October Calendar 2009

October Calendar 2009

October means Halloween to many, but to car people it also means Tokyo, The Chase, ALMS at Laguna Seca and the home stretch for IndyCar and Formula 1. There are also a bunch of Fall cruises, meets and concours, so the old car crowd won't be left out this month either. Foremost on that list are two events we'll be at again this year, the 27th Annual Concours d' Elegance at The St. Regis in Dana Point, California, and the Wings Wheels Rotors & Expo in Los Alamitos. There's also Sportscar Vintage Racing Association at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Japanese Classic Car Show, Circle Yer Wagens, Scarsdale Concours, One Love Weekend, Vintage Rallies Mountain Mille, VRG Vintage Races at Watkins Glen, 2009 All-Pontiac Show, Super Stang Fest 2009, Vettes at the Village, Micro & Minicar Cruise at Bear Mountain, and the Hilton Head Island Concours d'Elegance to close out the month.

There will be auction action too, with Barrett-Jackson in Las Vegas, Vintage Motor Cars of Hershey by RM, and gigantic Classic Car Auction of Toronto. Motorsports fans are in for some late-season championship action with Formula 1 making visits to Suzuka and Brazil, ALMS at Laguna Seca, the IndyCar finale at Homestead, and NASCAR making four stops as The Chase continues - Kansas, Fontana, Charlotte and Martinsville. Besides the ever-shrinking Tokyo Motor Show, there are also going to be a regional show in Anaheim, but Americans will have to wait until Los Angeles in December to get most of the European and Asian debuts from Frankfurt and Tokyo.

If none of those events appeal to you, check the Google Calendar after the jump for even more listings, all with detailed info and links. And please use the comments section to add or modify listings. As always, we want to give a shout-out to our two favorite sources; The New York Times automotive calendar for national and international stuff, and our buddy Dave Lindsay's SoCalCarCulture pages for local stuff here in Southern California. Dave's photographic coverage of these local events is fantastic. Check out this month's event calendar below and start adding to it by leaving us a note in the comments.

Tsunami in Samoa 2009 video

Tsunami in Samoa 2009 video

After the earthquake in Samoa on Tuesday, September 29, the Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, at 7:24 p.m., issued its sixth update for the California and Oregon coast. The advisory specific for the Southern California area stated, “A tsunami has been generated which could impact the advisory region. Low-lying coastal areas should be alert to instructions from their local emergency officials. Evacuations are only ordered by emergency response agencies. Persons in tsunami advisory areas should move out of the water...off the beach and out of harbors and marinas.”

The advisory stated that the “six to eight inches” of tsunami waves should hit La Jolla at 9:16 p.m. At 9:00 p.m., I parked on the beach-view bluff on San Elijo Avenue, overlooking the reef at Cardiff beach. I placed myself well east of the tsunami evacuation zone signs permanently posted at the corner of Coast Highway 101 at Chesterfield Drive. The floodlights from the Chart House restaurant lit up the shoreline. For 25 minutes, I watched the gently rolling one-to-two-foot waves with no notice of increased tidal or wave action. There was, however, very light traffic on the Coast Highway, unusual for that time of night.

At 9:25, I headed for the beach parking area south of the Chart House to watch the ocean with 15 other tsunami observers. They said nothing had changed in the past half hour. At 9:37 p.m., a helicopter flew over the area, about 100 feet above the ocean, 100 yards out from the beach. The copter went north to Encinitas, turned around, and flew back south down the beach.

Polanski Victim Testimony

Polanski Victim Testimony

Mere minutes after Whoopi Goldberg from The View referred to the Polanski case as not being "rape-rape," the Polanski victim testimony hit the 'Net and airwaves. Leave it to the Smoking Gun to make "rape-rape" sound dumb-dumb. If you consider the Polanski case as little more than a witch-hunt, check out the Polanski victim testimony posted on the Smoking Gun website. The Polanski transcript details the drugging, fondling, and eventual sodomy of a 13 year old child by a 43 year old man. Comparing thePolanski Victim Testimony Makes Whoopi "Rape-Rape" Comment Sound Dumb-Dumb Polanski victim testimony to the notion that it was not "rape-rape" - as outlined by Whoopi Goldberg on The View - is a shocking undertaking.

As reported by the Mercury News, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese are among the vociferous supporters of Roman Polanski, who call for his release from a holding cell in Switzerland. Adding herself to the list of supporters is Whoopi Goldberg. A signed petition disregards the Polanski victim testimony and also his acknowledgment of guilt, and instead criticizes the manner and locale of the arrest. Harvey Weinstein is quoted by NPR as referring to the Polanski case as a "so-called crime," while Washington Post writer A. Applebaum is skewered for her assertion that the Polanski arrest will not add anything of value to American society.

The startling "rape-rape" comment and the intimation that Europe has a different view of child rape by Whoopi Goldberg is another troubling assertion that - in light of the Polanski victim testimony - requires a bit of explanation. Having lived in Europe and having traveled extensively through a number of countries, I can personally attest to the fact that drugging and raping a child is indeed not only frowned upon, but seriously prosecuted - when it is reported.