Juggernuts… » YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE

March 11, 2009

YARBZ RECENT NEGATIVE SCANS: MISS WASHINGTON DINER, NEW BRITAIN, CT:

CATAGORIES: 35MM FILM,CANONET QL17,PHOTOGRAPHY,SCANNED FILM,TRAVEL/ROADTRIPS/PLACES TO VISIT,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — Yarbz @ 9:39 am

Larger pic in the ‘MORE’ section:

The Story:
The Miss Washington Diner in downtown New Britain, Connecticut has been there for decades. This is our default breakfast joint on any given weekend morning. Since I don’t eat breakfast on weekdays when we go out for breakfast, it must be good. We’ve been to other diners and breakfast places but Miss Washington is the only one that understands what “over medium” means. Freddie is the man behind the grill which sits midway behind the lime green counter that runs the length of the building. He smiles a lot despite having the difficult, hot and greasy tasks of a short order cook. I like the yokes runny but the whites solid. It’s an art apparently that few short-order cooks in the area have mastered. Freddie has. My eggs are just right every time.

We’re regulars and Freddie knows us and greets us when we walk in, as do several of the waitresses, all of whom put in many long and early hours in this classic but semi-rundown diner. Freddie is originally from Turkey and has a slight but exotic accent when he speaks. Turkey would be an interesting place to visit, especially if you had a person like Freddie to act as your own private tour guide.

The building itself is in need of cosmetic repairs and the green Formica adorning the tables and counter has seen its share of bruises. However the structure is holding its own and not so far gone that a restoration would be out of the question. Maybe one day, if downtown New Britain can pick itself up off the floor, the funds will be available for a full restoration.

This diner has all the classic accoutrements that make up the stereotypical American diner including stainless steel inside and out, permanently mounted, round backless swiveling barstools topped with salmon colored, slightly padded Naugahyde tops and a long Formica counter. The original copper colored star-burst ceiling fixtures offer a warm light that provides a counterbalance to the cool green rays emitted from the fluorescent bulbs that quietly hum in the cases behind the counter. There are juke boxes at each booth as well as every eight feet along the counter. These devices occasionally inject undesirable interruptions of tinny-sounding top-forty, soon to be forgotten, pop songs that drown the natural din of a busy diner. This constant din is the sound of a diner, the opera of its operation. It’s the clinking clanking of plates, the clatter of utensils and metallic bangs and scraping of a busy grill. It’s the intermingling of unintelligible words and voices drifting from customers’ unending conversations. Eventually though, the intermittent juke box becomes just another part in the overall production that goes on while we eat at Miss Washington.
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March 10, 2009

YARBZ NEGATIVE ARCHIVE: THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACH SCENE 1973

CATAGORIES: 126 CARTRIDGE FILM,CULTURLA & PENTURLA,FAMILY,FASHION,History,PHOTOGRAPHY,SCANNED FILM,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — Yarbz @ 9:50 am

The larger image is in the ‘MORE’ section beneath the story along with a closeup of the cars and girls!

The Story:
This picture was taken during the summer of 1973 at Huntington Beach, California on 126 cartridge film. This day at the beach included a visit from my dad’s mother, Nene (pronounced ‘Neh-Knee’). Nene lived in Dallas, Texas where my dad grew up and we’d see her once a year or so. Some years the family would pack up the station wagon de jour and drive to Texas for a visit but Nene apparently liked to travel and get out to see us often. I remember her visiting us in each the towns we lived as kids, San Clemente, CA, Golden, CO and Huntington Beach. Nene is wearing my mom’s jacket which was very funky for the time and I believe there was a matching skirt to go with it.

During any Nene visit, she would inevitably ask (read: “require”) us go with her and work in the flower beds picking weeds. I truly believe she thought this activity was fun for us. Of course, I never wanted to do it but mom would back her up and tell me to get out there and do whatever Nene wanted. I would stomp out there, get on my knees and begin pulling weeds. I would also count the seconds until I could escape like an angry housecat that clearly doesn’t want to be held. This particular memory comes from San Clemente in the late 1960’s. During the Huntington Beach years it was mostly Paul who was forced to serve on the Nene gardening chain-gang.

