Happy 2009 everyone! I trust everyone has made it through the holidays and if you’re like me, you’re glad to get back to regular life. I have some cool things up my sleeve for the near future and a big road trip planned for this summer. While this may be the year of the Ox according to the Chinese calendar, I’m declaring it Year of the Kitten instead!

So, while I recover from the shock of getting back to the daily grind, I’ll leave you with the top 10 viewed posts of 2008!

1. Steampunk Motorcycles-even though I wrote this post a year ago, it is the most popular post of my site. The Steampunk movement has gained much popularity since then.
2. BikerorNot.com: bikers and social networking pt. deux-social networking sites are booming. It seems that every subculture has formed their own social community these days. Since this post was published I have received numerous emails informing me of yet another new biker social community and asking me to join or write about their site. I can only keep track of so many accounts these days and it makes me wonder if more is better.
3. Bikers and tattoos-Two of my favorite subjects! A brief history of tattoos in America and how they touch my world.
4. Bring Exile Cycles back to TV-the popularity of this post surprises me a little. Prior to this post I had read a myspace bulletin from Russell putting out the call to fans for some help. This year we’ve seen Russell on VH1’s Rock of Love and of course, that silly Comcast commercial that featured Exile Cycles, with an actor playing the part (instead of “hardcore” heavily-tattooed Russell) that confused so many people. Here’s hoping we see a lot more of him in the future.
5. Anatomy of the Kawasaki Vulcan-in the summer of 2007, Greg White contacted me and hooked me up with Kawasaki to test ride the Vulcan 900 Custom. I spent a few gleeful weeks riding this bike and this is my dissection of various elements of the bike in detail. Thinking back on the experience makes me remember how much I enjoyed riding this bike. And yes, the skinny front wheel felt safe!
6. Biker Movie Hell Ride in theaters August 8-this movie was all the buzz for us this summer and it came and went in the blink of an eye. It had a very limited release in theaters and when it finally came out on DVD it would be an understatement to say it is a love/hate kind of movie.
7. Slayer launches a line of helmets-*RAWK!* Rockhard helmets launched a line of motorcycle helmets emblazened with graphics of our favorite thrash metal band. They’ve since increased their lineup of bands that include: Lynard Skynard, KISS, Slip Knot, Motorhead (yes!), AC/DC and The King. These suckers ain’t cheap but if you’re a fan I’m sure they’re well worth the cash!
8. Garage Girls: a new site for women, or is it?-this was my initial review of Sara Liberte’s new online venture. I was as honest as I could be while reading through the site (maybe too honest?). So much so  that I actually received an email and blog comment from Sara letting me and everyone else know that the site was brand-spankin’ new and to cut her some slack. I revisited the site three months later and was pleasantly surprised at the changes that had been made and the fresh content that had been added. Props to Sara.
9. Video Tuesday: Harley-Davidson Dark Custom-this video accompanied the announcement of HD’s newest and coolest motorcycle. I also went on a bit of a tirade about how out of touch Bruce Rossmeyer is with a younger demographic.
10. My first motorcycle love-I’m so happy to see this post made it to the top ten! This is a guest post, written by my nearest and dearest, recounting the love of his first motorcycle, the experiences he had while owning it, and then eventually trading it in for a newer Road King. Definitely a good read. Hmm, that reminds me…I think I’ll bug him to guest post more often!

Hey everyone,
This certainly has been a crazy, exciting, stressful, fun, roller-coaster ride of a year! I just want to thank everyone for the continued support of Rippin-Kitten.com. Without all of you this site would never have come this far. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

He’s BAAAAACK!

There’s a new landing page up for Spike TV’s Jesse James is a Dead Man. Apparently, they need our help!

“Jesse wants your ideas for crazy, stupid, and ridiculously dangerous stuff for him to do. He’ll pick the wildest challenge, bring you out to LA to explain what it is on the show and then he’ll do the challenge on the show!”

Send in a video challenging Jesse to perform whatever crazy stunt you come up with! (In order to submit your idea, you will need to register for an account on spiketv.com, which is just a bullshit way for them to capture data, in my humble opinion…)

Jesse’s calling you out!

