North American International Auto Show








We returned to Detroit this year for our 11th yearly trek to NAIAS. It is always interesting to compare the yearly show with the past shows. The car maker's budgets for the show are obviously not what they used to be 5 years ago, but overall, i think this year's show was pretty good. Maybe the difference is that the domestic makers are focusing less on showmanship and more on better cars. This year's show had many manufacturer's bringing their ideas for greener vehicles to the public. Both in actual production intent vehicles, along with the usual flashy show cars that represent nothing more than the plastic and foam they are made of. It is always fun to look at them and try to pick ones that may actually find their way to production. The past focus on trucks seems to have finally died down thankfully. But it is hard not to be skeptical of the new green focus. One Dodge concept display introduction that I managed to catch had the spokeswomen spend several minutes touting performance and technology figures for a concept model that was nothing more than vaporware, only to end the introduction stating the manufacturer has no plans to produce the car. Nice. Yet other concepts clearly appeared to have production intent behind the styling.





Cadillac has definitely been on a roll the past couple of years. It is good to see them keeping the momentum up. I think the CTS coupe was the best car at the show this year. Finally focusing on design and detail as opposed to bloat and size. This car is set for production this summer [?] and i think will be very popular. It will probably be up against the lower offerings from BMW, Audi and Lexus. It makes them all look frumpy in comparison.


Another concept Cadillac brought to the show was the Provoq. While the drive train sounded a little far off, I think the car itself is slated for production in one form or another. Its a great design and I think it is based on the recent GM small CUV platform [ Saturn VUE] that has gotten alot of really good reviews. Hopefully they will get it to market soon. It makes the new BMW X6 [ which i really like] look old.



Saturn brought this concept to the show. It was definitely vaporware, but the rear gull wings hatch was fun to look at.





Audi brought a diesel version of their R8 sports car to the show. A very striking vehicle.




The Mini booth is always abuzz with hipters and DJ's spinning music. This year was no exception. Since the premier of the mini itself, BMW has been trying to figure out how to grow the offerings. SO hence the Mini Clubman. It is a three door stretch of the mini. I am not sure what mini people think of it - but I hate it. I think it is fugly and pretty uninspired.



Gm brought the Buick Riveria concept from their Chinese design studios. A beautiful concept. More importantly, a very interesting symbol of globalization. Buick's US sales have withered quite a bit in the US, yet sales in China keep growing. So watching the focus of the Buick brand slowy shift to it's new found home is interesting. This concept was produced for Chinese consumption. The US was the afterthought. I would dare to say the GM China wants this car built. It could probably find a home on the Corvette / Cadillac XLR chassis or perhaps the upcoming camaro platform. It could be a natural progression for Buick in China but i am not sure it would find a home on Buick's american market. It will be an interesting watch.






This was the Chrysler EcoVoyager concept. Sorta an evolution of the Minvan? I guess if you just tack the word ECO on a car concept - it turns environmentaly friendly. The concept was strictly a plastic idea and has no linkage to anything the company is currently producing. I have several more pics of it in the photo collection of the show. Very beautiful.







This concept was at the Ford Booth. It was an interesting reversal of the above examples. While it was very much a plastic concept. The styling is part of Ford's efforts to unify their global design language. So i think you are looking an accurate glimpse at Fords future.



These Gm concepts returned from last year. Originally pitched as a customer contest to chose one idea, i think they were part of GM's look back at the base offerings [ Chevy Aevo ] from Korea with the idea of getting an Scion buzz put on them. I think the Beat in the foreground was the top pick with customers. GM recently said they are looking to possibly start offering small premium cars [ ie Mini Coopers..] so this may also be now indicative of that effort now. The current chevo Aveo could easily be reskinned in any of these .





NO vaporware here! This is Honda's Hydrogen fueled Clarity. they are planning to lease them in Southern California this summer[?] The low production test vehicles are rumored to cost $$$$$$$$$$ but Honda will lease them for about $600 to qualified customers. A great car, it was getting alot of attention. What was NOT getting attention was something I think is much more important.



This is a home hydrogen fuel cell / generator Honda [may?] be selling with the Clarity. This small machine runs on natural gas and creates hydrogen for your car. But it also produces electricity for your home more efficiently than running power 5 miles from the power plant. Oh yeah - it also produces hot water to heat you home. If they can get these babies into widespread use, it could change alot with how we heat and light our houses. GO Honda! i want one!

More pictures of the show on Flickr!

