MARCH 2025

Back again.

In the first two newsletters I sent out, I tried to concentrate on some of the projects I’ve been working on and things I’ve been up to. But maybe it’s time to address the elephant in the room. I have been incredibly fortunate to work for and with Tony Hawk for the last 22+ years. I’ve been able to work on a wide variety of projects with Tony, from Happy Meals to huge arena tours to all kinds of one-off projects, events, product lines, and more along the way. I’ve got great stories of all the fun things we’ve been able to do because of Tony’s generosity (ask me about our holiday dinner in the sewer) and the incredible people that have also been with him as long as I have. My friend Rob loves to stop me mid-story and say “We know, we know…you work for Tony Hawk.” Of course one of the biggest things Tony is known for, beyond being the greatest skateboarder of all time, is his video game franchise, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. It has done close to $2 billion in sales over the years (no, Tony doesn’t get the full $2 billion), and it has remained one of the iconic franchises in video game history. When I first came on board with Tony in 2002, we were still in early days of the franchise, and I have been able to witness first hand the launch of most of his games through the years. And so it is with great pride for our entire team at Tony Hawk, Inc., and the incredible team at Activision that has been working on this for the last two years, that Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 is finally announced today and will be out July 11th. It’s a big deal. And I know that if you grew up playing Tony’s games, you are going to be blown away by this one. All the best of the original 3 and 4 remastered, plus great music, new levels and familiar characters in stunning visual detail. I’ve been watching the new levels being constructed over the last year and it’s just awesome. If you like this kind of thing, be sure to check it out! And now, on to other news….

Name in a square.

I met Matt Holt a number of years ago when he was a big wig at Wiley Publishing and they were doing a book with Tony Hawk about the business side of his career. I had the honor of designing the book cover and some of the interior of the book. I got to know Matt in the process and we have been great friends ever since. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance that the first thing I’ll see when I wake up in the morning is something funny from Matt. And I know that when I come across the weirdest, most obscure Reel I’ve ever seen, I’m sending it to him first. Matt left Wiley in 2020 and started his own imprint, Matt Holt Books. He has an incredible nose for sniffing out great business books and memoirs that often end up on the New York Times Best Seller list. When he was about to launch the new company, he asked if I would design the logo. The biggest thing for a publishing company logo is that it has to be readable on the spine of a book. The design we ended up with does that very well, and I’m excited to see it every time Matt Holt Books launches another title. When you look at this design (see below), you might think, “hey that’s just a name in a square.” And you’d be right. But there is always so much more to a simple, clean, readable but still stylish logo than you might think. And the journey to get to that design often goes through a lot of stages. So I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the designs that were submitted, considered, trashed, morphed, and eventually finalized into the final design that you now see on some of the top selling books every year.

Stuff.

I’ve always been a thrift store hunter, a swap meet scavenger, an eBay guy, and, in the last few years, an online Goodwill shopper. During the pandemic I discovered that Goodwill thrift stores take all the best stuff that gets donated and puts it on their national auction-style website. That’s why you rarely see anything Good in Goodwill. It’s all on the website. As you can imagine, all kinds of amazing and valuable things get donated every day. As a vintage guitar guy, I make a habit of looking at every single musical instrument that gets listed every single day. What I quickly figured out is that I can’t buy every cool thing I want from the website. But I knew that there must be a lot of people that would love to know that there is a 1970s Fender Musicmaster Bass listed today, or a mid century chalkware bear or an Andre the Giant bowling ball up for auction. So, I started an Instagram account called @stuffongoodwill, and I mostly post guitars and other musical instruments, as well as a fair amount of other cool stuff, all from the Goodwill auction website. I now have over 5600 followers that include some of the top vintage guitar experts, famous musicians, and lots of other interesting folks who are incredibly knowledgeable and happy to share info about the things I post. It has become a community. And every once in awhile…okay, quite often…I find myself bidding on and winning a shriner fez or sparkly snare drum or even this rare 1935 Recording King Model K Carson J Robison acoustic guitar, made by Gibson, that was in pieces and parts and was cracked and broken and I just wanted to save it. When I won, I had it shipped directly to my friend Brandon Madrid (see photo below) of Madrid Guitars, who just happens to be one of the top restoration experts in the country. He did the most amazing, painstaking restoration and turned this into one of the best sounding pre-war Gibsons either of us have ever heard. This thing might have ended up on the scrap heap, but we were able to save it and probably give it another hundred years of life. And how cool is that?

