Or purses, as we like to call them. The Holidays are approaching, so it’s time to get your girlfriend a present. Or if you are a female reader uh, buy one for yourself of a cross dressing male friend. I don’t know if we have many female readers. I know Alexis Schemp isn’t one of them because we haven’t heard from her yet. So, Sophie Mason makes bags out of used skateboards. Cool.

In the past there seemed to be something negative about skating, almost artless. Whether this was due to the media, society or generally bad experiences is irrelevant as we have the freedom to make our own judgements based on our own reasoning. At Focused we have come to realise that skating provides vivid examples of excellence and skill.

Why does every arts & crafts practitioner need an artist’s statement? If you are going to quote John Cage, at least get rid of the free image hosting watermark on your front page. Oh wait, maybe it’s part of the statement. You can buy the bags and even sell her your broken decks, if you live in the U.K.. Check out Focused Bags.

Well here is the third installment of the Grovers Video Korner completed on T-givingday so eat your turkey and enjoy “Danimals Greatest Hits”. Dan seems like he is our age (old) but he is not. He looks old but he is not. As a matter of fact the only time he acts his age is when he is shredding on his skateboard, see video for proof. (Kids at his local park call him Honest Abe cause he’s from Illinois and they think he looks like Lincoln – k.ed)

If you live near Sammamish Washington here’s one more thing to be thankful for. This new street park should be ready soon if it’s not already open. It’s got a lot of curious features that are a tip off that it wasn’t designed by skaters (who are experienced skatepark builders). On the plus side, they packed it full of terrain and made it interesting, and it’s fun to say “Sammamish Mammy.” More pictures here.

This spot has to be a mega-bust, if not skate-proofed by now. Boston City Hospital circa ’88. I spent about a week there ( in the city, not the hospital ) while on a road trip. It was a bust then but you could still get a session if you were smart about it. I think they used to mention it in Thrasher every once and while, so I made sure to check it out when I was there. More pics after the jump.

That’s right. Stop sassing them and say “Sir” and “Ma’am” and you just might be rewarded with a new skate park. A November 17 article in the Pitsburgh Tribune-Review titled Retired teacher puts a lot of stock in skate park tells the story of James Peach. He bought some Standard Oil stock after the war (occupation of Japan) and at age 78, in a fit of grieving and good will, turned it over the county of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania on the condition that the money be spent on the local skatepark project. Turns out that the original $900 investment was worth $161,000! I hope the park they build looks better than it does in the plan above, but with an advocacy group named Westmoreland Street Park Alliance, I wouldn’t hold my breath..

Since 1963… with a few blackouts here and there. This started out as just lame quickie because I wanted to post a picture of this wacky old plastic Makaha skateboard that I’ve always loved. In the beginning, just as with Nash, Makaha was a real company. Makaha was one of the first skateboard companies, and the first one to use clay wheels. Owner Larry Stevenson has an actual patent on the kicktail! Their web site claims to have made the first production longboard as well. Also like Nash, unfortunately, at some point in the 70’s Makaha started turning out plastic toys. After the jump there are some more examples of Makaha’s past and present.

Springfield Nuclear Power Plant anyone? Thanks to some recent dry spells it looks like there’s been quite a bit of pouring going on in Battle Ground Washington. It’s no longer just some framed holes filled with muddy water. Of course the surroundings are one big bog fest. Hit the jump to see more pictures of construction than you’ll ever really need. New to this layout is a corresponding reference shot showing the approximate location and field of view that each shot was taken. Tedious? Yes, but I bleed for you, man. Designed by Grindline but built by Dreamland. Check it out.

UPDATE: Ported the old HTML, updated the link.

In case you haven’t been paying attention. We’ve got two new contributors on the site with a couple more waiting in the wings. It’s not Devo, even though those silhouettes may suggest otherwise. First there is Egbert, who has been here for a while actually. Today saw the debut of Chompy, who is going to be scouring the Interweb for video. While we don’t encourage an outside life, Egbert also has his own thing here, as Chompy has his own thing here.

Big plans for Skate and Annoy. Yes siree. We’ve got ’em. Just you wait and see mister.

This video follows the Four Star team on a two week tour of Tokyo, Japan. Four Star has some of the best skaters, and of course the Gonz is there, which makes the video that much better. Throughout the entire video he is riding that land barge of a board.

This is definitely one of the better videos to come out during 2005. It gets the fire burning below to get out and skate.

Featured Skaters: Brian Anderson, Mike Carroll, Mark Gonzales, Rick Howard, Eric Koston, P.J. Ladd, Guy Mariano, and Max Schaaf.

Run time: 36 min 59 sec – Check it out.

It depends on where you find it, this is either called GR8 TaT2 Maker or I-Tattoo There’s nothing like pretending to be an adult. If you’ve got a toy skateboard, you might as well have a toy tattoo gun. Next in line is the Lil’ Addict Heroin Kit™. Seriously, these kids look like little meatheads already. The kid on the right looks like he’s wearing a hair helmet. As soon as they get done with the fake tattoos they are going out to the back yard to off road in their battery powered mini Jeeps.

Get Inked!! Vibrating Electronic Pen! Safe and Easy! Uses Washable Markers! Contains: 30 Stencils 3 Markers

No, there’s no skateboard in the actual product, just in the advertising. I like how the copped the SK8 spelling for GR8. Tip of the keyboard to Gizmodo.com where I poached this from.