This week in Review: The CAMPI Motorshow 2008

Just last Sunday, my dad and I went to the CAMPI Motorshow. My motorsport fanaticism got the best of me this time, looking at all the great cars, unable to resist the allure of those smooth, curvy, oh so well proportioned... Sorry, lost my train of thought there for a moment. Anyway, it was great! There was a notable abscence of one manufacturer though, Mercedes Benz. The luxury car giant isn't a part of the CAMPI, so you could imagine the dissapointment of me, a Lewis Hamilton fan, over the abscence of a true automotive giant. There were cars that made up for it though:

Oh baby, where have you been all my life?

V8? Oh baby!

That, my friends, is an Audi R8. Truly, mind-blowingly, beautiful.

And don't forget one of the sport car greats:

You're beautiful, You're beautiful, It's true

Yes, it's turbo, I checked

Porsche Carrera 911 Turbo, the ultimate version of the ultimate sports car.

One more for the road? Why not?

The 335i Coupé

The tires are barely painted on those 20's

Ah yes, the BMW 335i Coupé, literally baby steps away from an M3

In the Midst of all this madness, I remembered something, this show actually had a theme! That's right, this year's motorshow was supposed to be about clean, fuel eficient, green cars. Green cars?! Yeah green, GREEN WITH ENVY! There were a few stuff like Kia's new fuel cell system diagram thingy but it didn't spark my interest enough to take a picture of it.

Heading to the extension of the building, I found what I oh so longed for:

Support your team! Go Lewis!

Benz! Benz! Benz! Sure they weren't the latest models, but it's still a Benz nonetheless.

It's kinda sad to say that another car manufacturer has been infected by the plague:

The Badge! It screams!!!

I can only hold the badge and hide the pain under my smile. Volvo, why can't you hear my plea?

Well, anyways, in summary the show was good! Can't wait for the next one. It didn't really keep with the theme that much but who really cares? All we need is a few models and a few exotics (exotic cars, that is) and you have a great show on your hands.

Death Magnetic

Metallica, you used to be one of the biggest thrash metal bands in the world, your blazing fast riffs made us rock out and headbang until we developed a severe case of whiplash. Yes, those were the days (I'm only 16 and I've only gotten into Metallica about 2 years ago, but who cares).

Kill Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice for All were your absolute classics, the sound we have come to associate with Metallica to this day. Then came the Black Album, and Bob Rock. I really liked the Black Album and it marked a change in style from your usually adrenaline driven, rapid paced songs, but it was all right I mean, it is your best selling album and that's where Enter Sandman came from. Then came Load, it was really... Should I say "meh". Overall, a sub par effort. I really dislike Load, only coming before St. Anger, we'll talk about that later.

And then, OH NOES!, Reload???, RELOAD? Who the hell names their albums twice? After this album, fans who recognized them from the 80's and NOT the Black Album had been thinking that by this time, Metallica were past their prime and completely abandoned their roots, accusing them of selling out. The Unforgiven II and Fuel are the only songs I really like from this record.

And then again, Napster. If you don't know, Napster was like Limewire. Now I think you get it. Metallica sued them in 2000 after they found out one of their songs have been circulating before it was released. In that very minute that they announced their lawsuit, from thrash metal kings, they quickly became a laughingstock of the musical community. A band that was wealthy beyond belief sued a company because people were getting their music for free and therefore, Metallica wouldn't get any royalties. Now, fans believe Metallica, at this point, to not just be past their prime, but selfish money-hugging bastards as well.

I don't even know if I want to talk about this last one, but I will. St... Fucking... Anger. St. Anger was Metallica's eighth studio album and the first album they released in the 2000's, a long time from 1997's Reload. St. Anger is positively the absolute worst album Metallica has released. There was an abscence of guitar solos, which is almost a Cardinal Sin in Metal. The snare sounded like Lars was pounding on trash cans. Finally, gone is James Hetfield's throaty voice that he once used in earlier albums. A quote from Bob Rock about the album states he wants the atmospehere of "a band jamming together in a garage for the first time, and the band just happened to be Metallica". That was just WRONG. Thanks Bob Rock, I think you killed Metallica.

Obviously, I have my doubts about Death Magnetic, will it be good? Bad? Meh? One good thing is that they hired a new producer (YESH!) and that producer just happened to be Rick Rubin, the guy who fucking produced Reign in Blood. To get the complete list, click here.

So here's to Metallica! I hope you make a good successor to St. Anger. PLEASE make a good successor to St. Anger.

Screaming Badges

First off, I would like to dedicate this article to my Dad, while we spent hours gazing at cars, he pointed this out.

Screaming Badges, what are they you ask? Is it a badger that screams when you get close to it? Is it another (gasp) UWE BOLL MOVIE?! Thankfully, it's neither, especially the latter. I'm talking about the badges on cars you know, one of these things:
So now you hopefully know what I'm talking about.

I am a huge car and motorsports fanatic. I've loved cars for as long as I can remember. Cars in the 90's, when I was born, looked pretty good, sensual, practical, more rounded edges, but something has gone awry in recent years, a current trend in automobile designing where they inflate their badges so that you can see them from a mile away.

Seriously, the camera seems to be a good twenty or so feet from the car, look at that! It kinda spoils the look for me.

More examples:

Hello sir, I am a Toyota.

DO YOU NOT SEE THAT I AM A TOYOTA, BLIND MAN?!

I am a nostalgic person, I love classic cars. Fastback Muscle cars of the 60's and 70's had an underrated look to it. You wouldn't know that that car is gonna smoke your ass when you floor the gas pedal.

Under the hood, 400 horses of pure power.

Hopefully, designers will see the light! We don't want to know your car when it appears over the horizon. There used to be a certain charm when you got surprised with the car you just saw, now however, these cars are shaking their J-Lo asses around screaming, "I'M A BENZ, I'M A BENZ, SUCK MY DIIICK, I'M A BENZ!"

Yesh!

Midterms are finally over! I can finally get to write something!

Midterm blues.

Dammit! Midterms are gonna be this week, I don't think I'll be updating much this week, In the meantime, I give you more funny pictures: