Twankled

Zarosh's ankle got broken last night...


yuck.

LA TIMES moustache article featuring...

LOS ANGELES TIMES covers the road to the championships!!!

Phil spector: Convicted Murderer

LIFE IN PRISON with chance of parole after 18 years.

For music fans, there is no silver lining to this tragic episode in Spector's life



He produced records for some of the biggest names in popular music since the early 1960s.



His hits include the Ronettes' Be My Baby, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by the Righteous Brothers' and Ike and Tina Turner's River Deep - Mountain High. He produced The Beatles' Let It Be album and John Lennon's classic single, Imagine.


Spector pioneered the art of multiple track recordings using small armies of musicians - pianists, guitarists and drummers - to produce the "Wall of Sound".

Chess for Dummies

First 10 Minutes Of Chess Game Spent Explaining Replacement Pieces
Evidently 'The Onion' got a hold of my chess set and did a story about it... How embarrassing.

ink/world

It's true, Ive been studying millinery for a little while now, and have bolted into the construction and crafting of many a hat here in my downtown loft space. Needles and pins everywhere!!!

index-link

Father uses GPS to kill 5 children and wife

The bodies of James Harrison’s children, ages 7 to 16, were found with multiple gunshot wounds Saturday in the family’s mobile home, most of them in their beds. Harrison’s body had been found earlier in the day with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, behind the wheel of his idling car.

The night before, the father and his eldest daughter went in search of his wife, Angela Harrison. The daughter used a GPS feature in her mother’s cell phone to find her with another man at a convenience store in nearby Auburn, said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff.

read more...

when your home-town embarrasses you

wow , a compilation cd of ROCKFORD songs.

Things to do in London when you're alive

photo: Sam Ashton

becoming indexed

Index Ink's TWS-biz article

DO robots really dream of electric sheep?

finally, I have transferred over to the world of automaton android skateboarder. What worlds we have to conquer...

calidescopic enthusiasts unite!

www.deathskateboards.com

get this thing off my face!

i cant wait 'till may 23rd

stasche' marche'

bolan's zip gun/ or, an anachronistic arsenal for a potential future

a lesson on con artists, con men, and the confidence game

A little lesson on con artists...

The economy is going down the tubes, and we all should be concerned with the future of our personal finances. For years, I've been interested in the confidence game and the simple ways that, by playing on the greed of the average man you can con him out of his entire life savings. You see, it was his greed that set him up to get taken anyway, he is presented with an opportunity, it was just outside of he usual realm of the law, and he knew there was some risk involved. There are thousands of cons and thousands of ways that, over history, we have seen that wolf in sheep's clothing betray a fellow man in order to gain some money. These days, people are desperate and in need of that quick dollar more than ever. In recent news, we've seen life savings be thrown away to nigerian scams, and a white collar stock swindler take the public for over fifty billion dollars. Don't let greed get the best of you. A con artist will play on the emotions of the mark (victim) and use pressure to force the mark to make a quick decision without reading the fine print. And the payoff seems so worth it, it's easy to get caught up in the scam.

Keep your nose clean. If it sounds too good to be true, it is!
Although the classic cons are really a thing of art, these days, the public seems so caught up in getting something for nothing, the most basic scams are working every
day to swindle people out of millions. Here are a few popular cons to watch out for.

Credit card Phone Scam: An official sounding person alerts you over the phone and needs to check on some "unauthorized charges" on your credit card. You give them your number and you're screwed. They might say something like, they need to verify insurance, or knock off some overage charges that they accidentally gave you. Don't ever give your credit or phone card numbers to anyone.

City Inspector: An “inspector” says he needs to check plumbing, wiring, termites, or some problem that your house is having and could be effecting the rest of the neighborhood. He finds a “serious” problem that requires labor, but offers to have a friend do the repair work immediately. It's amazing who we will let in our house and just give our money to, simply because they have a clipboard and a nametag. It takes five seconds to research a dude's company. Be sure to use your phone book and not his business card. He could be a George Costanza pulling a Vandalay industries on you.

