June 15^th 1957, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
To celebrate the town's 50^th anniversary, a brand new Plymouth Belvedere V8 Coupé Sport has been buried (!) in a concrete sarcophagus... The final goal being to unearth it 50 years later, right in time to celebrate the city's Centennial Anniversary!

That's how this car will be awaken from it's half-century sleep on next June 15^th, i.e. in less than 3 weeks!

No one knows in which shape it will be... Everything had been done to keep it safe, but 50 years six feet under...
The Plymouth had been buried with many objects representing this era ; they even put a gasoline tank, just in case fuel had disappeared in 2007! (anyway, after 50 years, the Octane index will be so low, it won't even be usable!).

A contest had been set up : the population was asked for to guess the number of inhabitants of Tulsa in 2007. Their guesses were sealed on microfilm in the car... When it will be unearthed, their estimations will be compared to the actual figures, and the one who made the best guess will win the car! (uh, well, if he's still alive...)

So, rendezvous in three weeks from now, to know the final episode of this nice story...

For more information :

• http://buriedcar.com (dead link identified on 19/03/2015)
• Period video reportage on TulsaFilms.com
• http://www.tulsaworld.com/buriedcar
• http://www.madness-us-cars.com

The 60^th Movies' Festival of Cannes currently takes place just a few kilometers from where I live (well, to me it's more the Annual Botox, Silicon and Cocaïn Festival)...


Usualy, I keep myself far from those places... But a very good friend of mine, working for a certain company that's worth it, proposed a night party paid by the same company... I couldn't miss such an occasion!
So, here is a picture I took from the top of famous palace of the Croisette... Enjoy it, having access to such a terrace, that won't be happening again in a hurry!
Thks for the party Flow!

I'm originally not that fond of Harleys, apart from some rare exceptions...

And here is one of those exceptions, and not the least : Fred "Krugger" Bertrand (looks like his site is down currently), in Belgium, prepares HD/Buell based monsters, from which I love the neo-retro, or even fully vintage (yet high-tech!), style...
Go have a look at his gallery, especially his latest realization, a "Bonneville Lakester" monster, a pure engineering marvel...

By the way, yet another feature, for the excellent French magazine "Kustom Garage", which uses as a cover the latest creation from Krugger. Great lay-out, superb pictures, very well-written... If you've got any chance to read it, don't miss it!

Yeah, yeah, I know, I should grow up a little bit... And guess what, you see here only a small part of my collection...
Anyway, an hibiscus'd Hawaiian shirt, a coconut and Elvis as musical background, I can't resist : Lilo and Stitch is a reference to me, I saw it tenth of times! Plus, they look very decorative to me those Stitch, on my rack...
Finally a Walt Disney without any crappy music to hurt your ears : the King sounds way better...
Ohana!

Just a link today, to a blog that I visit quite often : Modern Mechanix.

This blog, updated daily, presents "futuristic innovations" of the past century, scanned out of magazines like Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated... You can find there jewels like the car above, and they're available in hi-resolution!

Thx aSa for the link...

I'm fond of comics books for a pretty long time now... We can find many cartoonists over the Internet, more or less talented... I follow Maliki on a regular basis, as well as the Lemur and Yoh, I like the Geek-ish under-culture of Megatokyo, I'm fan of the Arthur de Pins' style...

But I've found way better : Lackadaisy.

The action takes place in the US, in St Louis, in the 20's, during the prohibition. The scenario is good, there's a lot of references to the interwar years style, omnipresent humor, I love the Cajun accent of some characters... But moreover, bloody great drawings! Backgrounds and characters (have a closer look to faces' expressions), everything's just superb...
Looks a bit like BlackSad, but less dark.
Anyway, Lackadaisy, a pure marvel to discover. And read it from the beginning!
Great job, Tracy.

March 23^rd 2007, a few pictures stolen at the superb Opera of Toulon (said to be one of the best acoustics in France), from the Paradis, during the second entr'acte of Turandot (Puccini). Yeah, I know, this is pretty far from the usual mechanics and DIY stuff on ShamWerks... Don't click away, you're not on Arte...
That's a pity, I forgot to take a picture of the view over the railings : more than 4 floors above the scene... Being scared of heights? Don't even get there...
I really wonder how such a place can meet the security standards...

Not revolutionnary, but worth spending 10 minutes on...
The idea is pretty simple : finding, thanks to Google Maps, buildings which shape looks like a letter.
Then put together all those pictures to get the word you want, like the ShamWerks above (Click here to see where those buildings are)...
Useless? Definitely. So rigorously essential.

Just a quick feature for a blog I visit on a daily basis... The one from Mountain's Olive, to which you've got a link in the left column. Fantastic pictures of alps landscapes, beautiful mechanics, some botanics, and a good spirit consisting into driving his Karmann-Ghia '68 (see the seamless link?) as often as possible.
Have a nice trip Olive...
PS: Olive, thanks for your 18/11 note!

Just to change from subject a little bit, here is some botanics on ShamWerks.com (which will probably please Olive and Oliv')...
So, this is an Hawaïan Palm my girlfriend offered me in June. Sad day unfortunately, as I've been informed my aunt passed away as we were paying at the Vilmorin's cash register...
Anyway, we loved the funny face of this plant, with it's shiny green leaves, looking straight out of Jurassic Park...
Searching a little bit over the internet about it, I learned that the Hawaiian Palm (also known as Vulcan Palm) was a very old species, endemic from Hawaii. Getting more and more rare in nature, mostly because its natural environment is being destroyed by human activities, and being threaten of extinction (we estimate there's only 7 of those left in nature on the Kaua'I island!), a group of scientists has launch a replanting campaign. And to get money for such a work, a percentage of the sale price of each Hawaïan Palm in the world is given to them... Good spirit.
I've tried to give the plant the correct conditions, and surprise! The winter reward : it has made flowers, beautiful big vanilla-colored flowers, with very thick and rigid petals! Even those flowers look Jurassic (or pre-Cambrian, or Cretaceous, or Carboniferous, choose one / pick one)...
Small things make me happy, sometimes...

I re-broadcast here an information found on the excellent blog of Teddy (I pass there at least once a day!). This is the address of a Canadian site proposing custom chromed badges very old school, to put the final touch on your HotRod, Kustom or... VW. Looks like the ShamWerks logo, right?
Quality is above perfection, the only drawback being... Pricing (sic). But well, everything has a cost, and this is the killing touch on your vintage car... I'll have a serious think 'bout that!

Edit 20090908 : Looks like this site has closed... That's a pity, I liked the idea...