When scooter news breaks, we put it under a tarp in the garage.
Scooters pop up all over the place
What’s up with these contests lately that give away Vespas (in the case of the Jet Blue One Thing Thats Green Sweepstakes, a lot of Vespas) as a runner-up prize, with “top” prizes that no one would want (in this case, flights to the third world, or the “opportunity” to listen to Deepak Chopra’s mullarkey in person? Admittedly, the washer and dryer look nice, but we’ve got that covered.
(Via P.Z. Meyers)
I was recently made aware of the handiwork of Jeb from Soundspeed Scooters that will be featured in an upcoming Hollywood film. April from Scoot! Magazine posted a story about a new film starring Hanks and Julia Roberts that features Hanks riding scooters during a midlife crisis. Further intelligence from the horses mouth revealed the handy electric conversion kit to change a classic Lambretta to a zero-emissions-near-you vehicle that will be used in the movie. The Lambretta in the photo was used as a template and the kit was shipped off to the local shop that outfitted a different Lambretta. Maybe you could talk Jeb into making another kit for your Innocenti that hasn’t seen the road in a while or to use while you build up that MB Race-Tour 200 engine.
You can read more about the film in April’s post and links in the comment section of their blog. It sounds like a familiar tale. I’m fairly certain scooter fans will discuss the film on several levels from now until well after release. The question I’m most interested in is what 4-stroke engine recording will they use in the film to represent the running Lambretta?
KYMCO is sponsoring the IZOD Indy Car Series again this year, so they’re running a Live Like an Indy Car Driver contest. Grand Prize is a KYMCO 4-wheeler, but with luck, you can win the two runner-up prizes: KYMCO Super-8 scooters signed by IRL racer Ryan Hunter-Reay. Pick up an entry coupon at any KYMCO dealer.
Aside from the Memorial Day limelight, would life really be that great to be an Indy Car driver? I’d imagine it’d be a lot of carefully-budgeted interstate travel, groveling for sponsors, and squeezing performance out of an underfunded car and crew, I dunno, it sounds like the pits, no pun intended. I’ll take graphic design over IRL racing any day. Maybe I’m biased from my uniquely shitty experience at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a couple years ago, and IRL would be loads better than NASCAR, that’s for sure.
Two great BBC4 documentaries from the 90s:
A must-watch “Classic Motorcycles” scooter documentary from the early ’90s featuring an amazing array of period photos and footage from the early years of the Vespa and Lambretta.
Another great BBC documentary from a bit later, focusing more on the mid-90s U.K. rally scene.
(Thanks, Steve, via the CHIscooterList.)
I haven’t watched a late-night talk show since Adult Swim’s been on the air, but if I did, Jay Leno would be third on my list behind Conan O’Brien and David Letterman. Maybe eighth if you threw in Craig Ferguson and Chelsea Handler and a few others. I’ve always thought his Tonight Show was about as bland as a show can be, a pale imitation of the already-bland Johnny Carson years.
But, the weird thing is, I like Jay Leno. How can you not? He’s by all accounts an affable guy, and he loves motorcycles. We might all be jealous of his collection, but motorcycle and scooter blogs are full of “Jay sighting” stories, always reporting that he couldn’t be more friendly and down-to-earth. And further proof: he allegedly turned down hosting an American version of Top Gear, admitting that the show would be worthless without Jeremy Clarkson.
Leno’s motoring blog Jay Leno’s Garage will feature a video report on the Genuine Buddy tomorrow (February 12, 2010). I’m really looking forward to it.
You’d think Jay’d be a Vespa guy, it’s a fact he’s got at least one vintage GS in his collection, and he spoke at PiaggioUSA’s 2008 dealer meeting (ah, 2008, those were the days! Rumor has it he was paid with a truckful of bikes, hopefully not recalled RSVs!.)
So it’ll be interesting to hear what he’s got to say about the Buddy, and surely legions of Buddy fans are waiting with bated breath. I agree an Americanized Top Gear would be horrible, but I bet we’d all love to see a Jay Leno motorsport show.
Even the Conan fans.
Thanks, Guido.
A double-win for PiaggioUSA’s marketing department AND the Des Moines Register‘s copy desk.
Thanks, Eric.
Late last summer I attended the Los Vesparados art show in Minneapolis. I took some pictures and made some notes of my favorite works. I never posted about it on 2SB. This is a recurring theme in my service as a Bedell Media International correspondent.
I was walking through a local Barnes and Noble the other day, searching for what I came to learn was last weeks issue of The Economist, when I spied what looked to be a papercraft Vespa set upon an upturned polka dot Chinese takeout box on the cover of periodical. The cover art turned out to be a painting by artist Nate Ronniger. Mr. Ronniger’s work had been listed as shown at the aforementioned art show. So The Southern Review, a literary journal published out of LSU, helped my scooter art odyssey come full circle to remind me that I should finish writing a few posts that I’ve had in the works for months.