Contest Winner: You won!, you must send money for postage, taxes, registration, or call for details. This could add up to hundreds or even thousands. Do not send any money. Never pay for a “free” prize. You will receive nothing but an excuse and then a request for "just a little more money" to release the item, or to help clear customs. This scam is super common, and since they usually ask for smaller amounts of money, they go on not getting reported.

Lotteries: This may sound stupid, but it happens. A person offers to sell a winning lottery ticket, maybe cause they're not a US citizen and they cant collect. Or a more official sounding one is when a “law firm” says that someone has left you a winning lottery ticket, but you must send money so a computer can verify your identity. There may even BE a ticket. It's a fake, but you don't know that, and you're about to make a bunch of money if you give them their fee for being the handlers right?

Medical Products: It's not that hard to get a "target" list of people with a certain ailment. Health, beauty care, “cures,” or magic diets are offered by mail or e-mail. These will be cures or products targeted to help. Once they have your money sudden extra fees may crop up and your product will never get there without the extra money. It will never get there at all anyway.

900 Number: This one was big in the nineties. 900 numbers are legitimate, but the call may cost more than advertised. You will most likely be put on hold to add to the bill, and many products are worthless. But as long as you're on the phone, you're giving away money.

Internet ‘Phishing’ Scams: An e-mail is sent to you from a business, organization, or government agency asking you to update or validate information about your account. That's it! The message asks you to respond immediately. And for security reasons, it asks you to not open any attachment, reply, or click on links within the message. It will sound official and probably make perfect sense. Next thing you know your account is drained.

Obituary: If you've had a recent death in the family, all it takes is somebody with a newspaper to scam you. Playing on your grief. A COD box arrives with a product for “your recently deceased who-ever.” It's something that so-and-so ordered before they died and you need to pay for it now. Pay for it, open it, it's empty. The messenger was an imposter. And you're burnt.

Again, there are thousands of ways people get scammed out of tons of money. The key is to be smart and do background checks. They say 'you can't con an honest john'. If thats true, then remember that you're never going to get something for nothing, and these days everybody is trying to pull a fast one.

P. Melcher

crrrrrney

free show/ gibson showroom. bev hills . sat night.

That..... which, pretty much, sums it up

Pac Man ; stepping up the sophistication

“When this game was first released in 1880 it was so hugely popular in taverns and inns that the bank of England was forced to mint more threepenny bits to keep up with demand. The game was created by messurs Nam & Nam and Co. as a novelty pastime for the masses. Outdoing the previous top public house game of Shove Ha’penny. “

Patrick Melcher Interview

Good morning/evening Patrick Melcher, how's life in sunny Los Angeles?

Usually its just that, sunny as... but you happened to catch me on like the one day out of the year that the clouds have reared their dismal facade. I think it has something to do with the fires that have been burning down the surrounding areas of Los Angeles in the past few weeks. It's been gnar. there was this pure black cloud that insisted on shitting it's ash down on us for like five days. The forests and hills were burning and the wind picked up all of the crap from the smoldering wreckage and dropped it directly into my lungs. I guess this always happens here, every year when the dry season hits. Somebody leaves a coke bottle on a trail in the woods and the sun catches it and magnifies it into a laser which catches the whole mountain on fire and then Christopher Lloyd has to go buy a new house.


What sort of shenanigans do you get up to on a average day?

Lately it's been, wake up, grab a rag , go wipe the burnt forest off of my car and try and skate without getting asthma. I did just get a new pit-bull puppy, so I hook up with the homies (most of whom have pit-bulls too) and we let our dogs entertain each other while driving around and skating schools or random spots. For me, when I'm trying to film or shoot, it's most likely a solo mission. Just me and dan-o-zone kicking around ideas until having fun becomes something worth filming. A lot of the time, weekdays are spent at various skate parks, I live right down the street from the berrics and Lizard King lives right by me too, so we usually hook up and shred there.


Its pretty common knowledge in the skate community that your a bit of a kleptomaniac (person who steals a lot) and you once just walked out of a show room with a sofa in hand and got a security guard to help. what's the biggest or most valuable thing you have pinched?

