LeMay Announces Groundbreaking
After more than a decade in development, the LeMay Museum announced today that they will break ground on June 10th, 2010. Lemay – America’s Car Museum is expecting to host its grand opening in summer 2011.
This is a very short post about a very long story.
Link to LemayMuseum.org
Filed under: General
101 comments
E Erik B. May 28, 2010
Much needed good news for Tacoma.
J Jesse May 28, 2010
My nipples are hard.
A Argh Argh Anderson May 28, 2010
looks like a big beautiful glowing banana.
A Altered Chords May 28, 2010
Jesse – TMI
I inacomaintacoma May 28, 2010
i am going to start smearing sht on this computer screen. this is exactly what i am talking about. thecoma builds an awesome, awesome looking structure…and then puts fking cars in it?????
i know thecoma has this gearhead vibe along south tacoma way, so put the damn thing there not that i actually nor can anyones else with a turgid dendrite left in their heads peg the fking city of tacoma as a bastion of car history.
i give that idea a “waaaaa?” and an “oh brother”
at least ups is breaking ground for a good reason with the new healthsciences center.
K Kevin May 28, 2010
Love it! I can’t wait for it to be completed!
inacomaintacoma … Why are you in Tacoma?
T the Jinxmedic May 28, 2010
This will be an amazing destination location much benefitting the city, located perfectly at the I-5, I-705, and Sounder/Amtrak/Link junction, with very high visibility.
re: inacomaintacoma, although I give you high marks for your creative screen name, I cannot give you similar marks for your comment on this thread. Good day, sir.
D David May 28, 2010
Next announcement will be that Seattle will build one at the Seattle Center.
A Argh Argh Anderson May 28, 2010
it also looks like a giant glowing meal worm. a giant petrol sucking meal worm… YOU MANIACS!
M Mofo from the Hood May 28, 2010
The LeMay Glowing Meal Worm of Design & Technology.
Tacoma, what took you so long?
I inacomaintacoma May 28, 2010
@ argh
hahaha yeah it does look like a meal worm. or a giant tampax for a robot slapped on the ground. wonder if the old dome or now that i think of it, giant robot diaphragm, is going to get crotch envy since the meal worm is going to be constructed in it’s general labial area. but for the stubby wenis cone at the glass museum this should be a nice break from getting glared at by said dinosaur diaphragm.
T Thorax May 29, 2010
cool!
I like old cars and I like neat buildings.
Supposedly, LeMay has Gary Cooper’s Dusenberg. I can hardly wait to see it.
@inacomaintacoma….
what would you put in that building?
T Tacoma1 May 29, 2010
Ok, I know that I’m normally ranting against cars and for transit, but I happen to like old cars and cool buildings too.
This is great news for Tacoma.
I inacomaintacoma May 29, 2010
@ thorax
i would put in a fleet of kickass native american boats and canoes, then fill up the sides with the best in traditional and contemporary salish art. i just think if we start building less ethnocentric geared attractions we may discover there is more to the story than cars. i could be totally wrong.
C crenshaw sepulveda May 29, 2010
Things are looking up for the neighborhood, BUY NOW!! or INVEST!!
J jp solyom May 29, 2010
I guess somebody is willing to say that they did basic market research and are confident that old cars will attract a lot of tourists to Tacoma and generate enough revenue to make the LeMay Car museum profitable.
What Tacoma doesn’t need is a Seattle Foot Ferry that has no way to operate without an increase in property taxes…
Maybe somebody could mention the person (or persons) who are confident that the LeMay museum is a positive revenue generator for the city of Tacoma as opposed to another project feeding off the public teat…
S Slim Jim May 29, 2010
My first impression was that of a massive maggot, but (thanks to inacomaintacoma’s surprisingly lucid post) I prefer to see it as an overturned rawhide kevlar canoe…
… with old cars inside.
M Mike May 29, 2010
I think the “what should it look like?” and “what should be inside?” comments are sort of laughable. The bottom line is, LeMay wants to build an attraction in Tacoma. An attraction in Tacoma is good.
C crenshaw sepulveda May 29, 2010
The TacoMaggot?
R RR Anderson May 29, 2010
it looks like a retro-futurist rendition of a covered bridge. A bridge to the future of post peak oil. A tomb to the american automobile that destroyed our planet. Men and Women of the future will come here from all over the world to throw pitchers of polluted sea water at the collection… kinda like the symbolic stoning of Satan in the holy land.
Is glorious!
M Mofo from the Hood May 29, 2010
“Ribbed For Your Partner’s Pleasure”
J Jesse May 29, 2010
Slug-bug yellow!!
C Christine May 29, 2010
Is that the sand worm from Dune?
S Squid May 29, 2010
Mr. Hood For The Win.
D Dave L May 29, 2010
The history, development, and accessibility of Tacoma and the nearby region parallels both the railroad and automobile industries. All car dealerships and related businesses were originally located downtown. It’s been a bumpy road, but as a fan of the LeMay collection sice the C-Street open houses long ago, I’ll be there on opening day. Just as if I were a computer geek and an Apple store opened in town. I’m in agreement with Jinxmedic on this. Two major, world-class automobile museums on the west coast, and one being in Tacoma, is a good thing.
J Jesse May 30, 2010
That’s great but do they have a Wagon Queen Family Truckster in Metallic Pea with optional Rally Sport Fun Package?
C cy May 30, 2010
Love the design or hate the design, like the purpose or hate the purpose, it’s going to be interesting to see what the sight lines are from the I-5 approaches. If it doesn’t suck some people right off of I-5 out of pure curiosity, the design isn’t taking full advantage of the location.
