Edified by Objectified

When I was a kid, and I mean like when I was 8 or 9, if someone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grow up—I'd confidently reply "an aerospace engineer." I wasn't really even sure what that was, but I'd heard that's who designs airplanes. What I really wanted to be was an industrial designer—my dream at that age was to design cars, jets, helicopters and vehicles in general.

This week, after wrapping up Mad Men Season 2, I managed to sneak Objectified into our Netflix queue at precisely the right moment. Objectified is documentarian Gary Hustwit's follow-up to his delightfully-designerly doc Helvetica and it features interviews with some of the world's foremost industrial designers.

Where Helvetica charms us with more of a history and philosophical debate on typeface itself, Objectified simply exposes the creative process of ID and analyzes where it's going. Even though it's missing just a smidgen of the humor and passion of its predecessor, I can't complain at all about listening to my heroes—such as Dieter Ram, Jonathan Ive and Chris Bangle—pontificate about where things are headed. Needless to say, I was creatively fed. In fact, one of the resounding takeaways of Objectified is that these guys are indeed futurists. Here's a couple quick quotes to whet your appetite.

"The value, and especially the legitimization of design will be, in the future, measured more in terms of how it can enable us to survive. I don't think this is an exaggeration..." - Dieter Ram

"Tomorrow will be different. The tools to make things, to find your world, will available to everybody... " - Chris Bangle

Funny side-note, right when Bangle said that, Mrs. Kyality was busy using her Cricut home plotter to create her own custom holiday gift tags.

A New Pair of Horns

I've had my Specialized Sirrus for well over a year now. And on the very few longer-ish rides I've taken—I've definitely wished I could alter my hand position on what had previously been a pair of straight handle bars. So this week I determined to add a set of bar ends onto my bike. The debate was between an ergonomic, rubberized set vs. a chrome, mountain bike-style.

So based on some solid advice from a handful of co-workers and friends, I (obviously) chose to go with the chrome and I'm pretty stoked on the results. It works aesthetically and after a ride around the hood with the Kyality Kids, I was stoked to be able switch up my hand positioning. So now I've got a bulldog car and bull-horned bike... nice.

Beatlemania Meets MINImania

This is like super old, but I just came across it. Looks like the good folks at MINI create a sweet interpretation/homage to George Harrison's classic 1966 Mini Cooper S. Apparently each of the Beatles were given a Cooper S by their manager that year and George has his decorated with a smorgasbord of psychedelic symbols. MINI has create a throwback version in celebration of 50 Years of MINI.

My New New Addiction: Flickchart.com

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my new addiction, The Dodos. Well, thanks to one @mrlaxcat, I’ve now been turned onto Flickchart.com… and I have to admit, I’m seriously, seriously hooked. Flickchart.com is a movie rating site that pits one random flick against another and asks you to pick your fave. No apologies, no exceptions—if you’ve seen it, you’ve got to rank it. Period.

Sounds easy and sometimes it is, for instance Godfather II vs. Charlie’s Angels… no brainer. But sometimes it isn’t that easy, such as Toy Story vs. Ground Hog’s Day. Or even worse, the comparison pictured above… yikes. Like the quote says: “It [truly does feel] unfair to pick just one.”

You can open it to all movies or refine your top 250, 100, 50 or 20 of all time. I’ve had to resort to asking myself things like: Which one of these would I watch right now? Or, which of these have I seen more times? Still, sometimes it’s brutal. The algorithm is pretty basic and works way better the more flicks you rank. It simply puts the movie you chose one slot ahead of the one you don’t. So in the very beginning it can be weird, for instance I had freaking Armageddon stuck in my top 20 for the first day or so… yug. But once you’ve pounded through about 2500 rankings (like me) things finally start shaping up.

Anyways, give it a shot. And if you really want a good time, try ranking movies while listening to The Dodos. Can anyone guess which of the two flicks I chose above?

BMW TV, Handheld

I'm a pretty massive fan of the site: BMW TV. It's constantly updated with amazing, behind-the-scenes vids of crazy, corporate-sponsored BMW footage. Now you can follow the action on your iPhone with the BMW TV iPhone App, a free download from your friendly-neighborhood App Store. Enjoy!

Lotsa Leather

Check out this rad bike called the Leather X Porteur by French designer Nicolas Yvars. Apparently it’s a one-off handmade project crafted entirely from vintage parts and lotsa leather (includes a matching flask).

Click here to enlarge the detail shots.

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.