for those of you who are interested parking block publishing just released a new 'zine of some of my drawings. if you would like to pick one up or any of the other 'zines then go here.

Tim, the owner, is a skateboarder just like you and me so show him some support.

best friends, best fiends its all the same to me.

welcome to the club.

to all of my skateboarding brothers around the world and back...

the beginning, the middle and the end.

rabjohn.

forever wallie.

to all of my ohio brothers...

a long time ago larkey shot a photo of me pushing my skateboard. i guess im returning the favor.

september 14th 2009

sometime before dark.

more randomness.

yellow flat bars are so much fun. have you skated some lately?

i figured it out today that these wheels are probably circa 1990. its kinda funny that i never really actually rode them until years later, what a waste of urethane on my behalf. now they're just sitting inside a drawer full of junk never realizing their full potential.

i know that this photo has already been posted but i wanted to show another version of it with the car passing by. i think that i like this one better than the other.

1.where are you originally from? tell me about growing up there? tell me about skateboarding there?
I primarily grew up in Alliance, Ohio, with my mom but also spent time in Toledo since my dad lived there. I lived more in the rural area of Alliance than within the town but it is a small place that it kind of all blends together. I felt that small town anxiety and always had the desire to live in the city without really knowing what it was like, just wanting anything other than what I had. When I would spend time in Toledo it was spent in suburban housing areas the entire time. I was always pretty confused with what I wanted to do growing up and jumped around trying lots of different things, but when I started skating probably around fifth grade it went from just another thing to a hobby to an obsession. I started skating more and more and during the summer my mom would drop me off in downtown with a friend and we would skate the whole town all day making our way to the other end of town by the mall where my mom would pick us up at the end of the day. If we didnt go street skating I had a driveway where we had built banks, flat bars, ledges, anything we saw pretty much in videos. During the winter we would cram all the ramps into the garage and get an extension cord and space heater and try to skate whatever we could in the garage, and if there was no snow you would street skate. My favorite thing to do was go to Wendy’s where it was kind of in the middle of where we would skate and when you were frozen we would go there and get chicken nuggets and use them to keep our hands warm. When I was in Toledo it was all flat ground until Woodville park opened which my dad lived five minutes from, so I would skate there as much as I could. 2.whats your earliest skateboarding memory?
I got into skating because of an old friend named Rich Miller. His older brother Ben had a Birdhouse that he would never ride in the garage with a flat bar they had made out of stacked 2x4 and a piece of metal. We had no idea what we were doing so we would put a makeshift kicker up to it so we could ride up the kicker than try to go all the way across the flat bar. The result was always one of three things, you either didnt go fast enough because it was so rusted, you almost made it to the end but you hit the nails sticking out of the flat bar that kept them connected to the 2x4 and died, or just had no balance and was going too fast and died right off. We would fight over who got the chance to go just to see who could do it first, then one time I tried to hippie jump the flat bar just to try something else and was so excited and Rich just looked at me like I was retarded. 3.how would you describe skateboarding to someone who has never seen it before?
It would depend on how much they wanted to hear or were willing to hear, I have a problem of once I get on the topic of skating I never shut up. Playing with concept of skateboarding is great; it’s fun to call it a toy or something that can mold a personality. It can be just like any other activity or it can teach you about yourself and the world around you, opening your eyes to endless possibilities and making you experience things you would never have without it potentially. It could consume the better part of your life and give you more than you could ever ask for, or conversely it’s another thing people do jumps on and ignore traffic signs with that are a threat to public safety. 4. do you love skateboarding? what does it mean to you?
Without it I’m not sure where I would be or what I would want to do with my life. So much of what I do revolves around it that to say I didnt love it would be silly. I care too much about it sometimes, to the point where Jessee’s Slap shirt makes me laugh every time. I owe skateboarding and the people I’ve met through it for how I grew up and came to be, it’s given me direction and goals in life where there was a void, its one of the few things that can always make me laugh and smile. I don’t know if I can scale how important it is, but it does play a role to some extent how I go about almost anything, so yeah, it might mean something to me. 5.what scares you? if anything
If I am ever forced into using my degree from college when I graduate for the intended purpose of the degree instead of the goals I have for myself. Not that school hasnt helped me along with my goals, but I think there could be better routes for it than school if done properly. Completely failing with Megapolis and being forced into something I’m not passionate about. Not being involved with skateboarding. These are all skateboarding related, plenty more non skate related fears there too. I’m odd with conversation a lot. 6. so whats up with megapolis? tell me about the name? how did you come up with it? when are you gonna open? what do you hope to accomplish with it?
Megapolis is making more headway than it has in the past two years due to being unemployed at the moment. It was either quit talking about it and do it or get a job I hate. The name originally wasnt going to be Megapolis but Common Ground, but when I realized there was already an Underground and a Stomping Grounds in Ohio it just seemed dumb to do that, plus not many people liked the idea. But from the original idea I wanted to have something that made the association that the entire area of NE Ohio was one area, Cleveland, Akron, Canton, and surrounding areas, everyone did the same thing and loved the same thing, so why not support all the areas and people of which we have all grown up skating and love? When Common Ground was thrown out I got on thesauruses online and came across Megapolis after a while, it seemed weird and just liked it so it stuck. I’m pretty sure I pronounce it wrong but whatever. The whole idea to start a shop came from my mom one day after walking out of an exam at school that left me furious and provoked a lot of thought due to being involved in skating but only to a certain extent due to where I was. My mom basically told me to do something about it, probably one of the biggest epiphanies of my life. Opening day is closer than ever, I’m in the workings of putting down a security deposit in Kenmore close to First Glance and will open hopefully around September, just in time for the summer to be over and lose tons of sales. The point is really just to bring life back to the area, get events and contests going simply for the fun of it and get people excited about skateboarding. Hopefully it does well but there’s no definite answer, I just want to stay in skating as much as I can, it’s the only place I’m happy as of now. 7. top 3 skateboarders and why?
I like to attempt to answer that question in my head all the time and there is no way of answering that, perceptions of skating to me constantly change and people new and old are always being discovered due to bad written history of skating so your favorite person you may not have ever come across or you realize new things about style or attitude that change your view on skating. But there are people who are always on the top of whatever diluted scale you want to make, so without order: everyone I’ve ever skated with because they will always teach me things and give me the memories, Busenitz because he’s probably been one of the more influential people in how I try to skate, and Mark Gonzales because the reasons are endless and to try and explain that is far too time consuming.8. what inspires you on a day to day basis?
Paying attention and laughing. With all the good things you experience you want that to continue, so trying to enjoy the moment and learn a way to keep that going and balanced is important. Then if something negative is happening looking at it and seeing how to rework it so the outcome is better. I can get too serious and then turn mean spirited, but if I just look and realize what can or could happen, it can work out with the proper effort. Then laughing keeps me balanced, making a good time better or softening a frustrating time. There is irony and humor in everything, learning to appreciate it keeps me mental. People are inspiring. Comedy is inspiring. 9.have you read any good books as of late?
As long as they’re not school related yes, but those are few right now. During break I read two books, Geek Love and How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Geek Love was a good recommendation that I’m glad I read. One of those things you probably wouldnthave picked up on your own but once you began reading you were excited to see where it would go. How to Talk Dirty is a Lenny Bruce autobiography, Lenny Bruce is a comedian from the 50’s and 60’s that basically redefined what is and what can be comedy, at least in my mind. He led a pretty interesting life and has always been someone I admired since discovering him. One of the few people that properly connected things in stand up comedy I don’t think many achieve or is even aspiring to do with stand up now. Blue Collar comedy is a farce just to name one fad.10. any words of advice or words of wisdom that you would like to share?
I’m an idiot that makes frequent and contradicting mistakes, but I try to learn from them and not repeat them. Being aware of what’s going on in your life and trying to do the best with it while not taking things too seriously seems important. I don’t know, I’m only 22 and I don’t think I would ever take advice seriously from a 22 year old boy who obsesses about toys. Learn to love sarcasm and find the intention, read A Modest Proposal by Swift, learn how to break up compound and run on sentences, learn to have fun. Buy yours and other people’s art if possible or make your own and sell it on the street like Wesley Willis. Cooking is fun. Take yourself out of the situation and make fun of yourself than change. Frequent stream of consciousness writing. I’m rambling way too long now, you should edit this, but you are not permitted to take out the portion where I say people should buy your art, especially in England good luck.

