Dropping In: The True Story of Don Wimmer. It’s about time. I’m so sick of all the lies and hype… Errr.. Wha? There’s a movie about a guy who ditched his career as a CPA to try and become a pro skater at age 42. No, it’s not Grover, but it does sound like an elaborate setup for a joke. Don is Concrete Wave’s 2008 “Speedboarder of the Year,” so I’m guessing he’s either good at downhill (er.. speedboarding) or is a fan favorite. You can watch the dmovie for free this weekend, after which you’ll have to pay for the DVD or wait till it hits Fuel TV or something. More info at Dropping In, or watch it here after the jump.

Coan Nichols and Rick Charnoski’s newest film Deathbowl to Downtown is a documentary on the history of skateboarding in the sprawling giant New York City. They are celebrating a screening of it with a photography (and art) show titled The Moving Image – A Photographic History of Skateboarding in New York at the Etnies Show Room (29 Greene St., NYC). The opening reception is invite only, but there is a public viewing on May 10th and 11th from 12-6pm and 12-5pm respectively. I don’t know if this means the film is has been released or not, but it must be getting close. If you’ve never seen their work, the word documentary doesn’t do them justice. May I suggest starting with Fruit of the Vine and then moving on to Northwest? It ought to be obvious to anyone that New York City has a rich history of skateboarding to draw from, so the NCP films treatment is essentially a guaranteed winner. And who knows, if you look real close in the credits you might see a certain web site mentioned. I contributed some commercials from the SnA archives that they had intended to use in painting the big picture. Of course…

Paranoid Park opens in Portland tonight. Gus Van Sant will introduce Friday’s 7PM show at Cinema 21. Gabe Nevins, who plays the lead part, will be hanging out for Q&A after the Saturday 7PM show. If you don’t get in to see the show, you can always watch the GVK of the casting session down at Burnside. (I don’t care what Grover says, I liked Elephant.) Oddly enough, the film is also showing on pay-per-view on the DirecTV in Portland and other markets as well. Burnside Paranoid Park Directed by Gus Van Sant Showing: One Week: March 21 – 27 Showtimes: Nightly 7:00, 8:55/late Fri-Sat 10:30 plus Sat-Sun (1:00), 3:00, 5:00 If I had a nickel for every time I saw a kid skating in the rain with an umbrella… I heard that Gus’ production was going to/did donate money to Burnside. Can anyone confirm this? – Thanks to Page for the tip.

The Arizona Daily Star has an article and short interview with the two principals of the Underskatement film festival, which is at Volume 4, and damn it, we promoted this and I didn’t even go see it. I wish I’d read the interview first, but it was published after the Portland showing. I guess I would have had to travel forward in time to read it so I could have known I would have liked to see it. If I’m time traveling I guess I could just go back in time and watch it. What’s the point? Oh yeah, if the publicity shot from the paper on the left looks familiar, it might be because you heard about a Beaverton man involved in an assault there.

There’s a new trailer for Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park movie. Lots of skateboarding and local Portland shots. Not a bad trailer actually, kind of makes me want to see the movie, no matter what Grover says. I think his badmouthing of Elephant was the reason we were “out of the loop” when the movie was in production. I actually got a call for assistance from Van Sant’s assistant, who it turns out was related to a friend of the family. We talked and everything seemed fine until… nothing. I was puzzled until I realized Grover made fun of Elephant in a GVK that was current at the time. Who knows, they probably just didn’t need anything. – Thanks to G N for the tip.

Warren Ray is 42 year old musician and songwriter who decided to give up smoking after his father was diagnosed with lung cancer. Instead of the patch, he decided to try to replace his addiction to cigarettes by rekindling his addiction to skateboarding, which he gave up in his 20’s due to poor health, and a general lameness. A friend of his made a short film about it which has it’s moments, but needs help in the audio mixing department. It’s in a few indy film festivals. Another episode of Old guys who started skating again, but with a twist. And hey, it completes the hat trick of Skate or Die posts. Check it out. [Source: The Courier Journal – Louisville KY]

There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance of Burnside in the trailer for an upcoming movie called Untraceable. It happens slightly over half way through the trailer, and looks like a short spot for cell phone service. The movie looks like it is supposed to take place in Portland, so the shot a bunch of location shots, including Burnside. Hey does Gus Van Sant know this is going on? When is Paranoid Park coming out over here anyway? It’s just like Ash said when she contributed this bit of news, “Why not put Burnside in a movie??? Haha, PDX is blown out!” Portland is hot for murders on the big screen right now. So will Untraceable be unwatchable? The last one they did here (The Hunter) with Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones was a major dud, but the local weeklies sure loved to talk up the Benicio sightings. Diane Lane wasn’t as interesting apparently, or maybe they shot all her outdoor stuff in Vancouver BC. So who was there when they filmed this, and did Burnside get it’s customary appearance fee in the form of a donation made for park maintenance?

Jason Jesse has a few choice things to say about the “documentary” on his life (Pray for Me) and David from Shitbird who made it. First off, I don’t get the cult of Jason Jesse, but I don’t begrudge anyone of their right to identify with him. Jesse comes off as a bit unstable at times in this video appearances (come to think of it, maybe I’m just thinking about a trailer I saw for Pray for me…) Also, I’ve only had very minimal interaction with Dave, but I’ve heard some questionable stories and read a lot of unsubstantiated crap about him on the Interwebs™ – all hearsay, mind you. The video is made by some Japanese cats, and it’s basically Jason Jesse on camera stirring up a shit(bird) storm about Pray for Me and Dave Shitbird, who he accuses of admitting to being an informant for the FBI and in general just being a lying scumbag. Take this video with a grain of salt, and watch it for some pretty amusing quotes from Jesse as the interview gets going. He maintains that Shitbird has gotten some sort of revenge on Jesse just by infecting his life. Jesse has resigned…

Appearing as Corey Webster: Sebastian Stigar. As Chrissy: Ida Elise Broch. As Hook: Espen Klouman Høiner Yeah, I looked up that “ø” code, although he looks more like a James Spader in Pretty in Pink than he does like Hook in Thrashin. What’s the point? Oh yeah, some Swedes Norwegians have remade Thrashin into a snowboarding movie. The hero of the movie is a hotshot skater who moves to the mountains where nobody skates, so he has to take up snowboarding to fit in. Then he falls in love with the village badass’ girlfriend, who beats him up. Wait, the village tough guy beats him up, not the girl. Actually, this is sounding more and more like Better Off Dead. I don’t know what kind of crazy aspect ratio this film was shot in, but the trailer seems really wide. It helps with the skate stunt double since they never show him from kneecaps up. Hey, want to fit in at your school? A good way to blend in with crowd and not draw any undue attention to yourself is to skate through the hallways at school busting kickflips. This may be just another one of those sports genre Romeo…

Films by skateboarders. www.underskatement.com Portland, OR December 8th 7 p.m – All ages / 9:00 p.m. – 21 and over Clinton Street Theater – 2522 SE Clinton St. After party at DOTS cafe 2521 SE Clinton St. 21 and over. Seattle, WA December 12th 7 – All ages / 9:30 – 21 and over Central Cinema – 1411 21st Ave. Vancouver, B.C. December 15th 2:30 Pacific Cinematheque – 1131 Howe St.