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THE CAMERA EYE
By Kyle Doyle - 05/02/07
They say that a picture is
worth a thousand words, and for this little update of mine, I’m going to place
my bets on that statement. These days, it seems like I could call each of my
articles “Hard To Find The Time”. I was at my optometrist’s office the other
day, and while making small talk during my eye exam, he asked exactly what I do
for a living. The best thing I could come up with was “Well, let’s just say I
wear a lot of hats.” Sometimes I feel like I have five or six jobs, so when you
are on the road as much as I have been lately (catering to perhaps the most
important job of all), it becomes something of an uphill fight to stay caught
up. I guess at that point, prioritizing becomes key.
Though my goal is to share my
experiences and stories here on TMB at least once a month, this past several
weeks (coming up on two months) has been incredibly busy, but at the same time
incredibly rewarding. Sometimes I’m convinced that our triumphs and good
memories are equaled only by the depths of our stresses and frustrations, but I
suppose without that natural counter-balance I’d just go crazy. As the famous
euphemism goes, “it’s always something, isn’t it?” So my goal now is to let my
pictures do most of the talking, with minimal interruption by yours truly, as we
take a look back at the last several weeks of my life through the camera eye.
The Texas Jamboree kicked off
the outdoor racing season back in late March. After spending a week and change
in Uvalde and Kerrville, TX (my pics were deleted by a memory card failure), our
team moved up to Fredericksburg for the 3rd annual event. The event went off
pretty well despite a week-long monsoon-like deluge of rain that threatened to
wash the event out. This was the first real test outdoors for my Nikon, and
despite a less-than-cooperative sun, I’m pretty happy with how they call came
out.
Another great shot (if I do
say so myself) from the Texas Jambo. Be sure to check out my gallery from the
event in the Monster Blog’s photo gallery section.
After two weeks in Florida and Georgia, and another two weeks in Texas, it was
finally time for a weekend off. But as is usually the case with me, a weekend
off is merely an opportunity to have more adventures! My best friend from high
school, Erin, flew to Chicago to visit Amanda and I on Easter weekend. We took
that opportunity to introduce Erin to some of Chicago’s coolest places. Despite
the barely-above-freezing temps, we had a blast. You can tell by this picture
who is better acclimated to the frigid weather.
Not long after riding the L-train from O’Hare International Airport to downtown
Chi-Town, it came time for lunch. We chose Giordanno’s Pizza, a well-known and
very popular Chicago eatery. Besides being located on Rush St. (which makes them
really cool anyways), they serve the absolute, without-a-doubt, most amazing
pizza I’ve ever had.
And there you have it.
While visiting the Navy Pier and Ohio Beach, Erin decided to promote some
holiday cheer.
Yes my friends, not only does this mailbox look stunning and help you get your
mail to where it needs to go, but it can also navigate an X-Wing fighter around
the galaxy and hack into the Death Star’s mainframe computer. Who said the
government wastes money?
Chicago’s Hard Rock Café was on our list of stops, making this my third of the
year (in addition to Cleveland & Orlando). While somewhat small compared to
other HRC’s, it was tasteful and had good milkshakes. Oh, and a great looking
Eric Clapton and John Entwistle guitars.
The Tuesday following our Chicago excursion, Mark Hall and I loaded up the
Raminator R/T and headed to Los Angeles, by way of Las Vegas. The NHRA was in
Vegas for the SummitRacing.com Nationals, so we made sure to spend a couple days
and nights in Sin City to soak up some racing and culture. Seen here is the
Allen Johnson/ Richie Stevens Jr. pro-stock pit area.
Jay Payne, son-in-law of Brad Anderson, doing a burn-out in his Valvoline TA/FC
Camaro.
Bob Panella Jr.’s stunning re-creation of the classic Sox & Martin pro-stock
Challenger.
Larry Morgan sporting his great looking Lucas Oil graphics on his familiar Dodge
Stratus bodywork.
Richie Stevens got the jump on
Warren Johnson during Friday’s first qualifying session…
..while teammate Allen Johnson would do the same to WJ’s son and teammate, Kurt
Johnson.