Dr. Tom and Dusty. Fulton Market, Chicago.

here is all of the information that you need for the london show. thanks to all that helped get this thing off the ground, your help is greatly appreciated.

my friend Jeff sent me this photo the other day with the following few sentences... " some rusty bolts right where i park my car at black box. i put a board together one day sitting on the curb about 2 months ago. must have forgot the bolts there. "
all i have to say about this photo is that rust never sleeps.
enjoy.

another sneak peak...

show info has changed a little. I'll let you in on the details once they get sorted out.

just another saturday afternoon spent skateboarding. how many saturdays have you had? i lost count a long time ago.

Red coping

I went to the Pro Tec pool party this past weekend. All i can say is amazing! Complete controlled chaos. Mark "Red" Scott was there doing half naked inverts. Skate and destroy at its finest.

sometimes you gotta change it up. go a different direction. look for something new. go down a road you have never been down. keep your eyes open. build something out of nothing.

a little plywood. a few stacked curbs. a vacant lot. another wallride. another day done.

McBarbee revisited.

Here are a few photos I took from the second time I saw these two play. Ray Barbee + Chuck Treece. Summer 2008.

I've got that p.m.a.

this a photo of my old S-One wrist guard. there was a time in my skateboarding life where i had to wear it on the regular. not by choice but out of necessity. it felt like my wrist would have fallen off without it.
at the time i was heavy into writing things on my griptape. short, one or two word phrases that would get me juiced to skate. if there weren't some sorta words of frustration or motivation written in my sparkly Wooster griptape, i wouldn't skate. in fact i couldn't skate, my OCD tendencies would get the best of me. but well leave that for another story.
so as you can imagine when the time came to wear this lovely brace i couldn't resist the urge to write something on it. even though i cant quite remember, I'm sure i had a list of things that i wanted to scribble on it. I'm sure the words " go harder" " get bent" or one of my all time favorites " you lose pussy" came to mind. but as you can tell by this photo, the simple, yet eloquent " destroy yourself " was all that was needed.
ahh, memories.

randomness.

patrick gsd 08, fpn bso chi 08, jd starbucks, rcr forever, rabjohn extra, jc summertime.

learn something new.

Good morning. I'm here.

a long time ago before i discovered skateboarding i was heavy into riding bikes. i would ride them all around my neighborhood poppin' wheelies and doing burnouts. i thought i was the coolest, so much that my friend and i started a two man bike gang called the "cool cats". alot like skateboarding it brought me a true sense of freedom and independence. going fast is what i enjoyed the most.
as the years went by and the glorious summer of 1985 came to be i saw a movie that would forever change my life. Pee Wees big adventure could possibly be the greatest cinematic achievement that i have ever experienced. it twisted and delighted my twelve year old brain so much that everywhere i went and everything i did was a direct influence of that movie. i could and still can recite, word for word, the entire movie.
so know i guess this brings me to the above photo. its a picture of my very own Pee Wee Herman bike. my dad bought it for me from a yard sale back in that already perfect summer. it was and probably still is one of the greatest gifts i have ever received. i rode that thing around my neighborhood doing what i thought at the time was the best Pee Wee Herman imitation ever. and for those of you who personally know me I'm sure this answers a lot of your questions.
well over the summer i was at my dads house and he still has the bike. its sitting in his woods propped up against a tree. its a little rusty looking and has two flat tires but it's still the best bike in the whole world.

lee.

