Finally Framed

We finally framed and hung our killer Swell Season screen print poster that we scored from the wonderful Signed & Numbered for last year's show at The Depot. We love looking at this thing in our dining room. For those of you who are unsure of who the Swell Season actually are, they're basically the dood and chick from the hit indy flick Once. Here's a little refresher from none other than Upto12.

Even Magnum is Jealous

Shell has compiled a commercial of seriously fabulous Ferrari footage that'll even wipe the mustache off T. Selleck's mug. Enjoy!

I Am The Bicycle Thief

So three weeks ago, while on our weekly Sunday family walk, I saw this sweet knock-off of a classic Schwinn Collegiate called a Huffy Sportsman. It was sitting precariously against some old furniture in front of a neighbor’s house. Now this stuff was not that close to the curb, but it kinda sorta looked like it might be headed there so I full-on swiped the bike.

Once I was home for a bit, the guilt kicked in and I went back and left a note on the neighbor’s door. I let ‘em know that if they weren’t planning to toss the thing, I’d be happy to bring it back. Well it’s been three weeks—I think I’m home free. My goal is to get it ride-able, perhaps with a little help from this guy.

Mid-century Modest

I'm totally inspired by this collection of sweet little paintings of stylish, yet modest, mid-century modern homes by artist Leah Giberson. I love the detail, especially in the landscaping. Would be a pretty cool neighborhood to live in, don't you think?






So, I took the liberty of creating a custom wallpaper of these paintings. It's optimized for a 15-in Macbook Pro, but there's plenty of resolution for a larger screen as well. I set the artist's URL in a mid-century modern typeface namely, House Industries' Neutraface, crafted after architect Richard Neutra's own architectural font. You can download the wallpaper by clicking here or on the picture below:

It's Like Threadless... For Cars

Threadless.com's No More Nudes biz model of user-submitted tee designs and community-voted production has interestingly enough been more or less replicated within the fledgling private auto industry. Local Motors is a new site/auto manufacturer that collects industrial designers' user-submitted concept cars and then actually produces the car that the community has voted on.

Apparently the first winner to be produced will be the concept depicted above designer by Sangho Kim called: The Rally Fighter. The car will sport a BMW 335d 3.0 Liter, Turbo-diesel Inline 6-Cylinder Engine. To get in line a spot will cost you $99 and if you order to you'll be 23rd in line. Then you'll need to fork over another $5K to lock in your order. Who knows how much the final Rally Fighter will even cost—but if you're passionate about car design and user-submitted content—this might be the ride for you.

Happy 50th MINI!

Check out this fun b-day music vid! How do you picked to be in this thing? Sheesh.

Enstrybacks.

There are certain moments in life when most dads are ultra proud of their sons. You know, like when he slides into home plate or something like that. Well, that moment happened to me this week in my own Kyality-sort-of-way. Mrs. Kyality randomly asked Kyality Kid No. 2, let’s call him Pants, what was his favorite Star Wars movie. Fully expecting Pants, who is not even 4 years old yet, to say something lame like Episode I or the Clone Wars cartoons—he instantly replied: “Enstrybacks.”

When I got home from work she told me to ask Pants the same question. The answer again came immediately: “Entstrybacks. You know, the one with the snow bear.” A father couldn’t have been more proud. Apparently my very discerning 3- almost 4-year-old is able to catch the drama, the nuance and the wit of The Empire Strikes Back! Amazing! Granted he hasn’t yet seen Episodes II or III to taint his vision. But at the same time he hasn’t been tempted by the likes of Jar Jar Binks or the Ewoks, because as Hurley says, "Face it, Ewoks suck, dude."

I was 4 when Empire was in theaters—I remember seeing it with my dad, Normality. And at that time it was my favorite movie too and here’s the proof:

That’s a 6-year-old Kyality and yes, that’s a young JessInTheCity. But then Return of the Jedi came out just as I turned 7 and it took me until high school to realize what everyone knows: Enstrybacks IS without a doubt the best Star Wars flick. Well done, my son. Well done.

Sexy Beast

Yes, this is a reality. No, it's not a Cooper, apparently it's just a Coupe. Check out the full gallery here! Now imagine this thing as a body-style option for the MINI E, their electric car that's being test now!

(1000) Days of Summer and Counting...

For all you fans of (500) Days—we’ve already seen it twice and we’re about ready for our third viewing—here’s a great little interview with first-time director Marc Webb and editor Alan Bell post on the Pro section of Apple’s site. The filmmakers go into some detail about working with the perfect everyman protagonist Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the stunning starlet of a siren Zooey Deschanel. They also breakdown the theoretical and technical concept of the flick, which is pretty cool, but let’s just say they throw around the term postmodern far too cavalierly.

