ROD-A-DAY:: 1931 Ford Pickup

Crusty, rusty 1931 Ford AV8 Pickup on the streets of Brooklyn.
I'm surprised how many old cars I am starting to see on the streets of this city. It gives me hope for humanity. (Thanks to owner Drew for correcting me on the model year! Shame on me.)

Ssssstingray

Collection of vintage Schwinn bikes outside of Bill's Cycles in Woodside, Queens (NY).
My boyfriend and I went on a very long (somewhere around 30 miles) bike ride this past weekend to check out Flushing Meadows park, and I hit the brakes when I saw this fine assortment of vintage Schwinn Stingrays and Fastracks outside of a bike shop on Roosevelt avenue.

Once we made it to the park, other sparkling sights from an era gone by included the giant Unisphere, constructed for the World's Fair '64/'65 (which was a horrendous failure)...


(Note the severed tree that was just part of the damage from the tornado that ripped through the area two days before, which tore down the street in front of our apartment as I was looking out the window worrying about the putrid green color of the sky...)

And the other abandoned building from the Fair, the New York State Pavilion, which used to look like this:


But now looks like a horrific abandoned futuristic circus big top, prime for the set of a B-grade slasher movie.


I was inspired to practice my circus skillz.

Rumblers NYC 10th Annual show - THIS WEEKEND

It's that time again, kiddos, for those of us in the NYC area to get our fill of flames, open exhaust pipes and slap bass at the 10th Annual Kustom Kills & Hot Rod Thrills show under the BQE, right near Union Pool.




It's only $10 to see the bands over at Union Pool, including my ol' friend Bobcat's band the Arkhams, Al & the Black Cats, Labretta Suede and the Motel 6, Rehab for Quitters, and Those Hated Hearts. I've never heard of any of those other bands, but I'm always up for good music, and have yet to be disappointed at a Rumblers show. I also have no idea what the band schedule is, as I can't find the info anywhere (the Rumblers always seem a little disorganized when it comes to promoting their yearly show, but whatever). They also have a Facebook page now, which might have more info as the week goes on. Union Pool doesn't even have a real website yet (no surprise there), and neither their Myspace page or their new blog say anything about this event either. Oh silly, lazy hipsters.

See you fools there!

Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop

Sometimes, I think New York must be heaven on Earth. Around every corner I turn or every city I look up on the internet holds some gem, some oasis from the sea of crap and mediocrity that our world generally is these days. And today, I found a fresh breath of garage air called the Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop, located in Greenfield Center, NY. It's kinda stupid that I haven't heard about them until now, because they are masters of what they do and quite well known in the hot rod community. Way to go, me! Always two steps behind.


Image from Hot Rod Revival
The two proprietors of this old school speed shop, Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell, appear to be (I say appear because I haven't been there or anything) churning out some really well-built, classically styled hot rods prime for melting salt out in Bonneville. They even have a documentary out about a trip with their cars to the Mecca of rod-racing, aptly titled "The Road to Bonneville".

I highly recommend checking them out if you are anywhere in that area. They seem like a bunch of like-minded good guys who are worth supporting. Check out more photos of their shop here and a Deuce frame buildup process article at Street Rodder mag.

Gangs of New York

©Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos, New York.
I recently became engrossed in reading about the history of 50's gangs in NYC, which has turned out to be a satisfying little bit of sociological pie to bite into. One day I happened upon a website called Stone Greasers, which extensively chronicles the the history of mid-century teen gangs, specifically in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Detroit. As you might imagine, what people now associate with the word "gang" is slightly different than what these Greaser gangs had going on...but not much. If you've seen the movie the Outsiders, you pretty much get the idea.

Point is, I think I'm so enamored with the idea of these teen gangs because it's a real-life example of the apex in which several major interests of mine converge: living in New York, mid-century ephemera and history, and counterculture. I can look at a Google Map of all the greaser gangs from the Bronx and it has extra meaning to me because I know where those places are. When I read that The Phantom Lords - a Williamsburg, Brooklyn based gang - were constantly having shoot outs on Bedford Ave., it makes me giggle as I juxtapose that mental image with the one of contemporary, hipster-centric Billyburg. I like hearing stories of miscreants of days gone by. I like knowing there were and will always be those who give a giant middle finger to the status-quo, for whatever reason. It makes me giddy on the inside. It should make you giddy too, because if you're reading my website you're probably a fan of the hot rodding lifestyle, which itself is very much a part of the "low-brow", working class, rebellious cultural history of America. Gangs, cars, porn, rock...all juicy slices of that same big aforementioned cultural pie. Deeeeelish.

Now, I had been trying with all my might to find some images of some of these gang children of New York, using every internet searching trick on every website I could think of, but with little luck. Obviously it's not like people ran around fifty years ago with digital cameras documenting the fuck out of the minutia of their life like we do now.

**Side note: During my scouring of Flickr I found a hilarious set of photos called "My Stepmom was a Celebrity Stalker in the 50's". Quite a hoot.**


Aunt Rita @13 with Jayne Mansfield, originally uploaded by whitesquirrel.

