Fourth of July Spy

For the Fourth this year, we hit up Moab with some camping and hiking in both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. And it just so happens that I stumbled upon a Bimmer in disguise. Sitting in the parking lot of the Arches Visitor Center was what appears to be test mule for the rumored 5 Series Gran Turismo. This car was heavily taped and was flanked by two 335i's and a 135i all with California plates. Obviously, they were road tripping this thing National Park style. My dad, Normality, is always bragging about how he sees BMW mules all the time out in Jersey—so it's fun finally being the guy to spot the unreleased Barvaian Burner.

Just for you're reference, here's a pic of the official concept vehicle that the above production test mule is based on:

It's a big car in person, hopefully its as sleek looking as the concept.

On the Up and Up

On Saturday Mrs. Kyality and I went on a double date with the older two Kyality Kids… dinner and a movie. After we snagged some pork barbacoa and kid’s quesadillas at the Rio, we rolled in the Clubman—sunroof open—over to the District to see Pixar’s tenth full-length feature: Up. The District is rad because you can pre-purchase your actual seat so I snagged four front and center seats for a Digital 3D screening and we got there just as the previews began, which are apparently also shown in 3D. Did not know that.

I’ll just say it. Up is a straight up gem. It is an utterly original story that is literally unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, though it properly ties in subtle allusions to flicks like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. The most amazing thing about Up is the insane amount of trust it has in the audience. The doods at Pixar truly leave it up to you to connect all the dots, write your own back-story and fill in all the blanks, which are many—but that’s a good thing.

By leaving a vast majority of the exposition up to us, they were able to focus all their efforts on developing rich, amazing, original characters. These characters are an unlikely bunch that endear you through a mind-bogging amount of on-screen chemistry. Up is the ultimate example of show, don’t tell. Never once do you feel talked down to or hit over the head—Up simply invites you along for the ride and trusts you to keep up.

Technically, there’s yet another level of richness in respect to the characters. Up takes the “plastic doll” character design style pioneered by The Incredibles to the next level and strikes the perfect balance between life-like detail and surrealistic caricature. Just watch the details in Muntz’s face as Russell slides across the airship’s window while clinging to a garden hose—it’s seriously amazing.

So see this one on the big screen for sure, but in all honesty, no need for the Digital 3D version. It isn't U23D. This movie is as rich as it needs to be without things constantly jumping off the screen.

Retrovelos

So in the quest for the perfect bike for Mrs. Kyality, which is looking more and more like an Electra Townie, I've stumbled upon a slew of beyond hip retro bicycles. The two that have stood out the most are both from European companies: Retrovelo (above) from Germany and Pashley (below) based in the UK.

I'm not really sure what it is, but these bikes are totally inspiring to me. I dunno if it's their retro-modernism, their pure, classy simplicity or maybe it's just that they're ultra photogenic. It's prolly just good design. What I do know is that if money was no object, the Mrs. and I would surely be rolling on these bikes and we'd prolly need a full-time nanny for the kids so we could ride them and we'd obviously have flats in both London and Munich by little markets—we'd need to ride them somewhere, right? Oh, and we'd need a Learjet so we could go back and forth between continents with our Euro-hipster-velos... again, if money was no object : )

Happy Padre's Day to Me

Mrs. Kyality and the Kyality Kids outdid themselves for Father's Day this year. Check out the goods they delivered. I was fully covered with everything from duds to reading material from music to a movie... another holiday in true Kyality style. They scored me the handy dandy How Tie™, which I can't wait to wear (instructions included). As for reading material, I got Frank Miller's classic graphic novel: Batman: Year One, the prequel to his legendary take on the Caped Crusader. And finally, I scored the rockumentary: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, which obviously counts as both music and a movie. This amazing black and white doc, directed by Sam Jones and produced by Helvetica and Objectified director Gary Hustwit, chronicles the beyond-eventful creation of Wilco's amazing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. It is a must-see for any music or doc junkie. Click here to see them up close.

