Greg Stevens Design

Last year, the team at Struck and I had the chance to work on a site for a Swiss watch manufacturer. In the process of preparing for the pitch, I gained a serious geek-out factor for watches that are completely unattainable—brands such as Panerai and Bell & Ross. I also discovered that my dad, @normanity, shares a similar horological sickness.



Cool watch bands have also been on my radar. So when a decent watch—let's call it "inspired by" Bell & Ross—popped up on Amazon for cheap, I snagged it. It arrived shortly thereafter and though it looked pretty cool, it was sporting a ridiculous vinyl band. 

Luckily, I stumbled onto Greg Stevens Design. GSD just happens to be based not far from me in the Salt Lake Valley and was really able to work directly with the watch to craft a band that really suited the watch's size and style. The quality and craftsmanship is seriously top notch, not to mention some meticulous attention to detail and design.

Not only does the GSD have some fantastic watch bands and leather goods, it also has its own line of custom watches. The current model has a cool, minimalism to it with a Swiss hand-wind movement. So next time you get a chance to score a quality timepiece or need a band to set apart your Panerai (or Panerai knock-off), look up GSD.

Copper Hills Car Show

Organized and held my first car show! Cool bikes and cars, awesome car tunes and bacon cheese burgers on a beautiful evening—what else could you ask for? Here are some of my favorite pics and you can see more here.

BMW M135i vs. Audi RS3

"This little car absolutely flies." I'll let you guess which car that line is referring to. You'll find out about 17 amazing minutes in.

Autodromo's Alfa Romero

This year I've discovered and followed a fantastic little watch brand called Autodromo. This New York-based company was created by an industrial designer with a love for vintage Italian automotive gauges. I love their simplicity and cleanliness of design.

The Autodromo guys shoot a ton of their product in a hot little 1983 Alfa Romero GTV6, which suits their watch design perfectly. Here's a vid of a hot lap in the Alfa... looks like a blast.

 
You can also spot an Autodromo on the wrist of of the driver in this cool little vid by the guys at one of my favorite blogs (that I've had the chance to contribute to) Motoring Con Brio.



Man, that's a cool 5-series. 

Falling for Skyfall

Stumbled on this pic today and got way stoked for Skyfall to hit theaters on the 9th of November. Let's hope there's a car chase that equals the awesomeness imbued in this shot.

My Rides

I was always fascinated with the fact that as a kid, you bicycle's everything to you. It's your car, it's your steed, it's your speeder bike. I thought it'd be fun to see if my parents could locate pics of all my bikes over the years. This fine specimen is actually my second, a Murray Freestyle. Totally diggin' my classic Op t-shirt.

So this here's my very first bike. My dad, @normanity, refurbed this this one for me and it was the bike I learned to ride on. He put some Redline decals on it that went great with the matching mags, but I loved it because for years I thought they said "Red Lion," ya know, Voltron-style. My sis, JessintheCity, had a stellar banana-seat Sting-ray.

In the early '90s 10-speeds started giving way to mountain bikes. The white Giant in the background was my first bike with gears and my parents got a matching green one. I eventually got a rack and paniers for this bike and my buddies and I would stuff all of our tennis rackets in the saddle bags and head off to the courts in downtown Newburgh, NY. 


When I was assigned to a bike area on the mish to the isles of Hawaii, my parents sent me out the green machine. I slapped street tires and fenders (due to daily rainstorms) on her. She was quick as a whip and eventually came to be known as Trigger. She only bucked me once (with a scar on my chin to prove it). Notice the little pant leg clip hanging on the seat, which would pin my right pant leg in order to avoid chain-snagging. (Yes, that's right pants in Hawaii.)

From Paris With Love

This is inspiring and cool and makes me want to watch Amélie like right now.

The BMW E30 Reborn

Just this morning I was talking to my pa, @normanity, about how the classic E30 BMW 3-Series is basically this generation's 2002. I see pics of slammed, restored and modded E30 plastered all over blogs these days.

This modern interpretation of the E30 rendered by a Hungarian design studio called TMCars nails a modern interpretation of those classic lines.

