Hey kids, the weekend’s almost here, so I want all you S&A readers to stay safe. We all know that wiping out is no fun, so you have to be prepared just in case. To that end, please watch this Aetna Insurance TV commercial on safety that dates back to 1978. A good helmet and a snazzy set of gloves and pads never goes out of style. Video courtesy of the miraculously-still-allowed-on-youtube Scott Starr. Remember, there’s a key to staying safe and having fun: Never ride in the street, and always whistle a catchy tune.

I’m not going to make any judgements or cast him in a disparaging light, but MC is the king of finding fashion skateboarding shoots lately. Here are not one, but three fashion spreads featuring skateboards and/or skateboard parks. Fashion, not function.

Catawiki has a collection of covers from the Jinty comic book that contain the Concrete Surfer stories. Jinty ran from the mid 70’s to early 80’s. It was written fro girls, and most of the issues had a Sci-fi or supernatural theme. Somehow, skateboarding fits in that theme too. Several Jintys with skateboard covers after the jump. – Thanks to David ODK for the tip.

Glamour, France thinks Jessica Alba is a fashion icon and a cool girl. I think she looks uncomfortable posing with that skateboard. Somehow they managed to make sex symbol look awkward in most of the photos. I wonder if it’s because she did pushups, a la Salba before the photo shoot. Update: Photo recycled in US Weekly a year later. [Source: Visual Optimism] – MC found it, but he’ll blame one of his daughters.

I loved Ed Emberly’s drawing books as a kid, and I’m stoked that my kids enjoy them now too. MC must have been going through a box of childhood books, because he found this skateboarding thumbprint in an early pressing of Ed Emberly’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book. he also has one called the Great Fingerprint Drawing book. I’m not sure if they are completely different or the Fingerprint version is an expanded version encompassing the the thumbprint version, but they are both still in print. The thumbprint version dates back as early as 1977, although I ‘d swear it was from the late 60’s. I had one of these as a kid too, it inspired me to make a comic strip of a thumbprint superhero. I was especially into his Drawing Book of Weirdos, as did MC if this comic is any indication.

I’ve walked by this on the way into Target at least 20 times I’m sure. I actually like the art direction here, all things considered. It’s pleasing to look at from a distance. Does anyone remember Target Video? They sent us a videotape in the 80’s, some random punk performance, I can’t remember who. I believe their entire catalog was early videotapes of live punk shows in and around San Francisco. They were the ones that recorded the Cramps at a state mental institution. I don’t recall if any money changed hands or not, although I have a vague recollection of actually placing a Target Video advert in an S&A print zine, so maybe they pay us. Target Video still has a blog going, I wonder what they’re up to.

What more needs to be said? “band [sic] from X games for being to ‘X'”

I dropped the ball on this one, but this weekend the Smithsonian has got a lot going on in conjunction with Go Skate day. It’s called Innoskate, a public festival hosted by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center and IASC, celebrates skate culture’s widespread innovative spirit. June 21 and 22 at the National Museum of American History on the National Mall. Lots of incredible stuff will be donated into the permanent collection of the National Museum of American History. Tony Hawk’s first deck is grabbing the headlines, but other stuff from OG skater gals Laura Thornhill, Patti McGee, Robin Logan and Cindy Whitehead will be given as well as some pretty high-level skatedecks from the collection of Nick Halkias. Chris Pastras and Ryan Clements will be on the mike and demo skaters include DC and Baltimore locals as well as Chris Haslam, Kyle Berard, Brian Andersen. The session conversations will be really interesting (the one between Tony and Rodney should be one for the history books) and the skating demos will be strong—all in all I think this is a great debut for the Smithsonian If you can’t make the event, they will be broadcasting Innoskate live on Saturday from 10:30 a.m.…

Lays Deep Ridge potato chips has a commercial running in the Netherlands featuring an ant dropping into some spud vert, attempting some sort of body varial (it’s hard to see exactly what’s going on) and then bailing with a parachute à la Bob Burnquist in the Grand Canyon. (Should that be “à le” for a masculine Bob Burnquist?) – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip. (He says he still can’t get S&A to come up where he lives… Anyone in the Netherlands reading this?)

Avril Lavigne skateboards in a Chinese advertisement for Nong Fu Spring iced tea. [Source: Slate.com] – Thanks to Eric Pitt for the tip.