About

Mike and Jared are blood brothers who grew up together with some of the same influences; cars, art, reading, and writing were a strong part of their formative years. The following are open letters to all readers illustrating what The Beatnik Brotherhood means to each of them:

Mike:

The Beatnik Brotherhood is an idea that I came up with while doodling and sketching  hot rods in college. While I should have been paying attention in most of my Mass Communication classes, I was sitting in the back of the class, scheming up various ways to piss off the purists of the automotive community. I thought a lot about the roots of the hot rod movement, how young guys hopped up their cars, removing unnecessary parts to lighten them, using whatever parts they had at their disposal to make them go faster and look cooler. And then I thought about how my generation was adding as many heavy and unnecessary accoutrements to their tuner cars to make them stand out and look utterly ridiculous.

I wanted to get back to the roots of the hot rodding ideal, but I realized that many of the parts and vehicles needed to create a period correct car are expensive and hard to come by. So why not get back to the true roots of the industry, and use what we have lying around?

The Beatnik Brotherhood is more than just a car club.  It is more than just a lifestyle.  It is more than just an ideal. It is a statement. It is breaking away from anything we have ever known and becoming something all it’s own.  Melding the new with the old school, we are about creating a hybrid mentality that transcends generations, that superscedes description.

Please feel free to check back often and draw from our inspiration.

-Mike.

Jared:

Michael came up with the concept, and after seeing a lot of the automotive community become pigeon-holed into their various groups divided by makes, models, and styles- Dodge, Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Rat Rods, Hot Rods, Smooth, Hoodride, Dune Buggy, Donks, Dubs, Lowriders – I was very enthusiastic about creating the melting pot of car culture. Going back to our roots. Building stuff we like out of stuff we can find.

That isn’t to say that everyone builds cars that strictly fit within a given category. There are plenty of automotive enthusiasts out there who put on their welding gloves and give the proverbial bird to the status quo every day; we plan on highlighting and encouraging those who do so, and to invite them to be part of The Brotherhood.

In addition, that isn’t to say that all bolt-on parts are bad. I would hate to have to try to build my own tires, or speakers, or turbo. It’s just that in some cases I think we’ve come to rely on these mass-produced products a little too much.

And, you know what? If you’ve built the perfect ricer, we’re not here to hate. Our goal is to illuminate; to encourage the automotive community to look to their neighbors, past and present, for inspiration. We want to light the creative torches and reinvigorate. We aren’t elitists, and our way is not “the correct way.”

Even between us blood brothers, we have our different preferences. He loves old-skool rodding, rust, and nearly anything without fenders. I have an affection for making the forgotten or unusual cool, and I can safely say that I’m into somewhat newer-and-less-rusty models (the bolts are certainly easier to remove!). The point is this: if it’s cool, it’s cool, no matter the inspiration. As long as we can stick it to the man, we’ve done our job.

As Micheal said, come join us as we start this underground movement to put the fun back in automotive modi-fun-cation. Soon we’ll have some ways of contacting us, of getting our newsletter, maybe some forums, who knows? Check back now and again, and if you like our stuff, don’t keep it under your hat. Tell a friend or something.

-Jared