via insideline.com
Don't like the X6 but this X6 M looks like a mean muthaFucker. Its a Body kit by Lumma who does BMW a huge favor with this 1.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Ram it Home...
Retro Fresh. The Graphics of the 80's are unmatched today. 
I just found out that NITRO from American Gladiators was a Rams defensive lineman in 1987....you learn something new everyday!
via For All To Envy by For All To Envy on 3/16/10
I just found out that NITRO from American Gladiators was a Rams defensive lineman in 1987....you learn something new everyday!
Bugatti 16C Galibier: New Photos Released
via insideline.com
This is the First Bugatti sedan to be introducted later this year. It seems like they just jacked Porsche for its Panamera desgin. Bugatti don't swagger jack.
Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black Special Edition Tours U.S.
via insideline.com
DBS Carbon Black Special Edition is touring US cities check out astonmartin.com for details. You don't want 2 miss it.
Supra Skytop Acid Wash Denim – Available
via sneakernews.com
I love the diversity SUPRA brings to the kick game. They are innovators in the color ways they use.
Erykah Badu – Strawberry Incense
SHE'S BACCK...not a moment to soon. Erykah (as i like to call her) is a musical ICON.
Chosen Few
Check out this website I found at boundlessny.com
Check Out the New Rockers @ boundlessny.com
Monday, March 15, 2010
Air Jordan Spiz’ike - Black - Varsity Red - Stealth
The Air Jordan Spiz’ike made it’s return to retail shelves this Spring with two iconic Jordan colorways including a Black and Cement pair as well as a White and Fire Red pair, now it looks as if Jordan Brand will continue to release some new colorways of it’s most successful hybrid to date. Here is a first look at an upcoming Black, Varsity Red, and Stealth colorway of the Air Jordan Spiz’ike that features the use of various leathers including patent leather. While no release date has been communicated yet this colorway is believe to be a part of the Jordan Brand Summer 2010 Collection and if you really want a pair you can pick these up now at marqueesole.
via freshnessmag.com
ohh yeah!1!!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Thirteen Lamborghini Reventons Now Available on JamesList
Thirteen Lamborghini Reventons Now Available on JamesList
by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) Mar 8th 2010 at 6:01AM
Back in March 2009 Reuters was astonished to report that seven out of the 20 ultra-exclusive Lamborghini Reventon supercars in the world were being offered for sale on a single website, global online luxury marketplace JamesList. Exactly one year later we can reveal that number has nearly doubled to 13, meaning that 65% of the total Reventons in existence are now available on the one site. Prices for the 650 hp beauties range from $1.4 million - $2 million with cars on offer located in the U.S., U.K., UAE, Germany and Switzerland. Perhaps the guy who just bought 10 Aston Martin One-77s will snatch up the lot. Meanwhile, JamesList also has listings for 4 out of the 15 recently unveiled Reventon Roadsters, which are even more exclusive than the original.
via luxist.com
Reminds me of the Bruce lambo in The Dark Knight.
Bodega x Converse Poorman Weapon
via freshnessmag.com
Converse comes wit a mean colab wit BODEGA out of Boston. Who dosen't love a free flask.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Luxist Drives the Bentley Continental Supersports, Responds "Yes, please, this one."
Luxist Drives the Bentley Continental Supersports, Responds "Yes, please, this one."
by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) Feb 15th 2010 at 8:01AM
In the superluxe world, we're used to this maneuver: add a few horsepower, shave a tenth or two, sew in a few extra threads, name your exclusive new interior color something like "Algerian Beet" and voilà, a 50-percent price premium for three-percent more car. On the surface, the Bentley Continental Supersports is a GT Speed that has gone on Biggest Loser, Extreme Makeover, and Alter Eco. But you know what they say about the proof and the pudding, so the question is whether the Supersports is a nameplate special or a genuinely higher evolution of the baller's favorite steed. We spent a day in the wilds of New Jersey and upstate New York, along with a few hours at Monticello Raceway to find out. Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to introduce you to the first Continental you can feel.
Think of the Bentley Continental Supersports as Usain Bolt: both are hypothetically too big to perform as they do, but they do it anyway.
The Continental GT is not a sports car. Nor is the Continental Supersports. Nevertheless, both Bentleys do things that only sports cars can do, and the Supersports does some of them more quickly – like 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds. The difference is in how they do it. When we drove the convertible Continental GTC Speed, we felt it took the goddess of physics hostage, forcing her to obey the car's commands in spite of her better judgment. Bentley should be commended for engineering a 5,182-pound beast to perform such feats at all, but it remains an act of coercion.
In the GTC Speed, though, the driver is separated from all that imperative violence by multiple layers of sound deadening, carpeting, wood and leather. If you really pay attention, you can catch a soupçon of the brute force wizardry being conducted somewhere in the Bentley's deathly hallows, but why would you? There are 1,100 distracting watts of Naim audio to command the ears and a woman named Katerina or Genviève or Summer in the front seat to command everything else.
The Supersports, on the other hand, requests your attention. Why? While the conversion to being a high-po ethanol coupe does involve more electro-mechanical magic, it's primarily achieved the old fashioned way: less weight and more power.
A 243-pound reduction from a 5,000-pound car isn't much – 4.86 percent, to be exact – but the Supersports drops weight in the right places. Unsprung mass has been reduced by 66 pounds with the addition of carbon-ceramic brakes and lightweight wheels, while the chassis gives up 20 pounds and the elimination of the rear seats, replacement of the wood with carbon fiber trim and the fitment of those carbon fiber seats nixes nearly 160 pounds. But a strict diet isn't the only regime Bentley put the Supersports on.
Output is up to 621 horsepower at 6,000 rpm – another 21 hp over the GT Speed – thanks to an increase in boost pressure, with torque goosed (or would that be 'swanned') from 553 foot-pounds to 590 ft-lb at 2,250 rpm, making this "extreme Bentley" the most powerful model to wear The Flying B. Your new corn-fed top speed: 204 miles per hour. An even better stat: you can get from 50 to 70 mph in 2.1 seconds. Worry not, cellulosic stocks will work as well if you're concerned about things like, oh, world hunger.
Speaking of which, let's throw our bingo chip down right now on the second biggest story of this car: E85. (Yes, that means we're actually playing "bingoe.") This is the first Bentley with flex-fuel capacity, the first arrow in what is meant to be a quiver full of eco-friendly Bentleys by 2012 (or at least less eco-injurious). It is so important to Bentley that this is the first and only car from the brand's current line-up to wear any branding outside the car: a small "Supersports" logo behind the front wheels.
No matter the ratio of gasoline to biofuel, the car maintains its peak horsepower and torque numbers, and the corrosive aspects of biofuels don't eat the engine. The overlord is a fuel quality sensor that detects the gas-to-ethanol mix and automatically adjusts engine mapping based on the content of each. To note: European Supersports deliveries are fitted with the FlexFuel engine now, while North American models need regulatory approval, which should make them available by the end of summer.
All that oomph makes the Supersports a heavy breather, the bi-turbo W12 needing 10 percent more airflow to remain cool. That's the reason for the exterior redesign up front, with the lateral intakes feeding intercoolers and the hood vents extracting hot air from above. Another upshot: the changes create more downforce in front.
But let's take that concept of 'down in front' to the cabin. As we all know, it's the details that define the superior product – and even more detailed details that make this year's superior product better than last. By that standard, the Supersports is noticeably better, the sum of its changes having recast the entire tone of the Continental GT, which is itself better than almost everything else out there.
Flood the optical nerves with padded carbon seats, Alcantara, leather and carbon trim, and the brain's signal processing center immediately switches to its "Sports Car" setting. A simple viewing also ushers in the thrill of trying to simultaneously process pole and antipole: the cabin is as spartan as it is luxurious, clinical as it is inviting, hard as it is soft.
The leather-trimmed carbon fiber seats have fixed seat cushions and clamshell rear panels that can adjust fore and aft. This is the first Bentley to wear Alcantara inside, and a smaller diamond-quilt pattern makes its return after a long absence. The steering wheel is lined in soft-touch leather so that your fingers are always sending you the signal, "Remember, we're here on business." It's a cabin good for all-day comfort on the eyes, the body and the driving soul.
And perhaps you noticed that missing rear seat. In its place is a luggage shelf topped by a hollow carbon tube that keeps parcels where they belong when things get all brake-y. Just under that luggage shelf is less sound deadening than in other Continental models, and a retuned exhaust. When you start the car, it sounds like a proper sports car.
The other GT variants cannot be heard in most circumstances, and even when they can, they sound like a chorus of butlers humming. Granted, it's a bunch of big, rugby playing butlers that still have a bit of imperial about them. But it's guys humming.
The Supersports doesn't hum like that. The Supersport rumbles. If you could call it a hum at all, it would be the hum of a Vulcan. Sitting on top of Vesuvius. Courting a Valkyrie.
That left us one thing to do: find out what happens when Vesuvius blows. It was not hard, it did not take long and it was Earth shattering.
The Supersports remains a devout Bentley, so its low-speed performance should already be well known. Ambling around town won't raise anyone's heartbeat but those of the people watching you. As far as the car's effort is concerned, the urban hike is like using an aircraft carrier as the Staten Island Ferry.
Get it into its element, though, and improved reflexes join the boons of extra power and lighter weight. The re-engineered steering and suspension use lighter components, tweaked dampers, anti-roll bar geometry and stiffer bushes. The Continuous Damping Control software helps body control, additionally aided by the coupe being ten millimeters lower than the GT Speed in front and 15 millimeters lower in back.
That lower rear is also wider, with the rear track upped by two inches. As well, more power heads that way in the car's default setting, with a 60 percent rear bias on the all-wheel-drive system improving the ability to throttle steer. Getting it all where it should be is the new six-speed "Quickshift" transmission, which cuts shift times by 50 percent in part by cutting fuel and ignition, which speeds mechanical actuation. It also double downshifts and rev matches when descending gears. Finally, the updated Electronic Stability Control allows more leeway when you're on it hard, with a higher tolerance for slip angles, and it reinstates power and torque more quickly after an intervention.
The result is animal. Not just any animal – this is Battle Cat. You know, the green guy He-Man used to ride. Has the saddle and everything. And a much nicer color. But it is muscle, it is speed and it is ferocious.
Steering load-up and turn-in happens quickly, and precise wheel placement is a cinch after the first couple of corners. At high speed, only G-forces and cornering speed – not body roll – can help you judge how aggressively you've taken a turn compared to your previous run. Bentleys have never been slow to go, but the Supersports goes even faster thanks to more power and its commitment to downshifting.
Let the car shift for you, and now it isn't a big GT looking around for the right ratios to haul itself from apex to apex; it's a double-downshifting, throttle-steering monster with bags of grip that can't wait to get back to a high-revving sprint. Take control of the ZF box via the column-mounted stalks and gain a few tenths and a cranium full of sound by downshifting even earlier – you'll do anything to get out of a turn more quickly so you can hear it roar down a back straight.
Which brings us to what, for us, is the biggest story of this car: emotion. It isn't only that you're doing things in a 2.5-ton Bentley, it's that you can feel and hear and sense the doing of it, and it's all being done in the right way: less weight, less heard from the doodads, more engineering, more power, more grip.
It's a luxury coupe that covers a huge amount of ground in all kinds of ways, and for proof, consider the fact a Bentley press drive for it was held at a race track. Sure, a 599 and a Lamborghini Murciélago are more dramatic; they are also louder, smaller, more frenetic, much more expensive and only slightly faster, and in the case of the Ferrari, maybe not as pretty. A Porsche 911 has finer reflexes, but less luxury and much less gravitas. An Aston Martin might be just as much fun, but isn't nearly as fast or as practical. A Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG might have the Supersports matched for curb and visceral appeal, but it's tiny inside, a tad harsh... and it simply isn't a Bentley.
