Category: Video

Chuck Mead: behind the scenes

We posted Chuck Mead’s great new video a few days ago, but it’s since been pulled from YouTube, The same YouTube link appears on Chuck’s MySpace page, so that’s strange, but being a big-shot music video director myself, I’m aware things don’t always happen the way you’d like, ha.

So we’ll get that re-linked ASAP, BUT! There’s good news! There are two other videos on YouTube with outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage from the video shoot, both of which are nearly as entertaining as the real video, especially because Chuck gets hassled by the Man in one of ’em. Check it:

Blur Burnout

Alas, no there were no jaw-dropping surprises at Indianapolis, and I’m sure I’m the only person who even asked Dean about the Blur at the Genuine booth, but just for old times’ sake, here’s a video of our beloved ’06 Blur 150, hopped up and Nicky Hayden’ed, in burnout action, courtesy of Mike at ScootOver in Tuscon. He sent it, what, two months ago, and I just re-found it, hopefully our Indy coverage will come together faster than that.

“One of those little things that buzz by in traffic”

Just when you think you’ve seen every vintage Vespa film there is, YouTube digs up more gold. This 1961 Vespa commercial, presumably produced by ’60s East-coast distributor Vescony, makes a very clear argument for the Vespa as a commuter vehicle, then pushes their luck with exaggerated mileage promises (125mpg?) and oversimplification of the engine to “three moving parts.” (The party line has always been four, which already seems a bit oversimplified, unless you’re counting, for example, the entire transmission consisting of the gearshift linkage, gear cluster, shifting cross, and Christmas tree as “one part.”) A great find. (Thanks to Dave McCabe.)

UPDATE: VCOA historian John Gerber comments:

It’s definitely Vescony, but it’s 1964 NOT 1961. It’s a Carl Alley produced commercial. Several were produced, but Piaggio would not share in any of the costs for airing them. They were never shown nationally, but some of the larger dealers showed them locally during non-primetime. In general, they were way too expensive to be shown even at off times. I saw one only once for my local dealer during a Saturday afternoon movie re-run. If Piaggio had enough sense to underwrite serious advertising in the U.S. things might have gone a lot different for them.

Adolf and Benito, EU-capitalist version

The Scooter Scoop reports Vespa and Adidas have teamed up for some co-branded apparel and shoes.
The last time Adidas teamed up (unofficially) with Vespa, we got the greatest commercial of all time:

The gear looks pretty sweet, though not too “outside the box.” What we need now is for Piaggio and Adidas to sponsor a Serie-A team, anyone, THAT would be the greatest soccer jersey since PGO sponsored Akademisk Boldklub of Denmark. (And of course, these.)

Black Lungrophenia


Poor Black Lungs guy. First zombies, now this. If Quadrophenia filtered the ’60s through the ’70s, this video filters the ’60s through the ’70s through the ’80s through the ’90s on a Canadian indie-label budget. Can you believe there are people so young they think of Rancid as “old-school?” Nice (though repetitive) footage, though, and very sweet barn-fresh Vespas. And hey, it’s fun.
(Thanks, Zombie Bill, who sent it in a better player but I wanted to embed it, without ads.)

Vespa at EICMA: a video tour

A video tour of Vespa’s booth at EICMA.

Here’s another general video with peeks of a few scooters and an overall idea of the number of skeezy European models at the event, which pretty much explains why Bradford paid $7000 (and that was just the fuel surcharges) to fly to Milan:

Tears for Fears were ex-Mods… literally

DID YOU KNOW: Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears started out in a Bath, England Mod Band called Graduate? You learn something every day. This discovery was inspired by the new “Literal Video” for “Head Over Heels,” which I was hoping was the Go-Go’s, but TFF will do:

It’s great, but not as totally essential and perfectly awesome as the first “Literal Video:”

Scooter vs. Car

Scooter vs Car (might be disturbing for some viewers). No idea if it’s real or staged or what. The video quality is good and (fingers crossed) the scooterist looks like it may be a dummy, so I’m guessing it’s a commercial or safety training video or something, but it really gets the point across: No matter how careful you are, sometimes the other guy just isn’t following the rules. (Thanks for the link, Steve from Andretti/Benelli)