Top Gear is a British television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars. It is presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. The show is famous for its fantastic visuals and humorous commentaries by the program’s hosts. It also gave rise to the popular character of The Stig(he’s even got a fanbase in Facebbok!) the show’s anonymous and silent test driver.
Last December 28, 2008, Top Gear presented an epic episode where the three program host were presented a challenge which took them to Vietnam and required them to travel 1000 miles from Ho Chí Minh City (Saigon) to to Ha Long City (near Hanoi) in a span of eight days. That’s practically from the bottom to the northern tip of Vietnam!
Each were handed a shoebox with 15 million Vietnamese dongs so they could buy a vehicle of their choice to use for the challenge. But they soon realize that the ‘enormous’ amount couldn’t afford them a car so they settled for something cheaper.
Hammond bought a Russian-built 125cc two-stroke Minsk; May a 50cc four-stroke Honda Cub (a bike very common in Vietnam and ranked No. 1 among the World’s 10 Greatest Ever motorbikes); and Clarkson, who claimed to have never ridden before and knew little about motorbikes, purchased a green vintage Piaggio Vespa. It should be noted that Clarkson despised motorcycles. Bikers might find his tounge-and-cheek humor a bit condescending, but personally, I find his Brit humor amusing. In the scene when they were buying crash helmets, he quipped: “The reason why crash helmets are small is because people who wear them haven’t got a brain. Otherwise they’d have a car.”
Here’s the first part of that epic episode.
Will the vintage Vespa finish the challenge? Those who hate Jeremy Clarkson’s guts for “insulting” two-wheel riders may find a little satisfaction towards the end of the episode.
couple of weeks ago, I attended a Baptism Reception of the four-month old baby of a Vespa buddy (Dax). While waiting for my company (Adrian) to arrive, I decided to look for a gift to while away the time. I went to Gingersnaps and saw this shirt for babies (with sizes 0 to 18 months). What a perfect gift indeed.
There were two Vespa designs but I chose this one…
I forgot to take a picture of the shirt when I bought it. When my wife went to the shop take a picture of the merchandise a few days later, the saleslady told her that all sizes for both designs are already out of stock in their branch. Luckily, Dax volunteered to send me a pic of the shirt I gave.
There are a number of song about riding a Vespa, but my favorite, hands down, is LùnaPop’s (link auto-translated to English) “50 Special” which they released back in 1999. I call it “The anthem for Vespa riders!“
The song is in Italian but it has gotten so popular back then that the band made another version in Spanish. I’ve also read before that they later made an English version for the UK market but I wasn’t able to hear that one. That was the case until I stumbled upon this…
The verses sounded weird for me. The English lines seem forced to fit the melody, and in some instances, it felt like words didn’t even rhyme. But the refrain sounds alright to me.
Earlier today, the Vespa Club had the privilege of lending our beloved scoots to the members of the American pop/rock band The Click Five who’s in Manila for a quick stop for a concert in Araneta Colesium tonight.
The shoot was done at the 5th level poolside of the Crowne Plaza where the band is billeted for the duration of their stay. We actually had to get the scoots through service elevators just to get there. The shoot was fun and the band members were friendly. It’s a good thing that three out of five TC5 members have their own Vespas back home so they’re used to riding scoots.
Prior to the shoot, I wasn’t really familiar with their songs (I mean I know some of their songs but I didn’t know they sung it) but I know that my niece is a mad fanatic seeing pictures of the members in her multiply site. So my wife tagged her along to check out the shoot… and boy, was she in for a treat of a lifetime! hahaha!
Here’s my niece Pao with TC5 frontman Kyle Patrick and my beloved Pyke.
I almost missed this if not for Minggoy’s post in the Vespinoy forum. Turns out that yesterday’s ish of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine is all about motorcycles and the people who rides them.
Right on the cover is bossa nova singer, Sitti, wearing short shorts and boots while riding a Vespa! Vespa Nova, the cover story, was written by Eric Caruncho who’s himself a Vespa rider. Here’s an excerpt:
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Locally, the cult of the Vespa has experienced a growth spurt in recent years, fueled by the entry of the modern Vespas and the continued fetishization of the vintage ones. Local aficionados bond together through organized group rides, the annual Vespa Attack scooter rally, and through internet forums such as Vespinoy.com and Euroscoot.net. Last year, the Vespa Club of the Philippines was organized. It recently launched its own internet forum as well.