I'm totally digging how they took the BMW design DNA and work it into the car, while respecting some of the newer trends we've seen in the ///M1 Homage and i8 concepts.

The stance on this thing is near perfect and feels more BMW than most of the kidney-grilled cars we see roaming the streets these days. Click on any of the pics to enlarge them. Thanks for the heads up @jasonbangerter.

The MINI GP Takes Off

This is just a beautifully shot piece. Enjoy!

Family Campvibes

I recently asked my parents to track down some pics of my childhood bicycles for an upcoming post and got some other cool photos along for the ride. These are some great images of my parents and grandpa rocking some world-class campvibes. And no, these aren't Instagrams.

I'm pretty sure my ma and pa are straight-up tying their brand-new, matching Schwins to my ma's Beetle. You can also spot my gpa's Mustang in the back there.

Love this pic of my gpa at Silver Lake up Big Cotton Wood Canyon. That leather jacket is flawless.

Apparently, this is a snap of my pa impersonating that classic Bigfoot shot.



This photo is stamped August 1971. Hipper than hip.

Depth of Speed: Wagon Heritage

Another great edition to Josh Clason's Depth of Speed series. I love, love, love wagons so episode doesn't disappoint. Keep it up Josh!

Wallpapered

Over the last couple of years I've had the same photo set as the wallpaper on my desktop. After catching the above photo on archdaily.com, it was pretty much a no-brainer that it had to change.

I'm just loving the juxtaposition of this New Zealander's modern home and vintage BMW 2002. My previous wallpaper was an image I created based on Leah Giberson's paintings of mid-century modest homes.

I must say that either pic makes for a very pleasant background. Feel free to click on either pic for a wallpaper res version, enjoy!

The Man Behind the Poster

The art of Drew Struzan has probably influenced me more than any other imagery ever. I can't even tell you how many countless hour I spent trying to recreate his epic collage-like movie posters as a kid. Can't wait until this doc arrives!

MINI GP Photoshoot

For someone who loves MINI's and works with images in Photoshop on a regular basis, this is just a cool vid.

Top 10 Favorite Superhero Movies

10. The Dark Knight Rises

The final installment of Christopher Nolan's epic trilogy is a whole lot of movie. Points deducted for breaking the cardinal rule: Batman only works by night, unless of course you're Adam West.

9. X-Men 2

This is easily the best of the X-Men series thus far, with X-Men First Class nipping at its heels. However, X2's amazing Nightcrawler opening sequence edges this one to the top of the X-Men heap.

8. The Avengers

Some may question this as one of the top 10, but I'm sorry, it was just good fun. Easily the best ensemble comic movie made to date. The Hulk scenes alone get this one soundly into my top 10.

7. Superman

Everything about the inception of Christopher Reeve's Superman, from the John Williams score to Marlon Brando as Jor-El, is as classic as they come.

6. Iron Man

Marvel's version of Bruce Wayne/Batman is Tony Stark/Iron Man and we all know that Robert Downey Jr. effortlessly nails it in style and humor.

5. Batman Begins
Once you realize exactly what Christopher Nolan has done with the Batman story line—pushing it into a much more realistic realm—this trilogy quickly becomes the best superhero franchise of all time. 

4. Unbreakable

Speaking of realistic superheroes, M. Knight's follow up to The Sixth Sense resides in my mind as his best and is deserving of far more credit and perhaps even sequels.

3. The Incredibles

Not only is The Incredibles one my top 10 favorite superhero flicks, it's one of my top 10 of all time and arguably Pixar's best. It has all the action and emotion of any live action feature—if not more. 

2. Batman

Tim Burton's Batman will still go down in history as the quintessential Caped-Crusader flick. Some of my most memorable movie-going moments happened in the theater on its opening night. Not to mention, it still has the best Batmobile design ever.

1. The Dark Knight

For a tried and true Batfanatic, The Dark Knight has it all, including the perfect degrees of action, intrigue and villainy. 

Bondmobile Supercut

Digging this montage of James Bond's cars over the years—sure there are some mysteriously absent examples—but tons of fun nevertheless.

