pretty fair

i spent the weekend in riverside at the show and go. not as much time at the show as i'd have liked, because my foot isn't totally healed and i could only take so much time walking around. my better half would have helped if he'd been able to be there, but no, he's still working on that deadline. missed a really great room i had over at the inn, but it worked out perfect because i could go crash when it got too hot and when i couldn't walk any farther.

i talked to several people over the three days i was there, and should they happen to be looking for their car, be patient. i have a day job, go to shows when i can, and i squeeze in the pictures here as i can get to them in the evenings if i'm not too tired. please check back—i try to put cars up of the people i talk to before others.

i took over 1,600 pictures over three days, and i've spent the evening sorting them and backing them up. so quick post now. this one belongs to jimmie. really, really clean fairlane. he was, of course, curious what i was doing behind his car and came over to chat a bit. i took a few angles of the car, but this one was my favorite. so jimmie, as i was saying, click here if you are interested in buying a print.

gotta catch some sleep now. up early for work and wondering if it's going to rain, or if the weathermen are just being incompetent as usual. but i hope they're right. my birthday is coming, and really, i just want it to rain. i'd rather it be raining and i was hearing it on the roof of a cottage in solvang, but i guess if it was just raining, that would be good enough.

chairman of the bored

my better half may have found jesus; i found frank. like forrest said, you never know what you're going to get, especially when you go around to the back of a car. i'd never seen one of these cars, and was happily shooting it from the front. then this happy surprise when i went to the other end.

while frank never impressed me much, the airbrushing here wasn't bad, but it wasn't especially great either. for one, why is the color almost pretty good all over, then his mouth is full of gray teeth and gums? did he wear dentures, or did they forget to add a little pink to liven it up a little? no, wait, he was a smoker; that explains it. i know he was old, but ick. kinda creepy.

no, i don't want to dance with you. maybe my dad helped him out with the punctuation—he too, also likes to use exclamation points on everything he types. i know he'll read this eventually! sorry, but it's true! i love you dad!

anyway, this is it for a week. i'm all packed up, and the weather channel says it's going to be raining all week, as one would expect in seattle. bringing my cameras anyway, in case a patch of sun opens up for a few minutes here and there.

i'm sure my better half will keep himself busy and not notice the time passing until i get back, right d? he can hang out with his other old lady...who also is known to read this blog...thanks for putting up with me.

---side note---hey ernie from the latin gents, did you get my email last month? probably in your junk mail...that's where they always go.

why hide it?

when i go to that rare, larger show, i try to remember to investigate the side streets. if there's time. if it's not too hot.

sure a lot of the best cars, and those who think they have the best cars, are out on the main drag [hey gary from riverside], but its more crowded there as well. people wanting to stand thisclose to your car for a picture of themselves and their fantasy cars, or just because they need something to post on whatever social media site. or little kids, that are barely restrained from putting their sticky fingers on the paint, or trying to sit in the seat.

and there's the pissing contest of whose hood and/or engine is bigger/louder/shinier/more original than the next guy's, and oh, how many can get'em up. a lot of the old guys need a little help. i mean they use a bar or stick to hold the hood open.

so i'll wander over to where there are not so many people, or where there seems to be some shade. i am usually amazed at the jewels people hide off in the corners, and off the center of attention of the main street.

for all i know, they've been out all day, and they, too are trying to just take a break and cool off. otherwise, i just don't understand the why of being a wallflower? or maybe i do understand, only way too well...

low down

i have a hard time passing by the back end of impalas, with their sweeping fins. so i found this version in the form of a wagon unusual, but still enough to make me stop.

turns out to also be a viejitos member, only this one for the inland empire. nice and low. which is exactly how i was to get this shot, which if i remember right, had the owner wondering what the heck i was doing behind his car. for all i know, that's his kid sitting there, wondering the same thing.

duke of earl

i did a lot of shooting this weekend. had lunch with my better half, who had to work all weekend, then decided i'd finally go check out this show in riverside. yep, riverside. no reason to go out there anymore, since my kid graduated, but there are a few shows that i did enjoy, that i will definitely make the drive for again.

as i said, i'd never had time to hit this one, which is in the evening, once a quarter the guy said. out at riverside airport, adjacent to a hanger. they actually advertise it as a sock hop, and folks showed up in 50s costumes, and the dj only played songs from the 40s and 50s. there were several marine and army planes around, and for a hundred bucks and three hundred bucks, you could get a forty minute or more ride in a couple of the planes. damn things would fly by real low and twist in turn right near the crowd. thanks buddy. don't make a mistake.

anyway, there were about three dozen cars, at least before i left. a lot of chevys got passed by because the hoods were up. there was only one car i'd seen before, so that was nice. i may not remember the owner, but i do remember the cars. actually, i did remember this one owner only because he made some joke at a show a year before. maybe i'll post his car sometime.

hey gary from riverside (not the other one i do not like out here) why weren't you there with your chevy? i bet you would have closed your hood like last time.

nuff boring story. i gots to get some sleep. long day today.

i liked this merc that drove in. pretty simple. drove in, parked, and dropped down. and didn't open his hood. also, got the plane there in the shot, just before it took off on a another charity ride. now, if it only had a hood ornament, it would be perfect.

powerful mach I?

still being kept from lifting anything more than what seems like a toothbrush. yes, my better half is very diligent about sticking with doctor's orders. i feel fine, and he says he wants to keep me that way.

so, in spite of ruby's show going on this evening, the most he would offer is to let me follow him around and watch him take pictures. i countered with, he could be my camera boy, and carry the tripod around, and set it up for me, and just let me focus and push the button. pfft. stalemate.

i've decided recovering from surgery is like going to a very loud concert, where your ears ring for days afterward. go to too many and you damage your hearing. then one day you wake up, you're all fine. so, i guess my ears are still ringing. but it was just one concert, i mean surgery, so i'll be ok, right?

but it's ok for me to work late. just slaving away in front of hot computer is ok. then i needed to eat dinner, so i went to disneyland. day before labor day weekend, and an hour and half before closing, not really that many people there. ate clam chowder overlooking the water in DCA, and left just as the color sprinkler show was starting.

then drove out of the parking structure just as fireworks were starting. why is it people in cars always act like they've never seen them, and randomly stop on the road to look up. hey, i'm driving here...move it.

hey ace, this one's for you. didn't quite catch the pearlized paint job, but i guess it's ok as is.