Velo Mamma

So, will somebody please help me convince Mrs. Kyality that she should get this bike? We've been investigating ladies bikes for a few months now and we've hit a bit of a brick wall. Growing up in a bike family, you kind of know that a decent bike is definitely gonna be in the $400+ range. Otherwise, you’re relegated to a big box solution at the Targets of the world. But when searching out a stylish women’s bike for a gal/mamma who hasn’t ridden for a long time and isn’t so sure if a new bike would even be ridden for more than a few times a month, a $400 - $700 price tag can be a definite barrier of entry. I just think this Electra Townie Euro 8D in Cadet Blue would be a rad rod for the Mrs. to cruise on despite it being bucks deluxe.

British Racing Green

MINI just released this Limited Edition JCW celebrating 50 years of the Cooper Company winning the F1 Championship. I'm totally digging this true British racing green and blacked-out rims. I could rock this car for sure and... man, do I miss my bi-xenons.

Bringin’ Back the Buff

Earlier this week Mrs. Kyality successfully guilted me into finally building the new IKEA dining room table I’ve left sitting in its box for the last 3 months—there were just so many screws! But it turned out to be a great thing—not only did we end up with a sexy new table for the Kyality Kids to trash, it gave me the chance resurrect the multi-talented 90’s indie rock band Grant Lee Buffalo and stream them back into my regular listening rotation.

Lead and voiced by the instrumental wizard Grant Lee Phillips, The Buff—as I like to call them—apparently ruled much of the underground LA music scene throughout the 90’s under then careful tutelage of the Godfather of Alternative Music: Michael Stipe. Their sound is defined by a combo of heavy-duty electric and steely 12-strings and a rich mix of other diverse instruments like rockin’ accordions and a deep dark upright bass.

Upto12 introduced me to GLB jut over ten years ago and when the powerful and haunting opening chords to the anthemic “Jupiter and Teardrop” (thanks m.) from their debut album Fuzzy lit up our little JBL On Stage speakers, a flood of memories and awesomeness came rushing back. The album rocked so hard, and the table took so long, that I ended up nearly listing to their entire discography including: Mighty Joe Moon (amazing title track by the way), Copperopolis (apparently not on iTunes) and Jubilee. Check them out, you won’t be disappointed.

J is for Jawa

A somewhat terrifying red-headed co-worker of mine forwarded me this awesome Flickr stream of Star Wars ABC flash cards! The artist is Michael Fleming (a.k.a. tweedlebop). These classically designed illustrations feature some of the more obscure characters of the Star Wars universe including cards such as: P is for Porkins and B is for Bantha. Enjoy!

Nerd Alert! Star Trek + JJ Forever

When I was in fourth grade, I was watching cartoons one afternoon and caught a commercial for an all-new Star Trek series called: The Next Generation. I vividly remember trying to convince my parents to leave Shop Rite quickly one Saturday afternoon so I could get home and catch the full two-hour pilot episode. We made it just in time and I was hooked. Okay, I’ll admit it. For the next decade I was a frequent watcher of the various Star Trek series. I can easily say that they totally inspired me to eventually go to film school.

However, ever since high school, I just haven’t been interested in Star Trek much and let’s face it, nothing too exciting has been happening with the franchise… until now. Last summer, when the first Star Trek teaser hit the big screen prefaced by the Bad Robot bumper, you had to know something special was about to happen. Imagine, the Star Trek universe skillfully wielded in the hands of one of today’s modern mystery masters.

Well, Mrs. Kyality and I caught it last night and of course, JJ’s take on Star Trek was nothing less than spectacular. It was a tight narrative that was emotionally compelling but didn’t take itself too seriously. Even the parts that were a bit cheesy were cheesy in a good way. But every detail was considered, casting was spot on and the film was just straight up beautiful. In all honesty, I’m ready to see it again right now. Now stop reading here if you haven’t seen it yet!

