Life is always a "struggle" 

If you dig vintage pinups AND chicks brawlin as much as we do, then this weeks 

update should have you dancing in the isles! 

New episode of Friction in the Static is up now. click HERE to go check it out! Episode 121 "Cow Ramp" a great monologue and then part 1 of the roundtable with Zombie and Axle...

The new production companies first "real" thing that we have attempted. 

So far, over 11,000 plays and lots of positive reaction. Check it out and see what you think. 

Small City Cycles - Born Free 4 Promo - by Set To Stun Productions from Tinys Kustoms on Vimeo.

What makes a truly great kustom? well, we talk about that on this weeks episode of FRICTION IN THE STATIC. 

listen to it by clicking HERE 

It's free, and its fun. 

RANDOM SHOTS OF COOLNESS! 

off on the road this week, be back next week, with more updates and news. 

Carefully crafted, this weeks episode of 

Friction in the Static

is live and ready to enjoy! 

(and, its our 2 year anniversary) 

So, help us celebrate by taking a listen to the FIRST and only kustom kulture podcast that actually matters by clicking 

HERE !!!!

-and dont forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes... 

VINTAGE PINUP UPDATE FOR THE WEEK OF 2-13-12

EPISODE 101 OF 

FRICTION IN THE STATIC 

IS UP AND READY TO GO! 

and this week, I host a round-table discussion on this years GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW

held in Pomona, Ca. at the Fairplex

Click HERE

to go to the website, and listen to the show! There is an embedded player on the top left of the page that has all 101 episodes archived in it. OR go to iTunes BY CLICKING HERE and don't forget to subscribe! 

Rat rodding actually requires stupidity…..

Why do I loath, even hate rat rods? Why am I so vociferous in my objections to what it is these people do?  To put it bluntly, and in deference to those of you who participate in building such questionable vehicles and your accompanying monosyllabic dim wittedness – the only way to shake things up enough to force a change is to rock the boat a little bit. Make people mad, and get them to THINK. Thusly then and only then can you begin a dialog in which someone like myself can get people to listen to reason. Or at the very least to hopefully begin to encourage a serious self accounting as to why it is one would believe that rat rods have any redeeming value what so ever.

Traditional rodding- in its current form-  began as a knee jerk, grass roots reaction to the overbolwn excesses and runaway economical silliness of street rodders who had more money in paint jobs than some people had in their homes.

Initially what began as a return to a more simplistic, common sense approach to car building- indeed it was nearly parsimonious in its scope- ie: the traditional kulture, soon was seen as a threat to the street rod faithful. But what made it so was the kultures overall beautiful simplicity.  Traditional kulture in the early days possessed the sinewy economy of a beautiful suspension bridge. Build your car, with what you can get your hands on, and do all the work yourself [that you're capable of] but do so in a way that honored and acknowledged the time honored practices of the past.   

The rat rod “theory” -for lack of a better term -is not just a bad theory, it turns out it is IN PRINCIPAL incapable of doing the job required of it. That is to say, to try to return to our kulture a common sense approach to car building.

Built seemly only to elicit a reaction from what amounts to ignorant savages, there is no redeeming value in anything that a rat rod “builder”, (for lack of a better term) does. 

So, returning to tactics- and the pro rat rod lobby, I want to argue that rocking the boat, may be just the right thing to do.  My approach to attacking this morally bankrupt and desperately stupid manner of car construction then is to confront the movement as a whole.  To single out individuals or their cars serves only to alienate each person as they are so criticized. In short, there is nothing to be gained in ad hominem attacks. I want to address the entire spectrum at once, since because I feel the movement is flawed at a molecular level. I argue not for a return to formula, but rather for an abolition of the work entirely.  There is little, if anything, to be gained by gluing plastic rats to your instrument panel, and less still redeeming value in purposely shooting holes in the body of your car, or sanding it to bare metal and allowing it to rust, simply to support some misbegotten belief that a car that appears barely capable of simply holding its own shape, (let alone drive down the road) is somehow inherently possessed of some heretofore unknown value or street credit.  It is, in fact, stupidity personified.

For the most part, the rat rod topography, if you will, is by in large populated by johnny come lately know nothing hopefuls. In my view, not only is rat rodding corrosive to our kulture, it's corrosive to the automotive hobby in its totality.  It teaches people to be satisfied with sub par construction, poorly executed design (assuming any of these idiots actually give even a momentary passing thought to what it is they are about to do, when in the midst of construction of these “cars”) and disregard, in large part anything to do with safety, or practicality. Let alone just simple good taste.

Moreover it blinds themselves and worse yet, other people to the wonderful, reaffirming and positive things that TRADITIONAL car building embraces. That is to say, elegance, common sense,  true creativity and the glorification of historically significant time honored methods of actually building something that you wouldn’t otherwise be immediately compelled to defecate on.

To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson;  "In every country and in every age, the rat rod has been hostile to intelligence.”  

