Hurray for Hollywood

This is my newest Mother Load column about my daughter Chloe's obsession with fame.

Good golly, Hollywood: the Mother Load

Deep in thought, looking for stars on a tour

 

By ARRISSIA OWEN TURNER

Reporter

Published: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 7:13 AM PDT

Chloe has gone Hollywood. For some reason, my 7-year-old daughter has become inexplicably obsessed with L.A.

I have no idea where this is coming from other than that the Jonas Brothers’ new season for the Disney TV show “Jonas” now focuses on them moving to L.A. Chloe has been to the City of Angels hundreds of times, but suddenly it’s the big lights in the big city.

So when my cousin Jill’s son decided he wanted us to go to Universal Studios for his birthday, Chloe started asking questions. I explained to her that it’s like Disneyland but you get to see where movies and TV shows are filmed.

As my lips were moving, I could have sworn I actually saw stars form in Chloe’s pupils.  “Hollywood?” she asked while in a self-imposed daze.

As we drove onto the 101 freeway, the Hollywood Freeway Chloe pointed out, she looked out her window, taking in every morsel of the glitz and urban grime.

Chloe is sure she is famous, which is part of the allure. She was once on an episode of Nickelodeon’s “Yo Gabba Gabba,” so every once in a while she asks whether or not she is famous and if I am somehow part of the limelight.

I think Chloe is a little let down when I break the bad news that I am not. “But you talk to famous people,” she points out. True, I say, but fame isn’t contagious like a cold, unless you’re Lauren Conrad from “The Hills” or Kim Kardashian from whatever she is famous for.

There were some signs leading up to this obsession with greatness. When Chloe got the part on “Yo Gabba Gabba,” she immediately begged me for a black, faux fur jacket. Her intentions became very clear when I saw her dressed to impress with her “Hollywood jacket” and sunglasses, striking poses in the back seat of the car like I was her chauffeur.

The funny part about this is that every famous person’s kid I have ever met has been completely unfazed by his or her parent’s reputation. Mark Mothersbaugh, of Devo not Mark Motherspaw of the Big Bear City Community Services District, signed on to be the resident doodler on “Yo Gabba Gabba” because his newly adopted daughters were mesmerized by the show’s host DJ Lance Rock.

They did not know that their father was done being cool, and they didn’t care that he was ever in the art rock group synonymous with the hit “Whip It.” They just wanted to know if he had an in with Muno and Foofa, the show’s colorful characters.

I once had a conversation with Pennywise’s former lead singer Jim Lindberg about being the father of three girls who absolutely did not care that their father was a punk rock icon. Unless he was Christina Aguilera or a star from “That’s so Raven,” his accomplishments were nil.

Driving around in a mini-van with three little girls and Brittney Spears stickers on the windows and not caring one smidge was the most punk rock thing he had ever done, Lindberg said.

Tattoo artist and “L.A. Ink” star Corey Miller’s three children were completely underwhelmed by his success until he scored backstage passes for a Hannah Montana concert—nevermind that he toured with Metallica and has his own Ludwig signature series of drums.

But one of my favorite stories is from my cousin Jenny, whose friend’s kid was in the same class as Mike Ness from Social Distortion’s son. There was a career type thing where kids’ parents came in and told about their occupations.

When it was Ness’ turn to inform the class about being a professional musician, his son practically sank into his seat. He begged him not to bring his instantly recognizable 1972 Les Paul with the Clay Smith Cams Mr. Horsepower logo. And, dear God, please don’t talk about all that rockabilly nonsense.

How embarrassing, indeed. Ness scored points with his sons though once by performing at Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom Huck Jam, where they got to meet their hero, never mind that their father is fricken Mike Ness.

I do not know if I have ever met a kid who is impressed with his or her parents. Malia Ann and Natasha Obama probably think it’s completely normal for dads to become presidents. Chloe thinks it’s normal, as well as excruciatingly embarrassing, that I write a column about being her mom.

So from now on, my answer to Chloe when she asks whether I am famous will be this: It wouldn’t matter if I was.

Click here for the original story:
http://bigbeargrizzly.net/articles/2010/10/15/community/doc4cb4fc71a01af063825227.txt

DJ Ris' situation

New story I wrote about Paul Oakenfold, a quite famous DJ known for his work with U2, Madonna and, my favorite, Happy Mondays.

