KRINKed-out MINI Cooper S

Check it out… apparently New York street artist Craig “KR” Costello has customized a Mini Cooper S with his radical KRINK® technique. The car was unveiled this morning in Hamburg, Germany.

Happy MINIween!

Since last year I posted an Alice Cooper MINI for All Hallow's Eve... and this year we just wrapped up our first D-land trip, which included visits to the hysterical Jedi Training Academy and a stowing away on Star Tours... I thought it'd be appropriate to post a couple of classic Vader-MINIs.

Enjoy!

Best Parent Teacher Conference Ever

There are few things stranger than sitting on a tiny chair across a minuscule desk from your child’s teacher. You realize very quickly just how old you really are. I was very pleased with our oldest Kyality Kid’s grades and progress… but nothing could prepare me for the straight up pride I was about to feel toward our amazing little daughter. (I mean this was comparable to her little bro’s “Enstrybacks” comment from a few weeks back.) For one of her timed tests, she needed to quickly draw something “in the car”... here was the result:

Now to the untrained eye, this probably looked like some kind of standard dashboard. But to me… it was instantly obvious.

Yes, she is her father’s daughter.

The Saga Is Complete

For those of you who have been following my quest to locate the ideal bike for Mrs. Kyality... the saga is complete! Yesterday, the Kyality Kids and I presented her with a pre-loved birthday bike—and apparently it was a success. She loved it.

The question has been—how do you get a quality bike for someone who isn't too sure how into cycling they'll be, without breaking the bank? Well the answer came in an unsuspected way. I took a random route home form work one day and while at a stoplight, I saw some unique handlebars out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see a light blue upright cruiser out in front of a pawn shop. I thought it was an Electra Townie at first—but to my delight—it turned out to be a flat-foot-style Giant Suede 3 speed. (My very first mountain bike was a Giant.)

The used bike was the key... everything fit the bill: perfect color, perfect geometry and most importantly perfect price. Here's to taking to road less traveled.

My New Addiction: The Dodos

A few weeks ago and I was combing through Spencer Tweedy's blog (son of Wilco's front-man Jeff). He had posted this Pitchfork.tv vid with no labels, titles or tags of a younger-looking guitarist and two percussionists. I listened to the live performance and was instantly addicted but couldn't find the vid on Pitchfork in order to identify the mystery musicians.

Upto12 was out for some biz and I showed him the vid... of course he identified the band within about 30 seconds as the SF-based band The Dodos and then said... "Didn't I hook you up with their first album." I checked my iTunes, he had and sure enough I'd already listened to Visiter—a lot in fact thanks to iTunes' Genius functionality. (Post on Genius coming soon, promise.)

A week later, The Dodos' newest album, Time To Die, was released and I have to be honest—I HAVE NOT STOPPED LISTENING TO IT. It's stripped down, raw, passionate, intricate and simple all at the same time. Every track is solid, memorable and catchy—in a good way. In fact, I catch myself replaying Meric Long's driving guitar solos in my head at all hours of the day. But it's not like getting Tom's Diner stuck in your head, it's actually kinda awesome.

So check it out at an iTunes Store near you. Best $7.99 you'll spend this weekend.

Touring Bike Geek Out

After pounding through the Long Way Round and starting the Long Way Down, I've been geeking out over this rad little gallery of fully-loaded touring bikes. Enjoy!

The Fantastic Façade

A few years ago Mrs. Kyality and I saw The Killers at Saltair on their killer Sam’s Town Tour. In fact, Upto12 covered the show on his former blog more or less exclaiming them as the ultimate in postmodern pop rock. Well, Mrs. Kyality and I caught The Killers at the much larger, broader-audienced E-Center last night and now it’s my turn to provide the post-concert diagnosis.

I’m just gonna say it—The Killers are NOT a rock band. And perhaps it’s even insulting to say they are. The Killers are nothing less than theatrical entertainers specifically catering to diehard rock ‘n’ roll enthusiasts, and I genuinely mean that as a compliment. I personally think that people who consider The Killers as just some kick-butt rock band don’t get it. They’re missing out on an entire level of intertextual, postmodern odes to everything rock ‘n’ roll.

