jackassworld

Soon after finishing up the Man Who Souled the World documentary in August 2007, director Mike Hill approached Marc McKee and I with the idea for an accompanying art show/retrospective featuring a bunch of the board graphics we had done in the early ’90s. I’d had a few bad experiences with skateboard art shows in the past, but Mike assured us the boards would be well taken care of and there might even be some free global travel involved. That last part was all I really cared about, because there is nothing better than seeing the world on someone else’s dime.

The first show went up in San Francisco in November at the FTC skate shop on Haight Street. It was kind of haphazard and sudden with very little promotion, but we threw it together nonetheless with some funding from Red Bull. This was also the first time I realized the show was to be promoted under the banner of “Censorship is Weak as F##k,” which I, in turn, thought to be rather weak as fuck considering it somewhat defeated the gist of the phrase in the first place. Red Bull wound up flaking on our hotel bills in SF, which left me questioning the whole “free travel” perks I’d been drawn in with, but they did front the cash for these ridiculously expensive (and ridiculously heavy) custom deck display stands that McKee devised out of curb blocks and rebar.

Bucking up against the threat of the holidays, we threw together one last show for the year in Los Angeles at this really nice location on Fairfax amongst all these other hip and over-priced boutique stores that cater to the Japanese tourist/sucker market. One hundred bucks for a fucking T-shirt? That’s what’s wrong with this world. Well, one thing at least. Anyway, we had one big blow out opening night with free booze and good attendance, which was nice because the gallery was a ghost town the next two weeks through Christmas. (incidentally, all of the talking head stuff in this video was shot at this Los Angeles gallery location just down from Sal Barbier’s store).

In January, the show traveled to Frankfurt, Germany, but I did not—mostly due to a 24-hour takeover that was looming with an ominous and impending flatulent air. A takeover that was originally slated to happen very early in February, I should add, because I was all booked and ready to fly to Australia on February 25th for a two week show tour. This news came much to the dismay of my superiors in the office, seeing as the late great 24-hour ordeal was moved to February 23-24 and was supposed to launch the site all rock hard-like. But fuck all if I was gonna shine an all-expense paid trip down under to Sydney and the Gold Coast, so went I did.

However, between the 40 straight hours of sleeplessness over the weekend, the five-hour flight back to Los Angeles, and then the 14-hour flight to Australia, I was pretty much in no physical condition to enjoy anything at all—not even the 30th annual big gay Mardi Gras celebration chaired by Olivia Newton-John. Hence my beleaguered-looking Harold Lloyd appearance on the live video chat that I was thrust into by the long arm of LA while at the gallery in Sydney. But what I didn’t say in words I made up for in visuals as I took the “lucky” viewers on a tour of the China Heights gallery show, paying particularly close attention to the back truck region of the World Industries Randy Colvin Censorship model.

The show has since returned from Australia and remains crated up awaiting its next worldly destination…not to mention another round of sponsorship dollars because I think we smoked our cash pot in full with those $3000 decorator doorstops of McKee’s. Until it hits the road again—unlikely though that may be and even more unlikely that it would be anywhere near your town if it did—if you’re still curious about the colorful world of skateboard graphics and the people who make them, check out my book Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art. Included within are a bunch of graphics done by artists like Wes Humpston, Pushead, Mark Gonzales, Neil Blender, Jim Phillips, V. Courtlandt Johnson, Natas Kaupas, John Lucero, Jeff Tremaine, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, McKee, myself and a butt ton of others, not to mention a few boards from the ’80s that are shaped like penises. Well, they’re all phallic in general, but man…it doesn’t get any more cock than a Tracker Dan Wilkes from 1987.