Month: September 2016

Today Dennis Hoyt sent me a link to his latest promotional piece, this in support of an upcoming auction sale to benefit the La Grande Symphony. As you may recall, or if you follow my Porsche blog you would know that Dennis is an internationally-acclaimed local sculptor who specializes in auto racing subject matter. We have collaborated in the past on a website and his charitable projects, and talk Porsches and Formula One racing when we get together. This piece is about his tribute sculpture to legendary Stirling Moss and his winning Mercedes 300 SLR. And, incredibly, this video was put together using iPhone and iMovie technology as a first time effort by his neighbor, April Simpson. I was only going to post this on my car blog, but it is too good; it deserves a wider audience, IMHO.

Walking the Deplorable Devil Dawg this afternoon, stumbled upon Ken (neighbor three blocks away) and his Tonka Toy.   (Too bad little Lisle didn’t see this.)  It’s a 50s Jeep pickup, radically modified with a 600hp Chevy 454ci engine and other Chevy and GM running gear, 44-inch tires and custom bodywork that includes a unitized hood and wider-by-six-inches fenders that tip forward to expose the engine and front suspension. Stands roughly eight feet tall.  Originally painted in yellow and green as a University of Oregon Ducks tribute, Ken is redoing it to make it less … political. The thing was supposedly once on the cover of a custom trucks magazine after a small fortune was spent on it; Ken is going to rework it a bit now and powder coat a lot of stuff,  fabricate and install a custom electronic dropdown step assist for age-appropriate ingress and egress, drive it about twenty miles a month, and mostly put it in car shows. I was going to publish the pics below on my Porsche and sports car blog, but they don’t fit there, either.  

For comparison, here’s a stock version from 1950:

The Guys is a play by Anne Nelson about the aftermath of 9/11. We saw a local production at the Liberty Theatre (in its alley-accessible Back Door Stage; see some streetside signage here) today, directed and produced in part by Jeanie Nickel, a friend and high school classmate of Ivi.   A moving work, with an especially wonderful performance by Bryn McLaughlin , whose previous roles in Shakespeare and other local productions have made our day at other times.