I inacomaintacoma June 1, 2010
“If it doesn’t suck some people right off of I-5 out of pure curiosity, the design isn’t taking full advantage of the location.”
i think most peoples curiosity when they pass through the window of interstate in question where this is supposed to be built is
WHAT THE FK IS THAT SMELL???
so apparently le may was a local waste disposal business owner who’s childhood fetish for automobiles is now being perpetuated in order to lure your joe the plumber types to spend the weekends with their litter salivating at cars and learning absolutely nothing other than cars are cool and they don’t build them like they used to because imported technology whipped the pants off of the american auto industry but hey we don’t really mind because we’re just trying to find something to on a saturday in tacoma besides feed our fat faces at the tacoma mall food court.
cars cars cars
scene from the le may museum:
“hey daddy that building is glowing”
“yes son, just like the TV in your bedroom”
“hey daddy that car is real shiny”
“that’s good you notice shiny objects son”
“hey daddy, why doesn’t mommy look like she’s having fun?”
“oh son, mommy is just remembering the day she got knocked up in the back of that shiny car. want some icecream?”
waste disposal business owner’s legacy is to waste the land around tacoma in favor of a museum full of air polluters instead. the irony
no matter what anyone say, i still think the museum is going to resemble a giant robot tampax with tiny robot cooties inside.
C Cocodear June 1, 2010
That LeMay Museum proposed building looks like it can be squeezed together, picked up, and taken away if things don’t work out If it were greenish with a little fuzz it’d look like a catepillar – which so happen to turn into butterflies. Maybe that “museum” will add something to the area. I do like old cars and have see Harrah’s collection – that is not in a “worm.”
T Thorax 'The Mighty' O'Tool June 1, 2010
I’ve spent most of my life here. 80% to be exact. Quite honestly, I’ve seen enough totem poles and native American art that now it really doesn’t seem “special” to me. I’m tired of it.
I happen to think the building does look odd, but in a good way. I rather like it and hope the sucker glows at night. That would be awesome.
I also look forward to seeing the old cars. Cars have had both good and bad effects on the world, but fact of the matter is that we’ve inherited a world where cars have been and still are. Regardless of what one thinks of cars, the chance to see the genius of Harley Earl with your own eyes is worth it.
I’m tired of anti-business ideology. Products and services are needed, and as a city grows, it needs things like it’s trash hauled. Entrepreneurs deserve our admiration more than government does. If someone finds the way to fill a need and is able to profit from it (and indulge in their love of classic cars), then more power to them. THAT is what made America great.
Think about this for a sec: what was a world without waste removal like? Ask our friends in Europe during the middle ages. Squalor and filth spread illness.
The LeMay Museum will be a gem, and I’m glad it’s going to be in Tacoma in a very visible location.
A Altered Chords June 1, 2010
That is a great view Thorax.
This will be good for Tacoma. It will bring people to look at cars. It matters not if YOU like cars, buildings, worms or condoms. Just enjoy the progress.
T Trashtown June 2, 2010
I think “inacomaintacoma” may be a seattlite in disguise… GET HIM!
A Altered Chords June 2, 2010
Nah – he works for the Tacoma/Pierce Economic Development Board business recruitment division.
He’s bashing Tacoma and forcing us all to think of opposing arguments FOR Tacoma.
Marketing genius.
I inacomaintacoma June 2, 2010
@thorax
i was pointing out the irony mostly. i wasn’t saying waste removal was a bad thing. and now that you bring up a favorite subject of mine with europe, i would like to bring your attention to the reason the dumb white jagoffs of medieval europe had waste removal and plumbing problems is because their dumb barbarian asses didn’t take anything away from the romans that was useful, like engineering. mostly it was shiny objects those dumbass vandals were after. luckily with science things changed, but unlike science, you can’t teach taste.
obviously most cities bring in wealth by bringing in international spending. quite frankly, 80% of the world is bored of looking at old cars. and casinos.
paris, london, nyc, all can exploit what makes their culture unique and appealing, and it brings in the real money: international investment. unfortunately that will never happen to tacoma, so i guess you’re just going to have to make do with whatever genius idea the locals come up with.
no one that truly matters globally gives a crap about le may’s car fetish no more than anyone with taste gives a crap about jay leno’s. you want to maintain that there is something unique about a trash sheik’s car collection? go right ahead you tacky bastards.
T Thorax O'Tool June 3, 2010
Big “international” cities like NYC, LA, Paris, Sao Palo, Rome, Moscow, London, etc… really are in a league their own, several tiers up from places like Tacoma or Seattle.
It’s kinda like comparing a Schwinn to a Harley… they’re just too different of an animal to make a meaningful comparison.
80% of the world may or may not like old cars. I do, so I’m excited for the museum.
Quite frankly, even if one despises cars, it’s a very good thing to see things actually happening in T-town… instead of just more talk.
You know what it’s called when people stop caring and no new investment at all happens? We have a word for that: Detroit.
