Totally swiped from The Royal Jokers
BACK TO THE FUTURE
January 26th, 2012
Posted by Stoner Posted in
Bring It Back, History |
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THE MISSION MAP
January 25th, 2012
The Mission Map Project from Agency Charlie on Vimeo.
If you live in (or near or are at least aware of or have been to) San Francisco, The Mission district will call you like a crack pipe, brother. As the city’s traditionally Latin neighborhood –– and one of the few perpetually sunny districts of Fog City –– it’s been successfully fighting the hipster gentrification that’s been so persistent since the dawn of the dot-com revolution that changed everything more than ten years ago. But, by that we also mean that the old Brown families of The Mission have learned to share their staked claim and live (mostly) harmoniously with all the dudes on fixies and skateboards in Rolly Fingers mustaches and their girlfriends’ jeans. Hey, they’ve got cash that they love spending $5 at a time on PBR cans and tamales from The Tamale Lady after a couple doobs in the back yard at Zeitgeist. And who are we to fault them? Laugh at them, maybe, but never ever fault them.
But there’s also a really neat side of The Mission that the white kids haven’t ruined yet: Siegel’s Mens Wear, the SFMC clubhouse (oldest continuously operating motorcycle club in the U.S.), The Verdi Club, Self Edge, The Pirate Supply Store, the mysterious Mission Creek that still runs underground, Waco Seppo’s antique furniture restoration, The Double Play, House Of Brakes, The Foxy Lady, Casa Sanchez, The Dovre Club, The Knockout Room, La Rondalla (posthumously), Mora’s Boots, Blackheart Tattoo, Grime’s Skull & Sword, Semiramas, Roosevelt Tamale Parlor, AA Top & Trim, Pretty Pretty Collective, the list just goes on.
So, Mike Giant and some of his good friends (Benny Gold, Georgia from PPC and others) are getting together to hand render a map of The Mission and we can’t wait to get our hands on one. They’ll release it at Gabe Scott’s 111 Minna Gallery soon and find out more (here). STOKED.
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PRT: LITTLE RUST
January 24th, 2012
Remember how it used to be real easy to plunk down your hard-earned lawn mowing money –– around $5 –– on the next model kit you’d been slobbering over for a whole week? And it seemed like every 5-and-dime had an aisle just for model kits and lemon-flavored Testor’s, right?
Well, those days are long gone and the model kit row is SPARSE these days, Jimmy. But John Findra over at Classic Wrecks has lit the pilot light on our cold little black hearts when it comes to the 1/24 scale world. His Classic Wrecks is a wee junkyard for the fantastic plastic we all grew up with. Now, sure –– making rusty hulks out of brand-new, gleaming styrene is nothing new. We first saw this kind of treatment with the big rig models back in the early Eighties –– but we dig his groove and we like that he’s doing it all at home in his spare time and making each little guy available on his wife-inspired Etsy site.
Right now, John’s got a ‘75 Nova, what looks like a ‘29 Lincoln roadster and a worn-out ‘96 Vette drug up from the 1/24-scale swamp and set out by the virtual tiny little road for sale. If it was up to us, we’d make sure that every model kit to get the ‘treatment’ was some off-brand weirdo marque, like an AMC Matador or a LeCar…kinda like the ‘75 Nova, there. But we dig his effort, for sure. Now, we wonder if we can use a 1/24-scale stack of cash to pay for one?
Find out more about Classic Wrecks (here) and let us know which one you’re swiping your miniature credit card for…
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Product Review |
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GIRLS OF YORE: USCHI “WEST COAST” DIGARD
January 23rd, 2012
In 1970, filmmaker Russ Meyer released his epic, “Cherry, Harry & Raquel!” Known for discovering some of the most legendary chests in B-Hollywood, Meyer had done it again with a long California desert scene in which a never-before seen Swedish transplant named Uschi Digard performed some lost-soul interpretive dance to the absolute mesmerization of just about everyone who saw it.
An archetypal “Meyer Girl,” Uschi was blessed with a knack for linguistics as much as she was blessed with her unbelievable natural proportions. As an interpreter in the international jewelry industry, she had already mastered eight languages before leaving her native Sweden for California in 1967. Seems enough people had told her to give modeling a try that she finally decided to make the most of it in the land that, well, made the most of it.
Uschi quickly became an underground sensation, flying just below the more well-known sex symbol strata of the Seventies and racked up the sheer volume of ’softcore’ adult films to prove it. During the Golden Age of the adult industry –– the Seventies and early Eighties before home video changed the landscape of everything –– Digard starred in well over 100 films, while still working with Russ Meyer and doing countless print shoots for the magazines of the era.
Posted by Stoner Posted in
Bring It Back, Culture, History |
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MOTOR BIKE EXPO IN VERONA, ITALY THIS WEEKEND!
January 20th, 2012
photo: Mark Kawakami
This weekend kicks off the Motor Bike Expo in the northern Italy city of Verona. While it seems like EVERYONE we know is gonna be there but us, send us some pics if you go. Cole will be there, along with, y’know, EVERYONE. Dang.
See more (here) and let us know how the show was, boys. Hope you’re not getting there by cruise ship…
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Art, Builders, Culture, Inspiration |
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CRAIG STECYK’S POOL SERVICE
January 19th, 2012
When we talk about the early days of skateboarding (and there’s no shortage of old guys talking about that, these days), we can really only talk about Southern California. And if we’re talking about it, we’re thinking about images from that period of time in the early Seventies made by the one and only Craig Stecyk.
