Peter Behrens's Blog, page 428
February 11, 2015
1961 Buick Electra
Early Sixties: the sleekest period for American car design? We'd make that argument. The Buick's for sale. Find out more at B-A-T. One of our favorite cars from the era: a 1964 Chevrolet Biscayne, seen in Colorado Springs.
Lucas Paliocha pen & ink: 1958 Chevrolet Yeoman & 1945 Diamond T
Maine artist Lucas Paliocha has produced a series of car/truck drawings and is taking commissions for more. See more at Led Sled
February 10, 2015
Beautiful Building for Sale on Munjoy Hill, Portland Maine
BB's father is selling a 3-possibly-4 unit building he has owned forever and maintained to an extraordinarily high standard. It's an exceptional site, with wide views of the harbor, and it's on Munjoy Hill--maybe the hottest of Portland, Maine neighborhoods and still perhaps the last great, affordable, urban waterfront 'hood left in the northeast.If you are Autoliterate--(and anyone can become autoliterate by subscribing to the blog: we aim to steal the aesthetic discourse away from university departments & art museums and apply it to large vernacular everyday things: streets, highways, landscapes, neighborhoods and, yes, old trucks)--then you know that we have posted a lot on Munjoy Hill. There is a great mix of architecture up there, a small herd of wonderful restaurants (like Lolita, and, of all Portland's neighborhoods, MJH is most open to ocean air and ocean light.
February 9, 2015
The Race of Gentlemen, Wildwood N.J.
The Race is traditional hotrod racing sponsored by The Oilers, an NJ car club (est. 1949), and it happens again on the sand at Wildwood NJ in October 2015. Here's footage from last autumn's event.
Van Pelt Dodge Firetruck: Tuolumne, California
from Colin Washburn, who found the truck at Cover's Apple Ranch, near Tuolomne, Calif.:
"Van Pelt was THE fire truck builder for years. My Dad drove Van Pelts for 25 years in the San Mateo Fire Department. They were made in nearby Oakdale"--CRW
1946 Dodge WC Panel Delivery Woody (for sale)
For sale, on Hemmings. Thanks to Alex Emond for the heads-up. I don't like the copper color, nor the whitewashed (poplar?) woodwork, which is going for a faux-old thing that just looks faux. But these are easy changes. You could buy it for less than the price of a new Kia.
GMC Flatbed & Cowperson, Eastern Oregon
©JW Burleson 2015
February 8, 2015
James Schuyler: February
FEBRUARYA chimney, breathing a little smoke.
The sun, I can't see
making a bit of pink
I can't quite see in the blue.
The pink of five tulips
at five p.m. on the day before March first.
The green of the tulip stems and leaves
like something I can't remember,
finding a jack-in-the-pulpit
a long time ago and far away.
Why it was December then
and the sun was on the sea
by the temples we'd gone to see.
One green wave moved in the violet sea
like the UN Building on big evenings,
green and wet
while the sky turns violet.
A few almond trees
had a few flowers, like a few snowflakes
out of the blue looking pink in the light.
A gray hush
in which the boxy trucks roll up Second Avenue
into the sky. They're just
going over the hill.
The green leaves of the tulips on my desk
like grass light on flesh,
and a green-copper steeple
and streaks of cloud beginning to glow.
I can't get over
how it all works in together
like a woman who just came to her window
and stands there filling it
jogging her baby in her arms.
She's so far off. Is it the light
that makes the baby pink?
I can see the little fists
and the rocking-horse motion of her breasts.
It's getting grayer and gold and chilly.
Two dog-size lions face each other
at the corners of a roof.
It's the yellow dust inside the tulips.
It's the shape of a tulip.
It's the water in the drinking glass the tulips are in.
It's a day like any other. James Schuyler
