Ladies of Viva Las Vegas 2

Kristabelle, don’t shoot!

Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender is no doubt it’s own car show. The cars get checked before entering so there’s no billet anything or any car built after sixty-something. But it’s the people and more specifically the wandering pinups that make the show. Who doesn’t love Hot Rod Pinups!

Burlesque Performer Sophia Sirena

If you’re watching closely, you’ll see well known pinups like Heidi Van Horne and Dayna Delux enjoying the show, but they’re generally not posing. I guess you could say they’ve “made it” and get paid when they’re shot. Dayna teamed up with Sabina Kelly to host a “Bottles and Pinup Models”  night at the Foundation Room at the Mandalay Bay and Heidi’s doing a little bit of everything. She’s acting, directing, writing a blog for the Houston Chronicle… she’s busy but just as sweet as ever!

Viva’s become a hot spot for pinup models and the photographers that make their living shooting pinup. This is Mitzi Valenzuela from Mitziandco.com shooting one of many pinup models on the long (Wednesday to Sunday) weekend. Mitzi’s contributed quite a bit to MyRideisMe.com and has shot with just about every well known pinup out there, so if you’re looking for a photographer, she’s a great place to start.

Roy Vargas is another pro pinup photographer. I just met him at the show and wanted to give proper credit for bogarting (like the dude shooting in this picture) on his organized shoot with the gorgeous red head Gia Genevieve. I posted her picture in this story. I’d love to feature Gia as Pinup of the Month!

So if you’re a fan of pinup models, the retro scene and hot rods and customs of all kinds, Viva’s a show for you. We’ll see you there early in early April of 2011, so until then, enjoy these shots and the pictures in the Ladies of Viva II.

Pinup Cutie Lana Mae

This is Notorious Ang. Wanna see more? She’s April’s Pinup of the Month

And one last shot of Kristabelle. Guns-a-blazing, don’t cross her!

Thanks to the all the girls! See ya next year. The rest of the Pinup Pictures are here.

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.

Pinup Dreams Made True in Vegas

This story was written by Dave or elmoco40 in his MyRideisMe garage. It’s a story of a guy finding love and hot rods! It’s bring a tear to your eye if Dave’s wife, Larua Lee weren’t so hot!

This is exactly the kind of story we want at MyRideisMe.com! Great times, get’n the girl, what else is there? For Dave’s efforts, I’m sending him a pack of Pinup Playing Cards by Heidi Van Horne and Sabina Kelly. Look for a contest soon where you can win your set of pinup playing cards, or just send us your ideas!

I grew up in so. Cal, in the town of Santa Ana, CA. Growing up I was surrounded by a lot of lowriders and kustoms that were owned by local clubs and gangs. I was always fascinated by the elaborate paint jobs and the use of hydraulics on there cars, so when I was old enough to know what a wrench was and how to operate a spray can, I began my journey into ripping things apart and trying to somehow make’em different, whether it was bikes or big wheels, something was getting slammed and painted.

When I got into high school in 1978-79, I landed a job as a gas station attendant at a mobile gas station; there I learned basic mechanics by helping the guys work on stuff. Another kool thing that I discovered in 1980 was punk rock and the underground rockabilly scene! So now my little knowledge of cars and the music scene collided and so the kustom kulture scene was born. I feel totally blessed to be part of that emerging scene!

Although I was to poor to afford any kind of hot rod, I did the next best thing; I dated somebody who had a brother with one! lol. One of my 1st real girlfriends had an older brother who owned a beautiful 53 Merc, he called ”Maybelline”. It was all original and baby blue! Some of my best memories involved that car! It was so kool to be 16 -17 years old and pull up to a rockabilly show in that, it was rare back then!

Well of course time passed and the mid to late 80′s got weird and the scene kinda died, everybody kinda went there own ways? So fast forward to 1989, after many attempts to try and talk my newly retired parents to not move to Las Vegas, they did anyways? Go figure? Well after visiting them a few times, in 1991, I was at a point in my life where I needed a change so I decided to go stay with them and help them out? Well its funny how God has a plan for us, because after being there 6 mo., I met my beautiful wife Laura, it only took me a few dates to figure out, that this gal was thee one!

Laura Lee was beautiful and sweet and very artistic, I mean she had a beat up vVW bug she painted herself. It was hilarious? Plus she is a 3rd generation native, very rare, I mean her mom actually dated Elvis Presley in the 60′s, how crazy is that! So in 1993, we got hitched and in 1994 we had our 1st kid, wow!

So there I was, newly married, with a new baby, living in a new town, talk about anxiety attacks!

So now its been a good 10 years, since I’ve been to any kind of kool show, there was nothing in this town then, I mean its 2009 now, and the kustom kulture scene is still small, but its gotten a lot more fun. So the whole time I’m praying for something to happen here, I was still broke and still had no ride, although a good friend sold me his Harley on payment plan for a short while.

Then in 1996 a new music show was comin to town and there was a pre 1963 car show attached to it, it was called ” The Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender”, I was in shock and stoked at the same time! This past year was the 12th VLV event, and I’ve been to them all, and in my opinion the 1st 5 years were the best. When the car show was on top of the garage and there was no curfew and a lot less jerks causing trouble! But it’s still a lot of fun, and now I have a gorgeous wife, who does a little pin up modeling and a kool car to show off!

Ladies of Viva Las Vegas

One of the fun and from what I’ve seen fairly unique parts of the Viva Las Vegas car show is the girls! Some of them professional pinups like the lovely Kim Falcon pictured here, and some of them girls trying to be pinups or just out having a good time!

Whatever the motivation, we like!

As you cruised the show, you’d see these girls done up pinup-like or sometimes just looking hot and when they’d stop at a car, the cameras would come out like crazy and a near mob-scene started as everyone tried to get their own shots. They should just come to MyRideisMe.com, it saves on film! (duh, I know)

So check out Paul Swanson (Swanee@myrideisme.com) my man and chief photo madman’s new Ladies of Viva gallery. He’s got photos all over the place and a really nice garage filled with his favorite pics. Contact him if you want one of the photos, especially a high resolution or something without the MyRideisMe logo. He’s cool like that.

If we caught you walking around, let us know!

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