Professor Denise Sandoval Ph.D. is a Professor of Chicano/a/x Studies at CSU Northridge and an expert on the culture and history of lowriding. Professor Sandoval has curated several museum exhibits including a current show Viva Viclas at CAM Gallery in Raleigh, NC and previous shows at the Petersen “La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels (2007-08), Arte y Estilo: The Chicano Lowriding Tradition (2000), and The High Art of Riding Low: Ranflas, Corazón e Inspiración (2017-18). In this episode we talk about the history and origins of lowriding, the impact and influence of the Chicano/a/x identity on car culture, and a whole lot more. This episode was recorded in January 2020.

Ryan Cochran is the creator of the HAMB and the Jalopy Journal, he runs the Garage Journal, and is an incredibly talented writer with great taste in cars. In this episode we talk traditional hot rods, custom cars, Texas car culture, and a whole lot more. This episode has it all- hear how Ryan escaped being kidnapped at Paso Robles, his accidental inadvertent drug trafficking, and how he got banned from a bar for defending a cardboard cutout of Paul Walker & Vin Diesel.

Episode 23 is here! This episode is my interview with Ralph @88Mango Ascencio. Ralph is an incredibly talented painter and custom car builder from Reseda, CA and is responsible for some of the wildest and paint jobs around. In this interview we talk cars, punk rock, custom paint, and a whole lot more, available now on your platform of choice! #metalflake #wildchild #wildchildhos #kustompaint #choptop #traditionalkustom #kandy #bombcitypodcast

RJ Diaz is a big part of the Bay Area custom car & traditional lowrider world and I was stoked to get a chance to talk cars with him for this episode of the podcast. His 1973 metalflaked and panel painted Buick Riviera “The Mothership” excellently showcased his taste and talents and is one of the many things we covered in this fun late-night episode. RJ has been building cars for a long time and he had a lot of great insight into how he approaches doing custom fabrication work & installing hydraulics at his new business RJ’s Hydraulics! Recorded in Newark, CA 2/21/19

The first ever Halloween Special is here! This episode is a joint-effort between Bob & Aaron of the Wheels of Confusion Podcast with Nic & Josie of Bomb City. In this episode we watch and discuss the John Carpenter & Steven King 1983 masterpiece “Christine”. If you haven’t seen this movie before we’d recommend watching it first, but there’s still plenty of non-Christine conversation that you can still appreciate without being too familiar with the film. Beware, shitters of the world! Recorded in an echoey hotel room in Lancaster, CA October 2018.

On this episode we have the incredibly talented painter Phil Leonard of Syrarium Studios! In this interview Phil talks about his style, inspiration, roots as a painter, and give some insight into how he creates the signature wild panels and beautiful color combos he’s known for. Recorded in Hollister, CA  8/2018

The long awaited Episode 20 is finally here! On this jam packed episode we’ve got Ross, the researcher and legendary instagrammer @46to64, talking custom cars, history, car clubs, and a whole lot more! Ross is a passionate researcher who goes through a lot to bring us some of the most important, interesting, and informative glances into custom car past that we’ve ever had access to. Looking through old yearbooks, magazines, newspaper archives, and the depths of the darkest corners of the internet (like Facebook) Ross has managed to breathe new life into the journalistic practices of the past and has used that to create a spectacular Instagram account for us all to enjoy. Recorded in Oakland and Michigan by way of Skype 5/26/18

Jason Webber of At the Risers (ATR), builder of the 1951 Panhead “Booger Sugar”, winner of the People’s Choice award at Born Free 7, joins Billy and Nic by phone to talk choppers, skateboarding, BMX, family, and a whole lot more in this episode of the podcast. Jason has been involved with Born Free since its inception and shared some great insight into what it was like to build a bike for the show, and talks about some lessons he’s learned while raising a family and building rad choppers. Recorded 8/24/17 in Oakland, CA

  Here’s a short video highlighting our trip up to the Norcal Knockout in Josie’s 57 Chevy. We had an awesome time up there, it was a huge honor to be invited into the Hall of Fame, and it was a huge and humbling honor to be awarded Kyle Martin’s Knockout Paint award. Song on the video is Goldfinger’s cover of Nena’s 99 Red Balloons, which again seemed particularly relevant given all the craziness in the world right now.

I had a great time checking out Skoty’s shop in Hayward and managed to grab a few pictures while I was there. Skoty had a awesome collection of Zephyr “stuff” in the office where we did the interview, as well as some killer in-progress kustoms, and some really impressive builds for customers on the floor of his shop. I had a great time checking it out and I hope you folks dig it too. Thanks for looking!  

Skoty Chops has a true passion for building cars, pushing his limits, and for self-improvement. In this interview Skoty sits down with Nic to talk about his craft and motivation for working on hot rods, building customs, learning and teaching metalshaping, coachbuilt cars, and about his passion for Lincoln Zephyrs. Recorded 7/30/17 at Skoty Chops shop in Hayward, CA

Roger Miret, singer of Agnostic Front, Roger Miret and the Disasters, and founding member of the Rumblers Car Club sits down with Nic & Billy at his Arizona home to talk cars, punk rock, architecture, records, and a little bit of everything in this episode of the Bomb City Podcast. Roger talks through the build of his radical custom 1954 Chevy ‘Morphine’, tells some great stories from the early days of the New York Hardcore scene, talks about working on their amazing 1961 Schreiber home, and a whole lot more! Recorded 6/4/17 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Freddy Corbin of Temple Tattoo and Tattoo 13 in Oakland, CA has been tattooing in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 30 years, and sat down with Nic on the 19th anniversary of Temple Tattoo’s opening to talk about tattooing, tradition, Temple Tattoo, and talk through how the recent “Tattoo School” controversy went down in this episode of the Bomb City Podcast. Recorded 5/5/17 in Oakland, CA.

