STICK TO YOUR ROOTS.
BUT KEEP MOVING.

There's something to be said about tradition.

The cars. The clubs. The photography. The music. The cruising. The handshakes. The respect. The people who were doing this long before social media decided everything needed a damn hashtag.

That history matters.

But here's the question:

I came across two messages recently that couldn't have sounded more different.

One said you might discover a talent you never knew you had. Try something new. Your first attempt might be rough. You might even question whether you're any good at it.

The other basically said:

Hold your ground. Stick up for tradition. Don't change just because everybody else tells you the new way is better.

At first that sounds like a contradiction.

It's not.

You Can Do Both.

You can respect the old school and still create something nobody has seen before.

That's exactly what we're doing with Bad Habits Good Times.

Photography isn't new.

Car clubs aren't new.

Lowriders sure as hell aren't new.

And a printed magazine?

That's about as old school as it gets.

But we're still here.

We're shooting digital. We're making videos. We're creating clothing. We're building websites. We're putting photographers from different places behind the lens and letting them show the culture from their perspective.

And after all of that?

WE PUT IT ON PAPER.

Scroll past something today and by tomorrow it's buried underneath another hundred posts.

But grab an old magazine off the shelf five years from now and there it is.

The car.

The club.

The photographer.

The people.

The day.

The memory.

That's why we print.

The Next Generation Gets A Say Too.

I've been listening to younger people talk about Chicano culture, and one thing keeps coming through loud and clear:

They're proud of where they come from.

They just don't always express it the same way previous generations did.

The clothes change. The music changes. The goals change. Some of them are thinking about college, careers and building businesses while still carrying pride in their culture.

Some people look at that and think something is being lost.

Maybe.

Or maybe we're watching the culture grow.

Every generation should add something.

Otherwise we're not preserving culture. We're freezing it.

Try Something You're Not Good At Yet.

Take the picture.

Pick up the camera.

Make the video.

Design the shirt.

Build the car your way.

Start the business.

Tell the story nobody else bothered to tell.

And if the first one sucks?

GOOD.

Now you've got somewhere to start.

Nobody becomes great by waiting until they're great enough to begin.

But Don't Change Just To Change.

New doesn't automatically mean better.

There are things worth protecting.

Know who came before you.

Give photographers their credit.

Give builders their credit.

Give the clubs their respect.

Listen to the stories from the people who were actually there.

Then take everything you learned and create your own chapter.

This Is Bad Habits Good Times.

Different photographers.

Different cars.

Different clubs.

Different cities.

Different generations.

One culture being documented through a lot of different lenses.

We're going to experiment.

We're going to make mistakes.

We're going to give new photographers a shot.

We're going to listen to the younger generation.

We're going to respect the people who built this before us.

And we're going to keep putting it in print.