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.

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

1957 Plymouth Savoy

 JWBurleson photograph ©2020. Yeah that's us. Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

Monday, April 27, 2020

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Chevy to the levee



More like a Jimmy to the wharf, out at Naskeag. 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15, purchased new at Casner Motors, Marfa, Texas.
It is a cold spring in Maine. Blowing 10-12 NNW at Naskeag Point, Wednesday evening.


Saturday, April 25, 2020

Kevin Everson and the Opel Kadett




...."Currently a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, Everson has been celebrated as one of the leading experimental filmmakers working in the United States today. In Germany, he was planning on shooting segments of a new single-channel film. The piece, inspired by his upbringing in industrial Mansfield, Ohio, centers around an Opel Kadett C 3. The artist’s father, a former auto mechanic, had brought home the car for Everson and his older brother, kindling his original fascination with this particular model. “I just always wanted to do a film about an Opel car.” he explains. When Everson heard that the cars were originally bought in Panama and Germany, and shipped to the United States, the idea for his new film was born. “I thought maybe if I filmed something in Panama and filmed something in Germany and have this car there, I can make this conceptual connection to these objects,” he says, explaining the grander project. Earlier this year, he spent four days at the Panama Canal, capturing its lock and dam system, and preparing to continue his work in Berlin..." from Art in the Time of Corona, American Academy in Berlin   

Friday, April 24, 2020

1959 Pontiac Catalina Window Rock Arizona

 While shooting a documentary on the Navajo Reservation a few years back, the D.P. Ute Briesewitz did some coverage on this '59 Pontiac Catalina for me. You know that AL has a thing for the '59 Catalina of all cars.






Thursday, April 23, 2020

Rough Road 1980 El Camino

Blue Hill, Maine. Cold Spring. AL has posted a lot of El Caminos. Try the search widget. Maybe our favorite was this clean 1969 machine caught in. Ventura CA a while back.




Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Rolling Homes and bus conversions--#Vanlife, the Seventies version.

from Reid Cunningham: On a recent walk in Franklin NH I came across this bus conversion. It reminded me of the book Rolling Homes from the 70's, there were any number of buses converted by building a house on the back. I have a copy back in NY, it's a fun read if even just for the snapshot of a certain counter culture in the 60's and 70's. In this time of social isolation one can imagine this parked in some sunny distant mountain meadow.

Monday, April 20, 2020

Couple of Dodges. Ramcharger and Dodge Ram pickup c 1993

from Reid Cunningham: I have been severely limiting the amount I am out (only for trips back to NY for the family) but today a lack of eggs, milk and laundry detergent (I am wearing the last pair of clean socks) drove me to the supermarket, with disinfectant, sanitizer and a mask in hand. On the way home I passed a garage in Franklin NH with this Ramcharger and a pickup. The Ramcharger sits high because it lacks its engine at the moment, but it is definitely an active project with a fresh homemade bumper and what looked like the soon to be installed engine on a hoist nearby. The pickup with a current registration is a classic shop truck, the bed loaded with an intake and carb, exhaust parts and other bits and bobs of motors.


Sunday, April 19, 2020

Saturday, April 18, 2020

1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15

Out at Naskeag Point. Seem to want to drive out that way most evenings. Whatever the weather, there is always the light. Often a chill NW blowing 12-15-20 knots down the Reach but we're starting to get some southerlies, and the good old SW will sooner or later bring real spring--say, in the 50s-- to Downeast Maine.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

1968 Chevrolet Impala convertible

from Reid Cunningham: "Found in Boscawen, NH, a 1968 Impala Convertible. The 307 would have been the base V8; I think they could only be had with a two-barrel carb.  At least a step up from the 6, but I can't believe there were many convertibles with the straight 6.  Dressing it up with the Super Sport hubcaps doesn't really add to the sportiness, but I still think they look good--even if I would look for a nice set of bottle caps."  


Wednesday, April 15, 2020

1957 Ford Fairlane. En attendant le traversier.

from Aidan O'Neill. Family waiting for the ferry across the Saguenay River, from Tadoussac, Quebec to Baie Sainte-Catherine. This is on the Côte-Nord, one hundred and forty miles downriver from Quebec City. And that is a 1957 Ford Fairlane sedan. Also the tail end of a 1955 or 56 Ford Wagon. Some kinda limo between the two...maybe a 1949 Cadillac Fleetwood?
Aidan O'Neill photograph, forty years later. The Saguenay has the fog. This is the point where the Saguenay flows into the St Lawrence. Feeding ground for beluga whales.