Wire much more articulately than I am apparently capable of,…

I hesitated to post this because I didn’t want it to come off like we were pushing something off that was paid advertising in reality. (Hey check out Active’s dope new ad, it’s effing insert latest slang here!) Of course, if you are listening Acitve Mail Order, there’s room for you in our banner ad rotation if you you want to buy it. OK, so Active had an open call to show up for an ad shoot for Erik Ellington. His fans showed up, they shot the ad and documented the process as well. I don’t know jack about Erik Ellington, but he comes off well in the short video, even taking the time to shake every extra’s hand and thank them personally. I imagine if you were a fan of his and got to meet him informally and be in one of his adverts you’d be age appropriately stoked. The ad is slick, but the reality is mundane. If you’ve ever wondered how these things go, spend a few minutes behind the scenes. Note to Active: You have a dead link to the casting call. All those social networking links are nice, but it would have been a lot…

And I thought Seattle was the only city that liked to tear down perfectly good skateparks without making er, concrete plans to replace them. You can add Huntington Beach California to that short list of cities. The OC Register reports that the plans for a new stadium will definitely eliminate the existing park without including a replacement. Ironically, California has just started running a second tourism commercial that features skateboarding as a draw. What are you going to do about that Governor Schwarzenegger? Your state’s skateparks are being terminated! [Photo Right: Mark Martinez, The Register]

Concrete Wave has released their third volume of the Evolutions DVD that they give out free to subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber, they’d like to entice you by letting you watch the whole thing online via Google video. They also have an arrangement with Silverfish Longboarding to make the whole thing avialable for download in compressed AVI files. Concrete Wave is famous for their extensive, some might say over-extensive coverage of longboarding, downhill and slalom. There’s plenty of that kind of footage to be sure, but there are other styles to balance it out. You can watch the videos and get my 2 cents after the jump.

The folks over at Old School Skateboarding are having their second annual private skate bash at Windells on October 14th. They’ve rented the whole place out for five hours. You can check out the facilities, but make sure you contact OSS for details. Kids get in at a discount, and it’s a better alternative to this.

The Daily Herald from Arlington Heights, Illinois has a thoughtful piece titled Once a skater, always a skater and closer to (our) home, The Columbian has another not so thoughtful article titled Just About Everybody Can Go Extreme. These articles are a dime a dozen lately, but there are a couple of items of interest here.

From the Express-Times in Hellertown, New Jersey: Top cop wants fines reduced Maximum of $600 too high for skateboarding in restricted areas, Hellertown chief tells council. The police chief on Monday night told council the $600 maximum fine for skateboarding or biking in areas where it’s not allowed is too steep. Chief Robert Balum said he wants his officers to use more discretion when ticketing for such offenses. The remarks came in response to an ongoing debate targeting skateboarders. Proving once again that you don’t have to be a dick to enforce the law, Joey Williams.

Google maps has a new feature called Streetview. Dave Tobin tipped me that it was live today. Coverage is pretty good in Portland. Go to google maps, pick streetview and drag the little man to the spot you want to look at. Holly Farm is right by the road so you can see a couple of folks hanging out and one guy skating. I can’t wait for Google flyover.

Nike Skateboarding Nothing but the Truth Premiere The NikeSB movie has been premiering in various cities, I attended the Portland premiere last Thursday at the Crystal ballroom. Everyone there was either invited or one of Screamin’ Steve’s contest winners. I’m guessing there were 200-300 people there. I wasn’t a VIP so I didn’t get free beer but I did enjoy the outing. It was a big skateboarding related event, a scene, and I saw a bunch of people I knew there. Thanks to Kevin Imamura for getting me on the list.