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!

PLUP is a Finnish company that sells bottled water. In Finland PLUP Ltd donates 10 euro cents from each PLUP bottle sold, directly to the Baltic Sea Action Group to help clean up the Baltic Sea. Stefan Lindfors shot a commercial for them, and lo and behold, it features a certain professional skateboarder by the name of Bam. It also features the music of Bam’s buddies HIM. Just in case you’re wondering, is that really Bam, or a blond guy with creepy blue eyes that just looks like him, he’s got a gratuitous skateboard on his back. Does anyone else see the irony of an environmentally conscious bottled water company? There’s no actual skating in the commercial, but there is some wakeboarding or wake skating or whatever it’s called. I know the U.S.A. is weird for sure, but so is Finland.

[Source: Justskate via Kingpin. ]

– Thanks to Doug for the tip.

Here’s a Sick Puppies music video for a song called Odd One. For sick puppies, these are pretty sensitive mofos. Hmmn… I wonder if the lead singer ever listened to Dave Grohl. If nothing else, there are some really nicely framed and lighted shots of whatever skatepark this was shot at.

– Thanks to Veronica Swim for the tip.

I couldn’t find the rumored Bridgestone commercial with the skateboard loop, but I did find this one from 2007 that is a retread (Get it? Ha ha! I’m killing it!) of the car as skateboard theme that I’m going to have to start calling an archetype if they keep making these. This one is pretty weak. Although I might have thought otherwise if I hadn’t seen the exact same concept several times already.

Has anyone actually seen the Bridgestone commercial with a skateboard in it?

It burns me up when people get these uploaded to YouTube before I’ve even seen them. This commercial for the 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee features Mike McGill as skater dad. Pretty good concept, one very similar to what I gave to MC as an idea for one of his comics. This was uploaded by an actual Jeep dealer. If someone happens to capture this or can tell me on what network and show it aired, drop me a line. I need the high res version for the museum.

– Thanks to Andrew Wahl for the tip.

Chris Nieratko has a pretty interesting article on ESPN about how economic woes are affecting the skateboard industry. He talks to pros, business owners and former pros turned industry honchos. It’s a quick read sprinkled with a healthy dose of gratuitous skate shots, so so check it out.

– Thanks to Michael Brooke for the tip.

I know nothing about Machotaildrop. At first I thought I was watching a parody of an indy film mashup by Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson and Spike Jonze. If your going to be influenced by someone, that’s a good crowd to choose from, although it could all go horribly wrong. Then it started looking expensive, so I thought it might be real. The project exists on IMDB, so I’m inclined to believe it is real. There’s an official web site, Machotaildrop.com, but it appears to be broken or at best, poorly thought out. Check out the trailer. This could be the first movie with skateboarding as a major plot device that isn’t unintentionally funny. Check the trailer after the jump. Keep your eyes peeled for pro skaters and unless I’m mistaken, an homage to a famous scene in Thrashin’.

UPDATE: Just found and added a sneak peak of the film.
UPDATE 2: Added link to another interview with the writer/director team and a behind the scenes video.

– Thanks to JF for the tip.

This 1978 Pepsi commercial has everything; street skating (well, sidewalks), a dog on a longboard, hockey helmets, gorilla gips, flyouts, freestyle, soft volleyball kneepads, skateparks and more. Watch the video, courtesy of skate and surf film historian Scott Starr, after the jump.

Who knew Skateboarder had so many subscriptions? I always forget they are still publishing. What’s that? Right. This post title is from the latest Transworld Skateboarding sales pitch. If you’re selling a product, they want your advertising dollars. Key selling points:

We know that there are a lot of options out there, most of which are new to the game yet claim to be everything skateboarding, but skateboarding is much more than footage filmed in a warehouse, or focus on the so-called core or elitist scene. Skateboarding has moved way beyond those walls, and TWS covers the gamut.