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...

When did you get into pinup modeling? I have been Pinup Modeling for 3 years. I started by doing fashion shows for Vintage Era Reproduction Boutiques then on to many more shows and companies. What do you enjoy most about it? Being a seductive yet stylish and tasteful Woman appeals to me, so this genre fits . I love the quality and craftsmanship of the garments. The Cars ,the clothes and just the pace fit my taste. And the Era is such a nostalgic time. Where can we see more pinup photos of you? www.KrisTeeLane.com MY NEW WEBSITE www.myspace.com/kristeedeevine My Space When your not modeling, what do you enjoy doing? I am a Theatrical and Commercial Actress as well as I breed Panther Chameleons at California Chameleons www.calichameleons.com . I also love to travel, scuba dive, and am an Artist. Anything else you want to share would be great! I want to thank all of the wonderful and fun people that I meet at all of the events and am pleased to be part of this "Low Brow" state of mind and lifestyle. I am pursuing Acting more as...

I met Jean Marie at the Grand National Roadster Show in January 2009. His card had a stunning photo on it and it said he does pinup photography, so we started chatting. See all the photos he shared with MyRideisMe.com in his Hot Rod Photo Gallery 43 year old Jean-Marie Michalski grew up in a town called Perwez in Belgium, as the single child of Jean Michalski, a now famous artist & painter. His father Jean Michalski was born in Belgium in 1936. At 12 years old, Jean and his friends attempted to climb up an electricity pole to better see a soccer game. Jean lost his balance, fell off the pole and was electrocuted with 12,000 volts. The injury and subsequent complications led to the amputation of both arms. After the accident, Jean was placed in a rehabilitative institution for three years, where he learned to write with his mouth. When Jean was 16 years old, the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (AMFPA) contacted his mother, and Founder Erich Stegmann visited the family’s home to recruit Jean as a student artist. The Association assisted with tuition...

Hot Rod Art - Custom AMC Hornet Art from ProblemChildKustoms.com Let them eat cheese... ...or at least the dust left behind this monster. When the AMC Hornets were new, the ads read with slogans like "If you think it looks good, wait'll you feel it perform!", "It's not our strong guarantee that makes our Hornet a tough little car", and "It's beautiful when you fill it up"... Taking those sales pitches waaaaayyyy out of context bred the bright yellow beast above. For this AMC Hornet, right out of the box, I wanted to play up the automaker's legacy, by using some references to Wisconsin, naturally, and then just say "screw convention", and mess around with a largely forgotten car... Thus, we have an AMC, some Green Bay colors, and, uh, well... that's about it, aside from the crappy "cheese" line at the start. Moving along, I've had this sick road racing-inspired Hornet "buzzing" in my head for about two years, and have played with the drawing on and off over that time span. I had watched "The Man With the Golden Gun" some time back, and it re-kindled a...

Hot Rod Pinup Angela Ryan Cruising the Grand National Roadster show and having a great time with my photo partner Swanee, we both stopped in our tracks when we saw the amazingly beautiful Angela Ryan posing next to a super cool laid-out custom owned by Geno Dipol the publisher from Ol' Skool Rodz. Shortly after we caught our breath and moved through the crowd, we noticed our friend Mitzi shooting the pics. That's when I knew Angela would be our very next Pinup of the Month. Working with Mitzi is great cause she's a fantastic photographer (cars and pinups!) and she's professional and fun to work with at the same time. I'm lucky to have her help with these photos and interview with Angela. Thanks Mitzi! (http://www.MitziandCo.com) How long have you been modeling? I started modeling in 2001 and have been doing it full time since 2005. What do you enjoy most about your career? The freedom and creativity are the best part of the job! To be successful at it though you can't let yourself get lazy! You are a performer as well, tell us about the shows...

Written by: Erock805 (Erick's Garage) It opens like a shot, not knowing the music, it felt like motor head, loose, violent, and melodic and real…what you see is what you hear…a front engine rail blitzing through the lights. Smoke and raw fuel and flame blasting from the pipes…you can almost feel it in your chest. The track lights lit up the night just like you remember they did. You can almost smell the nitro... Perfect! At this point, I am not even thinking about the pleasures of the flesh I am about to witness. All I can think about is the first time I heard that sound, felt the thunder and cried in joy as the fumes burned my eyes… David Perry…creator of Hot Rod Pinups, the DVD, my new hero. Then came little Ruby Rae, and a song that defined what I was witness to…a real live girl. Ruby quickly reminded me what I was here for. I’m watching a pinup video... a first for me. Sure, I've watched a ton of hot rod flicks, and gasser movies, they usually have a couple models, but never a video...