After cursing the existance of the virtual universe for twenty minutes or so (my patience has clearly been adversely effected by the internet age), I eventually found the name of a photographer, Bruce Davidson, who actually spent a summer following around Brooklyn gang, The Jokers, and documenting a season in the life of teen rebellion when he himself was only 22 :

From an NY Times article on Davidson: The photographs today portray a lost world of stickball and boardwalks, of Vaseline hair and rolled sleeves, Kent Filters and Karl Droge Big Squeeze Ices, basement dances and Susie the Elephant Skin Girl at Coney Island. The atmosphere was tight and intense, filled with flinty looks and an almost accidental glamour, where tattoos were more a fierce indoctrination than a calculated lifestyle choice.

Davidson's photos so eloquently capture the innocent rage of teenage years; such a specific emotion yet one that transcends time or place. I identify with them in many ways. They are just plain beautiful.

...I guess at this point I don't know what my original point was. Having been sick for basically the last month, my brain-power is at an all time low and at the risk of ruining what has so far been a pretty good attempt at an intelligent post, let me sum up what I'm trying to say: "Look at how cool these greaser hoods from the 50's were! Awesome! And these photos are so cool! And we name our car clubs and bands after them! Wowzers! They probably all came from shitty, poor immigrant families where they were emotionally and physically abused which is what makes kids band together in their misery as a tough-guy gang, but hey! They look so cool!"


Savage Skulls of the South Bronx
That's all, folks.

ROD-A-DAY: 1962 Chrysler 300H

For some reason today, even after a night filled with home-made sushi and one too many saki bombs, I am up at 8:30am, rifling through the photos on my computer in a highly unplanned attempt at their organization. I come to realize that I have a couple photos of cars I've taken around Brooklyn that I never bothered to share with anyone. What kind of an insensitive clod am I!? You must be furious with me.

So I uploaded them all and decided that, in at attempt to squeeze water from a stone, I will share them with you bit by bit, starting with this most magnificent '62 Chrysler 300H (to be particularly specific). A magnificent piece of two-tone machinery, presumably firing a 383 in. V8 with a 4-speed manual tranny...at least that's what this particular two door coupe model would have been manufactured with.


Satin black and glossy cherry red two-tone. Luscious, to say the least.



Assorted other angles. I still just can't get over how nice that satin finish looks.

I took these photos on N. 11th street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn probably around...jeez, like three or so years ago now and haven't seen that car since. It haunts me like a one night stand you keep wishing you could booty-call again but you were too smart (or perhaps too stupid) to ask for their number.


Reminiscing on this beaut' of a buggy made me hungry for the visual titillation of more pulchritudinous pics of the 300, manufactured from 1955 to 1965 as limited edition luxury cars focused on style, exclusivity and most importantly power. These vehicles were apparently the precursors to the America "muscle car", as they were the first models with big engines produced post-war that brought about renewed interest in the performance of your car. Heard of a Hemi? (What a stupid question.) Yeah, well these were some of the very first Chrysler models to feature the first generation of their innovative new hemispherical engine design (originally called the FirePower V8).


1960 Chrysler 300F.

Personally, and not surprisingly, my favorite years for the 300 were between 1957 and 1962. Those were the years when automobile designers were really into the whole futuristic Jetsons-airplane-aerodynamics wacko body design ideas, and locker-room "who has the biggest fin?" contests. Across the board, fins and body moulding were all the rage. Do note: '57 Dodge Coronet, '59 Ford Galaxie (also note futuristic naming!), '59 Chevy Bel Air, '60 Buick Electra, and of course, the 1959 Cadillac.


'55 Lincoln Futura (concept car) anyone?

I also firmly believe that designers like Virgil Exner, one of my favorite automobile designers of the time who, you guessed it, worked for Chrysler, were also inspired by their less "classically trained" artistic peers like George Barris and Ed Roth.


Barris went on to buy that '55 Futura concept car up above and later turned it into the original Batmobile (left). At right, Ed Roth's "Outlaw".

The Chrysler 300 also made for a pretty wicked wagon for schlepping your shit:

'62 Chrysler 300 WAGON...oh my, oh my.
...and I even found one that was converted into an ambulance. My Chrysler 300 micro fetish has now been (almost) thoroughly exhausted.

One last thing to share of extreme importance (to me): while searching around for images, I came across Plan 59 - an awesome company in Virginia that specializes in mid-century advertising and illustration, selling hi-res TIFF scans to people (ala yours truly) who graphically design junk. I am SMITTEN with them. I want to work for them photoshopping and scanning all day long. *swoon* You really do need to browse their collection, just to see how beautiful these things are. Not only that, but I can tell that the folks at Plan 59 and I both share a similar sick sense of humor. Only they swear a whole lot less than I do.


A sample of the wide range of images Plan 59 has to offer. Girls in glasses...hooray!

ROD-A-DAY:: Rumblers in Coney Island

1937 Chevy pickup (I deduce) at a recent Rumblers show in Coney Island, which I missed (as usual).
Photo from Jamie NYC via Flickr.