Kevin Nelson, Writer

Aug. 26, 2011 We spotted this Jaguar GX75 in the concept car section on the grass near the front door of the Pebble Beach Lodge at last Sunday's Concours d'Elegance. Unable to afford to buy one at this time, I snapped this picture and it's now the screensaver for my iMac. Nice wheels, dude!  

August 3, 2011. A coming highlight for me this month is a research trip to the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach and the car racing at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca earlier that week. The trip is research—and research of the most delightful kind—for the new book I'm writing about imports and an American import car pioneer. As part of this research I've been exploring a photographic archive with great old black and white photos of the early days of the Pebble Beach Road Races, such as the one of Phil Hill a few blogposts below, and this one of a race driver who is not having his best day.

July 26, 2011. Last night at the unveiling of the new Range Rover Evoque at the British Motors showroom in San Francisco, they were giving away an iPad2 to the person who took the most creative photo of the car and then uploaded it to Twitter or Facebook. I didn't get a chance to do that—I was too busy sipping on a Nadared martini cocktail and munching the flank steak pinwheels and mustard-grilled rocky jr. chicken bites, generously provided to the guests by our hosts—but I'm not sure this shot would have won me the prize anyhow. Although I like it. Nice wheels, I'll say.

By the way, for anyone interested in the Evoque, last night was a sneak preview for the new edition to the Land Rover line that will be available in the fall. Until then, feast your eyes. On the car, my friends the car!

[end]

July 24, 2011. While embarking on my latest project, a book about an import car pioneer, I stumbled onto this vintage black and white photo of the great race driver, Phil Hill, after he had just won his first major sports car race, the 1950 Pebble Beach road race, the first one ever held there. It's a wonderful, and wonderfully fun, photo because not only is it a portrait of Hill when he was young and just coming into his prime as a driver, but it also provides insight into the minds of men who love automobiles and are passionate about them. Are the fellows here congratulating Hill on his triumph or better still, ogling the comely young lass presenting him with the winner's trophy? Nah, they're studying what's truly important.

Phil Hill, 1950 [end]

May 24, 2011 One of my chief interests is in education, both for myself and my children. In fact, as a person who makes his living in writing and publishing, I'm vitally interested in the subject of education for all young people. If we don't do a better job of educating our kids, we are—pardon my french—screwed as a country. One neglected area of education is financial education, particularly for young people. If this subject interests you too, check out this article in a recent Investor's Business Daily about websites where kids can go to learn finance. Your children—and heck, you too—may benefit.

April 28, 2011 Having written a book about one of the best of the modern forgers, and arguably one of the best of all time, I occasionally hear from people who own corrupt autograph masterpieces created by Greg Marino. Marino forged perhaps a million autographs in his six-year criminal career, but without doubt his very best—his Sistine Chapel, if you will, the one that launched his career and that he truly mastered—was that of Mickey Mantle. Marino was a lifelong Yankees fan, and his Mantle forgery is a criminal consummation of passion, profit motive, and craft. The other day an email correspondent of mine, "Raiderman," sent me a lithograph he owns that was painted by Greg's father Angelo, and that bears Greg's famous Mantle. Here it is:

April 18, 2011. Choice, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, posted a winning review of Wheels of Change, my award-winning book on the history of automobiles in California. In recommending the book for purchase by libraries, the reviewer describes it as "a great deal of fun and full of information. Author Nelson writes beautifully, with an air of wonder, appreciation and enthusiasm. One gets the feeling that he likes the people he writes about and is genuinely sad that so many have passed on." Indeed.

BY K.L. NELSON

One Christmas, a boy named Daniel thought he would like to buy his father a gift.

But what? He did not know what his father liked or needed.

Trying to get ideas, he watched his father get ready for work one morning. He saw him put on a coat and tie. His father often wore neckties to work.

“That’s it,” thought Daniel. “I’ll get him a new tie. A Christmas tie!”

