Saturday, January 19, 2013

One Year Ago Today

late-period eisentraut art

not sure how much of this is pere and how much of it is fils, but it sure is pretty. 


virag's movie reviews: bad teacher (2011)

lifeless, bland, and inexcusably so considering the possibilities.  watching this film you get the sense that you might just be spying on a pre-production read-through done by the catering crew.  none of the cast had any chemistry, and the only decent work came from the normally-unwatchable, nearly giamatti-esque jason segel.  (his low-effort, low-ability 'natural' style makes george clooney look like peter sellers.)  justin timberlake is a shitty actor, and apparently nobody told cameron diaz that she was supposed to carry the movie.  her characterization lacked any of the naughty glee that the script seemed to want.  the annoying other teacher was little more than the simplest, most cartoonish presentation, again without any of the requisite fun.  the premise was an appealing one, and given a better director and some decent casting, this could have been a biting and cynical rewrite away from a ton of fun.

the real future of serotta

i'm not sure serotta's race-cred history matters to anyone under 50, and they probably killed trashed their reputation with scads of weird looking overpriced frames, but if serotta is serious about continuing as a going concern, then they (he) should seriously consider being the stock titanium racing frame out there, the titanium equivalent of the crumpton corsa team, gaulzetti corsa and spooky skeletorwith the most recent death of merlin, it seems like a good time to make the case for the stock titanium racing frame; undercut moots on price, don't offer any custom options or paint, and keep the frame, fork and headset price as close to 3k as you can.  do the right thing and rip off gaulzetti's sizes--after all he ripped 'em off from ridley--or rip off your own stock sizes from 15 years ago, use top-notch straight-gauge round tubing, sell direct to customers, and be ready to build the frame as soon as the order is paid.  make the case, the good case, for titanium as a great privateer racer's frame material in advertising that is completely independent of any dentist's-specials custom frames you will or won't still make.  hell, go all in and have a great ti off-road racing frame program, too.  same deal as with the road racing frames, 26 or 29 wheels as the only option, and keep the price as close to 2.5k without fork or headset as you can.  serotta should still know how to make a great no-bullshit frame, and now that they've downsized themselves bigtime, this could be a great fit for them and a great choice for serious riders considering a stock crumpton or gaulzetti.

update: for some reason, i was never a big moots fan; they're good and all, but something.  well, what i did like about them was the simplicity of their frames.  now that's over, though.  the hardtails are ugly now, with those needlessly curved tubes and shit.  the vamoots has a terrible geometry and to get a real race frame with a level top tube, you need to order custom?  that's fucking bullshit.  that's where serotta, with their capacity and their titanium experience could really increase sales.  a level top tube road racing style frame, and a racing/xc-trail titanium hardtail without any stupid curved tubes.

this moots is not a good-looking ti hardtail.  serotta should be able to squash this like a bug, if they had a fucking clue.




the portrait of the artist lucian freud

100 years from now lucian freud is going to be far more famous than his is currently and will be seen universally as one of the most important 20th century artists.  the unfortunate surname will be more than overcome by the creepy unconventional personal life as well-documented popular biographies are written and fuel wider interest in both the art and the man.

obama's half pipe line

lovingly shrill and cynical piss-take on obama's role in the keystone pipeline and tar sands clusterfuck.  obama is nothing if not the errand boy for the energy industry, so if they decide they really want this trouble, obama will be sure to slather the lipstick all over it and give it a kiss.  if that happens to fall after the election, well, then it's all happy smile time for everybody. 

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