Peter Behrens's Blog, page 516
August 6, 2013
Oklahoma Ozarks, a 2004 Grand Cherokee Laredo & Route 66
"My wife and I live in Oklahoma. But for the past few months it's felt like we haven't really been living here. That's because you need a car to live in Oklahoma, and until recently we didn't have one.
Actually, what you really need to live here is a truck. Maybe not in the cities, but out here, in the foothills of the Ozarks, where the roads flood when the creek overflows its banks, and even traversing a parking lot means tumbling into tooth shattering ruts and axle scraping bumps: you do..."great piece, here.
August 5, 2013
Burt Reynolds, Chuck Norris, and Wayne Newton for Rent
from Alex Emond in Banff:
"You see these rent-a-wreck campers/vans around and they all have wacky graphics. Just about anything with Burt Reynolds is good for a chuckle. Or Chuck Norris or Wayne Newton. He's one of the " Greats "-AE
"You see these rent-a-wreck campers/vans around and they all have wacky graphics. Just about anything with Burt Reynolds is good for a chuckle. Or Chuck Norris or Wayne Newton. He's one of the " Greats "-AE
August 4, 2013
The Way We Live Now: Mining Town in Kara-Kichi Pass. Kyrgyzstan
from Guido Goluke, Dutch translator of Cormac McCarthy and Jack Kerouac, traveling on two wheels in Central Asia:
"This is a mining town way up along the 45km climb to the Kara-Kichi pass, that gives access to the high pastures around Lake Son Kol..."-GG
"This is a mining town way up along the 45km climb to the Kara-Kichi pass, that gives access to the high pastures around Lake Son Kol..."-GG
August 2, 2013
Terry Allan: Gimme a Ride to Heaven, Boy
from Michael S Moore, in the Nevada desert: "I was so stoked to get Trigger running that I jammed her down in gear** [low low, fortunately] and drove off the hill without considering the complete lack of brakes...
all photos ©2013 Michael S Moore
..."Fortunately the gearing and slight incline before hitting the clothesline prevented a Laundry Disaster. Needs plugs; needs, um, brake fluid [at a minimum] but...runs! -
**That would be from Terry Allen's "Gimme a Ride to Heaven, Boy", which, given your Texas propensities, you might want to check out if you don't know the damn thing by heart already..."-MSM
More GM Advanced-Design era trucks here and here.
all photos ©2013 Michael S Moore
..."Fortunately the gearing and slight incline before hitting the clothesline prevented a Laundry Disaster. Needs plugs; needs, um, brake fluid [at a minimum] but...runs! -
**That would be from Terry Allen's "Gimme a Ride to Heaven, Boy", which, given your Texas propensities, you might want to check out if you don't know the damn thing by heart already..."-MSM
More GM Advanced-Design era trucks here and here.
"You Can't Beat a Good Stone Wall"--Paul Lynch. And Seamus Heaney. And Co. Clare
courtesy of Paul Lynch's iPhone, in West Clare. Lynch's debut novel Red Sky In Morning comes out in the US in November.
And speaking of co. Clare:
Postscript And some time make the time to drive out westInto County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,In September or October, when the windAnd the light are working off each otherSo that the ocean on one side is wild With foam and glitter, and inland among stonesThe surface of a slate-grey lake is litBy the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,Their fully grown headstrong-looking headsTucked or cresting or busy underwater.Useless to think you'll park and capture itMore thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,A hurry through which known and strange things passAs big soft buffetings come at the car sidewaysAnd catch the heart off guard and blow it open.
---Seamus Heaney
August 1, 2013
July 31, 2013
Kerouac, Kyrgyzstan, Neil Young & Celine Dion
Guido Goluk, the Dutch translator of Kerouac's On the Road (that's Onderweg in Dutch) sent this report from the Stans.
"Just got back from Kyrgyzstan, where I made a 1000km round trip by bike with my cycling pal Djoen. High passes (over 3000m), a random attack by a bull, hospitality by herdsmen, the nightsky watched through the smoke vent of a yurt, fermented horse milk, rough unpaved roads – the works. I send you a nice truck and a view"--GG
Speaking of Ti-Jean, here's a NYT piece that muses on two separate essays in The Walrus a few years back, suggesting the essential Canadianess of Kerouac and Neil Young. The NYT blog asks, if Americans grant that Canada holds a claim to those two, will Canadians be willing to work with the United States — as Conan O’Brien originally suggested — “to solve the Celine Dion problem”?
