Mods on Scooters

Kind of like a motorized critical mass.

Great video! Glad to see someone cover the scooter culture in the raw!

S

So ridiculous to see young people be nostalgic for a temporary fad from another time/another country when they should be making the fads for a new generation based on new priniciples. As if mod-ness, scooters, and dancehall has anything to do with a LA citizen.

tylerhudd, wake up, wank, critical mass is about non-motorized transportation, a protest against vehicles like scooters.

awesome! I totally want a scooter. They should have one of these clubs in San Francisco for sure!

They did have a Vespa and Lambretta scooter club in SF back in the late 80s and early 90s. I see their gang every now and then.

Anyone see the 1979 British film Quadrophenia? It was an excellent film about early 60s British youth from the lower middle working classes that liked to dress up like the upper class and ride scooters. The rival gang is the Rockers - leather clad youth like Rebel Without A Cause who rode motorcycles and fought with the Mods.

Looks like a fun thing for the teen to twenty something crowd - some of the Swing or Gatsby crowd in this stylistic group.

Mods are more of a metropolitan group - think London, Paris, NYC, and SF. The beat generation in Greenwich Village or North Beach would be considered mod. And scooters - definitely a dense city mode of transportation - LA is way too spread out and lacks the density.

A mod culture spawns from an urban setting - dense neighborhoods intersected by streets and avenues with excellent public transportation. It requires an urban culture which is both more diverse and connected - literary cafes, parlors, universities, literary houses, etc. This is not the physical or mental landscape of LA. LA does not have the physical setting to spawn intellectual movements that go beyond fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment.

This scooter club is a great example of LA creating a lifestyle 'fashion' first versus the substance first output of the urban culture: beatniks, Algonquin Round Table, or the impoverished Bohemian lifestyle - these movements developed an identity later - making them substance first and identity secondary.

SF Area Scooter Gangs:

http://www.secretsociety.org/main.html
http://www.vespa.org/vcsf.htm
http://www.vespa.org/rkings.htm
http://sfscootergirls.com/

This is true that the principals behind critical mass is a protest against motorized vehicles, but the common interest they both have is that they bring people together for a common interest in a different source of transportation and having fun besides the daily life of four wheeled transpiration that is very common among the LA citizen. Speaking of fads/principals everything is reused and recycled in one way or another. Do what you like and enjoy it. Have fun life is to short.

Rawbird since you are into the new generation based on new principles. Maybe you like to express what you have done to contribute behind these ideas?

vespaet4 writes:
"This is true that the principals behind critical mass is a protest against motorized vehicles, but the common interest they both have is that they bring people together for a common interest in a different source of transportation and having fun besides the daily life of four wheeled transpiration that is very common among the LA citizen. Speaking of fads/principals everything is reused and recycled in one way or another. Do what you like and enjoy it. Have fun life is to short.

Rawbird since you are into the new generation based on new principles. Maybe you like to express what you have done to contribute behind these ideas?"

So you are saying scooter groups are to critical mass as Hummer groups are to pedicabs, rickshaws, or quadracycles? Both are groups that share a lot in common and gather together for social activities.

Hummer (Gas/road hogging vehicle) groups to peda cabs (three wheeled bike)? What are you talking about? It's all about getting together with diferent people who have one common interest and having fun. This video share some insight as to what the group is all about and does a great job of it.

Learn more about critical mass
http://current.com/items/76342462_critical_mass

Many people in this generation have not learned the problem of noise pollution. Thanks to the Reagan Administration. These vehicles makes a lot of noise and fossil fuel pollution. Now put them together and you have a serious annoying urban pollution chaos. Noise + Gas. You have your right to get together, drink your beer and stay stationary and give an example to everyone in the City. Ha, one more point, avoid the hills as you have a tendency to double your pollution there. Be a kid or a grow up, but be responsible.

I just bought teal 1960's Vespa today. Right after I saw this pod. I am so excited!

Arthur Allblack here representing the Westside, so if you happen to have sensitive feelings or cannot take another person's criticism without sounding petty then you should stop reading this.

First off, Rawbird, If you happen to take a look at all modern cultures you'll find that they're nothing more than a assimilation and conglomeration of past cultures and subcultures. Also, there's something to say about conventional wisdom; everything's been seen done and heard. In this modern day and age it's pretty difficult to invent a new subculture because it'll be nothing more than past culture reinvented with a new name attached to it. Take Dada for instance, after Dada came Surrealism, Surrealism becomes Pop Culture, and some aspects of Dada are clearly seen from the first wave of New York hipsters and British art school kids to create punk rock.

