Illusion Labs showed a demo of their Touchgrind iPhone game running on a MacBook. The game design is pretty unique, well not so much when you consider today’s “pro fingerboard” agenda. The biggest beef with the iPhone game is that the small screen severely limits game play. MacBooks and MacBook pros have a track pad that is multi-touch sensitive, so the game can still be played with your fingers and you’ll get the added benefit of extra screen real estate. I may actually buy a game for my Mac for the first time since Myth II, back in the OS 9 days. Loved that game. Finished Myth I, but couldn’t make it past one of the levels in Myth II. Apple even makes a mouse that has a trackpad built into the top surface. I wonder if you can play Touchgrind on that. Hold on. Buy Touchgrind? Wait a minute, what am I thinking? Review copy! Now if I can just get Apple to send me a review copy of that rumored new tablet computer. – Thanks to Seth Levy for the tip. [Source: Engadget]

That’s right. $75 professional quality replacement trucks for your fingerboard. My kids have handfulls of Tech Decks, and the axles on the trucks are always the first thing to break. I’ve switched out trucks and wheels for my kids so many times… but this is just a smidge too much. I suppose if you’re going to go ahead and spend $30 on replacement wheels, with bearings even, you’d want them to go on a quality truck. They even sell replacement parts for Black River trucks, like axles, bushings and kingpins. Of course, you’ll want to spend anywhere from $26 – $52 on a fingerboard deck. You could save money by picking up a complete for $28 to $60. These things seem to be a European manufacturing phenomenon, (France, Germany, Poland, three brands out of the Czech Republic!) but there are American brands included.

The Life Rolls On Foundation “…is the story of able-bodied individuals, working in concert with those with spinal cord injury, to motivate each other with the inspirational message of achievement in the face of extreme adversity.” Thier flagship progrm is something you might have heard about. It’s called They will surf Again. Here’s an old PSA that should bring to mind Leader O Men.

The Benton County Skateboard Alliance is announcing a call for art for their 3rd Annual Art and Music Benefit: The Benton County Skateboarding Alliance (BCSA) is hosting the 3rd annual Art & Music Show to raise money to improve the Eric Scott McKinley Skate Park in Corvallis, OR. Improvements include a new pro-style bowl, advanced street obstacles, lights, BBQ pits, and benches. We need $75,000 to $90,000 for the first phase (the bowl). This is a community art show, and all art media and styles are accepted. All art in the show will be up for silent auction. We ask that a minimum of 51% of art sold go to the skate park fund. The show is planned for March 13th, 2010. Art submission deadline is February 15th, 2010. If you are interested in submitting art for this show, please contact the BCSA: bcskateboardingalliance@gmail.com. The BCSA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; donations are tax deductable. For more BCSA info, see their website: bcskateboardingalliance.org Word is that the new venue is a bit of an upgrade from previous years. We’re going to try and send a party from Skate and Annoy down this year. I’m going to see if I can…

Tonight it the Bacon video premiere at DOS, free skate starts at 7pm, and ends at 8pm with the video premiere of Unheard. Saturday, January 23RD Cal’s Pharmacy is hosting an opening of photos from Mark Whiteley’s new book “THIS IS NOT A PHOTO OPPORTUNITY.” Mark will be here signing his book and Chris Johanson will be providing music. Any questions? call Cal’s Pharmacy at 503-233-1237.

I found this picture by following a trackback from Sk8.net. It’s from tumblr user djmascotboy, and you can see it larger here. This Rocky kid has good taste in female companions and bad taste in knee pads. Actually, I think he’s sharing shirts with his girlfriend. Those look like Indy 215’s he’s sporting. Update: Checking back in over a decade later and I was able to figure out this is called Sukebo Rocky By Motoyuki Asai, and it translates to “Skateboard Rocky!”

The North American Skateboard Association appears to be dead, but they sure had a cool logo, as seen on the Planlogic site. I’m a sucker for those old factory icons anyway. Reminds me a little of both the hope for Big Industry from the 50’s and strategic maps from WWII. Maybe the association failed because it could adapt it’s logo to street skating.

Diesel Fuel Prints is the place we get our stickers from, and so should you. They’ve teamed up with Klutch to produce a screen printed poster commemorating our President’s failure to accomplish meaningful change at the end of his first term year. Obama looks like an Alice Cooper Tech Deck Dude in the shot above. Click here if you are losing hope.