The Car Culture (One Man's Look at Los Angeles)

During a recent trip to Los Angeles, I was struck by the level to

which Angelenos seemed to be in love with their cars -- even getting

up early on Sunday morning in ritzy suburban areas to take their

Hummers, expensive Mercedes, and exotic sports cars to car washes

for a 'hand job' (if you'll excuse the expression . . . it all

seemed somewhat 'sexual' to me). This is one Angeleno's Mercedes at

its special place in a parking lot downtown. Your ratings and

critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your superior photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Your assessment of Angelino's and our cars is very accurate. Buckminster Fuller, who among other things was an architect and an urban planner in the 50's said that in L A people roll up the windows, turn on the air conditioning and their radios and theare in a private world insulated from everything. Well it is 2006 and we still live that way. The automobile has become our environment.

Good capture and good point made with the image.

Saluti,

You notice that when I was in Argentina taking a tango photo, I took a tango photo unlike any other taken (the dwarf/midget looking longingly at the beautiful sidewalk tango dancer); it is my goal to take 'original' photos and/or photos that summarize a situation -- or literally encapsulate it and that are 'original'.

I'm glad for the endorsement from you, (and for the quote from Bucky Fuller, who was a true -- if eccentric -- visionary).

Thanks for stopping by; it's important to me.

John (Crosley)

John, this is just too good to be true. I thought sure that it was shopped for a second or two--the way the car just seems to be coming down a highway through a veil of clouds or flower petals. Astonishingly original.

--Lannie

Hello John, after reading about it, I had to see it. Well I like the shot and without wishing to belittle it for a moment, I expect you have to be very in love with cars to give a merc a 7/7 ;-)

I'm fascinated by the wall, is that a cabbage that's painted on it?

Best wishes. Pete

It was just that feeling, that the car was coming out of a highway, leaving a dust full of petals behind it that caused me, when I first viewed this scene, to hang around and wait until other cars were moved so I could take this; it really struck me.

Sometimes the minor Photo Gods just smile at you, but you gotta be cooperative, if not worshipful.

John (Crosley)

I'm not sure if that's a cabbage or a lettuce, or what, on the wall, and I think it's a nightclub behind, but it sure makes a great backdrop for a Mercedes, doesn't it?

And or course, being mine, it isn't Photoshopped.

I was astonished when I arrived overnight the previous Sunday morning in Los Angeles, and there at first light were large groups of people in Sherman Oaks (or a similar area) at some dowdy car wash with their Hummers, Mercedes and other cars, all washing them up and preening them as if it were the most important thing in their lives -- it was a social gathering point for the people who lived 'in the hills', down there on the valley floor, and you could just 'feel the money', which is what the show of ostentation was all about.

I understand from males, that L.A. females have a difficult time going out with men who don't have fancy cars/ it's kind of economic checklist for 'hot' wonen -- no fancy car -- no hot woman to sit in it.

Oh well.

That's the way things are in the area around tinsel town . . . all tinsel and glitter . . . but if you rub it away . . . there's more tinsel and glitter concealing its shallowness.

John (Crosley)

I am pleased to find this struck you as a 7/7 -- moreso when I viewed your highest-rated photos folder and found how very seldom you rate photos highly at all, and especially the high quality of those you do rate.

I was taken very much by this photo, but then I'm often taken very much by photos that mean very little to others -- and are simply passed over as unnoteworthy.

You have given me a very high praise; all the more so because the last photo of mine you rated so highly was one of my very best (and emblematic of its day).

Please feel free to visit whenever you wish; you're always welcome. One of the photos on your bio page, by the way, (film I think) is simply stunning.

It's always nice to get such a high score from a highly-viewed member such as yours, because of the 'views' generated by thosse who go through your highly-viewed gallery -- they tend to mount up and generate more rates (and often the higher ones). Nevertheless, as you also note, life is not ratings, but the 'fun' of photography -- living for that next capture -- making something from 'nothing' -- creating with that little 'box' or 'computer' (in my case) we call a camera. What little miracle boxes they are.

Addendum: It also takes some sense of self-worth about your own judgment to rate a photo 7/7 when it has a pair of 3/3s about 4 4/4s, a number of 5/5s and a smattering of every other rating possible -- so I can see you are your own man (perhaps that's the highest compliment I can give, if you knew me).

John (Crosley)

Hello John, it's an interesting cultural observation and thanks for explaining it further. I haven't encountered group preening before.

Does the car have to be a big one? I've got a Clio Sport (but I don't wash it).

P

What was very noticeable was the group aspect of the men gathering the very first thing Sunday morning before the day's activities at the car wash on the flats below their expensive hilltop and hillside homes (in Sherman Oaks, I believe -- it all merges), and they didn't personally prepare their vehicles, but directed their Mexicans and other Latinos to wipe a spot here and polish a hubcab there . . . all very perfectionist. If they paid half as much attention to their wives they would have had long and happy marriages.

And it's interesting how much attention they paid to their vehicles (Hummers are NOT cars, they're 'trucks' according to the military, which developed them), and there was a large contingent of Hummers, unlike where I live in Northern California (Bay Area, Monterey Bay Area) where Hummers are more or less seen as beneath contempt among the more literate set.

And the women, according to one handsome and apparently attractive man I met and talked to extensively (in another setting) apparently interview men (or review them) according to how 'hot' their cars are -- and decline to ride in less than 'hot' cars -- somehow it's beneath a really 'hot' Angelino woman to ride in other than a 'sexy' car that reeks of wealth.

Probably your Clio does not qualify, though I do not recall it precisely, but for sure a BMW 2002, a collector's item would quality among the cogniscenti and certain others would also, including any Mercedes sports car, no matter how old, as well as any large Mercedes sedan (unless it were my first car a Mercedes 190D -- a diesel -- and very boxy -- certainly not attactive)

I would certainly be 'in' with my second car, a 1950 Porsche, with a split windshield and a wooden stick to put in the fuel tank (up front) to measure how full it was (by the liquid darkening the stick). It was sold for scrap when the crankshaft broke in North Powder, Oregon, but the dealer dropped a stock VW motor in it, and it ran like new -- all my dad got was $50 -- the body was 4" above the curb -- it ran for 10 blocks after you took your foot off the accelerator, and never even had to steer if you wanted to go straight, it drove so truly.

Imagine, my first car, sold for scrap for $50, now would now be a 'superhot' car.

Your Clio on the other hand would only serve to remind some actress of a 'Clio' award she didn't get and could never qualify for (Clio is an advertising award).

Thanks for your comment. See you at the car wash.

Notice I hang out at the strangest places.

John (Crosley)