Secondly, the fact that you want to add in dancehall along with mod cultures just shows how clueless and narrow-mided you are about subcultures. Mods are a youth culture that soon evolved into skinheads, so most people in said cultures would only adhere to Ska, Rocksteady, and Skinhead Reggae.

Now about your opinion about L.A., is this information that you've aquired on a trip here or is this basically a biased opinion that's been formulated by you through stuff that you've seen in the media. I'm a born and raised Angelino, and though this town is filled with peopl who are very shallow and superficial, this town is also very rich in culture and is one of many mandatory stops for bands around the world. The Who and The Jam along with Oasis passed through here, making their place in the music world and sparking the fire that become the L.A. mod scene. Only L.A. New York and San Francisco can claim credit to the fact that the U.S. mod subculture touched down in these cities first.

Now to you Mr. SanFrancisco: Granted that Frisco(yeah, I said "Frisco" fool!) has a great scene for scooters hardly does it make a subculture, neither does watching Quadrophenia and buying a parka from the surplus store. Many members from Westside SC are barely in the scene yet they come out whenever there's a ride to support the scene and it's scootering community, to say that Angelino Mods value style over substance makes you just as ignorant as that Rawbird twit. I consider myself to be part of the mod scene, but I never found it to be manditory to walk around wearing a form-fitting suit and skinny tie all the time. Dressing up only comes with going out on the town, and since L.A. is one of the fashion capitols of the world, finding a good sharkskin suit in a thrift store is easy pickins.

And Stopnoise, why don't you contribute to ending noise pollution by shutting the fuck up. It's obvious that you are very eco-friendly, but you are crossing the line into eco-fascism. You have no right to tell people what they should be riding as their more of transportation as mush as I have the right to tell you to shut the fuck up, But since I am an American with the right to free speech, I think I'll say it again:SHUT THE FUCK UP! OO, LOOK, I'M WRITING IN ALL CAPS! IT'S NOISE POLLUTION ON THE INTERNET, SOMEBODY STOP ME! If it's too loud, you're too old. Besides, Vespas and Lambrettas are nothing more than art you can ride on. And there are ways to put in a new engine that causes less smog than the original two-stroke.

Alright then Mr. Stopnoise, you've proven that you're pretty much a condecending bastard. Do you honestly think that coming down on a scooter club is gonna stop global warming? If you can link me to a website debuting an engine that emits zero pollution and is small enough to fit in a Lambretta then I'll consider it. But the problem I have with you is the fact that you're just as bad as Christians forcing religion down everyone's throat. Sure the planet's in peril and all that shit, but it's not gonna stop people in the scooter scene from parking their low emission and hybrid cars(which I know a few people in the Westside actually own) and busting out that ever so rare 60s Italian scooter and their best threads for a night out on the town. I'm down for saving the enviroment, but I'm not gonna do it from the standpoint of someone as obnoxious as you are. I don't care about your Captain Planet Ideals because I have my own, and to demonize me and people in my scene only shows how closed-minded you are of things other than your enviromentalism and the fact that you have absolutely no clue on how it's like in the Mod and scooter subculture. Do you even have a social life?

You can carry on trying to sound like the dialouge from Frasier all you like, but to call me a "little baby" or whatever just shows how petty you are and the fact that you're no different than I am only because you choose not to use swear words like I do. Sure I could've taken the high road and come back at you using big words, but I think "pretentious" is enough to say about you. I honestly can't believe you're attacking people who ride scooters, why aren't you going after people who drive in Hummers and Escalades? Why don't you go after lowrider clubs? There are way many more vehicle clubs that pose a bigger threat than every scooter club in California combined. You didn't prove a point to me at all, and if you really want to go back and forth like this with me then that only proves how big of a loser you really are and I highly suggest that if you don't like all the pollution that people make in the city then move to someplace in the alps and watch us all choke on the fumes. So, as I said before, please, SHUT THE FUCK UP!

"I'd rather stay a child and keep my self-respect if being an adult means being like you."
-Dead Kennedys

I swear, if this stopnoise asshole carries on, then he's really trying hard to make himself look impressive over me and it's proof that he really is some lameass with nothing else to do but pursue aguements with people he don't know online. What a fuckin loser. I officially stopped caring. I thought we were supposed to talk about mods and scooters and not whatever this hippy is on about.

