So you’re probably thinking, enough MINI posts already. Yeah, sorry about that, but I can’t not write about this one. Turns out that within the past couple of weeks MINIInternational (one word) launched a community-based website for MINI fans with creative sensibilities. It's the site I've been waiting for!
The concept behind MINIspace.com is based on a phrase coined by the designer of the original Mini, Sir Alec Issigonis. Upon drafting the first sketches of the original Mini, he touted it as a "Creative use of space." When I stumbled upon this site, you better believe I was stoked. I set up a profile and notified my MINI driving friends.
However, I’ve dug through this site and unfortunately its not as cool as I hoped it would be. I like features such as the blog, the size of the profile pics, and the random design contests they host. But the personalization of the profile pages is weak, the custom backgrounds are limited and there’s absolutely no thought put toward featuring both a car and a driver.
I can understand that perhaps they didn’t want to alienate users who are non-MINI owners. But for those of us who do have MINI’s, it would be so awesome if there were further profile capabilities that would allow drivers to post pics, mods, and nicknames of their MINI’s. Actually, that’s not a bad idea…
Last week, my family from NY was in town, so on Saturday, Normailty, Snizzle and I detailed the cars and headed over to a local middle school for a morning photo shoot. I borrowed the ultra-wide Canon lens from Struck and got down and dirty with some vehicular glamour shots of my dark silver 2006 MINI Coopers S and my cherry red 1975 BMW 2002.
Thanks to my killer b-day present from Mrs. Kyality, my sliver 2008 Specialized Sirrus also joined the vehicle roster. She got me a brand new set of Saris Bones 2, the ultimate MINI Cooper bike rack, recently discovered by Southern J. The thing seriously looks like it was made for a MINI. As you can see, it was a beautiful morning and we had a blast composing each shot.
It was also a bittersweet event. I’ve decided after 5 years of back and forth to sell my Bimmer. So the secondary purpose behind the shoot was to capture some "for sale" images. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun car, I love the way I feel behind the wheel. It’s classic, I feel like I know something that no ones else on the road knows.
However if you don’t have 1) a ton of extra cashflow 2) a mechanical mind or 3) a fix-it dood who owes you a favor or ten—owning a vintage auto just isn't worth it. Plus, and this is the good news, the MINI totally fulfills the “I know something you don’t know” vibe. So enjoy the pics. You can see more at my brand new Flickr Stream and if you’re in the market for a cherry red 2002, you know who to contact!
They're a fun pair of rods. At this ultra-wide angle, this little Cooper looks almost Clubman-like!
It’s been a long time dream to do advertising and design for MINI. And as of yesterday the realization of that dream launched. Meet the MINI Carfun Footprint Calculator. What is a Carfun Footprint you might ask? Well, it’s a unit of measurement that pits your car’s fun factor against its environmental impact.
This is an actual quantitative number calculated by a combination of legitimate sources. And once the facts were in, guess which car came out on top? Yep, the MINI Cooper Hardtop has the ultimate combo of fun vs. green on the road today! BSSP developed a killer concept and Struck was responsible for the final design, 3D, motion graphics and development of the Flash app itself. Every time I play with the thing, I’m absolutely blown away by the killer 3D, texturing and motion that the team cranked out. We actually did use quite a few photos from the Clubman shoot from a few weeks ago both as reference and as actual textures as well.
The entire site experience will also literally be delivered through some serious rich media banner buys, which is an awesome feat in and of itself. So if you see a Carfun banner in your daily perusal of the world wide web, make sure to play with it for a bit then click through to miniusa.com and configure a Cooper of your own. But just remember, I call Hot Chocolate!
Check out this sa-weet poster for Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin yesterday. It’s a very Bauhaus-inspired design, which oddly enough lends itself well to whole patriotic/hope/change vibe he's got going on. It’s an awesome piece for sure. So here’s the question, is it bad to want to vote for a guy just cuz of good design?
So Struck shut down on Friday and took everyone to see The Dark Knight on opening day. Yeah, pretty awesome… it may or may not have been my idea. Anyways, it’s taken me a couple of days to compose my thoughts about the flick—and I don’t even know if I’ve fully processed it all as of yet. But I want to at least get my impressions out there.
