Janet, The HAMB (it's what you really have a problem with, isn't it? not the JJ) isn't a magazine, it's a world wide garage night. And the guys inside are standing around, drinking a beer, eating a burger, and talking to each other about car stuff. And when car magazines come up as a topic of conversation, car guys are generally dissatisfied with the product you have to offer. It isn't a WWW vs. Print argument. There is room for both. It's simply that car guys want more from you. None of this has anything to do with Ryan except that he hosts the garage night. We don't run our opinions by him. He isn't our dad. You can't hold him responsible for our opinions any more than YOU can take credit for what GRAY BASKERVILLE wrote 30 years ago. If you want people to speak well of magazines, then make a better product. Don't blame someone else for having a great idea and executing it well. That's like Ford blaming sliding Taurus sales on the Camry being too good. Don't blame the ref for you losing the ball when it was stripped because you started your touchdown dance on the 10 yard line. hold onto the ball (print) and run with it.
I can only say I become addicted at times to this place called the Hamb...lots of knowledge and ideas. Lots of assholes too but I keep coming back and I cant get enough of some of the history that is seen here. I cant bring myself to buy most magazines anymore cuz there honestly is not much new. I would rather save my 6 bucks and just do a quick flip thru in the magazine isle or at checkout. I do have to say that there are a few writers out there that share the same basic idea about our hobby and industry as I do and some writers are just interesting to read. The rest either have no clue or cant write any better than me. Keep up the good work ryan, always look forward to your entries....
Wow! I think it is safe to say that for something to be "stolen", it has to belong to you in the first place. "J", the writer must assume they own Ryan, and the community surrounding this site, et al. Ryan's articles chronicle a love and appreciation for vintage rodding, classic designs from the past, people of note from days gone by, and are written at a level that far surpasses anything I have read in the magazines. I am a pretty new on the site, and seldom post, but have already learned a great deal from the "hands on" knowledge of the kindly members here. Magazines are OK, but most of the articles lack topics of interest to me, and really don't give a guy (or gal) enough instruction to be able to "duplicate". Where else can you go but here to find a wealth of information/instructions on a myriad of vintage rodding topics (like DZUS fasteners and moon discs in my case) when you need it? Writer "J" would be much happier with perhaps some therapy, and the latest copy of the Rodder's Journal
Geez, lighten up Janet. I'm going to my favorite car show tomorrow to hang out with friends I would likely have never gotten to know without the HAMB. You can see pictures of just about every car in that show, by Monday at the latest. If I can't figure out if I'll have the valve spring issues by adding 1.6 rocker arms, I can post the question on here and have an answer in somewhere around 10 minutes. Car magazines can't do any of those things for me. Only the HAMB can do that. But magazines weren't, and aren't intended to serve those functions. I think there will continue to be a place for magazines with good event coverage, tech articles, and editorials. Some will get weeded out, but the good ones will survive. Besides, I think Ryan gets to much credit/blame sometimes. Without doubt, he's the one that had the forsight to create this place and take the risk to keep it running. Especially in the early years when it was a financial burden. It's the Coles, Bass', Jimmy Whites, Plowboys, Littlemans, BobBleeds, etc. that make this place so great, and a threat to the print world.
they seem to forget hot rods were aroung long before their magazines,you can learn on hamb from real people who actually build their own cars not pay some one to build a trailer queen that their afraid to even drive. hamb inspires people to build a car that you will take out and enjoy, lifes to short to just sit around and look at it drive the dam thing. i'm honored to be a HAMB hodlum,i'll save all the money spent on mags and put it in my car. thats in a nut shell thank you ,ryan
Could Janet be someone who lost their job when the internet closed down several paper magazines and is just venting about a loss of steady employment?
"Janet"reminds me of all the mainstream news guys....every one bitching about FOX coz FOX is kicking their ass... RYAN,keep "Janets"email handy and show it to "her" when she comes calling you for a job..coz"hers" is definatley dying... I had been buying every car magazine since 1947...No more The HAMB is where its at in todays world.... I had a problem on a flathead and asked here and had an answer in 10 minutes..would have taken me a week to look thru all the magazines.
Tman, I borrowed your quote as my new signature. I hope it catches on and a year from now some kid on MTV, or E! tells some old fogie that's spittin' mad "Don't be such a Janet".