‘Fabulous’ Freddie Nandin of Fabulous Freddie’s Custom paint in Arizona and guest cohost Billy Parker from Los Boulevardos Car Club Arizona join Nic over the phones to talk about custom cars and traditional lowriders, talk about custom paint, crack jokes, share stories about haunted auto shops, runaway wheels, and building custom cars made to be driven in this episode of the Podcast. If you like breakdown stories and close calls you’re going to dig this episode.  Recorded 3/30/17 in Oakland, CA and Phoenix, AZ by way of Skype.

Jeremy Jack and Kyle Martin of the new shop Martin Kolor and Style are members of the Squires Car Club,  residents of Napa CA, and are this episode’s guests on the show. For Kyle Martin building hot rods and customs is a family tradition, and with the help and support of his friend and business partner Jeremy he’s able to put his special touch on a lot more cars through their shop Martin Kolor and Style. Both Kyle and Jeremy have some great stories and strong opinions on how to make a custom car special, and you can hear all that and more in this episode of the podcast. Recorded 2/24/17 in Napa, CA

Dirty Donny sits down with Nic & returning guest Mike LaVella for a great conversation about art, cars, vans, pinball, D&D, punk rock, wizards, monsters, and a whole lot more! Dirty Donny is a huge artist in the Kustom Kulture art world and has recently branched out in a ton of new and interesting directions, including doing custom pinball machines for bands like Metallica, Aerosmith, and the Hellacopters. If that mix of bands sounds strange, check out this interview, it’ll all make sense. Recorded 1/11/17 in San Francisco, CA.

Gene Winfield- Legendary custom car builder, hot rodder, metal fabricator, and designer sat down with Matchstick, Josie, and Nic to talk about everything from how Gene got his start lowering cars and building hot rods in his mom’s chicken coop in Modesto, CA to the present day where a nearly 90 year old Gene still swings a hammer and continues to innovate creating some of the most unique and futuristic designs of all time. Gene really opened up in this interview and gave some fascinating insight into his time building hot rods and drag racing in Japan in the 1950’s, working on the Ford Custom Car Caravan, his friendship with Syd Mead, his work building TV and Movie cars with AMT like the Galileo shuttlecraft for Star Trek, what he’s thinking about when he lays out his signature blend paintjobs, and more in this incredible interview. It’s a great podcast to wrap up the first year of this show and an great look forward into some of the exciting stuff going on in the custom car world for 2017.

This time of year means a lot of things to me, everyone is constantly scrambling from place to place getting ready for the holidays, the weather in California finally catches up to us and we bust out the winter gear for our few frigid nights in the sub 50’s, and bloggers like me get a little time to get caught up on unfinished business while our coworkers are enjoying eachother’s company at holiday parties. Before I sign off for the end of the year I wanted to revisit a post I made a while back on the Los Boulevardos Forum, which was the first place I got to dip my toes into the world of online communication and longer form writing. This one always comes to mind this time of year because I can still feel the cold hopelessness of banging on an empty warehouse door looking for answers and not knowing how this was all going to end. If you’re a romantic like me about old metal shops and local hot rodding history I think you’ll get a kick out of it too, so here it is: my story of  (to the best of my knowledge) the last Mor Drop axle.

Bruce Gossett is an insanely talented painter, illustrator, and hot rodder. In this episode Bruce and Nic sit down at Bruce’s workshop in Sacramento to talk about how Bruce found his way into a career in art, hot rods, screenprinting and almost standup comedy. Recorded in West Sacramento, 11/5/16

Below are some pictures I took at Rollin’ and Rocking at Thee Parkside a few weeks ago. This show was a lot of firsts for me, I’d never been to Thee Parkside before, which is something of an anomaly since I’ve been to nearly every other venue in the Bay, so it was great to finally see the stage that I’d always historically passed on seeing some great bands on. That much is definitely my mistake, Thee Parkside (good lord, it frustrates me more and more every time I type out that vestigial “e”. Were we confusing this with another Parkside? Did this fix it? Anyways…) was a great venue in a surprisingly chill part of the City, I have a feeling we’ll be back to this place again soon. Another first for me was, perhaps also surprisingly, this was my first “van show”. Sure, I’ve seen vans at car shows before, but this was something different, a place where the oddball vanner life accessories and aesthetic is cherished, a show where people have nicknames, a show that starts late, people park wherever, and the show goes on “until it’s over”. Based solely on my now one experience with van shows they seem to be on a whole other level than your typical car show, and that much I really dug. No one seemed to be trying to prove much of anything, the crowd was chill, there was no urgency…

No matter what your political party or affiliation, no matter what your stance on the big issues is today, I think we can all agree that this election cycle has beat the hell out of us, and I think we’ll all be glad when it’s over. If you, like me, have found yourself surfing between news websites, political blogs, and strange YouTube channels today and finding yourself stressed out about the results at the ballots today I think you’d appreciate some solace, so here’s my contribution to that. Below are a few links to interesting stuff on the web that is wonderfully politically neutral, there are no attack ads or threats of impending doom. Enjoy, and remember in a few days this is all history.

Creator of Gearhead Magazine, Author of “The Hot Rod World of Robt. Williams” and “Cole Foster and Salinas Boyz Customs: Style. Substance”, Member of Pittsburgh, PA’s seminal hardcore punk bands Half-Life and Real Enemy,  Mike LaVella sits down with Nic and Josie to talk about self publishing, punk rock, cars, hot rods, careers, and trace back Mike’s roots in the early days of Pittsburgh’s hardcore scene. Recorded 10/10/16 in Oakland, CA.

Intergalactus: a psychedelic art show from another world. Glittering cacti & fluorescent succulents made from resin casting, rubber casting, blown glass, and more. Recorded 10/8/16 at Somewhere Else To Go gallery in Berkeley, CA. Art show by Elrod and Mayra “Hellabreezy” featuring their work as well as Bay Area artists Brandy Esparza, Josie Celeste, Aetherspark, and O.Traux. Soundtrack by Kenn Chron(icles) BLOVED Music.

