On Friday the 18th, we’ll be celebrating yet another Hot August Nights.

For those of you outside of Hammond, Hot August Nights is an annual celebration that takes place on the hottest night of the year… most of the businesses in downtown become art galleries for local and southern artists, and most of them will be having “wine tastings” for the people that come in to gaze at the work.

We’ll be hosting some artwork from Bankhead, Michael Cangelosi, James Blanchard as well as myself. One thing we’ll be doing a bit different from other business is the wine thing… we will have some “tastings,” but those tastings will simply consist of cheap beer, ’cause that’s how we do.

…and no, you can’t booze it up at the shop if you’re under age.

Hey, we’re on the verge of hitting 300 on our friends list at Myspace… I bet we can break that number this weekend. Hit us up and add us!

Update!
Only three more friends to go! Where y’at?

Updated Update…
Two more!

Final Update!
You people are good… 300 in the hizzy fa shizzy!

Next stop, 400!

Skateboarders aren’t a fringe group of people that you’ll never come across… at least here in Hammond, we’re a visible and vocal force. In some cases, skateboarders are taxpaying, property owning, business-running adults. In most cases, the parents/guardians of skateboarders serve those roles. It should be obvious to anyone that travels in Hammond that there are hundreds of people that are directly tied to skateboarding, right here in the city limits. If you’re a politician seeking some sort of elected office here in Hammond, ponder this…

Today, in the Wednesday, August 9th issue of the Daily Star, our official endorsement of Mayor Mason Foster, Tony Licciardi, and Joey Keener was published in the “Local News” section.

Click the image below for a larger version:

(…or click here for a PDF of the above article.)

As I’ve mentioned before, this website gets 2,000 hits a week (more than that during our busiest months). Granted, most of those hits are generated by skateboarders looking for skate-related content… but the newspaper is a different monster. At some point today, nearly every reader of the Daily Star opened up that paper and read our endorsement. All I’m saying is that you better keep us in mind if you want an elected job in this town. Hammond, besides being a college, historical, arts, and eating hub… is a skateboard city. Hammond is the only city of its kind in this entire state when it comes to skateboarding… it is in fact, the skateboarding capitol. We know who we have on our side… we suggest that anyone running for elected office (especially City Council) talk to us and find out what we’re all about. We’ll be getting to know you at every public forum we can attend.
Oh yeah: MAYSON FOSTER FOR MAYOR.

Our friend Big Mike out of Henderson, Texas just informed us that two of his newspapers have placed skateboarding on the front pages in recent days… and as a bonus, the covers were actually positive! Mike is a skateboarder that’s been around the block a few times, lives the life, and does more than talk the talk. He’s a true skateboard activist that all cities and towns need to have. Here are the articles he informed us about:
The Daily Press
Henderson Daily News

Don’t forget to check out the rest of Mike’s site… Hometown Skates.

On an unrelated note, you know how I keep mentioning that our flatland-freestyle bike riding champion of the universe (Terry Adams) can skate? Check it:

Trust me when I say this… Terry can skate better than 99% of everyone you’ve ever skated with. He and I will be working on a very special project for the site pretty soon… possibly the most important thing (if not the most serious) thing this site will have ever had on it.

Mayson Foster:
I know a lot of people tend to fall asleep once the topic of politics comes up, but this is important, and yes… it’s very biased. We here at Small Times Skates officially endorse Mayor Mayson Foster’s campaign for reelection. Mayor Foster is one of the main reasons we have our Dreamland skatepark,and he’s also very receptive to the skateboard community (all of us affiliated with the shop have communicated with Mayor Foster about various skateboarding related issues). In short, if you skate, or your the parent/guardian of a skater, then we ask that you help us support Mr. Foster and allow him to keep the job he does so well.

I’m well aware that many of you aren’t single-issue voters, so if the actions he’s taken for the skateboarding community aren’t enough, consider that he lead this city through a sudden population increase of over 20,000 people after Katrina hit, and was an important figurehead through Hammond’s own post-storm struggle. On a personal hurricane-related note, Mr. Foster was one of the first people I saw after the hurricane struck… once the storm passed and it was safe to venture outside, who did I see but Mayson Foster driving slowly (and around fallen trees) checking on everyone personally.

If you’re 18 years old, register to vote! You can call up the Registrar of Voters at 985.345.3717. It will only take you about five minutes to get signed up. If you’re already registered to vote, please cast yours for Mr. Foster.

If you’re from out of town… my mayor can beat up your mayor. Nya nya nya.

Tony Licciardi:
At the end of this year, Tony Licciardi will be leaving the Hammond City Council and gearing up to run for State Rep… we’ll be pushing for him as well. He’s been responsible for keeping funds in the Hammond budget for the skatepark, and not only do we need to ensure that he gets elected, we need to make sure that the person that replaces him is aware of the needs of Hammond’s skateboard community.

Joey Keener:
I don’t think he’s running for anything (I’m looking into that as you read this), but if he does, we’re backing him too.

The three people referenced above aren’t the only people responsible for helping out the skaters of Hammond (and in effect, the skaters of Louisiana), but they’re the most active and vocal supporters we have in Hammond government. The least we can do as skateboarders (or skate-friendly voters) is help them to maintain the positions they hold, or elevate them politically so they can better serve our interests. As voters and taxpayers, we control the government. It’s our duty to shape the government in a way that truly represents us. Cheers.

I made it back from my big east coast trip last night… New York is as great as it is insane… if you ever get the chance to go, do it i a heartbeat. I didn’t have the internet connection (or the time) I’d hoped for while out on the road, but I’ll make up for it by posting like crazy now that I’m back.

On to the News:
1. Shawn Fleming, our friend behind Aminal Skateboards, has figured out a method to expand his team in new ways… rather than sit through countless sponsor-me videos, he went and decided to create genetically engineered Aminals on his own. I’d like to introduce Shawn’s newest addition:

Portia Rae Fleming, welcome to the world. Little cutie.

2. As most of you already know, some throat-gagging bottom feeders dumped trash cans, kicked over the porto-potties, and poured motor oil all over Smallside on Friday night (possibly the same people that got their asses handed to them after trying to mug some friends of ours from New Orleans). Doug, Jilted, Adam and others (I’d name you all but I don’t know who was there) went out and cleaned up the mess. We need to be on high alert, folks… drive by the park whenever you can (even if you’re just out partying on the weekend) and look to see what’s going on every chance you get. This item leads me onto a couple of points that need to be thought about:

• A. The cops took over 20 minutes to respond to an emergency call after our friends from New Orleans had a run in with the mystery group (a mask-wearing group at that). WTF?
• B. With all of the homeland security cameras pointed everywhere, why don’t they just turn the one on the corner of Oak and Coleman around so that it looks at the skatepark? Little help?
• C. Where the hell are our lights?

Ok, that’s enough for now… me and Kerry have a lot of things we’ll be hitting you with in the next few days. In closing, as much fun as I had out in the big city, I missed all my homies and homettes and I’m super glad to be home. See ya at the park (or right here, even). w000t!