blog: Automotive Detritus
Geography Lesson
2009-10-03
The other day, two things happened to me that seemed incongruous at first, but upon later reflection seemed to be of a pair. The first was that I happened across a garage sale bargain, INXS’s underrated Listen Like Thieves, for just a buck. This is not the forum for debating the merits of this album versus its successor, Kick, which is beside the point anyway. I bought the CD because I used to listen to INXS in high school and have fond memories of the band. (Kind of sounds like the reason a lot of us buy old cars, too.)
The funny thing is that in playing my “new” CD, I remembered how when I was 16 I thought INXS was the most exotic band in the world. This was based exclusively on their being from Australia, which sounds foolish, but growing up in the Midwest during the pre-Internet era, around the time of Crocodile Dundee, Down Under may as well have been the moon. (I still haven’t been there, so perhaps it is?)
Rivera’s "Detroit Industry"
2009-04-06
In times perhaps frighteningly similar to our own, a Mexican communist was commissioned by an industrialist to depict the condition of factory workers in the epitome of factory towns. The resulting murals show connections between management and workers, depict the natural world and what we take from it to make goods, and offer hope in the ability of the American workforce make something and move it on down the production line.
Esprit d’Concours
2008-08-14
A woman approaches James Peterson’s 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, a chrome- and gold-emblem encrusted red ruby of a car. The woman is a spectator at the 36th annual Forest Grove Concours d’Elegance, set in the rolling farm country and fir forests of northwest Oregon.
The Principle of Substitution
2008-08-14
There's an old marketing principle called "the wheel of retailing," the wheel turns when originally low-priced retailers upgrade their merchandise and services thereby creating a competitive opportunity for new discounters and thereby continuing the process.
Classic Fuel Sippers
2008-08-05
As gasoline flirts with $5 a gallon in some places, more than a few people are pressing their collector cars into service as their daily, or possibly “more than occasional” drivers.
Arizona’s Route 66
2008-06-15
John Steinbeck’s Route 66 was a miserable place. A bare road of desperation, families fleeing the Dust Bowl poverty of Middle America for a shot at economic salvation in California.