$1.19 Car of the Week #7—Aston Martin DBS!

M Y   C O L L E C T I O N — Oh yes I did! To complete my Aston Martin marathon, I just had to buy one! I found this Silver DBS with bright red "leather" interior today in my favorite grocery story toy aisle, for the now-standard $1.19. It was too perfect a coincidence to pass it up, and I don't even believe in coincidences! It was meant to be. I can only wonder when the real one will darken my doorstep, er, driveway. Whomever is listening, I wouldn't mind a silver/red version, but in a perfect world, I'd drive one that was Moss Green on the outside and dark Henna inside with Moss Green Alcantara inserts on the Nappa leather bucket seats. I don't even "need" the V12 DBS, the V8 Vantage will be good enough! hahahahahahaha! I crack myself up sometimes!

T H E   L O N G   A N D   W I N D I N G   R O A D 

N O T E :  I told myself that if I ever reached 100 posts in one month, I'd take the rest of the month off. Well, I made it, so I'm taking the entire rest of August off. Which means, I'll be back with a new post on Wednesday, September 1st. Which means I'm taking Tuesday off, lol. I need to rest my finger anyway, I slammed it again today. Funny how the one bum finger ALWAYS gets in the way even though there are nine good ones that could step up if they felt like it! 

I'd like to thank everyone that reads my blog for inspiring me to dig deeper each day and come up with new posts. If you look through this blog's history, I was only creating 30-40 posts a month until all of you started finding this blog earlier this summer. Because of your interest, your interesting lives, and your interesting comments, I've done more with this blog than I ever thought I would last February when I created casey/artandcolour. I'm humbled and excited at the same time. Hopefully this is only the beginning of a wild and windy drive with good friends down that long and winding [blog] road. A heartfelt "Thank You" to everyone.

See you Wednesday! : )

1 Part Useless SUV+1 Part Defunct Auto Brand =

Odd, front-wheel drive base model Jeep Compass, greets its second-cousin, once removed, ancestor, the long-defunct Eagle brand, and the result is this little hipster pickup with precious little cargo room and even less off-road traction, the Jeep Eagle Compass Cute/Ute Pickup Thingy. But it's damn attractive!

C H O P — Sometimes the mouse clicks and drags wherever the mouse wants to click and drag. I started with a photo of the 2007 Jeep Compass, a Jeep in name only. Its platform is more closely related to a Dodge Neon than it is to any "Trail-rated" puddle- and tree-jumper Jeep. The fwd Compass MAY have drawn an additional 12 people into Jeep showrooms, but no one took names so I don't believe it.

Photoshop allows me to create cute little vehicles, without any consideration of platform capability or production numbers or any practical considerations at all. The long-gone Eagle brand was created by the equally long-gone automobile manufacturer, American Motors Company. Eagle actually soldiered on for a couple of years after AMC ceased to exist, having been absorbed into the Chrysler company, but was never more than a Hornet or Gremlin in tippy-toe all-wheel drive drag. The Compass, and its more sanely-styled Patriot brother, are really more akin to an Eagle than a Jeep, so I thought it would behoove Chrysler to rebrand the cars as Eagles. What says 'buy me now' more than a small pickup truck with a three-foot bed, front-wheel drive, macho side cladding, suicide doors, and a cute smiling face? And the slotted roofrack is PERFECT for that off-roading necessity, a new Tempur-Pedic mattress from Bed, Bath & Beyond!

I started this chop a few years ago, when the Compass was first introduced. Checking out Woody's Car Site last night, I saw he posted a piece on the updated Compass coming out shortly. When I saw the press photo of the original Compass there, the same original I used for this chop, I was reminded of my little pickup chop. I opened up the file from the archives, and spent a couple of hours updating it and "fixing" several errors in the original chop, making it even cuter than it was, lol. So thank you for jogging my memory, Woody! Check out Woody's post here.