Save the Last Trance 

Superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold brings his perfecto beats to SmokeOut

By: Arrissia Owen Turner

Even British DJ superstars’ mums give them grief. They are just like you and me. They enjoy a good Sunday roast with friends, fine wine or a strong pour of Guinness, glasses clinking while musing about the day’s big game.

But then some of those regular-guy DJs star in their own Spike TV reality shows, hang with Madonna, score James Bond video games with Gnarls Barkley, perform at the Great Wall of China and not only become the first DJ to play the Hollywood Bowl—but to sell out every last seat, too, even if no one ever sat in them.

Paul Oakenfold does all of those things, plus shares the bill this Saturday alongside MGMT, Deadmau5, Dan Black, Erykah Badu, Basement Jaxx, Incubus, Nas & Damian Marley, Manu Chao and (of course) Cypress Hill at the SmokeOut Festival at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino. 

Oakenfold’s pounding bass lines are synonymous with trance music and club culture, helping bring a new element to the SmokeOut’s usual rock and hip-hop suspects. But then Oakenfold’s not one to shy away from a challenge.

Musical Cuisine

Life changed for the Londoner more than 20 years ago when he went on holiday to Ibiza, a party island off the coast of southern Spain. After a week, Oakenfold was ready to rock full-time. Since then he’s sold more than 2 million recordings in the U.S. alone, was nominated for two Grammies (for 2004’s Creamfields and 2006’s A Lively Mind), and reached gold with 2004’s Another World, making it one of the biggest-selling dance recordings of all time. 

Still, just like any pie-in-the-sky dreamer, Oakenfold’s mum got her knickers in a bunch when he said he wanted to follow his dream of working in the music industry. “I was in a band, and we weren’t very good, and my mum gave me great fuss,” Oakenfold says. “She said, ‘Listen, you have to get a proper job.’”

Oakenfold attended Westminster Technical culinary institute and became a trained chef.

“But I still had this passion to get into music,” he says. He made his mum a deal: If he didn’t cut it as a DJ and producer, he would return to cuisine.

Pills and Thrills

How was Mrs. Oakenfold supposed to know her son’s beats were better than any goat cheese beet salad he could whip up? Or that he would one day be tapped for soundtracks to films like Shrek II, The Bourne Identity, Planet of the Apes and Pirates of the Caribbean?

“I just kind of went for it,” says Oakenfold, who also worked as A&R during those early days for Profile Records and Def Jam. He signed the likes of Salt-N-Pepa, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith. 

In 1997 and ’98, Oakenfold had a residency at the famed Liverpool nightclub Cream at Nation. These days he holds down the decks for his residency at the 25,000-square foot Rain Nightclub at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas.

“Hard work and persistence has paid off, really,” he says.

Yeah, you could say that. Within four years of his mum giving him the chat, Oakenfold made a name for himself co-producing Manchester’s Happy Mondays’ 1990 album Pills, Thrills and Bodyaches, with songs like “Step On” and “Kinky Afro.” He also released remixes of the Stone Roses, The Cure, INXS and more.

Even Better Than the Real Thing

In 1993, U2 approached Oakenfold to remix some of the band’s songs.

 “That was an honor,” Oakenfold says. “I never thought in a million years I would get asked to work with a band at that level.”

His remix of “Even Better than the Real Thing” did, well, even better than the real thing, reaching No. 1 on the U.K. charts. He opened for U2 that year on the band’s world tour.

The single hit at a perfect time in England at the early height of the electronic music phenomenon. Oakenfold sees America as ripe for the electronic revolution.

“If you look at the charts, it’s all electronic bass,” says the frequent pop music collaborator. He’s since pitched in on pop projects by Madonna, Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake and the Rolling Stones, which he takes in stride giving kudos to the original works.

Electronic music doggy-paddled across the Atlantic, just like so many British acts that make it in the U.S. It’s not uncommon for a performer—think Robbie Williams—to be humongous in the U.K. only to walk amongst the people stateside without a blink. Paul Oakenfold’s name is absolutely synonymous with DJ culture in America—he’s like P. Diddy for the spin cycle. He’s the go-to guy for name recognition in the pop-club mix collab world.

