Jane’s Addiction

You might have seen some video from me this weekend featuring Jane’s Addiction or Tony Hawk. Then you might have been scratching your head wondering why Jessica is at a backyard party where Tony Hawk (and friends) are skating on a half pipe, while Jane’s Addiction performs. It did not happen because Tony Hawk sent me a handwritten invitation. I was not there because Perry Farrell knocked on my front door and said, “Please, I can’t possibly perform without your presence.” I was invited as a guest of Activision.

Tony Hawk is pretty passionate about making skate parks available to kids everywhere. He talked about using his influence to help build skate parks in neighborhoods where kids don’t have a place to play. It’s easy to want to contribute to his foundation, and I was thrilled to be at an event that built a skate park for kids in Long Beach. He talked about how the skate parks all closed down in the 80’s because of insurance costs, and that he was so bummed because he didn’t have a place to play. Which makes sense, because I remember kids skating in empty swimming pools, and in sewer pipes that were waiting to be installed. Kids skated everywhere.

But then kids started grinding on stairwells, and signs started popping up. NO SKATING. And suddenly skating was a crime.

Tony Hawk and Activision have a new game coming out in a few days. It’s called Tony Hawk Shred (TH Shred), and like TH Ride you can skate through all the places where no one wants you. I’m pretty sure that Shred is the only way I’ll be able to ride a skateboard around New Orleans, and I’m absolutely certain that it’s the only snowboarding I’ll ever do (I tried, snowboarding made me cry).

At this fabulous party I was lucky enough to try Shred. Basically it’s like Tony Hawk’s Ride but everything is bigger and better. The kids love it, and so do I. The only thing is that it does make noise. There’s a thump thump thumping that is only allowed after 9am in this house. On the good side, they work up a good sweat playing.

I didn’t get any pictures of myself or Jane trying out Shred, they were all super blurry, but I was able to snap a few of my friend Lolita’s boys. They had a blast.

Now, for the passive aggressive part of the post. I asked the folks at Activision if they would want to do a giveaway for the game. And they said, “no”… which I think we all know means “maybe”. Right? I’m pretty committed to pestering them endlessly until they agree that giving one of y’all a copy of this game would be the smartest PR move ever. Clearly when people want to know about good PR they ask me. Right?

Right.

The game goes on sale October 26, and it’s an awful lot of fun.