Handsome Dick Manitoba – What a great name for a guy fronting a band with the also great name of The Dictators. The impending death of CBGB’s is all over the web now. I’ve been ignoring most of it, but hey, how can I not post a pic of the Dictators who helped start the CBGB‘s, especially when Handsome Dick is featured in the Restaurants section of New York Magazine, and The Dictators are playing the second to last show at CBGB’s. Photo by Delissa Santos, poached from New York Magazine.

Just cause the park opens this weekend doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels or ass, for that matter. Head on over to Skaters for Portland Skateboards and buy a Pier Park commemorative shirt, silkscreened poster, or a skateboard to help raise money to put a roof over the damn thing. It is in Portland you know. Hello… Oregon? Winter rain? Did that ever cross your mind?

Because a day without a post is lame. So here are some mediocre shots I took in 2004 at a sparsely attended non-test at Burnside.

This is 2004 picture of everyone’s favorite ex-Donald local turned neo-Rastafarian, Donavan. Looks like he’s doing some sort of layback rock and roll, but then again I can’t remember what tricks are called these days, or other days for that matter. He’s at Newberg Ore on top of a good 10 feet or so of concrete.

Ahhh… Errr… Hmmmm… This isn’t really a new item but it’s just starting to be publicized more. Man, I love the Clash, and you should too. I don’t know where I stand on these new Clash shoes from Globe. Regardless of how you feel about hearing Clash songs in adverts from Levis and Jaguar, they have a right to earn a living and provide for their families. Money can’t be a motivating factor when they are limited to 250 pairs and selling at prices comparable to other Globe offerings, and there’s no mention of any money going to charity or anything, such as the Strummerville Foundation.

Hey everybody. I just finished the September 06 Baywatch, so check it out. 40 skate items that were auctioned off on ebay in September, sorted for your reading pleasure. And with my sarcastic comments to boot. Does life get any better? Your comments/corrections are always welcome. Enjoy.

There’s a french company called Mekanisim that makes art/skateboards designed to appeal to contemporary hipster art collectors as opposed to the usual eBay crowd. I’d never heard of this company before, but then again I’m not French and I don’t buy a lot of raver/tagger inspired art. The new collaboration with Invader is all over the web, so here it is yet again. Invader is responsible for the little stencils of Space Invader symbols around the world. It’s cute, sure, but a bit shallow to base your whole artistic identity. Mekanism has a variety of boards ranging from standard heat transfer decks to the hand crafted one of a kinds. If you can put up with the artsy-fartsy nonsense descriptions of the artists work (I went to art school. It’s all bullshit.) Some of it is kind of cool and has an interesting attention to detail, while others are just a silly waste of money in the context of skateboards, even if it’s supposed to be art. At least Designarium doesn’t pretend to be more than it is. If you’ve got the cash (amount undisclosed) you can buy one of these. Otherwise you can head to Good Will to pick up a few Rubic’s Cubes and make you own. Maybe these type of decks will be eBay fodder for the next generation of collectors after the current one enters the Viagra and Rogaine phase of their lives.

On the way back from Newberg Saturday, Peter, Ian, and myself decided to go check out the Tualatin Park to see if it was crowded, or not. It was, so we decided to head for these two different sets of banks by my house. On the way there, I remembered these little pipes we found a couple of years ago.

Since it’s not actually finished or open yet, you’ll have to make do with this artist’s rendition of as sight that I’m sure Pier Park locals will get sick of seeing after a few months. Can you tell that I am getting antsy waiting for Pier Park? I mean there’s got to be better things to do with my time besides pushing pixels around.

Seriously, kids love these things. Well, I can’t speak for your kid, because I don’t know your kid. Anyway, my kid seems to like this carpet board for about 15-30 minutes a day. They are really easy to make.