I inacomaintacoma June 3, 2010
@thorax
what does comparing schwinn’s and harley’s have to do with attracting international investment?
even austin texas is able to export some kind of interesting culture.
is austin texas in the same league as tacoma in terms of tier? yep.
will tacoma stop making dumb cultural decisions? nope.
is seattle an international town? yes. can tacoma steal some of that? possibly, but only if you can think nyc, london or paris.
the right thinkers can make a schwinn into a pimped out lowrider. because they have style, and most importantly they’re not epistemologically challenged. why hit the panic button and just say WE NEED TO BUILD SHT OR WE’RE GOING TO END UP LIKE DETROIT! without taking a second to reflect on what is being built? and if the city can do better in the originality department?
when people stop caring. yes it does cause problems, but equally discerning is when people stop having a sense of je ne sais quoi.
sorry to be the simon cowell on this one, but the car thing is not worth a glow stick, let alone a glow museum.
the place is not going to make sense unless, in some insane way, they can have the grand entry hall window somehow frame the giant import parking lots in the port. that would make me chuckle. all those relics of the mostly american auto industry in front of a hundai, kia back drop. now that would be good tacoma humor.
A Altered Chords June 3, 2010
if 80% of the world doesn’t care about cars does that imply that 20% does?
I’ll take 20% of the world population visiting Tacoma.
T Tacoma1 June 3, 2010
Antique cars connect us all to our past. Those chromed and white walled museum pieces tell us a story of American ingenuity and take people back to what is perceived as a simpler time. A time where true American craftsmanship was king. I like looking at old cars. They aren’t hurting anyone sitting in a museum. They aren’t causing pollution or congestion either. This museum is being built smack dab in the middle of our multi modal transit zone. Anyone that wants to will be able to take a train, streetcar, or bus to this site in the not to distant future. Taking a modern train to the antique car museum is a perfect way to get there IMO and kind of poetic too. I’m all for it.
S Steven June 3, 2010
Coma,
Where on earth do you get the stat the 80% of the world is bored looking at old cars? Please give a citation. Also, can you please list those global people that truly matter? I’m dying to know who they are. Are you one of them? you seem to be in touch with what they fancy. Perhaps you could let us know what these folks would care about so we can attract them here.
Steven
J Jesse June 3, 2010
Look at it as an art museum because it is. There is nothing more artistic and poetic than the american automobile of the 20th century.
T Thorax O'Tool June 3, 2010
If one thinks that Seattle belongs in the same tier of cities as does NYC, London, Paris, etc, then clearly one has never been to those cities.
F Felix June 4, 2010
From what I’ve read the plan isn’t necessarily to showcase the American automobile industry so much as it is to explore America’s love affair with the automobile. Sure a lot of what Harold LeMay originally amassed were older American land yachts, but I really doubt they plan on trying to show the history of American car culture without Volkswagens, Toyotas, etc.
Is American culture any less valid when we’re eating Mexican food, lounging in Swedish furniture, and driving Korean cars?
J Jesse June 4, 2010
Remember, foreign cars were only prominent in the USA for about 1/3 of the 20th century.
M Mr. Niceguy June 4, 2010
The classic car biz is a $25 Billion a year industry and rising! Not sure where you got the 80% number from. I for one am looking forward to the new museum!
I inacomaintacoma June 4, 2010
@thorax
i have been to london and paris. next weekend i’ll be in nyc, then amsterdam. this weekend i am in vancouver keeping tabs on all you critical-reading challenged readers.
vancouver is a brilliant city. like a geneva but loaded with people from asia. the sky line is like a futuristic shanty town. i don’t know what the deal is with all these towering apartment buildings, but i like it. with the mountains in the back ground it makes the view look like bladerunner meets lord of the rings.
anyway thorax, again, another critical reading blunder on your part. i wrote that seattle is an international city, not that seattle is in the same tier as nyc. what i did write is that i believed austin to be in the same tier as tacoma. so learn to read, and then get back to me.
@steven
80% is sarcasm, not an actual statistical claim. i was responding to thorax’s “I’ve spent most of my life here. 80% to be exact”
so steven, when on earth did you lose the ability to read critically and identify sarcasm?? i’ll let you ponder the means to attracting global attention a bit longer, but i suggest you peak one of your crab eyes out from under that rock once and a while. and then think of a way to deodorize thecoma air so that when global investors do happen to take the wrong turn coming out of seatac, their memories aren’t aromatically traumatized for the rest of their days when they remember the weekend the representative of the company they were visiting decided it was a good idea to take them to the glow worm with things in it they’ve never in their entire lives have ever seen before: cars.
@felix,
the sad truth is yes, american culture is less valid when we participate in the consuming of mass produced products. and as far as i can tell, when little shops start up like AMOCAT (which is tacoma backwards for those on this thread that can’t even read forwards properly), this is tacoma’s way of being culturally distinct. and to me, distinction equals a form of cultural validity. i just don’t think car history to be a distinct trait of tacoma’s cultural skyline of the future. will a satellite coffee ever open in seattle? it would probably do well since there are just as many caffeine sucking hipsters in seattle who have way too much time to waste waiting for a simple goddamn cappuccino. but it seems until greed kicks in, satellite coffee is distinct to thecoma.
I inacomaintacoma June 4, 2010
@jesse
“There is nothing more artistic and poetic than the american automobile of the 20th century.”
it’s funny when a premise like this isn’t scoffed at, but a simple sarcastic 80% number is.
actually, it’ll a little frightening. unless of course you were being sarcastic, jesse
unluck to all the scoffing, smug, ocd stat loving nerds on this thread.
you guys make me want to poop in public and call it tacoma.
I inacomaintacoma June 4, 2010
“The classic car biz is a $25 Billion a year industry and rising!”
the biz? would that be linked to the increasing number of retiring baby boomers who having nothing better to do with their money than sooth their post- midlife crisis-crisis with a classic car??
i am sure no one is going to scoff at or want a study report of the classic car biz claim of mr niceguy.
but if that’s the truth, then i think it’s a good time to raffle off a car a month of the le may collection in order to pay for various philanthropic or waste control operations around thecome area. starting with the pcb cespool that is commencement bay.