It's not like we want to say this, it's that we aren't sure there's any other choice: if you want to have it all, the Bentley Supersports is probably it. And we only say "probably" on the off chance there's a car out there we don't know about at this end of the spectrum that has the speed, space, smoothness, suppleness and sound to beat it. Maybe in a cave somewhere. If Bentley would just fix that center console screen and software, then we'd really have nothing to complain about.
For much of its history, Bentleys have shielded occupants from the action by placing scads of cloth, leather, hide and wood between the driver and the din and the dynamics. And that was the point – that's why you bought a Bentley. So while the Continental GT is a fantastic coupe, it isn't visceral. The Supersports, though, is a fantastic coupe that is.
via luxist.com
Maybe Bentley is the preferred luxury car of chose.
Luxist Gets a Lesson in Living Well at Lebua's Lake Okareka Lodge
Luxist Gets a Lesson in Living Well at Lebua's Lake Okareka Lodge
by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) Feb 25th 2010 at 11:01AM
When your bread and butter is acquired by trotting around the world to tell tales of man- and womankind's finest offerings, you get used to the finest. Akin to being a jeweler, when everything you touch sparkles because everything is a gem, it takes a jewel of the extraordinary variety to get your attention. After hopping on four planes to spend 24 hours in the air traveling from London to New Zealand, all to visit lebua's Lake Okareka Lodge, we expected to encounter another fine, shiny object.
What we did not expect – but what we got – was a the finest 4-day stretch of living we've had in years, and a persistent lesson in what the best living is like. We hadn't been on the property two minutes, and upon seeing the view from our suite we realized we had discovered one of the universe's finest secrets: this is where God goes on vacation.
Ok, so God probably has a few vacation spots – we hear there are some hot springs on Jupiter that are fabulous – but Lake Okareka Lodge is certainly one of them.The first thing we should get straight is the pronunciation of "Okareka." Months before we arrived in-country we broke it down and came up with oh-kuh-REE-kuh. That turned out to be so far off that when we finally heard a native pronounce it we had no idea what he was talking about. What he said was, oh-CARE-uh-kuh, rolling the 'r' and issuing the word at double-speed, then throwing in a New Zealand accent for spice because, well, he was a Kiwi. We've got the pronunciation down, we'll need a bit more time to work on that accent.
The second, and more important thing to know about Lake Okareka Lodge is that it isn't really a lodge in the common sense. The usual lodge has numerous guests, a few of whom you might know but most of whom you definitely won't. That is the opposite of Lake Okareka, where the only guest will probably be you and whoever you've invited along. There are three rooms but the establishment rents exclusively, so if you book it, it's yours.
That makes the lodge, set at the tip of a peninsula jutting out into Lake Okareka, your private, 7,000-square-foot waterfront home.
But let us back up a bit. Rotorua is in the center of New Zealand's North Island. A spread-out town of about 70,000, the population swells throughout the year as a million visitors fly in for the adventure sports and the smell of sulfur in the morning. Occupying the depression of an enormous volcanic caldera, sulfur hot springs are ubiquitous; steam rises from giant divots and pools all through town, at the bottom of which might be just boiling mud or perfectly clear and temperate pools of water. Hot spring types have made Rotorua a destination since the 1880s, and that was when it took six months by ship to complete the journey. When the English arrived for the first time they found the the Maori, New Zealand's indigenous population, already there, because who doesn't love central heating?
Take a right turn from the city center and drive for 15 minutes, you'll pass the obscenely idyllic Blue Lake on your way to the lodge. There are dozens of lakes within 30 minutes drive of the city, each one just as stunning as the last. In case we haven't covered this yet or you haven't been there, New Zealand is magnificently gorgeous. It is rivaled in lush, grand-scale beauty probably only by Switzerland, but has taken the trouble of replacing bankers and financiers with sheep: New Zealand's four-million-strong human population is dwarfed by the bleating, woolen might of a 40-million-strong ovine army.
Past Blue Lake is a quiet, cozy neighborhood of young professionals, and at the end of that is Lake Okareka Lodge. The driveway gates open up on command and you roll into your estate, two stories of granite, glass, wood and steel to greet you. This is when you first realize the human scale of the place – it's a house, and it's not commercial (technically it is, but go with us on this...), it's personal. Better than that, it's an extremely nice house, obvious even from the outside and not only because of its size.