1.where are you from originally? tell me about growing up there? tell me about skateboarding there? june of 79' i was born in coldwater michigan, it was the closest hospital of any size with decent doctors. my greatgrandmother was in the same hospital a few floors above me at the time of my birth. the doctors wheeled her down to see her newly born grandson. i was raised between two towns in indiana, orland where the family farm still stands and auburn where my parents moved to shortly after my birth. i had a decent up bringing. the best i could of i suppose between two parents that quickly grew to hate each other. auburn was a quiet town, slept with the doors unlocked and you could still leave your car running as you went into the iga down the street. by second grade, in 1986, i had some close neighborhood friends, some with older brothers that knew about bmx and skateboarding. for my 7th birthday, i got a nash skateboard from murphys dept store on highway 8. it started out in the neighbors driveway, pushing as fast as we could and kicking just the board up and over the launch ramp just to see how far it would go, then it turned into trying to go up it with wreckless abandon on whats gonna happen after i make it to the top. no one ever broke any bones back then as life was a bit more simple. after learning how to kick, we cruised all over auburn, up town, to the industrial areas, and the fair grounds where we had, in time, built up a mini skate park emulating what we saw in the mags. this was 1989 and i'm talking plywood ramps built of cinder blocks and used tires that came from anywhere and went who knows where it didn't matter because we had them now. we scouted out oily full pipes, two sided ledges, and stair sets to roll off of rather than ollie down. we had hand me down alva boards. somehow, one of the old guys, one of the ones that showed us how to build ramps was sponsored by alva and he taught us how to turn your front bolts upside down for better ollie traction. i had pf flyer shoes that looked like visions and i was stoked. on january 11th 1991, my mom moved me to fort wayne indiana. the people i met there blew my mind. 2. whats your earliest skateboarding memory? my earliest memory would have to be rolling on my stomach down a driveway and hitting a stone. my face smashed into the ground and i went running into my babysitter's house balling and bleeding from forehead to chin. i'm sure i swore i'd never ride a skateboard again after that. after a year and a half of not skating...i more than miss those slams. 3. how would you describe skateboarding to someone who has never seen it before? seen it? is that possible with all the attention sheckler, bam, and dyrdek have brought to it. i would have them read the book johnathon livingston seagull and tell them that that book is the most parallel thing i could ever imagine skating being like, for someone who has never seen skateboarding. and yes im bitter and jaded, i dislike the popularity that skating has gotten to. remember when you would go out of town and be with your parents and see some other kid, one youve never seen before, wearing vans, airwalks, visions... and you just knew they skated...its not like that anymore and probably never will be unfortunately. i always wonder how many of those kids i saw at cedar point or kings island wear the said shoes i've met, skated with years later or even traveled with. those were the days. if you started skating after 92 or 93, i'm sorry you missed out. 4. how have you been feeling lately? give us an update on the MS. i've been feeling great until about 5 minutes ago. my girlfriend's at work and her son's father just called and asked me where i was at... i am 45 minutes late to pick up her son. janet's sick and at work and now i've got to explain how or why i didn't pick him up because by this time it seems better for him to stay asleep there. jane, im sorry girl, i was thinking it to be friday. other than that, i'm great. numb hands and feet for the last 540 days but my energy level is half way normal and its nice here in az in the winter, so im able to be outside again. heat and stress are the two worst things for ms and summers here are hot and i get stressed... not a good combo. 5. what do you miss most about not being able to skateboard? what i miss most is pool skating, everything about it. the hunt, being in someone else's backyard knee deep in mud and water, bailing a pool, drying it with palm leaves, rags, couch cushions, anything. i miss that first throw down and trying every pool to grind it first run no matter how fucked the tranny is. i miss slamming and the feeling you get after the first bounce on the ground. i miss building concrete stuff in ditches and the mission of going out with close friends to have a good time and maybe even get some flicks for keep sakes. i got a good ten years in of traveling and being more than free. i really cant complain. i miss driving to chenga every wednesday from ft. wayne to skate with you jay... those where the days. like i'm 65 years old.. 6. is there anything in this world that really scares you? do you have any fears? i'm afraid that one day the ms will keep me from walking on my own, or that it will take my vision. i'm afraid of the unknown as much as i welcome it. with ms, theres no answers, no definites, just a long road that vanishes over the horizon line... and all you can do is charge. 7.do you love skateboarding? i feel that i do, although, i really could careless about who is riding for who or really even who did what, of course if its mind blowing, i'm up for that, but when i watch most any video these days, i saw it all in h-street videos 20 years ago.. that makes me wonder if i love it or not. what i do care for the most is all of my friends i most definetely met through skateboarding, i love all the good times had through skating. the road trips, the break downs, the friendships, and the laughter. 8. i know that you are well read and like to write. what are your top 5 favorite books? somehow i didn't read the og jack blacks book "you cant win" until last week.. thats definitely top five, the book mentiond above for the reason given above, johnathon livingston seagull, most any henry miller, "hobo" by eddy joe cotton and where the "wild things are" by maurice sendak just because it was the first book i read and it just reminds me of more simple times. plus my good buddy tim dieterle has "max" tattooed on his arm. 9. what does the future hold? the future, i hope many miles on my motorbikes. the last 4 years i've ben into bikes and the last year and a half, i've really tried to swap my love for skating towards something else equally as creative and fun. that to me was bikes. and so now, i'm trying to learn everything i can about motorbikes new and old. its just there to kill my time and i enjoy it, both building and riding, so i guess.. motorbikes. as for other future stuff. maybe go back to school for "green" architecture. i'd like to work with recycled materials and reclamation of old houses and barns. maybe some prefab design with passive solar interiors. 10. any words of advice or words of wisdom that you would like to share? living in santa cruz in 2000, i walked into a laundry room one night. there was a homeless man sitting in a chair reading some magazine. his shirt stood out to me because it was exceptionally dirty, as if he wore it every single day. all it said in black sharpie marker was "if you hate your job, QUIT!!!" i was blown away, its simple for sure, but its stuck with me. i mean, realistically can you tell me what the last homeless person you saw was wearing? the live for today adage is so easily overlooked. no one really takes charge of anything in their lives it seems. i, too, am victim to this, but life easily gets in the way and makes things both easier and more difficult at the same time. i've got nothing so worldly that anyones gonna do anything about it. one four letter word might be all i could hope for everyone. live.

all photos by hutch. thanks man.

good old two fingers.

i have a show in London later this year. its going to be in the basement of slam city skates. i just started work on some new pieces for said show and here is one of them. if you can make it over you will be my new best friend. ill post more info as it gets a little closer to showtime.

proud member of team frontside ollie or i really like plaid.

i know that you are probably thinking to yourself " great, another post featuring that guy dusty rabjohn, whats up with that" sorry if it seems like every other post lately is a picture of him. he is one of the only people that i skate with on the regular, so get used to it. maybe i should change the name of the site to dustyrabjohn.com for a little while. nah, that would suck. enjoy.

twenty x twenty.

my friend Randy recently sent me some info about his upcoming show at the Swiv Tackle Circus in Oceanside California. its a solo show of 20 pieces that are all 20X20 that have taken him over 2 years to complete. Randy is definitely one of us and if you are in the area stop on by and show some support. the opening night is Jan. 17 2009 it starts at 6:00pm and goes to 10. it will be up until the 16th of Feb. check out look forward to the past for more info.

pop. catch. release.

dusty. carwash. wintertime. 2008. pop shove it.

dickson.

