Saturday, November 22, 2025

3rd Rock From the Sun, John Cleese and John Lithgow teeing off. Damn shame that Lithgow and Cleese never did a show together.


Kim Jung... was just incredible.



from the new Jumanji movie, a Land Rover Defender, looking perfect for the adventure ahead


interesting... I wonder if they are a fan of Gene Wolfe


I wonder, how many corporations get their logo on a real license plate?


I headed up from San Diego to get to Burbank yesterday, to go to the CTN Expo to see if it's as good as it once was, and worth making it an annual thing I go to, or not. Answer, not. On the way, in the middle of Camp Pendleton, slowing down traffic for miles on the 5, was this jack knifed semi



and from the amount of mud on the interstate, it's obvious the truck had momentum when it hit the shoulder kept it there for a while



from the amount of mud caked into the back tires, its impressive that it didn't tip over


I love that I learned this trivia decades ago, and that it's still a trivia night question

 

Of course the right way to ask it is not to mention that it's a toy manufacturer. And I guess that makes this a rare post that I've posted twice. I bet it looked a lot different the first time I posted it though. These are scenes from a tv show or movie I was just watching the other day.  

it's not cheating if there isn't a specific rule against it...


what is it called when several interesting things collide at one time of interest? Synchronicity, a term coined by Carl Jung, or maybe Concurrent


Dalis Car, the music duo of Murphy and Karn, made an album of music, and used Maxfield Parrish's most famous painting for the album cover... as you can sell about anything if you slap incredible art on it, (ie, advertising) referencing Salvador Dali, because Murphy had a friend that had dreamed of buying a car from Dali https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalis_Car 

Dali's vehicles, which I've thoroughly explored  (VW Bug, Datsun, Cadillac, etc https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=dali) and , 

So, music, art, and cars. Bingo: obscure music album no one ever heard of, The Waking Hour, made in 1984, which might have been trying to get people to buy it my mistake, as it was using the Parrish painting Daybreak, which was used the year before by the Moody Blues 


Daybreak by Parrish, is the most popular art print of the 20th century, based on number of prints made: one for every four American homes. 

According to the National Museum of American Illustration, it has outsold Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans and Leonardo's Last Supper.






https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daybreak_(painting) the models were his regular models, Kitty Owen (granddaughter of William Jennings Bryan), and Parrish's daughter

Mel Gibson's wife bought it for 7.6 million. Sold it for 5.2

Mel's son in law is Kenny Wayne Shepherd, a Mopar guy, and motivator to Year One to remake the Road Runner horn. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kenny%20Wayne%20Shepherd and KWS has a logo made by Foose  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/11/kenny-wayne-sheppards-newest-mopar-and.html for his '63 Super Stock 330 Dodge. 

KSW is most famous for a song, Blue on Black, that is my favorite of his music, and it was rereleased for a charity fundraiser for the Gary Sinise Foundation, and the metal gods got Brian May of Queen to do a guitar solo in it...  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/04/coffee-and-dunts-video-these-artists.html and I'm sure we all respect the hell out of Gary Sinise!

And this incredible heavy metal remake is similar to the remake of Sound of Silence, which was amazingly performed by Disturbed in 2015.... the gradual strengthening and build up is amazing.  


I have all that cluttering my brain. Is it any wonder I get so little done? I wasted over an hour just drilling into this to post, because of the many things I like so much, all coming together at once, in this Dalis Car use of Maxfield Parrish's painting. 

For similar stings of things, see Connections, one of my favorite tv shows, a series of science documentaries created by James Burke
It is known for showing how seemingly unrelated events and discoveries throughout history are interconnected and led to modern technology, because of its engaging presentations, and the "aha!" moments it provides by revealing the connections between past events and present-day inventions, scientific discoveries and historical events building upon one another to create modern technology. 

The show creator and host, James Burke, traces the links between diverse historical events, scientific achievements, and the inventions we use today. 
Example: The series might show how 18th-century merchant concerns about ship bottoms led to the creation of nylon, or how medieval European use of fire in winter contributed to the development of the motor car. 
 It's enthusiastic and humorous presentation, historical re-enactments, and detailed working models, resulted in it being a widely considered as a classic documentary series.

Finally, someone gets back to making a fun video of horsepower and screwing around. The dialog is shit, and the music sucks, but the nepo baby didn't get rich or famous for writing or music.


Terrible Herbst was a gas station owner in the 1940s, founded a gas station/convivence store/casino in 1959, and his son is now the CEO of the company/race team. 

