Favorite High Points of ’09

When my second child was younger she often walked around holding her ‘favorite’ toy. After a few weeks I realized that the toy would change but the moniker would not. She had a lot of favorites and that was just cool.

I’ve decided I’m not dissimilar. My old favorites don’t lose their status just because a new favorite comes along; they just get added to the pile. Among the steady stream of dismal economic reports in 2009 there were several pick-me-ups.

Favorite Get Up and Dance — Grand by Matt & Kim

A young duo from Brooklyn that make me remember what it is like to be youthful and carefree. Grand’s most recognizable track is Daylight, which is probably the most exuberantly brilliant song I’ve heard in much more than a year. It is well balanced and cut, but seems to lack the over-production and corporate feel of most music including the alternative genre. Most importantly, it just makes me happy.

Every year needs a series of devil-may-care, get-out-of-my-way-while-I-conquer-the-world songs. This wasn't the only one in '09 for me, but it started the ball rolling and I play it any time I want my day's tempo to pick up a bit.

Favorite Time Behind the Wheel — BMW 135i

After losing my beloved MCS to the flood of ’09, I shook off the shock and moved onto one of my favorite of life’s tasks: car shopping. Specifically, car shopping for me. I typically compile a long list and drive anything that strikes my fancy. Although I tend to gravitate back toward predictable marquees, I am truly open to something surprising me. Alas, there’s a reason that BMW keeps getting my money: they get what it means to love the road.

Topping the M3, the A4, and the Hyundai Accent I rented in SLC, the hour I spent test-driving a 135i was the most grin-inducing, heart rate-elevating drive of the year. It is predictably tight and controllable like a roller coaster with a jet engine on the back and a direct link to afterburners with just a squeeze of the calf muscle. It was impossible to drive this car sanely. And thus it was disqualified from consideration; my budget doesn’t have room for $500/month in speeding tickets.

Favorite Replacement MINI — Clubman S

Typing out my reasons for the Clubman after writing about the 135i sounds like a little league coach telling a bunch of 10-year-olds that there’s nothing wrong with finishing the tournament in second place. It’s all a bunch of rationalization trying to convince myself that pragmatism is really important, too.

There’s a decent point in there, though. Something I learned while having a car ten years ago that I was often afraid to drive for fear of being scratched, breathed on, or tailed by a cruiser with flashing lights. I’d rather have a car that gets driven and enjoys the road, potholes and all, than one that makes me sweat every time the $750 rims get close to a toll booth.

My ‘09 Clubman S is this car. Take everything I loved about the ’06 MCS, subtract a little bit of sport, and then add on heaps of space, smoothness, aesthetics, and a bike rack. I’m pretty sure I didn’t take the prior MINI for granted during the half-dozen 2000+ mile road trips (it crossed Rockies 8 times), but I can see the Clubman S doing even more. My first road trip is already scheduled for mid-January.

Favorite Life Device — iPhone 3GS

When I was in grade school, my teacher—who I probably had a crush on—handed out flimsy newspaper-like packets to the class so we could read aloud. I recall reading stories about the future holding promises of flying cars, vacations on the moon, and reliable Social Security checks. Being the sharp kid I was, I knew deep down that these things are absolute myths that weren’t in my future.

Funny thing is, the iPhone was every bit as futuristic as those things but would have made sense anyway. What kid wouldn't dream about a computer to carry around that told them about weather, traffic, news, food, their weight gain from that food, and the direction of North? As a bonus, every so often it gets a signal strong enough to make phone calls.

I've no shame stating I had my iPhone on the day it was released and I upgraded to the 3GS almost exactly two-years later. And wow. The speed and faster connection make me feel like I'm connected to this expansive sky with all the information I can dream about. It has replaced my MacBook Pro as the most useful tool I have.

