Not exactly. The Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience is being designed by the by the firm that developed Disneyland. Err.. wouldn’t that be Walt Disney? Sort of. Exporting American style amusement parks like Euro Disney have been about as successful as the Iraq War, and these are in countries we didn’t invade. From the Times Online: A $1 million skateboard park, the first phase of the development, will open in July. Parts for 200,000 skateboards and materials to build ramps will be shipped from America to Iraq for assembly at state-owned factories and distributed free to Iraqi children along with helmets and knee pads. Shipping materials to build ramps? Is this going to be a $1 million prefab park? Do they want to make Iraq’s youth hate the U.S. even more? Does Haliburton own a piece of SkateWave? We don’t want to actually help the people of Iraq, we just want to make them love America. (Warning: Crackpot alert on that previous link.) This is not going to be a state owned Iraqi public park. The company developing the park is leasing the land for 50 years, so they’ll need to charge money. Are they going to give away skateboards…

That’s it for the comic adaptation. Time to go to sleep now. You can buy the original book here.

I love eBay Watch, but I typically don’t try to by things on eBay unless there is one specific thing I need for a practical purpose. Sometimes during research I find myself on eBay, and there’s split second where I have to make a decision on whether or not to look at something else that catches my eye. If I do, it’s all over. I end up making a bunch of retarded bids. Half of them I know I have no chance of winning and the other half of my bids are influenced by irrational emotional attachment. Sometimes, after I come down, I find that I have won one or more useless items that I paid too much for. I call this phenomenon the “eBay Hangover.” I’ve had a nagging desire to own one of these 70’s era Techni-Ski skateboard ski simulators since I saw my first one in a magazine that was probably 20 years old. Now, unfortunately, I do own one. I’m not going to say how much it cost unless Neil picks it up in his column. More details to follow. I know you are all glued to your monitors…

This is a test of the DIY Skatepark Advocacy System. If this were an actual Marginal Way benefit you would be… Oh wait, it is! Art Show Benefit for Marginal Way Skatepark! Mission in West Seattle Thursday June 12th 8pm 21+ Raffle/DJs/Videos Silent auction featuring: Tait, Paul Fujita, Q. Quigg, Bruno, LJ, Jesse Edwards, Aaron Filion, Chris Adams, Ego, Roy Wonder, Bobcat, Manbeast, Curtis Alton Jr., Romero Taylor, Eric Holt, Caveman, Leon, Jay Meer, and Lafferty Brothers. DJs: VerseOmega, Treva, Hightower. Videos, Footage and Slide Show featuring Jay Meer’s Archive. Raffle: All the goods! 100% of proceeds goes to Marginal Way Skatepark! Where: Mission 2325 California Ave. SW Seattle, WA 98116 8pm 21 and over

Expanding on an idea already in practice elsewhere, designer Kris Lovett has made some heeled shoes for women out of used skateboard decks. He/she has put a battle of the sexes spin on it, although the irony of making heeled shoes for women out of the discarded waste of a traditionally male dominated past time surely must have occurred to Kris. I guess they aren’t high heels. Maybe someone will make a corset out of skateboards next. Used skateboard decks continue to pile up due to the production of over 100,000 decks per month in the United States alone. Reply explores this material waste stream as a resource for women’s shoes. By utilizing the overall shape and material properties found within the deck, the women’s shoe takes on an interesting aesthetic quality. This project is also a reapplication of waste skateboard decks in an unexpected way. By taking a movement-based leisure product mainly utilized by males, a creative method of reuse is reapplied to a movement-based market for Eco-conscious women. Pictures archived after the jump, but you really should see them at KrisLovett.com. [Source: NOTCOT.org]

Man, we are killing it with the lifestyle shots. There’s this thing called the Zumiez Couch Tour that came through town about a week ago. There was a contest for the locals and a pro demo. I contemplated checking it out. I figured I might get a couple good photos of some pros at our humble skatepark. But then it was raining on and off, overcast, and Zumiez, after all, so I blew it off. I actually went and skated that crappy covered pool that everyone thinks is lame. Grover was going to check it out for GVK fodder. I told him there’s no way they’d do it in the rain. He reminded me that the marketing power (and wallets) of Zumiez was behind it, and it would go off rain or shine. I said I could see the autographs happening but not much else. Well I guess the contest and demo did go off. I heard locals were sliding out all over the place. Right, and there were live bands playing too. As a side note, I heard there was some sort of ramp demo put on by Capri Sun last weekend at the Rose Festival.

Yeah it’s a tired Clash reference, but at least I didn’t title it London Calling. Our Czech ex-pat Marek Litinski went back to the fatherland (motherland?) for a week and got stuck in London for an extra week becasue his “papers weren’t in order,” or so he claims to his wife… While he was there he happened on the Quiksilver Bowlriders contest in Cantelowes, a Dreamland park that we posted about earlier. Some of the eurpean skate sites have video from that contest up. Now Marek supposedly finished 4th, but must have done somehting to piss off the locals because every time he comes on camera the cut to a different guy. I begged Marek to bring a camera with him so we could get a little European skate coverage that wasn’t hand me down, and he obliged. When I spoke to him on his return, he said the thing that made the biggest impression on him was the fact that adults were allowed to openly drink beer in the presence of minors without the Aumsville Police U.K. equivalent of the National Guard being called out. Ironically, he was also present when Lodoners had near riot conditions during an all…

The Gabriel Park skatepark is nearly done. It’s not open yet but the Airspeed crew was engaged in some “dry runs” last Sunday when the weather was (finally) nice. In person, the park is much different than it looks in construction photos, or these photos, for that matter. I was a little worried about excessive flat bottom in the middle area, but it’s not a problem. It’s almost as if these guys know what they are doing. Imagine that! This park is unlike anything the Portland area has to offer and will make an excellent addition the local terrain and lore. The concrete is smooth and the lines are varied. I would say that you’d have to be mentally challenged to not have fun here, but that would assume I’ve actually ridden it…