1. where are you from? tell me about growing up and skateboarding there? I'm from a south west suburb of Chicago called Romeoville. Growing up skating there was probably pretty much the same as anywhere in the Midwest. There were basically 6 of us skateboarding every little bit of blacktop and concrete we could find. The funeral home parking lot was the meet up spot. Most of the time, we'd just end up staying there to skate. I remember ordering pizzas to be delivered to the parking lot. It was pretty rad for sure. We'd take the train into the city to skate as often as we could. And then eventually we got old enough to drive and starting hitting up all the suburbs and driving to Rotation Station in Rockford. 2. whats your earliest skateboarding memory? My mom and dad both worked, so I'd basically be with my grandmother most of the time when I was younger. My grandmother use to go to garage sales all the time. She had a sticker in the back window of her car that literally said "This Car Stops at All Garage Sales". And she bought me a little blue plastic skateboard one day. It was probably a dollar, and I was probably 10 at the time. That was a dollar well spent.I used to cruise around the neighborhood on that thing like crazy. Everyone else in the neighborhood had BMX bikes, but I didn't have a bike, so it was skateboarding for me.That blue skateboard got left in the shed at my parent's house when I moved to California, and I guess my dad just threw it away at some point. I went back to get it years later, but it was gone. I hope some other little dude got his hands on it and is shredding it up somewhere. 3. what did you think you were going to be when you grew up? did you actually think that you were going to be working in skateboarding? I was actually 100% convinced that I was going to be a sponsored skateboarder. Strangely, I never thought I'd be pro. I only wanted to be am. Being am always seemed way cooler than being pro to me. Still does actually. But I was never actually good enough to get sponsored, so just by being around skateboarding in California it turned itself into working in the industry. And it's been rad for sure, but I'm still holding out for that am slot on a team somewhere. HaHa 4. for those that dont know explain what it is that you do for a living ? . My "official" title is Brand Manager for Zero and Mystery. Which pretty much means I do a bit of almost everything. Mainly, I handle product development, marketing, ad buys, and general scheduling for anything that has to do with the 2 brands. I personally think it's on one of the raddest jobs you can get your hands on. Kinda feels like I get to help steer skateboarding in the direction I think it should go. Obviously it's not all me doing it, and I'm only able to affect Zero and Mystery, but I think it's important for skateboarders to guard the integrity of skateboarding as a whole. I just mean we need to keep skateboarding in the hands of real skateboarders. No fringe bullshit. 5. whats the one thing in skateboarding that you are most proud of ? Wow, that's a heavy one. Honestly, I never looked at like that. Pride never really enters my mind when I think of skateboarding. So I don't really think I have an answer for that. Sorry. 6. whats the one thing outside of skateboarding that you are most proud of ? Damn, pride again? Still not sure. Maybe pride just isn't in my vocabulary. Gonna pass on this one too. I will say that there is no "outside of skateboarding" for me though. Everything I do is about skateboarding somehow. 7. what does skateboarding mean to you and do you love it? I definitely love it. I also hate it sometimes. But it means everything to me. Can't even put it into words. And I wouldn't want to explain it even if I could. I know that I couldn't live without it, and I think about it 24 hours a day. I'm hopelessly addicted and I wouldn't have it any other way. 8. you recently told me that your favorite video part is pj ladds in wonderful horrible life. can you explain why that part does it for you ? Ok, I take this shit real serious. Straight up, not only is that my favorite video part, but it's the best video part ever by a fucking long shot. Nothing even comes close. The skating itself is insane. PJ's style in that video is how a real skateboarder skates. The trick selection couldn't be better. The music starts slow and builds throughout the part. PJ came out of nowhere at the time. He was still an am. And it's a shop video for Christ's sake. That part could have been the last part in the Lakai video. Plus it's the kind of skateboarding that you can relate to. It's real skateboarding. If anyone doesn't think that's the best part ever, you should have your head checked. Hands down, that's how skateboarding should be. 9. do you have any other favorite skateboarders ? Ya, I like the dudes that make it look right. Stefan Janoski, Lucas Puig, Anthony Pappalardo, Busenitz, Reynolds, Silas, Mike Mo and of course Hensley is still all time. Obviously he's not relevant today, but he's the rawest street skater ever. 10. any words of advice or words of wisdom ? Nope, no words of advice. My guess is that if you're smart enough and lucky enough to know Jay Croft and you're reading this blog, you've pretty much already got your shit going in the right direction. Skate or die.

skateboarding is very unselfish.

what has skateboarding given you?

I'll tell you what its given me. My life.If there's one thing I would tell all of the people who told me that I would never go anywhere in life because of skateboarding I would tell them how I wouldn't have gone anywhere without it. I don't even know if I could make it this far just keeping on not having one thing that was always there. One more kick, one more ollie, one more grind. One more session with my friends and one more round of smiles on a cold autumn day.I'm 35 and I still skateboard. This might be embarrassing for some, but for me, I'm honoured to be still doing it, or at least still trying to do it. I've lived in a lot of places, and right now, living in my third country and have gone through more cities and languages than most people and the one thing that has kept me grounded, that has kept me low to the ground and always striving is skateboarding. Skateboarding is who and how I am, which is something that I've only realised this past year. Skateboarding has taught me to look at everything different and not to follow the rules. Skateboarding has taught me about friendship. Perhaps most importantly, skateboarding has given me the gift to keep on keeping on. To pick myself up, dust off my jeans and try it again. Without that much, I don't think I would be writing anyone right now. Without skateboarding I wouldn't have gone out and started to see the world, which means more than anything to me. Without skateboarding I just don't see me being who I've come to be okay with me being.
-jim kosem

I owe who I am to my Mother and Father and of course to the almighty seven ply vessel of complete freedom, as well as the countless number of amazing individuals I've met through the travels, and the trials, and all of the experience that skateboarding has given me. Maniacs, ruffians, rouges, and savages of a land in peril are we. In the early stages of it all things were super difficult, learning and slamming where the ropes to climb and getting beyond the pain was when it clicked for me, by harnessing the rage that slept inside me I was able to shape my outlook on the society that had no time for the likes of me. Skateboarding gave me a reason to seek life outside of the caged existence that all the kids seemed to dwell in, and by traveling and learning I became a warrior of freedom... Real freedom, not the fake kind our government tells us we have, (fuck all that phony swill they try to shove down our thirsty throats). To me now things are crazier than ever: Getting older and realizing that you can't really ride like you used to are the ropes to climb now, and it's great because when you get together with comrades and "session" It resembles an old group of jazz musicians or olde time fiddlers just feeding off the vibes of the jam. For example, where one fellow would be better at sax or upright bass or banjo someone here is doing frontside disasters better than everyone else or better smith grinds or tailslides or whatever... It is the same damned wavelength and that is why so many skateboarders go on the be artists and musicians and teachers. There is no stopping ever, we will carry on until it is time to lay down and die.
-josh weiss.

skateboarding has given me a home.it has given me and escape.it gave me open roads.long rides crammed into the back of a honda civic.my first taste of philly.and the realization that its just that easy.you can go anywhere.do anything.if you just try.it has shown me the harsh realities in this life.that people will judge you based solely on looks.that police aren't always there to protect.that this world is not a fair one.but all that has only made me stronger.it's given me friends and family.stories i will never forget.photographs and videos that i will have forever.it started in the midwest.with crappy skateshops and no idea of how huge skateboarding really was.it's taken me from coast to coast.sleeping on shitty floors and getting expensive hotels payed for.i've met the best and worst this world has to offer.it gave me the chance to help build a scene.be a part of one of the greatest skateshops ever.to see it grow and watch the kids grow.it gave me a sense of belonging to something greater.like i had a purpose.like i made a difference.and it ripped that all away.left to start over.but always still there.it won't leave you.good or bad.my skateboard is still there.from break-ups to knee surgeries.to new girls and ex girls.from friends to enemies.from being a part of the family to leaving it all behind.my skateboard is still there.in the end skateboarding has given me life.without it i wouldn't have seen any of what i have or any of what is to come.thank you skateboarding...
- andy kormos

these first three were my favorites. so they get the prints. the next few are also some of my favorites, it was so hard to choose. so i guess these are the Honorable mentions. i really appreciate everyone sending in there thoughts. it meant alot to me.
and with that i suppose i should answer my own question. my answer became pretty clear and obvious to me after reading all of the entrees. its pretty simple actually.
skateboarding has given me all of you and with that i say thanks. see you in the streets.

Honorable mentions.

