Monthly Archives: August 2008

August 13, 2008 · 11:29 pm

Make a little birdhouse in your soul

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
—TMBG

Back in February, I was visiting a friend who lives up in north Boulder. As we got out of his VW to walk into his condo, I noticed an old car in the community parking lot. I “ooooh”ed over it, and my friend mentioned that nobody knows who owns it, but it had been parked there, unmoving, for nearly 3 years.

Horrors! This car is not living up to its vehicular potential! I skipped over to take a look.

Okay, it’s a Thunderbird. The only style of T-bird I would know on sight is the round-window jobbie that Suzanne Somers (now there’s some trivia for you) drives in American Graffiti. But judging by the body shape on this one, I would guess early-to-mid ’60s. Hmmm… a few dents and dings, as would be expected on a car of any reasonable age, let alone one that’s 40-some-odd years old. A bit of rust. But overall, pretty clean and straight. I peek inside. It is gritty with the fine, dry dirt that is prevalent in the foothills. It gets darn windy up there, so I’ll assume that it blew in through the vents during three years of NoBo dust storms. The interior, or what I can see of it because the back seat is being used as a dusty storage locker, is decent. Peering through the window, I don’t notice any big tears in the upholstery or any obviously missing parts like, say, a dashboard. I do some quick calculations: This car is parked head-in, neatly between the lines. It couldn’t have been towed there that way, so I assume it was driven into position. It wasn’t there last time I visited my friend, but he said it showed up shortly thereafter. That means it’s been there since the summer of 2005. The tags on the license plate, however, expired a couple of years before that. What gives?

I ask my friend to do some sleuthing into who the owner might be. I want to make an offer.

Months pass. I think on and off about the car. My friend makes a couple of casual queries, to no avail. I narrow down the body style to falling into the ’61-’63 “Bullet Bird” category. My friend, who can actually SEE the car, verifies (by the “gills” on the side) that it’s a ’63.

42,806 hardtops were produced for the 1963 model year

The more I think about this car… well, the more I think about it. I assume that, while it most likely was running when it was parked, it doesn’t run now. All of the dust/dirt that has blown into the interior has also blown into the engine compartment. The oil will have become sludge. The battery will be dead. Anything that was merrily floating around in the gas tank is now settled firmly on the bottom. The hoses and belts will be dry and brittle.

390 Special V-8 (300 Horsepower) • 4-Barrel Holley Carburetor/Single Exhaust System

I am not a mechanic. I don’t have any friends who are mechanics. I could use AAA to tow the car… where? Since my favorite guys closed up their shop, I don’t even have mechanics for my own car. Who on Earth would I trust to work on a 45-year-old Ford? I can’t work on it at my place, nor can I park an unregistered vehicle. I have to check state regs, but I’m not sure that I can register a non-running car (Don’t I need an emissions check? Or would it be waived for a car of this age?) That is, if the car even has a title to transfer. I know it did back in 2003-ish, but why hasn’t it been registered since?

All-Transistor AM Radio • MagicAire Heater-Defroster

I believe the color is Patrician Green, which is actually a mid-tone metallic blue with a turquoisey hue. Of course, it might be Acapulco Blue, but not having actually seen the car in many months, and not having swatches in hand to go by, it’s hard for me to tell.

Cruise-O-Matic (Automatic, 3-Speed)

The community in which my friend lives has been under construction in various sections for years, and now the builder wants to finish out one last plot. The plot that the ’bird is parked right in front of. The builder has asked that all cars be removed from that area.

Power Steering • Power Brakes • Swing-Away Steering Wheel

I asked my friend to throw himself in front of any tow trucks that start circling the lot.

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Filed under cars, vintage

August 12, 2008 · 11:13 pm

The Town That Fun Built

An old Jersey friend (that is, I’ve known her for a long time, not that she’s old!) shared this vintage promotional video today. Seaside Heights was a day trip for me growing up, and I used to go down a couple of times every summer. I spent HOURS in Lucky’s Arcade, without ever knowing that it had such history! After all these years, only two mementos remain from my days on the boardwalk: a Lucky Coin (perhaps two, but I can’t currently find PROM 88 DEWD), and the uppermost piercing in my left ear. Also, the memory of my friend Kim looking at me at the top of the log flume and saying, “Your hair DOES look better when it’s wet!” Good times, good times.

Note: this little film is 16 minutes long! However, it’s totally worth watching if you enjoy amusement parks, or the shore, or boardwalks, or hyperbolical marketing videos, or 1960.

Helpful Household Hint: sleepitude

Note: When awakened by the hum of distant early morning commuter traffic, it is best to get up and close the window at that time instead of trying to sleep through it and waking every 5-10 minutes until you finally find the wherewithal to crawl out of bed.

On the other hand, pat me on the back for going to bed at a reasonable hour instead of watching the finish of an incredible display of men’s gymnastics. Forget the bodybuilders who are all about form and nothing about function; these boys have it going on. The sheer strength required to pull off their performances is mind-blowing. If you can find video of Justin Spring (USA) on the horizontal bar, or Chen Yibing (China) on the rings, by all means watch it.

