This is an ad for a Kramer Floyd Rose Sustainer Guitar that ran in a 1989 issue of an unnamed music magazine. I only know this because I have poor impulse control. This guy is at the height of 80’s fashion, ho-ho street plant and neon yellow shirt with the sleeves and sides cut off. Totally bitchin. Thanks for nothing Kvon!

My sons are obsessed with Star Wars. My eldest came home from the book fair with Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger. It’s in the vein of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (You’re familiar with the genre, right?) I’ve been reading a little bit of it each night to him, and as far as kids books go it’s pretty good. One of the protagonists is an antisocial kid with an origami Yoda finger puppet who dispenses sage advice to the middle school kids. His nemesis is an annoying kid who makes a Darth Vader origami finger puppet who is not content to destroy his paper foe alone, he tries to get the other kid kicked out of school. It’s irreverently amusing, and filled with references to movie dialogue and scenes. It also has illustrations mixed throughout and scribbled in the margins, which is why we’re here. One scene takes place in a skate park. The illustration isn’t really about the story, it’s meant to look as if the storyteller was inspired to doodle in the book after reliving the details. Poor R2 D2 is on rollerblades, while Jabba the Hut has multiple boards. He would have fit better on…

No pads? Rad Dad: Dispatches from the frontiers of fatherhood is a book by Tom Moniz, published by Microcosm Publishing. It’s excerpts of his zine of the same name and another called Daddy Dialectic “two kindred publications that have explored parenting as political territory.” Yowza. Sounds a lot heavier than the other alternadad literature like Punk Rock Dad, which is a good read by Pennywise front man Jim Lindberg. There’s a lot of that going around lately. It seems adults these days are staying young until they die. It’s come up on NPR I believe, 80’s punks and 90’s Gen X-ers are having kids, raising them and refusing to be stuffy about it. Jim’s book was published in 2007. I read it around the same time I had my first kid, and enjoyed it. Right about now The Other F-Word is slowly opening around the US. It’s a documentary based on the same subject matter as the book. Skateboard connection too. According to NPR, Tony Hawk is one of the subjects. – Thanks to the original Punk Rock dad MC for the tip.

I was never a fan of Alf, so I’m not sure of the significance (or meaning) of the phrase “Yo Luck!” as seen on this sure to be musty smelling Alf shirt. Since he rides a skateboard on his own skateboard, it’s not much of a surprise to see him riding another skateboard on a t-shirt.

Peanuts. Not a coloring book, but a book to color, from the famous comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz. Authorized edition no less. Copyright MCMLXV, which is 1965. I had to look it up. Pretty formal for a bunch of little funny looking squished head kids. This is my favorite era of Peanuts. Everyone looks like doughboys left out in the sun for a little too long. There are no skateboards inside the “book to color.” Snoopy looks cool as usual.

Well who am I argue? I’d have to translate it first. The A-side title needs no translation – Get Rad (With the right protection). Sounds like a description of a dorm room poster for safe sex, but no, it’s almost as titillating. Nothing excites an adolescent more than a pullout poster extolling the virtues of hard plastic shells and tender, soft foam. This poster is courtesy of the Dutch organization known as the (translated) Consumer & Safety Foundation, circa 1989 or 1990, judging by that Nicky Guerrero mask model. – Thanks to Matthijs for the scans.

Our geriatric sources tell us Marginal Way will be closed today for a film crew shooting a commercial for vitamins. We’re so close this story it’s almost like being in the eye of the hurricane. Quantum physics tells us we can’t observe the phenomenon without affecting the results, so if we have someone inside the experiment all bets are off. I expect MC will be gathering plenty of fodder for future cartoons. Added bonus: The film crew has made a donation to Marginal Way. I only wish we’d known about it earlier so we could have sent a GVK media crew.

Because they didn’t have a greeting card addressed “Dear Readers.” Ghost on a skateboard, with a pumpkin. Happy Halloween. Away you go, Grandson!

Download Spotify and the disk image opens up with a little skateboard on it, at least on a Mac it does. Or at leastit did for MC, because it didn’t for me. But they do have the image on the download page after you register. Seems like a somewhat interesting service. Another music cloud, but I like the ability to collaborate on playlists, plus they’ve got hooks into Facebook so good luck Google Plus. On second thought, they have nothing to worry about. I downloaded it and installed it. It was embarassing to find out how many of my (actual) friends were already on it via the Facebook hook. The only thing worse was the fact that I couldn’t get a single damned track to play, not even their welcome-to-the-service playlist. Sheesh.

Skreech in the New York Times? Why not? He’s already the subject of one (possibly two?) documentary film. So the The New York Times is right on top of the (latest) recession-as-silver-lining for pool skaters story, so my condolences to everyone in California because it must be officially over now. (You are a child of Summer and Winter is coming…) Salba quote? Check. How does he do it? Must be a state law. Reporters have to declare it at customs. I see you’re doing a story on pool skating, can I see your Salba Documents? Watch the trailer for Dragonslayer after the jump. [Photo – Billy Runaway]