Would you like that in a combo or a la cart?

So I had the chance to go Roy Brizio's open house this past weekend in South San Francisco. Wow what a treat. Brizio has an amazing shop and was working on some insanely cool cars. This is just a teaser as I'll be posting more from the trip shortly.

Poor Ford In The Rest Home

Here's the state the Ford has been in for the last few months. All alone in her cell. Hopefully things will start happening with her in the next few weeks. It pains me to see her this way.

New White Walls

So we just got the rims all trued and the new white walls put on so we started polishing up all the chrome work and giving the bike a once over. Still needs a few little details but its finally road worthy. I even took her around the block to test it out. Just need to finish up wiring the head light and install the batteries. Pretty sweet looking bike now. Bekah is pretty stoked on finally getting to ride her 60's Hawthorne.

Great Video

Bat For Lashes - Whats a Girl To Do

Daily Quotes From Jason

My brother Jason has been providing me daily quotes via instant message while we are both at work. I'm going to share these here.

Tis' healthy to be sick sometimes.- Henry David Thoreau.

There is no more fatal a blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. - Henry David Thoreau.

My only witness is the empty sky. - Jack Kerouac.

A Taste Of The Latest Acqusition

This is just a little tease of the latest addition to the garage collection. Pretty sweet craigslist find by Bekah. I'll be sharing more on this in the near future. I've been busy organizing the garage and putting up new shelves. Just about ready to start on the next phase of Lucy the Comet. I just finished up painting the battery tray and collecting all sorts of new parts including 2" lowering springs to get her a little closer to the ground. My Friend Brian came up with a brilliant battery hold down system this weekend and TIG welded the stainless steel to make it happen. Dude is talented. I'll post the project this week. I can't wait to get started on Lucy.

A Well Lit Path

Lexus doesn't have a thing on ford. If you've seen the commercials for the Lexus RX with active headlights that turn when you're going around a corner and think this is a wonderful new idea, think again. Recently I found this great aftermarket spot light manufactured by the General Automotive Products company of Chicago around 1950. The "Turn-a-beam" automatic spotlight which replaces the center grille bullet on the fords magically "turns with the wheels". I scored me a NOS kit that has never even been opened. Still brand spanking 1950 new in the box. I don't even know if I can bring myself to open the box to install it. I may put this one away for safe keeping and try and locate another to actually use. I also scored a vintage amber spot light which was manufactured by "Safe T Scope" but doesn't have the wonderful turning functionality. We'll see which actually gets used but either way some pretty neat stuff.

Future Elements

So I was browsing the artwork on one of the HAMB Friday Art Show posts and came across a piece by Dwayne of Future Elements design. It should be obvious why I was drawn to it. We'll I proceeded to contact Dwayne to see about how I might procure my own piece of this artwork. A deal was made and a few days later I was the proud owner of signed print #15/60. I'd post the actual picture if I had it but I already dropped it off for custom framing, I was too excited to wait. I also purchased 2 other prints by Dwayne which should be delivered early next week.

Sand Buggy - DP Custom Fab

I took these pics of Randy's Sand Buggy which my friend Dustin at DP Custom Fab is currently doing all the custom aluminum body panels. This guy is a real artist, his metal fab skills are incredible. These pics don't do this work justice. I'm hoping to get more pics once the metal work is complete and hope to be able to represent how remarkable this thing is.

Shoebox Update - '56 Ford

So earlier I mentioned that I wanted to add '56 Ford headlight rings to my '50. Ok I totally stole the idea from the model car but hey it looked great so why not. Well thanks to eBay I'm the proud owner of a decent set of 1956 Ford headlight rings. I love getting gifts in the mail. Hopefully Todd can help me actually make these work on the car.

Tony Ray-Jones

I was watching a series on the Ovation Network called "The Genius of Photography" as part of the episod "Paper Movies" they disucssed British photographer Tony Ray-Jones. Tony spent time in among many other famous street photographers in New York during the early and mid 1960's. As part of the story they showed some hand written notes Jones had made during his time in New York. I found the notes to be simple and probably obvious to most but I still found them to be the very things I need to work on and be thinking about. For some reason they just struck accord with me. I've shared the notes below but will be less dramatic than seeing the actual hand written notes from Jones himself. Hopefully they will inspire and motivate some aspect of your own life even if it has nothing to do with photography.

Tony Ray Jones - Photographer Notes NYC 1965?

-Be more aggressive
-Get more involved (talk to people)
-Stay with the subject matter (Be patient)
-Take simpler pictures
-See if everything in background relates to subject matter
-Vary composition
-Be more aware of composition
-Don't take boring pictures
-Get in closer
-Watch camera shake
-Don't shoot too much

2008 Rise of the Moustache

According to an article on MSN 2008 may just see the return of the beard and moustache to popular status. Of course being ahead of the trends several family and friends were already growing the beard/moustache before this hit the presses. Around the holidays Jason, Chris, Tyson and I were all growing the beards with the intention of eventually shave all but the moustache. Sadly this all started while Tyson and I were both happend to see a segment of "Fashionably Late with Stacy London" which was airing a piece about moustaches and had members from the Amercian Mustache Institute on the show. We were instantly inspired then and there to grow a moustache even against the wishes of the women in our lives. Stay tuned for the results of the great holiday moustache spectacular.

Insert Title Here

Just a few interesting things I found while roaming the free range interweb. Came across this really neat site from Steve Boutte who builds custom model cars. His attention to detail is amazing and the custom touches are just beautiful. His photography of the finished product is supurb as well. Looks like it came right out of the pages of Rodders Journal. I'm taking inspiration from the green '49 Ford he built and thinking about also adding the '56 ford headlight rings so I'll be watching eBay for a good deal.

Soft spot for the ole Ford

While on a visit to the local Barnes&Noble I happend across a copy of 125 magazine. While flipping through I came across this great feature from Nick Clements from the UK. The editorial featured several 50's Fords which are near and dear to my heart but beyond that the photos were just incredible. I think his portfolio has some of the strongest styling of anyone I've seen. The locations, models, wardrobe every little detail was just precision. There's no way to tell these weren't taken in the actual era they are portraying. Totally amazing work and will be going on my personal inspiration board.

Fresh start and little bit of retro steel

So it's about time I began to post. Just never seem to have the time. While I was so diligently working away I cam across this fantastic retro furniture company who had some listings on ebay. You should totally check out this stuff from Twenty Gauge. I love how solid these pieces are and that they are finished in the clear coated steel. I'd love to throw down for one of their sweet 4 leg desks and a Steno chair. Prices are a bit more than I'd love to pay but I would expect these prices for pieces this substantial.

On a very sad note they finally started demo of beloved Sugar House this week. This has been delayed for quite a while and everyone had hoped that at the very least the exteriors could be saved and keep some of the charm of the area alive, but no, greed has struck a painful victory once again. One of the last few places in the city with any sense of character and style is now gone to pave way for more bland, boring, cold corporate buisness. I really hope people will boycott the new businesses once construction is complete. Nothing would make me happier than for Mr. Mecham's greedy project to be an utter failure and I hope he loses millions in the process.

A Little Hate Always Hurts