Peter Behrens's Blog, page 551
December 29, 2012
Classic Benz, Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Christmas morning. Good time for a bike ride. Always liked the 1960s grey which seemed the default color for MB of that era.
December 28, 2012
The Green Volvo of Groningen-- 1980 Volvo 440
Spent Christmas morning biking around Amsterdam then off to visit friends in the province of Drenthe, in the north. from a North American point of view bikes are the basic personal transportation device all over Holland but Drenthe is especially the bike province and we did some intense rural biking on a blowy, sunny day. NL is very very green in winter, even way up north. Boxing Day dinner en famille with our friends, outside Groningen. http://www.rug.nl/?lang=en Next morning we explored the city, a college town and regional capital, quiet after the bustle of Amsterdam. Someone loves this Volvo 440 and takes very good care of it. Too bad Volvo, once a great solid plain-jane car, has become synonymous with oversize leather-infested shagwagons aimed at insecure moms. Volvo is basically dead in the US. Another good car wrecked by brand-mania, thanks to the brains at Ford.
Amsterdam Bikes, part ii
We spent Christmas Eve on our bikes in Amsterdam...
The Dutch urban bike--omafiets or opafiets-- is a wonderful machine. Sturdy and reliable, and definitely the best way I know of to get around in the city, any city, except San Francisco, where you'll need some gearing.
The Dutch urban bike--omafiets or opafiets-- is a wonderful machine. Sturdy and reliable, and definitely the best way I know of to get around in the city, any city, except San Francisco, where you'll need some gearing.
The First Toyota: The Toyota AA
This is, disputably, a 1936 Toyota AA and, if it really is, this particular car is the oldest Toyota known to exist. I saw it in the amazing Louwman Museum, in The Hague. The car spent most of its life in a barn in Siberia. The Toyota AA was produced from 1936 to 1943. It had a 3.3 litre six producing 62 horsepower. Styling was inspired by the Chrysler Airflow (below).
Outside the Louwman Museum, a massive, impressive Stalinist sculpture of a man-behind-the-wheel. Looks to me like a Dutch, or, even more likely, German m-b-t-w. That's a euro-frown. Or euro-scowl. Driving in northwestern Europe is not for the happy-go-lucky. If you want to relax, take the train. Highways here in the NL are well-built, well-maintained, and almost always thick with traffic. If you're lucky the traffic moves at high speed. But the snarls can be remarkably long and grueling, especially in Germany and in south Holland, between Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam and Utrecht. You get a couple of meters space at either end to call your own, and you move with the pack at 130 km/h. Let's call it 82mph. Faster, in the fast lane, in Germany. On the whole I prefer motoring by aged truck in Far-West Texas.
December 27, 2012
American Road
from Craig Manning, driving LA-NYC via New Orleans in a 2003 Toyota Tacoma (all images ©2012 Becky Smith)
Day 1 LA – Grand Canyon
"An early departure is doubly rewarding when hitting the road out of LA. You are nearly certain to beat the traffic. And, if you are heading east, you will get slanting desert light about when you raise your first Joshua tree, either in the Palm Desert or along the Mojave River between Victorville and Barstow. We’re leaving early but taking a slowish path from LA to New York City for a winter-spring sojourn. Driving a 2003 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 – not vintage, yet. The only time constraint is Amherst, MA, in nine days. We will make the road-days shorter to ensure that most driving is in light, the better to enjoy our path. So for starters we chose a less-direct route and pointed toward Barstow to pick up US 40 (old route 66), with the Grand Canyon as the first goal.
The Canyon is about 7-8 hours from west LA, but for a geologist its ingredients are closer. An hour or so brings you to Cajon Pass, the San Andreas Fault, and a return to the North American Continent. And soon after you start seeing the rocks of the Grand Canyon Sequence - they’re best in the Providence and Marble Mountains, near the railroad alphabet towns of Amboy, Bagdad (of “Bagdad Café” fame), Cadys, Danby, Essex, etc. The layers seen in today’s Canyon were deposited all across the old western shoreline. However, subsequent faulting and folding – and mountain belts and volcanoes – made mincemeat of much of it. But not so much that you can’t recognize the iconic Tapeats sandstone, Bright Angel shale and the rest of the sequence, so that you are quickly immersed in the geological continuity of a cross-country trip. Reading the rocks softens transitions of place that are otherwise abrupt at 70 mph.