Personally, I agree 100% with you that the rodders journal is the best print magazine out there right now. That being said, I almost always buy rod & custom, and probably pick up 6-8 issues of Hot Rod a year. We get Street Rodder at work and i read it through and through at work every month. I visit the Hamb every day, sometimes more than once a day. My opinion as a hot rodder and a professional hot rod builder-every one of these forms of media has its place. We as hot rodders simply cannot get enough of what we love. All you do was provide an ADDITIONAL form of media for us, filling a void left by print-allowing hot rodders all over the world to meet and communicate on a daily as-we-please basis. I simply don't understand how you are unraveling the fabric of hot rodding. It doesn't make sense to me. Hot Rod usually has articles on modern performance and tech stuff that isn't really covered here. I love to learn about how to make my car go faster. Rod & custom features more traditionally styled stuff...read and learn from that to adapt the new better performing stuff to look and feel like traditional stuff. I go here to communicate with like-minded individuals and learn from those who have more experience than I. Street rodder covers a lot of the high dollar shows and cars that I work on. It all goes together perfectly like BBQ wings and beer. I'm sorry "janet", I appreciate what you do fully and wish you would stay the course and continue to do what you do, but please don't insult Ryan-a fellow hot rodder-by falsely accusing him of destroying hot rodding. The world we live in has its own backroom corruption problems that are separating the nation...hot rodding is a simple world of like minded and equal individuals that are ABOVE conspiracy and professional and corporate name-calling. Please don't sink to the level of indecency that our politicians have and bad mouth a man that has provided a needed service in our community.
I enjoy some of the pics in some of the car magazines now days but I READ the HAMB. I used to read car magazine. I have learned more on the HAMB in the past couple of years than I learned reading car magazine for 30 years. Get over yourself Janet - The HAMB has kicked your ass.......... like that stupid saying goes "Dont hate the player - hate the game" Well Janet the game has changed. Too bad for you.
Proud to be a Hoodlum... Thank you to everyone, who has made this forum the BEST outlet on the planet for information, reading material, history, and on and on etc... And, thank you Ryan for creating the H.A.M.B.
Just a few thoughts that I would normally keep to myself: I have learned more on here in the last few years than I have in 40 years of reading magazines. The style this site promotes is very appealing to me. I never knew people still built cars this way, and I never would have with out this place. I will kick my 50 bucks in as soon as I get back to work, it's long overdue. The arrogance displayed in that letter is staggering. Has to be from an ad sales guy, it's too poorly written to be from an editor and makes no sense. I never realized that all the old guys got all their ideas from hot rod magazine in it's early days (1890-1940). Wow. I thought they just invented shit and tried it out. I am so out of touch with my history. I have to go check ebay for some of those really hard to find prewar street rodder issues. After all, they created this world, right? Yes, print is dying, it has been for a long time. Ask your newspapers how they like craig's list. The fact remains, print will never die completely. If all magazines were as good as Rodder's Journal, they wouldn't have to worry. So Ryan, I hope you become a millionaire from this. And to you and everyone else on here, keep on destroying the fabric of hot-rodding and western civilization. I will continue to renew my RJ subscription, and I will do my best to keep my alliance membership up to date. Thanks again
well done Ryan , I'm pleased you didn't stoop to Janets level and behave like a bitch! . Oh , and thanks again for a GREAT site ....
I love magazines, I am a recovering magazine addict. I own thousands of them. I don't buy many anymore, the HAMB and Internet cover it for me. I do glance at most every issue at our news stand. I tried to think of the last part advertised in a magazine that I bought. Afco radiator in 2002 or 3? I just ordered a new radiator, found Dillon radiator here and online. I am going to Order a Rebel Wire Kit from Glennn soon, yup found him here. I type this not to spite Janet, but to illustrate my point. Years ago some punk had a passion, he shared it with a bunch of other punks. The passion spread and grew. That punk got wise, formulated a business model that retained his values and passion. A model that kept the customer at the heart of the equation. And thank thank him sincerely from the heart for sticking to his guns.
The only thing I understand from todays magazines is that anybody can be a hotrodder. All you have to do is open a cheque book. I gave up buying them when I discovered the HAMB. Thank you Ryan for I am saved......
