Martiana

A random visitor to shublog submitted an impassioned comment last weekend:

“Don’t tease us — the word “NASA” staplegunned my retina to your page. Have you any NASA-clobbering SPACE-THEMED concept work? For example, my dream of dreams — a Martian colony? OR, nearer your heart: a Martian car?”

.. a clarion call to martiana. I can’t say I have any ‘NASA-clobbering’ stuff lying around here. I have a bit of respect for the NASA folks- especially since our Wall-e research trip down to JPL all them years ago. But this piece might suffice. I was 13 and in 7th grade at Derby Middle School. It’s your basic human-invasion-of-space theme replete with things only a benign 13 year-old existence would bring to space: a canoe, various service sector jobs and, of course, anti-grav vehicles. Does our invasion of outer space qualify us as the martians? If my prized 24 Pentel marker set had anything to say about it: then, “yeah, sure.” why not. Besides the fact I was still drawing a bear character as human-proxy: not so much martian as just perplexing. The good man who left the comment can send me a self-addressed/ stamped envelope so I can get his retina back to him. 

Just in case the people didn’t get it, I attached this card to the back of the piece:

These days I’m not so excited about living in space. I’d rather have a nice air-stream trailer.

Employ this man.

Pictured below is James Mulvihill. It is a coincidence of no consequence that he is in a shoe shop. But he does require your full attention.

You see, James is a talented Design Engineer with many patents to his credit. He has worked in and around the Detroit area since birth assisting in the logical creation and manufacture of automobile components. When he is not working his problem-solving brain continues to ponder the properties and manipulation of material. I should know. I was there when James read aloud his first poem in 2nd grade about a woman, Penelope, and her insatiable appetite for donuts. Lego and Lincoln Logs and, then, plastic model kits were the order of the day. The devising of new and upgrade components for bicycles was the scaled, rational step towards a degree from Western University/Kalamazoo, MI. As I mentioned before James has been employed by numerous suppliers to the industry. To name a few; JCI, Lear and Alcoa. Times are tough. Numbers have been trimmed from the work force. But you see, James is not a number.. he is, rather, a quality. A quality of the unique human element that grows in a manufacturing society such as Detroit. Please support your local, organic, creative people. And, please, employ this man. Thank you.

Taken for granite

Ah, the grandeur of Yosemite. Out here a man could forget about his car payments. And that game show host who haunts his dreams. Eight of us endured Friday night traffic and great hardship to achieve new heights in achieving height. Enter Half Dome.  

Half Dome above, left. (Photo by Nadine Takvorian)

Up at 5:30 Saturday morning and a five hour hike to the foot of the 45 degree, 300 meter incline on a beautiful, clear day. Posts every 15 feet secure wood planks and suspend two cables for your scaling pleasure.. unfortunately were not enough to fend-off the Jimmy Stewart/ Vertigo spinning thing. While everyone else on the planet (newborns, seniors, the secure, the insecure. a variety of small, limping mammals with tiny twig-crutches) queued-up for glory, I enjoyed the low-pulse recreation of eating lunch and pushing pen. 

The first-take: from the lower plateau, most people would stop and survey the humanity before progressing/ retreating. There were instances of folks freaking out mid-way up causing bottlenecks and heated calls of encouragement from the impatient behind them. Water bottles of all fashions fell from great heights on a regular basis; a dislodged boulder from the top making a brief appearance before reaching light speed and evaporating into parts and dust. That’s entertainment!

Rejoined by my fellow hikers we began the descent back to the valley floor around 4pm. Inhaled two pizzas, showered and collapsed by 9:30 only to be roused momentarily by some guy in the parking lot shouting at a bear.

Baard for life

Colleague and low-grade nemesis, Dave Chow, used the Detroit-bound five hour flight from The San Diego Comic-con to iterate on the many states of facial hair I currently share face with. Of the eighteen bristling exploits I find the cover-all and or cape scenario most ingenious. Laugh it up Chow!! 

Pinewood Seasons 80, 81 and 82

1953. Manhattan Beach, California. Don Murphy organized the first Pinewood Derby on record; for his son who was too young to compete in the bigger league Soap-box Derby. A spring tradition was born as tracks sprung up through-out the nation’s gymnasiums and kids and their folks carved, painted and prayed their cars would beat the pants off that other kid and his dad who refused to help organize the last camp-out when it rained and somebody forgot the ground covers for the tents. 

                                 

Our factory racer from 1980. Super-low, longest hood in its class.. driver over the rear axle. For all of the advanced styling and engineering of my first Pinewood contender it failed to place in speed.. OR design; Losing to some kid who epoxied a wrench to the basic block of wood (“Mr. Good Wrench”) and destroyed the field with his painfully simplistic scheme.

Replete with Wyoming license plate and, both, Porsche AND Ferrari insignia; A first-ever joint effort between the two super-powers.

Classic lines.

So sure were we the car was five ounces- we sealed and painted the weights into the body making for a slippery aero-undercarriage; A queue taken from a 1959 Citroen DS 19.