  Here are some of the pictures I took of Brian Jennings’s incredible mild custom 1960 Chevy Biscayne from our recent interview. You can hear all about this build, the crazy schedule, the mild custom touches, and what inspired  Brian in  Episode 9 of the Podcast.

Video by Josie Celeste

Billetproof in Antioch 2016 was one of my favorite years of this show so far. Was it because of the clear skies? The great variety of cars? Was it because I didn’t have anything to do besides wander through the show, take pictures, avoid roasting to death under the burning sun and enjoy the scenery?

Brian Jennings of Kustoms By Jennings in Concord, CA sits down with Nic to talk about Brian’s freshly finished panel-painted  mild custom 1960 Chevy Biscayne, tell some great stories about drag racing motorcycles, discuss how he learned the trade, talk about his plans for Kustoms By Jennings, and a whole lot more! Recorded 9/24/16 in Concord, CA

I awoke that morning in shock, incredulous at the electric glowing phone in my hand that was proudly displaying the time with myriad of bells, whistles, and lights emanating from its cold façade. Four AM. I hadn’t seen this side of the clock in quite some time. Begrudgingly, I dragged myself out of bed, slipped myself into the pile of clothes I’d set out the night before, and washed my face in the sink, doing my damnedest to make sense of the world at this ungodly hour. Four fifteen, time to hit the road. I took my dog out back and stared at the misty halo surrounding the moon as he took care of his business in the cold. I put my dog back to bed, gathered my things, and hugged my sleeping wife tightly and kissed her forehead while she muttered some soft-spoken broken sentences of encouragement half asleep to me. I grabbed my gear, started the car, and punched the address into my phone. Lancaster, CA, a decent little trip from my house in East Oakland, I was on schedule to be there somewhere around 10am. It’d been a while since I was out on the open road by myself. When I was younger, I drove a truck for a construction company and delivered parts to jobsites all over the state. The long hauls down endless highways to all corners of the Golden state are where I discovered…

Matchstick, creator of Custom Vanner Magazine, sits down with Nic and Bob Helfrich to talk about his shop Matchstick Customs, Custom Vanner Magazine, working with Gene Winfield, learning from Fay Butler, Custom vans, Vanning culture, hot rods, customs, metal shaping, screenprinting, publishing, psychology, and more! Recorded 8/20 in Lancaster, CA.

Joe Compani, Ryan Campi, and Travis Duffy are the outstanding team at Compani Color and have body worked and painted some amazing and award-winning cars. In this episode Nic sat down with them at their shop in Hayward, CA to talk hot rods, customs, muscle cars, and hear stories about some of the incredible cars they’ve worked on. From their humble beginnings working in a local collision repair shop or pushing a broom at Roy Brizio’s Street Rods in South San Francisco, Joe and Ryan have been friends since High School and worked their way up to opening up a shop of their own, where they’ve recently been joined by Travis and continue to put in hard work and crank out flawless paint jobs on some of our generations most significant cars.

Here’s a few pics from Instagram that show some of the cars we talked about in the interview. I know in these interviews we sometimes cover a lot of ground pretty quickly, so I wanted to make some attempt to make these more accessible for people less familiar with the work that these guys do and give you something to look at when you listen to the episodes. Thanks for listening!

The Dragoons Car Club’s annual “Nite of the Hot Rods” is one of my favorite shows in the Bay Area. I’m not sure what exactly it is about this show that makes it so unique; is it the fact that the Riverview Lodge is the perfect venue? Is it the goofy and good-natured spirit of the host club The Dragoons? Is it the fact that it’s free? Is it the local punk rock bands, the ever-present wind over the Suisun Bay and the setting sun as this show goes on into the evening? I don’t know, but there’s something special about this show that I really enjoy. It reminds me of simpler times where friends met up in person instead of by smartphone, where new builds were discovered by going out to a show or cruise night instead of on social media, and where new bands were discovered because they were playing at a show instead of popping up on your streaming service of choice. With that said, here are a handful of pics I managed to squeeze in between the crowd, I can’t wait until next time.

Here are a few pics I took last weekend at the Third Annual Custom Capital car show in Prunedale, CA. A lot of work went into making this happen, and I owe a huge thanks to Juan, Jesus, and the whole Deadend Magazine family for all the effort that they put into creating what’s become one of my new favorite NorCal car shows. We had a great time down there, and I look forward to making it down for the next one.  

Coby Gewertz is the creator of Church Magazine,  Church Equipped, and the legendary custom 1963 Econoline Van Go. In this interview he sat down with Nic and Josie to talk about his past, present, and future projects, hot rods, customs, drag racing, photography, art, and more! Recorded 6/18/16 at Wyldwood Studios in Berkeley, CA

In a subculture rooted in nostalgia, moving forward and creating something new can be extremely difficult. There will always be naysayers clutching firmly to tradition shaking their heads at anything new or different, simply refusing to participate in the new out of some strange allegiance to a faded past. It’s no surprise that moving the West Coast Kustoms show from Paso Robles to Santa Maria in 2009 would have been met with this same obstinacy, because Paso was truly something special to be a part of. However, after spending last weekend at the 8th Cruisin’ Nationals in Santa Maria I’m confident in saying the reluctance to accept this place as the new home of WCK’s show has been at best misguided, and at worst hindered the evolution of our corner of the automotive world.   I will always hold my time at Paso dear to my heart, but in hindsight can now appreciate that the thing that made Paso so special wasn’t just the town, it wasn’t just the park, and it wasn’t just the little hangouts scattered about all over at night. Paso was special because we made it mean something, we assigned value to it, we embraced it, and we made it happen. Santa Maria is no different. My nostalgia for pulling off the freeway and cruising down Spring Street into a wild world ground scraping hot rods, flame spitting customs, glittering kandy dipped lowriders, and the cacophony…

In this episode Nic talks with Donny Welch and Bill Ganahl at South City Rod and Custom. It’s a fun conversation that is rich in custom car history, goes deep into hot rodding philosophy, and is full of great stories about working on such legendary cars as the Pierson coupe, the Breece coupe, the Lepesh pickup, the Calori car, and more! . Recorded 5/21/16 at South City Rod and Custom in Hayward, CA.

