I sat on the story of Gordo the skateboarding parrot, but it blew up after he was kidnapped. I think the prime suspect may be the skateboarding budgies we profiled earlier. Now that they’ve got their own blog, they probably don’t want some parrot on a glorified sled stealing their thunder. It’s called Skateboarding Budgies, but you have to scroll through the most recent posts of them rocking out to get to the pictures and videos of the Budgies on Tech Decks.

A couple years back I heard a rumor about a green light being given to a Burnside-style project in Chicago. Having been a long time resident of Chicago, a city famous for corruption, and the political machine, I was hesitant to believe that any alderman would risk alienating the 10 unions that would stand to lose their piece of the pie if skaters were allowed to take the DIY route. It just seemed completely un-Chicago. I don’t know if this Logan Square skatepark project is the reality of that rumor, but it blows chunks. Logan Square is my old hood, I feel for you my brothers… [Source: Time Out Chicago Photo: Scott Judd]

I went on a really fun road trip last weekend. I went down to Grants Pass for a fundraiser party/session at a private bowl. Along the way I stopped at three brand new skateparks in Oregon, including, Winston, Myrtle Creek, and Harrisburg. I even went to the old Grants Pass skatepark for the first time. I took a little over 200 pictures, and lost them all to a corrupt memory card. Unfortunately, this isn’t an April fools joke. Those three up top were the best I could salvage. I don’t want to hear any arguments about why film is better, because I’ve had catastrophic failures there too. Rich has some shots up from the bowl party, Harrisburg, Or and Winston, Or. I imagine he’ll be doling them out over the next week or so. Still, it could have been worse, I could have broke my leg like Shane Bell did.

My brother was in the Bay Area last week and snapped the wall famously featured in the Bryce Kanights photo of Mark Gonzales. He didn’t have a skateboard with him.

I can’t believe anyone still wants to see this besides me and my friends. I had the day off so I decided to finish the 1st of the Spring Break (09) series. It may be the last also. There are a lot of parks and riders in here, I bet you cant name them all. Consider it a GVK challenge. That ought to boost my internet rating. Winner gets a personal dinner with the editor clothing optional! – GVK Adios.

Totem Decks has a few spendy but nice-looking laser etched decks. This three-deck piece is by Christian Pearce. Damn, as if $165 wasn’t enough for the deck, shipping is another $35! Must cost more to ship a work of art than to ship a skateboard deck.

A man in Miami took a clue from the Daggers in Thrashin’ and burned down some ramps another man built for the neighborhood kids to skate. Yes, it’s a weak news item titled Man arrested after argument over skateboard ramps ends in flames from the Orlando Sentinel, but a good excuse to post a shot of the Ramp Locals, as found at A Sad Day For Birds.

Famous words from parents, grandparents, and relations everywhere when it comes to skateboarding and/or punk rock, but this time applied to J.F.A. singer Brian Brannon in relation to the headline “JFA frontman knocked unconscious while playing a show in Arizona” – “We were playing the song “Lowrider” and when I sang “The Low-rid-er, he gets a little higher,” I jumped into the crowd and depending on who you ask, I either jumped too far or people moved out of my way,” stated Brannon. “It knocked me out cold and then paramedics arrived to make sure I was OK”. They had to cancel the show, but Brian got back on the horse the very next night. The quote is from a strange press release issued by JFA,s current label DC Jam records. The photo of Brian is from JFA’s current board manufacturer, Factory 13.

Matt Kline tipped me off that the Godoy brothers venture once known as Iron Cross Skateboards lives again. If I had to guess, it would be a safe bet to say these decks were being manufactured by Factory 13. In case you were wondering what happened to the old Iron Cross, you can read a 2001 interview we did with Art and Steve Godoy that we didn’t get around publishing until 2003. I guess I’ll have to add a postscript or two to the Story of Iron Cross Skateboards. ( Updated link ) If you’d prefer not to dwell on the past, check out their new web site.

This thing has been showing up all over in the last few days. Architectural Review covers a skate centered design for a house addition in Athens Greece. Concrete and wood ramps are integrated into the remodel atop a two-story structure with storage integrated into the ramps. [Photo: Theo Vranas]