PROJECTS & THINGS: WINTER | 2025

My friend Adam Lopez is an incredible guitarist, songwriter, singer, and skatebaord guy. For awhile, Adam was living in Nashville running a skateboard shop by day and playing guitar around town on sessions and gigs the rest of the time. Adam introduced me to Steve Palmer of St. George, Utah last summer and I ended up designing a new logo for his brand, SurfskateLove. Steve fell in love with the sport of surfskating and went head first into making a line of wheels and accessories. After the logo projects, we did some new wheel designs. And over the holidays, we finalized Steve’s first surfskate deck design (with more to come). I love the way the design came out and just wanted to share the first photos. If you are into the longboard, carving style of surfskate, check out SurfskateLove.

I have lived in California for 38 years now. And although it’s popular around the country to bash California for some reason, I am the first to step up and tell you all the great things about our wonderful state. I am also fine to tell you that our BBQ sucks. I don’t know why. There is constantly some new place that opens with great reviews, and my dad and I go check it out and…it’s just not that good. Dry brisket, tasteless ribs, weird beans. And admittedly I can be a bit snobby about it, but there’s no getting around bad BBQ. So, over the years, I have taken things into my own hands and learned how to make the best BBQ ribs around. I used to be extra old school and had a barrel smoker you had to tend for hours on end. I finally gave in to a Traeger and I’m okay with that. You get consistent heat and that’s important. So, with warmer weather around the corner, I thought I’d share how to make the tastiest pork ribs ever. I just smoked three racks for the Super Bowl and they might have been the best ribs I’ve ever had. And I’ve been to many of Texas and Oklahoma’s legendary BBQ joints.

The first thing I recommend is getting yourself a copy of “Legends of Texas Barbecue” by Robb Walsh. It has really cool stories about the history of some of the legendary places around Texas, and it’s filled with seriously legit recipes. That’s where I got the recipe for my very unorthodox mop sauce that really brings out the flavor. I’ll share it with you below.

So, once you’ve read the Legends of Texas Barbecue and gotten yourself all hyped up for some incredible cooking, get your hands on about three racks of pork ribs…I recommend Costco if you have one near you. They consistently have really good ribs. I like to get pork spare ribs, but the St. Louis Cut from Costco are really good too. Fire up your smoker to 235 degrees…I like to use the Pecan or Cherry wood. (Note: Mesquite wood is for beef.) Get your ribs laid out and coat them with rub. Some people like to only use salt and pepper. I like a little sweetness, so I have discovered Lambert’s Sweet Rub O’ Mine works perfectly for me. I coat them with Morton’s Nature’s Seasons (or salt and pepper), then the Lambert’s. Both sides. Put them in the smoker and after about two hours of soaking up some heat and smoke, you give it a good coat of mop. Not BBQ sauce. Not mustard (gross). As you’ll read below, my mop has onions and lemons in it and I always put some thin lemon slices and pieces of onion on the ribs at this point for the rest of the cook. Close it back up and cook another hour, then turn the heat up to 275 degrees. Depending on conditions it’s another 1-2 hours. When you hit about 195-200 degrees it’s time to pull them out and wrap them in foil. I stack them up and cover them in foil on a big cookie sheet and let them rest for a half hour or so. Cut them up into individual ribs and enjoy! If you did it right, you don’t need any sauce…the smoke gives you all the flavor. Sometimes I use sauce when I reheat the leftovers…Sweet Baby Ray’s Original for the win.

Jaimie’s Mop Sauce (It’s mine now because I tweaked it a bit)
In a quart sauce pan on medium heat, combine:
• One can of beer. Any kind of beer is fine. I like Pacifico.
• A healthy swig of apple cider vinegar and/or red wine vinegar
• A cup or so of vegetable oil
• a half bottle of cheap ranch dressing
• one lemon squeezed into the mix and then sliced thinly and added to the pan
• one onion sliced thin.
Stir it all up well and bring it to a light boil, then simmer a bit until you need it. Either brush or spoon the mop onto the ribs two hours into the cook. I usually put a thin lemon slice or two on each rack of ribs and some of the onions. Take those off when the ribs are done. Enjoy!