In 1981- 82 I was on the east coast, campaigning a fourspeed ’67 chev pickup with steel camper shell, 350 V8, headers backed by not particularly discreet glass paks and beefed-up suspension, many pieces of which had to be replaced in the course of that year or subsequently.

All about infrastructure, the eighties; the roads of America weren’t anymore well-maintained than the railroads, which, just to parenthetically bring it up to the present day, means you really shouldn’t run trains at 100+miles per hour on tracks not up to, say, 20th century [European or Japanese] standards…and then blame regulations or operator errors when they derail.  Or terrorists…but then that’s not a ‘first-world’ problem; we ain’t talking first world here, we’re talking consumerist demockery, and no better now…

BUT, I digress; back then my friend Stephen told me I should see a movie that “took place inside my painting”, said painting being a 5×15′ triptych hanging in the gorgeous apartment he, his wife, sons, and a rotating cast of thousands enjoyed for decades on Riverside Drive.  So I dutifully dragged myself down to Times Square and settled in for a disconcerting ten minutes or so of vaguely German Expressionist roadmovie noir.  Just as I was beginning to think cinephile Stephen had set me up for some artier-than-art movie the sound surrounded the room in about 800 decibels of hot rod exhaust and blowerwhine, the film went fullscreen color and we were roaring across a vast desert wasteland [“the Wasteland”] very like my painting with Mad Max, the Road Warrior.  Thirty-three years and many Burningman appropriations of the genre later, Linda and I ventured to Vallejo, where we constituted the most elderly third of the matinee audience for “Mad Max Fury Road” in 3D, and were not disappointed, although in retrospect I felt, given how it truly feels to careen across the wasteland at excessive speeds, the sound design could have been considerably more aggressive. Not so the vehicles…

Thus inspired, the day following went long in Santa Rosa installing “Crackle” and “Planetesimal”, exacerbating my already spasmodic back, particularly come afternoon when several of the already minimal crew found other urgent things to do…

One highlight, however, was to see Lewis DeSoto’s 4×4 dually 3/4 ton deluxe 777 Cahuilla pickup in the flesh;

…then break for lunch with most of “Crackle” nearly done;

After which the aforementioned migrations left us decidedly short-handed for the remainder of the afternoon…

At day’s end, however, both were up, looking grand in the live and poison oak paradise of Paradise Ridge, and things seemed good.  Wednesday I had help loading the big stuff into the two trucks, got groceries and clothing together and even worked in a ride to the jetty, last day of Cali for awhile…

As it happened, not last day; exacerbated by those two days of gentle efforts the back was back with enough of a vengeance to make finishing the load and driving five hours [to then unload] highly impractical, so waited out Thursday despite my impatience to get away…

Away from all the this and the that of this…

 

M