Krazy Jail Time

Setting: Hot rod/kustom car show hosted by Krazy Kreations and Xtreme Collision in Westminster, CO.
Cast of characters: Three pretty gals, and one adorable pinstriper working on a motorcycle in the garage.

M: That pinstriper is cute.
T: Cha, YEAH.
M: Yeah, I thought you’d like him. He looks young, though. Like, you-could-go-to-jail-for-that young.
T: Seriously. Shoot, is he even 18? He looks about 16. I can’t tell anymore.
A: He could just have a baby face.

(looked at more cars outside; now making second pass through garage for some relief from the sun and once again watching the striper at work)

T: I just overheard someone say he’s 21.
M: (Disappointed) Oh, man.
T: (Jokingly) Hey, that’s legal!
A: (rejoining conversation) He’s 21? That’s legal!
T: My thoughts exactly! I should ask him to stripe my shoes.

A conversation followed wherein I attempted to hire him to pinstripe my shoes. He seemed uninterested; I didn’t pursue it further. Pinstriping under pressure is no good, and 21 is awfully young, after all. Perhaps we scared him. Later, while chatting with Scott, a car owner whom I’ve run into a few times, I noticed The Kid was curled up in the footwell of my acquaintance’s car, pinstriping the dashboard. Scott was suggesting that “Junior” should get himself some business cards so that Scott could send more work Junior’s way. Junior explained that he actually lives in Utah, and was just passing through. As my friends and I were taking our leave, I overheard Junior say to Scott, “I’m Bo Huff’s kid.”

Oh, shit. I was just crushing on Jr Huff. Jr Huff who is SEVENTEEN. I’m going straight to Hell.

Photos of my visit to the Hell travel agency, taken with my phone because I forgot my camera, can be seen if you click on Jr’s photo.

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Filed under Shoot, I forgot to add tags again

August 6, 2008 · 8:08 am

Icebox Cake! Calder, shoes, etc.

It’s another scattered, icebox cake post, kids. Without further ado:

August’s masthead is a tight crop of a photo I took of a Calder mobile (Red, Black, and Blue, 1968) which hangs in the Milwaukee Art Museum. Alexander Calder and Jasper Johns have been among my favorite artists since I was a little kid. I would have loved to have been in the room when Sandy Calder was doing a “Circus” performance. I’ll settle for having seen it on film numerous times, because it plays in a loop at the Whitney, where my mom used to take me every year for my birthday. To be fair, though, I wasn’t watching the loop as much as I was staring at the circus itself. I finally watched the film from beginning to end with my friend Mandy as we toured a traveling Calder show a couple of summers ago at the Walker.

I have, by my standards, a lot of credit at DSW. I spent an hour roaming the store yesterday, and managed to find one pair of shoes to take home. Maybe I’m sick? I’ll have to peruse their much larger online collection, and see if I can’t shake this bug. ;)

I have been busy, part I. I have (partially) reorganized my finished basement, in an attempt to uncover the living space that’s down there. I put together three sets of 3’x5′ shelves for all of the stuff that’s stored down there, and managed to unearth the sofa and carve out an area for my sewing table. I think I’ll get two more sets of shelves (open invite to strong, helpful people here: the shelving boxes are too heavy for me to lift) and finish out that wall. I still need to rummage through all the stuff that’s still scattered around, and take a lot of empty boxes to the recycling center. I have a tendency to keep every box that any appliance came in, just in case. (In the case of my rarely-used espresso machine, that box comes in handy as it actually stores the machine!) I am itching to get the basement guest room set up, but I am about to have three different people storing some personal belongings in there. The extra guest space can wait. Note to Scott, if you’re reading this: Maybe you can help me toss out my mom’s seemingly abandonded stuff to create more space for your stuff?

I have been busy, part II. Some squares might be 10 weeks away from planning their Halloween costumes, but my crowd has already been on it for a month. Hooray, hooray, my bestest costume buddy is flying in from Oklahoma just to party down with the Halloweeniest crowd around! Because there are always two parties, there will once again be two costumes. One costume is something that I have attempted over and over, but always bagged at the last minute because I have trouble getting one particularly important prop just to my liking. Lots of people offer suggestions, but it’s difficult to get any of them to actually work. This year, I am determined. Besides, the costume itself is almost done! Just a little more sewing, and the right shoes… and of course, that damned prop. The other costume is still being tossed around, but needs to fall into the theme of Heroes & Villains. I wanted to do Wonder Woman, just so I could get the boots (and, who am I kidding here, those rad wrist cuffs), but her outfit is skimpy and has been since her first appearance back in 1941. Yes, I checked. The metaphorical drawing board has lots of crumpled sketches right now.

Coming up: Soon, I hope to photograph and post my growing collection of handbags. Because they’re finally getting interesting. :) Also, the 2008 Olympics are about to begin! I’m having a few peeps over on Friday to watch the pomp and circumstance of the opening ceremony. Veggie pot stickers, Chinese beer, and whatever my pals deem to bring on their own. And a globe, so we can find all of the guest countries! Fun times. I may have to ruin my progress in the basement in order to clear out the “public” areas for my party. Such is my life of clutter.

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Filed under collections, friends, Halloween, life-threatening clutter, sewing