Jack Smith has self-published “The Skateboarder’s Journal – Lives on Board 1949-2009.” It sounds a little bit like an extended version of Jocko Weyland’s The Answer is Never. I decided to open up the book up to anyone who wanted to contribute a story about his or her skateboarding life. Not just the pros or the skaters you have seen in the magazines and videos over the last fifty years, I wanted to share the “everyman/everywoman” stories of skateboarding. Everyone from the “40 something” pad dad, to the 15 year old grom who’s so stoked that he wants to skate every waking hour, to the women skaters who stories have been ignored or lost over the years. The forward is written by Stacy Peralta, a guy who’s definitely had an interesting life in skateboarding. Head on over to the The Skateboarder’s Journal to check it out. It’s more than just press for the book, it’s a larger social network type site.

Holy cow, last Wednesday’s Family Circus was actually funny! Much better than the last time. Eat your heart out MC! I didn’t catch this in the paper, if anyone still has it, please send in a scan, or drop the original in an envelope. – Thanks to Smitty for the tip.

Man, for a cat so heavily into jazz, you’d think he’d be hip to the lingo and not trip over such a simple thing like “skateboard park” instead of laying a clam like “Skate Board Park.” This album dates back to 1979. I don’t know jazz, but Joe Farrell must have been somewhat respected, because I do recognize the name of his keyboard and piano player, Chick Corea. I do know one thing, this album cover is outstanding, even if it wasn’t the record exec’s bag. The CD re-issue has a completely different cover. Dig some fly album artwork and hear Farrell blow on this hot plate after the jump, unless you’re out to lunch, like that crumb behind Joe on the cover. – Thanks to Matt for the tip, and AllAboutJazz for the translation.

Another Tony Hawk refernce in a comic, this time in a strip called xkcd, which I wrote off based on this one strip, but is actually a pretty good comic with pretty bad art. – Thanks to Stephen B for the tip.

In my never ending quest to acquire vintage skateboard exploitation music that nobody wants to hear but me and maybe one other guy, I found this 1988 cassette only release by the Christian rap group called Megamouth. This ons is listed on eBay for $80, and that’s no typo. I asked the seller about it: This cassette’s rarity and value are due to the fact that it is among the more obscure releases from Terry Taylor, a wunderkind in the Christian alternative music field (both as a producer and as an artist himself, with his bands Daniel Amos, Swirling Eddies, and Lost Dogs). Since this was a cassette-only release aimed at the Christian children’s market, a very small niche market, this title is pretty rare. I thought I’d shop around and look for a more reasonably priced way to hear Getting Vertical (By Trustin’ The Lord), but the only other option is spending $100 at Amazon. Knowledgeable sources like the Holy Hip Hop DataBASE say the two Megamouth releases didn’t find much of an audience. Maybe it was ahead of it’s time, predating Colby’s Place by a year.

Skateboard as fashion accessory. This time from Vogue Pelle, which I thought was Italian Vogue, were it not for the existence of Vogue Italia. And there you have it. I guess this is a step above Teen Vogue.

This spread is from the 1977 Theodor Seuss Geisel book titled Please Try to Remember the First of Octember, written under the pen name of Theo LeSeig, as in the case of all the children’s books he wrote but others illustrated. It seems he saved the Dr Seuss name for books that he both wrote and illustrated. Notice that LeSieg spelled backwards is… Geisel. What a clever man, if I do say so, er, uhmmm, myself. Enlarge-o-rama.

What does this web commercial have to do with skateboarding? Well nothing if this isn’t pro skateboarder Alex Olson. I wasn’t sure at first, but I think it’s an actual real product. Girls love Alex Olson. I mean, obviously Girl does, but girls do too. – Thanks to Freakbeatfuzz for the tip. UPDATE: DUH. Forgot to include the video. It’s there now.

Waiter enters stage left and approaches the center table. Waiter: I believe this is the Bridgestone tire commercial with a skateboarder looping a full pipe that we spoke of earlier. Male Patron: Yes, but this is obviously made from upside down footage flipped over and merged with another shot. Female Patron: The give away is the reflection on the ceiling. I want to speak to the manager.

Yes, it’s Jim Henson day on Skate and Annoy. Here’s a bit from the first season of Fraggle Rock, something I have admittedly not seen more than a few seconds of before now. My wife says she loved that show as a kid, but I married her anyway… It’s from a 1983 episode called the Garden Plot. A Fraggle Rock regular known as Traveling Matt makes a visit Venice Beach and takes a spin on some sort of weird Powell knock off deck. Check out the Carrot Top lookalike. Thanks to Kevin for pointing the camera at the TV!