More disturbing now, is the wider acceptance of the rat rod phenomena ( I refuse to acknowledge it as a “movement” as it will be proven, over time I believe, that this is only a fad, induced by the uninitiated, and propped up by such things as reality tv, and low I.Q’s ) Magazines –both new and long established- have taken the opportunity to parade such stupidity time and again, in a desperate effort to cash in on a quick buck and an ignorant undifferentiated ego mass of mouth breathing, PBR swilling , copycats.  As to the new publications one can only wonder why it is these people put more effort into a magazine than their own cars. To the established periodicals, I say SHAME ON YOU! You should know better. Stand for something, just once, (beyond that of making more profit). . . stop pandering to the lowest possible common denominator.

The apparent popularity of such magazines stems from the misbegotten belief that badly built, ugly cars, are somehow desirable.  I am here to tell you different. NO ONE with an automotive IQ above 50 revels in the fact that people are now engaged in a race to see who can be the stupidest person at a car show, in the least amount of time or to put it another way - who can assemble the most shocking or maladjusted car out of the least likely combination of parts all under the guise of “origianal creativity.”

Make no mistake, this is a call to action. It is your DUTY to passover shows that support or encourage this kind of automotive expressionism. It is your DUTY to never support in a financial sense any of these publications that try to promote or extort the “value” of rat rodding. It is you DUTY to proselytize against shoddy workmanship, and lack of design. And lastly it is your DUTY to build, drive and take pride in your own project, be it hot rod or kustom.  Regardless of what stage of construction its in. It is one thing to drive an unfinished car, that is ever moving forward to a clearly stated goal or level of completion. It is quite another to simply toss your hands up and build garbage and expect to be rewarded for it, from anyone that actually knows anything about what it is your fucking with. Namely, my kulture.

The battle has only but begun my friends. I have many weapons at my disposal. A top selling, well respected magazine, a weekly radio show / podcast that has thousands of listeners, and a soon to be revealed tv show. I will in fact, use everything in my power to encourage and force the debate forward, until such time as the term RAT ROD has been stricken from the lexicon, and we remember the entire debacle as only a fading pair of  headlights attached to a non functional car stranded in a ditch, along histories roadside in our rear view mirrors. 

Pre trip shopping thoughts from the snack isle

Pre trip shopping thoughts from the snack isle

FRICTION IN THE STATIC

kustom kulture podcast

ep 98 live, now! 

This weeks episode of the ONLY kustom kulture podcast of merit is up and ready for you to enjoy now. click the link HERE to visit the main site for the radio show. There is an embeded player on the right side of the page, simply click the player for the episode you want to hear (they are all archived there) -

Visit pistol magazine by clicking HERE. And while you're there, order an issue or two! 

New episode (81) of my radio show is up and ready!

Episode 81 of friction in the static is up and ready to go. This week, I interview an award winning motorcycle builder, visit his website by clicking here

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Kia, seriously.... lets talk -

Kia, ( which when you think about it is the acronym the military uses for Killed In Action ) has GOT to be kidding with these incipient and absurd hip hop hamster ads.  I don't know which advertising agency populated by a bunch of Don Drapper wanna be's came up with the garbage, but trust me... no one with more that 2 working brain cells is watching a bunch of cg (or worse actual idiots in costume) urbanly fabulous basketball throwing, hip hop dancing rodents and thinking, "yeah, I do want to drive a shitty looking car that resembles a toaster" Who the hell would identify with that?! 


Have I missed something? Do hamsters posses some heretofore unknown street cred that I was blissfully unaware of till now? Does Snoop Dog in fact have a giant golden hamster necklace that he sports to his nightly haunts? Thats fresh, dog. . . No wait, thats fresh..... HAM?!  


The simple fact of the matter is, Kia doesn't have a fucking clue. From their name on down.  Look, this isn't a blanket indictment of a company that builds moderately priced econobox crap cans that will most likely be six pack of coke and jiffy pop container in 10 years ( I'm certain there is going to be NO aftermarket parts swelling in a couple of decades for new quarter panels, or interior parts for the restoration crowd. These things were bad enough the first time around, NO ONE is going to want to restore one and hand it down to their kids for craaasits sake) But, what I am saying is that even when they try to target a segment of the population they miss by a mile. And, for the most part I wouldn't give two shits, but at some point I stumble across one of these ads on the boob tube, and it makes we wanna drop kick puppies into freeway traffic. 

 GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS... The pinup above is a girl named Lisa, who I had the opportunity to shoot for VARLA magazine, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2001 or so. The girl below - well, if you don't know her, submit yourself for drug testing immediately. 

Random shot of a girl, I took whose name I forget.. but whose cleavage will live with me forever. 

Well, if you have to put one on a stretcher....

I do not, as a matter of principal like using trailers to transport your car to a show. I prefer to drive the actual car if at all possible. However, if I had a rig as nice as this one, I may be forced to reconsider.