Favorite Thank Heaven for Unlimited Data Plans App — Pandora

I find myself more and more untethered. There is no land line at home or studio. I haven’t watched broadcast tv in 4 years. And except for one news station, my car’s radio presets are still on their factory settings.

However, these days I read more news, keep up with tv shows, watch movies, listen to radio shows, and stay connected to the internet perpetually. Automatically syncing news feeds, podcasts, iTunes music, and AppleTV are vastly more efficient than the old system of living by the broadcasters’ schedules.

Pandora’s streaming radio, working like an iTunes Genius playlist, plays songs that I know and many, many that I’m discovering. It’s not just a brilliant concept, it actually changes my day for the better.

Favorite Improvement to a Disappointment — Magic Mouse

After losing the name "Mighty," Apple dubbed their new wireless pointing device as "Magic." It's a fitting name. Although the concept of the previous mouse with it's 'scroll pea' was solid, in practice I found myself cleaning the doggone pea several times a day just so I could keep panning around huge Illustrator files. I stuck with it, really, really wanting the feature to work but it continually let me down. For finite control I often used the trackpad on my MacBook Pro because I could just slide my fingers around the surface.

The Magic Mouse is the mouse I've wanted for the last twenty years. (Yes, I had a NeXT in 1990 with a passable mouse.) Because the whole surface is a trackpad, I move my wrist less while just sliding fingers around in any direction. It never gums up, and it is weighted well. I've always felt that a mouse, like shoes and a bed, is worth spending money on since I'm connected to it almost constantly.

Favorite Story Disguised as a Kids' Movie — Up

I'm astounded at how much of my money and praise Steve Jobs gets. Pixar is full of really creative people who understand me. They know that the most important part of any movie is the storytelling. Flat-out, Pixar's stories are consistently better than their competitors'.

The greatest thing about Up is that Pixar was willing to deviate from a known formula and create a kid's movie that not only entertains adults, it depresses all of them first. /Spoiler alert./ My young kids aren't thrilled that the first minutes of Up cover unfulfilled dreams, the hospital, and death. In fact, I don't think they like it at all. (They insist on skipping over the first 5 minutes of Finding Nemo, too.) But I dig it; it endears the movie to me and means that not every great accomplishment is one I set up when I was in my teens, or twenties.

MINI 50th Ads, eh?

Communication Arts has an article profiling some of the ads MINI is running in Canada for its 50th birthday. MINI ads are always worth a gander, even if it's just to spot which ones you haven't seen yet.



If I had a box big enough, I'd collect every ad made. It would have to be a big box, though.

MINIs Make Roads Curvier

Writing for Design Observer, Owen Edwards pontificates on the lack of reality connecting urban jungle-esque car advertising to actual gridlocked, asphalt-only conditions. Then he bought a Cooper S and the back roads became something as great as the promise.



My Clubman S and I are inclined to agree and we know just where to find such roads.

MINI Cooper S Clubman

After being MINI-less for the last 4 weeks, my driveway is once again comforted by the sweet blanket of go-karted-ness. As it turns out, MINI's hold their value extremely well (not really a surprise to most motorers) so my insurance covered the losses on my flooded MCS nicely.

I wanted a 2009 year model, in order to take advantage of the low financing right now. So, after an extensive search covering dealers in 4 states, I narrowed the choice of options down to 22, then 4, then 2. When the dust settled, the family set out for a short 2.5 hour road trip to Greenville, South Carolina (also known as Spartanburg to BMW aficionados). The dealership was professional and after a short stay I left with a '09 Clubman S.



I've always carefully broken in new engines—this is my seventh—and been rewarded with better gas mileage, smoother torque curves, and so on. So the route back had to fall within the constraints, including varying speeds, no fast acceleration or braking, and no revs above 4000.

I carefully, and at times whimsically, plotted a route back that avoids freeways and multi-lane highways. Mostly I pointed the car toward the national parks and headed off toward the back country, stopping frequently for leg stretching and enjoying the scenery.