I mean seriously, this band has a lead guitarist who wields a butt-rock Flying-V on top of a stack of amps in a classic power stance, a bassist that thumps on a McCartney-style Hofner bass and all the while has a lead singer who’s subtly channeling the ’68 version of Elvis. And it all works. Not to mention you can’t help but continually think that Jason Lee plays drums for these three characters. The Killers put on an amazing show specifically for rock ‘n’ roll junkies, full of mash-ups of their own tunes and sporadic rock references. Their stage is purposefully flanked by fake plastic trees while, you guessed it, the show itself would definitely not end without some serious pyrotechnics.

It was obvious that most of the audience wasn’t there to catch the nerdy musical nuances and melodic intertextuality. The three high-school doods directly in front of us were there to see the greatest rock band in the world. And if their Stand-by-Me-style group hug at the end of the show had anything to say about it—they probably did. The real question is, do Mr. Flowers and crew consciously know they are actually exceptional theatrical showmen or do they, in fact, ever forget the fantastic façade and begin to believe their own hype?

In the Year 2000

To celebrate 50 Years of MINI, miniusa.com is taking a glimpse into the future of personal travel. Users can submit renderings of what the next 50 years of transportation could look like. I'm totally diggin' on these two concepts of personal commuter flyers. I love seeing rims on this flying mini-pod and it's pretty rad to see a fully rendered sky-cycle straight outta some anime flick.

Finally Framed

We finally framed and hung our killer Swell Season screen print poster that we scored from the wonderful Signed & Numbered for last year's show at The Depot. We love looking at this thing in our dining room. For those of you who are unsure of who the Swell Season actually are, they're basically the dood and chick from the hit indy flick Once. Here's a little refresher from none other than Upto12.

Even Magnum is Jealous

Shell has compiled a commercial of seriously fabulous Ferrari footage that'll even wipe the mustache off T. Selleck's mug. Enjoy!

I Am The Bicycle Thief

So three weeks ago, while on our weekly Sunday family walk, I saw this sweet knock-off of a classic Schwinn Collegiate called a Huffy Sportsman. It was sitting precariously against some old furniture in front of a neighbor’s house. Now this stuff was not that close to the curb, but it kinda sorta looked like it might be headed there so I full-on swiped the bike.

Once I was home for a bit, the guilt kicked in and I went back and left a note on the neighbor’s door. I let ‘em know that if they weren’t planning to toss the thing, I’d be happy to bring it back. Well it’s been three weeks—I think I’m home free. My goal is to get it ride-able, perhaps with a little help from this guy.

Mid-century Modest

I'm totally inspired by this collection of sweet little paintings of stylish, yet modest, mid-century modern homes by artist Leah Giberson. I love the detail, especially in the landscaping. Would be a pretty cool neighborhood to live in, don't you think?






So, I took the liberty of creating a custom wallpaper of these paintings. It's optimized for a 15-in Macbook Pro, but there's plenty of resolution for a larger screen as well. I set the artist's URL in a mid-century modern typeface namely, House Industries' Neutraface, crafted after architect Richard Neutra's own architectural font. You can download the wallpaper by clicking here or on the picture below:

It's Like Threadless... For Cars

Threadless.com's No More Nudes biz model of user-submitted tee designs and community-voted production has interestingly enough been more or less replicated within the fledgling private auto industry. Local Motors is a new site/auto manufacturer that collects industrial designers' user-submitted concept cars and then actually produces the car that the community has voted on.

Apparently the first winner to be produced will be the concept depicted above designer by Sangho Kim called: The Rally Fighter. The car will sport a BMW 335d 3.0 Liter, Turbo-diesel Inline 6-Cylinder Engine. To get in line a spot will cost you $99 and if you order to you'll be 23rd in line. Then you'll need to fork over another $5K to lock in your order. Who knows how much the final Rally Fighter will even cost—but if you're passionate about car design and user-submitted content—this might be the ride for you.

Happy 50th MINI!

Check out this fun b-day music vid! How do you picked to be in this thing? Sheesh.

Enstrybacks.

There are certain moments in life when most dads are ultra proud of their sons. You know, like when he slides into home plate or something like that. Well, that moment happened to me this week in my own Kyality-sort-of-way. Mrs. Kyality randomly asked Kyality Kid No. 2, let’s call him Pants, what was his favorite Star Wars movie. Fully expecting Pants, who is not even 4 years old yet, to say something lame like Episode I or the Clone Wars cartoons—he instantly replied: “Enstrybacks.”

