Cars that fly--Farms that depend on oil

I Love this picture. How cool would it be to fly above the traffic. Imagine flying through New York, New York. Flying through Time Square, dodging the sky scrapers.An even better Idea would be land on top of the sky scrapers. I hope in my life time, I will see a sky car that can actually function. I have watched many shows on the science channel about future cars. It gets me giddy on the inside. They say our cars in the future will be our most powerful computer that we will own. Imagine getting into your car and it knows your daily schedule better than yourself. Surfing the internet while your car navigates you to your destination. The future car will also heal it's self like human skin. A scratch on your nice paint job? No problem, The outer layer of your car would be life like in the fact that it can repair it's self like a scrape on your own skin.
The article about the world running out of food, makes you think.Our agriculture is incredibly dependent on petroleum. The farm equipment that works the fields need fuel. The trucks that transport our food to the grocery stores. We as a society are in the hands of the oil companies. I love my bike, but I love my car even more....... All I want is a world that is better to my children than it has been to me, and children that take care of Mother Earth better than I have in my life time. It all starts with education!!!!!!!!

Groovy Battery Car

I enjoyed the readings this time because they were a lot of them but on different subjects. It was nice to skip around and hear about other issues. I highly enjoyed the first one that went through the decades of different attempts of alternate energy. My favorite was the 1960's Taylor-Dunn, Trident powered by battery electric. I thought that one was just adorable. I also really like scooters so the land glider fuel cell was pretty nice too. I thought that if they had pursued more of these alternate ways of power from the start they could have overcome and succeeded past the obstacle that had stopped further interest. So I didn't completely agree with the last paragraph on the lack of technology. 

When I first read this article their was a youtube video on the side that featured two different powered cars. One was electric, I think, and one was solar powered. I really liked the solar power one. I forget what the names of the cars were. Then I went make to the page to check some things before I posted about it, the video was gone. I hope somebody else watched it. It was really cool and I wanted to talk about and didn't think it would have been gone. Oops, oh well. I hope somebody remembers the name. Maybe I'll hunt for it on youtube tonight before class tomorrow. 

My First Car?

Since I have never owned a car before, I have always been on the look out for a potential first car. Many of my friends got cars or where given one of their parents at age 16 or even before sometimes. For me it just never happened. I thought about it and fell seriously in love once with this khaki colored 89 jeep, but it just never worked out. I guess we just had different priorities and we ended up going in different directions. I spent my money and went to Ireland, he stayed home, parked on the side of the road with a FOR SALE sign pasted to his windshield. When I got home he was still there and I'd occasionally take a "short cut" and glance at his beautiful tan body, but my bank account was empty and that was the end of that. From then on my search never went farther then a look in the auto part of the classifieds. 

Though, lately, my "need" for my own set of wheel has become strong, and it helps that I have some extra money laying around. I have been looking and talking around about used cars. I really want to commit but am so terrified of being tied down from then on. Insurance, maintenance, inspection, registration all those things make me run for the door. On the other side it would give me more flexibility with jobs and in turn maybe making more money. It's just a back a forth see-saw in my mind. 

I've been looking on craigs list searching for something under 1,000, either a volvo or subaru. Here's the link for one I am interested in http://nh.craigslist.org/cto/1172722011.html I would have to take some experience people with me, probably my dad, to see if it's the real deal. I e-mailed the guy and he said he'd sell it for 800, which is in my budget. I don't know I'll have to wait and see, most likely I just flake out like usual. Once again, I think I have some serious commitment issues. Every since my first love my urges have never been the same.

P.S. isn't the volvo pretty cute 

Fuel or Food

I found the article, “Food or Fuel” to be the most interesting and informative of this month’s readings. I had always been under the assumption that using corn etc…, for fuel, had a negative impact on food supplies. Little did I know! I’m a bit relieved to know that by “going green”, we aren’t starving millions of people throughout the world.
What is alarming is the amount of food that we waste and/or use to feed livestock, when there are so many people in desperate need of these crops to simply live.

“For every one ton of US corn exported in 1996 to one of the 25 countries with the world’s most serious malnutrition problems…260 tons were exported to a wealthy Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development country”, and “More US corn goes to make alcoholic beverages in the US than is exported to feed the hungry in the world’s 25 most undernourished countries combined.”

O.k., so our driving habits and our fuel consumption don’t really hurt the world’s food supply, but maybe our drinking habits do. Maybe I’m being a bit too cynical, but I highly doubt that it would make much difference to us if we were starving people, as long as we were able to drive our vehicles in the manner we’ve become accustomed to, which is with little thought to the impact we’re having on the world around us.

I realize that our focus here is the impact of our use of the automobile and the resources needed to do so, but this article has made me re-think the way we take the availability of food for granted, while many others go without.
I recently read where one acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes or 165 pounds of beef.
http://www.crescentlife.com/dietnutrition/food_realities.htm

I won’t pretend that I’m a vegetarian; I enjoy my steaks and fried chicken as much as the next guy, but it seems to me that we, as a society, should begin taking a more serious look at our eating habits, and not spend our time looking for an excuse to justify our unwillingness to invest in alternative fuel sources.
Sorry if I got a little off the track…

Expression of...something!

If you get a moment, here's an art/car project that makes a very interesting companion piece to our painting experiment and also to the Pilobolus "Powered by You" Ford ad that we looked at in our last meeting. This is BMW's latest entry in the art car sweepstakes, a project called Expression of Joy where the car becomes the paintbrush. BMW has associated itself with hip artists for a long time - this image is of the sculptor Alexander Calder and his design on a BMW race car in 1975. If only Bianca's renters had known about this...

Armed with love

After our last seminar I was pretty pumped. I thought my car looked sweet and was excited about driving it around. I only really thought about the impact of my stencil decisions enough to register that promoting hand guns to my at-risk youth client population was going to be a problem. No sooner had I left campus did I notice the questioning stares. I stopped at Agway to pick up chicken feed on my way home and I was accosted by a middle aged man in the parking lot.
"What the hell is that all about?" he asked.
Oh shit! Was I supposed to have had a purpose in my art project? Honestly, I had only really thought about the aesthetic value and whether or not the damned stuff would actually come off. After reassuring him that I was not in fact in a gang he finally seemed to back off. Only after however he had regaled me with tales about his own gang days in the seventies in "the village" where he had been "armed with love" (gag me with a spoon!!!!)
Anyway, that sealed the deal, not wanting even one more interaction remotely like that I was determined to get home, ignore the weird looks and wash my car. I made it home and crashed out on my bed exhausted. About twenty minutes later I could hear Ana one of our renters walking by the house talking to her boyfriend.
"What is this about?" she said. "It looks kinda cool but what is she trying to say?"
"I cannot believe she would do something like this to her car, what if she wants to sell it?"
Mind you this is someone I consider to be like family, who knows me really well. At this point I am not sure whether to go outside and yell at her for thinking I would permanently paint my car or reassure her that in fact I was not trying to say anything!I ended up doing nothing except crawling under the covers.
I washed the car the next day before work, but since I was in a rush I only had time to take off the worst offenders; the guns. After that people still seemed to constantly harass me but at least I did not meet with the same sense of indignation and confusion. I can honestly say that I will never paint my car again and I will also never underestimate the power of communicating one's identity through vehicle ownership.

The first automobile?

In reading about "alternative" cars, I got curious about what the first automobile actually was, and when it was built. While there are various candidates, it seems as though this steam-powered monster, built by Nicolas Cugnot in France in 1769, is one of the main contenders. It's in the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.

Fire Poker

They were far to the rear of the field, away from the paved parking area where darkness would give them privacy, though it was a slow night anyway. Everyone had already seen Saturday Night Fever last summer. They didn't even have a speaker hanging in the back-seat window, with a fat black Bakelite knob to adjust the volume. Those all marched in neat parking-meter rows closer to the screen where the spaces marked off by faded white lines weren't even half full. They had the radio on real low instead. He reshuffled the deck of Aviators expertly and dealt them each another hand. She dragged on the roach, eyeing him with coy knowledge. The night was humid, but he was sweating a little too much just the same. He set the rest of the deck down, and picked up his cards.

"Ahhh, I'll take three," he said, now pleasantly stoned. He discarded, and selected three fresh cards from the pile.