Following up on Dwayne Vance's new book called: The Hot Rod Art book: Masters of Chicken Scratch, I caught up with Dwayne at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona (damn that was a good time!) The book will be officially released on February 10, 2009 and judging from the buzz at GNRS, the books already of to a great star! There were about 100 advanced copies available at the Grand National Roadster Show, but they sold out! It's no wonder when 8 of the 13 artists featured in the book were at the show and ready to sign their pages of your brand new book. Several artists stopped by and checked out my book at the show including: Chip Foose, Steve Strope, Carter Hickman, Eric Black, Larry Wood, and many others to check out the book. The book's also going to be featured in Rod and Custom magazine as well as Hemmings Auto news. For those of you that have not yet heard of this "Hot Rod Art Book", it is a unique book of over 100 pages of beautiful hot rod art from thirteen very talented artists...

Turns out pinup photographer Mitzi from Mitzi & Co is a St. Louis Rams fan. That's great for me for a couple reasons: The Cardinals whooped the Rams here in Arizona and Mitzi's coming to town! I'm a hack pinup photographer. Who am I kidding, I'm a hack photographer, but I'm trying. That's why I was jazzed when I got a chance to meet Mitzi again and see her working. I also helped out getting my buddy Erock to bring his traditional styled 34 pickup down for the shoot. I wanted to use Bonnie, my 27 roadster, but she had other plans (damn webers!). Mitzi on the other hand is a pro. In stead of seeing the, "Work it, yes YES, oh you sexy bitch!" style of Austin Powers, Mitzi was super calm and professional. She shot slowly and purposefully and I could tell the girls were comfortable and having a good time with their "Pinup for a Day" photo shoot. Here are a few of the shots taken outside Mitzi's buddy Adam's Electric Haven Tatoo/High Life Pomade shop in Tempe, AZ. Adam's also a member and has posted...

Pinstriping for Charity For 14 years, pinstriper Von Hot Rod has assembled legends and up-and-coming pinstripers from around the world in the main hall of the Grand National Roadster Show. Von told me the Pinstriper's Reunion was started because, "The freehand pinstriping was coming to an end in the 80's when vinyl was trying to take over." I guess I never saw that because I can't believe anyone would mistakenly apply vinyl after seeing the talent assembled in Pomona. Pinstiping looks easy... when you watch these guys freestyle a complex design while you snap pictures, but give it a try! This is art! The creativity of the top stripers can spruce up your car, garage or in my case my office. Nothing says cool like hand laid stripes. Screw vinyl! For all the pinstripers, Von reminds me this is a invite only show. On hand this year were 30 of the greatest pinstripers from all over the world. We had Pekka from Finland, Dr.D from Florida, Artie from SC, Wildman and Ghost from Japan just to name a few. Von's proud to share his success with others through his...

  Every year at the Grand National Roadster show, Von Hot Rod assembles local, and as it turns out international pinstripers for the Pinstriper's Reunion. The get together of 30+ pinstripers culminates with an auction where proceeds from the sale of donated items goes to charity. Hats off to Von Hot Rod for organizing this event.   Cruising through the end of building 4, the main hall with the AMBR contenders, many of the pinstripers are at work, including Von Hot Rod, but I what caught my eye was a couple of Japanese guys shooting a video.   I lived in Japan for a couple years and I speak some Japanese. I'm not sure what I like more... speaking some Japanese is great because you get to sneak up on guys and spit out "Hajimemashite, Pike desu." (kinda means, How are you, I'm Pike). The look on their faces when this tall lanky American dude (call me henna gaijin) hits the accent dead on, but usually they look past me to see, who really just said that? When they finally see me smiling, they realize, it was me. After...

The Hot Rod Art book: Masters of chicken scratch is a book of 13 highly respected and talented artists from the industry. While I am fairly new to the art and design scene in the Hot Rod world, I know many people in the industry from my years working as a designer for Hot Wheels. (Dwayne designed one of my favorite hot wheels) I now have my own design company and still do design work for Hot Wheels as well as several other companies. I design things from snowmobiles to concepts for video games. I started doing Hot Rod art about a year and a half ago and it only fueled my passion for the automobile. My fascination with cars began at a very early age. I grew up around cars and rebuilt my first muscle car at the age of 16 with my dad. I attended the Art Center College of design and received my degree in transportation design. My professional design career started with Troy Lee Designs in Corona, California, as a designer of high-end motocross protective gear. I then became a senior designer for Mattel, Hot...

Speedseekers is new book by German born designer and photographer Alexandra Lier. Visiting Speedweek's salt for the first time, she was hooked. Suddenly a fascination with fast cars, hot rods and customs drove her from her design studio to garages shooting top mechanics and builders or she was off to races to get more pics of the cars she loves. That passion is captured in her first book, Speedseekers Organized into five main chapters, History, Garage, Speed, Landspeed, and Style & Sound. That first chapter about history might as well say "vintage drag racing" cause the included photos are a fantastic collection of legendary racers from Wild Willie Borsch to to Big Daddy Don Garlits to a fiery burnoutin his first rear engine dragster by the legendary "TV" Tommy Ivo. I spent over an hour studying the vintage pictures, then explained some of them to my sons: "This guy held on with only one hand!" I can't get enough of nostalgia drags and the people and cars that made it great (and still do in some cases). From there, I skimmed over the Garage chapter to check out Speed....