J Jesse June 4, 2010
@inacomaintacoma: Have you ever seen cars from the 1950’s? 1940’s? Anything earlier than 1969? They are indeed works of art. The engineering, the crome, the lines, the effort by man to make it happen —- all art. All beautiful. You don’t need to agree or disagree about what the car has done to society, the environment, or pocketbooks of families to just appreciate the beautiful aspects about them. Ying and yang. Bass and treble. Nothing exists without it’s negative and/or equal and opposite counterpart. So, there is beauty and sadness in car culture. For the purposes of just looking at old cars in a museum, I’ll concentrate on the beauty thanks.
And by the way, I’ve been reading Exit133 for a few years now and it has always been civil. Noone attacks each other personally on here… until you came along. Disagreements were always about opinions and not made personal… until you came along.
T Thorax O'Tool June 4, 2010
@ inacomaintacoma… I was reading in between the lines. It’s quite obvious what you meant. You can’t hide your thoughts from me, amigo.
A Altered Chords June 4, 2010
I’m a little busy planning my trip to Prague then off to Bejing and then to Dubai to see how my new skyscrapers are coming along. I like all of these places far better than Tacoma. I live in Tacoma because the airlines will not let me put my dining room table on the airplane and I do not know how to drive a car let alone a uhaul truck. My limo driver will not teach me how to drive, he insists that I just stay in this stinky town full of hillbillies and hicks that have not international experience like i do. i’m important like e e cummimngs i no longer capitalize or use punctuation or cair about spellgn because i’m a geniuos and your an idiot.
T Thorax O'Tool June 4, 2010
in a
coma in tacoma
bitter man
a taiku by thorax otool
with punctuation borrowed from a c cummings.
C captiveyak June 4, 2010
I love inacoma – the absolute conviction of correctness draws me in like a moth to a CFL bulb. Telling it like it is! When no one else will take a hammer to a teddy bear, inacoma busts out the sledgehammer and says, “STEP BACK HIPSTERS AND COMPROMISED FOOLS! I GOT THIS!”
Then, i realize how much of my life i’ve wasted eating microwave dinners and being un-cosmopolitan. Maybe I should have read a book or two instead of being perpetually hungover on microbrews all these years. I feel as if a veil drops from before my eyes each time inacoma comments. A VEIL I’VE PUT OVER MY OWN EYES.
Just teasing, actually. The world has no need for yes-men.
I I'm for Change (for tacoma) June 4, 2010
in a coma in tacoma bitter man
bitter man? Don’t you mean some whiney teenager stuck in Tacoma because of parents, but is now being taken on a family trip to the outside since school is out? or is it, the so hip misunderstood intellectual sufferer imprisoned by the authority figures but one day will break out and change the world?
Either way, I don’t care and find her/his ramblings more self-righteous than interesting.
D Droid16 June 4, 2010
Once there was a city in the shadow of a great mountain. It was filled with hard working, honest people who cared about their community. But they had a problem that kept others from visiting and enjoying the natural beauty of the land and water. It was a stink, an odor, an aroma that hung in the air and permeated the lives of all who lived there. It was so foul that when demigod champion of the blue collar set, Bruce, fell ill after jogging its waterfront and canceled his concert, for a while it was called “The city that almost killed Springsteen”.
The wise council of the city and the citizenry banned together to end the reign of The Aroma of Tacoma. They brought down the factories that spewed a foul stench, they cleaned up its waters and they planned for a clean and prosperous future.
This worked to a degree, but the aroma was strong, refusing to remove his stink from their collective memory. They asked for help from the mountain and the water and the wind. These elements held a brief council with each other, and agreed to help as best as they could.
“We cannot kill the stink, but we can transform it”, they proclaimed. The water lapped the shore and the mud rose from the earth and the wind whipped round and round funneling the smell to the clay that was taking shape. When they were done, the shape howled in anger at what it had become.
A troll.
The troll, angry and just a bit emo, tried to escape the bright future and the gleam of promise. He hid, as trolls do, under the main bridge that led to the heart of the city, an exit known by its milepost, 133.
There he lives, no longer able to permeate the air, he tries tirelessly but in vain to foul the city from the dark regions of his new home.
T Thorax O'Tool June 4, 2010
@ i’m for change: the taiku is all about syllables. that’s about the best i can do in 2-5-3 format, given the “inacomaintacoma” name. it’s a lot of syllables.
@ droid16: you’re my new hero!
F Felix June 4, 2010
I think this Museum stands a chance of being something special: a crossroads of technology, art, and history.
The fact of the matter is that people do believe in this project, and they’ve voted with their dollars to make it happen. Tacoma may not be a “great city” but then again I don’t think Seattle, Portland, or even Vancouver is going to rival Paris anytime soon. I think its pathetic how people groan about “another museum” in Tacoma, when it actually stands to be something unique in the Pacific Northwest, and a rare bird in points beyond.
@inacoma
I respectfully disagree. I don’t think that a culture can be more or less “valid;” surely they change over time, and these changes can be seen as positive or negative, but that’s all subjective. Regardless of whether you like the way culture and society changes, its characteristics still have meaning, and I personally think that the automobile, and the way its evolved over time says as much about the history of American culture as it does about the history of mere technological innovation or industry…
A ARgh! ARgh! Anderson June 4, 2010
“help me, help me.. I’m covered with American automobile nostalgia!”
