April 2011
55 posts
“Nature is the art of God.”
– Dante Alighieri. A poet of epic proportions, and a favorite of mine. He also said, “Beauty awakens the soul to act,” which I see as a lovely way to summarize my raison d’etre - I have it written on my heart. x LV
“Everything to be imagined is an image of truth.”
– William Blake. One of my favorite men of imagination. (Along with, of course, Neil Young, my best friend.) x LV
Henry Ford not only planted my family tree, but he also helped revive square dancing in the 1930s!
CREDIT: “Henry Ford, full-length portrait, standing, facing slightly left, leaving the White House after calling on the president.” National Photo Company, 1927. Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929, Library of Congress.
Fordlandia (Henry...
No wonder I love to dance dance dance. Henry Ford...
Red Light, Green Light: The Awesome Power of...
The awesome power of electricity! Meet Arcimoto and Bulli. Arcimoto has been described as “an electric car for the Facebook generation.” Like! Bulli is trying hard to be as cool as his older hippie brother, but it’s a hard road to follow. Red light! Green light! They’re both bright lights on the road to change. I hope to see you out there on the road soon, my...
Spotted last night at Neil’s show in Providence: The Governor of Rhode Island. This isn’t him. (What am I saying? Of course this isn’t him. This is a friend of mine named Bugsy. More on him later. Hang in there with me. It’s all gonna work out, I promise.)
Anyway. About the Guv rockin’ out to Neil - I can dig it - The Rhode Island Governor was one of the...
Who'll Be The One To Lead The Nations? To Protect...
EARTH DAY 2011. It was Earth Day today, Blog. I love Mother Earth every day, but on Earth Day I like to remind myself of all the ways I love her (Oh Mother Earth, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!). I also like to remind myself why I’m doing what I’m doing. Neil (my best friend on Earth) always helps me to remember in the most beautiful ways (he’s like that). Like...
A MIRACLE IN MOTION . . . A GHOST FROM THE PAST
I like to think of Neil and my team (and myself) as descendants in a long line of innovators, inventors and progressive thinkers. All the way back to the Incas - We are all connected. I like to think of the project that is me as, well, a miracle, in motion. People working together, lifting many stones, building something up with their bare hands that no one else can do today. You might think...
WatchLet’s go to the movies. I’m feeling nostalgic. I’m all about looking forward, but some days I feel like goin’ back. Get around. x LV
Bill McKibben, at Power Shift 2011. (“We need creativity!” he said. “We need to fight with art and with music, too,” he said.)
Bill McKibben was talking to the Power Shift audience, but I know that he was also talking to me. I am in the single most important place I could possibly be, right here, right now, doing the single most important thing I can possibly be doing....
Uh-oh. I better calm down. I feel a rumblin'! →
Oh Mother Earth! I feel a rumblin’ in your ground. Okay, okay, I’ll settle down. Or were you just telling me that you were happy about all my new energy? I love you, Mother Earth. I’m right here, with you. x LV
CHARGE IT! HAS A WHOLE NEW MEANING . . .
Oh Blog! I have so many things to tell you. First of all, I am going to have batteries again! Charge it! has a whole new meaning. The latest update about me from my team can be found at my own personal newspaper, the LincVolt Gazette (see A123 - The Battery of Choice For LincVolt II).
Thanks for the energy surge, Team, between you and the Full Pink Moon last night I am flying high! (Although...
Oh Blog! Tonight is the Full Pink Moon!* This is a powerful day for me - The Full Pink Moon is believed to have mysterious regenerative powers, so I will be finding a way to position myself under a skylight here at Brizio’s tonight. Native Americans gave the April moon its name from the wild ground phlox - one of the the earliest widespread flowers of the spring, and a million different...
WatchMy bff N. (my best friend Neil Young) is back out there on the road with my friend Z. (The Bus.) I was so proud to be out there on the road with them last fall ! (I love to park next to Z. because it’s the only time I ever feel teensy tiny. Sometimes we pretend we’re - Oh I digress.) Sometimes I record my dreams, and my memories - I’ve been flipping through them....
