what's up?

tis the season

2024 dia de los muertos in whittier. went out of our way, and planned to be there. fortunately, the weather played nice for me, and we were able to stay until around noon, before it got too hot, and crowded with people.

early in the morning, while cars were still rolling in, we found many outstanding cars. we were able to shoot a bunch before too many observers gathered around, or before the altars got set up. some we shot, then found them later in a different spot, so we shot again.

this really nice caddy stayed put, out front of the old folks’ home.

added bonus, there’s the “mayor” of whittier there, probably preaching to a friend. he’s a nice guy. sounded like he’s had a tough few months since i’d last chatted with him. same, brother, same.

i used to be all about halloween. i’ve got a big box of costumes from years’ past. my daughter typically has rifled through it by now, and pulled out some favs. now the box is somewhere in storage, and the memories are in tatters or rotting away in the heat. that might make some of them even better…

tonight i’ll be tossing candy at what few kids come by at my mom’s house. never can tell if there will be a lot or no costumed visitors, but at least this year, she got candy i like. tootsie rolls will probably pull out my fillings, and the chocolate will probably go straight to my waistline. oh well.

sraining

it rained half the night, into morning here today. better have says i slur my words a lot, so i’d say it’s “sraining.” how very elvis of me. more rain coming tonight, and half of tomorrow. i love it. cold and gloomy.

stayed home most of the weekend, wrapping the eternal/infernal xmas tree with the usual ten thousand plus frigging lights. my hands and arms are scratched from the wire branches, and even my ankles have been shanked by the lower branches this year. maybe socks would help. thousands of little fruity lights. perhaps you might remember the tree just a block from uptown whitter. probably could have seen it from a plane.

anyway, it’s my gift to my better half, to get the thing wrapped with lights, since he’s been so busy with work lately. it makes him happy, to remember how much his mother loved xmas and that damn tree. so there you go. it will be up to him to decorate to whatever theme—did toy story again last year, so something else from storage and his mother’s ornament collection.

another car from the bomb club show. i hope you’re not tired of them yet. i have more to post. perhaps i should dip into the archives and post old ones?

nah, it was overcast that day, so it fits with my mood and the current weather, so that decides it.

nice car, and i managed to get no one moving thought the shot here, off to the side of the field.

pizza

uptown whittier, just ordered pizza. so i have a few minutes to spare.

went out to the fundraiser for brother richard this past weekend. i’m sure i’d seen him around, but probably never spoke to him. he had a lot of friends, judging by the number of cars and groups of people attending.

weather was perfect for mid-morning. should have gone earlier, but things had need of doing first. still wrestling with the new camera and lens settings.

shot this car as i was heading back around to my car. better half was waiting at home—had to make a storage unit run—did i mention we are moving? his mother is gone and i get my condo back soon, so nothing holding us here. going to be closer to my mom now, where i am living ninety-nine percent of the time now anyway.

on-screen, full-size, this car glows. seems pretty sharp where i wanted it focused, but the lens does start fuzzing out towards the edges. need to find it’s sweet spot.

pizza ready. walking back.

front street, behind me

woke up reluctantly and headed out to front street. when i had been to this show previously, it was in the parking lot of norwalk records. something about not getting the permits pulled in time as it turns out.

this time, it was properly on front street, the full length of it.

so, after several power outtages today, i’m finally able to post a picture. unless it goes out now. only got around to this one. i was asked to shoot it, as these cars are all “deluxe,” as is the building.

it was nicely overcast for a couple of hours, allowing me to get from one end of front street to the other. admittedly, i spent too much time shooting some cars, that the sun had begun coming out before i was totally done. it also allowed time for more hoods to go up. there was one i especially had wanted to shoot after i saw it drive thru. alas, the hood was up, and it was crammed in between other cars too closely. and i didn’t like the color so much after the sun hit it; it was somehow less appealing then.

such a mess

1941 chevrolet special deluxe convertible

brother and his wife were in town this past week. each day, as soon as i walked in the door from work, the wife would put me to work clearing junk out of the garage and attic. she’s a teacher, and very used to bossing people around.

finally had to start telling her i needed a moment, i just got off work, lemme eat something. junk can wait.

she didn’t realize how traumatic it was going to be for my mom, clearing the clutter, and filling two big junk trucks and a dumpster with stuff, and it barely put a dent in the garage junk. there’s still another attic to do as well.

the stuff is useless, but mom still would pick through the trash bags and pull out arbitrary items. i doubt she needs video 8, beta or vhs tapes of the gulf war or some cartoon my kids used to watch, but they’re sitting upstairs in her bedroom now. maybe it’s that the sticker has my dad’s handwriting on them. i think the players for them already went into the trash, or otherwise didn’t work and went into the trash.

