who's your daddy?

 

so we drove out to brea this morning, to check out some annual show over by brea mall. if i had wanted to see a bunch of newer muscle cars with their hoods open, i could have just gone to the dealership down the street.

was about ninety percent peenie parade o'cars belonging to middle aged chubby guys who apparently think buying a car qualifies for entry in a car show. how the hell do the judges seriously go about judging these things? they're new, off the lot, or maybe a couple of years old, no effort to customize them has really gone on; i guess you could say they contain all original parts. probably paid the guy swinging the towels around to polish them up too. shit.

you really wanna know what i think about these guys? BFD. ok, don't ask me. my better half says i don't have a filter when asked my opinion on things.

really, we tried to salvage the trip, and wanted to get our cameras out of the bag, but it seemed almost a requirement to have the hood up. and the few and far between cars that we would have taken pictures of, just weren't doing it. too many people, crap location, and how crammed cars were into the spaces marked out. meh.

i did see a couple of guys i know. and i didn't even shoot their cars. even with the hood down. i guess i really didn't feel like shooting today, so skipped the hooters show this evening.

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so the news i mentioned the other day: i have four pictures accepted in the fair again this year. only three of them are cars. you'll have to go look for the other one over in pictures of flowers. of the pictures i entered, i can't really figure the reasoning for what was chosen and what wasn't, but fun just the same. so off to the framer's, and my mother-in-law is already imagining which wall this set will go on.

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oh, and this car is again from chicano park. and really, what dad wouldn't want a mostly nekked chick airbrushed across his hood? i think this is a viejitos car, but from new mexico.

anyway, happy father's day, dad. i know you read this blog, or at least look at the pretty pictures once in a while...

very clean

as i've said before, i don't much care one way or another for the newer cars, the bouncers, the low riders. they've mostly lost the classic curves of the bombs and such that i love. but i can appreciate them. 

this one was pretty clean. interesting pinstripes and metallic applique. the trunk was closed when i got down to shoot the picture, but the owner said wait, and popped it up. i guess it adds to the shot, showing the scroll work back there.

now if i'd only shot it from the back...in the trunk was all the chromed out apparatus to make it go up and down. i'm guessing he doesn't take this to the supermarket.

if it makes you happy

another long day, long drive home, short walk, and quick look through my pictures. i liked this one best tonight. my better half has been peeking at these chicano park shots over my shoulder and is already planning on going next year—it was that good.

at least tomorrow's friday. hoping to get some news too. planning to hit ruby's tomorrow evening and hoping for some good shots and beautiful skies.

saved from an untimely crash

i was working on this picture a couple of days ago. i was about five minutes from calling it a day and posting it, and then wham, blue screen of death. shit.

i'd already put in a long day at work, sat in traffic for two hours in what should only be an hour drive, but is becoming a more typical evening drive. then to start playing with the pixels, and for it to bomb out at almost ten o'clock at night, just topped off my day and week.

going crazy at work, trying to meet multiple, overlapping deadlines, which is also par for the course, only more so with a redesign of monthly reports. also really lowering my energy to get to as many car shows after work as i used to like to be at.

thought about going to the broiler tonight, but after the drive home and being glued to an office chair and a car seat for hours, i just had enough fight in me to walk uptown for a slice of pizza.

there are a couple of cigar bars/drinking establishments, that i find more and more often frequented by owners of classic cars. tonight there was an old plymouth sitting in front of one of the wino bars. almost went in to find the owner, and ask if they'd be there if i went home and got my camera, but no. it will be back. if not another time, then maybe at the uptown show in august.

as i was saying at the beginning, i was afraid that this file was going to be corrupted by the computer crash, as has happened before, but shockingly, there was only a minor, fixable flaw. i liked the location, the sun setting behind the trees, but there was a decent breeze blowing the treetops a bit more than i like.

thinking of going to the show in rialto and/or the show at la habra high school this weekend. i wanna say there was somewhere else i was supposed to be, but it eludes me right now.

hey, ernie, here it is

i'm pretty sure this is ernie's car. from back in february. a few of the latin gents drove all the way out to norco, where they found crazy me, who also drove all the way out to norco.

they got there kinda late, so had to park down the lane, instead of in a space as a group.

i've made the pilgramage out to this big boy a couple of times now. the lot was full up both times. i had wanted to go out to the show on memorial day, but we went to see the shuttle and dino bones instead.

that's mister lowrider to you

this is one of the glitter twins. not sure where the other one ended up. actually, maybe it's pixie dust, they're like a dream, a happy thought.

parked in a perfect spot, i shot it from the front, the side, the back. liked this one best, because it hides most of the tent behind it, where the owner (i think) was sitting, and look at those great trees and sky...really makes the orange pop. basic art school color wheel complementary and tertiary colors.

three for one

quick post. gotta get up early tomorrow. make up your own story about this one.

blaze of glory

you know, it's really hard not to notice this one. especially when i'm driving around town, and i see something orange out the corner of my eye. snap my head in that direction, and yep, it's usually this car. if you are a frequent, and long-time visitor here, you've seen it before. 

shout out to the tribe...where you guys been? hoping to see you all in whittier in august, early as usual. you should update your website once in a while. it ain't xmas anymore, unless you ask my better half...he'd have the xmas tree up all year, like he used to in his old apartment, if his mother didn't make him take it down.

into the gloom

another from riverside. first day. this belongs to gary, who of course when he saw me, exclaimed, "the hood's down!!!"

i took a couple of shots of it that evening. i like this one best—it hides the port-a-potties he always seems to park in front of. i suppose that might be convenient, but they do ruin a shot.

good thing i got these pictures, though. he was there the third day, but his car wasn't; said it wouldn't start so he left it at home. bummer, dude.

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i skipped a show yesterday, and then we'd intended to go to riverside today, to the phil braybrook show, but my better half has been putting in too many hours at work, and was so tired. alarm went off at four a.m. i figured if i got up and drove out there, he'd feel obligated to go, so i stayed home and we slept some more.

instead, i went to a couple of small, local shows later, at nearby high schools. just a few cars i bothered with at both. and some confusion with my better half, who was still sleepy on the couch when i left. he didn't realize i left, and the rest of the day has been kind of 'off.' maybe after a good night's sleep, things will fall back in place.

feel free to buy a print.

tiger in the grass

i've posted this one up here several times before. keep trying to get the stripey, random airbrush paint job right. lo and behold, there it was in with a small contingent of cars from orange county down at chicano park, hiding in a corner. 

as i've said before, it's fun to find a car over and over, and then to find it some new environment. typically, i find it on a hot, sunny day, sitting on hot asphalt in a parking lot. things get more blown out that way.

here i found it again, in the shade of the bridge overpass, sitting pretty on the grass. surrounded by hundreds of other remarkable cars, i found it without a crowd around it for a change.