the jade gurss blog

In Case You Missed It

WILCO the BAND: Wilco plays the unreleased "Wilco, the Song" - an exclusive for Colbert. Who loves ya, baby?

ALEXIE the AUTHOR: Brilliant author/poet Sherman Alexie (this author's favorite) does verbal battle with Colbert:

CLEESE the COMEDIAN:  John Cleese makes an appearance live on Countdown.

I'm sitting in a quiet and mostly deserted McCarran Intl. Airport in Las Vegas, awaiting a flight back home to North Carolina. Any doubts I had that the economy is in major trouble were erased this week as the casinos were akin to Ghost Towns (without the blowing dust or tumbleweeds). A lot of the staff are worried about layoffs - and I imagine it's a story being repeated in businesses of all kinds across the country. On the sad-but-bright side, the outlet mall near the airport was packed, as most stores had huge discounts and sales on all of their merchandise. Christmas is going to be small this year for a lot of people. 

Signs of the impact on NASCAR creep into the news daily - and you know it's bad when JR Motorsports is cutting staff and running only a partial schedule for their second car because of lack of sponsorship.  If they can't sell decals for Dale Jr., you know things are rough and only getting rougher.  I imagine short tracks and local teams must be sweating the same issues as they plan for 2009. This is an issue that will hit every team and track - big or small.

Speaking of jobs, most who still have them might be appreciative, but there are still days when - no matter what job you do - the grind gets rough. But, it could always be worse. You could have to prepare "the world's longest urinal" or provide toilets for the 39,000 New York City Marathon entrants!

Am I the only one - no matter which candidate you support - who worries that the election will be decided by up to 14% of likely voters who are deemed 'persuadeable' - but are more correctly called "low information voters." In other words, it could be decided by people who know the least about any of the candidates. Chilling.

Jumping the Shark: What's Next?

Several weeks back, I wrote a SPEEDtv.com column proposing NASCAR shorten the vast majority of Cup races if they intend for the TV ratings to grow. Since my choice not to travel each weekend this year, I haven't watched an entire race since losing interest sometime before mid-season. I Tivo the races, then watch in fast-forward, thus saving several hours of my life. In cultural terms, most of the 500-mile races have jumped the shark.

What else has jumped the shark in recent months? Here are a few of my suggestions:  MySpace jumped long ago and Facebook might not be far behind... does The Office seem flat this year?... our economy... the Dale Jr vs. Kyle Busch debate... baseball... robocalls... DEI... this blog... live TV shows where the crowd behind the stage is incredibly distracting to the program itself... and a growing number of folks calling for a new format or point system for the Chase. This is the fifth season of the format, and it's the first with an apparent runaway victor. There are four races left, so it's too soon to crown Johnson, but even if Johnson does continue his torrid pace, one season in five is a pretty good average for exciting points finishes.

How Impressive is the 48 Team?: What Johnson and Chas Knaus have achieved at Hendrick since coming into the Cup Series gets more impressive each season. To have their success and consistent excellence for an extended period is an amazing feat in a sport which is traditionally such a cyclical endeavor.

In many ways, it is tougher to win in NASCAR than in the NFL or other pro sports. Why? Because every single contest includes 42 other competitors. For example, in the NFL, certain weeks are easier than others depending on the opponent. While it is true that any team can beat another on a given day, on average it's much more likely a top team will be able to defeat the Raiders or the Chiefs more often than if they faced a top-rated opponent such as the Titans or Giants. In the Sprint Cup Series, to win each week means beating ALL of your top opponents head-to-head.

NEWMAN!: How about a 1-2 finish in the Atlanta truck race for KHI?! Nicely done as the #2 team gets their first victory of 2008.

Desert Isle DVDs: The Best Racing Movies (Part Two)

After the rousing yawn of a response to part one, I hesitated... but decided to forge ahead and post the second half of my "Best of Racing Movies." This segment is devoted to the finest documentaries about motorsports. There are a lot of awful documentaries out there - so perhaps this will help you make smart choices instead of buying or renting weak or even misleading docs. 

This might be as good of a time as any to  urge everyone to avoid the piece of crap known as the movie "3." ESPN's mockumentary is a work of sheer fiction, so put down the disc and slowly step away. Now let's dispense of the disclaimers and get to the good ones which are very much worth your while.

