The Orbitsons & a Saturday afternoon Car-B-Q

This week my my buddy Sir Tim Duvalier called to solicit help from the ranks of his Ducati brethren. Tim was shooting a video for his band the Orbitsons and he wanted to incorporate a scene with a group of Ducati motorcycles. I joined Tim and Aaron to the shoot location, which was a muffler shop in a cracked out neighborhood on the east side of Detroit. Another five or so club members showed up on their bikes as well.

After some stock motorcycle footage, the big scene was to be all the bikes parked to the side while the band played. The muffler shop owner wheeled over a stripped out '79 caprice classic and proceeded to stuff it with newspapers and several gallons of gasoline. As the riders looked on, we all started to feel a little nervous about the proximity of the bikes to the car. Tim moved his bike out of the shot first, then everyone ran for their bike too and moved it as fast as they could before the car was lit. The one exception was a huge black guy who just happened to be rolling by on a purple Harley and decided to get in on the shot. As everyone wheeled their bikes away he was like, what's the problem man, it's not like the car is going to blow up or anything. It really appeared as if he had more experience with torching cars that anyone else there, including the guy who threw the flaming stick into the gas filled car.

A few seconds after we moved the bikes they torched the car and the band started playing and video cameras started rolling. About half way through the song, the Detroit city popo showed up, then shortly after the Detroit Fire Dept. They were good enough to let the band finish the song before extinguishing the car. The entire scene was very sketchy, but highly entertaining. I have to believe some sort of laws were broken, but I didn't stay around long enough to find out.

What struck me the funniest, was that with the one exception of the guy on the Harley, nobody seemed to have the least bit of interest in the blaring rock music or burning car as people drove by on Gratiot, or even walked right by the shop. People just seemed to take a casual glance at the flaming car and just kept on walking by, like it was an every day occurrence or something..

Big props to the band for playing on in the face of a burning car about ten feet from their face and police and firemen running around like the keystone cops right behind the burning car. Really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.