Wednesday, July 29, 2009

ROA-A-DAY: Barn Busters



This bit of photography beauty comes from the Flickr set of Washington D.C. based artist and furniture maker A. Drauglis. One day, I hope to restore Model A's just for the fun of it too.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

ROD-A-DAY: Hot Custom Ford in Florida

I hate street rod paint jobs. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE. Fifty-somethings with absolutely no color-theory knowledge shouldn't be allowed to choose finish colors for their cars. The horrifying results are usually enough to send me into vomiting epileptic seizures as they race by (and by "race", I mean cruise by at 25 miles per hour, because that's "racing" when you're 50 and own a light peach pink, fiberglass body '32 ford with a weird, airbrushed checkered-flag stripe zig-zagging all over the side of your ride). Case in point, see massacre below.


Dear lord.

But today's rod of the day, while utilizing some seriously sherbet-inspired standard street rod colors, is far from vom-inducing. Behold - the custom '49-50 ford that candy coated dreams are made of...


From the Titus Nights car show in Titusville, FL, taken by Keith, found on Flickr.

Basically, what it comes down to for me is that basically when you're in Florida, shit like this can be let to slide.

And yes, yes...I realize that my "Rod-A-Day" posts are probably disappointing you on many levels, firstly because they are obviously not happening every day and secondly because they are so heavy with shoebox Fords. Especially scalloped shoebox Fords. I swear I'm going to try and mix it up. SWEAR!

MORE OLD ADS - SMOKE 'EM IF YOU GOT 'EM

Somebody somewhere posted these on their LiveJournal account (ew...LiveJournal) and they ended up appearing in the "50 Most Recent Images Posted to LiveJournal" website, which, if you haven't seen it, is kind of insane (and also totally NSFW - "Not Safe For Work", for those of you who don't browse internet porn on your computer and might not know the term).


"You never need feel over-smoked" again.

I saw them and just had to save them and share. Oh, the days when nobody knew that smoking was bad for you. Seems so far, far away.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

WE'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY - RETRO ADS

Oh vintage ads for house cleaners and processed foods, how I adore you so. You once struck fear of vaginal odor and a dirty kitchen into the hearts of housewives across the nation, and now you stoke hilarity (and occasionally shock and disbelief) into my own cold, black ticker.

And if breathing life into my otherwise soulless carcass wasn't enough, you remind me of just how good we have it these days; we live in a time where mysoginistic racists are scorned by the masses (well, one can wish anyway) and Political Correctness assures that you don't have to worry if your vagina stinks because it's not ok for anybody to say anything about it anyway.

So of course I was delighted when I came across a post on Retro Comedy showcasing a selection of exceedingly shocking (by today's standards) retro advertisements, which reminded me again that I'd never would have been a graphic designer fifty years ago, because baby factories like myself are meant to clean, cook and get fucked. And apparently to douche with Lysol...who knew!


Lane Bryant - we'll make you feel so fat you won't want to shop anywhere else!




Buy me a new postage meter or I'll slit your damn throat you succubus!!!!

Ahhh...refreshing. And yes, I believe it IS always illegal to kill a woman. But I probably won't go to jail when I kill you in self defense. ENJOY!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

ORPHANS, HOT DOGS, STEROIDS...U-S-A!!

My good friend and fellow auto aficionado, artist and robot creator, Josh, sent me a link to a New York Times online slideshow featuring images from the Ypsilanti Orphan Car Show, held in Ypsilanti, Michigan, showcasing classic cars specifically from defunct auto makers. How currently appropriate!



It's a little visual treat (albeit not from the East Coast, but still...), including a fair number of photos of stately Hudsons, a Graham, a Fiat and some other odds and ends. Actually, I was surprised that there was such little diversity in the slide show, considering how many defunct auto companies there are in the dusty basement of commercial failure. Then I did some reading and realized that Ypsilanti itself had a rich auto manufacturing history (as much of South Eastern Michigan does), and the very last Hudson dealership in the USA is now the site of the Ypsilanti Automobile Heritage Museum.