ON ANY SUNDAY:  My favorite movie as a youngster (along with "A Hard Day's Night"), made by director Bruce Brown, who initially came to prominence with his surfing movie, Endless Summer. With financing (and a starring role) from Steve McQueen, Brown made this  tribute to the joys of two-wheeled wonder. On Any Sunday is purely and simply fun, fun, fun.

The sparkling flat-track oval footage focused on Mert Lawwill is the highlight (see the snippet below, including footage at the four-minute mark of my boyhood neighbor, Ken Pressgrove, #14^_N, in action soon before being killed at Louisville's Churchill Downs), but the film is a funny and entertaining look at the joys of nearly every form of two-wheeled recreational and racing fun. From kids racing their bicycles, to European Trials, to hilarious hill-climb footage, to McQueen and friends racing through the desert around Elsinore, California, all the way to Daytona's high-banked road racing, On Any Sunday finds characters and drama in each form of the sport.

TRAVIS PASTRANA: 199 LIVES: We'll stick with the motorcycle theme here, though X Games icon Pastrana now makes his living driving rally cars for Subaru. A strange and surreal film about the strange, surreal and yet triumphant life of the crazed Travis Pastrana. Still a young man, he has excelled and innovated in an array of 'extreme' sports - from motocross to jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. Meet his mom, who puts her comfort in religion, and his ex-Marine father who is simply... crazy. Combine those elements with Pastrana's panic attacks and unmatched skills - and you have 199 Lives - a fascinating documentary film.

DALE: As pathetic and imaginary was the film "3,"   Dale - The Movie  is  the anecdote: a lovingly-made, sparkling mix of footage never before seen (even by Dale Jr.) about the late Dale Earnhardt. The film, narrated by the late Paul Newman, gives a glimpse at the many complex sides of what made the Intimidator so damn fascinating and role model for the working class heroes in America. Like the Pastrana movie, was never released in more than a handful of theaters, so seek out the DVD.

SUPER SPEEDWAY: The first IMAX film devoted to racing,   Super Speedway is a celebration of Indy car racing and the Andretti family. Narrated by Paul Newman - like the previously listed film - it is an absolute treat of sight and sound. This is the perfect disc to show off your new HD TV and surround-sound system. In fact, I bet you will find this film playing at the nearby Bose store or HD seller on your next visit. While telling the story of Mario's trek from dirt tracks and Indy car roadsters in the mid-60s to the turbocharged Indy cars of the 90s, this one is a joy. For the film, Mario drove with the massive IMAX camera mounted on an Indy car with the turbo boost set to a massive level, allowing him to pass the other cars at will...) Turn it up! Turn it up!




Which leads us (predictably) to NASCAR, THE IMAX EXPERIENCE: not as compelling visually on your home system as Super Speedway, this film has a superior narrative. (Though, I must say I was very impressed seeing the film in its 3D-format in an IMAX theater.) NASCAR - The IMAX Experience   has low-key narration by Keifer Southerland and is too simplistic for die-hard NASCAR fans, but I found it to be a great intro to the sport for new or fair-weather stock car fans. Plus, some of the cameos (Mike Helton as sheriff chasing 'bootleger' Ryan Newman is pretty special...) are worth the price of a rental.  If you have a friend that's interested in learning about NASCAR, don't waste their time with the recent avalanche of quickie-discs from the NASCAR archives: grab this disc and away they go.

Desert Isle DVDs: The Best Racing Movies (Part One)

It's an old game that started with albums (hence, Desert Island Discs): if you were stranded on a deserted island, what albums would you insist on having with you? The game varied wildly - from the number of discs you are allowed to bring (usually 10), to goofy rules like excluding compilations and multi-disc selections. For my own musical D.I.D.'s from a few years back, music fans can delve into the archives here. 

What if we played the same game with DVDs, and then limited them further to RACING movies?! Which would you choose?  Dale Jr. will be heartbroken I've not included his fave, Stroker Ace, nor two movies in which he appears, Cars and Talladega Nights. And NO serious list should ever include Days of Thunder. Sorry Junior. You can make your own list!

To make the blog entries more manageable, I've broken my list into two parts: today we'll start with dramatic films - some based on true stories - but not considered racing documentaries. Leave your alternative choices in the comment section (including any and all of your convincing arguments for the trio of films films mentioned above) - but remember to save your documentary selections until Part 2 is posted.



