Despite the countless motorcycles still in hibernation in garages across the country, the countdown has officially commenced.

Now only over six months out, the Legendary Buffalo Chip has already begun preparations for the 70th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally 2010. The epicenter and purveyor of the ultimate Sturgis experience; the Legendary Buffalo Chip has once again set out to provide rally-goers an array of entertainment, art, vendors, food, amenities and a myriad of raucous memories.

By bikers and for bikers, The Legendary Buffalo Chip has consistently proven itself as the best party in Sturgis. Synonymous with providing patrons a world-renowned assortment of musical acts, this year’s lineup is sure to deliver. Locked, loaded and ready to grace the Chip’s infamous main amphitheatre stage is rock and roll luminary, ZZ Top. That little ol’ band from Texas is sure to deliver the familiar and intricate riffs that landed them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in the hearts of fans the world over. The notoriously bearded blues-rock power trio will be celebrating their 40th Anniversary next year and is looking forward to ringing in this musical achievement with a rowdy crowd of Chipsters.

Another musical powerhouse booked for this year’s festivities is hard-hitting American rock band, Disturbed. Since the band’s inception in 1996 they have sold over 11 million albums worldwide, making them one of the largest grossing rock bands in recent years. They have also released three consecutive studio albums that have debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

An additional can’t-miss attraction at this year’s Sturgis Rally Week is Michael Lichter’s 10th Annual Motorcycles as Art Exhibit. An internationally renowned exhibition showcasing the works of the most influential master builders and artists in motorcycling, Motorcycles as Art has become the token exhibition of the annual Sturgis Rally. The exhibit curated by legendary motorcycle photographer, Michael Lichter, has been successfully captivating rally-goers for the past decade and has effectively touched on a variety of relevant and significant themes within the motorcycle community.

Last year’s 2009 exhibit entitled “Rebel Rousers- Motorcycle Icons that Inspired Us to Ride” inspired thousands of enthusiasts to come out and witness for themselves an array of revered images and sacred memorabilia central to the biker culture. Quickly becoming the most eagerly anticipated exhibition of its kind, the Motorcycles as Art exhibition provides Sturgis rally-goers with an unforgettable experience.  This year’s theme soon to be announced, is guaranteed to follow in the rich and unforgettable Motorcycles as Art tradition.

The Third Annual Legends Ride has also been confirmed for Sturgis Rally Week 2010. The Legends Ride is your ticket to join celebrities, world-class bike builders and over 500 riders on a stunning, 50-mile ride from historic Deadwood, SD to the Legendary Buffalo Chip. All proceeds from the ride benefit two local Black Hills charities including the Black Hills Children’s Home and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame. Within the past two years, the Legends Ride has quickly become the premier charity-celebrity ride of the motorcycling community and has raised nearly $100,000 for local charities. The ride is scheduled for Monday, August 9 with details still being worked out.

The Legendary Buffalo Chip offers visitors the ultimate Sturgis experience- there’s really no reason to go anywhere else. The countdown has officially begun so visit buffalochip.com now to secure your reservation for Sturgis 2010. Join ZZ Top, Disturbed, Michael Lichter and thousands of rowdy bikers at the Legendary Buffalo Chip for Sturgis Rally Week 2010 and join in the celebration. It’s going to be a wild ride!

Recently I learned that I have yet another reason to be glad that I voted for Scott Brown: he rides a motorcycle, a Victory at that. Senator “Beefcake” (we’ve all seen the Cosmo centerfold that he was in 20+ yrs. ago) may be the bain of MA democrats and causing Washington  to back pedal in a major way, but I just want to gather some of my fellow biker buddies and go for a long ride with him leading the way!

Senator elect Scott Brown a.k.a Senator "Beefcake"

Senator-elect Scott Brown & his Victory (photo lifted from bostonbiker.com)

Sure, our senior senator John Kerry, also rides a bike. He used to ride BMWs until he ran for president in 2004, when he made the switch to Harley-Davidson to appear like a True American. But somehow I just don’t get the impression that Kerry would be as cool to hang out with. I guess I still have a bad taste in my mouth from his presidential campaign run.

John Kerry going for a spin on an HD

Undoubtedly, two senators have differing opinions when it comes to politics, but I bet they can share a story or two about a past time that we can all get behind. I wonder if having two motorcycle riders for senators will help federal motorcycle rights legislation…

What do you do in January when it’s too wet or chilly to ride your motorcycle? How about heading out for a night of motorcycle related literature and photography? Christina Shook and Ed Milich will be touring motorcycle destinations in San Francisco and northern California beginning January 26 2010 to promote their recently released motorcycle books: Milich’s “Wrenched: Man and Machine” and Shook’s “Chicks on Bikes“. Milich recently completed a 10-day West Coast book tour in December of 2009 with Mark Gardiner (Roadracer X, Classic Bike), author of Riding Man. Shook shared the Werkstatt SF tour stop with Gardiner and Milich, and the idea for January’s “Wrenched Words and Chick Pics” Tour was born.

Christina Shook is a San Francisco East Bay based professional photographer. “Chicks On Bikes“, Shook’s first book, compiles her photographs of and writings on female motorcyclists drawn largely from the San Francisco Bay Area’s diverse population of female riders. The book depicts female racers, commuters, cruisers, and mechanics in their natural environments from San Fransicso’s streets to dirt bike trails, to the racetrack. The hard bound “Chicks On Bikes” is 154 pages and is $24.99 from chicksonbike.us.

Chicks on Bikes by Christina Shook

Wrenched: Man and Machine by Ed Milich

Ed Milich is a Los Angeles based writer and contributor to Motorcyclist Magazine, Café Racer Magazine Sports Car Market Magazine, a national roadracing champion (WSMC, AHRMA), proprietor of motorcycle websites Guzzitech.com, Ducpower.com, and Motobastard.com and a professional Mechanical Engineer. “Wrenched, Man and Machine“, the first book from the Los Angeles based Milich, documents his motorcycle racing, wrenching and riding experiences in largely unrhymed free verse. In March of 2009, Milich debuted “Wrenched” at the Daytona International Speedway Bike Week Vintage Races where he punctuated the book release by winning four out of four races. *Wrenched, Man and Machine* is 142 pages and is $15 postpaid at wrenchedbook.com.

If you live in the N. California area I highly recommend you go see these guys and show them your support!

Bikers are drawn to skulls. More specifically, bikers are drawn to skull jewelry. This is why I’d like to call your attention to the talents of Nino925.

Nino925 was established in 1989 by designer/owner Frank Zubieta and specializes in superior, handcrafted custom jewelry. Nino has a commanding presence in the biker world and is being worn by celebrities, movers and shakers in the music industry and celebrity bike builders. The Nino925 brand has also become a fixture at biker events across the country. You may have even seen some him featured in motorcycle magazines like Easyriders and V-Twin.

I’ve been collecting skull rings since I was a teenager. These are the kind of rings that I would have dreamed of owning to adorn my fat little fingers! They are the kind of rings that any quality collector would want to have.

And more than just rings, there is a nice selection of heavy, sterling bracelets to choose from as well.

Oh, let’s not forget about the pendants and necklaces…

If skulls aren’t your thing, don’t fret: Nino925 has a few non-skull designs with a flair of rockabilly/tattoo design influence.

I first heard of Nino925 from my friend, ArtBiker, who has not only been a longtime supporter and collector, but recently commissioned a custom piece based on his own logo design. Even from the photo alone you can see the quality of this piece.

Custom designed ring for ArtBiker by Nino925

For more information on Nino925 (or if you’re interested in shopping his online catalog), visit www.Nino925.com.

Follow Nino925 on Twitter: @nino925

Related posts:

• Ami James jewelry company launches new web site
• BadAss Jewelry
• Tidbits from the Web: Voodoo King Designs

From the Scriptures, “Gilead” means hill of testimony or mound of witness, a mountainous region east of the Jordan River, situated in the present-day Kingdom of Jordan.

“You know, this club needs a healing, brother. And you’ve got to be the one to deliver it.” -Bobby to Jax

The boys are locked up in the slammer with no friends to watch their backs. Opie’s up to his elbows holding down the Teller-Morrow fort, trying to fulfill Clay’s requests & on top of it, his own kids. Gemma struggles to find solace while doing whatever she can to get her boys out of jail. Everyone is trying to make sense of it all and find some inner peace.  **Spoilers ahead**

Jax in episode 7 "Gilead"

Clay in his prison duds

The good:

• the vulnerability of SAMCRO in jail
• Helloooo Agent Stahl
• the Zobelle/IRA connection: guns
• Juice’s comical “romantic” endeavors
• Gemma calling in the favor on Elliott Oswald & the really sweet interaction with his daughter, a rape survivor
  
• Opie stepping up to the plate for the club
  
• Tara calling Lyla “porn girl” (it made me snicker)
  
• Agent Stahl’s tactics putting a bigger rift between Clay & Jax, leading to the inevitable blow-out
  
• the palpable tension and parting of ways when the guys get home, leaving Gemma & Tara perplexed
  

The not-so good:

• Juice getting shivved for his troubles
• Plan backfired and Sheriff Trammel getting popped.
  

Sons of anarchy news

Ratings:
TV by the Numbers reports that last week while Sons of Anarchy didn’t make the weekly cable top 40 by viewers (it was 49th, 3.312 million) it was the number three show with adults 18-49 on cable, trailing only ESPN’s Monday Night Football, and TBS’ coverage of game one of the NLCS between the Phillies and the Dodgers.

Sons of Anarchy was the only scripted show in the 18-49 top 10 last week and was also the only scripted non-animated show with adults 18-34 last week, coming in 8th.

Charlie Hunnam on Carson Daly
Kurt Sutter posted this video interview on his site last week. Somewhere in the swirling voids of my mind I knew that Charlie was English, but hearing him speak normally threw me off a little!

And speaking of…here’s an eyeful of man candy featuring young Mr. Hunnam for you ladies! Aww…so cute!

Next week:
Episode 2.8 “Potlatch”

Zobelle’s business dealings with SAMCRO rivals exacerbate divisions in the club, which is already riven by the Jax-Clay split. And complicating matters further, Georgie Caruso’s (Tom Arnold) thugs attack Luanne’s studio. Meanwhile, Clay comes to an agreement with Elliott Oswald; and Chibs’ estranged wife shows up at his hospital bedside. Tara’s professional and personal lives begin to collide.

Falx Cerebri: n.
The scythe-shaped fold of dura mater in the longitudinal fissure between the two cerebral hemispheres.

“I got a bad feeling we’ll be walking right into a trap.”- Jax

A fortuitous quote in the first 5 minutes of the show. This episode’s title is representative of the conflicting leadership styles of Clay & Jax: Clay’s hellbent, emotive retaliation efforts vs. Jax’s strategic, overly-thought out plan. This time around, Clay wins out and sends the club out on a duck hunt for Zobelle & Weston. **Spoilers ahead**

episode 6: Falx Cerebi

The cop & the criminal

The good (and SO much of it!):

• Chibs is ok
• The Hale/Jax connection
• Tara’s look of realization as to why someone planted the car bomb
• Radioactive pee
• Seeing more of Polly Zobelle this week and realizing the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
• Weston’s brain-washed kids
• Could I love Gemma any more? Taking Tara under her wing, the hatbox collection (and the toy surprises inside!) and shooting up Trampy McTramp’s car
• Hale blackmailing Polly
• The well-planned ambush of SAMCRO

The not-so good:

• We’re just about half-way through the season!

Sons of anarchy news

Ratings:
TV by the Numbers reports that ratings stayed flat from last week (3.763 million) but up with adults 18-49, completely beating the pants off of ABC’s “The Forgotten.”

Kurt Sutter tweeted about the overall numbers for Season 2: “Sons of Anarchy season 2 avg. 3.7 million P2+ and 2.6 million A18-49, gains of +68% and +77% vs. season 1. Very impressive.”

**Spoilers**

E!Online is reporting that someone on the show is gonna get whacked in episode 8, “Potlatch”:

Brace yourselves, Samcro fans, because in an upcoming episode of FX’s ultragritty family drama Sons of Anarchy, someone close to the club gets dead. Majorly dead. Blood and brain matter dead. And when you learn who it is, your heart is going to break a little. So is it Chibs (Tommy Flanagan), who just took a car bomb to the head…or could there be someone else on the chopping block?…The good news is the death ain’t Chibs. The bad news is that it’s somebody else about whom the club cares deeply.

A lot of people are guessing that perhaps the unfortunate soul is Unser, but according to E!Online’s Spoiler Chat: We don’t want to give away the farm too early, but here’s another big hint: If you guessed a man in uniform, you guessed wrong.
Uh oh.

Next week:
Episode 2.7 “Gilead”
Since The League has SAMCRO members behind bars, the club must make new alliances in prison to survive. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent Stahl uses this imprisonment to test Jax and Clay’s relationship.

Kurt Sutter tweeted yesterday: “next week’s ep 7, gilead, probably my favorite of the season. clearly “oz” was my favorite show. i think fontana is a genius. i aspire…”

Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse Announces Events for Biketoberfest 2009

The Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse will return to the Doghouse Bar and Grill on Main Street in Daytona [Biketoberfest is from October 15th-October 18th]. The Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse is also going to be a part of the brand new Irongate Biker Bar located right next to the Doghouse, be sure to stop by and see the newest addition to Main Street Daytona. In keeping with The Doghouses’ reputation as “the place to party in Daytona,” this year’s Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse line-up will feature some of the industry’s best custom bikes, builders, and special events.

Bikertoberfest 2009

In addition the Doghouse main stage will feature live music from bikers favorite southern rock bands Rebel Son and DB Bryant on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. Friday and Saturday night will also feature, the Betty Bangs bikini contest. Sure to be a crowd favorite, Betty Bangs brings a crew of the hottest models from South Beach and adorns them with her limited edition bikinis. Prepare to be BANGED by Betty and her crew of stunning South Beach models!

Friday night will be a Military Tribute for active duty service members and veterans. You can also party at the Doghouse with Phil Pitzer and Sheree Wilson from the movie “Easyriders The Ride Back” along with their bikes. Biketoberfest at the
Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse wouldn’t be complete without bike builders and their bikes. Industry giants Dave Perewitz and Eddie Trotta along with relative new-comers Lefty Brother Cycles will all have motorcycles on display at the Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse.

With over 30 years experience building and customizing bikes, Dave Perewitz is truly an industry legend and leader. His custom-fabricated motorcycles are a delicate blend of engineering, design, power, performance and beauty. A self-taught designer, mechanic, painter and fabricator Perewitz’s creations have been featured on a number of magazine covers and television programs. He has also built for an array of celebrities including Hulk Hogan and Tony Stewart.

Custom bike builder, Eddie Trotta has been designing and building custom motorcycles for over 30 years and in so has created the Thunder Cycle Design Legacy. He has quickly become one of the planet’s pre-eminent custom motorcycle designers. His personal touch, imagination and craftsmanship have awarded Trotta a long list of honors including V-Twin Magazines’ Bike Builder of the Year and the Biker Picaso Award at the Discovery Channel’s Ultimate Chop Awards Show. He is currently working with Lorenzo Lamas to produce a limited number of custom motorcycles unlike any ther production custom out there.

