I subscribe to email news updates from the free 3D modeling app Google SketchUp. Included in the highlights this time were links to the past X Games park in both model form and reality as provided by California Rampworks.

Believe it or not, this is not the first graphic of a skateboarder to appear on a flying disc. The other one one I have is just a generic flying disc, but this is an honest to god Frisbee™. The Malibu Skate model features what looks like an op-art frontside invert. Malibu? I heard there was a punch out. Closeup after the jump.

– Thanks to Adam Wallingford for the pic.

Charlie Hales want’s to be the next mayor of Portland, but he’s getting no love from some residents of southwest Portland’s Arlington Heights hills neighborhood, who seem to be looking for a scapegoat. Why? They live on a hill that has become a popular downhill run, and Hales led the charge to make skateboarding legal on Portland streets. Trouble has been brewing for a while, and it seems unavoidable that heads would butt. On the one side you have wealthy, freaked out landowners who are are worried about hitting people and of course, property damage… On the other side you have a contingent of mostly responsible skaters as well as some others who may be not so conscious of the precariousness of the entire situation. The sheer number of people hitting the hills and the laws of probability dictate there will be incidents. The Oregonian briefly touch on both sides of the issue. The most level headed quote so far is from Hales himself actually:

“It is not OK for people to bomb down residential streets at high speeds on any conveyance — car, skateboard, whatever,” he said. “We need to address that while still making it legal for people to use skateboards.”

Billy Meiners seems to be somewhat in agreement:

“I’m trying to convince the skaters we need to be responsible,” Meiners said. “But making it illegal isn’t going to change anything. Skaters are used to being outlaws.”

Comments on the article on the Oregonian range from thoughtful to predicable and lame. And as the “voice of reason” on S&A, I’d like to encourage our readers to be smart about how they respond instead of taking the bait. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.

Tony Hawk on the cover of the Fall 2011 editions of MIT Sloan Management Review. Why, I’m not sure, because he’s not really central to the article, except as an illustration of consumers modifying products to make something new that didn’t exist in the marketplace. Not exactly a timely reference to the now popular DIY trend in electronics, arts, crafts, mechanics, programming, and well, everything, but I guess it is one of the earliest and most visible reminders – Kids tearing apart old rollerskates to make skateboards.

– Thanks to Brian Baade for the tip.

Six months behind the first issue of Thrasher, but still highly influential. Children’s Playmate, the June/July 1981 issue from Children’s Health Publications. No other skateboarding content in this issue. Not bad for a goat, a duck, and a chicken.

This one goes out to Colin. A German commercial for McDonalds.

[Source: Buzzfeed] – Thanks to Andrew Wahl for the tip.

I’m pretty sure a 10 minute search of skateboard vector clip art will turn up this illustration somewhere on the web. I can imagine the editor explaining the concept at the meeting. See, the content is going be exciting, I mean really exciting and hip. You know, something the kids are going to want to text message to all their friends, so we want the cover to reflect that, right? But we want it to be as cheap as humanly possible.

– Thanks to Danimal for the pic.

The NBC affiliate 9 News in Denver recently aired a piece on the impending opening of the new Arvada skatepark. The emphasis of the spot, apparently shot on the set of Masterpiece Theater (see photo), is on the “construction workers” that built the park, a crew that would go entirely unnamed were it not for an appropriately placed company logo on a hoody. I know these guys are technically construction workers, but it seems like a misnomer. It’s worth watching though, and there’s even a good laugh. What’s the name of their video segment? Why it’s “New park will attract skaters to Arvada.” I dunno… seems a little far fetched. Arvada is a Team Pain skatepark. Team Pain is actually a finalist in a The World of Concrete “Crews that Rock” contest. I don’t know what they get if they win, but if you vote you become eligible to win an iPad 2. Make sure to scroll down to get to the Team Pain listing, the page is kind of long.

This is an ad for a Kramer Floyd Rose Sustainer Guitar that ran in a 1989 issue of an unnamed music magazine. I only know this because I have poor impulse control. This guy is at the height of 80’s fashion, ho-ho street plant and neon yellow shirt with the sleeves and sides cut off. Totally bitchin. Thanks for nothing Kvon!

My sons are obsessed with Star Wars. My eldest came home from the book fair with Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger. It’s in the vein of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (You’re familiar with the genre, right?) I’ve been reading a little bit of it each night to him, and as far as kids books go it’s pretty good. One of the protagonists is an antisocial kid with an origami Yoda finger puppet who dispenses sage advice to the middle school kids. His nemesis is an annoying kid who makes a Darth Vader origami finger puppet who is not content to destroy his paper foe alone, he tries to get the other kid kicked out of school. It’s irreverently amusing, and filled with references to movie dialogue and scenes. It also has illustrations mixed throughout and scribbled in the margins, which is why we’re here. One scene takes place in a skate park. The illustration isn’t really about the story, it’s meant to look as if the storyteller was inspired to doodle in the book after reliving the details. Poor R2 D2 is on rollerblades, while Jabba the Hut has multiple boards. He would have fit better on a longboard.