Saturday, April 21, 2018
a 1903 curved dash Olds that Ransom Olds himself put together in the late 1940s specifically to donate it to the Michigan State University
MSU displayed the Olds at its museum for more than 50 years, but retired the car when exhibits changed. It had been stored at Spartan Stadium for years.
The vehicle is unique since it was constructed between 1945 and 1948 strictly for the purpose of donating to the MSU Museum. The Curved Dash design was produced from 1901 to 1907. This particular one features parts from different years, according to Val Berryman, curator of history at the MSU Museum.
“It was put together from various parts,” Berryman said. “It’s not a car that he owned, used or ran, but just something that he put together especially to donate to MSU.”
Adcock described the vehicle as a combination of several models which R.E. created with his own personal taste.
“It’s got wheels off a 1901, but an engine of a 1903 and a lot of brass pieces that I think R.E. put on himself,” Adcock said.
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2012/1903-curved-dash-on-loan-to-re-olds-museum/
http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/MSU-pulls-1900s-Oldsmobile-From-Spartan-Stadium-166155086.html
In 1969, a group of MSU engineering students convinced Oldsmobile to give them a car for hands-on learning. Oldsmobile sent a former W31 Cutlass S test mule. They drag raced it!
It came with a 325hp 350 engine with Outside Air Induction, a Muncie 4-speed transmission, and a 5.00 Anti-Spin rear differential.
Most of the original Project W31 student engineers will be a the MCACN to share their stories in person for the very first time at MCACN 2018. This will be in conjunction with the Ram Rod/W31 Invitational display, and there will be a feature article in an upcoming edition of Muscle Car Review magazine.
There are 5 pages about it in the MSU Spartan Engineer article from October 1970. http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/olds-w31-cars.280731/#post-2454767
https://www.facebook.com/sellingmuscle/posts/1310447139082734
I posted a couple photos of it once before: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/04/university-of-michigan-w31-project.html but I didn't know a thing about it
Friday, April 20, 2018
Overland art, by Cole Phillips
the style you see here was Phillips "fade away girl" trademark look. He did other work that was also impressive, but this style was his signature.
Other Cole Phillips work I've posted before at http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/10/coles-phillips-1880-1927.html
Saturday Evening Post cover art of Leyendecker and the new year baby coming in on the Wright Flyer
Featured car art by Leyendecker was posted before, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=leyendecker
some talented celebrities have endured being homeless and living in a car or van, and went on to become millionaires with mansions
Tina Turner
Idris Elba
Jewel
Chris Pratt
Jim Carrey
Steve Harvey
Tyler Perry
William Shatner
Sam Worthington
David Letterman
Debbie Reynolds
Kurt Cobain
Jay Leno
Dax Shepard
Tiffany Haddish
Idris Elba
Jewel
Chris Pratt
Jim Carrey
Steve Harvey
Tyler Perry
William Shatner
Sam Worthington
David Letterman
Debbie Reynolds
Kurt Cobain
Jay Leno
Dax Shepard
Tiffany Haddish
Drew Carey
Jonathan Goldsmith
Kelley Clarkson
John Cena
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/02/before-they-were-famous-steve-carrell.html
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/10/homeless-and-living-in-van-but-not.html
http://ew.com/article/1996/08/02/tina-turner-left-ike-20-years-ago/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/17-rich-and-famous-people-who-were-once-homeless-a7350941.html
https://www.popdust.com/from-jewel-to-jim-carrey-17-celebrities-who-have-famously-lived-out-of-1889707413.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/rich-and-famous-people-who-once-lived-in-car-2016-12
https://www.carloanworld.com.au/famous-people-who-lived-in-their-cars-before-they-made-it
https://petrolicious.com/articles/my-first-car-jay-leno
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1079-armchair-expert-with-dax-28955120/episode/kristen-bell-28955133/
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/02/before-they-were-famous-steve-carrell.html
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/10/homeless-and-living-in-van-but-not.html
http://ew.com/article/1996/08/02/tina-turner-left-ike-20-years-ago/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/17-rich-and-famous-people-who-were-once-homeless-a7350941.html
https://www.popdust.com/from-jewel-to-jim-carrey-17-celebrities-who-have-famously-lived-out-of-1889707413.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/rich-and-famous-people-who-once-lived-in-car-2016-12
https://www.carloanworld.com.au/famous-people-who-lived-in-their-cars-before-they-made-it
https://petrolicious.com/articles/my-first-car-jay-leno
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1079-armchair-expert-with-dax-28955120/episode/kristen-bell-28955133/
only 20% of Oregon's high schools have an automotive class, so a museum has stepped up to fill the need to teach high schoolers about car mechanics
Sally Bany, co-founded the museum with her husband, Dave. They met in high school, back when there used to be high school shop classes,
They found a factory-turned-Dodge dealership in Wilsonville, with the 15 auto bays
Bany says, “we thought, oh my God, we could have a motorsports museum and an education program for kids.”
