The Death of Evel

It would seem that Mr Knievel has made the giant jump to the otherside.

I have to say, in spite of his total nutjob nature, I have some respect for the guy. I am sorry that he is gone. Evel Knievel was an inspiration to me growing up, maybe.

Shit, he had that awesome get-up. He introduced a generation to tough talking, bravado. There was that bitchin' (actually kind of lame) wheelie bike toy thing.
When dudes like Burt Reynolds and Bo&Luke were making the act of jumping cars look like a Sunday drive, Evel was showing us reality.
And he came back for more.

How many guys have enough passion (or level of insanity) to repeatedly throw themselves into a speeding ball of broken bones - just because. The many missed attempts to hurdle enormous obstacles are what everybody remembers, forgetting the crazy stunts he actually pulled off.
Nothing but gravity would stand in the way of that man and his vision.
Not a hundred cars.
Not some giant casino water fountain.
No gaping maw of a canyon.
Not even Kanye West and a pack of lawyers.

I would bet money that he knew his crazy rocket sled was headed straight into Hell's Canyon. God-dammit, he said he was going to do it though. He lit the wick 'cause it needed to be done, slag off whatever laws of natue might stand in the way.

So here is to Evel Knievel.
Go do a wheelie, or something similar, in his honor.

conditions are perfect

R&R

That has been the theme for the weekend, rest and relaxation.

I guess I needed it. KVC has a good reason for all the snoozing, but I have been getting about ten hours of sleep a day.
You know it may be the season. Dozing conditions have been near perfect, a slight chill to the air and a gray sky. The ratio of blankets to degrees celcius seems to directly impact my ability to deny waking.

On the relaxation front, well, we have been snacking and movie watching. I putzed about the garage a bit as well. I haven't really finished anything out there, but a pace of completion might be less relaxing.

I suppose I should actually do some things today.
Tomorrow it' back to the salt mines...

sorting the office a bit...

it's gotta nice beat

you can dance to it

doing some plumbing for gas and the trans cooler

GM

notice the cars in the background...I don't think this was some special parking area at a car show...just some pit area at some dragstrip...in Kansas, I think...not many Fords there...I think there is the roofline of one in the back...hidden behind some of my favorite of the General's offerings...

baboons

Have I mentioned that I am somewhat obsessed about baboons, recently?
I don't have a good explanation. Baboons...
There might be some need to explore this visually.
You know, with the paints and the what not.

Turkey?

Are you thinking about Turkey?
I bet you are.
How could you not be thinking about Turkey?


I mean it is a pivotal country, in regards to our national interests in the Middle East. There is that bit with the Kurds, which could destabilize the more secure regions in Iraq. There have even been military actions across the border, by the Turks. Plus, you have that whole debate going about the Ottoman genocide of those Albanians pissing off their population and eroding there support of our military operations. Rising strength in their more religious factions, politically.

Turkey.
Whew...

diversionary reading

After all that depressing stuff in Fiasco and the last few books I had read, I needed some antidote. I needed to cruise through some words that were pretty and artful.
So, I have blown through a couple of books by Tom Robbins.
Sure, a read through of "Another Roadside Attraction" and "Jitterbug Perfume" will turn around your mood better than a prescription for the happy pills.

Robbins is a master at lining up words, lyrical story teller and pretty damned funny.
Here is a quick out-take, describing rain, in Seattle...

"Rain poured for days, unceasing. Flooding occurred. The wells filled with reptiles. The basements filled with fossils. Mossy-haired lunatics roamed the dripping peninsulas. Moisture gleamed on the beak of the Raven. Ancient shamans, rained from their homes in dead tree trunks, clacked their clamshell teeth in the drowned doorways of forests. Rain hissed on the Freeway. It hissed at the prows of fishing boats. It ate the old warpaths, spilled the huckleberries, ran in the ditches. Soaking. Spreading. Penetrating."

If you have spent any time in the Puget Sound, you should recognize how nicely it's wetness has been communicated.
That is from "Another Roadside Attraction" - the story of some nutjobs who set up a flea circus and hotdog stand outside of Seattle and eventually come into possession of the mummified body of Jesus. Hilarity ensues and precedes.

Sometimes, reading about wildly absurd things makes it easier to deal ones mundane daily absurdities...

Manliness cont'd...

You can go back to the original manliness post, if you have forgotten that diatribe.

There was the big game today, the biggest game today. The game that is more secular than sport, if you share my home state.
That had me thinking about sports, in general.
That flowed into thinking about E. Hemmingway and his take on sport.

Ernest was of a mind that the only real sports were bullfighting, boxing and motorcycle racing.
I gotta agree with the guy, to some degree.

Those aforementioned activities will really put it to a guy.
You are earning your chonies staring down another man, a charging bull or a concrete barrier.
That guy in the black cloak is coming at you fast, in any of those situations.
The real game of chicken.

Anyway, that is Floyd Emde in that pic. He is about to demonstrate the act of manliness for a crowd at the '40 Oakland 200.

Nuff Said

lack of supervision

As dull as this may seem, when left unattended I begin to polish the transmission.

See, I have been burning the candle at three ends recently. What with work and school and the rest of life, I usually don't get out to the garage until you are wisely in bed.
Out of some basic courtesy I try to keep things quiet in the garage, at two in the morning. That leaves the less loud options for things to do - and there aren't a whole lot.