A ARgh! ARgh! Anderson June 4, 2010
“honk if you love cars! HONK!!! HONK!!”
A ARgh! ARgh! Anderson June 4, 2010
“GET OUT OF MY DREAMS, AND INTO MY CAR”
A ARgh! ARgh! Anderson June 4, 2010
“…showcase the cultural impact of cars, motorcycles and trucks on our uniquely American way of life. “
I inacomaintacoma June 5, 2010
@ alturd chordles
i mention the word sarcasm once and you just start spewing it in a way that i can only describe as over the top and a sickeningly unoriginal reflex response. unluck to you times infinity. good god.
there is a fine line between bitterness and realism, and none of you can balance on it. so boring.
anyway, i see tacoma differently. i’ve lived here for a year, and that was enough to clock the hell out of the place and probably irritate everyone i know here with my complaints. i am not anti-business, i am not anti-cosmopolitan. i am against city development being like a shtty game of darts some drunk tacomphile is playing and carrying on about like it’s the best game of darts they’ve ever played in their life. that crap just has to stop. it embarrassing to watch. this is my last post ever. good luck, kiss my ass, and there are about a few dozen empty apartments where i was staying. this according to the office has been the largest move out they’ve seen in years, and all the forwarding addressing were not in tacoma. but don’t worry, there will be another wave of mediocre scenesters, and aging poser punk rockers that just couldn’t make a big enough impression elsewhere coming to masquerade the fk out of thecoma soon enough i imagine.
@ i’m for change
SKADOOSH!
oh and before i forget, here is a poem for thorax
it says so in your name
you are a tool
but really you’re just upset
because i peed and pooped in your pool
T Thorax O'Tool June 5, 2010
Uh oh… that’s not good, considering I’ve been using your hot tub when you’re off in Europe.
D DavidS June 5, 2010
“i’ve lived here for a year…this is my last post ever”
Only a year and yet he seemed to know us so well.
H Heidi June 5, 2010
@ ARgh! ARgh!
Absof*ckinglutely brilliant.
(You can quote me on that, TNT.)
I ixora June 5, 2010
Argh Argh is RRight! He hits the nail on the head again… like a fine carpenter. Cheers!
H HappyForTacoma June 5, 2010
How about getting your facts straight, “ inacomaintacoma “. You rant and rave on and on and on here, seemingly because you have nothing better to do with your time. Why not make yourself helpful to the community rather than ranting senselessly? Mr. and Mrs. LeMay have done just that, not just in preserving history, but donating millions of dollars to the community in the south end. All should take a look at the actual designs rather than going by this single image from a poor angle. The automobile is something from American history, and I expect you’ve actually been IN one before, “ inacomaintacoma”. Like it or not, they are here to stay, they have improved vastly as far as the ecology is concerned, and someone (Mr. LeMay and his family) have done their best to preserve their history.
D dolly varden June 5, 2010
RR is right that our oil addiction is inexcusable and increasingly tragic, Happy and others are right that cars aren’t going away anytime soon and are not inherently unworthy of a local museum, and inacoma is right that Tacoma is not a city to which the young, hip, and (quasi-?) intellectual flock in droves (though it’s not out of the question that it will someday become that kind of place).
Tacoma is so off the radar that it feels almost like it’s in its own orbit, which to me is what’s cool about it.
T tressie June 5, 2010
I love the CAR museum idea! It could not be built at a more perfect time! Everybody on the planet will come! They’ll fly in and drive in! They’ll use oil! Everybody loves that! They will have a good time! They might have an epiphany!
J Jesse June 5, 2010
Tressie: That’s… better? =)
T Thorax O'Tool June 6, 2010
R RR Anderson June 6, 2010
Will the Museum showcase an exhibit on Truck Nuts?
TRUCK NUTS—Perhaps the most innovative engineering automobile contribution of the free-market by autumn-age American entrepreneurs.
(will this pass the exit133 obscenity filters, unmolested? Write your representative on the City Council today.)
C crenshaw sepulveda June 6, 2010
Truck Nuts are what makes America great. You’d never see this in any other country. Islamo Fascists hate us for our Truck Nuts.
A Altered Chords June 6, 2010
@65 – Sad.
He wanted to stay in Tacoma but we pushed him out.
He did not stay long enough to grasp the subtleties of the Taiku format.
Format
6, 4, 7, 9 – no
That ain’t it.
T tom waits June 7, 2010
I come to Tacoma from somewhere else too, and like inacoma, I’ve spent years boring my peers with critical observations and rants about this place. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been absolutely disgusted with this place.
But the key phrase is “boring my peers.” Because after awhile, that’s what it really comes down to.
Inacoma tries very hard to write like a real ass. But what it actually is, is boring.
Tacoma has problems. People around here, some new arrivals, some lifers, are aware of this.
Let the city have its car museum…I say maybe we can capture some of that revenue from the Ammurikn patriots living out in red-blooded Pierce County…money that otherwise will end up at Cabela’s or in Dino Rossi’s war chest.
South Downtown will get really interesting as SOTA students, UWT students, bureaucrats, professors, art museum patrons, car museum patrons, thick necked high school wrestlers going to Mat Classic, and George Strait concertgoers all mix it up.
It amuses me that any thread about development in Tacoma would even contain references to Paris, NYC or whatever. “I’ve been to see the world, so trust me when I tell you…” is absurd and very “small town” in and of itself. Reminds me of the loser upperclassmen who troll freshman college parties instead of hanging out with people their own age.
