glitterati

dear mr. car show guy (was your name victor?),

i take pictures for my own fun and post some here on this little blog. really, what fun is it, if no one sees what you shot? spread the joy or something.

no, i don't post nekked pictures, even pictures of the wannabe models (they get in the way of the car), or blather on in raptures on the wonders of alcoholic beverages or drugs, because i don't drink or do drugs and wouldn't have any idea about that—except by observation. and it doesn't look like those people are really having that much fun while they are doing it, and especially the next morning.

so, have no fears of being associated or mentioned on this here bloggy thing. or any injury to the reputation of your school. good on ya.

sincerely,
kathy@tweakedpixels.com

_____ 

these two, i think, are in the dukes car club. mr and mrs? i don't know. both have been glitter bombed on the roof. i shot the turquoise one before.

here is an orange one to complement it, at the show at la habra high school. both are wonderful to look at, and a pain to photograph. i need a ladder...

bitch

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what is it about guys and high maintenance women? you all know the ones i'm talking about—the ones that dress up for a day at disneyland and wear high heels, then spend all day bitching about how their feet hurt. the ones that the guys want to have, then spend the rest of their lives regretting. she's fine as long as she doesn't say anything, but then she does, and has nothing to say. and the claws come out if she thinks you're looking at other chicks.

i wonder if this car is like that. reine has been favoring his lincoln for the last bunch of months. has she been suffering from imaginary aches and pains all year? she's been a kept woman. hidden away in some garage in never-never land, getting nips and tucks, and apparently tipped. on the hubcaps. i noticed.

thanks for bringing her out to play for the day, reine. i did miss her, even if she is a bitch to photograph. j/k.

winning

went to the uptown show today. three times. at 6am-ish, 10am-ish, and 2pm-ish. as i said, it's up the street. got so damn hot as the morning went on, just had to stop and go home to sit in front of the fan for a while. not so bad in the shade, but i still felt icky after a while each time. too hot.

anyway, the so cal tribe guys seem to always be the first ones there, and get their choice of spots. so the group parked it over by that smelly cigar bar. but it did stay pretty shady most of the day for them. reine even brought his bitchin' cadillac, which i have not seen in months—thanks dude. i'll post one soon.

their website says this buick belongs to one of their newest members. my mom had a riviera when i was a kid, and i learned to drive in it. not this model year, but close enough, and definitely not this cool.

end of the day, after the awards had been given out, i walked back past the cars and they were gathering for a group picture under their banner. the owner was there holding a trophy, so i assume he won something for this baby. congrats, guys.

cha dude

someone explain to me why its some kind of sacrilege for a vw to show up at a car show. they segregate themselves to their own gatherings. i've seen one little posse over at a mcdonalds in downey, shunning the broiler, but that's been a while.

my ex pimped out an old bug once. it was pretty cool—new upholstery, but no seat belts, with lightning bolts two-toned on the inside doors; new paint, which he let me pick the color, kind of a faint wintergreen, which i've seen on some of the newer models. he had a big ass chromed engine installed in the back, that was way too loud, and some big, fat chromed wheels.

he even let me drive it. until the cops pulled me over, not because he'd lowered it too much, but because the windows were tinted too dark. seriously. had to remove it, which he wasn't too pleased about.

he later sold it to some kid, who probably took it to some shows and claimed he'd tricked it out himself.

that was the car project after he'd gone all awesome with a chevy van. he'd just finished it off with some real sweet chrome wheels, then decided to take me to a springstein concert at the coliseum back in the day. never park a shiny awesome car on hill street in LA and expect to find it when you get back. cops found it later, stripped down to the skeleton. he hadn't insured it. duh. he told me he cried when he went to see it.

anyway, most of the vws that do timidly show up at shows are pretty poor examples of the species and should stay hidden away under the rock they crawled out from under.

i made an exception for this one. i'm sure it was the paint combo that caught my eye. my old boss, who was my sister's mother-in-law, used to drive one of these, but she lived out in huntington beach, so i guess that would be a given. hers was all faded, but this one seems to have aged pretty well.

my better half can do a pretty good imitation of a vw bug in a swimming pool, laying on his back on a boogie board. lol.

reflected

i liked the car; hated the rims. loved the reflection in the window.

not much going on at the broiler again. too few cars to keep my attention for long. did see several guys i've gotten to know a little over the past few years. nice to see them again.

my better half came along with the nephew. not sure if he's wanting to spend the time with me or really wanted to take some pictures. they were going to go bowling afterwards, but apparently the lanes were all full, call back in a couple of hours, thanks for nothing. guess after i get this post up, he gets to spend more time with me like he wanted to anyway. >:)

payback isn't always a bitch

one of the first cars i decided to shoot at this show, and oh how i wished the photo album was off the hood. the owner did finally come over and offer to move it, but i was already done with his car, starting to overheat and running short of time. chatted a bit, showed him my book.

