The point of it's early life was to demonstrate that normal folks could build something bad-ass and cool.
The car lived through various lives, different with every rebuild except for the yellow paint.
The version we're featuring is the high point. With every seccessive reinvention the car seems to have a bit more soul removed.
The most recent version was done by the folks at GM and is if fine bit of evidence as to why they have gone bankrupt - they just don't quite get it.
But let us focus on the version above.
Imagine downing a burger and a Coke, strolling out the parking lot and having that carniverous canary at your disposal for a trip down the Sunset strip.
I really don't go for yellow cars with lots of chrome and blowers and what have you...
I do go for this car, though, exactly because it is all of those things.
When I was a little kid, dragging my mother through car shows, I presumed that this image was an exact representation of what life in California was like.
Sexy, shiny and fast.
Now that I am here, I might say it is not exactly like that...
There was a period of time when I would just go to the music shop and look for the SST logo on the sleeve of the audio cassette tape available for purchase. In my youth there was no internet, no ITunes. If you wanted to listen to something other than top forty pop or classic rock, you had to sort it out on your own.
I had never really thought much about SST until the other night.
I was looking for a MeatPuppets CD (yeah, I upgraded to CD from cassette) and realized my eyes were actually searching for the SST logo on the sleeve. I had reverted back to the way I spotted cool music in a shop twenty years ago.
SST provided most of the soundtrack for my formative years. Their releases are still in the regular rotation, here at prettynotgood HQ.
SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was initially called Solid State Transmitters through which Ginn sold electronics equipment. Ginn repurposed the company as a record label to release material by his band Black Flag.
Music writer Michael Azerrad wrote, "Ginn took his label from a cash-strapped, cop-hassled store-front operation to easily the most influential and popular underground indie of the Eighties".[1] SST initially focused on releasing material by hardcore punk groups from Southern California. As many of the bands on the label sought to expand beyond the limitations of the hardcore genre, SST released many key albums that were instrumental in the development of American alternative rock, including releases by the Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, the Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr. After a peak release schedule in the late 1980s, SST began venturing into jazz releases. SST is now based in Taylor, Texas.
Huh? Somehow I had overlooked examining the source of so much of the music I listen to. I just sorta glossed over thinking about the common thread between so much of it. Really out of character for me.
I figured out that most of the SST music was stuff that I would like - with out ever thinking that there was actually any connection or commonality beyond that little logo.
The instant gratification of a new Sonic Youth cassette tape subverted my desire to understand the larger picture, it seems. Only now do I consider that the little logo I searched for was actually the logo of a record label, a brand even. I didn't really think in those terms then, I suppose. I was just searching for something from over my horizon.
This has gotten a bit long winded for our usual Saturday music selection, hasn't it? Quite the tangent from just posting up some song for you.
So, go dig some SST cassette tape out of the milk crate in the back corner of your closet and listen to it again.
Or listen to the Minutemen tube and get on with your day.
It seems to have details and a hundred pictures from every event I regret not getting to over the past year and then some.
There are some traditional lowriders, a picture trip up to Vern Tardel's place, pics of a chic, a nice Sporty chop.
Just when I thought I had such finger fatigue that I couldn't bear to click next again, to look at even more cool stuff - they throw in vintage photos from Lions Dragstrip.
God, it just goes on and on.
You should go look, but only if you are ready to waste a lot of time looking at really nifty shit.
I took some time to clean the garage yesterday. The dust, debris and the cobwebs were getting out of hand.
I have been working to much to get any work done, in the garage. I have just been going out there to look at things, to try and forget my day.
It is always good to tidy up the work space, huh? Be it your desk or your toolbox or whatever, it makes things seem more right. Ready for action, to accomplish something.
Apparently, it cleared out the cobwebs in my head a bit.
I woke up this morning from a dream, the dream was all about sorting out a torsion bar front suspension for a slingshot dragster. I can see the whole chassis, in my head... Except for the roll bar details. I was pretty fixated on the front end. It was a lot like the Fuller car in the picture. But it was different. It was mine...
What?
So I dream about building bitchin' dragsters...
Don't you? Doesn't everybody?
Well, some people do, alright. At least two people...
Go check out Conder's other action (follow the link) and buy a shirt or something. He needs all the help he can get.
I will make you buy a shirt from me, when I get arount to building my own slingshot. You'll have to wait a bit for that.
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