Peter Behrens's Blog, page 93

The Law of Dreams

 My son looked up from reading the other day and said "This is my favorite book." You can find it on Amazon, of course.

Randy Nonnenberg, Bring a Trailer, and a 1986 Chevrolet K-10

 

From Ben Cohen's piece in WSJ on Randy Nonnenberg's Bring a Trailer. 
"...To breed trust in an industry not exactly known for it, BaT listings are vetted by the company’s employees before they are published. Each write-up comes loaded with verified information: essential details about the car, plenty of photos and the auction records of that make and model, including the ones that fell short of a reserve price. Instead of flowery language, there are basic facts. Rather than disappearing immediately, the cars, bids and comments live forever. The increased transparency is the equivalent of people documenting their entire dating histories on their Tinder profiles.

"It’s a business formula based on Mr. Nonnenberg’s own experience as a consumer. He didn’t trust anyone selling cars—and he especially didn’t trust anyone selling cars online. “A lot of things are claimed on the internet, and that does not mean they’re true,” he said. They weren’t permanent, either. It always bothered him when listings were scrubbed, as if they never existed, and he was right to assume that others felt the same way...."

We like this 998-Mile 1986 Chevrolet K-10 now on the block at BaT.

VW Type 2 Survivor

 

Michael Moore caught the bus in the Bay Area. He came upon a restored Type 2 in Colorado a while back.

Refugees

 

Photo "A family travels in their artillery-damaged car in the city of Kherson, Ukraine" from the WSJ Wednesday March 15. Anyone recognize the make of car? Was it still running or is the photo a setup?Christian Borys is a Canadian journalist whom I have worked with, and who spent several years based in Ukraine. From his Saint Javelin website:
"Saint Javelin is a social enterprise started on Feb 16th 2022 by journalist Christian Borys to raise funds to support Ukrainians, just as the humanitarian crisis began. Concerned about the escalation at the Ukrainian Russian border and with family and friends in harms way, Christian wanted to help fundraise to support them.
"Christian has very strong ties and ancestral roots to Ukraine and Poland and spent 5 years working as a journalist based in Kyiv with BBC, VICE News, CBC, and others.
"From an initial goal of $500, Saint Javelin has surpassed $2M in contributions from our sales, and we have no plans to stop our work. We now have a new mission statement. We are in business to re-build Ukraine."

Night Cars of Cambridge

 

1966 Type 1 Volkswagen (Beetle). Have you seen our many posts of Langdon Clay's Night Cars of New York?

Eva H.D., Steeltown Rain

 

AL posted an earlier version of this poem under a different title.

Steeltown Rain

It's none of my business.Nothing is.

 

Just another easteregg playoff season rain.This rainin solidaritywith the absentorange groves ofJaffawith the teenaged ghostsof Attawapiskatthe Ticatsthe holy martyrs of northScarboroughwith the FAS jawstwitching down thestreet and the Adidasstripes shifting dope fromheel to wakeful heel;

 

for the nightshift’sshattered overridefor the beat cops inthe coffeeline

 

rain of garbage days of pizzabox and Budweiser,the abortive aspirationof old men's beltsand the yearly masochisticparade & its cruciform grief—

 

here's to life, and thedrenched gutters risingin counterpointto the peoplewho settle in itstroughs like sediment;who are playedlike pipes or plumppigeons, headingfor the fall.

 

Here’s to themonster truck prams andthe swinging dicks & theplayoff fever and the stupidpink headbands of the infantsw/ their tumorous bows;and the kids in hoodswith ears and thegrownups in hoodsw/ ears and thekids who died becausetheir shirts had hoodsand to the hoods themselvesbecause no one deservesto die, no one deservesanything — & to the boysin the bay,mouths gummedup with flabby bleachedbread, prison butterand jam b/c no one

 

deserves anythingbut you get it anyway,don't you, right inthe teeth,right in the cakehole,you get what you get.

 

~

 

Danny's ma skippedout when he was just awalking baby boy,forged too manycheques on his dad'saccount, treated othermen with the cash.You know what I'm saying?Stole the dough and showedthose guys a nice time.You know the drill.When his dad went oneday to the bank and theyasked about where's all thatmoney gone, and he stumped hishard finger down and saidThat ain't my signatureand went home, where hefound her, no words required,after which said I won't callno cops and I ain't gonnacharge you and I ain't takingback that scratch but now youleave, you leave now getout the fuck from this house andwhen he said that alsohe said And the boysstay. And she left.

 

And Danny says fiftysome years on suckingback a cold MolsonCanadian lager Yeahmy mother was a bitch.But my dad was a hardIrish bastard anyway hebeat on her and on me, too:you get what you get.

 

~

 

So you're driving in thispissing up a tree rain and thisfootless old sock of aman's begging & shuffling atParkside and Bloor just as the rainstarts to really pour and pummelwindshields and newsprint sheltersand the big, whiteSUV up ahead's a hummingtension gushing hot clammyassrain as the man's making pleadingplease please faces and the light willnever change and the great white beastpurrs its robot window down,hands over a twenty.