Vintage Virage Vibe and One Long Roof

Recalling the early '90s Virage, my V8 Vantage hatchback is a slightly glam edition of a modern classic.

"Fill 'er Up" takes on all new meaning when your DBS Longroof opens its rear hatch and tailgate.

C H O P S — Keeping with the recent Aston Martin posts, I thought I'd post a couple of Aston chops, one new and one from the Artandcolour archives. 

The V8 Vantage Virage edition, top, debuts the fastback hatchback bodystyle for AM. I've added a slight amount of bright trim to the sides and taillamps, and blacked out the roof, in addition to the extended greenhouse. The Virage was Aston's performance coupe in the early 1990s, and kept AM's name alive during some very lean years. This special edition pays homage to that history. 

The Balmoral Green Shooting Brake Longroof example in the lower photo would give Aston a factory competitor in a tiny niche segment in which bespoke car companies have long held court. Aston Martins have been made into sporting wagons for decades, some very good looking, others not quite so successful at blending high-performance with extra luggage capability. My Longroof DBS would open up the luggage area making it easier to carry the fitted polished carbon-fiber luggage that would be standard on this über wagonette. With careful aero-tuning, the Longroof just might be more aerodynamic than the coupe, wagons being inherently better at keeping the airflow attached, resulting in an even higher top speed. When "M" is calling and you're a couple of countries away from London entertaining your latest shagalicious conquest, more top speed is just what "Q" ordered.

I think perhaps a proper Rapide 4 door wagon might be needed next.

Rapide Transit: Aston Martin Magazine

The opening spread for "Road Proven, Race Perfect" an interview with Dr. Ulrich Bez, CEO, Marek Reichman, chief designer, and David King, head of motorsports for Aston Martin, discussing the development of the firm's new four-door Rapide in the summer 2010 issue of Aston Martin Magazine.

M Y   C O L L E C T I O N — The Aston sales guy mentioned in the post about the V8 Vantage book below, also gave me the summer issue of Aston Martin Magazine. This issue is dedicated to their new four door super saloon, the Rapide, in both production and racing versions. There are articles about the Rapide at the Nürburgring 24 hour race, a discussion with the CEO, design director and head of motorsports, a test drive through Valencia, Spain, an article about the sound system and built-in acoustics, a virtual tour of the production process and much more, including many full-spread color photos of the Rapide in action and at rest. Another great addition to my collection! 

The magazine is perfect-bound, like a softcover book, 64 pages, and printed on heavier-than-usual magazine paper. The cover is a mix of matte and glossy varnished printing on rich-feeling stock—really good overall production values, another indication how well they know their clientele. I used to receive the Star, a magazine for Mercedes Benz owners, but it was much more of a 'normal' feeling magazine. Thank you, to the great guy(s) from Aston Martin New England.

The cover of the summer issue of Aston Martin Magazine showing the Rapide in race trim, nicknamed "Katie" because its license tag ends in KTE, and the production Rapide in the background. 

(Photographed in the viewing garden of Aston's new Design Studio in Gaydon, England.)

Cactuses on Vacation in the Grove

Sitting on a white, thrift-store, wrought-iron plant stand, a gift from June earlier this summer, my cactuses are thriving outside in the filtered shade of the grove. They are captured clearly in the top photo, and through the criss-crossed fronds of the large potted palm in front of them.

I N D O O R   P L A N T S — Glimpsed through one of the large potted palms, my Christmas and Thanksgiving cactuses love being outside all summer. They must be in the shade though, with only minimal filtered sunlight. They acclimate quite quickly from their other three seasons inside, and the beneficial insects keep them clean and healthy all summer. They can't seem to throw off enough new leaf segments. In the fall, they'll go in the guest room with the sheers closed, giving them around 7 hours of low-light. I don't use that room much, and the lights are never on at night, the perfect setting for these plants to set lots and lots of buds for their season. The Thanksgiving cactus usually blooms throughout the month of November and the Christmas cacti bloom from late November through February, with occasional new blossoms in April. These plants live forever, almost. They were given to celebrate births in my family, so their ages are well-known. I lost my grandmother's last year, which was 114, but had been in declining health for about five years. The stems eventually get so woody and so thickened that no amount of care, short of cutting the newest ones off and rooting them will help. Which is exactly what I did. I have one that is 92, which is the age my mom would be, and one that is 53, mine. I've given several away, and have started several more. The rest of mine are only 4-5 years old. The Thanksgiving cactus is approximately 35 years old, and was gifted to my mother from a former patient of hers.