We’re hunkering down here, waiting for a whammy of a snowstorm due to come in this afternoon in the Boston area. I went to work this morning but the office was a bit sluggish (our holiday party was last night) and knowing that a storm ready to dump 8-12″ of snow on us a lot of people stayed home.

So, I thought I would take my gift of “free time” to kind of slow down and catch up with my bloggy life.  I do have a few little bits and nuggets of news to share.

This is hardly new news but the winners of the Harley-Davidson Bikes, Camera, Action! video contest were announced earlier this week. I have to give these ladies credit for taking the time to make these great videos. I think a video contest is a lot to ask of the general public and these ladies rose to the occasion. Congrats to them!

Here are the top three:
Her Need for Speed
Girls Night Out
Here Come the Bride

In additional Harley-Davidson news, it’s been announced that registration for the 2009 Women’s Experience ride in Daytona is now open. The second annual MDA ride will take place on March 3rd and only the first 500 women to register will be eligible to take part in the event. Last year they raised $60K from the event. Here’s hoping they beat that amount this year since it’s for such a good cause.

Here’s a bit of Sons of Anarchy news from writer, producer Kurt Sutter’s blog SutterInk:
“Based on final ratings, FX’s critically acclaimed freshman drama series Sons of Anarchy has proven itself to be a worthy successor to the network’s award-winning drama series The Shield, which completed its historic seven season run last month.

With the Live +7 ratings factored in from Nielsen Media Research on a multi-telecast basis, Sons of Anarchy delivered a weekly average audience of 5.83 million total viewers (jumping 16% vs. the Live numbers) and 3.9 million Adults 18-49 (up 18% vs. the Live numbers), the highest ratings of any new series on FX since the network’s hit series Rescue Me, which debuted in 2004. On a first-run basis the series averaged 2.6 million total viewers and 1.75 million Adults 18-49.

For calendar-year 2008 on a first-run basis, Sons significantly surpassed new and returning basic cable shows on delivery of Adults 18-49 including Saving Grace (1.59 million), Battlestar Galactica (1.58 million), Eureka (1.42 million), Raising the Bar (1.37 million), The Cleaner (1.11 million), Mad Men (879,000) and Breaking Bad (821,000).

Sons of Anarchy showed incredible consistency on a week-to-week basis and actually saw audience growth over the final two episodes, hitting its peak with the season finale (episode 13), which delivered 3 million total viewers on its first run. The second-to-last episode (episode 12) delivered the most Adults 18-49 (2.04 million) in the series entire run. The series premiered on 9/3/08 to 2.87 million total viewers and 1.73 million Adults 18-49.

FX has picked up a second season of Sons of Anarchy, slated to begin in Spring 09.” Not too shabby! There’s also another interesting post going back a few weeks about the new defunct HBO project 1% that got HBO in all that legal hot water with the notorious Sonny Barger.

Recently I’ve joined the collective of microbloggers and have been tweeting away! If you’re on Twitter, aspire to get on Twitter to see what it’s all about, you can find me @rippinkitten. A bunch of my fellow blogger tweeps are there as well as some new friends. Come say hi!

I know that we all read a ton of motorcycle blogs of different form and fashion but I’d like to take a minute to plug a new blog written by my friend: ArtBiker World: Art, Bikes, Bikers, Culture. I’ve known ArtBiker, aka Matt Linton, for over 10 years when he used to live here in Boston. He now resides in Houston, TX with his family and is one dude who lives and breathes motorcycles and the biker culture. Oh yeah, and he’s one hell of a photographer, too. His blog went live only a few short months ago and it is a great read. Go show him some love!

Now I’m going to make some hot chocolate and watch those flakes start to fall.

I’ve been meaning to write this review for almost 2 weeks now.

Quite honestly, I was left perplexed after I watched the movie. I really didn’t know what to make of it. Is it bad? For the most part: yes. Is it a “good” kind of bad? Sometimes.

