BUY MY BOOK ON BLURB - FREE SHIPPING TIL 12/2010

BLURB has free shipping thru 12/10. Use the code FESTIVE. Now's a GREAT time to buy my book Traveling The Mother Road, Route 66 POLAROIDS.

The book is softcover, 80 pages, premium luster paper, and sells for $22.95. All the photos were shot with a Polaroid SLR 680 SE / Polaroid 600 film along historic Route 66 in California and Arizona. See classic cars & trucks, neon, road signs, wild burros & even kitsch aliens.

Check out the preview:

Traveling The Mother Road Route 66 POLAROIDS by Lydia Marcus | Make Your Own Book

CULVER CITY CAR SHOW 2010

Sunday I attended the free Culver City Car Show - my favorite local classic car show. It was a bit difficult to get full length photos of the cars (too many people in the way) and honestly, the background would have looked cluttered and ugly anyway. This led me to take photos I love to take anyway - close up, abstract details of cars, trucks, and vans. I absolutely LOVE the vintage fonts on these vehicles. Job-Rated, Hotrod, Apache - way cooler than Accord, Venza, Prius, or some lame brain series of letters and numbers.
- Lydia Marcus



















And now for some levity - a woman posing with the Green Hornet. Go GRAY HORNET!



These motorcycle helmets are both creepy and creative.


Culver City Car Show 2010
© Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
May 8, 2010 in Culver City, CA

Shot using a Nikon D80 and Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens.
Nikon D80 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body only)

RANGER QUADTYCH

Ford Ranger Quadtych
© Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed April 20, 2010 in Sherman Oaks, CA

Shot with a Nikon D80 with a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens.
Nikon D80 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body only)

PIONEERTOWN

Last weekend I went on a Los Angeles Group flickrmeet to Pioneertown and Joshua Tree National Park. For this blog post I'm sharing photos from Pioneertown. If you'd like to check out photos other people took on the meet, check out this discussion thread on flickr. Next time I post, I'll share my Joshua Tree shots.

Here's a description of Pioneertown's cinematic history according to to www.pioneertown.com:

"Pioneertown was built in 1946 as a movie set for western movies, including the movies of Gene Autry, The Cisco Kid, with Duncan Renaldo, Annie Oakley with Gail Davis, Judge Roy Bean with Edgar Buchanan, Range Rider with Jock O. Mahoney, and Buffalo Bill Jr. with Dick Jones. The movie set was to provide a place for the actors to live, and have their homes used as part of a movie set. Some of the original investors in the town were Roy Rogers, who also built thePioneer Bowl, Sons of the Pioneers, which the town was named after, Dick Curtis who was a professional villian in old movies, Bud Abbott, Russell Hayden, who played Lucky on the Hopalong Cassidy series, Louella Parsons the Hollywood gossip columnist and Philip N. Krasne: The Man Who Saved Pioneertown. Mane Street is private property and is always open to courteous pedestrians."

Pioneertown is only a two hour drive from L.A. We were graced by the beautiful presence of fresh snow all over Pioneertown.



Me on "Mane" Street. Photo by Laurie Thomson.


While most of the group wandered through the Pioneertown, I found myself drawn to the Pioneertown Motel in the back and the snow covered cars and landscape behind the Motel.













This is the motel.


The motel was very cool and had a lot of character. Each room has it's own kitchenette. It's definitely the kind of place I'd like to stay at in the future - quiet, peaceful, nostalgic.



A beautiful tree on Mane Street.


A funny snow woman by the motel.

This snow woman reminds me of Dustin Hoffman in drag as Dorothy Michaels in the classic early 80's romantic comedy "Tootsie"

It was pretty much a ghost town at Pioneertown - we were the only tourists. The only other people I saw were staying at the motel. A few of those were out walking their doggies out in the snow.

This cute doggie named Gracie was sunbathing in front of her two mommies' motel room.









As the group was getting ready to leave Pioneertown, I met these three amigos.