There are more ups than downs until you near the eastern CA border. 40 crests then bends south toward Needles and drops thousands of feet into the Colorado River Extensional Corridor. Here a mountain range that was of the same scale as the Sierra Nevada has been destroyed. The crust got too thick, the range collapsed under its excess mass, and rocks from depth were brought to daylight as the crust extended to make room. The only expression of the old range is now a huge valley of anomalously low elevation. The Colorado River has taken advantage of this on its path to the sea. The Joads crossed into CA here (“The Grapes of Wrath”) and the feeling is the same on leaving – we’re really doing this, we’re not going back, the only option is forward.
Once in Arizona, you make back all your lost elevation and more. This is the western edge of the Colorado Plateau. On average this region stands higher than other parts of the west. As with icebergs, it is a telltale sign of thicker crust. Don’t ask us why – we still don’t have a good answer. We hit recent snow near Williams AZ. From there we turned north toward the canyon, managed to quickly dump our bags at the hotel, and got up to the south rim in time for sunset.
The unexplainably high elevation, aridity, and climate conspire in ways favorable to beauty. The excess topography had to be sawed by the Colorado River as it drained the Rockies, giving us the Grand Canyon itself. The aridity and elevation produce juniper-pinyon habitat, which possesses a desert fecundity that is always pleasing, and all three mean that December storms will precipitate snow; just what we encountered.
Crisp clear air, snow, and red light on the canyon walls brought to mind the opening lines of “A Dance to the Music of Time”, when Powell embarks on his reverie upon seeing workers climb up out of a pit and warm themselves at a brazier. Their labor on the city’s inner workings makes him think of the past with all its buried, unseen connections, much as the Canyon reveals a natural history unseen from the surface alone.
Day 2 Grand Canyon – Santa Fe
"We headed back up to the south rim in the early morning light. We couldn’t get enough of it. But eventually the vistas die out where the Kaibab Plateau drops and the river bends north. Pretty quickly you are out of the park and into the Navajo Reservation. Riding high are volcanoes and remnants of huge volcanic flows that sit up high. This place was volcanic hell from a few million years ago until very recently; of course the Res is its own form of hell now, a stasis of squalor and desperation.
After heading back to 40, we battled trucks from Flagstaff into New Mexico. The landscape becomes more and more volcanic, until 40 drops into the Rio Grande Rift and Albuquerque. The rift owes its origin to the same forces that created the Colorado River Corridor, but the difference is that the rifting was much more extensive here – so much so that the mantle melted as it moved upward to fill the space being created. Hence the volcanic activity that defines the look of this area.
We crossed the Rio Grande River and bent north to Santa Fe for a quick look-in to an old haunt.
Day 3 –Santa fe – Fort Worth
Departure from Santa Fe was a little late - we only had 12 hours and at least wanted to walk around the square and get a reasonable breakfast. Which was easily had, though as usual too many Dallas high rollers in furs. Santa Fe has always seemed an odd mix of over-the-top wealth and desperate poverty. Maybe a portent of where the rest of the country is going.
