First Look: 2010 Ink-N-Iron Festival

All Photos by Mitzi and co (Thanks Mitzi! Resume festivities!!)

Pinup Monica Renee with Voodoo Larry’s killer 46 Ford

2010 Ink & Iron Show from Long Beach California

Being from Wisconsin when I get a chance to hit the West Coast for a show, it had better be a good one. Lately the show buzz has been all about the Ink & Iron show held at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA so I figured I’d give it a shot. Ink & Iron is a 3 day event and we are just partially through the 1st day and I’ve seen more amazing tattoo artists, hot betties, amazing rods, bad ass bikes, and vendors than most shows pack into an entire weekend.

While at the show I was given the opportunity to assist the always amazing Mitzi Valenzuela when she photographed the drop dead gorgeous Monica Renee with Voodoo Larry’s killer 46 Ford… I know it’s a rough gig! After the shoot we hit the packed vendors, the outrageous 3 story tattoo convention, and the Hall of Customs…all the while tapping our toes to the great line up of bands. (Click to see pictures full size)

Two more days remain of this great event including tattoo competitions, a pin-up girl contest on Sunday, the International Pole Performers Showcase performing Saturday and Sunday, and the best of the best in hot rod and bike builders. If you don’t have anything planned this weekend, or even if you do, cancel it and get down to the Ink and Iron show!!! We’ll see you there!

See more pictures from Ink-N-Iron here

Use this link to visit the Ink-N-Iron home page, then watch for more great pictures from the show.

See more  pictures right here! More Ink-N-Iron images

People Watching at Viva Las Vegas

Anyone who’s ever been to Viva Las Vegas – or even in Las Vegas when it’s happening – can back me up on this…VLV is FULL of characters! Sure there’s cars. Sure there’s music. Sure there’s drinking. But you’d be missing out on what Viva Las Vegas is about if you missed out on the people!

Words can’t seem to begin to explain this varied assortment of characters. So this year I snapped a few less shots of cars and a few more shots of people. ‘Nuff said, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Rockabilly Reunion in Lake Havasu, AZ

Get set for the Second Annual Rockabilly Reunion this weekend February 12-14, 2010. How often can you get Rockabilly music, a pinup model contest and Rockabilly music all for FREE for you and your ride?

Voodoo Swing is set to perform at the event held on the shores of the Colorado River at Windsor State Beach in Lake Havasu, Arizona. “We’re thrilled to be playing three days of music along with other great acts for some of the biggest rockabilly music fans in the country who truly appreciate what we do”, said Voodoo Swing’s front man Paul “Shorty” Kreutz.

The Rockabilly Reunion is free to spectators of all ages and there is no charge to enter a car for display. Voodoo Swing plays throughout the weekend along with multiple rockabilly acts. The band is scheduled to play a welcome party at Nautical Inn Resort on the island at the beach in Lake Havasu City at 9pm on Friday evening following the poker run held at Windsor State Beach in Lake Havasu City on both Saturday and Sunday.

Carnival rides for all ages will be in place throughout the weekend. Additional features include the annual pinup contest, beer and food garden, vendor corral, used parts swap meet, used car corral and pin striping contest. A Brian Setzer Series Hotrod Gretsch guitar will be auctioned off during the weekend. The guitar has been provided by event sponsor Gretsch and can be viewed at the Gretsch booth near the stage.

A portion of proceeds from the high bid will be donated to America Home Dream, a non-profit organization that assists families of children with cancer.

For the Pinup model contest sponsored by Gretsch guitar, there’s $3000 in prizes available so get in touch with brendaleepinup@yahoo.com to enter.

2009 Viva Las Vegas Car Show – See for Yourself

As a Viva LasVegas car show virgin, I drove blindly into a sea of horseshit opinions about what the Rockabilly Weekender is… without first hand experience, I checked and heard varying opinions about the show, especially about what I’m most interested in, the strolling pinups… no, scratch that, the hot rods! Just like the saying goes, everyone’s got an opinion and I have to say, most of what I heard STANK! Living in Arizona, and only about 5 hours from Las Vegas, I decided to roll up and check for myself. (so here’s my opinion… keep the air-freshener handy)

First off, what had I heard about the Viva Las Vegas Car Show or “Rockabilly Weekender” as it’s called? I heard the quality of cars sucked. NOT true. I heard it wasn’t a fun crowd. Also not true. Then, even though I’m not a big rockabilly fan, I did enjoy the music… and I only got to hear what was played outside at the car show.

