Trophy husband, stepfather, Kabbalah poseur, practical joker, and bad actor Ashton Kutcher is now a scooterist. Save us.
Category: Sightings
Scooters pop up all over the place
Something’s scooty in Denmark
In other celebrity scootering news, Danish royals Prince Frederik and Princess Mary were photographed riding a Lambretta LD around the palace grounds last week. That’s a much more romantic thought than Demi and Ashton.
Ballet Kelowna Vespa
For our readers in the Okanagan Valley, here’s your chance to win a Vespa by supporting rural Canadian ballet. Help out Ballet Kelowna as they face division rival Kamloops for the WHL conference title!
Taming of the Shrewd
The Boston Phoenix’s review of the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s “Taming of the Shrew” succumbed to a Vespa marketing gimmick even as they acknowledged it:
Paul Farwell’s Baptista is a smooth old-country operator, and there is a spry, athletic turn by Antonio Edwards Suarez as Petruchio’s hyperactive manservant, Grumio, who arrives with his master on a leopard-skin-seated Vespa. (Nice product placement for corporate sponsor Herb Chambers Vespa.)
Oops, we fell for it too. Damn you, Herb Chambers and your wily marketing department!
Scooter reality in Cambodia
In one of those wire stories that’s too vague to seem real, yet too mundane to be made up, Cambodian Television Network is now casting CTN Coffee Shop, Cambodia’s first reality TV show. The participant best able to cope with the stupidity of existence on a reality show for three months wins a brand new scooter. Somewhere, the PR director of a Cambodian factory that makes knockoffs of Vietnamese knockoffs of Chinese knockoffs of Indian knockoffs of Honda Super Cubs is complaining that the one wire service that picked up his story didn’t include the make or model of the scooter.
Buy a condo, get a scooter
Construction is underway at the Blueprint condos at Colfax Avenue and Madison Street in Denver. Spill 100-400K on a condo, and they’ll take care of the second step towards your newfound yuppiedom and give you a new Vespa. Maybe we’ll check that out during Amerivespa.
Exus’ “Trans Scooter”
I’m having a hard time following this press release I got today, but as I understand it, two dudes named Saint and Kuut (pronounced “Kau-ku-‘ta,” of course), have mystical powers, and when they’re not sewing zippers on things, or doing video art, they paint their heads up like Goldie Hawn on Laugh-In, call themselves “Exus” and record music. Lots of music. One of their ten records due out in July is “Trans Scooter.” I’ll let them describe it:
The wind has blown and the combustion of a new generation takes you for a ride. Motoring to the beat makes others want to follow you. The division of the sexes has ended. Now you can show to everyone what’s between your legs, boy, girl. This is Dimensional Sound.
So, yeah, if you like asexual mellow-ish electronic music with alleged mystical powers (and you already have the complete Brian Eno collection) you might dig Exus. It’s not quite my bag (which is to say it’s nothing like Brian Eno, I was just making a cheap joke) but hey, Saint and Kuut seem like they’re havin’ fun and keeping busy with all their projects, and that’s respectable, I wish I had the time to put out ten albums this month. They’ve saved some space on the site for listeners’ scooter photos if you’re so inclined to send one.
To dream… the impossible dream…
Honda UK drafted our own Professor Matthew to root for Engerland in a fantastic TV commercial. A similar-but-lamer ad has run in the US for the past few years. With Michael Owen down and Argentina and Brazil both on fire, England’s gonna need more than a dork on a Super Cub to win the cup, but our fingers are as crossed as St. George’s flag. In other Honda-meets-World Cup news, Nicky Hayden had a few nice words for the US team, though we’re not really convinced he’s a big soccer fan.
Time Out on “Vintage Treads”
Time Out Chicago’s preview of Mods vs. Rockers. (Thanks, Jason)
Masterfile giving away scooters
Masterfile, the stock photo warehouse, is giving away six Vinos. All you have to do is register and add some of your favorite photos to a lightbox. It’s still a free scooter, even if it is a Vino.
Vespa Soho “pinball” ads
Some amazingly cool print ads from Vespa Soho. I don’t know if the urban scooter riding experience has ever been summed up so eloquently.
Oldham’s Mod Mayor
Vintage Lambretta rider and ex-Mod Bernard Judge was named mayor of Oldham, England this week. Judge, who is also a huge Motown and soul music fan says, “Music has the power to change things,” and is already being called “The Musical Mayor.” An old photo of Judge in his mod days adorns an album by L.A. band The Jamie Lamb Quartet.
Les Nessman Scooter Crash
Chad comes through for us again: Les Nessman’s scooter crash from WKRP in Cincinnati. They don’t show the crash (that would have been expensive to shoot), but Les vividly describes it. I think another episode shows him riding over one of Cincinnati’s many bridges on a Vespa, maybe that will turn up someday.
“You can probably see that we’re pretty tough”
Another of Chicago’s greatest moments in televised scooter crashes: Wild Chicago’s segment on DeathScoot 2000 (Slaughterhouse VI), YouTubed for your pleasure, just this minute, by Chad. Ignoring the fact that every voiceover describes the exact opposite of what is being pictured, it’s still a classic. Goodtimes!
“Tracy! are you OK?”
I heard about this when it happened a couple years ago, and never thought I’d get the chance to see it, but thanks to the dual magic of Tivo and Youtube, here it is: With mere seconds of instruction and an unbuckled half-helmet, WLS Channel 7 meteorologist Tracy Butler crashes a Vespa, during a PR piece with Vespa of Chicago’s Sam Tomaino. God bless you, Vespaway. Now if only I could find Les Nessman’s Vespa crash on WKRP…