Michael Aquino - Ghost Rides

Ghost Rides An Automobiography - by Michael A. Aquino - 2 - 3 2018 by Michael A. Aquino Barony of Rachane Post Office Box #470307 San Francisco, CA 94147 U.S.A. http://www.rachane.org ISBN-13: 978-1985010963 ISBN-10: 1985010968 - 4 - 5 Dedication Leadfoot Lil The only one ever to have shut down the Little Old Lady, at 9:47-:50 PM on Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, April 21, 1972, in her 1970 Mark Donohue AMC Javelin SST. - 6 - 7 Table of Contents Dedication: Leadfoot Lil Table of Contents Preface: Spectres at the Sunset Grill Introduction: High Octane - by Don Webb Chapters 1: 1965 Lotus Cortina Mark I SE 1965-1969 2: 1968 Dodge M37B1 3/4-Ton Truck 1969-1970 3: 1970 Lotus Elan +2S 1970-1972 4: 1965 Pontiac GTO 1973-1978 5: 1979 Mercury Capri RS Turbo 1979-1982 6: 1982 Lincoln Continental Mark VI 1983-1988 7: 1987 Lotus Esprit 1987-1989 - 8 8: 1989 Ferrari 328GTS 1989-1990 9: 1989 Maserati 228 1989-1994 10: 1989 Ferrari Testarossa 1990-1992 11: 1990 Chrysler/Maserati TC 16V 1990-1995 12: 1989 Ferrari Mondial-t Coupe 1992-1995 13: 1993 Jaguar XJR-S Coupe 1994-1998 14: 1935 KdF-Wagen Kbelwagen Troop Transport Prototype 1935-Present 15: 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Coupe 1999-2005 16: 2001 Dodge Viper GTS 2005-2006 17: 2006 Pontiac GTO 2006-2010 18: 2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Coupe 20102014 19: 2011 Shelby GT500 2011-2014 - 9 20: 2013 Smart Brabus 2014-> Appendices 1: Mara Temple Notes 2: Grail Mission 3: Cthulhus Gate - by Eric Kauschen About the Author - 10 - 11 Preface: Spectres at the Sunset Grill Lets go down to the Sunset Grill, Watch the working girls go by, Watch the basket people walk around and mumble, Gaze out at the auburn sky. Maybe well leave come springtime.

Meanwhile, have another beer. What would we do without all these jerks anyway? And besides, all our friends are here. - Don Henley, Sunset Grill (1984) Todays Hollywood tourists looking for the Sunset Grill will be thrilled to find it at 7439 Sunset Boulevard: a lavish, upscale restaurant with a trendy menu and, of course, Henley CDs at the cashier. - 12 What they dont know is that the sidewalk counter known to Don and legions of hookers, cops, UCLA students, and Broken Dreamers is vanished into thin air - sold by its legendary host Joe Froehlich in 1997 after a 40-year run, thence demolished. Back in the 1960s, as a budgetmindful UCSB student often driving down to UCLA for its library, I munched many a burger at the Grill, and yes, struck up many momentary friendships. It was just that kind of place: This is also that kind of book: nostalgia, eccentricity, ghosts, mind-cobwebs.

It may interest, perhaps amuse you simply as casual conversation over after-dinner coffee. During the last couple of years Ive been on a binge of serious, scholarly books - even stories reflecting my Lovecrafty penchant for entangling unbelievable fact with believable fiction. Admirers & alarmists alike have occasionally wondered whether, darkly concealed behind my professional & academic persona of exemplary stability and rationality, there lurks a Phibesian - 13 psychotic indulging, nay driven by depraved dementia. Wonder no longer: Im a lifelong car nut. It all began over fifty years ago in 1964. After an unremarkable Eisenhower-childhood in which cars were mere transportation utilities, I had just been elected National Secretary of the Eagle Scout Honor Society, the Knights of Dunamis.

There was a National Board meeting in San Mateo, California, and the new National Commander, Robert S. Ballou, picked me up at the airport - in a small white Pontiac with the three letters G T O on its grille & flanks. Whats a GTO? I asked Bob as we cruised slowly onto the Highway 101 onramp. This, he said, and stomped the gas pedal to the floor. Two things immediately happened: Under the hood three double-barreled carburetors all opened at once, and my skeleton made a determined effort to push its way out the back of my body. Oooh, goodness gracious! I said when the airblast slowed enough for me to breathe some of it.

The rest, as they say, is history: this history. In his The Compleat Witch, Anton Szandor LaVey observed that a mans personality is revealed by whats in his garage. That may no longer be definitive for the Internet & anti-fossil fuel kids, but he arguably had a point with regard to his own, Great Depression-era and my own postwar Boomers generations. Antons collection included a rare 1937 coffin-nose Cord, a Cadillac hearse, a black Buick Limited limousine, a skyblue Jaguar 4.2 litre sedan, and the ultimate penis car: an Oldsmobile Toronado. Whenever he visited me in 1 O.K., so thats not exactly what I said, but this book is rated PG-13. - 14 St.

Louis and Santa Barbara, he enjoyed taking my latest toys for a high-velocity spin. But this book is not merely an old attic toybox. Each acquisition responded to a situation and/or state of mind, either personal or out there in the World of Horrors. Each car provided power, protection, or some subconscious magical key. Some factors I recognized at the time; others may lurch to the surface for the first time in these pages. The reader will doubtless notice that these cars are not only unusual and exotic, but also sticker shocking.

Nevertheless one of my habits was to search for and find the exceptional opportunity, even if it meant waiting a year or longer for a vehicle. Hence there is no methodical order to the sequence herein, and in several cases just a quick reaction to a surprise opportunity. Overall I neither made nor lost significant amounts of money; but then again these were never ulterior investments. Finally, as will also become evident herein in due course, this is a closed history. The deterioration of my bodily health, and particularly my eyesight, has brought the gavel down. This does not give me cause for despondence.

Had I denied or delayed these fantasies and adventures until it was too late, it would be a different story. Happily that was never the case. So hang on tight - here we go! - 15 Introduction: High Octane - by Don Webb Adventurers along the Left-Hand Path have a reputation for unexpected contrariness. Were observed concentrating on one thing, only to veer off elsewherish for maddeningly-obscure reasons. When invited to Introduce Baron Michael Aquino, arguably the greatest Black Magician of his generation and reciprocal Teacher of my Teacher, I decided to write about my uncle instead, then about the Runes for awhile. Then, if I have space left, perhaps a word or two about Aquino.