Posts Tagged ‘Culture’

Utility Love

Monday, December 5th, 2011

all images © Jonathan Levitt

We’ve been trying to define what we love about Jonathan Levitt’s blog, Grass Doe.

Grass Doe is a collection of the Maine photographer’s images, updated regularly.

There are beautiful images of snowbound wolves, bucolic riverine moments and delectable slant-​​lit plates of food fit for the most cultured of woodsmen.

There are amazingly textured rock forma­tions, woods full of turning leaves and silent pathways that hint of isolated adventure.

But among these immacu­lately presented inter­pret­a­tions of nature’s wonders is sprinkled the occasional great shot of cars and bikes; more often than not of the supremely utilit­arian kind.

It makes sense to us. After all vehicles are essen­tially magic carpets through which you exper­ience the world in all its wonder. At least if you allow them to be.

Something about the way the cars and bikes are repres­ented here foregrounds that aspect of car culture, and it chimes deeply somewhere within us.

Do yourself a favour and bookmark Jonathan’s sites.

Wall of Death

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011


still photo­graphy: Gary Margerum

You may have seen The Wall of Death travelling the festy byways of Britain these last couple of years.

Our friend, photo­grapher and vintage bike culture fancier Gary Margerum has spent the last couple of years documenting the lifestyle of the creators, collab­or­ators and showpeople of the roots and culture carny show that evokes a curious sort of displaced nostalgia for anyone inter­ested in bikes and derring do.

There’s a book from Gary on the way in which he documents a year in the life of the show — boards, bikes and all — and we look forward to that. Benedict Campbell’s film (below) brings out, meanwhile, the all-​​encompassing lifestyle that is the creation of such a spectacle.

What we like about the whole idea of the Wall of Death is the refresh­ingly committed attitude of a band of men and women who dedicate their lives to riding very old bikes at ridiculous angles for the public’s wonder and delectation.

It’s a little slice of folk heroism from the margins. Enjoy.

THE WALL OF DEATH from benedict campbell on Vimeo.

Influx Street Spots

Monday, November 28th, 2011


Images © michael fordham

Time and time again we come across inter­esting cars and bikes and people on our travels of this and other lands.

Now we thought it was about time that we share with you what we find.

Go to our new Street Spots site, follow us and enjoy the lovely bits of automotive serendipity we come across (almost) every day.

We’ve been getting twitchy with our camera phones, and, in fact are more or less reverting to that pre-​​teen car spotter we used to be.

If you like you can join the Tumblr network and share your own street spots, or, for that matter repost ours. Social blogging. It’s the new black, obvs.

Anyway, we hope you enjoy the subtleties of the stuff we find on our daily travels.

Tell all your friends!

http://influxstreetspots.tumblr.com/

Tepui Tents

Friday, November 25th, 2011

We at influx towers have always aspired to do proper off road adventure one day. There’s something about the untram­melled feeling of freedom that comes with busting free from the rules and regula­tions of the highway. It’s a different, primal form of motoring wicked fun.

Problem is, there’s a lot of planning and prep needs doing.

That of course is part and parcel of the appeal for many of us. And if you like combining your love of the great outdoors with the love of motors and associated kit, then these trick tents are just the thing.

Off road adven­tures would be a lot easier if you could simply drive to a parking spot, unpack a tiny, bespoke tent right on top of the vehicle, and get your proper nights sleep.

The Tepui Tent allows offroaders to transcend most of these exist­ential crises of camping; you keep away from the damp and the critters and keep both your vehicle and the rest of your kit secure.

When you want to stop overnight all it takes is a simple climb up an aluminum ladder and the camper enjoys an elevated place to lay his head.

The tents appar­ently collapse to a package less than twelve inches square, too, so it shouldn’t take up even as much room as that extra jerry can of fuel.

Definitely a want for next summer.

More (German) Cutaway Love.

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

In our current bout of obsession with all things vannish and practical we stumbled this morning across yet more beautiful graphic goodness focussed on the split screen microbus.

Nothing really to say about this apart from how gobsmack­ingly stylish these things remain, even though we still get a feeling of undeniable chutzpah every time we street past an old combi crawling along the slow lane at forty miles per hour.

Imagine how long it must take to get from, say, Sunderland to Cornwall in one of these babies. Still, if you’re not in a hurry, there couldn’t be much more of a rakish way to cruise that crawler.

Bonsai Vannage

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Being in one of those automotive quandaries is great for daydreaming. Old banger and surf wagon/​default dadmobile having recently been crushed in the face of an intransigent MOT, there are so many boxes to be ticked in our search for a new vehicle.

The next wagon needs to be rugged, reliable, economical. If it could also be fun, stylish and cool, the all the better.

Thing is, these triads of practic­ality and rakishness are rarely fused together, and in fact usually pull against one another like the polar­ities of a magnet.

Then it dawned on me. Minivan. Fave would be an oil crisis era vintage job from Detroit, obvs, but a current Japanese version would suffice. When we stumbled across these delectably colourful examples, then we were convinced.

Now to find the right importer.

A California state of mind....

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

David Hockney saw it.

From the perspective of a grim English town in the fifties, the grey wash flattening and unifying everything you saw into dreary monochrome, California looked special.

He may have been only looking at Black and White imagery of the West Coast, but he could see in the strength of the shadows that there was something special happening in the sunlight.

Woody Allen said of California that he wasn’t inter­ested in living in a place when the only cultural advantage of doing so was that you could turn left on a red. But when the sun flooded the celluloid and we all started dreaming of sunshine, you didn’t care.

There’s something special about California car culture that begins and ends with this wash of light. You can see it in the classic Cal-​​Look Beetle.

This drear November day, we thought we’d bring you a selection of cars in the sun. Happy day.