If you haven't by now, check out Travis Dove's Rolling Stone still photos in the mag.

There's an article in the local Meig's County newspaper where Brewce adds a few thoughts on the milder side. Another article from Marietta on the kid in Travis' full page photo.

The forums have been back and forth on whether publicity is a good thing for Skatopia. My favorite entry is from a grumpy downhiller: "I'll be the first on here to say that I'm glad that I don't associate myself with that sort of culture. And I think that those sorts of images really help enforce the negative attitudes that skateboarding/longboarding gets from the general population."

(Be warned: Don't click on the "dead filmmaker link or you'll have to shut down your browser.)

Other posts don't have as much to say, but one photography blog has some scans from the Rolling Stone article for those who haven't seen it.

Best of all the photo blog led us to discover a piece shot at the same time we were filming the 06 Bowl Bash... a little tribute to Michah... a little on the sappy side... but hey, this was the channel that Al Gore started.

Even the fashion bloggers have something to say...

Finally, Slap Mag has a sweet little rambly video shot at the 08 'bash with some fine moments. Enjoy

We'll post it in beautiful Quicktime here on this site in a few days.

Look for a new video clip on the Rolling Stone website, too. http://www.rollingstone.com

We’re pouring through tons of old footage… thanks to Charno, Dan Rea, Tom from El Destructo, Ryan Swisher from Rezzin, Indica and everyone else who sent us stuff. We’re going to shoot some interviews with the “founding fathers” of Skatopia, in the next month or two. Speaking of which, if you run into Little Eddie from Grindline, give him a hard time… I guess he’s scared of the camera… but he was there right at the beginning & built a bunch of good stuff and we know you want his story in the movie!

Also, Travis Dove was shooting photographs at the bowl bash. He is a genius flying under the radar as a friendly, mild-mannered guy who mixes in with the crowd and takes his shot fast. But don’t be fooled. If you haven’t seen his stuff, check out his work at www.travisdove.com (for skatopia stuff go to stories / skaterats). Travis’ pictures will be featured in the Rolling Stone feature article about Skatopia later this year.

Thanks also to the Edit Center in NYC, where students recently cut a bunch of scenes from the movie for their class. They gave us some great ideas.

We'll work on the programming to clean it up and get all our old blog posts restored (they're lost like bodies in the woods around Skatopia.)

Later

And never sell Meigs County short. It may be the middle of nowhere, but it’s a crazy-beautiful place with great people. We swam in ponds & drove the back roads… people we ran into were always happy to stop and chat. Elbow room – that pretty much sums it up.

We are psyched to be getting tons of video from Tim Clark, who has shot the place for the last 10 years or so. The band Rezzin, who played at Brewce’s First Party Ever(!) is sending us their old footage, too. Thanks to all the others who have sent their old footage or crazy mayhem shots. If it doesn’t make it into the film, there’s plenty of room in the DVD extras…

Anyone else who has old stuff, you can make the film better by sending it on. We’ll copy it and send it right back. We’re hoping to submit the film to festivals near the end of 2007.

We’re sad to be gone, but upstate New York is pretty cool. Like the north pole but without the penguins.

Just think, now you can go to Skatopia and no one will point a camera with two mics and a bright-ass light in your face…. till we get back.

Skatopia lives on in our 3 year old son Liam, who walks around without a shirt saying “I look like Brewce!” and who brings his toy cars to “Nick’s garage” to get fixed after they get “stuginthemud”. He also thinks that firemen shoot fire out of their hoses, not water. You can send money for his future therapy.

Brewce, Brandon and the CIA guys finished up 2006 with a big POUR and a big BURN. First a sick addition got poured around the Lula Bowl thanks to awesome December weather, major ‘crete fund contributions and a serious work party. Then we heard someone gave the CIA a nice Christmas Present of a CAR to BURN, which made for a very Merry Fire I’m sure. But we missed it…

We lost 3 camera guys to the party by the second night. Suddenly, we were shooting our own crew in the mosh pit & skating the bowls! Many stayed up and worked for almost 72 hours straight. They came from all points of the compass... California, Wisconsin, New York, Oregon, Chicago, Philly, and a bunch from Athens. Everyone added something unique and it was a super-cool group. THANK YOU!

It's a weird responsibility to take something like this and record it for the rest of the world to see. How much exposure is good & how much is bad for Skatopia? Most of Skatopia's media exposure in the past has been fun, but usually hyped the same Skatopia myths. Looking beyond the myths at the reality is always trickier. We'll try to do it justice.

We're starting to get serious about editing now. For all of those who have offered footage of Skatopia from the past, we really appreciate it. If we screwed up getting back to you, its because we were too busy shooting (same reason we've been so slow on new vidclips.) We're setting in to work on Skatopia history now - so let us know if you have anything for us...

We'll get a bunch of stills from the party up in the next few days and follow up with some good vidclips.

Thanks for the support. Hit that link on the "Hooked Up" page for our new stickers!

Come out on June 1 & 2 for a major work-party to shoot 'crete in these new bowls! ANYONE WITH 'CRETE FINISHING SKILLS IS ESPECIALLY NEEDED!!!! . If you can't make it, send a donation for the 'crete fund. You can do it at the skatopia website: www.skatopia.org

Anyway, for all of 2005, things are on hold. Brewce's lawyer says "It's cool. You've got a good case – self-defense." Brewce plays it all down to us… and to his friends.