[Here is an email I sent recently to the producer of the—someday, I hope—Operation Bullpen movie. A script based on my book has been finished and it is now being peddled around Hollywood although there are, as yet, no takers. I thought ‘The Social Network,’ the (relatively) new movie about the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg, has some parallels with the Bullpen story, as I say here…]

Hi L-

Saw "The Social Network" last night. I liked it and it spurred some thoughts on "Operation Bullpen," the movie. Give me just a minute or two to share them with you. "The Social Network" opened with a $24 million weekend box office and there's not a car crash or any violence to be found anywhere in it. That's reassuring, since I know that's one of the things you've heard from people about the Bullpen script: Not enough sex and violence.

Actually, "The Social Network" doesn't have much sex either, does it? No actual sex scenes, just party scenes and the suggestion of sex, but that's all. God knows the Bullpen story has lots more sex than that, with hookers and Vegas strippers and sex and drug parties on the Bada Bing boat. And it's got the criminal element to boot—the fact that all these formerly law-abiding guys are committing widespread fraud while being hunted down by the FBI. "The Social Network" has no big stars in it, unless you count Justin Timberlake, who's very good. Of course, it has a script by Aaron Sorkin, who's a superstar screenwriter and superb, and a hot director whose name I can't recall but who is clearly a hot property too. Interestingly, Kevin Spacey is one of the producers—isn't he Trigger Street Productions?—and clearly Kevin has a sharp eye for material, because he also produced "21." [ more ]

Over the weekend the Southern California Chapter of the Society of Automotive Historians awarded me the Valentine Memorial Award for my book, Wheels of Change.  The award, in honor of the late car historian James Valentine, was for "excellence in automotive history." They held a luncheon and presented me with a nice bottle of bubbly and a lovely award. People said very kind things about the book, including the chairman of the chapter, Bob Ewing, who earlier wrote to his fellow members that, "This will be the twelfth time our chapter has presented the award and having judged all of the previous eleven winners, I can say that our 2010 winner is exactly what we were looking for all those years ago."

Wheels of Change is also a finalist for the Best Book of the Year, presented by the Motor Press Guild of Los Angeles. I will attend a banquet at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on December 7, when the winner will be announced. The event for the Society of Automotive Historians was held at a local car museum that featured the 1937 Packard that you see above. For more pictures of other classic beauties found there, click to the jump page.

(Personal note: I just found out today that Wheels of Change, my book on the history of California automobiles, won the James Valentine Memorial Award for 2010, awarded by the Southern California chapter of the Society of Automotive Historians to the best California car book of the year. Award ceremony in Nov. Champagne to pop now. Or should it be beer? Read on...)

At 8,600 feet above sea level, Tuolumne Meadows is on Tioga Road in the Yosemite high country. The Tuolumne River runs through it. Most impressive are the peaks that surround it: the striking, sharp-faced Cathedral Peak and Cathedral Range to the west, and the Lyell Range to the southeast, which is anchored by massive Mt. Lyell, the highest peak in Yosemite Park (13,114 ft.). Bulky Lembert Dome is the dominant landmark of the meadows and at the top, it affords some spectacular views.

I know Yosemite Park fairly well, having hiked and climbed there since I was a teenager, but until a recent trip I hadn't really spent much time in the Meadows. Because Yosemite Valley is so hot in the summer many rock climbers migrate up to the Meadows because it's slightly cooler, and young, frisky-looking men and women weighted down with climbing gear about to scale Lembert or some other granite wall are among the pleasing sights there. Needless to say, I took the hiker's path to the top of Lembert, while rock climbers take one of the more direct vertical routes up the face.

Tioga Road is closed in the winter, due to snow. But it's open in the summer, which in turn opens up Tuolumne Meadows to armies of vehicles and the two-footed invaders that pilot them. It's a busy place, but not without a funky high country charm. There are campgrounds, a lodge, horseback riding, bicycle paths, fishing in the Tuolumne, and a busy little grill and general store right on the road.

Dear Subscribers: Thank you for your patience and kind understanding! As you've seen, I've been playing around with this blog and I'm still finding my way. It may be that this approach does not belong here, but rather on a new blog called "The Far Shore" or "From the Far Shore," or something like that. I don't know. And I am continuing to encounter technical glitches beyond my control, which I apologize for. But I do know that your comments are much appreciated, and I hope as I move forward that all of this will become clearer. To you as well as me. In any event, have a great Labor Day.

"I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear/Those of mechanics, each one singing a carol as it should be blithe and strong...