About the rides… The cars I found were almost all right up my alley. Nobody goes to a car show and only finds what they like, but if you’re into DRIVEN cars that are owned by guys that eat, sleep and shit cars, then you will find cars you like at Viva Las Vegas.  I guess I expected to see a bunch of the bare-bones type “rat rods”, cause that’s what I was told.

Defining rat rod at this point is downright boring, but what I mean is cars built without basic necessities like for example, a floor. Cruising with a u-joint spinning next to my hand and ass is not my idea of fun. But that’s not what I found! I found tough looking hot rods with rough edges, but done purposefully. Leaving a weld unfinished like what I found in this low-slung sedan in the picture was cool and different.

Then, in addition to the hot rods and (screw the word rat) traditional style rods, the customs on hand were great. Chopped, dropped, some painted, some not, but all with the attention to detail that is exactly what, My Ride is Me is all about. This slick 53 Chevy 210 Sedan custom shown here was DAMN rusty… but who cares! The character was unmistakable and you won’t see this thing wasting away in a garage somewhere! For me, the cars were the stars of the show and will bring me back next year, hopefully driving my falcon wagon.

Picture of all the hot rod and custom cars at the Viva Las Vegas Car show are uploaded.

From here, there’s much more to say, but It’ll wait for another blog.

The Story’s DONE! Look at Ladies of Viva! Viva Las Vegas is known for the pinup and generally vintage-style girls strolling around and either digging the scene or for a smile and a “would-ya-please” they’ll stand next to your ride and strike a pose. Swanee shot a bunch of girls doing their thing and we’ll post them in the Hot Rod Pinups Gallery soon.
(Swanee! Get to work!)

MyRideisMe.com is also starting our own Pinstriping photo gallery. Use it as a reference for your own ride or to teach yourself different styles or techniques of striping, lettering or logos and characters. I dig pinstriping and wish I could do it myself. Since that’s probably not in the cards, shooting pics of the great many examples of pinstriping at Viva Las Vegas car show was a natural!
The first set of pictures are now loaded. More coming soon! (want your work featured?) Here’s more info about the pinstiping art gallery.

Also look for great show coverage from Kristin or “Grease Girl”. She was at the show and made alot of new friends with pinups and other women enjoying the show. She’s also gonna fill us in on the drive she made in her hot rod Studebaker.

Finally, why was Viva Las Vegas a great show? It was easy for car folks to enjoy! Instead of gouging car owners, the price of the car show was included in the 4 day price of the show. That included all the bands, the burlesque shows and admission to the Tiki Pool party. Why do other shows make the cars pay extra? Great job!! The Viva crowd dominated the Orleans hotel bars and tables all having a good time. For the car show itself, it was only five-bucks to enter! The line of people stretched 200 long waiting to get in, and when they did, they still had extra cash to spend on the many quality vendors. That’s the way to do it. Cool hot rods and customs, the strolling pinups looking hot and live music with friends. What else is there? (oh, cold beer! Thanks Throttle Kings!)

So what’s your opinion? Did you enjoy yourself? Will you be there next year? Will you recommend it as a “Must Show” for next year? Let us know…

The scoop on the 2011 Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend Car Show

Hot Rod Indie Film Made by Faith

I caught up with Faith Granger the lady behind the Hot Rod movie, “Deuce of Spades”. Not long ago, I told you more about her in this Blog, but I left out some critical details to the readers at MyRideisMe.com:

She owns a really cool vintage styled 32 hot rod herself and it’s the star of Deuce of Spades and more importantly… Damn! She’s good-lookin too!

Faith wrapped-up the shooting of the painstakingly accurate 40 nostalgia scenes for the movie back in December. Don’t forget this is an independent film done almost entirely by Faith. Any major film company who can make period correct 1950 come alive deserves credit and this is practically a one woman show.

Now, Faith is shooting the scenes when the movie’s back in present time. The first of the 2008 scenes featured hot rod and custom builder Gene Winfield as fictional character “El Mirage George”!! This was filmed live at the last SCTA meet and features quite a few cool race cars.

Faith’s been whispering so many great things about what’s to come including a SoCal drive-in movie premier and hopefully a chance at other drive-in’s around the country. There’s no doubt that would be the perfect place to watch this movie.

Until the films release (I’ll keep you posted!) here are a couple promo shots from the movie. Should I put these in the pinup section or what?

Also, here’s another clip from the movie called “The Jalopy Race.”

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