Queen & Highlander

Christopher Lambert was pretty good in this movie.
"I was born in 1518 in Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel. I am immortal. I cannot die." Connor MacLeod.

Sean Connery definately makes a hmmm "UN?" forgettable entranceWho?
I believe it was ... "Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez Chief Metalurgist to Chief Metallurgist to King Charles V of Spain"

The Kurgen is a champ. "Hi, I'm Candy." "Of course you are!"

Queen, Freddy and Brian MAY(Guitar Legend) Princes of the Universe kind of explains everything. . Who want's to live forever is probably the biggest hit.but I think every song on this movie's soundtrack was a kit of which Queen were a major part.

There were sequels but of course they were crap!

There can be only one!

Speed Racer

Watch the Speed Racer Trailer first and forget the actors, look at the scenery.

This movie is good on sooooooo many levels.

The whole design element is amazing and the green screen involvement is HUGE! The backgrounds for each scene are generated from realworld and fake environments in a mash of tech and life.

It takes My Drift hop idea and actually evolves to a virtual reality.

While some of the acting takes a bit to get used to.... bear with it and enjoy the other stuff.

It takes the original repetitive animations to a whole new level.

Drift Hop

I first saw this FD Rx7 fitted with hydraulics in 2003 at Big X in Ebisu circuit. Very cool.


Recently I have been thinking.

Everyone loves the Xand Y drift angle you get at Nikko's last corner.

And the smoke from 600+ horsepower drifting.

These hydraulic beasts are off the charts.

And when they fly it's awesome.

So who's going to be the first to start the drift hop scene! come on go for it.

You know it's just a transition phase.... wait for the next post....

Russ.

Maker's Mark

I love a smooth bourbon.

It all started at university (OZ drinking age is 18) when a nightclub on the gold coast used to have a Bourbon Club. $1 Bourbon and coke all night. Admittedly they were very weak and cheap ass, but $20 or more later there was no doubting the effect.

I was hooked. A few years later I stubled accross Maker's mark. Pricey in OZ at about $50 a bottle. It is worth the extra.

But these days it seems marketing is going a bit crazy...

Ill have some bourbon coffee in the morning, play a round of golf with my Maker's putter and then eat some bourbon chocolate, smoke a bourbon cigar, use my pc with bourbon mouse pad etc etc etc

Forget that junk, just drink!

Russ.

U2 3d

While on the topic of U2

I should post this. 3D movie. If you get a chance... see this.

One of the best movie experiences. the 3d tech in this was pretty darn awesome.!

I was screaming in the theatre.

Only 4 other people in the theatre. Great!

Russ.

U2 Beautiful Day

I am a pretty huge U2 fan. I must have sung this almost every time I go to Karaoke in Japan.

Sit back and enjoy. I don't know if this lyric is true however...
"What you don't have, you don't need it now"
Some things I don't have I NEEEEEED!

Russ.

ps, by the time this blog is finished, I'll probably have posted the whole U2 collection.

Tarmac Rallies in 1995

In 1995 I was really into Rally. Sainz, Makinen, Auriol, McRae and others. I was dreaming of a thumping rally car. All my friends were into rally and I had some friends that were good drivers. I had upgraded from thrashing my Dato and Celica in the forests of Canberra. But the hunger led me to a 4wd purchase.

Around this time the tarmac rally cars were pretty close to the road going counterparts looks wise. Dumped on (huge at the time) 17inch rims, they looked amazing with some having more aero than others.

Corsica saw the debut of the Evo III. WOW!
Part 1
Part 2

I absolutely WANTED a JDM spec Evo III. But in Australia we only had the 1.8 GSR.

After many test drives there was No match to the WRX out of the box and the new ST205 Celica was $75K! and untouchable.

So there it was, a WHITE 1994 WRX sedan. Power, Grip Grip Grip and then some. Too fast for the street really especially after tuning. It was an animal.

These for me were the highlight of Rally. Road going cars turned into race cars then lots of tech returned to the end user.

Cataluña was refinement

Part 1
Part 2

Tansvision Vamp - I wan't your love.

I was in the supermarket today and I heard and midi instrumental version of this song. Wow the university memories came flooding back.

Wendy James from Transvision Vamp is HOT. that's all I need to say. The song was a bit of an anthem in Australia.