"Shhhit," she said, blowing out smoke and smirking, once she looked at her own five cards. "I'll take four."

He shook his head, grinning. "You'll take three. None of this four card crap."

She again eyed him vicariously, lips pursed, discarded three, and took three more. She flicked the roach out the window.

"Call it," he said.

With some reluctance: "King high."

He whistled low, smiling, shaking his head with eager pride. "Pair of fives. I win again." His grin blossomed, cutting the half-dark. On the big screen, John Travolta and his buddies were silently crashing a car through the front windows of a discotheque. On the radio, Todd Rundgren was singing "Hello, It's Me." But these things seemed faraway, unimportant.

"What's it gonna be now? Hmmm?" he asked, and leaned against the door on his side of the backseat. He still had everything on except his tee-shirt, and he hadn't minded losing that. It was too damned hot. She was down to only undergarments.

She didn't reply: Just reached back, unhooked her bra, and dropped it to the floormat. Her sizeable breasts, now loosed, shook lusciously with the motion. His grin widened.

"One more hand," he said, and scooped up the pile of cards with alacrity.

"What if I don't wanna play anymore?" she asked, smiling smugly.

"My dear, we are gonna play the blues," he remarked, and started to reshuffle.

He dealt them another hand, and noticed that the radio had gone staticky all of a sudden. He considered reaching over the front seat and replacing it with Led Zep on the eight-track, then dismissed the idea. It was just too hot. And soon, things would get hotter still. The anticipation was maddening; butterflies at the base of his skull.

"Ho!" he said, obviously pleased. "One for me." He discarded, and selected another. He glanced up at her in pure mischief.

Her eyes gleamed sensuously in the shadows. "Two." She tossed two away on the seat, and took new ones.

"Well?" he asked.

"You call," she said, mildly defiant.

He looked at her a moment longer, then layed down his hand. "Three jacks." With some amusement, he noted the one on top was the Jack of Hearts.

She sighed. "Pair of queens." She layed them down slow. One of them was the Queen of Spades.

"Endgame," he said with a victorious smile. "Okay. You, or me?"

Eyeing him with both amusement and annoyance, she hooked her thumbs under her waistband, and slid the panties off with a whisper.

At this, he leaned across without the slightest hesitation and French kissed her, long and full. She unzipped his jeans, and he pulled her towards him. She was now flat on her back along the seat, and deliciously buck naked. He clamped his hand on one beautifully smooth cream-colored thigh, and caressed it with something like greed. Presently, he came full-erect.

"Now," she whispered, and with a thrust, he was inside her warmth. The air seemed to burn in his lungs. He worked in a steadily increasing rhythm.

The radio volume jumped. Pure static now. And something just beneath he couldn't quite make out. It didn't matter. He continued to plunder her. But it was hot, God, it was so damned hot. Sweat rolled off him like rain.

He was just feeling himself gather in climax when she sat up abruptly, throwing him back against the seat, straddling him, her working him now, and the action had caused his groin a bolt of intense pain.

"Damned," he breathed, now feeling lightheaded. Dizzy, even.

"Yes," she agreed, and tossed her long raven hair. A flapping sound behind her, and batwings spanned the inside of the car; a horrifying surreal silhouette in the dim light from the movie screen. Her pupils had vanished, he saw to his mute terror, and her retinas had now gone a deep burgundy. The color of coagulated blood. She grinned, revealing rows of fangs thick as marlin spikes. He heard the radio very clear now, and it was the sound of untold numbers of people, throngs of them, screaming, and screaming, and screaming forever. Maybe beyond the end of forever.

He was sweating like a man with malaria, oiled with it, shivering in throes of heat exhaustion. His mouth was dry as dust. "My God," he managed in a whisper. "Wh-...what are you?"

Its voice came in a hiss, like a snake which has learned to mimic human speech. "Eternity," it said.

He cried out, hysterical, pleading, feeling the first playful licks of flame, but the world too soon became an inescapable inferno.