This beach scene with Nene, Paul (center) and me is typical of the way we spent our time at the beach in those days. Paul was about six or seven years old and had the ever present plastic bucket. The people behind us are actually double bucketed! The aluminum beach chairs were always in the trunk of the car and ready for any impromptu visits to the beach. We spent a lot of time at the beach which is what kids did in Southern California if you lived anywhere near the coast.

The cars in the parking lot east of the sand date the photo ands you will see pristine examples of the vehicles of the era; a 1966-ish blue Ford Mustang; a 1970 Chevrolet El Camino; several station wagons; a green Ford Maverick; a purple 1973 AMC Javelin; a couple Volkswagen Bugs; a red Chevy Vega; a brown Datsun 240Z; a Ford Pinto wagon and many others. I remember our friend and neighbor David Terry had a yellow 1973 Vega and within a year is was significantly rusting! The Chevy Vega and Ford Pinto were America’s first attempts at economy cars and what a poor effort they were.

In front of the parking lot and behind us are several young, sun bathing bikini girls. From what I can tell, they are good looking and wearing the current bikini fashion of the day. Cute bikini clad girls were a dime a dozen at Huntington Beach and I probably didn’t even notice them at the time. There are some more bikini girls in the back of the image walking on the boardwalk, which was asphalt, behind and to the far right. I look at this picture and wonder what the future had in store for these girls as well as the others in the photo. Did they go to college or become traditional housewives or both? Were their lives full of adventure or boredom, joy or tragedy? Were their lives a combination of all of these? I know now what was in store for Paul and me but could never have imagined the path the future would hold. For some reason, I always enjoy pondering the lives of the anonymous people who inhabit our personal photographs.

Also, you will note that I still have braces. I am pretty sure that this was close to the end of my orthodontic treatment as they would come off in a year or so after close to five years of gradual correction of both teeth and overbite.

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March 9, 2009

YARBZ NEGATIVE ARCHIVE: DIANE ARBUS VISITS CALIFORNIA 1969?

CATAGORIES: 126 CARTRIDGE FILM,FAMILY,History,PHOTOGRAPHY,SCANNED FILM,USMC / MARINE CORPS / SEMPER FI,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — Yarbz @ 9:24 am

Go to the ‘MORE’ section for full size:

This image was taken around 1969 while our family lived in San Clemente, California. On the right is my younger brother, Paul. On the left, if I remember correctly, is his neighborhood friend, Alice. They used to play together everyday and I remember them being almost like brother and sister at the time. My mother would most likely have taken this picture of the two hobbit-like kids wearing the Los Angeles Rams helmets (both the new and old style). The helmets look so massive on their little bodies and the facial expressions so somber, it takes on a freakish and Diane Arbus-like quality. The only thing this image needs is a square crop and de-saturation to black and white and it could be one of her pictures.

During this time, my father was in the Marine Reserves and away once a month for training at Camp Pendleton. On the weekends when dad wasn’t practicing storming the beaches, the family would watch the Rams play on Sunday with their quarterback Roman Gabriel leading them nowhere each season. My parents would take us to one or two Rams games each year at the LA Coliseum. We’d always stop at the long defunct Shakey’s Pizza and eat before going to the stadium.

Going to the Coliseum was a relatively rare event for us kids however and we’d usually watched the Rams in our family room or “den” as we used to call it, on our new and amazingly large 20-inch, state-of-the-art vacuum tube television! It could have been a 19 or 23 inch or something else similar but I can’t recall. I just remember that when dad brought it home it was a terribly BIG deal. Dad also had an antenna rotator which was a box with a round dial with markings for North, East, West and South. Depending on what channel you wanted to watch, there were little numbered stickers on the face plate which indicated the previously determined position for best reception for that channel. When the dial was turned, it would slowing rotate the antenna, which was in the attic, to the corresponding direction. We would get fantastic reception on all three channels available. With the rotator, we sometimes even got to watch San Diego channels. In 1969 or 1970, cable television came in and radically altered our definition of great reception. No longer was a picture with only a slight ghosting “great”. Before cable, you would adjust the antenna until you got the ‘minimal ghosting’ and you were in visual heaven. There would always be one person who was known to be able to tune in the television better than anyone else. In our house, that was dad.

