November 2008. The economy is even worse if that’s possible, but by the look of eBay in November there are still collectors with deep pockets out there. These shitty economic times have dropped some prices, but the truly rare and desirable decks are still going for big money. Where do some of these guys get their cash? Good question. Another good question is why do so many big money collectors come from Australia and New Zealand? Maybe the recession hasn’t hit down there yet. Maybe in 6 months time there’ll be a massive sell of from down there. Who knows? So to underline the trying times I have a new section this month: Bargains of the Month. Take a look and kick yourself. Maybe I’ll do it again, maybe not.

Check out eBay Watch: November 2008

Only a skater can wander around in southeast Portland, and understand the significance of a Sharpie marker- drawn little bird with “Luda Crooks” written underneath.  The graffiti art of Chet Childress shows up in the places where one would expect it to show up the most: dive bar bathrooms, bus stops, skate-spots, etc.  The above picture is an example taken from his myspace page.  Oh, did I mention that Chet Childress rips?

Childress will have a showing of his art from 7-10 pm on Thursday, December 18th at the Department of Skateboarding, located at 15 NE Hancock Portland, OR 97212.

The Department is hosting what is supposed to be Portland’s biggest contest this year, AKA the Holiday Havoc which is on December 19th. And Windells would like everyone to know that they are now open for public sessions as well as doing the whole skate camp thing. Flyers after the jump.

Nice painted deck from Aaron Draplin.

Dude is a design hero of sorts for this.

I should have made this post on Tuseday.

On this date in 1982, (December 9th) Code Of Honor released their debut single, “What Are We Gonna Do?” It was backed by “What Price Would You Pay? Neither track appeared on an album. The San Francisco hardcore punk band released a split album with Sick Pleasure and then one album of their own before disbanding in 1984. The band was formed by Michael D Fox who was a co-founder of Subterranean Records.

What are we going to do? From the looks of the cover art, I’d say handplants, apparently.

I found this over at The P5, an excellent site for finding old punk, post punk, new wave and odd music from the 70’s and 80’s. Punk purists will be disappointed, cause it’s got some pretty mainstream stuff on there at any given time. While the site does not offer any downloads directly, more often than not it will link to another site does provide more information and a download. If your personal code of honor prevents you from downloading even out of print music, (and good for you!) you’ll find The P5 is still a good place to learn music history and discover new (old) bands that you might otherwise have missed. I don’t know how they do it, but my guess is that they are armed with a couple well worn and dog eared copies of the Punk Diary and Post Punk Diary.

Getting back to Code of Honor. I have a clear memory of repeatedly seeing the first EP (not pictured) at our local record store and in House of Neil’s collection back in the day, I can’t say I can remember the music at all. It’s the same shot of skateboards lined up next to a guitar that is on the more recent Complete Recordings release on CD. Ther funny thing is that I also have a clear memory of really liking the typeface they used on that EP cover art. Here’s an interview with Code of Honor that originally appeared in issue #8 of Ripper from 1983, and lo and behold, Code of Honor on Myspace.

[Source: The Post Punk Progressive Pop Party]

We mentioned this limited edition Jenna Jameson board by Zoo York before, but the board wasn’t actually out yet. It appears to have been released, which is a good excuse to mention that I walked into a Portland area Macy’s a week ago and was surprised to see a large portion of the floor had been allocated to a big display of Zoo York clothing which I found odd, but then didn’t considering it’s much more acceptable in hip hop culture to infiltrate higher end retail shops, as opposed to Shaun White having his own line in Target. While I appreciated the original Zoo York movement detailed in the Deathbowl to Downtown documentary, those roots seem far removed from the current incarnation, as if related in name and location only. In any case, everyone should print out copy of the deck and run down to the nearest Macy’s and ask them when they are going to get the Jenna Jameson board.

[Photo: Sakteboard - miniroom549 on Flickr]

Well, I just don’t know what more one could possibly say about that headline. Ha! They even botched the second headline (term anyone?) “MEANING A PUBLIC SKA8BOARD PARK IS FINALLY COMING TO MIAMI.” I hope somebody has a hard copy of this. The Biscayne Times has an article on a public skatepark for Miami that is in the conception stages. Familiar name Tito from Team Pain has the dubious honor of being quoted. I hope the suits in Miami making the decisions are little more in touch than the guy who wrote this article. So there you have it.

Officer Salvatore Rivieri, one of Baltimore’s finest, is in the news again. The results of Baltimore’s internal investigation have yet to be released. The family of the scrawny teenage skateboarder he abused sued Officer Salvatore Rivieri for assault, battery and violation of rights. There was a legal question about the statute of limitations, a paltry 180 days. The family sued after 10 months, but a judge ruled that statute didn’t apply to minors for some reason, and now the $6 million suit can proceed. I’m all for sticking it to this guy, especially since he has a history of being a dick, but $6 million is an absurd amount. Flame on! - Thanks to Stephanie Murdoch and Derek Krasauskas for the tip.

[Source: Baltimore Sun]

SoCal Skateparks has a bunch of video from the 80’s vert challenge that happened at some point in time that is probably still sitting unread in my Google Alerts mailbox. Low purse and high fun. Everyone wore neon, and Hosoi complete with spandex and hair extensions should have won best-dressed, although maybe he did, as there was a special cash prize for finishing dead last. Check it out on SoCal Skateparks Skate-TV. - Thanks to JF for the tip.

