The Express-Times has short interview with old Zorlac pro and current Syndrome Distribution honcho Rob Mertz. The article, titled “Skateboard to top not pipe dream” is a short fluff piece, but it does contain an amusing fact – the town mayor was the one who encouraged him to follow his dream of being a pro skateboarder. If like me, you’re still skating as grown man with a family of your own, you can probably relate to hearing this kind of thing from your extended family, and in this case, from Rob’s mom:

All the years, miles and bruises later, Nancy Mertz still worries. “He skates every day on his lunch hour. You know he’s 41?” she sighed. “This is why they have hair dye; I turned gray early.”

More Mertz links after the jump.

Dave Cawdrey was a former pro skateboarder in Seattle during the 90’s. I didn’t get to the Pacific Northwest until late 1998 so I never really heard about him, but maybe you have. Dave is now living out the rest of his brief life in Bend Oregon. I say “brief” because he suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). This Seattle Times article is a long, sad but good read about his life before and after diagnosis in 2000. Skateboarding is a recurring element in the story. Dave’s physical deterioration contrasts the physical development of one of his sons, who has taken up skateboarding. It’s an atypically poignant case of a father living vicariously through his son. It’s a tear jerker for sure. After reading about Dave and his family’s situation, it makes me want to puke when I see guys like this that think they have it bad and want to have everything handed to them on a silver platter.

Looks like it’s a video post kind of day. This is probably the best car-as-skateboard, ahem, in-car-nation I’ve ever seen. Check out this spot for the Nissan Qashqai. “WTF is a Qashqai?” you ask? Well its a Turkic-speaking tribal confederation of clans in Iran. I guess that explains why they don’t sell it in the United Sates… And here I thought it was Icelandic. This post is labeled “Part 2” but I’ve skipped a car commercial or two. There’s another commercial with some sort of creature using a car as a skateboard but I can’t recall what for. I think I might even have it taped somewhere. The best part of this commercial? The wall ride! Watch it after the jump.

ChildSeek Network
Name: SYDNEY ROCHELLE
Abduction Type: Endangered Runaway

That’s right. A girl went to a party one weekend and never came home. After a week, police received a tip off and located the missing teen at Tony Hawk’s house. Is this Gator all over again?

Watching the interviews with this kid will make you understand why he got tasered. It doesn’t make it right, but I would have been tempted to taser this annoying whiner myself. Campus authorities say the tasering was not because he was skateboarding, it was because he was not complying with police. A girl caught it on her cell phone and posted it on Youtube. Ironically, the original has disappeared and as of now only exists on Youtube as it has been shown on a couple different TV news shows, by pointing the news camera at a computer monitor. After the jump you can find some links to the story as well as a YouTube videos of the the news showing a YouTube video on TV. Can you deal with that? Am I blowing your tiny minds?

Dear Sleestak, I know I haven’t been around much lately, I’ve just been… Well, you know, busy. Ever since I started updating Skate and Annoy on a regular basis I haven’t had time to hang out over there very much. Listen, I think we should see other people and still be friends.

Here’s a link to a short bit on a BBC program titled North West Tonight about older skaters. It’s mainly an interview with the founder of the UK’s Middle Age Shred. The video quality isn’t great, it looks like they forgot to deinterlace it. The skating is mostly blah, and when it isn’t the camera work is bad. It does have an impossibly hip sound track considering the stuffed shirt that hosts the program. There is some cool 70’s era footage with a bitchin’ T Rex lead in. If you look close you can see an Old Man Army Falling Down deck – good graphic… From Arizona to Manchester, old men are on the rise. Catch the video and some more old man news after the jump.

Cirque De Soleil is hiring a street skater.

“We are currently seeking a Skateboard – Street Specialist for our new production at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York city. Please note that we are not looking for Ramp’s specialists. ”

This sounds like Daniel Gesmer’s dream job, and they are hiring immediately. [Source: Skate-Bulletin-Board]

The skateboarding section at Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon. I was in there to pick up a copy of The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself by Rodney Mullen – which is a good read by the way – and I was impressed by how many skate titles they had.

In a ceremony in Massachusetts… Actually, that’s not true. Iggy Pop didn’t marry or enter into a domestic partnership with Bam. He didn’t even perform the ceremony, he just performed at the ceremony. When I got married, all I could afford was an Elvis impersonator. The Stooges have a new album coming out. Word is that Mike Watt is filling in on bass. I wonder if Iggy has a Blue Hawaiian package. Also present at the wedding was Tony Hawk, although I’m not sure if he performed anything. Still intertested in Bam’s wedding? He’s so classy he had it videotaped for another reality TV show on MTV. There are links after the jump.