The most amazing aspect of this flick is that it was utterly Abrams. Within the opening seconds, JJ pulls an epic Alias Season 2-style twist with a bit of LOST-ian (yes, it’s a term) time travel, which immediately skews the entire film into an alternate timeline from The Original Series that we know and love. What’s simply brilliant about this move is that all of a sudden JJ isn’t required to be bound by the dogmatic Trekkies who demand strict and constant adherence to the holy canon of Trekness. JJ frees himself to play with these classic characters in completely new and intriguing ways. Like I said, fa-reaking brilliant.

So this now beckons the question: do the LOST-ian rules of time travel apply in JJ’s version of Star Trek? I mean, if you’ve been following the radical dialog between Hurley and Miles in this season of LOST, we already know that the classic Back to the Future rules don’t apply. So again the question is, do JJ’s rules of time travel apply across the entire Bad Robot spectrum? If so, according to Miles’ explanation, JJ’s Star Trek is actually a sequel rather than a prequel. Whoa, just blew your mind, didn’t I!

Road Trip Writing

So MINIspace.com recently launched a competition. Now they host competitions all the time, but they're usually contests to design cool background pics for their site or something like that. This one however was different, this competition has Kyality written all over it. Here's gist: write a story about your adventure in the new MINI Clubman + Airstream concept in 250 words or less and at the end of the month you could win a set of four Fritz Hansen Series Seven Chairs.

I watched carefully and after seven lame-o entries were posted, I posted mine:

Camped last night at the Seven Sacred Pools just outside Hāna, HI on the far side of Maui. Went spear fishing this morning, caught a big one. We loaded the custom Airstream, strapped our gear to the rack and fired up the matching Clubman, taking the Hāna Highway back to Upcountry Maui. We’re gonna watch the sunset from Haleakalā Crater.

The Clubman handles the Hāna Highway‘s 620 bends and curves with flawless precision, powering through even the tightest of hairpins. The Airstream follows close in harmonious synchronization. Though they are two entities, they travel as one. Together they pass distracted tourists in cheap rental cars with ease. We catch momentary glimpses of about a dozen waterfalls, but let’s face it—they’d only slow us down.

Once we exit the rainforest, we begin the trek up all 10,000 vertical feet of Maui’s grand Haleakalā Crater. Switchback after switchback is quickly chewed up by the fine-tuned turbo lurking beneath the Clubman’s bonnet stripes. We dodge downhill cyclists with sharp and immediate feedback from both the Clubman and its load. We reach the summit and pop the Airstream’s hatch to lounge in our “Fritz’s” just as the sun begins to dip itself into the Pacific.

We’re surfing Pāʻia in the morn. A cold wind picks up. We grab our fleeces; damn I’m hungry. I think about the fish we speared this morning. Luckily I brought some seaweed, sticky rice and my Kasumi knives. Sushi anyone?

As soon as mine was posted about 20 more went up quick—ALL of them in a narrative format. Blimey. Freaking copycats! Come up with your own format. Sheesh. And Upto12, if you post something better than mine, so help me...

Before and After Bobbage

I doubt I'll ever own a motorcycle, but I've always admired them for sure. Stripped down Harleys and retro Beamers have typically been my faves. But I was turned onto to a local SLC company called Blue Collar Bobbers that has created some killer bolt-on kits for the standard Japanese-made Harley knock-offs that are surprisingly affordable. The results are insanely impressive to say the least.

After:
Before:
Another example based on the same model:

Now THIS is a Camper.

Sorry D-mode. That's not a camper. Now THIS is a camper!

Hulu’s Taking Over the World (And I Feel Fine)

As of this past January TV season, Mrs. Kyality and I have completely switched over to watching shows online. Yes, we’re still dual-wielding our Bluetooth Might Mouse and Apple Remote from the couch. But other than LOST, which is exclusively shown through ABC’s very nice Full Episode Player, we watch ALL of our shows on Hulu. These currently include: The Office, 30Rock, 24, our guilty pleasure Chuck and of course FNL—or for the uninitiated—Friday Night Lights.