Detroit Road trip 2008
































This year marked our 11th year trekking out to Ann Arbor for the annual Detroit Auto show. Our yearly hosts David and Victor pulled out the red carpet for us once again on Brookside drive for a very fun [ if not a bit rushed..] weekend. This year we had a smaller group with the veterans Brian G and myself accompanied by my friends Joe B and Greg W for their first auto show trip.
Aside from the auto show, we made stops at a few Ann Arbor night spots - Necto and Aut Bar, along with a weekend wrap up at Gandydancer's for a awesome Sunday brunch before our trek back to Western New York. The auto show trip always times up perfectly with the coldest weekend of the region and this year was frosty as always. I tell people I have no concept of Eastern Michigan outside of cold and snow. Some day I will make it back for a summer trip.

Comic Brilliance

I have been reading Alison Bechdel's "Dykes to watch out for" for a long time now. I think Alison has amazing talent for observing current events and reflecting them in her comic strip. Her eye for clever detail always makes rereading her monthly strip fun as well. I often pick through her strip archives just to study her character development.

Her site is definitely a great one for your bookmarks.

This month she uses characters in her strip to provide analogies of our electoral system.

Interesting site

I have not really dipped into politics on the blog. I figure I have my views and ranting to a choir really does not help anything. However I found this site today that examines the cost of the Iraq war. and allows you to see how your local community has been affected by the money spent( borrowed ) for the war. The site actually looks at ALL federal spending and how it affects local communities.

National Priorities Project


They featured a counter that i can borrow to reflect the Iraq war costs specifically..






click here to learn more

Holiday still life













Spent some time hanging out at Pop's pub and trying out Jim's new digital SLR. So we shot this still life. Cathy and Jim did not overlap visits in Owego this holiday - so we did not get the whole family.

Racing in a Westy

Every year my friend Joel organizes Westys @ Watkins. It is an annual VW campout in Watkins Glen. The event always finished with a couple of friendly laps around the world famous Watkins Glen Race track. The pace may not look to intimidating, but taking a chicane at 45mph in a camper will definitely get your attention. This year, my sister's family joined me with their westy Hassenpfeffer. [ They shot the video] My dad rode up with me this year and had his hands on the "Oh Jesus" handle the whole time. Hopefully next year I can take Chipotle if its ready.

Morning after

Its pretty quiet in the house right now. Eric is still sleeping and I am tiptoeing around making a breakfast of crackers, chocolate truffles, Gouda cheese and flat ginger ale. Mmmm Mmmm. We had friends and family over last evening for the holidays. It was a very nice time. I was in Hor Dourve mode most of the evening, so I was running in and out of the kitchen trying not to burn snacks in the oven. Lots of our friends came over from Rochester, along with Sodus, Watkins Glen, Candor and here in town of course. Our friend Gerry took lots of pics that I can share soon. For now, you have the morning after.

Tis the season



My blogger friend Alex put this on his blog. I enjoyed it quite a bit - so here it is.

Thank you for Internet Radio

I rarely listen to the radio anymore. Several years back I got annoyed listening to bad /stupid music that a DJ kept telling me was popular. I figured I was getting old. Then the Payola scandals dropped - and it appeared that actually Nobody liked the songs - the DJs were just playing them for Football tickets and Plasma TV gifts from the record companies. Apparently if you play a song [ bad or good] and tell everyone that other people like it - you sell records.

Go Figure - so read about what I like..





I have been listening to a really good couple of Chillout mixes on my iTunes the past 3 days. Best of all - they are free for download - no stealing required! They are available through Cardamar Music. I have bought several of their albums in the past 2 years - including one by S. Zeilenga

• Nebra Skydisk - mixed by Cardamar
• From Jasmund To Wittow - mixed by Marco Torrence
• Power Chill - mixed by Cardamar

Di.FM plays mixes by their artists all the time. THANK GOD FOR INTERNET RADIO!

So go download these!

- and buy these!

and tell the DJ's you LOVE THEM

A good one



Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART


My brother just sent this to me. Very entertaining.

Glasswork in Connecticut







My friends Kim and Kerry just finished their kitchen remodel at their house in Redding. I went over for a couple of days to help Kim with some stained glass panels for the cabinets. We modeled the pattern after the tile design on the back splash. Kim purchased primary glass that matched the lights were just installed and we reused glass tiles leftover from the tile work. The cutting work was very straightforward - so we [ almost] finished the 2 panels in one day.

[ We ran out of solder...]

The production pics are here on Flickr.

I miss summer



We woke up this morning to some real snow on the ground.

[ Yesterday was just a preview ]

Eric and i are both plotting how to become migratory in the future. Getting up and taking off right after Christmas and returning..hmmm.. May ? This is a clip Eric just found for me from a day at Seabreeze Amusement Park 2 years back with Eric's sister Michelle and our friend Brian with the camera. We are riding the famous [?] Jackrabbit. It was a fun [warm] day.