The Dark Knight is a serious flick. Why so serious, you ask? Uh, cuz it’s awesome. If you thought that Batman Begins was a fairly “realistic” comic book movie—you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. I mean, Batman Begins still had its share of surrealism, what with the several hallucination scenes. But this is something quite different.
The Dark Knight takes the comic book genre and flips it on its head. In fact, there are several parts where you completely forget you’re watching a “superhero movie” and it feels much more like you’re watching a very realistic, very awesome action and/or suspense flick. A majority of this vibe is accomplished by the combination of an ultra tight script, fantastic and raw cinematography, and of most of all by the buzzworthy performance of Heath Ledger—that you buy into—hook, line and sinker.
This is easily the must-see-movie-event of the summer, easily. The action sequences were absolutely legit. You get some great Batmobile/Batpod scenes. But oddly enough the automotive scene-stealer is in some ways Bruce Wayne’s gorgeous graphite grey, not-so-subtle Lamborghini Murcielago. (And I don't even like Lambos!) Bottom line: go see this flick. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a massive Batman fan—and this flick has instantly catapulted itself to become my fave Batman movie yet. And word on the street is, if it’s at all possible; see it on an IMAX screen.
Yesterday, BMW officially announced that they will create 500 electric versions of the MINI, which will all be exported to California. 490 of them will be leased to selected customers with the remaining 10 set to be saved for display purposes.
The electric MINIs will be built at the MINI Factory in Oxford ,UK, then shipped to Germany without engines, gearboxes or fuel tanks. They’ll have a unique color scheme as well. Apparently, they’ll feature a silver body and a yellow roof, which eludes (I mean alludes) slightly to the project Struck's currently doing for MINI. (Check out my sweet, wannabe Photoshop skills pictured above.)
Once in Germany, BMW will equip the models with an electric powertrain, before heading across the pond all the way to California. This whole endeavor is meant to keep BMW in check with the Golden State's strict emission guidelines that will requires that automakers offer a certain percentage of zero emission vehicles. The success of the project could then lead to the mass production of the vehicle, sources state BMW are likely to make an official announcement later this year.
Bottom line is that MINI has the opportunity within its grasp to change the entire equation. And if anyone can do it, it’s MINI. But they've got to do more than lease a measly 490 cars! There’s currently an online petition requesting that BMW make the electric MINI for the masses sooner than later. Let’s face it, if the electric MINI’s performance is anything like the Tesla, we’ll be in good shape!
Between 1975 and 1999, BMW has commissioned fifteen world-class artists to use BMW vehilces as canvases for original artwork. Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein were just some of the artists invited to participate in the BMW Art Cars Collection. In 2006, even interactive design legend Joshua Davis was asked to use custom algorithms to create original art based on the Z4 Coupe. This year, artist and vinyl toy designer Tristan Eaton—of Kidrobot fame—was commissioned to create a MINI art car for Garage419. So basically, this is more or less the result when MINI meets MUNNY.
Using a new type of highly reflective vinyl decals, Tristan turned this typical Mk I MINI Cooper S, with some sweet John Cooper Works accouterments, into a sooped-up, surrealistic Super-Cooper. I’ve researched a ton of custom MINI’s and I can easily say this is one of the best treatments I’ve come across. Besides the amazing artwork, I’m especially stoked on the 18” JCW Matte Black Wheels and the JCW Carbon-fiber Rear Wing. Nicely done, gentlemen, nicely done.
You’ve probably already heard, but Pixar has done it yet again. They’ve schooled the competition by releasing another technically superior flick with a story that could go down as one of the best films of the year and perhaps one of the best sci-fi films of all time. The Kyality Kids and I caught WALL•E this weekend and seriously the folks at Pixar have outdone themselves.
WALL•E lives up to the hype with moving drama, silent film storytelling, and in the end a very hope-filled outlook. The design of the characters themselves is easily the most compelling aspect of this feature. Granted you experience some definite Johnny 5-ish moments when watching WALL•E, yet it’s still amazing to realize just how much expression the dudes at Pixar were able to accomplish by limiting themselves to strictly mechanical movements of WALL•E's head and eyes.
But for me, it’s all about EVE. There’s no way around the fact that EVE is just flat out cool. This Jonathan Ive-inspired droid is fast and furious; she’s shiny and sexy. And let’s face it, you’ve got respect a take-charge-kind-of-woman. WALL•E, I’m with you… EVE’s a hottie and I’d probably stalk her too.