Though I love the quality picture of the ABC Player, I’ve gotta admit that I just feel cool watching shows on Hulu. The interface is extremely well designed, the ads are pretty unobtrusive and don’t require me to initiate the show or choose fullscreen when they’re done and best of all they apparently take requests!

Yep, that’s right. Hulu staffs a very cool, approachable and quick-to-reply customer service team. Over the Christmas break I was stoked to watch a ton of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe with the Kyality Kids. They totally loved it so it got me thinking about the afternoon cartoons I loved as a kid, classics such as Thundercats, Robotech, Galaxy Rangers (not Power Rangers mind you), The Bionic Six and of course Voltron: Defender of the Universe. So I fired off an email to feedback@hulu.com and let’s just say that now the Kyality Kids totally love to get their “Boltron” on.

Just the other night as Mrs. Kyality and I sat down to watch our weekly installment of Friday Night Lights—which as Upto12 has skillfully noted is beyond exceptional this season—I instinctively typed “FNL” into Hulu’s search field… I got nuthin. Now I knew that if I typed in “SNL” it’d quickly connect me to their ample supply of Saturday Night Live content. I fired an email off to my good ol’ friends at the feedback desk asking them to index FNL so I can get my Riggins fix as fast humanly possible. The very next day I got a personal response:

Hi Kyality,
Good call--I have asked our search team to index that abbreviation. Should be
active in the next day or so.
Thanks,
Eugene
Hulu

The result… just last week as we went to watch the Dillon Panthers’ season closer, without thinking I once again instinctively typed “FNL” into the Hulu search field and to my surprise and delight it instantly brought me to their full Friday Night Lights line-up. Booyah. Yeah, feel free to thank me for that one. Bottom line, if Hulu’s planning to take over the world, go ahead and count me in. Now if only they could somehow make Parks and Recreation a way cooler show, I’d be set. Maybe I’ll email them that… “Dear Hulu-ers, Can you please make Parks and Recreation as awesome as we all thought it would be? Love, Kyality” Okay, it’s sent!

Murdered-Out Rims

I was banking on Spring coming in full force this week so I cruised over to Wheelwerks and swapped out the factory all-seasons on the Clubman for my, as Dan calls them, murdered out 18-inchers. My bet was wrong, the snow keeps coming—but luckily the rims look hot anyway. I’m super stoked on the outcome… I feel like they really tie the whole car together. Unfortunately, a Saturday morning blizzard made me late for MINI rally at MoM (a.k.a. MINI of Murray). But I did manage to snap these pics with Struck’s ultra wide-angle lens.


Apparently Dan likes the rims but hates the racing stripes. He actually said and I quote, "Why would you want to take something that's so pure looking and cover it up with those stripes?" I was like, "Uh, seriously? Let's just call them its tattoos."

The Dood From Pixar.

So I suited up yesterday and attended the Governor’s Economic Summit—yep, it sounds totally boring. However the keynote speaker was of definite interest and I was stoked to have a sponsor seat squarely in the center of the overly ornate ballroom of the Grand America. The keynote address was given by none other than Dr. Ed Catmull, UofU grad, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and President of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Needless to say this dood is el hombre.

His speech was entitled “Building a Sustained Creative Community” and I’m telling you right now, it couldn’t have been a more pertinent or timely message. Here are some of his thoughts, paraphrased by my poor note taking skills.

Pixar’s goal was to make story the most important thing. But then they realized everybody said that, even if what they produced was dribble. So they stopped saying it and just showed it. While other studios look for ideas to make movies, Pixar chooses to find simple, human truths that can that everyone can relate to. They began to test potential feature directors on animated shorts, in his words: “Better to have a train wreck with miniature trains rather than real ones.”

His recommendations for creative shops included things like: Don’t have two different standards of quality. Trust the process. Decide whether or not you’re in it for the long haul. You must realize that everything changes so a lot of the things you learned in the past may not apply any more. You’ll get stuck every time you try to solve an issue by yourself. Technical people are not different than artists.

