Over at Mister Cartoon’s spot (here), he brought us all along for the premiere of Danny Trejo’s latest film, “Machete.” If you saw Quentin Tarantino’s “Grindhouse” experiments a few years ago, you woulda seen a mock trailer for this film, set as part of an entire Seventies-New York City-grindhouse-B movie experience. We dug the trailers more than the two movies, actually –– and we were stoked to hear that Trejo’s cameo in the whole deal is now an actual feature film, itself.

Can’t have a Trejo premiere without some tasty candy lowriders, so eat your hearts out, kids. And line up a date in the air-conditioned theater this weekend for…”MACHETE!”

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a prayer for cool from Marc Bencivenga on Vimeo.

So, we were up at Rolfe Brittain’s shop one day a few weeks ago working on the hot rod, when he’s all, “Hey, uh, I gotta leave at, like, around 3 today…helping out on a shoot. Brent, have you seen that diaper around? OK, guys, uh, I gotta get outta here…uh, where are my sunglasses?”

And then we see THIS. First student film by Marc Bencivenga for a class project and Rolfe helped out. His custom paint is on a few of those bikes, too. Rolfe fully rocks the wings and the stogie.

Years ago, I needed to sell my ‘97 Dodge pickup. Neat truck. Clean, green, bone-stock machine. And after peeling all the goofy factory decals off, I put a small, single Coop “Smoking Devil” sticker in the rear window.

Turns out, my dad bought it from me and drove it from San Francisco back across the country to my small home town in Pennsylvania. Now, suffice it to say, my dad doesn’t, uh, travel in the same circles as I do. And he may have noticed that decal in the window, but probably shrugged it off as just something the kid found somewhere –– just something he’d have to attack with a razor blade and a towel full of Goo-Gone before selling it, himself.

I put that decal in the window in the Nineties to make a subtle statement. Let the passing world know that I was a hotrodder and part of the “underground” that you wouldn’t even notice unless you knew, dude. Nothing more than a stoat sweating away in the corporate world, I wanted to make a small statement in the underground parking lot at work. And nothing was more universally iconic of that first decade of Kar Kulture than Coop’s “Smoking Devil.”

But my dad didn’t know that. None of this was even remotely on his radar.

Until, back in the sleepy burg I grew up in, he pulled into a Texaco station with the truck on the way home from church one Sunday. He called me that evening and told me about the bewildering experience of a random stranger calling out to him from across the tarmac, asking him if he was “into hot rods.” Dad didn’t know what to make of that question, since he hadn’t ever really been asked before and wondered what prompted it. The stranger kept chatting in the way that you do at the gas pump sometimes and Dad played along, albeit somewhat awkwardly.

Finally, the stranger must’ve caught on to Dad’s confusion and pointed to the little Coop sticker in the rear window of the truck (that he must’ve spotted from about 20 yards off) and said, “But you got that Devil sticker –– figgered you musta been into hot rods and stuff…”

Get this 50-run, limited-edition “Mark Of The Beast” giclee print from Coop (here).

If you are anywhere near Portland Oregon, or can bum enough gas money, or steal a car with a full tank, make sure to check out Larry Mills’ new show opening next week at Lyrik. Larry is part of a group of hotrod psychos out of Santa Barbara. We’ve put Larry through a lot over the last few years and he has taken some absolute all-time shots of Cole Foster’s ‘36, the Purple People Eater and a few other bad ideas me and Stoner had. He is one of the guys that is going to make this generation of Hot Rodders live forever. Make sure you don’t miss this show. After you look at the photos here, make sure you check out more of Larry’s work on his site: larrymillsphotography.com

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