Reilly Brennan

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:57:34 -0500

"Growing up, one of my favorite books was Automobiles of the Future by Irwin Stambler. Written in the..."

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:55:00 -0500

“Growing up, one of my favorite books was Automobiles of the Future by Irwin Stambler. Written in the 60s, it imagined the automobile in the 80s, 90s, and even the new millenium. The book was a window to a strange parallel dimension, where everything inside was a streamlined, pastel version of reality. Its pages held promise, for the future of automobiles was about more than spark plugs and oil filters, it was the story of man’s struggle to better himself. At the same time, it was very naive and simplified the world of tomorrow to a utopia that answered all of the problems facing their society. It never considered the possibility that the future would have its own set of obstacles to overcome. But that was its biggest appeal to me, to see the ways our society had advanced so far from their wildest dreams, yet fallen short on its fundamental ideals.”

- Jon Wong of ISO50, in a great piece about his creation of the Explorers of Tomorrow book. I’m consistently inspired and amazed by the quality of the stuff on ISO50. It is a marvel for the eyes, ears and brain. The Stambler book can be found on Amazon and eBay.

Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Couch Kit

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0500

I love settling in for these long distance races with all manner of televisions and computer screens at my disposal, like some all-knowing war commander. In reality I am just watching like the wide-eyed fan I am while Andrea rolls her eyes.

Here’s how I’ll manage the 24 Hours of Daytona race this weekend. (BTW, if you’re unfamiliar with the race, read this piece by Sam Posey. This year marks the 50th running of the event.)

Start time: Saturday, January 28, 3:30PM Eastern standard time

TV coverage explained: Speed (TV): 3:30PM - 11PM, then SpeedTV.com until 9AM, then Speed (TV) until 3:30 checkered flag. All times Eastern.

Live streams:

SpeedTV web stream (11PM Sat - 9AM Sun), or this hijacked Speed television feed. MotorsTV (in French).
Radio feed: Radio Le Mans (with John Hindhaugh, my favorite) MRN (timing and scoring on top, radio feed with controls at bottom)
Team streams (mostly pit views, some cars): Turner motorsports, TRG, Magnus Racing
Track views: Tower view looking at T1

Timing and scoring:

Grand-Am live timing and scoring

Other useful stuff:

Entry list
Graphic spotter’s guide view of all the entries by Andy Blackmore
Twitter searches: #rolex24, #daytona24, Metacool racers list
New cars I’m eager to watch: Audi’s R8 making a semi-factory-backed debut (with two teams), the new “Corvette DP” prototypes (five cars, including the #90 seen above)

2011 info, just to keep in mind:

Winner’s average speed: 106.877 mph
Winner’s total laps: 721
Winner’s best lap: 1:40:936
Winners: Hand, Pruett, Rahal, Rojas (Ganassi BMW-powered Riley)

A prototype emerges from the lab: Carmagnum

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:41:06 -0500

Some people find time to stop and smell the roses, but I prefer the cars. With that, I am happy to announce we’re shipping the public beta version of Carmagnum. What is Carmagnum? See a car, take a photo. If you’ve ever taken a picture of a car on the street to share with a friend, you’ve already “used” Carmagnum. It’s as simple as that.

This bizarre pleasure used to be a solitary obsession of mine. Then came Facebook, where I started sharing photos of cars with my friends. But soon enough, Facebook wasn’t really comprised of my friends at all. One day my mom’s accountant friended me on Facebook and I realized it was all my fault. As Yogi Berra said, “Nobody goes there anymore…it’s too crowded.” Certainly for the automotive part of my life that became true. My ongoing obsession with second-generation Golfs and GTIs started to fade from Facebook.

Thus, Carmagnum. Right now our little project is web-based but you can upload your photos in a mobile way via email. We hope to have a full featured app for you to use down the road, when we can afford it. Until then I invite you to check it out. Carmagnum is the place to talk about the cars you see with people who actually care.

