Lately, I’ve been way into cool pro cycling chase cars. Here are some of the sweetest ones I’ve found. At work, I’ve been trying to put together a sponsorship for the best cycling team in the state, the Ski Utah Cycling team. We’ll most likely be designing their next round of jerseys. Who knows maybe they’ll need someone to drive a Clubman chase car one day!
The Garmin/Chipotle team is by far the most stylish, gotta love the argyle motif. The Mavic team is pretty serious about this sport. Check out the BMW chase bikes. Yep, MINIs work too! Euro wagons are standard fare. The Jittery Joe's team runs MINIs only. Here's one for a Specialized team.
During the 2001 autoshow season, Volkswagen mesmerized crowds with their stunning Microbus Concept. It was a beautiful and progressive reinterpretation of their classic VW Bus based on the original Beetle chassis. Everyone with kids who laid eyes on that thing said to themselves: Yeah, I’d rock that!
I’ve been waiting ever since then to write this, the review of the first VW minivan since the Eurovan. But alas, this is not even close to the review I was hoping to give. For the past couple of weeks VW has been advertising their new Routan; what’s being referred to their “German Engineered” minivan.
Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only does this thing look like a Chrysler Town & Country, that’s precisely what it is. Yep, you heard me right. Apparently this “thing” is made in the exact same factory as the T&C. To be honest, referring to the Routan as a “thing” is giving it far too much credit—a Thing actually was a cool VW.
I once again, feel the need to reference Steve Jobs. In October of 2005, Jobs described to TIME Magazine a phenomenon he called the Parable of the Concept Car: "You know how you see a show car, and it's really cool, and then four years later you see the production car, and it sucks? And you go, What happened? They had it! They had it in the palm of their hands!”
Rather than giving us the family vehicle we all lusted after, the boneheads at VW gave us a watered down Eurovan in the form of the crappy Dodge Caravan that I already have. Do they not get that they could have easily been the driving force behind bringing us the first genuinely cool family mover? In the words, well word, of the great Liz Lemon… blerg.
PS: Perhaps MINI will seize this wide-open window of opportunity. I could definitely go for a MINIvan.
After 6 years of ownership, almost to the day, we sold our cherry red 1975 BMW 2002. It went to a cool, young couple who reminded us of ourselves (before we were outnumbered by our own spawn). He's a graphic designer and they already have a sweet old VW Beetle.
It's sad to see the empty spot next to our garage, but I will be creating a little shrine in memoriam to our 2002. HabbenINK offered to retouch a photo of it—which will be matted and framed directly above a full color copy of the cashiers check for, you guessed it, $2,002.00 exactly.
On Tuesday Jenny Lewis, the single force on the planet in pure opposition to my lifelong fear of redheads, released her folksy follow-up to her first sassy solo album. Acid Tongue follows Rabbit Fur Coat with the backup talents of all of Jenny’s closest crew including the likes of Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward, and Elvis Costello.
I’ve been lucky enough to catch live performances of the two standout tracks on the album, title track Acid Tongue and See Fernando, between the most previous tours of Rilo Kiley and Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins.
So, yes, my fear of redheads is decreasing more and more. However, my hatred of unicyclists increases daily, as witnessed by the photo below. Man I friggin’ hate ‘em!
One of my most vivid memories of growing up was the drive home from the movie theater after seeing Return of the Jedi with my dad, Normality. My head was spinning with visions of bounty hunters, speeder bikes, and B-wing fighters. Without a doubt, Return of the Jedi was the coolest movie a kid could possibly imagine. Here’s a pic of the ROTJ storybook I had as a kid. I always thought Luke’s hair looked pretty rad in this picture. This weekend I watched ROTJ with the Kyality Kids for the first time. I know, I know it’s a bit early to be showing these kids those kinda scary scenes with the Rancor and the Emperor. But I sat there and cuddled up with them during those particular scenes—and I have to admit—the Kyailty Kids are serious Star Wars enthusiasts. They were glued; they didn’t want to miss a thing.
I realized it had been a while since I’d actually watched good old ROTJ. It was interesting to see how it held up over time. I have to admit—it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. Granted the acting was either over the top or uncannily stale. But things like the star-fighter dogfight scene still looked fantastic. The old-school motion-control model effects are definitely better than CG in my opinion.
It was really the little things that got to me. For instance, how does Luke know that Artoo would be serving drinks on Jabba’s sail barge and that he’d be able to launch his lightsaber at the perfect moment? Why aren’t Luke and Leia even squinting on the speeder bikes? Seriously, aren’t they going like 150 mph? And when the team gets captured by the Ewoks, why the crap does Leia show up all of the sudden with a tailored hemp dress on? Aren’t they heading into battle the next day? Shouldn’t you probably stick to the fatigues there Princess? (Or at least put on the brass Jabba bra again, sheesh.) And who the crap made that hippie outfit for her anyway? Did Wicket W. Warrick just bust out a loom and whip up a quick pattern or something?
Anyways. If you get a chance, go ahead and hit the Return key again for kicks. It’s good fun, and way better than the recently released Clone Wars feature. And maybe, just maybe you too can spot Luke’s glove switching hands while he’s riding his speeder bike!
Yesterday, MINI released official concept photos of its long-rumored crossover SUV. Dubbed the MINI Crossover Concept, the vehicle will be making its physical debut at the Paris Motor Show. It sports a variety of unique door arrangements, which in my opinion is an awesome way to keep folks guessing as to what the production model will finally look like.