Video Here

Russ.

BMW M1

I loved the M1 when I was about 8 years old. Had a big poster in my room. The PROCAR races were awesome! Built for Motorsport and then turned into a roadcar. That's how it should be.

They were pretty popular in Australia because the F1 drivers could race them at grand prix events and Aussie Alan Jones often got a ride.

I remember the BASF designs when I started racing RC cars M1 polycarbonate body was the best. basic three stripe design was also cool but over a couple of years there were so many designs and liveries.

I like the twin badges on the rear too. Any Warhol painted one that was raced at lemans.

Youtube BBC, Beastly engine note, Some racing.

This slot car link has some amazing history of Group5 cars where some of the procar M1s eventually continued racing.

Another one for the dream garage

Russ.

Van Halen

Eddie... what a legend. Alex... Legend. David Lee Roth... Legend! Sammy Hagar... Legend, Michael Anthony... Legend. Gary Cherone ... Semi-Legend. These days Wolfgang is playing in the group.

I only managed to see VH in Australia on the Van Halen III tour. It was the first time they had toured there.

Hot For Teacher intro.... THE best start to a song ..... EVER, I think alex was rockin 4 bass drums in his setup those days! Pitty the video ain't so great.

Eruption... If you can play this, you are pretty good. it's a guitar learners benchmark.
Have seen many stuff this up.
BTW. I can't play it all. Just parts.

Soooo many highlights for me. I could almost list all the albums and singles. But I guess the 1984~5150 years are those that most remember.

I think that 5150 and dreams kind of took things to another level too. The Blue Angels video was pretty cool too.

"Edward Van Halen's 1984 and 5150 guitars are one of the most recognizable guitars in rock history. Ed assembled the guitars himself at the Kramer factory, and even painted it himself with Krylon "rattle-can" paint. The guitars consisted of an original Floyd Rose tremolo, one humbucker, and a single volume knob. A very simple guitar, for a very simple sound that is truly amazing." from ultimate guitar.com and I agree.

These Franenkramer guitars feature the EVH designs that these days Eddie has turned into a mini industry. You can also get some Frankenstein theme sneakers these days from the EVH site.

Some fan chopped this Diabolo. I think Eddie had a Miura with a special Wide body. It's rumoured to be revving in the song Panama!

Russ.

Lindt

Why is something so sweet so bad for you. I could eat about 5000000000 of these white chocolate balls. The ultimate experience for any white chocoholic. the smooth centre melts like nothing else.

Russ.

Jamiroquai - Cosmic Girl

When you see this logo, obviously ferrari comes to mind. The cover of Jamiroquai's "Travelling without Moving" CD release looks like a ferrari engine cover.

I think the first time I saw the Cosmic Girl film clip I was like --- COOOL! Production company + Diabolo + F40 + F355 + driving pretty hard.

Jay owns some pretty cool cars. Below is Jay's Lambo. It didn't fair too well on a london day.

Some of the tracks on this album, probably indicate some form of halucinagenic drug at work. Lots of Jamaican reggae and digital sounds with didgereedoo and ethnic influence, but it works.

But I guess the main memory I have from this album is that, its a favourite of a friend, he would always have it on the CD player as we did some Wangan or C1.

Russ.

Back to the Future

Back to the future... on its release held so many cool things for me. The interesting (but as we all know impossible) issue of time travel raised some cool questions about possible realities.

A huge Guitar amp that blows you across the room. Turn it up.

M.J. Fox aka Calvin Klein. did a reasonable job.

And there was that crazy looking delorean. 1.21jigawatts!!!!.

and of course ... Lea Thompson. (I'd probably answer her name to the fave all time actress question.)

When you look back now Promotional trailers were very very lame.

Rent it... go on.

Russ.

Play Station

Here is my Play Station driving station. I bought the Logitec PS2 wheel a long time ago with my Blue transparent playstation 2 (Skeleton) .

I used to play GT4 and Battle gear all the time, so this setup was ideal.

I designed it to slide up to my couch. I would sit down. then pull the table towards me therefore creating a cockpit.

Made from MDF, the table height and pedal positions were fully adjustable with wing nuts. And I had a place for all those JDM stickers.

It's now gone to the jusnk yard, but it was fun for ages. These days 32" screen is rediculously small.

Russ.