Last weekend was the grand opening of our friends at Deadend Magazine’s new flagship store in Salinas, CA. It was a great time, every time I make it down to Salinas I find myself wondering why I don’t make it out to this town more often. Their shop at 16 Midtown Lane seems to be in the perfect neighborhood, it’s a charming part of town that reminds me a lot of my hometown (as it was when I was a kid, at least). The street was packed with exactly the wide range of cars and bikes you’d expect for a Deadend event; customs, hot rods, and lowriders were parked in every open spot down Midtown Lane.

Last night’s opening of the TEASE(D) show at Somewhere Else at 1212 San Pablo in Berkeley was a huge success. The show featured “Big Hair” Themed art pieces curated by the Bay Area artist Elrod at the new gallery that she opened with Mayra “Hellabreezy”.

Elrod (@mexakitsch) and Mayra (@hellabreezy)   have been contributing to the Bay Area art community and custom culture for years, and recently they opened up a gallery space in Berkeley called Somewhere Else . In this  episode Elrod, Mayra, my wife Josie and I sat down late at night in Elrod’s glitter-packed studio in Oakland and talked about Art, Culture, their upcoming TEASE(D) show, and the conversation quickly turned into one of the goofiest episodes of the podcast yet. Recorded in Oakland, CA 3-30-16

Aaron Groesbeck and Brandon Flaner are the incredibly talented builders behind East Bay Speed & Custom. In this interview I went out to their shop in Concord, CA to talk with these two about their most recent project Mickey’s Mouse, a hot rod with deep roots in the Bay Area show scene from the early 60’s. The conversation gives you a pretty good insight into how these young guys are putting out the amazing work that they do, and why legendary custom car builders Art & Mickey Himsl trusted them to handle the restoration of a car so important to them. Aaron and Brandon have a great reverence for tradition and  are overflowing with hot rod and Custom car history, so it was great to hear what’s important to them and what goes into a East Bay custom. We touch on just about everything in this interview from what draws them to the type of early Ford customs that the shop is known for, how they got started working on Hot Rods & customs, and what makes the Bay Area such a great place for the community of custom car builders. This interview was a ton of fun, and I can’t wait to see what rolls out of their shop next. Recorded 2/24/16 in Concord, CA

My rage is quiet, it seemed to have slipped out of bed hours before me and circled the house before I awoke. I found my rage sitting silently in the bathroom, seeping into the broken tiles, lurking behind the peeling wallpaper. I thought I saw my rage hiding in the bare cupboards, in the maggots in the rice, the eyes on the potatoes that grow completely unswayed by their lack of earth. I go to turn on the stove but my rage snuffs the flame. Not today. Today you don’t get comfort. Today I win, today I control you.

Alex Valdez and Mario Meza-Murillo are two of the most talented custom painters on the planet, and in this episode Nic sits down with them in Pittsburgh, Ca to talk about paint, cars, and what’s going through their minds as they lay out some of the wildest paint jobs around. Recorded in Pittsburgh, CA 1/24/15

When I was a child, he was the Goblin King. When I was a teenager, he was Ziggy Stardust. As an adult, he is and will forever be David Bowie.

For the past 15 years of my life, without fail at some point while I’m drifting off to sleep this car enters my thoughts. I’ve built it a million times over in my head, in my mind it’s been a dozen colors, had endless wheel and tire combinations, and countless custom touches. The reality of this car, however, until very recently had been much less exciting. In the past year I finally was able to start breathing new life into it, and I’ve finally been comfortable sharing my work and vision for my 56 Chevy with the world. I try and keep a build thread over on the Los Boulevardos forum maintained http://www.losboulevardosmessageboard.com/showthread.php?7472 , but for those of you not familiar with the forum here’s the story so far: I bought the 56 when I was 16 years old. At the time I worked during the week at 6am-9 am and full days on the weekend at our local bagel shop in Livermore. Being in a small town, the bagel shop was one of the few places that weird looking punk rock kids like me could find regular employment, so every morning I’d hop on the 10 bus across town to bust my ass stocking shelves in the freezer and making breakfast for rich people on the way to their jobs. Every day I’d walk to school and daydream of finding and buying my first car. I really didn’t know…

Juan and Jesus Espinoza of Deadend Magazine sit down for an interview with Nic in Salinas, CA to talk about their hometown, their humble beginnings, car culture in social media, Deadend Japan, and the upcoming documentary “On the Road Since 2004”. If you’ve ever wondered who the guys behind this cornerstone of modern car culture are, then you should definitely check out this episode. Recorded in Salinas Ca 11/29/15.

Welcome to the first episode of the brand new Car Culture show, the Bomb City Podcast! In this short episode you’ll get a brief intro to the show, to your host, and you’ll get the answer to a question that probably no one has ever asked- why “Bomb City”? Hit “subscribe” on your favorite podcasting app and you’ll get a monthly look into the people that make the wild world of hot rods, custom cars, lowriders, lowbrow art and music happen. Recorded 11/27/15 in Oakland, Ca.