Aesthetically, I love the proportions. It looks very MINI, though it will be their largest vehicle to date. And as far as the door arrangement goes, I hope the production model, tentatively called the Crossman, will have rear doors that slide backward on both sides. (Like on the driver side of the Crossover Concept.) And I hope it has double barn doors in the back, like the current Clubman. But that’s just me. Here's a link to some killer concept sketches.
My MINI sources tell me that the production version is already undergoing serious offroad tests in South America and that it will be manufactured at the same plant as the BMW X3. Wouldn’t it be so totally aws if you could choose your door arrangement as one of your options!?!
On Friday night, Mrs. Kyality, who recently had our third, had to get out of the house. So she went to the movies with a friend and I was left to fend for myself with the little trio of Kyality Kids. Once the rugrats were all snoozing, I felt the need to watch a serious car flick. After perusing the personal collection and realizing I wanted to see something I haven’t seen before—I hopped on iTunes Movies.
After a quick search, I settled on renting the definitive dood movie classic, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. I had a limited amount of time to knock this one out. So it was awesome that you can actually start watching your movie before you done downloading.
I kicked back on the couch, dual wielding my Apple Remote and my Wireless Mighty Mouse, and watched “The Drift”—as I like to call it—in fullscreen mode on our 24-inch iMac. Seriously I have to say, the image quality was fantastic. It was easily near-DVD-quality, but maybe that’s not saying much for all you Blu-ray-ers out there.
All in all the convenience and quality of renting a flick on iTunes made the evening’s experience pretty awesome. Too bad I spent it watching “The Drift”. I dunno, it was more or less exactly what I expected. The characters were pedestrian, the storyline was predictable, but the driving was driftacular.
It’s an interesting question posed to me by D-mode yesterday. Well, discover the answer for yourself by heading on over to Apple’s iTunes Store. There you can download all 45 minutes of pristine audio and/or video podcasts of Senator Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech from last week’s 2008 DNC for free. It’s definitely worth listening to and making your own call!
Also on 9/4 a new image upload site will launch called Design/ers for Obama. Here’s the description on site’s splash page:
"Many artists including Shepard Fairy have already proven that poster art is not a dead medium in the United States and have also shown how much of an impact a single poster can have. It is in this spirit Design/ers for Obama was created. With the goal of supporting Barack Obama's campaign for presidency, Design/ers for Obama will bring web-powered grass roots campaigning to visual communicators. Think Threadless, but for political poster art. That is, members create posters and upload them to be judged by the community, of which anyone and everyone is a part. But instead of selling merchandise, the best posters will be mass-produced and distributed in cities across the country to be seen by millions. Design/ers for Obama will begin accepting poster submissions on September 4th and will hold four, two week contests in the two months before the election."
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.
The Garmin/Chipotle team is by far the most stylish, gotta love the argyle motif.
The Mavic team is pretty serious about this sport. 
Check out the BMW chase bikes. 
Yep, MINIs work too!
Euro wagons are standard fare. 
The Jittery Joe's team runs MINIs only.
Here's one for a Specialized team.
During the 2001 autoshow season, Volkswagen mesmerized crowds with their stunning Microbus Concept. It was a beautiful and progressive reinterpretation of their classic VW Bus based on the original Beetle chassis. Everyone with kids who laid eyes on that thing said to themselves: Yeah, I’d rock that!
I’ve been waiting ever since then to write this, the review of the first VW minivan since the Eurovan. But alas, this is not even close to the review I was hoping to give. For the past couple of weeks VW has been advertising their new Routan; what’s being referred to their “German Engineered” minivan. 
After 6 years of ownership, almost to the day, we sold our cherry red 1975 BMW 2002. It went to a cool, young couple who reminded us of ourselves (before we were outnumbered by our own spawn). He's a graphic designer and they already have a sweet old VW Beetle.
On Tuesday Jenny Lewis, the single force on the planet in pure opposition to my lifelong fear of redheads, released her folksy follow-up to her first sassy solo album. Acid Tongue follows Rabbit Fur Coat with the backup talents of all of Jenny’s closest crew including the likes of Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward, and Elvis Costello. 
One of my most vivid memories of growing up was the drive home from the movie theater after seeing Return of the Jedi with my dad, Normality. My head was spinning with visions of bounty hunters, speeder bikes, and B-wing fighters. Without a doubt, Return of the Jedi was the coolest movie a kid could possibly imagine. Here’s a pic of the ROTJ storybook I had as a kid. I always thought Luke’s hair looked pretty rad in this picture.
Yesterday, MINI released official concept photos of its long-rumored crossover SUV. Dubbed the MINI Crossover Concept, the vehicle will be making its physical debut at the Paris Motor Show. It sports a variety of unique door arrangements, which in my opinion is an awesome way to keep folks guessing as to what the production model will finally look like. 
Aesthetically, I love the proportions. It looks very MINI, though it will be their largest vehicle to date. And as far as the door arrangement goes, I hope the production model, tentatively called the Crossman, will have rear doors that slide backward on both sides. (Like on the driver side of the Crossover Concept.) And I hope it has double barn doors in the back, like the current Clubman. But that’s just me. Here's a link to some killer concept sketches.
After a quick search, I settled on renting the definitive dood movie classic, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. I had a limited amount of time to knock this one out. So it was awesome that you can actually start watching your movie before you done downloading.
It’s an interesting question posed to me by D-mode yesterday. Well, discover the answer for yourself by heading on over to Apple’s iTunes Store. There you can download all 45 minutes of pristine audio and/or video podcasts of Senator Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech from last week’s 2008 DNC for free. It’s definitely worth listening to and making your own call!
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.
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?
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. 
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. 
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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 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.