The drive out across eastern New Mexico was graced by snowy pinyon-juniper volcanic terrain, open vistas, big sky. The eastern side of the Rio Grande Rift puts up rugged volcanic peaks. The harsh landscape is the same from Las Vegas NM south past Marfa, TX - an ordinal auto-literate way-point - and on to Big Bend and into Mexico - No Country for Old Men country. In eastern NM, it slowly gives way to high-plains mesas as you move past Clovis and into Texas, past Lubbock and Abilene. Hard vast miles, long afternoon hours. At least you have Texas place-names to keep you happy: Sudan, Earth, Erath, Grand Saline. The sun set as we dropped off the Balcones Escarpment, the break from high plains to more rugged central Texas terrain. The lit dimmed over the northern reaches of the Permian Basin: spent cotton fields and huge wind farms, pecan trees and donkey-arms. We picked up route 20 by 6, and followed the chain of lights to the western reaches of Fort Worth and a scruffy Best Western that was better than we had feared. Hopefully the only day with night driving."---CM
Day 1 LA – Grand Canyon
"An early departure is doubly rewarding when hitting the road out of LA. You are nearly certain to beat the traffic. And, if you are heading east, you will get slanting desert light about when you raise your first Joshua tree, either in the Palm Desert or along the Mojave River between Victorville and Barstow. We’re leaving early but taking a slowish path from LA to New York City for a winter-spring sojourn. Driving a 2003 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 – not vintage, yet. The only time constraint is Amherst, MA, in nine days. We will make the road-days shorter to ensure that most driving is in light, the better to enjoy our path. So for starters we chose a less-direct route and pointed toward Barstow to pick up US 40 (old route 66), with the Grand Canyon as the first goal.
The Canyon is about 7-8 hours from west LA, but for a geologist its ingredients are closer. An hour or so brings you to Cajon Pass, the San Andreas Fault, and a return to the North American Continent. And soon after you start seeing the rocks of the Grand Canyon Sequence - they’re best in the Providence and Marble Mountains, near the railroad alphabet towns of Amboy, Bagdad (of “Bagdad Café” fame), Cadys, Danby, Essex, etc. The layers seen in today’s Canyon were deposited all across the old western shoreline. However, subsequent faulting and folding – and mountain belts and volcanoes – made mincemeat of much of it. But not so much that you can’t recognize the iconic Tapeats sandstone, Bright Angel shale and the rest of the sequence, so that you are quickly immersed in the geological continuity of a cross-country trip. Reading the rocks softens transitions of place that are otherwise abrupt at 70 mph.
There are more ups than downs until you near the eastern CA border. 40 crests then bends south toward Needles and drops thousands of feet into the Colorado River Extensional Corridor. Here a mountain range that was of the same scale as the Sierra Nevada has been destroyed. The crust got too thick, the range collapsed under its excess mass, and rocks from depth were brought to daylight as the crust extended to make room. The only expression of the old range is now a huge valley of anomalously low elevation. The Colorado River has taken advantage of this on its path to the sea. The Joads crossed into CA here (“The Grapes of Wrath”) and the feeling is the same on leaving – we’re really doing this, we’re not going back, the only option is forward.
Once in Arizona, you make back all your lost elevation and more. This is the western edge of the Colorado Plateau. On average this region stands higher than other parts of the west. As with icebergs, it is a telltale sign of thicker crust. Don’t ask us why – we still don’t have a good answer. We hit recent snow near Williams AZ. From there we turned north toward the canyon, managed to quickly dump our bags at the hotel, and got up to the south rim in time for sunset.
The unexplainably high elevation, aridity, and climate conspire in ways favorable to beauty. The excess topography had to be sawed by the Colorado River as it drained the Rockies, giving us the Grand Canyon itself. The aridity and elevation produce juniper-pinyon habitat, which possesses a desert fecundity that is always pleasing, and all three mean that December storms will precipitate snow; just what we encountered.
Crisp clear air, snow, and red light on the canyon walls brought to mind the opening lines of “A Dance to the Music of Time”, when Powell embarks on his reverie upon seeing workers climb up out of a pit and warm themselves at a brazier. Their labor on the city’s inner workings makes him think of the past with all its buried, unseen connections, much as the Canyon reveals a natural history unseen from the surface alone.
