It's a vintage tinged, grease-ball, motor-lovin', son-of-a-bitch's dream for a finely curated selection of things like pomade, patches, jackets, books etc.
[Lecture: Friday, April 9, 2010, 6:00 p.m. at Austin Speed Shop, 1414 S Lamar Blvd Opening: Friday, April 9, 2010, 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Luthers, 1200 South Congress Ave., Austin, Texas]
Sometimes, being lazy has it's benefits. For example, you can tell I clearly have been mega slacking on the whole Rod-A-Day thing. I was so psyched at first about it, I even created a whole Flickr group for the cars I was going to post every day. People could submit their stuff for me to talk about on this site...you get the idea.
Well, I made it, and then basically nothing happened. I spent weeks just searching around Flickr for cars I wanted to write about and adding them to the group, which was fun, but eventually I realized I was spending immense amounts of time surfing tons of photos, most of which had nothing to do with the East Coast (I try and keep it real, here) and I just didn't have the free time to keep up at that pace.
Then today, I while searching for new desktop wallpaper (ha), I noticed that I had a big chunk of new images waiting to be approved in the Greaser Garage :: Rod-A-Day pool. WTF!? People are interested! People had actually submitted their shit to my group. Un-frickin-believeable. YOU CARE! YOU REALLY DO! I have renewed faith in humanity.
So, I'd like to take this moment to highlight some non-car related material that was submitted to the group that is just superb...
Rebecca Gohl is a retro-stylist who works photo shoots out of Grand Rapids and is just killin' it at bringing out the buxom best in these lovely ladies. I was happy to see some quality pinup-photography in there as well. Good on you, Rebecca! Keep those photos coming!
Oh look! I managed to crawl out of my icy little hermit hole in the North East to write another blog post. OH happy day!!! While most of you up here have been washing the blankets of salt crust off your four-wheeled highway hooligans, I've been in the process of moving and unpacking and trying to rearrange my life's worth of tchotchke in a new apartment (and laughing because though cars are a beautiful, beautiful thing, so is not having one in the city).
Everybody knows that if moving is good for anything, it's getting a reason to rifle through all your old stacks of ___________ (fill it in) that have been sitting around forever, toeing the line between memories and garbage. Of everything one usually finds straddling that border, I guarantee the bulk of it is in the form of magazines. Ah, magazines! The best ones are filled with recipes, naked people, tattoo ideas and pre-'65 American-made vehicles (obvious bias). But while you can still look fondly upon books you read once and haven't touched since (but still want to keep around), magazines tend to evoke a deeper, more complicated level of clutter-hatred. I don't know if the difference is the fact that magazines are about 25% advertising, whereas books are all straight up content. And even in your favorite magazine, there is still only about a 65 to 70% chance you'll really love/use/laugh at all of the articles. Now math was never my strong point, but if I were to guesstimate, of that huge stack of old magazines you have over there taking up valuable space on your dining room table, only 50% of that is matter you will actually need and/or use ever again. And if you're a glass-half-full kinda person, you are probably thinking what I am, "Well I'd better not chuck them because I might want to read that articles about how to interpret what your cat is dreaming about again!"
Which is exactly how you end up moving the same forty pound stack of paper around from three different apartments, even though you've never opened one of those magazines the entire five years.
SO, what to do with all those magazines?? Well, you can do what I am going to do: decoupage our disgusting wooden country-time coffee table...
...which basically looks just like only with a finish like someone tied it to the back of a pick-up truck and drug it around on the street for awhile. Our plan being to turn it into a collage of custom cars, bikes, old ads and - if I have my say - a scantily retro-clad boob and a butt or two here and there.
Decoupage can be pretty damn sheik (see left image), but we're going more for the one on the right.
Not into arts and crafts Martha Stewart home-maker garbage? Then why not try you hand at mixed media collage work? Today I'm going to introduce you to a mixed-media artist named Robert Mars who creates stuff that you, my engine revving roadsters, might be interested in. In Robert's words:
"My work is a chronicle of Americana. I am determined to capture the independent aesthetic of the not-so-distant past that has been replaced by homogenized corporate culture and standardized cityscapes. Industrial design, graphic design, architecture, vintage neon and mid-century icons all render important roles in my work."
How Good It Is 2008, 48" x 36", Mixed Media
I can only hope my mentioning of his fantastic work within the confines of a blog that has, so far, mostly been about decoupage, doesn't cheapen it in any way.
I like Robert's work so much because he so perfectly invokes in me such a heavy feeling of desolation and forgotten America, through his large swathes of color (that could have been chosen directly from an old Mopar paint chip card) and sparse use of period imagery. Although I've seen a ton of mixed media "collage" artists in my time, a lot of them have sucked. But Mars is a beacon of shining light in the murky sea of collage work that typically looks just like your 80 year old, leagally blind, Great Aunt's scrapbook. It's not like you just slap a bunch of crap on a canvas and "Voila! Gimmie $3000 for this original artwork, sucka!". You've gotta have a major handle on color and space usage (the two things that separate random-dude-with-a-brush-and-a-trust-fund from legitimate-artist-guy) and a "vision" that makes it through to your audience. Robert hits every proverbial nail on the head exactly, in my humble opinion, anyway.
