J.W. Burleson photo / Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

PHB

My photo
Brooklin, Maine, United States
We own a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15 in Maine and a 1986 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 10 in West Texas. Also a pair of 1997 Volvo 850 wagons. Average age in the fleet is 28 years--we're recycling. I've published 3 novels: THE LAW OF DREAMS (2006), THE O'BRIENS (2012), and CARRY ME (2016). Also 2 short story collections: NIGHT DRIVING(1987) and TRAVELLING LIGHT (2013). More of my literary life is at www.peterbehrens.org I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for 2012-13. I'm an adjunct professor at Colorado College and in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. In 2015-16 I was a Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The Autoliterate office is in Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square, 2 floors above Dewey Cheatem & Howe. SUBSCRIBE TO THE AUTOLITERATE DAILY EMAIL by hitting the button to the right.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

1961 Chevrolet Brookwood & that Los Angeles Light.

Found it on Curbside Classics, couldn't resist. A plainjane 54 year old survivor, our kind of car. Makes me miss LA, too. Have a look at the Parkwood version of this wagon we caught in Maine last month.

Citroen Deux Chevaux, Durgendam NL & 1970 Chevrolet Hearse, Amsterdam Oud West

from Guido Goluke, Dutch translator of Kerouac's On the Road:  "The big hearse type car [AL--1970 Chevrolet] was found parked in a residential street in Amsterdam Oud West. The reflection in the rear window gives a good impresiion of Amsterdam residential architecture of the early twentieth century. The backpackers who would nog quite step out of my way are undoubtedly footmen in the growing army of tourists who book their too expensive beds via AirB&B – for their hazy ‘adventures’ in ‘fantastic’ Amsterdam. The Ugly Duckling [Citroen] was found in Durgerdam, some kilometers to the north of Amsterdam, on the banks of the former Zuiderzee, now Ijsselmeer, a sleepy little village that could just as well be a hundred miles from the milling crowds in the capital."--GG







Saturday, May 30, 2015

Winslow Homer's Dodge

Very clean Dodge. Mid-Seventies? Green is the color of spring on Cape Elizabeth. Winslow Homer's studio is just down the road.




Friday, May 29, 2015

The SportChassis Freightliner: "Supersize that dually, please"

We are Americans and like stuff large, especially our pickup trucks. Spotted this one on the Maine Turnpike yesterday. These are done by an outfit called Trailers of the East Coast. "Each and every SportChassis is built on the Freightliner M2 Business Class chassis....We are SportChassisworld, we have the best Heavy Duty Pickups on the planet."
(Up to 40,000 lbs. towing capacity. Oughta get you through a weekend.)



Thursday, May 28, 2015

The Power Wagon That Went to Harvard

 Somehow I don't expect to see great trucks parked on the streets of Cambridge, MA. It just doesn't seem that kind of town. Anyway, here we are, a couple blocks north of Harvard Law School, where a flotilla of new lawyers in cap and gown were being awarded their diplomas--actually it's Commencement Day all over Harvard, and Mass Ave is crowded with robes and mortarboards and the girls in their summer dresses (its 93F, and humid)---and I spot this wonderful bare tough and perfectly clean Dodge. Wow. My kind of truck. Don't know the vintage but I remember driving this era of Mopar on a ranch in Alberta, in 1976---the body type lasted into the 90s, when it was replaced by the bulbous mock-macho of the subsequent Dodge/Ram gestalt, trucks which maybe were designed by Sylvester Stallone, or Steven Seagull or whatever his name was. (Here's another mid 70s Power Wagon, on Bangshift)






Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Another Studebaker Champ

 Saw this one in Arundel, Maine.  Looks like a Datsun pickup circa 1974. Better quality steel, maybe. Caught another Champ out on the Llano Estacado in West Texas.


Jesse Thompson: Downeast Vernacular

Where does Downeast start? For me it's crossing the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. For some people it starts wherever the grocery store clerk calls you "Dee-ah". Three images of contemporary Downeast vernacular from architect Jesse Thompson:
1. Barn, Sedgwick.
 2. Blueberry Barrens House
3. Shed #1, Brooklin Boatyard

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Snow Nova. Wiscasset Maine

That was early April, heading downeast. It's green May now. Blackfly season. Finches feeding frenzy in the backyard. Kale coming up in the garden. Boat going in ASAP.





Raked mast, quick boat. Center Harbor, Maine


Monday, May 25, 2015

Craig Manning's Coffee Run, Cote d'Azur; and the ghost Ford of the Old Woman Mountains

from Craig Manning, the traveling geochemist. 
"Summer is coming, yellow is the color."-CEM
 1. Scanlon Gulch, Old Woman Mountains, Mojave desert, CA
 2. coffee run, Cote d’Azur. Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France
3. Swim ride. St Jean Cap Ferrat, France
4. At the pierogi stand. West LA
5. Mar Vista, CA
6. funmobile. Mar Vista, CA

Sunday, May 24, 2015

"Glide" at the Brooklin Boatyard

Built in Massachusetts; I think in the late 1940's. Good cruising sailboat. Not fast. She was painted and tuned up at BBY.


Friday, May 22, 2015

Two T-Birds, Wiscasset Maine

 And they were both for sale at Twisted Iron Customs, in Wiscasset.



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