Here’s some video from the event posted to the Stiff Little Fingers Twitter feed (@RigidDigits): SLF performed last night to a sea of welcoming fans as one of the first bands to play that city after the November 13th terror attacks. It’s tough to find the words to express how inspiring it is to see a band persevere and refuse to change their plans out of fear. SLF is no stranger to tragedy, and posted this moving statement to their Facebook page announcing their plans for this event: Our sincere condolences go out to everyone affected by the Parisian tragedies. The music business is often sheltered from the harsh realities of life and this weekend they have come home with a dreadful finality. As you may know, Stiff Little Fingers are scheduled to play in Paris tomorrow evening (Tuesday) and there is a lot of confusion around this date as shows are being cancelled or re-scheduled and so on. When we were growing up in Belfast, I was always saddened by the fact that groups would never come and play there because of the political situation. I was deprived of another “normal” part of life. With this in mind, and with the wonderful co-operation of our Parisian promoter, the S.L.F. show at Backstage at the Mill, WILL GO AHEAD AS ADVERTISED tomorrow (Tuesday) night. https://www.facebook.com/StiffLittleFingers/posts/10153081725267096   I’m not going spend much time to attempt to wax intellectual on the nature of…

I felt the chill of the last cool breeze of the morning on my face as I saw the Sun start to creep over the hills to my left and light Highway 5. Only a few hours into the drive and already a strange battle between my old friends Tired, Scared, Excited, and  Anxious were all fighting each other for dominance in my mind  as I sped down the empty towards Southern California.

April 30th,  2014 was an unseasonably hot day in San Francisco, the kind of day where the warm sea air fills you nose and sticks to your skin as soon as you cross over the bridge. The city was brimming with the wild, restless energy of impending change that was all too palpable on every street corner and back alley. We arrived at Henry Goldfield’s Tattoo Studio at 404 Broadway in the late afternoon, and already the street corner and small North Beach shop was packed wall to wall with friends, patrons, and well-wishers. People from all walks of life, from seasoned veterans and legends of the tattoo scene to curious onlookers had gathered upon this place to pay it one last visit and give their best to San Francisco’s oldest continuously running tattoo shop. Change was indeed in the air; after 35 years Goldfield’s was closing it’s doors for the last time.

Another year, another show, another rust bubble in my rocker panel. It was great to be back up in Sacramento for the Autorama this year. It’s been a while since I’ve been out to a big show like Sacorama, and I was impressed by the quality of unique customs that are still being built despite it all.

Ten years. It’s been ten years since my first Billetproof. Ten years ago I was just a kid, eager to be able to hop out of the booth long enough to take enough shots with my old Pentax to fill my proof sheet. Now I walk through the show between customers to try and take a few pics on my iPhone to have something to put on the blog. Time, what a strange thing.

Here’s some pics from the Stranger’s show last weekend in San Jose. I had a great time. It’s strange for me to be in a place where I can feel somewhat comfortable entering my car in a car show, and I’m still figuring out what that whole world is like.

This summer is going to be a good one. I’ve been working on the car like a madman. I’ve been fighting through a handful of mechanical issues, and it’s been a struggle to keep it on the road while working long days and finishing up my last year of school. This past week was particularly intense, I’m in summer courses now, and in order to get the Buick in good shape I’ve been burning the candle from both ends. I think it’s paid off.

I started the week pretty upset that my car wasn’t going to be ready for the show. I had been working like crazy to make it, stressing every little detail, and trying to get every last thing dialed in but ultimately I didn’t make it. This was going to be my first big show as a Boulevardo, and I was going without a car.

The Sacramento Autorama is one of Northern California’s last big indoor car shows, and what a show it was. This year was back with a vengeance, the Club Room was open again and packed with tons of great cars and killer robots (that’s right, courtesy of the Sacramento Poor Boys Car Club and this year’s “futurama” theme). The suede room, where I spent most of my weekend was so full of awesomeness that it overflowed into the Expo Center parking lot.

I was really excited to make it to this cruise, after I ended up catching a cold right before the last one and missed it. I met up with the group down at the E’ville marina to stage for our short cruise across the Bay Bridge. Since the few days before the cruise were rainy and dreary, I wasn’t sure if anyone would make it, but we got lucky. The sun came out and the weather held out long enough for a good day in SF.

Mark your calendars, set a reminder on your phone, tie a string to your finger, do what you gotta do to make it to this one. This one is going to be awesome….

LBCC Nor-Cal Guerrilla Cruise- East Bay to San Francisco 11/12/11 What an incredible end to an insane year. The weather broke late on Friday and cleared the way for a perfect day in San Francisco. I rolled out to the Emeryville Marina, our impromptu meeting spot early to hold it down, and enjoyed being the nicest car in the parking lot (by default, I was also the only car in the lot) for a little while: It didn’t last too long, as our friends from as far as Vallejo, Sacramento, San Jose, and Fremont quickly showed me up and rolled into the East Ocean parking lot at about 9 o’clock. We waited it out for more people, and eventually hit the road trying to out run to gloomy gray sky over the East Bay. I led the pack as we rolled slowly onto I-80 and across the Bay Bridge. Seeing cars in a parking lot or on the grass at a car show is great, but there’s just nothing like seeing chrome and flake in action on the highway. It makes you appreciate a car on a whole new level, not as a collection of cool parts, shapes, and colors, but as an incredible machine, moving and bumping down the road as if it’s alive and breathing. We must have turned a lot of heads rolling across the bridge, it’s a shame I couldn’t capture the action. We pulled off…

Be there! Should be a lot of fun, check the link for details:

Swanx Fall Fiasco 2011, Fairfield, Ca 10/8/11 I had a great time at the Swanx show this year. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer way to close show season, for me at least, than hanging out with friends and cool cars in a Sheet Metal shop. It seems like bigger car shows this season have been a little down, and while I’m not sure why that is, I’ve got to say it’s made the smaller shows more enjoyable. The Swanx show is one of the great examples of that; you don’t need a huge venue or fancy pipe & drape to have a great show. I imagine this is what car culture felt like back in the mid-nineties, it’s been a return to smaller more intimate shows where everyone seems to building things in different styles and we can all meet in the middle and hang out for a weekend and compare notes. I love it, it doesn’t feel like a scene, it feels like a community. For me, this was my second car show ever in my Buick, and my first time vending out of it. The car took it well, that huge trunk is perfect for holding a ton of merch. The car ran pretty well, it handled the load great. I made it with no problems, and had a great time at the show. I do not get sick of looking at this car. It’s so……

