I was checking out a 7″ cover of the 720 soundtrack released by a band called Metronome the City, trying to track down an original that wasn’t on eBay, and of course I stumbled on a bunch of other time wasting distractions. Ahh… Interwebs™. Let me count the ways that I love you.

Outsider trade magazine articles on skateboarding and skateparks can usually be summed up by one or more of the following generalizations: uninformed, boring, misleading, or a steaming pile of excrement. When they aren’t it’s always because they were written by someone in the know, in this case, Portland skateboarding fixture Ben Wixon, who aside from being a teacher is also involved with Skaters for Public Skateparks and something called Drop Into Skateboarding, an organization formed by a few other names you might recognize. Aside from having a stimulating title, Recreation Management published an article titled The Evolution of Public Skateparks, written by Ben. You can read it online, or look for the cover at a very boring and/or thorough newsstand near you. What’s the takeaway? Two things. The push for more integrated spaces as opposed to an isolated facility in the middle of nowhere, and: The experts surveyed unanimously agreed that concrete surfaces have overwhelmingly become the material of choice for skateboarding performance and durability. It’s not a fascinating read, but you have to think of the target audience. The only beef I have is that it looks like they used a picture of a Skatepark in Indiana and label…

The same guys that brought you the Board of Awesome, an electric skateboard controlled by a Microsoft’s Kinect hack, are back with the Board of Imagination which uses brainpower instead of body gestures to make the skateboard go. Both are interesting exercises. You might think the second one was much more of a scientific leap, but you can buy brain powered toys at Target and whatnot. If you’re going to power your skateboard with electricity, you might as well wear headgear instead of carrying the remote. I almost ran over a guy on an electric skateboard a couple weeks ago. He was moving kinda fast and was unexpected. But then again, it might have had something to do with my California stop. – Thanks to everyone who sent them both in.

Smiths for everyone! Smith’s? This week’s pun of the week is a Gage Thompson picture of Brodie Penrod taken in Rose Park, Utah.

New Hopeless Old Men On Skateboards collection available.

A very disturbing, depraved, lewd an lascivious photograph after the jump. Concrete can be inherently sensuous, but Spohn Ranch may just be the Larry Flint of skatepark companies. Shield your eyes to protect your delicate sensibilities after the jump.