Stone Letters.......

For the weekend before last, I was in Essen Germany for a fab car show..... now if you love cars, old and new.... which I do, then you can do a lot worse than visit the Essen Techno Classica....

It has become an annual event for me and my best mate, and this year for the princely sum of £100 each, we had managed to transport ourselves by road/ferry/road, accommodate ourselves, and get our entry to the show [bear in mind the show entry fee is €uro 20 each].

So for this modest sum, we were treated [as ever] to some of the most beautiful cars ever made..... now at this point if you think cars are simply a tool for getting from A2B, then this is not the page for you..... but any way, some of the cars at the show were/are quite frankly works of art......

Modern French cars are somewhat seen as practical rather than beautiful, but one of my all time favourites has to be this..... a Facel Vega.... never heard of them ?

Well the original company went bust, but today the demand for restored cars is as strong as ever with concourse examples fetching easily in excess of £ 250,000.

Or what about this for a Citroen DS.....

I think when God invented people, he started with French and Italian women, and then next came French and Italian car designers.......

This for me, was my car of the show.... and would you believe it ... a Lancia..... how many would turn their noses up at this Lancia..... not me for sure

But then it came to a car that is in my all time top 10 of everything.......... as I say a car so beautiful it melts your retina's just to look at it......

What is interesting about this car, is that when it first went on sale it sold for around 

£ 5,500 which at the time was a lot of money for a car, but was always seen as a poor man's Ferrari..... my first introduction to the car was seeing Danny Wilde drive one on the Persuaders ...... and that was it, I was in love for ever..... despite the fact that I was only 8 years old ......

Wind the clock forwards a couple of decades or so, and around 15-20 years ago you could pick up one of these cars for around £ 25,000 - £ 30,000 dependent on condition...... The example above was I must say just beautiful beyond words..... So fabulous, that if it came to choosing between this car and Salma Hayek ..... believe you me, it would be tough..... they are both beautiful beyond words.... but the only thing that I think would swing it, is that when they are both 75 years old [and bear in mind the Ferrari is already coming up for 45 years old...... whereas the divine Salma..... oh how I swooned.... is 47 years old] is Salma will be a tad wrinkly and yet the Ferrari will be as beautiful as ever...... Sorry Salma [and if you are reading.... and I know you do....]  I do love you sooooo much but...... I am a man after all and we can be sooooo shallow.....

And if I wanted to drive the above car away from the show ..... the price ?........ 

over £ 300,000 ..... If had £ 300,000 spare would I have brought it ? of course I would....

But the thing is, the more me and my mate looked adoringly at the cars, we realised there were many in our budget range, almost equally beautiful and almost equally pristine .... but and this is the big BUT ....... so pristine, it made them nearly un-drivable ..... cars are there to be driven and enjoyed but some are so pristine that everytime you took it out for a drive you risked knocking 10 grand off the value.... So it would be stuck there..... in your garage for no one else to appreciate .....

And that is the paradox, things that are so beautiful..... they should be enjoyed, not just by 1 person ..... if I relented and agreed to have dinner with Salma, would I keep her at home and not want to take her out ? of course I wouldn't keep her indoors ..........

Then at the weekend there was the story of the Faberge Egg brought at a US Flea Market..... although not the kind of flea market I go to, considering the bloke paid £ 8,000 for .... it's not the bullshit about how it was going to be melted for scrap that caught my eye.... it was the fact that someone paid £ 20,000,000 and it was suggested that it was then going to be put away and never seen in public again..... why ? what in fook's name is that all about...... something so beautiful and rare, [see Salma] and would never be seen in public again...... madness

God gave someone the talent to make something so beautiful as the egg, and then some other knob want's to hide it away from being seen again ? bizarre.....

Imagine other creative talent....... in say films and music, if they made them never to be seen by anyone ...... and the point is  ? I did see that Wu-Tang claim to have made an album with only 1 cd copy and hoping to sell it to the highest gullible bidder ..... gimmick or high art ? 

But generally, the good news is film makers and music makers ...... share their creative talent, of course for reward ...... but still their talent is shared for us to all enjoy ...... if they didn't then I would never have got to see a very touching Japanese movie..... Departures ..... for me essentially it is the story of redemption of a father in the eyes of his son..... I have noted before the bond of father and son ....... I have spoken of my own sadness at the passing of my dad ...... and so whether it is the love of Derek Redmonds father for his son, or my love for my dad lost ...... Departures is a beautiful drive, that costs nothing to enjoy .... but, just as is the music...... is there to be shared.... and finishes with the final stone letter ....... 

And were it not for that creativity... 

then I could not share this 

my Monday SoD