what's up?

a bike is a bike

quick post. does anyone really grow up?

this tricycle features a popeye theme, wood paneling, metal etching, airbrushing and pinstriping.

this bike features metal etching, airbrushing and pinstriping.

both cool. both bikes. big kids.

the nerve

mother's day. got the call from both kids today. still have to make my own call to my mom. had intended to drive down to see my mom, then stop at disneyland to hang with my bro and his family, but i woke up with a pain in my back, and it hasn't gotten any better, so i'm just hanging out at the house with my better half and his mom. 

no idea what i did to make it hurt. must have just slept on it wrong. gonna go take a hot shower after i'm done here and see if that helps. happened a couple of months ago, and worked itself out after a few days. hope it does the same, or it will mess up my plans for shooting next weekend, both days.

anyway, my better half built me a better puter to play with my pictures on. it is much faster, but i have spent a bit of time transferring files from the old computer instead of playing with pictures. he calibrated one of my monitors...says not this main one, so even though i think it looks darker, he says it isn't anything he did. guess i'll have to go look at the picture on another computer to see if it's the monitor or my eyes.

anyway, he was looking over my shoulder while i flipped through possible pictures to post and this was one he really reacted to, so i'll use it for the first picture on this new puter.

he said he saw this same cadillac at the san pedro show last year, parked in front of the light house. i vaguely remember it, but maybe there were too many people in front of it for me to shoot it. i'll have to go look at what shot that day.

its just a big, long car, and so shiny; it was awesome. a whole lot of green going on here, but it all kinda works.

betty boop

hard to pass this plymouth by, it being so red and all. i stopped. i saw. i took a picture. well, actually a few.

i liked this one best. shows the sky, the car, the bridge, the mural...what the show is all about...and the location. or maybe just because it makes me laugh because the guy in the painting looks like he's about to write all over the car. furiously.

evening light

spent the weekend in riverside. three day car show. this is from early friday evening, when there were still not so many cars out.

just liked the way the neon played on the car. and gotta love an impala. this one was pretty nice.

later in the dark, the crowd surrounded two cars that blew fire out their pipes. they stood awfully close to two cars that blew fire out their pipes. sometimes people are stupid. nothing happened, other than a lot of noise from the engines, but it would have been interesting if they all had hot dogs on sticks to cook, i think. but that's just me.

 

feast for the eye

yes, i know it isn't perfect. but it is fun. aside from the obvious signs of aging, most people wouldn't give this one a second look.

rust, chipped, distressed paint may distract from the fun, but there's more to meet the eye. this is a great truck. really. it's in the details:


hot and palmy

 

so i had this pic ready last night, ready to upload, and then the internet wasn't working in the house. it was late, i was tired, the usual b.s. saved it to my phone and went to bed.

not staying at my house today, and away from my puter, this is the best i can manage. the app can't quite post it the way i usually do, and flickr isn't playing nice either. hate the new flickr app. hate it everytime they feel the need to revamp it. anyway, i' m blathering and i'll fix this when i get back.
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quick stop at the von fink show in foothill ranch the other day. pleased to find more cars there than last time i was there, last summer. some cars i like, but many with the hood up. one woman excitedly pointed to a very nice chevy nomad, saying it had just been finished [painted?]. hood was up, a crowd stood rigidly in the way, so i admired, but didn't shoot. sorry.

good turnout of muscle cars, if you're into that, but i'm not, so meh. hoods up anyway.

saw several familiar faces, even if they didn't see me.

this was actually the last shot i took before leaving. shot the front and side when i got there, but there were cars parked behind it at the time. happened to take one more look before heading to the car and saw this. empty space behind the cars. gotta love that big behind, right?
and the every detail of urban development and planning, which includes this "natural" row of palm trees, so cliche, which just so embody the facade that is so cal - hip and happening. right.

time is fleeting

i went out this morning with about four hours to hit car shows before i needed to be home. i had for sure three on my list to hit up, possibly five. 

