chase the light

It’s only across the street, yet it took me nearly 6 months to go to Peterson Automotive Museum to see the “Cars and Guitars” exhibit. It was also the last day it was open. Me and my best friend Procrastination went. Herbie “THE” Lovebug was there. Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher car was there. I was hot for teacher once. Tina Geller, health class, sophomore year, she was 24, I was 15. Meow. The “Hey, hey we’re The Monkees…” was on display. I just now realized The Monkees, changed the spelling of their name from monkey. Kinda like The Beatles, aren’t The Beetles. Um, duh. Only took me like 35 years to figure that one out. The Joplin Porsche was also there. I love Janis. I love that Porsche. I’d be into buying this if my Shrek bonus had been a wee bit bigger. Ok, a lot bigger. Oh, and the friggin’ Mach 5! Nice. I loved “The Great Race” car and the movie was one of my favorites as a kid. I saw it recently and realized it’s about two hours too long and kinda silly. Never revisit films that you absolutely “loved” as a kid. You did have the mind of an adolescent, so inevitably you find yourself asking “…what did I see in this movie?” I’ve started to believe that I might have been a dumb kid. The Batmobile looks like crap in person. It’s all plasticy looking. Not menacing. Thumbs down. The Hendrix guitar was there. The Hendrix “I’m going to torch my Strat on stage at the Monterey Pop Festival” guitar. Yeah, that guitar. After the show it ended up in Frank Zappa’s hands and is now in the Zappa estate. It has a new left handed head stock to make it look like Hendrix’s, but it can now be played right handed. The melted pickguard was also replaced. Is there a more famous picture of a guitar?? And the just plain silly looking guitar of Van Halen. Could it be any more 80’s looking. Stick a Nagel painting behind it and you’ve got something. In the ad Eddie even has a cigarette stuck in the neck of guitar. “Hey kids, be just like me! Be a rockstar, play Kramer guitars, and smoke. Only, now that I’m dying of cancer, that might not be such a good idea.” It can be seen in the “Panama” video. Not the one in the ad, the one in the case is in the video.