Outside The Lines : The Show
Friday night rolled around with much anticipation from the everyone, the word had spread throughout our community like a wildfire. We arrived to the reception about an hour after it had started, the gallery was jam packed like sardines in a can. Dj Pancake was spinning smooth ambient grooves which accentuated everything nicely. A large variety of people attended the show but the majority of the bystanders were from younger generations, which seemed to overwhelm the older people. There was fruit punch and pop, but no delicious frosty beer or aged wine. The Museo is a very ritzy gallery and the way some of the pieces were organized so perfect and neat clashed with a couple of the more raw graffiti pieces, overall everything looked great. All the artists who were involved produced a unique mix of street art and graffiti pieces on many different mediums. Lars did some art on a table and a dresser which turned out great. Jack’d submitted three skimboards which complimented everything very well. Unfortunately Yale Wolf didn’t submit his epic large pieces early enough so he did not receive any wall space, luckily the owner allowed him to set up his work outside. Personally I think having some pieces outside added the extra spice the show needed to be super chronic. The owner of the gallery wanted the reception to end at 7:00pm but there were way too many people still enjoying the art, and music to shut it down. This show was definitely one of most popular shows at the Museo which was surprising to some because it was completely organized by younger members of generation X. We thank everyone who helped make the show happen, and look forward to doing another one. Great Success!

Graffiti and Street Art Show at Museo, Whidbey Island’s premier contemporary art gallery. New art by John Sarkis, Paul Sarkis, Clark Sarbaugh, Denis Zimmermann, Yale Wolf, and Derek Yost. Outside The Lines is anticipated to be the biggest show of the year. Don’t miss it! Come check it out, it will be open for a month. Opening reception will be Saturday Feb. 7th 5-7pm. music by DJ Pancake. Free Boos and Food.

There have been whispers of a international flatland skimboarding competition that will take place in Canada sometime during the summer of 2009. We have been waiting for a opportunity for skimboarders worldwide to unite and compete in Canada for years. Canada offers some of the most prime flatland skimboarding conditions in the world, almost as chronic as Whidbey Island, WA. They have one of the largest active skimboarding populations in the world, producing a wide array of talented riders. Date’s and locations for this skim jam are still a mystery. We have been to competitions in Canada before, and prefer riding at locations that are close to the border. The Jack’d Recreational Beast does not get the best gas mileage , it also has vicious teeth and bloodshot eyes so we are always hassled at the border. White Rock would be ideal location to hold the competition; it is right over the border, the community seems to be pretty laid back, and there is parking down the whole beach. We are stoked to hear about these ideas and hope that the worldwide skimboarding community can come together and make this thing work.We at Jack’d skimboards will definitely help in any way we can. Props to Lynch who seems to be heading up this proposal.

Stay tuned

: http://inlandskimmovement.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=73

It’s fairly obvious at this point that the U.S is knee deep in economic crisis. The recession continues, but most people want to believe we have hit rock bottom. Millions of Americans are losing their jobs, cash flow, and way of life. The crisis has affected major professional sports as well. The AFL has been suspended for the entire 2009 season. All professional sports franchises are cutting back on employees and costs. Less and less fans can afford to attend these high priced sporting events and are finding new ways to entertain themselves. Before the economic these sporting events were escapes for people who wanted a distraction to take them away from their everyday jobs and normal mundane activities. Now these sporting events seem arbitrary and ridiculous, when so many people are suffering financially. However, there is still one sports franchise in America that maintains its high prices and confident negligence of spending funds. The New York Yankees continue spending money like the economic crisis was merely a speed bump, that they have already passed over. This offseason has been very important for the Yankee organization and it’s millions of fans. The Yankees moved out of Yankee stadium into a new billion dollar state of the art facility, that apparently requires an offensively high pay-roll. After missing the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade the Yankees have answered back with a vengeance. They signed three of the five highest profile free agents of this off season. C.C Sabathia, A-J Burnett, and Mark Teixera were signed to contracts that added up to a sum of over 300 million dollars. Adding to a roster that already was the highest paid team in baseball. While the rest of us are scraping by to survive, the Yankees are lavishly spending money without the slightest hesitation. Whats even more absurd are the ticket prices the Yankees are offering for their brand new stadium. There are some seats that they are charging over 2,000 dollars a game! I know the Yankees are expected to play for a championship every year, but buying one just because you can is ridiculous.