After tuning the channel just right we’d sit in the den and watch the game with dad and sometimes a few of his friends. At half-time my older brother and I would go out to our front lawn and play “The Rams Greatest Plays” which we would act out in slow motion. This half-time event was filled with amazing catches and fantastic tackles until the beginning of the second half.

The Rams were an indelible part of my memories of growing up in San Clemente, CA. At eight or nine years old, I was such a Rams fanatic that I studied the game programs my parents brought back from the Coliseum and actually memorized the Rams entire roster by name, number, position and years in the league. I’m certain that I knew that roster better than Howard Cosell or any other play by play announcer. Thankfully, that desire to memorize team rosters went away and no longer plagues me!

Go to the ‘MORE’ section for full size:
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March 6, 2009

Week in Review

CATAGORIES: 35MM FILM,FAMILY,History,OLD FRIENDS,PHOTOGRAPHY,SCANNED FILM,WEEK IN REVIEW,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — FloridaBill @ 9:00 am

File under Week 10 of 2009.

Welcome to March. Spring is near!!! However, there was a wicked Southern and East Coast snow storm this week. Here is a pic of WeirdSin’s backyard on Shades Mountain in Birmingham:

Looks a little like my front yeard from a couple of years ago…

My son got his driver’s license on Wednesday this week. Here is what he looked like just a short time ago:

And now he is driving…
…and it should be noted that Yarbz took this photograph…

AIG is No longer with us. Ring the bells and lower the casket. No one deserves it more.

Homemade cat bong maker Acea Schomaker starts off our list of fucktards this week. Here are others:
Richard C. Wiley from Wilmette, IL who shot his wife and teenage son. Note that he had killed another wife years earlier. Can you say Peterson?
Local asshat, Bryan E. Kerber, who apparently had an inapproriate relationship with a minor.
Speaking of which, Chester Arthur Stiles makes a return apperance on the Fucktard list this week. May he fry. Slowly.
David Paradiso is a fucktard for attacking the judge during his trial. He was sent to paradiso by one of the bailiffs.
Tracy Davies is a fucktard and partial cannibal for biting off her boyfriend’s tongue. Eww.
She is no match for Latreasa Goodman, who called 911 after not getting McNuggets at McDonalds where she went McNuts. Chicken nuggets are NOT an emergency. If you listen to the three calls, you can get her phone number: 882-0488. She should call this unnamed woman who calls the cops on the gay disco every night, at least once.
Cleveland fucktard Davon Crawford apparently offed most of his entire family and then didn’t have the balls to kill himself.
This cheeky bastard who apparently broke into a bar and drank $4k worth of top shelf liquor and then got naked. Four grand?

Stocks had another tough week with the DJIA going under 7,000 for the first time in more than a decade.

I truly enjoyed this thread on FARK about the upcoming Rod Blogyoyovich book. Here is a link to the original Chicago Trib contest to name the book.

Trouble in Tampa Bay was manifest for four boaters out of Clearwater, FL, three of whom are still missing. Two were NFL players. One made it. Does anyone else find this story is somehow missing something? It just doesn’t compute for me.

These were among the headlines that were must click for me this week:
Scientists sovle mystery of Belly Button Lint (Thanks Spazticus)
Drivers find roads slippery after snow. No shit? Beware the sheen! Ice can be slippery!
Gas problem reported at local Taco Bell. If only they could find a way to bottle that stuff.

Enjoy your freedoms and happy healthy weekends to all.

Comments (14) | 643 views

February 25, 2009

YARBZ NEGATIVE ARCHIVE: YARBZ BROTHERS TRAVELING SING AND DANCE ROUTINE???

CATAGORIES: 110 FILM,FAMILY,FASHION,History,I hate it when this happens,PHOTOGRAPHY,SCANNED FILM,SCARY STUFF,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — Yarbz @ 10:25 am

Comments (4) | 566 views

February 23, 2009

YARBZ NEGATIVE ARCHIVE: OH MY GOD!