Because the Clubman does not have a rear hinge, the Saris Bones rack won't hang on the car reliably. (The rubber lip is the only thing that would feasibly provide grip, but it's too flimsy and juts out past the window too fat to hold the weight, or bounce, of the loaded Bones rack.) And because I have to move my bike(s) with this car, I elected for the factory rack and fork-mounted tray. I haven't noticed louder noise levels from the rack, but I don't think I cleared 60mph the whole way back, so the story is still unfolding.

And anyway, I'm just happy to be motoring again.

Quick Pic 1

'06 MCS in Chattanooga, happy on vacation.

More Weekend

In my recap of 2008 I noted Vampire Weekend as a group to watch. They've got my back.



Although their new album won't be out until January 2010, the single 'Horchata' is available on their website for free. To kick off the new-car weekend (update forthcoming) I'm going to make Horchata the official Weekend track.

Saris Bones Wrap, with a Twist

I've been keeping notes about the Saris Bones rack on my MINI Cooper S on and off in anticipation of a thorough post following up my original note from July 2008, which to date drives most of traffic to this blog. The story took a bit of a twist while I drafted it.

The good news is that the Saris Bones (I've got the 2-bike variety) is really a phenomenal rack. It's my favorite trunk rack of all time, although I admit I've only had 3 or 4 over the years. Still, it's the only one that I've loved using. It really is simple to put on and off the MINI once you've done it a few times because the rear is so vertical. I just hook the top two clips and cinch them to take out the slack (but not tight). The sides go on and then the bottom. I opened the hatch a few inches, hooked the bottom, took out the slack in those and then evenly shut the tail. The result is that the hatch would shut, the bottom straps become tight, but as long as I didn't make the straps too tight before closing the hatch, the rack wouldn't jar.



I personally used the Bones only to move my mountain bike around. For my road bike, I really do prefer the front-wheel-off-handle-bars-hooked-sideways-over-the-passenger-seat maneuver I discovered in a MINI forum long ago. The fit was perfect, the effort to get it in and out of the car was minimal (keep in mind I'm referring to an 18-lb. road bike), and I never had to worry about my Cannondale falling off the back of the car.

A trade-off I noticed is that with my road bike inside the car, once I pulled the bike out I had access to all my gear (helmet, gloves, shoes, water bottle, and pump). This was a really convenient way to transport everything and still have access to it at the appropriate times. With the Bones on the back, the hatch stays closed at the trailhead. So access to my gear had to come via the driver's door. After a couple of outings, I found I'd leave the back seats folded flat and put the main items (helmet, gloves, shoes) on the floor behind the driver's seat. This way I didn't have to lean back into the car in order to gear up.

Trade offs aside, I've gotten used to how easy the Bones is to move around, how I loved not worrying out how wet it got, and how great it looked. Alas, it was not to last. On the morning of Sep. 21, it started raining.



By the time the parking lot flooded with a few inches of rain, the street—my only exit—had filled enough that I had no chance of getting a MINI through the waters. So my red, '06 MCS took its chances with the rising water.



I moved the MINI to higher ground; you can see it poking out from behind the trees in the upper corner. It wasn't enough.



The MINI completely succumbed to the muddy, rushing water before dusk. Before I get comments asking why I didn't move the car even further up the parking lot, I'll point out that at this point the water was already three-feet higher than my parking spot next to my building. I had no idea how fast or high the flood waters would reach. In the end, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. After nightfall the water level continued to rise. The entire parking lot was affected as water rose for several hours after I took this picture. Eventually the fire department rescued me via boat.

In the end, the MINI is only a car. (And anyway, we said our goodbyes and exchanged cards and loving glances as the water was rising.) I'm shopping for a replacement right now, with a diminishing chance that the Bones will fit on the newcomer. In any event, I hope that the Bones notes I was able to write help as many motorers as possible; after all, that's the best part about the MINI: sharing the good stuff.