 

And the twenty's torque &shine in the drivinghotkniferain.

 

And the guy runsfor his girl underthe bridge like fuck,let's go score.

 

And it goes on, itwent on raining all alongLakeshore like your lifewas one big

 

car

 

wash

 

rainrainrainrainrainlike it’s rain’sgraduation dayand this is its bigsendoff like pomp& circumstance ofrain like Motownman ain’t supposed tocry rainlike a girl is dancingin it that mud-ribbonedcitypark lawn of usedsharps & capsized spliffhepatitis rain, a girlis dancing in it like allher friends are deadis how it rains and it rainedall along Lakeshorethat night and allfucking March& fucking April, too.

 

~

 

If for one day youcould drive like a carad.If for one night youcould fuck like asaint.If the men you didtime with had a mother'slove foryouor anyone if

 

this biblical rainwould stop –

 

 

Here's to the staggeredListerine straightmalt-licked two-stepperin the bikelanestumbling into theminuterice-whitejaws of morning

 

to the plastic baghigh 

 

the methadonetomorrowglow

 

the kilt-hikingclasscutters,lipglossed puffs ofvapour & gossip &the glint & clickof switchblademanicures

 

to the hotboxed sedan'swoofer-rendingautotune, KO'dtaillight trailingskunk

 

the rap-trillingbabes in arms likespring fledglings in microbraids and racing stripessinging down the sidewalkwith that grade eightgrad swagger

 

the Eagles-crankingHarley grindingthat corner againleathers sweating hottake it easydew

 

to the ones who nevergot away,squawking acridon their nasty oldsofas and their cigarettestoops

 

to the brighttrauma of stayingthat shines mould-luridoff every liferlike a halo

 

and the burp of sirenlaunching its paleheadlitpabluminto the bonyshoulderednight —

 

& the rain detainsthe skya little longer

 

— o here’s to thator any other

 

light.                        -Eva H.D., from her new collection, The Natural Hustle

Fish Truck, MacMillan Wharf, Provincetown

Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Diesel. The wharf is still the hard working, hard fishing heart of P'town.

  

That's a Novi...stouthearted offshore lobsterboat,  Nova Scotia design. Below, that looked to me like a scallop dragger, off Ballston Beach in Truro. 

Clamshell lanes of P'town.                       

Trust Women Jeep

Took a day off, headed for the Outer Cape (Cod). Used to live there. Many memories. Walking Commercial Street in Provincetown, came upon the little ex-USPS Jeep. Surprised we don't see more of these critters. From the hubs, it's 4wd. A RHD, but the postie (Canadianism) would still have to slide that door open at every mailbox on the route...kind of a design problem? In New England winters, anyhow.

Clamshell lanes of P'town... The major powerful secret appeal of the Outer Cape are the wild beaches of the National Seashore. (Thank you, JFK.) This is Ballston Beach, Truro. Those waves are coming in from the Azores. 

More 850

 

Larry Hayden photo

from Volvo USA Media:

The Volvo 850 was the car that changed everything – a front-wheel drive Volvo with a 5-cylinder transverse engine. It was the result of the Galaxy project, which got its name because it was aiming for the stars. The 850 series achieved great success in the field of motorsport, and was the first car from Volvo available with AWD.

The brand new Volvo 850 GLT had its world premiere in the Stockholm Globe Arena on June 11 in 1991. The model was the result of one of Sweden's largest industrial investments and differed fundamentally from previous Volvo designs. It had front-wheel drive, a five-cylinder transverse engine and offered a whole new level of driving pleasure.

...Right from the outset, the press called the Volvo 850 “the world’s safest car”, and in 1995 it introduced another world first in terms of safety. At this point, the Volvo 850 became the first mass-produced car to come with side-impact airbags....

 

...The 850 AWD – the company's first four-wheel drive car that was launched in 1996 – was a pioneer for Volvo. The 850 All Wheel Drive had four-wheel drive engaged at all times – a viscous coupling automatically distributed the power between the front and rear wheels. If one of the rear wheels started to spin, the electronic TRACS anti-spin system automatically distributed the power between the front wheels to the one with the best grip. The 850 AWD was powered by a newly developed engine with light pressure turbo boost producing 193 hp, and was a predecessor to Volvo's four-wheel drive XC models.

 

...1996 was the final year the 850 was in production. When the models underwent a major upgrade in 1997, the designations were changed to S70 for the saloon models and V70 for the estate version. A total of 1,360,522 cars were built in model versions originating from the 850 series....

From Jalopnik, on Volvo wagons:  "Contrary to popular belief, the origins of the Volvo wagon do not lie in its oft-mocked owner base. The Swedish five-door didn't spring forth fully formed from the dreams of some Berkeley hippie, nor did it arise, phoenix-like, from the ashes of a burned-out Earth Shoe. The Volvo wagon stands alone. And it almost didn't happen..."

Houses, West Cambridge