Secret Still

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

I’ve updated the sidebar with a few new sites that I’ve decided are noteworthy. My morning ritual involves checking each and every one of them. I’m the worst employee ever.

Lifelounge
I Love New Work
Boing Boing
Meathaus
ArtSkills
It’s Nice That
NotCot
ffffound
Thrasher Magazine
Mice To Meet You
Kitsune Noir

Globe skate shoe company has a little short film project going on called United By Fate. Their first episode featured mainly Paul Machnau (but cameos from everyone else they sponsor) and was sick in extremis. The second episode, the Chris Haslam episode, just went live today and it is brilliant. Chris Haslam looks like an angry Jesus via Easy Rider and skates like gravity is a relative force. There’s even a cameo from rad little David Gonzalez, the Colombian Kid. Dude skates better than a lot of pros and he can’t even grow a mustache. Go watch the new episode of United By Fate. It made me want to skate and I’m not out of my pajamas yet. They’re pretty spacious jammies; I could probably pull it off.

United By Fate
Globe

There’s never been any love lost between cops and skaters, and as skaters we know we aren’t in for any kindness from the police. But this just goes too far. You don’t need to choke out a kid for skating just because you’ve been a cop for 10 years with no promotions or decent arrests or anything to show for it. Get over yourself, dude. I hope these kids fuck the city government up the ass for this shit.

I’m actually blogging while waiting for a Tom Penny video part to load so I thought it’s be a good time to mention Go Skateboarding Day. The holiday finally has an official nod from Congress so you can try and finagle a day off from work. Just tell your boss that you’re a skating Buddhist, like Shao-Lin only with skateboards instead of ass kicking. So next Thursday, the 21st, I’ll see you on the streets.

Go Skateboarding Day