Would Mercedes still be the team to beat in Week 3 for the newly designated night race at Sakhir circuit? Find out below the fold…
Watch Collector’s Notebook — For most new watches, there’s no need to pay retail
With the massive 2014 Swiss watch fair “Baselworld” just completed and all those hot new models being released, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and yield to temptation by forking over your hard-earned dough as soon as those beauties become available later this year. And if there’s another watch out there that you’ve been jonesing to own for a while now, you might also be considering going to the brand’s boutique store or authorized dealer and ponying up for it there. But the truth is that for most models (unless money is no object), there’s no real reason to pay full retail for the watch of your dreams. For example, you might consider buying from so-called “gray market” sellers who will offer small discounts over MSRP. But very often they will deliberately leave out such desirable pieces of the new watch package as certain authenticating paperwork and, worse yet, some will even file off serial numbers because these watches have literally gone out the back door of an authorized dealer. Far better in my opinion to do your hunting among like-minded enthusiasts through one of the very high quality and high volume Sales Corners hosted by the major watch forums on the Net. With a little due diligence and patience, you can usually save a significant percentage by buying a pre-owned example from another collector rather than paying dealer prices. Just as with a newish but pre-owned automobile, the prior owner will have taken some of the depreciation out of the price equation, leaving you with a lot more bang for your buck.
One of the largest watch discussion sites in the world, Timezone.com also has an excellent Sales Corner
What we’re listening to today — ‘Round About Midnight by Miles Davis
And I mean the whole album, Miles’ first for Columbia in 1955, and not just the admittedly fantastic Thelonius Monk track “‘Round Midnight” that opens up this seminal work.
With Davis on trumpet, Coltrane on tenor sax, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones on drums, this was the archetypal 1950s quintet’s maiden voyage and set the tone for a massive outpouring of now-classic music that filled four more smokin’ albums in quick succession (Cookin’, Workin’, Relaxin’ and Steamin’).
As the session that started it all, the newly patented mix of Cool and Hard Bop sounds magically intimate, warm and almost casually virtuosic and ‘Round Midnight still has that “breaking of a new dawn” kind of effect even today. From the not-quite-eponymous opener to the gorgeously aired out “Dear Old Stockholm” to the telepathic “Bye-Bye Blackbird”, this 10-track masterpiece is an album that belongs in any serious music collection, Jazz-focused or otherwise. It creates an inspired mood all its own, whether you’re on your own, entertaining friends or wooing that special someone. It never disappoints and always sounds fresh. How many things can you say that about?
A little Monday comedy — Bowfinger (1999)
It’s hard to believe that the sly and uproarious Hollywood satire Bowfinger is 15 years old. The Frank Oz directed film from a Steve Martin-penned script tells the tale of a band of show biz hangers-on struggling to make a grade Z sci-fi flick via a highly dubious workaround to the whole lead actors-knowing-they’re-shooting-a-movie thing. It still slays with its dead-on take of what makes LA the company town it is: unkillable dreams of fame, beautiful starlets with “felxible” morals and weirdo movie stars in need of cult control. Best of all, the unlikely comedy dream team of Martin as the titular never-was “producer/director” Bobby Bowfinger and Eddie Murphy, in priceless dual roles as paranoid exhibitionist action star Kit Ramsey and his mega-dorky brother Jiff Jiffrenson (a Steve Martin character name if ever there was one), create gold when they share the screen together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZUU563eAaM
And for laugh-out-loud, funny-as-hell scenes there really aren’t that many as good this one short of primo Mel Brooks:
Oh, for that complex Starbucks order! Definitely worth renting again or even buying the DVD if you haven’t seen it in a while. It’s that good and after all these years, it holds up hysterically well. Welcome to Mindhead and Keep It Together!
F1 Grand Prix of Malaysia — Results & aftermath
Would there be rain in Kuala Lampur to shake up the field and what went down at Sepang? Come with me below the fold to find out…
Rolex collector’s site of the day — 5513mattedial.com
Vintage Rolex collecting, perhaps more so than any other brand of vintage watch and especially with regards to the Sports models, is very much about the minute variations in the details of a given model line over time. Very often these changes in fonts, for example, occurred in rapid succession as Rolex ramped up production of, say, their Submariner line in response to increased demand for their iconic watches. Therefore, one sees not only relatively big changes in dial printing, such as the switch from red SUBMARINER to white in the 1680 date model or the move away from gilt/gloss dials to matte/white writing in the later 1960s, but also extremely subtle shifts in the basic fonts and printing of otherwise very similar dials that are much harder to keep track of and difficult for the unitiated to see. In the end, a lot of the main factors of a Vintage Rolex Sports watch’s appeal and value come down to hard-to-spot minutiae.
