I’ve been told this commercial airs on TV but so far I haven’t seen it. Donny sent me a phone cam capture, and Simon Woodstock found it on YouTube. Ray Barbee in a Just for Men commercial after the jump.

Salon.com has an article on why ESPN’s efforts birng the X Games to a worldwide audience aren’t as successful as they’d like. Are the unsuccessful? I’m not sure. Are you paying attention? That’s the main part of the article. Essentially, what ESPN seems to miss, is that that the statement “I am a skateboarder” is a far different one than “I am a basketball player”. The author Matt Reevy get’s it. There’s are a couple good quotes in there (like this post title) that sum it up pretty well. I guess my mission here at S&A is finished.

Denver the Last Dinosaur is possibly one of the best bad cartoon relics out there. Basically, a dinosaur egg hatches, and hangs out with kids skateboarding, riding BMX and sort of communicating in a more subdued Scooby Doo style. The animation is horrible, I swear it approaches 5 frames a second. The voiceover is what makes this cartoon enjoyable/eardrum piercing. The character actors are awful. It’s like listening to somebody do a really bad impersonation Jeff Spicoli, for 20 minutes… The series started in 1988 and ran for two years, so that was right at the tail end of the California craze. There’s an episode called Venice Beach Blast where part of the gang gets hassled for skating on the bike path. The authority figure (Is he a cop or a security guard? He looks like a Forest Ranger.) explains that the community got the signatures together to get skating banned and the bike path built. Now you think this would would turn into a civics lesson that ends with a skateboard park being built, but it doesn’t. The skaters in the crew turn against their biking brothers and go renegade. There’s a lot of whining (almost life real life),…

Today is free comic book day at participating comic shops. Runner Runner from Tugboat Press is one of titles you could pick up.

I think these books are supposed to teach traffic safety, but in fact they inspire kids to pretend to run into the obstacles. In this case, a skateboarding elephant. Then there’s the gratuitous electronic noise designed to stimulate young minds and make parents want to jam a screwdriver into the speaker. (Thanks for that helpful advice Shawn F. ) Now that these pictures are taken I can finally make a run to Good Will after 5 years of sitting on this thing. Yes, this post title is my attempt to help David Bowie free associate some new lyrics.

Two instances of world class athletes using skateboards for cross training purposes. First up is 10k Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah allegedly building balance on a skateboard, though admittedly just an experiment, and more likely just a photo op for the The Oregonian. On the right, Daniel Woods “prepares” for the 2010 Bouldering World Cup at a skatepark. With the event just two days after the video footage was shot, he was probably just trying to relax, get his mind off the competition, and of course, not get hurt! Video footage of Daniel after the jump – Just a tiny bit of skating and a lot of bouldering, but it’s some amazing bouldering footage. – Thanks to Jim Lilly and Chris Yeager for the tips.

The Cheeky Weekly was sort o the English equivalent of the Weekly Reader found here in the U.S., although maybe less education oriented. It merged with another publication in 1980. There’s a blog devoted to documenting those old issues, which is where these 1977 skateboard pull-out issue images were found. They go into quite a bit of detail about everything they post. That Cheeky sure is a handsome fella. – Thanks to Boy from Skate Malasia for the tip.

Skateboarding gangs were a recurring theme in 70’s comic books. I would cite the temporal proximity of the Warriors, but that wasn’t released until 1979. Teen Titans Volume 12, No. 49 was published in August 1977. The bad guys look like they escaped from the set of Devo’s Freedom of Choice, but that album didn’t come out until 1980. DC comic’s bad guys, AKA Rocket Rollers, clown on the Teen Titans and rob a disco. Far out man. Also of historical importance, comic book evience of the first ever wall (and ceiling) ride. I’m not sure why Wonder Girl didn’t let go of her lariat instead of slamming into the wall…

Cisco has a thing for skateboarders. I’m not sure how and why they think your average IT decision maker is going to be swayed by the presence of skateboards in a TV commercial, but they do. I know a lot of smart, technically inclined skateboarders out there, but that’s gotta be a hard niche to capture. Anybody that would potentially be swayed by it would immediately not be swayed by it’s transparency. This time, they’re thinking, get ’em while they are young. This is the log in screen for a distance learning class on networking sponsored by Cisco. Dang it all if I didn’t lose the original email, and now I don’t know who to thanks for this, besides Cisco. – Thanks to…?

Not much to say about this one. You either love it or hate it. Maybe about 20 years too late though. Still funny though. Get yours at Mustache Empire.