This installation known as Ghost Parking Lot existed in Hamden, Connecticut from 1978 to 2003 (or 2007, depending on the source) yet somehow never ended up in a skate video or photo layout in a skate magazine, at least not that I am aware of. If it did, someone please enlighten me. This looked like a great spot for street skating. The shots above were found at Whoadude. They appear to be photos from when the installation was relatively new. Roadside Attractions has more recent photos that make the place look pretty decrepit. Apparently it was pretty hard to maintain. It did appear on TV shortly after it opened, and ironically, there’s a kid in the crowd who rides up to the location with a skateboard and a bewildered look on his face.

– Thanks to Julian Gilbert-Davis for the tip.

Well, this started out as a way to appease our Jewish readers who may be sick of all this Christmas paraphernalia, but I couldn’t resist the pun, and so… well. There isn’t a lot out there connecting Chanukah with skateboarding. You can find a gross of generic Chanukah skateboards on Zazzle that had about as much effort put into them as well, me trying to find a good litereary device to… never mind. I did find this skateboard-themed menorah, and a statement on the Anti Defimation League web site talking about Vans shoes:

An e-mail rumor long circulated on the Internet suggests that the maker of Vans skateboarding shoes is anti-Jewish because some of their shoes come with a pattern resembling a Star of David on a portion of their outsole (bottom). Some of the more conspiracy-minded e-mails suggest that this pattern was created by the company to put Jews down (“step on Jews”) or that the company was “founded by neo-Nazis.”

ADL has concluded that there is no truth to any of these allegations.

While ADL understands that the use of the Star of David pattern in this context may be offensive to some, there is no factual basis to believe that the maker of Vans shoes incorporated the six-pointed star design in an attempt to insult Jews.

And now, a video I found on the interwebs simply titled, “Jew on a skateboard.”

Here’s an ABC video from 1987 for a song called “The Night You Murdered Love.” It’s an unlikely pairing, and I never saw this one. This band really annoyed me in their heyday. You could say they got under my skin. However, I found their story as read in Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984. There was a lot more to that band than you might think. This was the case with a lot of those types of bands from the UK that I couldn’t stand at the time. The book covers a lot more than ABC, and if you are a fan of “Our Band Could Be Your Life”, I highly recommend it. It’s very similar. Right, check out this horrible video with a wacky ABC licensed skateboard. It looks like a production model, or would appear to be since it’s in shrink wrap still. That’s just the kind of clueless thing you might expect in a video from a band that likely had not step foot on a skateboard prior to the video shoot. Graphics on top of the board too, so that makes sense in the context of a board that has trucks assembled after the shrink wrapping. It does have some bizarro aftermarket rails added on. It looks like they were designed to make the board look swanky. The skateboard in the story line of this video makes no sense whatsoever. There’s an anorexic chic with a fancy slingshot following the band around Paris with her skateboard in hand, except for a brief, and stiff ride. That’s luxury and decadence for you. I would have liked to hear how they sold that one.

– Thanks to Matthijs van Wijk for the tip.

Porky Pig gets r-r-radical with some X-Mas skateboarding action in this 2006 Looney Tunes special titled Bah Humduck!. It’s another adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with Daffy as the greedy owner of a department store.

I’ll take the Chuck Mosley incarnation of Faith No More over Mike Patton any day. According to Wikipedia, the original lead singer was actually Courtney Love! Who knew? I saw Mosley fronting Faith No More at the Metro in Chicago. At the time there were rumors floating around that he had narcolepsy or something, and maybe that was why he was sacked from the band. Although there were also rumors of “substance abuse,” and I suppose a good heroin fix nodding off might have the appearance of narcolepsy to someone very naive. In any case, Chuck did not fall asleep at that show, and Mike Patton is for the birds. Introduce Yourself was a Slash records release, what a cool label that was. Every punk in my high school had a copy of that Slash Records: The Early Sessions compilation on cassette tape. I’m pretty sure I’ve told this story already. I’m turning into one of those doddering old fools/punk. Let me bore you with tales from my youth. I was the best poser out there. I guess they were back in business for a while., but I can’t find them anywhere now.

The video for We Care a Lot has a couple split second shots of skateboarding in it. I remember being very frustrated by this when it was current. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t include more. What a tease.

Best idea ever. Some gently used decks were repurposed into flyers for the band Hot Lunch. Eric Shea explained how it all went down.

My pal Bart unloaded a grip of decks that he didn’t want any more for me give to the neighborhood kids at Potrero Del Sol skatepark here in SF – the ones who needed boards. And I did give away like four of them but out of the four only one kid said “thanks” (and that was because his sister made him say it). The other kids just yelled at me and demanded that I give them more free things. So I thought maybe it would be better to do something different with the remaining decks. I cut a stencil for my band’s next show and spray painted our name and the gig info on the griptape. Then I went around the Mission at night with a drill and some wood screws, putting them up around various wooden telephone poles ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) After each deck was up for a day and a night, I’d post a pic on various forums telling people to go find ’em and take them! One of the decks had a perfect shape for my needs, so I set it up and made it the “hardest deck to find” It was such a fun way to give away decks to people who wanted them enough to unscrew them. And we got folks out to our show – lots of heads turned out! So far I’ve seen four random people skating around on these decks.

Check out Hot Lunch on MySpace.I beleive these guys cover an obscure soundtrack song from Skateboard Madness. “Hardest board to find” was spotted at a nice looking pool. Video after the jump.

It’s conceivable that these trucks might work well enough for a beginner. The technology dates back to the 50’s here, and believe it or not, I think there are some dirtboard, excuse me, mountainboarding trucks out there right now that are based on the same design. Still, call me cynical, but have to believe the decision to used these wacky trucks was based purely on profit motive. Maybe at the time these were a dollar cheaper than a traditional truck. May not sound like much, but multiply by thousands and then some in projected sales… On the one hand, the X-Games provide a way for an immediate group of skateboarder to make a living off of skateboarding, and a larger group through association. On the other hand, they peddle crap like this, or at least they used to. I don’t think they make this anymore.

– Thanks to Matthijs van Wijk for the tip.

You will receive this unique Christmas ornament featuring a boy doing a trick on his skateboard… …This will be a big hit with any young skateboarder you know!

Another in a long string of Christmas ornaments, this one on eBay for an hour or so more. Made by the Kurt Adler company

Dan McCabe is an artist who works in metal, and a long time skater. This is his first in a line of sculptural skate furniture. It’s on the opposite side of the scale compared to the rest of the more straight forward skate furniture we’ve seen so far.

Newsflash. We won’t tell you how much your board is worth if you want to sell it on eBay, so don’t ask. Also, don’t send me a link to your auction or unless it’s freakin amazing, or weird, something like Stacy Peralta’s scalp from the 70’s or the bronzed fire hydrant that Nataas sessioned on in Streets on Fire. That being said, here’s a new one. I’ve never been asked to facilitate a trade, but I was looking for an excuse to post this Variflex advert I found in a circular for a local discount sporting goods chain. I’m going to beat this dead horse. Variflex used to be a legitimate skateboard company as late as the early, early 80’s, and well before this. And now they make trampolines. Right. Tom Livemore has some old Variflex connections trucks in pretty good condition, and he’s looking to trade for a decent set of OJ superjuices (I have some, but you can’t have them.) or a set of multi colored Panther wheels. Whaaaa?????