By the way, the inspiration for EVE came from Jony Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple not to be confused with Johnny 5, the sentient robot from 1986’s Short Circuit and 1988’s Short Circuit 2. (Yes, there was in fact a sequel.)
Also, Presto—the Pixar short that precedes WALL•E—is in my opinion their best short film yet. And you designer types out there will for sure dig the letterpressed look of this short’s closing creds.
So Mrs. Kyality and the Kyality Kids rocked the house down with some killer gifts for Father’s Day this year—especially coming off of such a sweet Christmas present. The F-day gifts included tix to see Jerry Seinfeld live, R.E.M.’s hot new album Accelerate, a Hot Wheels model of the Mach 5, and last but definitely not least… Chewbacca from Hasbro’s new line of wannabe Kidrobot toys called Mighty Muggs.
Mighty Muggs are Hasbro’s take on the urban vinyl movement, but in my opinion, most of the figures look a bit cheesy. But as you can see, the Chewie model is pretty much flawless and awesome.
Once I got my F-day gifts all set up at work. I snapped couple pics of my workstation and uploaded them to a new site called: WHEREWEDOWHATWEDO. You can also see the workstations of fellow Strucker Jeramy and IndieLabs' Matty and Stremph.
I’ve got a problem with hybrids. Yep, that’s right. I especially have a problem with the whole concept of a hybrid SUV. Seriously, give me a break folks. The reason a hybrid is a hybrid is because it has two engines, a combustion and an electric. So tell me this, how does adding more mass to a vehicle mean less of a need for energy? More does not equal less. You can’t add more mass to a car and expect it to require less energy in order to move. It’s called physics. Not to mention there’s energy required to run the additional infrastructure to manufacture a second engine and the mega batteries that hybrids rely on.
Something as got to change. We need to completely rethink exactly what the modern automobile is and luckily the dudes at a little place called Bavarian Motor Works are doing just that. In 1992, American auto designer Chris Bangle became BMW’s Chief of Design. Granted he’s pushed BMW’s design in to a more controversial realm, especially with what’s come to be known as the “Bangle-butt”, BUT the industry has followed suit nevertheless.
Under Bangle’s direction, BMW has just released a vehicle that seriously reduces mass and challenges the very essence of what auto design has become. Enter: the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model Concept Car. Yeah, I know, it’s a mouthful, just watch this clip… trust me.
Talk about reducing mass. You heard that right—this car is wrapped in high-tech fabric. Until automakers start thinking with this level of ingenuity, I’m afraid we’ll merely continue to suffer as energy prices continue to soar. But until then, please hang up the keys to the SUV and pick a vehicle with a little less load to lug.
In 10th grade I some how came across a flawless fedora. So you better believe that for Halloween that year, I also scrapped together an old army satchel, a some khakis, a leather jacket, and of course, a bullwhip. Ever since I can remember, the Harrison Ford amalgamation of Indian Jones / Han Solo has been my iconic hero figure. I worshiped and upheld both Raiders and the Last Crusade as some of the best movies ever. (I never got into that whole Temple of Doom thing.)
So needless to say, I’ve been following the rumored 4th Indy pretty closely. I was right there when M. Night Shyamalan was supposedly writing the script. I checked IMDb one day prior to the release of the title and literally checked back the next day to see “The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” squarely in place. And last week, Mrs. Kyality and I polished off Raiders and the Last Crusade in preparation for the weekend when we finally had a babysitter so we could hook up with the Upto12's and check out the newest Indy installment.
First things first, at least the Crystal Skull is better than the Temple of Doom. But if you’ve heard that you’ll need to suspend your disbelief for this one—you heard right. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a massive exercise in the fact that: just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Yet, I’ll also be the first to admit, I didn’t not like it.
Without giving anything away, here’s what worked. The whole first half of the movie was good, fun stuff. The time period was dead-on; you definitely get the sense that Indy is older. Shia Labeouf is actually pretty awesome. The twist was good and there’s some decent dialog for sure.