One funny quote was this one by Marc Webb concerning Zooey’s prep time: “Zooey prepares in a more private way. She's extremely thoughtful, but her greatest gift is her intuition. She flows in this magical way, reacting to the life in the moment. You can sense she's feeling everything that Summer is feeling.”

So basically what you’re telling us there Mr. Director is that Zooey did her best to basically play herself in this one. Nice. Be sure to check out these killer production photos that came along with this article. No matter what Kakie says about Joe’s wardrobe… Zooey’s is pretty amazing as well. But it doesn’t really matter what she wears, cuz let’s face it, all you’re really looking at are those eyes.

Now is it just me or is Marc Webb sporting some serious Kyality-style here or what?

Now THIS is a Camper. (Part II)

I've been checking out cool camper designs ever since I spotted this one. Industrial designer Robert Millington posted a pretty rad camper concept to this Coroflot portfolio. I'd tow it. Notice the super aerodynamic teardrop shape...
...the sweet whitewall tires...
...and of course don't forget the skipping stone-shaped pillows.
Wonder if it'll come in Pepper White?

B-day Booyah!

I guess it's becoming a habit for me to post the cool Kyality-style gifts I score for various holidays. Well, my birthday was yesterday and once again the fam came through with some sa-weet goods. Mrs. Kyality got me ISO50's 1976 Heather Grey t-shirt (the year I was born... perfect b-day hook-up) and a rad new book called Helvetica forever: Story of a Typeface.

And the Kyality Kids got me a slew of DVD's: the anniversary edition of Tron, the collector's edition of the doc Long Way Round and my very own set of the original Star Wars flicks—since the Kyality Kids seemed to have commandeered my previous discs. Yeah, it was a sweet haul.

All The Cars You Ever Owned

The thoughtful designers at People Will Always Need Plates have developed an awesome system of creating custom posters of all the cars you've ever owned. Obviously, it really helps if you've owned a whole bunch of really cool cars. Maybe one day my poster will look as cool as this one.

In other car-related graphic design news, I came across this rad graphic tee of the original Austin Mini Clubman. It's designed by Chris Jackson and available for purchase at redbubble.com, but don't buy it cuz I kinda want it.

Like my color coordinated post?

10 Years, a Winding Road and a Camaro

This week Mrs. Kyality and I celebrated 10 incredible years of marriage. With a fun/busy career and three cute/crazy Kyality Kids, it was time for a break. We booked three nights at our honeymoon suite at a B&B in Northern California near Mendocino. And of course, one of the first things I thought when we planned this 9 months ago was… what car should we rent? Yes, I have a disease… apparently a contagious one, thanks for nuthin’ Normality!

Anyways. I opted to reserve an ultra-compact economy car, wait to see what was sitting on the lot and hope for a decent upgrade. Well, the day of the trip finally came. With aunts firmly in place to hold down the fort, Mrs. Kyality and I jet-setted off to the Bay Area.

As the rental car shuttle entered the lot I noticed a large sign: “Manager’s Special” sitting atop a brand new Camaro. And I thought… why not? It was seriously a smokin’ deal… actually less than the econo-car quote! We definitely would have gotten a yellow one if they had it (hello, Bumblebee, duh) but in an effort to avoid being too much of a CHP target—we opted for standard silver over ruby red.

The huge hot rod swallowed our luggage despite a particularly small opening to the trunk and with a sweet iPod integration system, we were off to the races. First impressions… the car’s MASSIVE, I mean, I know I drive a MINI but I also drive a minivan and this car felt bigger and much more lumbering than that. Next the interior’s pretty spectacular. It’s clean, futuristic and comfortable. Finally the engine sounded incredible. I couldn’t wait to open ‘er up.

After stopping by the Oakland Temple for some quick memory making, we decided to head up one of the most classic drags in all of North America, the Pacific Coast Highway, a.k.a. Highway 1. The PCH winds its way up the craggy (yes, it's a word) Nor Cal coast for nearly 150 miles between Sausalito and the Mendocino area. Hang on to your lunch, this was gonna be a long, twisty ride.

After a few hours behind the wheel of the beast, a couple things were pretty obvious. This rod is a head-turner for sure. Industrial Designer J. Saxton via Upto12 said it best; GM knows how to design a killer Hot Wheels car. The other thing that was obvious was I had gone and pulled out a driver to use on a putting green. Whenever there was a straightaway, I’d romp on the gas and have some fun, but for the tight, technical turning I’d have traded muscle for MINI in a heartbeat.

