Tonight…7pm at the Southwood Athletic Complex Teen Center off Rock Prairie in College Station.  The City of College Station wants your input on the design of the planned skatepark.  We will finally see (I’m hoping) where exactly at Southwood the park will be located, how much space they envision, what type of skatepark the city wants to build, etc.  Pretty much the nuts-and-bolts of layout and construction.

You skaters worked your asses off to let CoCS know that a skatepark wasn’t just wanted but needed in our city.  You need to show up tonight to let them know how skaters intend on using a skatepark, how it should be designed and what shouldn’t be in the plan.

For starters…I hope the city plans on creating an ample sized park.  The city has allocated nearly a million dollars to build the park.  I am thinking that the city already owns the part of Southwood Athletic Complex it wants to use, so the money will mostly go for design and construction.

My first worry is that, according to June 12th issue of The Eagle, “The City Council voted to hire Conroe-based Bleyl & Associates for more than $179,000 to design the facility”.  So…nearly 20% of the budget will go strictly for hiring these folks just to design the skatepark.  A very quick cursory glance at their website turns up zero previous skateboard park experience.  I called over to their Conroe office this afternoon and was told they had for certain built one in Conroe and were working on one in Shenandoah.  The Conroe facility is at Kasmiersky Park. 

Courtesy of City of Conroe's website

It is hard to tell what exactly their skatepark looks like from the city’s information.  Luckily, I was able to find something posted on someone’s private blog, just pictures of their kids skating the park.  From that link you can see that an existing mixed use court (tennis, 4-square, basketball) has had masonite & steel constructions added on top.  Skateboardpark.com lists the features as:
- 6′ halfpipe
- 2 quarterpipes
- vert wall
- 2 fun boxes
- 2 round kinkrails
- 1 flat rail.
The website states that there’s no cost to skate there and pads/helmets are not required.

Not bad.  I’ve skated parks in the Seattle area that were equipped similarly, though were constructed completely out of concrete, like the one in Edmonds that I used to skate at that had pretty much all those amenities plus a bowl.  The Seattle parks required helmets, though no one was there to police it.  If the cops came by and caught you skating without protection they would cite you with a $75 fine.

I look at the Conroe design and I have a hard time thinking that it cost almost $200,000 to design, like the CoCS is paying Bleyl for our park’s design.  I was expecting something that would look a little more permanent and not like something the Boom Boom Huck Jam left behind after a skate demo.  If you look at Bleyl’s other projects they do a lot of other urban projects in this part of Texas.  I suppose you want to help the local firm out, but for the kind of money the citizenry of College Station is forking out to Bleyl I sure hope our park has more of an artisan’s touch than Conroe’s.

What would I like to see.  Something like this:

Borrowed from www.sk8parks.com

The designer gives no price tag for the above design other than it will cost more than $60,000 to construct.  Of course, I have no idea exactly what square footage the city is talking about, but what Conroe is building (plus a bowl and some hips) would be dandy enough…especially if the city insists it look nice and is 100% concrete instead of all ghetto like Conroe’s park and Bryan’s two parks.  I think such a design would fit the needs of skaters of all skill levels and would let skaters grow with the park, rather than have something rinky-dink that kids will tire of quickly.

The only way for you to have any say in how this park is designed is for you to show up tonight and tell them what you want!  Let them know that you’ve done some homework and have at least some idea of what Bleyl & Associates designs and work with that design, help them augment it to meet our expectations!  GO TONIGHT!!!!!

UPDATE: Atarimatt sez he’s heard that Grindline is designing the park but Bleyl is building it?  If so, man, look at this shit…

That’s the park Grindline designed in Wichita Falls.  I’ve skated on their park in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle and it is dope, dope, dope!  If this is true then we’ll have a first-class park.

UPDATE II: I went back and checked the most recent Eagle story from last week and apparently Grindline is partnering on the design and/or construction.  The story is vague.

Courtesy of The AV Club  The basic premise is that the author has gleened the most important messages found within R. Kelly’s new release The Mix Tape.  If you are not hip to R or all you know about him comes from South Park or the police blotter then get yo’self hip now.  “Your Body’s Calling” is the sweet jam.  And if you have never watched all 22 webisodes of Trapped In the Closet then you have no idea.  Anyways, this the laundry list of the Top 25 Things R. Kelly Wants Via The Mix Tape (not from The Onion though this reads totally like something they’d do):

1. To make the p-u-s-s-y cry (“P.U.S.S.Y. Cry”) 

2. To give you a backrub, followed by a trip to the hot tub (“Birthday Sex”) 

3. For people not to disrespect his shorty, since he likes her sex (“Disrespect My Shorty”) 

4. To hit that big old [ass], even though his girl similarly has a big old [ass] (“Disrespect My Shorty”)

5. To have you scream “It hurts, it hurts!” then have you concede that his lovemaking quenches your thirst, your thirst (“Birthday Sex”)