The Thanksgiving cactus has points on its leaves, as opposed to the Christmas cactus's rounded lobes. Here it is shot looking down at it in the photo above. All of the brighter green leaves on the plants are new growth from this summer. This plant is a young 35-or-so years old.

For more on these plants, click here.

For how to care for these plants, click here. The photo illustrated on this site shows a plant with pointed leaves, which I would call a Thanksgiving cactus and they identify it as a Christmas cactus. I'd bet that the terms are probably interchangeable, and passed down from family member to family member as well, but I've used the ones I was taught. They have slightly differently shaped, and colored, flowers.

Now THIS is a Dealer Brochure

Shown above is the 76 page hardcover linen-cased book, in its own fitted white cardboard folder/box, devoted to the Aston Martin V8 Vantage—the 'entry-level' model in the lineup. I'm pretty sure this is the only hard-covered dealer brochure I've ever received. The book is filled with great color photos of the car in gorgeous settings, and includes historical photographs of Aston's racing career as well. In addition, all the specs are listed for the Coupe and Roadster. This takes the 'top shelf' position in my promotional collection!

For my own version of the V8 Vantage, see the post above, or click here.

A Few Minutes with Nice Cars. And Jewels.

Step away from my new car, lol! : )

A   D A Y   I N   N E W P O R T — Two Aston Martins and a Lotus were parked in front of Grenon's of Newport Saturday, August 28th, for an annual ensemble show and sale in conjunction with Aston Martin-Lotus of New England, Waltham, MA. The black Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster, above, called to me clearly as the din of the busy street and pedestrian traffic faded away... Take me home, take me home. If only!

I traveled to Newport with three girlfriends for the "by invitation" shindig this past Saturday. I ventured into the jewelry store long enough to sample a delicious canapé, sip a glass of champagne, and realize the gals were totally in their element, so while they picked out their new baubles I mainly hung around outside with the cars. Of course! 

The New England dealer brought a black-as-metallic-coal Aston V8 Vantage roadster, an equally dark and elegantly sinister DB9 coupe, and a brand-new-to-the-USA bright red Lotus Evora. I must have looked all right, the girls insisted I wear long pants, and the very cool salesman unlocked the DB9 for me, opened the hood, explained the dry-sump system, and gave me not only a copy of the summer issue of Aston Martin Magazine, but a hard cover book of the V8 Vantage—in it's own fitted white box! If he only knew the pants were rented, lol. I kid, I kid... To read more about the magazine, or book, click the embedded links. A big thanks to all involved.

To see my own artandcolour version of the V8 Vantage click here, or to see my DBS Shooting Brake, click here.

The henna-colored leather interior of the 'base model' V8 Vantage roadster, starting price $132,000, but there wasn't any sort of tacky price stickers on the cars. "If you have to ask the price..."

The just-introduced-in-the-USA, Lotus Evora. I have to admit it was better looking in person than I thought it would be, although I'm not sure that any inanimate object would look its best next to a current model Aston! The Evora, and Lotuses in general, are among the best-handling cars for sale anywhere in the world, bar none. Discerning buyers, those that would be drawn to a Lotus in the first place, already understand Lotus's stature in the world, so perhaps being parked next to an Aston isn't a bad thing for the storied British marque. Rumored to be priced in the neighborhood of $75,000, no real Lotus buyer is going to expect the gentleman's club ambiance of a modern Aston Martin interior in the lithe mid-engined Evora anyway. I didn't get a chance to look under the rear hatch to see the engine, but I'd assume all the Toyota-embossed engine parts are out of sight...