That is how you end up with polished bellhousing. I started with the 3M pads on the rest of the old tranny, but common sense took hold.

At least until I can't find something more useful to do...

October, First Account

I will bring anything for three
With a dusty smile and a loaded gun
You ask me again, whats in it for me?
Well thanks and tell me come undone

Painted red, our hands are white
I've never seen this place before
Seen through, we're on our way
Through and through each bolted door

Driving us down for it's chase
And we run any day we'll skip town
It'll never hear us come
Driving us down for it's chase
And we run any day we'll skip town
It'll never hear us come

Wont you help me out? Won't you please help me figure it all out?
We've cut ourselves open a hundred times
We've cut ourselves open a hundred times
But we're not out of ammo yet
But we're not out of ammo yet

Oh now no, won't you help me out? Won't you please help me figure it all out?
We've cut ourselves open a hundred times
We've cut ourselves open a hundred times
But we're not out of ammo yet, not yet
But we're not out of ammo yet, not yet

Driving us down for it's chase
And we run any day we'll skip town
It'll never hear us come
Driving us down for it's chase
And we run any day we'll skip town
It'll never hear us come
Driving us down for it's chase
And we run any day we'll skip town
It'll never hear us come
Driving us down for it's chase
And we run any day we'll skip town
It'll never hear us come



Lyrics thanks to Be Your Own Pet.

Yeah, I am a few days late...

More of the take things apart, paint 'em, put them together again routine.
Humpity Dumpity would be my bitch, 'cause I got this shit down...


Howzabout some LCD Soundsystem to break things up, huh?



Let me know if Daft Punk is playing at your house...

Paint is funny stuff.

I have been painting more stuff on the car, as mentioned previously.

As you may know, I am a bit of a nut-job.
One of my nutty things, about the car, is that I am trying to make things look old. I am trying to make thigs look shiny but old.

See, old shiny paint looks different than new shiny paint. The old stuff does more of a glowing thing in the light, it's less mirror like. Do you know what I mean?

There is this old Buick Skylark that parks at the train station where I park, just once a week. Sundays. It is black and so original it inspires me to covet. It's gloss yet is is not quite glossy. It glows.

Through a crazy process I have been able to recreate that glow (to a close degree) on the T. I'll spare you a detailed description of what I do with/to paint but anyway, I do this nutty shit to make new paint look old.
I influence the paint to think about the history which it covers, we'll say.

Usually, at least.

Paint and I have been differing as of late. Perhaps the change of temperature or humidity have us squabling about the manner in which it lays down. So it is doing it's own thing and some things are a bit more shiny than glowy.

I figure some time will get us on the same page. That, plus me being the only person who will ever notice makes it all equal out.

Fiasco

You have probably heard of this book - "Fiasco" by Thomas Ricks. Ricks is a writer for the Washington Post.

Connected would be an apt description of Ricks.
There is long list of sources for his information, most of whom speak on the record.



I think I'll just quote a portion of Daniel Bymen's (also Washington Post) review:

"Indeed, the picture Ricks paints is so damning that it is, at times, too charitable to say that the military and civilian leadership failed. Fiasco portrays several commanders as misguided but trying their best, but others -- particularly the hapless Franks -- appear not to have tried at all. Worse, the overall war and occupation effort lacked the high-level White House coordination essential to victory, allowing Bremer to operate on his own, making major decisions without consulting the Pentagon or the National Security Council, let alone his counterparts on the military side of the occupation."


That fairly well lets you know what those 500 pages are going to confirm for you.
For me, the most compelling thing about the book is the field of vision Ricks is able to translate for the reader - through constant first person narrative.
Stories from the horse's mouth.


Facing the fact that we are going to have troops on the ground in Iraq for years to come, this book provides a great insight into the extent of our failings to date and the depth of the whole we are digging out of.

If you; care about the soldiers sent into harms way, care about our international standing as a country, have any regard for the thousands of Iraqis affected, are old enough to vote - you should probably read it...

SkullBot!

SkullBot F'n Rocks!

Turn your speakers up to 11 and follow this link...

http://www.myspace.com/skullbot




Be amazed by both their youth and their face melting metal.
They inspire hope in the damned young folks.

paint

I swear, there is a lot of stuff to paint when you build a car.
I swear, quick drying paint should dry a lot faster, too...

Sweet

What you see here is:
Butter Pecan Bread Pudding, in a Banana Bourbon Buttersauce
or something like that, it is some god-damned manna from devils stuff,
whatever they call it...

Part of the KVC B-day action, among some other delights from many places.



ANB? Are you tuned in? I swear, I will stuff the above detailed decadence down your gullet, the next time you visit. It is to be had at the Paragon, in the Claremont Hotel. The view can be as sweet as the desert, if the skies are clear.

Facebook?

So, I am on Facebook now.
I am not sure why.
KVC signed up, sent me a link.
You gotta sign up to look.
That would be how they get you.


As an aside, the Facebook dude has been through work a couple of times. Talking about how technology is changing this or that.




I hear a lot of that at work.






So, I guess I should go waste a few hours searching for some friends to network with.
It is going to be awesome!

Apex...