06/21/08- Rented The Source from Block Buster Online- a film about The Beats and Beat Generation. Very well made. i'm on a Jack Kerouac trip again. Above is a case I built for some of my Model and Die-Cast Cars. The walls of my recording studio and bedroom are covered with 1/64th scale Hot Wheels, Johnny Lightning and Matchbox cars as well. Is this a treatable disease? Also caught the end of Repo Man on Starz Channel this morning. They have the same kinda Biohazard Guys in that film that I have in Hot Rod Girls Save The World. I must have inadvertently borrowed the idea- as I saw Repo Man right when it came out in the 1980's. Still I didn't remember the Biohazard Guys until I saw it again today. HRGSTW is definitely the same kind of Dark Comedy that Repo Man is- maybe if you mixed Clerks with Repo Man and a little Dawn Of The Dead you'd come up with a recipe for the attitude Hot Rod Girls Save The World. I don't know...I'm just talkin' out my ass. I need to get back to the editing.

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06/20/08- A 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T I turned into a convertible and again the Funny Car Charger. Te Cornet tires and rims are from a stock car.

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06/19/08- My latest creation. I kit bashed a 1967 stock Dodge Charger model kit with a Plymouth Duster Funny Car Kit (Cop Out) to make a '67 Dodge Charger Funny Car. The hardest part was cutting the blower opening in the windshield. I broke three windshields in the process. Building model car kits is one way I blow off steam from sitting at my computer editing Hot Rod Girls Save The World all day. If I had the money and shop space- I'd be build 1/1 scale cars not 1/25th scale.

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06/17/08- Strange but almost everyday when I look at the clock in the late afternoon it's 4:26...what does it mean? Have I trained myself to look at the clock at that particular time? Do I have a Vintage Era Hemi in my future? It's odd.

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06/16/08- More scenes and blocks of editing finished for HRGSTW. We currently look good for a September screening of the film in Seattle.

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06/06/08- June and the weather feels like March. Rain and more rain. Good weather to drink coffee and work on your computer. Shipped off The Best Of Go-Kustom TV Volume Five & Six today. This is the third DVD in a series featuring various interviews and footage from various pin-up models, car show attendees, music festivals and more. I have also been kickin' out the scenes for Hot Rod Girls Save The World. When the three scene block is edited by this upcoming weekend- I will have the first 50 minutes of the film are rough cut and assembled! The last 12 Scenes are also assembled and in series as well and a big middle portion. It exciting seeing this thing finally come together.

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06/01/08- If I was gonna build a Rat Rod it'd be a 1933 Dodge Pick-Up with a 392 Hemi - Hilborn Stacks, White Wall Slicks, Old American Wheels, natural rust and orange stripes, copped, slammed...maybe next year after we finish the Gasser '67 Charger.

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05/26/08- Three day weekend doing 2006 business and personal taxes (yea we're that far behind) and audio recording and mixing. Finished a cool little track called House Party for a scene in Hot Rod Girls Save The World. It will also be the title track of a new D.A Sebasstian & The Inner Demons E.P. called- what else House Party which should be out in a month. As soon as I finished the tracks I sent it off to the pressing plant. Rent "He Was A Quiet Man." Christian Slaters greatest performance of all time. Love the smack talking goldfish too. CGI with an attitude. Also a good rental is the Russian made "Daywatch" and "Nightwatch" films. P.S. Thats my '67 Dodge Monaco on the CD Cover.

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05/22/08- Completed a series of Scenes for HRGSTW, including the Dahmer Gang fight sequence. This one was difficult because it had to sync to an extended version of my tune Hemi Charger. Punches on the beats, that kind of thing. Onward to the next Scene!

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05/10/08- Laying in some ADR that Lindsay Calkins did a week ago. Also started shopping for Seattle area venues for our September 2008 screening of Hot Rod Girls Save The World. I can't believe this film is almost done!

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05/10/08- Completed Scene 57- crazy Rat Rod driving scene with the Affected Jason character. Sections of HRGSTW vaguely remind me of a budget version of A Clockwork Orange. Influences are hard to shake I guess.

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05/06/08- Scene 56 is now complete. This one has been in the "to do" pile for ages. 56-61 is a very cool- but labor intensive section of the film where Buhgabaa telepathically examines a dead body to find out it belongs to Jason, who has become affected by the destrukto-ray and kills his boss to steal a rat rod. Whew! Because it is a type of flashback- I did the scene with a colorized effect to distinguish it from the day to day Black & White sections of the film.

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05/05/08- I've got seventeen years of sobriety today! So that means I am 44 (years old)-16(years old before I started drinking) = 11 years drunk or 1/4 of my life.

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05/04/08- Lindsay Calkins came over to the studio to finish all her ADR for HRGSTW. She is the lead and now has completed all her dialog replacement!

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05/01/08- It's Mayday Comrades!