Here’s what didn’t work. Nearly the entire movie seems as though it’s shot on a set. There’s far too much surrealism, I felt like I was watching an installment of The Mummy franchise rather than the Indy series. Indiana Jones flicks are the ultimate stuntman movies, they need to be set somewhat in reality in order to have that how’d-they-do-that impact. And no, tons of special effects and South-American- grave-dwelling-ninjas don’t count. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
That last and most important component that was lacking in this flick is a little thing known as the Spielberg Moment. You know what I mean… a Spielberg Moment is one of pure, true wittiness. It’s Indy cappin’ the swordsman, it’s E.T. motionless in the toy closet, it’s seeing the shark and uttering, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” The Crystal Skull tried really, really hard to have that moment and it came close, but time after time fell just short of the mark. But like I said, at least it was better than the Temple of Doom.
So yesterday I karted B Money and Jeramy down to MINI of Murray, while on the job. Yes, Struck's MINI project with BSSP is in full swing and I arranged for a photo shoot of an '08 Clubman. There’s a major 3D component to our project and we needed to gather gobs of guages and textures to map onto our 3D models—textures like chrome, leather, brushed aluminum and black grill mesh.
To my delight, our friends at MINI of Murray tossed us the keyless entry fob to a Hot Chocolate Cooper S Clubman. So beautiful. We set up and B Money when to town. I covered the action with my iPhone cam. This model sported the wood-trimmed interior, the Hot Chocolate leather/fabric upholstery, and a massive sunroof—which helped immensely with lighting the interior. It was a fun hour’s worth of work, definitely one of those times that makes you think: geez, I can’t believe this is my job.
Here's one of the reference images we shot for our 3D renderings:
As part of the Barack Obama Campaign’s ongoing designerly efforts—Scott Hanson, of ISO50 fame, has released his print to support the cause. This beautiful, idealistic print fits soundly next to Shepard Fairey’s silkscreen poster from a few months ago.
It absolutely astounds me how well Obama’s campaign speaks to the Gen-X/Gen-Y crowd. His logo is more or less a Web 2.0 icon, his site is probably one of the best cause-related sites around, and his engagement of exceptional artists and designers is genuinely cool.
For some reason I tend to be the guy that likes the movies that everyone else can’t stand. I’m not sure if this is the case here, but let’s just say that despite the crap reviews—I loved the flick: Speed Racer. In the 1960’s Japanese animation pioneer, Tatsuo Yoshida created the exciting animated series Mach GoGoGo. It was insanely successful and was re-dubbed for US television in 1967 under the name that we’ve grown to know and love: Speed Racer.
This summer, directing their first feature since the ridiculous Matrix sequels, Larry and Andy Wachowski brought Speed Racer to the big screen and I freaking loved it. In fact, I saw it twice in three days. And here's the review I promised.
Speed Racer (the movie) is an insanely lush experiment in cinematic storytelling. When I finally forced myself to watch the final installment of the Matrix Trilogy on DVD, it was brutally apparent that the Wachowskis we’re fans of South Korean filmmaker Myung-se Lee. Especially since they cold-lifted the final fight scene in The Matrix Revolutions from Lee’s 1999 Sundance-selected, genre-crunching, crime dramady: Nowhere to Hide.
In Speed Racer, the Brothers Wachowski return once again to their homage to Myung-se Lee’s work. Throughout Nowhere to Hide, the director constantly relies on stylized, almost anime-like techniques to cover up edits and intensify the action. These exact methods were utilized in Speed Racer to accomplish a similar result. However, rather than coming off as copycats, the Wachowskis use this type of storytelling in a fun, compelling, energetic way that fits with the original text very well.
For me, the movie itself was utterly unique. I loved the race scenes, the production design (especially the Mach 5 and Mach 6) and even though the acting was campy—I bought into it. John Goodman as Pops: awesome. Emile Hirsch as Speed: awesomer. Matthew Fox as Racer X: awesomest. Granted there are times when the special effects feel stitched in and down right low-budge. But it still worked for me. Seriously, it’s not like the original Speed Racer series was by any means a high quality cartoon to begin with. The coolest detail about the movie, is that the filmmakers actually took the time to work in Speed’s inexplicable gasps and grunts throughout the racing sequences.
For some reason, I have the innate ability to walk into a theater a watch a flick with the eyes of a 13 year-old. Personally, I feel like that’s a gift. (I suppose that’s why I can stomach something like Episode I.) So the big question is, can someone who’s not an original series fan, or a car freak, or a super-gifted man-child enjoy this 2 hour and 15 minute cinematographic explosion? I believe the answer is yes. Just suspend your disbelief, drive really fast on the way to the theater and decide now to be okay with candy-craving chimpanzees.
