what's up?

historical reference

going to shoot cars tomorrow. which show, i’m not sure. i’ll probably just flip a coin.

really tired. i’ll catch up on sleep some other day. got things to do, places to go, and it’s going to be a hot weekend. i miss winter.

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liked this chevy parked up next to one of the many murals at chicano park. this mural is along the street, and is quite frequently seen in pictures on the internet. a plethora of mexican historical figures. a plethora.

on a cloudy day

hiding in the house today. except for the couple of hours i went to the mall to buy a few things that i’ve been talking about buying for months. i really hate shopping that much. and traffic near the mall…let’s just say some people don’t drive very well.

took a turn around the mall, might as well make use of the nice air conditioning to get some exercise. not to mention it smelled like the cinnabon in the middle of the place…no worries…i resisted. though i really wanted one.

got home and didn’t feel very good, so going to just sit here on my ass and play with my pictures for a bit.

i’ve seen this lincoln several times in the past, and just recently at mooneyes. maybe i’ll even post that one some time. but it really looks like the same shot some of the other photographers have posted, so it isn’t really that important to post it.

i am partial to a cloudy sky. reminds me of growing up back east, with a thunderstorm rolling in. this one was from the street coverage bbq in montebello park in 2018.

got the blues

missed the imperials’ show this year. dug up this pic from a couple of years ago for tonight. i remember there was a pair of impalas up at the front, but irritatingly roped off, so you couldn’t get a shot without the blockade there. more of a keep off / don’t touch the cars move, and i don’t blame them – they were pretty nice cars.

liked that they used blue lights on a blue car.

no idea where i might end up this weekend; all depends on how hot it is and what time i wake up…it’s been a tough week at work so i’m kind of burned out. gotta listen to my bod. probably will stay close to home.

would have been my dad’s birthday today. missing him extra.

sad and tired, so i guess i’ll go to bed.

got it

knew it was going to be hot today. almost just stayed in bed and rolled over, but the quality of the light coming through the blinds refused to let me sleep. so i got up and dressed. figured i’d drive over to mooneyes open house, since it was close enough even though i’d gotten out later than i should.

really wasn’t a lot there initially, not like there used to be. i suppose i should have gone to one of the other shows to find the cars i really like, but i didn’t.

that’s fine. still enough cars to shoot, and more slowly turned up.

even that one a-hole who picked up his friend on the corner as i was about to cross the street, then turned the corner and did a few circles in the empty lanes and burnouts. probably the people waiting for the red light on the other side didn’t enjoy how close he came to hitting them. you’re aren’t that good buddy. he drove by again later, minus the friend and the spins. still revved his engine. compensating much?

went down one side of the street shooting, back up the other, then crossed the road and started again with anything i might have missed.

i’d seen this truck earlier, but the owner was pulling drinks or something out of the back and had skipped it. second time around, he came over to ask if i’d taken a picture of it. hadn’t, but i did right after that, now that no one was in the way. ;)

not today

imperials show was today. intended to go. better half says when i wake up arguing with myself about going to a show, he already knows i’m not going, and goes back to sleep, no need to walk me out to the car. so, ya, one of those days.

stayed in town. went back to sleep after breakfast, instead of driving away. decided to go for a walk when i woke up. unfortunately, it would have been an ideal day at the show, as it stayed overcast until about one p.m., at least in whittier. walking uptown, i noticed some sort of thing going on a block up philadelphia, tents and vendors selling stuff. took a detour from my walk to check it out. whatever it was, they’re terrible at advertising it.

going with casita del pueblo running it, as it was all latin culture sort of stuff for sale, t-shirts with skulls and aztec symbols, paper mache art, jewelry and food trucks.

at least, i wasn’t the only one who missed the imperials’ show – lo and behold, the “mayor” was there, with his fifty-six.

he said he was invited, but was unable to go. i guess i just wasn’t up to hoping they’d let me in early.

