Board beauties

Board beauties
If you're a serious skateboarder (or have a boarder pal or two), then you know: Skateboarding is more than just a sport. For skate aficionados, boards can be works of art -- a chance to display a little of themselves.
A new book captures the art of skateboarding, with tons of colorful images. You'll swear some of the decks in "Boards: The Art + Design of the Skateboard" (Universe, $18.95) are actually museum-quality art -- that's how cool they are. And even though the book is 90 percent illustrations, there are some very cool Q & amp;As with board designers that explain what was going on in their heads when they designed the decks.
Look for "Boards," the second in a series of books from MTV -- the first was a collection of celebrity photo booth pictures -- at bookstores or online booksellers.
'Idol' time
Did you cringe when you saw "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken try to dance on national television? Wince when you heard Justin Guarini miss a high note? Did you spend the entire "AI" season telling your friends how much better you could have done? Here's your chance: There's a new video game that lets you strut your stuff on a virtual "Idol" stage.
"American Idol" (Codemasters, $29.99 PC; $39.99 PlayStation 2) lets you create a contestant -- you can pick clothes and hair and skin color to make it look like you. Then you hit the stage to perform songs from hit artists such as Britney Spears, J.Lo, and even Kelly Clarkson. Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell offer their "thoughts." (But unlike Ruben and Clay, you can just turn off the PlayStation if you don't like what they say.) And true, there's no recording contract to look forward to, but if you do well, you can unlock better clothes, new songs and other special features.
For more information, check out http://www.codemasters.com/americanidol/.
XBecky Sher writes this column for Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. You can write to her at bsher@krtinfo.com.