The Grouch and Eligh of the Living Legends together form an unmatchable team. The Grouch provides intelligent messages that we all can relate to, and Eligh throws down sick beats with a mezmerising flows. Their styles compliment each other tremendously with lyrics that are always profound and engaging. We arrived early to try to catch the duo before they made it inside neumos, but it took about 20 minutes for us to find parking so we lost all hope. We still had about 45 minutes until doors opened so we headed across the street to the bar to enjoy some drinks and watch some basketball highlights. After a couple pints it was time to roll it up, we headed back to the club and walked right, their was no line and no doing pat downs which was a first for me at Neumos. Dj WD40 was spinning before the show, he had a good selection of music and threw down a solid set. Klause got a chance to do some freestyle battling with a member from the Bayliens, which was one of the groups opening for the show. The dude was definitly suprised that a white kid with red hair was spitting some nasty rhymes. The first opener was a local group from Seattle that called themselves Alpha P. They consisted of about 6 members who each had a unique style. After they finished their set Paul Detah a solo violinist from the bay area mixed things with an awesome performance. Something I had never witnessed before, Paul was ripping the violin to nasty hip hop beats. The audience loved it, everyone was getting super stoked to see something new and unique like this. This guy was going at it so tough he broke a bunch of hairs on his violin stick. Next up was another group from the bay area called the Bayliens. They were a group that was full of energy, with hyphy beats and sick lyrics they easily got the crowd hyped up. The main event started with Eligh coming out first, being a producer his beats always have perfect chemistry with his smooth flows. Every time I see Eligh the performance gets better. Soon the Grouch joined in and the crowd went crazy, they were truly a duo much more badass than Batman and Robin. After collaborating with some classic’s, Eligh bounced out and the Grouch did some solo stuff. It was like three shows mixed together smoothly, like a perfect spliff. The Grouch was spitting viciously until the end, he had a great selection of songs that kept everyone guessing what would be next. Truely a legendary show which can be expected from any of the Living Legends crew.

Innate Snow and Skate, in Bellingham, WA. was celebrating their grand opening Friday and Saturday, November 7th and 8th. Members of the Jack’d Skimboard crew were there both nights to witness the celebration, and partake in the festivities. Friday night was an intimate gathering, a very subdued crowd for a Friday night hip-hop show. Tulsi was the performer on Friday and he laid down a solid set. The core group of the crowd were big fans mostly from Whidbey Island. Tulsi is from Seattle and reps his home state to the max. Spitting songs mostly form his new album; Tulsi excelled with his lyrics and message solidifying his passionate rhymes as one of Seattle’s best up and coming artists. Common Market, another one of Seattle’s promising young talents performed on Saturday. Common Market being more well known got a different reaction from the crowd. They were rowdy and inspired from the first rhyme and did not relinquish their ferocity until Common Market left the stage after his encore. The show was loud and impressive resulting in lots of happy fans and one overheated speaker. During the performance Common market divulged many things about what was going on with his life, like; political issues, Bellingham, Seattle and other stuff. But he surprised us all when he proclaimed Innate the best venue for hip-hop in all of Bellingham. We at Jack’d would like to thank Tulsi, Common Market, and Innate for putting on such a fun and exciting weekend, hopefully in the future more performing artists put a thumbtack over Innate in Bellingham on their tour maps.

Immortal Technique is more than a highly talented hip hop artist, he is a revolutionary standing up for the rights we are slowly losing. With his intricate lyrics he exposes scandalous money sucking leeches who use treachery, deceit, and politics to control the great U.S of A. We were super stoked for this show, because we had seen Immortal Technique perform various times at larger venues. Nuemos is a super small club which always makes for a better show. After waiting for Klause to parallel park for 15 minutes we headed towards the show. We thought arriving an hour before opening would get us a prime spot in line, but to our dismay the line was already stretching down and around about 2 blocks. This was definitely the longest wait we had seen at Nuemos yet. After about 4 freestyle sessions, 6 cancer sticks, and some fish and chips we made it to the front door. It took so long for us to get in we missed the first opener. As we snaked our way to the front the second opener Hasaan Salaam started his act. Not being familiar with his stuff I didn’t know what to expect. He threw down a solid performance with some of the illest acapella’s I have heard. The next group up was Da Circle, they delivered fresh flows getting the crowd hyped up for the grand finale. When they finished, the chant began, “Immortal Technique,” over and over  and it quickly grew into a thunderous roar. Within minutes Technique was on stage ripping the mic into pieces with vicious lyrics. In between songs he threw down inspirational speeches, it was not a crowd watching his performance, it was an army of soldiers. The variety of songs was perfect, a selection of songs off each album he has done. I was stoked he did “Dance with the Devil” which is one of my all time favorites. After the show was over Immortal Technique was at the swag booth signing whatever you threw at him which was respectable because many artists don’t take the time to really connect with their fans like that.

