Here’s a beautiful turd of a skateboard that Valterra put out in 1987. It’s an Alf board, and it’s kick ass. Alf is in full Hawaiian shorts and neon Ray Bans mode. This model was auctioned on eBay a while ago, I don’t know what it went for but I remember being tempted. Another craptacular thing about this board is the fact that the graphics are on top and the bottom is completely bare. This one has GT wheels on it, which is really confusing to men because I thought GT was a 70’s era brand, so these wheels should have loose bearings. I suppose it’s possible someone could have put old wheels on a new board if the axle size didn’t change. Can you believe ALF was actually still on the air in 1990? I wonder why Valterra never put out a Back to the Future deck. – Thanks to Buck C for the tip.

Here’s an old 70’s commercial for a company called Jeans West. I couldn’t find any information about Jeans West, other than a current company in Australia. I’m not sure they are related. I did find this on Skatecuriosidade that said it was an Italian company and the commercial dates back to 1977. And speaking of Skatecuriosidade, notice how I gave you guys credit and a link? They’ve been poaching images from S&A for long time with nary a web link. Come guys, get with the program and be a good netizen.

Callin’ on Colin is going to be a rerun today. Old man Colin pulled his back in an embarrassing way, and is immobilized for the time being, otherwise you’d be enjoying an interview with none other than Wally Inouye. There’s a teaser of Wally Inouye interview up on Juice Magazine. Professor Farnsworth illustration courtesy of Sarah’s Futurama fan art on Slurmed.com.

Die Antwoord is not a German hip hop tribute to Adam Ant, rather a freaky hip hop crew from Cape Town, South Africa. A liitle bit Flava Flav and a lot of Gummo. These guys make some crazy videos. Sure they try too hard, but it’s still riveting. The video for Evil Boy features a sculptural figure on a skateboard and a lot of phalluses. Guest African rapper tackles the ritual of forced circumcision that many tribal adolescents have to go through to become “men” in the eyes of their tribe. [See discussion here] These guys are kind of a train wreck, but it’s fascinating. Lead male vocalist Ninja sometimes looks like Joe Strummers’ long lost hillbilly brother. Still, I prefer the Stiv Bators song Evil Boy. – Thanks to MC for the tip. Yeah, he’s that hip.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Newspaper from mid-level city actually publishes a decent skate photo! Astonishing considering they are essentially giving the Oregonian away these days. Not a week goes by that I don’t get a phone call practically begging me to get the Oregonian for delivered to my door for pennies on the dollar. I’d be more inclined to fill my recycling bucket with the paper if the delivery man (not a boy, because he drives a car on his route) would stop nailing the storm door with the paper and waking me up at 5 in the morning. What’s the point? Oregon lottery money has apparently been funding skateparks in some capacity, and some folks are upset because school funding is and other services have been dwindling. Oregon ballot measure 76 will extend the mandatory parks expenditures from lottery proceeds. The measure isn’t going to increase the 15%, it’s just going to make sure it can’t be diverted to other areas. I think that’s a good idea. I’m voting yes on 76. – Thanks to Colin for the tip.

Nokia Push… really hard to tell from the web site what the hell they are actually talking about. They keep talking about hacks in a proprietary context that must only maker sense if you already own the phone. They’ve got two “prototypes” for hacks, one of which looks like it makes use of motion sensing capabilities in the phone in order to score points in a game while actually skateboarding. It’s a weak execution of a not so new concept, but I give them this, the commercial is highly reminiscent of the Paper Boy arcade game and amusing to watch. [Source: Skatecuriosidade]

This comes via MC’s Skate Comics Depository via Gentlemanly Conduct. It’s from an old Viz magazine, which is the UK’s version of Mad, only geared towards a more adult audience.

There is going to be a photography exhibit and release party for the new book ‘Full Bleed’ this Saturday, October 2nd, at BAR, formerly PS 14. a book documenting the past 30 years of New York City skateboarding through they eyes of a camera lens of the best photographers in the skateboarding world, including Giovanni Reda, Jessica Bard, Ivory Serra, Tobin Yelland, Miki Vuckovich, Thomas Campbell, Larry Clark, Ed Templeton, Jerry Hsu, Atiba Jefferson, Bryce Knights, Angela Boatwright, Athena Currey, Kenneth Cappello, Charlie Samuels, Andy Kessler, Mike O’Meally, Sammy Glucksman, and Allen Ying. If you want to get the book now, get it the best place for New York City skateboarding, Shut.

This came to me via Spencer at SRC Bypass. So what is it?

This insipid marketing manufactured cartoon and toy line was created by the American Greeting company in 1983. According to Wikipedia, the cartoon’s creators were trying to appease television watchdog agencies crusade against cartoon violence by attempting to “reinforce the importance of group harmony over individualism.” The end result is, well.. as with any compromise of this nature, mediocrity at it’s finest.