Another classic on the Formula One calendar and the last European race of the season, Qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix went down at Monza today. Results below the fold…
What we’re listening to today–Mambo Sun by T. Rex
Let’s kick Friday off with this slinky ditty from T. Rex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koFM5paYEmM
Now, one can carp that T. Rex really only made one song throughout their long career. “(Bang a Gong) Get It On”, “Children of the Revolution”, “Jeepster”, etc are all variations on a theme with a little instrumental variety here, a little tempo change there. But there is something surely sweet sounding about the Marc Bolan groove and his childishly simple lyrics. Nobody else sounds like T. Rex, glam or otherwise (although this Grant Lee Phillips song, “Johnny Guitar“, is a pretty good homage). But when you hear them, they always tickle the ear and the tunes never sound stale 40+ years on.
Mambo Sun is primo Rex, all attitude, fuzzy guitars, low key reverbed vocals and female worship, not to mention a great first track for 1971’s seminal Electric Warrior. Plus, Bolan helped make it cool for rock guys to look a little like chicks–he arguably inspired Bowie to go glam–so there’s another lasting contribution. On second thought, that kind of led to Poison so maybe that wasn’t such a great thing. Whatever we think about that, put on your top hat and feather boa and get ready to rock out this weekend!
I personally think Electric Warrior belongs in every rock fan’s collection and you can get it at Amazon and iTunes, of course.
What we’re wearing – Grenson Boots
A good boot is hard to come by. Lots of my old faithful brands have moved their production facilities to China and the quality has suffered terribly, making them a waste of time and money. Others brands are just too specific. One a bit too dandified, another too utilitarian, making it difficult to find a brand you trust to suit your sartorial needs across the board. But there is one company that consistently hits on all cylinders, and that company is Grenson. A UK outfit founded in 1866, Grenson has a good long history in the shoe-making business. Nearly knocked out in the early-mid 20th century (and saved by the need for soldiers boots in WWII), Grenson has gone on to thrive, and today makes a wide range of stunning high-end boots and shoes.
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What we’re listening to today– Riders on the Storm by The Doors
Somehow long car trips make me think of this morose tune from the last gasp of the genius that was Jim Morrison and the Doors. Plus it’s been raining and thundering all day, so it fits the mood…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYE1S6r3bkg
It’s also interesting that what used to be a time-honored mode of transport on the cheap since the advent of he car, which arguably reached its romantic apotheosis with the hitchhiking-friendly On the Road by Kerouac, quickly morphed into No fucking way am I picking up some straggly looking kid in the space of about 15 years or so.
Here are some cool articles on why that happened, with the gist of it being that horror stories and a general hostility to drifting free spirits by local and federal law enforcement conspired to give hitching a bad and dangerous name:
What Killed Hitchhiking? from NBC News
Hitchhiking’s Time Has Come Again from the New York Times
But the final nails in hitchhiking’s coffin might really have been the fallout from the Manson Family murders and the creepy but awesome (and almost certainly related) “Riders on the Storm” here. Rutger Hauer didn’t help with any potential revival in the 80s either:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKV2a9Le0Sc
And with that: Drive safe, kids!
You can find “Riders On the Storm” on The Doors last studio album, L.A. Woman, available for download at Amazon.com.
Blog of the day– Jake’s Rolex World Magazine
If you want to get heavy into Rolex ephemera, pop culture and the wonderful personalities who wore Rolex throughout history, Jake’s Rolex World Magazine is a fine place to while away the hours. From the brand’s founder Hans Wilsdorf to the ultra cool ambassadors like James Bond, Jackie Stewart, Steve McQueen and (believe it or not) Martin Luther King, Jr., Jake has a passion for rooting out the many tales in Rolex’s storied history and the pivotal players who wore the watches. We’re not sure where he gets the time or the energy for such a massive amount of well done posts but our hat’s off to him–way to go, Jake, you’ve got a real cool blog!
What we’ve read this summer– From Here to Eternity by James Jones
It’s no coincidence that on the last day of August we’ve only just finished our summer reading of From Here to Eternity by James Jones. The text of this seminal 1951 military novel clocks in at a whopping 896 pages. And yet it rarely fails to captivate.
