An Automotive Education

I've always said that my love of European cars stems almost entirely from my upbringing. Out of curiosity, I recently emailed my dad, Normailty, and asked him to hook me up with list of all the cars my family drove—both foreign and domestic—from the time I was born until I went to college. It's actually pretty interesting. And just to be clear, even though the first one was a '73 Beetle—I wasn't born until '76.

1973 Volkswagen Beetle (Red): 1973 Volkswagen Bus (Two-tone Tan/White):

Normality and Kyality doing some auto-bonding.

1980 Dodge Omni (Copper)
1973 BMW Bavaria (Red):
1973 Ford Pinto Wagon (Ketchup Red) Awesome!

1974 BMW 2002 tii (White):

JessInTheCity and Kyality getting dirrty.

1974 Renault LeCar 3-door Hatch (Orange): 1974 BMW Bavaria (Tan)

1980 Toyota Corolla SR5 Liftback (Yellow)
1975 Renault LeCar 5-door Hatch (Navy Blue)
1980 Saab 99 2-door (Navy Blue): 1988 Dodge Caravan (Charcoal Grey)
1976 BMW 2002 (Cherry Red):

This is a pic of the actual car guest starring my little bro Snizzle.

1988 Chevrolet Nova (Silver)
1973 BMW 2002 (Blue)
1990 Volvo 240 DL (Black): 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee (Metallic Blue)
1988 BMW M5 (Black): So figure that we had least two cars at any given time and you can see that I've always been exposed to a healthy dose of Euro-autos. Fun little list. Now you know where my sickness comes from. Thanks Pa.

Color Scheming: Laser Blue

Laser Blue. Almost as cool as Laser Cats.

From iPad, on iPad

So as you may or may not have read in my previous post, the exec team at StruckAxiom, in an effort to bring us up to speed with the latest in technology, gave everyone brand spanking new iPads. Yeah, it was pretty much crazy awesome. After spending a week with it, here are my first impressions.

This post is also prompted by the fact that I forgot my MacBook's power cord at work yesterday. Therefore, I'm composing this on the iPad, which is an interesting experience in and of itself. In fact, for some reason, I can only seem to write directly in the HTML editor, weird.

Anyways, I think I'm starting to get it, the iPad that is. Just the other night we were catching up on some shows via Hulu on our iMac. I was just doing some couch-browsing on the iPad, when it was time to start the next show. I quickly launched my Rowmote Pro app, which serves up an iPad specific interface, and fired up the next show from the same device I was just surfing on. Having an iPad is either going to be very awesome or it's going to induce all new levels of laziness.

Mrs. Kyality, who until now, hasn't had a wireless browsing device at home is way excited to get her Grey's on, without subjecting The Kyality Kids to unhealthy degrees of McDreamy exposure.

I had convinced myself that due to the fact that I rock both a MacBook and an iPhone that I couldn't really see an iPad fitting into my personal digital lifestyle. I still don't really see it fitting that well, it's definitely built for someone whose sole connectivity is a desktop. But so far, it's been a superb wireless device and an awesome entertainment system control panel.

UPDATE: I actually had to save this post and complete it on our desktop in Firefox. Apparently, the Blogger CMS hates Safari. There's prolly an app for that now that I think about it.

Color Scheming: British Racing Green

Git yur Brit on.

Toothless: Inspired Vehicle Design

So the execs at StruckAxiom surprised the crew Thursday with a couple of things. We all got to go see How To Train Your Dragon, since we worked on the killer Flame It site. BUT just before that, they literally busted out brand new iPads for the entire company—to keep. For reals.

So before I conduct an in-depth review of the iPad, I definitely wanna take a moment and touch on what was in my opinion a landmark film for DreamWorks. From my understanding, How To Train Your Dragon had a rocky start in the studio, until it was helmed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (of Lilo and Stitch fame).

HTTYD has an obvious based-on-a-book vibe, but other than some heavy references to some more backstory we weren't necessarily getting, it is about as tight as a family film can get. The characters are memorable and charming. The production design is fresh and intriguing. And the creature design is straight up inspiring. Especially the creature design of The Night Fury: Toothless.

