Stanislaw Lem

Stanislaw Lem (1921 - 2006)

Reading Fiasco, one of his last novels, is like attending some future grand rounds conference where various characters discuss why all the great ideas and technological achievements of mankind have met with failure.

But from this sea of pessimism emerges something entirely different from mere despair, perhaps not hope itself, but at the very least a sense of buoyancy borne of the realization that we have left fool's paradise, that the veil is starting to lift, that the scales are beginning to fall from the eye.

What dawns on us is the high lyricism of the human condition.

Smokey Yunick

Smokey Yunick (1923 - 2001)

Anyone who looks at Smokey Yunick like he was "just" the best automotive mechanic ever is missing the whole point.

His book, Power Secrets, does far more than present some thoughts about how to extract horsepower from a small block.

The man taught how to think. To ask questions and to read, always the key to learning.

And then to not believe everything one reads.


Rethink everything. Cut through the static and the bull.

"Think Different" (TM) isn't just driving over to Best Buy and getting an iPod.

It's wearing out a good set of socket wrenches figuring out whether something is true, or just hype.

Vetta Saddle

Vetta Saddle

Old School Ergonomics

Forget everything you have read about Fox shocks, Horst link suspension, or anything else that purports to make a bicycle more comfortable.

When it comes to bicycle comfort, it's the saddle, man. It's the saddle.

Classic Bike Saddle, Done Right

No leather. No carbon fiber. No titanium. No fancy knife-edge taper. No "gel cushion". No mesh. No cutaways. No glamour. No marketing.

Just the closest thing to a perfect saddle design this side of eternity.

This 6-1/2 inch wide Vetta saddle is the cat's meow to the ischial tuberosity.

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk:
"The Beach Boys of Dusseldorf"

Before there was Old School...

Before there was Old School hip hop, before Afrika Bambaataa ever sampled a first note from Kraftwerk, there was Middle Europe.

Fast rewind to the 1930s Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

Much like the antebellum South, that Mitteleuropa culture was cut off and vanished with the wind, seemingly for good.

War does that to cultures.

Kraftwerk's Lasting Impact

Eulogies to bygone ways of life have been known to attract the Nobel Prize in Literature. Think Yasunari Kawabata. Think Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Never mind that other German youths in the 70s were partying their heads off, smoking pot, and listening to the Beatles, trying to forget their own German origins.

It takes a different kind of courage to embrace Middle Europe, 1930s style, as a source of inspiration.

Star Trek The Animated Series

Star Trek TAS (1973)

Its Old School credentials

Ya gotta keep in mind the historical perspective of when this series was made.

Back in the days, scientists and the general public actually believed that there were intelligent aliens, that we'd soon be traveling to the stars, etc.

Nothing seemed too far-fetched. Now, that's old school science fiction!

Why the cartoon version of Star Trek was the shiznit

One word: William Shatner

But wasn't Captain Quirk also in the original series, as well as seven franchise movies?

What makes the animated series superior is the acting. And by that, I mean voice acting.

My own theory is that, freed from the constraints of having to appear before a camera, Shatman (TM) et al could focus on their excellent "game spitting."

Listening to this series is like hearing Mel Blanc give a Fulbright lecture.

Monica Crowley

Monica Crowley

Her Old School credentials:

Girlfriend used to hang out with Richard Nixon back in the days. She even wrote a book on it: Nixon Off the Record. The Mad Bomber (TM) paid off her tuition deposit so she could go to grad school instead of law school.

Where she at now:

WABC Radio in New York City. The girl's got her own weekly talk gig on Saturdays. Also appears on Fox News as a contributor.

Why Monica is the Bomb:

She must have grown up listening to some of the same music I listened to, because this girl knows some hip hop lingo. I know she didn't go to my high school, though.