I became involved in this sight about two years ago, when my buddy ElPolacko sat me down at his desk and said "today you get involved, and learn how this computer thing works...". This came after almost seven years of trying to get me involved. Two years on, I can't believe what I missed in those prior years. Some of the friendships I have cultivated in the last couple of years, both with people far flung around the country and world, and those more local, have been some of the best of my life. I can't thank you enough Ryan, for the foresight and creativity to get and keep this going. As far as Janet goes, what do you say? This is who a large batch of us want to be, and here we are. Has he/she/it ever heard of "voting with one's feet"? I read the magazines still, probably will always. And unlike some here, I don't break out in a rash at the sight of billet or 18"wheels; but they seem to have stopped listening to us years ago and seem much happier telling us what we want to see. I can't quite get my head around that level of arrogance. Last thing, that video was very close to perfect... The right combination of music and footage just makes the hair on the backs of my arms stand up!
I didnt read through all the responses as there are way to many (which I knew this topic would get). Ryan, dont let Janet bother you...You have created something better than anything Janet will do in a lifetime. You are soley responsible for educating alot of the younger crowd who wasn't around back then and dont have any "greybeards" to teach them. Personally this place has given me resources I could have never found for myself and has taught me alot in the way things were done. Here you can see a project go together, years before it hits the magazines, discuss the process with the builders, see the trial and errors others have made... basically 99% of the process the magazines don't show you. The place is something special Ryan, probably more than you realize.
Anyone here ever see a movie called "The Wizard of oz"? Remember the scene when they discovered the wizard was just an ordinary man, flipping a lot of sound effects and levers? I think most people here on the Hamb, got wise to the Wizard and followed the Yellow Brick Road, to the Hamb!
The Reason I come to the HAMB? Most of the magazines as of late are JUNK! Thanks Ryan for giving us a place to go for traditionalism and the preservation of a great sport, hobby, and lifestyle. Funny thing is, If there was no HAMB and Ryan only had this site in the form of a magazine, It would be the ONLY magazine I would buy. So tell "Janet" its less about the form of media and more about substance.
I read "Janet's" letter with interest as I have been around more than a few magazine guys on the car/motorcycle side both professionally and personally. The ones I know are an extremely self conscious bunch with low self-esteem, big egos blessed with adequate technical minds but lacking the creativity and ability to honestly experience the essence of the hobby they purport to be passionate about. There are some good magazines out there written by lovers of the hot rod experience and we should support them. I still prefer a magazine to keep for future reference but most today ignore the innocence and "possibility" of what building, driving and owning our cars is really about. The problem with mainstream magazines isn't the advertising or the shrinking subscriptions or the price of postage. It's the tried-and-true formula they follow. They're given free cars and bikes to roadtest and "all-access" passes to major events and factory product introductions which keeps them off street level and in constant contact with "the trade" and their own isolated kind. Most mainstream hot rod/bike/roadtest magazines look alike because ultimately they follow a formula which means they are only writing to each other. Every few years most do a musical chairs switch and take each other's jobs and bring their same reporting and formula to the new job which leads to magazine parity. They write with all the same goofy analogies ("more get up and go than (fill in the blank)". "Attracts attention like a (fill in the blank)." And once a word like "hooligans" catches on they all jump on the band wagon and can only use one word - "hooligans" - to suggest fun. I'm sure these editors and writers will say they are handcuffed by their publishing companies but because they grew up in a formulated photo/copy world it's all they know. Suggest new ideas to them like fiction, art pages, travel, products to avoid, first person accounts, random stuff for fun and they instantly clam up not knowing how to answer because "no one else is doing it." Jalopy Journal's home page sets the stage with interesting and relevant stories which could truthfully be found in print pages but rarely are. Beyond the subject matter though, the consistency of content reveals a real understanding not just to an era of cars but to the hearts and extreme drive of men and women who dream, build, race, do. JJ gets it and provese it day after day. I never get the feeling you and Jive Bomber are writing to impress other writers. I get the feeling you do it for love of a car experience. At the heart of Jalopy Journal are the readers. Warts and all. Scanning through a typical day on the HAMB reveals some ignorance, silliness, talent, learning, insights, comedy, history, sadness and love. At the end of a good read the benefits far outweigh the cringe moments and it's easy to walk away from the experience inspired to build, make, write, photograph, draw, stripe, rebuild, concept something cool. Ultimately not many current magazines can say that.
How come it took Janet almost a decade to realize she didn't like the HAMB? You have to be plain stupid to keep on reading what you don't like. Too bad she thinks like that, I pay almost $10 USD for one magazine and I'm also a HAMB adict, both things complement each other... Thanks for the resource guys! I appreciate your knowledge and experience.
The Jalopy Journal