Enter the foyer, and darkly stained woods are set off by sculpture and statuary in gold and bronze. This is where you get your first glimpse of the fuller portion of the lake, just through the windows that line the sunken dining room.
But you won't tarry there. We were led up the stairs by Diana Moore, the property manager, who was cluing us in to all the things we might wish to know during the stay. When we turned the corner and saw the view of the lake from that room, though, it was a "You had me at 'Hello,'" moment – nothing else needed to be said.
The view from the balcony of the 1,400 square-foot Lake Okareka suite is divine. It encompasses an evergreen-lined ridge on the left that slowly tapers into the lake in the distance, behind which the the sheep-lined hills and distant mountains rise off to the right. The shallow vee is called The Cut, and the sun is gracious enough to rise just there every morning.
At that point we dropped our bags and began working on a plan to never leave.
This is a day at the Lake Okareka Lodge: you'll awaken in a bed wrapped in Italian linens, pull back the drapes and discover kayakers paddling calm, morning waters among the lake's herons, dabchicks, and black swans. As the sun ascends, the kayakers are replaced by the occasional leisure boater and waterskier who, due to the lake's lane setup, will remain a distant, scudding hum along the far cliffs.
You set your music preference with the Sonos remote control, meaning you choose anything on the lodge's system or your own media player to play anywhere you wish – you might even have your suite playing running through one playlist and queue a different playlist for the cavernous bathroom.
Take a moment to run downstairs where your private chef, David Robinson, will ask you what you'd like to have for breakfast. Not that our tastes tend to the extreme for the morning's repast, but we did mix it up and found everything on the menu. And delicious.
Take the stairs again to get fresh for the day, arrange the music for your shower routine if you haven't already, then slipper around the stone-tiled bathroom equipped with a jet tub large enough for two and a shower stall large enough for four. When daybreak's ablutions are complete, return to the breakfast room and take your meal there, or perhaps on the balcony just outside, or perhaps at the table under the boughs on the upper terrace.
By that time your personal concierge, either Graham or Lorene – two of the nicest people in the solar system – will have arrived and asked you, "What would you like to do today?" Lorene was on vacation during our vacation, and figuring Graham knew more about what to do than we did, we let him be our guide. The first day we said we wanted to go for a run, and Graham suggested "Perhaps you'd like the redwood forest."
Turns out that not ten minutes from the lodge is the Whakarewarewa Forest, 14,000 acres of native and foreign flora that includes 15 acres of California redwoods. Wide, well-marked paths are laid out for walking, orienteering, mountain biking and horseback riding, but we spent an hour carving out our own paths and climbing to the top for views of Rotorua and surrounding lakes.
When we finished we found Graham waiting for us at the trailhead with another suggestion: "I thought we'd go to the spa."
That's how we ended up at Polynesian Spa, which is like all-you-can-eat sensuousness. For anywhere from $NZ 6 to $NZ40 you can spend as long as you wish in 26 mineral spring pools of varying temperatures and exclusivity. It was raining lightly when we went, and the chilled drizzle was the perfect complement to the 41-degree pool we lounged in that was set into the shore of Lake Rotorua.
Once refreshed, we were driven back to the lodge to prepare for the evening courses. After a return to the showers and a change of clothes we were served pre-dinner drinks and canapés at the bar, then, having been primed for what came next, we adjourned to the dining room.
Dinners, again prepared by Chef Robinson, are always a five-course affair served at the hour you decide. Our first night's supper was crab ravioli with bisque sauce, pipis and cucumber; angus beef salad with rocket, coriander chilli and sesame dressing; raspberry sorbet; confit of duck leg with spiced couscous, eggplant caviar and soy and ginger jus; and a dessert of carmelized lemon tart with poached pear and lemon syrup. Throughout, Graham served courses of New Zealand wines – not only the widely exported Cloudy Bays and Marlboroughs, but local varieties like the Otago and Gibson Bays, Coleraines and Triple Banks and Roaring Megs.