Carmagnum is a joint effort from Nate Luzod, Sean Lyons, Kevin English and yours truly. I hope you enjoy it. We built it in Michigan, California and Hawaii throughout 2011.

http://www.carmagnum.com/

(Below, some of my favorite shots I’ve seen on Carmagnum from some of our users:)

Lance Henderstein, Daihatsu Hijet in Japan

Alex Nunez, GMC truck in NYC

James Morse, Chevrolet Chevette in Northern Michigan

Colin O’Donnell, Datsun 1600 in Los Angeles

Adam Morath, DMC-12 in Ypsilanti:

Nate Luzod, Ferrari paranoia in Toronto:

Seyth Miersma, frankenstein Nissan Z in Portland:

My own, the bed of a Chevrolet El Camino in San Francisco:

Steve Ewing, Honda CRX Si in Michigan:

My old pal Nate Luzod moved to Hawaii a few months ago and all...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:56:24 -0500

My old pal Nate Luzod moved to Hawaii a few months ago and all he has to show for it is this incredibly infectious smile. Photo by his wife, the lovely thereafterish.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love..."

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:27:24 -0500

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

- MLK

Stu Thomsen, Redline rider, going enormous over three 930s in...

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:43:00 -0500

Stu Thomsen, Redline rider, going enormous over three 930s in 1983.

The Porsche were owned by Oakley founder Jim Janard (red), Redline founder Linn Kastan (white), and Wizard Productions (BMX Action, Freestylin magazines) founder Bob Osbourne (black). Kastan explains the fortunate position of his car on Redline’s site:

“If you look at the ‘high tech’ ramp, you’ll understand why my car was in the middle! Besides, I was the only ‘car owner’ present, so I got to ‘direct!’”

Ronnie Peterson in his 1974 Lotus 76, with the bizarre but...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:42:00 -0500

Ronnie Peterson in his 1974 Lotus 76, with the bizarre but interesting (and, sadly, ineffective) biplane rear wing. Peterson was in the odd position of racing with the #1 on his car despite not being the champion (Lotus had won the constructor’s championship in ‘73, but his teammate Emerson Fittipaldi left at the end of that season for MacLaren). In keeping with the F1 numbering system, Lotus had #1 and #2 for their drivers in 1974, giving the remaining Peterson the numero uno.

Although this photo isn’t labeled as such, I believe it was taken at Jarama for the Spanish Grand Prix.

A Brief History of Kongs

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:15:00 -0500

The enormous, frighteningly friendly King Kong balloons on the roofs of your louder car dealerships and apartment complexes are in trouble. They’re already banned in many cities in Texas as well as St. Louis, after city councils deemed them an eyesore and a distraction to drivers. When Houston finally banned them, the city’s mayor said: “We want to try to improve the physical appearance of the city.”

Nobody associates the 40-foot high inflatables as anything but garish sales props, but in reality they have an interesting historical connection. And perhaps one of the strangest accidental discoveries in automotive retail.

Of course, all inflatable primates reference Cooper and Schoedsack’s iconic King Kong from 1933, but car dealers didn’t start using them in earnest until the late 1970s, when three important things happened.

In 1972 the city of Birmingham, England commissioned pop artist Nicholas Munro to construct a sculpture for Manzoni Gardens in their commercial center. Munro took on the challenge and delivered a towering fiberglass King Kong, with outstretched arms and menacing red eyes. It stood at 23 feet tall.

Munro’s King Kong in Birmingham, 1972

But, some six months after its unveiling, Birmingham gave up on it. The city refused to pay for its upkeep and wouldn’t keep it as a permanent fixture. So Munro’s sculpture went up for sale and a businessman named Mike Shanley appeared with the necessary 3000 pounds sterling. Shanley figured the enormity of the thing would be a good roadside draw to his business, a car dealership. It did just that, and he rebranded as King Kong Motors. It became a fixture of Camp Hill.

While Shanley’s oversized bet paid off, that alone didn’t bring the Kong craze to American car dealers. But a 1976 remake of King Kong (starring Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange and Charles Grodin) proved to be a success and drove all manner of nostalgia for the oversized primate. Then technology stepped in: laminated vinyl grew up — and could be produced in larger and larger forms and more complex shapes. The time was right. Munro’s idea for King Kong quite literally blew up — it would now become a staple of automotive retailing.

Now thousands of Kongs brighten (besiege?) the American landscape. They cost anywhere from $5000-$10,000 and weigh about 800 pounds all in. They’re usually 40-feet tall in largest form, with grommets on the chest to display banners and signs.