The Whole Entire Love

Wilco's double-encore super set at Red Butte Gardens in the foothills of the Salt Lake Valley last Monday was a gem of a concert. And I realized something about them for the first time. 

Wilco's sound is defined by tension. This tension is most evident in the harsh juxtaposition between Jeff Tweedy's laid-back, mellow voice and Nels Cline's aggressive, attacking guitar. The result is a give-and-take relationship that provides the best of folksy alt-country and face-melting rock—and Wilco manages to cover everything in between.

The Daily Grind

Loving this vid from StanceWorks of a rat rodded E28.

Marvelous Moonrise

There's nothing worse than when a Wes Anderson movie comes out and I haven't made it to the theater just yet. I'm constantly dodging any mention or online review right up until the moment I see it, which is an art in and of itself. Luckily, I managed to catch Moonrise Kingdom last night in a zero-spoiler condition.

Wes has always had a knack for discovering young actors who can deliver his lines just the way he wants. But in Moonrise Kingdom, he manages to take this skill to new heights in the form of his superb leads: Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Gilman perfectly plays that doesn't-know-he's-hip geek named Sam capturing the heart of Hayward's character Suzy whose irresistible Margot-Tenenbaum-meets-Lana-del-Rey vibe nearly steals the show.

Everything you love about a Wes Anderson film is present—record players, hand-drawn book covers, long super-symmetrical camera angles, richly vintage sets and of course, Bill Murray—with three exceptions. Futura, his signature font is replaced with beautiful, scritpy, custom typeface by Jessica Hische. The token Wilson brother is more or less replaced by Ed Norton. And the score, typically penned by Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo fame, has also been reduced without a major misstep.

Moonrise's music is a fantastic combination of true-to-the-era orchestral arrangements by Benjamin Britten mixed with new Wes-Anderson-esque tracks composed by Alexandre Desplat and supplemented with a healthy dose of Hank Williams. I highly recommend staying through all of the end credits, not only are they wonderfully animated, the instrumental awesomeness narrated by Jared Gilman is a flawless final touch.

Bottom line, Moonrise Kingdom nails that very analog, very Norman Rockwell look and feel that's chockfull of #campvibes. It's the type of story that makes you wish you'd snuck away with the gal that ran the nature tent at your Boy Scout camp in upstate NY, rather than attempt yet another boondoggle keychain.

British Field Day

For Father's Day weekend, Mrs. Kyality and The Kyality Kids took to me to Liberty Park in SLC to the annual British Field Day and Car Show. Some beautiful autos were in attendance, including this amazing pair of Jags.

Mrs. Kyality takes a peek at the interior.

A loverly Series I.

This lil Coop's for sale!

Totally dug the fogs on this gran turismo.

They also set up a little obstacle course. Had to .gif it up!


WEEEEEEEEEEE!

Mobile MINI Stores Invade Paris

Check out this stellar little vid about MINI's new mobile salesrooms scooting around Paris. I want four rally lights on my MINI, sheesh!

My Saab Story

Growing up, I was exposed to a slew of cool European cars—German, British and Swedish. We owned a navy blue Saab pre-900 coupe when I was about 11 years old. It was this strange vehicle with bizarre seat belts and a this kinda-sorta-aerodynamic profile. But even at that young age, I dug it. Unfortunately, that particular car ended life with a Saab story of its own.

There was this kid in high school whose dad owned an amazing early nineties Saab 900 Turbo. It was all black with these amber-lensed fogs that hung below the front bumper and black louvers across the rear window. My junior year, his dad won the New York State Lotto, bought a Porsche or something and gave his son the Turbo. Yeah, it was not awesome standing at the bus stop while that dood cruised by me at warp speed every morning.

A group of Russian exchange students came to our school for about a month that year. And the Russian principal stayed at the Saab kid's house. He chauffeured the visitor to school, so of course he got a special pass to park right in front of the school next to our principal's spot. For some reason I saw that Saab parked there long after the Russians had gone home. Insult to injury.

In the pantheon of sweet, turboed cars—the early nineties Saab 900 version still holds a special place in my wounded heart. This spectacular photo shoot by bennorz prefectly captures the raw, unfiltered coolness of the 900 Turbo.

Enjoy.