Maybe this kid is acting, or maybe, he was given shit dialog and told to just shut up and drive, or maybe he's really this effing annoying. Whatever, it's not like I'm ever going to run into him or give a shit about how he comes across to actress/models on his you tube video career. 

But you'd think a manager, a friend, or even Gittin, would have pointed out how unlikeable his character comes across. If you can't like him, you can't root for him, you can't be a fan. Drivers, races, and series only exist to create a fan base so the sponsors can sell product. 

Friday, November 21, 2025

views of lovely roads, and paths, todays installment of the weekly Friday Open Road post on Daily Timewaster blog. Highly recommended blog!



I walked through CTN Expo today (annual Burbank artists convention, 17th year) and spotted this great car chase scene Mariam created!


she does a lot of beautiful work, her painting of the mosque in Tripoli is gorgeous! click the links! 

70 R/T Charger with a 440 6 pack and a factory 4 speed were hung out to sell after the owner gave up on a restoration, so it got scooped up by someone that heard of it


This is incredible... the grand daughter of the guy who made these bookends, somehow came across that I'd posted them, and emailed me!

I posted about this when I bought them at an estate sale just over a year ago, not because I'd bought cool old car clocks, from 1925, but because the carpenter that made them into matched book ends had put notes in the cases, and the seller didn't know, and it was a very cool discovery

One of the clocks came from his car, that he drove his wife and newborn daughter home from the hospital in... and that daughter, is the mom of Sharon, who emailed me! 



Her email:

In a convoluted manner I came to your justacarguy.blogspot, read your post about the two Studebaker Elgin clocks inside of maple cases, built for them by Harry Reid Anama. 

 I was rocked and knocked to read your comments about the two neat, secret notes contained within the cases. BECAUSE HARRY REID ANAMA WAS MY MATERNAL GRANDFATHER and "Helen" was my mother.

 My grandfather worked for Western Electric for 35 years, relocating in San Diego, Los Angles, Seattle and San Jose, every few years, and always living in the same general part of San Diego.

Harry was born in Kansas in 1903, and his youngest working years were in the Santa Fe Rail Yards of Albuquerque, doing fine interior wood work on the passenger cars. 

 He learned from his father and his grandfather, and eventually worked in the woodworking part of the Los Angeles Santa Fe Rail Yard. 

 He honed his mechanical skills, including working on clocks and watches along the way.

 When he retired in 1965, my mother urged him to fill his time collecting and repairing clocks and watches. At yard sales and swap meets he collected broken furniture pieces of oak, maple and walnut, which he planed, cut turned table legs in half to use as columns, and made beautiful clock cases, with lovely key wound chiming clock works. 

He built 30-40 of such clocks, most with one or two secret compartments. The cases for the Studebaker clocks were simple, utilitarian but finely done. He always did a handwritten printed note about the where, when and how a clock case was made.

Do you live in San Diego? I will be visiting family at Christmas and would love to meet you.

Thanks for making my day!

.................................................................................................................................................

Ain't that the coolest thing? 

just because the truck was retired, doesn't mean that tool box bed doesn't have decades of use left! Now it's cut off the truck, cleaned up, and going to be a garage workbench / tool storage



This tool box was mounted in the bed on 2 different service trucks for over a decade. 

It ain't done earning a living, not by a long shot. The trucks? They just wore out. Tool boxes are built better than trucks. 

this is horrible... he inherited the keys, not the car and the keys


the odometer on the 67 Gt 350 was at 60,517 and this sat in the yard, another "I'm not selling, I'm gonna restore it someday" is my guess. Then the owner died, and it disappeared


coincidence that I posted about B 52s yesterday... here's one that a tornado decided was in it's way, so it got moved - abruptly



things went wrong because inexperience was following youth and speed to the site of the wreck


Gary Larson was so damn good, funny, imaginative, and we were lucky he wanted to share his talent with us.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/404501423591978/

I came across an interesting Abandoned Rails facebook page










the worst streetcar crash in US history was on May 25th, 1950 on 63rd and S State St in Chicago



the Green Hornet Streetcar collided with a gas truck. This was a combination of inattention by the operator, to avoid a flooded underpass the motorman entered the switch at full speed which made the streetcar jump the tracks and hit the truck. 34 people died, and people were left homeless due to buildings burning down.

the Whistle Stop Caboose Lodge in Catawissa Pa was a train depot, and seems to be a bed and breakfast that is closed for winter, Nov-Mar... they seem to have 6 or 7 cabooses