Rover gonna shut you down

Record Brother has been my #1 download site of goodness lately, and, well, I couldn’t help but smile at this one.

Bout 2 Years ago i found this video clip out here in the digiverse really liked it so undertook to give it a soundtrack of sorts just so happens that one of my favorite Biker Soundtrack tunes was the exact same time 1:51 . You’ll dig it the most it’s outa of this world.

Download here_rover.mov

All NASA animation needs a snappy biker movie soundtrack.

Things I Like (March 2005)

The March 2005 server explosion edition…

1. The SSI Industrial Shredder: When you absolutely positively need size reduction done right It’ll eat tree stumps, furniture, washing machines, and of course paper. Check out the videos.

2. The Space Age – The Age Of Reliability. I actually have a copy of this I found at the Salvation Army in Thousand Oaks, CA.

spaceage_reliability

3. The Disneyland art of Mary Blair. Discussion and some images here, but check out the full book.

maryblair_disneyland

4. The Morning Glory Waves of the Gulf Of Carpentaria in Northern Australia. The glider equivalent of Hawaii’s north shore for surfers, the cloud waves here can exceed 1000 km in length and go over 10,000 feet high.

morningglorywave

Pioneer Broach

Pioneer Broach sign Pioneer Broach junk

I’ve been driving past the Pioneer Broach building on Telegraph Ave. next to Interstate 5 in Los Angeles for eternity. When I was little I knew that it was a head’s up to look for the nearby Samson Tire building and later I just fell in love with the sign which probably hasn’t changed at all since the company was founded in 1939.

I think some of the dead machinery in Pioneer’s backyard dates from 1939 too if the lettering on the “Drivmatic” is any indication. *swoon*.

Dr. Gene Scott RIP

Cranky, acerbic preacher Dr. Gene Scott died yesterday which gives me a chance to tell my Dr. Gene Scott story.

Many moons ago (well, 1981 to be precise) me and a couple of friends in high school watched Dr. Gene on occasion during the day in between classes. One day I noticed something strange about his phone-in number and then I decided that it was our civic responsibility to inform Dr. Scott that his phone number added up to 666. It really did too, his number was (213) 240-8151 which translates to 6 (2 + 1 + 3), 6 (2 + 4 + 0), 6 (8 + 1 + 5 + 1 = 15 -> 1 + 5 = 6). We called his number every day for a couple of months to warn him of this potential satanic corruption until the number was finally changed.

I still remember the time Scott sat in his chair for hours and just scowled into the camera in between puffs on his stogie without saying a word. And if you haven’t seen Werner Herzog’s God’s Angry Man documentary on Scott yet, make the effort to track it down.

Pisgah Crater

What’s left of Pisgah Crater. A gravel company has been steadily picking away at it for years.

pisgahcrater

I always thought that Pisgah Crater was the site of a hilarious prank that involved a truckload of burning tires and a panicked phone call to Barstow claiming that “the volcano is going to explode!” but apparently it took place at Amboy Crater farther east.

From the newsletter of the California Historic Route 66 Association:

THE AMBOY VOLCANO by Ken Swank

In the 1940s, probably ’45, ’46, the kids from the Barstow High School hauled for about a year all kinds of debris out and at different times dumped it down to the bottom of the cinder cone. They had tires, old lumber, old creosoted railroad ties, all kinds of junk. Who started it, nobody knows. On the fateful day, they set it on fire. The cinder cone was then dormant for years. Suddenly it began to get a trickle of smoke. It shut down the Santa Fe railroad, Highway 66, evaculated Barstow – they moved the entire company out – everybody. And that thing burned and it burned and it got more and more and even people could feel rumblings from the ground. They were very excited. The Los Angeles Times hired an airplane, a reporter and a photographer, and they could see what happened and they broke the hoax that had lasted for some 72 hours and had the whole center of the desert tied up.