Category: Multimedia

Mark Knopfler: Mod or not?

From Matt: “Who knew Mark Knopfler was a Mod?”

Well, pre-mod, maybe. From the ex-Dire-Straits guitarist’s bio:

The artwork for “Kill To Get Crimson” evokes one of the periods in Knopfler’s own palette for the album. “For the cover, I’ve chosen a picture painted in 1958, it has a West Indian girl who wants to buy a red scooter,â€? he continues. “This is pre-mod, and the L-plate hasn’t changed to this day. I’ve got a red scooter, and it’s amazing, it looks pretty much exactly the same. That time was very interesting from the point of view of a musician, a kid at that time.

I seem to remember seeing him lumped in with Rod Stewart, Marc Bolan, and David Bowie as an “ex-Mod” somewhere, but can’t find any reference now as to if he actually ran with the Mod crowd as a teenager, and if so, what his old friends have to say about the entire decade he spent wearing a terrycloth headband.

“Scooters In the City”


Here’s Natalie Martinez’ full report from NBC5 Chicago last Tuesday. (Thanks to Lalo at the 2sb IT helpdesk.) Here are the links referred to in the story, thanks to Natalie for including 2strokebuzz in that list, and for including some legal and safety advice in her story.

Thanks, woman on cell phone in Lincoln Navigator.

rallycrush1.jpg

Lowrider scooters are cool and all, but a month after picking up his restored and kitted Vespa Rally 200 from POC Scooters, Kyle Rose would probably have preferred not being smashed between two SUVs. Sorry Kyle. Here’s a video of Phil riding the bike, which would be uproariously funny had Phil and Kyle wanted the bike to look that way.

Vintage Lambretta Service films

innovideo.jpg

Bongiorno, customer-a, Have-a you seen-a our new-a model?

Amazing vintage scooter videos continue to surface on YouTube. This time, scootr99 deserves the credit for unleashing two English-dubbed films released by Innocenti in the sixties. The first is a complete Lambretta Li150 Series III stripdown (parts 1, 2, 3, and 4). The second is even more interesting, a guide to opening and setting up an offical Lambretta sales and service facility (parts 1, 2, and 3). Most scooter dealers could learn a thing or two from both videos. (Thanks for the links, ajuda.scooterpt.com)

Moped Takeover

Hollywood Holt's

OK, I’ve been waiting for this day for years. between Hollywood Holt’s “Throw a Kit” video (featuring Chicago’s Peddy Ca$h club) and Andy Samberg’s Hot Rod movie, mopeds have officially taken over the hipster market and are finally positioned to become ubiquitous in television commercials and otherwise overexposed and boring, allowing scooters to fade back into obscurity so I can buy them for $800 again. Take note, hipsters, there soon will be folks showing up at moped rallies wearing fanny packs. And not Pac-Man fanny packs from Ragstock, either, I mean actual unironic fanny packs.

That said, “Throw a Kit” is awesome, and the first rap song to ever rhyme “Garelli” with “Minarelli”

POC is still POC, but bigger

Speaking of ScILFs who run scooter shops, POC Phil has opened a new Pride of Cleveland Scooters showroom and service facility in a neato (and huge) former ski shop in Lakewood, OH. The spacious first floor is already full of scooters, and the second floor will soon become a “scooter museum” featuring Phil’s collection of scooters and emphemera. POC’s Ohio City shop will remain open (for the time being, at least). Here are a few photos of the shop before the move, and a recent Lakewood Observer story (click to download PDF) about the new shop. Congrats, Phil and Merritt, you’ll be running a national chain of scooter shops before you’re finished.

SCOMO is Scoot Richmond

If something has been around the scooter scene as long as 2strokebuzz, it’s fair to call it a Venerable Institution, right? Well, Chelsea of the Venerable Institution formerly known as SCOMO has asked us to let the world know some re-jiggying has taken place, and her new-and-improved operation will heretofore be known as Scoot Richmond. Best wishes to Scoot Richmond and all who sail with them; in tribute, here’s a link to 2SB’s famous topless photo of Chelsea.

Amerivespa 2007 photos

5454
Finally, all of my Amerivespa 2007 photos are in the 2SB Gallery. They’re mostly from Vashon Island (Sunday), with a few from Saturday (including the Adly Lambretta and the Seattle Kwik-E-Mart.) Jordan has hundreds more, we’ll post those soon, and there are a million more on Scoot.net. A lot has already been said about the rally all over the web, but I’ll have another writeup about the rally (and my first-hand observations on the Adly Lambretta) soon.