operation ground and pound (pt. 1)

I used to drive a little red (e30) bimmer. It was a blast to zip around in, but I had no misconceptions and understood that my dinky automobile wasn't built for speed. After cashing a check I'd recieved at school from a women's group in recognition of reading? or something I headed straight to the local car stereo shop and had twin 10" subwoofers and a shifty Magnavox (don't they make refrigerators?) amplifier installed. The installers maxed out the gains and set the low pass filter high to make it seem like the music was louder than it actually was, and two weeks after purchase my first system went up in smoke.

Several half-assed/backseat installs (left, circa 2004-2006) later and I figure I'm ready to start something that will look good (for once) while sounding like I have King Kongs in the trunk of my e39.

Caveats: Be careful when you mess around in the trunk/under the hood. If you're ever unsure, leave it to the pros - that's what they're there for. Always disconnect the battery ground cable before making any new power connections. Your car battery stores enough power to melt your belt buckle and the change in your pockets and liquefy your eyeballs and the fillings in your teeth. Respect it.

First is the prep and wiring: (1) Gut your trunk. Tap into your factory speaker wiring using a line out converter so you can keep your stock deck; tap a radio antenna wire and use that as your remote turn-on lead. Anticipate (more than) a little rattling and vibration and apply sound deadening - I used some leftover eDead and matted the rear speaker shelf. People that use power cables smaller than the ones I use to wire my speakers are trying to enjoy a delectable boba drink through a regular straw. (2) I ran 1/0 awg wire from the battery (fused within 6in. of the positive terminal) and distributed 4 awg to my amps. (3) If power cables are like veins within a persons body, then my trunk is a bloody mess. Turning the key in the ignition I swear I felt like a Witch Doctor Frankenstein and heard Igor's voice whisper in my ear: (4) it's alive.

the not-so long haul

I'd thought going back to San Diego would be like a dramatic In Your Atmosphere kind of deal for me, but it wasn't. The 2007 Raymond made that hundred-or-so mile trip in the dark; this year's model left about 2pm on a Saturday and loved every minute of the drive. I beat the storm and watched the clouds hang low in streaks of tangerine and magenta over the ocean through my right window. Out to the left, acres of yellow flowers moved in unison with the wind and contrasted against everything else in a picture that'd put your 1080p 120hZ HDTV to shame. Aside from the RV that overturned causing a multi-car pileup that blocked the right 4 lanes of the I5, traffic was nonexistent. On the way back, I watched the fog roll in from the ocean and reach like fat fingers across the freeway. It was good.

hap-py (-adjective): fifth gear with a wide open sunroof, the highs in my ears and the lows everywhere else.

This is what my day looks like.








This is what my heart looks like.



(stolen from Jon's blog)

bebes

crooks x castles made of sand

So I said enough with the online shopping and went to the Crooks store on Melrose this past weekend (having their address permanently stamped in my memory for the past couple months or so thanks to their LA flagship store ad campaign). The time and trouble it takes to get out to LA, find parking, and play frogger across six lanes of traffic - I'm hoping to finally pick up a t-shirt or hat or something in an actual brick-and-mortar store and meet the guys that run the place. I'd imagined golden floodlights and some harps in the background and racks of clothes and boxes of accessories.. the place was was like a midsized mausoleum hallway. Seems like their inventory was limited to the 3 hats, 10 different shirts (same designs and logos in purple/white/red/black) and few hoodies and jackets they had on display. They did however have the '8021' Chain C hat fully stocked at an inflated and exclusive $65 a pop. Talked to the snob behind the counter about some shirts we'd seen and you know where he told us to look? CrooksandCastles.com. Never again.

Oh, got home last night to find all my shit in a trashcan. Very nice.

Just heard Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovitch) is turning "Where the Wild Things Are" (Maurice Sendak's children's classic) into a movie. Jonze at the helm + real puppets + CGI + Forest Whitaker + James Gandolfini = potentially kickass movie.





I hope this gets an R rating and we get something like the wine bottle beatdown in Pan's Labyrinth.

and the winner is...

"Everybody feel a way about K but at least ya'll feel somethin'."



Me, the orchestral performance of "Hey Mama" made me feel like I should send my ma an iloveyou email. Shes probably gonna think I'm up to something.