Fixing cars, musings about vinyl wall graphics, Sprints excluded from interviews and various other thoughts...

Howdy, it's Monday night. I'm going through the nightly process of charging and reloading my MP3 player. I've got a huge selection of podcasts that I record on a weekly basis covering just about every subject from A-Z. But more on that later.

I finally got the Olds finished on Saturday afternoon. Number 3 cylinder was missing and it turned out to be a loose injector wire. The intake gaskets had been replaced recently and even though the plug appeared to be securely fastened it wasn't. I pushed down on it and it made a "click" sound when it locked into place. As a result of the misfire I replaced all the plugs and wires so it's probably a good thing that this happened otherwise I might not have taken the time to do a tuneup. The plugs and wires were pretty rough looking so it worked out for the best. My next task before the start of the racing season, replace the radiator on the pickup. It's a four cylinder standard transmission, no cruise or air so there's only a few bolts, a couple hoses and a few fastener screws holding a plastic shroud over the top of the fan. Shouldn't be too bad of a job...key word "shouldn't." LOL anybody that works on their tired iron knows why I'm laughing about that one...

I heard a commercial for the company that sells vinyl images of race cars where you send them a photo of your favorite car and they make a wall vinyl out of it. After hearing about it I decided to check out their website to see what they're doing to protect the photographer's copyright. They mentioned copyright but how do I as a photographer know that they're not going to gain access to one of my images without my knowledge? Fans and race teams can send them photos that they'll create a wall sticky out of and they can put their images up for sale and make commission on them. How do I know that I didn't sell somebody a photo and they in turn are making money from my work through this wall sticker company? I don't. There's no way that I'll ever know. For that reason I don't like it because I don't want somebody telling them it's their photo but actually they're making money off my work. There's not much I can do about it, it's a lot bigger than me and my limited influence, but I'm sure the other photographers would agree with me. It appears to me that it would be easy to pull the wool over their eyes and use photos that you don't have authorization to use. Aside from my concerns about my work they look pretty cool.

Speaking of using photographer's photos it bugs me when people post things like this on message boards: "I'm (fill in the project), send me photos". Now I don't mind contributing photos for advertising, t-shirt design, etc., but the thing that rubs me the wrong way is when people demand that we send them photos. Stop and consider, previous season's photos are stored on CD by event. If someone requests for example all the Cedar Lake Late Model or Mod photos of a particular driver I'm supposed to volunteer hours of my time to go through my files and send some stranger that I don't even know free photos? Get a clue!!! It's time consuming, I have an investment in time, work and equipment and I don't give photos away to strangers. That doesn't mean that I never contribute a photo to a specific person for a specific purpose but I won't send pics to people I don't even know because they made some reference to their "project" on some message board. People that make those kinds of demands are clueless because if they knew how much work it is they'd offer to pay for the pics as a courtesy.

I was pretty excited when they started doing those driver interview podcasts and I have downloaded and listened to just about every one of them. There are two associated websites doing the interviews, one nationally which I really like because they do high profile Sprint and Late Model driver interviews and another one concentrating on our local area. Unfortunately, the local one has gone in a direction that I'm not crazy about and I should have known was coming. Only two Sprint Car drivers have been interviewed so far and both divide their time between Modifieds and Sprints so they're not exclusively Sprint Car drivers. In fact, the interviewer put the emphasis on the Modified and only mentioned the Sprint Car in passing. These guys are so clueless about Sprint Car racing that they don't even know what kind of questions to ask a Sprint driver.

Also, the podcasts have an obvious "big W" agenda and that is no surprise considering that the one doing the interviews is a "big W" writer. Don't take what I'm saying the wrong way, the podcast interviews are well done but they're ignoring Sprint Car racing and putting the emphasis on the "big W." There's a lot of other racing around here, Sprints of various sanctions, NASCAR tracks, USRA Mods, IMCA at some of the Minnesota tracks, two World of Outlaws Sprint Car drivers live in Minnesota as well as a former IRA Champion. Matter of fact, one of the interviewers asked me for contact information for Sprint Car drivers and I send them email addresses and phone numbers over a month ago but still no Sprint interviews. That's bullsh*t when they go ga, ga over some 16 y/o Street Stock driver but ignore Craig Dollansky, Brooke Tatnell, Travis Whitney, Jerry Richert Jr., and a host of other talented drivers. It's a shame that they're ignoring Sprint Car racing.

Wake up people!!! It's not a sin to not pledge one's allegiance to the "big W" and it's OK to like Sprint Cars. There, I said it...whew, I feel better already.

Well, that's probably enough venting for the time being.

Questions? Comments? Cat Calls? I respond to criticism at mndirt@hotmail.com