First of all, for the readers, I'd like to clarify that, shoplifting and stealing are two whole different evils. I don't, and wouldn't, steal from a person. Only a corporation that I believe is insured and set up to handle damages. In a way, it's what I like to call 'forced karma', I've been overpaying for all kinds of shit my whole life, it's time for me too balance out the universe. I wouldn't steal from an owner operated establishment either. I've got love for the mom and pop shops out there.

The odd thing about all of my acquisitions is that I frequently don't remember what is all stolen. Maybe because there is just so much. I mean, what's the biggest thing? I don't know. my whole house is a museum of what can be done with a little ingenuity and a little balls. Tables, chairs, televisions, everything. If you put a little thought into it and know the rules, nothing is off limits. I have never been caught and I don't think I ever will because if something feels sketchy , I have no problem calling it off. The reason that most people who have been caught did so, is because of their own lack of confidence, they haven't trained their will to overcome that fear that we all have and their body language is telling the clerk or whomever that they are up to shady business. and this is why almost everybody has the "I got caught when I was really young and I don't anymore" story. Because when you are young, your self confidence hasn't had all that much time to develop. Also you haven't been in and out of a thousand places and trained up your second nature on what to look for as far as security. For a vast majority of people who get caught, it almost always happens when they are exiting and an alarm goes off, or a guard asks them to 'please come over here'. We all have this polite instinct to comply with authority. You know you are doing something wrong and when you get called on it you feel defeated and a bit embarrassed and scared. fear is the main detraction of theft in the world. It took me a long time to overcome the instinct to want to turn around and comply with a security guard or act as if I didn't hear an alarm going off.
Personally it has only happened a few times, an alarm goes off as I'm exiting a store and my gut instinct is 'fuck, I'm caught, turn around and face the music'. But to keep walking is the hardest thing ever. This is why everybody has that same 'I got caught' story, they just think they are required to go back. I've never had to run though, just keep calm and keep walking and pretend that I'm deaf. It's only happened twice that I can think of, I take mad precautions too. Like dressing well and shopping at high volume foot traffic times, and when possible I try to exit as somebody else is going through the doors too, that way if an alarm goes off that person stops and wonders why they set off the alarm while I'm already half way up the street. There are a thousand other things that I do too.
Shoplifting is like most true crimes, If done well it can be a thing of art. A con man, a car thief, a master pickpocket, even those ghetto dudes playing three card monty outside the train station, when you master your craft it can be beautiful.




I never saw, but were you thieving when you was here in London in the summer?

I'm sure I was. Most likely, not too much though. In the states, I know all the rules. nothing over three hundred dollars, or you go to jail, nobody has the right to detain you or even touch you except real police officers. And most places, the workers aren't even allowed to go out the front doors. Places here are so stressed about law suits against them if patrons get injured or wrongfully accused, that they don't touch you. They just ask you politely to come back and if you don't, oh well. But there in Britain, I'm not so sure about all the laws and stuff. There are something like an average of four video cameras pointed at you at all times, seems a bit more challenging. so, I kept it to candy and sandwiches and a little bit of clothing while I was there. No bank heists or anything.


You have been pro for a fair few years now. How have things changed since getting your first board 'til present day?

I'm older for one. I think I went pro in like 2001. And since then the bar has been raised a lot higher for rookie pros. The lines between pro and am are virtually extinct now. Being pro means that some company somewhere believes that they will make more money by putting your name on their product. And that's pretty much true. In exchange you are now a representative of this company and them taking you on means if you are a douche, it makes them look like chumps, since they invested their trust in you and you douched out. I think when I went pro there was a lot of mismanagement among pros. Really, kids just out of high school, not taking it too seriously and forgetting that it is all business and being a professional means just that. we are in the most 'BRO' industry in the world, and we've all seen how quickly the flavor of the month ams and pros can come and go. As my career goes on , I see that the ADD of the public is increasing and people are at risk of getting churned through the popularity machine a lot quicker than ever before.



When you see all these little kids, fresh out of the womb learning skating rails and doing the things that has maybe taken you years to learn in a few weeks how does that make you feel?

