Exposed: Through the lens of Bryan Adams

Amy Winehouse, Mick Jagger, Mickey Rourke… if you want to see the heroes of rock ’n’ roll and the silver screen up close, you need the right name. Bryan Adams, for example (yes, THAT Bryan Adams). 

Not only is the man a great musician, but a great photographer too, and there’s nothing quite as useful as personal fame when it comes to recording the intimate lives of the stars – a subject which has always fascinated the masses. What better way to capture images of publicity-shy superheroes than to be a participant as well as a photographer? Bryan Adams is by no means the first musician to experiment with the visual arts: Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Bryan Ferry are among those who did likewise.



Talking about the beginnings of his passion for photography, Adams explains that his inspiration, in the mid-Seventies, were concert photos of the Beach Boys, a friend in the bathroom, his mother, his piano – “just casual things” that were all around him. Later, the things around him became celebrities such as Amy Winehouse, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Ben Kingsley, Mickey Rourke and Victoria Beckham. Adams was even chosen in 2002 to photograph Queen Elizabeth II.

To Adams, it is important not to fall into a routine. “I believe that if you do the same thing every day again and again, you get tired of it. If the scenery changes now and again it’s good for everything you do – you see things in a fresh light.” Some 150 photographs are on display in the exhibition titled ‘Bryan Adams – Exposed’, at the NRW-Forum in Dusseldorf from 2 February 2013.

Further Information Further information regarding the Bryan Adams – Exposed exhibition at the NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf can be found at www.nrw-forum.de. Text: Jan Baedeker

Photos: Bryan Adams
from classicdriver.com

great war coloriage

fom pilllpat (agence eureka)

Ménage à beef:Rib-eye Three Ways

There’s more than one way to skin a cat, the saying goes. The same is true for cooking a steak. Most of the time the way we cook at home is dictated by circumstance: grill when the weather permits; pan fry if it doesn’t (or if we live in an apartment); broil, uh, when the oven’s looking appealing; and cook sous-vide during wet dreams.

The cooking medium plays an important role in the end product: the texture, the way it tastes and the ease with which it arrives at the desired done-ness. So while weather and your kitchen gear may often dictate your dinner plans, it’s a good idea to know your cooking options — remember, you are the master of your own beefy destiny.

With the GP crew assembled and hungry, we cooked three ribeyes available from Heritage Foods USA — two Wagyu steaks (Akaushi-Angus cross) and one from a White Oak Pastures grass-fed Angus cow — to see how three different methods stacked up.

A Month of Beef three-way, after the jump.

Rib-eye is a well-marbled steak, cut from the center of the rib roast that sits on top of the rib primal. With Wagyu the marbling is even more pronounced. Because it has such great fat content, our goal was to cook it to medium-rare, further along the done-ness scale than we might cook a super lean strip steak or tenderloin. The idea is to melt down the fat, which won’t happen if the steak is still cool in the middle.

Beef science lesson of the day: fat is also less conductive than muscle fibers. This means that the steak will cook marginally slower than a very lean cut and give us a little more room for error. However, the internal temperature of any steak moves quickly over fire, so in all cases we’d prefer to undercook and return to heat if needed (a wise lesson), rather than overcooking and returning to the table with piece of meat resembling charcoal.

Grilled

The ideal steak will be brown and crispy on the outside, pink and juicy on the inside. We grilled the steak over an open gas flame, which is hot enough to brown the meat (also called the Maillard reaction) very quickly. The point here is to develop a char and not, as is dubiously claimed, to seal in the juices. The browning reaction gives the nutty, savory, earthy and complex flavors that we identify with a classically great steak. After searing the steak on both sides, we moved it away from the direct flame and closed the grill. This second step is key to giving yourself a longer window in which to hit the medium-rare mark. Cooking the steak over high heat the entire time it’s on the grill can result in an overcooked outside and undercooked inside.

Note: Some cooks will suggest reversing the order of the two-step process, which is to say cooking the steak over low heat first and then searing at the end. The logic is that the steak is already hot and will sear much more quickly. This is a good idea; but our concern is that it leaves no room for error. If the steak is near medium-rare by the time it hits a super hot flame, the likelihood of overcooking seems high.

Pros: Nice grill marks, smokey flavor, man credit, possibility of cigar smoking while cooking high.

Cons: Easy to overcook if you don’t observe the two-step process.

Broiled

Broiling is essentially reverse-grilling: cooking the steak in the oven on high heat, on a pan near the heat source at the top of the oven with the oven door ajar, and flipping half-way through cooking. In theory, this makes sense, but in practice it’s a little more difficult. We were able to achieve the desired level of doneness, but we didn’t get the char we had hoped for.