When I got home from work she told me to ask Pants the same question. The answer again came immediately: “Entstrybacks. You know, the one with the snow bear.” A father couldn’t have been more proud. Apparently my very discerning 3- almost 4-year-old is able to catch the drama, the nuance and the wit of The Empire Strikes Back! Amazing! Granted he hasn’t yet seen Episodes II or III to taint his vision. But at the same time he hasn’t been tempted by the likes of Jar Jar Binks or the Ewoks, because as Hurley says, "Face it, Ewoks suck, dude."

I was 4 when Empire was in theaters—I remember seeing it with my dad, Normality. And at that time it was my favorite movie too and here’s the proof:

That’s a 6-year-old Kyality and yes, that’s a young JessInTheCity. But then Return of the Jedi came out just as I turned 7 and it took me until high school to realize what everyone knows: Enstrybacks IS without a doubt the best Star Wars flick. Well done, my son. Well done.

Sexy Beast

Yes, this is a reality. No, it's not a Cooper, apparently it's just a Coupe. Check out the full gallery here! Now imagine this thing as a body-style option for the MINI E, their electric car that's being test now!

(1000) Days of Summer and Counting...

For all you fans of (500) Days—we’ve already seen it twice and we’re about ready for our third viewing—here’s a great little interview with first-time director Marc Webb and editor Alan Bell post on the Pro section of Apple’s site. The filmmakers go into some detail about working with the perfect everyman protagonist Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the stunning starlet of a siren Zooey Deschanel. They also breakdown the theoretical and technical concept of the flick, which is pretty cool, but let’s just say they throw around the term postmodern far too cavalierly.

One funny quote was this one by Marc Webb concerning Zooey’s prep time: “Zooey prepares in a more private way. She's extremely thoughtful, but her greatest gift is her intuition. She flows in this magical way, reacting to the life in the moment. You can sense she's feeling everything that Summer is feeling.”

So basically what you’re telling us there Mr. Director is that Zooey did her best to basically play herself in this one. Nice. Be sure to check out these killer production photos that came along with this article. No matter what Kakie says about Joe’s wardrobe… Zooey’s is pretty amazing as well. But it doesn’t really matter what she wears, cuz let’s face it, all you’re really looking at are those eyes.

Now is it just me or is Marc Webb sporting some serious Kyality-style here or what?

Now THIS is a Camper. (Part II)

I've been checking out cool camper designs ever since I spotted this one. Industrial designer Robert Millington posted a pretty rad camper concept to this Coroflot portfolio. I'd tow it. Notice the super aerodynamic teardrop shape...
...the sweet whitewall tires...
...and of course don't forget the skipping stone-shaped pillows.
Wonder if it'll come in Pepper White?

B-day Booyah!

I guess it's becoming a habit for me to post the cool Kyality-style gifts I score for various holidays. Well, my birthday was yesterday and once again the fam came through with some sa-weet goods. Mrs. Kyality got me ISO50's 1976 Heather Grey t-shirt (the year I was born... perfect b-day hook-up) and a rad new book called Helvetica forever: Story of a Typeface.

And the Kyality Kids got me a slew of DVD's: the anniversary edition of Tron, the collector's edition of the doc Long Way Round and my very own set of the original Star Wars flicks—since the Kyality Kids seemed to have commandeered my previous discs. Yeah, it was a sweet haul.

All The Cars You Ever Owned

The thoughtful designers at People Will Always Need Plates have developed an awesome system of creating custom posters of all the cars you've ever owned. Obviously, it really helps if you've owned a whole bunch of really cool cars. Maybe one day my poster will look as cool as this one.

In other car-related graphic design news, I came across this rad graphic tee of the original Austin Mini Clubman. It's designed by Chris Jackson and available for purchase at redbubble.com, but don't buy it cuz I kinda want it.

Like my color coordinated post?

