MC’s got the 411 on Glenhaven, including spy photos of the plans captured on camera he bought out of the back of a comic book in 1974. too bad he can’t get the 110 film developed anywhere… But seriously, he does have enlargements of the floor plan. Enlargements on microfiche that he swallowed and smuggled out in his intestines. Check it out the progress report.

This pool was up and running for just about forever and a day. There were rumors of $200 tickets being given out but that was likely just subterfuge as nobody seemed to actually know anyone personally who had gotten a ticket. The pool was in a motel that was being torn down. Seems like that was going around this summer. In any case, there are action photos to be seen as well. I’m trying a different approach to the thumbnails for the sake of uniformity and saving a little production time. Sometimes they are close to full frames of the enlarged versions, sometimes they just highlight interesting parts. Please let me know in the comments how you think it works out. Check it out.

Seriously. I had a hard enough time with Defender, so when Defender Stargate came out it was just too overwhelming. That’s how I feel with the video games these days. Too many button combinations to remember to be able to freaking enjoy playing. That’s why simple games like Guitar Hero are the best. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is available fro two platforms, Nintendo DS and more importantly in this case, The Nintendo Wii. Why? Because with the gyroscope motion sensitive controller you can use the involuntary muscle spasms and body movement to your advantage when pretending to skateboard. There’s a video showing how it works here. It’s actually kind of cool. That one guy might be related to Weird Al.

The marketing juggernaut for Tony Hawk’s Project 8 video game is already ramped up. Fileshack.com is a site devoted to all imaginable types of downloads concerning video games. In this case they they have a bunch of behind the scenes footage in the development of Tony Hawk’s Project 8. Project 8? How about behind the scenes footage of the guy who green lighted that name getting fired? I don’t think this footage is proprietary to the site though. You’ll have to endure multiple attempts and guilt trips from Fileshack.com to get you to sign up for an account and to get faster downloads. Whatever. Let me download it or not, quit making me jump through hoops. They have a bunch of videos on Project 8 (Genius!) available. The still above are from a motion capture session. Check it out.

Due to feedback on the column, this month I’m starting a “weird” auctions section, that features some of the more unusual items from the skateboards section of eBay. As always, this stuff is totally random; whatever catches my eye. I may miss some stuff that goes off, but hey, that’s life. If you guys see something good I missed, send it in! And as always, thanks for all of the comments, keep them coming. Now, on to eBay Watch for October 2006.

Old Steve is having problems with his email, so I have to paraphrase his intro. He wanted to mention that this kid Louie, the Aumsville expert is the best kind of team rider to sponsor because he never asks for boards and instead rides them until they are barely a nub of wood. He speculated that might be because Louie’s had two concussions complete with airlifts out of Aumsville, and some sort of skull surgery, so perhaps he can’t remember to ask for them. Anyway, the footage was all shot within 5 minutes of Louie arriving at the park, as I was trying to get grover to get in my car so we could leave. Not bad. Steve’s working out the bugs on his new intro footage. We promise it will be local skate company agnostic for the next one. Check out this edition of Grover’s Video Korner. Can there be any doubt that he’s in line for Interweb Infamy? Hold on, I like that. Make that Interweb Infamyâ„¢.

Late March of 2005. This cat’s name is Forest. See, with a name like Forest, you’re a “cat,” not a “dude.” This was taken on March 31st of 2005, and the park was nearly empty. Supernatural lighting is courtesy of the setting winter sun and a flash. See the whole thing after the jump.

This is the must watch skate video of the week. It’s amusing, and not nearly as creepy as these screen captures would lead you to believe. Please, let’s not turn this into a predictable tirade about how this makes fun of girls who skateboard, because it doesn’t. Sometimes things are just funny. I have no idea where this is from, or if the Japanese is legit, because the account has been suspended, but it’s still available on a German site. Update: That was fast. in the time it took to screen capture the vid it was gone as soon as I posted it, before I could save it. If anyone finds it again, let me know. I want to see mannequins rolling downhill on a skateboard. So should you. UPDATE: It lives! Thanks to Orezona for this link. Get it while you can!

MC scanned the Willamette Week’s version of a picture he provided for their article on Pier Park skatepark titled Finding Dreamland. You can find his original in color here and the article on line at the Willamette Week Online. I love pictures with numbers inside dots. Reminds me of old textbooks and museums. The black and white scan also adds a heavy 70’s vibe to it. Dreamland has been getting a lot of Oregon press these days.

A paintball goofball is trying to trade his Ramones skateboard for video games. You may know him as Paintballkilla14, but he also wants you to know he is a Christian. If catches wind of this, he will hopefully represent his religion better than the kids on the Fusion Affect team represent their shop. Anyway, trade your video games for Paintballkilla14’s skateboard here. If he’s into playing paintball he might not be completely fat yet. It’s a pretty high adrenaline activity.