he said he'd helped the original owner paint this car, i think back in the '70s. turns out he'd inherited it from him a couple of years ago. if i remember what he told me, i think he's still tweaking the engine, but it looked nice, glittering in the sun. glitter and pinstripes. not a bad way to say thanks for your help.

apache turquoise

always looking for an excuse not to have to deal with cleaning the house or running laundry, i found this car show out in riverside, a fundraiser for the arizona middle school. i figured i could at the very least see some new cars.

i was not disappointed. the back field was lined with several inland empire car clubs' collections. i arrived, and just started from the right end of the fence and followed it around the perimeter. didn't shoot every single car, but mainly because half of them had the hoods and trunks open. such fine cars. mostly chevys of various years. but there were also a few newer cars, and some truck club, that i didn't really care about and therefore, totally ignored.

they also had various food and product stands, all selling their wares to collect money for various school clubs. i meant to buy some girl scout cookies from girls pulling a wagon, but didn't want to carry them around while i shot; i forgot to go find them when i was done. oh well. they weren't for me anyway – was going to get thin mints for my mother-in-law – a guilty pleasure for a diabetic.

this wagon was very nice, as proven by the trophies won, sitting in front of it. i don't think i've ever seen one, so i couldn't help from taking a picture of it, even with the back window hatch up. as it's supposed to rain in the next day or two, the sky above made for wonderful down low shots and reflections on all the cars.

i think the owner of this one was victor, one of the few people that bothered to talk to me. handed me a flyer for a show in march. thanks, victor. i hope i can make it there. hope your car won a trophy at this show...the one that was taller than me would probably fit in the back of your wagon.

dodge'm

spent the weekend hanging out in riverside. my son's last season playing baseball (unless he gets drafted) is gearing up. watched his team play some practice games.

of course, i had to check for any car shows in the area. unfortunately, the grand national show was out in pomona, so i think a lot of shows were sucked dry by that one.

found this one a decent size show in norco at the big boy. don't recall having one of these in my digital garage, so i shot several of it. the owner even offered to close the back window for me, then fussed over how he'd gotten fingerprints on it, so he had to polish those off. thanks for that. they probably would have shown up from this angle.

the telephone pole and wires sort of bother me, but not enough to remove them from the shot...i'm tired, and they were really there after all. it is what it is.

anyway, big lot, and about 100 cars there. probably go again, should i happen to be in the area. gotta get some sleep...back to the grind tomorrow.

ain't nuthin' like the real thing

hi. my name's kathy. i'm a coke addict...no, not that kind. i drink too much coca-cola®. might as well hook me up to an iv full of it. really, what's the difference that i like my caffeine cold, rather than that foul smelling coffee stuff? nothing as good as perfectly mixed combination of carbination and sugary syrup on ice. new year, and yet again telling myself i'm going to cut back on the stuff. batting –.007 on that resolution. i'm sure i'll stop soon. ya right.

this red and white lovely was at fudd's a couple of weeks ago now. apparently we're simpatico...the license plate frame is for coca-cola. and the weather is just starting to get interesting, as far as the cloud formations go, so these down low shots will become more and more my favs. and the tail fins are always a fav...so...deal with it.

angel baybee

so, did your mother ever insist that you write thank you notes when you receive something? ya, mine did.

and i almost always respond to an email quickly. someone took the time from their busy day to care enough to type out a few words, and should be answered back just the same.

well, i got an email not long ago. it was a very nice email, kind words on my photos and blog. i do remember reading it, but i was also sick at the time, and had put off answering at that moment. then life got busy again, and answering it went itching to the back of my mind – i still intended to write back.

so i found myself at the broiler, running into the owner of this car, whom i'd met a month earlier over at the deli show in paramount. here he was, asking if i'd gotten his email, the self-same email i'd neglected to answer in kind. fumbled with the excuse that perhaps it had gone to the junk mail.

no, i found it—a month back—but, yes, i do remember reading it.

i know i hadn't taken a shot of his car at the previous show. i know it was already late by the time i'd arrived and they were already giving out awards. i think, perhaps, that his car was up too close to the crowd for me to get a shot. i only took a few shots of cars on the fringes. then several people chose to chat about photography, and i lost the sunset and stopped taking pictures.

anyway, he was so very nice again at this show. happened to be parked in a convenient spot, with an empty space beside it, so i took this shot for him.

hope you like it, and i'm sorry i didn't answer your email promptly. shhhh. don't tell my mom.