Behold my Dale Earnhardt Geraniums!

September 13, 2003 9:05 AM

Reverend Victoria's NASCAR Garden...
posted by machaus (20 comments total)

The site uses a horrible mix of white text on a yellow background, so highlight the whole page so you can see the navigation links.
posted by machaus at 9:06 AM on September 13, 2003

I think the logos section is particularly telling.. I dont run in circles where glorification of these multinationals is commonplace. I think some people with different cultural values might find something comforting and reassuringly American in these famiiar graphics.

Her husband is, apparently, a 'computer genius' because he can surf the internet and print things out. I find this woman somewhat pathetic and I probably dont agree with her politics.
posted by mert at 9:22 AM on September 13, 2003

Interesting perspectives - while the site is quite gaudy on its own respect, it was made with tellemweb.com's disposable websites..

If you're into NASCAR, it's kind of neat - she was trying to draw attention to the charities she supports, and leaning towards a pretty huge fan base that is probably a good portion of the US population. But not a bad idea overall.

I wish I could print logos off of the internet and laminate them - does ZDNet have a class for that?
posted by djspicerack at 9:36 AM on September 13, 2003

Hmm, this could open up a whole new concept of expressing the concern of environmental and social causes to "NASCAR fans" (aka "rednecks"):

NASCAR Endangered Species Zoo
NASCAR Rainforest
NASCAR Lack-of-Healthcare Horror Stories
NASCAR Appreciation of Arts and Culture
NASCAR Exploration into Alternatives to Fossil Fuels
posted by Down10 at 10:34 AM on September 13, 2003

It's interesting how her text describing construction lists specific brand information:

"marked with my Sharpie...(I purchased my cement at Home Depot)...and use 3M masking tape...white exterior paint from Sears...repaired any broken tracks with JB Weld from Lowe's."

Perhaps NASCAR's "glorification of these multinationals" is indeed working on its core audience. Sad.
posted by sharksandwich at 11:29 AM on September 13, 2003

Yeeeeeeehaw!
posted by Mayor Curley at 11:43 AM on September 13, 2003

"Speed channel" should devote a 3 hour special on the NASCAR garden - another reason to skip out on IRL, Rally, GT, MOTOGT, GPX and the rest of the racing world.
posted by omidius at 11:45 AM on September 13, 2003

Wow, viewing that site on my Samsung monitor while sipping a Pepsi cola and eating Doritos brand chips made me as happy as a Honda Civic in a Chevron car wash.

Blech. Utterly tacky.
posted by Yiggs at 1:02 PM on September 13, 2003

another reason to skip out on IRL, Rally, GT, MOTOGT, GPX and the rest of the racing world.

I can't believe they can fill that much time with NASCAR coverage, it boggles the mind. They've even taken away my bike time on Tuesdays. At least they have good CART coverage, though.

PS. IRL sucks
posted by Space Coyote at 2:14 PM on September 13, 2003

On my system, the text is black on the yellow bg, and white for the navigation, on the green bg.

No usability problem.
posted by smackfu at 2:58 PM on September 13, 2003

From http://www.tellemweb.com/

Always remember that the Internet is a public place and not all people are as nice as you.


Yea, I just came from plastic.com and tell'em web knows nice from naughty!
posted by rough ashlar at 3:27 PM on September 13, 2003

Hmm, this could open up a whole new concept of expressing the concern of environmental and social causes to "NASCAR fans" (aka "rednecks"):

NASCAR has become a bit of a litmus test for social class and regional snobbery these days.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 5:50 PM on September 13, 2003

I can't believe they can fill that much time with NASCAR coverage, it boggles the mind.

It's not *that* much. The only races on are the truck ones, and a lot of the rest is half-hour or hour stuff. While I commiserate over your loss of motorcycle racing time, it looked to me that a lot of the stuff that got shunted to make room for NASCAR was the non-racing stuff -- Air Show Weekly or whatever it was, Planes of Fame or whatever that show with biographies of Jimmy Doolittle was. Cool stuff, but not really motorsports stuff.

And they show F3000 racing now, and have better coverage of WRC than they did a few years ago, in addition to showing more of a CART weekend than ESPN(2) did.

PS. IRL sucks

Yeah it does. Lame-o's. Even the Winston Cup boys take rights turns twice a year, unlike IRL.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:53 PM on September 13, 2003

It's not *that* much. The only races on are the truck ones, and a lot of the rest is half-hour or hour stuff.

Not really. They also started covering crap like ASA, ARCA, and Hooter Cup. I can't wait until the off-season when they promise to show BTCC, Australian Supercars, JGTC, etc.
posted by gyc at 7:05 PM on September 13, 2003

cut her some slack, it's livonia fer christ sake! you want gardens, you come to grand rapids, home of meijer botanical gardens and sculpture park (mountain is for illustrative purposes and does not exist), built, paid for and named after the founder of meijer super-hyper-gonzomarkets (or whatever they are now called, sort of our own local mini-walmarts, though we have wal-mart too.) you can see flowers, bushes, trees and stuff in the leslie e. tassell english perennial and bulb garden annex, named for the founder of a local auto parts metal stamping operation. and big horsies. all of it tenderly cared for using only the finest brand-name goods from the meijer garden department. i'd go on, but every other fucking thing in town is named after the amway (mountain is for illustrative purposes and does not exist) founders, and meijer doesn't carry amway products.
posted by quonsar at 7:08 PM on September 13, 2003

Not really. They also started covering crap like ASA, ARCA, and Hooter Cup.

Ah. I'd misremembered when they'd started showing that stuff.

Still, AFAIC there's more good racing on Speed now than there was 3 years ago.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:22 PM on September 13, 2003

I do still love my Speed channel, I just mostly only watch it on teh weekends. ALMS and Trans Am and all the other good stuff would be hard to find otherwise.
posted by Space Coyote at 9:25 PM on September 13, 2003

I kinda dig this site. It looks perfectly appropriate on my browser, and the subject matter is actually kind of sweet.

Paying this much attention to detail on a project which might be considered a little esoteric (okay, maybe more than a little) is, no matter how misguided or just plain silly it looks on the face of it, a genuine expressive gesture to try and do good.

I'm guessing Rev. Victoria may be a little kooky, but people like her are what makes America great. If I was in her neighborhood, I'd totally visit, and if I had $15 to give... well, maybe.

Certainly, she's made more of an effort than I have, so I'm not gonna judge.
posted by chicobangs at 10:02 PM on September 13, 2003

I found it mildly strange and strangely touching.
posted by cairnish at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2003

gyc, as you have realised that the V8 Supercars Australian series surpasses NASCAR in quality, you can get a fix here without having to wait until your off season (there are live feeds of some rounds available via the 'net).

Like cairnish, I found this site strangely touching and also found it disturbing that I felt that way. Takes all kinds, I guess.
posted by dg at 7:49 PM on September 14, 2003