Located in Everton Park in Liverpool, England (insert gratuitous Men in Blazers reference), this is second glow in the dark skatepark in existence. Korean artist Koo Jeong A, who came up with the concept had some pretty lofty goals: “I devised extremely steep, sharp angles, which would be a challenge to the most courageous and skilled skaters,” Jeong A told The Guardian. “It was as if they would be the great mountaineers that the rest of us would admire. And with its glow-in-the-dark surface, I hoped the Wheels Park would offer an experience of contemplation.” Maybe a glow in the dark skatepark that looks like a stealth battleship will inspire contemplation that will hopefully result in kids picking up their energy drink cans, cigarette butts and Big Gulp cups. It’s not clear how much she actually has to do with the main skate terrain aspect of the skatepark. It would be incredible if a non-skating artist had free reign in skatepark design and somehow managed to design a park that wasn’t a disaster, twice. [ Source: The Guardian ] – Thanks to Boy Ipoh for the tip.

As a sometime purveyor of and fan of hand screened skateboards, I’ve had Lovenskate on my radar before. Their new promo The Connoisseur of Quality really takes it to the next level. The next level of what? The next level of quality. Well done lads. [Source: Huck] – Thanks to MC for the tip.

A Gordon the Gopher pin, complete with creepy picture of the the host of the Broom Cupboard, the BBC show where the puppet lived. Straight out of 1987. On the badge he looks like a fully formed Muppet, but the actual puppet looks like an amorphous blob of fur stuffed in some doll clothes.

No, this isn’t an outtake from an episode of The Prisoner. It’s a June 6, 1978 press photo from Leicester Polytechnic School. Yes, it will soon be framed on my wall. Three models wearing the latest in Skateboard fashions designed by the Leicester Polytechnic School of fashions and textiles. They are L-R Cindy wears multi-coloured knitted stripped sweater, shorts andd leggings. Stephanie wears Navy jumpsuit with velour stripe trim and bolero, and Debie wears multi-coloured two-piece in striped velour. I’m going to hop in the old time machine and see if I can get a date with Cindy and tell Stephanie to get a damned skateboard and stop lurking. Maybe I’ll bring back her jumpsuit for GVK.

Check out this Ed Syder interview in Caught in the Crossfire about his self published book called Natas and Gonz. It’s not like those guys don’t get any respect, but this tribute to Natas and Gonz (and the Simpsons, apparently) is 52 pages of fun… at least I assume it is. I haven’t seen it yet, but it would be hard to imagine a book about these guys being anything less than fun. The first pressing sold out, but you can preorder the 2nd pressing for £10.00. Postage to the USA is £3.95… so that’s around $22 delivered. While you’re digging around his site, check out other items like the Skater’s Alphabet. [Source: Caught in the Crossfire]

You’re looking at a computer game called Skateboard Kidz for the Spectrum (Sinclair) computer. The game was released in 1988 according to World of Spectrum, which would explain why it came on a cassette tape. Yes, that’s right, you used to have to load computer programs on some home computers via a cassette tape deck. Skateboard Kidz was made by Silverbird Software in the UK, and as such, all the radical 80’s dialect has a distinctly English accent. You can hear it yourself because the program files are downloadable from several places on the web, and if you don’t have a 25 year old computer, you can run it in a web browser with a Javascript MESS emulator. (FYI – Emulator does not seem to work with Safari.)

Kickers looks like it was the 70’s equivalent of Sketchers, only slightly more hip. May not be anthropologically qualified to make that statement, so I depend on UK readers to chip in here. Although that is Rod Stewart in heyday, who was much cooler than Kim Kardashian, Tori Spelling, Britney Spears and even Wayne Gretzky. It’s unclear whether the Kickers shoe brand ever had an actual skateboard team considering the lack of functionality in those high heeled shoes that look more at home on Slade or Rod Stewart than they do on anyone riding a skateboard. They did have a sticker though.

The chances of me knowing who Chris Pulman is were pretty slim, him being a professional skateboard from the UK in 90’s… and I honestly had no idea that he was an am for Foundation and an ex-pro for Heroin, Independent and Vans. After watching a half an hour of footage (broken up into 3 segments) I can’t say that I wasted any time. “That Guy” is part of a series on skateboarders in the UK from Pixels TV. Looks like it was made with some help from Independent. Chris Pulman as a first choice seems a pretty good one, even if you don’t remember him. Watch ’em all after the jump, plus the bonus footage “Pigeon” from 1999, a video of the Southsea skate scene filmed in and around Portsmouth and London.

If this this tart could be shipped from/to the USA, I’d think about buying her. There’s not much information about these Susie dolls from Woolbro, they only seem to exist online in cases where they are for sale. This one looks like it dates back to the 70’s, perhaps a contemporary of Dashing Daisy. – Thanks to David ODK for the tip.

In spite of Billy Bragg, Skateboarders, BMXers and artists have prevailed in their attempts to prevent historic the South Bank spot in London from being turned into a strip mall. The Save South Bank coalition also has a book for sale that looks pretty well conceived, but details like page size and count are non-existant. [Source: Good Magazine] – Thanks to MC for the tip.