Future Star



Eric's brother John forwarded this YouTube video from his youth ministry Big House Youth Fellowship. Eric's nephew Noah appears to have a bright performance future.

Directory of the Big Trip


The reverse chronological order of the trip entries has greaty confused a Phd endowed friend of mine. So here is a set of links to the trip

The begining of the trip

The trip started on Tuesday August 21 - with my first stop in Chicago at my cousin Kelly's house
"Visit with the Quinn Family" the archive still remains in reverser chronological order - so you have to scroll up from there.

The rest of the trip

This is the archive for the entire month of September - in reverse order - so scroll to the bottom to begin.

Blog Fatigue

I have read my fair share of dead blogs. It is easy to burn yourself out of the whole thing. Especially when i start spending more and more time formatting pictures for the dumb thing. I was planning on writing that I did not plan to spend time on the blog for a while - but then remembered about next week's Westys @ Watkins campout. A very fun weekend ahead! Drat!

Almost home





After a late start from Indiana – I made it though Ohio quickly enough. I spent a lot of time on the phone during the drive trying to give arrival estimates. I drove into New York State at 6:25 pm. Of course I did not really need a watch or a sign to know I arrived. Immediately on crossing the border, the road began its familiar New York song I had forgotten – thump – thump – ka thump thump – thump –ka thump.
New York being the progressive state that it is, encodes all of its roads with Braile. Just to let blind people know about the Shitty road they cannot see. But the scenery around Jamestown was beautiful. The sunset really made everything have a dramatic autumn look to it. I pulled into Dad's at 10:07.

Lost in Illinois

Of all the places in the country I have been on Route 66 – I would not have figured that Illinois would be the biggest challenge to following the route. But it was – twice I had to stop, turn around and back track a couple of miles after getting off track. I finally finished the route just south of Chicago and followed Route 80/90 into Indiana. I was tired of soup – So I stopped at a Target and picked up some Thai noodles, peanut sauce and cucumber to make for dinner. Much better than Chunky soup. The KOA in Great Bend was packed strangely enough. Until the front clerk mentioned the nearby Notre Dame football game – then it all made sense.

St. Louis - Gateway to the West






















I spent most of the day on the highway today. I wanted to get some afternoon pictures at the Gateway to the West in St. Louis. I managed to get around Friday rush hour traffic and made it downtown around 5:00pm to take some quick pics.

















































I think that of the whole Gateway, I liked the steps the best. A very tall and very wide set of steps facing east that take you from the lower street level to standing underneath the arch. Very dramatic.



I pulled into a KOA across the river in Granite City Ill.. I figured it would take me a bit to find Rt. 66 the next morning – but as luck would have it – the KOA sat right next to the Illinios Rt. 66. So I just took a left the next morning and was on my way.

Cowboy Hall of Fame






















I really did not know what to expect at the Hall of Fame. But I walked away impressed. The center entrance of the complex featured “End of the Trail” by James Earle Fraser. An amazing piece in itself, a bronze version sits in a western park according to the curator. However, a HUGE vivid image of broken Indian spirit in the center of a celebration of Western expansion does not sit right with me. I looked for an explanation from both a guide and the literature and did not find a satisfactory explanation for its location here – just reverence for the art piece itself. The rest of the museum was very interesting.












I snapped alot of pictures of the displays and art work. You can find the whole set here. I left the Hall of Fame and jumped back on Oklahoma Route 66 to take as far as I could go to Missouri. I amanged to catch a few small towns on the way.





I found a KOA in Joplin MO for the evening and called it an early night.

Everything is bigger in Texas. Including the rocks





I headed out of Towelhead-hater land early. I was hoping to get to Oklahoma City by early afternoon. I stopped off in Amerillo for gas and spotted Cavender's Boot Store.
Of course I had to stop in. I was in Texas after all.
The sales people were all cowboys! Or maybe …they were cowboys moonlighting as retail clerks until the herd came in? Whatver -It was all good to me. I ended up buying a pair of work boots. Wearing shoes without a tread in Upstate NY is a death wish 9 months of the year– so I declined on the cowboy boots. Leaving the store – I noticed my new 2 week old windshield took a rock. Stupid trucks.

I hightailed to Oklahoma City to see the Cowboy Hall of Fame. After some directions on the phone from my sister – I arrived 30 minutes before closing. So I thought. Apparently I lost an hour from New Mexico and I was actually there a half hour after closing. The nice lady said “At least you know how to get here tomorrow” without the least bit of sarcasm.

I headed down to Thunderbird state park for the evening and took some good sunset pics.



Tonight’s dinner – Country Vegetable with extra Ramen pride noodles and chocolate pudding. Mmmm. 21st century cowboy cooking. Now dat’s sum gud eatin’!.