Utah mini kicker sesh.

Going down right now...

Funky Friday's #18

Happy New Year!

Golden Era.

Shalom, bro.

Yes, that is in fact a menorah made out of surfboards in Laguna Beach.

"Gram, Lemme Borrow Your Bike."

Really?!

N.E.R.D.

Don't ghost ride a million dollar whip.

You Gots To Coordinate.

It's a miracle!

Santa dropped a gem of a stocking stuffer and gave me my own 7-11,
just a few blocks from the crib. Grape Slurpees all day. Thanks Santa.

Merry Christmas.

Best Wishes to the WHTCN family.

Your own personal Jesus.

I can't even imagine how long this took to produce, but it is amazing. Imagine your favorite Christmas songs (if you have any) were dry raped by a Nintendo NES and you get 8 Bit Jesus.

Listen to a little sample here or just go ahead and download the whole damn album.

RANDOM THOUGHT: How great of a name for a temp agency would PERSONNEL JESUS be? Priceless.

It all comes down to this.

So by now a lot of you have probably picked up on my disdain for the current state of the American automobile industry. While honing my skills of internet nerdery today, I happened upon a Time Magazine gallery of shots of UAW workers at GM plants in the USA. It really drove home a story I read a few years back.

It was an article in Fast Company on how Jon Bon Jovi (yes, that one) bought a lackluster arena football team and, against all odds, turned it around to be extremely profitable and entertaining. I read that the first thing he did was make sure all of the teams got nice uniforms for on and off the field, and how that was a first step towards unifying the team. By doing this small thing, they felt they were part of something, and as a result had more self respect for themselves and saw themselves as a team, rather than just people getting paid to do a job. Following me?

So back to the Time gallery. After seeing what a random sampling of UAW workers looked like, I decided to give Google Images a little project to see what their competitors in other countries as well as over here look like.

Here is Toyota's factory in Japan. Universal color scheme. Hardhats required. Some shit is going down and they are ready for it.


Here is a middle aged fraulein getting her shine on in a Mercedes Benz factory in Germany. Clean sweatshirt and white gloves.

Side note: LOOK AT THAT HARDWOOD FLOOR.


Here is the assembly line at BMW in Dingolfing, Germany. Company issued pants and tops, look how clean that floor is. Everyone is working to get it done.

And then, you have this treasure, 14 years with the UAW. People that make sandwiches at Subway have better personal appearances.

I am hoping that she is just swinging through this GM plant to use the bathroom, not install a transmission or tighten the engine mounts. But, I think I might be let down on that one. 8 Mile represent.

Don't even get me started.

Don't Raugh.

Cookie Monster.

Before.

After.

First Crack.

Hit up Stratton during that last dump. Lone Ranger Friday First Chair.


Rock Quarter in effect.


Nothing closing out the day with a "Pilgrim" wrap. Thanksgiving heaven complete with cranberry sauce

Stumpy.

Tree looked a little short this year.

Get comfortable.

Beware, this gallery is a black hole that can keep you gripped to it for hours. Definitely some tear jerkers in there, both good and bad.

Scrooged.

A little Martin always helps put me in the Spirit.

Cannoli Time.

Top 10.

I almost got in a wreck trying to confirm that I actually saw the name of this place right when I was driving down La Cienega in LA today. I had to do a personal no-no and use a web shot instead of one of my own since I did'nt want to turn around. But damn, how great is that name?

Ballin' on a budget.

Face it, times are tough.

Plink Plink Plink.

Without a doubt a great article on why American cars just are'nt doing it these days. I was as surprised as you are at who wrote it.

Black Rock.

Bflo's Finest walks away with a 100k. Nice frontside tramp stamp.

Jail Phone.

3 feet in Big Bear.

Rob and I decided to take advantage of the recent pounding of snow
that the local mountains have gotten and headed up to Big Bear today.

The snow level started nearly at the valley floor and before we knew it, we were driving through a doppelganger of Big Cottonwood canyon.

We rode the undercover runs all day, and had it mostly to ourselves.
The powder was as light as can be, and there was 3 feet of it. Totally worth the drive, even though that was longer than our riding time.

Snow in the OC.

Over 4 feet in the local mountains. Ridiculous.