“The local school districts were excited to work with us, because none of the high schools in our immediate area have shop classes—none,” Ferguson says. “They have students that are clamoring to take a class like this. We thought: We know we have this facility. We know we have the students. So we contacted Clackamas Community College just down the road to bring in the curriculum and the instructors. We’ve got three really strong equal partners in this: The community college provides the instructors, we provide the space and all the tools, IT, anything like that, and of course, the schools provide the students.”
So far as Ferguson knows, they’re the only institution in the country that’s worked out this sort of trilateral partnership.
the shop is packed with exactly what you’d expect to find in a real garage: a tire machine, balancer, brake drum lathe and rotor machine and more—all high-quality stuff. And kids are using it. There’s also an Allison V10 pulled out of a hydroplane, plus a Brumos-liveried Porsche 935 tucked into the corner.
http://autoweek.com/article/diy/world-speeds-noble-mission-teaching-kids-how-wrench
only 73 educational institutions have an auto shop class, and that includes high schools, community colleges, job corps, etc. 49 are high schools
http://www.aboutnata.org/education
Indiana-based Autocar today marked the official opening of a $120 million heavy-duty work truck assembly plant in Birmingham Alabama
http://www.madeinalabama.com/2018/04/autocar-opens-120-million-heavy-duty-truck-factory-in-alabama/
This was the fifth consecutive year that the Illinois State Police held a 24 hr truck enforcement event because a Patrolman died in an ‘accident,’ now they ‘purposely’ punish other truckers forever on the anniversary every year!
1811 commercial vehicles were inspected
1,088 written warnings were issued202 citations were issued
99 trucks were placed out of service
One commercial vehicle driver was arrested and charged after troopers discovered 3.7 pounds of heroin during a traffic stop.
https://cdllife.com/2018/illinois-troopers-conducted-over-1800-truck-inspections-in-24-hours/
Too bad no one has a fitness test of the cops once a year. Plus a drug test. A review of their conduct over the past 12 months. You know, job related evaluation.
I'm against driving a car into people... but I'm also against assholes beating on cars that coincidentally happen to be in the wrong place when protest happens.
If you're not going to paintball gun the protestors away from your car, then, well, get ready to run them over so you can escape their mob hysteria
https://swarfs.tumblr.com/
before the 8 track, was a 4 track
2 sides... when you flip the cartridge over it would have the magnetic tape reading heard on the other half of the tape, and the half tape was divided into left and right so you heard the music in stereo
8 tracks were an improvement brought on by new tech ways of making smaller read heads that were 1/2 the size
and everything I wrote above is speculation based on obsevation. Thanks Steve!
"The four tracks were divided into two "programs", typically corresponding to the two sides of an LP record, with each program comprising two tracks read simultaneously for stereo (two channel) sound playback. He licensed popular music albums from the major record companies and duplicated them on these four-track cartridges, or "CARtridges", as they were first advertised."
Thursday, April 19, 2018
The Florida bicycle-boat. From Judge’s Library, A Monthly Magazine of Fun 1887.
https://tmblr.co/Zqou6t2W1USlq
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006837548
It was launched by former "Puck" illustrator James A. Wales, who sold the magazine in 1885 to William J. Arkell.
Arkell managed to lure Bernard Gilliam from "Puck" and made him a full partner at "Judge."
a kid locked in a car, with the key... and somehow, they figured out how to get the kid to unlock the car
I would have had everyone standing around get out their keys, and every one show the kid how they are hitting the unlock button. Kids are mimics, and want to do stuff, and want to copy other people.
Regardless, they got the kid to hit the right button in under 5 minutes. Pretty good!
https://swarfs.tumblr.com/
Will Eisner the originator of the graphic novel, namesake of the Eisner Award, the comic book and cartoon industry equivalent of the Oscar, drew comics for, and about, the U.S. military to assist the maintenance mechanics in learning the dull info
At one point, Eisner traveled to Korea to get a firsthand knowledge of GI requirements.
During the trip, he wrote, “A big guy with a dead cigar in his mouth came up to me, poked his finger in my chest and asked, ‘Are you Will Eisner?’ I said I was, and he said, ‘You saved my ass.’
His tank had broken down in a combat situation, and he used material from one of my stories for a field fix, and it worked and he was able to drive to safety.”
Eisner is most famous for The Spirit — a genre-bending series about a masked crime fighter. His assistant was Jules Feiffer who later won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as America's leading editorial cartoonist, winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961, he wrote the screenplay for Popeye, starring Robin Williams and directed by Robert Altman, was nominated for Broadway's 1976 Tony Award and in 2004 he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Feiffer taught at the Yale School of Drama and has been a Senior Fellow at the Columbia University National Arts Journalism Program.