"Arthur_Allblack," You are sooo confused about life and living in society in a respectful manner and frankly, you are just helping me out with your rant and public demonstration. Sure you're so eloquent and I am not going here into a totally detailing about your social confusion; because I want others that can see and understand it; to see it by themselves. You are even "agnostically funny" in some many ways because your are implying I am forcing things into you when in reality it is your (civil duty) to make society works in a lawful and peaceful way.

You sure can demonstrate to be somewhat satirical funny with your social confusion, but in reality this it is not funny. All over America people are getting hurt because of your ignorance.

We need something better than this for America Today guy!

We do not have much time to play our own public ignorance and social confusion anymore. There is no excuses for that anymore "Arthur_Allblack."

You do have the obligation to know better than this. In addition, I think I said before that your own language do demonstrate which kind of personality you are-- very abusive with your own self and with others.

You also have the same problem I mentioned here in other posts. There is a part of America that does not know the limits of issues and how to stop.
The fact of the matter it is that some people really does not know how to Stop. It must be that "rhetoric addition syndrome" blinding people everywhere.

In regards to what I said to you before in the previous post; in attempt to help you out; you are finished, zapped, gone, you're done guy!

You should had stopped talking after the last post. What I mean is that you already lost the cause. - Therefore why keep dragging your "confused ghost" and exposing more ignorance to all of us?

"Hey guys check that out, it is a "dead's man ghost" talking!

"Arthur_Allblack," Stop!

By the way I like "Dancing Night Clubs." They are so cool and it is fun to be there listening to music, meeting other people and dancing. That is one of my passions in life and I Thank to G-O-D for giving the honor to run one.
I know I am not perfect but I will sincerely try to do my best. I am not able to take all of the physical functions of it but I do understand about all the ethical social values to run it. Everything has its place, meanings and values. The issue today is how can we run an institution by understanding the spiritual, mental and ethical values of it so we can keep rolling it in a healthy and greener mode?

So last we fall to the other side and be ruled by social irresponsibility.
Then it will be our own fall. We all going to be disintegrated if we continue to follow the wrongs and creators of social chaos

--and then I can step up and tell you:

Hey, "You did it all by yourself! No one help you to jump into the "dead hole" of toxic energy and pollution. You did it! Now go there and be a men or woman and take the responsibility to clean that up with no excuses!

I want that back to me green!

Who the hell is stopnoise?

You seem to have major issues you need to take to another forum like here:

http://current.com/items/89050147_stop_the_noise

This pod is not about noise pollution, it's about scooter clubs. It's about the wide variety of people that come together to celebrate a common love.

This is forum for people to share their love for scooters and scooter culture, not a place for one man to launch his tirade on scooters.

Please, bring the love and squash the politics.

"There is a part of America that does not know the limits of issues and how to stop.
The fact of the matter it is that some people really does not know how to Stop. It must be that "rhetoric addition syndrome" blinding people everywhere. "

Stopnoise is a hypocrite. He just carries on like this because he likes to hear himself talk, or comment more likely. Seriously, just ignore the guy. He started to sound like one of those adults from the Peanuts cartoons to me a long time ago. Just let him ride away on his high horse which emits methane gas and horseshit which really abuses my enviroment. Just watch, he's gonna say some more bullshit that no one cares about. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, Now!

Arthur_Allblack, You are in Cyber Court!

- Would you care to present some evidences of that?

Here is my part of the evidences of one of these polluted joy rides!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjZEzvJNyYw

Important, read this first before going through the link: - For optimal results. Mute the sound of " Mods on Scooters" so you can hear and visualize the acoustic and air pollution they make.

Stopnoise, you are a cyber cunt!

Would you care to present some evidence of that?

No, wait a minute, you already did.

I'm gonna shut up forever now, I only wish you did the same.

There is a difference between reality and the PR fantasy of advertising. This game of illusion and showing polluted vehicles as not so harmful can definitely be capture by this post if you have an eye to see it. But do not worry, many individuals in this Country are eluded by trends of fashion. I just hope America wake up and start to preach the human rights that our Country Constitution lay out to all of us. I hope they come up with a scooter that is quiet and does not emit pollution. Then I'll be happy to drive one around town.