Create a trusting space and show work daily, as early as possible—even in its roughest form. Don’t wait until it’s “ready to show.” There’s a force for human safety and control: it’s called fear. Everybody’s afraid of something, don’t let it stop you. Ride through the fears. Honesty depends on trust and trust must be earned. Never threaten the trust… sure, people want to be polite, or respectful, or don’t want to embarrass themselves, but teach your people to be genuinely honest. Argue over a project, but never make it personal. Make sure it’s truly is a safe place.

Feel free to check out all my Pixar-related posts, here.

Someone’s on a Mission

I’m in San Francisco this week, fixie capital of the world. I’m blown away by the shear number of bikers on roads—especially the number of fixie riders. I’ve definitely spotted a couple of Mission Bicycles while I’ve been hoofin’ it around town to my various meetings. Mission Bikes are rad, custom fixies built here in SF. You choose the frame size, color, handlebars, brakes (or lack thereof) and they’ll ship it to you! Here’s a couple of classic Mission models.

I’m seriously considering a Pepper White model with black spokes! (wink, wink)

Saturn Needs a New Plan(et)

When Mrs. Kyality and I were just married, one of the first really big things we did was buy a car. We were still in school, so we were definitely relegated to an entry-level vehicle. We looked at used Hondas and Toyotas, even Fords (barf). But everywhere we went—we felt accosted and pressured by slimy, desperate, greedy salesmen who blatantly didn’t care about us or our situation, whatsoever.

At that same time, I was pretty into wagons and I happened to have a thing for little Saturn wagons. Granted Mrs. Kyality wasn’t into them, but it at least got us into the Saturn dealer. It was like night and day! The salesmen weren’t salesmen at all! They were basically young guys who were just like us. Saturn has always employed a no-haggle policy and I cannot even tell you how refreshing that was. Needless to say, we drove a 1999 Saturn SL2 sedan for seven years without any major issues. And now, this once innovative brand is in serious danger of getting whipped off the face of this planet.

Yesterday, GM announced that within two years, they will no longer manufacture Saturn automobiles. What’s significant about this move is that Saturn isn’t a stale GM brand like Oldsmobile or Pontiac. Saturn dealerships were actually set up as independent, standalone businesses. There are 400 Saturn dealerships nationwide and together they out sell a majority of the GM sub-brands.

So can GM afford to lose this spectacular sales channel? Probably not a good idea. Technically, Saturn could simply use GM as a manufacturer and become their own car company. But that requires tons of capital that obviously isn’t available. So the future of Saturn is totally up in the air, the question: what’s next for Saturn?

Well, I’ve got an idea. By comparison, Saturn dealerships are much newer than the typical GM dealership and Saturn has always been a “different” kind of car company. Saturns are known for being lower budget, entry-level cars that are relatively light weight (a.k.a. plastic). In my opinion it’s the perfect launching platform for a line of electric vehicles, whether they’re manufactured by GM or some other company, perhaps even Tesla. You take cars like the Sky Roadster pictured above or the new Astra Coupe, slap torque-happy electric engines in them and Saturn is good to go! In my opinion, the new Saturn should equal no-haggle EV’s for the masses. Wow, who'd of thunk I could write a post about American cars!

What is the MINI SpaceBox?

Rumors are flying on the interweb about a new MINI concept called the SpaceBox. Speculations range from a MINI-styled roof box or trailer to MINI-branded prefab home designed by BMW Group's DesignworksUSA to—an actual MINIvan. Crazy. So, I dunno? Whaddya think? What exactly is the MINI SpaceBox? Sound off.

Know Your Foes.

I knew I liked MINIs for a reason! I was stoked to get a little package from MINI this week called the MINI Adventure Field Kit. It was chock full of MINI goodies such as stickers, a mouse pad, a pen and a rad, little notebook. The funniest thing was the MINI Clubman Handbook. One section of the handbook is called: Know Your Foes. It explains that there are three foes that a MINI driver should always beware of: the ex-girlfriend, your boss, and of course clowns. To be a bit more specific—clowns on unicycles.

