Ah, Bart Simpson you old scamp. Skateboarders have a love hate relationship with him. At first it was just great to have you on our side, but like with so many skaters that keep with it over the years, he eventually ended up being branded as a kook, even though to my recollection he only wore a helmet in one episode. Nowadays we, as a skating population are more apt to give him grief for his poor style. However, a new era may have dawned on Bart’s skateboarding hijinks, thanks to the Skatebook. And thanks to Hulu, I don’t have to take the time to digitize it and eventually get kicked off YouTube again. You can watch the whole episode, but they also let you chose your own start and and end points, so you can embed just the segment you want to highlight. Genius.

You’d be amazed what some companies will send you if you just ask them. For example, the recently released Tony Hawk Gummies, a teen multiple vitamin and mineral supplement.

Whether he’s busy shredding the halfpipe, working on his latest video game, touring the country with his Boom Boom HuckJam or making one of his numerous television appearances, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk is first and foremost an athlete. And athletes know the importance of good nutrition. However, most of Tony’s fans are boys ages 8 to 16 – not the most nutritionally conscious group around. So, Tony has joined forces with NBTY, Inc., a leading manufacturer of nutritional supplements and children’s vitamins, and created the Tony Hawk HuckJam brand of vitamins. These chewy “gummy” vitamins, shaped like miniature skateboard decks, skateboard wheels and Tony’s signature hawk skull, provide a good source of 11 vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin C, which bolsters the immune system*, and Vitamin B-12, a major factor in energy metabolism*.

I finally finished the fourth volume of Hopeless Old Men On Skateboards. This one features comics 301-400 (which originally appeared between November 19, 2007 – April 25, 2008). It’s available as a full-color ($29.45 plus shipping) or the econo black and white book with a color cover ($9.97 plus shipping). It is also available as a downloadable PDF ($3.75). It was great to see some of these again.

You can buy a copy through the Antigravity Press store at Lulu.com. The prices at Lulu went up a little. I didn’t raise my measly profit though.

The Poweredge Magazine archives have been updated. That’s Lance Mountain in the Nude Bowl on the cover of the March 1990 issue. They’ve got an interesting interview about some of the pros private skate facilities from that time period. Including a certain someone from SkateDaily. On the right is an old Deathbox advert for Pete Dossett that you can find in the old ads section. i know we’ve got some O.G. Deathbox fans who are readers. At the risk of being over-redundant (?) we’re talking about the UK company that morphed into Flip, not Swanks short lived Tumyeto venture. Get some vintage Poweredge magazine.

PBS Kids airs an educational program called WordWorld. It’s pretty crappy looking as far as animation goes, but it does seem to do a good job of teaching kids the basics of spelling and phonetics. You might think a show trying to teach kids how to spell would be, you know, spelled correctly, but that’s not the case with WordWorld. All the characters and most of the props are made out of letters. When they have challenges or adventures, the characters have to collect and place letters together to physically make the items they need to overcome their obstacles. WordWorld’s opening sequence has a brief bit where a bear rides a skateboard. The bear is a regular, but the skateboard isn’t a constant companion. In fact, I’ve only seen one episode where the bear rides the skateboard outside of the opening sequence. Why do I know so much? I’m not developmentally delayed (much), but I do have three year old kid. As with any vaguely popular TV show aimed at children, WordWorld has merchandising.

It was nominated last year and didn’t get in, but this year the skateboard made it into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Joining it this year were the baby doll and the “stick.” Proponents of the booger and the “doodle” (As in “They can see my doodle!“) were upset, as can be imagined. Tony Hawk appeared in a prerecorded video at the induction ceremony. In his words skateboarding “promotes individualism … artistic expression and it’s also very athletic.” Also, it doesn’t make you go blind if you do it too much.

– Thanks to Livmo and Sorenee for the tip.
[Source: CNN]

Giant box. Small portion. What else would you expect from a movie theater concession stand. This particular box of gummi bears is several years old, but probably still as fresh as the day it was bought. Engorge or enlarge? Check out the parallel stance on that fat bear. It looks like he’s riding a Techni-Ski. What’s with the target on his shirt?

Sherwood, Oregon is about to get “Oregon’s first sporting goods store for dogs.” Err… Does that mean other states already have sporting goods stores for dogs? Aren’t those just called Pet Smart? I guess not. They sell obstacle course setups and skijoring equipment too, but probably not skateboards. To show they are serious, they’ve hired Tilman the skateboarding Bulldog to appear at the grand opening November 1-2. Hold on, who is this Tilman? What happened to Tyson the skateboarding bulldog? I guess Tilman is doing a good job of riding on the coattails of Tyson. Tilman’s last appearance reportedly drew a crowd of 12,000 (?) people. Come on. that’s go to be a typo. People probably thought they were going to see Tyson anyway. I wonder whose dog was named first. They sound too simialr to be a coincidence.

Jon Favreau and Tony Hawk are on tonight’s episode of the Sundance Channel’s Iconoclasts show. If you haven’t seen it, two “iconoclasts” spend an hour talking to each other about the things that made them iconoclasts in first place, as well as completely unrelated matters. It’s a good show, though somewhat slow paced at times. If you are looking for something with a little more substance than your typical TV interview piece, Iconoclasts is the place to get it. The show airs tonight on the Sundance Channel at 10p E/P time zone. Video clips after the jump.

At first I thought this was a private facility owned by Rob Dyrdek, but it turns out this is the set of his new MTV show titled Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. The show is… right, who cares? But the set looks pretty amazing. I like the fake trees and plants. Nice attention to detail. More photos thanks to Transworld after the jump.

– Thanks to JF for the tip.