Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel

January 16th, 2008 · comment or link to (permalink)

When Evel Knievel died last year it felt like Elvis had died, finally. Knievel wore the same satin flared outfits as late period, paunched and side-burned Presley.

He was representative of a peculiarly American Maverick adventurer culture that I remember from childhood, where conservatives like John Wayne seemed cool to us would-be liberals. Unfortunately these True Grit types have been passed away leaving the anemic, conservative, cultural window-dressing of Pottery Barn, McMansions and Evangelical Christianity.

The documentary is presented by Richard Hammond from Top Gear, a program which is being brought from the UK to the US, largely as a result of its cult following via YouTube. 48 hours before the film crew arrived Evel had a stroke, he died 4 months after filming and the program was aired afterwards. Like Top Gear, the film is interesting even if you are not remotely interested in things like cars or motorbikes, only its a tad more cerebral.

BBC
58 min 57 sec Dec 26, 2007

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F1 Chasing the Dream

November 14th, 2007 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)

I’m not interested in sports and in particular motor racing. But something wonderful is happening in the heroic combination of McLaren and Lewis Hamilton.

Nascar is a sport who single tactic seems to be ‘turn left’. Formula 1 allows you to turn right as well. But despite the similarity of the two sports, including, massive sponsorship by semi criminal organizations like cigarette firms and garnishings of spandex-clad, pneumatic, hyper-attractive women, they could not be more different.

Like the difference between Vegas and Monte Carlo, Nascar is Trailer Trash while Formula 1 is Euro Trash. The chairman of F1 is the son of the head of the British Fascist party, Oswald Moseley, and the early drivers were wealthy aristocrats who had nothing better to do than invent spectacular ways to kill themselves at high speed.

Within this mix of nasty sponsors and elitist society, is the perfect modern-day fairy tale, like a pauper winning a jousting contest on great horse. The McLaren team provided the great horse and Lewis Hamilton is its rider.

McLaren are not like any other provider of horse power. Their headquarters is a gleaming white, Norman Foster designed, high-tech clean space that is more futuristic than a NASA assembly room and their pit team are testing cooling suits developed by the European Space Agency and designed by Karada for Hugo Boss. Lewis is not like any other racing driver, in fact the closest person that comes to mind is Tiger Woods. Hamilton is the grandson of Grenadan immigrants, and called Lewis after Carl Lewis. He won a black belt in Karate when he was twelve, and won the British Go Karting Championship at age 10. The 10 year old approached McLaren F1 team boss Ron Dennis and told him, “Hi. I’m Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars.” This year he very very nearly won the World Formula One Racing Championship in his debut season at the age of 22.

Thats what makes this rather ordinary sports program extraordinary.

47 min 51 sec Nov 7, 2007

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Jeremy Clarkson - The Century of Speed

August 16th, 2007 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

BBC
28 min 18 sec - Aug 16, 2007

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Jeremy Clarkson’s the good the bad and the ugly

July 14th, 2007 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

1 hr 19 min 16 sec - Jul 11, 2007

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The Inimitable Clarkson makes cars interesting even for people who are not into cars. Here he looks at American cars, which seems like a good precursor for the, soon to be released, US version of Top Gear.

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1957 Triumph Motorcycle Factory Tour

March 6th, 2007 · comment or link to (permalink)

Great period piece

Running Time: 31 mins.

Full Screen

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