Ever since Apple discontinued the 12-inch PowerBook with the launch of the MacBook line, I’ve been a little bummed. Granted I’ve enjoyed rockin’ a 15-inch MacBook Pro for the past year, but I loved the unique compactness of my 12-inch G4. Well that all changed as of today. That’s right—I’m typing this very post on a spankin’ new MacBook Air. And I have to admit, so far... so great.
The MacBook Air is an absolutely stunning piece of industrial design. As it sat on my desk at work today—passers by couldn’t help but pick it up and caress it… seriously. Even though it’s ridiculously thin and lightweight, it doesn’t feel cheap at all. In fact it actually seems down right substantial and dialed. It feels like a premium machine as opposed to a standard white MacBook, which at times can come off a bit toy-like.
Besides the sheer weightlessness, the coolest aspect of the Air is the keyboard. It’s essentially a duplicate of the gorgeous new Mac keyboards, with the same tactile feel and user feedback. I also managed to score a killer faux fur-lined neoprene sleeve by Incase.
The only hardship I’ve experienced thus far is the wireless transfer, which was attempted three times and failed three times. Luckily I’d already wussed out and purchased the optional external disc drive, which made the transfer of critical files easy after the no-luck wireless route. But all-in-all I’m stoked! Let’s just say I love all things mini. And on that note I may as well mention that as of today Struck was officially awarded our first interactive project for MINI! So awesome. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the progress.
Here’s the synopsis: two bros, one MINI Cooper S, some serious rock and roll, and nothing but blue skies in all directions. For those of you who haven’t heard, Upto12 and I decided to hit up Grand Junction, CO for some bro time and a concert by a little band simply known as Wilco. First things first, can I just say that 4 hours in a car with no kids feels like 1 hour in the car with kids. And that's not an exaggeration.
Grand Junction is a tiny, super clean town with its share of new and old. We caught Iron Man (two thumbs up) in a brand new megaplex—seriously the floors weren’t even sticky yet. And then later that evening we met up with Dainon and date at the historic Avalon Theater to see the Wilcos in was what was apparently a landmark concert for the GJ.
The house was packed; thankfully there wasn’t a bad seat in the place. In fact there wasn’t a single seat further than 70 feet from center stage in that place, which ain’t very far at all. Folks had settled in their seats by the time Jeff Tweedy and company sauntered onto stage. They kicked the night off with a couple of oldies but goodies, then with their third number they launched into several tracks from their latest album, Sky Blue Sky. Instantaneously the audience leapt to their feet and thus began the 2-hour, mass air-guitar-fest that apparently accompanies every Wilco show.
Wilco is currently, without a doubt, the great American rock and roll band. This is not an opinion, this is a statement of fact. Anyone who has witnessed a down and dirty performance of California Stars transform directly into a sizzlin’, deep-fried rendition of Impossible Germany knows exactly what I’m talking about. Official guitar god, Nels Cline lays down such ridiculously rich and chaotic riffs that constantly teeter on the brink of full-on self-destruction only to return to perfectly synchronized jam sessions within a moments notice.
As much as I love a rock band like, oh say... My Morning Jacket, I fully realized after seeing Wilco live, that a vast majority of the bands I love are amateur hour by comparison. The next day—after nine holes of 3-club golf—we snagged some Chipotle burritos and Upto12 piloted the MINI while I snapped pics of the sky blue sky all the way home.
I've been lucky enough to produce a site or two for Specialized bikes and I picked up my own special order yesterday, a silver grey Sirrus Sport. Sure fixed gear bikes are totally hip and totally in. But I grew up doing bikes tours in and around the Hudson Valley, and even though I live on the flat Salt Lake Valley floor, I'm definitely the type of rider who can appreciate more than one gear.
The Sirrus Sport is a heads-up messenger bike with the sleekness of a road bike and the practicality of a mountain bike. Now all I need is a roof rack for the MINI or I can always pull a Southern J: take the front wheel off and hook the fork around the front passenger seat. We’ll see—at least they sort of match.
In 1978 Lamborghini and BMW joined forces to launch the first official BMW Motorsport car to the public, it was simply called the M1. Since then the Motorsport division of BMW has cranked out super cars in the form of sport sedans, wagons, coupes and convertibles. To honor the first M car’s 30th anniversary, BMW has just released official photos of a new concept car that’s being called the M1 Homage.
