I watched quite a bit of the Olympics, enjoyed some of the action. I did not enjoy the shitty coverage courtesy of NBC. I think I was a week into it before I realized there were other events besides gymnastics and swimming. One thing I did not miss, skateboarding in the olympics. I poached this Maxine cartoon from the Maxine facebook page via Nick Dawson.

After a few making a few DIY spots in Zurcih, Switzerland, the September Wheels crew decided to build a bowl, which they christened “The Beast.” You can watch the process (16 minutes) after the jump or check out some pics on blogspot.

I got this ceramic skateboard planter from Heath Berg as a thanks for printing up some skateboards for Above Coping. Thanks Heath! How big is it? About 8.5″ wide by 2.5″ tall, Hens and Chics not included.

The days of the three event Oregon stop on the World Cup tour appear to be over. We’re holding steady at one official event again. This time at Pier Park on Saturday, with unofficial events in Lincoln City on Friday and Portland on Sunday. Saturday will also be a fundraiser of some sort for repairs at Pier Park, thanks to some dingholes who burned a couch in the bowl. Fundraising details are fuzzy, but the schedule of events are up on the web site.

Weirdo Skateboards presents Skate the Lake 2012 LCRSP – Lake Cunningham Regional Skatepark, and WEIRDO Skateboards continue to “Come In Hot” this Summer, when our yearly Skate The Lake Contest Series, hits Part 2 for yet another day of summer madness. WHEN: The Second and Final Date is Saturday August 11th: WHY: Because we have lost our collective minds, ha ha just kidding. We will be hitting up the Full Pipe in all it’s glory for an Open Contest, also a good old fashioned Highest in Pipe, topped off with a Best Trick in the Cradle/Funnel Bowl.

It’s Spongebob Squarepants on a skateboard, available as a Happy Meal toy. Thanks to Colin Sharp for bringing his whole family to McDonalds on a weekly basis and photographing this for me, becasue I wouldn’t be caught dead feeding this to my kids. – With apologies to McRad.

Enjoy, if you can, these two music videos with downhill skateboarding themes. I think the first one is actually a commercial for Kia. The first is Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl ft. Georgi Kay – In My Mind (Axwell Mix) [OFFICIAL VIDEO] Thank god. I’ve been burned on those unofficial videos before. I never got my money back, it was a hard learned lesson. The second video is for the song Puppy by Netsky. You can relax though, it’s another official video. (Don’t get me started…) – Thanks to Matthijs for having poor taste in music.

I’ve been wondering what’s been going on with Dreamland since I hadn’t heard about them lately. Turns out they’re working on a stealth park in the Portland suburb of Beaverton. I like to call it Beavertron though, but that’s just me, and I’m fairly immature. Carl Warren has some photos. I don’t know where or when in Beaverton this is. (Update: Schiffler Park.) Didn’t even know it was in the works. I’ve got my finger on the pulse. My pulse, because apparently I’m dead.

Videos each about a year old that were lost in the wasteland of my Facebook messages. Check out Tyler Martin and Frank Shaw. Both these guys might live in Portland now.

It’s another Kickstarter project, this time to fund the final editing an film clip usage rights for a documentary on Devo. I mention it here on Skate and Annoy partly because they brought Tony Hawk in to comment on the Freedom of Choice video, but mostly because I love DEVO. They make a big deal about this being an authorized documentary, as compared to the Devo biography which the band originally cooperated with but ended up denouncing. I spoke to Gerald Casale about it and he said it was “all bullshit.” (Yes, I am almost that cool, but not really, I just met him at a bar after he did guest vocals with Portland’s legendary Punk Group.) Regardless of Casale’s opinion of the book, We Are Devo! is a must read if you believe in Devolution. The documentary looks good from the preview clips, I just hope they don’t water it down with too many celebrity appearances. Iggy Pop, sure, I’d love to hear about how he turned David Bowie on to Devo, (or maybe even how he turned David Bowie on) but Tony Hawk seems kind of, well, gratuitous. Surely someone like Steve Olson or Duane Peters would have…