Note that Bill is a guy who owned a vintage Eldorado convertible. Now that was a cruisin’ car. Coeval with the Riviera and the Toranado: front-wheel drive superpowered luxury/sports cars. For Detroit, they were innovative; more sophisticated than the true Muscle Cars.
Back in the early 80s, my late friend Larry Rosa had a 1968 Eldorado, metallic aqua, just like the Hot Wheels version I’d had as a kid. It was a beautiful automobile, although it required more maintenance than it ever got, and the mileage was such that Larry was reluctant to drive it beyond the immediate neighborhood. He loved that car, (more than he loved people, I fear,) and mythologized it in an early instance of the home-made rock video. The camera relentlessly pans the car as it chases and finally runs down local scenester Cory Clark, (later Warrior Soul,) to the strains of one of Larry’s exaggerated riff-fests. He said he wanted to make the hardest, most aggressive music he could. But he also wanted to drive a Cadillac. Of course the video was shot on Beta; Larry was a true geek, and talked several friends into investing in the losing end of video technology. “But the quality...”
A delicate, aging, high-maintenance vehicle is ultimately an untenable proposition. Larry finally had to give up on the Eldorado, though not before he crashed it while driving during a diabetic coma. He was a brilliant guy, but unhappy and self-destructive. He took chances with his life (and other people’s,) entering the hospital via the ER on a number of occasions. Crashing cars was actually a way of saving his life, since it brought help in a hurry. He finally died in 2000, alone at home, with no one to help when he passed out. He was starting to get into computers at the time, which might have been good for him. Like I said, a true geek, yet he couldn’t manage his medications?
Speaking as a delicate, aging, high-maintenance vehicle, please drive carefully.
|
Back in the early 80s, my late friend Larry Rosa had a 1968 Eldorado, metallic aqua, just like the Hot Wheels version I’d had as a kid. It was a beautiful automobile, although it required more maintenance than it ever got, and the mileage was such that Larry was reluctant to drive it beyond the immediate neighborhood. He loved that car, (more than he loved people, I fear,) and mythologized it in an early instance of the home-made rock video. The camera relentlessly pans the car as it chases and finally runs down local scenester Cory Clark, (later Warrior Soul,) to the strains of one of Larry’s exaggerated riff-fests. He said he wanted to make the hardest, most aggressive music he could. But he also wanted to drive a Cadillac. Of course the video was shot on Beta; Larry was a true geek, and talked several friends into investing in the losing end of video technology. “But the quality...”
A delicate, aging, high-maintenance vehicle is ultimately an untenable proposition. Larry finally had to give up on the Eldorado, though not before he crashed it while driving during a diabetic coma. He was a brilliant guy, but unhappy and self-destructive. He took chances with his life (and other people’s,) entering the hospital via the ER on a number of occasions. Crashing cars was actually a way of saving his life, since it brought help in a hurry. He finally died in 2000, alone at home, with no one to help when he passed out. He was starting to get into computers at the time, which might have been good for him. Like I said, a true geek, yet he couldn’t manage his medications?
Speaking as a delicate, aging, high-maintenance vehicle, please drive carefully.
- alex 8-13-2003 9:22 pm