GRAND PRIX:  Grand Prix is a brilliant movie from director John Frankenheimer ("The Manchurian Candidate" and 50+ films), combining spectacular Formula One footage with major stars such as James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand and Jessica Walter (more known recently as the matriarch on "Arrested Development").

Breathtaking editing and great visuals - especially from the Monaco and Monza Grand Prix events, but perhaps most stunning is the French actress Francoise Hardy, who may alone be worth the price of admission for those who appreciate beauty in its many forms.

The moody film, which includes cameos from many of the top Formula One stars of the day, examines the occasional dark sides of auto racing, and includes some brilliant monologues from Montand's character, Jean-Paul Sarti, an aging legend wearily facing the end of his driving career. Here are several examples as "Sarti" gives Eva Marie Saint (as a fashion journalist) deep insights into the psyche of a racecar driver:

    "I want to tell you something, not about the others, but about myself. I used to go to pieces. I'd see an accident like that and feel so weak inside, that I wanted to quit--stop the car and walk away. I could hardly make myself go past it. But I'm older now. When I see something really horrible, I put my foot down, HARD, because I know that everyone else is lifting his."
    "What a terrible way to win!"
    "No, there is no terrible way to win. There is only winning."

And, while most drivers fail to admit to fear, the Sarti character attributes the lack of fear to a surprising source:

    "Danger? Well, of course. But you're missing a very important point. I think, if any of us imagined, really imagined, what it would be like to go into a tree at 150 miles an hour, we would probably never get into the cars at all, none of us. So it has always seemed to me that to do something very dangerous requires a certain absence of imagination!"

Here is a short segment of the opening sequence with an example of the sparkling editing throughout the film (sorry for what appears to be Portuguese subtitles...ha!).

Le Mans:  "...racing is life. Anything that happens before or after is just... waiting."

Stated simply,  Le Mans is a film with very little dialogue. It's mostly brilliant race cars and equally brilliant racing footage interspersed with a moody, smoldering performance from Steve McQueen, who was one hellluva race car driver in real life.

So devoted to making his film realistic, McQueen convinced the organizers of the race to allow him to enter a race car with multiple camera mounts to film during the actual 24 hour event - resulting in some unreal segments that would be unattainable otherwise. (Legend has it the McQueen film car actually finished  the race in eighth place - despite having to make extra stops to mount new film canisters!)

The film relies upon a sense of ominous tension created by the race action and Michael Delaney's (McQueen's character) guilt after causing the fatal crash of his best friend. Of course, his buddy's widow appears at the track to haunt and entice McQueen during his time out of the racecar.

The trailer:

Heart Like A Wheel (The Shirley Muldowney Story): 

 
    "What's a beautiful girl like you doing racing in a place like this?" 
    "WINNING." 
   
Heart Like a Wheel is the story of Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney, who came into drag racing and went head-to-head against the legends like Don Garlits. Shirley came in and won world titles- breaking every gender barrier in the sport. Bonnie Bedalia is superb in the lead role and Beau Bridges as Connie Kalitta is excellent as well. This one falls into the category of "you don't have to be a fan of drag racing to enjoy this film."




The Last American Hero:
Dapper New York writer Tom Wolfe ("The Right Stuff" and "Bonfire of the Vanities") showed up in the hills of North Carolina to write about Junor Johnson - and ended up with what may still be the finest piece of literature ever devoted to NASCAR and the southern lifestyle. The Esquire magazine article, called "The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!" later appeared in Wolfe's groundbreaking 60s novel "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby." It was then adapted into a movie chronicling the colorful life of bootlegger-turned-NASCAR legend Junior Johnson - as played by Jeff Bridges. The Last American Hero is worth adding to your Netflix queue. 


Winning:  Particularly timely with the recent passing of Paul Newman, Winning marked the moment Newman became hooked on racing.  Co-starring his wife Joanne Woodward and Richard Thomas ("Goodnight John-Boy..."), this is another film with a flimsy plot line but with special racing footage of Newman as driver Frank Capua in a NASCAR stock car (mostly at the late, great Riverside) and most prominently winning the 1968 Indy 500 and getting the girl. (To match the filming of the actual 500, Newman's character drives a car that visually matched real race winner Bobby Unser while other characters appear in cars which mimicked entrants such as second-place finisher Dan Gurney, and so on...) Honestly - the passing of Newman and the superb final section of the movie at the Indianapolis 500 earns this film a place on the list - most of the off-track dialogue is cheesy at best.

