what's up?

wanderlust

flipping through pictures from a few years back. looking for something interesting i may have overlooked, or just never got around to posting. cars that have been sold, or just don't go out to the shows anymore.

this one from two thousand thirteen, i think i've seen elsewhere, but i thought it was a decent shot.

..been crazy busy at work again. the holidays are definitely over. busier i get, the more my mind wanders, to memories of past road trips, future travel, pretty much anywhere but the office. even thoughts of what i will do when i get my house back from my kid—gutting it, repainting it, what furniture to get...

today, mostly thought of the trip to seattle last year, driving through the redwoods.

and every day, when i get on the freeway to go to work or heading home, when i get to my exit, i always have the briefest of thoughts to keep going, keep driving, get to somewhere different. i could buy clothes and whatever else i might need on the way.

and i would do it, except for these pesky responsibilities like a mortgage and a job, and oh ya, the better half. i'd have to stop and convince him to get in the car...so let's go. and he would have the same argument in his head. until he would call his sister to come and watch their mom...he would go...but not for any extended length of time.

one of these days...i'm going to do it. and call and say, "oops, i must have taken a wrong turn..."

nothing to say

maybe i should just post pictures and not waste time blathering. they're prettier than anything i have to say anyway.

simply shady

while it wasn't as hot as the previous few days, it was warm with a cool breeze, especially in the shade, at the pharaoh south bay's show at fuddrucker's yesterday. i was hoping for a bigger turnout, but with so many shows going on this weekend, who knows what you will get.

there were enough for me, anyway. took a bunch of pictures. i particularly like the trees at fuddruckers. i like the shade. they're a pretty backdrop. hate when the wind blows and the leaves get all blurry.

meanwhile, people were up front checking out the vendors and the girl singing mariachi songs. good singer. tunes i used to hear most every weekend when i'd be at my former mother-in-law's house, with all the other relatives and siblings. the performance cleared the area, so i was left to happily take lots of pictures with hardly anyone in them.

i think most of the cars in this shot are pharaohs cars. love the cars. not loving the lens i shot them with and the distortion on the end cars. i left my old lens in the car, but figured if i went to fetch it, the moment would be lost, and the people would be back.

call me wednesday

not my usual car, but i really liked the paint on it. and it was out here by itself. unfortunate that the other club's banner is up there on top of another car's convertible top directly behind it. oh well.

i liked the way it smiled too:

oh ya, regarding the title, anyone watch the addams family movies? my better half remembers seeing the first one, and upon seeing the girl, wednesday, he thought, "holy shit, that's kathy." especially when they come out from the little cabin and she says something to the effect of wanting to be perky, and then tries to smile, thereupon scaring everyone.

ya, that would be me. dark and twisty, and i don't smile a lot unless it's for real...the continuing arguement/discussion of me not smiling at car shows or on demand. i can't fake one. really, i will, if there's a reason.

hell, that's not true either. i have wedding photos without a satisfactory smile plastered on either. sorry d. photoshop can fix that...joker joker joker!

truck me

i've got more work than time at the office. i am becoming one with my chair, and my legs are feeling it. and my phone is screwy and its pissing me off. i think, at least, that is mostly fixed, except for all my phone numbers. here nor there.

i gotta get some sleep. maybe bounce on a trampoline first, get the circulation going.

saw this one the other day in lakewood. at least the trucks mostly kept the hoods down. especially this one, with it's ghost flames.

ford play

if only more of you would just ignore the clouds in the sky. it wasn't going to rain today. driving west on the 605, it got less cloudy, and more beams of sun peaked in and out through them. come on, the overcast sky makes for better pictures.

out at the fuddruckers in lakewood, i can never guess how many cars will show up. there were only about a dozen here for the show today. ran into angel, who said it was too cold. i think it was the clouds. he said there'd been way more cars just a couple weeks earlier.

i figured i'd shoot at least a few shots of the few cars that didn't have the hoods up and/or owners standing in front or in the shot. mostly trucks.

actually, i shot this one down low, not only to snag the clouds, but because there was three or four dudes on the other side of it talking dude talk. that's ok. i like this angle better anyway.

