Racing & Painting

Richmond Review

Went over to my RG-Fan-friends house to watch the race on FX on Saturday afternoon and play with her greyhounds some more.

Rutger is great and my pal and all, but I do miss having a big dog.

So while she was fretting over “Robbie-Dawg” and cheering for “Tony-Pup”, I was angst-ing over both of my boys: Elliot and Dale, who really had frustrating days.

I’m going to start out with the negative first, and I am speaking strictly from the prospective of a fan and arm-chair pit crew member. The problem they had last year: Cars coming out of the shop crappy, continues and because of that, the impound rule is killing the Bud Team. Now I know the car started out pretty good and I still think the crew switch was a good idea, but whatever is not happening at the shop has got to start happening or vice versa. These cars have got be better coming off the truck. I held on and openly supported what been going on at DEI since the year began, I understood going in that there was going to be a rocky period adjusting, but it’s been 3 months and I’m getting a little frustrated. Maybe I need more patience, but this is just the way I feel.

I mean, if anyone has a right to be fustrated it's Dale, not me, but still...y'know...

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not throwing a drama fit. I’m still an 8 fan (Unless he does that damn dancing show that Jade suggested, then I don’t even know if I will be able to look at the guy without feeling painfully embarrassed for him.) and I always will be. I still think Dale not only one of the best drivers with the potential to be truly great, but one of the best men out there. I’m just expressing the frustration that the kick ass driver that we have is getting the cars that he has. I don’t know if this is Pete back at the shop or other department heads or a larger problem with the way DEI is structured but in any case, it getting obvious that something has to change. Some fans have discussed spending more money to hire “the right people”, Dale has spoken of a need for expansion. I don’t know enough of the details to express an opinion on the details, but cars like this one…that’s got to stop. Maybe they should just junk all the ex-15’s and start fresh.

And that is speaking strictly as a fan. Take it for what it is worth: Another voice from the kangaroo court.

O.k. Ugliness out of the way: Great Job! digging in pits this weekend and finally finding the solution. Whatever may be happening back at the shop, Pete is great on Pit Road. Well Done! to Dale for manhanding that dump truck around for 400 laps and for excellent communication on what was happening to the car. Jade has some of the radio chatter up on his blog. Had they more time, they would have pulled off a top ten at the very least.

I had to chuckle at the radio chatter that FX choose to air about Dale yelling and Pete not being able to understand him. I am from the same general area in Maine that Pete is and it took me a while to learn understand Dale’s fast mountain slur when he was just speaking. The scary thing is, when I first started following NASCAR closely, I could understand Ward Burton better than I could Dale at points. *chuckle* But then, My mom’s family is originally from VA, perhaps there’s some latent genetics in play.

BTW-What's was up with his spotter?

And yes Dale and Co. You do need to have fun doing this, it's too hellish a lifestyle to survive otherwise.

Now Elliott had a frustrating night as well. Despite qualifying well (at last!) he droped like a rock when the race started and as soon as he stopped dropping and was fighting his way back, he hit (I believe it was Robbie Gordon’s) tire on pit road. Yet despite all this, he still got what I believe was his highest finish at his home track.

As for his dust up with media darling Carl Edwards during the Busch race….well, Carl. I wouldn’t want that bear pissed off at me. He’d better steer wide around the 38 for a while. Nice save by Elliott, though. He’s good.

Mark Martin seems to have had a bad night to, but I have no idea what happened to him. As Sterling Marlin put it during Speed channels race preview “Demographics got him.” Thanks Fox/FX.

BTW-That was the quote of the day “I guess I’m too old to drink beer.” Gotta love Sterlin’ man.

And….While I am glad they are both fine. I did drop a sarcastic “Boo-hoo” and “Wha-wha-whaaaaaaaaaa.” when Mini-Me and Jeffey-Pop both got booted. When the trifecta extended to Busch, thats when I got frustrated that DEI wasn’t there to capitalize.

But congratulations to Kasey Khane for finally being the bride and winning his first Nextel Cup race! He drove his heart out and the 9 crew was fantastic in the pits. And he beat the guy he wanted to across the finish line. Too Kewl.