Vespa enthusiasts form a subset of the emerging Pinoy scooter culture. Spiralling fuel costs and worsening traffic congestion, together with the introduction of inexpensive “underbone” scooters available on installment have seen two-wheeled vehicle sales go through the roof (together with a corresponding increase in road accidents). Granted, Vespa aficionados tend to be older, better educated and financially better off than the typical underbone enthusiast (the modern Vespas costing many times more than the average Japanese or Chinese scoot). But for both, their rides signify the same things as the first Vespas did for their owners: a means of freedom, mobility, and self-expression.(read full article here)
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If you missed reading a copy, here’s a list of the other motorcycle-related articles in yesterday’s edition of SIM: Read the rest of this entry ?
I admit, I’m a “Heroes” fanboy. I finished the entire Season One in a iPod video marathon. Now I’m hooked with Season 2 with it’s 4th episode (The Kindness of Strangers) being the best ever for me!
Anyway, I’ve seen this picture of Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) sitting on a Vespa before. But after seeing picture another Heroes cast member on a scooter, an idea struck me to make some mock Vespa print ads. For the ad copy, I used a line from this actual Vespa advertisment seen on the road. To make the ad series more relevant, the slant of the ads tackled issues taken up in Vespanomics, like traffic and rising gas prices.
Of course, I did try to input subtle humor into the ads, but I guess only peeps who watch the show would really get it. I used the closest comicbook-like font I could find for the tagline at the bottom of the layout to make it more familiar to fans of the series. Here’s the first one…
I don’t think you’d ever guess the next one featured in this mock Vespa/Vespanomics ad series. Read the rest of this entry ?
Here’s another series of movie screencaps with Vespas in it. This is actually the long-overdue, second installment of the Guess the Movie (Easy Round) I posted last April. I think this will be just as easy since all the movies where the scenes below were taken are mainstream and quite known.
Pao, my eleven year old niece, gave me a heads-up about this new music video of Gwen Stefani(for old farts out there, she’s the babe who fronted the band ‘No Doubt‘) for the remix version of the song “Now That You Got It“ from her sophomore album “The Sweet Escape” (2006). The song and the video features Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley(son of Reggae icon, Bob Marley). Below is a screencap from the video.
As usual, Gwen’s with the Harajuku Girls — her four-chick, all-Japanese posse cum backup dancers — whom we usually see around her in Gwen’s other music videos. With Marley around, it’s no surprise that the recurring theme and digital setting of this colorful video is Jamaica. Notice too that the girls are scooting around with three Vespas representing the Jamaican colors! You can watch the music video here. Read the rest of this entry ?
The white Italian scooter seen on national TV last weekend was indeed a Hello Kitty Vespa ET4 loaned by Gift Gate especially for Tessa Prieto’s performance in Celebrity Duets”. Vexel, my Vespa Club buddy, saw the unit firsthand at the time the show was being taped in the GMA studio. He shared with me some pics that his wife took using her phone:
Vexel notes that if one looks closely at the scoot’s odometer, it reads only 18km. Proves that this Vespa is a display piece only.
side view: Check out the glove box; it doesn’t say ET, but KT!
during Tessa’s performance
The Hello Kitty Vespa being used as a prop for a rock song is great. But Gift Gate could’ve gone the extra mile had they lent both performers some added accessories to complete their look and for some good old product recall for Kitty. Here are my suggestions… Read the rest of this entry ?
Since my side of the family is not exactly small, the whole brood gathers at least once a month to celebrate someone’s birthday. It’s usually held on a Saturday, and for the past three or four birthday dinners we’ve had, we never failed to get a glimpse of a show called “Celebrity Duets” on GMA. Hmmm… if catching the show happened on several occasions already, it couldn’t be dismissed as a mere coincidence anymore. Someone in the family is obviously following every episode religiously; but I’m not one to reveal who it is.
Anyway, there was a segment last Saturday where Tessa Prieto-Valdez (she’s one of the contenders) had a duet with the legendary Mike Hanopol singing, what else, but the anthem of all jeproks (Tagalog street slang for ‘tough’) called “Laki sa Layaw.” As a prop to this live performance, Tessa posed beside a white Vespa ET right up there on the stage at the start of the song. What’s the connection, right? I guess it’s jeproks to have a Vespa… hahaha
I went to youtube to see if I could grab a broadcast recording of the show but only found this home video of the said performance taken by a studio audience. It was uploaded by a certain hkpirate/DV which I could only assume as Dennis Valdez, Tessa’s better half (Note: If you’re following the show, you may be interested to read his blog and read about rumors about what the other contestants are doing to get text votes).
Watch their performance:
The vocals weren’t clearly audible because of the quality but the band sounded great… and Mike Hanopol still rocks!
During the break, I saw this commercial — with pretty newcomer Maja Salvador — where I spotted another Vespa. The ad is for a product called Lewis & Pearl cologne and I think the ad was shot in Downtown Manila. If you haven’t seen it, take a look at it here. Read the rest of this entry ?
