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]

The folks (volks) at Made for Skate recently had a display in The Skateboard Museum called Metal Battle in celebration of a Nike SB collab styled after the oldest school Roller Derby skateboards. Dig the inserts on these. The design for the show flyer was lifted from this poster, which was also on display. It’s a vintage 60’s silkscreened poster advertisement for a body shop. I’d place it at 1965-66 if I had to guess. So why was the the show called the Metal Battle? To celebrate they brought out some vintage steel wheeled death traps and had a session. Video after the jump.

Spotted on the side of a Metro West ambulance in Portland, Oregon. If anyone else sees this in the wild, I’d like to post a picture showing placement on the whole ambulance.

– Thanks to Josh Burt for the photo.