One of the subjects I plan to lean on for ESG content is transportation. I love cars, classic mostly, fast usually, but to limit my postings to just cars would not scratch the surface on my interests. My old man was an USAF pilot so airplanes have always been in my blood, I hope to learn to fly one day. I ride a '66 HD Sportster so bikes are a given, again I lean toward the more vintage stuff, sixties on back. Trains are totally kick ass too. So for the first installment on transportation I thought I'd post ads of a few of the vehicles I've been lucky enough to call my own over the years.
My first car...really first car, '67 rag top! One lucky dumb ass kid!!
Second car '69 w/350 lots of fun got me to Austin on about 5 tanks of gas and I never left!!
I sold the '67 to help buy a house, the '69 caught fire and broke my heart so I sold her to a guy who has become one of my best friends..cars have that kind of power! A few year later I went even older...'49 Custom Coupe!
She is one I wished I had kept...oh well, the next car I still have and has always been one of my favorites, '67 Buick Riviera w/430!! Big Black and Fast just like the song....
Somewhere in between I found a '66 XLCH I love her and ride her every chance I get, there is no feeling like a bike at speed!!!
Much of the reason for this blog was born out of frustration. I noticed the major influences in my life have little to no importance to most news and entertainment outlets. Best example was the death of Frank Frazetta back in May of this year. I was saddened by the news when I finally heard, it was second-hand from other blogs I visit. It was not until I emailed friends and family noting my anger that my sister replied with a link to a NY Times story, that story mainly focused on the family's litigation against one another not on the artist. He lived a full life and left us with amazing images, but I suppose his work was too far out of the mainstream. Fantasy and comic book artist don't get the respect they deserve but Frank filled my head with bad ass dudes rescuing half-naked chicks from otherworldly creatures and really helped get me into reading and for that I am eternally grateful.
Now I consider my self a good father I want my kids to have stuff, especially on Xmas morning! But this Black Friday shit is out of control! There were people lined up hundreds deep out side toy$ru$ on a Thanksgiving night in 40 degree weather!! Sheep!!
I've been on the other side of this too stocking shelves @ 4am, with worthless crap from RedChina were little girls killed for being girls and working conditions are a daily game of Russian roulette and wages, if any border on slavery!!!!
anyway..this is what I think of every year when the hype begins....PAINT THE DEVIL ON THE WALL!!!
I read a lot or should I say I go to the bathroom a lot… which is when I read…chicken and egg really, but I digress.
I think I read more than most, less than others but read I do. My Girl takes classesand buys books; I read ‘em when she’s done. My folks read, my siblings read, we are readers, I hope my kids will be as well. On occasion I hope to give some insight into works that I have read, nothing serious just quick takes who, what, why, why not .
I’ve read the stuff for school. I went through a big sci-fi stage as an adolescent every soft-back Conan ever from everyone, not just Howard. Then it was Asimov, Hubbard, Tolkien, Lovecraft, and Poe. Bibles (Black and Regular), I even found a copy of the Koran on a job site and blew through that in a couple of days. Speaking of mad Arabs I read the Necronomicon, no conjuring just reading. H. Thompson, L’Amour, Anne Rice, I’ve even read Myers, yes that Myers…
Recently it was “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follet, epic, epic stuff, right in my wheelhouse, historic, violent, intriguing… loved it finished it and felt like a piece of my life had ended….then my girl brings home the sequel, the equally kick ass “World Without End” so I’m knee deep in that right now. I like Bios too but generally read anything that is close by when nature calls.
I want to comment on “Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt, it is a memoir. Published back in ’96, a movie was made too; it’s in my Netflix Que. McCourt takes us on a trip down memory lane to 1920’s New York City with his immigrant parents, mired in a cycle of poverty and alcohol they return to Ireland with their children in tow for a cycle of poverty and alcohol. This reads like mantequilla on a tortilla… smooth soft flowing with laughs and anguish, hunger and the fullness of simple human needs occasionally met. A must read for anyone of any background but I think it really resonates if you have every seen or experienced severe poverty of any kind. It should be read if you fall into any of the following; poor, think you are poor, were poor, thought you were poor, are an alcoholic, know an alcoholic, think your old man was an alcoholic, think all clergy are good, think all clergy are bad, think class systems don’t or didn’t exist even 60 years ago. Frank survived the slums of Limerick and made it back the place he was born while most of this story takes place in Ireland it is an American success story, from a very young age Frank and his brothers thought of nothing but America for this is truly the land of opportunity.
I understand the allure of Kiss, the masks of white-face, the characterization, the blood, the smoke the freak-out-the-squares thing, I get it! I was in the Army, I had the gun from Love Gun, I had the posters Spirit of ’76 anyone? I sang “God of Thunder” w/air guitar. I can still stick my tongue out farther then most, I sat on my bed and did my best rendition of “Beth” in the mirror, and I get it. I remember tearing the plastic off of Alive II, the longest day in my life was waiting for Phantom of the Park to come on TV that night!