Jury trial happens in Feb 2006. They throw out a lot of trumped up charges (felonies) and acknowledge that Brewce didn’t bring the weapons to the fight. But… they want to punish him for his side of the fight… (no mention of punishing the other fighters !?!) so they convict him of two misdemeanors.

What does this mean? Well, got to wait for the sentencing hearing on April 10, 2006. Brewce and his lawyer still have some appeals to try out and some alternative sentencing requests.

April 10: I ride with Brewce to see what is up with this. 8:45 am. He’s in suit jacket and clean pants. We’re blazing north in the fully graffiti-covered Skatopia mini-van with a broken CV joint vibrating like a mother… Half way to court, I say, “So, is there some possibility that you might not be riding home today?” “Well, it’s a possibility, but I’ve already talked to the parole lady and she’s going to hook me up with a three-day a week deal. That way I can still get the farm ready for the Bowl Bash. I’ll just go in to jail on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.” OK.

I go into the court with my camera. A burly guard gives me shit for having an Oregon license and a Philly address on my business card. Won’t let me film. I sit in the back of the court. Only Brewce’s mom and baseball bat mom are there. First thing. The Judges says, “No alternative sentencing.” Then, “No appeals are relevant to this case” Brewce starts scribbling notes on the back of an envelope. Judge says, “There is more than enough blame to go around in this case. It is significant that Mr. Martin did not bring the weapons to the fight…” etc, blah, blah, blah. You are sentenced to two consecutive sixty day jail terms. Lawyer: Can he have a day to get his affairs in order? Judge: No. Brewce is emptying his pockets. I’m going whoa! Why can’t I film!!!!! Bailiff is snapping cuffs on Brewce. I’m going whoa!!!! Brewce is giving me this funny kind of smile like he wants to crack up. Later I learn he’s trying to send me telepathic message to run around to the side door where they’ll take him out… but my brain is not receiving properly. I’m busy thinking “Our film is so f***’d up now. The Bowl Bash is our big event this year. Ahhhh”

I go out in hot sun dazed and shoot his mom’s reaction: “You got to admit, he had a bad case of the dumbass driving over there that night.” The lawyer gives me the key to the ragged-ass van. It's got no gas. I put a few bucks in and coax that broken CV joint back to Skatopia going 25 mph uphill on the highway and coasting down. Holy shit. No-one even knows yet. Not even Brandon!

We've moved to Meigs County, OH... 2 miles from the dreaded Skatopia. We've rented a 185 year old house on a giant hilltop farm covered in junk cars, school buses and other broken metal stuff. Our first week we hit a deer on the way to town and destroyed our mini-van grille - the Meigs-icans loved that. Since then, the suspension has been getting beat to crap driving over the gravel roads and the doors got frozen shut because of Skatopia dirt working itself into in the latches.

But we LIIIIIKE it. (as our kid says)

Life is good, but we can't escape our work... now we're on call 24/7 to run down the road with the camera and get the latest crazyness on film (tape actually.) It is exhausting, but at least we don't have Brewce on the phone saying "you should have been here... you missed it!" Now he's on the phone saying, "get over here!"

We're psyched... the season begins...

Watch the trailer here: http://www.divx.com/movies/detail.php?movieID=123&cID=6

Fuel TV gave Jon & 9 other filmmakers $100,00 each to shoot their dream film. Corey Adams won another cool million to make his film a feature. Here's that story: http://www.globalsurfnews.com/news.asp?Id_news=20090

Here's the blurb from the divx site:
This documentary captures the soul of skateboarding by documenting some of the most intriguing personalities and stories in the sport. From the skate scene in Russia to the inspirational story of polio stricken Og de Souza, Skate Ne Veia exposes a dimension of skateboarding that few have witnessed... Featured boarders include Steve Berra, Diego Bucchieri, Danny Way, Lance Mountain, Sage Bolyard, Paul Fujita, Nate Broussard, Paul Rodriguez, Josh Falk and many more.

Brewce is shipping the new Draven Skatopia shoe to skaters worldwide. Using the proceeds to buy more concrete, rebar, gravel… all that good stuff that makes Skatopia work. Finally got myself a pair… now I’m wearing them out doing everything but skating.

And our son no longer says “fuck you”, but all the way home from Canton we did have to listen to him saying “I named Brewce”. Whoa.

Over the next season, we’ll be living down there & shooting the stuff that happens. Next fall and winter we’ll be editing. We’ll keep new stuff coming on the web site up until the movie’s release, and we won’t give the ending away!

Also, we’d like to thank the academy for recognizing us…whoops, got ahead of myself. But we do want to thank everyone who got us footage and stills to help get this web site up. Dan Rea from PoolsnPipes.com gave us footage of Brewce and photos of the bowls at Skatopia. We got flying car footage from Mikie Swartz at WhiplashDVD.com and Turtle flying OFF the car from Chris Gomez with the Old Skars & Upstarts Tour. And finally, our awesome and talented friend Raegan Kelly made this web site happen. Thank you Raegan.

Don’t forget: Buy Skatopia shoes, shirts, decks – contribute for more concrete! www.skatopia.org.