Cuz let’s face it, anyone who rides unicycles, clown or not, is really just a show-off. Sorry Marcus, it’s true. And apparently this clown even has red hair.

Going Sideways

Struck recently won the much needed website redesign for the Miller Motorsports Park. As part of the Discovery Phase for the project (hehe) we went to their world-class track and did hot laps with some of their amazing drivers. I can honestly say there's nothing like it in the world, drifting at warp speed around Le Mans-style curves, hard stops and rocket-like acceleration. Unreal. I seriously could have stayed there all day long. The turns left me hooting and howling.

I actually attempted to videotape a hot lap from the cockpit, but all I got was some bouncy footage of the dashboard thanks to the insane G-forces at play. I do have to give major props to B Money for some killer stills! The sky was awesome that day.

Some New Running Shoes

Yesterday I took the Clubman into Wheelwerks located here in good ol’ SLC for a fitting. Yes, like a tailor-made suit, the Clubman got to try on its running shoes in preparation for spring! They are 18” Primax rims with a matte-black powder coat wrapped in some Nexen high-performance tires. And the good news is, they fit like a glove. In case you didn’t catch that, I just compared my new wheels to three different types of apparel—talk about mixing metaphors, sheesh.

I Can Read Movies. Can You?

Speaking of good old Valentine’s Day… I’m totally in love with Spacesick’s amazing line of “I Can Read Movies” retro-style book cover designs. These ultra-graphic novel covers are beautiful, high-concept compositions that are a blast to decipher. Here’s a glimpse of some of my faves. Click here to enlarge the image.

Bye Bye Bangle Butt, Hello van Hooydonk.

It was reported this week that Chris Bangle, the somewhat infamous head of design for the last 16 years at BMW, has resigned. This was a shocker since Bangle has been the primary visionary behind all of BMW’s major releases including the X5, Z4, the new MINI, and of course the 7 Series and its massive caboose, unaffectionately referred to as the Bangle Butt.

Love him or hate him, no one can dispute the mark he’s left on 21st century auto body design. You name the manufacturer and I’ll show you one or more of their models that bites off the Bangle. He says this was a planned exit and he wants to move on and solve bigger design issues both in and outside of the auto industry.

Bangle leaves his protégé, Adrian van Hooydonk (awesomest last name ever) as Design Director for the BMW Group. He’s best known for his work on the 6 Series, the Z9 Concept Car, the BMW Concept CS and the M1 Homage Study. I also discovered that he was the designer behind the 1997 ACV 30 Show Car for MINI… the unique predecessor to the current generations of new MINIs.

Kinda cool, kinda fugly, I know.

Who Wants to be a Slumdog Millionaire?

Okay, I admit it. I really like Leonardo DiCaprio. So back in 2000, when a film called The Beach came out—I saw it and I loved it. It had amazing cinematography, great editing and a stellar soundtrack. This led me to director Danny Boyle’s other great and explicit work—Trainspotting—again, sweet editing and an unreal soundtrack.

The Danny Boyle circle has been completed with Slumdog Millionaire. I’m sure you know the premise so I’ll just tell you why this is a must-see-in-the-theater movie. Once again, there’s a killer soundtrack that’s mixed by and features the insanely talented M.I.A. I seriously can’t get enough of the track Paper Planes, sheesh. The locations are unreal. Unreal in that you can’t believe that these places exist and unreal in that they are so rich despite being down right filthy. The casting is superb, especially the child actors. They’re completely and utterly believable. Finally, along that same casting note, Freida Pinto, the freshman actress who plays Latika, is a mega-hottie. So go see this flick.

It’s brutal, yet beautiful. It’s graphic, yet gracious. It’s haunting, yet humbling. And you’ll wanna root for something at the Oscars, right?