was a battle of wills clearing out the pantry of out of date food items dad had bought over the years, and promptly forgot about. he used to eat stuff no one else would touch—oysters, anchovies, sardines, pickled pig parts, etc.—and yet she wanted to keep stuff in case anyone ever asked for it. i had to ask her how often a guest would arrive and ask if she had any prince albert in a can? never, but she doesn’t want to waste anything. well finally said, stuff is way out of date, and you wouldn’t even be able to donate it to a food pantry, so it needed to go.

sure, we’re disturbing her comfort zone. all this could wait another decade until she’s gone, but we’re trying to make some room, make it safer, make it her own.

took a few days of her in tears, and cussing—which she doesn’t do—for her to mourn her lost stuff. sister-in-law has said she is done, and probably won’t be back. she’s on her plane home by now.

my brother stayed behind, so they are still emptying stuff from the garage attic. his find for the day so far was my dr suess lunchbox from first grade.

i’m in whittier, for what seems my weekly cry. somehow we end up talking memories of my dad, so then the tears come again. it’s ok.

better half got out in the morning and got half his shopping done. i should be able to be home a little more often while my bro is staying with my mom. she was telling me the other day that she is perfectly fine being left on her own, but, when i called her earlier, she asked if i was coming back tomorrow. and she isn’t on her own.

looks like it wants to rain, and usually looking out this window, i’ll see old cars driving by; not one has noisily rumbled by today. we’re also in the flight path for LAX, but the planes must be coming in from the other direction—not seeing those either—and they would typically be coming in low, under the clouds on a day like this.

good car shows coming up. already booked a hotel for chicano park show. wonder if my bro will still be around, so he could go with me; doubt my mom will. padres are in town that weekend too; hoping to hit up a ball game while i’m there.

looking at the calendar, and some days have several shows. flip a coin, throw a dart, pull a show from a hat…need to decide somehow and get out and shoot.

shot this car at last year’s whittier uptown show. early. best early. the light and no crowds yet. and no heat…some years get so dang hot, i can’t even get around to all the cars before i start to feel ill. not tolerating it well anymore.

almost like they purposely parked that red car under those red banners for a reason…so color coordinated.

out there

quick post. stayed out all evening trying to find new outfits. i hate shopping, and clothes are cheap and poor quality. i'm such a failure at girling, i guess. whatever.

mostly was trying to avoid having to walk/watch my kid's dog until she got home from work. got to my mom's only to find she/it wasn't there--staying with a friend for a few days. oh well.

----

saw this forty-one at santa anita the other day. for some reason it was sitting off to the side all by it's lonesome, instead of in line with all the other cars waiting to go into the tunnel.

didn't really like the color version, so tweaked it to black and white. sort of looks better this way, somehow more dramatic. like, "here i am."

dreaming

digging down to one of the older pictures that have been sitting in draft mode.

i like this picture quite a bit. probably would like it more if i just rubbed out those two modern cars on the right.

out by legg lake, so it must have been one of the los boulevardos' barbeque picnics; i'm just too lazy to look up the file right now.

well, my software is doing updates, so i can't work on a picture now. tired anyway. busy day, not enough good sleep at night.

we have baby monitors in all the rooms of the house, so we can hear if my better half's mother calls. her inner timer is screwed up, so she is often up all night watching tv, and randomly asking for coffee or meals at two, three, or four a.m., then sleeping half the day.

lately, he's had many all nighters, then full days of work, so he is mostly just stumbling through the day. he calls this place his sleep deprivation lab.

i have a hard time going back to sleep once i'm awake, so my better half pretty much sleeps in the front room, so as not to disturb me. i'm supposed to leave the volume up at night, so i can be the back up, should he not hear her.

once in a while, we both are just unconscious to the world, and she has to resort to the alarm on the monitor, and even that doesn't work sometimes. when you gotta go, you gotta go. fortunately, one of us has heard it eventually, before she has tried anything stupid, like trying to stand up by herself, and into her wheelchair.

apparently, i only hear her half of the times she calls at night. wasn't a problem when i was young, with little babies, but i guess i've lost that sense of hearing, and remain solidly asleep, especially since i don't get there until after ten most nights. maybe i have insomnia.

long ago, not long after i married my better half, said he tried to wake me up one night. he claims i told him, "shhh." he tried again, but this time i said, "kathy's sleeping." pretty sure there was a variation he likes to tell people, where he said i told him "kathy isn't here right now," but not in the current iteration.

he thought i was fucking with him until i went on snoring or whatever. strange that i left a keeper at the gate to warn him off.

well, he dreams, vividly. he once told me he went to germany...

father's day

old plymouth from the uptown show. i like that even though i walked up there relatively late, around six-thirty, the street was still pretty empty. i've shot this car several times over the years, but this is probably my favorite picture of it so far.

a relation of the owner inquired about some editing on it, and inserting parents into the shot...sure i can do that, for a price...but they never got back to me, so i'll leave it be.

hey dad, probably won't make down to your house today. restaurants are busy anyway. we can go out tomorrow, mkay?

