Bonneville wave: a cute couple speeding along into the sixties on their travel ready Triumph. Sunny days ahead for the decade of the space-race, free love and the burgeoning optimism expected under the young JFK.
January 2, 2016
WooHoo
December 18, 2015
The Force Awakens
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!
December 4, 2015
The Christmas Shoes
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)
November 9, 2015
Patsy
Lovely Joanna Lumley looking lively red on the mighty 90’s Triumph Daytona. Photo by Terry O’Neill.
November 8, 2015
Hippy Hipsters from Hip-City.
We’re more like the Hip-replacement crowd… But the fashion-fun folks at Vogue magazine know a cool prop when they see one. A lightly customized new classic Triumph Scrambler. I’m going to teach Geordie how to ride on pillion like that.
November 6, 2015
Viva la revolución
Wonderfully evocative photo from 1956. It’s film actress Lina Salomé on her classy Harley Davidson in Havana Cuba. I was in a lecture about planning, design and landscape architecture in the largest Caribbean island today and it reminded me of our trip there ten years ago.
October 30, 2015
Dark Alley
A frame from the recent David Beckham short film with some surly lass astride what we now know is one of the new classics.
October 28, 2015
Redhead
Well, brunettes are fine, man
Blondes are fun
But, when it comes to getting the dirty job done,
I’ll take a red-headed woman, a red-headed woman.
It takes a red-headed woman to get a dirty job done.
Bruce Springsteen
October 25, 2015
The Quiet Man
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.
October 23, 2015
Move over pet!
You’re blocking the view!
At last it’s Friday again, a weekend ahead for some brief R&R and, with a bright forecast, a possibility of a ride on Sunday. Fall color is spectacular this year so hope to enjoy the blur and red, golds, oranges and all autumnal hues under a blue sky.
October 17, 2015
Eight Ball
Another wartime doll offering Lady Luck to this Indian motorcycle rider. Olive drab with perfect decades old patina for a nostalgic ride.
October 16, 2015
Firecracker Red
As did heavy bombers wore nose art during WWII so too does this Bonnevilles owner has done with a polka-dotted bikini-clad brunette.
Cherry-pie…. Now I’m hungry!
October 9, 2015
Friday Fez Fun
Salt Speedster Superstar: here’s the perfectly posed racing lass Gina Morill Olson with her Fez Monkey Racing’s Bonneville under a crystal blue sky atop The Flats in Utah. The teams money raising efforts included this Rosie The Rivetter inspired patch and sticker. Cool Stuff!
September 28, 2015
WHAAM!
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!
