Vehicular Beauty

Sitting in the pews at the Atlantic Center Department of Motor Vehicles I got a quick sermon as a quote from Confucius ran across the flat screen TV hanging above the cues. "Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it." It was an amusing thing to read sitting there a block away from the devastation of the Atlantic Yards construction site, a stone's throw away from the arboreal carnage this week's tornadoes wrought, in a place often associated with bureaucratic sadism.

The beauty at the DMV was not hard to see, though. Not only was I in and out in under an hour, but the two women who took my case guided me with uncanny acumen and restraint. I felt they were the kind of people that could easily take on my personal brand of folly and straighten me out permanently. Perhaps excellent people to have as backseat drivers, maybe, like my daughter was once in my dream. I don't know if you've ever had any of those automobile dreams where for some reason you can't quite control your vehicle? I used to have them from time to time and they made me feel horrible. As time went by they started to resolve better; in one of the most recent ones the insane vehicle I was driving led to a courtyard in which grew a small tree of life laden with fruit reminiscent of tiny spiraling galaxies.

In another my daughter sat in the back as I tried to drive a straight line down the center of a residential street but for some reason kept loosing control and driving up on the curb. My dream daughter spoke to me: "Mom, just SLOW DOWN." She is not named Sophie for nothing.

Collision Land

Before we drove to Maine last week I got the car checked over at Superior Auto Care on 3rd Avenue and 19th St. It was worth it, the brakes are working much better now, and that's a good feeling.

I walked from the Prospect Ave. R stop to pick up the car . As I neared the entrance to the garage of King's Collision on 19th, a car screeched out of the garage at at least 20 miles an hour and came to an abrupt hault on the sidewalk. I observed the man driving the car had a giant grin on his face, as if he had just had the time of his life. And nearly ended mine. He had the look of someone who couldn't understand how anyone couldn't relate to how much fun he was having.

I gave him a talking to while he grinned at me, and another man there had the sense to apologize.

I have to always be very careful on 19th St. for some reason. I'm not sure why I'm most frequently imperiled on that St., which delineates one of the Northern boundaries of Greenwood Cemetery.

It was worth the risk though, the mechanics did a great job on our car, and I got to compare the pattern of the paint peeling on their wall with the cloud formations above it.



























And got to admire the Superior Auto Care moth which hangs framed in their office, which they were kind enough to let me photograph. The shot's not so good, even though I got lots of advice from the people in the shop office as to how to get the best exposure.

Highway Motif

Seconds before I saw this tanker I had been daydreaming about the things I've learned from Buddhist teacher Matthew Reichers.

I was savoring the words diamond mind, in Buddhism the mind that dissolves all sources of suffering by observing that none of these feared or desired objects have fixed characteristics. No matter how hard we try to convince ourselves that things are one way or another.

I remember times when I've been convinced someone or something was evil incarnate, only to find out that it or he or she caused me to benefit in some way. Other times I was hankering for something I identified as heavenly, only to realize that whatever it was would bring with it many irritations.

According to the Buddha, the diamond mind is that aspect of awareness with the power to dissolve all delusion, the ultimate vehicle to freedom. Like diamonds, we are made of carbon, so I guess the potential for clarity is within us.

I'm glad I wasn't driving the car that day, with all this daydreaming, I might have caused a collision.

Key Food Wall Redone

It was a little like watching a manicure on a large scale, the stripping, the cleansing, the reinforcing, the recoating, the red reapplied. I found it far more exciting than I should have.

They were having problems with moisture leaking into the wall and causing the cement surface to crack. We have the same problem and I'm having people come over to give me estimates for repairs on Monday. Please let me know if you can recommend someone very good. The people that I spoke with didn't inspire my confidence.

This car, parked across the street from Key today, sure bounced some sunlight around. I included it because it seems to complement the Key Food wall aesthetic in some way.

Mr. Pickle Truck on PPW

My friend recently asked me if I had ever had the pleasure of seeing the Mr. Pickle truck. Well, today I did, and it was a pleasure. And after I picked my camera up off the ground where I had dropped it I got to take a picture of it. I think at least 3 people noticed the camera there on the cement and started shouting at me while I rummaged through all my pockets. The wasted time was perfect however, because if not for that I wouldn't have gotten Mr. Bagel in the shot with Mr. Pickle, and they are quite a pair. "Every bite a delight."

For your viewing convenience I have blown up a detail of the meeting of the two, or you can take in the entire truck as shown below. Or maybe I just loaded the image twice because I like it.

Unique Pickup

Walking along many Brooklyn streets I always admire the old wrought iron fencing, and so it was terribly exciting to see that it had expanded its territory.

Slot Car Sign Long Gone

Dub Truck, B Side

Walking up to Prospect Park West the other day I came across the dub truck again, and asked the guy driving if I could take a picture of the truck. He turned out to be Gareth, the man behind the bakery. He told me the paintings were done by someone called Love Billy, whom he allowed to paint one side of the truck as he wished as long as he painted a meat pie on the other.

Gareth wanted to know if I had tried the pies, which I have, the curry vegetable. It was delicious. Pushing it, I asked him if he was from New Zealand even though I already knew he was. He said yes, sheepishly. Eyeing him, I noticed he is much more elf than orc. I hear that people from there are self-effacing in a charming way, I wonder if that's really true. It seems to be. Maybe I'll find out, because though Figwit lives (in LA), here in Brooklyn, we have Gareth.

I told him I'd been watching Flight of the Conchords, and he agreed that was a good show. When I noted that it seemed like there are lots of cultural influences from New Zealand right now, he said, "Yes, we're taking over" in a tired, pleasantly sarcastic way. (Maybe he's heard that comment too often.) From what I've seen, that would mean a lot of savory pies, beautiful hand-painted trucks, amusingly hapless musicians breaking into impassioned song at any moment, girls riding whales, and of course small individuals overcoming monstrous evil. Sounds good to me.

Swollen Graffiti Free Vehicle

Is this vehicle wearing a hazmat suit? Seems like it. I've never seen such succulent tag bait. All that white space seems to say, come on, I dare you.

But seriously, what are these people afraid of? I'm more scared of the new signs being generated by whatever kind of large format machinery people boast of, ones that generate, with the help of Adobe Illustrator, formulaic and dead lettering. I'm scared of that embalmed feeling. Give me the hand any day. Give the taggers some legitimate work.

If you need some visual and verbal refreshment a la the hand, check out Rudayday's storefront churches.

Orange Van

This carries the hats and mittens and scarves which are sold on 5th Avenue and 16th St. in Manhattan. With a van like that, who would want a condo.

What Weiser?