Rastamouse, is a BBC production featuring a detective and/or special agents who fight crime and play in a reggae band. Awesome voices. Visit one of their many web sites if you are in the mood to giggle and annoy your wife. Love it. Looks cool too. Rastamouse is not just a one episode skater, he’s on board for book covers and personal appearances as well.

– Thanks to Andrew Mendoza for the tip.

The Maloof Money Cup is leaving permanent skate structures on each stop of their tour. This facility is scheduled to be built in South Africa by California Ramp Works. The mini mega ramp isn’t going to stay, but the vert ramp and street course will remain. Interestingly enough, I recently heard from a contract employee of the Maloof Money Cup that they let a bunch of people go due to an alleged… money shortage. True or not, this is some good news for the South African scene. Between skatepark donations and alternative construction methods, this is like the arms race of arena skatepark extravaganzas.

Saturday Starrs! It’s been a while, becuase Scott Starr keeps getting kicked off of Youtube, and I forget to search him out again. I found this by accident, a TV clip from 1976 with Tom Sims and tow Sims riders named Steve Monohan and Edie Robertson. Edie does a nice gorilla grip, by the way. I don’t recall ever seeing a female gorilla grip practitioner before. No word of what TV show this is from, probably to keep it from getting pulled. Maybe Scott will let us know. Check it out after the jump.

I so wish these gay style skateboard toys were real. I’m gay for them. I first watched this video with the sound almost all the way off, cause Mrs Kilwag didn’t want it competing with the Vampire Diaries. I was viewing under the assumption that it was real, but then the drag queen mom made me suspect. With the sound on, it’s more than apparent that it’s a gag, and part of an upcoming Australian TV series (to be aired in the UK and US as well) called Angry Boys. It’s pretty damned funny, but I do have to point out that even if it was real, Tim wouldn’t have been the first openly gay sponsored skater. IMDB sasy this is supposed to air some time in 2011. Catch the gay skateboarding specific part of the trailer and a longer one after the jump. Remember you saw it first at Merde.

– Thanks to Sandwich Cookie for the tip.

Spike TV airs a show called 1000 Ways to Die. Episode #309 aired on December 10th, 2010. It features a supposed former pro skateboarder who met his death when he wiped out and landed face first in wet cement, passed out and suffocated. These deaths are supposed to based on real occurrences, with the names changed to protect the identity of the deceased. I don’t recall hearing anything about a skater dying this way, despite the fact that they Brought in Kristian Svitak as an expert witness. Listen closely, because he never cops to actually knowing the guy in question. My guess is somebody suffocated in concrete but they dramatized it as a skateboarding accident with a tragic figure to make it more interesting. You can watch it on Spike, but that’s an exercise in annoyance due to the fact that you have to watch the commercials (I’m not opposed to that, actually, they got make money) but the episodes aren’t indexed very well, so you end up watching more commercials than necessary. Fortunately, a good samaritan posted a slightly less annoying version. For some reason this video is flipped horizontally. I don’t know, maybe that helps trip up the copyright policing program.

– Thanks to Jake and Annoy for the tip.

I’ve only seen one episode of American Pickers, a show where two guys travel around trying to score junk they think is worth some money. I wasn’t too sure they knew what they were talking about, and this clip doesn’t help out. These are hot right now. This stuff is so collectable… …This was an expensive board back then. This board was probably 75 bucks.” Ha! Less than $50, and is that a re-issued Grabke? If so, it probably costs… $75. They shoulda hired Neil for that one.

– Thanks to Boy Ipoh for the tip.

Adventure Time may be the best animated show on television, although It’s tough to top the Venture Brothers. I’m still waiting for skateboarding to show up in the Venture Brothers, somehow I thought it happen there first, maybe Dean trying to impress Triana Orpheus, or Dr Venture getting hassled by teenagers on the street… Meanwhile, Adventure Time snuck in some skateboarding. The kingdom of Ooo may be magical, but it’s not a free or all. It’s fairly flushed out, there is some crossover with the real universes, but then again Finn is the only human alive, and skateboarding has always been the domain of homo sapiens. I want to see skateboarding in my favorite shows (is that wrong?) but I don’t want it to be awkward. What the math indeed. Spoiler alert, don’t watch this clip if you haven’t seen the Mystery Train episode because it will give away the ending.

UPDATE: Removed dead Shockwave/Flash video. 😐

Skull Skates founder PD appeared on a Vancouver-based TV show called Urban Rush. He had a ton of product and a couple dark silent types from Barrier Kult. I was hoping for more interaction with the Barrier Kult guys, they look so sinister standing on that set, like it’s a hostage situation. A large segment of the skateboarding population knows about Barrier Kult, but I’m sure their presence was shocking and a little disconcerting to the general viewing public, especially in the current political climate. It looks like a hostage situation.

– Thanks to Prickly Pete for the tip.

I was not a fan of Phineas and Ferb when I first saw it. I think it was the animation style and color pallet made it seem kind of cheap. My kids are into it though, and like any lazy American good parent I watch a lot of TV monitor what my children watch to make sure it’s appropriate. I’ve since grown to appreciate it. Phineas and Ferb have a spin off now called Phineas and Ferb: Take Two. It’s essentially the same premise as Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a virtual set and hosts with real guests. Space Ghost Coast to Coast is one of the most brilliant shows ever put on late night TV, so Phineas and Ferb has a tough act to follow. I’ve only seen the one episode, and it falls flat. Part of what made SGC2C work was the general weirdness of the situation. Some of the guests didn’t quite know what was going on, and the writers occasionally deliberately created a semi hostile atmosphere. At it’s best, Space Ghost Coast to Coast was a bizarre masterpiece of postmodern awkwardness. Then again, Phineas and Ferb is aimed at a grade school audience, so maybe I expect too much. Tony Hawk on Phineas and Ferb: Take Two, after the jump.

UPDATE: Removed dead video link. 😐

CNN has a follow up on the recent skateboard emissary mission to Cuba. You might recall we posted about a Christmas day session that was also a drop off for new and used equipment to be brought to Cuba. So how did it go? Check out the story and video on CNN.