10 Years, a Winding Road and a Camaro

This week Mrs. Kyality and I celebrated 10 incredible years of marriage. With a fun/busy career and three cute/crazy Kyality Kids, it was time for a break. We booked three nights at our honeymoon suite at a B&B in Northern California near Mendocino. And of course, one of the first things I thought when we planned this 9 months ago was… what car should we rent? Yes, I have a disease… apparently a contagious one, thanks for nuthin’ Normality!

Anyways. I opted to reserve an ultra-compact economy car, wait to see what was sitting on the lot and hope for a decent upgrade. Well, the day of the trip finally came. With aunts firmly in place to hold down the fort, Mrs. Kyality and I jet-setted off to the Bay Area.

As the rental car shuttle entered the lot I noticed a large sign: “Manager’s Special” sitting atop a brand new Camaro. And I thought… why not? It was seriously a smokin’ deal… actually less than the econo-car quote! We definitely would have gotten a yellow one if they had it (hello, Bumblebee, duh) but in an effort to avoid being too much of a CHP target—we opted for standard silver over ruby red.

The huge hot rod swallowed our luggage despite a particularly small opening to the trunk and with a sweet iPod integration system, we were off to the races. First impressions… the car’s MASSIVE, I mean, I know I drive a MINI but I also drive a minivan and this car felt bigger and much more lumbering than that. Next the interior’s pretty spectacular. It’s clean, futuristic and comfortable. Finally the engine sounded incredible. I couldn’t wait to open ‘er up.

After stopping by the Oakland Temple for some quick memory making, we decided to head up one of the most classic drags in all of North America, the Pacific Coast Highway, a.k.a. Highway 1. The PCH winds its way up the craggy (yes, it's a word) Nor Cal coast for nearly 150 miles between Sausalito and the Mendocino area. Hang on to your lunch, this was gonna be a long, twisty ride.

After a few hours behind the wheel of the beast, a couple things were pretty obvious. This rod is a head-turner for sure. Industrial Designer J. Saxton via Upto12 said it best; GM knows how to design a killer Hot Wheels car. The other thing that was obvious was I had gone and pulled out a driver to use on a putting green. Whenever there was a straightaway, I’d romp on the gas and have some fun, but for the tight, technical turning I’d have traded muscle for MINI in a heartbeat.

Finally, I dunno if you’ve noticed the side windows on this car, but they’ve easily got to be the lowest profile production car windows on the planet. So I did a little experiment. I rolled them down and did my best to Dukes of Hazard my way into this thing. The results were far less impressive than I’d hoped:

It was NOT happening and I even slimmed up a bit for the ten-year festivities! Sheesh.

This is Blue Leader to Blue Bikes.

Okay, I’ll admit it… growing up, I never had a Nintendo. And no, I didn’t have a Sega either. I had an Intellevision II, which was like a knock-off of a ColecoVision, which was more or less a knock-off of an Atari. But the good news about this was one game and one game only: Tron Deadly Discs. This game was rad and not only did I master the double disintegration disc throw, I could also perform the complicated disc block—shattering opponents discs into pieces. I was radical.

Not only was I a huge Deadly Discs fan, I was also a massive fan of Tron the movie, Disney’s 1982 feature film adaptation. This flick, starring a very young and hip Jeff Bridges, was WAY ahead of its time with incredible computer graphics, ultra-futuristic production design and some killer Frisbee action. And I mean “killer” in more ways than one.

Disney just released what they’re calling a “VFX Concept Test” for their 2011 sequel called Tron Legacy and I have to admit that it looks pretty fa-reaking awesome. It also stars Jeff Bridges and seems to keep continuity from 1982 to the present. You can check it out in full QuickTime™HD by clicking right here.

The effects look amazing, but there are three little things I’m worried about. First I hope the costumes in this clip are just for this light-bike test, I along with tons of other fans love the original style costumes. Second, I miss the light-cycles moving in only right angles while “on the game-grid”. And Finally, I’m totally not digging the ring-style discs. Anyone who knows Tron, knows they’ve gotta be Frisbee-style discs. Cuz, how do you drink from a ring? You’ll hafta check out the original to see what I mean.

There was also this sort of stick-it-to-the-man/anti-Big Blue vibe in 1982’s sci-fi classic. So we’ll have to see if Tron 2.0 goes after any modern-day mega companies, especially with Steve Jobs’ stake in Pixar—which essentially leads all Disney animation nowadays.