another perfectly, cold june gloom day. i really should go out to one of the parks around here, for any one of the many car club barbeques happening, but judging by the last holiday park show i went to, finding parking and dealing with the crowds, make it so much less fun. unless you're there first thing at dawn. which it isn't now...well into the afternoon, so there you go. i'll stay put. better half has marketing and probably heading to the office to work stuff, so here i am again.

i will just sit here, play with pictures, and watch as numerous people park illegally in the street, and walk up to the neighbor's door. usually towards evening. they don't stay long, so nothing nefarious is going on.

money is exchanged and they return with bags/boxes of something or other. we suspect it is some type of unregulated food prep for restaurants, cuz they're always cooking in the kitchen with the windows open. this being father's day, i expect quite a number of pit stops to happen.

we don't really talk to them, as they've been assholes since they moved in over a year ago. really surprised the old curmudgeonly neighbor hasn't call the health inspector on them yet.

used to be a drug dealer living in the house next door, and long after they were busted, strange people continued coming around, but i don't think this is the same thing.

we do like to make up stories about what might be in the plain brown bags though. i'll go with homemade playdough today, in hot pink and neon green. buyers will go home and open the bag, stick their faces in the top and take a big whiff, sending them back to their childhoods.

just close your eyes and open a can of playdough...sniff it...it totally works, assuming you played with the stuff as a kid.

but that homemade shit, probably not the same...might not take you back that far...and who wants to be a teenager again? ick, no.

a weekend | pt 3

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5

had the best intentions of being out in barrio logan before sunrise. set my alarm for four-thirty. snoozed it until five-thirty, dressed quickly, ate a bowl of cereal.

i started worrying about catching the red train out the barrio—not the actual ride out, but the standing in the dark waiting, plus switching trains and waiting some more. lots of homeless types zombie-ing around ya know.

i needn't have worrried at the first station—wasn't dark by six anyway, but there were at least five cops just standing around. same at the next station, plus plenty of people. but i totally would have been fine taking a swing at someone with the pointy end of my tripod, if there was any trouble.

so really the only thing about having to be off on my own, is worrying about my safety in the dark. that sucks. i miss my favorite light because of that. stupid.

i hadn't been to chicano park in a couple of years. i think last time it was or threatened to rain, so many cars just didn't bother to show up, and there was so much room on the grass, that vendors had set up out front, where cars usually get packed in.

this day, the weather was perfect. just a little chilly, but not enough to wear a coat. would have gotten too warm quickly, and my bag has no room for stuffing a jacket.

started over by the skateboard park, with a line-up of impalas—sixty-twos/sixty-threes/sixty-fours. then caught the end of the line of cars on dewey street, heading to the grassy knoll.

quickly headed through the park to start on the street side this time, assuming it would be much hotter later, and the pavement would be too much. usual clubs in their usual spots: pachucos, viejitos, majestics, klique.

turned right, up toward the majestics' big blue club house. i don't think i've ever seen it without the yard packed with people, but it still was early, so just a few setting up tables.

made quick work of the length of the street, then up on the back patch of grass. i skipped cars i'd seen before, had hoods up, or just didn't like the shot. i can be choosy, when i'm running against the mental clock in my head.

took a break, chugged a bottle of water, and went around the front lawn i'd skipped through earlier. after all that, about ten, it was starting to get crowded, and the sun had come out and was feeling warm. i decided to stop, head to the market, use the facilities, and grab me some carnitas.

unusually, the carnitas sucked. they usually are the most tender, flavorful pieces of meat you could wish for; this time of day, i got a plate full of brittle, bristly meat stumps. best part of the meal was the tortillas. sad.

i had mentally called it a day, and had even texted my better half that i was done. he basically said what the hell...his weather app was telling him the day was perfect, so why stop? i thought about it a little, and figured he was right. especially, when right out the door, between the stores and apartment complex, the impala car club had set up in the middle of the street.

so shot a few of those cars, then headed around the far side of the building, toward the end of the road and the freeway on-ramp end of logan avenue. come around the corner, to the shouts of a group of christians of some sort shouting from the right hand side of the on-ramp at a group of people on the opposite side, backed up by a contingent of cops and their cars just standing around, just in case. whatever.

cut through that mess, figuring i'd just quickly run through and see if anything drove up that i might have missed earlier. unfortunately, by that time, all i could see up the road was a river of people. bad news for me and my tripod.

i still shot quite a few cars, but i had to wait out the shot longer than before, between the flows of people. to the point that i was just done, and pulled off to the side to pack my shit.

even then, there were so many people in the park, under the overpass to coronado, that i decided to not go that way, and turned around back through the cops and on-ramp drama to get out of there.

to be continued...

in-n-out

so many pictures, not enough time. so much going on at home, and a trip coming up, i almost did not get out to the veteranos' show. drove an hour to get there from my parents' house.

better half still at home taking care of his mother, relatives visiting, so he couldn't go. and, i couldn't stay very long, as i needed to get back there with him.

lots more cars were showing up as i was leaving, but that's how it goes. and, well, i really don't care for midday light and shadows anyway.