The original M1 was an extreme design in it’s own right and the M1 Homage is no different. In fact, I’d say extreme is a mild adjective when it comes to this particular concept. You can definitely tell that BMW purposefully departed from their design language to pull this one off. I guess that’s okay once in a while. It seems to me that the design is both figuratively and literally blurring the lines of the original M1, as though some strange wormhole brought it to this day and age. Everything from the C pillar on seems like it’s been stretched out by a wrinkle in time. There’s no doubt that it’s sexy and cool, but something about it seems very un-Bimmerish to me.
Personally, I believe the real reincarnation of the original M1 came not too long ago in the form of the BMW 1-Series Coupe tii Concept. Based loosely on the 1970’s fuel-injected 2002 tii, the only reason the Motorsport-built 1-Series Coupe tii Concept isn’t being called the M1 is because of the fancy red time machine pictured above. Word on the street is that the tii is actually getting prepped for production. It’ll be interesting to see how many 1-Series enthusiasts actually swap their tii emblem for one alluding a bit more to the MMMMMMMMuscle found under the hood.
So my previous trip to NYC yielded a follow up visit and an opportunity to hit up some more design-centric locations. First on my list was the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. They had a great exhibit on the history and modern interpretations of the Rococo style. Recent examples included Joroen Verhoeven’s crazy Cinderella Table, the Materialized Sketch Chair by Front, and the unreal Seduction poster by Marian Bantjes.
Other stops along the way included a rice pudding snack attack at Rice to Riches, perusing the irregular rack at the American Apparel store ($30 bucks for an irregular t-shirt—whatever), and a stop by the Kidrobot store to pick up some Dunnies for the Kyality Kids. (Yeah, I got one for me too.)
Thanks to Snizzle and Jess/Jon in the City for an awesome NYC weekend.
A couple of months ago my favorite magazine, Dwell, underwent a complete redesign. I wasn’t impressed at all. In fact I was disappointed enough to write a letter to the editor exclaiming my distaste for their design decisions. Apparently it was published in the latest issue:
"I've been a loyal reader for 5 years. I've always looked forward to every issue. And over the past few months I've been anticipating a redesign of the magazine. And to be honest, I'm very surprised at the choices that were settled on. I applaud you for reducing your environmental footprint by decreasing page size and switching to recycled stock. Though I will miss the texture and weight of the former design.
"What's really confusing me are the new typography choices and your new grid. I'm not sure what font you've chosen for your tagline and body copy, but it may as well be Cooper Black. It's very difficult to read and seems incredibly dated. The grid you've chosen is blowing my mind and not in a good way. I've always enjoyed your stories—but I've loved soaking in your photos even more. For me, Dwell is all about the photography. On my first perusal, I only saw one full bleed photo! A vast majority of them were framed by a half inch boarder on all sides. So you've reduced your page size and you've smooshed your beautiful photos even smaller to fit into this needless frame! Not to mention your folios now feel utterly crammed in the corners. It seems like an amateurish mistake.
"It honestly doesn't make any sense. You may as well cut the page size down to the photos themselves and save even more trees, since a half inch on all sides is being wasted anyway. Please let those photos breathe and for heaven's sake give us our beautiful, all-caps tagline font back! Your masthead was great, if you want to bump up the size, fine—but there's no need to mess with typographic perfection.
"I have to admit, if the overall design of the new Dwell doesn't improve significantly over the next few issues, I hate to say it—but I may be looking for another modern-stuff resource."
Okay, so maybe I overreacted a little. But honestly the first couple of redesigned issues we’re straight up fugly. Maybe my letter helped. I still love the mag, the subsequent issues have improved design-wise and I don’t plan on ending my subscription. So if any Dwell folks are reading this post (doubt it), I appreciate you applying some of my suggestions—keep up the good work.
For those of you who don’t know, along with my posts to Kyality, I’m also a frequent contributor to Stuck’s blog Deconstruckt. And we’ve just redesigned and relaunched it with an all new set of cutting edge features.