Munro’s original, by the way, lives on. Shanley sold King Kong to a Scottish market owner in the late 1970s where it stood atop his store. It has since moved to Penrith (Scotland) where it could use a bath and a return to glory atop a building. Or perhaps a car dealership.

Below, a collection of Kongs in various colors and dispositions.

Today at the Montgomery MUNI station, a rare moment of quiet and...

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:05:00 -0500

Today at the Montgomery MUNI station, a rare moment of quiet and emptiness.

“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:26:00 -0500

“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you’re life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Frankenbrands: Rearranging Logos and Relaunching

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 06:01:00 -0500

The fallout from Border’s bankruptcy and liquidation looms large at the shopping center down the street from our place here in San Francisco. Entrepreneur Martin Carmody bought the inventory of the above Border’s Books after it went tango uniform, purchasing the remaining 40,000 books in the store for $50,000 and establishing his own lease, turning ODE into a budget book store and more.

What I found most interesting in Carmody’s approach is that he was smart enough to use Border’s existing sign and avoid the cost of doing a new one (a cost that would have run anywhere from $10,000 - $20,000). He just rearranged the letters to create ODE. As it turns out, Carmody isn’t alone in saving the detritus of old brands and signs after they go belly up.

A collection of Frankenbrands (a term coined by my friend Sam Valenti IV), companies that use the original corporate branding…for better or worse:

Dad’s Inn in Lansing, Michigan, a barely modified frankenbrand of a Day’s Inn.

“Yes” Thrift Store in Tucson, a frankenbrand of an old Mervyn’s sign.

Conn’s reused the department signage as a partial frankenbrand from an old Circuit City.

Jon’s in Hollywood, a frankenbrand of Von’s Supermarket.

Royal Dry Cleaners in Cleveland uses the old frame and sunburst from a Red Barn restaurant.

This “Antiques” shop in North Carolina uses the original framing from a K-Mart sign.

K-Mart, coincidentally, is perhaps the ultimate and original Frankenbrander. It was the company’s CEO Joseph Antonini who brilliantly reduced the company’s signs from the full K-Mart to a single K with ‘mart’ written inside in 1990. The move reportedly saved $1 million dollars per year in electricity bills.

Photo

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:12:25 -0500

Personalized Thank You Note Culture

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:46:09 -0500

Andrea received an order from J.Crew and inside we were surprised to find this correspondence card from CEO Mickey Drexler. I like that it’s not really on J.Crew stationery, but rather like a personal note from the man himself.

The Lowly Receipt, An Opportunity

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:22:00 -0500

Point-of-sale receipts are meaningless and will probably go the way of our protoborg pocketdevices. Which is why they are so amazing when they are done well. And an opportunity.

It struck me again when Andrea and I finally made it over to Outerlands for lunch. We arrived just as they opened at 11:00 am and grabbed a little seat outside along 45th Avenue, catching a good 20 minutes of sun before it moved overhead. When Andrea came outside after ordering and showed me the receipt, it made me smile. They only did so much as put their winged mascot on top, but the way the point-of-sale’s line returns printed a bird with IBM stripes, it became a little more distinguished. Later when I got home I wondered about the lives of all those receipts I collect, scraps of recordkeeping that usually end up crumpled in my pocket, transferred to my bedside table and eventually ripped into a hundred little pieces. They are sitting ducks for improvement.

As it turns out, there are some receipts to be celebrated. Below are some of the more interesting examples I’ve seen online, repurposed here as a sort of thumbtack wall to inspire someone down the line. I liked some of the ideas found within Berg’s adventurous and creative redo of the common receipt, but as a whole consider it a little too precious — like something out of an overpriced cupcake shop.

Examples:

Burgerville: Nutritional information for each item (from rynosoft)

Barnes & Noble: Recommended similar purchases (from Travelin’ Librarian)

BP: A Vulcan salute

Nirvana: Hand-drawn cartoons for customers by Brent-Dawg (from MetaGrrrl)

China Cafe: Native characters alongside English text

Loehmann’s: Reiterating perceived value (from thisgirlangie)

Taxicab: A peaceful reminder (from EvilChick)

McDonald’s: Subtle but powerful branding (from Alexweb8, who has a thing for collecting receipts from various point-of-sale machines)

Harvard metalab project: QR codes, quotes (from neutralSurface)

ZEF: receipt as business card (from pointclickenjoy) (UPDATE: mmcgown comes in with this tidbit about our man ZEF: “If you didn’t do it earlier, go here http://zef.so/employable/ and take a look at Zef’s CV. It’s quite imaginative and, not surprisingly, snagged him employment.” Sound on, trust us.)