Thinking 1970s, Living in a New Century

I suppose some of the predominant and recurring memories I've had during this seminar are of my old 1975 Dodge Dart Swinger. Though by today's standards it would be considered a fishing trawler, in '75 it was actually an economy car. My great aunt in New Hampshire bought it brand new, and I remember her driving me around in it as a kid. Years later, when she was too old to drive, I bought it for $300 and fixed it up. I drove it as my exclusive vehicle for the next eight years. It had the infamous Dodge "slant-6" engine; one of the best and most reliable commercially produced American motors of all time. I'll never forget that car. It ran smooth and quiet, like a Singer sewing machine. It averaged a respectable 20 miles to the gallon. It rarely broke down, and when it did, it was easy to fix. I loved driving it. The big wide black vinyl bench seats were like sitting on your living room couch. I loved the smooth slide of the automatic column shifter when you put it into gear, the punch forward when you stepped on the gas, the incomparable way the steering wheel spun with well-oiled ease as only 1970s power steering systems seemed able to provide. I loved cruising around in it at night, with the high-low beam switch sticking out of the left-side floorboard. The dashlights glowed a nostalgic yellow-green, and if you fiddled with the solid-state AM radio dial, you could tune that little orange vertical bar in to obscure oldies stations as nearby as Newburyport, Mass. or Boston -- or as far away as New York City or Prince Edward Island, Canada. At night, the airwaves light up, as any HAM radio operator will tell you, and there were times the songs coming out of that green-glowing radio shone like the bright, crisp stars overhead while I blasted down back roads in the wee hours.

This is part of why, perhaps, I found this last set of readings and Web browsings so thought-provoking. My '75 Dart wasn't your stereotypical seventies gas-guzzling battleship -- after all, it was of the first generation of cars to be equipped with a catalytic converter, and was only a six cylinder in a time when eight was more or less the industry standard. I will always long for and lust after "classic" cars. I vow to own one again someday -- yes, with all the 1970s disregard for air pollution, energy conservation, and highway safety "grandfathered" right in there -- but at the same time we're in a new century with a vast array of new, and in some cases not so new but improved, technologies. We would be sadly remiss not to utilize them. A pair of British scientists just created a new carbon-based battery that recharges itself using oxygen. They hope to have it on the market within five years. This is just one example. We should all be looking at alternatives and advances in science, up to and including even the speculative, such as the theories of Nikola Tesla and "free energy."

I'm especially intrigued by "tribrids" and also compressed air cars -- these seem to be the most promising at the moment. Some of the past experiments, such as the 1957 Studebaker-Packard Astral, remind me of the old sixties TV show, Land of the Giants. Energy conservation and environmental protection are serious topics, I realize, but these past experiments are nothing if not sheer fun.

I do not share the apocalyptic view expressed by U-Winnipeg that the human race stands on the precipice of self-immolation due to lack of sustainable energy. For one, the entire "fossil" fuel theory has its serious detractors, and the idea of abiotic oil is becoming more vand more plausible. As well, the Food or Fuel? page does an outstanding job of debunking a common unfounded fear surrounding the production of alternative biofuels. What surprises me is the author(s) make no mention of the fact that there are numerous forms of vegetation, not used for human consumption, from which ethanol can be gleaned. That all said, there was one quote in particular that is almost spot-on in my view:

"People starve because they're victims of an inequitable economic system, not because they're victims of scarcity and overpopulation."

I say "almost," because although the statement on its face can be true, we need to define just which economic systems constitute "inequity." Judging by what follows on the webpage, it seems that capitalism and wealth accumulation are under fire. Were communism, socialism, and fascism positioned so, I would raise no argument. Such systems do induce poverty and starvation. To make the statement whole, I would substitute "political" for "economic." That's infinitely more accurate.

The articles on bicycles all made me think of Cuba shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Castro traded boatloads of sugar to China in exchange for boatloads of bikes as at the time, Cuba had no hard capital to pay for petroleum fuel. Even the Cuban army paraded on holidays riding bicycles for a couple of years until Fidel was forced to introduce some minimal free-market reforms to prevent Cuba's economy from complete dissolution and widespread utter famine. More evidence of the ill effects Marxism imposes on those people imprisoned by it.
However, these Ciclovias are not bad ideas in and of themselves -- I would just naturally be very leery about allowing them to become government-sponsored or managed events which seems to be the direction things are headed in. Very bad idea, that.