Day 2 Grand Canyon – Santa Fe
"We headed back up to the south rim in the early morning light. We couldn’t get enough of it. But eventually the vistas die out where the Kaibab Plateau drops and the river bends north. Pretty quickly you are out of the park and into the Navajo Reservation. Riding high are volcanoes and remnants of huge volcanic flows that sit up high. This place was volcanic hell from a few million years ago until very recently; of course the Res is its own form of hell now, a stasis of squalor and desperation.
After heading back to 40, we battled trucks from Flagstaff into New Mexico. The landscape becomes more and more volcanic, until 40 drops into the Rio Grande Rift and Albuquerque. The rift owes its origin to the same forces that created the Colorado River Corridor, but the difference is that the rifting was much more extensive here – so much so that the mantle melted as it moved upward to fill the space being created. Hence the volcanic activity that defines the look of this area.
We crossed the Rio Grande River and bent north to Santa Fe for a quick look-in to an old haunt.
Day 3 –Santa fe – Fort Worth
Departure from Santa Fe was a little late - we only had 12 hours and at least wanted to walk around the square and get a reasonable breakfast. Which was easily had, though as usual too many Dallas high rollers in furs. Santa Fe has always seemed an odd mix of over-the-top wealth and desperate poverty. Maybe a portent of where the rest of the country is going.
The drive out across eastern New Mexico was graced by snowy pinyon-juniper volcanic terrain, open vistas, big sky. The eastern side of the Rio Grande Rift puts up rugged volcanic peaks. The harsh landscape is the same from Las Vegas NM south past Marfa, TX - an ordinal auto-literate way-point - and on to Big Bend and into Mexico - No Country for Old Men country. In eastern NM, it slowly gives way to high-plains mesas as you move past Clovis and into Texas, past Lubbock and Abilene. Hard vast miles, long afternoon hours. At least you have Texas place-names to keep you happy: Sudan, Earth, Erath, Grand Saline. The sun set as we dropped off the Balcones Escarpment, the break from high plains to more rugged central Texas terrain. The lit dimmed over the northern reaches of the Permian Basin: spent cotton fields and huge wind farms, pecan trees and donkey-arms. We picked up route 20 by 6, and followed the chain of lights to the western reaches of Fort Worth and a scruffy Best Western that was better than we had feared. Hopefully the only day with night driving."---CM
December 23, 2012
LA-NO-NYC, #2 (Morning, Grand Canyon)
Further field notes from Becky Smith, on the road in a 2003 Toyota Tacoma, from LA to NYC via New Orleans:
"The first night, I go to bed at 8pm - and I don't get up until 6:40 the next morning. We go back to the rim of the canyon, and it's a beautiful morning. Fourteen degrees fahrenhett, but no wind.
"Day Two is a spectacular drive along the south side of the canyon, heading east. We turn south and at Flagstaff catch I-40, going east. Today while driving I listen to Craig's mix tape - but there's too much country, and I pronounce harsh judgement on many tunes, skipping around to find Amos Lee, Muddy Waters, and other musicians who bring me joy. We finally settle on Bob Dylan - and I sing along for four hours, until we reach Santa Fe."--B
Chevy Culture and the Chevy Volt Road Trip to Berlin
I’m now contributing to Chevy Culture, a
lifestyle and auto site sponsored by Chevrolet. Click through for the
full post on Chevy Culture, and come back in the next few weeks and
months for more. The link is to a recent story on chevy.com about our family trip to Berlin in a Chevy Volt, for US Thanksgiving.
December 22, 2012
LA-NO-NYC Road Trip:The Grand Canyon
Becky Smith & Craig Manning are driving from LA to NYC via New Orleans this Christmas. Becky will be sending field notes & photos.
"We reached the Grand Canyon 30 minutes before dark. Temperature, 25 degrees. There had been a snowstorm 20 hours before.