That's it for now- next time we'll look at the best racing documentaries!

Your Favorite Racecars?

After last week's mildly controversial SPEEDtv.com column (see links at the right), and with jello for brains after a long, long race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, this week's entry asks for your favorite racecars of the past. I have a long list of faves, including the Gulf Porsche 917s from the Steve McQueen film "LeMans" and the sleek and simple ^#40 R&H Farms sprint car - pictured below with Jay Woodside behind the wheel. The latest Faster. Louder. rant is online now. Look for a new column each Tuesday.

If you'd like to know the meaning and history behind McQueen's "two fingered salute," click over to an oldie-but-a-goodie from the fingerprint blog archives. This fits nicely with the sprint car picture (click the image to see it larger), as one memorable evening Woodside gave the flagman a fervent single-finger salute every lap of the race after he disagreed with the initial green flag start.

GULF Racing from Dirk Behlau on Vimeo.

Steve McQueen from the movie "LeMans," giving the two-fingered salute.

Jay Woodside in the ^#40 R&H Farms sprint car.

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MAD MEN: Just in case you're one of the few not watching Mad Men on AMC, you can catch up on the characters and plot lines with this Mad Men Primer. Or, get your iPhone or computer wallpaper here. Along with Californication on Showtime, it's one of the must-Tivo shows of the fall.

Speaking of Computers: How about the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros? Sigh. I suppose if this week's column (and this blog entry) are about Auto Lust, we can call it Techno Lust for the new laptops. Ahhhhh... (Is it that obvious I'm really in need of a girlfriend? How sad.)

Karting with the Golden Benny Karting League

Check out some new helmet-cam karting footage from Dan Burke, just back from Belgium with a top-10 world karting finish. Burke, all-around good joe and the 2006 Golden Benny Karting League Champion (in honor of the late Benny Parsons and his well-intentioned 'Golden Benny' trophy from the NBC days), shot this footage during the first segment of the October GBKL event at Victory Lane Karting in Charlotte. (The audio is pretty dodgy, so you might choose to turn down your volume a bit before hitting 'play.')

Golden Benny Karting League

You can also see another segment from Dan called "Passing 101."

Another Championship for Ilmor

Ilmor has designed and built championship-winning engines for Indy cars (including more than a dozen Indy 500 winners) and Formula One for 25 years, and now they can add another title to their resume. Ilmor Marine engines powered the #99 Fountain Worldwide boat to its second consecutive World Championship in the Powerboat P1 series with four wins and eight podium finishes in 11 races. It is the world's top powerboat category, and Ilmor's beautiful V-10 engines - based on the Dodge Viper SRT engine - propelled the Fountain Worldwide team to the first back-to-back Evolution-class titles in Powerboat P1 history.  Even more remarkable, Ilmor defeated its rivals with stock MV-10 engines almost exactly the same as what they sell to high-performance boating enthusiasts around the world.

Tired of Tires: This week's column at SPEEDtv.com likely won't earn me any Christmas cards from Akron. Read why Goodyear should not be a part of the story following NASCAR races. This one even earned a disclaimer at the bottom of the segment: "The opinons reflected within are solely those of the above commentator... blah blah blah..." 

A Blown Chance

It was an impressive superspeedway debut for Ricky Carmichael - until the right rear tire exploded so violently it ripped all of the right-side bodywork behind the number. Despite the explosion, somehow Carmichael managed to spin and then continue without taking out the rest of the field. I strongly suspect this is not Carmichael's last attempt on a superspeedway.

"Ricky Carmichael introduced himself to the world of stock car racing today," beamed car owner Kevin Harvick after the race. 

Speaking of explosions, was Dale Jr's practice incident the most dramatic tire demolition you've ever seen? Wow.

 

REGISTER AND VOTE.

Off to Talladega

I'm off to Talladega to see how Ricky Carmichael's ARCA debut goes... to see if Ron Hornaday can overcome the one-point deficit to take the points lead in the trucks and to see if the two-niner can continue his consistent streak of top-10s, or if he'll get a victory that seems almost necessary to climb higher in points... and will the #88 find his once unstoppable mojo?!

I guess we'll all learn together! I'll try to blog as situations warrant...

Ricky Carmichael (who will start ninth Friday in his first ARCA start) chats with Scott Speed. Monster vs. Red Bull...

Tune in (or even download) this week's edition of the Speed Radio report - yours truly is a guest this week...