I would say the same of the Motor Cities National Heritage Areas (a National Park Service power grab -- though at least shortly one may carry firearms on NPS land, subject only to state laws, thanks in no small part to the fine freedom-loving folks at Gun Owners of America who fought for eight years to accomplish this. American automotive heritage is fine. I just don't need or want a government "preserving" or "commemorating" it for me.

Another government endeavor that at least looks interesting, however, is the Sharon Visitors Center. Indeed, what an odd combination -- ecological consciousness coupled with a memorial to the Vietnam Conflict. In fact, I find the layout of the rest area at Sharon so intriguing, that I think it may find its way into some of my fiction at no distant day. And in real life, it's a must visit for later this summer.

Speaking of fiction, I hope by tomorrow to post a piece of short fiction I wrote while thinking about all of this. Some of you have actually requested another tale from me. I don't want to give it away, of course, but all the action takes place in a car, and I may include it in a short story collection (which will only come out after my next two or three projects are finished, so please don't poise yourself to buy it just yet) tentatively titled, Alex R. Knight III's Spooky Seventies. At any rate, it's called "Fire Poker," and is not for the easily offended...nor for the squeamish. When I post it, it will be without further adieu. Forewarned is forearmed, and now, hopefully, you're both.

Vehicular Trauma

These past few weeks have resulted in some serious transportation issues! Patrick(my boyfriend)recently purchased a Subaru WRX at the same timethat he got his license back (it had been suspended.)He has been working towards this goal for a while and was so excited to make the purchase. The evening before he got his license back his ridiculously nice ($1200)mountain bike was stolen from his work place. Interesting???? Life is so strange. Things only got worse when the day after getting his license and only the second day he was able to drive the new love of his life it broke down on his way home from Burlington in Montpelier! Unfortunately, his baby needs a new transmission and what the hey, they(the mechanics) feel they mine as well throw in a clutch while they are in there. As we purchased this 8500 dollar piece of junk from a private person and don't have any legal recourse we don't seem to have much choice in the matter. To further complicate my already ridiculous life the bicycle showed back up on Saturday. Wait it gets better... the person who "purchased" the bicycle from the alleged thief had a bill of sale and wanted to recoup his forty dollar investment. My triumphant boyfriend came home so relieved to just have the Trek back, he didn't understand my amazement at having to pay to get it. He was further disappointed when I explained that he had been duped; the Bill of Sale was fake, the "buyer" actually the thief and the framed signature on the false document one of my clients. Needless to say it has been a long week and I am altogether sick of all things with wheels. Oh I forgot to mention that when the bike was stolen from Pat's work it was thrown into the back of one of the farm pick-ups which was also heisted: Grand Theft Auto plus larceny for the bike. What a day....

What setting does this work in?

Recently, I spent several days on a work retreat with my department at a beautiful spa in central Vermont. This was the first time I found myself cracking open the New York Times with no motive other then leisurely reading. I chanced upon an interesting piece which reported on a community in Germany where cars are actually outlawed! Well, that is not exactly true, you can purchase parking spaces for them in garages on the outskirts of town for 40,000 dollars a piece. As you can imagine there are very few car owners. The town is completely motored by bicycle power. I am attaching the link so that you can see for yourself. As I think about the romantic ideals that go along with this movement I am day dreamy and curious, but fairly pessimistic. How could this work? Everyone in the community must either be able able to do everything locally, be independently wealthy or retired? How are large objects moved, and how are emergencies dealt with? I am completely intrigued and would love to visit a place like this. Check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=germany%20car%20free%20community&st=cse

Some car (and post-car) futures

I've been slow getting the readings for our final seminar meeting together - thanks for your patience!

I'd like you to do a little web reading about some of the potential directions that cars and culture are headed in, so have a look at the sites linked below. As always, post at least a quick response here in the blog to any one of them.

