KRINKed-out MINI Cooper S

Check it out… apparently New York street artist Craig “KR” Costello has customized a Mini Cooper S with his radical KRINK® technique. The car was unveiled this morning in Hamburg, Germany.

Happy MINIween!

Since last year I posted an Alice Cooper MINI for All Hallow's Eve... and this year we just wrapped up our first D-land trip, which included visits to the hysterical Jedi Training Academy and a stowing away on Star Tours... I thought it'd be appropriate to post a couple of classic Vader-MINIs.

Enjoy!

Best Parent Teacher Conference Ever

There are few things stranger than sitting on a tiny chair across a minuscule desk from your child’s teacher. You realize very quickly just how old you really are. I was very pleased with our oldest Kyality Kid’s grades and progress… but nothing could prepare me for the straight up pride I was about to feel toward our amazing little daughter. (I mean this was comparable to her little bro’s “Enstrybacks” comment from a few weeks back.) For one of her timed tests, she needed to quickly draw something “in the car”... here was the result:

Now to the untrained eye, this probably looked like some kind of standard dashboard. But to me… it was instantly obvious.

Yes, she is her father’s daughter.

The Saga Is Complete

For those of you who have been following my quest to locate the ideal bike for Mrs. Kyality... the saga is complete! Yesterday, the Kyality Kids and I presented her with a pre-loved birthday bike—and apparently it was a success. She loved it.

The question has been—how do you get a quality bike for someone who isn't too sure how into cycling they'll be, without breaking the bank? Well the answer came in an unsuspected way. I took a random route home form work one day and while at a stoplight, I saw some unique handlebars out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see a light blue upright cruiser out in front of a pawn shop. I thought it was an Electra Townie at first—but to my delight—it turned out to be a flat-foot-style Giant Suede 3 speed. (My very first mountain bike was a Giant.)

The used bike was the key... everything fit the bill: perfect color, perfect geometry and most importantly perfect price. Here's to taking to road less traveled.

My New Addiction: The Dodos

A few weeks ago and I was combing through Spencer Tweedy's blog (son of Wilco's front-man Jeff). He had posted this Pitchfork.tv vid with no labels, titles or tags of a younger-looking guitarist and two percussionists. I listened to the live performance and was instantly addicted but couldn't find the vid on Pitchfork in order to identify the mystery musicians.

Upto12 was out for some biz and I showed him the vid... of course he identified the band within about 30 seconds as the SF-based band The Dodos and then said... "Didn't I hook you up with their first album." I checked my iTunes, he had and sure enough I'd already listened to Visiter—a lot in fact thanks to iTunes' Genius functionality. (Post on Genius coming soon, promise.)

A week later, The Dodos' newest album, Time To Die, was released and I have to be honest—I HAVE NOT STOPPED LISTENING TO IT. It's stripped down, raw, passionate, intricate and simple all at the same time. Every track is solid, memorable and catchy—in a good way. In fact, I catch myself replaying Meric Long's driving guitar solos in my head at all hours of the day. But it's not like getting Tom's Diner stuck in your head, it's actually kinda awesome.

So check it out at an iTunes Store near you. Best $7.99 you'll spend this weekend.

Touring Bike Geek Out

After pounding through the Long Way Round and starting the Long Way Down, I've been geeking out over this rad little gallery of fully-loaded touring bikes. Enjoy!