Recognize that name? You should. Former NitroFish monster truck driver and Hall
Brothers team member Steve Macklyn made his professional Nitro Funny Car debut
at The Strip in Las Vegas. Amazingly enough, Steve was the first person that
Mark and I ran into as soon as we got in the gates at the track. We spent some
time in his pits catching up, and much to our surprise, Steve’s father was
wearing an Executioner Monster Truck Racing polo shirt from the late 90’s.
Executioner, of course, was HBR’s truck name prior to Raminator. What made the
entire deal so neat was that our visit was completely unexpected.
John Force and team attempted to rebound from the tragic loss of Eric Medlen
less than a month prior to the Vegas event.
Kenny Bernstein’s Monster Energy/Mopar Charger.
Mark and Steve after the first qualifying session.
During the night session, the supercharger unexpectedly exploded just a fraction
of a second after I took this picture. Steve was unhurt, though the car was
badly damaged. In true monster trucker-fashion, Steve and crew got things back
together in time for the following day’s qualifying sessions, and managed to
post a 300+mph pass Saturday evening.
Ron Capps’ beautiful Brut/Mopar Charger funny car. The white flame you see isn’t
a direct product of the nitro Hemi under the hood. It is actually raw hydrogen
in the air being ignited by the intense exhaust gas temperatures.
Fast Jack Beckman and Cruz Pedregon.
KB hauling tail down the strip at night.
A marquee match-up between two legends: Gary Scelzi and John Force.
Richie Stevens completing an evening burn-out.
Ahh, what a sight. The Strip at night.
My new favorite place in Vegas, the New York New York Hotel & Casino.
A pair of really great local bands, “Wild Child” and “Phoenix” put on a great
show Friday night at the NYNY’s Big Apple Bar.
The Statue of Liberty is just one of several famous NYC landmarks recreated at
NYNY.
Hard Rock Café stop #4 – Las Vegas. One of the most packed HRC’s I’ve been to.
Loud and obnoxious, but 100% Vegas.
Bonus Guitar Sign Shot: The Hard Rock Hotel is located adjacent to the HRC. The
hotel’s casino is full of killer rock memorabilia as well, including three full
drum sets.
The day after our night-time adventures, Mark and I took some time to pursue one
of the prerequisite tourist activities while in Vegas, a trip to Hoover Dam.
Yep, that’s me in the R/T crushing a car in Beverly Hills, with the famed 101 in
the background. A 27 year-old man from Chicago won Dodge’s “Avenge Your Commute”
contest, which ultimately involved us destroying his old car…
…and Dodge replacing it with a
brand-spankin’-new Dodge Avenger R/T.
While in the Beverly Hills
area of Los Angeles, we stopped by the Universal Studios CityWalk to visit the
Hollywood Hard Rock Café. Our location in the parking garage afforded us the
killer view of the Warner Brothers property.
HRC #5 – Hollywood. This
particular HRC was home to a number of drum kits, including a great DW kit used
by Tommy Lee. Speaking of drums, while in Beverly Hills, Mark and I stopped by
the massive Guitar Center store on Ventura. For a little over an hour, Mark
fiddled around with various guitars while I pounded away on a set of Roland V’s
in their second floor drum shop. I was in heaven! Mark came looking for me as I
happily pounded out Keith Moon’s drum licks from The Who’s 1971 tune “Baba
O’Riley”. I was sorry to put down the sticks as I regretfully left behind the
most expensive drum set I’ve ever played on. Oh well, duty called. It sure was a
nice break from the normal routine though!
As is the tradition of larger HRC’s, the Hollywood one featured a very eclectic
and grand main rotunda.
With the southeast, south,
southwest, and west covered, it was time to head back to the Midwest for my next
few gigs, which included a press conference in Springfield, IL and the Choppers
4 Children event in Joplin, MO. But, alas, you’ll just have to wait until next
time to find out what kind of good times Travis and I enjoyed at C4C. Until
then, I’ll keep enjoying the world as best I can, not just through my eyes, but
also through the camera eye.
- KD
Email KD and let him know what you
thought!!
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