NASCAR 360

So being at my friends house she insisted I had to stay and watch NASCAR 360, which on principle I have never seen before.

My decision stands. I don’t know why people need to know that Kurt Busch is pathetically in love with a blatant gold digger, but whatever people do I’m not one of them. I’m glad Rusty is so involved with his sons racing careers and that Kasey had a great time in Vail, but that chick at the fence after the Daytona? WTF!?!

How the hell can you call a 24-year-old man who wrestles a 3400 hunk of attitude around track at 190+ mph a “Baby boy”? And you think referring to yourself as his “Momma” and ordering him around is sexy? Honey, get your family outta the trailer park and into therapy because all y’all have major issues. Sounds like there more than cousins kissing in that household.

Jeez-ZUS! No wonder anytime a driver opens his mouth about women and relationships they have such crappy attitudes. It’s like the dregs of femininity on parade. If it hadn’t been for Kasey’s rather sane and stable GF, I’d have been terminally embarrassed for the gender.

Cuhl-Tcha!

Sunday I went to the Armand Hammer Museum in West L.A. I didn’t get to tour the sculpture gardens as they were clear across the UCLA campus, but I did enjoy their rather small but impressive collection the paintings which are lesser known works of famous artists, mostly impressionists.

One of Monet’s sea sides , which I value far above his water lillies. His abilty to paint water, the depth, the color, the movement, is amazing. A couple Cezannes who's use of color always amazes me…as long as you can get him away from the damn fruit. His forests are remarkable. Nobody can make me smell the damp earth of a forest that way he can. I discovered a new Caillebotte, who is one of my favorites for his Floor Scrapers (though most everyone knows him for his Paris Street: A Rainy Day) and his masterful use of shadow continues in “Square in Argteuri”. A dramatic Sargent portrait of one of Sandra Bernhardt’s lovers, which was coincidental because her portrait by Steven was hanging in another gallery. I’m not usually fond of Sargent because I’m not usually big on portraits, but Dr. Pozzi at Home is a very dramatic, life size portrait. And then there was a lovely Chagall, “Blue Angel”. I love Chagall’s work because it utterly trumps the notion that artists had to suffer for their art. I don’t think have ever seen Joy expressed in art so much as in his. There was a artist I was not familiar with named Carot that had a few painting there. His use of the sky was impressive. Even when mostly hidden, the sky was a dramatic character in the painting.

And there was a couple Pizarro’s, Van Gogh's, Renoir, Degas and a Cassat and all the usual suspects and some that were not so usual. A Remington, a Russell and a Laurecin’. There was also a nice collection of beautiful 19th century Lithographs, mostly of horses and another set of satirical ones on Paris Fashions. Someone had definitely had crinoline issues.

But in addtion there were a set of lithographs from George Bellows who began by stechting subjects he greatly enjoyed such as boxing, but then began to create images to match the stories of horror that were coming out of Europe in WWI. The Armand Hammer has examples of both.

While you are touring the museum it is worthwhile to notice the placement of the paintings as well. Some of the juxtapositions are quite poignant.

They also had a special exhibition called “Fair Use: Appropriation in Recent Film and Video” whereas artists cropped broadcasts and films to create a new films. I only sat through one, but oh my gawd! The artist, Omar Fast, has taken CNN broadcasts and spliced them up word by word to create this codependent love letter to the American public called “CNN Concentrated”. It’s bloody brilliant.

They had a modern art exhibition up which I have very limited tolerance for. Apparently a big orange square on a white background titled ‘Orange’ qualifies as art these days. The problem I think with modern art is not actually the skill involved, or lack there of, but the elitism of the artist.

Art’s, any art’s, main purpose is to communicate and in the past when artists created they were trying to communicate something, either a concept or felling, to the audience and so made creative choices based on trying to connect with the greater culture. Now-a-days, many “artists” feel it is not up to them to get their point across to the audience, but for the audience to understand them. If you don’t “get” them, then you’re just plebian philistine and who needs you…

Which is B.S. If you cannot accomplish the principle purpose of art, you’re no artist. You’re just a coffee swilling snob in bad clothing.

Anyway, if you're over in the Westwood Village next to UCLA, check it out. The main collection is definately worth the hour or two to see.