Beautiful

This was shot while driving west over the 520 bridge last week, just before Husky Stadium. No fancy PhotoShop tricks or pegged camera saturation, just a 50mm lens with a polarizer.

Fire up the Hydro

Big guy and I checked out the Hydroplane Museum today. This is him at the wheel of Ms. Budweiser from 1968. He didn't get it to go 190mph like they did back in the day, but he enjoyed the ride.



Its motivation - an airplane motor.



Even guys who like to go fast have senses of humor.

Less may be best when it comes to design...

but more is king when it comes to Christmas lights. I love our neighborhood.

Almost there

Just finished the first draft of a memorial piece I'm writing on John Shoemaker. John died a racers death last March at over 270 mph in a top fuel drag car. It was a sad day in the history of drag racing.

Writing about people's hot rods, race cars, and motorcycles is easy. Trying to represent their entire lives in 1500 words or less is not. This one's been a challenge for sure! It's a great honor though and I've really enjoyed getting to know Judee and Jim Shoemaker, along with other friends of the family. Great people!



As as a teaser, here's a picture from the Shoemaker photo archives of John's first dedicated drag car, an altered wheelbase '34 Ford.

The other pictures from the photo collection are amazing too. Basically, they're a walk through the history of drag racing, ranging from the late 50's to last year. Pending acts of God or Editors, the feature will run in the Spring 2009 issue of Traditional Rod & Kulture Magazine.

No more yanky my wanky...

Kills me every time. My adopted brother is Asian and turned into 'The Donger' whenever he'd get lit up as a kid.

Old 45 Racer

I shot this old privateer flat track bike my friend Casey restored last week. Sadly, on the same day I was taking pic.'s, Casey was in surgery having his second kidney removed. What a bummer. The bike is now owned by the local HD store and the kid in the picture, Ty, helped me load, unload, and jockey it around. Nice guy.

Coffee Shop Sunset & Living Room Sunrise

Did a little writing last night from my favorite coffee place. Nice sunset off the back deck.

And here's this morning's sunrise from the living room. The hump on the horizon is Mt. Rainier.

Nelson

It's a pretty small world. Four or so years back a former friend and I were heading to a swap meet and he said "hey, we gotta' pick this other dude up." OK. We grabbed the guy, headed off to the swap meet, and moved on. Little did I realize that the guy we picked up would fast become one of my closest, if not my closest friend. That dude was Josh Higgins.

So I'm into Harleys at the time along with cars. I try to pull Josh over to the dark side of cycles due to not having anyone with an old bike to ride with and I offer up a rough Indian Sport Scout to him for free, but he won't budge. He's a Hot Rod guy. In fact, in the world of period-perfect Hot Rods he's fast becoming one of THEE Hot Rod guys. Just don't tell him I said that.

At-any-rate, we'd banter endlessly over how cars were cooler than bikes or vice-versa from my end, and somewhere along the way Josh mentioned that his roommate in Hawaii, as well as in LA was into choppers. Neat. Long story short, his roommate for years was Nelson Kanno.

Nelson has shot and written for magazines for a long time now and has something like 200 or so articles under his belt. I've gotten to know him a little over the past couple of years; spent some time talking with him on the phone and such, and he's shared quite a bit of valuable info. about how not to get smoked in the magazine game with me. Real cool guy, a hard worker, and does what most just talk about.

So, while Josh and Nelson were living in Hawaii, Nelson built the bike below. At the time, the Japanese had just hit the underground Harley thing full-bore, so being half Japanese, Nelson saw an opportunity and sold the chopper to someone over there for more than he'd have ever gotten here in the US.



He then took the cash from the sale of his Shovel and proceeded to build this clean, 50's style Knucklehead.



Good dude with good taste. Aloha.

Mandrew and His Girl

A buddy and his girlfriend. Good looking couple.

Winter Issue of R&K Hits the Stands Soon

Just received my contributors copy. It'll hit the stands on December 6th, but here's a sneak peak.



A feature I shot and wrote on a friend's Indian Chief is included. I'm really happy with the layout guy's work on this one and the way he used my images.



The Indian is something else, and one of many in the owner's collection.



I also did a story on Hotrod-A-Rama, a show my friends put on up here. For every 100 garbage car shows, there's one like this. It's an absolute blast.

I know times are tough, but go buy a copy of the mag. if you can. You'll be supporting an independently created and produced magazine put together by a handful of small-timers who do it for the love. You can find copies at Barnes & Nobles or here.

Gone

Sold within 24 hours of advertising it. The cool part: A 14 year old girl and her dad bought it to re-do for her first vehicle. I like that.

G8 of H8

Gate at the entrance of an access road that leads down to one of the boat yards in the neighborhood.



Ouch.

Sunday

Nice day here - went out for a walk with the team. Something is a little off in this photo.



Too much camera gets you the stink eye.



Not only do the shoes go on the hands, the sunglasses are worn upside down. Ruler.



Ring leader, chief commander, backup photographer, and wifester.

Less Plastic

It'd be neat if newer cars had some metal in their interiors. Maybe some weirdo material on the seats too.



Wait, a lot of new cars do have weirdo material on the seats now. No metal though, just plastic. I wish the retro design thing would end and people who like old things could live their lives knowing that what they love isn't being bastardized "with a twist" by some "modern" designer who can't come up with something original of his or her own.

