Visual Mechanics 4 Coverage

Many thanks to all who made it to the opening reception of Visual Mechanics 4! Here is some coverage....

If you didn't make it make sure to be at the next one! Good times!

Ventura Nationals

Had a great weekend in Ventura!

Here are some flicks of our adventure.. Most or all were taken by young Hector "Chino" Hernandez.. If he keeps at it this kid can be a good photographer one day.

The good folks at Campos Body Shop let us borrow their sweet mini van for the trip.. we cruised in style!

We saw Stoney from Los Boulevardos cruising down 101 south.

Picture of the Deadend crew for the weekend.. Me, Padilla, Chino & Jesus.

In the Ventu..

At the Art Show.. Litle Jenny's bike and art.

Some of the stuff we were selling at the show.

Looking through the Salinas Boys booth.

John "Waldo" Glaspey, Rod Powell and Bill Carter.. Too much knowledge & style about paint in one place!

Young Eddie Padilla doing his thing.

Trophy Whores! Rod Powell & Cole Foster got special awards.

Mejia won best of show and made out with Sophie the Pug!

Saporn made the trek from San Jose, and cruised back with us..

Good to see old friends and glad to make new friends... Until next year!

No Weak Week

Rarely do I ever go a week without doing something fun or exciting.

Last week was no exception!

On Wednesday Night I was working on a few designs when my buddy Dj Sho-T and my brother called me to go meet them at Bankers Casino where some Bandas and Dj Sho-t would be playing in celebration of Cinco De Mayo.

The first banda to perform was pretty weak, the second banda got down.. They kept the people dancing and shouting for "Otra!" when they were done.

The cerveza & tequila was flowing that night!

On Thursday night it was all work for me! Finally I am almost caught up with designs...

Friday brought another exciting night. My brother and I headed to Oakland. Our first stop was a meat loaf dinner at Mike Lavella's. It marked my first time ever having meat loaf. Greta did an awesome job. Meatloaf was good!

After dinner we headed to the Royal Jokers Cruise Night in downtown Oakland. Good to see the usual suspects and my long lost pals Gordini & Helen.

Woke up early Saturday to head to Brizio's open house in South San Francisco with Mark, Robert and Baby Robert.

One of my favorite cars in Brizio's shop. these dudes can build some nice cars.

I think I was getting a little too close for comfort. First he tried to kick me.

Then punch me.

After Brizio's we decided to go cruise Haight for a little bit. I finally bought Z-Trip's Shifting Gears album and a couple other good cd's at Ameoba Records.

Some neat graffiti in the alley next to Ameoba.

The stairway to heaven looks nothing like this I'm guessing.

There was a few little neat scoots just sitting there. I wanted to take this one.

Speaking of Dj Sho-T. How'd those get there.

Dj Sho-T on Haight!

Casper is a big fan.

A lot of hoopla is being made about Banksy being in San Francisco. Einstein does look fresh in those Nikes.

The line has been drawn.

-Juan

Shooting Salinas Boys, Otra ves.

Last week my brother followed along and photographed Cole Foster & Aaron Elliott of Salinas Boys Customs for a couple of days for an upcoming catalog. I went after work to help and bug them. It's always neat to hang out and talk about custom cars with these guys, not only are they talented but these dudes got style. It's always neat to shoot stuff we regularly don't. We usually shoot cars without people, this time my brother's client wanted Cole and Aaron in the pictures..

Here are a few outtakes...

On the first night I showed up late to just pretty much BS with them. Cole and Aaron brought out some very nice Japanese Magazines for us to check out.

One of the places we shot at was Ben Rega's shop... The place is awesome. This is Ben's shoebox that hopefully you'll get to see in person one day. One of the nicest Shoeboxes I've seen (and I've seen a lot of Shoeboxes)

Ben was smart enough to grab this sign before it was destroyed... Nice!

Aaron asked us to get a shot of his logo (done by Rod Powell) so I could digitize it..

After shooting in both Ben & Aaron's shops we headed to the Foster residence to shoot Cole, Aaron & Susan. Here's my brother doing what he's best known for.

Susan brought out a very cool Las Vegas book that I now want!

Of course when we're all together we start talking about random stuff... It usually starts out with cars and this night I think the conversation ended somewhere between blogs and porn...

You'll see some of the pics my brother took later this year. They're neat!

-Juan

Salinas Boys - Japan Bound

Here's a poster I had the privilege to illustrate for the Salinas Boys to take to Japan for the Mooneyes show this year.. Dig it?

-Juan