It’s Only Getting Bigger

There are few DJs that are so recognizable in the mainstream thanks in part to hits like Oakenfold’s remix of Elvis Presley’s “Rubberneckin.” He recorded the song as a tribute to his father, whose Elvis records Oakenfold clung to as a child.

“I think with America, if you have a sound and you work really hard and travel all over America—it takes time—it’s well worth it,” Oakenfold says. “America is a very open country in terms of music. The difference is that in radio, it’s not. I’ve been to Alaska and Cincinnati on a Monday night and played to thousands of people. So there is a big swirl for electronic music and it’s only getting bigger.”

Persistence paid off, but it was Oakenfold’s quick thinking that secured his first big break in the U.S. during his inaugural visit to New York. Necessity was the mother of ascension.

“I went and got false ID made up and I said I was working for NME Magazine in England, and that is how I got into all the clubs free,” Oakenfold says. “With an English accent, working for an English mag and an English ID, they didn’t even question me.”

Progressive Attitude

Oakenfold’s come a long way since his cloak-and-dagger club guise. In 2007, Oakenfold released his greatest hits and remixes, a 20-song strong mix of his most popular dance mixes immediately recognizable to any club kid worth his or her glow stick.

With two decades under his belt, Oakenfold attributes his longevity and success to a progressive attitude toward music.

“I think it’s important to always be open-minded to new technology with new sounds and new trends and embrace that,” Oakenfold says. 

“You should at least be open-minded to embrace it and see, you know, what you do like and take those elements and those sounds and put ’em into your production,” the DJ adds.

Oakenfold looks to up-and-comers Kenneth Thomas of Detroit, Robert Vadney from Greece and fellow Londoner Adam White as the future of DJing.

Out of the Club

The most recent result of Oakenfold’s cultivated expertise is Pop Killer, the much anticipated studio album expected to hit in 2011, his first since 2008’s Anthems. “I am working with a lot of urban singers, great singers, on cutting-edge rhythms,” Oakenfold says.

“It’s just a case of pushing the boundaries,” he continues. “I’ve always been like that, and wanting to not just DJ the club, but taking DJing outside the clubs and playing at festivals and events and shows.”

Oakenfold is no stranger to the IE desert. Aside from Vegas, he’s a Coachella regular. Oakenfold plans to unleash a swirl of classics, as well as some of the stuff from the new release at Saturday’s cannapalooza.

“It will be my first SmokeOut, as they say, so I am really excited to play there,” says Oakenfold before seizing the opportunity to practice his American accent. “San Bern-ahhh-dino, right?” 

Now he’s cooking.

Cypress Hill SmokeOut Music Festival w/Paul Oakenfold, Dan Black and others at NOS Events Center, 689 S. E St., San Bernardino; www.smokeoutfestival.com. Sat, Oct. 16. Doors open at noon. All ages.

Here is the original link to the story: 

http://www.ieweekly.com/cms/story/detail/save_the_last_trance/3555/

Groupie Activity

I took this last week while visiting North Shore Elementary School in Big Bear to shoot pictures of students participating in the new arts enrichment program. Little Fenix has his first groupie! As soon as I snapped this shot, I knew it was a front page picture.

North Shore Elementary kindergartners Kylie Jones and Fenix Ballum take to the keys as part of the school’s new arts enrichment program. Fenix looks like his musical talents may have earned him his first female fan. (ARRISSIA OWEN TURNER/Big Bear Grizzly)

To read the full story, click below:
http://bigbeargrizzly.net/articles/2010/10/07/news/doc4cabd6acd0849532551998.txt

Checking In

Soundcheck: Weezer, Matt Costa, James Fletcher

By Arrissia Owen Turner | Riviera magazine | October 4, 2010

Matt Costa ready to ride

BOY OF SUMMER Matt Costa recorded Mobile Chateau in O.C. | Photo of Matt Costa by Neal Casal.