I for one appreciate the car as a social phenomenon that is distinctly American, for better or worse. And though I am not a big car fan, I am a fan of material culture and industrial design. I’ll probably go to the museum once, like I did for EXP.
There are a lot of things going on in Tacoma, plenty of cool things, plenty of embarrassing things, some people doing brilliant things, plenty of culturally bankrupt folks who need to get out more often, plenty of Waiting for Guffman.
This town is starting to grow on me…I think, “Oh, Tacoma,” and want to pat it on the head. I’m mellowing out. Maybe it is the arsenic in my yard.
I Ian June 8, 2010
@inacomaintacoma: You, sir, are the most interesting thing to hit this blog in years. Please don’t leave. Come back and fling more poo.
Seriously, you’re the only one telling the emperors of this blog that they have no clothes on.
Don’t get me wrong, I like this blog. I would not like inacomaintacoma in person, but I like reading his posts.
R RR Anderson June 8, 2010
@80 get a room perv!
I inacomaintacoma June 8, 2010
@ tom waits
i never said ‘boring’ my peers. i said ‘irritating’ my peers. there is a difference.
my biology professor taught of some characteristics of life that we could use to distinguish living things from non-living things.
one of the main characteristics was irritability, or response to stimuli.
now, tom, that you have exposed yourself to be somewhat unresponsive to my stimuli, in which category do you think you fit in best right now during this phase of your head patting life? the living or the non-living?
please, step a side and a keep your non-living, non-action taking personality to yourself. your points about how cultural cross pollination is working in tacoma are valid, but if you ask me, that’s not enough.
for the rest of you still chasing the philosophers stone, there is still work to be done to make tacoma a place to truly be worth bragging about.
so now the spot light is on me. but i am no idiot. i can see who the real stars are in this town, and its not the mcdouche bartenders at magoo’s annex that have all the counterfeit hipster chicks leaving snail trails all over the place.
the real stars are people like RR Anderson.
Right now, RR Anderson is probably one of the main keystones keeping this town from dissolving into mediocrity.
i am in awe of that heroic proclamation that said artist made in front of that council.
to many, that looks like a stunt. but it takes fcking courage to get up there and risk being the village idiot to make an original point.
so the point is, tacoma doesn’t need more cabela shoppers. tacoma needs more RR’s.
so how does this town keep the RR’s it has, and get more to move here?
not with a car museum. a comic book convention center, yes. a cultural convention center (like pompidou in paris), yes. but a fking car museum? no.
no for me, i don’t think that it’s cars that are the real culprits in thecoma. it’s non-action taking people like tom when a town is clearly in a nose dive, and it’s people like the le may crowd, who from some of the murmuring (perhaps not fact based), are said to “made his fortune by buying off officials for the exclusive right to COLLECT GARBAGE”.
anything tainted by corruption can’t provide real back bone for things of culture, like museums.
(http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/05/29/1205214/car-museum-work-to-start.html?pageNum=1&&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container)
now, these might just be murmurings about le may. but like someone said earlier on this thread, lets get some facts straight.
in the end, it’s what direction the real stars of this town take us in. but if you want to be like ol’ tom waits and just ‘wait’ for a solution to tacoma’s problems, go right ahead.
my solution is build the meal worm, make a center for art. have an art exhibit program. attract more artists. besides, you don’t have to be a scientist to see that making money off of something renewable like art trumps the hell out of the cost to income ratio of non-renewable crap like that stuff the mills are stinking up the air with.
down with local car museums and port industry. up with local music and culture. a north by northwest multi media festival is an international cash cow. but maybe it’s like what tom was really saying, we don’t want outsiders, we like the potholes, we like the stink, because it’s as imperfect as we are. so let us be, let us ride out our meaningless lives here from one glass of microbrew to the next and just be happy with the dream, not the actualization of it. because to actualize something takes courage. or maybe it’s because the locals don’t want some outsiders coming in and doing it better than they knew they ever could. either way, cobain died for all your cultural sins, tacoma. you can play all the loud rock you want hells kitchen, and the fking eagles can help all the aging post grads get drunk one more time at the swiss, but you’re not saying a damn thing.
@RR Anderson
long my you run
R RR Anderson June 8, 2010
“counterfeit hipster chicks leaving snail trails all over the place” Ha! :)
“made his fortune by buying off officials for the exclusive right to COLLECT GARBAGE” Ha! Ho!
Unsure if i’m being made fun of… but If I’m supposed to be somekinda cultural-arts-profit, all hope is already lost. I make money, not art.
Even so, Can’t we all just get along?
A Altered Chords June 8, 2010
“Every time I get out, they PULL me back in”
Sonny Corlione as played by Al Pacino in “The Godfather part ?” as he tries unsuccesfully to leave the mob.
inacomaintacom on the “LeMay Announces Groundbreaking” topic of the Exit133 blog as he tries unsuccesfully to stop posting.
C captiveyak June 8, 2010
I didn’t realize there were emperors of this blog! I find that disturbing because i’ve always been a fan of fascism. I will leave Derek a note suggesting that he clothe himself. (i realize that was a joke, Ian, but i couldn’t leave it alone).
The thing about being a firebrand is that it’s easy. It’s simple to shout wake-up calls at people, as if apathy is the only thing keeping the Tacoma from becoming Eden. It’s especially useful when it’s shouted at folks who haven’t the means to do anything but make demands.
