There’s another downhill night race put on by the Zoobomb folks in Portland. More info at PDXdownhill as well. Well, not really guys, you’re slacking. It’s February 15th at 9pm in Portland, rain or shine. One of these days (nights, actually) I’m going to check this out. Not this time, as I’ll be in Florida. Full flyer after the jump. – Thanks to Billy the Kid for the tip.

Aside from electronics, these guys made some bitchin’ 10 speed bikes in the 70’s. It was always a little trippy to see a bike with the Panasonic logo, kind of like seeing a Harley Davidson with an AMF logo, (Bowl and destroy!) or I guess more like when the tire company Bridgestone made bikes. What’s the point? Ryan Sheckler has a signature headphone model with Panasonic. There’s a commercial on the web. I don’t know if it’s being shown on TV or not.

What good is having friends if you can’t post embarrassing photos of them? Check out the full size Shot of the Week. You know who you are man, and more importantly, what you are… Radical!

Mike Smith sent in these pictures of a recently acquired Sears Hot Dog skateboard from 1965. The reason I think is from 1965 is because it doesn’t appear in the 1964 or 1966 Sears catalog, and Scott Starr says 1965 was the big year for full page listings of skateboards in the toy catalogs. So was it the Mike Smith who sent the pictures in? I can’t say, because he didn’t answer. More, after the jump.

Somebody hacked a Wii controller and grafted it on a skateboarder so they could use the skateboard as a controller for skateboard games, in this case, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. I’m assuming the process was more involved than just, you know, duct taping it to the bottom of the skateboard. There’s a really dull video of the controller in action. The best part is that the guy has a conference room full of people and a video projector for the demonstration, and he makes them all sit there while he makes his character look like himself. The thing to do would be to make it so you have to skateboard to play Madden’s NFL Football (or whatever the heck the franchise is called, I obviously don’t have a console.) call me slow on the uptake, but I didn’t get the punch line in the Engadget post title until just now. “Wiimote and skateboard hacked into a controller, Gator not impressed.” Ouch! – Thanks to Seth Levy for the tip.

Poweredge just added some more back issues to the archives. I guess they are all back issues now. The image above is from an article about the closing and subsequent reopening of the Cedar Crest Ramp, which was a topic of discussion I overheard the other night while everyone was on deck watching Casey KC split his head open in the back bowl at DOS. Damned if that isn’t Portland’s favorite private bowl owner and former east-coaster Dave Tobin in the feature. Go to the Poweredge Magazine site and look for the link that says “MORE 9.88 .”

Reader Kvon made some long exposure light drawing shots on his miniramp with the help of LED technology. Check them out on his nothing is…blog. He calls them a failure, but I think they turned out pretty good. Lite Bright, making things with light… You know, like the old toy? No? Then look it up, or watch a very old commercial after the jump.

Carl Warren has checked back in with more pictures of the progress being made over in Hood River’s awesome little concrete scene. Oregon uber alles! Check ’em out after the jump.

I was checking out the shots of this house contemplating whether or not to post it, until I saw the entry way gate that sealed the deal. It kind of puts this guy to shame. I found this one over on the Dezeen Magazine web site. The house in Karuizawa, Japan is called Shell, and it was designed by a bloke named Kotaro Ide in a Japanese architecture firm called Artechnic. There’s a lot of clicking to go through on the firm’s site, so I’ve borrowed a few of the highlights after the jump.

One of the highlights of ASR had to be Powells art exhibit celebrating the 30 year anniversary of the Ripper. 58 artists interpreted Vernon Courtlandt Johnson’s (VCJ) classic work that is arguably the most iconic skateboard graphic ever created. There are soem names you will know and some that you won’t. Two Northwest artists were among those whose work was commissioned, Jay Meer and Mark Sellman. I was going comment on how the collection seemed kind of weak until I took a look at the complete installation. The individual pieces as presented isolated in popups don’t really do them justice. If you take a look at the installation you’ll get a better appreciation of the works. Check out the Powell Peralta web site for the whole shebang, including pics from the reception and George Powell’s interesting recollections of the design process. And no, I wasn’t upset that I wasn’t asked to be included in the show. After all, there’s a fine line between tribute and copyright infringement, as you’ll see after the jump.