"In the Grand Canyon, sunset is crisscrossed with contrails. My fingers are numb within seconds of jumping out of the truck, but I keep taking pictures of the contrails. When we get back in the truck, we promise ourselves that we will hike down into the Canyon in the next year. And I still have my big dream -raft trip down the Colorado"--B
all images ©2012 Becky Jean Smith
December 21, 2012
Love, Inertia, and the 1963 Ford Falcon Van
The first drive home. Broke down on the side of the road. Clogged fuel line.Shawn HibmaCronan's notes re. his intriguing project,
"Love, Inertia and the Pursuit of the Perfect Stance":
This is a project that celebrates the pursuit of a dream and our long romance with automobiles. It is a story about a labor of love that honors craftsmanship and the gratification that comes from customizing a piece of history into a work of art. Over the past 3 years I have been meticulously transforming a 1963 Ford Falcon Deluxe Club Wagon into a fully street-legal sculpture. The work aims to connect this surviving artifact of idealistic Americana with the elements and gestures of a contemporary "customize everything" subculture. As an artist, I am not only fascinated with the material qualities and craft of the this subculture, but furthermore the resulting attitude or "stance" that those gestures communicate. This vehicular tour-de-force, is a tangible method of exploring and existing within that resulting visual language. I want to insert this work into every possible context, from car advertisement to gallery shows, from traditional hot rod shops to concept-rich art schools, the beach scene of California to the gallery scene of NYC, along the back roads of this great nation. ("How about Ballroom Marfa?"--PB)
Admiring the test fitWhile built on the same body style as the early Econoline E100 work vehicles, the Falcon Deluxe Club Wagon was rarer, limited edition version marketed towards families. They came with extras, like fancy chrome trim, a plush interior, seating for 8, 17 ashtrays, and windows everywhere. They were designed to be the ultimate "go out and see America" adventure mobile. Small on the outside, huge on the inside.
© Devin Helmen Photography 2012 I searched high and low across California before I found the perfect candidate. I bought the vehicle in 2007 and drove it for a couple years while I made notes and planned its fate. I then began to strip it down and cut it up.
The biggest hurdle of the project was engineering the frame. Working around the original "unibody" was not going to give the results that the vehicle needed. So, I proceeded to design and fabricate a tube steel substructure that would allow me to squeeze in custom independent front and rear suspension with air ride. Far better than the original components, air ride makes it possible for the vehicle to lift, lean, and lower to the ground. I chose the components carefully, sourcing parts that would permit me to maintain the original floor height. This was critical and will be well worth the challenge, enhancing the interior experience and comfort of passengers.
The interior, when complete, will be similar to the interior of a WW2 era plane; beautiful metal, purposeful, clean, and all buisness. Keeping true with the mission of the rest of my sculpture, nothing will be hidden or covered up. I want all the details and hard working components to get as much "credit" as the rest of the vehicle.
The body is has undergone hours cutting, patching, welding, and smoothing. No bondo, no fiberglass, no BS. This vehicle will be made of nothing but honest materials worthy of its ethos and history. Every repair and modification I've made, has been done with parts from of similar era of vehicles. Just recently, I added extra bay doors to the driver side for symmetry and so that every passenger has a door. Now, when all 8 doors are open the presence of the vehicle nearly doubles in size and every interior detail is visible to the audience.
For the drivetrain I have plans for a modern turbo-diesel motor connected to a manual transmission. This will be a powerful, reliable, and fuel efficient solution, and will provide the option to run on BioDiesel whenever available. I eagerly await the day when a turn of the key will put new life into this monster!
© Devin Helmen Photography 2012
© Devin Helmen Photography 2012
Made of honest materials and familiar icons these objects aim to spark the conversation of form + function. Using tactile, mechanical structures, and vehicles which engage audience participation, to focus the attention of the viewer not only to the spectacle of the resulting forms, but equally to the materials and craftsmanship which constitute them. Simply put, within these works no material is disguised and no mechanism is hidden. My work is meant to be picked up, poked at, sat in, and rolled around. I want people to question their use intellectually and practically - to this end, physical interaction with the work is absolutely necessary. I consider my furniture to be sculptural, and my sculpture to be curiously functional; it is in the tension between these two aspects that I find my aesthetic and conceptual focus-- S H-C
