Happyblox

2009 Dodge Challenger Brochure Published... Holy Smokes!

As all 3 of my blog readers may recall, Dodge came out with a preliminary Challenger mini brochure but the real one is finally here, and it is absolutely loaded with unexpected goodies. (via Flickr, see it here) 2 of my 3 blog readers may also remember a recent piece I did about the available Track Pak, this is also included in the new brochure. So yes, they are doing the Track Pak, which is an ESC full off switch, 6 speed manual transmission with the old school pistol grip shifter, metal pedals, hill start assist and a limited slip differential. Blah blah blah, but that's the point. They got so many more options you can basically build your very own. Keep in mind as well, that this is before all the aftermarket and secret Mopar mods they are waiting to share when the car is released. The brochure alone sites a different hood option, along with different hood scoop options, a classic R/T package, with script Challenger badges, classic rims and SIDE STRIPES! A few different kinds too! Also, Dodge is making the SRT stripes available for the R/T model, so my dream of a black R/T with black stripes may be a possibility after all. The new stripes for the Track Pak might be the way to go though (first image below). Who knows, See for yourself. Here are a few of the better pages with different packages, all the option and standard equiptment and some of the wheels and rims that will be out at launch. Can they seriouosly be doing everything right? Sure seems like it.
 

Below are all options and standard equiptment for the 2009 Dodge Challenger S/E, R/T (including the R/T Classic pack) & SRT/8.

Who Called The Latvian Ghost Busters?

Here is a cover song you may remember, this time from a Latvian band called Intars Busulis. God I love other countries as long as they are covering American culture.

Leno Shares His #4 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 With Us.

Who better to pick up one of the first new 08 Challengers than Jay Leno? He may not be my favorite comedian... ok, one of my least favorites, but off stage he is a very cool guy. As everyone knows he has one of the countries premiere car collections and he lets everyone in on it with his great site jaylenosgarage.com. He really goes out of his way to make videos for car people and non car people alike. Not too technical but not dumbed down like those cable car review shows. You also don't have to worry about Mr. Leno reviewing any minivans or cars your mom would drive. Thanks Jay for making the first "real" Challenger video. More please.

R.I.P. George Carlin & Back That Shit Up.

When I was a footsie pajamas wearing tyke I used to play records on my fathers old record player and they had a strange collection of stuff. Old Jewish records, Broadway plays, things like that but every once in a while I would find a gem. One early favorite was a George Carlin album from the 60's with a character called Al Sleet, the Hippy Dippy Weatherman. I was entranced. Of course I was also entranced by The Morton Downey Jr Show. As it turns out Carlin stuck with me. It was not long after I saw him live, with my parents no less! Sometimes my parents push toward exposing my brother and I to as much culture as possible backfired. This was way after his "7 Words you can't say on TV" skit where he was very dirty and really starting to be anti establishment except he had logical reasons why religion was stupid and people were dumb, all things I had been trying to tell my parents. I felt like I had someone on my side. I think he was one of the most genius writers, speakers and thinkers of our time. A master at putting things into the correct perspective and pointing out how horribly backwards the world can be but all the while trying to pull us all out. Trying to save us. Trying to teach us to think for ourselves and not to rely on others. I will miss him. He was one of a few people I consider a hero. 

Speaking of heroes, people who give you a terabyte of storage space for 200 bucks are my heroes too. Thats what Fantom Drives has done with their GForce MegaDisk. I know, it sounds like it has metal balls and swings a laser battle axe but in reality it is almost as cool. USB 2.0 and SATA connections and a rad blue led light that glows from in back of a cool metallic grille. The whole drive is beautiful and completely silent other than a few initial clicks and clacks when you turn it on. Got this one through Tiger Direct and I am very happy.  

Play God: Create A Life Form With Spore's Creature Creator.

Spore is an EA game launching September 12th. Check it out here. Basically it is a massive single player online game. I am not 100% sure what that means but my educated guess would be that you will not be interacting with live players but their inventions and creations. That is to say it will still be a game that credits the sharing of things with keeping it interesting. Better than all that is the mere premise. Get this, you start as a single cell life form and have to survive and thrive. The game progresses as your life form evolves and surpasses other life forms on your planet in intelligence..... or I guess strength, numbers or a myriad of other variables. Cool right? It gets better. It doesn't stop the action once you become the dominant creature on your little island, pissing you off and making players wonder why they invested so much time and emotion into it like Civilization 1 through 3. You get to take over your whole planet. Then, when you have conquered all there is to conquer there, you evolve enough to take to space and find other planets to take over! WICKED! We have finally created a game that makes some philosophers very nervous I would imagine. Who's game are we? More importantly, are we winning?

