The Carvelles had a bunch of skateboard songs on their 1977 LP Skateboard Rampage. In fact, out of ten songs, only two are missing the word “skateboard” from the title. Two of those are on the very good This Is Skateboard Music collection. This song, L.A. Run isn’t on that collection. All Music doesn’t have an entry for the Carvells, but they appear to be a vehicle for a guy named Alan Carvell, who had a UK hit in the 60’s and sang backups and harmonies for many well known acts in the 70’s and 80s. This video is a 1977 appearance from Top of the Pops. Check out the stage for assorted skateboard props, a ringer in the audience, and gratuitous stock footage from the U.K.. Who are those guys? The Benji Board team has been suggested, since they are skating U.K. spots. Check it out after the jump. – Thanks to Eric Shea for the tip.

I might be changing hosts, possibly as early as the weekend. Had hoped to wait so I could spring a redesign on you at the same time, but the recent incredibly bad customer service I’ve been experiencing during the intermittent server outages of the past week… sheesh! There are actually a couple of tech support guys at IX Webhosting that have been really cool, it’s just the people around them making the decisions that have been the bane of my existence. Who knows, maybe you won’t even be able to read this because the site is down. In the mean time, expect a scarcity of updates in the immediate future. Two great things happened though. One reader asked if I was experiencing problems that a donation might help. I am blown away and flattered that someone would even consider that, and I don’t want to embarrass anyone, but thanks for the offer Ben! However, I’m not going to pass the hat, not my style. If anyone feels like helping out, there’s always t-shirts for sale. Second thing, I saw the best video clip I’ve seen since, well, the last great movie clip, say the opening segment from Fully Flaired. There’s…

Yeah, well. here it is. Honestly I didn’t listen to very much of it. I was so sick of this by the time I got to editing it. Basically, Ponch spends the episode trying to convince the kids they should get off the street and skate someplace safe. Eventually they end up taking the kids to a skatepark, in this case, SkaterCross. Happens all the time, right? The classic case of skate harassment. It looks like Estrada and the other dude (who shall perpetually be known as “the other dude”) had actually spent some time on skateboards.

Holy shit. The things I do for you people. I’ve been trying to get this damn episode of CHiPs ready for prime time on S&A for some time now. I rented the damn thing from the library. It got stuck in my computer’s DVD drive and absolutely would not come out. I got a new computer out of it, thanks to the Best Buy extended warranty. Seriously. The tech dudes said it would be too much work to take the iMac apart and get the drive out. Of course, the old one was only a week old. This was back in January, and I never got the disc back so I had to buy the whole season used off Amazon to avoid paying full retail for the replacement. I had a hard time digitizing this too. in the end, the only thing I could get for some reason was the Spanish voiceover. I’m not making this up. So enjoy the first installment of the “Neighborhood Watch” episode. Or rather, the skateboard related parts. I edited out the other unrelated bits like the drunk driving and insurance scam parts. Ponch and John cross paths with a troubled skateboarding youth caught in…

I know this is not exactly current, but I let it go without an official post. Danny was what I’d like to call a “friend of the site.” Some friends are more difficult than others, but they are friends. We’ve had a few difficult friends here. Some of them disappeared, like Dick Cancer, and some of them got the boot like Daddy Yo. Colinwalshrules has even become somewhat productive around here on occasion. It was pretty obvious to me that Danny had some problems, but he was involved in one of the pinnacle times in skateboarding history, and did call me “Mr. Kilwag” when he was trying to get into my good graces. Apparently, Danny touched a lot of people. Here’s what Curt from Poweredge had to say: He rode for my father MAKAHA in the 60’s and we became friends even though he’d been injured badly as a kid. He was never the same…. But always friendly…. and in the new movie about makaha and the history of skateboarding… He was my neighbor and he lived to be 59 so I don’t know… He was mis-understood because of the meds and the accident he had it fucked him up……

This is contest video from one of the the last hurrahs of the N.S.A., the organization that would eventually end up as World Cup Skateboarding, believe it or not. Mark made this ollie gap twice, once in practice and once in the contest. It’s the branch of the y-shaped miniramp that Team Pain built for the the Honolulu, Hawaii contest in 1988. On the bottom left you can see a flash going off. That’s Grant Brittain. Don’t believe me? You can see the shot he took at that instant at The Skateboard Mag. Watch the video after the jump. – Thanks to Tito for the tip.

From a random episode of Married With Children, thanks again to Josef Heffner. Not much else to do now. Uhmmmmm. Oh yeah, remember the old Christina Applegate skateboard.

From Max Schaaf’s 4Q Conditioning. The original source is not credited, but it looks like some sort of paperback book aimed at motorcycle riders in the 70’s.

Lately I’ve been reading the new issue of Poweredge magazine during my breaks at work instead of geeking out on my iPhone. It’s been a pretty good read, actually. The art direction, although definitely reminiscent of the old magazine at times, feels a bit unfocused. I am enjoying the content, with the exception of the CAPS LOCK USED IN SOME OF THE ARTICLES. IT MAKES IT HARD TO READ. Poweredge will be coming out four times a year. This issue, the first since 1992 or so is 120 pages (in color) and features Mike Vallely, Mike Smith, Sean Sheffey, Jake Brown, Dayne Brummet, Alec Beck and more. There is a generous helping of old photos in with the new. There are supposed to be multiple covers, but this is what mine looks like. Strange choice for a first cover, but I’m stoked that Poweredge is back. I was a subscriber the first time around. I found it a good mix of Thrasher and Transworld. Nowadays I’m not sure where it would fall in the spectrum of skateboard magazines, but I’m rooting for it for sure. Where can you get yours? At select skate shops and newsstands. You might have to…

Let me start off by thanking all those who sent in links to auctions that finished in August. Like I said last month, I missed 2 weeks of auctions because I was out of the country, and consequently I didn’t have very many decks to highlight. Well you all came though and sent in tons of links, so thanks for that. Thanks to you, this month features about the same amount of decks as usual! And to think, I was looking forward to doing a shorter one this month! Now, unfortunately I lost all of the links to the featured auctions this month. I normally keep the auction link in the Spotlight Comments field of the file, but I ran some maintenance utilities on my MacBook Pro a few days ago, and it appears to have cleaned out all of the metadata in the files. So I have no original auction info to check back on for things like trucks and wheels on completes etc. If some details seem scarce this month, that’s why. Check out eBay Watch: August 2009 EDITOR’S NOTE: We seem to get a constant trickle of emails from people asking Neil to appraise a skateboards that…