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Dear friends,

Illustration leeched from JeremyVille

Over at the SbA site we have just commissioned James James to cut this ripping Recon piece on the West Hobart Bowl which is the 2^nd oldest park in Australia. Here is a little sample of the visuals. The video is over here.

If geologists rated skateparks the West Hobart Bowl would be classified as Jurassic. It is a crusty, meandrous beast that will happily spit you (and your flesh) into the stratosphere if you hesitate or make an error in judgment. It is a lumpy 100m roller coaster ride that takes you from a shallow dish, through the belly of a snake, past the demonic ‘Thrasher’ corner into the actual bowl. The West Hobart Bowl, (which is actually more of a snake run) has been sessioned for thirty three years now…. (continued here)

We just released a awesome youtube video called “The Filmbot Freebie”. The basis behind it, is to watch a video and tell us the correct answer.. We will choose a winner every week! I spent a fair amount of time doing some motion graphics, which is not my forte’. Super excited on how it came out. Tell me what you think!

I’m really stoked on the Allister Lee x ATLAS decks.  Each of the two decks in this artist series is signed and numbered in an edition of 50 and comes with an original piece of art, shrink-wrapped with each deck.  Get them at Atlas Skateboarding in San Mateo and check-out the fine installation that Allister and the Atlas crew setup in their shop. Up until March 12, 2012.  Mahalo to Allister and to Ryen, Mike and Nick at ATLAS! 

ATLAS SKATEBOARDING
209 2nd Ave.
San Mateo, CA 94401
Tel: 650.401.7110

Decks are also available at Equal Dist., where you’ll find Allister Lee’s infamous 500 Marker Poster as well as original artwork inspired by his love and expertise in the dark-arts.

Talk about a well-curated skateboard shop…!  Allister Lee also designed the ATLAS shop-decks shown below. 

Tomorrow night this opens in San Francisco. Last weekend I help art director, Porous Walker set up some of the installation and documented the progress. Photos can be seen over on my COLOR blog. More on Porous, the art department and the installation coming soon.

About the installation from the gallery:

FIFTY24SF Gallery, in association with Upper Playground and American Zoetrope, are pleased to announce TWIXT sc. 83, an exhibition and installation coinciding with legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola’s newest feature film, Twixt. The exhibition opens January 13, 2012 with a public reception at 7PM.

Over his past three films, Francis Ford Coppola, famed director of The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, has set-out to create self-written, self-financed, self-produced, and self-distributed films with his own intimate crew. Developed through personal experiences, a love of American Gothic, Edgar Allan Poe, and Coppola’s own trials as a horror genre author, Twixt is the story of B-list author Hall Baltimore’s process of writing his new mystery while researching an old murder case in a remote Northern California town. While Baltimore (played by Val Kilmer) is seemingly rewriting history with the help of the an eccentric town sheriff, he finds himself embedded in his most personal, demanding story he has ever written. Filmed around Northern California with locals as actors, as well as sets built on Coppola’s own property in Rutherford, Twixt examines the process of storytelling as it applies to personal experience, artistic influences, and the classic American genres that have become staples of modern cinema.

Working within their own self-financed restraints and freedoms, the team behind Twixt had the unique experience of researching and building sets in and around Coppola’s home in Northern California. Many of the sets were built in Coppola’s backyard, while some required the small town backdrops of Northern Napa and Lake counties. In keeping with the original spirit of American horror, some scenes were created with intentional kitsch, while some dream sequence were shot with highly-detailed, ornate sets and original post-production work.

For TWIXT sc. 83, members of Twixt‘s tiny tiny Art Dept, (Jimmy DiMarcellis, David Hopp, and John Paul Goorjian) will be rebuilding the set of the film’s dramatic climax sequence, scene 83. The center of the gallery will feature a remake and stand-alone installation of the film’s clock tower, shown in the film as an impromptu 3D experience. Also on display from Twixt, will be bat and birdhouses from Nice, California artist John Hathaway, whose front yard/gallery/shop “The Woodpecker”, was a key set in the film. TWIXT sc. 83 will also feature a series of other pieces from the film’s set department that were found around different locations in Northern California and in the Coppola archives, as well as behind the scenes photography by the film’s executive producer, Anahid Nazarian and set photographer, Kalman Mueller. The gallery will run trailers of the film, along with other enhancements to bring Twixt‘s horror scenes to life.

John Freeborn has just released Random Zine #10, with a bit of a twist, this is the first time he’s releasing this zine as an iBook only.

Along with 19 other artists, he kindly asked me to participate in this issue. I submitted one piece, which I would call pretty random for me, it was fun! 100 pages with artwork by (in order of appearance) Hershel Baltrotsky, Sonia Yoon, Clint Woodside, Ryan Wallace, Rich Jacobs, Jim Houser, Kendrick Shackleford, Tom Maher, Ben Horton, Eric McDade, Chris Sembrot, Joseph Hart, Matt Sohl, Dave Delaney, Sam Croswell, Carlos Miaco, Matt Curtius, Amy S. Kauffman and Jordin Isip.

It’s only $.99 in the apple iBook store, click here to get it!

When it comes to documenting Australian skateboarding in moving pictures, Chris Middlebrook is the most well known and no doubt one of the most devoted. Two of his most recent accomplishments include Nike SB Chronicles #1 and what is arguably the video part of the year: Nick Boserio’s Life Splicing part.

Aside from VX and HD Midds is also a bit of a Super 8 lord. Over at the SbA site we have recently unearthed Chris Middlebrook’s Super 8 reel from 2008. Inside you will find archival footage of: Shane O’Neill, Andrew Brophy Dane Burman, Lewis Marnell, Andrew Currie, Bryce Golder, Nick Boserio, Alex Campbell, Justin Brock, Tommy Fynn and a myriad of other talented rolling units.

Chris Middlebrook is currently working on a part for the next Transworld Video “The Cinematographer Project”: be prepared for some locally spawned lunacy in that one.

Merry Merry Season peoples. See you next year.

The Quiet Life has updated their holiday deal. Don’t delay.

Like parks and recreation and helping out a good cause? If you answered “yes”, then you should check out Philadelphia based Slingluff Gallery’s (http://www.SlingluffGallery.com/) open call. They are putting on a fundraiser art show to help benefit Penn Treaty Park. In their own words “The park is down the street from the gallery, it’s a great little park on a river that hosts a ton of music, art, and other events through out the year so it feels good to be able to give them something back.” This isn’t your normal “art donation” benefit either. They want to make sure everyone involved gets something out of this.

The opening is going to be sponsored by Art In The Age (http://www.artintheage.com/) who will be providing Root and Snap for your drinking pleasure, granted that you are of drinking age. The opening will be on the first Saturday of January which is on the 7th and will run from 6-9p and the show will be hung till January 29th.

For more info and any questions regarding this group show please feel free to email them at: theslingluffgallery@gmail.com

I posted up some of the leftover pieces (as well as some collaborations with Mark Penxa) for sale that were created for The Worst is Yet to Come exhibit that opened in Rochester, NY in Sept. 2010. This is officially the Rest of the Worst is Yet to Come. Check out the available pieces here.