 

Back to contest the title in 1981 with a less-nonsense, cab-rearward sedan (a tail-dragger! see below) My second attempt that spring would bag a trophy for Best Design. Lessons learned from the previous season would pay off in craft and finish- not necessarily in technical upgrades. 

Simple forms complemented with a clean graphics package; Porsche the solo sponsor this go-round.

Part-lines removed, sanding the wheels smooth for minimal friction contact patch with the track.

Undercarriage aerodynamics abandoned for race-day access to additional weight stowage. Note spot of glue just forward of weight stowage: I don’t know what that is. It’s probably (for whatever reason) why the car wasn’t fast. Also note the hour-glass plan view. Many a day spent with a rasp and fifty grit eating away at that block.

Best Design.

 

1982: The year it’d all come together. A super-slippery shape paired with the cleaned-up undercarriage/ integrated five-ounce weight; a form so advanced it would predate The Mercedes CLS class by almost 30 years. 

Signature-worthy, the hour-glass plan view carried over from the last season. A large diameter weight placed behind the rear axle; no tests were done to explain why.

1st in Design, 2nd in Speed.

Three Seasons and I’m out! I had bigger and better things to do than placate gravity.. Blade Runner and Tron had just released: It was to be a fine summer.

Stu Shuster: 43 years at The General

It’s not the first time for Detroit. The place has been rife with not-fun economic insecurity for decades. The news hit a bit closer to home yesterday- in fact, at its core: Stu Shuster’s contract that had been extending his stay at the Warren Tech Center since his retirement almost a decade ago has been retracted. The formidable talent was hired in 1965 during the reign of GM’s second Design Director, Bill Mitchell, and would witness the direction of the next four: Rybicki, Jordan, Cherry and (currently) Welburn. All told 43 years in service to the General. The above picture taken, perhaps, days into his new job: hair intact and ready to rock out (note hand).

Stu was a committed company man and his dedication, no doubt, bank-rolled the benefits and privileges of a middle class way of life in Detroit’s northern suburbs. (Christmas and the celebratory firing up of the Corvair.) His career began in the Tech Center’s Industrial Design Dept. plying skills to the graphic and identity systems of packaging and dealerships, with short stints in the empire’s then-subsidized Frigidaire unit, dad’s design proficiency allowed a mobility through the various GM Design Staff strata. (He penned the original Firebird emblem, designed and supervised the building of interiors for GM’s corporate jet fleet) Only later in his career did the design exploit involving four wheels become a priority. At the time of his retirement MK1 he was Assistant Chief in the Truck Interiors Studio; not a glamorous job, however, the product rolling out of the studio contributed to a massively profitable cornerstone. 

Prized from the hands of its Chief Engineer, Ned Nickles, (circa 1970) dad has kept this custom ‘69 in pristine show condition thru the years; pictured here in front of one of Eero Saarinen’s glazed walls at the Tech Center. I can only imagine what it will be like for dad to leave this place that has been his ‘place’ for the last time. I can’t say this now-official retirement MK2 isn’t a bad thing; though I’m a bit concerned for what will take the job’s place. While his contemporaries accepted the terms of retirement, Stu Shuster didn’t (and may not) know the meaning of it. Work ethic in-hand, us kids have no doubt he’ll find definition in this new chapter. Design gun for hire? Saarinen historian? Teacher of design? Grandfather to five grands..

Cheers dad!

Cooper MKX

The Pixar Motorama this past Friday drew cars from as far away as Detroit (support your local organic automobile maker) and included such employee-owned relics as Jay Ward’s freshly minted ‘57 Pontiac Safari wagon. The spectrum was complete with a fine example of Chrysler’s most recent depression era mettle: an ‘86 LeBaron. Gleaming and replete with labeled (that’s right spelled out ‘right’, ‘left’) turn indicators. Can’t knock that- it’s the car that saved a company. 

Sure, there were a few cars from outside the ebony gates as well. Richard Frank was there with his 1956 F3 Cooper MKX.. a 500 cc Norton Manx single cylinder propelling drivers Jack Newton and Bob Wenz thru a giant-killing decade: the car would often face off against and beat Corvettes and Formula Juniors. Gratifying what you can do with a motorcycle engine and bit of ingenuity. 

Read more about this vintage racer at frankracing.com

I was drawing this when Richard took notice. He introduced himself and his family- the nicest folks one and all! 

Totoro!

Uber talented fellow Pixarian Dice Tsutsumi has dedicated his recent life to organizing The Totoro Project! An art auction benefitting the preservation of Sayama Forest in Tokyo. Over 200 artists are contributing work! I don’t know how to embed the Totoro Forest Project site link here! So please copy/ paste this or search! 

 

http://totoroforestproject.org/

 

Your personal Totoro? It’s in your nature. Here’s mine. Surprised?

 

 

 

Tuesday Night Long Pose

Tiger Stadium

The first in a series against St. Louis.. tickets courtesy of one of Dave Chow’s clients. Don’t know what it is with St. Louis- I saw them in SF with Jerome (see far below) when one of them hit that fowl ball at my head.