Oh Blog, look! In today’s mail, a picture postcard from a truck friend of mine! I love it when we get mail. Goin’ greener day by day, in my deep purple dreams, x LV
Speaking of Paris!! Well, that’s German. But it’s from the title of a favorite German film, about the famous New York to Paris Automobile Race Around the World of 1908.
The 1908 race holds an important place in automotive history, Blog. At a time when the general sentiment was that “the motor car is the most fragile and capricious thing on earth,” (London Daily Mail,...
“What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you went to heaven and there...”
– Samuel Coleridge.
These are the kinds of things I think about. I try to live in a world where anything is possible. Where do you live? x LV
Guess Who’s Trendsetting Again?
Yes, that’s right: Moi. Well, technically I guess I’d have to say Neil. Because technically the webcam was his idea. But that’s okay because we’re a team. Anyway. Now everyone wants to be on camera, including my friend at BMW with the funny name (X3xDrive35i).
BMW will videotape the construction of your particular X3 as it is...
“We shouldn’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good — I have...”
– Ed Kjaer, the director of electric transportation programs for Southern California Edison, addressing the issue of range anxiety with some elegance, here (you shouldn’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.) He’s talking about my all-electric cousins, but I can relate. Of course,...
Let's Hit The Road, And Go To Town!
Oh Blog, Neil is going back out on tour next week, and I am feeling nostalgic for my days on the road with him. I loved being with him, out there on the road like that (I was so good at it, being a car and all.) Sigh. I was such a rock star. I mean, well, you know. Neil was too. I talked to a lot of people, out there on the road, or rather, I overheard a lot of people talking about me. It was...
Purple car on a … Grey Riders! … What? Sometimes I get distracted. Let’s start again.
Still Life: Purple car on a gray floor. Hello, Blog! x LV
Cars Hit The Big Time: The Auto Biography →
New program at Stanford focuses on the automobile!
Our primary goal for the Revs Program at Stanford is to create a vital and much-deserved intellectual community around the car as technological and aesthetic artifact and cultural symbol
Smart for a car! But um, Stanford? About your goal? I hate to burst your bubble, but I’ve been doing that here at Under The Hood for two years now. x...
The 2011 Chevy Volt Development Story →
An auto biography! An in-depth look at how my like-minded sister, CV, grew up. From Vehicle Electrification magazine. Please File Under: She’s A Big Girl Now. x LV
ALTe-Country →
Companies to Offer Plug-In Conversions:
But what about the vehicles already out there, burning gasoline and diesel? ALTe Powertrain Technologies, founded by three former Tesla Motors executives, aims to convert those vehicles by the thousands to operate as plug-in hybrids.
Please File Under: It’s not too late, it’s not too late. It’s never too late. x LV
Hello, Blog! I am so thrilled to be onto the next leg of my most excellent adventure, back here at Brizio’s! I am still completely fascinated by my adventure, past, present and future. Which made me call to mind one of my favorite quotes, above. Truly, there is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me! It’s important to be interested in the world around you, Blog, and...
The Truth About Climate Change →
Great essay by Paul Krugman about the truth, and its skeptics - The Truth, Still Inconvenient.
But it’s terrifying to realize that this kind of cynical careerism — for that’s what it is — has probably ensured that we won’t do anything about climate change until catastrophe is already upon us.
I hope that’s not true. I hope it’s not too late. x LV
“RISING fuel prices and earthly calamities have many citizens donning Jimmy...”
– From a recent New York Times article. I told you this was going to happen, people! Can you hear me now?
Please File Under: My raison d’etre # 151,617. Shrinking your car dreams is never a good idea, x LV
“We have to stop using fossil fuels as quickly as possible. If more people...”
– Felix Kramer, founder of CalCars, a nonprofit organization that promotes PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) as the key to reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil.
Electric Vehicles Poised To Enter The Mainstream 