I decided to make the trip down to Salinas to support our friends from Deadend Magazine and checkout this art show at this neat Art Gallery in Downtown Salinas, Ca. I’ve never really spent much time in Salinas, and I really had no idea what to expect. I’m also not much for art shows, I never really know what to do, so it was all going to be a surprise. I picked up my friends Stoney and Brooke on the way down, and we headed out through some of the most ridiculous traffic I’ve ever dealt with on the way there. When we pulled on to Main St, we instantly knew that we were in the right place, the street was packed with hot rods, customs, and lowriders with a turnout and quality that should make any event planner proud. I’m not sure if all of the cars there were from Salinas (in fact I know they weren’t, John Parker and Art Rivas made the drive all the way up from around Ventura!), but I do know that people from Salinas build a car with a ton of heart and passion, and it shows. It was a really impressive thing to see, and that was just outside the Somos Gallery! Inside the gallery was a clean and glowing art gallery packed with incredible photography, great paintings, and cool sculpture. The gallery itself was pretty rad, it had a ton of…

Before, when I said “it’s hard to put to words for how this makes me feel”, that was a total cop out. I’ll try. Doing so will inevitably out me as a total nerd, but if you can see the value in an electronic web-based platform for sharing pictures and thoughts across the world in an instant, I’d ask you to consider yourself one as well. It’s ok, you’re in good company. I never met Jobs personally. I’ve been a Mac user all my life, I learned to type on an Apple II at my elementary school, my family bought the Performa when it became apparent that we needed a computer in the house. My Dad, who was never really a “gadget” guy once brought home a Newton, which was a device way ahead of it’s time, and the obvious inspiration for the iPhone I’m writing this on right now (although I’m glad to not be writing in pseudohieroglyphics using a stylus). I learned how to edit photos and film on the eMac, and in fact, most of my schools had all Apple computer labs. I realize this “credibility statement” probably isn’t that important, as my Blogger Stats show about 50% of you reading this right now are using an Apple product too, and probably do so for similar reasons. My Dad and I have, for some reason or another, never been too close, we never did the typical father-son…

Billetproof, the “World’s Least Important Car Show”, is now in it’s fifteenth year, and it just keeps getting better and better. Back to a one day show this year, Billetproof in Antioch packed the Antioch Fairgrounds with an impressive array of the world’s best hot rods, customs, and traditional lowriders for an amazing Saturday.I was really excited to finally enter my car in this show, I’ve been going to Billetproof since 2002 and it seems that every year, in some way or another, the universe has kept me from participating. Well, this year was different, and I was able to make it in my Buick, scoring my first ever car show window sticker and Billetproof timing plate. I don’t really know why there are whisperings around the fringe of our Car Culture community about the relevance and legitimacy of this show; it makes no sense to me. Alan and his wife have been doing an incredible job keeping such a big show a down-to-earth and fun time, and there couldn’t be a better set of people at the helm of this show. I’d also like to extend a huge thank you to the host car club, The Dragoons, for keeping this show as fun and laid back as possible, you guys are doing great. Everyone should be excited to have a great bunch of younger hot-rodders getting active and making this incredible show a success. Thank you. My weekend started…

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since the last Ventura Nationals. This show is always incredible, it’s the perfect mix of great cars and great people, and this year was no different. This year I headed down to Ventura with my Mother-in-law to vend for the weekend, leaving home, school, and the girl of my dreams in the rear view for a few days. Being away from my wife is always really tough; the entire drive there I was dreading the impending loneliness of being without her. We pulled into our motel without incident at about midnight, Ventura was tightly wrapped in a blanket of beach fog, but you could still feel the errant energy in the air, as if the entire town was electric with anticipation. I slept little, restless alone and without any idea what the morning would hold. It’s ironic I suppose, I hate gambling, and would never throw down any amount of cash at a card table, but in Vending we take a pretty big risk every weekend. We headed out early to the fairgrounds to wait in line. When I saw Coby’s van waiting in the car line, I started to get a good feeling about this show. Surfers were piling out of cars at the beach in total darkness as we finally rolled into the fairgrounds. We set up quick, and I waited for things to settle down before I…

Well, another month down, another great night in Downtown Oakland for the Royal Jokers Cruise Night. I didn’t stick around too long, but the time I had there was great. I can’t believe summer is almost over, it seems to go by quicker and quicker each year. Here’s the few pics I got before the sun went down, enjoy: First, I love the Buick wheels on this Impala, for some reason. Apparently they’re just temporary while they get ready to take the car to the next level, which I’m pretty excited to see: Bomba City- This car far and away the winner for me. I have no idea who’s car it was, but the quality of finish was incredible. This was happening. Another great night. Thanks again to the Royal Jokers for hosting, hopefully I’ll have the car ready for next time. Thanks for reading.

Continued from: The Epic Tale of my 1963 Econoline, AKA: The Van Story- Part 1 &   The Van Story- Part 2, Past the Edge of Oblivion We pulled into the U-Haul on the edge of Las Vegas and spat out our thinly rehearsed lie to the kid at the counter, and at first it seemed to stick. He ran the info through his computer, but eventually we hit the same dead end. Unsafe, they couldn’t get a truck, they couldn’t rent a trailer, we were fucked. Again. Outside the sun was slowly falling and the darkness began to come creep over the desert. I could feel the world pulling us in, trying as best as it could to hold us in this god-forsaken Valley of Fire. The kid behind the counter had a devilish smirk on his face, and you could tell that he was the type of guy that gets off on the tiny sliver of authority they grant him there. Josie and I stepped away from the counter, defeated and tired. Josie, unable and unwilling to succumb to defeat, suddenly saw something that made her jump. ”What about that? That could work!” she yelled. I turned my exhausted and sun burnt face to see the object of her attention: a bumper-mounted tow bar. When I saw the tow-bar she was pointing at, our eyes met, we both nodded at each other, and we made a silent pact there on…