The new and improved Deconstruckt sports a variety of enhancements. The most apparent of these are the slew of custom backgrounds that load randomly upon refresh. These backgrounds are designed by multiple Struckers, on and off of the design teams. Other improvements include a state-of-the-art AJAX commenting system, author avatars, a Flickr stream, an RSS feed, and amazing downloadable Struck wallpapers.
The most important enhancement to the site is the inclusion of multiple channels. The new Deconstruckt is essentially three blogs in one. ‘Create’ is the channel where you will find the latest and greatest concepts, design, art, and techniques that flow from the minds of the Struckers. ‘Build’ is essentially a labs channel. Struck's interactives will be throwing down the hottest tips, trends and tech for the coder in you all. And ‘Play’ is a channel dedicated to the mischief and mayhem that continually plagues the studio. So check Deconstruckt often for next-gen blogcasting in triplicate.
In the 1960’s Japanese animation pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida created the exciting animated series Mach GoGoGo. It was insanely successful and was re-dubbed for US television in 1967 under the name that we’ve grown to know and love: Speed Racer. Luckily, throughout my high school years the Cartoon Network re-released the series to an entirely new generation of anime-lovin’ gearheads.
About six months ago, I scored the first season of Speed Racer on DVD. Now the Kyality Kids enjoy the adventures of Speed, Trixie, Spritle, Chim-Chim, and of course the Mach 5. And they love to sing: Go! Speed Racer, Go! Speed Racer, Go! Speed Racer, Go-oh! Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.
This summer, directing their first feature since the ridiculous Matrix sequels, Larry and Andy Wachowski are bringing Speed Racer to the big screen. And with rumors of an IMAX version, it may be hitting the really big screen as well. Even though the Matrix sequels were a joke, the Wachowski brothers did write and produce V for Vendetta last year—which was awesome—so I’m pretty excited for this. Not to mention, the trailers for this flick are off the hizzle.
I’m most impressed with the production design of the Mach 5 itself. It’s dead on. I really don’t mind the filmmakers taking liberties with the time and place of the storyline. But they had to stay true to the design of the Mach 5—and they did. This car looks amazing and a working version wrapped in a massive set of Yokohama’s is making the rounds on the Auto Show circuit. Road & Track even test-drove this hot rod. I'm pretty sure that Normality and crew caught the Mach 5 at the NYAS.
I have a feeling this is gonna be a pretty good summer for movies. Look forward to several Kyality movie reviews. And in the meantime, if you really want to get excited for Speed Racer, just follow these simple instructions to watch its trailers in QuickTime’s amazing H.264 high definition codec:
1) Turn down the lights. 2) Crank up the volume on the speakers. 3) Click this link. 4) Select the proper QuickTime HD resolution. 5) Hit “Command-F” for Full Screen, grab some popcorn and enjoy.
While driving home last Friday, I got a call from my padre, Normality. He was calling from the New York Auto Show from driver seat of a Sedona Red BMW 135i. Normality, Snizzle, and Jon in the City went to the Auto Show and snapped a couple hundred pics including these. Click here to enlarge the pic below.
Since I was relatively jealous, Mrs. Kyality and I popped on over to our local BMW/MINI dealership to sneak a peek of the two rods that were apparently stealing the show: the 2008 BMW 135i Coupe and the 2008 MINI Cooper Clubman S. Seeing these two cars in the flesh was amazing. The 135i is gorgeous, muscular, and most importantly classic. It’s a small car but the massive 18-inch rims just give it a menacing stance. The 135i is the spiritual successor of the 2002. It’s got a killer tagline that says it all: Distilled Not Diluted.
Then we wandered over to the MINI side of the dealership and caught our first glimpse of the Clubman. This car is tighter than tight. It’s double rear doors are elegant, piston-cushioned devices. The stretched-look is groovy rather than goofy. And with the right accessories, the car is downright rugged. I instantly fell in love with the beautiful beast.
As a car guy, at any given time, you need know what your “next car” is going to be. The “next car” can change and even change frequently, but there can’t be a question mark as to what that car is. So this weekend, after experiencing these two vehicles—I was dumbfounded. What was my “next car” going to be—the Bavarian Burner or the British Beast?
Well, Mrs. Kyality had a great insight. The 1 Series will become BMW’s new bread and butter vehicle—it’s gonna be around for a while. The Clubman is most likely a one-of-a-kind, unique machine that may have a short-run at best. So I’d like to announce that officially (for today at least) my “next car” is the MINI Cooper Clubman S. It is the perfect combo of form, function, performance, and personality. The 135i can always come later. And by the way, I call Hot Chocolate!
