I can’t even find the original source for this image. Let this be a lesson to whoever gave birth to this very droll illustration. Next time don’t forget to put your name on it. – Thanks to Colin for the tip.

The Seattle Times has two articles on skateboarding, the first is an actually fairly good piece on skatepark etiquette that is filled with good advice, although it’s perplexing because I’m not sure who the audience is. I especially like the first rule, “No free day care.” Up next is the top 10 skateparks in Washington, which I can’t agree wit, but can’t disagree too strongly because I haven’t been to some of them. Bobcat? – Thanks to John Aguilar and Heidi Randall for the tips.

Sounds like an adult film of dubious nature, but its two commercials for shoes by Sketchers, the Airwalk of the new millennium. Ok, that’s not fair to Airwalk. There was another Sketchers Z-Strap commercial a year or so ago. Anyway, animated ninjas and sparkly girls shoes make me want to skate.

Today is day zero for the Maloof Money Cup in New York City. The contest doesn’t start till tomorrow, but today there is a ribbon cutting ceremony, jam session, and two skateboard related art show openings in the city. Believe it or not, SnA was considered a legit blog by the media credentials people so I have all access passes to everything. Check out the recap of last night’s pre-Maloof party hosted by DC Shoes and, starting around 2 PM, a live blog of the days events.

I’m pretty sure we posted a picture of this ramp some time ago. It’s Chad from Small Beating. New surface, new concrete coping. Wheee! Man that looks small. – Thanks to Theo for the tip.

Steve Madden designs shoes. My wife is a fan. I thought he just did women’s shoes, but apparently he does shoes for guys. I’m not sure what the back story is, but I’m going to go out on what I assume is a very, very strong limb and guess that the “Skater shoes line is designed to be fashion over function. I guess it’s possible he did some research, maybe had the guy in the photo doing some product testing. Possible, but not likely. – Thanks to Sarib for the tip.

…in Echo, Oregon. Thanks to Sam from Skate Oregon for this report: Eastern Oregon continues blowing up with the little town of Echo (population 700) opening a nice little “Community Skatepark” this afternoon. Grindline made them a great 4000 square foot (?) concrete shape not dissimilar to Portland’s Gabriel Park: shallow top to hip hip deeper bowl. It is open to skateboards, inline skates, and bikes. While not yet on the official city web page, they do have a Facebook page for the skatepark. And of course, Sam has some shots up at the granddaddy skatepark sites, SkateOregon. Now I have to go look up Echo, Oregon on Google Maps.

There are two versions of this Sharpie commercial playing right now. The gist is that Sharpies help you express yourself. What if you couldn’t express yourself? There would be no protests, passion, art…. or graffiti. You’ll notice they covered over the expressions spray painted on the bowl.

Here’s the official trailer for the forthcoming video game Shaun White Skateboarding. There are some folks that think it’s going to be revolutionary, but I’m more of the mindset that developers are running out of evolutionary steps to make skateboarding video games different. Fortunately, they aren’t running out of ways to make exciting commercials. One interesting thing, it’s his first skateboarding game and he doesn’t even make an appearance in the trailer. – Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.