The Dragoons- Nite of The Hot Rods, 7/16/11 Antioch, CA If I were older, I’d probably be sitting here rattling on about how nice it is that the younger generation is carrying on the tradition, blah blah blah, but I’ll leave that to someone else. As someone in the same relative age bracket as most of the Dragoons, I’m really happy to see my contemporaries doing cool shit and making this great show happen in Antioch, of all places. This show is always impressively packed with killer cars that always makes you take pause by the end of the night and wonder how, exactly, these punk kids (and punk-kid-minded adults) manage to drag such top quality cars out to a parking lot next to a public fishing pier by the railroad tracks. The secret? Honestly, if you met these guys you’d do anything you could to make what they’ve got going on out here a success. I was booth-bound for most of the show, but thankfully MLV held down the fort for a few minutes while I ran frantically to take a few pictures of the beautiful show. Custom cars, punk rock, and great people, if that’s not enough to get you out to a show I don’t know what is. Enjoy: Mrs. Gambino’s new Cadillac: Check out this cool in-progress custom: Thanks for reading! The Dragoons Nite of The Hot Rods- 7/16/11 Antioch, CA was last modified: October 30th,…

Part II- Past the Edge of Oblivion Continued from: The Epic Tale of my 1963 Econoline, AKA: The Van Story- Part 1 When we got out of the truck, a old man wearing aviator shades was walking out to greet us. He introduced himself as Walt, and we got to talking. The more Walt, Josie and I talked, the clearer my understanding of this place became; this wasn’t a place that people came to by choice, but rather a place of last resort for people who had expended all of their other options. Walt had been married once before in Utah; his wrinkled forearm still bared her name on a tattered banner over a shaky rose. He was living here, not sure for how long, seeing how things went with a much younger girlfriend out here in the trailer park. Everyone here, it seemed, had some story about how they were just passing through. Nothing about this town had any sense permanence about it; it was as if the whole goddamn place could just pack up and leave in the middle of the night without a trace. Walt told me he had a couple of vans back in his heydays, and how he had picked this one up as a project a few years back to relive some of those wild times. The 300 six-cylinder in it that his daughter had insisted over the phone was rebuilt and running seemed to…

It’s not my intention for this blog to become a deeply personal account of my travels, but this weekend my personal life and my show-going life are inseparable and indistinguishable. My wife has been having a really tough time getting around lately. She’s had a hard time walking, and hasn’t been able to stand for long periods of time on her own for a while now. We recently started seeing a neurologist about it, and she’s been going through pretty intense treatment for what we learned was an inflammation of her spinal cord because of lesions on her brain. Its scary stuff, and not something to be taken lightly. She’s been knocked down for a few weeks, and really hasn’t left the house, aside from coming to the shop, for about a month. I stepped up and with the help of a few friends we’ve been running the shop in her absence. The past week was particularly tough, because not only did she have to deal with the side effects of some pretty harsh medicine, but also because we’ve been waiting for a blood test to reveal what life-long condition we’ll be up against. Well, Friday’s doctor appointment revealed that she has MS, a yet uncureable auto-immune disorder that’s going to require long term treatment, but the fact that we now know what we’re dealing with has been surprisingly comforting. Also, the harsh medicine seems to have worked, because after…

1. An EXCELLENT article and great photos on Coby of Church Magazine’s amazing Econoline, Van Go. 2. Wonderful coverage of the Sacramento Autorama by BOMB CITY, AKA my wife and I! It’s a tremendous honor to have our work in such a huge publication. A huge thanks to Zombie and the crew at TRK. Check it out, it’s a damn good issue. Like it? Let them know! – Posted from the road

I decided I should post up the long and strange journey that is my van build-thread from the LBCC board. I’ll post it up in a few installments. Enjoy: Part I- In the beginning: Josie and I left for the desert at about seven o’clock at night. Still being at the height of summer, the sun hadn’t fully set, but it was steadily on it’s way there. I hadn’t even unpacked from Paso; my duffel bag sat in the back seat of my dad’s crew cab half full of yesterday’s dirty laundry as we climbed the Altamont. My heart pounded as I held the wheel of the truck, swerving around potholes with one hand, pounding an energy drink with the other while my brain went over all of the important details of our trip: We were heading for Nevada, and tomorrow I would be pulling home my Econoline. We left so quick I didn’t even bother to get directions; I knew we were staying the night in Vegas, a drive I’ve made a handful of times, and finding a room should be easy. We would call Walt in the morning to go see the van, thus far I had only spoken to his daughter who had posted the van to the Las Vegas craigslist for her computer-illiterate father. This whole ordeal started from that ad and a picture she emailed me before Paso: She had said that there was a…

The Last Originals Car Show in Pacifica; what is there to say? Every time I make it out to this show it’s special, I don’t know if it’s the lovely refurbished retro bowling alley or the crashing waves of the Pacifica shore across Highway 1, but something about this show has made it become so engrained in my subconscious that even thinking about not making it to this show would surely cause long-term psychological damage. I weathered the typical Pacifica fog and sea breeze alone this time, so I didn’t get too many pics of the great variety of cars at this show, but I hope the few that I did will properly convey the fantastic “anything goes” attitude of one of my favorite Bay Area car shows. I think that what makes this show so special is that there’s no year cut off, no restrictions on make, and no big attitudes. It’s the sort of show that’s not really a show at all, it’s more of a great excuse to hang out and catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and take in some great atypical Bay Area weather. I didn’t have a car in the show this year, I came alone, but as soon as I arrived I instantly felt at home and welcomed. I hope this show continues to be here in the future, it’s one I’d really miss a show season without. Enjoy: Usually I’ll…

It’s been a pretty heavy week. I’ve had a lot on my mind, so it was great to step out and clear my mind for a day and take in one of my new favorite shows in the Bay Area, “Kings by the Bay”, hosted by the Style Kings car club and held at Cal State East Bay up in the hills overlooking Hayward. The venue was terrific; looking at beautiful cars and seeing the Bay Area in the background made the show feel both incredibly grounding and surreal. I was working solo, so I didn’t get too much time to step out and see much of the show, but hopefully the few photos I took will help convince you to pencil this show in on your “must attend” list for next year. Enjoy: – Posted from the road