These guys were kind of like Jackass or Dumb and Dumber come to life. The guy on the left was a groom to be. On the way to get married, he got his car stuck in the mud. While working to get the car dug out of the mud with a shovel, he split the tux pants he was supposed to wear to the ceremony. Once they got the car out, the trio did some pre wedding celebrating with Pabst beers. This was just before 11am. The last thing I heard the groom say was something about he should have known better about getting the car stuck because he grew up driving that road and that his wife to be was going to be pissed and he probably wasn't going to be "getting any" tonight. At least he had a sense of humor about it. Good luck with the marriage buddy.

Photo credits © Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed January 23, 2010 in Pioneertown, CA

HOLLYWOOD PICKUP

Photo © Lydia Marcus
Photographed November 10, 2007 in Hollywood, CA

THE NOHO 3

1951 & 1950 Chevy Panel Trucks and a two-tone 1981 Datsun 280Z




A phallic hood ornament from the Chevy

Photos © Lydia Marcus
Photographed April 12, 2009 in North Hollywood, CA

M*A*S*H 'N MALIBU

Me at the old M*A*S*H site at Malibu Creek State Park. This is an old, rusted out remnant of one of the military vehicles used on the show. It's approximately a 6.4 mile round trip hike from the trailhead to the M*A*S*H site and back.









Most of these people at the site were from the Flickrmeet from the Los Angeles group.


Group shots of the Flickr group on the dilapidated Jeep.

IMG_0734, originally uploaded by SB_Photography.

IMG_0737, originally uploaded by SB_Photography.

fotonomous, originally uploaded by brian blevins.

Photos by © Lydia Marcus
Photographed March 21, 2009 at Malibu Creek State Park in Malibu, CA

4x4

Truck Quadtych photos by Lydia Marcus.
Photographed February, 8, 2009 in Barstow, CA on historic Route 66

PAUL'S BIRTHDAY PRESENT

I created this quadtych for my friend Paul's birthday present. He's a fan of Ford trucks and drives one - the grill on the top left hand corner is from his truck - the other three shots are from various Ford trucks I've seen on the road.

Ford Truck Quadtych Photo by Lydia Marcus

MICHAEL JORDAN'S BIG HEAD

Is Michael Jordan's big head making this truck lean more than just from the curve in the road or is it just an optical illusion?

Photo by Lydia Marcus
Photographed January 14, 2009 in Thousand Oaks, CA on the 101 South Freeway

WHEN THE AUTO SHOW WAS COOL

(Click On Photo To Enlarge)

This Todd Oldham designed 1996 Oldsmobile Bravada was one of the coolest cars I ever saw at any of the L.A. Auto Shows. Attending the L.A. Auto Show used to be a neat experience as automakers used a lot of creativity in their car presentations. Lately, the shows just seem like a retread of the past show or shows. Porsche has been dragging out the same tired AV presentations for years. Mini Cooper has used the same displays since their launch. The only thing the automakers change each year seems to be the size and number of LCD or plasma TVs - bigger and more of them. So this '96 Old's Bravada remains a high point for me. Oldham took a pedestrian SUV and made it super unique while improving 100% on the original car. - Lydia Marcus

(From the display poster):

Concept Cure is bringing top automotive and fashion designers in a unique collaboration between General Motors and the fashion industry to raise funds for breast cancer research. The vehicles were sold via silent auction in partnership with Neiman Marcus, with all proceeds benefitting the Nana Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research.

Fashion designer, Todd Oldham chose to take this 1996 sport utility vehicle to the limit. A dark burl covers the body of the Bravada, while a birds-eye maple frames the oak side panels. The wheels are custom detailed in the same maple finish.

The interior features custom printed plaid seats with bright red stitching and floor mats that are full of color resembling a granny quilt. Driving this vehicle will perfectly simulate the experience of wearing an Oldham original.

"The best outcome of this effort will be the awareness of prevention possibilities" - Todd Oldham

Todd Oldham Bravada Photo Montage by Lydia Marcus

Photographed January, 1996 in Los Angeles, CA