Pros: Simplest method to execute.

Cons: Hard to get desired char.

Cast Iron’d

Next to grilling, this was our favorite method for cooking a ribeye. The method is simple: heat a cast iron pan or griddle over high heat, add a thin layer of oil (it should smoke), sear steak on both sides. Like grilling, this is a two-step process. After flipping the steak, we put the whole pan in the oven set to 350 degrees. The bottom of the steak browns, plus the radiant heat of the oven gives us the ability to cook the steak evenly and more slowly than over a flame.
Pros: Nice crust, with a very rich flavor from cooking in its own fat. Two-step process helps prevent overcooking.

Cons: Smokey kitchen (and not in the good way, like the grill).

Thoughts on Done-ness

These methods are only as good as the cook employing them, and in the end, the most important thing about a steak is that it’s cooked to the desired level of done-ness. Some people use a meat thermometer, but the accuracy on a relatively thin cut of meat (as opposed to a roast) is questionable: it’s hard to match exactly where the thermometer is measuring to the center of the steak. A better method is to touch it, poke it and sniff it. Rare meat is said to feel like the muscle between thumb and forefinger then the fingers are stretched apart. Another way is to cut into it, which will leak some juices, but only locally. Remember: You can always throw a steak back on the grill — our pan-fried steak went back in the oven — but overdone is game over.

Steve McQueen's Husqvarna to be auctioned in Las Vegas

A 1970 Husqvarna 400 Cross owned by none other than ‘King of Cool’ Steve McQueen will cross the block in the New Year, with auction house Bonhams expecting it to fetch between 80,000 and 100,000 U.S. dollars. 

It might not be the famous steed he rode in Any Given Sunday, but we’re told it was personally owned by McQueen – and has “an exhaustive quantity of documents supporting its provenance and authenticity,” according to Bonhams. 

The motorcycle – which sports the same distinctive yellow plates as the one featured in the film – will line up alongside some noteworthy BMW racing bikes at Bonhams’ Las Vegas Motorcycle Auction held in Bally's Hotel & Casino on 10 January. 

Text: Joe Breeze

Photo: Bonhams

Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi to race at the Sic Supermoto Day

We’ve already mentioned the Sic Supermoto Day that will be hosted at the Sagittario circuit near Latina, Italy on December 2st and 2nd to raise funds for the Marco Simoncelli Foundation and the event will have an all star cast, including two former arch rivals like Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi who will be back on track against each for the first time since the Roman Emperor left MotoGP to star in World Superbikes and take two world titles.

The formula of the event will see a pair of riders formed by a specialist in Supermoto and one from MotoGP, Superbike or Motocross who will alternate in a 58 lap endurance race.

Besides Rossi and Biaggi, also partecipating will be Andrea Dovizioso, Mattia Pasini, Michele Pirro, Davide Giugliano, Andrea Iannone, Luca Scassa, Danilo Petrucci, Simone Corsi, Karel Abraham, Eddy La Marra, Lucas Pesek, Michele Fabrizio, Vittorio Iannuzzo, Luca Cadalora, Mauro Sanchini, Thierry Van Den Bosch, Adrien Chareyre, Ivan Lazzarini, Boris Chambon, Christian Ravaglia, Mauno Hermunen, Matt Winstanely just to name a few of the riders that have volunteered their time to help the Simoncelli Foundation.

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

MACAU GRAND PRIX: THE ART OF STREET RACING

I’ve been to a considerable amount of races all over the world, but nothing could have prepared me for the Macau Grand Prix.

The uniqueness of this street race comes from the nature of the course. To the locals it is known as Circuito da Guia. To put it lightly, this track is a little rough around the edges.

There are zero run-off areas. There are some escape routes at the end of the longer corners, but even those are very short.

It was especially a challenge for the drivers in all the series during the race starts. If you were in the front of the pack you would most likely not get into any real trouble through the opening two sweepers and the first big stop at the third corner.

Same for the rear of the pack. You probably had enough time to stop if there was an incident in front of you.

But if you were in the absolute middle of the pack there was a very high chance that there would be an incident going into the third corner and there would be just no way to escape it whatsoever.

After that it was pretty much ever driver for themselves. Since the track is very narrow it was mostly single-file racing.

Like any other race track, the fastest way was to cut the corners as much as possible while clipping mirrors and wheels.

In the World Touring Car Championship the cars are very evenly matched. In order to pull a faster time you really have to take risks and draft very closely to your opponents.

Passing really only happens at the Lisboa corner. It is a very tight corner after the longest straight on the entire course.

