Don Gerard, one of my college roommates is running for mayor of the town we went to school in. Champaign is also the town where he grew up. I suppose I should put “college” in quotes because I don’t think we were ever both in school at the same time while we were roommates in three consecutive houses named Ten Shitty Guys. Aside from having the idea to start a zine, I believe it was also Neil’s idea to start a skate rock band. We drafted Don to play drums, pretty much against his will. He was embarrassed by it at the time since he was accustomed to playing in “real” bands. He used to wear sunglasses and a sorority baseball hat as disguise on stage, but I think he secretly enjoyed it. Our first gig as McWilson was opening up for Naked Raygun’s first Champaign, Illinois apperance. It was actually the main reason for our existence. We played a handful of shows and parties after that. We burned bright and extremely short. If you live in Champaign, Illinois, get yourself registered to vote for Don Gerard. Campign commercial after the jump. This whole thing smells like the script for…

Mike McGill, Kevin Staab, Tony Hawk and Christian Hosoi in a promo for The Quiksilver All 80’s All Day Vert Challenge on January 7th, 2011 at SurfExpo in Orlando, FL. The video is mildly amusing, coming off better than most of the skits in Animal Chin, yet highly reminiscent of course. Skaters committed to show so far are Tony Hawk Christian Hosoi ,Mike McGill, Kevin Staab, Andy Macdonald, Mike Frazier, Ben Schroeder, Buck Smith, Henry Gutierrez and (wait for it….) Rodney Mullen????? Apparently. No word on whether his parents will let him skate vert yet. Video plus one with slightly extended highlights from last year, after the jump. – Thanks to Bob Mechtly for the tip.

This is from a February, 1980 National Geographic article on the Apache Indian Reserve. Genius. Simple, yet effective. Pure. Enlarge-o-rama. – Thanks to Ryan Mann for the tip.

The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest was a 1986 retread of the original 60’s version of the show. Episode 16 of season 2 was titled Other Space and features hoverboard action. In the words of Grover, who unearthed this footage, “They hover the shit out of this episode.”

Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out in 1988. I should have saved this for Easter.

There are re-issues, and there are, well I’m not sure what to call this. First up, there was the Tony Hawk board with fake scuffs printed as part of the graphic. And not too long ago someone (Antihero?) released board graphics with fake rails on the botom of the deck. This Hosoi hammerhead reissue mates a photograph of one of Christian’ old boards with the bottom of some brand spanking new Canadian maple. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the concept but I like it. When I first saw it in an email from Big Block, I thought it was just an illustration to compare the reissue to. Strange thing is, it’s not on the Hosoi web site. Stranger still, it’s here on S&A.

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.

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.

This site has been around for a while in one form another. I believe it started just selling DVD’s of old skate footage from the 80s. NOw it’s branched out to include more contlent like recent contest footage and interviews with noted Texans like Ken Fillion. Visit Texas Style Skateboarding and check out the trailers for Texas Style Two which seems to feature every notable Texan from back in the day as well as everyone who travelled through it.

A few weekends ago I got a bee in my bonnet that resulted in wasting a lot of my time trying to duplicate the artwork on this Brand-X Weirdo board. I’m pretty sure Bernie Tostenson is my favorite skateboard artist. I loved those mid 80’s Weirdo boards, as well as the late 70’s and early 80’s Sims boards he did. I decided to try and replicate the Weirdo.