Street Twin: ready for roads of the new year ahead.
Happy New Year!
I can remember the excitement I had as a six year old watching the original Star Wars. The ships, the light saber fights, the bad guys and the plucky heroes. Last night I went to see a midnight show (first night mind you) of the new George Lucas/JJ Abrams film. All I can say is outstanding. Everything anticipated and more. A little of the old, with a healthy dose of the new and a future of possibilities. The heroine is a scavenger called Rey played wonderfully by Daisy Ridley.
We meet her haring across the arid landscape of Jakku aboard her blunt nosed speeder bike.
The Force is strong with this one!
Supermodel takes on a super model: that is a a gal on a photo shoot with the classic lines of a sixties Bonneville. Here is Gigi Hadid who, at twenty, is a mere slip of a thing in the world of glamour.
I prefer a pair of Doc Martens than pink Manoli Blahniks…up shifting might be a bit graunchy!
(If you want to see the worst music video ever… Here)
Maureen O’Hara who passed away yesterday was a feisty and beautiful Irish actress who met the leading men of the day as their equal. Here she played Mary Kate Danaher who was John Wayne’s love interest in what was my granda’s favorite film. One of the best scenes is when the Duke’s character ex boxer Sean Thornton has an epic fistfight with Mary Kate’s crabby brother.
One of the most important pieces of Mid-Century Pop Art is 52 today. Created by Roy Lichtenstein it uses classic comic book imagery of war with crisp enlarged pen and ink line work filled with stipple coloring seen in the pulp illustrations of the day.
The original dynamic visuals are brought to stark graphic life to create one of the most iconic art pieces of the last fifty years (along with Warhols Marilyn…).
It’s a large 11’x 5′ canvas two piece ‘diptych’and hangs at the Tate Modern in London. He saw his pieces as fun industrial art.
A pencil study shows a clean composition with each hand being able to stand on its own yet coming together in stark visual drama.
Alternate versions exist like this hyper real rendering of the F86 Saber coming in for the kill.
Or this Star Wars version of a rebel X-wing pilot destroying an Imperial Tie-Fighter.
Contemporary commentary. Pilotless drones destroying remotely…
Or a commentary on Pop Art itself…
Side Note:
Jackie Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier in a Saber in 1953. Here with fellow supersonic pilot Chuck Yeager. Look her up she’s one helluva gal!
“Don’t let anything poison your individuality. Break away & look in, not outward.” ~ Rodney Mullen.
Skateboarder genius Mullen roars down some SoCal lane giving up truck’ four wheels for two. Pillion is free to the wind like our lad Rod must feel when freestylin’ his tricks like the Ollie, flip-kick and other flat ground tricks that heralded a new wave of skating in the eighties.
The Moto is an early 70’s Triumph.