I just remember that it is a different time now and the things that I learned really quickly came easy to me, and there was a group of dudes standing by while I was progressing who were all freaking out on me, the same way that I am amazed at all the mini-shredders today. I know a lot of dudes in my generation who wont even check out the magazines cause it makes them feel like they are falling behind. But you gotta remember that we all have our own appeal and our own parameters of enjoyment and success. If I'm having fun, I'd like to think that it is relatable to the rest of the dudes. I realize that my type of skating isn't palatable for the entire skate community , so I focus on what I think is interesting





I dunno if you saw but I put a myspace bulletin out asking if anyone wanted to ask you some questions for this interview. I got a lot of replies but about 90% were about your moustache so I thought I would get a couple of questions in here. So, who or what's your main inspiration behind your moustache? What products help you maintain a healthy looking well curled moustache?

When you've got a well curled moustache, the world is your oyster. I had a beard going after this one trip to New York when I need to grow it in account of the frigid cold, and when I got back to LA I left a 'stache' . It started, like most things , as an experiment. Something fun and humorous, but soon, almost instantly, I started to realize that children were terrified of me, dogs were barking at me constantly and people never questioned all of my lies and farces as pure truth. You kinda trust a man with a moustache. Since then, I've been inducted into, a beard and moustache club here in LA, we are going to the world championships in may of '09. You may not believe it, but there are people who live for this shit. The underground beard culture goes deep, with roots dating back to before the birth of Christ.



Top 5 moustache owners in history:
1) dali
2)John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln's assassin)

3) Graucho Marx
4) Alex Trebek (Jeopardy)

5) Hitler!

The most infamous moustache in the history of the world.
How fucking amazing that? the hideous actions of one man could ruin a facial hairstyle for all of eternity. no one ever, for the rest of time, is allowed to have a toothbrush moustache because of one insane douche-bag racist.

I don't think alot of people over here know that you DJ pretty regularly in Hollywood. if we was to go to one of your shows what kind of songs could we expect to hear?
I stick to mostly soul. '60s soul, and classic rock and roll from the 1950's. but when you DJ here in Hollywood, you've gotta keep the pace of the crowd and play to the audience. so, I bring alot of 70's and 80's too.


Who are the greatest bands to come out of england?

The only band that matters... For a place with such shit weather , It's amazing that all of the best music of the 20th century came out of this one island. But, seriously, THE CLASH is all you need.


Are hollywood parties all cocaine fueled orgies filled with celebrities getting on celebrities and maximum hi-jinx?

In a word... yes! You have pinpointed it my friend. I've seen the most obscene shit on both sides of the spectrum all the way from the gutter to the million dollar mansions all night long. It's no joke, this place is babylon through and through. luckily I don't drink, so I can totally remember all of the insanity that befalls me.


As a sober gentlemen, how does it feel when your at a party and everyone is getting drunk and buck-wild? you ever feel like saying fuck it and getting on the sauce?


No, that never crosses my mind. I operate on a different set of ideals than most people. not many people understand it but it's what works for me. I don't judge anyone if they are getting drunk, actually I kinda insist that everybody around me get as fucked up as they can. when the people around you are cutting loose the fun snowballs and its just party time all the time. that might be why i go out every night of the week and find the rad parties on the weekend. what's cool is, my homies know they can count on getting a solid ride home from a dude who isn't gonna crash the car, and that I've got their back and will stay out all night making sure everybody is getting laid and stuff. having a sober guy in the crew comes in handy all the time.



That is it that you find so endearing about a good hat and how many do you have in your collection now?

I've always been a hat guy. a quality hat is the perfect topper to a mans character. I've got a hundred or so, but I'm not obsessed. there is a specific type of hat that suits a certain man, once you find it you must indulge. If not your cranium is missing out.

afganastan's 1st skatepark

"Skateistan is Afghanistan's first dedicated skateboarding school. It engages the growing numbers of urbanised youth through skateboarding and provides new opportunities in cross-cultural interaction and education" -skateistan.org


Afghan youth have very limited options for sports and recreation. An Australian man is trying to change that. NY TIMES article