I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was writing a couple of reviews for Paste Magazine about skateboarding books. If you ever skateboarded (I know, chances are slim with this audience), you'll find old friends in a newly published book about skateboard stickers. In what can only be the fruit of sublime inspiration flashing forth like a thunderbolt, the authors creatively titled the book Skateboard Stickers. Names aside, there are some stickers herein that really take me back -- back to the days of Vernon Courtland Johnson's Powell-Peralta deck designs, and to Jim Phillips' Santa Cruz Skates art.

You know what's funny? I remember seeing those Powell decks and thinking that they were so cool, but that I was too afraid to ride around suburban Alabama with skulls and fangs on my deck. I myself rode a Hosoi Hammerhead, the better to pose with, my dear. But I covered that thing in the coolest stickers my cheap-o allowance (no insult intended, parents) would buy. What a poser! I never even managed to ride a half-pipe.