In fact, if you want to get a better idea of the range of auto companies that have come and driven off into oblivion, check out the 2008 Ypsilanti Orphan Car Show slide show over at Motor Trend headquarters.


A pea green '57 Nash Ambassador custom (beauties, those Nash sleds).

It's funny (or scarily awakening) to think that we might not be more than a handful of decades away from a reality where foreign-based auto companies manufacture the only vehicles for miles and car shows like this are where the public go to reminisce about strength, design, horsepower and the days when the "American auto" was still a reality. Or where we go to point and laugh at cars, guffawing, "what were they thinking?? That people would want to buy that?? No wonder that was such a failure." (Not unlike the Edsel or the Corvair.)

Really, those days are already long gone in many peoples' opinions, so maybe it's not that big of a tragedy that our entire automotive manufacturing infrastructure is about as steadfast as a warm piece of swiss cheese. I just think it's pathetic and disheartening when our nation can't even dominate the very industries that "make us who we are".

And by "industries that make America AMERICA", I mean the auto, baseball and apple pie industries. (Ha.) And hot dogs. No wait, I'm pretty sure an American won the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest this year...so, you know, at least we've still got the upper hand on the competitive hot dog eating thing. And because we're AMERICA, DAMNIT! there should be no surprise our champion hot dog eater was juiced up on 'roids...supposedly.

Team America, FUCK YEAH.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

ROD-A-DAY: Roddy Moore's '49 Shoebox

RIGHT before I was about to call it a night, I stumbled across this beaut of a 'box from Virginia (assumedly) posted on Garage Magazine's blog page.

Artistic mastery of scallops, if I've ever seen it

Although I haven't done more research, it appears that Mr. Moore is also heavily affiliated with the Blue Ridge Institution in Ferrum, Virginia, and possibly responsible for curating a recent exhibition called "Full Throttle: A History of Drag Racing and Oval Track Racing in Southwest Virginia", which is right up our little East Coast alley. Having grown up myself relatively close to the Blue Ridge area of Appalachia, this all has particularly more interest to me.

You have to check out the Full Throttle site...just look at this list of original Car Clubs from the area.


Thundering Turtles car club plaque

How cool is that? I have no doubt in my mind I've had conversations with members of some of these clubs who were still around to wax enthusiastically about draggin' and drivin' in Virginia mid-century. Other tart little morsels in the online exhibit: a list of drag strips throughout the area and opening years, featurettes of local legends in car craft including apholstry and pin striping (to name a couple) and a glossery of southern VA hot roddin' slang terms. So check it out already, ya Squirrel!

UPDATE MADNESS!!!

Madness? Really? Ok, so it might not be much, depending on your definition of madness, but I updated the site with a bunch of new images today. Actually, the sad part of technology is that what took me an entire day to do (scanning, photoshopping and uploading old 35mm photos) will take you a fraction of an hour to look at. ...I'm going to try not to think about it.

First, I finally got all the images I took at the KKOA show back in June together and posted for you to check out both below and on the RODS page. (I'm still working on all the captions, so cool yer jets.)


Kustom Kemps of America Sled Scene East 2009

Want more? Well aren't you in luck! A few weeks ago I found three rolls of undeveloped film while I was cleaning up the house, so I got them developed and a week later (that's how long it takes the drug store to process film these days), voila! Turns out two of them were photos from the NSRA East show at the York Fairgrounds in York, PA from either 2000 or 2001, I can't really tell which.


A few selected images from the set.

Again, if you're interested, you can check them all out in their own set on Flickr until they are all here on the site, in one neat and tidy little place. I've been having some trouble deciding if I should just give up making individual pages for all these car show photos and just link solely to the Flickr set, but really, there's something kinda special about having all your web content in one place to look at. Makes shit easier, right? Probably.

I'm starting to realize why I had neglected this website for such a long time previously; having a full-time job (or I should say, being one of the lucky people I know who still has a full-time job) is really cutting into my "being productive in other more exciting areas of my life" time. Yeesh. I'm going to do my best to keep this stuff coming and still get at least four hours of sleep a night so, enjoy it while you can!