Diddo! Southern J's latest post perfectly summarizes my feelings on the matter of BMW's maniacal insistence on never bringing the great cars stateside. He found a killer WIRED article proclaiming the all-new Advanced Diesel 1 Series as the winner of the World Green Car Award. And of course—as soon as it was proclaimed winner—the car was promptly packed up and shipped on back to Deutschland. At least the 135i sports sedan is still on its way.
Now I raise my voice to the heavens (with the half dozen other doods who like kinda like hot hatches, and by heavens I mean BMW NA) that someone, anyone will just snap out of it and bring the great rods here! At least give us the option to upgrade our options! Sheesh.
PS: No, I do not regularly say "flippin'"—never actually—the title of this post is merely a quote from the WIRED article mentioned above. So thank you for listening.
When I was a kid, I’d seriously get giddy about flicks or shows that began with the subtitle, “In the not too distant future.” They were always movies that tended to have really cool vehicles and plenty of action. Today I’m here to say that the not too distant future is the here and now. I’m talking about the launch of Hulu.com.
Hulu is a joint web venture between some of the biggest networks and studios to deliver free, ad-supported content of you favorite shows and flicks with none of the guilt of watching ripped content. I’m literally watching the series premiere of Airwolf while I write this post. I haven’t seen the adventures of Stringfellow Hawke and his supersonic chopper since I was about 13 years old—and even those were reruns on the USA Network. Yet here I am, watching it for free with a fullscreen option.
I can honestly say if it wasn’t for people yappin’ about LOST the very next day, I’d never buy cable television again. Thanks to our 24-in iMac, which is just about the same size as our TV set, Mrs. Kyality and I have been plowing through the first 2 seasons of Friday Night Lights online. Yes, we're officially Panthers. And I’ve become a pro at sitting back on our couch and dual-wielding a Mighty Mouse and an Apple Remote. Unfortunately, when watching shows online, you can’t navigate single-handedly with just the remote as you can when in Apple’s Front Row app.
Wouldn’t it be sweet if the Apple Remote had a little scroll ball embedded in it that simply controlled your mouse movement? Ya know, just like a Mighty Mouse. In fact, they could call it a Mighty Mote. Check out my awesome Photoshop skillz:
Pretty good idea, huh. Eat your heart out Jony Ive!
So I’m home today with the Kyality Kids. Mrs. Kyality was in the hospital for most of the night with some awesome stones. Unfortunately, I’m not talking the old, British rocker kind; I‘m talking the prenatal, labor-inducing kidney kind. So after a long night, it was refreshing to wake up to a sweet little blast from the past. Apparently, General Mills and Target (of course) have teamed up to re-release and market a limited edition of vintage cereal boxes.
The line includes classic editions of Kix, Lucky Charms, Wheaties, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Golden Grahams. But the "Corn Kix" box is by far my favorite. The custom typography is unique, clean, and bold. The muted blue and burnt orange color combination oddly enough works extremely well. Luckily the cereal itself doesn’t taste too vintage. But best of all, it perfectly complimented my delicious glass of lemon-lime Airborne placebo. I don’t care what you say, that stuff still works.
So I figured it out. Yep, that’s right. I’ve got it all figured out. Let’s just say that it’s all about Desmond—and he’s been sent to “save” everyone. Well I've done some research and apparently this is a sneak peek at the LOST season finale:
I’m kidding. This is however Henry Ian Cusick playing Christ in 2003’s The Gospel of John. Anyone who’s kept up with LOST Season 4 knows: so far—so, so, so good. But this week, they upped the ante yet again with another mind-blowing, Desmond- centered episode. I won’t give anything away, but needless to say, it once again confirms that Desmond is without a doubt my absolute fave LOST character. I've mentioned this before, but Desmond is just smooth—Jesus hair and all.
But seriously, are Damon and crew taking the Messiah route with Desmond or what? I mean, he’s basically immortal, he can foresee the future, he’s got tons of brotha-ly love, and I’ll admit, sometimes I do find myself asking: What would Desmond do?
If for some reason you haven’t been soaking in the Season 4 goodness, get with the picture and catch up with ABC.com’s Full Episode Player. And remember: WWDD?