And that’s where a new site like 5513mattedial.com becomes so valuable. Taking a magnifier to the Matte dial non-date Submariners that were produced from the late 1960s until the early 80s, the site’s author, longtime collector Beaumont Miller II, has catalogued the key evolutionary differences in that ultimate Rolex tool watch, the reference 5513 Submariner, during its long years of matte dial production. Now in one place we have a handy collector’s resource that makes clear the key characteristics of Maxi dials, Pre-Comex, and the early Meters-First variations, among others. And as a result of these comprehensive efforts you will see more variety in this “common” model than you previously thought possible.
If collecting Vintage Rolex is all about the details (and it is!), then 5513mattedial.com is an exceptionally handy resource to consult when hunting a white-writing 5513 and determining where its dial falls in the production sequence and if in fact the printing is actually legitimate. Written in an entertaining and self-depricating style, the site is as thorough and specific as they come and shows that by looking closely and analyzing seemingly random minutiae at length, a much greater mosaic comes into view when all the puzzle pieces are finally laid into place. It’s a job well done all around and I strongly recommend it to anyone interesting in collecting these iconic Submariners.
F1 Grand Prix of Malaysia — Qualifying Results
Qualifying for the second Formula 1 race of the season was earlier today so come with me below the fold to see who starts where in tomorrow’s Grand Prix after the drivers had to power through typically torrential conditions in Kuala Lampur…
What we’re listening to today — Monkey Gone to Heaven by The Pixies
Just a quick and dirty blast of punk rock today as life intrudes but it is often posited that without the Pixies, there would be no Nirvana. Discuss.
And remember, kids: If man is 5, then the Devil is 6 and if the Devil is 6 then GOD IS 7!!! Bless Black Francis for that bit of theology and I promise we’ll get into the Pixie ouvre in greater length — or at least crank out some more of their tunes — at a later date. In the meantime, enjoy it again live and watch out for that NY/NJ sludge!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJwnpi_iM6A
Watch Collector’s Notebook — Benrus Sky Chief
On the theory that you can never have enough cool vintage chronographs, here is another little gem that I have known and loved, the Benrus “Sky Chief”. Produced in the post WWII-era by the New York-based Benrus Watch Company and marketed with its evocative name to the aviation-mad public of the late 40s and 1950s, as well as the increased purchasing power of the Western world’s newly beefed up air forces and transatlantic airlines, the Sky Chief is a classic pilot’s chronograph by design.
In its most common iteration, it has 3-registers for constant seconds, minute recorder and 12-hour recorder, the latter complication being a somewhat new development for a mass-produced wristwatch that came to be the standard for most fine chronographs going forward. The usual engine found under the hood was a Venus 178 well before it was adopted by Breitling for their Navitimers in the mid-50s. And a bit later, perhaps because Breitling sucked up almost all Venus production, Benrus used the ubiquitous Valjoux 71/ & 72 column wheel chrono ebauches that would go on to serve the watch industry for so many years. Different alphanumeric codes were engraved on the bridges to indicate which caliber was being used and none of these movements had shock protection at this early date.
Sky Chief with Venus movement
Gorgeous Lady of the Week — Abbie Cornish
Hailing from a country that produces more than its fair share of good looking people, draw droppingly beautiful Australian Abbie Cornish combines natural sex appeal with plenty of talent. After success at home as a model and budding star actress, Abbie made the seamless transition to Hollywood ingenue. The usually blond, hazel-eyed 31-year-old vegetarian broke through in 2007, looking ravishing in historical finery in the big budget sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age, where she held her own alongside such heavyweights as Kate Blanchett as the Queen and Clive Owen as her lover, Sir Walter Raleigh.
She also had key roles in the 2008 Iraq War drama Stop-Loss with Ryan Philippe (with whom she had a relationship), the 2009 Keats biopic Bright Star and alongside Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro in 2011’s Limitless. That year she also appeared in the preposterous Zach Snyder flop Sucker Punch — she was her usual sexy self weilding swords and guns amidst the mayhem but looked even hotter without the S&M accoutrement.
Ms. Cornish has had better material to work with recently in the 2012 black comedy Seven Psychopaths and this year’s action blockbuster reboot, Robocop, as the hero’s steadfast wife. She was also co-lead in the Discovery Channel’s first scripted programming, the historical gold rush miniseries Klondike.
With her best years ahead of her and a face that only seems to get more lovely with time, we’re sure that Abbie Cornish is destined for much more success. Some actresses will always be in demand and a looker like Abbie is definitely on our much-watch list.