Joesf sent in this screencap from the credits of the movie Stepbrothers. There’s not much to say here, except I’ve got a busy day and this is about all you are getting. See it larger after the jump, if you must. Nice plastic trucks. I wonder if they had to have someone’s assistant break this thing in on the parking lot to make it look worn.

The ongoing concrete work in Hood River, Oregon is looking really interesting, at least from afar. This is a shot of what looks like a bridge over a creek that has one side with a steep tranny wall, almost like a modified Jersey barrier. I assume this is connected to the rest of the new skate trail that’s being built. Actually, I should stop making assumptions and make the drive out there to check it out. Carl Warren has the picture, and you can click to enlarge.

PBS Kids airs an educational program called WordWorld. It’s pretty crappy looking as far as animation goes, but it does seem to do a good job of teaching kids the basics of spelling and phonetics. You might think a show trying to teach kids how to spell would be, you know, spelled correctly, but that’s not the case with WordWorld. All the characters and most of the props are made out of letters. When they have challenges or adventures, the characters have to collect and place letters together to physically make the items they need to overcome their obstacles. WordWorld’s opening sequence has a brief bit where a bear rides a skateboard. The bear is a regular, but the skateboard isn’t a constant companion. In fact, I’ve only seen one episode where the bear rides the skateboard outside of the opening sequence. Why do I know so much? I’m not developmentally delayed (much), but I do have three year old kid. As with any vaguely popular TV show aimed at children, WordWorld has merchandising.

This is the Mega Blocks WordWorld Bucket House set.

Although Bear’s skateboard on the show is one of the fiew items that isn’t actually made out of letters, her skateboard for the Mega Blocks set spells it out nicely. Somewhere out there, somebody is making boards with a handle like that, but probably not on the tail.

A lot of words don’t work for every angle. The end result is that you get characters that are almost always positioned facing the same direction.

The beauty shot.

Did you hear about the new skateboard park that just opened? It’s called Bear’s Skateboard Park, and it’ s not so great. I think they hired Purkiss Rose to build it.

This month, at Fifty 24 PDX Gallery, skateboarder/artist/writer Michael Sieben has his original artwork in an exhibition entitled “From the Desk of Whatserface,” along with Mel Kadel and Travis Millard.  This exhibit is located at 23 NW 5th Ave, Portland, OR 97209, and will last until November 29.

Expect paintings with lots of cutesy, renegade monster things with cryptic messages.  Sieben is also a columnist/artist with Thrasher magazine, and has made many skateboards with his trademark style.  Some may remember the video he did with Adidas that SNA covered a few months back.  The above pictures were borrowed from Sieben’s web page.

Daniel Gesmer on Facebook.

Now where did I put my skateboard?

Went by Ed Benedict to see the progress. They finished the quarters opposing the shots Kilwag got earlier. They seemed to be finishing up a lot of smaller sections of the park. It seems like it might be a while before it opens. Enjoy these awful cellphone shots..

He’s got blisters on his fingers, but Joesf finally finished the last pour of this bowl in his DIY backyard concrete extravaganza. Two pics after the jump.

Before.

After.

After probably a 30 year gap, there’s another Skitch Hitichock model out. This model made by Skate Designs looks like a pretty nice cruiser, complete with wheel wells. I want to say that Skitch the guy who invented the gorrila grip, but I’m not sure. Proceeds from the model will help Skitch with some life threatening medical needs. Video and pics of vintage Skitch after the jump.

- Thanks to Craig Snyder for the tip.

Here’s an old Skitch Hitchcock model I found on the NCDSA site, where you can view it much larger.

Here’s some video of Skitch from YouTube. The user doesn’t give the details, but I’m guessing this is from Spinnin’ Wheels or Freewheelin’. UPDATE: It’s from Spin’in Wheels, which has been remastered and rereleased on DVD.

It was nominated last year and didn’t get in, but this year the skateboard made it into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Joining it this year were the baby doll and the “stick.” Proponents of the booger and the “doodle” (As in “They can see my doodle!“) were upset, as can be imagined. Tony Hawk appeared in a prerecorded video at the induction ceremony. In his words skateboarding “promotes individualism … artistic expression and it’s also very athletic.” Also, it doesn’t make you go blind if you do it too much.

- Thanks to Livmo and Sorenee for the tip.
[Source: CNN]

This week, Thrasher magazine’s website will release one section per day of a five part Duane Peters interview filmed by Lance Conklin.   It started on Monday and will end on Friday.  Everyone’s favorite crusty old grouch tells it like it is about being in a band,  Jerry Only, Los Angeles and Australia, and more to come…

It’s actually kind of neat to see DP just unloading his attitude onto the internet.  No rocket science or brain surgery here; just a punk rock skater/surfer/survivor telling it like he sees it.  If you can ignore the gratuitous advertising, check it out!

Thanks 10 Things Zine for the picture.

This week’s Shot of the Week comes to us from Kevin Porterfield, the proprietor of Dokument Skateshop in Salem, Oregon. It was a slow day so they dragged out the launch ramp for some wall ride action in front of the shop. Skater’s name is Travis Jolley. There are some bonus shots after the jump. Don’t forget to check out the full frame Shot of the Week.

Extra shots.

I think Grover has the same tile on his kitchen floor. Travis Jolley on the wall. Click to enlarge.

Nick Jolley. Both of these guys work at the shop.