Juggernuts… » 2009

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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Comments (3) | 730 views

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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Comments (3) | 580 views

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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Comments (7) | 828 views

March 6, 2009

Dogs and Rocks in Heaven

CATAGORIES: GENERAL NONSENSE — CinLin @ 4:48 pm

THIS IS GREAT!!

www.ourrisingsound.com/2008/08/19/presbyterian-vs-catholic-church-sign-debate/

Make sure you read all the signs, top to bottom!!

Comments (1) | 269 views

My Brother Says Thanks

CATAGORIES: GENERAL NONSENSE — cj @ 3:45 pm

Earlier I had posted what I thought my brother’s rank was after a promotion. I finally have his rank correct now and I am sorry I had his rank way too high. My brother is now a master sergeant. I may have already cleared this up when I had mistakenly said he was a corporal, but I wanted to be certain before I let you follow this link to a letter he wrote to his home town newspaper. While we thank our men and women for serving our country, those men and women serving also say thank you to others for all the special ways they show their appreciation for them. Here is the link:

www.hannibal.net/archive/x596323574/A-soldier-s-first-duty-it-to-be-safe

Comments (2) | 298 views

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) | 645 views

March 5, 2009

Tales of the brainless

CATAGORIES: GENERAL NONSENSE — Spazticus @ 1:11 pm

Today boys and girls uncle Spaz will bring you three tales of the brainless.

First up is a cashier from the food giant Tesco across the pond.

Tesco refused to sell wine to a suburban mother aged 46… in case she gave it to her 14-year-old daughter

Second is a man from Tennessee.

Police: Man uses fake money to buy fake drugs

Last but not least we have the state of Alabama.

State must pay ousted legislator and felon Sue Schmitz $177,000 in back pay

Comments (2) | 308 views

Which Civil War were they talking about?

CATAGORIES: GENERAL NONSENSE — CinLin @ 12:14 pm

I guess these Yankees think Coach Bryant was a Confederate General…and Lord knows he would have been a winner!

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Comments (4) | 305 views

March 4, 2009

LATEST PROJECT:

CATAGORIES: FAMILY,imovie,PHOTOGRAPHY,SPORTS — Yarbz @ 12:34 pm

I put together a production for my Nephews high school basketball team. I shot three games in their gym and ended up with some good images.

I didn’t plan on doing anything with these but then I heard that they will have a post-season dinner and wanted photos for a slide show. I decided to do something better than that and put together an iMovie presentation. It was a learning project and it also came out well. I selected the music for the sound track so that the pace would increase as the video progressed. Some of it was digitized from vinyl and some came from CD’s.

Go to the site below and play the movie on top. You need to have your volume up because the music is a big part of it. You will see a bunch of uncalled fouls too!

(You will need Quicktime installed on your system to play [and sometimes even see] the films.)
www.yarbz.com

This site is going to be revamped into something completely different but for now this is what is there. There other film below is my high school project you’ve seen before.

Cheers and let me know what you think.