Yer Man

Some glorious stuff here...

Watching old film of motorsport is always jaw-dropping. They did what? And the safety equipment was..? Holy crap! But doubly so here. It starts off with Yer Man Joey Dunlop preparing for the 1977 Cookstown 200 which obviously means full speed testing on the public highway... jeans and t-shirts of course and a road full of inquisitive kids. The kids in particular, the clothes and their demeanour give a massive nostalgic rush of memories from the late seventies.



The race itself is incredible. If you think contemporary footage of Formula 1 seems low key this'll knock you out. Race bikes in cow stalls and a racestart that seems to be taking place on a farm track. It's all beautifully shot in 70s-O-Rama a lovely quality to the film-stock, nicely composed shots and not slathered with Sigur Ros, Snow Patrol and a hyperbolic script telling you what to feel. It's a documentary style that television doesn't do any more as the amazing film-maker Adam Curtis noted recently.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the excellent on board footage will have been captured by a bloody huge film camera.



In a lucky coup the film-makers managed to capture Joey in preparation for his maiden TT win and there's more great contemporary footage of the Isle of Man here in clip 3. Unfortunately somebody has seen fit to drizzle the latter half liberally with shite music and several Powerpoint style transitions in tribute. Ach well.

Ty Croes, Anglesey, May 8th 2010

pics by the very talented Renegade Pixel

Wheels? Where we're going...

fast enough to bullseye a womp rat

land speeders

click for biggety

we the few

click for biggety

Ty Croes

Currently propped up in bed having busted my collar bone. Grrrr. It's annoying pecking away at the keyboard one-handed, especially as it's my left.

Still at least no pictures were taken at the Grand Prix last weekend crying out to be Photoshopped, cause I'm outta action.

Dang.

Anyway, here's me really enjoying the track at Anglesey. It's a great trackday circuit with a lovely friendly vibe a super smooth track that's got oodles of grip. I managed to get through knee and toe sliders, the leather on my left boot and nibbling away at my right knee.



Perhaps I was enjoying it a little too much as you can see here. Oh well, fracture clinic tomorrow.

Givi shelter

Because my design background is in marketing and advertising I'm often thinking about creative promo ideas even when I'm doing other stuff (it's a curse I tells thee, but it's just the burden I carry). The work was at smaller agencies the clients didn't really have a lot of money to splash about so we were always looking for the smart low cost idea. Hell, anybody can get column inches and generate buzz with a multi-million adspend and slots in the middle of the X-Factor, but how much more satisfying to spend peanuts on a great (usually amusing, that'll definitely help) idea that gets everybody talking.

One of my favourite examples of this kind of thing (nothing to do with me btw) was Volvo's return to motorsport in the 1994 BTCC. For the first year they campaigned the estate and played up to certain Volvo stereotypes by running the final round of the season at Oulton Park with a lifesize stuffed toy dog in the car. I remember at the time everybody referring to it as a Labrador, and all the weblinks I found do too, but it looks more like a Rough Collie to me.

Anyway it was a very successful stunt that gathered loads of free coverage and really helped challenge certain perceptions of the Volvo brand.



It got me thinking when I was watching Randy De Puniet riding in the MotoGP on the weekend... If his teams major sponsor Givi or at least their agency haven't already thought of this they should be shot.

click for biggety

At the very least they should mock it up for a photoshoot, but I'm talking about going the whole hog and making it for real.

Sure it's gonna have a catastrophic effect on the drag coefficient, but can you imagine Randy turning up for Thursday Practice on this with racing leathers and lid on board - the coverage would be huge. Go on Givi and LCR Honda you know you want to...

Silverstone trackday pics

Chasing Thunder

I stumbled upon the work of Scott Pommier this week, a few google clicks later and I discover that Scott was born in Ontario in the late seventies - and as such is one of the growing band of accomplished people who unaccountably seem to be younger than me. Hmmm.

I only bring it up because his shots in the series Chasing Thunder have a quality of that isn't so much timeless as timely... the composition and colours seem from a different age, check em out.




I particularly love this shot, but this may be to do with certain underlying feelings for Tank Girl, Bobbers and the combination thereoff.