Sunclubbin’

Ever since Mrs. Kyality and I started dating, we’ve gone to the Sundance Film Festival. As of yesterday, we completed our 10th year of what Mrs. Kyality refers to as "Sundancing"—her and all the blinged-up 65 year-old ladies cruising Park City. Anyways—this year was a massive success, due in part to our mode of transportation. You might have heard by now, but last week, I traded in my beloved Dark Silver R53 MCS for a 2009 MINI Cooper S Clubman—and I’m lovin’ it. One evening about two weeks ago, I was snooping around the inventory of MINI of Murray and spotted a special lease option on a Pepper White Cooper S Clubman. Seeing as how it wouldn’t affect my monthly payment too dramatically, I decided to jump on it.

The Clubman’s been awesome and the new turbo blows the older, supercharged S out of the water. Granted the new R56 Cooper isn’t as raw and gritty as the previous generation, but it's quicker and more refined, which has its pluses too! It's definitely perfect for the canyon run up to Park City to catch a quick Sundance flick. And this year did not disappoint. We saw three films this time around.

It Might Get Loud is a rockumentry fan’s dream come true. It explores the history of the electric guitar through three generations of guitarists, specifically Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. It’s so amazing to see these guitar-gods geek-out over their passion and teach each other the riffs that made them famous. This one is definitely worth adding to a personal collection, even if you're a hipster-Edge-hater.

Five Minutes in Heaven is a unique take on the decades of conflict in Ireland. It shows the reunion of a man and his brother’s killer. It’s brutal, funny and heart wrenching. It explores the psychology of reconciliation, Irish-style. I’ll let your imagination take it from there.

The coolest thing about this year was all Mrs. Kyality’s doing. She scored us tix for An Evening with Steven Soderbergh, one of my all-time fave directors. He premiered an experimental film he's been working on and did a Q&A session. The flick was a non-linear, non-professional actor, non-scripted, structured-improvisation style film. You catch all that? Needless to say, it proved to be a memorable event.

With all the canyon carving up to Sundance, I can definitely say I’m well on my way to destroying my annual mile allotment on my lease. But it’s been well worth it! PS: I also want to apologize to all those peeps out there who Googled “Sunclubbin” hoping to find info about nudist gatherings. I didn’t catch that connotation until after I’d written this post, but I still like it as a title so too bad for you!

Just Because It's Awesome

Sometimes you've gotta post something just because it's awesome. Click here to enlarge.

The 100th Post!

So here it is!!!! After nearly 3 and a half years of random postings on the topics of music, movies, TV, cars and most recently design—I’ve hit my 100th post! I started my blog in order to resurrect my ailing writing skills. And I’ve enjoyed it big time and I hope you have too. I’ve got a lot in store for 2009, starting with some MINI news I’ll be sharing shortly. Let’s hope there’s as many interesting things to write about this year as there has been in the previous ones.

And finally, here’s a special shout out to one Dan Christofferson who, out of the kindness of his heart designed the killer graphic pictured above! And last but not least, I dedicate each and every one of these skillfully placed exclamation points to Mr. Upto12!!!!! Good luck with the new blahg/site thing!!!!!!

I Don't Wanna Follow Death And All Of His Friends... by Upto12

Let's get a few things straight:

1. I like Coldplay.

2. I'm not here to tell you that you shouldn't like Coldplay.

3. I've seen Home Alone 2 three times, WALL•E twice and Kung Fu Panda four times—in the last 72 hours.

If nothing else, remember those three things as we dig into a long-running Kyality vs. Upto12 debate. It's important that you know, that I, Mr. Upto12, own every Coldplay album (I even bought Viva La Vida from iTunes and on vinyl). There was a point in time (around Rush of Blood) where I probably would've put Coldplay in my Top 7 (maybe Top 8) bands. Then XandY happened. I didn't hate it. In fact, I still love a few tracks (if you don't love Fix You, you have no soul). But I couldn't help but feel like the Coldplays (TM: Kyality) had let me down. This was supposed to be a band on the rise, right? The next U2. The up-and-comers ready to take over the world. And, no matter how much you love that album, there's no convincing me that XandY is great. It's just not. It's borderline good. It's comfortably fine. It's decent. It's easily the weakest effort in the Coldplay catalog.