6. To get him some of that birthday sex (“Birthday Sex”)

7. To turn this club into a bedroom (“Club 2 A Bedroom”)

8. For you not to trip; he owns the club, so you don’t gotta worry ’bout security (“Club 2 A Bedroom”)

9. To get some gratuity, and he don’t mean cash, girl (“Tip The Waiter”) 

10. To make it rain like a ticker-tape parade (“Tip The Waiter”) 

11. For you not to knock his dick and a half (“Every Girl”)

12. To touch booty like he’s playing it (“Every Girl”) 

13. For all y’all to have his baby (“Every Girl”) 

14. To have them bitches that are hating on you rubbing on you (“Every Girl”) 

15. To eat the coochie of all the girls wearing Gucci (“Every Girl”) 

16. For you to listen to his mix-tape, cause it’s Kells, bitches (“Every Girl”)

17. For haters to get fucked with a sandpaper dick (“Best I Ever Had”)

18. To make you say silly shit with his silly dick (“Turning Me On”)

19. To take your sexy ass home and show you how he licks it (“Turning Me On”) 

20. To get up in a whole lot of ass (“Turning Me On”) 

21. To protect you from a lack of sex (“Supa Dupa Man”) 

22. To hit you with super-love so pleasing it’s better than any TV show, better even than HBO, so good he’ll get thumbs-up when he goes low (“Supa Dupa Man”)

23. For you to get on his lap and go-go, since the rearview mirror is saying no po-po (“Makin’ Me Wanna”) 

24. To fuck every girl he sees, from the hood to the fucking industry, even the Statue of Liberty (“Every Girl”)

I’m pretty sure this is a bullshit video, but damn if it isn’t funny right about the 1:10 mark when he tries to stick the TV remote up his butt!

The opening dude…can’t remember his name, had some funny songs.  There was one in particular about a puppy that I really liked.  But all of his songs were of the “satirical” nature and too much of that stuff really wears on my nerves.  A little here and there is a welcomed comical break, but for 30+ minutes…it kinda gets old.  Still he seemed like a cool guy and his style was not of the typical style of most acoustical dudes…some of his stuff kinda reminded me of an unplugged Dinosaur Jr.   Niki and Jess really got a kick out of him…Jess especially…he sang about talking boogers and poop…and that’s her specialty.

Sorry dude, can't remember your name!

Next up, MG Magic Girl Mary Charlotte took over for a while and reminded us all what a pro really sounds like.  She played about 6-7 songs, most of which I hadn’t heard her do before…which isn’t all that hard to believe.  According to Bill she can play like 24 hours straight and never repeat a song!  Hell, I’ve never learned more than 50 songs in my entire 20 year music career!

MG makin it look easy

After MG sang us some sweet tunes the Ex-Optimists came on to rock the crowd that had finally built up. It seemed to be mostly made up of Me, Niki, Maddy, Wes, the other dude that always comes out but I can’t remember his name, some skanky burnout chicks and a whole gaggle of college aged “athletic dept.” type fit blonde lesbian types who really seemed to have a thing for Jess.  Damn that girl is a lesbo-magnet!

Once a round of shots were had, they commenced to rocking and brought the semi-loose, indie noise like only they can. One song in particular…the dance party at the end of the world song really knocked me over. It was tuned down, tight as hell and rocked the fuck out. Probably the best song I’ve seen them do so far. It took me back to the old days of being stoned and listening to Mountain Song over and over and over again. Fun times.

Sadly, when the Ex-Ops were done, me and Niki and were torn down tired and had to split to get to bed so we missed the second set of Magic Girl with her Ex-Husbands bashing it out with her. I’m sure it was rad in the big sound of The Stafford.

http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/07/perez-hilton-warner-brothers-label.html

Perez Hilton set to launch label imprint with Warner Bros.: The rumors are true

It feels like this has been a subject of speculation for ages, but it’s finally official: Warner Brothers has confirmed to EW that gossip maven Perez Hilton is set to launch his very own imprint with the label in the near future. In a conversation with EW’s Tim Stack for a story that will be on newsstands tomorrow, Perez said he’s serious about entering the music industry: “I have an ear, which is really important in the music world — to be able to hear a hit and to be able to know who has a good song or not… I’m more than just an A&R person. I’m also a marketing person. I’m also a manager.”

Perez plans to announce his first signee by the end of this month, and he hopes to put together a tour soon after. Bear in mind that he can lay claim to helping introduce the world to talents like Mika and Lady Gaga — “I saw the potential in her from the very beginning before any one else,” he added.