Founded in 2005, Lefty Brothers Cycles has taken the motorcycle industry by storm. Izzy and his crew, all active duty military soldiers, are passionate about creating unique rides that ride as good as they look. Lefty Brothers Cycles have established a presence in the industry by producing quality custom one off bikes and their one of a kind creations have been featured in several national magazines.

"ROMY" by Lefty Bros. Cycles

[Additional information that I wanted to share about this bike from the Lefty Bros. Cycles website: "This bike is being dedicated to a very very dear friend. A friend who has always been considered "family"...Romulo was shot in the neck while in a gunfight  fighting the war on terrorism. The gunshot caused severe damage to his vertebrate. Romulo is now facing another fight. A fight to regain the use of his body!"]

“Biketoberfest is always a great time because it’s a chance to get a little more sun before Winter sets in,” said Carrie Repp, event coordinator for the Roadhouse and owner of R&R Promotions. “This year with Rebel Son playing every night, the hot girls of the Betty Banged Bikini contest and the three great builders we have on display it’s sure to be perfect place to fill up on fun before Winter.”

“Unraveling the matriarch will destabilize them. They’re all little boys who need a strong mommy.”

A lot of Twitter feedback from last’s episode was that it was “boring.” I disagree. The thing that everyone has to keep in mind with Sons of Anarchy is that the writing is very sophisticated (despite the subject matter) and there’s more happening in the show then following a group of lawless, badly-behaved bikers. There’s a lot of stuff going on that you have to pay full attention to, a lot of it very subtle, and if you don’t you can get a bit lost.

Gemma stole the show in episode 2 "Small Tears"

Cultural Learnings wrote a fantastic post about last night’s show. It’s more than a typical episode recap. I highly recommend giving it a read. Do not read it if you didn’t see the episode as it would SPOIL your viewing.

See? I said SPOIL as in, possible SPOILERS ahead!

Highlights:

• One word: Gemma. I don’t think I have to say anything more.
• Seeing show creator, Kurt Sutter back as jailbound Otto
• the uncomfortable scene of Tig & Opie being “pals”-made my skin crawl
• great Sopranos reference

Lowlights:

• Crashing that sweet Cadillac
• Tom Arnold. He’s sleazy, but not sleazy enough as a porn mogul

Sons of Anarchy news

The season premier sets a ratings record:
The second season premiere of Sons of Anarchy on FX debuted to a series high Sept. 8.  Anarchy drew 4.29 million total viewers, including 3.03 million P18-49. The program grew 95% over its series premiere in the key 18-49 demo, the largest increase ever for the second season premiere of an FX series.

Screen Rant has some tid bits to share about the show

• When SoA premiered, it drew in 1.5 million viewers, despite going up against a Sarah Palin speech.  These numbers were the highest since Rescue Me premiere for the network.
• Clay (Ron Perlman) is based on King Claudius & Jax on Hamlet. It’s not quite Hamlet, but it would seem to be the guiding force of inspiration for the series.
• Before Sons of Anarchy, Ron Perlman had never been on a motorcycle.

Monsters & Critics interviewed Henry Rollins recently. Here’s an excerpt describing his physical transformation for the role of AJ Weston.

M&C: Your physical transformation is noted…you had a more lithe, yoga lean physique that you previously shared was due to a more vegan diet you adopted the past ten years.  Tell me what your training and changes entailed when you signed on for this role?

Henry Rollins: I was asked if I could put on some more muscle for the part. I upped the daily caloric intake and lifting poundage. Hopefully I got the size they were looking for. I don’t train like that anymore, it’s hard on the frame and I don’t really need the mass.

M&C: At the TCA’s, you shared that the cast and crew were exceedingly kind and talented.  Whose performances within this series have impressed you the most, and which particular scenes were the hardest for you to shoot personally in this complex second season?

Henry Rollins:  I think that all of the cast are very talented. Charlie Hunnam and Ryan Hurst stand out in my mind as being exceptionally impressive. The hardest scene for me was the assault scene in episode one. It was very important to the plot, but it was a relief when it was behind me.

It was not an enjoyable experience.

Rollins at the premiere for SoA

M&C: Will your character have more curt power struggle exchanges or face-offs with Darby, the reigning Charming supremacist?

Henry Rollins: Darby and Weston don’t like each other and it’s a small town, so there may be some future friction, you never know.

M&C: The tattoos you have, which are yours, and which are transfers applied by the makeup department?  The one on your lower neck, what does it symbolize?

Henry Rollins: Only one tattoo is applied to me for the part.

It’s the life rune at the base of my neck. Here’s an explanation: http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/groups_national_alliance.asp.

M&C: How long do we get the pleasure of AJ Weston this season, will he remain in Charming until season three?

Henry Rollins: The lifespan of AJ Weston is not in my hands.

E! Online
I have to link to this article at E! Online because I just love the title: What the hell just happened on Sons of Anarchy?!

Charlie Hunnam promises a major showdown between Clay and Jax
TV Guide reveals their take on season 2 and bits of an interview with Charlie Hunnam:
“There’s going to have to be a reckoning at some point, and Jax tries to do it in a way that’s the least damaging to the club,” Hunnam says. “But it builds and it builds and it builds to this violent confrontation. It’s a pretty hairy sequence, but I think it’s worth the wait.”

Isn’t it great to have something to look forward to every week?

What can I say about last night’s episode? Whoo doggy! And there was an unscheduled full moon last night: helloooo Charlie Hunnam bum shot!

gratuitous nekkidness!

To be honest I had higher expectations for the season premier. First of all, there were way too many commercials for my liking and I thought the “horrible event” was a bit…cliché (but I think maybe I have more of a Teflon coating than most viewers). However, I do expect the show to escalate over the season, much like it did last season, and I think we’re all in for some good storytelling. 

Highlights:

• Katey Segal still great as Gemma. And how many black, lacy shirts do you think that woman has in her wardrobe? Amazing.
• Rollins, Rollins, Rollins! He brought amazing coldness to his character. And unlike the majority of the SoA cast, those tattoos are real, kids!
• The title for last night’s episode was “Albification” which by definition means: the act or process of making white.

What did you guys think of it?

Sons of Anarchy news: warning some SPOILERS ahead

EW says aside from Katey Segal’s Emmy-worthy performance as Gemma, there are 5 things to watch for in Season 2:

1. The arrival of recurring guest stars Adam Arkin and Henry Rollins. They play white separatists determined to do whatever it takes to get the club to stop selling guns to gangs. “It’s no mystery how that’s gonna unfold ultimately,” Hunnam says. “It’s gonna be bloody.”

2. A brutal final few moments of the season premiere. Something happens to Gemma that will make you want to punch someone and/or your TV. Just know it serves a storytelling purpose. “There’s a slow build in the resentment between Clay and Jax that comes to a head in the middle of the season in a very explosive and violent manner, and we needed something that huge to bring us back together. The event is concealed from the vast majority of the club until Gemma realizes that she needs to pull the trigger and finally reveal this awful thing that happened to her in an attempt to unify us,” Hunnam says. “I think it was a very smart thing that [creator Kurt Sutter, Sagal's real-life husband] has done actually. I totally agree that it could potentially put people off a little bit because it is just so horrifying, but if you stay put through the course of the season, there’s a really nice payoff at the end.”

3. Jax getting the club involved in the porn business. Big Otto’s wife Luann runs into trouble keeping her porn studio afloat, and Jax brings the club in as a partner to bail her out. In addition to affording an opportunity for much-needed levity, it gives Sutter a chance to fulfill Hunnam’s one request for season 2: That Jax play a much bigger role in the day-to-day mechanics of the club. “Through the course of the first season, Jax was very reluctant to engage in a lot of the business of the club, mainly running guns, which is something I always liked that he was against. But I also felt like Jax is a gangster, and gangsters like to make money. He needs to prove that if he was the president of the club, he’d be a strong leader, bring in some money, and do a better job than Clay.”

4. Jax’s son, Abel, being a quiet baby. Drea de Matteo, who played Abel’s mother, Wendy, is headed to Wisteria Lane, which means Jax is now a full-time father. “Which is fun, but boy, it’s kind of hard working with babies,” Hunnam says. “It’s all adorable and very sweet when they’re cooing and inquisitive and playing with my beard and grabbing my hair. They stay at that level for a couple of minutes, and then they get bored and start crying and we have to bring in a rubber baby. We’ve just opted for Abel sleeping a lot.”

5. Two shower scenes! Jax is committed to making his relationship with Tara (Mad Men’s Maggie Siff) work, though their ongoing issues ruin what could’ve been a romantic shower scene in the season premiere. But, Hunnam promises, “the second shower scene later in the season is a little more hot and steamy.” The actor doesn’t have a problem with nudity. “I had such a baptism of fire since my first job was [the UK] Queer as Folk, and I had to be 18-years-old, fully naked, and engaging in pretty graphic sex scenes with another man,” he says. “After that, anything that Sons of Anarchy can throw at me is pretty much a cakewalk. I’d still say the baby is more difficult.”

Katey Segal & Ron Perlman as "Jemma and Clay"

Ron Perlman has been making the rounds with two similar sounding but different enough interviews, one at Pop Culture Zoo and one at IESB.com. I liked hearing his take on the show and of his character, Clay. Oh, and it would seems he’s finally put some decent time in the saddle and gotten a little better with his riding skills!

Chicago Tribune thinks SoA has definitely upped it’s game this season.

“The pacing is better, the plotting is tighter and the supporting cast is full of gems.”

TV Gal from Zap2It falls into the camp that is too squeamish to watch SoA:

“I’ve watched the second season premiere and the show simply isn’t for me. But I can appreciate why so many of you enjoy it and I’ll continue to check in on it as the second season progresses.”

She should just stick to Vampire Diaries and So You Think You Can Dance. This show is way out of her league.

Clay & Jax, Sons of Anarchy Season 2

*Tweet tweet*

Kurt Sutter is on Twitter (at least for the time being until he deletes his account “’cause i will feel frivolous and shameful“): @sutterink
Katey Segal is also on the tweets as well: @kateysegal

SoA Party in a Box giveaway is still happening!
The FX network is encouraging fans to throw Sons of Anarchy viewing parties and are having a Party In a Box giveaway! All you have to do is register and the first 100 fans to register will get an exclusive Sons of Anarchy Party-in-a-Box with branded party gear including SOA shot glass, banner, tattoos and more.

Kurt Sutter, Ron Perlman, Katey Segal & Charlie Hunnam

So I’m gonna ask the readers of my blog to help spread the word. Sons of Anarchy season two, premiers in one week — Tuesday, September 8th, 10pm on FX. I know in this digital age of DVRs, streaming downloads and iTunes, destination television is a dying event. But that number next Tuesday is an important number for the network and studio. All that advertising, marketing and promotional material you have seen around your town and on your TVs is pointed at that one night. A high number serves them in terms of advertisers and overall perception of the show. I couldn’t have asked for a better campaign and marketing strategy. FX has done an amazing job. I’d love to see all that hard work pay off for them and the show.

My request is good old fashioned “word-of-mouth”. Tell your friends, family, co-workers about the SOA premier next Tuesday. Help me get bodies in front of the tube. And if you know someone with a Nielsen box, I’ll personally call them and invite them to watch. I’m not kidding, send me their number and I’ll call them. I feel confident that the first episode of the new season will not disappoint

I want to thank you in advance for your loyalty and support. I am constantly blown away by the enthusiasm and devotion of the SOA fans. I’ve never seen anything like it.

I love this show and I love its fans.

I know I’ll be watching it in real-time! Will you?

Who or what is Lobo?

Lobo is an blue-skinned, red-eyed, cigar-chomping alien who is an interstellar mercenary and bounty hunter. He is a fictional character that appears in the comic books published by DC Comics. In the 1990s, he was popularized in Lobo: The Last Czarnian by writer Alan Grant, with artwork by the amazing Simon Bisley.

Lobo is the MAN!

The success of that series led to many more including  Lobocop (a RoboCop parody); Blazing Chain of Love (in which he is sent on a job to a harem); Paramilitary Christmas Special (in which he is contracted by the Easter Bunny to assassinate Santa Claus which became a short film that was done back in 2002.); Infanticide (where he kills his daughter and all of his other bastard offspring that she has gathered to try to kill him); Convention Special (a send-up of comic book conventions); and Unamerican Gladiators (in which Lobo takes part in a deadly televised game show). Lobo also starred in his own title for 64 issues, from 1993 to 1999.

The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas special

Lobo was meant to serve as a parody of violent heroes such as Wolverine and the Punisher, with his stories featuring a nihilistic streak tinged with dark comedy and  excessive violence and was one of the comic world’s most popular characters.

Lobo: the movie

Bringing Lobo to the big screen has been in Hollywood development limbo for years. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels) is set to take on the Main Man in a feature film. A script is written and allegedly is set to begin production early next year.

According to Variety, Lobo will be  a seven-foot tall, blue-skinned, indestructible and heavily muscled anti-hero who drives a pimped out motorcycle, and lands on Earth in search of four fugitives who are bent on wreaking havoc. Lobo teams with a small town teen-aged girl to stop the creatures.

They are going for a fraggin’ PG-13 rating. (Ha, yeah…good luck with that fellas!) I have to wonder if these guys have ever read a Lobo comic? Lobo is an extremely violent (yet hilarious) character and I can’t help but to wonder if he will translate well at all to the big screen. To saddle him with a teen-aged girl sidekick is completely out of character. Next thing you know he’ll be carrying around a lil fuzzy kitten in his pocket…oh wait, that’s HellBoy!

Well, never say never. We’ll just have to see how this one plays out.

There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of anticipation for next week to get here already so we can delve back into the brutal world of Charming and into the tumultuous clubhouse of SAMCRO. I know that for me, personally, I’ve probably forgotten how heavy & violent the show really is and I’m getting myself geared up for the culture shock of being thrust back into that world again.

Sons of Anarchy back on next week!

Thar be spoilers, Captain!

If you don’t want to know anything about season 2 events, stop reading now!

What will be be seeing in season 2?

Season 2 picks up where the first season left off. SAMCRO is in turmoil, they still have the ATF buzzing around their noses and the gun running biz is all but extinct. Jax & Clay are now in the midst of a Mexican standoff and that leaves the club divided.

If you’re a fan of Opie, like I am, you’ll be glad to know that he’s sticking around this season, full of appropriate drama and dedicated to Clay, which I’m sure will put a strain on his friendship with Jax.

SoA: Opie wallpaper

It’s been alluded to that there are other chapters of Sons of Anarchy in other areas of the country, and we’ll see SAMCRO team up with SoA Oregon to team up for some crime.

SAMCRO will also dabble in the porn biz this season. They will help Otto’s old lady, Luann, run her adult movie business. This will lead to a series of half-nude girls hanging around to entertain the fellas. According to E! News, one of the characters, a seemingly sweet single mom, will make a move on Opie; while another aggressive actress wants Jax  for herself. Tara doesn’t like that very much, naturally, and you will love what she does about it.

Oh, and apparently we won’t be seeing any of Wendy, played by Drea DeMatteo this season. I don’t think I’ll miss her much.