The aluminum-intensive interior of the Evora. While the aroma of Aston's hand-worked leather literally wafted out of them onto the sidewalk, the Lotus is much simpler and more business-like in its accoutrements, and for its customers, probably all the better for it. While the late Colin Chapman might not recognize the latest car to wear his celebrated Lotus badge, his credo, "Simplify and Add Lightness" was still very much in evidence in this Evora, even with all of the 21st century safety and convenience items present and accounted for.

The metallic black DB9 coupe. Elegance and Beauty. Period.

I didn't even notice the mint, Continental kit-equipped '59 Impala cruising by in the background until I downloaded the photos this morning! Can't say that has ever happened to this vintage automobile obsessed writer before!

I can't adequately describe the heady aroma of hand-picked leathers used in this DB9 interior. The matte-finished wood used on the doors and the dash was stunning as well.

A piece of art. I could hang this door on a wall. While the car is quite low, the door's unique "swan-wing" hinges move the doors upward and outward ever-so-slightly as they swing open, to clear curbs.

The V8 Vantage's engine. Sculpture and power galore. The 420hp engine is mounted behind the centerline of the front wheels, for a front mid-engined layout, resulting in better weight distribution and outstanding handling. The lightweight strut-tower brace ensures flatter cornering and reduces chassis and body flex.

The aluminum filler for the dry sump oiling system. I'm not terribly mechanical, but I know a dry-sump system allows for a lower engine and a lower center of gravity, both important in über performance cars like this Aston.

A quaint Old-Worlde touch. Aston Martins have always had an engine 'signed' by the elite worker that built it for the car, but now there is an 'inspected by' aluminum signature underhood.

And now for the smaller, wearable jewels!

One of my friends trying on Hidalgo stackable rings to add to her collection inside Grenon's of Newport. Grenon's has been open since 2000, and is a certified retailer of upscale brands too numerous to mention. Offering individual service, attention-to-detail, and, on occasion, Champagne and canapés, the ambience was relaxed and elegant. It was a fun day for all, inside and out, with beautiful jewelry and beautiful cars to peruse and, perhaps, to purchase.

Setting the Record[s] for Diversity

The Beatles, Teresa Brewer, Elvis Presley, Perry Como.... only at casey/artandcolour, lol! Each of the group of four will open up larger-than-usual when clicked.

M Y   C O L L E C T I O N — A pretty diverse collection of 45RPM records from my collection. A couple of them are EPs, meaning they have more than one song per side, but most are the old 'usual' singles, with an A side and a B side. Besides these with colorful covers, I have close to one hundred additional 45s without any jackets at all. I'm not sure what happened to them, but I think a lot of them were bought with just paper sleeves protecting them, such as the Glen Campbell record above. 

Many of these have an eighty-five cent price sticker on the back, and the dates of the records are mid 1950s, which means they were probably bought at the PX at the Stuttgart, Germany US Army base. Even after my Dad retired from the service in the early 1960s, we continued to shop at the closest base to us, the Submarine Base in Groton, CT. Many of my Matchbox and Corgi Toys are from that PX, and we also shopped every few weeks for food at the Commissary, an absolutely huge grocery store on base. I really loved going to the base, as foreign as it seemed to me, with everyone walking around in uniforms, saluting each other. It was very clean and neatly kept up base with modern brick buildings, and good water views which usually included a submarine or three.

I have tons of newer 33s and older 78s with very cool artwork and photographs on their covers, and I'll scan those for a future post.

N O T E :  I'll be away from my computers this afternoon through evening, but I'll be [hopefully] getting some great photos for a future blog post. I'll "talk" to everyone when I'm back online!

Glories Going Gangbusters!