I love a list. So here goes, from the non-skateboarder.
1. A lot of heartache
2. An empty house, unanswered phone calls. It's like being cheated on with a wooden toy.
3. Blood stains on every set of sheets from scraping the scabs off on concrete day after day
4. An appreciation for bromances, those weird friendships where dudes really don't know each other well but will sleep with dirty feet
in sweaty faces just to skate the next morning. fucking retarded.
5. A million excuses; countless ruined holidays, anniversaries and promises.
6. Sweet ideas for art and design projects.
7. Admiration for motivation and perseverance, although it generally turns into lunacy
8. razorblades forgotten in the bed or underfoot, from gripping a new board.
9. outstanding shoes and women's clothing lines cut for Ethiopian refugees.
10. yet another obstacle in overcoming the stereotypes of women projected on to humanity. In skateboarding, every girl is 17, thin, gorgeous, a coatrack and ready to hang with the boys and laugh at their stupid fart jokes. Then you get utility shut off notices and the real life girl isn't so fun anymore.
11. the lingering smell of funyons and kneebraces. it's like a one man indoor roadtrip waiting to happen.
12. muscles to squeeze, a hot body i dont think i'll ever get sick of. his not mine. obviously.
13. a couple friends.
14. awful slang infused in my vocabulary.
15. An appreciation for the many shades of boys.
16. A lot of heartache.

-meri ruble

What has skateboarding given me?

Skateboarding has given me the ability to look at the world in a different way. A way that no outsider will ever understand. Even at 35 im still looking, and am sure at 50 i will still pull behind the hotel with my family in the car on our way to thanksgiving dinner to see if they have an empty pool. While my wife rolls her eyes knowing that we will be late, because of this love. It has given me friendships that are far greater than those you get at any workplace or anywhere else for that matter. There is no other thing you can do where you drive to a city, and know no one, not sure where you are going to spend the night, and have a stranger (fellow skateboarder) walk up, and invite 6 skaters from another state to stay in his one room apartment. Thanks Eric.

But what skateboarding has given me most is a love that will never go away. To know that i can go out and push as fast as i can while everything else just disappears, and its only me and my childhood love. Skate forever!

Whats the one thing, if any, that you have taken away from skateboarding that's helped you better understand this thing we call life?

Enjoy life to the fullest. Live every waking moment doing what you believe is true, and do not be a person who says what if i would have done this in life? Live your dreams, you can accomplish anything you put your mind to.

-Brad Fishbaugh


Pushing down the street or the sidewalk or the alley, I think that's my favorite thing. You have to pay attention to all the cracks and ollie up curbs and push to keep momentum and maybe you'll find some thing to stop and dork around on for a few minutes before moving on. These days there's a lot of driving to a specific spot to perform specific stunts before getting in the car and arguing about what might be fun and what might be a kick out and eventually you've wasted a good portion of the day in traffic or in debate. Skating to a spot on some shitty asphalt is hard work but sometimes you hit a piece of newly paved street and you can get cruising with a couple good pushes and ollie a manhole cover. It's like comfort food.

-tim pigott

goosebumps - lee bender

forwardmotion.

there are days where all i want to do is go out and push. days where forward motion is the only thing that is acceptable. no tricks, no one else, just me and my push.

thanks to everyone that sent me answers on what skateboarding has given them. ill post up my favorites and announce the winners tomorrow once i go thru them.

'tis the season.

as i'm sure all of you are well aware of the so called "giving season" is almost upon us. and in honor of this season i'd like to give something away. i have three limited edition prints (there were only 28 made) that i'll give to the top three people who can tell me "what skateboarding has given them" whats the one thing, if any, that you have taken away from skateboarding that's helped you better understand this thing we call life.

i'm not looking for no short one line answers here either. tell me how you really feel. maybe i'll post the top three up on the site. just send your answers to thefurthestthingfromaperfectfit@hotmail.com

be sure and include your address so if i pick your answer i can send you your new 11"x 17" print.

ill be taking answers until december 1st 2008. enjoy.

i still have no idea...

what the hell a dusty rabjohn is, do you? dusty rabjohn keeping it right with a little wallie action.

FALLing.

something about this photo reminds me of the fall. maybe its that Brian is wearing a hooded sweatshirt or maybe its the beanie on his head. or better yet its the dark clouds in the sky with the ever present sun trying its hardest to break on thru. or maybe its just all of these things combined that tell me that summer is really over and that some of the hardest days for skateboarding outside are nearly upon us.
but you know what... thats not really going to stop us at all. either way we are going to be out there pushing, sweating and most importantly FALLing down.
its time to get up and go my friends. today is the day.
brian burkholder october 18 2008 akron ohio frontside wall rider.

10 griptapes.

cones and quarterpipes.

coming sooner than you think...

what's a dusty rabjohn?

ride on.

sticker # three.

here is sticker # three that should be out very soon and if your interested check out the alien site for a little interview with yours truly.

burn baby burn.

here is a little interview that i did with Steve Fauser. the photos are by ely phillips. id like to thank the both of them for there help in this. be on the lookout for more interviews in the near future. enjoy.

1. name, age, where are you from? Steve Fauser.22 years young. I'm from the north suburbs of Chicago and now live in the city of Chicago.

2. goofy, regular or both. regs.

3. what are your thoughts on skateboarding in the Midwest? its the best, i love it! such a better vibe than some other places that i have lived in before, its more fun!

4. do you love skateboarding? i love skateboarding to death! its perfect! always fun, always challenging. hitting the road with friends to far off places to ride skateboards, its great!

5.what motivates you on a daily basis? what are the things in life that make you get up every morning and do the things that you do? my friends and family are the biggest motivation for me. just spending time with the people i love.

6. do you have any heroes? my brother and all my family and friends.

7. if you could be anything else in the world besides a skateboarder, what would it be? at this point i don't think i could live anything else knowing that skateboarding exist... but i love traveling so maybe a professional traveler? ha.

8. top three favorite skateboarders. Buddy Best, Lee Bender, Rick Eusey.

9. top three bands. there are so many bands that i love, but right now i would have to say... the downtown struts, the clash and AC/DC.

10. any words of wisdom or advice that you have learned in life? that money burns if you light it on fire.

national get bent day.

don't forget that tomorrow is National Get Bent Day!

so be and sure to tell everyone that you see to get bent, you can thank me later.

i used to like wooster the best.

how many boards do you think you have gripped in your life? how many boards do you think this file has helped grip? are you one of those people that let the guy behind the counter grip their board? to those people i say shame on you. gripping ones board is sorta like a rite of passage to the skateboarding promised land. everyone has their own little way of doing it. some are very meticulous about it where others could care less. air bubbles? hell no. lines to distinguish between the tail and nose? maybe. drawing on it like natas or the gonz? whatever floats your boat. just remember this... without it, we are nothing.
so the next time you are setting up a board give your griptape that extra special care that it so rightfully deserves.
your shoes will thank you for it.

just a reminder.

come and skate.

KTC.

