culture – PLAZM

Neon Frontier on 107.1 FM: Skatepark Revolution

Nora Robertson — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 02:41:29 +0000

By the early 90’s, skateboarding was in a slump again. The sport had gotten to a new level in California in the 70’s when skaters brought surf-style moves to the empty swimming pools and decaying urban infrastructure that littered the edges of towns like Venice Beach. But then, street skating ran into community opposition in most parts of the country, and skate parks were having liability issues. Mark Scott, Dreamland Skateparks owner and one of the original builders of the Burnside skatepark, sat down with me to discuss how it took a DIY community of Portland skaters building an indie skatepark under the Burnside bridge, in cooperation with the local business community and retroactively approved by the city, to kick off what Mark described to me as the skatepark revolution.

Check out the podcast on 107.1 FM here.

McCatering to the Races

rachelr — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:23:00 +0000

McDonald’s Corporation has recently launched a couple of websites specifically targeted to African American and Asian American audiences. In the misguided marketing effort category, I’m lovin’ this as the winner. Note the catchy site names.

365black.com
myinspirasian.com

Blur – Rick Valicenti Mash-up of Farrah and Michael

Joshua Berger — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:43:00 +0000

Following up from my post a week ago in tribute to Rick Valicenti’s 1996 cover for Plazm #14, now you can download Rick’s mash-up book “Blur.” Made a week or so ago in response to Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett’s passing and impact on our collective consciousness.

Download the pdf here.
Blur-RV.pdf

Skateistan, Afghanistan

Joshua Berger — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:18:00 +0000

Nice article in the New York Times about Afghan kids in Kabul learning to skateboard, to work together and conquer their fears.