Set in and around the Schofield Barracks near Diamond Head in Honolulu, Hawaii in the months leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, From Here to Eternity tracks the lives of several soldiers and their women in this last peaceful period before WWII. Principal among them are Private Robert E. Lee Pruitt and First (“Top”) Sargent Milton Warden. Pruitt is a poor Kentucky boy who enlisted in the Army after escaping the mining town that consumed his parents and bumming around during the Depression. His aim is to be a “30-year-man”, a career soldier, because he loves the ideal of the Army, the camaraderie of the men and the art of soldiering. It is really the only true home he’s ever known. Continue reading
Watch Collector’s Notebook: A golden dream
It won’t happen often but every once in a while as a watch collector you will run into something genuinely rare and special. I’ve been fortunate in my relatively brief years in the hobby to have more than my fair share of these moments. But the one watch that arguably stands out for pure Wow! factor is this early solid 18k gold reference 1680 Rolex Submariner:
Now there is nothing particularly uber-rare about an acrylic crystal “Nipple” dial gold Submariner, although they are not all that easy to come by. But what made this example really special and drew me to it is that the dial was meters-first, which is very uncommon in a Gold Sub. Rolex manufactured the Submariner line for 15 years before they decided to make a version in gold. (This despite the fact that they had always produced a GMT-Master in solid gold from the beginning of that reference in 1955. Who knows with Rolex?) But from it’s introduction at the Basel watch fair in 1954, the Submariner was only available in stainless steel. Also notable is that their dials had always had the proud depth rating with the metric measurement of 200 meters first. Furthermore, no Submariner had ever been produced with a date complication. But in 1969, Rolex was about to change all of these things. Continue reading
What we’re listening to today–Walking in the Rain by the Ronettes
If Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound is a sledgehammer of beautiful bombast, then “Walking in the Rain” is its velvet hammer:
Yeah, there are a lot of shitty covers of this tune (including one by the Partridge Family –don’t click if you have a weak stomach). And sure the June-moon-swoon lyrics are not exactly John Lennon. Yet, as has been well documented, the Beatles learned a lot of their songcraft from the great girl groups of the early 60s… they had to write “I Want to Hold your Hand” before they got to “Revolution”, my friends, and the driving beat and optimistic love talk of the Crystals, Marvelettes and Ronettes helped get them on their merry way.
More to the point, the Ronettes original version of “Walking in the Rain”, with Ronnie Spector (née Veronica Bennett) and her little girl-cum-Broadway belter delivery powering through the storm effects, sleigh bells and endlessly layered background vocals, is just about as pure a pop song experience as you can find. Check your hard earned cynicism and anti-romanticism at the door. Hell, she hasn’t even met the guy she’s singing about yet! But damn if she doesn’t make you wish you could live up to that dream lover.
Hearing this great song again is also a good reminder that Phil Spector was not always a homicidal hermit freak but, in fact, one of the geniuses who kept Rock alive when Elvis was in the Army and the Beatles had not yet come along. I definitely recommend picking up Back to Mono to get some perspective on his prodigious pre-murder achievements.
Download this classic tune at Amazon.
F1 Grand Prix of Belgium– Qualifying Results
One expects the excitement of changeable weather conditions at Spa and today’s 3 rounds of Qualifying for the pole did not disappoint. Full results and F1’s official recap below the fold… Continue reading
The bike we want – The MO-05 Swiss Army Bike
Military surplus is often an endless well of cool and unique stuff. Built with an eye towards efficiency, function and practicality, the designs of military products often end up being more beautiful than their civilian cousins, either in there stark simplicity or their necessary complexity, whichever happened to be called for in that particular instance. The MO-05 Swiss Army Bike embodies this complex beauty.
Starting back in 1905, the Swiss Army maintained a bicycle infantry unit. Actually, they weren’t the only ones but that’s a different story. Bikes were used in the same way horses were, for patrols, etc. The Swiss Army still uses bikes today, although the infantry unit was disbanded in the early 2000’s.
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