I was proud to help out for the 4th straight year by donating goods and $ donation to the Standup for Skateparks charity event in Beverly Hills at billionaire Ron Burkle’s green acres estate.  I know, you are all asking – who the hell is Ron Burkle?  If you ever shopped at Ralph’s food stores, then there’s one connection.  How about owning a piece of the Pittsburgh Penguins or owning 20% of Barnes and Noble; there’s more!  Anyhow, lucky for Tony Hawk that Ron provides his humble abode to let Tony invite 850 guests at a price of $400 donation each to mingle with celebrities (if you are lucky or brave) like actor Mark Wahlberg or mega producer Jon Favreau or UFC champion Chuck Lidell or rockstar Perry Farrel of Janes Addiction, watch some live music by the Black Keys (yet, literally 20 feet in front of you on a tiny little stage), watch some amazing skating on the vert ramp (amazing that they are allowed to bring the massive ramp and tear up Ron’s yard) with Shaun White, Tony Hawk, Mitchie Brusco, Bucky Lasek, as well as bmx freestyle by Matt Hoffman, get a ton of free shit from a variety of vendors (t-mobile, art of board, dub, nixon, birdhouse, pinks, wahoo’s, best buy, etc.), chat with pro skaters like Mike Vallely, Jamie Thomas, Kevin Stab, etc., and a ton more….  The live auctions this year were off the hook with autographed guitars by Pearl Jam, Taylor Swift, Rancid, Janes Addiction and the coolest one that I bid on at $1275 (beating out Ron Burkle) and won = the 1950′s Fender Telecaster toured with and autographed by all members of Green Day.  Other auction items included a tricked out Ford Explorer that went for over $40k, a customized triumph motorcycle by Roland Sands that went for $30k, a ton of autographed pro skateboards (paul rodriguez, nyjay houston, ryan scheckler and shaun white) completely framed by sk8ology, as well as the opportunity to get your own pro skateboard made by Tony Hawk’s team for $250.  Our BambooSK8 skate board autographed by the band CHERRI BOMB on Hollywood Records went for $70 the last bid we saw, but hopefully more.  Needless to say, despite the down economy, things were looking up for charity this year as people reached deep into their pockets.  We can all feel good about helping to get skateparks built in low income, at-risk neighborhoods throughout this great country of ours.  The foundation has helped 405 parks get build already in 49 states; Connecticut is the only one remaining.  http://standupforskateparks.org/

Out of Step Entertainment made the trek from LA out to the sunny desert of Indio for an action packed Coachella on Sunday.  This was the 2nd largest Coachella with 188,000 fans.  Highlight for me as always is seeing the Cure, who headlined (2nd time at Coachella) and performed almost 1 hour past the curfew of midnight costing Coachella $1000/minute.  For those who know the Cure, the Cure don’t even get warmed up to literally after 2 hours of playing; seasoned veterans.  Other highlights was seeing Public Enemy, the Orb, Perry Farrell (only veteran to play all 10 coachellas), X, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, My Bloody Valentine, and many more.  Many art installations were found throughout the polo fields, many of which can be found at Burningman.  The Do Lab did a wonderful job of spraying people down with cold water and providing top notch beats.  Looking forward to next year…