LaSalle Park, currently under construction by Evergreen Skateparks. I want one of those things in my town.

1975 Gallery, in conjunction with BookSmart Studio’s Gallery Kunstler, presents THE WORST IS YET TO COME, collaborations between Don Pendleton and Mark Penxa, two artists/designers highly regarded for their work in the skateboard industry with companies including Alien Workshop, Element, DC Shoe Co., and Girl skateboards. THE WORST IS YET TO COME explores the modern decay of interpersonal communication and a culture in overall decline. Both artists will be in attendance. Mark and Don each have two full walls of works, and there’s a middle Island Wall that has 17 total collaboration pieces. There are 43 total in the show. THE WORST IS YET TO COME September 3 – 25, 2010 Opening reception Friday, September 3, 2010 6-9PM 1975 at Gallery Kunstler (inside Booksmart Studio) 250 North Goodman St. Rochester, NY 14607 For more information: www.1975ish.com www.theworstisyettocome.net facebook.com

It can be a bit jarring when you leave the friendly confines of the Pacific Northwest and you want to visit a skatepark in another state. All of the sudden you have to worry about whether or not it’s going to be open during school hours and how much it might cost you. The city (village?) of Northport, New York has a new skatepark waiting in the wings and skaters in and around the area are trying to get the city to change their minds about charging a fee to skate. To be fair, you don’t have to pay to skate in public skateparks in most states these days. The East coast may have pioneered the skatepark, but they seem to be having a hard time letting go of the pay-to-play public skatepark. There’s a list of city emails to (respectfully) beseech for a free skatepark experience in Northport over on Sleestak. [Photo: Can’t seem to find the original. Anyone?]

Portland Parks and Rec does a summertime happy good time event where they play movies after dark in public parks.This Friday (the 13!) at Glenhaven park in Portland, next to the skatepark. They have one of those big inflatable movie screens, on which they will be showing Deathbowl to Downtown. See how many times you can see my name misspelled in the credits. I contributed the skateboard commercial footage. Ouch. I just broke my arm trying to pat myself on the back.

What do dads want for Father’s day? At least one dad wants a new deck. From the June 15th edition of the Metro in New York. – Thanks to Doug for the tip.

Advertising for the Ford Fiesta disguised as street art. I wonder how little kids growing up are going to navigate through the land mines of Madison Avenue as they grow up. In a way I imagine it will roll right off their backs. Maybe it will make them more suspicious of everything. – Thanks to Doug for the photo.

This has been making the rounds in the past few days. The city of Sarasota Springs, New York filled in the bowl at their local skatepark, essentially because the coping was damaged and the bowl was covered in graffiti, and they couldn’t afford the upkeep, what with having to pay people to make sure the helmets were strapped. It’s just one big long list of lame excuses. Must not be much of a big scene there, if the locals let that happen. Read all about it in the Saratogian. Kevin Cann pointed me to some video of the bowl, he regularly made the journey there from the Great White North. Looks like it would have been fun.

There are a few architectural relics left standing from the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York, but unfortunately the Kodak Pavilion isn’t one of them. This would have been at or near the height of the skateboard craze in the 60’s, so it;s possible a few pioneering street skaters may have gotten away with hitting the tranny. – Thanks to Bill Helene for the tip.

Check out a few skateable features at the The Julliard School of Music in New York, NY designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro Architects. Courtesy of SpaceInvading. – Thanks to Skate D for the tip.