As we head into the final couple of weeks of the seminar (and how the heck did that happen?), I'd also like you to do a bit more car journaling to reflect on where your thinking about cars and culture is now, how that's changed since the start of the semester (if it has), and what kinds of changes (if any) you can envision making in your own relationship to cars, or changes that you can imagine initiating or supporting in your community. What would you change, if you could? What makes individual and collective change easy, hard, or possible at all? (In our final meeting, we'll go back to some of the "culture concept" stuff that we looked at in the beginning of the seminar to help us think about why cultures change or resist change.) Jeff, our blogger-in-waiting, has already reflected on a lot of this in his most recent post, and others may want to post their journal thoughts here as well, or you could just bring them to our meeting.

READINGS FOR MAY 31

A couple of sites on "cars of the future" (including some from the past):
* the Petersen Automotive Museum's "Alternative Power" exhibit
* reviews of some prototype "future cars" - click on the various types (compressed air, hybrids, etc.) to get a sense of what's out there

A couple of pieces dealing with peak oil and what that might mean for automobility and other aspects of how we live (both of which trace some of the connections between food production and energy use):
* a blog entry from the University of Winnipeg on "The Hungry City"
* a useful page on the "food vs. fuel" debate arising around increasing use of biofuels

Three short pieces on bicycle culture, from the folks at Carbusters magazine:
* a bike-centric editorial predicting the coming end of car culture
* a piece on Ciclovia, a kind of bicycle-centered festival beginning to catch on in some U.S. cities
* and a story about how Ferrara, Italy, set about turning itself into the "City of Bicycles"

And finally, two ways of thinking about cars, culture, and heritage:
* the site of the Motor Cities National Heritage Area (There's no need to read the whole site. Just look around to acquaint yourself with what this project is and what it's trying to do - and think about what it might mean to be memorializing automotive history in a time and place where the car industry is still struggling to survive.)
* a piece from my "History on Wheels" blog about the Sharon Welcome Center on Interstate 89 in Vermont - a "green" site with some intriguing undertones

See you in a couple of weeks!

Path to Freedom

Today was the final for this seminar. My wife Amber and I purchased a 2005 Toyota RAV today. We went to Bellow Falls where Durand Toyota Ford is located. We drove the Toyota Matrix, Toyota RAV, these cars new cost from $18,000 to $24,000. Looking at these prices made me cringe. We want to pay cash and that just seemed out of reach. I noticed the Toyota Yaris, which looked sharp, was in our price range. Toyota has taken the Scion (which is the car we looked at during our seminar and Alex was waiting to see the entire clown posse crawl out of it) and have increased the price. The Yaris is now Toyota's inexpensive compact car. We could have walked out of there with a brand new Yaris for around $13,000. My wife dislikes small cars after being a guinea pig test subject with our Scion, but the price and reliability seemed practical. Of course the size seems a little cramped, but I have grown accustom to the cramped crowded feeling with a family of five and a dog in my Scion. Part of our deal was, Amber was the one picking out the car. Amber was set on the 2009 RAV, but the price was too high for us with out having payments, not that we would qualify anyway, but that is another subject all in its own. Maybe we should have a credit seminar next semester. Lucky for us there was a 2005 RAV with only 23000 miles. The car lived its life in Florida, so the under body is practically brand new. Out the door with tax and license was $15,000. The car/truck looks great and is in excellent condition. The last four years, Amber and I have been a family with a single car. These last four years have been the first time Amber and I have shared a car in our 11 year relationship. It definitely has been difficult, but yet at the same time it has developed a stronger bond between the two of us. I thought this day was a lot farther off in the future, but it has arrived and I feel the same as I did when I only had one car. The car doesn’t make the person, but it does make life easier. I use to look at cars as a status symbol; I now see cars as tools that help us live our lives in a more productive way. The RAV reminds me of our old Toyota Sequoia, a mini version with out the bells and whistles.
I couldn't wait and had to put some kayak racks on it and two new kayaks. My summer is off to a good start. I also caught my first Rainbow Trout this morning. I have caught Brook Trout and Lake Trout, but until today I was Rainbow less. I hope you all are doing well. My paint came off with out any damage; it was interesting listening to people asking me why I picked a heart and a gun. I still can't answer the question, because I don't know why I picked those stencils. I think it was because I see conflicting interest in both of those symbols.
At the beginning of this seminar I didn’t think this was going to be a subject that was going to interest me. I have always liked cars, but never to a motor head state of mind. This seminar has brought a new meaning to the word “CAR”. I feel that the automobile has been one of America’s major commodities that have shaped our landscape and our economy. Where would we be with out the automobile? Imagine if the car was not invented. What would be our mode of transportation? I’m not talking horses and buggies, I thinking along the lines of hover crafts and personal aircraft. I personally don’t think we can even think of a present day society with out the car being involved. I have enjoyed this seminar, and even more, the people in the class room. I like how Cathy set our Blog up and made our experience paperless. My favorite reading for this class was from McCarthy.

