Bandolero's Car Racing - Charlotte, NC

Good friends of ours have a son that is just getting into racing. He is starting out in the Bandolero Cars which is run by a 30 horsepower overhead valve screamer. At first glance you might think, oh how cool are these little cars, then when you see the young kids tearing around the track in them at close to 50 mph, yeah, jealousy erupts instantly. Seeing the track buzzing and kids slamming into each other and driving with the finesse of their older stock car hero's makes you wish you were 12 and having this much fun. Gotta say, it was a lot of fun to hang out in the pits with all the folks gettin' the cars ready. Screw takin' yer kids to play football or soccer, get'em a Bandolero! Looks like Rusty Knuckles may also start sponsoring this particular race car as well. Once they secure two new bodies they are bringing them up to the Rusty Knuckles work shop for some clever new paint schemes for the 2010 race season. Will post the graphics once we get started and show the paint work process.

Bandolero Race Cars

Steam Punks - Muse For New Street Fighter Bike Build

Getting ready to start the new chopper build on the Buell Cyclone and really interested in the ideas of late by the Steam Punks. Their ideological foundation is based around speculative fiction with a mix of sci fi and the Victorian era with the name also alluding to a world in which steam power is still king. A lot of the artisans in this arena create objects that look stout in their demeanor due to the overtly mechanical visual assemblage and use various materials that have a distinct color tone. Whether it be iron, copper or another form of steel the coloring tends to be darker or golden brown metals.

With this overtone on the new Street Fighter build, I plan on keeping the original Buell frame but modifying significantly the swing arm, tail section and overall finish. The frame is already great and has a lot of flex with the tubular structure, so why fix what isn't broke? But what I am really pushing for in the styling is a streamlined mechanical finesse. I want the bike to look overly mechanical and interesting. For years builders have been trying to hide the lines to streamline every single angle. Screw that, I want folks to walk around the bike and be interested in seeing a braided steel oil line or riveted tank. Mucho thanks goes out to Jules Verne, the Nautilus has been stuck in my head for years thinking on this idea for a build. Have a look at some Steam Punk and overtly mechanical bike builds by Chicara and AMD Bike Building Champ Dave Cook. Cook Customs is hands down my absolute favorite bike builder, would dig picking his brain for hours.

Steampunks on Wikipedia

Chicara - Custom Builder

Dave Cook - Custom Builder

Silver Dragon Customs

During the show this past weekend I was able to connect with another great group of folks from North Myrtle Beach. They had a bitchin' early 90's Ducati, with a plethora of killer details, along with a few other ground up custom builds. One of their bikes in particular really caught my eye from the distinctive lines of the gas tank. I kept staring at it and couldn't quite get where I knew that shape from. Low and behold the top portion is from a rear fender which clearly makes it stand apart in gas tank styling. Its a really subtle design approach that just makes you want to walk around the bike and take in more details. Needless to say, Angelo and his wife are great people, so hit them up if you are down in Myrtle Beach for any rally of sorts. Or "hopefully" you can meet up with them, when they join us on our April 2010, Battle for Ocracoke run in the Outer Banks of NC. A weekend of gypsy camping and motorized mayhem where the infamous Blackbeard made his last stand. More details soon...

Silver Dragon Customs - myspace

Crank County Daredevils - New Album Artwork

Here is a sneak peak at the new album artwork for the Crank County Daredevils album, dropping in a few weeks. They are the bastard child of Motorhead and early Guns N' Roses. European tour in January and full US tour in March & April...

Crank County Daredevils - Myspace

VBS.TV - Skate Europe

Usually while eating lunch I watch a lot of webtv shows. Vice started off as a magazine a while back but I really got hooked on all of their shows online. Whether it be their travels to North Korea, Chernobyl or the Epicly Latered skate shows by old friend Pat O'dell, the site kicks ass like none other. Been hooked on the Skate Europe videos for the last couple of days, but also check out the Epicly Later'd sections for killer skate interviews and bios.

VBS.TV

Nightmare Custom Cycles

Was out at a motorcycle event this past weekend and was able to meet quite a few new and great folks. One of them happened to be a builder by the name of Nightmare. He and his wife run a shop down in Harleyville, South Carolina appropriately named Nightmare Custom Cycles. Needless to say, they were great folks and I sure as hell had a good time getting to know them. One of his latest builds is this amazing little Triumph. Details abound and that's what its all about, have a look...

Nightmare Custom Cycles

Thermite Welding

I had heard about this two part video from some other folks but hadn't thought much about it until I was able to watch the process. Thermite welding is generally used to fix railroad lines as each 1 to 3 inch section can be fixed in 45 minutes to an hour. The process is a high energy mix of materials which are created by a heat generating reaction of iron oxide and aluminum with additional high carbon alloy metals added to produce the molten mixture used to fuse the rail line back together. After seeing this and I have mucho respect for the back breaking work the railroad guys go through to fix these lines and keep our commerce flowing. For a more indepth look into the process of thermite welding here are a few links, along with the videos from youtube:

Thermite Welding - Wikipedia

Weld Procedures - Thermite Welding

Chuck Biscuits - Rest In Peace

Rest in Peace Chuck, another great one downed from cancer. He was the backbone of the first four Danzig albums and then had stints with a few other bands you may have heard of such as Social Distortion and Black Flag. Here a few songs to remember him by...

Integrity - Love'em or Hate'em

Love'em or Hate'em Integrity in my book were a game changing band in the second wave of hardcore. Their bleak out look on life, the haunting imagery and the use of iconoclastic individuals as part of their imagery made them a force to be reckoned with. To this day I have never seen them live, and I have been listening to their albums for over 16 years. The last show in which I was "supposed" to see them, they were about to go onstage and once again a huge fight broke out and they split, thanks for the fight Wade! This has happened on numerous occasions when I went to see them. Either they start shit with other bands or some random knucklehead runs his mouth, just how hardcore shows used to be, back when rock n roll was dangerous and fun.

Their style was always a bit different than the other bands at the time as they were slow and chugging instead of the speedy hardcore that was coming out of NYC aka, Sick Of It All, Killing Time, etc. This distinctive sound helped to define what is known as Cleveland Hardcore. To this day, I still believe that Integrity were ahead of their time and clearly put a stamp on a lot of the styles that are popular now. Too bad I didn't get to see them in their glorious violent days, damnit!

Integrity on Myspace

Land Of Plenty - Skateboard Foundation

Right before we moved from Oakland, CA back to the east coast I promised a friend that I would paint a board for his skateboard foundation. The Land of Plenty Skateboard Foundation is a non profit community development organization based in Los Angeles. It is their mission to encourage creative physical education and artistic expression through the culture and activity of skateboarding. Doing so was a great feeling and to be able to give my time and efforts to a group helping out the younger skate rats is always a good thing. Hopefully I will get to skate with those dudes again some time soon.

The Land of Plenty - Skateboard Foundation