Throughout the film, I couldn't help but feel like the creature design of Toothless was heavily based on principles of good vehicle design. With headlight-like eyes and a jet fighter-like stance—Toothless was all too familiar to me. During the film I even caught the designers' allusion of Hiccup's tail-flight-contraption-pedal to an Imperial Speeder Bike's throttle pedal. But it wasn't until my drive home from the theater that I realized that if a MINI had a personality—it'd be much like that of Toothless. I seriously wonder if any of the creature designers drive one. I found this excellent interview with Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, which includes this great description of Toothless:

"So [Toothless] has to do a great deal of acting and that’s one of the guiding principles behind his design, that he be frightening and a bit of a Stealth Fighter in their world, but also have the design elements that would make him friendly and cute and really adorable when it comes time to really get to know him."

Now read it again, and think of a MINI.
See? Crazy huh. Okay, fine. I'll admit it. MINI's aren't just cool, they're also cute.

Airstreamed

This is Leah Giberson's latest archival giclee print of a beautiful painting she completed in late 2009. The original was painted with acrylic on top of a cut up printed photograph and canvas mounted to a wooden panel. The original photograph by Terry Bone can be seen here.

Check out my posts on Leah's mid-century modest works here and one on a pretty amazing Airstream refresh here.

Color Scheming: Pepper White

Bland is the new black.

Cut To The Chase: Top 10 Favorite Car Chases

The car chase holds an almost sacred position in the realm of all things Kyality. I have a few criteria that qualify genuine car chases. First, they must involve more than one car—not a car and train (The French Connection) and not just motorcycles/a helicopter (The 2003 Italian Job). Second, the cars must be cool ones (duh). And finally the chase must be unique, with exceptional driving, awesome editing and stylized camera angles. These Top 10 fit that bill:

10. The Italian Job (1969)
Sure the actual chase in this flick isn't the most dramatic, but you cannot watch these Original Minis make their getaway and not smile.

9. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Not only do we have a MINI, we have a minivan as well. Fun to see one in action.

8. The Blues Brothers (1980)
This is the number one car chase cluster-cuss of all time.

7. Who Am I? (1998)
Trust me on this one. Jackie Chan-style acrobatics in a car. Does not disappoint.

6. Duel (1971)
Spielberg's first flick. This made-for-TV masterpiece is the definition of suspense on wheels.

5. Death Proof (2007)
Tarantino creates an homage to the car chase that will melt your face (or at least grind it off with tire tread).

4. The Hire (2001)
BMW's compilation of short car chase flicks gives us some of the best car chases ever recorded and put Clive Owen in the driver seat of the rest of his career.

3. The Bourne Identity (2002)
The best Mini car chase has got to be in my Top 3, right?

2. Ronin (1998)
This is the ultimate Euro car chase flick. Nothing else comes close, 'cept of course, The King of Cool.

1. Bullitt (1968)
The grand-pappy of all car chases. Steve McQueen's almost biblical automotive epic defines all that is the car chase. Check out The Selvedge Yard's full breakdown here.

Color Scheming: Midnight Black

Lord Vader... we are honored by your presence.

Noodle, 2D, Murdoc and Bruce

Take a sec and check out the Gorillaz new vid 'Stylo' sporting a sick car chase, fanastic CG and the actor with the best gun face ever.

Color Scheming: Mellow Yellow

They call me Mellow Yellow.

Next Bondmobile

It's been three days since I stumbled upon this and I'm still thinking about how great this modern update of the classic Roger Moore Bond car is. Can't wait til the next Bond! Get the full story here.

Best In Show?

Check out these sweet program covers for 2010 BAFTA Awards by graphic designer Travis Coburn. Click here to enlarge. Via: g.lock

If I Ever Had to Roll in a Japanese SUV...

The Infiniti FX Limited Edition is a special model that will be launched by Infiniti in Western Europe in a series of just 100 units. If I ever had to roll in a Japanese SUV, I'd totally rock this. The profile of the FX has always slightly reminded me of my beloved ///M Coupe. Loving the matte black "turbine" wheels.

Color Scheming: Hot Chocolate

Would you like some whipped cream on that?

UPDATE: For everyone who's asked about the two-tone Clubman, a full photo set can be seen by clicking right here.

The harder the life, the sweeter the song.

