Retro-Future Beetle Stretcher

Retrofuture Volkswagen prototype was designed by Mikhail Smolyanov / Solifuge Design, and he’s got a similar VW Bugsled in black. Since there are no images of modications in progress, I assume that the version above was never built.

HOWEVER, there is this:

Similar design, yet not the same. Image searches for this work in progress produced no matches.

[Top & bottom images found here. Not quite Rat Rods, but I stuck them in The Archive anyway.]

Abnegating Hot Links

Acilius sulcatus diving beetle male front tarsus 100x – Igor Siwanowicz (2016)

A Teenager In Love, The Regrettes (2018) Nice neopunk cover of Dion & The Belmonts’ 1959 hit; I looked for a live version; no dice. More about Lydia Night and the Regrettes here.

Training.

Not Woody.

Homo longi.

He sees you.

It’s to dye for.

Guess Which Hole.

Cats ‘n Cheesecake.

Headlock Maneuver.

Michael w/ laryngitis.

Where to go in Norway.

Things Go Better With Roy.

Giant microscopic puppets.

The Leicester Balloon Riot of 1864.

Analog screenshot [via Bunkerville].

Missing Missy is an internet classic.
Gary, Landlord of the Flies is another.

Crocodiles & the Battle of Ramree 1945.

The Fall of Minneapolis. THIS is important.

How to Play With Tom Waits [h/t Chuck C.].

AI robot reacts to mirror [via Memo Of The Air].

Justice for Damone, the story of the under-appreciated 5th Ramone, would make a great stocking stuffer.

[Top image: Front foot of a diving beetle found here. More info here.]


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

Bug

[Found in here. Also added a new category for all things Volkswagenish.]

Buy a bug or shoot the mule. Your choice.

   Three years back, the Hinsleys of Dora, Missouri, had a tough decision to make.
   To buy a new mule.
   Or invest in a used bug.
   They weighed the two possibilities.
First there was the problem of the bitter Ozark winters. Tough on a warm-blooded mule. Not so tough on an air-cooled VW.
   Then, what about the eating habits of the two contenders? Hay vs. gasoline.
   As Mr. Hinsley puts it: “I get over eighty miles out of a dollar’s worth of gas and I get where I want to go a lot quicker.”
   Then there’s the road leading to their cabin. Many a mule pulling a wagon and many a conventional automobile has spent many an hour stuck in the mud.
   As for shelter, a mule needs a barn. A bug doesn’t. “It just sets out there all day and the paint job looks near as good as the day we got it.”
   Finally, there was maintenance to think about. When a mule breaks down, there’s only one thing to do: Shoot it.
  But if and when their bug breaks down, the Hinsleys have a Volkswagen dealer only two gallons away.

[Genuine VW ad found here.]

Saturday Matinee – 2020 Cast Interviews, Big Bug, Gatemouth Brown & Roy Clark, Ry Cooder w/ Buckwheat Zydeco & Lenny Kravitz, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Well done satire, that.

Big Bug vid found here.

https://youtu.be/i5d8KtpIoEQ

Clarence Gatemouth Brown & Roy Clark (with Leon Rhodes) do some serious pickin’ on Hee Haw (1979). If this ain’t roadtrip music, nothing is.

Ry Cooder, Buckwheat Zydeco and Lenny Kravitz, having some fun in New Orleans 2005.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds cover T-Bone Walker‘s The Hustle Is On (1950). Not sure of the date or location.

That’ll do for now. Gonna get some R&R and see you back here tomorrow as far as you know.

Holometabolous Hot Links

The Deltones (UK) had a nice reggae cover of The Staple Singers’ hit “I’ll Take You There” in 1972. (There were a lot of groups who called themselves The Deltones, so I’m not sure which to link t0.)

USS Bataan (LHD-5) fires on a killer tomato (video).

Bear breaks into condo, plays piano.

Pirates emerged from the sea at low tide in Birling Gap, Eastbourne, England recently [via].

Topiary Cat Visits The Seaside.

Fighting the Hoover & Denham fire, Washington D.C., July 1918.

1964 ridiculous Fashion Trends that took a couple of years to catch on [via].

“Effa didn’t liver ad move, wooden chew?” Appalachian dialect sawsum, enna fokeser grate.

[Top image: That love bug stayed on the side of my garage for two days, and I took it to be a good omen. It was.]

Beetle Ball

beetle-balls-1

[Found in here. Related posts here and here.]

The Bug That Wasn’t A Bug But Was.

1942 Renault 4CV Prototype front

1942 Renault 4CV Prototype rear

Take a guess as to what it was – the answer’s below the break. Continue reading “The Bug That Wasn’t A Bug But Was.”

Hello Grubby

Grubby
According to the source of that image, this happy guy was discovered after someone cut down a cherry tree, and one of the commenters believed it to be the larva of some type of long-horned beetle. Beetles come in all shapes and sizes, and the Xixuthrus Heros is one of the largest.

Giant-Fijian-Long-Horned-Beetle-300x264
[Bottom image (with an interesting story) found in here. Related posts here and here.]

 

Ringo

Rhinocerous Beetle

[Found here.]