Funkengroovin Wednesday - On The Road

Vagabondblogger often sees VW's when she is on the road traveling around Cairo. One of the things she hates is when the windows of her own car, get in the way of a photo. It's also annoying to have a camera that won't take the picture right away. So, since the title of today's post is "On the Road", here's all the VW photos I practically missed - the ones that got away. Let's just say the eye is quicker than the hand, and the damn driver won't slow down for Vagabondblogger - Sheesh!

Oh and this week, due to the overwhelming excitement from the news media about Mad Men, today's blog includes more "style" and "fashion" than usual (how could that be?)


Road Rules

Aug. 13, 2007 issue - Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" gets the full 50th anniversary treatment next month, and both cheerleaders and hand-wringers acknowledge that it radically changed American culture—somehow or other. True, the National Quiet Desperation Index has only risen since 1957, and if the book's exaltation of junker cars and diner food had really taken hold, we'd have fewer SUVs and fast-food franchises. But "On the Road" showed, and continues to show, generations of young readers a more intense, more passionate—and more closely examined—life. Some who've busted out to live it themselves died on the streets. Others have refreshed the American sensibility, in music, art, fashion, or in simply learning to kick back and take pleasure in pleasure. This book has stayed, as one of its early readers would say, forever young.

Turns out Vagabondblogger is a trend setter now too. Don't say I didn't tell ya to watch the show.


'Mad Men' sells the '60s with authenticity

AMC's period drama Mad Men (tonight, 10 ET/PT), set in a Madison Avenue ad agency in spring 1960, is a universe on the precipice of revolutions, from social to racial, political to sexual. And those threads of change are carried through in the details, the carefully researched artifacts of the era, some evocative, some barely remembered. "When you look in the past, everybody knows the broad strokes," says prop master Scott Buckwald. "It's the little slices of life that make the difference." USA TODAY dusts off a handful of the items in Mad Men's attic.

Volkswagen 'Beetle'

Mad Men angle. "No chrome, no horsepower, foreign, ugly," says art director Salvatore (Bryan Batt), looking at a VW ad. "I guess they went with their strengths."

Infestation. Before Toyota, before Honda, this was the import invasion. The Volkswagen (the descriptive Beetle wasn't officially acknowledged till 1967) was economical, reliable and adorably homely, soon to be embraced by the counterculture even as it was rejected by the establishment. The ironic, understated ads were as revolutionary as the auto. In 1960, 127,000 were sold in the USA; by 1970 they were selling more than 400,000 a year.

Insect aside. Prop master Buckwald says they pulled the ad from an old issue of Life, tinted it and rebound it in another magazine. And it turns out on the series that the neighborhood divorcée, Helen Bishop (Darby Stanchfield), drives one, which will do neither's reputation any good.

A Return to That Drop-Dead Year 1960
By RUTH LA FERLA
Published: August 23, 2007

To a style aficionado, “Mad Men” is that rare TV show in which an ashtray, a lipstick or an aerosol tin gets star treatment.

Magic Bus: Project VW reveals hidden surprise

For the owner of a 1958 double panel restoration project, the drug connection hit a little close to home. When checking out the undercarriage of his new purchase, TheSamba forum member Joshua B. found 14 LBS of marijuana stashed away. While we can't provide an exact street value of such a find (if you can, let us know in the comments) we can assume that it's a hell of a lot more than the value of this rusted out old groove-mobile.

Check this picture out:
The Billiards Table Volkswagen Bus seen at the Woodward Dream Cruise

If you are a surfing dude but also a great fan of billiards, then it seems as if all your dreams can be answered as at the recent Woodward Dream Cruise event visitors had the chance to see a Billiards Table Volkswagen Bus, man this VW Camper come Billiards Table is so cool.

The Virtues of Avoiding Interstates

Many connoisseurs of the highway are championing the use of slow roads — back roads with scenery and history — instead of faceless Interstates.

The List:
Scenic Roads That Deserve a Detour

Here are some slow roads with special attractions.

Off the Road

Hey, Jack Kerouac, I know you dressed like a bum, but a shop in Soho is selling your boots for $475

So maybe, given your late-in-life embrace of capitalism, you'd actually endorse that Hogan merch (especially if you got a cut of the profits). In any case, as so often happens, you're worth far more dead than alive. Want to really spin in your grave? Check this out: Johnny Depp once paid $15,000 for an old raincoat of yours, and $10,000 for a tweed overcoat.

Six Days On The Road - Dave Dudley