Mike V has a supporting role as one of the bad guys in the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and he’s pimping it hard on his web site. He’s go the trailer, a couple previews, three TV appearances and and some production stills on his web site. Mike did more than just stunts, he’s a real character in the movie. One TV commercial for Mall Cop shows a split second of skateboarding. I figured it was not a big part of the movie. But apparently, the “bad guys” are all terrorists who happen to be good at extreme sports… Good thing is a comedy and not xXx. Sounds corny? According to Vallely in an Buzzine interview:

More importantly, Vallely said James and the entire production crew went out of their way to understand the perspective of skateboarders and BMX riders. “The most important thing for us is that everyone wanted to this right,” the skateboarding veteran said. “Usually people don’t get skateboarding. The stunt team and production team learned a lot from me, but I also learned a lot from them in terms of how to work on a Hollywood movie.”

Who esle is in it? Jason Ellis, Rick Thorne, and Mike Escamilla. So, rather than embed the whole slew of videos here, head on over to Mikevallely.com to check it out. Not since Police Academy 4 have we seen such convergence of almost-law enforcement and skateboarding. If you’d rather actually see skateboarding in Police Academy 4, keep clicking. There’s even a Spanish subtitled version of behind the scenes stunt skateboarding narrated by stuntman and old Pepsi team skateboarder Wink Roberts.

Want to take your fingerboarding sessions to the next level? (Did I actually just type that?) There’s an IPhone app called Touch Grind that is basically a slightly different interpretation than the original concept-only Vans Finger Fracture. One big difference, Touch Grind is something you can actually purchase and play. And, it’s supposed to be pretty good. I’m one of those poor peasants who can’t afford an iPhone, so I don’t know how this game plays. It looks fun, but it also looks like it needs to be played with some extra screen real estate, say on a 17″ monitor. Yes, I know this game is not news anymore. I’m only mentioning it because I never got around to it originally, and if I don’t write about it on Skate and Annoy, it doesn’t exist. Errr… Yeah right. Concrete Wave had some sort of marketing partnership for inline advertising with the Swedish developers of Touch Grind, but the partnership went sour, just in time for a new ad that Concrete Wave took out in Transworld, of all places. I guess if I wanted to help them out I should have posted this earlier. What else? How about video captures of game play? After the jump of course.

Lenox Industrial tools is running a contest of sorts similar to the Women of Worth award that Skate like a Girl co-director Nancy Chang was up for. It’s called the Lenox Extra Mile Hero. The winner gets 30k donated to the charity of his choice. Jim Murphy’s charity is the non-profit foundation Nibwaakaawin, whose goal is to bring the healthy and positive life lessons inherent in skateboarding to the entire Native American community. I can’t find a web link for that foundation, but it’s Jim freakin’ Murphy, you know? I actually just read a really good interview of Jef Hartsel that Murphy did. I know who Jef was, but I never really knew anything about him. He seemed like one of those guys in the 80’s whose name you read, but he didn’t really get a lot of coverage outside an occasional Alva ad, possibly. My memory is fuzzy about that, actually. In any case, it was a good interview. Pick up Juice Magazine #65 if you want to read it.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Go to the Lenox Extra Mile Hero web site and vote for Jim Murphy. – Thanks to Burke for the tip.

[Photo: Jim Murphy at Edgwood, 1986 from The House of Steam. Inset: Recent photo of JIm.]

Here’s a short webvert with a skateboard theme for an unlikely business. I don’t wan to spoil the surprise, so check it out after the jump.

Here’s the first of three panels in a cartoon drawn by Keith Knight, which is known as the K Chronicles. He’s got a couple that are skateboard -centric, Return of Ye Olde Skateboard and Skateboarding Is…. That second one looks familiar. MC might have covered it already. The drawing style is half Wizard of Id and half Bloom County.

I’m not sure what the heck is going on with the Gresham, Oregon skatepark plan. At first I heard they were just going to add some banks and more ledges, and make skating legal in the plaza in front of City Hall. Then I heard tale of a possible indoor park. I think the only thing going on there now is a small street spot, and I’m pretty sure the new park is going to be street centric as well, according to the RFP. There’s an official Parks and Rec skatepark meeting tomorrow (January 27th) from 2:30-4:30 PM
at Wall Street Pizza (?). On the agenda, reveal the design team, set up a design workshop and get an update on progress. It’s going to be interesting for sure. I haven’t seen the design but the design team might be a surprise to some. For more info call Justin Cutler at 503-618-2828.

– Thanks to Bjjpdx for the tip.

We’ve covered it before, but another article and video has popped up in the New York Times, who seems to be having a skate-fetish lately. The most interesting part of the article Skateboarding in Afghanistan Provides a Diversion From Desolation is the accompanying video that among other things, talks about the unique position Afghanistan girls find themselves in while skateboarding. Basically, once they reach puberty they will be forced to quit. The video is both fascinating and sad. Another thing that was interesting, The government of Norway was primarily responsible for kicking down the cash to save the program after Skateistan’s founder Oliver Percovich maxed out his credit cards trying to support the project. Can you imagine being the person who literally introduced skateboarding to a country? Don’t forget the official Skateistan web site

– Thanks to Mrs Grover and Ben Thistlethwaite for the tip.

The day after we posted Wally Inouye’s 50th birthday celebration, he ended up breaking his wrist while snowboarding on a 360 that went bad. Seriously Tom, aren’t you a little old to be playing with toys? I imagine you’ll be able to see him hanging around the shop a lot of the next few months. Here’s to a speedy recovery.

[Photos clockwise: Carl Warren, Mike Estes, Warren]

Saturday Starrs are back! After he got the boot from YouTube due to the heavy hand of Dick Clark, Scott Starr is back again. I went through his backlog and only one of the previous seven videos has made it back, but we’re forging ahead anyway. The video is not spectacular in and of itself except that it is in fact the godfather of all skate videos. Skateboarding in the Eighties is a promo vid that Stacy Peralta made and sent out to some skate shops. The response was so overwhelming that he decided to make what would become the first Bones Brigade Video Show. Now, some 25 years later, he’s directing commercials for Burger King and Amp Energy Drink. It’s about eight minutes long and features the skateboarding talents of Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, Mike McGill and Tony Hawk. The soundtrack is kind of funny. It’s half new wave (Ultravox) and half prog rock.

UPDATE: Well that was fast. The video has been pulled already, we have to assume by request of Powell, or even Ultravox? That would be funny. Maybe Midge Ure secretly reads Skate and Annoy.

Check out some more Midwest skateboard action from Ryan Young, the same photog who shot this week’s Shot of the Week. I originally spotted his photos over on the Bacon Skateboards site, and Ryan has been kind enough to share some more. Four photos and one video simply titled “Midwest Movement” after the jump.