The Stingray Project Update 3/26/11

All fiberglass defects had been repaired and sanded earlier this week and I returned to McJacks on Friday afternoon to check on the completed primer coat.  For my next visit in a couple weeks, I plan on bringing all the chrome bumpers and hardware.  The underside is also getting a steam wash and hopefully the engine compartment will look a lot better too.  I originally planned on driving the car by March -- but since this month is almost over, obviously I'm behind schedule.  I finally decided on Can-Am White after going back and forth between red and white.

Sequel To "A Few Good Men"

Kids and I went to see Battle: Los Angeles earlier today with relatively low expectations given Hollywood's track record on alien invasion movies in the couple years (think Cloverfield, District 9 and the miserable Skyline).  Even if I was totally disappointed, I don't think the $6 admission at Victoria Gardens AMC before 12 noon would have been too painful -- except the wasted 2 hrs maybe.  However, Battle LA is actually closer to Black Hawk Down than it is to extra-terrestrial invasion genre flicks.  My old neighborhood (Santa Monica Airport, Lincoln Blvd, West LA, etc.) was the setting for the good old US Marines, led by a soon-to-be-retired staff sargeant played by Aaron Eckhart (above pic), find a way to rescue civilians, destroy the command and control center of the invading force, get rescued themselves and then -- go back for more, because "they already had breakfast."  (I've seen Eckhart in numerous movies before but only in this movie did I realize he and Lance Armstrong really have a remarkable resemblance.  Yes, the Lance Armstrong of 7-Tours de France fame.)  Battle LA and Black Hawk Down shared so much in common in terms of going in to an area looking for a fight and kicking ass and taking names.  And the predictability of the plot is almost in the same degree as the predictability of the casting -- I think kicking ass and I think alway hot Michelle Rodriguez, of course.   Action was non-stop from start to finish and before the audience knew it, they just finished watching a 2-hr promotional movie for the United States Marines.  

Elsie

It's a silly thing to do but I'm going to do it anyway.  I'm giving my Lincoln Continental a name.  Why on earth people name their cars is probably a Southern California thing but for an old car built in 1965, I think it's totally appropriate to have a name.  A girl's name.  I got this idea watching "Gone In 60 Seconds" where Nicolas Cage named the Shelby GT-500 as "Eleanor".  In fact, all 50 cars in that movie had girls' names.  So what's in a name?  I tried looking up the most popular girl's names in 1965 and none really stood out in terms of the personality of my cream '65 convertible.  And then there's the obvious ones, Connie or Tina (derivatives of Continental) but those do not seem quite deserving.  I considered "Adele", after the trailer trash character played by Juliette Lewis in the movie "Kalifornia" -- which featured a same era Lincoln.  "Betty" seemed like a cool name for a convertible but isn't every 60's car already named that?  So I've had this mental block on what to name the car since I decided to look for a girl's name about a week ago.  Until now, that is -- when I started typing my thoughts on this whole dilemma.  I figured "Elsie" is the best name because not only is it somewhat date appropriate for the age of the car (who names their daughter born in the last 20 years Elsie?) and it is also meaningful -- Elsie is phonetically LC (initials for Lincoln Continental).  My gal, Elsie.

The Mystery Of Six Portaits

The antique dealer said they are from the 50s and that she bought them from an estate of an art teacher in Beverly Hills.  Judging from the style of the brush strokes and technique, I think these are from different student painters.  In fact, two of them have a white unpainted portion of the canvas, suggested some unfinished student work.  Only one was signed on the back "Sheffield '57".  It does make me wonder whether it's the students or the teacher who's really good because these are very well done oil portraits.  The other thing I wonder is why the students did not sign their works.  Are they unfinished and the teacher just took them?  Student artwork not belonging to the originator is unheard of these days but who knows what the practice was back in the 50s.  Are these from live models or photographs?  Are these subjects still alive? All these questions just keep on adding on to the mystery of these portraits.

Border's Find

Saturday night was a typical night here in the 909.  After living here for almost 2 years, we finally found a sushi place we really like -- Omakase Sushi on Haven just south of Foothill.  We've actually been going there at least once a week for the past month.  What to do after dinner is the tough one -- so, a short drive to Victoria Gardens to Border's was typical as well -- and I found this cool book for $2.99 out of the bargain shelves.  The title alone was worth the three bucks I shelled for this hardcover.  (Not that I need any lesson on manliness) but this book is more of a celebration of the gender (cigars, whiskey, names for breasts, Vegas gambling lingo, etc.)  This one will be filed in my bookshelf right next to my book "Bond Girls" -- a collection of profiles of all leading females in all the 007 movies and "Manspace" -- a book on how to decorate your man-cave.

Catherine Opie's "Surfers" (2003)

One of my regrets is never learning how to surf.  But then again, I never like the cold California ocean.  In fact, I can only remember one summer when I went swimming in California -- 1986, in Huntington Beach.  Maybe if cycling didn't take up a lot of my free time, I would have taken up surfing.  I remember riding my bike for years from Santa Monica to Palos Verdes on the bike path through Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo and this image in Catherine Opie's "Surfers" is forever imprinted in my mind.  I bought the print at LACMA last year and almost instantly, I was standing where Opie was clicking away at her camera.  I've seen what she saw when she took the photograph.

The Desert Garden

Probably near the top on my all-time list of places in Los Angeles.  The desert garden at the Huntington Library in San Marino contains just about every cactus and succulent one can ever imagine.  Something about the strength and ability to withstand the elements is what's most admirable about these plants.  Today, I went for a short visit after lunch on this first Friday in March, a picture-perfect day.