In San Francisco this Saturday, City Underground, which is a combination of World Cup Skateboarding contest, music festival and tattoo parlor. Some of the bands include Face To Face, Circle Jerks, Jughead’s Revenge, La Plebe, Adolescents and Hightower. Meanwhile, in Seattle, Marginal Way DIY skatepark is having a fun-draiser in the form of the First Annual Taco Feed. All you can eat Asada Tacos $10 dollar plates and a skateboard pinata. Also this Saturday, the John Doe Zine 21st Anniversary Skate Jam in Cheyenne Wyoming skatepark at 1pm Mountain time. Don’t forget about the Portland area park slalom contest.

San Francisco flyer – Marginal Way flyer – Cheyenne Wyoming flyer – West Linn flyer.

– Thanks to Tom the Weirdo for the tip.

I’m in the market for a new digital camera, specifically a Nikon because that’s what my lenses are leftover from my now defunct D70, which has suffered a fatal casualty in the memory card reading connection. Repairs cost about exactly what the body goes for used on eBay. When I went to the Nikon USA web site to price the current lineup, I noticed this skateboard shot gracing the front page of the web site. They have a randomizer selecting from a pool of images, so this one might not be prominently displayed, but you should see it flash briefly regardless. Hey Nikon, check out those nice, big new banner ads…

– Tip of the hat to Orezona, what’s up?

Earth Ace, your favorite skateboarding astronaut has some footy. Unfortunately it’s the recurring theme of whiny kids becoming heroes. Unlikeable characters you haven’t seen since the most vertical primate. Seriously, this is one annoying protagonist. I know this is meant for kids, but it’s really kind of funny that on the one hand, he can’t win a skateboard race with a bully, but on the other hand he’s an astronaut charged with saving the solar system. It starts with a nice Thrashin’ style downhill race.

Park slalom is back in West Linn.
Skate Legion has the low down, but it’s pretty much the same info you see in the flyer above. Man, I haven’t been to West linn in… I’m gong to say two, possibly three years. I wonder if the neighbors have relaxed now that there are so many other Portland area skateparks open. Stp by the contest and say hello to former S&A contributer and contest co-organizer Mike Estes.

Rich Burton from EPM will be Colin’s guest on his interwebs radio show, today at 2:00 pm, Pacific time. If you miss it live, you can download it shortly after it’s over.

I really like Built to Shred, but I’m surprised by this “Will it shred?” video. I’m not sure how “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” jives with destroying a brand new $500 consumer electronic device for three minutes of video promotion. Still, it’s amusing, and you’re reading about it, so it was a good business decision even if it directly contradicts the central tenet of the show. Read the fine print on the professional rider disclaimer before you set up your own iPad as a skateboard.

At this point I think there must be a place that sells the logic board for this type of LCD game intact for finishing and repackaging as you see fit. I think I may have picked this up from the dollar bins at Target. Gameplay: Things come down the road and you push buttons to avoid them. Very boring. Kind of funny considering you used to have to pay upwards of $70 ($20 from 1977 adjusted for inflation) for the same programming logic with less interesting graphics. Yes. I’m talking about Mattel Electronics handheld games. Instead of a 2 dimensional LCD silhouette, you were stuck with LED blips. How did those old handheld games cost? I want to say around $20, but it might have been $35 or so. There was no skateboard version, but it was the same game as Auto Race. Aesthetics did pay tribute to Mattel Electronics with a board series. I like them because I’m nostalgic for old toys (HELLO!!!!!!!) but I’m pretty sure these are just lifted straight from the old advertisements.

I happened to catch this commercial on TV about an hour after the behind the scenes Spohn Ranch footage of the shoot was pulled from YouTube. My guess it the folks at EA didn’t want it detracting from the original, or something vague like that.

– Thanks to Vince for the tip.

Well, Xtreme Fun anyway. Maybe someone already trademarked “Extreme Fun.” Blastems have a great name that could only be made better by adding the word “sugar” in front of it. However, it isn’t going to happen, because It’s a healthy-ish, or something like that.