The changes Tacoma needs require investment and capital. I’ve worked in the development industry for 10 years, and have learned that the power of a good idea is rarely enough to make something good happen — or to keep something bad from happening (inspirational miracles aside). The good idea must have money behind it. This doesn’t mean Tacoma is an unjust place. It’s the nature of markets. Maybe Tacoma’s problem is that hipper rich people live in other cities. I don’t know.
But like it or not, if I were to run around downtown passionately demanding art space, I might win the admiration of those with common purpose. But to me, winning that admiration is just as cheap and useless as winning the admiration of people who prefer Cabelas and paintings of pheasants. People have a right to their preferences. And what progress would be made? None. But at least I wouldn’t have shed my hapless belief in the link between enlightenment and art.
Art is good. But I am tired of hearing that it is the cure-all for everything people dislike about Tacoma. It’s simply not true. There are a lot of people — good, hardworking economic contributors — who could give a crap about art. They vote and pay taxes, and they’re going to laugh at the notion of the nobility of art-housing for some bearded dude who takes bleak photographs of waterskis.
But, heck, it’s a good cause. So scream about it as if your cause is the spat-upon messiah. And it’s something you can’t do anything about because you don’t have the money. And the money’s not flowing because the Man hates art? God, what are we? 17? There are two music festivals going on in Tacoma this month. Who’s going to Squeak and Squawk shows with me at New Frontier? Show up and quit whining.
The most effective community activists are those who take interest in working with the system. Unless you know the system, you cannot make practical demands. And the system isn’t evil, for crying out loud. Sure, there are people in the system with whom i disagree. But they generally got elected or selected and are there for a reason — generally because they care enough to be doing something for Tacoma rather than watching TV.
All I do is write every week. So, yeah, whatever. I could do more. But I care about smart economic development and smart urban development. I’m looking for a way to create a dialog about those issues in Tacoma. when I get better at it, maybe i’ll join that planning commission i’ve been eyeballing for the past year.
I inacomaintacoma June 8, 2010
@ allturd
really? you want to be the little ankle biting dog on this thread?
@ RR, no i wasn’t poking fun. but i know i am just bickering so i thought since people are reading my crap, they should pay attention to your crap instead which is much more interesting crap. i don’t care if you do or dont make money. and you can try to laugh it off all you like. ho! ha!
@ captiveyak
i like your style. i like how you ended with what you are going to do to realize sht in the commission. but you sound like you still have some convincing of yourself to do. good luck. yes, working together with ‘the man’ is an art. and artists don’t always carry camera’s and chalk around. but doing things as an art is the answer to everything i think. art is everything.
i am just trying to say that le may is small money. not a lot of jobs after construction is done, and joe the plumber is going to go maybe as much as he goes to the glass museum. but you want to really feed mouths, your going to have to figure out how to bring more goats with deeper pockets to the oasis then the le may thing is going to.
T tom waits June 8, 2010
@ inacoma: Yes, I am the one who said “boring my peers.” I think the leading metaphor is a stretch, as I am very much alive and very much doing “things,” but it is amusing.
Maybe I overstated the soporific nature of your posts. They are kind of funny. But they are also bitchy and contain nothing remotely informative. Who needs to listen to someone else with a chip on his/her shoulder?
Blogs are strange…the ability to see one’s own words in print, on screen, can lead a person to hold their own intellect in high esteem. Even if nothing new or profound has been shared.
Anyway, the tortured theme in your post – there are those that do things and those that are complacent – actually made me laugh. You have no idea what you are talking about. Trust me.
Best.
I inacomaintacoma June 8, 2010
@ tom
“nothing new or profound has been shared”
kind of like a museum for cars?
tom, thanks for feeling the need to grace this thread with your act of not really feeling the need. and also, thank you for gracing the future car museum with your lofty “I’ll probably go to the museum once, like I did for EXP.”
presence.
puke.
T tom waits June 8, 2010
@inacoma…gosh you just can’t say anything nice, can you?
I’m going to go cry now, but first I’m taking a shower. I just realized that this whole time, all I’ve been doing is helping you self gratify.
I feel so used.
R RR Anderson June 8, 2010
Look, I know the LeMay folks are reading this… My friends! Forget all the stuff I said previously, those were lies so that I wouldn’t be flamed by the flamers…
As a genuine Tacoma Celebrity I would like to donate my car (photo above) to the collection. This rare 1998 Mercury SharkMouth Tracer would add so much (It’s way better than Ted Bundy’s VW BTW) authentic ‘gritty city’ street cred to oldman harold’s collection! I am a famous cartoonist! My car has SHARK TEETH!! Also i think ford will be discontinuing the Mercury line so will be valuable collectors item!
I only ask a modest ‘donation fee’ of $300,000 dollars for this art, my gift. If you don’t have the cash on hand, we can work a deal with the city to foot the bill (ala murano).
Call me! (253) 778-6786
I inacomaintacoma June 8, 2010
@ tom
i don’t think that loftiness is going to wash off.
don’t cry though, maybe if you visit the car museum twice instead of once, that will be the dollar bill that puts the titty baby city back on the map instead of black death business are fleeing from.
“i feel used”
just think what the soil that under that abomination of a museum is going to feel like.
T Thorax O'Tool June 9, 2010
I thought you moved to Toronto?
At least the hidden numerology in your self-proclaimed last-post poem indicated as such.
Welcome home?
I inacomaintacoma June 9, 2010
moving to so cal for college in a few weeks. i think the numerology will be exit 3 off of I5, which is like 133, but then minus the badluck 13.
but thecoma will always have a special ‘scanner darkly’ kind of influence on me. and, if things work out, maybe i can come back here and spend about 5 to 10 million dollars to flip this decaying house. it definitely has a butt load of potential, even though it smells like butt every now and then.