P.S. Even with a new car and two new kayaks, Amber and I still bicker over our daily decisions. It’s good to be human……………………….

The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions: Voluntaryism and the Roads

Courtesy of my good friend Carl Watner in South Carolina, publisher since 1982 of the quarterly, The Voluntaryist, and of I Must Speak Out: The Best of the Voluntaryist, 1982-1999 (Fox & Wilkes, 1999), I came across this excellent essay from Issue 92 of June, 1998:

http://www.voluntaryist.com/backissues/092.pdf

It thoroughly trashes one of the most diamond-hard myths of our time -- to wit, that government is ultimately useful for precisely anything at all. It does so by exposing and debunking what most people would otherwise regard as one of the most basic and fundamental functions of government: Construction and maintenance of roads. This essay proves that the State fails miserably at even this, while at the same time financing waste and needless projects via taxation, i.e., violent theft at the barrel of a gun. Actually, the whole issue focuses on all things automotive from a Voluntaryist perspective. The ultimate moral is that free markets work well, socialism not at all, and that GOVERNMENTS MUST GO, PERIOD. Enjoy the rewiring of your brain structure... :-)

Cash for Clunkers

I came across this article this morning and thought everyone might find it interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/05/08/08greenwire-clunkers-deal-for-autos-stirs-questions-about-12208.html

Sunday's painting spree

Some of the photos from our group car-painting session on Sunday are in a Picasa album that you can view here. That was a lot of fun! And I think it fixed whatever was ailing Gretta. Both the lock/alarm system and the battery seem to be working fine now. Sometimes you just need to go out and mess around with paints and brushes, I guess.

Almost Insanity

John Irving's short story Almost in Iowa was, of course, incredible. He utilizes an anthropomorphic view of the automobile to make a critical statement about the often paradoxical manner in which we tend to treat these objects, these essential elements of our lives. In many ways we are entrances with their power, both as commodity items and as a force powerful enough to transform our relation to the world.
Irving speaks with immense respect to his car. He is concerned, compassionate and wary of saying too much (p 84). He cares for the car as if it were a living beast while simultaneously treating places as if they were mere figments of imagination or concepts better to be left undisturbed. “Vermont” seems to hold a nearly mystical place in his mind, while they slunk by Toledo “like an unmentionable anticlimax,” (p 84).
I found this particularly fascinating in two ways. First, I admire anyone who challenges the anthropocentric paradigm, because it is so easy to blindly except that this is the nature of reality. It sure seems as though we are endowed with superior cognitive capacities and therefore a more accurate and complete concept of the world, but we can't know this. And it's fun to challenge this paradigm from time to time.
Secondly, I found Irving's writing was able to capture the feeling of being on the road. When one drives for that long, one's mind (and subsequently the paradigm it holds) is inevitably befuddled. One may grow to see the car, their only companion, as the most relevant thing in the world. Also, after an extensive period of sleepless, solitary driving one may come to see the car as an actual being, while the world outside grows increasingly foreign. For Irving, the world outside becomes increasingly suspect as he wonders what those fourteen exits posing as Sandusky could possibly be. “God, what was Sandusky? (p 84). Good question.

Driving With No Destination

John Irving’s “Almost in Iowa” was my favorite of the readings by far.
The story seems oddly familiar, as though I’ve either read it before or seen a similar storyline in a movie (or something). Though the driver in the story is going over the edge, I’ve certainly had more than my share of animated discussions with my vehicles over the years.
Just this past week, when my faithful truck punched me in the wallet for the sum of $702 for brake repairs I most definitely did some talking to the old girl. We’re alright now, but our relationship has had a few rough moments this week.
In all seriousness, my brake dilemma got me thinking about how unique our relationships with our vehicles are. Yes, an unexpected expense the size of $700 is not easy to accept, but there was no question in my mind that I would pay for the repair. What choice did I have? If another household appliance was costing the same amount for repairs, maintenance, and to simply run, I would undoubtedly be looking for an alternative. With our vehicles, it’s just a fact of life.