And that brings us to the anticipation of Viva La Vida. The story's been told a kajillion times. Brian Eno! That dude who produced the Arcade Fire! Innovation! Experimentation! Coldplay carries the torch! Military costumes! And, well, that's just what we got. Kinda. That's what we got on the surface, anyway. At its core, however, Viva is just another good Coldplay album. It's got some big beats (Lost!), some overbearing strings (Viva La Vida) and songs that change tempo, key and direction (42). But there's nothing truly fresh and fascinating here. It's good BritPop/Rock. I enjoy it from start to finish. I listen to it frequently. I think the chorus on Death and All His Friends is probably the most arena-worthy anthem I've heard this decade. But I simply can't convince myself that this is Album of the Year material. And I've tried. I really have.

(A quick aside. Maybe the one thing that blows my mind about Viva—and the continual praise the mainstream press piles on—is that I've only heard two other people call this album what I think it really is: A great James album. It's crazy. This album sounds more like James than any other comparison I can think of. Yet it's compared to U2 and Arcade Fire and a dozen other ridiculously non-applicable bands/albums. Just listen to Lovers in Japan again and tell me it's not a James song. Yet another reason you should never read the reviews in crap-rags like Entertainment Weekly or [sadly] TIME. Now I'm just angry.)

Where was I? Probably doesn't matter, does it? Let's try this...

To tragically modify and borrow from an analogy tossed around the Struck hallways... At the 54th Annual Rock n' Roll Torchbearers' Pot Luck, what is Coldplay bringing to the table? Political awareness? Uh, Bono's stashed enough in the freezer to keep us aware for the next 35 years. Good looks? Well, maybe... we all know Kyality's got a fierce man-crush on the drummer, but have you seen Beyoncé lately? A Jay-Z remix? There's a whole truckload out back. Dance moves? Did you see JT's impromptu Weekend Update appearance? Gwynnie? Okay... now we've got something to talk about.

Strangely, the Gwyneth connection clarifies my Coldplay ambivalence more than anything else. Remember when Shakespeare in Love won the Best Picture Oscar? Over Saving Private Ryan? It's a decision that gets more and more ridiculous every year. I just watched Saving Private Ryan last week. It's amazing. A masterpiece. Shakespeare in Love, on the other hand... it's okay. I mean, it's good. It's cute. It's clever and just a little bit sexy. But it's just not a Best Picture. No way. No how. And I think that's how we'll look back on Viva La Vida.

In 10 years maybe we'll be wondering how we ever thought Viva La Vida was better than Carried To Dust (Calexico), Intimacy (Bloc Party), For Emma, Forever Ago (Bon Iver), Visiter (The Dodos), Fleet Foxes (self-titled), The Midnight Organ Fight (Frightened Rabbit), Re-Arrange Us (Mates of State), Rook (Shearwater), Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust (Sigur Ros), Dear Science (TV on the Radio), and even the backlash-ridden Vampire Weekend (self-titled). Or maybe I'm a complete idiot (highly likely) and Coldplay's Viva La Vida will turn out to be more like Braveheart—a good movie that didn't seem to quite merit a Best Picture award but turns out to be endlessly rewatchable and even gets better over time—than Shakespeare in Love.

Time will tell, I suppose. But, living in a time when the world's greatest pop/rock is only a click away, I can't help but feel that we should exercise a little more elitism in our musical selections. Shouldn't we seek out music that challenges us in positive and enjoyable ways? Shouldn't we set the Album of the Year standards a little higher than "a good album that was a nice step forward for a pretty good band"? I'd hope so.

Then again, I'm watching Kung Fu Panda for the fifth time while the world's greatest movies are only a click away. Pot. Kettle. Black. I get it. There's still time to work out my resolutions, right?

P.S. Kyality's 100th post is right around the corner! Stay tuned!