(click pic. to enlarge)


all i have to say is that i still cant believe that i was given the opportunity to do this. I've been really fortunate and lucky in my life to see and do alot of cool things but this one definitely ranks up there with the best of them.
from what i was told this board and t-shirt should be available sometime in the month of June from the almighty alien workshop. there is also going to be a little something special that comes pre-wrapped inside of the board so be on the lookout for that and as always, enjoy.

karate photography.

i bet you thought that by the title of this post that it was going to filled with nothing but action packed photos of people kicking each others asses, karate style. instead what you get are two photos by my good buddy and Joplin, Missouri's favorite son, Scotty "karate" Walters. the top one is of new Chicago local and former fellow Ohioan, Dusty Rabjohn, doing a nice frontside one-eighty ollie down at the Fulton market. then we have Chicago wizard, Ken Keistler, with a nice backside ollie at the skatepark by the lake, Wilson.
enjoy.

faith.

peter from faith skate supply in Birmingham, Alabama got in touch with me recently and asked if i would be interested in doing some drawings for the shop. what you see here is what i came up with. its going to be available on boards, t-shirts and stickers. im not sure when they will be available but ill let you know as soon as i know. remember to always support your local skateshop because they are the backbone to what we all hold so near and dear.

wall jammer revisited.

just like a line out of my favorite Pretenders song " i went back to Ohio" this past weekend to watch my better half run 26 miles and get a little skateboarding in along the way. i had seen this spot at the end of last year and had stored it away in my memory bank promising myself that i would come back to skate it when the time was right. well the time had come, so i called a few of my good friends and made a go at it. what you see here are the results of that go. Burkholder wall jammin', Paco filming and me stealing their souls.

dirty wood.

if your not going to be at the event listed below on Go Skateboarding Day then the only other option is to visit columbus, ohio and skate all of the great skateparks they seem to be getting as of late. then when your done skateboarding your little heart out your going to make your way over to the chop chop gallery to see a few of my good friends artshow. support your local skateboarder and artist.

gsd gary scott david go skateboarding day.

if you happen to live close enough to the akron skatepark in akron, ohio show up and skate. rain or shine.
theres gonna be alot of things going on randomly throughout the day such as the kickflip challenge, the highest ollie competition and everyones favorite, tic-tac races. did you just say tic-tac races? yes, tic-tac races.
theres also gonna be food and plenty of other crap as well. so come have some fun with us and skate till you bleed.

sticker madness part two.

the new "destroyeverything" stickers are finally in and just like the last ones you have to be nice to me to get some. so let the niceness begin. hasta la vista baby.

dont point, its not polite.

watertowers go 90.

just a watertower at 90 milesperhour, somewhere in the midwest, maybe in kansas. the only reason i made this post was to make sure that you are aware of and to go and visit the alien workshops filmworks site. its got a little snip test-light leak of there new video which comes out sometime this summer. enjoy.

destroyeverything.

here is another sticker that i have made. it should be in my hands in a few weeks. so when they are in my hands they will most likely be in your hands. if i see you out and about doing your thing then you might be lucky enough to get one.

i guess that brings me to why i actually made this sticker. you see its almost that time to go outside and ride your skateboard without the interference of snow, rain, sleet or any other nuance that old man winter brings. its almost that time to be free of restrictions and obligations that the past several months have placed upon us. it time to spread your wings and feel the sun hit your bones. its time my friends to destroyeverything.

skateboardmania.

woodpushers tf/jerrics.

just a few homies, from ohio, doing what they do best. skateboarding.

long live the woodpushers and big baby jesus.

there is a cure for the wintertime blues and its called skateboarding.

ken frontside ollie to wallrider.


jc riding the walls yet again.

photos by mr. walters

pressure applied.

megapolis.

patrick from megapolis asked me to do a drawing for the shop so he could use it for stickers, t-shirts, board graphics and anything else under the sun. what you see here is what ive come up with, the megapolis race pony.
race ponies have a rich and deep history in skateboarding that im sure many of you arent even aware of. they date back as early as the 1950's yet there presence wasnt truly felt until the glorious year of 1973 when they hit full stride.
a race pony was present at almost any session. no, let me rephrase that... a pace pony IS PRESENT at every session thats going down. but the thing is if your not looking for a race pony your not going to find a race pony. they are very shy creatures but when its time to bring it, they bring it. they amp up a sesion so much that whoever is involved in that session will forever be changed. i heard a story once about how a race pony healed this guys broken leg just so he could skate in this one session and then once the session was over the race pony broke this guys leg again. i heard the guy wasnt even bummed, he was just stoked that he took part in that killer of a session.
anyways, i hope you have enjoyed your little history lesson on the race pony and will continue to look for them throughout the coming days and years or anytime you step on your skateboard. long live the pony!

karate.

this is a photo of my good friend scott walters. he is the one always taking photos of everyone yet no one ever seems to take photos of him. so the other night i decided that the trick he was trying was more than worthy of a photo. so i grabbed his camera and started shooting. the results are what you see here. ive never really been a fan of sequences all that much but i thought it might do this trick justice. however, if you notice in the last frame its just a photo of the ramp. thats because my dumb ass didnt follow him all the way out of the trick and just kept on shooting off into the abyss. i kinda like it though. whatever. enjoy.

remember me when im gone. or dont.

i was just wondering if you remember every board that you have ever had. i know it would be nice to think that yes i do remember everyone and all of the good times that went along with it but there always seems to be that one that is forgotten. you know which one im talking about, the one where you were so pissed off at it that you couldnt see straight. you cursed its every move. it couldnt have possibly lived up to the expectations that you put upon it. you slammed it so hard on the ground that it actually made the people around you fear for there lives. the one where even though it was cracked beyond repair it still allowed you to roll away from what ever you were trying to do with it. it still took the abuse and never asked for anything in return. so i ask you once again... do you remember? do you even care?

i like green.

hang in there.

winter will be over someday. skateboarding outside will once again exist. do what you must do to survive. adapt. overcome.

McBarbee

this past weekend i was fortunate enough to be able to attend one of the coolest things that i have seen in quite some time. i witnessed ray barbee and chuck treece up close and personal. ive never used the term epic to describe anything in my life, but in this case, epic is the only word that will do.

artfart.

i haven't posted anything new in quite sometime. ive been real busy just like the rest of you doing everything and absolutely nothing at all. hopefully everyones new year has started off on the right foot and continues down that path for the remainder of it.
enjoy some paintings from my show that i had this past october.
on a side note... 10 years ago today i almost died. im happy as shit that im still here kicking and pushing my way thru life. enjoy today and everyday like it might be your last. these are the days and they always will be.

basketball jones.

yeah, im not really sure whats going on in this one either. i like basketball and i like peg-legs. so i thought i would put the two together and this is what ive come up with, strange huh. once again, enjoy.

sticker madness.

above is a new sticker that i have coming out in a few weeks. its not for anything special, there is no rhyme or reason to it, its just something that i wanted to do. so if you are nice to me i might just give you one. so be on the lookout for them.

the manimals continued.

here are the rest.

the manimals.

these are three drawings from a board series that i did for element way back in 2000-01. its the first drawings that i ever did for anyone and i was really excited to do it. i was equally stoked when i got eveyone to sign the original drawings for me. ive only posted three out of seven so you will have to wait for later in the week to see the other four.

refuge tees.

