Month: December 2007

2008 Stella: better photos

Philadephia Scooters has some higher-res press photos of the powder-blue and avocado Stellas (click to enlarge). There’s also been some interesting discussion/speculation about the new Buddies and Stellas over at Modern Buddy.

Update: Upon more examination, the Stella photos linked above appear to be digitally-manipulated versions of an older photo. The position of the bike is exactly the same in both photos, the shocks are old Indian-made Bitubos, the color is strangely even, and if you need any more proof, look at the whitewalls, you can see a “highlight” on the lower left whitewall that’s clearly the inverse of the highlight on the light blue Stella’s tire. Changing the color of an existing photo is common in the automotive and motorcycle world (Genuine did the same thing before the release of the original Stella) and there’s nothing wrong with it, per-se (it’s not like they’re trying to pass off a Photoshop rendering of an Italjet Dragster as an actual bike for the last year like SOME scooter companies), but I thought it’s worth pointing out these are probably not photos of actual production new Stellas.

Moped menorah and more

Well, that’s technically a scooter, not a moped, but happy hanukkah anyway. If that and Hallmark’s electronic scooter Santa ornament aren’t proof that it was a big year for scooters, I don’t know what is. If you need scooter-related gift ideas for the holidays, Scooter Swag is the place to look. (For your-non-scootering friends, check out “Gifted” at the Coudal Partners Swap Meat.)

Layer Tennis

At my real job that pays me money, we do this weekly design “contest” called Layer Tennis. It usually features two well-known designers or illustrators taking turns with a Photoshop file, with commentary by a well-known writer or design critic. Last friday’s match was the first to be based in Adobe Flash, and thus include animation, and since a very-well-known humorist/web gadfly got stuck with jury duty, I was given the opportunity to provide the commentary. It’s not scooter-related at all, but if you enjoy my writing (and who doesn’t), check out Coudal Partners’ Layer Tennis, Week 10. That’s me in the left column, you can see each volley by clicking on the numbers under the main image. I also serve as the referee each week, my most important role being the coin flip the day before the match.