Elvis and Pink Cadillacs

I love me some Elvis and the kitsch that comes along with fandom. I've got random Elvis stuff around my apartment - beach towel, Christmas ornament, dish towels, and I even used to have an Elvis clock (it broke.) So whenever I'm at a classic car show, I'm immediately drawn to pink Cadillacs; as you may or may not know, in the mid-50's Cadillacs weren't offered with pink paint, but Elvis bought one to drive his band around in, and had it painted pink. It got wrecked, and he bought another, had it painted pink, and gave it to his mother as a gift. She didn't drive, so... well, he drove it. Then he bought another...

Some classic Cadillac owners seem to love Elvis too, and within weeks of each other, I found two Elvis-themed pink Caddies.

This past August at Woodward Dream Cruise, I wandered around Pontiac on the Friday. As I wandered, I blissfully ignored the sign at the entrance to a small group of cars that said "Private Party." I swear, I didn't see that sign! There were some cool cars, but since I didn't see that sign, I tried to stay as unobtrusive (and clueless) as possible. I snapped a few shots of the Elvis details on the pink Cadillac in the private zone.

A few weeks later at Serino's Block Party in Long Island City (my 'hood), there was this pink Caddie. My friend Luci (another Elvis freak fan) and I admired the car and the Elvis memorabilia, then the owner opened the trunk for us - to reveal Graceland. Graceland! In a trunk! How awesome is that!

So there you go, a gushy Elvis post.

__________________

There's another reason for this post. I needed to do something on my Mac tonight. Back in 1999 or 2000, I bought my first Mac so that I could use it to create a website to promote and sell my photography. I know Steve Jobs didn't invent the computer, but the Macs are such intuitive computers for the creative set. So thanks, Steve Jobs, for making my career path infinitely easier.

Woodward Dream Cruise - 8.21.2010

This was my first year at Woodward, and while I expected a lot, I was overwhelmed. I was surrounded by (mostly) classic cars - I didn't even want to blink. In the minivan with the rest of the crew, conversations were never completed; in the middle of a sentence, one of us would yell, "Holy cow, look at that." Heck, we never even made it as far as Pontiac. In spite of the rain that persisted throughout the day, I walked around, shot, walked around some more, shot, watched the cars cruising, shot, was happy to not get hit by cars crossing the street because I was ogling another car, shot, passed a Chevrolet executive on Woodward, shot, shadowed the writer... shot... you've got the idea. Most of the hundreds of photos that I took were for the client, but a few outtakes that they didn't use follow.

A high performance Gremlin. Gremlin? Yes, Gremlin:

This guy likes his RAM Hemi so much he got the logo inked on his leg:
Overheard walking around some classics: "I wonder how much total horsepower is on this field today."
Yeah, every car blog got a shot of this '57 Bel Air stretch limo - but it's cool, so I'm posting it:
A Back-to-the-Future replica in the field of DeLoreans. (Thank you, rain, for the blurry blob in the middle of my shot.)
This Camaro is for you, Kim Larson. It's a '67, is that what you wanted?

Ingenious. Plus, you know you'd make fun of him mercilessly if he was on a Segway.
I was in love with this silver metallic '57 Bel Air:
There was a group of seven or eight Monte Carlos; there are four here, and the others were across Woodward. These men's cars were beautiful. After they finished drying their cars, the second part of their group drove across Woodward and they all pulled out together to cruise for the rest of the afternoon.
Detail of an engine on a classic 'Stang:

The whole classic Mustang. This car is very, very important. Why? Because this is the exact color that my Mustang will be when I get it. Minus the engine that I can't see over. The owner was nearby, and I dared not lick it. (C.E. Murphy, on the off chance you see my blog post, this one's for you. Well, it's for me... but I'll share it.)
Batmobile - need I say more?

Kaiser Darrin's Clara Bow grille:
Spectators! The rain didn't keep them away from pulling up chairs and watching the cars cruise by all day.
As Murphy's Law goes, the sun finally came out right before the day came to a close:

I think I'll go for the whole week next year. I have to go back - I want to make it to Pontiac.