Check out Mr. Ronniger’s artwork. I can’t quite believe they are not photos. Also, if anyone knows about The Southern Review, feel free to chime in.
The Amerivespa 2010 website is up. It’s earlier than usual this year, May 27-31, in San Antonio, TX. , One new feature I’m kind of excited about is a scooter art show that will include great Amerivespa artwork from this year’s designer Robert Tatum, plus Shag, Shepard Fairey, R. Black, Glen Reid and some poseur named Bryan. Rally registration is open now, as usual, it is CRITICAL to pre-register if you want to participate in all events and get a fully-packed goodie bag.
The Vegas Rally is February 25-28, and returns to Fremont Street, which should be goodtimes. The Inciters are playing the Saturday Allnighter, with the usual load of great DJs. Pregistration closes February 12
Yep, that pretty much nails it.
Rumor has it Dean from the Knuckledraggers SC (Quad Cities IL/IA) appears in the second episode of the new History Channel show American Pickers, featuring a Vespa Ape. The episode, “Super Scooter,” should eventually be available for streaming here.
UPDATE: it’s up now on History.com. Thanks again, Scrambler.
Via Scrambler17 on ChiScooterList, thanks!
British sculptor Chris Gilmour builds life-size objects out of corrugated cardboard. Click through his gallery, images 20, 21, and 22 are a Lambretta, a mod Lambretta, and a Vespa autotaxi. Very cool.
Continue reading “Corrugated Scooters”
It’s been a while, but Vespa Vthursday VIdeo is back. Today we appropriately honor one of Haiti’s greatest exports, Wyclef Jean, with an entirely inappropriate song, given the circumstances. In 1998, Jean covered Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” with help from Fugees bandmate Pras, Free and Canibus. The song was produced for the Small Soldiers soundtrack, but thankfully they ignored the film and brought in uberdirector Michel Gondry. It goes a little something like this…
Artist: Wyclef Jean feat. Pras Michel, Canibus, and Free
Song: “Another One Bites the Dust”
Album: Small Soldiers film soundtrack (1998)
Scooter(s): Vespa P-series
Scooter content: 5 seconds
Jump to the good parts: 1:33 to 1:38
The original Queen 45 was in constant rotation on my Fisher-Price record player and at #1 on the Q102 top ten for weeks, until “I Love Rock and Roll” came out and changed everything, forever. I’m sticking to that story even though I just checked Wikipedia and the songs came out 20 months apart. It was Cincinnati, time means nothing there, as the XYLs will tell you.
This version, like many cover versions, seems entirely unnecessary, but it’s not bad. The song’s not Wyclef’s best work, but it’s allright. The video’s not Gondry’s best work, and certainly not his most original concept, but it’s suitably weird, fun, and full of Gondry-style camera tricks, gimmicks, and visual puns. And best of all, it’s got nothing to do with the film it’s promoting, preventing the typical “Who’s Johnny”-type debacle.
As far as scooter content, not too great, but they can’t all be, right? After the remote-control olive-green Vespa P-series is introduced for a few seconds at 1:33, I expected it to come back and save the day later, but oh well, it’s still a pretty good video, and the vintage Mini makes up for it.
So yeah, Haiti. This is what passes for a tribute on 2strokebuzz. I’ll go donate some money now.
Chupa Chups enthusiast and MotoGP star Jorge Lorenzo shows a reporter around Barcelona in his vintage sidecar Lambretta. Awesome!
As Brooke pointed out a while back, French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand (François nephew) regularly commutes via scooter. Last weekend, Mitterand injured his harm sliding on black ice (honorary CWC runner-up!) and France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy publicly chastized Mitterand at the first cabinet meeting of the year:
“I told you before the holidays that a minister is not just anybody,” the President said to Mitterrand in front of Cabinet colleagues. “A minister does not go around on a moped.”
That’s bad form, especially from a man who was (in 2007) criticized for overreacting to the theft of his son’s scooter (thanks again, Brooke) by requesting DNA testing to find the thief. Apparently his son’s ride was a more worthy model than Mitterand’s humble French-made MBK 125cc scooter.
MBK is a direct descendant of the legendary Motobecane Mobylette, as good a symbol of France as anything, and certainly less embarrassing than a Citröen limousine.
For shame, Nic! Humility and efficiency should be rewarded, always.
Toronto’s Kymco dealer ran transit ads on Toronto’s TTC system imploring riders to “Take The Kymco,” (TTK). A clever idea, too bad they flagrantly copied the TTC trademark and TTC removed the ads. Whatever your feelings about scooters’ impact on ecological, economical, and traffic impact, public transportation is surely better, but that said, public transportation riders are probably a wise target market for scooter dealers!