While the Mayans were SAMCRO’s enemies last season, this season they take on the Aryan Brotherhood (led by Adam Arkin & Henry Rollins) who want to destroy pulverize SAMCRO by any means necessary. And they’ll go to any extreme to do so. Let’s face it, the Sons of Anarchy are not good guys, but these guys are worse.

Sons of Anarchy

And what about that “horrifying event”?

There’s no other information other than it’s “Horrifying. Terrifying. Stomach-turning.” YIKES.

Enter for a chance to win a 2009 Harley Davidson FXD Dyna Superglide
visit: fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa/bikegiveaway

Enter for a chance to win a Sons of Anarchy gear pack giveaway
visit: fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa/gearpackgiveaway

SoA Party in a Box giveaway!
The FX network is encouraging fans to throw Sons of Anarchy viewing parties and are having a Party In a Box giveaway! All you have to do is register and the first 100 fans to register will get an exclusive Sons of Anarchy Party-in-a-Box with branded party gear including SOA shot glass, banner, tattoos and more.

Until next week!

The countdown is ON for the season 2 premier episode “Albification.”

Sons of Anarchy season 1 is now on DVD.

Catch up on the first season so you don’t get left in the dust when season 2 begins! Many critics still refer to SoA as “the Sopranos on 2 wheels”-which I think is a lazy way to describe the show. I very much believe it’s majorly influenced by Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” over anything else.
Read Express Night Out’s review and Icon Vs. Icon chose season 1 on dvd as it’s Pick of the Week.

Katie Segal on her character & the upcoming events of the season

Katey Segal at the FX Screening of Sons Of Anarchy

I really like her. I like that she’s flawed but she doesn’t think that she is. She’s survived a lot, and people like that tend to live in a lot of denial. She knows how to get through life in her way, and she doesn’t question it. It’s just, “This is how it is.” For instance, I don’t think Gemma’s ever been to therapy. She’s not that girl. What you see is what you get.

Something very dark happens. The club is going to go through some turmoil — when you live an outlaw lifestyle, that’s the risk you take. As my husband says, this season is all about loyalties. Henry Rollins and Adam Arkin are on the show this year, and they … well, I don’t want to say too much, but they’re not really good guys.

Adam Arkin & Henry Rollins talk shop

Adam Arkin on FX's Sons of Anarchy

Henry Rollins on FX's Sons of Anarchy

By now we all now that Adam Arkin and Henry Rollins are joining the cast to stir the pot in Charming. Arkin insists his character, Ethan Zobelle, is a White separatist, not a supremacist. Henry Rollins describes his character, AJ Weston as a “knucklehead”.

“Being an American who is very aware of race, I’ve been around those knuckleheads for many, many years,” Henry explained. “In the music world they come to your shows, it’s awful. I’ve heard the rationale, I can’t support it but it’s interesting to hear it and wonder how insane these people are.”

FX’s Sons of Anarchy Season 2 Premiere Screening

The screening for season 2 took place at the Paramount theater on Monday night in Hollywood, CA. View all the red carpet arrival photos!

Kurt Sutter, Katey Segal & Charlie Hunnam at the SoA premier (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images North America)

Throw your own Sons of Anarchy viewing party

The FX network is encouraging us to throw Sons of Anarchy viewing parties and to help the cause they are having a Party In a Box giveaway! All you have to do is register and the first 100 fans to register will get an exclusive Sons of Anarchy Party-in-a-Box with branded party gear including SOA shot glass, banner, tattoos and more.

Until next week!

If you need a refresher or want to do an SoA crash course to catch up before season 2 begins, season 1 was released on DVD today! Seriously, if you’ve never seen the show before and are interested in watching it you really should watch season 1 because season 2 expects everyone to know what is going on.

additional SoA desktop wallpapers available at fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa

From this point forward is a spoiler zone.

Consider yourself warned! On to the juicy stuff:

More about the “horrifying” event that occurs in the premiere

Something worse and more distressing than the castration or the blowtorch tattoo removal in season one is going to happen at the end of the first episode. If you can bear to watch, it will certainly make you think and wonder what will happen next.

I do know that this event includes newest bad guy, Henry Rollins. In a recent interview he was asked how difficult filming that particular scene was and his reply was:

It was a little much. It was tough to shoot, for all of us — the whole crew and all the actors involved. It was not cool. It was part of the story and we had to do it, but it was a huge relief when they said, “Okay, we’ve got it. That’s all we need.”

Henry Rollins on his character

I’m an awful man, named AJ Weston. He’s a neo-Nazi, white separatist, white supremacist type. He has no redeeming social qualities, except that he likes his kids. Past that, he’s incorrigible and awful. My boss is even more awful because he’s a Machiavellian character, played by Adam Arkin, who is brilliant. I’m a bad guy that does bad things, and my enemy is the Sons of Anarchy. And, they hate me too, believe me.

Opie fans rejoice

Ryan Hurst will be back this season as Opie, despite the fact that his character’s wife was assassinated last season, which surprisingly makes Opie’s commitment to SAMCRO even stronger. “Opie is a guy who needs a task,” series creator Kurt Sutter says. Opie’s task will find him getting even closer to Clay, which will most definitely have an impact on Jax’s emotional arc this season.

Enter the SoA bike giveaway

Go to fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa/bikegiveaway to enter for a chance to win a 2009 Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Superglide!

And while you’re there don’t forget to enter the Sons of Anarchy gear pack giveaway!

As of August 17, you can head on over to fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa/gearpackgiveaway to register for the giveaway where five winners will win the prize package, which includes:

• Tour Master Nylon Cruiser III-Large Sissybar Bag- a heavy duty, weather-resistant bag with nylon construction and a hinged lid providing storage space and easy access.
• Gift Certificate for a case of AMSOIL 20W-50 Synthetic Motorcycle Oil- a high performance engine, and primary chaincase lubricant.
• Gift Certificate for S&S Single Bore Tuned Induction Kit- kit features two forward facing, tuned length induction tracts and dual air filters to increase both horsepower and torque.
• Bobster® Gunner- eyewear that converts from sunglasses to goggles with lenses that darken in the sun.
• Find It Now Security System- an anti-theft tracking device that will ALERT, LOCATE, and RECOVER your ride if it is moved or tampered with.
• Vega XTS Naked Half Helmet- featuring aggressive cutaway styling and exceptional fit with a plush, super absorbent interior.
• Iron Horse Magazine- subscription to the #1 motorcycle magazine for the motorcycle enthusiast.
• ZANheadgear® Neodanna -Bandanna with neoprene face mask to ensure full coverage of the face and neck.
• ZANheadgear® Flydanna®- Head wrap with a tail and ties; perfect under a helmet.
• Sons of Anarchy Reaper T-shirt

Everyone is definitely anticipating the return of SoA. Even though the first season started out a little slow, I have a feeling that all of the media buzz and critical acclaim will pull in a ton more viewers for season 2, which is very much the same phenomenon that happened to season 2 of HBO’s True Blood.

Until next week!

This week we’ve got a little inside scoop about the over all story arc:

According to Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam, friends tell him that FX’s headbanging outlaw motorcycle club series was the talk of the annual Sturgis Rally in South Dakota. Here’s some inside info on SOA from the cast and producers at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, California (with additional info  gathered from a variety of sources including sutterink.com, the SOA myspace page and variety.com):

• Kurt Sutter has more or less a seven-season plan in mind for Sons of Anarchy, assuming that the largess of FX allows him to go on that long.
• The events of the season premiere will send one character on an unexpected spiritual journey.
• Per Kurt Sutter, Opie (Ryan Hurst) is ”a guy who needs a task,” and he’ll actually recommit himself to Clay this season, which plays into Jax’s arc this season.
• Maggie Siff revealed that high school acquaintances/friends Opie and Tara finally share a scene this season.
• Ron Perlman has finally mastered motorcycle riding and during one episode, which is largely set on the road, he was able to be in every single shot.
• Big Otto (the imprisoned club member played by Kurt Sutter) will appear several times this season.
• Tara and Gemma (Katey Sagal) will be drawing closer this season, but oddly enough, Jax and Gemma haven’t had many scenes together this season.
• Regarding the new white supremacist separatist character, Adam Arkin declares he is the “conceptual artist” in charge of violence; Henry Rollins does the actual skull crushing. Rollins promises that punches will not be pulled—you will see the aggression onscreen, live and bloody.
• Rollins says that his character’s, A.J. Weston, only redeeming quality is that he loves his children.
• Tom Arnold will be showing up in some sort of recurring role.
• There is a “horrible event” that happens to one of the crew on the season premiere. Jennifer Godwin, over at E-online wondered if it would turn away fans. It’ll rock folks a bit, in a good way, but if they stick around, they’ll see that it wasn’t gratuitous and that it indeed fuels the emotional engine of the season.
• Jax fans should be more than happy to see a buck-nekkid Charlie Hunnam in a shower scene toward the end of the season-two premiere, with his character sporting a new tattoo with the name of another character on the show.
• Sons of Anarchy season two premieres Sept. 8 at 10 p.m. on FX.

photo by D. Craig Harris (follow him on Twitter @d_craig_harris)

Until next week!

Coming into the home stretch. Writing 211, prepping 210, filming 209, editing 207, mixing 206.

This is that time of year where the story road gets very narrow. All the narratives start to intertwine and come to a head. It’s been a tough season for all our characters — emotionally and physically. I think it will be very satisfying for the loyal fans and hopefully intriguing enough to attract new viewers. The finale (which might be 90 minutes) will be pure BLOODY fun.

The premier episode, Albification, went out to critics. I’m already hearing buzz about the “horrifying event” that happens to one of the crew. Jennifer Godwin, over at E-online wondered if it would turn away fans. I’d say it’ll rock folks a bit, in a good way, but if they stick around, they’ll see that it wasn’t gratuitous and that it indeed fuels the emotional engine of the season.

FX has their TCA panel this week — Television Critics Association. Charlie, Ron, Katey, Maggie, Henry Rollins, Adam Arkin and myself will do a Q & A for critics about the upcoming season. Then critics will get the next four episodes to review.

I have to say, getting reviewed is such a mind-fuck. I try to stay detached — not take the bad ones personal, not be over-satisfied with the good ones — but man, it’s difficult. Not sure how others handle it, but I hate the fact that I’m deeply impacted by the opinions of others. Some of it is human nature, some of it is my emotional immaturity. The truth is there are so many variables that dictate the tone of a review, that only an idiot would take them to heart.

So here I sit, the idiot. Let the mind-fucking begin. More to come.

Poor Kurt. It must not be easy to east shit and play nice in that kind of area day after day to do what you love.

Here’s a whole bunch of promotional photos of the cast. Seeing Rollins in there makes me giddy!

From their site:
The year is 2019. A nebulous apocalyptic event, occurring in 2008, has left Yankee Stadium and its partially constructed twin stadium in a state of disrepair. NYC of 2019 is owned by future motorcycle gangs, fighting turf wars throughout the boroughs. The biggest battle yet is on the field of the old Yankee Stadium, with hundreds of participants, both human and animal, waging a surreal and bloody thunderdome-style motorcycle battle for survival. All the bikes and combatants have all come to this place from various points in history and from the future…Joining forces in order to fight a more serious threat. It makes very little sense we know, but it looks awesome on a t-shirt!

#1: The Battle of Yankee Stadiums

For anyone who likes to collect rare and original t-shirts, this would definitely be a series for any avid collector. Sure, the shirts cost $125 each (they are more than happy to tell you why they cost so much) but for your money you get “lots of fun, excitement, and wearing pleasures. Inside each box, contains one fully printed awesome cool t-shirt, a DETH KILLERS 2000 collectable poster to hang on your wall, and a set of trading cards, which are best used for your non-trading pleasures.“

And according to them, you also get “quality original American ideas, PERHAPS AMERICA’S LAST GREATEST RESOURCE.” Ha, they are modest aren’t they?

I’m not entirely sure if these guys are a bunch of stoners who thought a line of over-priced, yet extremely artistic set of tees, would be their ticket to success or if they really think they’re just that fricking cool. However, I can’t help but admire them for launching a venture that is not only ambitious, but creatively innovative.

Oh and, keep your eye out for D.K.M.C-DETH KILLERS MOTORCYCLE CLUB. No, I’m not kidding.

It gives a little hint to what we can expect this upcoming season. Looks like lots of trouble for SAMCRO and even more trouble (deservedly so) for Clay. And there’s even a glimpse of Mr. Rollins (as a cop, perhaps?) in there, too!

Click on the image to view the trailer!

Press release:

Record breaking crowds, sizzling entertainment and thousands of dollars raised for local charities marked Laconia Bike Week 2009 at The Lobster Pound. Visitors from across the globe converged on The Lobster Pound and the newly remodeled Laconia Roadhouse for the 86th Annual Laconia Bike Week.

The Roadhouse, a 15,000 square foot entertainment complex together with its recent 7000 square foot full service restaurant addition complete with a roof deck bar and dining area, was at the center of the action and saw as many as 40,000 visitors during the nine day event. Blues Legend, James Montgomery packed the complex along with the Tom Dixon Country Band every night.

The Lobster Pound

Wild Turkey girls

Visitors enjoyed a number of giveaways from sponsor Wild Turkey and their famous Turkey Girls. All State Insurance also set up shop complete with models and famous custom bike builder, Dave Perewitz. The crowd-pleasing Jack 94 Rum Custom Bike Build Off boasted four custom bike builders who built four choppers from scratch while competing for a grand prize of $5000. The entertainment culminated with Una and her motorcycle dare devil show. Complete with mid-air flips and twirls, at one point her assistant hung from the bottom of the bike while 60 feet in the air.

Bike Week also boasted a jump in philanthropic activity this year, raising over $10,000 for the Have A Heart Children’s Cancer Fund. USA Lock and Load also raised $2,500 for Operation Home Front with funds going to assist veterans returning from combat with Russ from Wild Turkey getting the crowd to dig into their pockets and buy raffle tickets.

The 86th Anniversary of Laconia Bike Week proved itself true to its roots. Nine days of food, incredible entertainment and custom choppers confirmed that Laconia Bike Week is well-deserving as one of the longest lasting and largest events of its kind. Ultimately leaving visitors counting down the days to next years’ festivities.

The Weirs Beach Lobster Pound property was originally the site of one of the first Howard Johnsons in the country. A fire destroyed the Howard Johnson and Gandy Dancer Saloon 37 years ago. The Lobster Pound was then built and is in its 36th year of operation, The Lobster Pound has been a participant in the Laconia Rally for 27 years. The property was purchased from Lou Gaynor and Harvey Chernin by the Ray family three years ago. Major improvements were made when the Ray family purchased the property including a new 7000 square foot restaurant, an improved 15,000 square foot Roadhouse entertainment complex and becoming a corporate sponsor of the Laconia Race and Rally Association.

Here are three official season 2 Sons of Anarchy promos to scratch the itch you guys might be having right about now. We can expect new episodes for season two to begin 09-08-09! Click on the photos to watch the videos.

Promo 1: Jax vs. Clay

Promo 2: Harley 360

Promo 3: Jax 360

Four.