Finally, I dunno if you’ve noticed the side windows on this car, but they’ve easily got to be the lowest profile production car windows on the planet. So I did a little experiment. I rolled them down and did my best to Dukes of Hazard my way into this thing. The results were far less impressive than I’d hoped:

It was NOT happening and I even slimmed up a bit for the ten-year festivities! Sheesh.

This is Blue Leader to Blue Bikes.

Okay, I’ll admit it… growing up, I never had a Nintendo. And no, I didn’t have a Sega either. I had an Intellevision II, which was like a knock-off of a ColecoVision, which was more or less a knock-off of an Atari. But the good news about this was one game and one game only: Tron Deadly Discs. This game was rad and not only did I master the double disintegration disc throw, I could also perform the complicated disc block—shattering opponents discs into pieces. I was radical.

Not only was I a huge Deadly Discs fan, I was also a massive fan of Tron the movie, Disney’s 1982 feature film adaptation. This flick, starring a very young and hip Jeff Bridges, was WAY ahead of its time with incredible computer graphics, ultra-futuristic production design and some killer Frisbee action. And I mean “killer” in more ways than one.

Disney just released what they’re calling a “VFX Concept Test” for their 2011 sequel called Tron Legacy and I have to admit that it looks pretty fa-reaking awesome. It also stars Jeff Bridges and seems to keep continuity from 1982 to the present. You can check it out in full QuickTime™HD by clicking right here.

The effects look amazing, but there are three little things I’m worried about. First I hope the costumes in this clip are just for this light-bike test, I along with tons of other fans love the original style costumes. Second, I miss the light-cycles moving in only right angles while “on the game-grid”. And Finally, I’m totally not digging the ring-style discs. Anyone who knows Tron, knows they’ve gotta be Frisbee-style discs. Cuz, how do you drink from a ring? You’ll hafta check out the original to see what I mean.

There was also this sort of stick-it-to-the-man/anti-Big Blue vibe in 1982’s sci-fi classic. So we’ll have to see if Tron 2.0 goes after any modern-day mega companies, especially with Steve Jobs’ stake in Pixar—which essentially leads all Disney animation nowadays.

So Tough To Travel

Crashing at the aLoft Dulles North for the rest of the week... pretty rad. Too bad I've gotta room with freaking Upto12, sheesh. Check out more pics of the joint here. And yes, that is an Eames Aluminum Management Chair there in the background.

Wild Things Exclusive Featurette

Definitely take the time to check out this sweet little featurette on Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic. Let the wild rumpus start!

Baby Bondmobile

Looks like Aston Martin may be making its first foray into the micro-car market. Sorry guys. Not awesome. I mean seriously, you’ve got cars called the Vanquish and the Vantage. What’s this little guy gonna be called… the Vermin? Know your strengths and stick to ‘em… for all of our sakes.

Little Red Riding Hood: Exploded View

You may or may not have realized this, but I rarely post videos to my blog. Mainly because I always seem to be the last person to have seen them. This may be the case with this one as well, but I thought it was rad enough to share still. Forgive me if you saw this like 4 months ago or something. But if you don't think you have—take a gander, it's aws. Click here to watch it larger on YouTube.

He Fixed It!

I grew up in a cycling family. And during those years my dad, Normality rode a sweet 12 speed Bianchi Special. Recently, my little bro, Snizzle stole my idea and turned my dad’s old-school ride into a sweet fixie and in the process he scored his Bicycling Merit Badge to boot. Here’s what Snizzle did to it in his own words:

"I stripped down everything and left the crank. I took off both front gears and chose to keep the lower one. 39 teeth. The bolts that bolted the gears to the crank were too big so I needed to get washers to space it out. I took off the front and rear derailleur, took off the shifters (they were the levers on the frame as opposed to the twist ones or the thumb shifters) I took off the rear brake, pulled off all cables (with the derailleurs too), untaped the handlebars, de-gooped them and put the toe clips back on. I got new handlebar tape, taped ‘em up (literally, like from the bottom to the top) and got a new seat. It looks wicked painful but its not, it’s sick and soooo comfortable.

"I totally rebuilt the rear wheel. Taking off the back gears from the old bike was crazy. I totally mangled the hub trying to save the spokes but the new hub I got had a higher 'flange' so I had to get new spokes anyway. I trued it myself (with some help from Randy Raichart). I got a new chain and shortened it, but when it was fully tensioned, the wheel didn’t sit all the way back in the dropouts, but it’s fixed now. I like it a lot. It’s super nice. Yeah. I think that’s it. Here are the pictures man!"

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.