pretty buick from the other day in cypress. nevada plates, but a boyle heights flag or whatever you call those metal things. so confused.

mine eyes have seen the glory

felt bad, but went out to the latin gents’ monthly car show last night. whatever aches and pains i did have managed to disappear almost the whole time i was taking pictures. don’t worry, if i shook your hand, it’s not a cold.

was a pretty sparse turnout, but the heat dissipated, and a cool breeze came up. my hair, in spite of a headband, insisted on blowing in my face as i tried to focus, but i stood far enough back, so as to not have it in my shots. not ready to chop it off yet, but sometimes, i’m close to calling it for this reason.

anyway, mostly enough space and freedom to take as many shots of each car that i wanted. i was waiting for the sun to head down, and had already been around once, before just standing and watching what the light was doing to the cars. didn’t see anything really spectacular, but there were a few i liked well enough.

here is the back end of mr blvd’s fleetline. better half thought this was a better shot than the one from the front. i think this is the second time i’ve posted this point of view of this car. it just has a nice ass, i guess.

i should have stayed until the sun actually hit the ground, but my insides started to hurt, so i packed it in. had fun anyway. thanks everyone!

hay chihuahua

sometimes i think my better half’s height is a detriment. his eyeballs looking out from six and a half feet from the ground, often give him huge blind spots of things i can see, but he can’t. something gets in the way, and he can’t see it without bending over.

i imagine it as sort of like sitting up in the mezzanine at the play “wicked,” able to see the decorative mechanical dragon set motif above the stage, but unable to see the backdrops and other action going on too far in on the stage. can hear the dialogue and songs, but just don’t see what’s going on in front of you.

he used to wonder how i would get pictures of things when we used to go out shooting together, that he never saw. i’d always say, “didn’t you see it?” oh, he can say the same for me, from his lofty height.

then again, i can be so focused on getting a shot, that i will literally not see the people walking around it. not being rude; just have them tuned out on my radar. i am a weird creature.

be very, very quiet…i’m hunting wabbit. ha ha ha ha ha.
— elmer fudd

today, the blind spot was at the back of a refrigerator shelf. he’d chopped up some fresh green onions to add to his mom’s meal, and what i later used for guacamole.

he hadn’t noticed the two containers of previously chopped green or yellow onions, from last week. pretty sure onions don’t grow hair that pretty normally, fine as silk, and growing from several dark spots, nor is it useful as penicillin.

whatever it was, didn’t want to let go of the container even after i dumped the food out. had to soak it with some lysol, followed up with antibacterial soap. i won in the end.

this lincoln looked familiar as it drove into the small lot at the fairgrounds. looking back through my posted images, at the show i thought i’d seen it at so long ago, i instead found another one, same year, but not a convertible, and green not black.

well, otherwise, i’m not finding it in this year’s photos.

i had gotten one clear shot, with no one in it. for this one, i’d changed the height of my tripod and framed it up, when the owner and his friends came back from whichever vendor they’d gotten drinks from, and proceeded to clink glasses, in a cheers maneuver, behind it. oh well. you can see them just above the car’s front window, if you look closely. it’s their car, so i’m not going to make a big deal about it. i had other places to be, so didn’t have time to wait them out.

i liked the big inflatable dog in the background. wished they had set out some brown and black bean bags near it, and then all i’d have seen would be a much relieved pup, had that been the case. people could have “shat” down on the soft lumps with their drinks. lol.

bigger isn't always necessarily better

my better half bought himself a couple of new gigantor computer screens. Actually just some tv screens, that with a little hacking are now working as computer screens.

yesterday, he decided that i needed bigger screens to work on. nothing wrong with my current screens. threw in a better graphics card he had sitting around as well.

he was being nice. cleaned off the desk i work on, polished the wood desktop, dusted off all the fans and guts of my computer, and spent several hours figuring out why the new screens weren’t working properly with my computer. updated the drivers, wiggled wires, did some research online. needless to say, i was unable to use my computer yesterday evening.

