The Bastard Legend

Sometimes fact really does turn out to be stranger than fiction. Take the Porsche 550 Spyder, for example. Do you recognize it? It's the car that killed James Dean. The story of the car after his death is even more interesting, but let's start from the beginning.

James Dean was a big racing fan. I don't mean a fan of watching Nascar on TV, but actually driving his own cars around a track. As a movie star, this means he was able to afford some pretty nice wheels. He chose to buy a Lotus Mk X (also a very beautiful car), but fate would have it that Lotus couldn't get the car finished in time for one of Dean's races, so for the interim he picked himself up a 550 Spyder. Here's where it gets spooky: after getting the Spyder, Dean met another actor, Alex Guinness, who saw Dean's new ride, which is known as the "Little Bastard", thought it looked too bad-ass, and so told him "Please never get in it. If you do, you will be dead within a week." Care to guess how long after this Dean died? 7 days.

On that seventh day, Dean originally didn't even plan to drive the car. See, he was going to trailer it to one of his races, but right before leaving decided to drive it instead to become more comfortable with it. You know what happens next (if you don't, click here, but not until you finish reading my post, man).

Actually, wikipedia tells the rest pretty well, so I'll just quote it:
"Since Dean's death, his Porsche 550 Spyder became infamous for being the vehicle that killed not only him, but for injuring and killing several others in the years following his death. In view of this, many have come to believe that the actor's vehicle and all of its parts were cursed. Legendary Hot Rodder George Barris bought the wreck for $2,500, only to have it slip off its trailer and break a mechanic's leg. Soon afterwards, Barris sold the engine and drive-train, respectively, to physicians Troy McHenry and William Eschrid. While racing against each other, the former would be killed instantly when his vehicle spun out of control and crashed into a tree, while the latter would be seriously injured when his vehicle rolled over while going into a curve. Barris later sold two tires, which malfunctioned as well. The tires, which were unharmed in Dean's accident, blew up simultaneously causing the buyer's automobile to go off the road. Subsequently, two young would-be thieves were injured while attempting to steal parts from the car. When one tried to steal the steering wheel from the Porsche, his arm was ripped open on a piece of jagged metal. Later, another man was injured while trying to steal the bloodstained front seat. This would be the final straw for Barris, who decided to store "Little Bastard" away, but was quickly persuaded by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to lend the wrecked car to a highway safety exhibit.

The first exhibit from the CHP featuring the car ended unsuccessfully, as the garage storing the Spyder went up in flames, destroying everything except the car itself, which suffered almost no damage whatsoever from the fire. The second display, at a Sacramento High School, ended when the car fell, breaking a student's hip. "Little Bastard" caused problems while being transported several times. On the way to Salinas, the truck containing the vehicle lost control, causing the driver to fall out, only to be crushed by the Porsche after it fell off the back. On two separate occasions, once on a freeway and again in Oregon, the car came off other trucks, although no injuries were reported, another vehicle's windshield was shattered in Oregon. Its last use in a CHP exhibit was in 1959."

My favorite part is the last line: "In 1960, when being returned to George Barris in Los Angeles, California, the car mysteriously vanished. It has not been seen since."

One more crazy tidbit: it turns out, if Dean had ever actually been able to race the Spyder, he probably would have liked it. The Spyder brought Porsche more than a few racing victories. In fact, it was know as the "Giant Killer". Do you know the name of the last movie James Dean starred in? "Giant". See the full post...

Just a lil' somethin, show you how we live...

Kanye just released the video for the next single off his 2007 album, Graduation. The song, "Champion," prominently features a sample of Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne," and was one of my favorites off the album. Check the video here, courtesy of Kanye's blog.


KANYE WEST official "CHAMPION" video.. Directed by NEON from nabil elderkin on Vimeo. See the full post...

"...but then, um, I just carried on living my life."

So, I've got some pretty cool news for any of you who were fans of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I honestly thought it was one of the best comedies I've seen this year, and I definitely thought Russell Brand totally stole the show as Aldous Snow. It's recently been confirmed that there will be a spin-off called Get Him To The Greek. The movie revolves around a young insurance adjuster who is hired to...well, get Aldous Snow (who is no longer on the wagon) from London to a show at The Greek Theater in LA. The IMDb page lists the roles as rumored but I can't honestly see them replacing Brand. Not much else is known about the movie, except that Jonah Hill is also rumored to star as the insurance adjuster. See the full post...

On FIRE!