The Heavenly Blue Morning Glories are really blooming quite profusely these days. Today was the first day they opened fully all week though, as it has been raining and cloudy since Monday.

I love the Lemon Sunflowers next to this variety of blue Morning Glories. The colors are so pure and vibrant. But...

... they look fantastic by themselves next to the cedar posts of the vegetable garden. too. These are some of the vines that have outgrown the wire fence and willow branches in the center of this grouping, and are winding around almost invisible monofilament fishing line I've stretched between the cedar posts.

The Grove: The Shadier Side of the Yard

Potted Palms hang out in the Grove, my new shade garden.

M Y   G A R D E N — Most of the flower photos I've posted on this blog have been from the sunnier sides of the yard. I've only planted the shady side this year, what I call the Grove in memory of a like-named section of my parent's property, and have been tinkering with it all summer. Most of the perennials were moved here after flowering, so there won't be much to see until next year, but there are a few interesting tableaux.

Dragon Wing Begonia. This plant thrives in filtered sunlight, and absolutely loves its placement this year in the newly landscaped Grove. Mary gave me this "annual" seven years ago. I cut it back and move it indoors each fall and it has done well wherever I've lived. Last winter I left it on the common sun-porch, where it was doing fine until one of the other tenants left the door open for several days, and I didn't notice it in time to close it. This plant and a couple othes were frozen. I brought this plant back to life in the spring from ONE leaf, the only leaf that didn't freeze and die. 

I moved my new pinky-blueish-lavender Hydrangea to this shadier spot in July. Just as Mary said it would, the pale pastel flowers are mellowing to an awesome cranberry color.

Solomon Seals. After doing some reading, I decided to move the Solomon Seals that came up unexpectedly in the new backyard, into my shade garden. The white bell-like flowers have given way to blueberry-like seed pods hanging down on these overgrown Lily-of-the-Valley-like ancient perennials. Make sure to click on these to enlarge them to see these very cool, very plump berries. I'm pretty surprised they've turned such a deep, dark bluish-purple color—the flowers were creamy white.

I also have my Christmas and Thanksgiving cactuses hanging out in this area for the summer. Moving them outside for a few months does wonders for them. I lost my oldest cactus last winter, after several years of declining health. It was 114 years old. The oldest one I have now is a very healthy-looking 92. My Thanksgiving cactus is a baby, it's only 35. I'll post photos of them at a later date. The oldest one is not very large to tell you the truth. It has been pruned and trimmed several times in its life, and has probably made at least fifteen additional plants which have been given to friends through the years.

Video Killed the Super 8mm Star

Camera Thrills in Wildest Africa... Black and White Silent film in a reel-to-reel Super 8mm format. Be sure to click on the top cover image for the cool, and colorful, details. What do you think the title type is meant to convey? I love figuring out the font usage in designs1

M Y   C O L L E C T I O N — I really can't imagine the days when a family would sit down to a home movie projector and watch silent 8mm, or 16mm reel-to-reel type movies, but here's the proof they did. I remember watching home movies in this format, WAY before video cameras became ubiquitous. I still have these same movie cameras, as we called them, and I have the reel-to-reel player and a screen that folds out to watch them on, but I've never gotten everything to work. I'm not quite sure I want to watch home movies from the '40s through the early '70s, watching my dead family members, and life itself all those years ago. There would be no sound, and the herky-jerky movements I remember from watching them as a child might be mildly amusing, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about seeing my parents, my aunt and uncle and my grandmother and their friends, in the prime of their lives.

On the other hand, watching a 'film' like Wildest Africa. might be fairly fun. I know I find the cover art fun—"fun" in the way that a Tarzan movie is fun today, campy and very un-PC. Just like today, the packaging may have sold the movie. After looking at the very colorful cartoon-like cover, I know I was disappointed to read that the flick was black-and-white. And speaking of colorful, this cover meets all of the artandcolour criteria—it's a virtual rainbow of bright hues! The title typography on the cover is very interesting also. At first I thought the letters were meant to evoke "bones" as in "natives" but they also have a very Sputnik, antenna-type look to them. This film seems to have been sold in 1962, so perhaps that is a sort of "space" reference.