So that morning, my man and I waffled about whether or not we should go (ok, it was really me that was waffling. He was going to go regardless) and headed on up. The weather was so sucky, that even though we went up rather early in the morning and planned to make a day of it, we had to cut the time in half to avoid riding in too much rain.

About half way there I realized that I forgot my camera (*sigh*), so he was nice enough to let me use some of his.

Laconia 2009 Bike Week pins

I think I need a helmet like this!

me! Perusing all the vendors.

Sadly, I do not have a shirt like this one.

*chuckle*

These seemed very popular this year.

For additional POV’s of Laconia 2009, I highly suggest reading Joker’s blog over at the Harley-Davidson Mystique and for a different perspective (and additional photos), Mr. Forrest Frazier’s recently launched blog at FFPhoto.com.

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Sons of Anarchy season 2 update
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It’s simple, just ride – ride to work, at lunch, around the block, or even take the whole day off to ride. Many will be using their return trip from CLUB H.O.G. OKC for their contribution. Non-H.O.G. members can join now, just in time for the event.

Participants worldwide can log on to http://members.hog.com to record their miles, read the blog, submit their photos, explore others’ photos, and more. Those who can’t ride can watch the progress of others with a virtual odometer which will be updated throughout the day on harley-davidson.com and hog.com.

An all-star roster of celebrities, world-class bike builders, cigar aficionados and artists have signed on to participate in the second annual Legends Ride to benefit Black Hills charities. Special Guests in the 2009 Legends Ride, which will be held Monday, August 3rd to kick off the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, include Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, and a host of the nation’s top bike builders, including Roger Bourget, Christian Clayton, Brain Klock, Michael Prugh and Paul Yaffe.

Aerosmith will be performing live at the Legendary Buffalo Chip, Wednesday August 5th and according to Dirico Motorcycles publicist, Aerosmith frontman, Steven Tyler and Dirico Motorcycles USA will take part in the 50-mile escorted Legends Ride that will take participants from historic Deadwood, S.D., through the Black Hills, and will finish at the Legendary Buffalo Chip in Sturgis.

Aerosmith's Steven Tyler Confirmed for 2009 Legends Ride

“The Black Hills have long been known as rider’s paradise, and the Legends Ride takes it one step further. You start in a town that’s infamous – Deadwood – ride through some of the nation’s best territory, and finish in the granddaddy of all motorcycle dreams – Sturgis and the Legendary Buffalo Chip; and you benefit charities,” said Rod Woodruff of the Legendary Buffalo Chip. “Every participant in this year’s Legends Ride is going to be talking about this very special event for the rest of their lives.”

The Legends Ride is hosted by the Legendary Buffalo Chip and the Deadwood Chamber of Commerce. The Legends Ride is a fundraiser for the Children’s Home of the Black Hills and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame. Last year’s event raised nearly $40,000 for charity.

Registration for the 2009 event is open, and tickets are going fast. They can be purchased at www.legendsride.com or by calling (605) 347-9000. The 2009 Legends Ride is a $150 contribution, 100% of which goes to the charities. Contributing riders not only get to enjoy the ride but also a special souvenir gift pack, special parking privileges in Deadwood and the Legendary Buffalo Chip, meet-and-greet opportunities with master builders and celebrities, food and drinks at an invite only reception scheduled to be recorded for broadcast in a network television series and, to top off the experience, concert performances by rocker Lita Ford and country music superstar Toby Keith. The Legends Ride reception will be highlighted by a live auction featuring “The Deadwood Special,” a unique custom motorcycle built by Kyle Shorey of Shadetree Fabrications and a pinstriping demonstration by Buck Wild.

The 2009 ride begins at the Silverado-Franklin Historic Hotel and Gaming Complex on Deadwood’s Main Street. Other stops in Deadwood include the Deadwood Tobacco Company, where riders can enjoy a stogie with the Stars of Cigars including Christian Eiroa, Jonathan Drew, Nish Patel and many other of world’s top cigar aficionados. The Lucky Nugget Gambling Hall will showcase the works of the
motorcycle industry’s and Black Hills’ top artists including Michael Lichter, David Uhl, Eric Herrmann, Rede Ballard and Kristi Goodell as part of the Buffalo Chip’s 2009 Essential Artists of the Black Hills Rally.

The Legends Ride would not be possible without the generous support of Anheuser Busch, Inc. Coca-Cola Bottling Co., the Deadwood Chamber of Commerce, Dirico Motorcycles USA, First Western Bank, Interstate Batteries, Metzeler Motorcycle Tires, Progressive Motorcycle Insurance, the South Dakota Pork Producers, Sucker Punch Sally’s and Taser International.

In the thick of it. Just started shooting episode 204. I’m writing episode 206 and 207 and editing 201 and 202. Love my job, even when it’s crushing me. Here are some non-spoiler pics. I have my PA, John snapping away on set, so hopefully I’ll update more frequently.

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William Shatner has had a major resurgence in the past few years thanks to those great Priceline commercials and a good run on Boston Legal. But, of course, with a reboot of the  Star Trek franchise in theaters this week, die hards will always remember him lovingly as the OG Captain Kirk.

Here is a great story where The Shat reminiscences about his younger days joy riding on his neighbor’s “borrowed” motorcycle.

Another update from Kurt Sutter’s blog:

“We start shooting season two on Monday. Had our read-thru this week. It was great to see everyone around the table again. Not to gush, but it’s such a cool fucking pack of folks…

So we continue to try and generate quality material and the cast and crew continue to bond. It’s a great fucking set. Guerrilla film making with everyone firing on all cylinders. I saw it happen with Chiklis, Walton and Kenny [of The Shield] and it’s happening on SOA as well. The actors have become family and in our case, a club. Charlie, Ron, Boone, Kim, Theo — they all hang out, drink, play golf together. Girls too. Katey, not unlike Gemma, has become the maternal glue. It’s just in her nature to take care of those around her….

Had a great meeting with an actor today whom I hope will be be playing Ethan Zobelle. Zobelle is a new proprietor in Charming and the leader of an ultra conservative organization. Can’t reveal any names until the deal closes, but this guy is a fascinating actor from a very talented family. That character shoots Friday so I hope it closes early this week.

Well, lucky for us Kurt Sutter, creator and writer of FX’s Sons of Anarchy recently updated his blog and gave us a little nugget regarding the upcoming season of the show.

“We’re pretty much on schedule. My goal was to have four scripts written and approved by the time we start shooting and we’ll do that. Have various drafts of the next four being written and well start breaking stories for 209 next week.

The first episode starts shooting on the 27th. Guy Ferland (who directed more episodes of The Shield than any other director) is directing 201, Albification. Guy did an amazing job on episode 107, The Pull, last season. I’m thrilled to have him kicking off season two.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about what the 201 title means. I can tell you it’s a theme for the season.

My entire, talented cast is back (with the exception of a few, whose agents and managers are twisting my fucking arm for more cash that we don’t have and ultimately undermining their clients whom I won’t be able to afford) and we’ve added a few new characters. As you probably have read, Henry Rollins joins us as AJ Weston. He’s a prison hard Aryan walking a fine line between ultra conservatism and violent racism (if a line truly exists). His boss and the brains behind the organization is Ethan Zobelle. That role is still being cast.

As I’ve said in interviews, this season is all about internal alliances. For me, the big antagonist this season is just a catalyst to ignite the deep, primal conflicts within the club. Lives will be threatened, sides will be taken and Sam Crow will become the biggest threat to the Sam Crow.”

Going into it I really had no idea what to expect. I wasn’t sure what kind of interview he would throw at me. Up front, I’ll say that he was very easy to talk to and I enjoyed our conversation (thank you, Shawn!). At the time, I thought I was answering all the questions to the best of my capabilities, trying to sound smart and like I knew what I was talking about and voicing my opinions affably without sounding like an uninformed, opinionated bitch. Overall, we had a great conversation and I hung up feeling good about it!

Then I listened to the podcast when he told me it was posted and inevitably I slapped my forehead a few times! First of all, I cringed at the sound of my own voice (who doesn’t, right?). As the interview progressed I started to wonder how many times I said “you know” “ummm” or “I feel like…” Errrgh. So much for sounding self-assured and intelligent!

I’ve heard many times before that I have “strong opinions” or that I’m very “opinionated” and I guess listening to myself made me realize that was true. I hope that I adequately support those opinions and not just blurt them out with attitude. I try to do a good job in explaining what I have to say and hope that it isn’t too off-putting. Sometimes when I throw a statement out there, I hold my breath waiting for the backlash to occur. Luckily most times I’m able to let it all out with relief when most people agree with me (whew!).

There were definitely a few questions during the interview that I wasn’t expecting and I wonder if everyone can tell that I’m floundering. Overall, I think I did ok. If you have a spare half hour take a listen and let me know what you think!

BadAss Jewelry is the baby of David Barkhordari and is a great online resource for good quality, chunky biker jewelry for both boys and girls.

My eyes got nice and wide when I browsed through the inventory of rings, pendants, dog tags and bracelets. I don’t know what it is about silver skulls but I just love them! I also like wearing jewelry that is unique and this site has a lot of unique pieces.

You may remember back in January I mentioned BadAss Jewelry in my post about the Smokeout Rally which features a cross country ride called the Long Road from Cottonwood AZ to Rockingham, NC. Since it’s the 10th anniversary of the Smokeout, all registered riders that complete the ride will receive a serial numbered, solid-sterling-silver Long Road HORSE medallion, designed by David Barkhordari. Pretty cool!

Long Road HORSE medallion

Anyway, not only does BadAss jewelry sell unique biker styles, but they also carry Stingray Jewelry, which is genuine stingray leather (yes from actual stingrays) on sterling silver, by designer Alan K. According to another jewelry site, many people believe that stingray leather brings strength and power to anyone wearing it. It is also believed that the stingray leather brings good luck and good fortune.  Whether that’s true or not I’m not sure, but I do know that it makes for very interesting looking jewelry.

You can purchase directly from their website (don’t forget to check out their coupons) and they ship internationally. Bonus.

Harley-Davidson is trying to build out it’s Women & Motorcycling section on their website and are looking for women who would like to share their personal stories about why they want to learn to ride.

Interested in submitting a story?

Then here’s what you gotta do:
You would need to submit your story to Kelly Yahr (email address: Kelly.Yahr@harley-davidson.com) along with the following information, which will serve as your profile if your story is chosen:

• First name, middle initial, last name
• Username (if you already have an existing online profile at H-D.com)
• Email address (this will be used as your username when logging into the community)
• Zip code
• Birth date
• Community screen name (your screen name will be used to identify any content you submit on Harley-Davidson/Buell websites

Not sure what to write? You can read some examples of Riding Stories from Real Women to get those creative wheels turning.

Punk rock legend, Henry Rollins,  joins the cast of Sons of Anarchy season 2!

A legend in the punk rock world (and an icon from my misspent youth…I can’t tell you how many shows of his I’ve been to!) is joining the cast of Sons of Anarchy for a six episode arc. That’s right, just when I thought I couldn’t get any more excited I just learned that Mr. Henry Rollins is joining SoA this upcoming season.

If you didn’t grow up listening to punk music in the 80′s then here’s a brief bio on Mr. Rollins. He is a singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, stand-up comedian, author, actor, activist and publisher. He was the front man for punk band Black Flag in the 80′s and has since formed the Rollins Band, written a few books, done a ton of spoken word & stand-up tours, has a lot to say about social and political issues (whether you agree with him or not) and even has his own show on the Independent Film Channel.

He will appear in six upcoming episodes of Sons of Anarchy and will play a new antagonist in the show who poses a deadly threat to SAMCRO. Even Kurt Sutter is excited to have him on the show. From his blog, SutterInk:

“I fucking love Henry Rollins. Been a fan for years. From Black Flag to his one-man shows. He’s a super smart cat with exponential intensity. So excited to have him on the show.

I don’t want to say too much about who his character is right now. As we get closer to air, more information will be revealed. Suffice to say, Henry will fucking chew it up.

While Henry’s better known for being an angry, little man and not known for being a fantastic actor, it’s sounds like he won’t have to stetch his acting legs too much. He just needs to have a bad disposition and scowl a lot. I think he’s pretty good at both of those things.

And now for your viewing/listening pleasure is “Liar” by the Rollins Band.

THE CAROLINA HARLEY-DAVIDSON DEALERS ASSOCIATION 2009 SPRING BEACH RALLY SITE HAS MOVED TO NEW BERN, NC!

The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association Spring Beach Rally is the oldest, continuous running rally in the history of motorcycling and we are excited to be moving to New Bern, NC.

The Tradition Continues . . . . . . . . . . . .

Yes, it is good-bye Myrtle Beach!
The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association is pleased to announce that our 69th Annual Spring Beach Rally will be held in New Bern, North Carolina.  Mark Cox, president of the association said, “We will continue our legacy of 69 years celebrating the oldest, continuous rally by offering our Spring Beach Rally in New Bern”.  Mark went on to say, “This new venue will allow us to get back to basics and offer our existing and new customers a rally experience they will appreciate without restrictions and with the ability to enjoy the freedom of riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle”.

The Mayor of New Bern, T.A. Bayliss, III, welcomed the rally, “We are pleased and honored that you have chosen to hold your rally in our city, and we pledge our total cooperation in making your rally a most pleasurable and memorable occasion for all in attendance”.

Historic New Bern, located at the confluence of two rivers, is the second oldest town in North Carolina.  One of its many features is the picturesque downtown waterfront district and New Bern is only a 30-minute motorcycle ride to the beaches.  Or, if you prefer, plan a ride to the Croatan National Forest located southeast of New Bern.

I’ve seen plenty of guys people do double-takes when they see me on my bike. And I’ve received occasional props from people when they find out I ride my own. It’s 2009 and I’m still surprised at the variety of feedback I get because of my gender and motorcycling hobby. I wonder what it might have been like almost 100 years ago.

Back in the day, before women could vote and we were under the thumb of “the man” (any man really), two intrepid sisters had a dream. New York “society girls” Adeline and Augusta Van Buren (descendants of our 8th president) dreamed of serving our country by being motorcycle dispatch riders. With America’s entry into WWI looming on the horizon, the time was now (or then, actually) to prove that women could do it.

Adeline Van Buren

Augusta Van Buren

On July 4th, 1916 “Gussie” and “Addie” set out from Brooklyn heading toward the City of Angels. Now you have to remember, (as my husband is so fond of saying to me) prior to the Eisenhower interstate act of 1956 there was “no way to get there from here”. In fact it wasn’t until three years after the girls made their trip, that Dwight D made his trip in a truck convoy as a young army officer, which planted the seed of our future highway system.

Imagine crossing this country on a series of dusty, unpaved country roads and only seeing asphalt, brick or cobblestone when in a major city. That would be like riding 5,500 miles on conditions that today we go out of our way to avoid. And while were talking about the conditions of our country’s infrastructure, lets talk about the machines they were riding.

Back in the early part of the 20th century there were over 200 motorcycle manufacturers in the U.S. and at times the biggest of them was Indian Motorcycles. After sweeping the Isle of Man TT in 1911, most serious riders found themselves on an Indian. Although Harley-Davidson was a solid brand, it wasn’t so until WWII that they left Indian in the dust.  Like other serious riders, Gussie and Addie Van Buren were no exception to the Indian rule. They both chose to ride the top of the line Indian Model F with the Power Plus 1000cc twin.