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04/21/08- Scene 9 for HRGSTW is all completed except ADR. Two weeks of rendering- yikes!

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04/18/08- Dee Dee our cat. I found this on a tail end of a clip I was editing. Ain't she purdy? It also snowed today..in April! Along with the snow we got a mix of hail and frozen rain. Giant tree branches all around the neighborhood (including several in our yard) collapsed into the street and driveway. When the snow sticks and then frozen rain lays on top the weight can bee too much for the tree and crash!

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04/17/08- Soooo- got the Hemi Charger E.P. Shipped off to the pressing plant, as well as Discs 1 and 2 of the KsK - It & All Box Set (man...that ones gonna be expensive for 7 CD's per Box Set!). The It & All cases are cool. I ordered them from US Plastic and look like a DVD case with page leaves that hold the discs like plastic book pages. Scene 9 from HRGSTW is almost finished. These animated scenes take forever in rendering time. You make one adjustment and then have to let the computer render all night. If the change looks wrong- you have to do it all over again!

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04/13/08- Multi-tasking again. As I am rendering a heavily animated Scene 9 of HRGSTW, I finished up the covers (with Super Amanda's blessings) for the Hemi Charger E.P. due out in two months. I wanted something dramatic (like the song) with my 1/25th scale Hemi Charger Gasser model in the background and a still of Super Amanda from the "Killing Machine" video shoot we did a few weeks back, in the foreground. This E.P. features three vocal versions of Hemi Charger as well as two completely instrumental versions. Two earlier mixes of Hemi Charger will also appear on Disc 6 of the KsK box set "It & All" due out by summer 2008.

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04/04/08- Finsihed the modified version of Scene 8 for HRGSTW. Also check out another of my Ramcharger truck illustations. P.S. Battlestar Galactica starts a new and final season tonight! the best show on TV in my opinion. I wish Lucas would have had this kind of character interplay on his second trilogy set!

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04/01/08- More of the '67 Ramcharger. As I am waiting for computer #1 to render movie files (Scene 8 has mucho animation) I swing around and doodle on computer #2. That's where the Ramcharger Trucks came from. So I am not wasting time playing in Photoshop when I should be editing my movie. I am doing both. I am also able to work on music for the film while the movie files are rendering. I had to get two Macs going for that reason.

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03/30/08- What if Dodge had made a direct competitor to the Chevrolet El Camino and Ford Ranchero? Here's my first rendering of what it might look like. I did this in a few minutes in Photoshop. Maybe they would have called it a Ramcharger (a name later used on Dodge's early SUV's). I should build a real one.

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03/29/08- Completed Scene 26 of HRGSTW and both solos for both preliminary versions Hemi Charger. Work work work work...

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03/23/08- Happy Easter Peoples! The Mrs. and I filmed at Slims Last Chance in Georgetown last night. The Pin-Up Angels put on a Burlesque, Pin-Up Contest and rock show with Mercury Four (excellent Seattle surf band) and Billy Dwayne & The Creepers (local rockabilly faves) performing sets. The place was packed! I also finsihed rough arrangements and mixes of the tunes Hemi Charger (new KsK) and House Party (new D.A. Sebasstian & Inner Demons). Busy as always...

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03/17/08- Had an extremely productive weekend with You Tube starlet Super Amanda. We flew her out to do vocal work on Hemi Charger (with KsK), House Party (with D.A. Sebasstian & The Inner Demons) and Listless (with KsK) as well as an interview spot for Go-Kustom TV (interviewed by Miss Piper), a pick-up scene for Hot Rod Girls Save The World (with pin-up vixen Hot Rod Heidi) and a music video for the song she recently sang- Killing Machine (also a tie-in for HRGSTW). She's an incredibly talented, friendly and vivacious lady! She has also graciously agreed to begin working for Go-Kustom Rekords as A&R Representative. Super Amanda Rocks!!!

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03/10/08- Vetala Hawkins finsihed the cover for the next surf compilation called Go-Kustom Goes Surfin'. Miss Piper is on the cover

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03/09/08- We did a multi-part interview with Hot Rod Heidi and Co. for her multiple-endeavors. She is an active Pin-Up Angel (supporting the troops with care packages), owns a Vintage Clothing Store and with her husband owns Sunken Ship Tattoo in Everett. Look for these interviews on the our You Tube Pages and on the Best Of Go-Kustom TV 5 & 6.

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03/05/08- Ironing out the intro sequence for Hot Rod Girls Save The World. This is a tough one because I am trying to have a cohesive backstory running against the opening credits. Also the disc recovery service says they have retrieved all my missing files. Seasonal allergies kicked in as well. Argggghhhh. I'm trying acupuncture this year along with over the counter meds and tons of Vitamin C.