Maybe Warhol knew what he was doing after all.

Brass Buttons from Waterbury

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:49:00 -0500

“Since 1812, we’ve crafted the world’s most popular metal buttons. When Gen. Ulysses S. Grant met Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, both men wore Waterbury buttons on their chests.”

I’ve probably spent a full hour over the last six months trolling the archives of Waterbury Button, the pre-eminent button maker and the only Civil War-era button manufacturer still in business. The buttons are all made in Connecticut (although no longer in Waterbury — they moved to nearby Chesire) and are found on jackets on sale at Brooks Brothers, Tommy Hilfiger and found fastening all types of U.S. military garb.

Below are some of my favorite buttons from their archive.

See more at Waterbury Button Co.

Signs and mahl sticks

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:01:18 -0400

I’ve never seen a sign painter doing his work, so when I walked into NEST in Pacific Heights a few weeks back I was excited to see Scott Thiessen putting on their new window lettering, all by hand. The shop owners probably weren’t enthusiastic about me interrupting him with my inane questions. Actually, Scott probably wasn’t too excited about it either. But he was gracious enough to answer a few questions from me and let me take this photograph.

I was fascinated by the stick he was holding and had never seen anything like it; I actually asked him if it was a pool queue. It’s called a mahl stick and is used by painters when doing fine detail work, preventing them from smudging the surrounding work and providing a brace of sorts. The end you can’t see is wrapped in a soft round pad so it doesn’t scratch the glass.

Scott’s amazing work is for hire, at New Bohemia Signs.

One of my favorite Gustav Klimt paintings, on sale November 02...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:08:00 -0400

One of my favorite Gustav Klimt paintings, on sale November 02 at Sotheby’s.

Requiem For A Clock Radio: Sony Dream Machine Discontinued

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:02:00 -0400

Sony discontinued their Dream Machine clock radios in the U.S at some point over the last year. This proved to be a non-event for most of the consuming public, but when I found out directly from Sony’s PR team last week (they’ve moved over to the “Dash” line of clock radios), it struck me as the death of another great consumer brand. Is it that Sony can’t manage technology brands through format evolution? Or is it that they just have too many things going on, too many new brands to create, and too much…stuff to do? I wish I knew. When you search for the Dream Machine on Google, your first result is Sony’s own page for the ICF-C180 (“Start your day with the ICF-C180!”), sadly reported as “No Longer Available.”

Dream Machines weren’t historic works of art, nor were they the stuff of business school case studies, but they were…everywhere. My sister and my mom both had white ‘digicubes’ and those sounds (my sister’s radio tuned to 89X, my mom’s buzzer) woke up our house every single day until I went to college. I eventually got my first in middle school, probably around 1990, although I rarely set the alarm. Nearly all of my friends had one and practically every guest bedroom I slept in had one. They just existed — the helvetica of clock radios.

Sony’s 8FC-59 was the icon that started it all — the first breakout digital clock radio, with flip-over numbers and eventually a 7-segment display. Before that time our bedside tables lit with the dull glow of actual clock dials, forcing us to make sense of hour hands in the ungodly hours of the morning. The “Dream Machine” (as my friend Sam pointed out, a curious name for a product that wakes you up) innovation proved to be the palm-width snooze bar called the Dream Bar, right up front on top, exactly where you want to smash it with your fist. It worked.

In no particular order, here is a litany of old Dream Machines dating back some 30 years. Tomorrow morning when you wake, think of all the mornings they faithfully broke you from your slobbery lullabys and helped you start your day, your life.

8FC-59

EZ-2

EZ-4

ICF-C3W (special Pink edition)

ICF-C3W

ICF-C10

ICF-C101

ICF-CX1

ICF-218

ICF-C805W

ICF-C763

ICF-C80W

ICF-CD815

ICF-C4W

ICF-C16

ICF-C30W

ICF-C17W

ICF-C350

ICF-C220W

Photo

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 06:00:06 -0400