Castle Films, begun by a film maker Eugene W. Castle who specialized in travelogues and short films, and was in operation from the mid 1930s through the mid 1970s, when it was absorbed by Universal Pictures.

Does anyone in Readerville ever watch Super 8 movies from a time long ago and  far away? How do they make you feel?

• List of Castle Films here.

• Some other pertinent information on these films here.

• This link seems to be the exact movie, Camera Thrills in Wildest Africa, dated 1962.

U P D A T E : 
 There is a video of this film online, found by my loyal reader, Marius. This link says the movie dates to 1946,  as opposed to the one above that said 1962. Perhaps it was filmed in '46 and sold through the '60s. There is no date on  my box, and I've never watched the actual reel inside. Thank you, Marius! Camera Thrills in Wildest Africa.

Found Objects: The West Hollywood Years

M Y   A R T — I was reminded today, on another blog, of the found objects I have always accumulated in my lifetime. I can't help it, my father did the same thing. After he retired from the service, he worked in Manhattan and with the two-hour drive, each way, and the fact he drove a pickup truck most of the time, he often came home with unbelievable stuff. Once he came home with a brand new lounge chair, still in the box, which apparently had fallen out the back of the tractor trailer! There was no name on the box for a store, so we kept it. He came home once with a dozen different women's shoes, the left shoes only. Apparently they were used in a window display and then discarded but he found them attractive and gave them to my mother who just looked at him, and without missing a beat told him they weren't her size. They ended up being nailed to the wall in the garage and in his workshop, becoming objets d'artes. I come by my talents the old-fashioned way—I inherited them, lol.

This leather cap was found in the middle of Santa Monica Blvd one night between 4am and 6am. I left a club around 3am in Hollywood, and walked home to my apartment all the way to West Hollywood near the Whisky-a-Go-Go on Sunset Blvd, finding this cap, a pair of pants, a shirt, a dinner jacket, a pair of boots and a box of socks along the way. They were all in different areas of town. Who knows what the story was for any of them? I put each item of clothing on over my 'other' clothes, and by the time I got home I was deliriously happy. And just plain delirious, if truth be told. I still have the dinner jacket and the leather cap, although that was the last time I wore either one of them.

This drawing dates to that period, 1981. The Saran Wrap covering has been on the drawing since new, and I won't ever take it off. That's the best I could do to 'frame' it and protect it at the time, and speaks volumes about my life then. And now.

Self-Portrait #4,092. Analog AND Digital

Rendered on wood or an electronic file? Yes. Click to enlarge, if you dare!

M Y   A R T — "Analog and digital" describes this self-portrait because it exists in the physical realm, on wood, and yet it actually exists only in pixels on your monitor. The background of this piece, everything but the superimposed 'big' head, exists on a plywood base, and consists of my now-usual mix of paint, paper, and polyurethanes. You can touch it, and hang it on your wall. In fact it is hanging in my friend Meghan's home right now. The small images include various photos of me as a young child, and of my father, my mother and my aunt Hoohoo, all instrumental in helping to foster and develop my artistic soul. Images of me in my twenties, include my shirtless punk period with a Mohawk 'do—Polaroids playing around with a plastic nun figurine, bold and brash with a mix of meek and mild. The painted plaids, in this piece, tie all of these incarnations together in a loose, ragged, haphazard manner, evocative of so many of our lives. The large face superimposed over the wooden piece, however, is a recent digital photo of me. It's overlayed in Photoshop, making this form of the self-portrait "real" only in pixel form. There is no printout, or painting or multimedia piece extant. I think I may print it out and use it in some other piece, as a section of a new piece, but I may just leave it as is. I like the concept of some of my art being purely digital, some of my art having physical representations on wood, and some pieces bridging the gap between the two mediums.

