During our favorite weekend of the year, the Texas Lone Star Roundup weekend, one of our favorite bands, The Paladins are headlining the Austin Speed Shop party Saturday night, April 10th 2010. A HUGE thanks to our friends at Fender Guitars & Gretsch Guitars for helping to make this happen. We will post details here as soon as we have them. Please don’t call the shop for information, we don’t have the details finalized yet. We’re really looking forward to this! Stay tuned…….

We rarely go into our storage room in the production building but Cinnabun found her way in somehow. She’s back in the office and in high spirits.

Love the taste of our special roast Cisco Burger Coffee? Well, that same great coffee we serve in our restaurant will soon be available for purchase so you can make it at home. So many people ask us what kind of coffee we have, and where they can get it…well, the answer is right at Cisco Burger! We’ll be selling the beans that are specially roasted for us, by the same roaster that does It’s a Grind’s beans. So you can grind them yourself at home and brew up our tasty Cisco Burger Coffee any time of the day.

And, don’t forget, if you want to stay in the loop on what’s hot off the grill every day, and check out our daily special, and other deals at Cisco Burger, follow us out on Twitter!

Well, actually your lucky weekend…This weekend West Coast Choppers is having our BIG SPRING SALE at the shop. We’ll be blowing out overstock apparel with most T-shirts $10, and all other apparel like long sleeve shirts, two-fers, and jackets marked down for 2 days only. And our custom made parts will be discounted too. Sale is at our Long Beach store only, not online. You gotta show to save the dough.

There’s nothing we love more then great riding weather. So we decided to put down the F*ck You attitude on the first day of spring and have a warehouse sale for all you riders, posers and deal hunters. Now’s your chance to stock up on T-shirts starting at $10 a pop, discounted parts, and everything else on sale in our store. March 20 and 21st at the West Coast Choppers LBC store only.

We want to give a special shout out [maybe that should be bark out] to everyone who sent dog goodies to the shop. Thank you to pawpedic for the super high quality dog beds. It almost doesn’t seem right we have to keep these on the floor. Mr. T and Cinna both got their own because they can’t help but playfight when they are together. Thank you Cinnabon who treated the whole shop to their signature Cinnabon Rolls and Coffee. Even Cinna liked them! She’s now sporting a new collar and lead with her own personalized name and phone number from Dog ID Collar. So that if she ever decides to go on a little adventure outside the shop again, there’s no question who she belongs to. I Love Dogs also hooked Mr. T and Cinna up with toys and matching scarves. Rocky’s Hotrod Garage sent over the raddest flavored toy wrenches …now Cinna can tighten the bolts on her doghouse. Woof Gang Bakery and TMZ sent over more gourmet doggie goodies than those two could eat in a month…but they’re sure trying!

And another big ‘thank you’ to everyone who sent their well wishes when Cinny was missing, and again when she was returned. Your kind thoughts meant a lot. Cinny is back up to speed, running around, giving Mr. T hell everyday, and visiting all of us looking for a butt scratch or a treat…whatever she can charm out of us. And it’s usually both.

West Coast Choppers and Cisco burger will be appearing on KWHY Channel 22 on Monday. Con Chile y Limon is an entertainment-based half-hour show that provides viewers with the latest in showbiz news, in-depth celebrity interviews, and the behind-the-scenes accounts of the most important events in Los Angeles. The show continues to break new ground by giving viewers the inside stories of and for the Latino community.

If you read our Garage Magazine Issue #21, our Chicks Rule Special Edition, you’ll remember our story about Deanie Parrish, the WWII pilot who was a member of the WASPs ( Women’s Airforce Service Pilots ) as part of our national defense as part of the U.S. Army Air Forces. They handled airborne duties like ferry planes from manufacturing facilities, test new aircraft, tow targets so combat pilots could practice shooting, and a myriad of other tasks. They were the first women in  history trained to fly American military aircraft. Women pilots were trained to fly non-combat missions in order to free up male pilots for active duty. These gals flew everything from BT-13 trainers to B-26 Marauders.

And sadly, until now, this brave group of women went completely unrecognized for their service in the war effort.This is because the WASP was never militarized, and those who served were considered civil service employees. To add insult to injury, the records of WASP were classified and sealed after they disbanded them in 1944, so virtually no one knew about these women’s service to the country. In 1977, the same year the Air Force graduated its first post-WASP women pilots, Congress granted veteran status to those who had served as WASP, and in 1979 issued official honorable discharges.

Fast forward to 2010. After years of petitioning Washington, the WASPs are finally getting the recognition they so rightfully deserve. And we’re really proud that Deanie Parrish is among those women being commended. We had the great honor of interviewing her for our March issue of Garage Magazine. That issue is still on the stands, so check it out. You can read about the goings on in Washington on NPR.

Two other sources that tell the story of the WASP with lots of great vintage photos are: wingsacrossamerica.us/wings/ and a great blog with lots of inspiring tales: wings1944.blogspot.com. Check them both out and learn a little bit of history you probably never got in school…even if you were paying attention. Below are a few shots, both old and new of Deanie. Congrats, fly girl! You made us all proud!

So you may have seen the mad skillz on our boy Tim Sutton, as evidenced in the pages of our very own Garage Magazine. He’s photog extraordinaire. What you may not have known is that he’s also gots some even madder skillz he busts out when he’s not behind the camera. He and his band of  knucklehead buddies risk life and limb on the weekends, all in the name of going fast.

They do this little thing called soapbox racing. It’s ummmm….slightly illegal. Or as Tim likes to call it, “stupid 12 year old fun. It’s sorta like Fight Club.” And they’ve got a website…Did Fight Club have a website? It’s at scisr.org. That stands for So Cal Illegal Street Racers. Catchy.  Check out his antics, but like we said above, don’t try this on your own. Well, unless you’ve got an old Sega Video Arcade chassis you can strap into.

Check out the article on the matte black jag we modified a few months back. The guys at ModifiedPages.com stopped out a couple weeks ago and took some shots, chatted with Jesse and went on their way to do a little write up on the car. See the whole article on their site: ModifiedPages.com.

Photography: Su-E Tan

Psych! Made you look! You didn’t think it we were gonna show you an actual Oscar did you? Just because we happen to know a gal that picked one up the other day. Not to drone on about it, but we’re pretty damn excited about the whole thing! And as if the Miss B Oscar win wasn’t enough, Jesse washed!! So we’re all benefitting from that this week. He still smells red carpet clean. Win-win!

So, although we’re not showing you THE Oscar, we thought we’d at least give you the gill-covered swimming version. He’s kinda cute too.

Whether he’s at lunch, working, out and about in Long Beach, or on the red carpet, Jesse keeps everyone up to the minute on what he’s doing, who he’s following, or some interesting person he’s met by tweeting. He leaks info on twitter before we even know about it. So, if you want to really be the first to know WTF is going on at the motorcycle ranch, or with just about anything else Jesse is up to, follow his tweets at:  frankyluckman.