“Hope Laurence is doing well. Miss his photography & writing.”
I get sincerely really annoyed when I see things like this on Curbside Classic each time some old musty content I wrote is unearthed. It’s pretty easy to see that I’m doing well if effort were made to seek out where I’ve been or what I’ve done. I absolutely loathe being dragged back into a graveyard as a ghost. continue reading
My old car broke down
“The only thing I’ve had more of than boyfriends is the number of cars I’ve had in 23 year of driving”
What is it with me, and old cars.
I’ll be 39 this year. continue reading
We are on the brink of a new world order. The ways that the eventual new reality will settle into being is happening on all sorts of fronts. With that, we’re seeing some of the worst traits of our collective psyche rise to the surface. Greed as a steamroller to protect our collective fragile egos manifests in multiple ways in the United States. One place where it isn’t analyzed in an above board fashion are the choices buyers are making when selecting new motor vehicles.
The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) opened its doors to the public this week. By the looks of the new products on offer, you’d think it was 1996 all over again. Large, hulking trucks and SUVs with silhouettes that cast shadows over what we considered gargantuan 20 years ago paraded forth against dark, slightly apocalyptic set designs. Continue reading “Dynamic Divergence: The New #Road Order”
Sometimes you just change your life in a drastic way. Sometimes you do so with a supporting cast of characters. Fiction or life, who can really tell.
You may be wondering why Dynamic Drive has been rather dormant in the last 2 months. Truth is, before even losing a job, and escalating housing costs, I had already been pre-planning my trajectory out of the Bay Area for months. This meant that there had been a general slowdown in posting, less hunting for new vehicles to find and share with you in the San Francisco Bay Area, and trying to plan out where I was headed.
Continue reading “Dynamic Diversion: Personalized Cadillac Style”
This is quite a surprise. I’ve done Astrology and Music crossovers forever, but Astrology and Cars? Not as much. Surely there’s gotta be some alignment between the stars and the cars, no?
To get personal, we’re looking at a variety of Sports Coupes from around the globe that demonstrate the qualities of astrological signs. Because why be practical, but why go all out and be exotic? If you’re not feeling your choice by sun sign, give it a read via your Moon (emotional, subconscious drives) Mars (Active pursuits and literal drives) or Rising Sign (how you present yourself to the world). Or throw all 4 together to get your dream sporty garage. If you don’t know your Moon, Mars or Rising sign, hit up Astro.com and enter your birth information.
Social Networking can bring about some really awkward interactions with parents if they are young enough and/or technologically savvy. In my case, they center around my mother and her opinions on some of the curbside classics I find and post to Facebook from time to time.
Due to her direct experience as a fashion conscious (and cautious) teenager in the mid 1970s, a number of classic cars can elicit some pretty strong memories. “Oh god! That is the same Comet grandma tried to buy for me my junior year” was her robust response to this Split Pea Green Comet I found in the El Cerrito hills.
Continue reading “Dynamic Divergence: My Mother (And) The Car”
We’ve seen our nation wide open on the highways this summer. Now it’s time for us to head back to the realities of gaining more knowledge. It’s back to school season, and every big box parking lot is filled with the spoils of breeding the next generation of thinkers and doers…and spoiled brats and bullies too.
We’ve typically gone back to school in the back seats of nearly 80 years of family haulers as schools became anchors of suburban development, long out of the walking distance of the industrial revolution, yet closer in than one room school houses of America’s rural frontier myths. In terms of utility, intelligence and style, what were some of the premiere pods of the Carpool over the years?
The Wonder Years is now on Netflix. So of course, when left to my own devices with a Netflix account (I don’t have one personally) of course I’m going to indulge in repetition of comforts. Front and Center, 3 episodes in, is the Arnold family’s 1963 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan, Green with a White top, as they swoop back silently, in middle class white grief, back from Winne Cooper’s brother’s funeral.
It reminded me of a quote I’m paraphrasing about 1960’s Middle Class station that Oprah made once. The determining entrance point for all middle class families that had “arrived” in some sense was purchasing a Chevrolet Impala. Once upon a time, the true marker of comfort meant the largest, most luxurious Chevrolet. Between 1960 and 1965 that number went from just under half a million to more than a Million. Year after year, a sextet of tail lamps meant equal if not more than a six figure salary does today.
Continue reading “Dynamic Divergence: Seeing The U.S.A. Through Chevrolet”
“Young blood, you should get you a Old Skool. Now that’s a true investment that’ll always increase in value” this old Black man said to me as he tried to sell me his 1971 Cutlass Supreme he’d just dumped $18,000 worth of work into. I was on my way to firm up details for a DJ gig that required me to walk through the monthly fair weather gathering between 21st and West Grand once anchored by the Telegraph Giant Burger location and the dueling Gas Stations on either side of Telegraph Avenue.
When I returned to the East Bay in 2011, it was a haven of the Oakland that had been rather key in bringing my family in their journey to this pocket of the West Coast. In the early 20th Century, Oakland more or less was The Detroit of The West.
There’s the very pertinent reality that, in terms of car enthusiasm there’s a huge bias towards cars of the immediate Post-War. In the glow of the found memories of mid-century economic prosperity, the reverence for cars with fins and full metal jackets lined inside and out still looms heavily over the shadow of car enthusiasm.
The cars that command average American Salaries if not more at auctions have years of birth of at least 45 years old, are considered at their finest bloom once they’ve hit the silver fox age of 50, and become really intensive things to insure and keep in good health once they hit 60 and beyond. Hiding in the shadows are the cars under 45 years old to those that are being ditched as students graduate college, leaving behind family hand-me-downs and first rides from the era of The X-Files and Moesha. “Malaise Machines,” they’re called.
Dynamic Drive 