this morning he told me that he had figured it out. he had two screens for me. one is ok, one is better. the better one is incompatible with my graphics card he installed. now he is online looking for a better card for his computer, and then i would get that hand-me down that he knows worked with these monitors.

so currently, i am working with the one big screen that does work, but not at it’s optimal resolution, but at least it isn’t flickering. i’m not as tall as my better half either, so this is probably the maximum size screen i’d use here, as i can’t adjust my chair any higher to find that sweet spot on the screen and not be straining my neck to view it.

the vibrancy and color are more muted on this screen versus my old one as well, so i have to calibrate my eyes for editing on this monitor.

this olds from chicano park is the first one i’ve fiddled with on this screen. what do you think? too dark, too light? sort of think too much shadow on the wheel and on the door. i’d rework it, but i’d rather start another car.

delray / sittin’

at my condo, picking up mail before heading to my mom’s for the night.

sad to be here; it smells because my daughter’s dog is a not so well trained doberman who has taken one too many dookies in here. that and a stagnant piss smell permanently in this ratty carpet. and just a hint of vomit. really need to leave, but i have to close all the windows, and this chair is just uncomfortable enough that i don’t want to sit anymore.

tired of it just being an expensive storage unit for her stuff. she doesn’t realize how good she had it yet—a rent-free, utilities-free place to stay. but she just couldn’t be on her own, and met a guy that lived too far away, then got a job in that too far away place and complained of not getting enough sleep, and the price of gas, etc.

well just tarantulas live here now, and i hope she stops to feed them sometimes.

gave her until the end of summer to pack, but i’m betting she’ll just leave it to see how serious i really am. that or she knows i’ll box it up for her just to get it out. she can put it in her dad’s storage.

soon, her stuff will be out and i can get on with the demolition that is needed in here.

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i did stop at the crossing church’s thirteenth annual car show last weekend. had to park a block or two away, after circling the neighborhood once. got there close to noon, never a good time for me with all the heat and all the people walking through the shot.

i still managed one loop around the parking lot. seemed to be fewer cars than past years, but it was later than i usually go, and there were many other shows going on at the same time.

i was pretty overheated after the sun came out, when i got to the last few cars. eh, i overheat in the middle of winter, it is just extra gruelling in the summer. had to stop inside the church kitchen for some cold water, shade, and slow moving overhead fan action.

i think this car was the second or third one i shot, up at the front corner. looks like an impala, but it’s not. can’t remember seeing it before, at least it wasn’t in this year’s files, so it was nice to shoot something different.

throwdown

saturday morning i was out at the oc fairgrounds, dropping off a couple of pictures that were selected for the fair. slept in at my mom’s instead of spending the night in whittier, hitting a show early, then dropping off the pictures, because it just was easier for me. i’d just stop at the show on the way home.

as i was driving up the street towards the gate, i see a line of classic cars parked in the middle of the street. i was starting to pass them, i saw one with the windows rolled down, so i slowed down and inquired where the show was—at the fairgrounds. huh. oh yes, i’d seen a flyer, but hadn’t added it to my list—the michelada throwdown. ya, i don’t drink, so i’d throw it down.

got there before nine, so apparently it was free to enter. as a bonus, i got into the swap meet free too.

well, pretty much what i saw out in the street was all that was showing up for this show…the brown descents and the fleetlines car clubs, with a few other solo riders…at least during the time i was there.

i’m acquainted with danny, who owns this car. met him years ago at an elks club show in santa ana. have shot his car several times over the years. he of course came over to say hello.

made quick work of the cars that were there, and before the official start time for the drink-a-thon or whatever it was. still hoped to hit up that other show before the sun came out, as i’m still getting over the sunburn from last week.

i was so very tempted to hit up that slide before i left, but ultimately skipped it. didn’t want to leave my cameras down at the bottom for even a couple of minutes. sometimes i miss my better half not coming to the fair to drop off pictures, making a big deal about nothing.