Jack’d Skimboards recently sponsored the youth soccer association on Whidbey Island. Jack’d we received a youth soccer team picture, and a lime green promotional banner has been put up around the facility. The team we were sponsoring “Blue Thunder” dominated this season with a record of 12-0. We would like to congratulate them and their coach Eric Jokinen for a killer season. Not too long ago we were on those youth teams ripping it up and scoring goals. Its great to look back at the pictures that are hung up and local stores that sponsored us when we were younger. Unfortunately they don’t put the sponsors logo on the jerseys anymore. There are many future skimboard groms running around those fields, and we hope to attract them at a younger age. This will give them more time to tune in there skills for when the X-Games has skimboarding as a competitive sport.

Good friends of Jack’d, Corey and Dillon are the proud owners of the new shop Innate Snow and Skate which is located in downtown Bellingham. Weeks before the grand opening there was a sneak peak of the shop during an annual art walk in Bellingham. Innate displayed art work from many local artists which included pieces from the Jack’d Skimboards Crew. Also displayed was new clothing from up and coming local companies such as Uni and Build Strong. With a lot of anticipation from the community, I would say it was the place to be on Friday night. Yale Wolf expressed his graffiti skills by doing a cityscape morphing into ski slopes on the main wall of Innate, which brought him a lot of recognition and props. Yale is an amazing artist and will be collaborating with Jack’d in the upcoming year. The Innate Crew was demonstrating silk-screening on their press, and selling their freshly made custom tee shirts.It was an honor to display artwork and hang in the Innate shop. We are very proud of Corey and Dillon for building the greatest snowboard shop in Bellingham. If you are ever in the area make sure to stop in, and check it out. They have already given themselves a good name in town. Giving back to the community with warm clothing drives, and scheduling great shows in the future with artists like Common Market and Tulsi.We look forward to selling our skimboards in the shop starting this spring. If you in downtown Bellingham make you stop by and check it out!

Whether you call it Beer Pong or Beirut, people of all ages all over the U.S are enjoying of this drinking sport. Traditionally beer pong was played with paddles while Beirut has been what beer pong is today. Some bars around the country are catching on to the hysteria, frequently holding tournaments on weekly basis to draw customers. Nobody plays beer pong more than young people. High School and college students are the most frequent beer pong users. Beer pong has a strange effect on a party, it draws people around it; making it the center of everyone’s attention. It’s strange to think that drinking alcohol has become so competitive, but that is what occurs when you play beer pong. It’s most popular among men because of all the trash-talking which is apart of the game and ends when the game is over. The beer pong craze is definitely sweeping the nation. Adults and parents have even been seen trying their luck at a game of beer pong. Similar to any other major sport there is progression, each establishment you play at has “house rules” which share the main concept but have many variations. We play match’s of 6 cup, but we have added a little spice to the game by making the cups sink down into the table making winning more difficult. A bounce off the wall is 2 cups, a roll or bounce off the table is two cups but opponent has the option of blocking the ball, 2 balls in the same cup is 3 cups and a rollback, 2 balls in separate cups gets you a rollback, after a shot if the ball rolls back then you shoot again. These rules are basic, things get real complicated when you play at a house that has ridiculously stupid rules. With any competitive activity there also becomes an aspect of gambling. Tournaments are a major attraction for competitive beer pong players. There has been an annual World Series of Beer Pong in Las Vegas, this year marking its sixth year anniversary. The winners take home a minimum of $50,000; the cash prize increases as the tournament draws more and more competitors. There was a recent time magazine article about beer pong in which there were reports of East Coast colleges outlawing beer pong in the dorms because of angry parents. Whether you like it or not I bet the next party you attend there will be somebody playing beer pong.