Duality—but Then Again, I AM a Gemini

It's ironic, and just a bit interesting psychologically probably, that my art is about finding those shared common emotional experiences we all have tucked away somewhere, and I've only been able to do that by becoming a recluse. From a life spent out in the public eye, in both my day- and my night-life, while obsessively keeping my emotional distance from anyone and everyone, I now find myself at the opposite end of the spectrum, and finding it really comfortable there. I've shut myself off physically, but opened my emotions to the world via my art.

WW1-era Postcard Details: Illustrated Fleurs

A selection of postcards collected in France by my grandfather during WW1. As my loyal reader Artichoke Annie has mentioned in the WW1 "fields of flowers" post below, between not wanting to worry the folks back home, and having the government censors reading each and every written note home, communications during this war were kept pretty lighthearted in general. These cards were never mailed, he brought home hundreds of cards like this for his sister, Edith, who had fallen sick in 1919 and apparently liked flowers as much as I do today. I have a few old tin tobacco boxes and a couple of small wooden boxes she papered over with flowered magazine ads and wallpaper bits, making them prettier for her bureaus and shelves I believe. I love the way these illustrations were drawn and used with the typography of the day.

So THAT'S Where "Doughboys" Comes From

World War I postcard showing Salvation Army volunteers actually making doughnuts on the front lines of the war in France. Kinda sorta makes waiting in line at your local Dunk-N-Donuts a bit easier to take, doesn't it?

For a much longer explanation of the term 'doughboys' click over to this website. Apparently some feel the term dates back to the Civil War or earlier.

$1.19 Car of the Week #6—Oops!

2010 Honda Insight hybrid. I thought it was the new Prius...

S C A L E   M O D E L   C A R S — The other day I was a in a rush at the grocery store. It was just starting to spit rain, and I didn't feel like riding my bike home in a downpour. Of course, "rush" doesn't mean I avoided the toy aisle, lol. I saw this dark red Matchbox, obviously a hybrid, and what I thought was the newest version of the Prius. I have a Matchbox of the previous Prius, in a beautiful silver green, and I thought this one in a dark red would look nice with it.

I also thought that it was exactly the car the Ross Mathews, of Tonight Show fame and Hello Ross! blog bought recently, one he named Ruby I believe because it's a dark red. I thought I'd scan mine and post a link to it at Ross's blog, maybe giving him a smile. Anyhow, when I got home, really wet because it DID downpour, I put the car on the scanner and not until the scan was complete and I started to clean it up did I realize I had bought the new Honda Insight instead!

I've always thought that the current Insight looked too much like the Prius in real life, probably an intentional effort on Honda's part to gain more hybrid sales, and it apparently looks alike more so in scale. Oops, my bad! But it's a cool little model anyway, one that actually sells very poorly in full size, perhaps making a scale model of it more collectible in the future.

Because War is Prettier in a Field of Flowers

World War One Propaganda Postcards

All I can say is, wow. I did no color work on these vintage postcards. These are scans of the real thing. These came in booklets. The postcards were perforated and folded out accordion-style to be torn out and used, only no one ever used any of these. I believe the Great War, World War I, was the first war to use mechanized devices such as trucks, motorcycles, and of course airplanes. I have more than one hundred of these and will continue to scan them for this blog.

The following images are photoshopped collages I've made using some of my postcards from this era, along with other period imagess.

These postage stamps were actually used on other postcards from this 1917-1920 period. The "Argonne Victory" is a newspaper article about important battle of the war.

The lady in this image was a great-aunt of my mother's, who fell very ill in 1919 of the Spanish Influenza, waiting for her brother to return from the war. He returned in fine shape, she never really recovered to full health and died in the late 1920s.

The horse image is for "Mellow Stock Pipe Slices," some form of tobacco I suppose, dating to 1918.