Even at age 11, I knew what was good T.V. CHiPs, Starsky & Hutch, And Grizzly Adams! Phantom was crap, Kiss thought so, though Gene now likes to compare it with “Plan 9”… “Oh yeah, we meant to make shit, somebody get me a Dr. Pepper!” so that 30 years from now people will think they were misunderstood geniuses! I hung in there with my band you can’t blame Kiss for this! T.V. just can’t handle their awesome powers, if it had been at the Pershing Theater it would have been kick ass!
I think Most of us have a musical breakthrough moment, mine was a result of creeping into no man’s land, the ultimate “stay the hell out or I’ll kick your ass” place, the coolest place in the entire world to an 11 year old. My brother’s room! Dark and dank, blankets and sheets covered the curtains, zero light every penetrated his room, when I was 11 he was 18/19 and cooler then cool to me, he once told me Kiss was shit, I said fuck you, he laughed….why would this super cool, jean jacket wearing, blue-eyed-bearded-longhair, Camaro driving, pot smoking, hot chick scoring hero of mine dislike the greatest band ever!!! I must find out.
I was in his room for one reason, why does my hero-brother not dig Kiss? I mean everyone likes Kiss he’d even seen them live!! He kept concert ticket stubs, 8 bucks to see Sabbath, Marino & Nugent…no Kiss…mmm? So careful not to disturb even the slightest thing, lest I be caught and flogged or caned or lord knows what… I slowing crept in leaving the door open just enough not to fall on my face and break something or worst land in a plate of leftover-leftovers. Smoking was strictly forbidden in my parents house neither of them smoked, yet his room reeked with a subtle sweetness, faint yet present, from nights jamming with his childhood buddies who seemed to all take up an instrument…one drums, three or four guitar and my brother the bass, he says he took it up cause everyone was a better guitar player then him, but I think it had more to do with the groove, drummers and bass players always seem to be the hidden talent cool and unassuming but always cool… JP Jones, Boz Burrell, Entwistle, Hamilton, Wyman, Glover and the overlord Terrance “Geezer” Butler just to name a few.
I flipped through his albums, and the covers melted my mind, photos and drawings, paintings really brilliantly done, carefully selected pieces that said buy me and I will change your life forever! Judas Priest: Hell Bent for Leather, what the….a close up of a motorcycle dude with his goggles busted and on back longhaired dudes with dog collars on!Aerosmith: Rocks not to flashy; five diamonds on the cover…but the record sleeve!! A caricature of the band on stage with the guitars twice as big as their bodies and Steven Tyler’s mouth four times the size with a collogue on the other side of the coolest looking dudes grinning and jamming! Black Sabbath Paranoid with the psychedelic swordsman, but it was the inside picture of four English cats longest hair ever big bells and big belt buckles! Ozzy standing by himself on the right side with his hands on the hips and that big ass cross, he seemed to say “lets go for a ride while we sit on the floor” cool, fucking cool, when I think Ozzy this is the one I see, young and strong a pied piper ready to guide you through the universe of your mind, the Iron Man, the Sherpa of the Planet Caravan, the Master of Reality, the man who smokes and trips so much he sees Fairies in Boots! No make up, no full body armor with eight inch heels. Just jeans, boots and the occasional BIG ASS CROSS!
Was this why Kiss was shit? Was this the result of my brother having his breakthrough? Who was his Kiss? The Monkeys?(I don’t know but I’ll ask…) He had seen the light and the light was dark and heavy and wanted to get you fucked up and drive to Juarez! It wanted to hangout in black lights and drink Schlitz Malt Liquor tallboys and Mickey’s by the case, it wanted to take you to places that never were and always are! It was Deep and Purple it was Storm Bringer and Burned it was Black and Paranoid, Bloody and Vol. 4, it was Rainbow Rising, Hell Bent and Sin after Sin it was Experienced and Mahogany it was Zig Zag and Top it was Marshalls and a P-bass, Flying Vs and SGs it was I, II, III, Zoso, Houses, Graffiti and Presence. It made you Get Your Wings, your Rocks and your Toys, it was Meddle and the Darkside, it was Running with the Pack and the Devil, Straight Shooter and Burnin’Sky, Free for All and Cat Scratch, a Caress of Steel and took you to 2112 and it was Lights Out… I became Obsessed …It was baggies and lighters, it was bowls, stems and seeds, it was posters…Farah, Borris or Frazetta, Page w/a violin bow… and cars that only played cool shit on their radios with big back tires and everything!
