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.

Apparently, four insecure jackasses felt the need to hassle someone they knew, repeatedly taunting and eventually beating up a kid and stealing his skateboard. The kid finally pulled out a knife and fought back. One of the attackers suffered some non life threatening injuries, and all four were arrested after the cop took everyone’s story, including onlookers (non-skaters) using the surrounding park. The upshot? If you watch the postage size video reminiscent of the internet circa 1998, you’ll see the commotion has scared off some younger kids from visiting the park again. Hooray! More skatepark for me! But seriously folks… It’s too bad that happened. Gabriel Park is one of the last places in Portland I would have expected that. Hey douchebags ands bullies, keep your quarrels and your lame asses out of the skateparks. Skatepark users, don’t stand for this crap. – Thanks to Welsh Pete and Troy Sliter for the tip.

[Source – KGW NewsChannel 8, Portland]

Local Portland coffee roaster and media darlings Stumptown Coffee had an advert in the October 23rd issue of the Portland Mercury. Make a note of the location of the appendage holding the letter “T”. Stumptown is the coffee of choice in the tattooed crowd of Portland. When is Pabst going to get on the ball and shoot an advert at Burnside? They already runs ads with local bands. Donate that fee to the park. Larger after the jump.