Shortly after production began, however, design flaws became apparent. Although the car was big and heavy, it used a relatively small Austin A55 1.5 litre engine, which limited performance. The A55 also provided the transmission and suspension. Another problem was that the rear wheels were shrouded by body panels and a rear wheel could not be removed (for puncture repair for example) without dropping its axle..... Production of up to 10,000 cars a year was talked about but as few as ten complete cars were produced during the six months before production ceased. After the factory closed, the unused parts were dumped into the local lake, Lough Muckno.
Back in 1964, a giant steel block lost its form while being hammered at a factory. So the workmen polished it up and submitted it to the Documenta III art and design exhibition in Kassel, Germany. But eventually the directors of the exhibition decided it wasn't real art. So they removed it. I don't know. Looks like modern art to me.
Posted By: Alex | Date: Wed May 15, 2013 | Comments (3)
Category: Art, 1960's
After his old-school sedate debut in 1967 (first video), GI Joe's outer space adventures turned decidedly weird in the 1970s, thanks apparently to the influence of Stanley Kubrick.
Could this have been the shortest marriage ever? And does this kind of thing (dropping dead at the altar) happen often enough that it's no longer weird? [Source: The Day - Apr 3, 1967]
"Frilly culottes are the latest thing for the bride who dares to be different. Instead of the traditional veil, a bonnet and wide cloak of the same frilly lace."
[Evening Independent - Feb 3, 1967]
In the mid-1960s, when I was in elementary school, I had a subscription to HUMPTY DUMPTY MAGAZINE. A very weird comic strip therein was titled "Twinkle, The Star That Came Down From Heaven." (Seen above, drawn by Jerry Smath, and courtesy of the Flickr stream of Glen Mullaly.) Even as a kid, I knew it was strange. A living, sentient star who manifested on Earth in a bipolar costume and kept his face-equipped iconic star head? And did he come from the celestial heaven or the Christian Heaven? Far out!
Little did I know until recently that "Twink" had earlier adventures in the 1940s, in the pages of CALLING ALL KIDS, that were even more bizarre in their fashion. Unfortunately, no information remains about the writer and/or artist who was crazed enough to invent Twinkle.
The man depicted above is Dr. Bernard Wheatley who, after the deaths of his family, chucked a flourishing career to live as a hermit on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
In 1957 Dr. Bernard Wheatley - an African American physician from the Virgin Islands - made a pilgrimage to Kalalau Valley. Distraught after the death of his wife and son in a car accident, he kept questioning the meaning of life and other ontological problems until the answers finally came. In a remarkable religious conversion-like revelation he realized that life is eternal. He abandoned his medical practice, sold all his worldly possessions and sought a quiet, secluded place where he could earnestly seek truth without distraction. He arrived on the remote Island of Kauai and after seeing Kalalau from a ridge-top lookout in Kokee, he knew that he had found his home.... He passed on December 3, 1991 at the age of 72. His ashes were spread in Kalalau.
Category: Regionalism, Success & Failure, 1950's, 1960's, Europe, Cars