> > When Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and San Juan Capistrano’s Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost) met backstage at Lopez Tonight, it was perfectly random. The intro came after their gig at the U.S. Open of Surfing, just in time for the launch of Hurley’s limited-edition fall collab with Weezer, and after the new CD Hurley (partially recorded at Hurley’s Costa Mesa HQ) hit the streets. Cuomo’s claiming serendipity, but come on. A good marketing ploy isn’t, er, lost on us.
> > > Last time we saw Riviera’s favorite troubadour, Matt Costa, he was strumming on a street corner outside a Sea Shepherd fundraiser (the vegans with a vengeance from the TV show Whale Wars). He was playing sweetly psychedelic songs that didn’t ring a bell, which made us feel unhip around the tatted activist types. Turns out the songs were yet to be released, fresh from Costa’s brand-new album Mobile Chateau. It brings an au courant sound with a new backing band: Fullerton folksters Mothers Sons.

> > > Guess who that left with time on his hands? James Fletcher, Costa’s former drummer, known around O.C. as the sticks behind the Women, Smile, Satisfaction, mPhase and Zee Avi. Now we have the dashing The Booze and Clocks, the Brit expat’s first solo CD, extolling the virtues of one’s own volition.

Timber!

When my daughter Chloe was first born, I rarely slept. I will never forget one night, this was 2002, when I was up at 4 a.m. feeding her. I started flipping the channels because it was obvious it was not going to be a quick one. 

I fell in love that night. Justin Timberlake's making-of-the-album thing was on MTV about his first big solo album. I was not of the N'Sync generation. But ever since that I have been inexplicably mesmerized by JT.

Justin Timberlake, sir, you have brought sexy back again and threw in Jimmy Fallon for the ride.

Click below to watch a clip of Timberlake and Fallon doing a hip-hop medley backed by the Roots.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/30/timberlake-fallon-history-rap_n_744931.html

And now Chloe wants to perform Eminem's "My Name Is" in the school talent show. Now I get to have that conversation. 

The Sublime Machine

It’s not unusual to see Bud Gaugh’s young daughter bopping along with the music stage right, wearing headphones during a Sublime with Rome concert. “It’s totally a different world touring now than before and with the responsibilities,” Gaugh says. “It’s a blessing to be coherent and responsible.”

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed the remaining members of Sublime and their new singer, Rome Ramirez.  Their debauchery and recklessness before and after singer Bradley Nowell's heroin overdose are legendary.

These days, Wilson is more pragmatic, approaching the band as a business. “We’re not a fiasco like we used to be,” Wilson says. “I’m not really into sleeping on people’s floors, you know? But as far as the music, we sound a lot like we did back then.”

“I didn’t really grieve properly after Brad’s death,” Gaugh agrees. “It took some time to do it." Nearly two decades and 12 or so steps.

Nowell's sneakers were not easy to fill, and some people would like to see the band only in their memory. But for many, they never even got to see Sublime because by the time the band's big breakthrough happened, Nowell was gone.

Gaugh faces the criticism head on. When a sound guy he worked with through his band Del Mar expressed reluctance to give Sublime with Rome a chance, Gaugh listened. The guy told Gaugh straight out that he felt replacing Nowell was wrong.

“I told him, ‘Well, I just want you to follow the music,’” Gaugh recalls. He convinced Soundman to give it a shot before passing judgment, giving him a ticket to a show and a promise that afterward they would discuss it reasonably. “Just let the music speak for itself,” Gaugh said.

Soundman is now a fan. “People really identify with the music,” says Gaugh, adding the songs are so iconic it's hard to retain ownership. “They cling onto it like it’s their own.” There is a sense of possession and entitlement, he says. “It’s about our lives and their lives.”

As for the reluctance of some Sublime fans, Ramirez takes it all in stride. “I could go online and read about me all day long, or I could read about Paris Hilton or Barack Obama," he says. "There is always something people are looking to talk shit about. But we’ve had a really positive momentum.”

Here the article I wrote about Sublime with Rome that came out today in the first issue of the new alternative newsweekly, City Beat Long Beach:

Sublime with Rome is still doin’ time as this city’s most famous musical exports

By Arrissia Owen Turner

Other than Snoop and Dre, there aren’t many musicians or rappers who repped Long Beach as hard as Sublime during the last few decades.

Out of all five of the people on that list, only bassist Eric Wilson still resides within cabbing distance of Fern’s on Fourth Street and the neighborhoods where backyard parties spawned the “Summertime” savants.

Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose on May 25, 1996, in San Francisco while on tour. He was 28. With Nowell gone, the band came to an abrupt end just two months before their self-titled major label debut.

Sublime was on the brink of securing their place in KROQ flashback history with the self-titled release, the third and final full-length recording with Nowell. Sublime spawned the band’s only No. 1 hit, “What I Got.” To date, they’ve sold 17 million albums worldwide.

The band’s meteoric rise was indelibly connected to the tragedy the remaining band members faced as they grieved along with fans who were taken by Nowell’s reggae-influenced, punk-laced emotive vocals.

The fans take immense ownership of Sublime’s music that is so strongly intertwined with Nowell’s legacy. It seemed futile to continue as a band without their lead singer.

When In Rome

It wasn’t until a friend of the band came across then-20-year-old Rome Ramirez early last year, an aspiring singer-songwriter with guitar skills to boot, that the idea of reforming Sublime was even considered. The result is Sublime with Rome, made up of drummer Bud Gaugh and Wilson and “featuring” Ramirez. The “with Rome” part is sort of a big deal.

The Sublime songwriting process remains the same with Ramirez as they work on new music, sometimes coming up with parts while on stage, just like in the old days.

“So far, we basically have the same chemistry as we had with Brad,” Wilson says. “Which is a relief. That is what Sublime was: chemistry.”

Sublime’s roots run deep, sprouting from a decades-long friendship between Wilson and Gaugh, childhood friends. They formed their first punk band, the Juice Bros., with future Sublime manager Michael Happoldt.

Wilson went on to start his own project called Sloppy 2nds, which Nowell joined. Not long after, Wilson introduced Gaugh to Nowell, a recent UC Santa Cruz business major dropout who graduated from Woodrow Wilson High in the Belmont Heights area. Wilson gave Gaugh a glowing review of Nowell, enticing him to take a listen.

Click below for the full story:

http://citybeatlb.com/?p=92 

Cars and Guitars

A couple weeks ago, my friend Donna (left) and I got a close up look at Eric Clapton's Woody. We had lunch with Jimmie Vaughan of the Fabulous Thunderbirds (and the same womb as Stevie Ray) and Michael Anthony of Van Halen, got our picture taken with one of the General Lees owned by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and lingered around ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons' Cadzilla and Mexican Blackbird cars.

We were at the NHRA Hot Rod Motorsports Museum in Pomona, previewing the "Axes and Axles" exhibit on display through next year. I had an interesting chat with Vaughan about classic cars and laissez-faire capitalism.  

“It has a lot to do with the free market—people being able to decide what they want to do with their stuff," Vaughan said. "People want to be individuals. Many people started customizing their cars and guitars, dolling things up, he said. “It’s the same as guitars. Anyone can get a guitar and write a song to express themselves in their own way. Being an individual. ... And with a car, you can paint it, make it go fast or slow, or whatever,” Vaughan said. 

 Vaughan sees Americans’ affinity for muscle cars spreading to Europe finally. It’s very American to modify cars, he said. But it’s an issue of being free to do so in some places. Vaughn likened his guitar on display to a comfy old Ford.

Anthony, now in the band Chickenfoot, lent his 1933 Ford Roadster. The steel chassis rails were massaged until they barely resembled Ford’s original rails then fitted with a 350 Chevy and a 700 R4 transmission. It’s a hard-top convertible with Bonspeed Wheels and a concave grill by Dan Fink Metalworks.

Anthony had the car built in 1994. He fought to keep many of the traditional elements, details like the windshield posts. “I always told myself my first car if I could afford it would be a black flamed Roadster,” Anthony said. Many years later, he sought out Boyd and met his partner, Brad Franshaw. “I figured I would go top notch.”

It was also important to Anthony to keep as much of the original body parts as possible for the hand-built car that took 18 months to complete. “I like to be really involved,” Anthony said. “I didn’t have the time to build something like this before."

Aside from the revved up rods, there was also a display that showed how a Telecaster is built. And, even though he wasn't there, Jeff Beck's ride was there in all its cherry red glory. He has a huge garage in England where he has many classic cars, most of which he refurbished himself. He's handy.

Jeff Beck's ride

All photos above are by ME.