At the end of all that, we retired to the library for some post-prandial coffee, port, and reading. Once we were made happy – or perhaps that should be, even happier – Graham departed and left us in the charge of the night concierge, Murray, who would attend to any requests we might have at 3 a.m. Having made it upstairs to our turned-down bed and wall-mounted plasma television, we spent too much overnight time exploring late night channels and, well, sleep, to bother our overnight host.
That is life at Lake Okareka Lodge. Every single day. If you need to work – or just want to see what your friends might be doing in less interesting parts of the globe – the entire home is WiFi enabled, and there are two workstations, one in the master suite, one just outside, with lake views. Outside of that, swap the redwood forest and spa for the lodge's jet skis or sea kayaks on the lake one day, returning to shore to be greeted by a lunch of buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto and cherry tomatoes atop thick-cut rustica bread drizzled with vinaigrette. Swap that for a ride on the skyride gondola up to the tallest peak in the city, with a mad dash down the hill on a luge track (warning: hugely fun, with a huge chance of wiping out into the fern-lined hills). Swap that for a drive to an active volcano, or a trip to the Buried Village where you can tour the remains of the town buried under an volcanic eruption in 1896. Or don't go anywhere and have a workout in the lodge's fitness center, followed by a massage in the lodge's spa room and a quiet reading and sunning session in a nook on your half acre of private grounds.
Or another idea: swap dinner at the lodge for a trip to Te Puia, the Maori cultural center. No trip to New Zealand is complete without an exploration of indigenous Maori culture, and Te Puia offers numerous engaging access points to begin the journey. You might visit during the day and tour the gallery exhibit or weaving and carving schools in the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. We went during the evening and got a guided tour courtesy of Patrick, the doyen and remarkably funny steward of Maori culture in Rotorua.
Maori have been in the area for 700 years, and the Whakarewarewa area is home to the Te Arawa people and the Pohutu Geyser. We attended an evening cultural performance which, after orientation, included a riveting series of ceremonial and martial rituals. Of course the Kapa Haka is the star of the show since it has been gloriously exported by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team. Even so, the Wero, a challenge issued by a single warrior to a male chief is just as impressive in its distillation of group ferocity to one-on-one tension.
After the ceremonies came the Hākari, a traditional Maori meal prepared in the traditional way by cooking the food over using geothermal heat, then a walk through the valley to see the Pohutu Geyser in action, all of it explained in glorious, native detail. There isn't anything we didn't have a fabulous time doing in New Zealand, but Te Puia is not to be missed.
This was our third and last evening in New Zealand, and as the sky faded to black Graham came to retrieve us, and within 30 minutes we were sitting on the couch in our suite, water lapping upon the beach somewhere just below in the antipodean darkness, with a double cappuccino and a jar of biscotti a casual flick of the arm away.
That is Lake Okareka Lodge. Everything is attended to, all you must do is figure out how to have a better time than the day before – after you figure out if that's even possible.
We did venture into the two other suites, the Rotorua Suite down a half-flight of steps, and the Garden Suite on the ground floor. They are each a healthy 731 square feet and boast much the same amenities as the main Lake Okareka suite on a smaller scale: sitting areas, walk-in closets, Sonos music systems, lake views. All of which is to say, your guests will not complain.
Lake Okareka Lodge by lebua is where you go when you want the stupendous best in a getaway. We know these are big words, and we stand by every one – we've done the worldwide luxury tour-of-duty and we know when we've found a thing that sets standards. This is one of those exceedingly few places.
And that's why you might not consider it cheap at $NZ 5,000 per night plus tax ($3,455 U.S. at the time of writing). But that includes everything: three meals a day, drinks and hors d'oeuvres, the private chef, the concierges, the jet skis and kayaks and motor boat. Oh, and the sheer gloriousness of the place. And let's face it, there are hotel suites in town that cost multiples of that and don't come close to offering as much or being as rewarding.
Give it a try when you want to visit the place where the word "magical" goes to remind itself what it really stands for. Who knows, while you're there you might find out the same about yourself...
via luxist.com
You ain't know this my cribe. Catch up niggas.
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