put my gear in the trunk, as another primer covered ghost pulled in and parked and dropped down. was tempted to get it all out again and shoot it. but no, i needed to eat a very late lunch. real bangin' headache today. mostly gone now.

thought about driving to another show in anaheim, but heading back east on the freeway, the clouds really were darker and more threatening to rain, so i just went home and did a few of the things i keep saying i gotta do. my better half said it was sprinkling over at the frys off the 60.

everything old is new again

i'd never seen one of these before, at least that i can remember. dropped to the ground, it was hard to decide which point of view would be best. i have a front view, that i like, but it doesn't give you a sense of how low it was, so i'll show you this one instead.

wish the three dudes had moved out of my shot, but they persisted in just standing there for more than five minutes, so i just said screw it, and shot away. maybe that was the whole point of staying there anyway. at least they aren't being dorks and making faces.

stumbled upon

after melting over at the shakedown show, we were hungry. i suggested pizza, and remembered that there was a round table a couple of freeway exits up. coincidently, in the same plaza as the fuddrucker's show in lakewood. and hey, the show there was just getting started.

just kidding. i knew it was there. just dragged my better half over there to have a peek. still wasn't that busy yet, but this one did catch our eye as we drove by. originally sitting there with nothing next to it, but by the time we parked and set up, a clown car drove up and parked next to it...not the mg, that one was sweet...on the other side. a whole parking lot, and he has to park there. so i squeezed in and took this shot.

don't think i've got one of these before, and the blue and white paint job made it more striking. happy accident.

glowing

why is it they say that women don't sweat...they glow? bullshit. i was definitely sweating the other night at ruby's. not that it was that hot, but more that it felt humid. probably should have just worn shorts and a tank top, and expose more skin. levis just don't "breathe" even if they are made of cotton.

i purposely waited until later in the evening to hit this show, hoping it would cool off enough to persuade me away from the fans at home. and so i could start taking some sunset shots, with summer officially coming to an end, and the sun going bye bye earlier and earlier.

there were many cars i walked by because of their location, or owners parked in chairs in front of them. running out of room on my hard drive makes me more picky i guess.

i came back to this one before i left, and probably should have just kept shooting while the sun went south. the hood was so reflective, and the colors changing in the sky just glowed off of it. this shot isn't picking up the rose colors that i saw later.

that's hot

this bucket was from early in the year out in norco. back when i used to have to drive out to riverside pretty regularly. lots of pictures, and i've been reviewing files to try and free up space on my drive, and found this one. figured it was time for something besides a chevy. i think that's the owner in the picture. didn't say anything, just sat there while i did my shots. seemed pretty happy with himself.

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didn't go to any shows at all today. my better half treated me to the brian setzer orchestra show last night at the hollywood bowl. how long have i lived in california, and i've never been there? didn't realize so many people could be jammed onto a hillside.

was a great show, with the ninety-six piece symphony orchestra behind brian. the light show and fireworks were pretty cool. some of the acoustics were sketchy, and the music seemed to be playing down in a hole. one of the few concerts i've attended that didn't take three days for my ears to stop ringing, but still, glad to have been there.

i guess one of the big features of the bowl is that you can bring your picnic basket and booze and lounge about the area and in your seats before and during the show. all that is well and good, but not being drinkers, we had to smell all of our fellow show goers' open glasses of vino throughout the show. so nauseating. never could understand how people could drink that piss. it's nasty. i've tasted it, and i suppose i just never had those friends that i had to pretend to enjoy the taste of alcohol in front of growing up. actually, mostly didn't have friends, but did get to observe others making asses of themselves.

anyway, my better half put us up in a hotel nearby, so we didn't have to get stuck in the log jam of drunk winos after the show. thanks, d, you know how i hate sitting in traffic.

well, we enjoyed the show, the hotel, the air conditioning, and stuff. we had decided not to do the show in pasadena and hadn't brought the cameras on purpose, but had left others as an option. we slept in, then stopped over at the hilton by universal studios and ate the buffet for brunch. got too hot outside to bother with norwalk, and then got too sleepy to go to lakewood in the evening. and somehow, i'm ok with it. pretty awesome weekend, considering.