My buddy Adam Swinbourne, who is the evil mastermind behind lots of great artwork, including tons of shit over the years for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and this little gem (guess who?) -
- just informed me that Eric Davidson (founding member of the New Bomb Turks) is going to be participating in an evening called, "The Greatest Three-Minute Rock 'n' Roll Story Ever" at Matchless bar in Greenpoint (Brooklyn, NY). According to Eric's Facebook page (there is no info on it that I can find on the Matchless website):
"Hey Brooklyners, I've been asked to wax rhapsodic at this event, so come on down... Greatest Three-Minute Rock 'n' Roll Story Ever. Writers, rockers, and raconteurs telling three-minute stories about the best rock 'n' roll shows ever. Thursday, Feb. 11th, 8pm @ Bar Matchless 557 Manhattan Ave. Greenpoint"
Sounds like an evening worth attending. Here's some more information from the JDub Records website...
Stories from: Jami Attenberg (Author, The Melting Season) Justin Taylor (Author, Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever) Franz Nicolay (Musician/Writer, The Hold Steady/Complicated Gardening Techniques) Zachary German (Author, Eat When You Feel Sad) Adam Wilson (Managing Editor, The Faster Times) Nick Gazin (Artist, Vice Magazine) Franz Nicolay (formerly of The Hold Steady) Jens Carstensen (The Giraffes) James Yeh (Gigantic) Aaron Hartman (Old Time Relijun/Girls in Trouble) Kendra Grant Malone (Poet, author of the chapbook Conor Oberst Sex) Mike Conklin (L Magazine) Chelsea Hodson (poet) Lincoln Michel (Fiction writer, The Faster Times) Samuel Carter (Overflow Magazine) Derek Evers (Impose Magazine) Aaron Lefkove (Livefastdie/Liquor Store) Maura Johnston (Village Voice / The Awl) More TBA
As the purveyor of a website/blog about classic car culture, you might imagine that I'm probably semi-conflicted when it comes to my personal feelings about technology. It's not that I don't find it fascinating, useful or important, because god knows there are incredible things that happen in our world today that are a direct result of motherboards, processors, alternative fuels and stem cell research. My general "disdain for technology" (which is going to be a problem if I ever want to get a job designing apps for iPhones, I guess) is largely because the more we rely on the technology around us every day to do things for us, the more our brains rot into useless piles of mush that are reliant upon technology to do anything.
Some would argue that having technological devices around to take some of the weight off our ever more overburdened minds actually provides us an extra modicum of much needed free mental real estate. Our iBookBerryAlarmPhonePods keep all our daily menial appurtenances (what should I eat for dinner? What's that woman's phone number?) in order, so that we can ponder recreational things, like whether Dysgenics is actually a real issue worth addressing in our society or a made-up scientific-sounding term that racist people use to sound smart.
Perhaps one of my personal favorite "side-effects" of technology is the advent of the Podcast. Less that five years ago I was still that girl on the subway platform, trying to change mix CDs in my Walkman, multiple plastic discs on the tips of my fingers like olives, glaring disdainfully (ok, let's not lie here) jealously at the white earbuds of the other passengers nearby.
I will still proudly boast that I never spent a cent on my iPod (Xmas gift), but I instantly became a convert. First, I was relieved not to be carrying around half my CD collection in my already gargantuan purse, and secondly, when I can listen to hours of talk radio (not where you thought I was goin, was it!? Ha!) without a car or a radio...life has become truly perfect.
And that brings me to the point of this whole unintelligible mess of poorly though out sentences (and I'd also like to point out that having spent the last five years writing mostly on a computer has ruined my ability to spell without Auto Spellcheck, damnit. I used to be a grammar and spelling QUEEN.)....THE POINT - is that it just dawned on me the other day that I can listen to one of my favorite radio shows of all time...
That's right, Click and Clack, every morning with me on my underground commute to work. (And yes, I really did just realize they have podcasts like, two days ago.) My hour long ride is now much less like suffering in the a packed cattle car, soaked in urine and cheap cologne and more like sitting on the back porch with two imaginary gear-happy uncles beguiling me with their anecdotal automobile apologues. Previous sentence brought to you by Thesaurus.com.
Visit the Car Talk websiteto download episodes to stream the latest episode when you are stuck desk jockeying in your cubicle for a few hours, or head to Audible.com to download individual back episodes (for $.95 a pop or $3.95/$$19.95 for a monthly/yearly subscription) What could be better than trying to figure out hour after hour after hour what that eek eek eep noise in a caller's 1983 Ford Taurus before the Brothers Automotov do? Possibly nothing.
And when you've made your way through all the car chatter you can handle, check out these other podcasts that I can't get enough of:
:: Mobtown Ska Sounds - DJ Bobby Bobson brings you THE very best of old school reggae, Jamaican ska, dub, two tone and more straight out of good ol' Charm City (Baltimore). An hour of music, about one minute of talk. Just the way I like 'em.
:: Radiolab- Hosts Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad attempt to explore answers (or at least get you to ponder deeply) questions about everything in life worth questioning. "Bring your curiosity, and we'll feed it with possibility." This is hands down one of the most hilarious and well-produced science/philosophy/political shows I've ever listened to. EVAR. (Misspelling indended {meme reference}.)
:: This American Life - If you haven't already heard of this, well...you're way behind the times, maaaaaan. They even have a show on HBO now that you can instant-download episodes of on Netflix. Through humor, compassion, ingenuity and human interest, host Ira Glass takes you to many places in our great country each hour, but mostly to places inside your heart. (Heavy shit right there. It's no joke...I usually cry at least once an episode, but I'm probably 40% more overly emotional than everybody I know.)
So if you are still one of the many out there sans iPod - good for you! If you're still standing on the subway platform flipping stacks of polycarbonate plastic defiantly into your Discman, waiting for someone to think you're "so retro", most podcasts are available on CD too.
