I was surprised to find an article on older Australian skateboarders in the May 2007 issue of the United Airlines in-flight magazine Hemispheres. After reading it something reminded me of an earlier post I made in February titled A civilized way to spend an evening. It turns out this article is almost a word for word reprint of a 2006 article in an Australian publication called The Bulletin. They changed the title, the intro, and little else. One note of interest is the “Cyber Sidebar” feature for this article, which is a link to a United Airlines hosted excerpt of the NCP production Tent City. They also recommend checking out Fruit of the Vine. Well, don’t we all? I hope Rick and Buddy got a good chunk of change for that. United Airlines certainly isn’t spending money on in flight meals or removing extra seats to create more legroom. I was flying back from Florida late last night after spending an entire week’s worth of splendid weather not skating due to a separated shoulder and a jacked elbow. I couldn’t even get motivated to get some local coverage, which might not have been a bad thing since shooting skateboarding in…

The rest of the, err, staff seems to be on strike while I’m on vacation. So this is the best I can come up with. If you hear “Blondie” and “skateboarding” in the same sentence, you’re probably more apt to think of the band. The rest of today’s Blondie had nothing to do with skateboarding, and wasn’t funny anyway. What can you expect from a 77 year old comic strip? Click to enlarge.

I was going to title this post “It’s reigning Jesus” or “It’s raining (religious) men” but instead I used a quote from an article in the Anchorage Press titled “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.” It’s a heartwarming tale of an 18 year old kid in Anchorage who is fighting the Alaskan weather and racial prejudice on journey to become a professional skateboarder. Sounds like a Hallmark movie. Oh yeah, the whole point of this post is Stephen Baldwin in Russia (!?!) holding a religious-themed skateboard [Source: Perez Hilton] and even better, (Is that possible?) a series of Jesus action figures engaged in Extreme!™ sports, not to mention panhandling (?!) , bull-riding, and in army fatigues(!!?!?!). All this plus a Jesus in skateboarding roundup, or hoedown, if you will, after the jump.

I’m not sure what the barometer is for art and skateboarding, but the difference between eccentricity and just plain crazy is often a matter of how rich the person in question is. Likewise, you can bet that if Dan Gesmer had put on this performance instead of Mark Gonzales, it wouldn’t have been as well received in the skateboarding world. Jason Schwartzman (the lead in the excellent movie “Rushmore”) has a solo record out and a video for the song West Coast which is made entirely from footage of Cheryl Dunn’s film documenting the Gonz’ 1999 art installation at the Abteiberg Museum in Germany. You can watch the video and read Paper Magazine’s original 1999 article covering the event after the jump.

Remember the Experiments in backyard maximilism? I misread Tim’s email and it turns out the bowl was in Orlando after all, which is the perfect excuse to bring up two more videos. One is classic local news crew coverage talking about a secret skateboarding society (I kid you not!) and the other is a collage of sessions that starts with Tim Kulas narrating the story of the ramp over Super 8 film footage. In true D.I.Y. fashion, both the Super 8 footage and the news coverage is captured by pointing a video camera at the projected wall and the TV respectively. Watch the videos after the jump, and don’t forget to check out Bowl Surgeon for progress on the new bowl. I’m sure Tim could use some manpower. [Source: Beer City]

We haven’t written about Claus Grabke for at least a month now, so I had to go searching on my computer for this fantastic piece of work. You can believe the words from Grabke’s mouth, or see the utter truth that is this video.

PR Inside reports: Hip-hop producer PHARRELL WILLIAMS has hit back at his critics in the skateboarding world, accusing them of being ungrateful for the publicity he has given the extreme sport.

That’s no typo in the the title, it’s editorial commentary. The April 20th issue of Entertainment Weekly has a “Style” page with this breaking news: “The latest hip-hop style trend? Skateboard Chic.” Apparently, the style is called Skurban. The layout features a couple DGK decks in the layout, and assorted trite skateboard culture observations. If you can stomach it, you can see and read it all after the jump.

What, no Don’t shred home without it? Err, yeah. Here’s an American Express commercial featuring Shaun White, who needs his credit card to allow him to fly from California to Utah, Canada, Japan and Norway at the drop of a hat. I thought that was what his sponsors were for? Apparently, American Express is trying to tap the demographic for spoiled rich teenagers. Is it just me, or is post-puberty Shaun White starting to look like Howard Stern with red hair? Oh yeah, the gimmick in this commercial is the old skateboarding used as transportation indoors – look at me, I’m radical! Extra points (and $, I’m sure) to Shaun for managing to get a Volcom shirt in the shot as well. Check out the commercial after the jump.

Troy Sliter sent this link to an old clip about a Ffej demo in Canada. Some pretty great skating but the standouts are the banal commentary about boards with wheels and the general cluelessness of the news guys. Oh and Kurt Stoodley -although he’s certainly no Gary Lumpkin.