The Kickstarter Handbook: Real-Life Crowdfunding Success Stories

I highly recommend this new guide to Kickstarter to anyone who is contemplating or planning a Kickstarter fundraiser.... Read this book before you launch. It is a small volume filled with good practical advice and real-life examples of both successful and less-than-successful Kickstarter projects.

Author Don Steinberg begins with the basics of a Kickstarter campaign, such as what kinds of projects do and do not qualify, then segues into strategies for setting funding levels and reward structures, ideas for publicizing a campaign, and tips on how to plan ahead for the fulfillment stage. And as the title says, he provides real-life stories of successful Kickstarter campaigns and the people and ideas behind them.

Chapter 11 is one that the would-be, first-time Kickstarter will definitely want to study carefully: "Learning from Failure: Kickstarter misfires, redemptions, and second acts." Steinberg interviews several Kickstarters who initially failed, then retooled their ideas and eventually succeeded. In the chapter opening, he points out that the 2011 success rate on Kickstarter was 46%... that's truly phenomenal, but on the flip side, the majority of campaigns failed that year. Steinberg would be remiss if he didn't present the downside of the story... Experience is the best teacher, as Benjamin Franklin famously pointed out, so Steinberg has included Chapter 11 because it's best to learn from the experience of others.

Kickstarter is an amazing phenomena of the Internet age, a powerful tool with global reach, but it is not a magic money machine. Again, read this book before you launch a campaign, learn from it, and your odds of success will improve I believe.

Royal Enfield Musket V-Twin Update

Musket V-Twin Engine

We did a post some months back about Aniket Vardhan and his Musket V-Twin custom. Aniket has created a Royal Enfield V-twin engine by mating the top ends of two Bullet engines to a custom crankcase and flywheel assembly. He's made 700cc and 1000cc versions.

We just popped in at his website to see the latest news and found this pic of a fully-assembled engine, a beautiful piece of work.

Note that the link that we give to his website in our January blog post is no longer working... You can get to his website here.

2014 Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series Revealed

New Mercedes hits the market next summer

Just awesome. See more at the Popular Science blog post.

Coker Tire Company for Bobbers & Old Skool Bikes

Coker's Beck Diamond Tread

If you're building an old skool bike, like a bobber, a vintage reproduction, or a boardtracker, be sure to check out the vintage reproduction tires from Coker Tire Company. My favorites are the Beck Diamond Tread pictured here, and the classic Firestone Deluxe Champion.

'40 Ford Coupe Reproduction Body, Licensed by Ford

Ford has licensed Dennis Carpenter Ford Restoration Parts to build a steel body shell reproduction of the iconic, classic 1940 Ford coupe. Body packages are available in several degrees of completeness, with prices ranging from $11,900 to $15,000. Two firewall options are available for order, one configured for the original flathead V-8, the other for a modern V-8.

The Forty Ford, what a gorgeous classic. Click the link to Dennis Carpenter above to get the details.

Tip of the Hat to the MotorAuthority blog for this story.

Katee Sackhoff's Classified Moto KT600 Custom

Katee Sackhoff's KT600 from Classified Moto

This bike is yet another sterling example of why I love the work of John Ryland and his crew at Classified Moto in Richmond, Virginia. This Honda XL600-based bruiser was commissioned by actress and motorcycle enthusiast, Katee Sackhoff. Katee first came to wide public attention, of course, in the role of Starbuck in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica SyFy Channel show in 2004.

Indulging in a bit of wordplay, Classified Moto has dubbed this bike the "KT600."

Once again Ryland has displayed his talent for transforming a plain vanilla bike into a unique and awesome work of two-wheeled art... with performance, to boot.

Starbuck and Bike

Portland Mini Maker Faire, Pt. 3: Steampunk Creations of Chuck Dolence

Chuck Dolence at his Portland Mini Maker Faire Booth

Chuck Dolence displayed his a collection of his "Musanical" artworks at the Portland Mini Maker Faire. Chuck builds these intricately detailed metal sculptures from found mechanical objects and discarded musical instruments.

The "Cymbolic Explorer" 

Chuck is a devout Christian who sees his work as a "redemptive" activity that he likens to God's redemptive work on behalf of abused and discarded individuals. By analogy, Chuck takes these discarded things and makes something new and beautiful with them just as God can do with a broken human being.

See Chuck's website for his other works that he calls Cosmicanicals and Floranicals.

Arrinera Automotive's Hussarya, Polish Supercar

The Hussarya, a Polish Supercar

A team of visionary Polish automotive designers is making history in the former Communist country: For four years Poland has been home to a supercar company, Arrinera Automotive. Their first car, the Hussarya, is scheduled for production next year in Poland.

The Hussarya will be powered by a 6.2liter 8-cylinder engine pumping out a claimed 650HP. The steel chassis has been designed by legendary British car designer, Lee Noble. The body is carbon fiber. The high-power mill and lightweight chassis and body make for one quick machine:  60mph in 3.2seconds, with a claimed top speed of 210mph.

In an interesting safety twist, the Hussarya can be equipped with thermal imagers from Oregon's premiere IR imaging company, FLIR.

Autoblog has a nice post on the Hussarya. Check it out.

Looper, the Movie

Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Bruce Willis in Looper

I posted about the coming sci-fi flick Looper when the first teaser-trailer was released back in April. It opened last Friday, so I went to see it over the weekend and really liked it. The basic plot concept is that a man is sent back thirty years to the past in order to be executed by his younger self (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), but that goes awry when he recognizes his future self (played by Bruce Willis) and hesitates before pulling the trigger... his future self makes a run for it then, and havoc subsequently ensues.

The use of time travel in film and television plots usually rubs me the wrong way because I feel it tends to be a gimmick or deus ex machina sort-of copout that papers over the screenplay writer's lack of imagination. It seems that you inevitably end up with a plot that makes no sense. But in the case of Looper, writer-director Rian Johnson handled the time travel aspects beautifully. Indeed, they are central to the plot's premise.

If you are a sci-fi fan, definitely go see it. However, be forewarned that it is pretty violent, has some female nudity, and some truly horrifying moments.

I thought Gordon-Levitt was excellent in the lead role... I think this is really his movie, not Bruce Willis's. Watching the play of expressions over Gordon-Levitt's face, and his mannerisms, I got the impression that he went into the archives of the Eighties hit TV show, Moonlighting, to study the young Bruce Willis.

And by the way, if you are a film noir fan and have never seen the 2006 Rian Johnson film, Brick, definitely do rectify that. It's a very classic kind of noir story set in a SoCal high school, and also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a type of teen-aged Philip Marlowe trying to solve the mystery of his former girlfriend's murder.


   

Portland Mini Maker Faire, Pt. 2: Josh Tannenbaum

Josh Tannenbaum, Steampunk Fabricator

I have been a bit busy this past week and haven't done as much blogging about the Portland Mini Maker Faire as I was planning to do. So, here's a quick post with a pic from Steampunk artisan Josh Tannenbaum's booth. Josh and Karen Tannenbaum's Etsy store is here at Tannenbaum Fabrications.

Also check out their Tannenbaum Fabrications website. I like their tagline: "Fantastic Artifacts from the Future Past."

I will be following up with some more pics from his displays in another post. He had some very nicely designed and crafted work on display. More to come...