I can relate to the driver in Irving’s piece. There have been a few times in my life where I have jumped in my vehicle and driven, with no real destination in mind. I just needed to get distance (miles) between myself whatever was troubling me. On one especially stressful occasion, when I needed to escape most, my truck at the time completely broke down. I actually asked a friend if I could borrow his car. He never asked me where I was going, and I appreciated that. The truth was, I had no idea where I was going. I was just going. Of course, I wasn’t really getting away from my problems, but the privacy and feeling of safety my car provided me was perfect for the situation. I don’t think I’ve ever had running conversations with any of my cars/trucks, but I’ve most certainly appreciated their companionship and the feeling of safety they have provided me.

I wish he had kept on going!

Almost In Iowa, by John Irving was a disturbing portrayal of a man who has reached his breaking point. As always, Irving's prose are beautiful and gripping almost too much so as I really felt the genuine mental illness abound in this story. It seemed close to home and made me wonder if perhaps Irving was writing from experience. Reading this short story now is timely both because of the class we are taking but also because in Maida's advisee group she assigned the classic short story The Yellow Wall Paper. In both stories the reader is exposed to the inner thoughts of the story teller. in both stories they each end up being mentally ill at the point of break down. While some might argue that this man simply loved and respected his car in the way that Cathy loves Greta I was completely creeped out by his wing nut behavior! Talk about Douglas in Falling Down, I was worried he was going to go postal...In response to Sarah's blog I thought that the police report was his own imagining and paranoia about his wife and what she was up to. Regardless, Irving is an amazing writer and as always manages to create a character with enough clarity to send chills down my spine!

California Giant Redwoods

SHRINE Drive-Thru Tree
I found this this picture that my son Dylan took of me, my wife and my other two children, driving through a giant Sequoia in my Toyota Sequoia. This tree is 275 feet tall. A circumference of 64 feet and an amazing 3000 years old. That is me sticking my head out. I had to fold my mirrors in to get it through. A Toyota Sequoia is a Large SUV that fits eight people. I did have to unhitch my travel trailer. I thought I was going to get stuck when I started driving into the tree. This tree is located in Myers Flat, California. Yes, this is a living tree.

Book and Art

My favorite read this time was definitely John Irving Almost in Iowa. I the drivers loved his relationship with his volvo. He is so charismatic with his car through out the whole journey. It not even the drivers how wants to go make home but because of the cars condition they do. He sacrifices his trip for his volvo. I started to get a little confuse at the end when the police report was told. I didn’t get it if they had gotten in a crash or what. I mean it seemed like they did in the report and then they called the wife, which it seemed like she had an affair, and the other man picked up. Then it cut back to the driver and his story and I wasn’t sure what had happened. Other wise I really liked the chapter and am intrigued in this guys writing. He’s a good author.
On another note I found this amazing artist that made me think about our weekend goal to paint on peoples cars. His name is Scott Wade and his does stunning art on the back of people car out of dirt, clay and dust. It’s called Dirty Car Art. The pictures are so realistic and amusing. Most of the ones I’ve looked at have been on the back windshield of cars. The shading he does is very good but it comes right off because it is just dirt. Here’s the link.http://www.dirtycarart.com/

Car Talk

May 2009 Popular Science Magazine is about future travel. Mostly about planes, trains, and spaceships, but there is a small article titled, “CAR TALK"(p28). It discusses how cars would be able to talk to each other. It is high-tech WI-FI chip designed by an Australian company Cohda Wireless. The chip would enable the cars to relay their speed and location to cars with in 500 feet. Onboard computers would analyze the data and alert the driver if a car is running a red light and diverting collisions. The cars radio units would record the road conditions and if the traffic is backed up. I will bring in the magazine on Sunday for any one who might be interested in reading the article.