This is the new video for the remix of N.E.R.D.'s track "Everyone Nose (All The Girls Standing In The Line For The Bathroom)" featuring Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Pusha T of The Clipse. The song is officially credited as the second CRS (Child Rebel Soldier) track, a hip-hop supergroup of sorts made up of Pharrell, Kanye, and Lupe. This is a really dope song, and the video was directed by Hype Williams (who recently directed Coldplay's "Viva La Vida," another noteworthy video).

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One of a kind...

Continuing in the trend of posting about awesome things we won't soon see on the market (see Almizan's post on the BMW M1), everybody should check out the Nike Air Yeezy. These one-of-a-kind shoes were designed by Nike and hip hop fashionista Kanye West. The shoes made their first appearance at the Grammy's earlier this year when Kanye wore them during his performance. Since then, he has been spotted in them in a variety of colorways, including these above with a glow in the dark sole, made especially for his Glow in the Dark Tour. For now these shoes have only been manufactured for Mr. West's size 12 foot. The shoes are made from purely high-quality materials, and if they were to be released, we would be looking at a price tag much higher than what most of us are used to paying for sneakers.
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BMW sends a chill down Mercedes' spine

BMW makes people eat shit up, and for good reason. You've seen GINA. You know how awesome the M3 is. The company knows how to build high quality performance. It is more than a little surprising then that they don't have a true supercar in their arsenal. In my post last week I mentioned that usually I will discuss cars that we don't laugh at the price of. I bring you the M1. Well, what would be the M1. Its price is $0. BMW isn't going to make it. In my opinion, they built this prototype for two reasons: First, to celebrate the thirty year anniversary of the original M1's (that Lamborghini designed race car of old) debut. Second, to let rival automakers (this means you, Mercedes and Audi) know what's up. This was to tell them that "Yeah, if we wanted to, we could make a super car. Lucky for you we aren't."

This prototype then, was just for fun. But that doesn't mean it isn't awesome. I mean, just look at it. You know that BMW finally decided to not take themselves too seriously, and the result is magnificent. It is pretty and ugly at the same time, and the below picture has been my wallpaper for two weeks now, which is saying something. So is this my favorite car? No. What is? Until next time.... See the full post...

The School of Rock...reinvented.

So apparently there's this contest on ibeatyou.com where entrants are asked to create a spoof of a movie trailer. This one here is probably my favorite; it's a pretty clever reinvention of The School of Rock that turns it into some sort of thriller/horror flick. It only uses scenes that were already in the movie, and it's pretty crazy to see how a little bit of editing can change the entire movie. As you can see, it's currently ranked eighth, but in my opinion it should be higher. I didn't think the two The Dark Knight spoofs near the top were very good at all. You can check out the top ten in the sidebar of this video (my picks are this one, Mexican 300 which is number 7, and Step Brothers starring Steve Nash and Baron Davis which is currently sitting at number 1), or go here to see more videos. See the full post...

Alan Jaras Photography of Light

Alan Jaras, a British artist, uses raw 35mm film (no camera/only color filters) to capture these beautiful images of light passing through textured glass.  See the full post...

Real Men Don't Fight Bulls....They Jump Them!

The Bull Jumpers - Watch more free videos

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facebook facelift.

For those of you on Facebook (and shame on you if you aren't), you may have noticed the recent redesign of the site. It isn't out completely, but you can access it at new.facebook.com. They redesigned the home page and the profiles. The profiles are separated into tabs, much like the Facebook for iPhone site. Another redesign is the wall; the newsfeed is integrated and now there is a separate tab for posts made by users on their own walls. A lot of people have expressed dislike, and several anti-new-facebook groups have sprung up. After setting the filter to display posts by others, I actually really like the redesign. I'm definitely an advocate of making things more aesthetically pleasing, as long as you don't sacrifice too much, and I don't think Facebook really has. Check it out and see what you think. See the full post...

Vans Zapato Del Barco

I've been a fan of Vans Classics for a while, particularly the slip-ons, which I wore almost exclusively for a while in high school. I recently stumbled upon these, the Zapato Del Barco, which they apparently released Spring 08. The shoes are a hybrid between the classic Vans slip-on, and another classic that I'm usually not a fan of: boating shoes. It sounds like a crazy combo, but I think it works really well. They are similar to the Vans Lacey, but with more of a boating inspired design. I thought these were pretty rad, and I just might have to pick me up a pair. See the full post...

Indie Trendy

So a pretty popular website for user submitted images for your computer is pixelgirlpresents.com, and now the owner of the site has created something just for clothing: it's called shanalogic.com - terrible name, but some pretty sick stuff. There's stuff for both girls and guys, and the site also sells stuff like messenger bags (see the picture of the elephant-squid, which I thought was especially tight) and ties among other accessories. Go ahead and ch-ch-check it out. See the full post...