What's been going on? - Juiceboxforyou

So where to begin this really? In a fast paced world where the attention span of an average human is almost shorter than that of a goldfish, my little rant with accompanying pictures will probably only be read by a handful of people. And to be honest that’s perfectly fine.

I’m Neil, the owner and about four years ago I started this website, I decided I wanted to document the Irish car scene and was inspired by Driver.ie, and a few American sites that existed at the time. With the influence of a few friends I decided to give it a shot, this was paired with my love to shoot cars, the ideas complimented each other.

Its interesting just how far the whole Juicebox thing has come over the last few yeas, Its led me to some amazing places and introduced me to some of the most interesting people I have ever come across who I have shared some brilliant memories with.

Never did I push the site on anyone, or push it in peoples faces, it grew organically over the years, allowing the cars and the stuff I documented do the talking. I routinely documented and tried to get my foot in the door of every car story or situation I could find, I guess the mission with the website was always the same: “Showcase Irelands Finest” It has almost grown like a child, it feels like a living creature, always growing.

It would have always stayed the same too, this time last year I was gearing up for probably one of the biggest changes in my entire life, and didn’t really have the mindset to face up to what was about to happen.

For the last four years I pretty much spent all of my spare time when I wasn’t in college, skateboarding, or tinkering with bikes or cars on Juicebox. It was all so normal that I completely took it all for granted in a way. Meeting people here and there, shooting their car, grabbing the details and trying to put a little story together. Hanging out in the shed with friends till all hours… A lot of us know that part of the story all too well.

I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to this stuff so most of the time I would delay a feature to get some details on a picture no one is going to see just the way I liked it. Or I would have a blank on what to writer about why I chose that car.

With the site, and the whole idea of Juicebox, it was always about finding an interesting car, a person who gets it, or someone is doing something interesting or cool or mental. We always tried to be as honest as possible, honest as in if something is crap its crap, but in a constructive way. Hopefully not just straight up bashing without some constructive criticism.

The main goal with Juicebox was to remain nameless, never really have a face to the whole idea, just to let the cars do the talking. You might have noticed there was never a name on the site, Never “Jimmy from Juicebox” or anything, it was all about trying to showcase to the world what was hiding in our little country, all about trying to present this to the world in a clean crisp format. Quality over Quantity.

Being surrounded by a lot of interesting people with amazing cars, and being plugged into the scene and trying to document what I could. Ireland five years ago was almost a completely different place for cars and the internet, you had the odd blog here, a Bebo there and a collection of closed off forums.

It was hard for someone outside the loop to really see what was happening, before we were all intertwined on Facebook, tagging this and that, with the hundreds of mediocre Facebook pages hunting likes to feel they have a sense of belonging in the car scene.

Things changed pretty rapidly in the last five years. The entire car scene and how the media is presented has increased in such a speed. These days, people don’t really even have the attention span to read a feature, the next generation barely have enough patience to sit through more than four photos at time, its all about high speed imagery… instagram, like 4 like plz, comment and share, a picture you saw today, forgotten tomorrow because something new has just popped up and “oh look at this” and fuck look a that…..

Its like the brain is being incredibly over stimulated the mind just gives up… With stance this, and JDM that, there are hundreds if not thousands of facebooks out there accompanies by tumblrs, instagrams, regurgitating similar imagery, of nearly almost all the thing, same this same that. Our brains can barley lock it all in. We are living in an ADD nation

The website generating real content is heavily under appreciated, pictures are regurgitated and on some generic page, the car photographer is pretty much not so much of an important part of a scene anymore, pictures are stolen, cropped, “like my page” “buy a sticker”… It’s a little over whelming to take in at times….

I’m starting to sound like a grumpy old man really before my time, I know ill be that old guy talking about how it was, Pissing off all the young kids of the future…. so Ill stop right here.

These days, it’s pretty amazing how well connected we , how much we can find and share, how much we can inspire and how much we can pretty much get anything we want on the internet whether it be a picture of a corolla on a set of wheels we wanted, or some old picture of something way back when, its all there at the click of a button.

Juicebox just for images itself now, its basically become an archive for the Irish car scene.I used to spend hours out in the car parks, searching for crazy cars, looking for all the madness that spewed off of those boats onto our little shores, fascinated by every little details. Many of them cars have died in the last few years and somewhere on this site is a quick snap of them.  I cant help but obsess over this stuff, its been such a horrible but awesome addiction since a young age.

No matter how many other things change in my life, people that come and go, cars have always been a constant, it was a first love, the first thing I got excited about, a stupid picture of an F40 hanging on my wall, doomed from the first time I could talk or walk. Every time I ever tried to step away from it I somehow fall right back into it.

So with Juicebox, I was afraid of what would happen, This little living breathing thing I was adding stuff too, growing watching it grow, a little nugget on the internet with a collection old photographs of stories, times, situations in peoples lives from Ireland, all bound by a love for the inanimate object with four wheels.

I was afraid of what to do with it next, just like many of you that probably didn’t make it this far down my story, my country was starting to get in on me, I love everything about our little green isle, it takes leaving to make you realize what you really miss.

One can only sit on the dole for so long before they start to ask too many questions, I tried to keep myself busy, but eventually enough is enough. I decided I wanted out for awhile, being from Waterford, a place that got hit pretty hard by Mr Recession, its almost tough to stomach all the stories watching cars being broken left right and centre, watching friends queue up in the dole office, with a bleak outlook on the future.

I decided to jump ship to Canada. AS many of you know, you leave behind your friends, family, loved ones, old habits, old comforts, and I know so many of you who have done the same thing, its not easy, but its 100% worth the adventure. Suddenly I’m in an alien land, no friends to hang out with, talk shit about cars or meet up with to shoot snaps.

