Hot News, Winter 2008

Wow, where do I start? I looked at my last years Hot News and got a few better ideas to make this Hot News a little different and a little more candid. So here goes, good news first.

The EuroTour 9 this year was a great success. My managers and I trained 78 students in 4 countries over a period of 2 1/2 months, and I worked the Euro Street Rod Nats (Switzerland), the Supernats(England), The European Kustom Kulture Fest(Germany), and numerous promotions in Frieburg and Hagen Germany and Altendorf, Switzerland. Many thanks to the management team of Uwe Graf, Graf Body shop in Berlin for putting together all the workhops at both Meilenwerk in Berlin and Dusseldorf, Frank de Bell in Switzerland, Kris & Lynda Johnson at Pinstriping UK in England, and Georges Sartori and his staff at STDS Direct in France. And finally a great big thanks to Louy & Gina Fehrenbach for all the help and hosting me in Freiburg. Please see the World Tour 2008 pictures and videos link at the bottom of my main page on my website. You will also find my new 2009 schedule on, of course, the schedule page. New locations might be Munich, Germany hosted by VooDoo Beat.de. I have less time in 2009 to do the tour so the schedule must be very compact and scheduling dates on weekdays, not just weekends. Please contact me if you would like to host a promotion or perhaps a workshop. There are still open dates. Although I have not received a full confirmation, I believe that 1Shot and Mack brush will be my sponsors again for 2009.

After my return in August from Europe I was told then, as I was in both February at the Sacramento Autorama and May after the Brush Rush in Fresno that I was to receive some kind of award given by the world famous Mike Clines of Sacramento. Clines long and distinguished career more than eclipses mine and to receive acclimation from just him alone really means a lot, let alone all the different big name stripers who signed the base of the award. He gave it to me without my previous knowledge at the Golden State Nations in October. He sited my outstanding work in furthering the art of pinstriping throughout the world. Thanks Mike and all the guys who signed it for your support. While at the SEMA Show this year I met some very nice folks who would like to get me to their countries to do workshops. Aside fom the usual 2-3 days of books signings, I attended a few seminars on the foreign markets and got some nice invitations for Spain and perhaps Brazil. Time will tell if those work out.

I am also very proud to say that my work has finally gotten on the Street Rodder Magazine Calendar for 2009. The work appears on Carl Olsson’s 34 Dodge P/U on the January page.

Speaking of magazine coverage, how about Decembers cover truck on Chrom & Flammen from Germany. There’s a real nice, all color, 6 page layout too. I did the truck while in the Frankfurt area in June. My friend Mathias (Condor) Vogel of Rhein Main Cruisers got me some work at Johannes Drecker’s shop and the first job was the 56 Chevy truck you see pictured here. Nice work if you can get it.

Joe Iacono, the designer/inventor of the Roddler paid a visit to Herb Martinez Pinstriping with his latest design of the stroller chassis, that now turns into a trike. It wasn’t a long journey as Joe only lives 2 blocks away from Herb’s. The trike conversion kit is a simple solution to add longevity to the product life cycle from 6 months to 2 years as a stroller and 2 years to 6 years as a trike. This obviously justifies having such a toy for your child. The same chassis accommodates both plans.

Now let’s talk about the new tour for 2009. First, plan on coming to the 60th Grand National Roadster Show and say Hi to me at the Pinstripers Panel Jamb in the main hall, Building 4. This years show will feature many new cars and also a recreation of the old layout of the Oakland Roadster Show, circa 1950’s. Next is the San Francisco Rod, Custom, and Motorcycle Show at the Cow Palace. You can find me on the main floor at the Tommy The Greek Award booth. Come get your shirts, brushes and books or just come by and say Hi. The next stop is Nor Cal NSRA Appreciation Day in Lathrop on April 18th. The Saturday before, April 11, will be the first basic pinstriping workshop. Late spring brings in the Tracy Clutch Burners Show at Dr.Powers Park in Tracy, May 4th. June will bring on EuroTour #10. You can find the current scheduled dates for workshops and promotions on the schedule page on the website. “But wait, there’s more”. I am currently working out arrangements to do two more workshop locations in Germany, Stuttgart and Munich, Italy with Kosmic Color near Cuneo, and maybe in the Netherlands. These are all prospective workshops and not yet set, however, because of publishing dates of the advertising, I will have to set the locations and dates no later than the end of Dec-08 to make the deadline for March 09 Chrome & Flammen and Art Scene International. Check all the later dates in the Fall on my schedule page.

Last but not least. Since my tour was so successful this year and having sponsors now and also companies scheduling my workshop dates, I decided to get a physical this year so I could assure them that I was going to able to do the tour again. It had been 10 years since my last physical so I thought it was time. One of the tests they gave me was a “colonoscopy” which examines the various caverns of your rear end. Well, they found some polyps and removed what they could. But that left 1 big polyp that had to be removed surgically. I went under the knife on November 20th and was out of the hospital 3 days later. It will take a few weeks to completely recover but I am now polyp free and cancer free. I was very blessed folks. If I would have let it go another year or so it would have become cancerous. I cannot stress the importance of getting a colonoscopy after your 50 years old.

So, that’s it for now. Have a great holiday season and I’ll see ya next year in 2009.