Here's the story in this week's IE Weekly:

http://www.ieweekly.com/cms/story/detail/room_to_vroom/3515/

*****************************************************

Room to Vroom 

 IE Weekly

Six strings and six cylinders are embraced at the “Axes and Axles” exhibit

By: Arrissia Owen Turner

Eric Geisert pointed to his Telecaster. It’s on display at the “Axes and Axles: the Art of Building Cars and Guitars” exhibit at the Wally Parks National Hot Rod Association Motorsports Museum, and he was talking to guitar great Jimmie Vaughan at the VIP launch luncheon for the exhibit. 

“Do you remember signing it?” Geisert asks. 

“Oh yeah, in a parking lot in Salinas,” Vaughn says within seconds, giving the mid-’70s original cherry sunburst Telecaster stripped of paint its due. Along with Vaughan, the guitar boasts sigs from fellow guitar greats Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons and Chuck Berry. All but Berry have cars in the exhibit. 

There is something about cars and guitars that often go hand in hand. The Telecaster, Fender’s first solid-body electric guitar, celebrates 60 years, and it’s the inspiration for the guitar-centric exhibit. Telecaster was introduced as the world’s first commercial, mass-produced, solid body Spanish-style electric guitar body. 

The museum rolled in custom hot rods and more guitars, as well as Van Halen’s Michael Anthony’s chili pepper bass. Anthony’s 1933 Ford Roadster is on display, a black and flamed rod designed by Chip Foose and built by Boyd. Vaughan, Beck, Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, Brian Setzer, Eddie Van Halen and Kenny Wayne Shepherd contributed to the collection.

“Axes and Axles: the Art of Building Cars and Guitars” runs through June 2011, at the L.A. County Fairgrounds. The upside is that before and after the testosterone-fueled love-in courtesy of the NHRA, you can spend the rest of the day stuffing yourself with fried Twinkies and riding the Ferris wheel. What could be more American?

The exhibit highlights the synergy between guitars and cars, a la axes and axles, plus it breaks down how a Fender is built—highlighting the various ways they can be customized. Both use many of the same techniques and materials, and the first Telecasters used DuPont paints, the same used for many cars during the 1950s and ’60s.

At times, viewing the exhibit is like walking into Beck or Setzer’s garage with old-school hubcaps on the walls, rock posters, Fender banners, guitars and car parts scattered.

The exhibit was about four years in the making, with museum Executive Director Tony Thacker gassing it the last two months. “This was a push for us,” Thacker says. “We know cars, but pulling the guitar part off was tough.”

It’s particularly difficult since Clapton isn’t listed in the White Pages. To get to someone like Clapton, you have to go through many of his people. But once he got through, it wasn’t a hard sell.

“They got it right away,” Thacker says. Clapton’s burgundy Chevy ’47 woody wagon is on display, completed the day prior to the luncheon by Roy Brizio Street Rods.

There were some guitarists’ strings that were less hard to pull, reaffirming the crossover between guitars and cars. Thacker is friends with Billy Gibson and Michael Anthony through car collecting. Jimmy Vaughan found out about the exhibit through attending car shows.

Vaughan’s enthusiasm for classic cars goes back to his childhood, starting at age 12. The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ guitarist didn’t pick up his first guitar until three years later. The two make sense to him, too.

“It just goes with the cars,” Vaughan says. “It’s all so American. It’s all I’ve ever done.” Vaughan, whose ’61 Cadillac Coupe de Ville Ironic Twist is on display, and Gibbons, whose 1958 Ford Thunderbird Mexican Blackbird and the 1946 Cadillac Cadzilla are also featured, bonded by age 14 over cars and guitars.

Thacker grew up on the same street as Beck in England, he says. Giving up a ’32 Highboy Roadster probably wasn’t that hard since Beck owns at least a dozen Fords. And, you know, it’s for the kids.

“We need young people to work in the industry,” Thacker says. “The exhibit is to teach kids about guitars as an entry into the car world.”

The guitar part pretty much takes care of itself. Kids are drawn to making noise naturally. Thacker enjoys working the kids into a Fender frenzy. “Before the Telecaster, that was just a wooden box with a hole in it.”

“Axes & Axles: The Art of Building Cars and Guitars” at the NHRA Motorsports Museum, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, (909) 622-2133; www.museum.nhra.com. Thru June 2011. $1 with paid admission.