I didn’t know how I would react to leaving the website behind, tearing the brain out of myself trying to figure out will I just shut it down? I never really had a plan for the site, it was always just ticking along on autopilot, I never wanted it to be much else, I felt that it had its place in the tidal wave of car blogs by remaining an Irish car blog, Being the Irish car blog made it unique, there was nothing around like it at the time.

Instead of luring in some bloggers from America, or England, or other places, then it would fade into the background and just be another almost generic website… So I remained stubborn, always hoping I could build the site with others into this little monster, with a team of photographers and creative minds, doing the right thing for the country, and showcasing it to the rest of the world.

Timing was never really on my side, just as I was about to ask someone, they would end up being plucked for something else or have their own idea, this happened time and time again so I would leave it off and keep plugging away at the site myself. The one-man band, pretending to be this bigger operation.

It went like this for awhile, right now there is a few more behind the scenes, and there is a plan in motion to possibly have something more. I’ve hit a cross roads with the whole Juicebox train, Do I keep it running? If so why? Do I get some more people on board and try stick to the original reason it was started in the first place?

The website has been good to me, its helped me become a better photographer, gave me such a greater understanding for cars and the people who drive them, it has helped me travel around the world, seeing events I would have never dreamed of, I’m extremely grateful for all these nice things that came out of doing this website. The nice compliments, the kind words for specific features.

The website has always come out of my pocket, paying for the upkeep of it, even buying Tshirts and stickers, it was never crazy profitable or made anything significant because, college or other life situations got in the way of really locking down what I wanted to do with it.

I’ve gotten a lot out of doing the website…. I started it with an honest intention, just wanted to have fun and show the world what was going on in Ireland, and I have felt it succeeded. I’m fortunate to be from a part of the country where a lot of good fun situations happen on the streets and I have some pretty good friends who know how to handle a car.

We have made some interesting little videos that have been seen world over and even just that alone make the whole operation worthwhile.

But yeah, its incredible just how far this thing has come, and from an honest stand point, I’m completely glad it didn’t become another 100,000 liked Facebook page where people argue over a sticker on a car, that’s what many people are out for these days.  Juicebox has always had a steady following with a very organic growth; many “pages” will hunt for likes, come and go and fuel the other train.

The reason we have a Facebook page over the last few years, was to try to find some unique cars, to inspire you on the endless Facebook scroll, share other cool cars in Ireland that we haven’t had the chance to see yet, or just keep the page current. I’ve been very fortunate to have some nice friends who share the same vision of Juicebox and they kept the page active when I took a step back.

Moving away to Canada and shovelling, loading and sandblasting in artic conditions, that’s the kind of thing that will break your routine, a routine of hunting people down, editing photographs and talking about cars.

Living in Canada most certainly changed that situation. The last real time I had a chance to do something proper for the site was when we did the meet before I left. The meet that made me sad I was leaving, it felt like I was breaking up with this little child I had created. The last few weeks before I left I was hunting people down left right an center for features so I would have this back log of stuff to leak onto the site and pretend everything was ok…..

It has taken almost a year to figure out what I want to do with the site. I ended up bumping into Alan Sinnott when I landed in Canada, and before I knew it we were out at track days, checking out cars talking cars and enjoying stuff.

I shot as much as I could but I felt it was irrelevant to the website. It would almost have been pointless until now to put up pictures from what I was seeing over here, especially when nothing was going on with the site back home.

Taking things for granted, we cant help it, but its crazy just how much good shit we have in Ireland, even if our government tried to make sure we cant enjoy it. The amount of nice AE86, Civics, Silvias, Skylines, all these things that once you get taken away from, you realize places like Canada don’t have such an abundance of, Ireland is a very unique little country for this.

The car scene did exist there, and they had some pretty fucking amazing toys, but we really have had  such a good thing back home, and even in a recession the love for the car is still incredibly strong and its such an inspiration to see people building, buying and still bringing stuff into the country.

Being pulled out of your routine I guess, it made me sad that I couldn’t hunt down the newest car back home, and I guess my living situation I was in, I could have made better for myself, but I was hungry for an adventure, and wanted to take a break from talking about cars, and photographing cars. I had done this for free, as a love, a passion for years, and never asked anything from it.

I just kept on doing it because I loved it so much, and still do, as much as I wanted to turn off that interest in my life I couldn’t, Making my way to meets whatever event I could find over here, either down at Formula D or around Canada.

Ive been fortunate enough to have some good friends that have invited me down to events over here, and see a whole other world from their perspective.

For the rest of you displaced Chaps too, you know the same deal, there is no way to turn it off if you are really into it. You end up buying something in Aussie land, and messing around with it, and before you know It you are at the same thing again. Creating a little home away from home, doing what makes you happy.

Crazy how time flies, I always knew I wanted to leave Ireland for awhile, but I never thought I would have something like this to take care of, for the select few who still appreciate an article or two, and a rant with accompanying pictures.

The plan is clear as the new year starts, we are going to bring on board a few new people, keep the site relevant, hopefully try to capture what we can and show case it to the world, and keep the original mission statement going.

If that fails I’m going to keep the site up regardless as a memory bank for everyone back home and displaced around the world to look at this small slice of the automotive culture that was documented for a few years, and maybe return to it when I return to Ireland in the future.

I have some like minded friends that want to be apart of keeping Juicebox alive, and thats a pretty good place to start.

Im excited to see what happens. The site has been good to me, and I just want to thank everyone who has made it this far down the rant, and followed the website over the years, its been a good time.

Congrats if you read the whole thing.

Lets see what 2015 brings for Juicebox, Quality over Quantity, take care and thanks for reading.

– Neil