the refuge shirts are in...i did the top one.im not sure who did the second one and there is one more that i dont have a picture of yet. so if you happen to be in the dearborn, michigan area stop by the shop and pick all three of them up. like i said before its for a good cause and your supporting one of the better shops in the midwest. middlewesternfeveronceagain.

indoors.

its that time again.
on a side note... i got fully flared today and if you havent seen it yet it will blow your freakin' mind.

ride everything.

ride what you want. do it for yourself. go against the grain.

color me blue.

photo:larkey

here's one more for you true believers out there... its your friendly neighborhood brian burkholder, killing it as always.
now for those who didnt guess correctly on the previous post trivia question the answers are as follows:
1. andrew dellas, ollie behind rubber city rollers.
2. brian "fancy pants" burkholder, 5-0 downtown cleveland.
3. a complete mess, chicago, illinois

oldies but goodies or what have u's.

sorry for the lack of updates as of late... skateboarding, working and visiting friends is what has taken me away from my home and updates on the regular.
if any of you can tell me whats going on in any of these photos i will give you a interweb hi-five or a real one depending upon whether or not i see you first and you tell me in person.

my brothers.

two photos of my good friend Jeff. the top one is in Chicago and pretty much speaks for itself. the bottom one is his new baby. he is 100% skateboarder and i think he is on the path to becoming 100% motorcycler. anyways, he is a ruler at both. enjoy
(on a side note scotty "karate" walters took the above photo and he is a ruler as well, at skateboarding not motorcycles.)

with yourself.

eddie.

you will do as he says.

same as it ever was.

just like the last post, i still dont have it.

feeling it, twice!

sometimes i dont know what the hell i am doing. this is a perfect example.

thanks.

i just wanted to say thanks to everyone that made it out to the show last friday. i really appreciate your support.
here is one piece that didnt make it into the mix. once again, enjoy.

refuge.

Eric at Refuge skateshop in Dearborn, Michigan asked me to do a drawing for his Halloween t-shirt pack. there are going to be 3 shirts in all. I'm not sure who the other 2 artist will be but I'm sure it will be cool. the best part is that all of the proceeds are going to his brother that has been fighting cancer. he needs help with his medical bills, so its for a good cause. I'm not sure how many are being made but if you want one I'm sure Eric and his brother would appreciate it. so stop by the shop or give them a call. you will sleep better at night knowing that you have made a difference in someones life.

sneak attack once again.

sorry for the lack of updates but i went to California all last week for the vans downtown showdown. it was alot of fun but I'm glad to be home and am ready for the next few months to happen, they are going to be very busy for me.
anyway, here's another sneak peak at a piece that's going to be in my show next Friday October 26Th at the artchitecture gallery in Cleveland, Ohio. the opening reception is from 8-11pm and i hope to see you there. check out http://www.artchitecturegallery.com/ for more info.

more old crap.

what you have here are 2 boards, that i made, that actually were working, functional skateboards. we only rode the top one and the bottom hung on a wall. i liked the top one a little more because if you look closely you can see some pictures of jason jesse that i took from an old poweredge and transferred them onto the board. it was one of my favorite interviews of all time. the photos and the actual interview are burned into my brain forever. anyways, that board also was a little hard to ride because as you can guess i messed up the mounting holes. i drilled them all crooked so the board seemed like it always went a little to the left. it didnt really matter though, fun times were had by all that rode that thing. come to think of it i dont even know what happened to it. hopefully someone has it or maybe it was used to start a fire. either way, i win again.

as the years go by...

its amazing to me that everything goes by so quickly... its hard to believe that its fall once again, it seemed like i just put away my long underwear and now its time to break it out again. the photos up above just remind me of the times. some good, some bad. they are always there, forever and a day.

the theory of josh.

all around good guy josh weiss has his first show coming up. check the flyer for details and show some support.

whats round on the ends and high in the middle?

stalefish


360 boneless
its great to see that these two are doing so good. not only do they win at skateboarding they win at life. original rubber city rollers, andrew dellas and zach taylor.

2 more.

enjoy.

old stuff

In anticipation of my upcoming show i decided to post some older stuff. Create until you die and then create a little more.

hills as far as the eyes could see.

ph. larkey

if you were there, you're stoked. if you weren't, you blew it.

feelin' it.

i went back home to Ohio at the end of last week and as always a little skateboarding went down. i met up with burkholder and we skated the castle pool. i had heard all kinds of things about it and couldn't wait to skate it for myself. it looks like its really hard to skate, which it most definitely is, but with a little bit of perseverance and determination its actually super fun to ride. skating things like this is why skateboarding matters. its about overcoming anything and everything, doing what you can with very little and actually getting something out of it.
skateboarding, i feel it in my bones so deep at times, it hurts.

midwestern fever forever.

i just got back from florida yesterday so its back on as far as postings go and the first one out of the gate is a good one. its another benefit/fundraiser for my good buddy lee bender. i talked to him a few weeks back and he is still hanging in there.
the benefit is also for a fellow skateboarder by the the name of michael tubbs. in talking to lee i found out about his accident and learned that he is doing better and better with each passing day. check out http://www.mtubbs.com/ for more info. so if you happen to live close to this event please try and come out and skate for a good cause, i know i will.

keep on pushin'

ill be gone for the next few days so there wont be any updates until i get back. while im gone check out the www.thelarkeyexperiments.com it's my good friend mike larkeys website. he's the one who took the photo above. the experiments are filled with mikes amazing photographic skills as well as his twisted view of the world. anyways, until we meet again. keep on pushin'.

sneak a look.

sneak a look at these two pieces that will be in a solo show that i have coming up at the artchitecture gallery in Cleveland, Ohio on October the 26th. check out http://www.artchitecturegallery.com/ for more details. i'll be posting more about this as time goes on.

original blimp city hero.

photos: Poinski



can anyone tell me who this is? do the words butter and ball have anything to do with it? Burkholder might have the answer or maybe you can ask Larkey. only time will tell how smart you really are.

drawing number two.

here is another drawing that i did for Osiris. its from a series of 4 different animals including a bear, raccoon, lizard and the deer you see here. once again I'm not sure when they are coming out or if they are even going to use them at all. maybe ill post the others later this week.

another day, another drawing.

with the posting of this drawing I'm gonna see if i can put up a new one each day of this week. at the end of the week if i have reached success in doing so i will reward myself with absolutely nothing at all. let the games begin.

lee and tubbs.

if you live there, be there. enough said.

strongest of the strange

ohio brothers.

nick and his friend tom came to visit us this weekend. they are both really fun and are down to do just about anything. they are always one to lend a helping hand or let you download some of their new music, just good people heading in a good direction.
this little wall is one of my favorite spots in the city, nice smooth ground and over all just a pretty mellow place. it 's a good place to warm up or wind down. you choose.
here's a photo that i took of nick at said spot . enjoy

i am the lizard king, i can do anything.

ph. jason dudas

this is a photo of my friend josh. as the days and years go by I've come to realize that josh is actually some sort of super hero. he is known far and wide for his ability off and on a skateboard, his uncanny nack for writing a short story and last but not least his devotion to singing you a song. he will certainly brighten up your crummy day.so if you see him say hello from me. you'll be happy you did.

married life is great!

sorry for the lack of updates as of late. I've been gone for the last eight days, i went back to Ohio to get married.

also while i was there i went down to Columbus to do a little skateboarding as well as visit a few shops on the way. if your ever in the Columbus area make sure you stop at embassy. its one of the best shops in the midwest. its full of all things skateboarding.

check out this t-shirt graphic that i did for them. hopefully it will be printed sooner than later.

http://www.embassyboardshop.com/

King Of Ohio Promo

check out www.skatethemegapolis.com

the viking.

this is a photo of my dad that i took a few years back. for any of you that know him you will appreciate this photo that much more. my dad is the best, he has always supported me in anything I've ever done. never one to say much but when he does its the most profound piece of wisdom that you'll ever hear. too bad his nickname isnt something like "the viking" because id end this little spiel with "long live the viking". oh well, maybe next time.

carry the flag.

follow yourself.

