The first time I saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a in movie called Brick: a weird homage to film noir set in a modern day high school.
Instead of a private detective, Gordon-Levitt’s character is a high school student investigating the disappearance of his girlfriend into the underworld of stoners. Instead of a corrupt district attorney, there is an assistant principal, and so on. Imagine a 16-year-old Sam Spade in a present-day California suburb.
After seeing that film, I thought I’d keep my eye on Gordon Levitt. That didn’t last long. His films turned out to be hit-or-miss according to my tastes — not a sure thing.
When I saw the trailer for Premium Rush, I felt justified losing interest in his career, because it looked to me like it would be a portrayal of city cycling as a dangerous undertaking, for high-risk-taking adrenalin junkies only. (Was I wrong? I still haven’t seen it.)
Yet, it was Gordon-Levitt who sort of represented cycling on the red carpet at the 2013 Oscars.
No, he didn’t arrive to the ceremony by bike. But he showed off his cycling socks. The socks reportedly have bikes on them.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is wearing socks with bikes on them! Are fun socks a good way for guys to bring a little flare to an outfit? #oscars
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsBayArea) February 25, 2013
I was tipped off by Richard Masoner that Gordon-Levitt had shown some bike ankle. (You do read Cyclelicio.us, don’t you?)
This morning I dove into the depths of depravity that are Oscar red carpet videos until I found the animated GIF image above.
It’s almost enough to get me to follow his career again.
Almost.
And because I’ve learned that nothing is more important than analyzing what entertainers wear, I’ve done a detailed analysis of that sock — zooming in and enhancing the image with the latest modern digital forensic tools.
In case it’s not totally obvious, I faked those photos — except for the original one at the very top. Plus the fact that we don’t sell socks with our logo.
But I did not make up the report about the bike socks. And in my research today, I discovered that Gordon-Levitt kind of has a sock thing — actually a reputation for wearing mismatched socks. These are things you know if you are a 15-year-old girl.
Perhaps the folks over at BikeCommmuters.com might send a pair from their dwindling supply of socks.
I will post more information as this momentous story unfolds.