Category Archive: Media Watch
Hobby King Helicopter
Hobby King wants to sell you a Quanum Nova RC helicopter so you can shoot skate videos and other Extreme™! footage. They’ve got a demo video, but curiously, the skate footage appears to be mostly stable shots with little tracking. – Thanks to Rich for the tip.
I Was a Teenage Brain!
This is the cover of Education Update – Volume 56, Number 9, published in September, 2014: With practical optimism and guidance, teachers can turn teens’ risk-taking behaviors into cognitive assets. I was really into the band Cognitive Assets when I was in my straight edge phase. the cover illustration really does an excellent job of capturing the true essence of skateboarding, which is to be simultaneously alarmed, inspired, and confused. – Thanks to Burly Caps for the tip.
A Secret History of the Ollie
Craig Snyder has been working on this book for 7 years, and it seems to be growing. As of now it clocks in at around 850 pages and more than 1000 images. If funded successfully (by Kickstarter) it should be published in November of 2014. Incredibly, this is only volume one, focussing on the 70’s. If successful, volume 20 will cover the 80’s and beyond. In case you’re wondering about the authenticity, there are some big names behind the incentives, including face to face time with Paul Schmitt, Mike McGill, and some guy named Alan “Ollie” Gelfand that you might have heard of… Check out olliebook.com for more info, or you can watch the Kickstarter video (features skateboarding but ironically no ollies) after the jump.
Extreme Brain Freeze
For fun it’s a wonderful toy It walks downnstairs Alone or in pairs And makes a Slinkaty sound A Spring A Spring A marvelous thing Everyone knows it’s…. Everyone knows it’s “Slinky” and not “Slurpee.” Spotted at a local 7-11, Mountain Dew and Slurpee X-treme cross marketing.
Moms Demand Action
Moms Demand Action is not really upset that you can;t bring a skateboard into Krogers, they’re upset that Krogers has a pro open carry stance. This is just one of several ads featuring a gun toting shopper standing next to someone doing something that Krogers won’t allow. You can sign the petition here. – Via John Grigley on Facebook
Eli Reed skates the Playboy Mansion
Eli Reed dealing with the age old problem that every street skater encounters at least once a session: Random girls in bikinis laying in the middle of your run up. [Source: High Snobiety]
Stylin’ Skateboards
I had more than a handful of these “Stylin’ Skateboards” from Topps. The first time I saw them was in ’91 or ’92. I think it was B-Rad who showed it to me first, and it blew my mind. I asked where he found it, expecting it to be something a friend brought back from a trip to Japan or some kitschy novelty shop in New York. Instead, he nodded his head over his shoulder towards the Wall Mart at his back in a semi rural (at the time) Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This sales sheets shows them packaged in little boxes, but the ones I saw came in sealed plastic bags with heat-pressed seams. Each bag came with some crappy candy sugar wads pressed into the vague shape of a skateboard wheel, though more likely just generic pellet molds. Also in the package, a really crappy plastic fingerboard made out of soft plastic. I believe you had to snap the wheels in place yourself. The second generation fingerboards (more on that later) were fun for a few minutes, but the real reason to keep buying these things was for the paper stickers that came with them, each a slightly mutated…
Punks and Posers
MTV’s Punks and Posers from a time (1985) when they actually played music videos, blah blah blah. I think this aired at 11:00 at night originally, I taped it to VHS when I should have been finishing my computer science homework. I watched the hell out of this. It’s Got the Dickies and GBH (yawn) but also a rare appearance by the band Plain Wrap, which I had completely forgotten about. I bought their album when I saw it at Record Swap, based on seeing this video. That vinyl still resides in my basement, need to dig it up. If you are at all familiar with 80’s LA Punk there should be a few other faces you recognize as well. Interviews talking about “punk”… so lame, yet so entertaining. There is some incidental skateboarding in the video as well, so it’s actually topical to this web site, and yes.. It’s a stretch. I was stoked to see this again after so many years.
Kool-Aid Man
Got a hot tip from BPA about vintage Kool-aid packets with the Kool-aid man on skateboard, and well, I couldn’t leave well enough alone.
Twinkies on display
Since I don’t have $349 to burn I will not be purchasing this Hostess Twinkie store rack that would be a good way to display countless other questionable purchases I’ve made. Somehow or other Hostess managed to get a very Disney looking Pinocchio on there too. – Thanks to BPA for the tip.











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