CATAGORIES: 110 FILM,FAILURE TO USE BRAINS,History,I hate it when this happens,PHOTOGRAPHY,SCANNED FILM,SCARY STUFF,WTF,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — Yarbz @ 7:41 am

Comments (10) | 658 views

February 20, 2009

YARBZ NEGATIVE ARCHIVE: PFC YARBZ, MR. SMILEY, 1979:

CATAGORIES: 35MM FILM,History,MILITARY,MONEY,PHOTOGRAPHY,SCANNED FILM,USMC / MARINE CORPS / SEMPER FI,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — Yarbz @ 9:14 am

PFC Yarborough Rifle Expert badge which Simsbury Connecticut 1979. smiling mood graduated the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego as PFC (Private First Class) Camp Pendleton, California after ten days leave platoons high shooter (best score at the rifle range) could field strip and reassemble the M-16 while blindfolded faster Drill Instructors FMF (Fleet Marine Force) dirty work that rolled down hill Lance Corporal Corporal Most never make Corporal in a four year enlistment non-commissioned officer leadership demands stay out of trouble March of 1982 meritoriously promoted to Sergeant Camp LeJeune, North Carolina 1983 Honorably Discharged declining to reenlist $16,000 bonus 1983 wanted to go to college

Comments (2) | 648 views

February 19, 2009

YARBZ NEGATIVE ARCHIVE: THE PARENTAL UNITS SLIDING DOWN HILL:

CATAGORIES: 35MM FILM,FAMILY,History,PHOTOGRAPHY,REAL HEROES,SCANNED FILM,USMC / MARINE CORPS / SEMPER FI,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — Yarbz @ 9:39 am

A Marine Colonel and a Marine Wife (Mom and Dad) Risking Life and Limb!

These pictures of my dad and mom sledding in our backyard was taken in 1978 or possibly very early 1979 at our house in Simsbury, Connecticut. My brother Paul and wanted to build a ‘bobsled’ run in our backyard. We built up curbs and corners and then poured water on them so they would be very hard when re-frozen and very slick. We built about fifty yards of the run which included several banked turns before I came down with mononucleosis and had to stay indoors. While I was in the house sick as a dog, my brothers and parents were out using the run that I engineered. I was jealous! Anyway, we had a lot of fun building it even though we had to scuttle plans for another fifty years or so. I ended up getting well in the spring of 1979, long after the course was melted and gone.

Comments (3) | 442 views

February 18, 2009

YARBZ NEGATIVE ARCHIVE: YARBZ AT LIMEROCK PARK, CT 1978:

CATAGORIES: 110 FILM,FAMILY,History,PHOTOGRAPHY,SCANNED FILM,USMC / MARINE CORPS / SEMPER FI,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — Yarbz @ 10:09 am

To my knowledge, this 110 Instamatic shot is the first image of me with a camera. It was most likely taken by my mother at Limerock Park in 1978. Limerock Park is a race track set in the beautiful hills of northwestern Connecticut. The track hosts numerous races in its idyllic setting which include NASCAR and the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix. On this summer day, the Porsche Club held an event where members race the clock in their personal Porsches and also get race driving lessons from professional drivers. I remember my dad impressed his instructor with his quick learning, agile driving and ended up with very good lap times in his stock 1976 Porsche 911. That car was sweet. We used an 8mm movie camera and filmed his metallic blue Porsche as it raced through the turns. One day soon I will edit and post those clips online. The camera around my neck, I’m pretty sure, was my dad’s metal bodied Yashica. The Racing Colonel was into photography long before my brothers and I were. My exposure to photography (pardon the pun) through events like this is probably, at least partially, responsible for my becoming a photo zealot and buying my first camera while in the Marines. Getting back to Limerock Park, it’s a great place because when you watch the races you are also picnicking in the lush and scenic hills in the center of the track. Race fans lay out their blankets and picnic baskets stocked with wine etc and enjoy the sun while watching the cars whip through the winding turns.