Co-ed duo Pillowhead caught my eye this morning with their fantastic skatedecks. In case you haven’t noticed I have a soft spot for skate related art. You might even call it an addiction. The judge did after the last “incident”. But, upon further inspection, the rest of Pillowhead’s work turned out to be just as spectacular. If Murakami’s Superflat brain exploded all over my favorite comics the result would be close to their epileptic abstractions. Is pop abstraction a genre? If it wasn’t before, it is now. The problem I’m faced with is one I’ve dealt with for years: How can you skate something so beautiful? Sometimes I just have to sacrifice beauty on the alter of skateboarding. The Gods will be pleased.

Pillowhead

Not so very long ago Steve Berra and Eric Koston, two giants of skateboarding, decided to buy a warehouse and build a skatepark in it so that they would always have a place to skate. Not long after that they started a website dedicated to that skatepark, and all other things concerning skateboarding and their lives. That website, The Berrics, is a huge success. Shit, I go there everyday. And now, in an attempt to drive another nail into the coffin of the piece of shit that is MySpace, The Berrics has started its own social networking site. MyBerrics is the just launched social side of the “world’s greatest skateboarding website”, and it looks like it will probably be as successful as everything else Berrics related. Will I join it? No. I don’t use MySpace and I won’t use MyBerrics. I hate social networking in real life, and I hate it online. I like being outside too much. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give the big middle finger to Fox by deserting MySpace before it finally implodes. I’m supporting MyBerrics just so long as they don’t start adding those songs that start playing every time you look at a profile.

MyBerrics

Just a quick note to let you know that ISM’s art auction, titled Sk8ology, is now in full swing. As the name implies all the works are on skate decks, which is kind of played out, but it’s the giant roster of amazing artists that makes everything worthwhile. Oh, and the good cause. The proceeds go to support Now That You Know, a non-profit that gives girls from developing countries a “secure environment for learning and growth.” If you want to know more about the show/auction you can check here. Get over to the auction page now or later. You’ve still got 17 days until the auction runs out. But don’t put it off and forget like you did with that one girl’s birthday. You remember how pissed she was?

Sk8ology Auction

I know that normally videos go in the Daily Videos section of the sidebar, but this video was just too good to relegate to a simple text link. Shot entirely on a Red HD at 120fps, even at a web compression level the video comes out beautiful. The shots are set up perfectly, never blown out, and some tight enough to add more tension to an already tense activity. The film is helped in no small part by the dudes throwing down some nice tricks with damn near perfect form. If I had $18k to spend on a camera you can bet that a film of me eating cereal would probably look close to spectacular. A film of me skating would look like crap, but only because I always look like crap when I skate. It’s my signature style.

Skate

If you skate, then you’ve almost definitely heard of Michael Burnett. You have absolutely seen one of his photos, more likely several hundred of them. He’s all over the skate world with camera in hand. He’s got one of the main ingredients for being a great skate photographer: access. He’s got access to be where he needs to be to get the shot. In Burnett’s case that is pretty much secondary to the fact that his scope, tone, composition and overall sense of wonder at the visual world are all better than everyone else’s. Access or not, he takes incredible photos of whatever he shoots. If he had been skiing instead of skating then right now I’d be looking at some awe inspiring ski photos. Lucky for me I don’t have to stare at some pole jockeys doing a k5 (is that a thing?); instead I get to be dragged into the dirty, heartbreaking, physics-defying, almost religious world of skateboarding by Burnett’s images. When I’m sweating out every last ounce of water in my body trying to land a trick, bruised, broken and ready to destroy my board forever, it’s work like this that keeps me going. Burnett’s got a book coming out soon called <em>The Outskirts of Awesome</em>, and you bet your ass I’m gonna do my best to scrape together enough change to get a copy. If Portland wasn’t so far North I’d bike it up for his release party. As it stands I’ve got to keep living vicariously through the internet. That’s ok, I’ve got a board and some inspiration, the only thing left is time.

Michael Burnett

WTF, Damien Correll? How are you so good and I haven’t posted about you yet? You’re at Rad Mountain, too? Are you some sort of demon whose powers include invisibility? I know that’s a lot of questions, but I need answers. I just can’t fathom why you aren’t anywhere in my database. At the very least you would think I’d have seen your Zoo York boards. Or bought one, because they are tight to death. I like your work a lot, D-fresh. It’s got a McFetridge-y feel to it, but with more detail and wit for days. You’re the badass cherry on my Monday sundae. I’m wondering now if that sounded too gay. Yep. Definitely did.

Damien Correll

*Update*: My dumb ass would post about Damien the day before he launches a brand new website with new work. I’m gonna be early to my own funeral.

Another art weekend comes and goes, and I have another round of poorly shot photos for you to mock and judge. I made it to Nick Meyer’s show, but it was too cramped to get pictures, plus my hands were frozen, plus who takes photos of a photography show? I don’t like to be part of anything “meta”. Then we rode all the way across town to the Giant Robot opening, which was completely worth the leg cramp and the gay guy with the hairlip complimenting my ass. Finally, downhill and back across town to White Walls/Shooting Gallery. The turnout was surprisingly small for those shows. I blame the icy cold, razor sharp gusts of wind that were harassing people. Winds these days; think they’re such hot shit. I’m gonna start a sort of art weekend bike posse where we’ll ride around to all the shows, drink some beers, have some laughs. If that sounds like your sort of gig then drop me a line and I’ll add you to the mailing list. We’ll call ourselves The Regulators, and yes, that will be our theme song. More pictures after the jump.

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The mid-month art show surge is here so once again I’ll be giving you a nice rundown of the Bay Area shows and events I’ll be staggering around to. If you’re gonna be in and around the Bay this weekend you should try and visit some of these shows, maybe say hi to certain skate-rat art-writers, maybe give him (me) some money or beer. If you don’t know what my handsome and charming visage looks like, you can check the About section linked over there to your left. See the art schedule after the jump.

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One of my skate/music heroes, Tommy Guerrero, has a quick, but interesting interview over on SFGate. He covers a lot of ground in ten questions. If you get a chance you should check out his new album Return of the Bastard; there’s an online stream of some of the new tracks over here, or if you’re in the Bay Area you can drop by the release party at 12 Galaxies next Friday. I’m probably going to try and squeeze that one in. First Fridays are always busy.

This is for those of you reading this who skate, surf, snowboard or ride BMX. Not for rollerbladers. Fuck you, fruit-boots. There is a new site called Shred or Die where videos of various action sports are posted. The difference is that the videos are rated by users to establish whether they shred or get thrown out with the trash. It’s kind of an interesting concept to let users have than much control over content. Either way there are plenty of good videos, including trick tips and slams (if you’re into that). The site’s worth a look.

Shred or Die