IVIV: Let's race

[John Bailey]

I hear "That's Not Me" when reading Cutie in a GTO - although the
metre is completely wrong for that ditty. You can fit the lyrics to
the tune of Good Vibrations pretty easily. The faily inane lyrics more
likely point back to an earlier Beach Boys style, though -

409: http://www.snuhfiles.com/sound/beach_boys-409.mp3
Little Deuce Coupe:
http://www.snuhfiles.com/sound/beach_boys-little_deuce_coupe.mp3
Shut Down: http://www.snuhfiles.com/sound/beach_boys-shut_down.mp3

Note however that the scene with Fenway late in the novel casts a real
pall on 1) fast car fetishism 2) beach babe chasing and 3) chili dogs.
These mindless pleasures can easily be used to lead witless folks down
mean streets.



On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Fwiw,  Leo Carillo is the name of the State Beach at Malibu -  about an hour
> up the road from Manhattan Beach.  So if,  according to the song, these two
>  are racing up Highway 1,  north starting at the corner of Topanga Canyon
> Blvd
>
> "took off north from the light at Topanga..."    (where Topanga Canyon Road
> meets the Pacific Coast Highway/ Hiway 1)
>
> *** And they're speeding up Highway 1 ***
>
> "... Grille to grille by the time we hit Leo Carillo..."   (the
> aforementioned beach)
>
> "... And it still wasn't over by Point Mogu..."  (another 5 miles north on
> Hwy 1)
>
> "... Shoulda filled-up when I got-off the San Diego..."  (the freeway about
> 5 miles prior to Topanga Canyon)
>
> Then the singer runs out of gas and the cutie goes back  and gets him some -
> much to his surprise.
>
> Just so's y'all can hear these babies:
>
> Here's a  1969 Ram Air "IV"  GTO - what she's driving.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3j_5c-tubQ
>
> 1969 Ford Mustang 427
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtatkjDyDz8
>
> And I cannot place the song but I'll get it yet.
>
> Bekah
>
>
> On Sep 20, 2009, at 3:44 AM, John Bailey wrote:
>
>> As I've already mentioned, I find it a bit mysterious that Tariq's
>> ethnicity is such a point in chapter One - explicitly bringing
>> together the displacement of African-American, Japanese, Mexican and
>> American Indian families in the history of LA land use - when other
>> characters are treated differently. This chapter drops a number of
>> markers suggesting Lourdes and Motella's ethnic background, along with
>> those of their beaux - all except Motella use non-English phrases, and
>> Motella's afro (and "what it be, girl!") sound pretty black to me. But
>> Doc's got an afro too, which complicates things, and in this chapter
>> the narratorial voice doesn't do any racial profiling at all. Which I
>> like (as an aside, one of the things for which the recently mentioned
>> Disgrace by Coetzee is so interesting is in the way race is implied by
>> the power relations it offers while rarely being made explicit).
>>
>> Anyway, just before Doc is off to hook up with Lourdes and Motella he
>> has a brief glimpse of the Chick Planet girls. We know he has trouble
>> telling one Californian blonde (Bambi) from another (as noted during
>> his meeting with Hope) and when he spots Jade she's an oddly
>> italicised *oriental cutie*.
>>
>> Orientalism. Hmmm. Paging Edward Said.
>>
>> Where's Jade from? I'm guessing California, the way she speaks. But in
>> 1970 LA she's just a "bubbly young Asian lady" or an "oriental cutie".
>>
>> They tell him to meet them at 'Club Asiatique'.
>>
>> Another orientalist name that glosses over massive regional difference
>> in the name of commercial good times. Kitsch.
>>
>> The French aspect of the name might hint at Indo-China, which, given
>> the time setting, ties in nicely to both the war in Vietnam and the SE
>> Asian heroin cartel connection to the Golden Fang.
>>
>> So Doc hooks up with those pan-continental stewardii, and hits those
>> metaphysical freeways at an "unnecessarily suicidal velocity" and to
>> the tune of a race-song by the Boards...
>>
>> (Note: the song puts a particular emphasis - twice - on Leo Carillo,
>> an actor: his wikipedia site states: "Although he played stereotypical
>> Latins, Leo Carrillo was part of an old and respected Californio
>> family who could trace their roots back to the conquistadores." He
>> also played the sidekick Pancho in the TV series The Cisco Kid.)
>
> http://web.mac.com/bekker2/
>
>