Homeless Looking For Handouts

enjoy this little gem by don hammersley.

dont worry you are among friends.

i was pleasantly surprised when i saw this on jurgens site http://www.youragain.com/. i had completely forgotten about it. i always try and take photos of my paintings and such but i always come up on the losing end.
so i guess your just gonna have to imagine what the rest of this painting looks like. i can tell you that it had a green looking guy surrounded by his friends. he looked safe and some what happy.
anyways, check out jurgens site, you can thank me later.
p.s. thanks for the kind words jurgen, right back at you.

bald chickens.

tattoos.blackeyes.hills.metal.swellbows.

three cheers for randomness.

Wallrides for Oprah.

ph. scott walters

i know you're probably thinking to yourself " great, another wallride photo, these are getting pretty old. when will he ever stop" well I'm here to tell you that this isn't just any old wall ride photo. do you see that building in the background? that's where Oprah lives. well she doesn't actually live there but she does work there. while this photo was being taken of me i had high hopes that Oprah herself would actually come out and skate with us. i know its a crazy idea but i bet she rips. shes just got that look, the look that says" I'm Oprah, I'm here to skate this wall with you, lets do this"

as time went by i came to the realization that she probably wasn't going to come out and skate with us. hell, she probably didn't even show up for work that day. after all it is the summer and her shows are all repeats. not that i watch them or anything, I'm just stating the obvious.

anyways, enjoy this photo and do a wallride for Oprah today.

fugazi book

www.fugazibook.com

ALLSKARS.

ALLSKARS was a board company that a friend and i wanted to start back in 2000-2001. for some reason or another it never got of the ground. here is one of the board graphics that i drew but never saw the light of day and the other image was going to be the tags for our t-shirts. enjoy.

I know it's a little late for this...

TODAY IS THE DAY.

When I'm sixty four.

I TRIED TO DRAW A PICTURE OF WHAT I THOUGHT I MIGHT LOOK LIKE WHEN IM 64.

I FAILED IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE ME.

IMPACT ABSORPTION ROLL

back in 1998 i did a zine called impact absorption roll. like all of the 'zines I've done they only lasted a couple issues because i grew really tired of the name. the truth, poop filled diaper, forward motion are but a few of the names that i came up with throughout the years.in all reality it would be safe to say that it was actually the same thing. nothing changed except the title. nothing more, nothing less. i suppose this blog has sorta taken the place of my 'zines. lame.

anyway, this is a interview that i did with two friends of mine.one of the things that they had in common was that they both owned skate shops in Cleveland, Ohio. so i thought that it would be a great idea to ask them both the same questions about skateboarding and the industry and seewhat they had to say. i tried to pick a pretend fight between them but it didn't really work.

i asked them about there favorite companies and chicken wings.

give it a read and find the rest out for yourself.

Burkholders Lost Rubber City Video

Scott N' Chris Pfaff Rubber City Rollers

one hell of a good time.

full meatloaf jacket.

Fable skateboards

a drawing that i did for my friends
skateboard shop. so far its been made
into t-shirts, a board graphic and a really cool
sticker type thing for his front door at
the shop. support your local skateshop.
skate and create.
www.fableskates.com

a beautiful summer day in the backyard.

20 minutes of masonite

these are two paintings of seven that i did in under twenty minutes each. i cut up the Masonite at a place i used to work and thought of the idea the exact same day. twenty minutes of painting. no more, no less. what you see is what you get. these are two of my favorites. maybe ill post the others at a later date.

skate aliens

I was at westside skates last week and Brian Jules, the owner of the shop, has

had this painting in there for as long as i can remember. ive always wondered who made it and how in the world it ended up at westside. i finally had the opportunity to ask these questions and was surprised at the answers. " aliens, it came from aliens" was brians response.

strange huh, i couldnt believe it either.

POOLOVE.

Its funny that you can skateboard in both of these but you can only really swim in one.
The heart of Columbia was made for swimming but its later days were filled with skateboard madness and graffiti
The Powell pool was made for skateboard action and has yet to see any swimming of any kind. Or at least thats what I've been told. For all i know the Secret Society of Swimmers may meet there at the stroke of midnight on every other Valentines day. It seems to make perfect sense to me. after all, isn't it better to swim with someone that you love rather than someone you hate.

FANCY PANTS.

LONG LIVE QUIMBY.

more lee bender.

Ive had this picture of Lee for quite sometime.
He sent it to me when he was working for consolidated several
years ago.
Id get a letter, postcard or cd every so often in the mail and on
one occasion this little gem showed up with a few stickers. Like the pack
rat that i am, i kept it and now its here for you to view in all its bare- footed frontside ollie pleasure. midwestfeverforever.
.

LEE BENDER.

photo: ty bush

It's amazing to me that bad things always happen to the best people, it just doesnt make much sense.
Recently, I found out that a friend of mine, Lee Bender, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Lee is
a true original. A lover of skateboarding and life, never one to give up on the good fight.
check out http://www.azpx.com/ for more ways that you can help a brother out. buy a shirt today.
Forward Motion.

osiris randomness.

3 drawings that I did for Osiris that will be out later this year. I was told they will available in t-shirt and hoodie form.

blue blur.

i just really like this photo. im not really sure why, maybe its because its out of focus, taken from a moving car with the window up. or maybe i just really like the guys hat. whatever.

Careful with my subscription card.

I can't quite remember the year that this actually came out but it hung above my

toilet for quite a few years in a nice little frame that I made. For those of you who don't

know what this is its a subscription card for SLAP from many moons ago. You probably ended

up throwing yours away. You also are probably saying to yourself "why in the world didnt I pay more attention, Im such an idiot, subscription cards rule ". Once again you lose, I win.

The wonder of it all.

I had this great idea a few years back to take polaroids of every old skateboard that I owned.
The idea was to take two photos of every board, one of the top half and the other of the lower. I was really excited and into it until I realized that I would probably spend alot of money in film and waste alot of my so called "precious time" so I nixed the idea and only took photos of three of my favorites. Enjoy