I’m not here to make Frank Lavallee the butt of a joke, but I stumbled across this photo of him giving a freestyle demo at the Vans Warped Tour. According to his sponsor Khiro’s web site: …he is doing about 60 demo’s every summer including Van’s Warped tour, Monster Truck Shows, Schools, Shops and where ever it’s happening! The only thing they left out is professional wrestling matches. The thought of a freestyle demo in front of a rock concert or monster truck show really amuses me. Nothing gets me more stoked at a punk rock show than (watching) a few caspers. Sorry Frank, nothing personal. Feel free to mock me at your leisure.

This video tour of the Dwindle wood shop narrated by Rodney Mullen is fascinating on several levels. I’ll start with the elephant in the room, the factory location. Sure, the wood comes from Canada, but the labor appears to mostly be comprised of girls just old enough to compete on the Chinese gymnastics team. Next, there’s the joyless, dry narration by Rodney himself. In the first few minutes of the video it’s hard to tell if this is going to be a parody of corporate industrial films or a bona fide video. Lastly, there’s the technological innovation in board manufacturing. These guys have figured out how to make boards seemingly identical to one another. A big part of that would be the fact that only one board gets pressed in one mold at a time, although the molds are stacked on top of each other. To hear Rodney talk, they have a bunch of prima donnas really picky pros who would reject up to 80% of decks from a run because they weren’t up to their critical standards. I know people who are hyper aware of the physical characteristics of the deck they are riding, but most of us can…

Wrapping up some longboard-centric items. First up is fashion designer Adam Kimmel’s promo film Claremont consisting of a couple of beardos screaming downhill in suits we can only assume were designed by Adam Kimmel. I’m not exactly sure how the tie in works, but it seems to be getting people talking. The right people? I can’t make that call. I thought it was a hoax at first, as far as Adam Kimmel being in the fashion industry, but it would have to be an elaborate one. The downhill action looks insanely fast. These guys even pass a car as well as passing the camera between themselves and shooting backwards. I don’t know how they do it, but my helmet is off to them. They make a certain German downhiller look like a wuss in comparison. Supposedly, German police are on the lookout for a man assumed to be “a professional stuntman” in full leathers who reached 62 MPH on a two mile stretch of the Autobahn after getting a tow in by a motorcycle. Pfffft! Talk to me when you do it in light blue polyester. Lastly, there’s the L.A. Times article titled More skaters switching to longboards, from the…

As far as architectural criticism goes, I don’t know much about architecture, but I know what I like. Cool Hunting blows out a spot under construction in Santiago, Chile. Peter Eisenman: City of Culture.

So I threw down the challenge to myself really. I figured some public heckling if I failed to make good would be motivating. The first day was not exactly inspiring, but the second was fun. Then I had a couple of days when I didn’t have time to skate, and I worried I would lose what little progress I had made. Then I started getting comments and emails from others stoked on taking the challenge themselves. I’m in the middle of a kitchen remodel, among other things, so my free time is more limited than usual. Stories of other people’s progress was starting to get under my skin. On Friday night I kind of hassled Conahan into hosting a miniramp session so I could get a little practice in. It’s pretty easy to talk Mark into skating, it’s just a matter of talking him into the “where.”

So me and some of the crew explored the oregon coast in search of Skate Ghost. We saw a lot of stuff, some old friends and some new parks. The one thing we did not find was Skate Ghost Senior, but we did find his offspring, Skate Ghost “Junior.” He is killing it. He made me feel old. He will make you feel DEAD. Maybe you can join us on our journey next year to find the father. You may never find Skate Ghost but the search is the most fun anyways. Killed by cute. Audi Grover

The City of Gresham, Oregon released a request for proposals yesterday. Some items of interest: The RFP calls for a covered skatepark. Descriptions of obstacles and features describe a street plaza style park. The first half is supposed to be complete by December 2009. It’s about 15 miles out from Portland.

From the Addikt Skateboards blog. RealtyTrac says 1 out of every 194 U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure in 1Q’08 – not sure how many of those houses have pools, but I know at least nine of them do. Get some now, cause McCain said he’s gonna change all that. Or did his advisors say American consumers were whiners? I can’t remember. Ooh! Politics and pictures of pools in the same post. Flame on!

“I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.  It is not so desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.” -Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849 On August 29th, Derek Anderson (Mark Conahan’s age) committed a breach of peace when he scaled a 300-foot crane located in the beer garden of the Doghouse Public House.  This act of civil disobedience was an aim to shed some light on a particular subject: the Dudhope Skatepark, pictured above courtesy of Google Maps user ihatetechnology,  in Westport, Dundee, UK.

Alright everybody, get your plates of shrimp ready. Two days after I found out my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I got this tip. Kimberly, Lexi and Haylea donated their time and assets to pose for Randal Trucks Buy a set, save a set campaign in where if you buy a set of their (limited edition?) pink trucks, proceeds will benefit the American Breast Cancer Foundation. The percentage of the proceeds to be donated is unclear. In fact, there is not a lot of information available other than about 30 pictures of the girls holding their assets and some pink trucks. The web page seems to have been screwed up since I last checked. If ever there was a case for switching over to a Mac, this might be it. Windows users might find most of these images to be hidden in the shadows. Praise Steve Jobs and a lighter gamma setting, or get ready to hit the shadow/highlight adjustment in Photoshop. Before you buy a set or save a set, check out the sets. UPDATE: Where did the pictures go? Well it turns out some of them were deemed inappropriate by the American Breast Cancer Foundation, and they…