From Brooklyn, the pair headed north to Buffalo and then west to the big city of Chicago.  After leaving Chi-town not only did the girls really find themselves in rural America, but on occasion they found themselves in handcuffs being arrested for wearing men’s clothing! But for the most part, they were able to talk their way out of most situations as they trekked through Omaha to Denver.

While Gussie and Addie were not the first women to ride across the USA on a motorcycle, they were the first to summit Pike’s Peak. I’ve ridden up Mount Washington on crappy asphalt, stone and packed dirt with no guardrails for your safety to an above the clouds height of 6,288 feet and that was fairly harrowing. They climbed more than twice that to 14,109 feet and made history becoming the first women to ever summit Pike’s Peak (a ride I’d like to do some day…).

Like most motorcycle journeys, the women found themselves in unplanned situations. Some roads were washed out, at times they dumped their bikes, they even got stuck in the mud and lost in the desert west of Salt Lake City. But just like happenings of today, they were helped out by fellow riders, good Samaritans and friendly town-folk.

Mexico or bust

Late summer in 1916 saw the girls ride into Los Angeles, completing their trip on September 8th.  Apparently they were hungry for a little Mexican and since Baja Fresh hadn’t opened just yet, they rode down to Tijuana for good measure.

One of the best parts of a road trip is meeting new people and telling them your story. I’m sure that in the summer of 1916 two slender women in men’s clothing, on a transcontinental journey was a scene that turned plenty of heads. Stories like this inspire me to travel and seek out adventure. I might never be inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, or the Sturgis Hall of Fame, but that doesn’t mean that each time I take the road I shouldn’t ride like I’m seeing the world for the first time.

Thanks to my husband for being such a history buff and kicking my butt to write this post!

If you want to learn more about Adeline and Augusta VanBuren check out vanburensisters.com, a website maintained by their kin.

About a week ago I read an article that said the spring rally in S. Carolina is not neccessarily dead after all. It’ll just be happening everywhere except Myrtle Beach. “Cruisin’ up the Coast” 69th annual bike week will be happening May 8th-17th in Horry County. There’s lots of information at http://www.mbbikeweeks.com and http://www.myrtlebeachharley.com.

“…the City of Myrtle Beach has never played a role in bike week and has made it clear they don’t want to play a role. In years past, over 90% of the events taking place were outside the limits of the City of Myrtle Beach. The new rules and regulations really WILL NOT affect your visit or any of the activities and events.“

So this sucker is still ON and it sounds like as long as bikers stay OUT of Myrtle Beach then none of the new rules & regulations will apply. I’ll be really interested in seeing how this all pans out. Thanks to Dee Hal for sending me an email and giving me a nudge to get a post out about it.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the animal rescue group, Rescue Ink. I love what they’re all about and someone left a comment that I felt the need to bubble up into this post.
From Stefanie:

“Hi, I just want you to know that Rescue Ink is an AMAZING organization. In fact, they’re so amazing that we are holding a fundraiser for them on Saturday March 28, 2009 at Jib Lanes (http://www.jiblanes.com) in Queens, NY at 9:30am. Please tell your friends and family to come down so we can raise some serious money for these great guys!!!”

I hope this fundraiser goes well for them and I plan on donating my next Google Adsense check to them when it comes in. If you’d like to help them out you can either send a donation or buy a Rescue Ink t-shirt.

The other night I caught a promo for this season’s Celebrity Apprentice. Anyone else seen it? Jesse James will be playing for the Long Beach Unified School District and intends for the cash to assist the district’s industrial design classes (i.e. auto shop).

Other than my crush, Mr. James, my other favorites would be Tom Green and Dennis Rodman. Looks like they’re making the “Dice Man” out to be the heavy of the show. I’m looking forward to it. Anyway, here’s a clip:

Sadly, there will no longer be any rallies in Myrtle Beach. Done. Dead. Finito. Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way outta town, buddy. It’s too bad they decided to go this way. I have a sneaking suspicion that their issues are not with the biker community as a whole. I’ll just leave it at that.

A letter from the Mayor:

Dear Visitors,
Myrtle Beach is no longer the location for two long-running motorcycle events. After many years, our residents grew weary of three weeks of noise and traffic congestion each May, and they asked City Council to end the events. As a result, the Harley-Davidson Dealers Association Spring Rally and the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest will not be held in Myrtle Beach.

This was a difficult decision. Myrtle Beach welcomes visitors year-round, but the giant motorcycle rallies simply grew too large. Our staff, residents and businesses strained to keep up with these huge single-focus events. It may surprise you, but our economy is much healthier with a fully diversified visitor base, instead of a concentration on one or two extremely large events.

Please know that Myrtle Beach is not anti-biker or anti-motorcycle. We want folks to come on the vehicle of their choice and enjoy all of the things Myrtle Beach has to offer. We are ending the motorcycle-related rallies because they grew too big and lasted too long. The huge rallies even kept visitors away from Myrtle Beach, and that’s not good.

For everyone’s safety and welfare, City Council has added a few new rules and regulations. We believe these new laws will make Myrtle Beach a safer and more friendly destination. For example, with your safety in mind, we now require that all motorcycle riders and passengers wear a helmet and eye protection. We also have a 1:00 to 6:00 a.m. curfew for everyone under 18. These and other rule changes are explained on this web site. Thank you for understanding. As you know, Myrtle Beach is a great place to visit, and we welcome you at any time. I look forward to your next visit and am confident that you will have a great time in Myrtle Beach!

Sincerely,

John Rhodes
Mayor

The official Myrtle Beach Bike Week site is still up with the would-have-been dates and official bike week merchandise still up. You’d have a pretty sweet keepsake if you can actually buy some 2009 t-shirts. And you can still visit Myrtle Beach as a vacation spot, as long as you adhere to the new rules and regulations. You now have to wear a helmet, eye protection and have a “functioning” muffler for your bike. Oh yeah, and there’s a curfew. Let’s face it, not having those things is what made hanging out in MB fun!

I’d only gone once a few years ago, but I thought Myrtle Beach was really nice and I think back on that trip fondly because it was my first long distance ride. Before I had this blog I actually wrote about my trip on a personal blog that I kept. This was how my week went while I was there:

Friday- Day 1 of a two day ride begins when we hit the road at 7:30 a.m. The ride isn’t so bad but we hit traffic in RI, NY and DC. We grab a hotel room somewhere in Virginia. I’m so tired and achy that I take a Tylenol w/codeine and a shot of whiskey and go to bed.

Saturday- Day 2 of riding goes better with little traffic. We know we’re getting close when we see start seeing billboards for South of the Border, Cafe Risque (it’s a TOPLESS! TOPLESS! TOPLESS! donut shop) & the Ava Gardner museum (yeah, I didn’t know there was one either).

We make a pit stop at South of the Border because it’s just so cheesy you can’t not stop. We got an ice cream because it was hot outside, posed with Pedro and perused the trinkets before hitting the road. We arrived in Myrtle Beach around 5:30 and had dinner.  Later that night we headed out to meet friends a local bar called Fatboy’s. There’s no open container law there, so drinking beers outside feels weird! The gang decides to head to Hog Wild and it appears that the entire attendance from the bar leaves.

Sunday- Caught up on much needed sleep! We lounged about for a little while & later that day we surveyed the area around us, grabbed lunch at a steak house and just chilled out.

Monday- We got up kind of early and headed down to Murrell’s Inlet where the old Suck Bang Blow (SBB) & the Beaver Bar is. There were lots of vendors all around so we looked at all the merch. I broke down & bought a pair of chaps. We spent a few hours there and then headed over to the Broken Spoke Saloon. They also had vendors there and Easyriders magazine had some show bikes on display. We saw Goth Girl there, who looked like she was setting up to play music but it started to rain so she scrambled to keep her equipment dry. When it stopped raining we used the opportunity to head back to home base for a little while.

The weather cleared up that night so we checked out the new Suck Bang Blow (I guess the building it’s in used to be a Lowe’s or Home Depot. It’s enormous!). We had a couple of beers there, checked out the burnout pit and the vendors in back. We called some of the guys that we knew were there and met them at another bar called “Sundown’s.” Bikes just kept coming and going the whole time we were there.

Tuesday- The sky was still cloudy this day but no rain. We headed north and stopped at Broadway on the Beach. It’s a mall-like area and there were supposed to be a lot of things going on there. We saw a lot of trailers but not a lot of people had things set up. ArtBiker had arrived from Texas & met up with us there. We stayed there for the bulk of the day and then we went to the Rat Hole. We watched a “biker rodeo” which just ended up being a bunch of games done on motorcycles.

That night we picked up a good friend of mine at her place and went back to the big SBB. We drank beer and chatted up some folks. ArtBiker met us there and we ventured over to the other SBB for a while. Then we hung out at the Angry Beaver for a few beers (the boys enjoyed stogies) until they kicked us out for the evening.

Wednesday- Back to the Broken Spoke Saloon where Billy Lane & Discovery Channel are filming a show. We got bored there after a while and hit the Harley shop where we had lunch and Forrest bought me a cowboy hat! That night the big SBB had the first round of the”Baddest Biker on the Beach” boxing matches. I’d never seen live boxing before so I found the experience kind of interesting. There was a lot of energy flowing while the matches were happening, the crowd was completely digging it. We stayed for a little while after the matches were over. More burnouts, more scantily-clad skanks.

Thursday-Checked out a bike show at the Dog House (south). Was a hot and sunny day so lot’s of PBR talls were had. On the way back we decided to hit Broadway on the Beach again because it appeared that everyone was set up. Exile Cycles was there. I immediately went into stalker-mode and got another photo of me taken with Russell Mitchell (and once again was reduced to a babbling idiot while talking to him). We also managed to get a photo of Eddie Trotta while we were there. So, it wasn’t a wasted visit.

Friday-The day threatened rain but we headed out anyway. We met ArtBiker in N. Myrtle Beach and went to Barefoot Landing- also another mall area with lots of vendors and stuff set up. Biker Billy was there doing a cooking demonstration promoting his new book Biker Billy Cooks With Fire. We got to try some of the food afterwards and it was so yummy & spicy! I’m totally getting his book. Now that I think of it, I should have gotten one there and had him sign it. Oh well.

As it were, it did rain on us sporadically but luckily never while we were on the bikes. We had all of these grand illusions of going out that night because it was our last night there. We were going to take a little nap to rejuvenate ourselves but we just never woke up. We were so tired from running around all week and we had to ride the next day.

Saturday & Sunday- full days of riding. Sunday sucked because it was cold and rainy. It rained on us from NY all the way home and we hit traffic in NY & CT and that delayed us about 2 hours. When we saw the “Welcome to Massachusetts” sign I got all teary-eyed because I was so thankful to be almost home. My feet & hands were completely soaked and frozen to the point of numbness. I had so many layers on under my rain suit that I could barely move, my body ached and I was so tired. When we got to the 5 miles to home mark, a little pebble hit me square in the middle of my forehead and sent me completely over the edge. I had a complete meltdown and started crying. I was hating life at that very moment.

When we finally pulled off the ramp at our exit my poor husband was stunned to see tears streaming down my face, ha ha!!! We made it to his house around 7:30 and I was so happy to be off my bike.

While that trip had it’s difficulties for me, I really did have fun. I’d hoped that I might get to enjoy that feeling again going to the MB rallies.

He sent me a link to the news story where they reportedly pulled 180-200 cats out of this one house. Now, I own a cat myself and I think he’s adorable but I just can’t imagine having 200 of them in my house! Yuckie.

Anyway, the article mentions a group of volunteers called Rescue Ink, “a group of brawny bikers whose Web site promises an ‘in-your-face approach’ to animal welfare” who helped pull out all the cats and are assisting in find homes for all the kittehs. And, of course, my interest was piqued at the idea of a scary bunch of heavily tattooed dudes who have a soft spot for the furries.

I moseyed on over to Rescue Ink’s website and sure ’nuff this organization of “big, scary dudes” will do whatever it takes (within the confines of the law, of course) to save abused animals.

From their site:

“You take a look at us, and maybe your first reaction is to cross to the other side of the street. Just remember to look both ways before you do.

We’re not a gang, vigilantes or a social organization, but we do have that certain “in your face” style when it comes to animal abusers.

You may find us hanging out together at a hot rod show, tattoo parlors, or even hitting up the blacktop together on our bikes for a little road trip, but the main thing that brings us together is our love of animals. We met because we were all doing the same thing on our spare time: rescuing and finding homes for abandoned and abused animals. None of us did it for money; we did it because we cannot stand by while anyone mistreats an animal!“

They have an undeniable devotion to creatures of the 4-legged variety and I think I am now their biggest fan!

In all seriousness, I think these guys are doing some very important work in a very engaging way. If you want to help them with their cause, definitely check out their website, friend them on myspace, send a donation or buy a t-shirt. I’m sure they’ll appreciate any help they can get!

So, while I recover from the shock of getting back to the daily grind, I’ll leave you with the top 10 viewed posts of 2008!

1. Steampunk Motorcycles-even though I wrote this post a year ago, it is the most popular post of my site. The Steampunk movement has gained much popularity since then.
2. BikerorNot.com: bikers and social networking pt. deux-social networking sites are booming. It seems that every subculture has formed their own social community these days. Since this post was published I have received numerous emails informing me of yet another new biker social community and asking me to join or write about their site. I can only keep track of so many accounts these days and it makes me wonder if more is better.
3. Bikers and tattoos-Two of my favorite subjects! A brief history of tattoos in America and how they touch my world.
4. Bring Exile Cycles back to TV-the popularity of this post surprises me a little. Prior to this post I had read a myspace bulletin from Russell putting out the call to fans for some help. This year we’ve seen Russell on VH1′s Rock of Love and of course, that silly Comcast commercial that featured Exile Cycles, with an actor playing the part (instead of “hardcore” heavily-tattooed Russell) that confused so many people. Here’s hoping we see a lot more of him in the future.
5. Anatomy of the Kawasaki Vulcan-in the summer of 2007, Greg White contacted me and hooked me up with Kawasaki to test ride the Vulcan 900 Custom. I spent a few gleeful weeks riding this bike and this is my dissection of various elements of the bike in detail. Thinking back on the experience makes me remember how much I enjoyed riding this bike. And yes, the skinny front wheel felt safe!
6. Biker Movie Hell Ride in theaters August 8-this movie was all the buzz for us this summer and it came and went in the blink of an eye. It had a very limited release in theaters and when it finally came out on DVD it would be an understatement to say it is a love/hate kind of movie.
7. Slayer launches a line of helmets-*RAWK!* Rockhard helmets launched a line of motorcycle helmets emblazened with graphics of our favorite thrash metal band. They’ve since increased their lineup of bands that include: Lynard Skynard, KISS, Slip Knot, Motorhead (yes!), AC/DC and The King. These suckers ain’t cheap but if you’re a fan I’m sure they’re well worth the cash!
8. Garage Girls: a new site for women, or is it?-this was my initial review of Sara Liberte’s new online venture. I was as honest as I could be while reading through the site (maybe too honest?). So much so  that I actually received an email and blog comment from Sara letting me and everyone else know that the site was brand-spankin’ new and to cut her some slack. I revisited the site three months later and was pleasantly surprised at the changes that had been made and the fresh content that had been added. Props to Sara.
9. Video Tuesday: Harley-Davidson Dark Custom-this video accompanied the announcement of HD’s newest and coolest motorcycle. I also went on a bit of a tirade about how out of touch Bruce Rossmeyer is with a younger demographic.
10. My first motorcycle love-I’m so happy to see this post made it to the top ten! This is a guest post, written by my nearest and dearest, recounting the love of his first motorcycle, the experiences he had while owning it, and then eventually trading it in for a newer Road King. Definitely a good read. Hmm, that reminds me…I think I’ll bug him to guest post more often!

