This is what I live for. This Burger King commercial from the 70’s features skaters Dan Murray and Robbie Weir. Here’s a few of the highlights: 360’s with a serving tray! The King is live action this time, no plastic mask like the current commercials feature. He rides what looks like a Duane Peters deck, as well as an early contender for the World’s Largest Skateboard. They either switch stunt doubles or reverse the shot to get frontside airs in both directions. The sound track is… so bitchin! Here’s a quote “… and burgers made just right. Afternoon delight. Out of sight!” A complete transcription and more after the jump. Now I can retire. Update: The Burger King kid speaks!

V-Day for veterans? That’s Valentine’s day for the Veterans Division of Santa Cruz Skateboards, not V-Day or VE-Day or VJ-Day. Someone at NHS needs a little help with timing press releases. After 5:00 pm Pacific time on the day of the event does not cut it. Jason Jesse signed 250 special edition skateboards with a Valentines Day graphic that have been distributed among skate shops. There’s no more when they are gone. Check out Jason’s special message after the jump. I’m predicting one will show up on eBay within a month.

The Express-Times has short interview with old Zorlac pro and current Syndrome Distribution honcho Rob Mertz. The article, titled “Skateboard to top not pipe dream” is a short fluff piece, but it does contain an amusing fact – the town mayor was the one who encouraged him to follow his dream of being a pro skateboarder. If like me, you’re still skating as grown man with a family of your own, you can probably relate to hearing this kind of thing from your extended family, and in this case, from Rob’s mom:

All the years, miles and bruises later, Nancy Mertz still worries. “He skates every day on his lunch hour. You know he’s 41?” she sighed. “This is why they have hair dye; I turned gray early.”

More Mertz links after the jump.

2007 got off with a bang. Now that tax refunds are starting to come in, purse strings are getting as loose as Paris Hilton’s knickers. This month I’m starting a reissue section. Why? Because I can. Seriously though, I’m putting it in because some of the reissues are starting to get up there in price. Ridiculous? Maybe, but that’s the reality, and I cover what’s hot. Also new to this month’s report is the ability to click on the thumbnails to see an enlarged version. Check it out

Get out your overpriced plastic watches and put on at least three of them RIGHT NOW!!! Swatch used to sponsor an extreme sports like tour before it was, you know, Extreme!â„¢ It was purely spectacle, no contest. There was BMX and roller skaters in addition to skateboards. Bands? Seems like it but I might be confusing it with one of the old Vision Street Wear tours. They also used Per Welinder, Rodney Mullen, and Lance Mountain in one of those in store promo videos. You might think it strange that I listed those Bones Brigaders in that order, but that’s representative of their respective footage totals. Apparently, someone at Swatch had a thing for Per. Mullens’ stuff is impossible, and Lance is barely in it. It’s three minutes and thirty seconds of pure 80’s synthesized drums and keyboard soundtrack. Odds are that Stacy Peralta was on the production team and Dennis Dragon did the soundtrack. Catch this video from 1987 after the jump.

Mike from Old Man Army sent us this interview with Dave Hackett. He said we could post it directly on Skate and Annoy, but it will be a better reading experience directly on their site. They did a good job they did withthe side illustrations adds to the atmosphere. It’s a long one too, compared to their recent ones with Lance Mountain and Russ Howell. Actually, the crew at Old Man Army are putting us to shame with all the old school interviews they’ve been getting.

Hello fans here’s an oldie the first interview I ever did (January 2004). See if you can find the mistakes, and when you do, go stuff it bitches. Art and Steve Godoy are still putting out skateboards with Factory 13. It was a pretty big deal for me to interview these guys. 20 years ago they were two guys in a magazine untouchable for a kid in Michigan. Fast forward 20 years. Post-meeting and interviewing them I realized they are just like me – skaters, just better. I feel the industry overlooked these guys. They were just to punk for the Tony Hawk and Ken Park era. Check out the H-Street video, and you will realize it was not skills that held these guys back. It was there inability to play the game of press darlings. When you see them next, just ask about Dave Swift’s old girlfriend at the Del-mar contest.

Skull Skates just posted a small gallery of 70’s skateboard images featuring Canadian skaters and/or Canadian skate spots. There is one shot from Olympia Washington plus wall rides and Russ Howell spinning 360’s (whee!) too. Check it out here.

UPDATE: Looks like one of those pics is our own Mark Conahan. We swapped it out on the right side. Nice woody. Nice flowing locks man. Groovy. Full size here.

When I saw some of these pictures I thought, geez, for an exhibit on skateboarding, there sure does seem to be an overemphasis on shoes. maybe the source (kick-fiend.com) should have been the tip off. That’s when I realized it actually was an exhibit on skate shoes called Made For Skate put on by the volks at Skateboard Fieber. Translation: The folks at Skateboard Fever in Germany. They are the group that brought us the Claus Grabke Retrospektiv. It strikes me as kind of funny, the thought of people looking a t a bunch of old, worn out and smelly shoes just because people skate in them. That’s OK I guess. Some people are into shoes and some are into Claus Grabke.

A follow up to a follow up. First Boston Hospital, then Turtles, and now Metals. More pics from this local Boston spot shot circa 1987 after the jump.