This is pretty much where all the major pile-ups happen. But this is also where the most exciting racing happens as well.

Check out Romain Dumas taking the fast line through this corner. I just love the way the GT3 Cup car looks.

Disabled cars get moved very quickly as there are huge cranes lining the entire length of the course.

It is the absolute fastest way to get a car out of the way. Sometimes the yellow flag is out for less than a minute as a crane is always ready to pick up its next customer.

This Civic was lifted to safety after having mechanical issues on the long straightaway. It’s a good thing this team opted for strong wheels.

It’s called Lisboa corner because it was located right in front of Hotel Lisboa. This was actually the new Grand Lisboa: just to the left of it was the original hotel.

The very next corner was one of the most beautiful on the entire 3.8 mile course.

It happens to go under an overpass, and on the inside of the corner are shops that were still open for business.

On the other side was a huge pink-colored police station. I just loved the way this area looked. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

There was quite a gap in the Armco, which provided for some interesting framing.

Most of the shops and restaurants surrounding the course were fairly empty, so the shop owners would come and hang out with us. I can’t think of a better way to spend an entire work day.

The sun came out only a few times the entire weekend. Most of the time it was overcast, but because of the density of the trees and buildings there were certain parts of the track that were lit much better than others. It made for some really beautiful shooting locations.

This corner is known as Moorish Hill and it was one of my favorites, because all the cars would crest this hill and make a sharp right turn just before hitting a convenience store located on the outside of the corner.

I swear the open-wheel cars were taking that corner so fast that they seemed like they would just launch and go airborne as soon as they crested the hill.

It is a bit off-camber as well, so many of the front-wheel drive cars got a little light at the rear.

Most of the cars exiting this corner got very close to the outside Armco, and in many cases they would lose their side mirrors at that very spot.

Then there is just a short straight into a section of the course that was permanently under a double-yellow flag. It is only seven meters wide and leads to a very tight hairpin corner that only has one line, so you couldn’t really pass if you wanted to anyways.

Because the course is so harsh on the cars the red flag came out nearly every session.

During the qualifying session for WTCC, Charles Ng was going for his fast lap when the red flag came out. The fast lap was scratched.

But luckily his teammate Franz Engstler did not get caught up, and he put a good enough time down to get into the second qualifying session. Charles will talk a bit more about his weekend in my interview with him.

It was nice because some of the hotels allowed the public on their roof to enjoy the race and some coffee as well. It gave me some great vantage points that I could never achieve at a normal road course.

It was actually interesting to see the difference in the line that the open-wheel cars take versus the touring cars, which barely have any aero at all.

It was most evident on the fastest corners on the course, which the open-wheel cars could take pretty much flat-out.

Whereas the touring cars really had to fight the steering wheel non-stop to keep the car from going into the wall.

But then again driving an open-wheel car on such a harsh course presents its own challenges.

For example, the touring cars were always bouncing off each other almost every corner.

They rub bumpers and tap doors like it’s normal.

The open-wheel guys always kept a safe distance from the car in front of them unless they were attempting a pass. With just a slight bit of contact they would be sent flying.

They also had to be very careful at Melco hairpin, which is one of the tightest corners in motorsport.

Many of the cars are modified specifically for this corner, otherwise they just wouldn’t have the turning radius to get around it.

Most of the closed-wheel guys did not have much of a problem, although Charles Ng told me he had to slip the clutch just a bit to kick the rear-end out in order to get around Melco in case he came in at a shallow angle.

There were just so many little intricacies about driving on a street course that I never knew about. On top of all of that there was the Motorcycle Grand Prix, which was just a whole new world to me. This was the first time I had ever shot professional motorcycle racing and I absolutely loved it. Although it was a very uneasy feeling shooting a Macau, as two competitors had died. On Thursday a Portuguese rider, Luis Carreira, had a terrible accident during qualifying for the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix and on Friday a Hong Kong racing driver, Phillip Yau, died at the hospital after having a freak accident in his touring car on the fastest corner of the course. He was competing in the Macau Touring Car Cup.

This was the 59th running of the Macau Grand Prix and it was very unfortunate that there were such terrible tragedies – but motorsport is inherently dangerous. In the end that is why we love it, that is why it is thrilling. But safety is the number one priority and every year the FIA approves this street course for racing.

Next year will mark the 60th anniversary and the city state of Macau has some interesting plans for the race. They are planning on making ittwo full weekends of back to back racing. I can only hope I will be there to experience such a massive gathering of racing and car culture.

Larry from speedhunters

larry@speedhunters.com