Let’s face it, most of the acting is not really good, the dialog is utterly ridiculous and the notion that chicks are falling over themselves to bang Larry Bishop’s Pistolero is laughable. He clearly needed an ego boost when he cast himself as the lead character. I almost wonder if this movie would have been better had someone else written and directed it. It had ALL the potential in the world to be a great campy flick, but it definitely falls short.

From the opening menu of the dvd you can already tell that this movie is comic book-ie,cartoon-ized and over the top. But isn’t that part of the fun? I don’t think anyone went into this movie thinking it was a straight-up representation of biker gangs. It’s meant to be cheeky (both figuratively and literally!).

In the first seven minutes we see someone who has been shot in the gut with an arrow, two people get their throats cut and are burned while tied to chairs, a bunch of dudes shot in retaliation and a trailer explode. There’s a lotta boobs, gun play and violence. And Vinny Jones’ Billy Wings is a bad, bad dude.

I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it, but I could see where other people would fall to either side of the fence. It really seems to be one of those movies that you have to watch to formulate your own opinion. All in all, it certainly was one hell of a ride!

A week before Christmas and still need a quick, yet cool gift? How about a unique, Rippin Kitten t-shirt? These shirts are great for both boys and girls and I still have a small stack of them left! You can still get one in time!

All orders will be shipped USPS Priority mail ($4.80 for shipping) and arrive in 3-5 business days (usually only 3!) from the day it was shipped (US residents only).

Not only do these shirts look great, but they’re fun to party in, too!

RIP Bettie Mae Page
April 22, 1923-December 11, 2008

Bettie Page died today as a result of a heart attack she sustained over the weekend. She had been hospitalized for pneumonia weeks before and spent the majority of this week in a coma. I had heard the news this past weekend, wanting to write about her then, hoping that the inevitable might not happen. I held my own silent Bettie-vigil, waiting for any kind of news. And today it was news that I didn’t want to hear.

I don’t even know how or where to begin to write about Bettie Page. She was a secretary-turned-model that ended up being an unlikely icon for generations based on bondage photos and Teaserama dances. She inspired many girls to covet and acquire those trademark, fringe bangs. She had an enigmatic sweetness in her smile, despite all the naughty things she might have been doing in those fetish photos of hers! And she had a body to die for. Not like these sticks with tits that grace our magazines these days, but a real woman’s body with curves that Did. Not. Quit.

There’s no shortage of information, books, videos, photos, websites, movies and songs dedicated to Bettie. She is the subject of many an artist, most notably Dave Stevens (who also passed away this year at the young age of 52) who rendered the famous illustration of her in his comic The Rocketeer, and Olivia De Berardinis, who probably owes all her fame to recreating Bettie’s visage.

"The Rocketeer"

devilish Bettie by Olivia

recent years: Olivia, Hugh Hefner and Bettie

Bettie’s likeness also inspired many people to get lasting tattoos of her iconic beauty and she also graces plenty of motorcycle tanks!

Painted tank by http://www.grumeretz.com

My post is only one of hundreds that you will find online. I didn’t want to rehash the details of her life, you can go to plenty of articles and pages to learn those facts. I really just wanted to pay my respects and write a small tribute to this icon of a woman who influenced me and so many others.

Bettie, you will be missed.

Today I got an email from the editor of online magazine, Clutch and Chrome that Rippin-Kitten.com has chosen as the latest “Cool Biker Blog“!

I’ve secretly been hoping that I might some day appear in this coveted section of their site and now I’m giddy with delight…hey! That rhymed!

So, thanks to them for really making my day.

A little over a year ago I did a post about a tentative tv show called “Metal Church” featuring Jesse James that was slated to air on Spike TV.

“Payupsucker Productions, James’ own production company that he recently established, will produce two specials and two primetime pilots in each year of the two-year deal with Spike TV.

Metal Church, the first pilot being developed under the agreement, is a do-it-yourself series that will follow James as he shows viewers the ins and outs of customizing vehicles.  In addition, the first Spike TV special starring James is slated to air during the second quarter in 2008.”

