Brian Austin

I'm wondering if the one in my B&W photos has Bondo slathered on the front fender. Big chunks chipped off. :-)

Sometimes I think internal combustion engines are overrated. :-) I've come to appreciate that in daily life, most car sounds are noise pollution. I do love the sounds of vintage-built machinery at car shows and similar events, but for me there's a point when noise can be just noise.

Yeah, the display was a sight to behold. Sad to lose another bit of classic roadside Americana.

Are the kits out in general release in the US yet? My local hobby shop didn't have them as of a couple of weeks ago.

Someone on the Spotlight board combined the two kits and found dimensional differences. The Futura is noticeably smaller.

If you're going to decommission a police car, perhaps you can turn it into a taxi. :-)

It's a shame that people who dare to work outside of society's box are met with suspicion and derision. I spent a day at an art car even years ago and the people were fun to be with. Just ordinary artistic folks who happened to paint their cars up in funky ways or glue things to them. Art cars bring joy.

What is art to you then?

For centuries, well-known artists often have had assistants to help with their work. As far as the value of art goes, is there "fraud" in the pricing of built models? Also, old movie props regularly show up in auction listings. Their prices are pretty high as well. Some are clearly based on a toy or model and not scratchbuilt. What's the true monetary value for a film prop? Look at a showing of photographs in a gallery. Matted and framed, they can each carry a price tag of hundreds of dollars. Seem high for a photograph, right? An artist's time is worth something though. Materials add up as well. Also galleries might want to take their cut. Lastly, I suspect the artists that grab headlines are outliers. Most artists aren't Hirst or the guy with the banana. I have the impression that people tend to think of artists as con men. I think these people are upset they didn't come up with the ideas first.

The banana was TAPED to the wall. I think it was all done in fun. Does art have to be serious? I went to art school. I learned right away there's no strict definition of art, and that's a good thing. I don't always understand modern/contemporary art, but I'm glad it exists to challenge my expectations.

How can you run out of truck pictures? :-)

Oddly, I'm not seeing the album link in my original post. Here it is: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_w_austin/albums/72157687922611815

UPDATE! Sadly, Roadside America closed in 2020. The display and collection were broken up and auctioned off. You'll have to slog through several pages of results, but here are the auction listings. The auction itself is closed, but you can still view the pictures. https://auctionhowze.hibid.com/catalog/255594/roadside-america-liquidation-auction/?ipp=100

Why not? :-) https://www.autoblog.com/2014/04/29/vw-bus-dub-box-report-video/

https://blog.jadlamracingmodels.com/2021/03/02/revell-1-24-easy-click-vw-t2-bus-twin-build-review/

The problem with surveys is how the questions are formulated and communicated, and then how the responses are communicated and noted. Language can get distorted for any number of reasons. I just recently saw a great video on Adam Savage's YT channel addressing a certain myth that has caused much heated argument some years ago in the MYTHBUSTERS show history. Note here that Adam cuts to the core of the story. All it comes down to the language of the question, and he stresses that those who disagree with his conclusions aren't stupid, but just misunderstand the surprisingly complex question in the first place.

This thread reminds me of the "Look at those rubes!" type stories such as the old Chevy Nova ("No Va!") urban legend, that, in the end make the story-teller look foolish. I suspect there's more to the story of the solar farm than what you folk are ranting about. Also, have you noted the story is well over 5 years old at this point? ? The linked article below points out that the reasons the town voted down the solar farm had nothing to do with the strange concerns one citizen expressed. ------ http://thehigherlearning.com/2015/12/14/fact-check-small-town-rejects-solar-farm-because-it-would-suck-up-all-the-suns-energy/ "...I get it: let’s all point and laugh at the ignorant small-town folk who think solar panels are draining the sun of its energy and giving us cancer. Let’s point out how foolish they look to feel better about our own ignorance. In reality, however, this story is an example of bad journalism more than anything else. First off, there’s the focus on the comments made by Jane and Bobby Mann. It is extremely misleading to frame the story as if the Manns’ bizarre concerns were the main reason why the Woodland Town Council rejected the solar farm proposal, especially when you consider the fact that members of the council actually refuted the Manns’ claims during the meeting. Most outlets also chose to ignore the more reasonable concerns raised by other Woodland residents, like Jean Barnes and Mary Hobbes. But if the town council’s decision wasn’t about sun-sucking, cancer-causing solar panels, what were the real motivations for voting against the proposal? The answer lies in another section of the Roanoke-Chowan article: The town would not benefit, from a tax base standpoint, from the solar farms because they are not located within the town limits, but only in the extraterritorial sections. The only funding the town would get is approximately $7,000 per year for specialized training for the Woodland Fire Department in the event of an electrical malfunction at the solar plant. ..."

Three pages in and I'm the only one seriously questioning the validity of the survey or its reporting? The video is less than a minute long. It says nothing regarding the methodology of the survey. The report spins the narrative of the supposed stupidity of people in general, and you guys just ran with it without question. The article linked below discusses the survey, and the fact that its methodology is kept secret. That renders the supposed survey unscientific IMHO. MYTHBUSTERS took great pains to show how the scientific process works to yield useful results. This "survey" lacks credit. Who were the people surveyed? What were their backgrounds? ............... https://www.livescience.com/59666-do-people-believe-chocolate-milk-from-brown-cows.html "...Indeed, early media coverage focused on the 7 percent statistic but left out the fact that 48 percent of respondents said they don't know where chocolate milk comes from. This gives context to the 7 percent number. While it's conceivable that 7 percent of the population doesn't know that chocolate milk is just milk with chocolate, the idea that a full 55 percent — over half of adults — don't know or gave an incorrect response begins to strain credulity. This points toward a confusing survey question. We reached out to Lisa McComb, the senior vice president of communications for Dairy Management, Inc., about the survey. She confirmed that it's not publicly available. “The purpose of the survey was to gauge some interesting and fun facts about consumers' perceptions of dairy, not a scientific or academic study intended to be published,” she told us. ..." ....................... So, basically the video posted at the head of this thread is a several-year-old useless report of a pointless "survey". The average person is probably not as stupid as you think. You folk are average people, right?

Why not? Each generation has its ups and downs. We have it pretty good these days despite outbreaks and other issues. I can see future generations, like the ones before, complaining about their world going to heck, and look back at an earlier era as being better. The pattern repeats itself. "The Good Old Days" is not a fixed point in time. It's not the '50s, '60s, or '70s. In fact the phrase itself goes back into at least the early 1700s. https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-we-cant-stop-longing-for-the-good-old-days-11608958860 Also, note that the meme image at the start of this thread to me isn't particularly rosy itself. I find it just slightly darkly humorous.

The past may be a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. :-) Today will be the Good Old Days for some future generation.

Phil Garner's Chevy is included in the linked page I posted in my reply up the thread a bit.

How about stone? https://kellensilverthornsculptures.com/sculptures/

There has been one of those turned into an RV in Australia, and another one in the US built in Space Shuttle dress, in later years converted into a food truck.

Here's an interesting combo, streamlined Texaco tanker body on Diamond T chassis. https://texacotankerproject.com/diamond-t-texaco-tanker/

You can build this with the impending release of the T2 VW Bus https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a10370438/sideways-volkswagen-bus-speedycop/