What it's called: Shake, Rattle, and Roll
Who done it: Full Throttle Video (Circle King Networks)
What it's about: Shake, Rattle, and Roll lets us ride shotgun as its makers hang out with car clubs, attend low-brow art exhibitions, and walk the lanes at car shows. Also included are shop tours and a behind-the-scenes look at a pinup photo shoot.
Notes: It's 2007. Do you know where your kids are? If you subscribe to the notion presented by Shake, Rattle, and Roll, they're in a garage, Pabst Blue Ribbon in one hand, a torch in the other, and they're eyeballing an old sedan, one not unlike the Plymouth your uncle drove when you were a kid. And, they have bad intentions...
Hot rods, rat rods, call 'em what you like, but Shake is a 50-odd-minute film about the highly modified and controversial cars and the subculture that builds 'em. The video starts in South Central L.A. at the Gonners car club meet, where Carlos Tabares shows how spirit and cunning prevail over shiny paint and hard cash. From there, it's over to Victory Studios' "Hate the Living," a Frankenstein-themed exhibit populated with Dan Collins', Sid Stankovitz's, and Keith Weesner's works.
While Shake spends the majority of its 54 minutes along the Southern California coastline, it toggles back and forth to Viva Las Vegas footage. Viva footage has to be the most entertaining due entirely to Camp Guido's fabled Applesauce Wrestling.
The video itself is surprisingly short, and if not for the half dozen bonus tracks, might actually seem a little disappointing. Luckily, Shake redeems itself by spending some time with Alex Gambino and his upstart Gambino Kustoms shop in San Jose. Shake also spends at least two days in Sun Valley following Ian Roussell as he grafts a late-model GM subframe to a shoebox Ford, an exercise in equal parts labor and luck.
For a change of pace, we get a behind-the-scenes look at one of Dan Gilday's pinup photo shoots, events that create images that transport us to not just another place, but another time. The final bonus track, a collage of Mitzi & Co. photos taken at last year's Viva Las Vegas, feature oversaturated images of highly painted pinup models.
All in all, Shake, Rattle, and Roll showcases a generation's desire to transport itself to another time. And, if it takes a case of Milwaukee moonshine and a heat wrench to get there? Well that's all the better.
Where to find it:
Circle King Networks Inc.
(949) 916-7880
www.fullthrottlevideo.com