And we’ll take it another step further: if we’re talking about early skate, Southern California and Craig, we have to talk about the empty pool. See, in those days, the southern half of California was experiencing a pretty severe drought, which made water a hot commodity. Which also left a ton of swimming pools –– in the land of swimming pools –– empty.
That little phenomenon helped create an entire generation of skateboarders who found the smooth concrete bowls of an empty pool the perfect simulation of a wave and from there, the subculture we all hold dear blossomed.
Craig was there to document all the early greats and some of his work is being showcased in “Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982,” a new show at the Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Springs, CA. Can’t think of a better example of a town built in the desert that relies more on the invention of the swimming pool.
You’ll find all kinds of great stuff from Stecyk, Hockney, Arbus, Ruscha and more (here). Take a look and let us know when you plan to drain your backyard oasis. We’ll be over with beers some plywood.
Posted by Stoner Posted in
Art, Culture, History |
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LOW RUSSKIES!
January 18th, 2012
We’ve said it before, but here’s just another good reason to love Russia. The “Only Dropped” car club proves once again that while not every car should be lowered, vintage Cold War-era bread boxes can and definitely should be. Sure, there’s a new GAZ-built VW in the mix and whatever on that, but we totally dig on the scene these kids are creating for themselves. Can’t help but think the interwebs had much to do with fueling this low flame: this club is heavily influenced by the lowrider scene they’re picking up on in Japan, which is directly influenced by what was found in East L.A., which found its roots in New Mexico and El Paso. Dig THAT. And find out more about Only Dropped (here).
Posted by Stoner Posted in
Builders, Culture, History, Inspiration |
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PRT: D-n-D WITHOUT THE 77-SIDED DICE
January 17th, 2012
Well, it’s a little bit of a stretch, but we’ll take it: Dan And Dave (get it?) have released a neat set of playing cards suited for a road trip weekend or a knotty pine-paneled old man den. And it’s this week’s Product Review Tuesday.
In one of the more amusing descriptions we’ve seen, the cards come be-plaided in “Striking Arizona Red and Casual California Blue.” Now, that’s funny. Each deck comes complete with little reminders on the adhesive tab, like, “Play Fair” and other nonsensical things. Speaking of which, there’s also some bitchin’ 8-point illustrations, extra-good gems like “Bad Luck Is Bad Play” and a neat leatherette box for each deck. That “leatherette” must be the same stuff that lines the trunk of a ‘63 Riviera.
Anyhoo, get your deck at Dan & Dave right (here) and let us know when you’re getting a regular game together. We’ll be over and we’re good for a bottle of Rebel Yell. And if you buy a dozen packs, you’ll get ‘em in a really neat case, to boot.
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Product Review |
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THE GERMAN-BACKED, ARGENTINIAN-BORN, CUBAN GUERILLA LUXURY CAR SPOKESGUY
January 16th, 2012
In an all-too familiar, clueless media blunder that seems to be defining the ‘Aughts,’ Mercedes-Benz introduced their “revolutionary” new car-sharing program in Vegas last week at this year’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show) with the help of a M-B logo-ed Che Guevara. Nice one, Dieter.
The new, zippy thingie that the M-B Chairman was trying to wow the audience with was his CarTogether app that allows new M-B owners to find others who need a ride and/or are willing to share one. Now, if Che hadn’t been killed by the Bolivians back in the late Sixties, he might actually get behind the idea of communal ride shares and other cool shit that the new Mercedes apparently does. Maybe the idea of a revolution really is only some new digital app coming through the dash of an expensive import and not something like, say, oh..we don’t know…using social media to usher in the Arab Spring to change the face of the political landscape of an entire race. Maybe that’s what the Germans were trying to get across to the glazey-eyed minions who were more than likely just stopping by the M-B stage on their way to the AVN awards last week, but we wouldn’t know because the few, brief seconds that Che showed up on the screen behind Zetsche is all anyone’s talking about these days.
Awesome. Well, at least the same medium and the show dedicated to it was able to bring it to our attention and Mercedes-Benz has apologized for the gaff. Look, it’s not like the Dear Mustachio-ed Leader was intentionally making a comparison between one of the most insane mass-murderers of the Twentieth Century and his car company –– he’s probably painfully-enough aware of his own history as a German and the familiar ring of that –– but this shit needs to be properly vetted before it hits the biggest electronics show on the planet. Lesson: don’t blindly trust your hipster internet guy with your public-facing shit. Let the older, wiser, grey-haired whose seen a few things in his day take a look over your stuff before it goes live. And don’t forget the spell-check, for chrissakes.
See more mustache insanity (here).
Posted by Stoner Posted in
Culture, History |
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YOUR DAD’S CAR
January 11th, 2012
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Awright, it’s part of a Chevy TV spot we’re pretty sure you’ve seen already, so is this is a true story? Well, that might not be as important as the rest of the thing, once you watch it all the way through.
As car guys (and chicks), this is one of the holy grails of gearheaddom: finding the car your dad/uncle/grandpa/mom/aunt/great uncle/older brother/old neighbor/just old guy you kinda know once had, buying it and reuniting the two after umpteen years.
We were fortunate enough to do this very thing a few years ago with a Henry J street racer and its original builder, Jim Savoy, here in San Francisco. Reunited him with the car after the car had been stolen from his shop more than 35 years ago. Still sends a shiver up the spine.
So, is this story about the Goldwood Yellow ‘65 Impala SS true? In our minds, it is. And that’s really all that matters. Keeps us looking for the cars that the old guys say are long gone…
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Bring It Back, Culture, History |
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