Ever since the first Jeff Bridges flick I saw as a kid—Tron, obviously—I've been a staunch Bridges fan. (Jeff not Beau, duh.) Growing up, I also loved him in movies like King Kong, The Fisher King and Tucker. I kinda saw him as another Harrison Ford, which comes in handy once you see Harrison Ford on TV with his ear ring, ugh. I've always loved Jeff's delivery, it's completely genuine—you think, yeah that's how I woulda said that.

For a Bridges fan, Crazy Heart was as good as it gets. He completely throws himself into the Bad Blake character, singing the songs himself, playing the guitar himself and probably nearly drinking himself to death. Crazy Heart is also a music fan's film. There are definitely some "Once-like" moments, though the cool rawness of Once isn't present. The T-Bone Burnett tunes are simple and fantastic. You want to own the soundtrack after seeing it, for sure.

The the rest of the cast is surprisingly compelling as well. Robert Duvall is classic. Maggie Gyllenhaal has another consistently hot-or-not showing. And out of nowhere, Colin Farrell delivers an oddly perfect performance as Tommy Sweet, Blake's prodigy. Bottom line: Crazy Heart is a tough story to watch unfold—but if you're a Bridges fan or a music lover in general, it's worth a gander for sure.

The Mighty Mote Lives

When Hulu.com sprang onto the scene with gobs of hi-def online content—Mrs. Kyality and I quickly became avid viewers on our iMac. After just a couple of weeks of Hulu-ing it was clear that dual-wielding the Apple Remote and Mighty Mouse wasn't awesome. Last year, Hulu did come out with an Adobe AIR application called Hulu Desktop which only requires an Apple Remote. But unfortunately, the video occasionally chunks in the app. So, I came up with a little idea called the Mighty Mote that incorporated a scroll ball for mousing into the traditional Apple Remote—but for some strange reason it never caught on.

Until now. @zuhl via @upto12 turned me onto an amazing remote app for the iPhone called Rowmote Pro. This app turns the iPhone into a Mighty Mote! You have all the functionality of a remote, mouse and even keyboard for your Mac in the palm of your hand. This was almost too good to be true and it's literally the first iPhone app I've EVER purchased!

With a simple download to your Mac (don't forget to restart), you don't even need line-of-sight to run all your apps from your iPhone. Now if they'd just add a mute button, I'd be set!

Color Scheming: Chili Red

Red never looked so rad.

Color Scheming: Dark Silver

Due to some comments on a recent post about cars and matching bikes, I've decided to craft a series of posts on "stuff that goes together" based on standard MINI factory colors. The first post in this series comes to us from the classic Cooper color called Dark Silver—which of course was the color of my first MINI. Come back soon for more color scheming! Click here to enlarge.

Sundancing Twenty Ten

It's been a week since Sundance 2010 wrapped, but I wanted to make sure that I gave a quick update on the sweet indie flicks we caught this year.

Sundance has launched a new category this year called NEXT that specifically showcases low-no budget films. We were lucky to catch Bass Akwards, which fell into this category. Written by, directed by and starring Linas Phillips as a down and out loser who stumbles upon a shortened '76 VDub Bus dubbed a "Shorty", this is an atypical roadtrip flick chronically Linus' journey from Seattle to NYC. Though it was about 20 minutes too long, I was totally enamored by the gorgeous wide-angle hero-shots of this miniature bus cruising throughout the midwest. You know how I feel about miniature vehicles!

The second flick we caught was great, but almost too cool for school. The Imperialists Are Still Alive! directed by NYU film student Zeina Durra is an ultra-hip night-on-the-town flick shot on 16 mm in NYC. Starring Elodie Bouchez (CQ, Alias), it tracks a group of multinational (mostly Arabic) students and artists residing in Manhattan through their exploits both significant and mundane. This flick had a lot going on, but was peppered with thought-provoking moments of life as an Arab in post 9/11 New York. The randomness and humor of this one made it a perfect Sundance-style flick.

Finallly, Sundancing would not be complete without something from the doc category. We were beyond satisfied with our selection. Freedom Riders is a documentary on the Freedom Rides of 1961 that served as the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement. This film centers on the amazingly courageous students, both black and white, who attempted to integrate buses in the Deep South. Literally preparing themselves for death, the non-violent students endured massive cruelty that shed light on the true depth of hatred that still existed there. It also showcases the rise of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Kennedy's as the primary agents of change within the movement. Freedom Riders will air next January on PBS for the 50th anniversary of the rides.