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03/02/08- had fun promoting Hot Rod Girls at the Seattle Roadster Show. We gave out hundreds of Promo Postcards, CD's and Buttons. Had an excellent response to the little console TV (we found the day before sitting by the roadside- score!) running various scenes from the movie- that we had set up with the Rat Bastards Hot Rods display. Thanks Tony and The Rat Bastards!

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03/01/08- R.I.P. Jack Bradley- AKA "The Maverick Man."

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02/27/08- What a crazy assed few weeks! I can either look at this month of February as a month of very hard life lessons or just as the month the shit hit the fan. First off I'm trying to coordinate a new Editor (H.Jeff Vaughn III- who is doing a great job BTW) to get Melinda Miles new Interview done and up on You Tube, whilst I continue to Edit Hot Rod Girls Save The World, finish contracts and cover art for the new Wild Ride! Hot Rod Surf Compilation, oversee the production of the new KsK CD - Sterile, keep promoting the KsK / Super Amanda E.P. Killing Machine with mail outs, train a new A&R gal and finish getting promo items ready for an upcoming car show. Whew! So all this is going on and then my wife has to send clients from her business to collections. This is something we both talk long and hard about- but seeing as they legally owe us the money and are refusing to pay, we decide to go with sending them in. It is no easy decision. Both of us have been on the receiving end of many collection agencies and don't want to do this to others, but if we don't they will not pay and this hurts her business drastically. This sets in motion dozens of angry meetings (from the client side) and nasty phone (from the client side- one gal says she is going to “box us up.”) calls etc. Police lawyers and stress. This is an added stress we both really don't want or need right now, however we stand our ground. This eventually works out. Most pay before going to the collections agency. Next comes the hard drive debacle. I have multiple back ups of all my files including DVD burns of core files. A few weeks ago, I decide to do a new drive back-up of files- I don't know why I just thought I should. This makes three copies of most files. I go to Staples and ask for a 500 gig Firewire External Drive. I get home and see the gal handed me a 500 gig USB2 Drive. I could have taken it back, but decided it wasn't worth the gas. I mean how slow could a USB drive be? Like Molasses on a cold day! I proceeded to back up all second tier files and all was good. The day after the back-up my main 1T drive takes a dump. What luck! Nothing is lost. My primary back-up drive is in good order. Just to be on the safe side- I order two new 500 gig Firewire Drives from Mac Mall to have doubles (and in some cases triples) of everything. Monday morning, the 25th, I power up my back-up drive to work on some editing. It is dead! Shite! Four hours later my new drives come UPS, but it is four hours too late! I panic. Two drives in 1.5 weeks! Lightning striking in the same place twice- you betcha! I had done a complete DVD burn of all the files last year and then updates last summer, but that was six months ago. After two days of loading the new drives, it turns out I am only missing a hand full of newer Audio files, and the only reason I didn't make a triplicate copy of them, was because of how damn slow the USB drive was! A comedy of errors. I am currently waiting to see if I can recover the data or get the drives repaired. Two dead drives with the one file folder I need on it- or three months of lost work including key ADR work! Moral of the story. Triplicate everything and make multiple DVD cross burn copies of all files if you can! Toast 7 & 8 work great for Mac users just for this purpose.

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02/12/08- Updated the Wild Ride! Compilation cover.

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02/10/08- Finished scenes 63, 65 & 67.

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02/03/08- Lindsay "Piper" Calkins came to the studio (now officially Die-Cast Studio) to do some ADR on multiple scenes for Hot Rod Girls Save The World. Also put together a quick ambient CD of reworked tracks I originally created for HRGSTW. These are different than the actual soundtrack, more extended and less arranged. The new disc is called KsK - Sterile. Five tracks over 70 minutes long! Packaging is minimal with no panel card insert and a blank tray card. Small text on the disc itself. I am going back to calling Kill Switch...Klick, "KsK" like we did back in 1996. Our label at the time urged us to keep the full name on the CD Covers to avoid confusion, however most of our friends and peers referred to the band as KsK.

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01/30/08\- Burning new trailers of Hot Rod Girls Save The World to send to several Festivals that solicited us. Seems the word is out about the movie. Now I just have to finish the damn thing!

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01/29/08\- More editing of Scene 73.

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01/25/08- Working on Scene 73. Almost done, but the last bit is like a mini-music video. Multiple edits that have to sync to the music track. I think music videos are harder (most times) to cut than standard indie-film fare. Mostly due to the compactness of the edits and the music as the timeline aspect. The scene looks brilliant though. Lindsay Calkins gave an excellent performance as a frustrated woman reporter who finally snaps. She did an incredible job on this film. She was so dry, nonchalant and simply perfect as Vanessa Trojan I couldn't have asked for a better lead for Hot Rod Girls Save The World.

