tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post7800866347923984938..comments2024-03-19T21:14:01.007-07:00Comments on The Compass Rose: Lee Friedlander's America By CarCurtis Favillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-34639264619349170312010-07-27T23:08:36.998-07:002010-07-27T23:08:36.998-07:00I'm old enough to remember the car-centerednes...I'm old enough to remember the car-centeredness of even a sleepy half-intellectual half-middleclass town like Berkeley California before WWII. Model A's (and the occasional B), rumble seats, plush-upholstered fancy cars, crank-to-starts… it was definitely a focus of daily life, even among those on the poor side (as most we knew were). <br /><br />Very nice writing, by the way, Curtis.Charles Sherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10480432901356490235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-53558599636151210212010-07-27T14:05:41.275-07:002010-07-27T14:05:41.275-07:00Kerouac rode trains, or on the back of flatbed tru...Kerouac rode trains, or on the back of flatbed trucks as often as he did in autos, right--tho' OTR did feature that one bodacious roadtrip with Dean Moriarty at the wheel of an old Buick or somethin, Sal ridin' shotgun when they headed back east (and...supposedly cleaned up, for the PG-13 version of OTR, instead of the X) . Nothin' like Denver car thief-on-meth and cheap whiskey kix. <br /><br />But I agree America's a car culture and has been since 50s or so. Then seeing the usual 405 AM traffic mash up you can't hardly but feel (at least those us not in benzes, hummers, lexuses, porsches etc) tempted to reach for the yr notes to Bakunin....Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-72521004198410802282010-07-27T12:55:35.279-07:002010-07-27T12:55:35.279-07:00We're at the 45th anniversary of the Berkeley ...We're at the 45th anniversary of the Berkeley poetry conference; in two years we'll be at the 45th of Szarkowski's "New Documents" exhibition, with LF the sole survivor--and a national treasure, "Free, a genius, an embarrassment / Like the Indian, the buffalo // Like Yellowstone National Park."Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12714098498354846094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-10211574128920218112010-07-27T09:19:24.605-07:002010-07-27T09:19:24.605-07:00My grandmother was the first woman to drive an aut...My grandmother was the first woman to drive an automobile must have been <br />about 1917 or so a Packard<br /><br />with wooden spoke wheels with rubber tires and running-boards..<br /><br />her brother had a chicken farm outside of Baltimore and also had first a horse-drawn wagon and the about 1915 a Packard truck<br /> after moving to D.C. the family in the grocery business had many cars with the back seat taken out so groceries cld be transported from The Florida Avenue Market back to the store.<br /><br />Goodrich and Goodyear and the other rubber tire manufactures who made BIG BUCKS by selling their huge rubber tires to the bus company her in the late 50's made sure street cars with iron wheels which lasted "forever" were gotten rid of. Now D.C. is trying to bring back street cars!<br /><br /><br />my first auto was a 1952 Studebaker in 1960 I drove my 1959 Chevy Bel Air across the U.S.A<br /><br />the trip out-and-back toke me about 5 weeks. I mostly slept on the back seat of the car. For company I picked up many hitch-hikers some of them even "sprung" for gas... for food...for sex!<br /><br />used to love the smell of the gasoline/lead fumes as it went into the tank.<br /><br />neat photographs and I notice no people or animals in the shots<br /><br />no sign of life anywhere..<br /><br />must be his Surreal Eye<br />de:veloping<br /><br /> a step away from Man Ray<br />minus the poetry<br /><br /><br />once I drove non-stop from Berkeley to D.C.<br /><br />it took 3 days and 2wo nights..<br />when I got home my hands were swollen and when my mother opened the door I fell on front down on the <br />gold wall to wall synthetic carpet<br /><br />when I awoke I was sweating sweat laying on the plastic-covered ball-and-claw couch.<br /><br />I guess virtual reality began in the late 50's with this "trip"<br /><br /> being non-christi'n I n'ver did have a plastic jesus on the dash... I had a pair of fuzzy dice.<br /><br /> EdAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-38898261197894665282010-07-26T21:40:01.699-07:002010-07-26T21:40:01.699-07:00I think in an imaginative sense--which is how I am...I think in an imaginative sense--which is how I am using this statement--I think it's true. <br /><br />My stepfather was born in 1901. He told me at some length about the progress of the inventions that came to semi-rural Wisconsin (a working farm about 30 miles north of Madison) during the period 1905-1925, and cars came in pretty quickly. People were completely diverted by the new invention. By the end of WWI everyone who could afford one was getting one. By 1925, people weren't "riding" into town, they were motoring.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-78954507771292292022010-07-26T18:17:01.297-07:002010-07-26T18:17:01.297-07:00No, Curtis, we (USA) have not been a car culture f...<br>No, Curtis, we (USA) have not been a car culture for "close to a century." More like 60 years, and its a big difference.<br /><br />Don't you talk to old-timers? They'll tell you cars were something of a novelty, not owned by most Americans until after World War II. Before the war you could easily play ball, as a kid, in all but the major streets of San Francisco, for example. After the war: nope. <br /><br />Read the history books? Learn what the rubber (tire) companies and others did (as with the Key public transit system) in teh late 1940s. <br /><br />Remember your Keroauc? When was <i>On The Road</i> written and when was it published?<br /><br />I love Friedlander's photos.Steven Famahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13733977161680651117noreply@blogger.com