Really though, none of it matters, right? My old Custom 500 that the kid I sold it to nearly destroyed immediately. Note super cool leave the headlights on for picture move. Ugh.

Time for it to go

Went out and took some pictures of the old Studebaker yesterday. Time for it to go to a new home.



I had high hopes for the old thing, but I'm trying to simplify and am selling most of my projects. I'd rather spend the time with the family.



One happy running old Harley, one Harley project, and that's it. Less is more, more or less. Oh, and don't park there, OK?

'40 Mercury

Clean one from over the summer at Billetproof NW, a car show thinger. The car was on a poker run we went on too, which was cool. Always good to see folks driving 'em.

In the name of beauty

Respect the corset and the corset will respect you. Disrespect the corset and you'll end up like the lovely lady above.

Ah, the things people do and have done in the name of beauty.

Fall in Seattle

We see a lot of this in Seattle this time of year - Gray. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't rain constantly here. We also don't set around and listen to Nirvana 24 hrs. a day drinking overpriced coffee. Well, at least my family doesn't.



Big guy just wrapped up his final soccer game and had his end of year party. I have no reservations about admitting that Logan's soccer games were the highlights of my past couple months. Watching those little kids play & enjoy themselves without a care about the economy, their jobs, old motorcycles, etc. was pure and perfect. Such a good reminder of what's really important. Really hippy shit, I know.



Other than a couple family members, a few friends, and my Mom's restaurant, there aren't many things I miss about the east coast. I do miss the changing of the leaves, with their bright colors and I miss the crispness in the fall air that causes those bright colors. For reasons I'm unclear of, our leaves out here were quite vibrant this year. The tree above is in our backyard and there were lots of them with similar colors around the 'hood. It was nice.

Lame

Regardless of the price of gas, mopeds will always be lame. Always.

Things will slow down

With a much needed career change in the works, obligations to family, etc. shit is pretty heavy right now. I'm Going to focus my energy on what's important and that's not the blogger. I'll toss a little something up on the cars & bikes I'm taking pictures of and writing about or other occasional life adventures and random nonsense now and then, but it's time to hunker down.

Pic. of my Pan above by Good Luck Gary.

Thanks, Anthony

Hold

If you're milling, you better be holding. These little buggers hold the item your working on to the table.

Replace Crayons with Letter R

Lifted

From all of the pictures coming out of the desert of SoCal I've seen in mag.'s over the years, I've always wondered if the sky was really that blue. Yep, it is. Magnet crane from a friend of my buddy's scrap yard in Bakersfield. I guess it'll suck your keys out of your pocket if you get too close.

Back in the game

Soon it'll see backroads again. And city streets. Highways too.

I wish I could just ride off into it...

...because the state of our economy has me real, real worried. Sorry to be a downer but it's what's on my mind right now.

Monsters

There were a handful of these at The Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield last weekend. Yes, they're every bit as short as they look. Yes, that motor is as big as it looks. They're generally Hemi powered and run on nitro and the sound is pure glory.



Insane-o paint work. Fogging, panels, freak dots, fades, cobwebbing...you name it, these cars generally had it done to them paint-wise.

Just remember this...

Fucking A!

My friend Mike

One of the greatest people I know. And you know what's rad? His amps really do go to 11.

Fireball'n

Back from Bakersfield

The Hot Rod Reunion was one hell of a good time. There were an obscene number of vintage drag cars running hard, cool parts at the swap, and Hot Rods at Famoso raceway. That place is holy ground for sure.

Many of us were on hand to support my dear friend Steve in the loss of his late friend and partner in The American Eagle car John Shoemaker. John was an amazing dragster chassis builder and racer and I was so happy to spend time with his family and close friends again. Great people. Here's more about John, who was honored at the event and I'll be writing a story about shortly http://www.nitrogeezers.com/john_shoemaker.htm

I brought a camera, but found myself taking few pic.'s as I just wanted to have fun and enjoy the good company. The pic. above is of two Washington state buddies Hot Rods, along with our mini-van. We flew, they drove. They rule.



Here's Gary Ormsby Jr. and Corry, my friend Steve's awesome wife. Gary's dad brought sponsorship to drag racing and drove top fuel cars. Gary Jr. does the same. Nice guy.




BFF Josh (kneeling) and buddy Marshal looking over the Speed Sport car. The car is a Hemi powered, nitro burning '27 Model T with a track nose and the motor in the rear. With no traction, it ran in the high 8's in the quarter mile at over 160 mph. Pretty important car to drag racing and the owners were very nice. Josh is building a very similar car from a model A as we speak, injected Hemi and all. It's nutso.



And here's Steve, doing what he does best- Making shit happen. Great trip, great track, great cars, great friends, and a great wife for holding down the fort for a few days and keeping the team in check.

On the streets of Bakersfield

I won't be posting much over the next couple of days, as a crew of us are in Bakersfield for The Hot Rod Reunion. We ate at the place above last night, which is a Basque restaurant. I think Basque = grab whatever is leftover and serve it to people in a multiple course meal. Cow tongue, soup with salsa and beans in it, salad, spaghetti, cottage cheese with chopped chives...weird.

At-any-rate, Bakersfield is holy ground for vintage drag racing and there's ten of us down here in this dust bowl so it's a good time. I've heard the area surrounding the track is beautiful and that they farm flowers there. That'll be a welcome change because the town...well, it sucks.