Microsoft has some brand new interactive technology called Silverlight. The good news is that they are developing a Mac plugin, and since it’s Microsoft, all those TV station and other promotional web sites that have various semi-functioning Windows Media or AVI video clips up might finally have a cross platform solution. Heck, I can’t watch half the embedded WMV files on my Windows machine. Of course a popular technology solution to these problems already exists, and it’s called Flash. So how do you generate buzz for a competitor? With trendy skateboarding visuals. Ahh, but what sinister motivation lies behind the innocent act of skateboarding? Find out the answer to that question as well as where you might be able to win a Microsoft Silverlight skateboard after the jump.

So Josh has been skating since 2000, and has had Skatelife up for almost 3 weeks now. I started skating plastic toys in (Er… cough, cough) 1976 or so. Skate and Annoy has been online since 1996, and first printed in 1985… so yeah, that’s seems right. Go check out Josh’s site. Leave him some comments (Be nice!) and help him get started. I will be doing my part by poaching his story (with credit!) about an unrelated project called The Skate Life, in the very near future.

Apparently we’re in a position to help other people out nowadays. That’s right, you can stop laughing, wipe the smirk off your face and stuff it! We had over 80 thousand page views last month. Not requests for individual files or other inflated BS, this is Interweb™! magic folks! Now that we’re done breaking our arm to pat ourselves on the back, there’s a new online skate, art, lifestyle publication called Mumble Magazine. In their own words: In plain english: we publish articles that have to do with influential artists, photographers, skateboarders, places, books, shit you can buy, music and whatever as well as some totally random shit that somehow fits into the picture. Headed up by the former editor of Crailtap.com, we’re dedicated to bringing real content back to the internet following the stranglehold that blogs have taken on it. We publish at least two new features every week. Former editor? Sounds like when I interviewed for a job and said I was laid off from my previous job. I checked it out, It’s got some good stuff there like this feature on J. Grant Brittain and this one on 25 Years of Transworld, plus a lot more for…

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.