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.

bottle rockets

as long as we're talking '59s and back ends, why not one of these. love'em. those red tail lights remind me of the water rockets my little bro and i would shoot off when we were kids. but on a cadillac, they're just double double awesome. and fins...

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anyone know if the viejitos are doing their monthly show off brookhurst anymore? thinking of stopping by. i could actually hit up 4 shows tomorrow, if i was feeling ambitious, but it's more likely just going to be two. and i'm running out of space on my hard drive. time to burn off past years' images to make some room.

magic bus

nothing frames a picture like a city bus, right? right? so awesome. not. lol. really it was just parked in the middle of the street behind this puppy, and i got tired of waiting for it to move, so you takes what you gets.

before this shot, there was some "professional" photographer with "people" shooting pictures of it, with models in '30s and '40s garb draped upon the vehicle. at least two side lights for the model, even on this sunny day, almost straight up noon. maybe because the models already looked a bit harsh, the side lights would soften them up?

whatever. i waited and squeezed in a few shots between their takes, and then they moved on to a car off to the left of this one, so i took a few more. i dunno if i owned a car like this, if i'd let models sit their asses on the bumpers and such. i do assume there was some sort of arrangement with the photographer and the owner to do so.

anyway, there's a car club sign in the back window, but i can't read all of it. the smaller type i think says PHX AZ. i liked the car, but the bus...not so much.

caboose

wow, has it really been almost two weeks? work, a conference, and baseball have kept me MIA long enough, right?

so at least once a year, i can talk my bosses into sending me out and about to get some training on the software i use everyday—to keep current, to learn from the people that develop it and the tech gurus that teach it—this year i chose a 3-day conference in san francisco, with a couple of extra days thrown in.

as usual, time leading up to being out of the office is crazy busy in the office trying to not leave jobs hanging or to be handed off unnecessarily. then the way to early trip to the airport, the kiss goodbye, then waiting for the plane.

i love san francisco. but it kinda sorta sucks when you're on your own. my room wasn't ready when i got there before 10am, so had to check my bag and kill several hours. walked around the westfield mall over on market by the end of the cable car line. never really knew it was as big as it is. even had a movie theatre inside, and that's where i blew a couple more hours watching whatever it was that was starting at the time. meh.

you know how it is when you go out of town, where there are moments that stick in your head, pictures frozen in place. here are few from several rides on the streetcars: an old chevy; a long line of low-riders—a club i assume—waiting at the stop light on third street; two "men," one wearing 6-inch clear acrylic stilettos running down the sidewalk, and the german tourists on the other seat obviously commenting to each other about them; the clearest sunset, sky glowing reds and yellows over the golden gate. ya, didn't have my camera with me for any of these, so they are just taking up space in my head.

and the conference, it was very good. hard to find me one that makes me feel challenged. and depending on which seminar i sat in, i either learned a lot or learned a lot and felt like an idiot. anyway, my head hurt from all the info by the end of the three days.

and here, i'd like to thank all the guys that have taken time to chat with me the last couple of years at the car shows. i've always been such a wallflower, hoping to fade into the background, please don't call on me for an answer in class...my original social ineptness has been greatly improved by your conversations and storytelling. it really helped me during the conference, and where i'd usually try and avoid the set-up socializing events and networking sessions, instead, i went to the meetings, and sat at the dinner table. still awkward, but i did manage to ask and answer some questions to the other attendees.

they even had made available free printing of business cards from the same place i order my own sets, so i had more of them printed up, and had some to trade with the other people. other people mostly had standard business cards, or had missed the deadline to order the free ones and had none. so mine, with the cars on them, helped to break the ice and start the conversation about my hobby.

even better, at one particular lunch break, i found someone who reminded me of myself at an earlier age: hardly acknowledged that she had company, didn't say a word, avoided eye contact, ate quickly, and got away as soon as she was finished. i've come a long way, but i'm still going to be a lifelong introvert.

also, my son's baseball season is winding down. now just three more games and he may be on his way to law school. unless he gets drafted at the beginning of june...waiting is the hardest part.

it was all good. but i have missed my cars. and when i got home, my better half had decided to build a new monster computer, and i do mean monster. the thing is big enough to fit small children inside, or maybe park a mini cooper. well, maybe not that big. anyway, he'd had to borrow my computer to download software, and then the internet connection was whacked...so couldn't post if i wanted to for a couple of days. time has been very limited.

____

well, here's to getting back to my old routine, hitting up more shows, and meeting more people.

this one is from cinco de mayo in riverside, at the show and go. i'd seen it driving around the circuit. and then it was gone. i wandered about the side streets taking lots of pictures, passing others by (close your hood!), and discovered it parked way out in a side parking lot over by the courthouse, or was it a civic plaza? someone asked if it was mine...no, but wouldn't it be nice...why do people ask if a car is yours just because you use a tripod to shoot the picture? anyway, no owner around, so helped myself to shooting it. cute little matching trailer, isn't it? not quite sure what year it is, but it was so shiny.