IVIV: Let's race
Bekah
bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net
Mon Sep 21 21:48:55 CDT 2009
It's very odd how different parts of IV appeal to different people
here. Imagine me looking up the highways and race & beach-music
stuff while others are more into the lit-crit or sociology or politics
or musicology or films. I really want to check out the restaurants
someone asked about.
Bekah
who drove a 1963 VW with lots of bug and flower decals on it.
On Sep 21, 2009, at 7:49 AM, Joe Allonby wrote:
> Love reading the gearhead jargon. I had Holley's on my Shelby.
>
> On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 9:21 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/
>>
>>
http://web.mac.com/bekker2/
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