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.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

1958 Chevrolet Delray


Ragged glory. Caught it in Old Colorado City early one morning. Delray was at the low end of the Chevy totem pole in 1958. I always liked the look of these cars, much more handsome than the '57s I think. Caught a '58 Biscayne, the next step up, for sale in Maine a couple years ago.
How's your Subaru going to look in 58 years?



Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Fiat 500, South Park, Colorado


Snow was coming and I was trying to beat it back to The Springs but had to keep pulling over to stare at the wide open. And yeah I was driving a Fiat.
 


 




American Houses: Colorado Springs CO and North Cambridge, MA

 Wahsatch Blvd., Colorado Springs
 2 Three-deckahs in No. Cambridge, MA

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Clancy Dennehy: Rez Cars


Catch the short film on the filmmaker Clancy Dennehy's website:
"Voiced by top native actors including Tantoo Cardinal and Gary Farmer, crucial moments of past lives breathe again inside abandoned cars resting in reservation country. As in much native storytelling, humor mixes easily with sex, death, moosemeat and 8-tracks. These Rez Cars are all rare examples of past eras’ indulgences in automotive color and design, lovingly photographed as they were found in the cinematic landscapes of British Columbia, ranging from the majestic Fraser Canyon to the dystopian Deadman Valley, all loaded with haunting atmospheres. By turns shocking, sexy and spiritual, REZ CARZ is a collection of ghost stories that reveres our inseparable relationship with our cars."
Many thanks to Sharon Riis for the heads-up.

1968 Dodge D200 Camper Special, and The River Arkansas

The Arkansas R. is just a mountain stream up here.
 Took an afternoon off, did some driving. A wonderful folkie band called The River Arkansas was being interviewed and playing on KRCC when I left The Springs. Their music ( stream them here) inclined me southward, and I ended up following the bends and twists of the Arkansas R. from Canon City up to Salida, where I spotted el Dodge. 



Sheeper's Wagon, Nevada


How much sagebrush does it take to fatten a sheep? The photo is from Mike Moore, in Northern Nevada. Many of the sheepers I met out in that country were of Basque origin. Used to be Basque restaurants in Nevada towns like Elko and Winnemucca. You might try the cafe in the Martin Hotel, in Winnemucca. More fun than the slot machines.

Monday, March 28, 2016

1961 Chevrolet Apache 10



Looks clean. Details at B-A-T. Autoliterate has posted on a rougher step-side edition of this truck in Colorado Springs. And one for sale in Maine last year. And there's Sean's Apache, a literary legend. I learned to drive standard on a '61 Apache when I was 18 and working on the GH Ranch in Sundre, Alberta, which I wrote about in an essay Father's Son in Brick a few years ago. 






1954 Chevrolet Bel Air. Canmore, Alberta.

from Alex Emond: "By coincidence , I just took these shots last week ... I guess the Bel Airs are coming out of hibernation..."




Saturday, March 26, 2016

Laura Wilson's "That Day: Pictures in the American West"


The images are from Laura Wilson's That Day: Pictures in the American West. Some of the photographs were in her exhibition at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth last winter. Born during World War II, Wilson grew up watching Western movies and reading the cowboy literature of America’s wild West.
Here's Wilson, from an interview by Guy Reynolds: “There is the myth and the romantic West, which are, of course, deep within me, growing up as I did in the 1950s,” she says. “I was very interested in the painting and the architecture of the West. I like the open space. I like everything about it.” 





1954 Chevrolet Bel Air

Caught the bright Bel Air one morning on Colorado Blvd. in Old Colorado City, which was the territorial capitol for 5 days in 1861. The last AL Chevy of this vintage was a 210 posted from Sedgwick, Maine.