Since I posted over the summer that Spike TV has ordered 10 episodes of the stunt-themed Jesse James is a Dead Man (due to air February 2009) I’m guessing that Metal Church is not going to air on television at all.

But if you’re a member of Jesse’s members only Chopperdogs site (for a low monthly membership cost of  $45.00 for the first month and renews for $19.95 each additional month. Oh, but you also get a T-shirt, welcome letter, an autographed photo, and four stickers) the premiere episode “How to make a Frisco style gas tank out of steel” is now available for viewing.

I finally watched the season one finale of Sons of Anarchy that I had saved on my dvr. I wanted to reserve my review the FX motorcycle themed drama until the season was over. Which would be now.

Admittedly, it took me a while to get into watching this show. In the very beginning, I dismissed it as a “Shield” or “Sopranos” on motorcycles. I also couldn’t get past how the “club” was portrayed, the fake tattoos, the lame dialogue and the shiny, new HDs they were were riding.

From the start I did appreciate Katy Sagal’s portrayal of Gemma. As they say, behind every great man is a great woman and Gemma is indeed the great woman behind Ron Perlman’s club leader, Clay. l was unsure about Jax’s character in the beginning. I didn’t get what he was all about, other than a womanizing loser who seemed like a sheep, just following what everyone tells him to do. I always liked Opie’s character and I think I like him even more now that I learned he was intended to be killed off (Ryan Hurst, the actor who plays Opie just signed on as a series regular).

I watched when my husband turned it on, but I didn’t always stop what I was doing to watch intently. Until we got past the middle of the season. Then I noticed the show began to hold my interest more. I realized how good the writing was becoming and, independent of reading any news articles, how much the show was drawing from Shakespeare. Then it all started to click in my head. Jax was a character who was wondering: “To be, or not to be…”

From the SoA page on Wikipedia:

The family drama is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet indeed, star Ron Perlman has said, “I’m sure they’re going to stick to the structure of Hamlet all the way to the end” of the series. Clay is based on the role of King Claudius and Gemma as a Gertrude figure.

Jax stands in for Prince Hamlet himself; his reflective questioning of the SOA culture, brought on by the birth of his son, references Hamlet’s melancholy over the death of the king. Additionally, Jax “communicates” with his dead father by way of his late father’s unpublished journal/manuscript; Hamlet, of course, literally communicates with the ghost of his father.The drama and characterizations are also enhanced by drawing on Macbeth, another Shakespeare tragedy.

Ron Perlman’s portrayal of the Claudius-like character, Clay, is so guilt-ridden that he resembles Macbeth more than Claudius at times. Even more, Katey Sagal’s Gertrude-like Gemma resembles Lady Macbeth because, while it is never entirely clear from Hamlet how complicit Queen Gertrude is in the murder of Hamlet’s father, it is obvious that Gemma has willingly participated in the cover-up of the murder and may even have encouraged Clay in his treachery.

The last two shows were the most intense of them all.

Sons of Anarchy Spoiler Alert!

The turning point and ultimate summation of the season came in the last 10 minutes of the 90 minute season finale. The hint of a weakening leader when Clay is not able to button the sleeve of his shirt. The homeless woman (who we first met outside of the grocery store enlightening Gemma while asking for a few dollars in order to help her boys) shows up again, this time showing Jax the path to redemption. You can’t get more biblical than seeing Jax literally wash away the sins on his hands with the cold water in the graveyard. And he then silently spoke louder than anyone by walking (not riding his motorcycle) to Donna’s burial by himself (wearing white, of course) standing opposite of everyone else decked out in black. The tell-all gazes he shot at Clay, Gemma, Piney and Opie that told them all what he wanted them to know before walking away.

With such smart writing I’d like to think that the show is finally hitting its stride. Beautiful symbolism combined with great writing allows the story to build up and a possible future to be paved.

As a person who wasn’t eager to add another program to my already packed list of television-watching, by the end of the season I can say that Sons of Anarchy is now on my list of must watch shows for next season.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that two of my other favorite shows this season we canceled.