Their Creature Creator program demo was made available today and is worth an install. (video demo here) You get to create a life form in a sort of Sims way but a lot more intricate. More like the Eve-Online character creator but in a mature cartoon animation style. It is a lot of fun and below are a few creatures I have already created. You get to check out how they function as often as you like so you can see how each change effects certain attributes in the creatures movement. This is of course just the basic demo and you can see how many empty slots there are for all sorts of fun selections in the full version. There were something like 55,000 creatures uploaded today to Spore's servers. That's a good sign. So if you ever had the desire to rule the universe with your very own army of mutant insect space monkeys, now is maybe your very first time to do so. I would guess it will not be your last however. What are you waiting for? Go play God. I got my beard growing in as we speak.

The Great Office War.

Via Break.com.

The Great Office War - Watch more free videos

Challenger Prices Released With A Bold Look For '09

Are you kidding me? Check out one of the beautiful packaging options on the 2009 Challenger R/T! While I am usually against most forms of factory applied decals, Dodge has always been an exception. Understated? Maybe for Dodge but I think it's mint. Picture it in black with black stripes. Mmmmmm.

The official Challenger blog states: " The U.S. MSRP for the all-new 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T is $29,995." Which is good news, but the better news is that the Manuel option which is called the track pak is only $1000.00 bucks more. With that you get a lot more than just leaving the automatic people behind (and 5 HP) Here is the quote: "The available Track Pak features the Tremec TR-6060 six-speed manual transmission with “pistol-grip” shifter for $995. When the six-speed manual transmission is paired with the 5.7-liter HEMI V-8, it produces an estimated 375 horsepower...The Track Pak also includes Hill-start Assist, limited-slip differential, bright pedal covers and performance steering."

Wow. Just wow.

Lightning Storm Over Manhattan.

This is some footage I edited together of the storm that rolled through New Jersey into Manhattan on Tuesday night. After a 100+ degree day I was waiting for a storm but was not expecting one of this magnitude. I found it really soothing.

Joe Frank Ascends... Something.

Joe Frank is a well known Peabody winner who you may know from "All Things Considered" on National Public Radio. I heard him on WNYC (820 AM) today and he made me listen to the radio so intently the last time I remember doing so was as a child sneaking my fathers portable AM radio under my pillow to listen to Islander games. It was a 5 or so minute monologue called Work In Progress which I have not been able to find yet. It was a disturbing monologue describing the thoughts of a pessimistic, sadomasochistic man and his thoughts, stream of consciousness style. Maybe a soon to be or already practicing mass murder. It was so clearly written and described that you almost understood his train of thought. I found myself thinking that despite my optimistic point of view most of the time, I related to this character some how. It brought out the emo in me, the emo all of us have but that's like comparing slayer to your high school band. This was real. This was only partly fiction. These were carefully worded bunches of violence and decay. Of astute yet sinister observations and the authors negative renderings of every situation he encounters. So I go to his site (joefrank.com) and I click on this story: Ascent to K2 from his CD Mountain Rain. Even better. This is an almost 20 minute monologue describing the insane trip to the infamous K2 mountain. Don't expect a harrowing tale of fast moving storms and stranded climbers dangling between glaciers. Think more on the lines of Fear and Loading in Las Vegas. Here is Joe Frank's radio schedule. Check him out and ascend something yourself, the way you want to.

First Class Wedding.

My brother Jason got married this weekend and it was the classiest wedding I have ever attended. First of all it was at Ciporani's on 42nd and for those of you who are not familiar with Manhattan it is a venue as famous as Madison Square Garden, as classy as the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and as beautiful as St. Patrick's Cathedral. Here is a good way to describe the things that go on there... I was once invited to a magazine opening party there and I met Bill Clinton in the mens room. That's what I'm talking about. (what?) Bill was not invited to the wedding but if he saw the show he would have certainly wanted to be. Every detail was thought of, almost like people have been having weddings for thousands of years. The food, which is what made Cipriani's famous for was amazing. The apetizers were like tiny little meals and were presented in a way that you knew this was not thawed out and baked like most. I wish I could have had a few more but I was too nervous to present my best man speech that I could not eat. The flowers were crazy amazing with trees of flowers at each table. The cake which also had flowers on it was probably 5 feet high. The ceiling is 5 or 6 stories high and lit with purble, orange and blue proffesional lighting, displaying patterns on the walls and ceiling evoking a mystical, almost surreal, enchanted vibration. The ceremony was like a dream with candles lighting up the back of the chupah and a swinging gate door that each person had to enter before they stepped from the marble floor to the plush giant oriental rug complete with a red carpet down the middle. I didn't loose either ring, so my job went off without a hitch. More details and pictures to follow. I need to rest.