Here’s a beautiful turd of a skateboard that Valterra put out in 1987. It’s an Alf board, and it’s kick ass. Alf is in full Hawaiian shorts and neon Ray Bans mode. This model was auctioned on eBay a while ago, I don’t know what it went for but I remember being tempted. Another craptacular thing about this board is the fact that the graphics are on top and the bottom is completely bare. This one has GT wheels on it, which is really confusing to men because I thought GT was a 70’s era brand, so these wheels should have loose bearings. I suppose it’s possible someone could have put old wheels on a new board if the axle size didn’t change. Can you believe ALF was actually still on the air in 1990? I wonder why Valterra never put out a Back to the Future deck. – Thanks to Buck C for the tip.

Collecting skateboards is played out, and soon enough everyone will be collecting skateboard related album covers as well. That’s why I’m saving for my retirement by cornering the auction on skateboarding sheet music, or I would be if I had remembered to bid on this auction some time ago. It’s the sheet music for “Skateboard” a piano solo by Wesley Schaum, which originally sold for 75 cents. This looks mid to late 70’s to me.

Here’s an old 70’s commercial for a company called Jeans West. I couldn’t find any information about Jeans West, other than a current company in Australia. I’m not sure they are related. I did find this on Skatecuriosidade that said it was an Italian company and the commercial dates back to 1977. And speaking of Skatecuriosidade, notice how I gave you guys credit and a link? They’ve been poaching images from S&A for long time with nary a web link. Come guys, get with the program and be a good netizen.

Die Antwoord is not a German hip hop tribute to Adam Ant, rather a freaky hip hop crew from Cape Town, South Africa. A liitle bit Flava Flav and a lot of Gummo. These guys make some crazy videos. Sure they try too hard, but it’s still riveting. The video for Evil Boy features a sculptural figure on a skateboard and a lot of phalluses. Guest African rapper tackles the ritual of forced circumcision that many tribal adolescents have to go through to become “men” in the eyes of their tribe. [See discussion here] These guys are kind of a train wreck, but it’s fascinating. Lead male vocalist Ninja sometimes looks like Joe Strummers’ long lost hillbilly brother. Still, I prefer the Stiv Bators song Evil Boy. – Thanks to MC for the tip. Yeah, he’s that hip.

This is the Skateboard Bill single by surfing icon Corky Carroll. He retired from the professional surfing circuit in 1972 at the age of 24, about the same time he began his recording career. The engineer on this session was none other than future Surf Punk and member of Johnny Rad’s house band, Dennis Dragon. Dennis handled soundtrack and audio effects in the early Bones Brigade videos. On top of that, he lives in Oregon now. I might go stalk him.

You never saw this bullshit when punk rock was in charge, although there was plenty of other bullshit. These appear to be concepts only done by a cat named Kirk Henry, who appears to be disavowing it because the picture has been removed from his Flickr stream. And so, there you have it. Luxury skateboards. Why not, they actually made the Ferrari skateboard. [Source: Hype Magazine but I really just want to throw in a gratuitous link to Doobybrain just because of the name.] – Thanks to Boy Ipoh for the tip.

Nokia Push… really hard to tell from the web site what the hell they are actually talking about. They keep talking about hacks in a proprietary context that must only maker sense if you already own the phone. They’ve got two “prototypes” for hacks, one of which looks like it makes use of motion sensing capabilities in the phone in order to score points in a game while actually skateboarding. It’s a weak execution of a not so new concept, but I give them this, the commercial is highly reminiscent of the Paper Boy arcade game and amusing to watch. [Source: Skatecuriosidade]

This comes via MC’s Skate Comics Depository via Gentlemanly Conduct. It’s from an old Viz magazine, which is the UK’s version of Mad, only geared towards a more adult audience.

This came to me via Spencer at SRC Bypass. So what is it?

This insipid marketing manufactured cartoon and toy line was created by the American Greeting company in 1983. According to Wikipedia, the cartoon’s creators were trying to appease television watchdog agencies crusade against cartoon violence by attempting to “reinforce the importance of group harmony over individualism.” The end result is, well.. as with any compromise of this nature, mediocrity at it’s finest.