This stuff in my hands just seemed cooler, more real, more like my brother and his friends, dudes making music for music’s sake not blowing shit up or spitting blood, no this was something else and I had to listen. I had a record player, no strike that, a system of carefully selected pawn shop goodies my old man had scored over the years, a Garrard turn table, Panasonic amp, bad ass speakers that I can’t recall , but most important where the studio quality Sony headphones! I choose a record (that I still have) Mahogany Rush IV , don’t know why, weird cover that looked like a bunch of disposable razor, I think I figured it was inconspicuous never be missed even though I intended to put it right back. I put it on and picked a track, it was “Dragonfly” seemed like a good title to start with… it was groovy and kinda funky, a head boppin’ beat and trippy backing vocal, but the guitar was solid it just had something to it that frankly was missing from Gene and the boys: I think it was honesty and dare I say musicianship. I went back for more and more, started keeping the records in my room, my brother busy with work, gigs and practices hardly noticed but when he did he gave me suggestions, check this out or listen to the bass line on here,or the drum fills on this. I was utterly and totally engrossed within a few weeks. My breakthrough had begun, Kiss faded for me, oddly enough I never really got into Frank Marino in fact other then Van Halen and Aerosmith I’ve never got much into N. American bands in general…( the exceptions will be highlighted at a later date).
It was Zeppelin and Sabbath; it was supersonic power cords and tight leads or wandering bluesy solos that always come back to that confounded bridge! It was Bonham and Ward, Page and Iommi, Geezer and JPJ, Plant and Ozzy, it was pallet cleansing acoustic/bongo sets followed by War Pigs and Four Sticks and it was mine. I was 11!
One of my favorite lyrics from one of my favorite bands, in context from “Achilles Last Stand”, Presence 1976
Days went by when you and I, bathed in eternal summers glow As far away and distant, Our mutual child did grow
That lyric has always stood out for me the way Plant sings that line, in retrospect, and now knowing what the song is about and the pain he was going through it makes sense. I’m not going to blog about Zeppelin, there are much more talented and informed people out there blogging about music and Zeppelin in general. I’m a huge fan, I can honestly say not a day goes by that I don’t hear at least one track; I do not listen to music on the radio. (More on that to come.) I have an IPod I plug it into the radio in my girl’s car or still pull CDs when in the Foci.I don’t like to get caught up in who is the greatest band ever talk for every Zeppelin song in my mental rolodex there is a Black Sabbath song, so point is mute, I love music mostly heavy, mostly from the sound track of my life, my sister, a huge influence on my musical taste (I like to call it “musicalization”) told me that we listen to the music that we associate with the best or happiest times in our lives, I tend to agree with this.
I’m fairly sentimental and covet the days of my youth but I’m not going to listen to Meat Beat Manifesto just because I had a hot girlfriend who was into it in 1989! Nope, it always comes back to the usual suspects, Sabbath, Priest, Maiden, AC/DC, Scorpions (pre-Blackout), Aerosmith (pre-1980) and of course Zeppelin. Why these bands, why not, oh I don’t know Springsteen or The Clash?I think the obvious answer is that what was around you has an impression on a kid, what was deemed cool, good, shit or faggy has something to do with it, if no one is listening to it around you it cannot influence you. I was literally surrounded by music from birth, it you’ve ever seen my old man’s “cardboard vault” you know what I mean, 78s,33s, 8tracks, cassettes, even reel to reel…unreal the amount of recordings that still to this day adorned every nook and cranny of my boyhood home. I won’t go into the earliest stuff, but will mention that the earliest memory that I can dig up in my mind is of me swinging outside while my mother was gardening or hanging clothes and “Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head” playing on the radio so that was 1970..i was 3.
For the uninitiated,,,,
It was an April morning when they told us we should go As I turn to you, you smiled at me How could we say no?
With all the fun to have, to live the dreams we always had Oh, the songs to sing, when we at last return again
Sending off a glancing kiss, to those who claim they know Below the streets that steam and hiss, The devil's in his hole
Oh to sail away, To sandy lands and other days Oh to touch the dream, Hides inside and never seen.
Into the sun the south the north, at last the birds have flown The shackles of commitment fell, In pieces on the ground
Oh to ride the wind, To tread the air above the din Oh to laugh aloud, Dancing as we fought the crowd
To seek the man whose pointing hand, The giant step unfolds With guidance from the curving path, That churns up into stone
If one bell should ring, in celebration for a king So fast the heart should beat, As proud the head with heavy feet.
Days went by when you and I, bathed in eternal summers glow As far away and distant, Our mutual child did grow
Oh the sweet refrain, Soothes the soul and calms the pain Oh Albion remains, sleeping now to rise again
Wandering & wandering, What place to rest the search The mighty arms of Atlas, Hold the heavens from the earth
This is a test page... if all is well, I shall blog about random thoughts, complain and examine the wonder that is life in the USA through the eyes of a forty something husband and father.
I claim no expertise in anything, nothing. But have an opinion on everything as is my rite as a descendant of hard working Irish and Mexican immigrants, (with big mouths and little facts).
I will try to adhere to music, literature, film, transportation and more music. If this blog is read, cool , if not it's cheaper than ( then?) therapy.