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01/22/08- Finished the covers for two new Go-Kustom Rekords Compilations Wild Ride! (a Hot Rod Surf Compilation) and Pent-Up Boxed-In (a Rockabilly & Psychobilly Compilation). These are two of the four CD's Go-Kustom is releasing in '08. The other two are the KsK boxed set It & All (see below) and Go-Kustom Goes Surfin' (which is almost ready to go) but needs a cover. Love that surf music!

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01/20/08- New Go-Kustom Films intern Jeff Vaughn came over to work on a Melinda Miles interview for Go-Kustom TV. Learnin' and cuttin' he got most of the basic interview done in one day!

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01/19/08- Mike DItmore came over to the studio (now officially called Die-Cast Studios because of my massive Hot Wheels collection on the walls) to lay down some drum and cymbal tracks for the KsK Klassiks "Listless" & "Big Dub." Both these songs were in the very early set list of Kill Switch...Klick, but never made it to an officially recorded album. A few bootleg videos exist of the songs, as well as some demo tapes that former Virgin Records Publishing mogul Russell Ziecker paid for, but that's about it. I found the old sequencer tracks on a VHS tape (that's how we used to perform the songs- instead of dragging our keyboards on stage for the backing tracks, I would dump them to Hi-Fi Stereo VHS tape and run the tapes with video sync'ed images as well). Anyway I re-recorded the tracks into Cubase and Mike laid down the new percussion. I still have to do vocals and will have Super Amanda do some guest work on both next month when she comes to Seattle to do the video for Killing Machine. These songs will be on It & All (see below) out later this year.

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01/18/08- Finally finished Scene 75 for HRGSTW.

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01/16/08- Still pluggin' away at Scene 75. I had alot of issues with continuity between takes. I think I made it work though.

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01/15/08- Lap Dancer Mentality- I recently pulled the Go-Girls pages from this website for several reasons. One was I was getting inundated with queries from young ladies wanting me to make them into a pin-up starlets, many of whom had no experience and only amateur pictures with no inclination to pay a real photographer to take some decent ones. The other reason has to do with a realization of a growing Lap Dancer Mentality among many young (and not so young) women. What gave me this realization was during a routine coffee stop a few weeks back. I was driving a different way one morning and pulled into a little parking lot drive thru coffee hut. This coffee stand was under new ownership and I hadn't been to it for years. As I pulled to the window I was shocked to see a very pretty stripper type girl in only short shorts and pasties! My first thought was, "this can't be legal- can it." The guy side of my brain was instantly arouse (she was very pretty with very large store bought boobies), but the paternal side was like- "What the fuck, what if an unsuspecting family pulled in here. Now don't get me wrong, I think the human body is incredible and there are too many laws about nudity (especially on beaches) that don't always make sense. I also feel our American children are taught (through current media) that nudity is wrong and killing someone is OK (bass ackwards or what?) . Anyway as I bought my coffee and drove off I noticed how the barista's smile seemed forced and how she seemed vaguely uncomfortable. She would thrust her chest out talk loudly and then kinda sink into a more subdued tone. Like an actress who couldn't remember all her lines. Strange Maybe it was because it was hella cold outside and even with a heater blowing up her panties, she still had gooseflesh on her arms. Maybe she just didn't feel comfortable standing in a coffee hut being ogled by two lanes of guys in pick-up trucks. Was it a publicity stunt. I don't know. I hope she got shit loads of tips though. But what really bothered me was the exploitative factor of the situation. That Lap Dancer Mentality. Be nice to the guys, show some flesh, get the cash and get away. SO it was these thoughts rolling around in my head that led me pulling the Go-Girls pages. I will eventually put the Go-Girls links back up and we will have some scantily clad (but tasteful) gals on CD covers (I'm sure). I just want to make sure we keep on track as a Film and Rekord company, and leave the full on titillation to Playboy.

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01/11/08- Took a two day break from the film editing so I could lay the ground work for the KsK Box Set entitled "It And All." Six CD's- including all the major Kill Switch...Klick recordings, plus the KCMU Live Room Sessions of 1994 and never before released oddball tracks. Should be out in a few months.

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01/05/08- Put the finishing touches on two Chargers models I have building in the evenings at home using basic Charger kit bashed with various other model kits. One is a flying Charger the other is a Charger done Monster Truck style. What can I say...I like '66-'67 Chargers.

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01/02/08- Besides my Mopar fanaticism (not spurned by the recent Barrett-Jackson Mopar desirability factor- my first car was a 1970 Dodge Challenger back in 1981), I also dig other underdog makes like AMC (technically now Mopar) , Mercury and Pontiac. All had great '60's racing programs and some awesome cars and drivers. Above is a '65 Mercury Comet Cyclone. I am also a sucker for the 1960's styling trend of stacked headlights (Fury, Galaxie, GTO, Marlin).

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01/01/08- Happy New Years Day. This is also (God willing) the year my first indie-feature film Hot Rod Girls Save The World hits the big screen.

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