R Rob June 10, 2010
inacomaintacoma needs to get back on his meds!
I inacomaintacoma June 10, 2010
Rob is super original!
C cy June 10, 2010
I don’t know if LeMay’s in general read this, but I do…and I have no affiliation currently with the museum other than as a family member and a member the organization…
Two things, though…
I was in the room when it was created, literally. It had four themes: Art, Culture, Technology & History. That was five of us (my grandparents, an accountant, my aunt and me) saying that we failed if the collection couldn’t explain how the intersection of those four things were told through the automobile to the public. I think it got a little away from from when I left (my opinion), but that was the direct aim from its first moment.
Second: Making a museum is really, really, REALLY hard. I burned out after about four years. I’m a bit in awe of the fact they are breaking grown on anything today. A crapload of money, time, and politics has been spent by a lot of people since that day in 1996 when we first incorporated.
Finally, I like the fact people don’t like it or don’t support/understand it as a concept. Most car museums are boring and stupid. Trust me…I’ve been to them on six continents. I’m as wary as the next person. Just Wiki “AutoWorld” in Flint. But you do have to take the chance…one shot at least…to try and make it happen.
I’ll never forget a billionaire sitting in a Tacoma parking lot (just of I-5) with me early on during a rainstorm, and we were talking about how many visitors it could bring. We had decided that it could do about 188,000 people if it was done correctly. He said, “I think the world’s biggest ball of string does more than that.” His point was that there is a moment when you develop these things that you really don’t know; but he was pretty close to being correct. As a family we had to make it be “not our thing for the most part” — that may sound shocking, but it’s true. In the end, I guess, it’s like any sweater gift you give…you need to cross your fingers that you bought the right size and color, but you really didn’t knit it.
R RR Anderson June 10, 2010
anyway sorry to get fired up. sorry folks.
so how about that Chevy vs. Chevrolet ?
to me they’ll always be 57 chevy’s
E Erik B. June 10, 2010
After more than a decade in development, the LeMay Museum announced today that they will break ground on June 10th, 2010
Ok. So today is the 10th.
Is the ground broken yet?
M Mike June 10, 2010
But, @RR, you drive. A car. Or does the whimsy transform it to “art”… powered by pixie dust and unicorn whispers?
Anyway…
Most of us here have probably driven a car since the day we could. We’ve steered from our grandpa’s laps, gone to the drive-in movies, and marveled at chrome and candy-colored wonders lining downtown streets in the summer.
Yes, there are some really awful consequences that go along with the sappy nostalgia. No need to point out the obvious.
But this museum will be good for Tacoma and good for spirits. Isn’t there enough smug self-righteousness in this region? Can Tacoma just have our new building, neat old cars, and tourism dollars, please?
A Altered Chords June 10, 2010
How many miles per gram of pixie dust do we get?
are unicorn whispers a better way to go?
William? Thorax? arithmetic please.
and watch you units guys.
R RR Anderson June 10, 2010
the whimsical art-vehicle in question is fueled by methane captured from ‘artsy-fartsy’ human-powered events. I am happy LeMay will be built, for the cleanest source of energy is unbridled hatred. I’m arguing that this nightmare can be a boon to our local economy as much as any legitimate force for good, just look at vampire-exploited Forks, Washington for god sakes. We can market LeMay as the mecca of planet-killing machines.
I inacomaintacoma June 10, 2010
tourism dollars??????
thats the whole point of the argument. don’t break the ground these tacomaphiles find so precious unless you’ve got a concept that will bring in the international tourism coin.
for christsakes does anyone else know what the fk it means when russell investments moves the fk to seattle to get at that international coin???????
this is not freaking rocket science. sure have your car/technology/art museum, but don’t complain WHEN NOBODY WITH REAL MONEY GIVES A DAMN ABOUT SEEING THE THING OR BUILDING ANYTHING NEXT TO IT.
please someone, a straw and a line of your choicest pixie dust for the jar jars that think this is going to be good for this city.
let me spell it out t.a.c.a.o.m.a.n.e.e.d.s.i.n.t.e.r.n.a.t.i.o.n.a.l.i.n.v.e.s.t.m.e.n.t.
now you can talk about all the cutesy grandma stories about how the le may crowd are working so hard for us, but it ain’t working on me.
the f-ing international airport up the road is called seaTAC. that means the TAC part has a cut at those tourism dollars. trust me, people from other countries love the dances with wolves sht. give them the dances with wolves sht and fill that freaking thing that already looks like a canoe with crap the REAL locals used to cruise the water ways with. and voila! you’re going to get so many freaking tourist dollars. don’t take my word for it. just look at how the boondock towns in france at languedoc make a killing showing people just the mock up of the original prehistoric cave paintings. not even the real cave paintings!
please, amurka, it’s enough with the car bullsht. show the world what you really have that’s unique to the northwest.
R RR Anderson June 10, 2010
oh, that’s a good angle too.
“First Nations People Struggle Against America’s LoveAffair with Car Museum”
I inacomaintacoma June 10, 2010
@ RR
CHA-CHING!
J Jesse June 11, 2010
You should show the classic crying Indian picture as he looks over his tribe gill-netting the Puyallup river…
R RR Anderson June 11, 2010
@Jesse
wouldn’t references to over-fishing, modern whale hunts or casinos would spoil the adolescent fantasy of an idealized Native American culture?