Riot Fest 2006 is over. Jake Burns from Stiff Little Fingers sang vocals on Raygun’s version of Suspect Device. How’s that for a special guest? Amazing. Long set, quite possibly their last ever. There are videos up from the Oct 19th show and the Holyy Lazarski Nahani show. Nothing from last night though. The Riot Fest video crew was in full effect taping for a DVD release, but I like free. One item I sorely wanted but didn’t manage to catch was a stupid little clacker in the shape of hands that said “Spank you very much – Naked Raygun.” Almost as good as the famous “Get a haircut” combs they gave out once. On the drive home after the show the local commercial alternative radio station played at least one of the songs recorded from that night’s show. Sounded pretty good. I think Neil is going to write up the event. I’ll post more pics from the Holyy Lazarski Nahani performance later in the week.

Check out MC’s short report on the new Battleground Washington complex being built.

Our spy in Europe sent in this report. I don’t know what it means other than you are going to get sick of seeing pictures of Marek. here are some photos from that east german park – oschatz – it wasnt bad but only thing which was kind of challenging (czech spelling for me please) was that vert pocket. at first it looked like humongous oververt thingy but in fact it was only freaking tall rounded tranny with four feet of vert. fun as fuck. anyway… gotta go:) takove pojezdenicko mezi destem v nemeckem oschatzu. bude hùø Click the pics to enlarge.

Hokey smokes Bullwinkle! Walking up to the Subterranean to see Naked Raygun’s not so secret show under the Ukrainian translation of their name and we see Seattle’s Briefs on the bill as well. With the Bomb also playing… What a stellar line up!

One good backyard mega-ramp deserves another smaller, hopefully less expensive one. Mini Mega Ramp or Mini Mega Ramp? Makes no difference as I poached this from Antigravity Press, who poached it from Old School Skateboarding.

I’m outta here for the weekend. Back to Chicago to see not one but two shows by Chicago punk legends Naked Raygun. The first one being a formerly semi-secret but now blown out show under the assumed name of Holyy Lazarski Nahane which is Ukrainian for… Naked Raygun. That’s yours truly on the right, stinkbugging a frontside air on a Naked Raygun skateboard. Say what you will about the Haggerty-less lineup, I’m excited about this show. Day two is Riot Fest. Also looking forward to seeing Chicago’s Effigies as well. No idea what the lineup is. Some other two bit punk group will be playing…oh yeah, 7-Seconds! They have a pretty darn good recent release so I’m looking forward to that too.

Matthew Sefton has checked in again with this write up complete with pics and video of an event called Middle Age Shred Northern Mafia Jam, which took place in Leeds Works Skatepark, Saturday 28th October 2006. The blokes name in the picture is Trawler. He looks like he’d be a Burnside local, but Leeds is more U.K. action in case you haven’t gathered. Check it out.

Got a tip from a reader about Skatemontana.com, which he says the natives (Montanians? Montanites?) are proud of. With good reason too, it’s sharp looking and has some top notch photography. Nice logo. Do you think they eat meat out there? Skate Montana? I believe I will. Thanks to Jer for the tip. See you out there this summer. Now go see why Montana is the new Oregon (except for Portland!)

Portland transplant Marek Litinsky is back in Czechoslovakia working for the KGB selling used skis. Don’t ask me, apparently it’s enough money to make it worthwhile. While reports have been almost non-existent, he had this to say: I also entered national championschip in bowl and ended up third. so I had money for a party. I love Czechs. Pilsner Urquell on tap for $1.50 with tip…. The picture above was featured in the print version of the the Czech skate mag called Board. I couldn’t find a link to a story or anything but you can Czech out a larger version here. Nice shirt Marek. Czech, Czech, Czeck. One-two, Czech, Czech. It’s fun to say and type. Photo credit: the Unknown Czech.

After weeks of faking Grover’s video Korner in hopes of getting him to contribute to the site, Grover finally coughed up this video footage of the skateboarding tryouts for the Guz Van Sant film Paranoid Park which is filming in and around Burnside. His first installment is both hard to watch and riveting. A star is born, ladies and gentlemen. Without further adieu, I give you Steve’s intro. (Ahem, adieu: I hope to get him posting these directly, bypassing my sarcastic comments entirely, but MC managed to get this posted before I could! ) Hello everyone welcome to my blog I will try to keep it current. It will consist of stuff I find interesting. So (tune out-drop-in) and get your blog on as I get my blog on. Peace off Grover. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Paranoid Park Tryouts on Grover’s Video Korner