On Sunday, the 19th, HBO is gonna unveil a new show for those of us who miss The Sopranos, dig Center-Door Ts, appreciate the cut of a vintage-vintage wool suit, wish we could wear bowlers without the Steam Punk, drink real mountain liquor, could get into a pair of spats, love wainscoting and tin ceilings, hate wall-to-wall carpeting, horde Shriver’s saltwater taffy, miss Simms dining hall, thrill on mechanical brakes, could start calling a steering wheel a “tiller,” appreciate the commitment to hair jelly, own the ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’ soundtrack, warm up to anything powered by a vacuum tube, recognize the societal contribution of Bakelite, would drive a hundred miles for a decent haircut and like drinking in backrooms.

Scorsese’s “Boardwalk Empire.” This should be good.

This just in from Brian Fox of King Chassis: a video of Roy Ranquist, showing exactly how to run a true nostalgia FED (front engine dragster), circa 1965, in 2010. Stance is right, driver’s not sitting too high, no goofy wings, right hoop shape, motor’s positioned correctly, perfect attitude, check. It CAN be done, folks. We just need a few more adherents…

If you live anywhere near the San Francisco Bay Area or at least have been to that cluster-F otherwise known as “Viva Las Vegas” once in the last ten years, you know the one and only Guido. Guy’s a hotrodder through and through and beyond the dirty hot dog suit and the cream corn-filled kiddie pool at the Vegas car show, he’s been down with the hot rod sickness for many a year.

His latest is a pretty cherry and fairly complete, barn-fresh, running, stocker, flat-black ‘17 Model T Touring. And the sucker’s for sale! “I just couldn’t start cutting it,” he gives as the reason it’s for sale. From what we can tell, the only thing missing from the ol’ girl is part of the brass bugle horn and one of those tear-away pressed white collars for your wool three-piece suit.

Drop us a line here if you wanna see more pics or are interested enough to go see it. We’d take it, but we don’t have room or a pair of spats.

Danny Trejo aka Machete lowriding with Mister Cartoon from SA Studios Global on Vimeo.

Could there be a better day than a late afternoon cruising with Cartoon, EO and Danny Trejo? We think not. Well, maybe if Mickey Rourke and Mark Mahoney came along. That would be cool.

So, you built yourself a neat little rigid Pan, painted the tank in psychedelic metalflake and now you’re running those vintage Avons right off the bike, going to all the Born Free shows and Dave Mann runs. Kewl.

But here’s the thing: you ain’t as young as you used to be. You got some cake tied up in that bike. And as bromantic as it might be to sleep under stars with nothing but a bedroll and a Saturday Night Special, you wouldn’t be opposed to one or two creature comforts on your ride to Death Valley.

Enter the Nomad Tent Company and their 2-man pup designed to gimme-shelter to your bike, too (here). It’s a neat, lightweight (13lbs. or so), easy-to-pop tent that allows you to put up the temporary bike garage first, then quickly put up the house part from the protection of the bike part (when it’s raining). The whole thing is ingenious, but simple enough that none of your bros are gonna give you shit for gold-chaining it on the run. Matter of fact, you could even comb each other’s beards from the comfort of the just-spacious-enough tent side in the mornings before hitting the road, if you play your cards right.

Go to the Nomad site, bite your lip, close your eyes and imagine you and your Knuck tucked away for the night inside your new Tenere Expedition tent on your next outlaw weekend. And for around $400, keep that morning dew where it belongs.

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In the mid Thirties, a great convergence took place in America: the repeal of the 18th Amendment and the first wave of the ‘Streamline’ movement. What does that mean for car culture? Streamliner beer trucks, of course!

Now, we spotted this ‘37 GMC COE (Cab Over Engine) earlier this month on the ol’ Weed-For-Trade-List –– sorry, Craigslist –– and it looks like it hasn’t sold yet (here). But it’s probably the neatest streamliner delivery truck we’ve ever seen and we wish we could drum up enough cake to make this guy not laugh us off his property.

We tend to fetishize these dandies and here’s a good list to give a once-over at Hemmings (here). The Labatt’s beer truck is a well-known favorite, but we just get all tingly inside when we think that this GMC is not only available to anyone who can make a deal with the owner, but that there were apparently only ten of these ever built for Rainier Brewing and this truly might be the only one left.

Dig it!

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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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OK, so after yesterday’s Product Review Tuesdays installation on the Kings County Distillery in New York, we got quite a few notes –– including one from the Distillery’s own Colin. He cleared up a few things for us and, well, read on brethren…

“Ah yes, thanks for signing up and I just saw your latest blog post–thanks for the shoutout. I won’t take issue with your taking issue with my use of the word moonshine. I make it illegally long enough that I feel like I have earned the right to fudge that one.

But bourbon–well, if the government says I can make it outside of KY; I’m obliged to humor them. As a former Kentuckian who perpetuated the myth that bourbon must be made in KY, even after I knew better (but before I became a distiller), I feel that one deserves legtiimacy. It’s real bourbon, through and through.

In any case, thanks for the hat tip. I appreciate it.

Regars,

Colin”

We stand corrected, Colin! If you’re saying that the bourbon myth is, well, exactly that, then dammit, we’ve learned a lesson here today. Good stuff and as a Kentuckian, you’ll know what we mean when we say we’ll relegate that myth to the angel’s share. And as for the moonshine rub, we do admit that the true spirit of illicit liquor is there in your straight-off-the-drip, unaged whiskey (no need to go into details where that experience comes from). And we’re dying to try both styles!

Thanks for the note, Colin and you’ve got bail money and a bedroll waiting for you anytime you get out to Sucker Free…

Look, we’ll be the first to admit we get a little uppity when it comes to anyone slapping the word “moonshine” to just about anything. But we gotta hand it to Kings County Distillery (here): we do like their style.

Billing themselves as New York’s oldest distillery, they’re absolutely right. They opened just this past April and their license is the first since Prohibition took everything underground more than 75 years ago. And from what we can tell, they’ve got a good head of steam on this deal, here (we had to say it). We also fully dig their packaging and overall bottle design. It’s simple, straight-to-the-point and refreshingly clean.

Now, the bone we have to pick with the boys at KCD is their wanton throwing-around of holy words like “moonshine” and “bourbon.” Bourbon, see, is kinda like a French appellation when it comes to wine: it technically can only be used when the whiskey is made in those parts of Kentucky where some sort of magic dust is sprinkled over the kegs, making it honest-to-Allah bourbon.

And don’t get us started on “moonshine.” If it’s legal, taxed liquor, it ain’t moonshine. ‘Nuff said on that, right there.

But, don’t let the panties that have obviously wadded up over here at the shop get you down. The boys there at Kings County Distillery are doing the Work Of The Righteous and we’re absolutely trying to find a credit card with some space on it to order our first case of their whiskey (here). If you place an order, can we get in on it? Hmmm?

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Brian Fox, of King Chassis, sent us this action-snap from the weekend HAMB Drags at Mokan Dragstrip in Joplin, MO. Brian is one of a handful of guys (and by handful, we mean, like, 3) who are single-handedly proving that the mid-Sixties Front Engine Dragster (FED) is still the most beautiful, graceful and monstrous style of drag racing ever conceived –– and the most entertaining, fo sho.

Here he is, with a camera mounted to the front axle of his Zorba’s Ghost (you can kinda see the little guy strapped to the front-end in the righteous photo above, if you look closely there by the “passenger side” wheel) as he brings you along for the ride, bug-eye view.

So, what the hell did you do this weekend?