started out in tustin at enderle. haven't been there in a long time because i don't drive north past it much any more on sunday mornings. didn't get there until a little after ten. same old same old: after the prizes are awarded, people bug out. must have just missed it, and most people were gone or in the process of leaving. i got a couple of shots before leaving.

from there, headed over to original mike's. also haven't been there for a while. cadillac kings were there in force, and all of their buddies it seemed. two aisles of caddies. should have made me happy, but i just wasn't looking for cadillacs today. 

i liked the paint job on this one. the sky was wonderfully cloudy, perfect for pictures. can kind of see them reflected here too. 

i didn't stay long at this one. kind of not what i was looking for either. 

figured everyone was at the floral park home and garden show. i kinda didn't want to deal with the crowd, so drove over to where the viejitos usually have their show last sundays of the month. nope. no show. what gives? well, maybe next month.

there was a ford show over by knott's berry farm, which was only a few minutes from where i parked momentarily to decide what to do. at that point, i just didn't want to zig back down to another show in westminster or zag up to lakewood, so i headed home. had that pesky work stuff to do anyway, which was probably what was back of mind gnawing away at my fun anyway.

i did get this one, which is really what i was in the mood for, so at least i satisfied one craving:

magic carpet ride

glad the week is over, but the work isn't done. will probably end up working in between bouts of relaxing, which should cancel each other out. that's the theory anyway. 

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computer is misbehaving too. hoping you can see the pictures and not just boxes with red "X"s.

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wondering the why of the carpet, except that it matches the color palette of the car, and defines the space and environment boundaries. no other purpose really. i see mirrors on the ground often, but there's a reason for them, usually involving a lot of chrome and hydraulics under the car.

i like the simple pinstriping on most of the car, but the big shape on the back wheel probably would look better on the trunk, not necessarily so big, and leave this part clean...if it were my car, as a matter of speaking. but it ain't, so don't listen to me.

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brain is mush. what else can i say about chicano park? let's play bitch and moan / sunshine up your...

  • not as many cars as last year / loved the cars that were there
  • whose *brilliant* idea was it to move the show to easter weekend? / everyone will be in town to enjoy a day of festivity on a holiday weekend
  • "we have a permit for an event" / it's great they want to maintain the integrity of the show rules 
  • some people are rude / people were enjoying themselves
  • lemme just sneak in front of you to get the same shot you're taking / photography is a great hobby
  • it was overcast :(  /  it was overcast! :)
  • being facetious / being facetious

 

chicano park

busy weekend, but fun. tired now, so i'll be brief.

even better, my better half got to go with me. his sister got out of the hospital, and she was well enough to take care of their mom.

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we got to the park around five-thirty in the morning. there were already cars lined up in staging to go into the park. so we decided to go over by the stage thing and unpack our cameras on the steps. within a minute of unzipping the camera bags, we were approached by an older woman who wanted to know who we were with, what were we doing...etc. we simply said we were just unpacking our cameras to take some pictures. she said the whole park is reserved for an event, they were setting up and that we had to leave. we replied that we were here for said event, and repeated we were just unpacking. she persisted, so whatever, we'll move somewhere else and unpack and do exactly what we planned anyway...to go back over to where they were staging the cars.

honestly, there wasn't anything or anyone there on that piece of the park, and we weren't intending to get in the way even if there had been. going to bite my tongue here, because i like the show, and want to go back again next year, but get a grip. even the cop in the car in a neaby parking lot wasn't going to bother us. hope she had a nice day. 

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took so many pictures. the weather turned out to be perfect, overcast with bouts of sunshine. never really needed a jacket, even so early in the morning. i liked this picture because it seemed to represent the show and location well.

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and as we left the show for the day, i was waiting to cross the street, when my better half started laughing. i turned around and he pointed at this painting. and OMG, it was the lady who had told us to leave in the first place. took some searching, but i've figured out who she is, and why she had the authority to ask us to leave. we still found it funny that we started the day with her and here she was again, on our way out...

©2025 kathy gonzalez