Today:

Sixteen years ago, I was a snot-nosed punk-ass ten year old on a skateboard without a thought about cars more than to avoid them when they roll out of driveways. Little did I know that over the hills in the South Bay there was an event taking shape that would grow to define exactly what every car club BBQ should aspire to be. This year was the sixteenth annual Road Zombies BBQ in Santa Clara, and it could not possibly have come on a more perfect day. I was here again as a vendor, so I was sure to make it out early to get my usual spot. Josie packed me a stunning tray of donuts for the morning, which took a great deal of restraint and composure to deliver intact. The car ran fine, and I made it there with plenty of time to set up and take in the scenery. The Elks Lodge in Santa Clara is really everything you’d want for a car show/BBQ location: green grass, a big area for sitting in the shade, and a surly bartender. Every time we do this show I appreciate the venue a little more. Another great thing about showing up early on the damp lawn is that your car has time to sink into the grass and look a little lower by the end of the show. I didn’t get a lot of time to walk around since I…

Another great night at the Royal Jokers Cruise in Downtown Oakland. The looming threat of rain kept a lot of people at home, but the weather held out and it ended up being a great night. My favorite car of the night was Goozgaz’s newly repainted Lincoln, with new tangerine metalflake panels and new hubcaps. It’s the sort of car that warms your heart just hanging around it. Bay Area, you NEED to attend this cruise in, it’s one of the best things going on in the car world right now. I only took a few pics because I was busy hanging out, thanks to everyone who came out. Enjoy: Batmobile! Another great night in Oakland. Thanks to everyone who made it happen! – Posted from the road

Here’s my shots from last night’s Royal Jokers Cruise in. Another great night in Downtown Oakland, this show keeps getting bigger and bigger. I love Oakland. I’m really glad that The Royal Jokers have their show out here, more people need to get out of the ‘burbs and check out Oakland, it’s an awesome city.

Another great night in Downtown Oakland! This cruise-in is a lot of fun, I’d highly recommend it to anyone within a reasonable distance. Good times, good cars, and good people, what’s not to like? I’d also like to extend a HUGE thank you to the Royal Jokers Car Club for putting on and organizing this event, it’s great to have something like this in the city. For those of you who haven’t yet been, it’s at 22nd St. and Telegraph at an old Burger joint. The event coincides with Oakland’s Art Murmur on the first Friday of the month, so it’s an interesting crowd. Check out the Royal Jokers blog at:http://royaljokers.blogspot.com/ Sorry about the dark and grainy pictures, it IS at night; I’m doing my best. Here’s my pics, Enjoy! Thank these guys for making it happen: Hope to see more people out there next time!

It’s really hard to put to words how much this past weekend meant to me. I joined the Los Boulevardos Message Board in 2007 as a total stranger. I knew only one or two people from the board in real life, and I really had no idea what I was in for. For me, this club/forum was a collection of my favorite cars from the HAMB; these cars were the coolest of the cool, yet so abstract, far away, and hopelessly intangible. I was amazed when I registered for the board at how friendly everyone was, I felt honored to be so welcomed into the community that I had such respect for even though I brought so little to the table. As time went on, I got to know a lot more of the local LBCC crew, and made it down to a few shows down south. What I found there, behind all the witty banter and phenomenal build threads on the LBCC board, was a group of the most solid, stand-up, and downright “cool” people I’ve ever met. Where I once felt alone in my oddball obsession, I now felt surrounded by people who thought like I did, who built cars like I did, and finished cars to a level that I could only dream of. I was honored to be asked to prospect for the club last September, and I hope that I can represent the LBCC up…

Just two weeks after GNRS Pomona comes the Sacramento Autorama, or as I like to call it, “Sac-O-Rama”. This show is usually one of the classier Northern California shows, and with the falling of the San Francisco Rod & Custom Show, it’s the biggest indoor Hot Rod and Custom show in Northern California, at least that I’ve attended. For us, normally this show is a good excuse to get a nice hotel room and stay up in Sacramento, a city that, aside from shows, I’ve never really gotten to know very well. Sacramento is like Northern California’s LA, except for without the industry and money. In years past we’ve stayed in a hotel right down the street, and there’s nothing quite like waking up, strolling down to the lobby, and grabbing a cup of coffee while George Barris is eating oatmeal in a track suit at the table next to you. This year, however, with the tight economy, and the added stress of having two shops open, we didn’t get the hotel room, and I was stuck doing the show by myself. Vending solo is not just tough work, but emotionally exhausting. I’m lucky enough to work with people that I love, specifically my wife and Mother-in-law, and without them along, vending is just work. I’m still fortunate that it’s work with a beautiful backdrop, but it’s work nonetheless. I headed out on Thursday after class in San Francisco, and…

Pomona is always a great way to start off the show season. Everyone has had a few months to prep their car and square away all of the little details that they’ve been neglecting, and the fact that Pomona is a primarily an indoor show makes people step up their game just a little bit more. For my wife and I, however, GNRS is a show that pushes us to our limits. We vend at car shows and run a shop for a living, so while everyone else has been taking time off and vacationing, we are just a few days off of our busiest time of year when it’s time to take on Pomona. Wiped out of merch from Christmas, and with me in my first week classes, our trip to Pomona is always challenging, to say the least. This year was no different. With two stores open now, we spent the few days before Pomona arranging someone to be at each shop, and stretched the little inventory that we had to fill each location. I’ll spare you the intricacies of our loading, because I’m sure that it’s as boring to read as it is to write. I will add, however, that because I had class during the day and we had to pack between two shops that are about an hour apart, we weren’t loaded up until 10:00 at night. We left the Bay in a hurry to…

Check out the flipped axle on the “Rolling Lab”. I was lucky enough to meet Gene at the Autorama, he’s a super nice guy.