They collaborated well on The Spirit, sharing ideas, arguing points, and making changes when they agreed. In 1947, Feiffer also attended the Pratt Institute for a year to improve his art style http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/03/coffee-and-donuts-video-of-day-steam.html
Among Eisner’s other hires was the 17-year-old Jacob Kurtzberg, who became Jack Curtis and later, when he left the company, Jack Kirby. Under that moniker, he helped create a series of superheroes, including Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, and the X-Men.
Many early comics artists were Jewish. They were enthusiastic about fighting Nazi Germany. Besides Eisner, several prominent comics creators, including Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon served in the U.S. military during the war.
Less well known is Eisner’s stint in the U.S. Army and his work for, and on, the military where he was drafted in as a private, but left a CWO. War and military service were strong threads running through Eisner’s long and productive life.
Most observers also give Eisner credit for coining the term “graphic novel” — and then elevating graphic novels to the level of a serious art form.
Each issue of PS Magazine consisted of a color comic book style cover, often designed and drawn by Eisner; eight full pages of four color comic continuity story in the middle; and the rest was filled with technical, safety, and policy information printed in two color to save money.
The story starred his earlier character and was called "Joe's Dope Sheet." Each episode offers the same cautionary tale: a soldier who ignores preventive maintenance learns of its importance in the end. Eisner commanded a high level of freedom to create the continuity section.
Will often used sexual references and humor to get the point across, and created other characters over time, including buxom Corporal Connie Rodd, and Master Sergeant Half-Mast McCanick.
Many soldiers at the time barely had a high school education; some couldn't read at a fifth-grade level, said 1st Sgt. Richard Bernard, a panel member.
"So what's the best way for you to reach somebody who can't read the technical manual itself or understand some of the words, but to make a comic strip that grabs their attention?" Bernard said.
From 1951-1971, Will Eisner produced 227 issues of PS Magazine for the US army, a comic book to make the daily grind of the soldier in Korea (and stateside) a little bit less of a chore and imbue the Army's endless amount of preventive maintenance bulletins with some lightheartedness and eye catching visuals
The magazine was established by the Department of Defense in 1951 to help American troops in Korea deal with aging equipment from World War II and new weapons that hadn’t been adequately tested.
Eisner and his staff took engineers’ descriptions of how to do something and translated them into ordinary soldier lingo. And the illustrations always depicted the action from the mechanic’s point-of-view, not the manufacturer’s. Hence, the revolution.
For twenty years Eisner refined and retooled his product to reflect the times that soldiers were experiencing. Each year he was forced to re-pitch his vision of educational sequential art to satisfy the US army’s requirement to have open bids. According to his wife, “After tests were conducted that overwhelmingly showed that soldiers best understood technical material when it was presented using Will’s graphic approach, opposition grudgingly disappeared.”
you can enjoy a dedicated blog to the PS Magazine http://thebestofpsmagazine1951-2011.blogspot.com/
For a really good bio: https://www.city-journal.org/html/where-there%E2%80%99s-will-13554.html
In his classic history The Great Comic Book Heroes, Feiffer acknowledged that his former boss was unique. His line “had weight. Clothing sat on his characters heavily; when they bent an arm, deep folds sprang into action everywhere. When one Eisner character slugged another, a real fist hit real flesh. Violence was no externalized plot exercise, it was the gut of his style. Massive and indigestible, it curdled, lava-like, from the page. Alone among comic book men, Eisner was a cartoonist other cartoonists swiped from.”
Will Eisner even did some offshoot work for the Fish and Game departments of Idaho, Maine, Pennsylvania
In 1993, when the PS Magazine organisation was being moved from Lexington- Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky to Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, the original PS art produced variously by Will Eisner, Mike Ploog, Chuck Kramer, Murphy Anderson and Zeke Zekely was packaged and sent for safe-keeping to Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania.
Not long after that, it was discovered that the entire PS art trove at Carlisle Barracks had been deliberately burned in a furnace used for document destruction.
But, it turns out that as the material was being sent for destruction, one of the boxes "fell from a forklift" and a few pieces were grabbed and hidden away... or, more likely, someone realized incredible art, valuable both historically and financially was never going to be missed by the furnace, but could possibly make life a lot easier
You can download issues in PDF (free!) at http://psmag.radionerds.com/index.php/Index_by_cover and or https://digital.library.vcu.edu/digital/collection/psm
https://tankandafvnews.com/tag/ps-magazine/
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/when-will-eisner-went-to-war-e7182c1fb516
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/books/will-eisner-marched-to-different-beat-with-ps-magazine/
http://www.jtwaldman.com/eisners-ps-magazine-comics-as-usability-asset/
http://fitzworldus.blogspot.com/2009/12/will-eisners-1956-christmas-front-back.html
http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1205851
https://pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com/2017/08/21/intermission-story-13-will-eisner-his-sgt-half-mast/
http://www.westfieldcomics.com/blog/interviews-and-columns/interview-paul-levitz-on-will-eisner-champion-of-the-graphic-novel/
http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/2016/06/have-poster-wil-travel.html