The Rod magazines of the 70’s were a huge inspiration on me, seeing the road trip adventures of Jake and his various cars, along with many of the other Rod runs around the country. Got to do some of those longer trips in the A pickup in the late 80’s, throughout the 90’s and after. Learned some of the downfalls of these early cars. My current coupe project is planned to be able to do long road trips more comfortably.
Good stuff Joey, thanks for sharing. I worked in Advertising/Branding for 25 years during the Film-to-Digital transition. One of my clients was Kodak Motion Picture Film. The older I get, the more I find myself appreciating Analog. The tactile nature, the stakes of getting it right the first time, the aesthetics, sharing, saving, journaling, et al. More importantly, the lesson in PATIENCE. Digital culture has given us an insatiable need for ‘instantaneous everything’. I doubt this makes us better humans... Certain aspects of life will always be best left Analog, chief among them: Photography/Cinema Music Hot Rods & Customs
I have pictures on CD that have deteriorated to where they take a long time to load up and some don't load at all. I fear that in the future there will be fewer "old pictures" than there are today even though there are far more taken. I have many thousands of pics on my computer which could all disappear tomorrow. anyone have a good idea how to store them?
Hey 49, When CD/DVDs came out, they were the next gen storage/presentation media sensation. But articles show that over time, they deteriorate just like old photos and LPs. Plus, they are fragile. These days, there are some computers/laptops that do not have DVD/CD drives. But, they are available as single entities for usage... Like yours. The best way is to get several small external hard drives. If you want to spend more money, get the SSD version. (no moving parts) They are usually faster and have the same storage limits. But, we are not in it for speed, as we normally copy and paste several photos or films. They take about a minute or less. So, any faster and it is up to your tastes. They all copy to the same 1-2tb hard drive storage case. They are now small as a cigarette pack and will fit into your pockets with ease. If you have one for your home computer and one for your laptop, copy and paste away. If all of your personal files are copied digitally, then there is nothing to grab in case a fast emergency get away is necessary. They can be interchanged and automatically set up to copy and paste new files. Recently some homes along Coastal California in the Laguna Beach/Laguna Niguel area got blasted with a fast moving fire. The scorched earth did not give residents a lot of time to decide about what to take. So, if everything is copied to those external hard drives, then that is all you need. Besides, your cars children, wife and dog. Jnaki Several years ago, I started with a 1 TB external hard drive. The cost was high, but that was the going price for such capacity. It was as big as a paperback book. (filling up a 1TB drive would take years…) For reasons known, but unknown then, it filled up fast when I converted everything to a digital file. Movies, photographs, tax papers, personal files, and any home insurance plans, papers that need safe keeping and other things that would not stand up to fire. Despite the fact that we have sprinklers in all of the rooms, fire is damaging. That first 1TB drive is history and now we are up to 4tb small external hard drives (3) with the original backup, a copy of the back up and one for our safe deposit box. I just finished backing up a new 4TB hard drive and it is only a 1/3 full. But, at least, everything paper is backed up. There are two to grab and go. The third is updated every two months for the safe deposit box. We do not trust off site places that control our own files. So, what do we do in case fire is raging near our house? Grab our granddaughter if she is visiting, my wife and dog in that order. We drive away in our daily drivers and everything else is expendable/ replaceable. Nice clothes? We get to go shopping anyway. Furniture? New ones are always in style… and so goes the rest of the stuff. If it is on digital files, secure in your “go bag,” then you have all you need. Two years ago, our granddaughter was staying with us. She said she smelled some burning, so we all walked outside. In the hill area behind us about two blocks away, a raging fire was burning up the canyon and getting close to our houses. There was not an evacuation notice for all of us, so we calmly got our “go bag” ready by the door to the garage. It was the biggest fire in recent times and the mass of firefighters finally put it our many hours later. So, a word to the wise is sufficient… it may happen at any time and you want your files to be safe. If you have a bunch of physical stuff in the garage… well, you are not alone. Those will be sacrificed to the fire, but you and your family will be safe. YRMV Amazon has tons of external hard drives from small to large. Get one that will store all of your stuff, a 4tb will take years unless you copy a lot of stuff off of the internet and save it… for what, I have no idea. The external hard drive costs are lower than several years ago and the technology is much better, but simple for anyone to use. Just get the quality named company versions, Western Digital, Toshiba, Seagate, Samsung are the ones we have. They all link together. For a Mac, get a Mac version. PM. If you need more help. The direct access to your files is best and not relying on an outside company to store stuff is important. But, the choice is yours. I just looked at some old files, never seen in 10 years. They are physical films and photos. They are safely stored in our external hard drives, but I must have forgotten they were in the closet. The small light box I have brings out the best in those new/old photos.
Hey @J.Ukrop Man does this thread bring back some memories! My flat files, hold over 25 years of original drawings and artwork and other selected graphic pieces I have done. While the majority of it is along the lines of vintage aviation, there are other pieces that are automotive related as well. Years ago, I shot thousands of slides, and then would use my Kodak Carousel projector to project the image onto my 4 ft X 4 ft easel and draw in the image at 33" X 27", with pencil, then go back and ink it all in, to get the reduction piece down to 12" X 13 " to fit the frontal area of T-Shirts. Labor intensive as well. I can totally relate to using the light box to look through the loupe, at what I had and then would make my choices as to what to project. Here is a piece that never got finished, but you get the idea. Spent countless hours in the dark at the easel, as the projector racked up time on the bulb. A few years ago, down at the Portland swap-meet, on a vendors table, was this kick ass, vintage, mint condition slide projector, its from the 50's, its almost as old as I am ! Its bomber built, with a cool sturdy case that is even painted in Zolatone paint, the body of the projector is painted with Hammerite wrinkle finish paint, and it all works ! Bought it for $50.00, and dam well worth it! I figured you could appreciate this old school technology. Thanks for posting and sharing. Thanks from Dennis.
This hurts today. I remember back then. They were talking about $.50/gal. gas and I was wondering how the hell I would ever be able to pay that much.
Back in the fifties, my dad started buying 35mm color film that was salvaged from movie studios. Real cheap as compared to a camera store. To make this HAMB friendly, here's shot mt dad took of the car we used to go from the wedding service to the La Jolla Country Club reception. I had to pay for the motorcycle escort.
I kind of agree. At that time the car had the nail head that Jake later put in his coupe. The nail head was in the roadster when Jake got the car in the late '60s.
Might be a sensitive subject, but I for one really miss TRJ. Here's to hoping someone can revive it to help us all have access to more of Joey's great articles.
I agree what a well documented era for street rodding; Rod and Custom, Street Rod Quarterly, Street Rod, Rod Action, Street Rodder, even Popular Hot Rodding showcased the growing trend of making your hot rod tripworthy, as well as throwback/ nostalgia rods. These cars were mostly hands on builds that founded the industry, and either were resto rods, Early Times style or buckets. Simpler times, in a turbulent era.
Great post!!! I am hoping that I still might get my slides back from Steve Coonan that I sent to TRJ some years ago.
The Jalopy Journal
