Album of the Week - Halloween Costume Edition - Rocket from the Crypt - Scream Dracula Scream

Halloween is coming up and once again I'm giving the kids ideas for costumes.  The natural choice is Kirk and Spock.  It really matches their personalities...but no.

My second idea is Rocket from the Crypt Vampire Alien Skeleton costume.

As seen in their live shows and the Born in 69 video. But the boys aren't going for it.

Such a simple costume and if you did the bones in reflective tape it would be awesome and safe.

Anyway, I will continue trying to convince the boys and while doing so  Rocket from the Crypt's 1995  album Scream, Dracula, Scream is on heavy rotation at our home.

It's an album that has really grown on me.  Although I've owned it since the late 90s I really didn't give it a chance until about five years ago.  Their one of the few bands to realize that to create the wall of sound you needed a horn section.

Anyway, I'm not going to give it a thorough review.  I've got costumes to work on.  This is just a recommendation that you give it a listen or a second listen.   Enjoy the Born in 69 video

The simple things - Car Classic 2012 and loose wires

I decided to take the Landcruiser down to Art Center for Car Classic 2012.  I was a little worried because there was a chance of rain and the car hadn't been running quite right.  It was cutting out occasionally and backfiring.  I changed the fuel filter and that seemed to fix it....until the drive down.

It started cutting out again.  Not that often but just enough to be unnerving.  This time I noticed the tach would drop every time it cut out.  The problem was electrical!  So at Art Center I checked it over but couldn't find anything.  No loose or warn wires, nothing.  The ride home was okay but it still cut out once or twice.

Finally before I put the beast away I pulled the rubber cover from the negative terminal on the battery.  The wires were loose and carbonized enough that they weren't making a good connection.  When I'd checked it earlier I'd just felt the connection through the rubber cover and everything felt tight - because the rubber cover was tight.

Once again I learn the lesson, when things go wrong check the most obvious answer two or three times before moving on to more obscure solutions.



So, how was Car Classic?

Awesome

Not many kids get to sit in a Mclaren.

This is the third Car Classic I've been to and I've grown to love them.  They tend to be a collection of oddballs without the repetition of usual car shows.  A Ford GT sits near a Chord which isn't too far from an 80s Mazda and an Icon Bronco.  It's about design, the best a funkiest of what there is out there.   Along with that there are students sitting around drawing and you can go into art center and see the facilities and what people are working on.  So here are my highlights.

The Juicer - quite possibly the coolest eletric bicycle.

new drawings of old cars and 

old drawings of cars of the future

Porsche - a symphony of bent and tinted plexiglas.

                           

This Bugatti engine purred like a kitten.

and won my award for "Favorite Brake Linkage" for their use of bike chain.

"Best Leather Tooling - exterior" goes to the Tom Mix Chord.

"Coolest Weirdest Small Sports Car" goes to the Mazda AZ-1 Gullwing

Best "Eyelashes on a Car" goes to Lamborghini.

"Most 80s Car" 1984 Auston Martin Logonda and it's ostrich skin interior.

"Best Trunk" the lone rat rod with its hinged aluminum crutch trunk brace.

mmmm Abarth

Best "Fuel Oil & Water" storage goes to the Model T(?) Ford

and finally the "Best Numbers" 41 and 52

What I'm working on - bathrooms and floors

Recently I've started to redo our house.  Half out of necessity and half as art practice.  I haven't figure out how to contextualize it yet but there's something there.

The boys bathroom was gross but all it really needed was a can of red paint, a new light fixture and some stickers.

What started out as the race car bathroom took a turn when I started framing some drawings of artists I'd been doing.  It's been kind of therapeutic to sit down and imagine what sort of Ed Roth creation Donald Judd or Richard Serra would drive.

Now all I need to do is figure out the floor.  I'm leaning toward that gray bumpy industrial stuff but cork would probably look better.

Until then I'll be tackling this -

Inspiration - Toyota Topics Winter 1970

I found this tucked into an old Mini Bike magazine.  I must have "borrowed" from my dad years ago.  Most of his magazines were lost in the Harris fire so I'm glad I saved this one.

The article on the 1970 Mexican 1000 is okay.  I really wish I had original copies of these photos.  Maybe I can track down Charles Nerpel.

sweet Toyota related comics.

Mexican 1000 - and back again - part 4 The End

It would be a pretty full day to get back to my folks house in Jamul.  So we woke up early but  due to the time change, between Baja Norte and Baja Sur, what we thought was 6am turned out to be 5am.

It was really really cold and the central Baja hills were socked in with fog.  I had removed the windshield wipers on the land cruiser (they're generally useless), lost my gloves and didn't have a heavy jacket.  On Highway 1, I was quickly soaking wet and blind.  Eventually, I got behind the Lexus and just followed their tail lights.  We came out of the fog and headed towards the coast and breakfast at Mama Espinosa's.

Mama Espinosa wasn't there.  At 105 she isn't at the restaurant much anymore.  I was amazed she was even still around at all.  I remember her being an old grandmotherly figure when I was 7.  I guess she would've been 66 then so it makes sense.

But her daughter was there.  She remembered the zebra striped car and my parents.  We had a great conversation (and breakfast).  We reminisced about the early races.  It was the first time I got really choked up on the trip.

Mama Espinosa's has been a main stay of the races since the start and it was too bad that the corse NORRA didn't go by it.  Maybe next year.

After breakfast we continued north.  I hadn't realized how far south Ensenada had sprawled.  We spent a good chunk of the morning in traffic.  Past Ensenada we headed east to avoid Tijuana and cross the boarder in Tecate.

The last military check point -  Mary has a really good story about this one.

The 3 freeway from Ensenada to Tecate is Baja's wine country.  It's a beautiful winding road with vineyards and small towns.  Some of the towns were settled by Russians in the early 1900s which gives them a really different aesthetic.  

In line at the boarder.

We reached Tecate and got lost trying to find the boarder crossing.  Now days you have to go to the eastern edge of town and crawl along the fence.  Mary was in the Land Cruiser and I was with Arwen and the kids.  Mary went through with no problem but we got searched.  More like "searched."  They glanced at a couple bags but didn't quiz us about the weird over sized tire or boxes of tools.  In the end it didn't take long and we were on our way.

We stopped at the Barrett Cafe for dinner.  My parents started going here in the 1940s so it seemed appropriate.

The Cafe has definitely seen better days.  Everything's working against a place like this.  Between the economy, xenophobia and the drug wars Gringos aren't going to Baja.  The tightened boarders (both legally and illegally) are keeping Mexican from coming north.  There are way more fast food places along the 94.  I've also noticed that these types of cafes have been hurting because of the speed, comfort and efficiency of modern cars - you just don't need to stop as much.  But if you asked the only other custom - an old cranky guy - it's all Obama's fault.

Anyway,  the food was good and the people friendly.  We had fried fish and hush puppies and headed home.

Mom was surprised to see us.  No one really seemed to know when we were coming back.  Even with email they were expecting us a day earlier or later.  It was good to be back

and I think Greta missed us.

What I'm working on - soccer ball roll cage

Inspiration - Aesthetic Influence - Catavina