So, I thought I would take my gift of “free time” to kind of slow down and catch up with my bloggy life.  I do have a few little bits and nuggets of news to share.

This is hardly new news but the winners of the Harley-Davidson Bikes, Camera, Action! video contest were announced earlier this week. I have to give these ladies credit for taking the time to make these great videos. I think a video contest is a lot to ask of the general public and these ladies rose to the occasion. Congrats to them!

Here are the top three:
Her Need for Speed
Girls Night Out
Here Come the Bride

In additional Harley-Davidson news, it’s been announced that registration for the 2009 Women’s Experience ride in Daytona is now open. The second annual MDA ride will take place on March 3rd and only the first 500 women to register will be eligible to take part in the event. Last year they raised $60K from the event. Here’s hoping they beat that amount this year since it’s for such a good cause.

Here’s a bit of Sons of Anarchy news from writer, producer Kurt Sutter’s blog SutterInk:
“Based on final ratings, FX’s critically acclaimed freshman drama series Sons of Anarchy has proven itself to be a worthy successor to the network’s award-winning drama series The Shield, which completed its historic seven season run last month.

With the Live +7 ratings factored in from Nielsen Media Research on a multi-telecast basis, Sons of Anarchy delivered a weekly average audience of 5.83 million total viewers (jumping 16% vs. the Live numbers) and 3.9 million Adults 18-49 (up 18% vs. the Live numbers), the highest ratings of any new series on FX since the network’s hit series Rescue Me, which debuted in 2004. On a first-run basis the series averaged 2.6 million total viewers and 1.75 million Adults 18-49.

For calendar-year 2008 on a first-run basis, Sons significantly surpassed new and returning basic cable shows on delivery of Adults 18-49 including Saving Grace (1.59 million), Battlestar Galactica (1.58 million), Eureka (1.42 million), Raising the Bar (1.37 million), The Cleaner (1.11 million), Mad Men (879,000) and Breaking Bad (821,000).

Sons of Anarchy showed incredible consistency on a week-to-week basis and actually saw audience growth over the final two episodes, hitting its peak with the season finale (episode 13), which delivered 3 million total viewers on its first run. The second-to-last episode (episode 12) delivered the most Adults 18-49 (2.04 million) in the series entire run. The series premiered on 9/3/08 to 2.87 million total viewers and 1.73 million Adults 18-49.

FX has picked up a second season of Sons of Anarchy, slated to begin in Spring 09.” Not too shabby! There’s also another interesting post going back a few weeks about the new defunct HBO project 1% that got HBO in all that legal hot water with the notorious Sonny Barger.

Recently I’ve joined the collective of microbloggers and have been tweeting away! If you’re on Twitter, aspire to get on Twitter to see what it’s all about, you can find me @rippinkitten. A bunch of my fellow blogger tweeps are there as well as some new friends. Come say hi!

I know that we all read a ton of motorcycle blogs of different form and fashion but I’d like to take a minute to plug a new blog written by my friend: ArtBiker World: Art, Bikes, Bikers, Culture. I’ve known ArtBiker, aka Matt Linton, for over 10 years when he used to live here in Boston. He now resides in Houston, TX with his family and is one dude who lives and breathes motorcycles and the biker culture. Oh yeah, and he’s one hell of a photographer, too. His blog went live only a few short months ago and it is a great read. Go show him some love!

Now I’m going to make some hot chocolate and watch those flakes start to fall.

A little over a year ago I did a post about a tentative tv show called “Metal Church” featuring Jesse James that was slated to air on Spike TV.

“Payupsucker Productions, James’ own production company that he recently established, will produce two specials and two primetime pilots in each year of the two-year deal with Spike TV.

Metal Church, the first pilot being developed under the agreement, is a do-it-yourself series that will follow James as he shows viewers the ins and outs of customizing vehicles.  In addition, the first Spike TV special starring James is slated to air during the second quarter in 2008.”

Since I posted over the summer that Spike TV has ordered 10 episodes of the stunt-themed Jesse James is a Dead Man (due to air February 2009) I’m guessing that Metal Church is not going to air on television at all.

But if you’re a member of Jesse’s members only Chopperdogs site (for a low monthly membership cost of  $45.00 for the first month and renews for $19.95 each additional month. Oh, but you also get a T-shirt, welcome letter, an autographed photo, and four stickers) the premiere episode “How to make a Frisco style gas tank out of steel” is now available for viewing.

Admittedly, it took me a while to get into watching this show. In the very beginning, I dismissed it as a “Shield” or “Sopranos” on motorcycles. I also couldn’t get past how the “club” was portrayed, the fake tattoos, the lame dialogue and the shiny, new HDs they were were riding.

From the start I did appreciate Katy Sagal’s portrayal of Gemma. As they say, behind every great man is a great woman and Gemma is indeed the great woman behind Ron Perlman’s club leader, Clay. l was unsure about Jax’s character in the beginning. I didn’t get what he was all about, other than a womanizing loser who seemed like a sheep, just following what everyone tells him to do. I always liked Opie’s character and I think I like him even more now that I learned he was intended to be killed off (Ryan Hurst, the actor who plays Opie just signed on as a series regular).

I watched when my husband turned it on, but I didn’t always stop what I was doing to watch intently. Until we got past the middle of the season. Then I noticed the show began to hold my interest more. I realized how good the writing was becoming and, independent of reading any news articles, how much the show was drawing from Shakespeare. Then it all started to click in my head. Jax was a character who was wondering: “To be, or not to be…”

From the SoA page on Wikipedia:

The family drama is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet indeed, star Ron Perlman has said, “I’m sure they’re going to stick to the structure of Hamlet all the way to the end” of the series. Clay is based on the role of King Claudius and Gemma as a Gertrude figure.

Jax stands in for Prince Hamlet himself; his reflective questioning of the SOA culture, brought on by the birth of his son, references Hamlet’s melancholy over the death of the king. Additionally, Jax “communicates” with his dead father by way of his late father’s unpublished journal/manuscript; Hamlet, of course, literally communicates with the ghost of his father.The drama and characterizations are also enhanced by drawing on Macbeth, another Shakespeare tragedy.

Ron Perlman’s portrayal of the Claudius-like character, Clay, is so guilt-ridden that he resembles Macbeth more than Claudius at times. Even more, Katey Sagal’s Gertrude-like Gemma resembles Lady Macbeth because, while it is never entirely clear from Hamlet how complicit Queen Gertrude is in the murder of Hamlet’s father, it is obvious that Gemma has willingly participated in the cover-up of the murder and may even have encouraged Clay in his treachery.

The last two shows were the most intense of them all.

Sons of Anarchy Spoiler Alert!

The turning point and ultimate summation of the season came in the last 10 minutes of the 90 minute season finale. The hint of a weakening leader when Clay is not able to button the sleeve of his shirt. The homeless woman (who we first met outside of the grocery store enlightening Gemma while asking for a few dollars in order to help her boys) shows up again, this time showing Jax the path to redemption. You can’t get more biblical than seeing Jax literally wash away the sins on his hands with the cold water in the graveyard. And he then silently spoke louder than anyone by walking (not riding his motorcycle) to Donna’s burial by himself (wearing white, of course) standing opposite of everyone else decked out in black. The tell-all gazes he shot at Clay, Gemma, Piney and Opie that told them all what he wanted them to know before walking away.

With such smart writing I’d like to think that the show is finally hitting its stride. Beautiful symbolism combined with great writing allows the story to build up and a possible future to be paved.

As a person who wasn’t eager to add another program to my already packed list of television-watching, by the end of the season I can say that Sons of Anarchy is now on my list of must watch shows for next season.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that two of my other favorite shows this season we canceled.

When I got in from work last night I grabbed my pile of mail that was sitting on the floor. Bills, bills, bills…NETFLIX! Jackpot. For, in my hot little hands, I knew that I held a movie I’ve been itching to watch. That’s right, Hell Ride on dvd had finally arrived.

I didn’t have time to watch it last night, but I’m using today’s Video Tuesday to psych myself up for it. Plus, I just read a review over at Road Captain USA’s blog and now I’m even more excited to see it!

They also took video of the entire trip and edited it down into a four-video series, which I commend them on. I know from personal experience that it’s a daunting task to take a ton of video and attempt to edit it down to short, digestible clips for mass viewing.

So, here’s the first video of the series: Toledo to Frankfurt.

And try to check out the other videos of Lucas County Choppers: Michigan on Two Wheels. You won’t regret it.

Their popularity parlayed itself into the creation of a great marketing site ( http://cavemanscrib.com ) where you can tour the Caveman’s home (as well as flip through his photo album, watch the videos on his cell phone and many other easter eggs). It’s a great place to waste some time if you’re bored!

But like all good things, it appeared that people were getting a little sick of the Cavemen and gravitating to the cute lil gecko instead (did you see the picture of the gecko pinned on the dart board in the Party Out of Bounds section?).

Despite the failed attempt at their own tv show “Caveman’s Cribs” (which aired on ABC last fall to dismal reviews and viewers), the Geico Cavemen have recently made a fierce comeback in a new commercial for Geico’s motorcycle insurance.

Here’s a quick reminder of what the show is about:

“FX Network’s new original series, Sons of Anarchy, is an adrenalized drama with darkly comedic undertones that explores a notorious outlaw motorcycle club’s (MC) desire to protect its livelihood while ensuring that their simple, sheltered town of Charming, California remains exactly that. Charming. The MC must confront threats from drug dealers, corporate developers and overzealous law officers. Behind the MC’s familial lifestyle and legally thriving automotive shop is a ruthless and illegally thriving arms business. The seduction of money, power, and blood.”

If you’re totally anxious for the premier and want to pump yourself up before the show, FX has jam-packed the SoA section of their site with all sorts of goodies: including information about the cast & crew, blogs, downloadable wallpapers for your computer and a few other fun things.

So make sure to set your Tivo or DVR if you’re not going to be around tonight to watch it! I can’t wait to hear what you guys think!

Did anyone get to see it in the theater??? I know that critics blasted it in their reviews, but I’ve heard that actual movie goers enjoyed it. If you saw it, please let me know what you thought of it.

Today’s video has nothing to do with Hell Ride, really, other than the fact that it’s from a movie and it’s about bikers. It’s a clip from the classic movie “The Wild One.”

“Chopper Zombie” is a new graphic novel created by Thom Beers (yes, the same guy that brought us “Monster Garage” and “Deadliest Catch”), which was unveiled last month at Comic Con. For the occasion, a custom-built zombie chopper was created by Russell Mitchell and Exile Cycles (dressed with specially created zombie parts).

Image borrowed from Dread Central. View entire gallery of photos from the event there!

Beers got the idea to create a chopper/zombie movie for his ten-year old son, melding his own love for choppers and his son’s love for zombies. The graphic novel (and eventual movie-due to go into production in 2009) is about a motorcycle builder who refuses to sell his formula for a new super-fuel to a dangerous corporation. When a team of thugs drowns him in his own toxic creation, he rises from the dead with a score to settle. It sounds a bit like “The Crow” with motorcycles, but I’ll take it! You can be sure that I’ll be following any news about the movie when production starts.

Go to http://www.chopperzombie.com to check out pages from the graphic novel!

Choppers and zombies are two great tastes that taste great together (not to mention trendy these days)! Since I was unsuccessful in finding any videos of this event from San Diego’s 2008 Comic Con, I decided to go with a video of Russell Mitchell and Exile Cycles celebrating their 10 yr. anniversary.

This adventure has the boys going on a 15,000 mile motorcycle trip, starting off in Scotland and ending up in S. Africa.

Apparently the Fox Reality Channel started the show on August 2, but they’re showing the first episode again a few times this Friday (check out Fox Reality Channel’s site for details, not to mention they have a swanky contest to win some fantastic trips), so set your DVRs to record!

My name is Chrissy and I’m working with FX Network to help promote their fall premieres. I noticed your recent post regarding the upcoming series premiere of “Sons of Anarchy”, and I wanted to follow up and provide you with some additional digital assets and information in support of the series.

SONS OF ANARCHY
Series premiere – Wednesday, September 3rd at 10:00pm

Official Press Release: Coming Soon, but here’s a sneak peek:
“FX Network’s new original series, Sons of Anarchy, is an adrenalized drama with darkly comedic undertones that explores a notorious outlaw motorcycle club’s (MC) desire to protect its livelihood while ensuring that their simple, sheltered town of Charming, California remains exactly that. Charming. The MC must confront threats from drug dealers, corporate developers and overzealous law officers. Behind the MC’s familial lifestyle and legally thriving automotive shop is a ruthless and illegally thriving arms business. The seduction of money, power, and blood.”

In addition, FX Network is hosting offline events in support of the premiere. I know you’re based in New England, but thought that you or your readers might be interested in the following “Sons of Anarchy” motorcycle rally events:

Fri Aug.8-Sunday Aug. 10
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Sturgis, SD

Saturday, Aug. 16
Salute to American Veterans
Winter Park, CO

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if there’s
any additional information I can provide you!

Best,
Chrissy

So, there you go everyone! If anyone is going to Sturgis drop me a line!

Relative unknown, Charlie Hunnam stars as the conflicted hero, torn between the love of the brotherhood and the apprehension of its lawlessness. Ron Perlman (Hellboy) is his step-father and club president and Katie Sagal (Peg Bundy from “Married with Children”) is Mom. And you know there is all sorts of dark family drama to go along!

Look for “Sons of Anarchy” on September 3rd. If you’re completely jazzed and need your SoA fix now you can go to the official FX page or check out their MySpace profile!

One of the first videos I posted was from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. It was the scene after “Tequila” and the Big Shoe Dance and Pee Wee finally won all of the bikers over. Also to my surprise, in this past year I’ve never posted the actual “Tequila” scene. Until now!

Some people love Pee Wee, some hate him–I still love him!

Bikers Bare All, for a Good Cause

article by Olivia Wiznitzer
source:Forward.com

Ken Shapiro has two loves: animals and motorcycles. His new calendar, “Kitty Porn,” combines both. The Maryland native, who founded the Jewish motorcycle group Semites on Bikes, was so disturbed by the actions of Michael Vick — the NFL quarterback who was sentenced to 23 months in prison for his involvement in a dog-fighting ring — that he felt he had to take action, albeit it in a rather unusual way.

