Peter Behrens's Blog, page 514
August 20, 2013
August 19, 2013
1956 Buick Special -- Troy Trepannier
I wrote an essay called Love Cars to examine why the hell I am so interested in cars and trucks, and in the process of writing, discovered that it's all about my father. A lot of men seem to need to own some version of a car their fathers drove.
I remember in considerable detail every car my father owned, from the 1956 Buick Special he had from Midtown Motors in Montreal, when I was 2; to the 1985 Mercury Topaz he owned when he died.
The list:
1956 Buick Special. Gunmetal grey, red seats with black inlays
1959 Pontiac Catalina 2 door coupe, white, grey interior
1962 Pontiac Laurentian, 2 door couple, beige, beige exterior
1965 Mercury Montclair, 4 door sedan, blue and blue, breezeway window.
1968 Chrysler Newport Custom 4 door hadtop, beige exterior, greemn interior
1971 Chrysler Newport Custom 4 door hardtop green exterior, black vinyl roof, greek interior
1974 Chrysler Newport custom, 4 door hardtopgrey exterior, black interior
1976 Chrysler Newport custom 4 door hardtop, blue and blue
1978 Mercury Zephyr, green ext tan interior
1982 Mercury Zephyr, Grey exterior,
1985 Mercury Topaz Grey and grey
The best cars were the first 4. Things went downhill after our family's Chrysler era began. Detroit build quality by the late Sixties was atrocious. My personal favorite was the Catalina.The Buick was a cool car though my dad didn't have it tuned like this one (above) by Troy Trepannier.
August 18, 2013
Schooner on the Reach
Saw the Heritage, out of Rockland ME, on a reach, on the Reach. Eggemoggin, that is. Summer southern breezes floating over Deer Isle make Eggemoggin Reach a reach on most summer afternoons. Will I say "reach" again in this post? Maybe. I was lucky enough to sail around Penobscot Bay, Frenchman Bay, Merchants Row, Deer Isle Passage and the Reach aboard Heritage, Captain Doug Lee, in 2001.
Novels, and a Sense of Place
From an essay, "Novels & Places":
I need to seed a book in a place. In my mind I plant the idea of the book in one very specific patch of ground and hope it will grow from there. Until I know where that patch of ground is, I'm lost and the story, the book, that I'm trying to write does not come into focus. I can’t grasp it. I have no traction on a story until I have a place...
read the rest here
Current novel-in-progress is set in Frankfurt during the Weimar-era 1920s and Nazi 1930s. My father's hometown. Frankfurt was heavily bombed during the war but the IG Farben building, where he
worked until 1934, survives...
I need to seed a book in a place. In my mind I plant the idea of the book in one very specific patch of ground and hope it will grow from there. Until I know where that patch of ground is, I'm lost and the story, the book, that I'm trying to write does not come into focus. I can’t grasp it. I have no traction on a story until I have a place...
read the rest here
Current novel-in-progress is set in Frankfurt during the Weimar-era 1920s and Nazi 1930s. My father's hometown. Frankfurt was heavily bombed during the war but the IG Farben building, where he
worked until 1934, survives...
August 17, 2013
Bill Burleson & John Brinckerhoff Jackson: New Mexico Vernacular
J.B. Jackson wrote extensively about the New Mexico landscape, often focusing on what he called the vernacular, mostly built, landscape. From THE MAKING OF THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE: "Of all the states New Mexico contains perhaps the most extraordinary variety of house types--that is, types of dwelling. There are Pueblo Indian, Spanish-American, and Navajo houses...Some house types are 800 or 900 years old....there are also house types like the trailer or mobile home that are new and still evolving."(All images © JW Burleson 2013)
August 16, 2013
1979 Ford F-100 Custom. Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia
Sandy Cove NS (44.48 N)is on the Digby Neck, almost due east of Brooklin ME(44.33)
Trucking in Kyrgyzstan
from Guido Goluke: "I think this truck was seen in Karakol, at the eastern tip of Lake Issyk Kol. Could have been photographed anywhere, they are that common."
August 15, 2013
August 14, 2013
1977 Ford F-150 Ranger
Our man on the prairies, Alex Emond, found this very clean F-150 Ranger in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, not far from the Cypress Hills. I like everything about it except the wheels and those whitewalls. Looks to be the same (factory?) orange as Clementine, a 1971 F 250 whose Montana-to-Massachuseets roadtrip was posted on AL last year.