Ken Shapiro- as he appears in the calendar “Kitty Porn.”

Shapiro rounded up 11 brave volunteers from Semites on Bikes to pose in “Kitty Porn,” which will be used to raise money for the cat house of the Humane Society of Baltimore County, an animal shelter. The calendar features male models who pose nude on bikes, with cats strategically placed for the sake of modesty.

Inspired by the films “The Full Monty” and “Calendar Girls,” Shapiro, a retired kindergarten teacher, was determined to turn comedy into reality. “I thought it would sell,” Shapiro said. “The club itself has 70 members, so then with friends, family members, I figured we might sell a hundred of them, and that was low.”

They’ve presold 100 calendars so far, and Shapiro anticipates selling 1,000.

At first, Shapiro specifically wanted to help dogs. He approached Tom Dudley, who is a member of Semites on Bikes and also the president of the humane society’s board, only to find that it was not dogs that are in need of help but rather cats, which are currently situated in deplorable living conditions at the shelter.

Warming to the idea, Shapiro recruited his volunteers, all of whom are male. He requested that each man send him a picture of himself that fulfilled three specific criteria: They had to incorporate a bike and a cat, and pose nude.

“Kitty Porn,” which costs $22.95 (RK: this includes shipping-I think), contains everything from a man who “looks like Adonis” posing in the woods to a 74-year-old male who posing in front of his fireplace, holding up the wheel of his bike.

The amateur nature of the photographs adds to the appeal, Shapiro said. “These aren’t models — it’s a grass-roots effort.” (From another article) Despite the “out of shape” disclaimer, Shapiro, 55, looks pretty fit.

“One of the guys actually spent six months working out, tanning,” Shapiro said. “When he took his shot, he went out in the woods or something. He had his girlfriend him spray him with PAM. It’s the only shot that looks like it doesn’t belong there. It looks like the cover of Blueboy magazine or Playgirl.”

But that guy, Mr. July, and Shapiro, Mr. January, seem to be exceptions.

“Wait till you see August,” Shapiro said. “We have one guy who’s 389 pounds.”

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. From collegiate cat-lovers to a man who would like a copy of the calendar in time for his wife’s birthday, Shapiro has been flooded with e-mails.

Shapiro maintains that it’s simple, really: “Send us lots of money so we can rebuild the cat house!”

————————————————————————————————————–

If you’re interested in buying a calendar to help the kittehs you can send an email to sobikes@verizon.net to pre-order your calendar today. Proceeds go to the Humane Society of Baltimore.

The goal of the Cat House Project is to raise $30,000 to provide new, safer, and more spacious living quarters for the shelter cats while they await adoption. If you want to donate directly call 410-833-8848, ext. 202, or mail a check to the Humane Society of Baltimore County, Attn: Cat House Project.

We could only spare time for day trip this year (my stinky new job is eating into all my fun “me” time) and it was just a tease. If we plan on spending the whole week (or even just a few days) up in NH we usually take a nice leisurely, back-roads ride up to the Lakes Region. However for day trips we just hit the highway and blast up 93N for 100 miles until we reach the Tilt’n Diner.

Once making it to the diner most people shed their leathers and helmets and prepare themselves for the 13 mile trek to the Weirs Beach. It’s a nice scenic ride that can take up to 3 hours on the busy weekends.

Our first stop was the Belknap Mill. This old mill has a gallery that houses motorcycle exhibits during the rally each year. This year the exhibit was of some sort of acrylic-type paintings with a water color feel by local artist John David O’Shaughnessy. It was like line drawing meets forced impressionist. The show paled in comparison to my friend Art Biker, who had a show a few years back. But I might be slightly biased.

From downtown we headed to the beach, finding parking spots near the very end. We did the typical stroll, down the entire beach up to the drive-in area to peruse all of the vendors. After buying some swag, we were on our way back to our bikes when the skies opened up and we were nailed by the first downpour. Seemed like the perfect time to duck into a local watering hole and wait it out.

As we were hanging out I noticed that there weren’t that many customized motorcycles that knocked my socks off this year, but there was an abundance of photographers. In addition to my favorite motorcycle photographer (again, I might be slightly biased) we saw Michale Lichter and probably 10 other photo crews running around desperately shooting whatever they could find.

When the skies cleared we took the opportunity to jump on the bikes and rode the loop up the the Antler, back down past the Fun Spot and finding our way to the highway. While we were gassing up we got caught in a tremendous downpour and, along with hundreds of our closest friends, decided to hang out and wait for it to pass. Forethought told me to bring my rain gear, but I wanted to travel light (because my rain gear weighs so much?) so I left it at home on the table (perfect place for it, huh?). An hour later it finally stopped and was a bright sunny day again.

But since the biker weeks are not official Myrtle Beach events, the city is still trying to figure out how to get the bikers not to just show up.

The city says it wants the month of May to go back to being a family vacation month, not a time for rowdy partying.

“It’s what you and your thousands of event attendees do when you are here. It’s not who you are or what you drive. It’s what you do and what your behavior is when you’re here. That’s the issue,” says Mark Kruea. (source: WIS News 10)

Bikers from across county are planning to attend the Horry County council meeting on July 1 at 6 PM to show their unified support for continuing both rallies. “At this point we still have both bike rallies and what we need to do is sit down with city (of Myrtle Beach) officials and talk about how we can make the future bike weeks better,” said Hakim Harrell, CEO of Cycle Shoe International and promoter of the Memorial Day events held at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. (source: scnow.com)

In the meantime, I found an interesting video clip from Daytona 2008, featuring an interesting trio hanging out together.

If you watch UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) then that scary, yet handsome bald fellow should be no stranger to you: that’s the “Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine, riding his 2008 HD Crossbones. The other guy, who is the comic relief, is BMX-er Michah Kranz. The hot blonde is Jes Rickleff, who was the “winner” (if you can call that winning?) of season one of Rock of Love with Brett Michaels.

It seems like yet another example of Harley-Davidson trying to engage a younger demographic. Hey, it got me to watch!

Even though the town itself is small, there’s definitely no shortage of events: ranging from New England-style clam bakes, lots of motorcycle demos, music, The Ride to the Sky up Mt. Washington (which I could devote an entire post to, it’s so amazing!), hill climbs and races, beautiful scenic roads to ride on and of course, lots of vendors.

Rippin-Kitten, Ride to the Sky, June 2007

Last year I was able to attend the rally for almost a week. Unfortunately I won’t have the same luxury this year, but I do plan to go up for at least a day trip. If you live or are going to be visiting a near by area, I suggest you do the same.

Over the weekend, as most of us know, the Rolling Thunder rally was underway with thousands of motorcycles heading toward the Pentagon to honor the fallen. The President was even made an honorary member of the Rolling Thunder motorcycle group.

While this video says it’s 9+ minutes long, it’s really only about five minutes long with a lot of dead space at the end. Despite that it’s put together well and still worth watching all of those that took part in the ride this year.

It’s now three months later and my curiosity has led me back to check in.

Here’s what I’ve found:

The homepage is now streamlined with digestible information, the footer links work and the content about Sara and Jody are in the appropriate “about us” section.

The Body & Machine sections have a lot more content broken out by monthly updates and reads sort of like a newsletter with info about nutrition, fitness tips and the latest news in circulation. On the Machine side, there’s info about motorcycle maintenance, advice and tips and general motorcycle news/info (with lots of videos sprinkled through to help break up the content). Again, I like how Sara is trying to make the correlation of taking care of your body and also your machine as an extension of your body. My only criticism for this section is that it’s not very obvious what month you’re reading, it’s not clearly labeled (which is more a criticism for the web team).

The Events page shows where you can next see Sara and the Garage Girls (although perhaps calling it something other than “events” might help users understand what they’re going to see when they come to this page), Sites2See is pretty much the same and Cruisin’ companions has some additional photos of fuzzy kind, with a link to donate to her local animal resource center-a topic near and dear to my heart.

While Garage Girls may not be the epicenter of information for women on the web, the site has improved and is forming a distinct personality of it’s own. Bravo to Sara for being tenacious in building her site up and showing us what she’s made of. I look forward to seeing where it is in another few months.

I know a ton of wrestlers ride motorcycles, in fact Mr. Jesse James built custom choppers for Shane McMahon (son of evil genius, Vince), the Undertaker and Goldberg (you can check those bikes out at West Coast Choppers website if you want to check them out).

I remember when the Undertaker dropped the “Deadman” schtick for a little while and went into full on Amercian-Badass-biker-dude persona. I liked that Undertaker, sans dyed black hair, so I went looking for some videos of that era. Well, I found 2 great tastes that taste great together: “Hollywood” Hogan (the evil version of Hulk Hogan) destroying the Undertaker’s motorcycle during one of the shows. It’s painful to watch this gorgeous bike get destroyed, but wrestling is ultra-sensationalism at it’s best (or worst, however you see fit to view it).

The initial destruction by Hulk Hogan.

And of course, the reaction from the Undertaker. Don’t you love how he gets so mad that he starts kicking the bike? Like it’s going to make him feel better?

(sorry for the ads, blame revver.com)

The premise of the show is that Earl has done a lot of bad things in his life and after winning the lottery & then getting hit by a car, he has an epiphany and decides he has to cleanse his karma by righting the wrongs he’s done.

Last night’s show, Stole a Motorcycle, details a night that Earl and his brother, Randy, stole a motorcycle from the OCC guys shop (not a chopper, it was a crappy beater bike that looked like a Sportster) that someone left the keys in. Paul Sr. and Jr. did their typical arguing schtick and Mikey was the jokester who left the keys in the bike. Screen time was short and sweet.

(the videos are from nbc.com, so sorry if there’s ads in them)

The interesting thing is that OCC was also approached to create a My Name is Earl theme bike to be auctioned off for the Make a Wish foundation. If you watch the show, then you can understand how humorous the paint job and plaid shirt seat cover is.

The actors talk about the Teutels’ acting abilities and Paul Sr. talks about creating the charity bike:

If you can try watch the episode either in a re-run or somewhere online. I highly recommend it!

But something weird happened: I finally found my groove, my posts started getting attention and I found not only was I enjoying the whole blogging thing, I was “meeting” a lot of other my fellow biker bloggers and people who were becoming regular readers and I was also getting great blog reviews and awards from my blogging peers.

I didn’t really know the first thing about blogging. I’d kept a personal journal but a motorcycle blog is different. How would I find people to read my blog and who would care anyway? Through some cool blog communities like BlogCatalog I met a bunch of people and learned lots of things about writing a blog. And through social networking sites like myspace and BikerWorlds I found other bikers who are interested in the same things I am.

Traffic started increasing, people were linking to the site and honestly the highlight for me last year was when Greg White and Kawasaki asked me to test ride a Vulcan 900 Custom. I mean, who the hell was I? Just some biker girl from MA who happened to start a blog a few months before…

In one year, I’ve gone from a few readers a week to tens of thousands of page views. I’m not going to make any grand claims like you see on other blogs, but I will tell you that I’m happy to see my google page rank on the rise (link to me!), my Alexa rank continues to move up and the number of people who view the site goes up almost every week. Fellow bikers in 114 different countries have checked in on the rippin-kitten.com blog. And I’ve been getting inquiries from major companies regarding advertising opportunities. Not too shabby.

Anyway, enough of boring blog stats and me marveling at my own success. Stay tuned later this week as I roll-out a new feature for Rippin-Kitten.com and share some other things that I’ve been working on.

Thanks to everyone for making my first year of blogging a great one. It’s been a great learning experience and I’ve enjoyed our many discussions. Looking forward to another year!

So, here’s some good news for a change, regarding the first ever Harley-Davidson Woman’s Day Ride:

Some 500 women cruised into Daytona Beach, Fla., March 4, as part of the first ever Harley-Davidson Daytona Women’s Day Ride. The event garnered a whopping $60,520.50 in contributions to help send children with neuromuscular diseases to MDA summer camp, the Muscular Dystrophy Association announced today.

Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Company of Milwaukee organized the historic ride, the largest women’s ride in the company’s 105-year history. In addition to providing recognition to women motorcycle riders, the event will enables MDA to send more youngsters to camp, where they’ll enjoy a week of accessible activities such as swimming, horseback riding, fishing and arts and crafts.

Karen Davidson, great-granddaughter of one of Harley-Davidson’s founders, William A. Davidson, led the group, including the six winners of Harley- Davidson’s “Get Down to Daytona” contest. They left Atlanta March 1, and were joined by the rest of the riders for the last 10 miles of the approximately 500-mile trek, which ended at Ocean Center.

Three women received special recognition as the top fundraisers for the event: Joanne Mold of Forest Hill, Md., ($3,055 raised), Dee Roberts of Bernville, Pa., ($2,717) and Lynne Cone of Houston ($2,715). Each received a 105th Anniversary Harley-Davidson women’s jacket, and had lunch with Karen Davidson and the six “Get Down to Daytona” contest winners and MDA ambassadors.

Story source and full article: The Auto Channel

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t need to be involved in women-only events to show my pride in being a female rider, but I think this would have been a cool event to be a part of and for a really great cause. And for that, kudos to all those ladies who participated!

For part three of this subject matter I’m going to highlight a few more sites that I’ve found since I last wrote. One thing to keep in mind, not all of these sites are created equally. While a lot of them share the same basic idea and similar buckets of content, some are technically easier to use and more thought out than others. It all depends on what appeals to you in the end.

Motorcycle Syndicate: This site has been around since summer ’07. I’m not quite sure what their member base is, but according to their site they “strive to be the premier interactive online community for motorcycle enthusiasts worldwide.” They also use other social networking sites to their advantage when trying to get the word out. You can also win a free T-shirt if you’re a registered member and help spread the word.

Hogstr: I got an email about this site a few weeks ago so I thought I’d check it out. Seems this site is a brand-spanking newbie, having only come into existence in the beginning of February. Not a lot of members or content yet and now that I look at it I’m not even sure if it’s officially “launched.” I see lots of profile pics with half-nekkid chicks on bikes, which kind of turns me off. I’m going to file this one under “wait and see.”

Harley Social: I think the title for this one speaks for itself, but this social network is for HD enthusiasts. It looks to have launched early this year and encourages it’s members to upload photos, videos and to post blogs. It’s a visually robust site, almost to the point where I don’t know where to look first, but the emphasis on this site seems to revolve around just having a good time.

Biker Nation: From what I can tell this site has been around since late 2006. Like all of the other sites it has forums, news feeds, blogs, classifieds, events, pictures, videos and music. It also has a “babes” section (if you’re into that sort of thing) and online auctions. For the amount of time this site has been in existence I guess I expected more. Perhaps they’ve been spending more time focusing on their heavily-tattooed, sister site Inked Nation.

If I had all the time in the world I would love to join all of these sites, but I just don’t. You can still find my profiles on Bikerworlds, BikerOrNot and of course, good old myspace.

Do any of you have a favorite social networking site that you use regularly?

Rossmeyer, who owns 14 Harley-Davidson dealerships across the country, just acquired Boston Harley-Davidson and also opened up a high-end HD shop to sell overpriced t-shirts and gear to tourists on illustrious Newbury St.

He was quoted in a recent article written in the Boston Herald newspaper as saying:

“The image of Harley-Davidson bikers as ‘rebel riders’ is pretty much gone these days. We’re ‘Rolex riders’ now.”

Huh? Perhaps that’s the case in Mr. Rossmeyer’s world, but I think he needs to buy himself a clue. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the face of the modern biker is changing. Gen X and Y are getting in on the action and they definitely do not fall into the RUB category. There’s a younger demographic of riders out there just waiting to be tapped and the HD mothership gets that.

This video accompanies the announcement of HD’s Dark Custom line of bikes that’s had the motorcycle world buzzing for weeks now. These bikes are stripped, chopped and raw and extremely cool looking!

Even reading some of the comments on youtube the clash of the age groups is palpable:

“…you need a young spine to ride a hard single seat with your hands above your shoulders all day. these “radical customs” are poser bikes. hard core riders ride roadies, dynas, and softies and not fatbobs, nighsters, or boneses. you just cant sit on one all day.”

“Harleys aint for the old anymore – just ’cause i am 24, doesn’t mean i want a p-o-s bike. i want a harley, now i am gonna get me one. thanks for finally acknowledging not all gen x is broke…”

This is an interesting time to be a younger biker. I think I’ll sit back, watch and go along for the ride.

Hell Ride premiered at Sundance earlier this week (and was reviewed favorably, which you can read here) and is a throw back to the 60′s & 70′s style biker movie that promises to be filled with lots of testosterone and violence (or according to the movie review, the three B’s: bikes, beer, and booty!)

According to another recent article on shocktilyoudrop.com, Hell Ride could eventually become a trilogy:

Leave ‘em wanting more. Films with the Quentin Tarantino touch seem to have that effect. Hell Ride may be no exception. Larry Bishop’s revenge tale, presented by Tarantino, premiered last night at Sundance to a sold-out crowd and already those involved in the project have the word “sequel” on their lips.

Co-star Michael Madsen tells us during an interview, “I hope this is going to be a trilogy.” In the film he plays a well-dressed biker named The Gent and it’s a role he’s looking forward to revisiting. “The Gent’s story has not been completely told.”

When we later spoke to writer-director-actor Bishop, we inquired about a possible “trilogy” and Madsen’s desire to slip back into The Gent’s skin, to which Bishop merely sat back, raised his eyebrows over his dark shades and smiled, “Absolutely.”

As of right now, there is no release date for the movie. Dammit.

“The Tattoo Artist” by Norman Rockwell, Saturday Evening Post, March 4, 1944

A brief history of post WWII motorcycles & tattoos

After World War II tattoos became further stigmatized by their associations with bikers and juvenile delinquents. Tattooing had very little respect in the American culture. In 1961 there was an outbreak of hepatitis, which caused an even bigger backlash against tattoos and sent the tattoo world into a tailspin.

tattoo flash by Sailor Jerry

Here in Massachusetts, there was a ban on tattooing in effect since 1967, until local underground artists lobbied to legalize it in the late 90′s, partly because of health and safety reasons. Tattooing was finally legalized in this state in 2001 and shops began to spring up everywhere–the first legal shops being Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo and Darkwave Tattoos (which then spawned Lightwave Tattoo Studio and Witch City Ink). Natan Lin, owner of Darkwave,  Lightwave and Witch City Ink, was a large supporter of legalizing tattooing in MA and has been running the wildly successful annual Boston Tattoo Convention ever since.

Here are three of my favorite, tattooed bike-builders (can you guess why?) Billy Lane, Jesse James and Russell Mitchell

Current perception of tattoos in the biking culture

These days bikers use tattoos as a means of expression. Common designs for biker tattoos contain skulls, spiderwebs, pin-up girls, flames, eagles, scorpions and of course the die-hard Harley-Davidson logo.

photos by Forrest Frazier (see more motorcycle pics at ffphoto.com)

Tattoos today are more acceptable and popular than ever before. And it’s getting even more mainstream with TLC hitching its programming trailer to tattoo shows like LA Ink, Miami Ink, and London Ink. Acceptability and high demand for the best artwork have put some artists on the map. Certainly that can partly be contributed to the quality of inks and needles that just weren’t around forty or fifty years ago. People now revel in the highly artistic nature of tattoos and artists are now truly fine artists.

Kat Von D from TLC’s La INK

My bros were all nestled down snug in their beds,
While visions of new chrome danced in their heads.
And I in my do-rag, bike jacket and boots
Out shoveling snow and dreaming of scoots.

Then from the horizon there came such a clatter
My shovel I dropped, what could be the matter?
Away up the hill, I slogged through the snow
Looked up at the sky; where’d all that noise go?

Then a throb from the heavens, like straight pipes so hearty
Gave summer’s good thoughts, a loud bikers’ party.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear?
But a Hog Ultra Classic-red trailer in rear!

With a little old rider, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than a V-Rod his Ultra came on,
And he whistled and shouted and sang out this song;

“Now, Springer! Now, Dyna! On Ultra and Softail!
Now Vulcan! Now Injun! On Vict’ry and Triumph!
To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
Now RIDE away! RIDE away! RIDE away all!”

As small bikes that from the semis do fly,
When they meet with the air blast, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top that Ultra it flew.
With a trailer of goodies, and ole’ St. Nick, too.

And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The rumble and thunder of pipes that gave proof.
I ran in the house, boots thumping around.
And in came St. Nick, all bearded and round.

Dressed all in black leather, from do-rag to boot
His chaps were all tarnished with road grime and soot.
A t-bag of goodies he’d flung on his back
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His shades – how they twinkled! His do-rag; how scary!
With chains intertwined through skulls that were cherry!
His droll little mouth had done many a row,
So the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
The smoke had a strange smell; it gave him relief.
He had a broad face and a large fat beer belly
That shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was tattooed and plump, a right jolly old rider,
So I offered a cold brew, thought what could be righter?
A wink of his eye as he downed that cold beer,
Gave me to know I had nothing to fear.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to my ride
And fixed it with Chrome, Horsepower and Pride.
And giving the peace sign with bikers’ good cheer
Strode off to his Ultra rumbling near.

He sprang on the saddle, his gloves on the bars
A wheelie he threw; then off towards the stars.
I heard him exclaim, as my chest swelled with pride,
“Merry CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD RIDE!”

The Harley-Davidson online shop has a plethora of ornaments to choose from, a vintage style tree topper and stocking holders to hang stockings by the chimney with care.

Many women join motorcycle clubs for camaraderie and to ride with other like-minded people. And let’s face it, who wouldn’t stop to watch a large group of ladies ride by on their shiny motorcycles!

I recently found an informational article that goes into depth about the differences of a motorcycle club and a riding club, which I think could be helpful if you’re thinking of joining one.

Here are just a few of the nationwide groups/clubs out there:

• Chrome Divas – a group for riders, passengers or enthusiasts-no motorcycle required. They are a socially conscious group that strives to give back to the community and support worthy causes.
• Devil Dolls MC-a badass group of women with a love of their motorcycles and a love of the ride- so you do need a motorcycle to be considered.
• Motor Maids was founded in 1940 and is still going strong for women who legally own and operate their own motorcycle or one belonging to a family member.
• Women on Wheels -open to women of any age, experience and make of motorcycle. They have many chapters across the country.
• Women in the Wind strives to educate our members in motorcycle safety and maintenance unite women motorcyclists with friends of common interest, and promote a positive image to the public of women on motorcycles.

I don’t know a whole lot about one specific group but I know there are a lots of groups to choose from!

So, it’s with mixed feelings that I post this video of Joan Jett singing “Bad Reputation” for TLC and the latest season of American Chopper.

You can now purchase a customizable stainless steel rivet with a name and message where it will be displayed somewhere on the museum grounds (once they figure that part out).

here’s what my rivet might say if I customized one

P.S. Rippin-Kitten.com is mentioned in the latest (and fabulous) blog post by GO! Smell the Flowers! So, a big thanks and many flowers to them!

BikerOrNot.com Review

My initial observation is that this is a hybrid born of hotornot.com and MySpace in the sense that you can build profiles and have lots of friends (just like myspace) and you can rate people who have uploaded their images (just like HotorNot). Investigating the site a little more and it also begins to feel like a biker dating site as well. The biker community tends to be brimming with a lot of sexual energy and this site seems to be spilling over with it. Maybe it’s all the sexy pictures!

In reading the two entries on the BikerorNot blog I realize that this is also a fairly new (and totally customized) site to feed the need for online biker communities. It started in September 2006 and by late August 2007 they had upwards to 10,000 members, 4 million page views per month and 5,000 unique visitors per day. Impressive numbers by any standards.

I decided to add a profile on this site as well and if you’re curious to see what it’s all about, you can visit me at bikerornot.com/rippinkitten. Who knows? You may end up joining, too!

More biker social networking sites and insight

If you found this interesting please check out my first post on the subject of social networking sites for bikers Bikerworld, and my follow up to this post Bikers and social networking: the trifecta.

Today I am serving up another commercial that made me chuckle (I can’t help it I work in the industry). It’s male focused, unlike the previous one, but I’m guessing that over 90% of Big Dog sales are to men.

It was a great day. And my video editing skills are improving quite a bit, too! By the way, I’ve got a new song, “Scary Kitty” featured in the video (got rid of that awful banjo music!) by my friends, the Missing out of NYC. So, BIG thanks to them for letting me use their song. They rock hard!

I received my first piece of fan art. How cool is that??

I’ve made some friends over at Kawasaki Motorcycle forums and this is from Thunder Lizard, who lives in Lethbridge, AB. He rides a pretty ’07 VN900 LT that he calls “Lil Angel.” His reason for creation?

“After reading the RK blog for a while last night, this goofy idea blew into the large space where my brain should be, and the next thing I knew, I had made a Rippin Kitten graphic.”

Thank you, Thunder Lizard! This ROCKS!

If anyone else would like to send in a piece, PLEASE DO! I would love to create a page dedicated to your contributions. Don’t be shy!

They describe themselves as “raw, low-down, grimy, greasy, dirtbaggy, unsavory clusterfuck of a shop that pulls off some pretty clean and class rides. We ride, and we build, back-to-basics old style chops and kustoms….Gritty, Loud, Fast, Dangerous, and DIY through and through!”

Welcome to the next generation of bikers, bitches!

The guys at Choppahead sell a lotta shwag, including dvds. Here’s a clip for “Chopper Animals & Mayhem Machines Volume 2.”

This week seems to be a big music video week among a lot of bloggers. In the spirit of things, here is BLS‘s “Suicide Messiah” featuring rockin’ bad-ass Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osborne’s guitar player, for those who don’t know). Choppers, naughty women and ear-bleeding rock-this video is adrenaline overload and a biker’s dream. I feel like I should be running on the treadmill at the gym right now…

I just knew it.

But on every motorcycle site or forum I went to everyone kept saying that they saw it and liked it. And it was one of the top movies when it came out. So, I added it to my Netflix queue and watched it this past weekend. Now, clearly I am not the demographic for this movie. I’m not a middle-aged man with a mid-life crisis. But 10 minutes into the movie I was already groaning, loudly, at how bad it was. And I couldn’t believe all of the actors that were in this piece of crap, who had shown promise back in their hey-day: Ray Liotta, Marisa Tomei, Jill Hennessy and…Peter Fonda?

I somehow stuck it out until the end, and I’m glad I did because the bits playing with the end credits were the best part of this crappy flick. Usually the bloopers are funnier than the movie, so here they are for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, they’re only mildly funny.

In the recent years, I’d be remiss not to mention how important social networking sites have become to the average internet dweller. Sites like: Facebook, Friendster and MySpace are just a few of many and while they have a reputation for being skewed towards a younger demographic, the truth is that these sites are open to everyone of all ages.

When I wondered if there was a “MySpace for bikers” imagine my delight when I found a site called Bikerworlds. Bikerworlds has been up for less than a year and boasts about 10,000 members. It offers a site chock full ‘o forums, groups to join, classifieds, polls, videos, galleries and ridelogs. One of the things they’ve really focused on is to make the community friendly and open to female motorcyclists.I created my profile back in April and I have to say that there’s barely a day that goes by that one of my BW pals doesn’t send me a friendly message.While the basic functionality of Bikerworlds is very similar to MySpace, it is different enough to set itself apart.

“Larry” is a cuddly, bad-ass of a teddy bear and the public face of the site. He has his own profile and when you join the site he is your first friend (and as I write this Larry is up to 5600 friends, give or take a few!). A sense of community is important to a lot of people, especially online and especially with bikers. They are a group often stereotyped, misinterpreted and undervalued. Their seemingly rough exterior actually houses extreme generosity and kind hearts.When I started this blog my intent was (and still is) to foster a sense of community among young women riders. While I enjoy the social networking sites, nothing beats the freedom of your own site to express your own views. There is such a good feeling when your tooling along some back road and you get that little wave from a fellow biker. This is my wave to my fellow online bikers.

As I have mentioned before, I have never had the pleasure of attending the Sturgis bike rally. I’ve talked about it a whole bunch of times but the plans just never came to fruition. Well, I guess if I can’t go to Sturgis, I can bring Sturgis to me with the interactive Sturgis street, sidewalk and Main St. webcams, which appear to be on a 30 seconds refresh rate. It’s almost like being there, except that I can hear, feel or smell what’s happening there.

*sigh*

While doing my morning message board reading I found a post about this site that, quite frankly, I was surprised I hadn’t heard of before. Biker Friendly (http://www.bikerfriend.org ) is a site dedicated to building awareness not only for bikers on the road, but if on the off-day that your in your 4-wheeled cage you can let other bikers around you know that you ride, too.

…if only there was a way that motorcyclist could get together in an attempt to non-verbally communicate that there was another biker in their midst. Knowing that this transplanted rider was aware of them and was eager to share the road with another biker.

Well, now there is a way. You can order free stickers from the site for free (at the site owner’s own expense). Larger stickers and t-shirts are also for sale or you can just be a good doobie and donate some cold hard cash to the cause and relax their wallet.

I am not a frequent viewer of the Food Network. I have caught a few shows here and there and am familiar with who Alton Brown is. I have seen his other show Good Eats before.

So, while scrolling through the cable program guide the other night I saw the listing for Feasting on Asphalt and with my trusty DVR I recorded a few shows. I’m really glad that I did.

The premise of the show has Alton and crew road-tripping on motorcycles (BMWs, no less) across the country to find and highlight the places and history behind American “road food.” They avoid highways at all costs, pledging to ride the forgotten back roads to find the dwindling, one of a kind roadside eats. Alton Brown an enigmatic and well-educated food-geek, the show itself is an interesting blend of road-tripping, history and mouth watering food!

From foodnetwork.com:

“Feasting On Asphalt merges a little Easy Rider with good eats and great tales from our road food’s past and present, while preserving the map for its future.”

Season one had them riding across the south from S. Carolina all the way to Los Angeles. For the recently kicked-off season 2, they head up the great Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico up to Minnesota.

I literally got goosebumps when I watched the “Live by it” video and knew that I had to post it here because it doesn’t matter what kind of biker you are, this short video will speak to you in some capacity.

Head on over to the Harley Davidson website to see/learn about the creed film.