mustang84

I bought a couple used CDs lately...Saigon Kick "The Lizard" and Britny Fox "Britny Fox." Britny Fox is a hair band, but Saigon Kick is kind of its own genre...they came about during the transition to grunge in the 90s, so they're not grunge, but they're not glam metal either. More like a heavier version of Candlebox. I also got Rush "Chronicles" and the first three Queensryche albums off BMG. Rush is awesome...the drummer is so precise and the drumming is so clear. Red Barchetta is a good one to listen to if you want to hear clean drumming. All three of the Queensryche ones are great...they're a progressive metal band from the 80s with deep, rich lyrics and one of the best rock vocalists ever. This band is highly underrated. I don't really listen to the radio much anymore, so I'm not exactly caught up with what's current, although the new stuff from NIN is really good.

I was born after the disco era, so I don't have any memory of it. I know my dad used to be a disco DJ back in the late 70s (in fact, he met my mom because my uncle owned the club he DJ'ed at and she was a waitress there). Even though he was a disco DJ, all the albums he owns are 80s pop and rock, so I've never really been exposed to much disco beyond YMCA, The Hustle, Stayin' Alive, etc...the stuff you hear on TV, movies, and such. From what I have heard though, I haven't really been able to get into any of it.

Lol, maybe...I was a mischievous little fellow back then. On a side note, a few years ago I found the "Oldsmobile" lettering that came from the back of that Cutlass. My dad must've pulled it off as a souvenir before the car was sent to the junkyard.

Here's the only pic I've been able to find of my dad's '86 Cutlass Supreme. It was a beautiful car with midnight blue paint that was destroyed in the Flood of 1993. There's a good chance I could have been driving it if it hadn't been in the flood, because we got our 1990 Lumina after that. This was about 1989 or 1990. Yes, I had a mini-mullet back then.

Octogon...Pentagon.

Nice ride, I don't see too many B-body Fleetwoods or Roadmasters around anymore. Especially Roadmaster sedans...I think I've only seen two in my whole life. Keep 'em clean and enjoy them! And I'd say go with some whitewalls and chrome factory Brougham rims as well. It looks a lot more elegant than blackwalls.

Damn, that exhaust sounds NICE. What all have you done to your Achieva again?

It's just too bad that Toyota's "cars with muscle" are about as fun to look at as a still life painting of a bowl of fruit.

The MARKus Aurelius "It will send the Acura TLs and Lexus ES's of life into the car crushing pits."

Well, who says 250 hp is all the Duratec 35 can put out? And whose to say that they won't offer a supercharged version at a later date? Remember, Zephyr is the entry level Lincoln... Competition: Acura TL 258 hp, 233 lb ft, 5 speed automatic, 3580 lb curb weight (auto) - $33,325 Lexus ES330 218 hp, 236 lb ft, 5 speed automatic, 3472 lb curb weight - $32,995 Cadillac CTS 255 hp, 252 lb ft, 5 speed automatic, 3568 lb curb weight (auto) - $32,690 Audi A4 255 hp, 243 lb ft, 6 speed automatic, 3748 lb curb weight - $35,210 Lincoln MkZ 250 hp, 240 lb ft, 6 speed automatic std, 3438 lb curb wieght (FWD, not including added Duratec 35 weight) - $31,xxx? The standard 6-speed mated with the Duratec 35 and the low curb weight should help the MkZ stay competitive. The Zephyr is already noted for its good driving dynamics even with only 221 hp, so an extra 30 should help zip it along even more.

The name change is stupid, but nothing to get hung up on. The real news is the Duratec and the AWD...it will make it a true performer now.

Inside Line How does adding 88 lbs extra for 2006 lower the Accord Hybrid's fuel efficiency by 4 MPG? Ahh, wait a minute: IMO, $31,500 is too much for only 253 hp and 25/34 MPG. I'll buy an Impala LTZ instead and pocket the $5000 I save toward gas expenses.

I thought the commercial was good and the websites are pretty funny, but I don't think they should have used this image of the ground zero for the photo gallery. There are a lot of people out there still sensitive about the attacks, and using it for a humor webpage may be walking a fine line.

Business Week kind of submerges this paragraph. Just another "Detroit be-damned" article that's supposed to make us hate anything that GM and Ford do. For a change, how about they actually focus on the progress Detroit is beginning to make or ways they can improve? No wonder everybody thinks Toyota is number one...articles like these pretty much burn it into the minds of the average American.

Guitar player here. I started out playing my dad's old 1970s Yamaha acoustic guitar and a couple summers ago bought a $300 Squire Stratocaster. I don't have a whole lot of time to practice, so I'm still pretty mediocre, but I have been getting better. Last night I discovered this cool video of a quad neck guitar. The guy playing is Michael Angelo Batio in the 80s band Nitro, and while he's a great technical guitarist, he's kind of repetitive IMO...especially toward the end of this solo. Definitely a showman though. Warning: cheesy metal ahead. Quad Guitar

Update: 482205 is my fourth try. It's really distracting when they suddenly switch colors on you and then say "Speed up!" ...although I'm sure they wanted it that way. Edit: allright, last update! This game is getting me hooked and I have a bunch of studio stuff due for tomorrow. 503635

That's not to say it can't turn around though. I live about an hour away from Omaha, which is one of those rust belt cities where people moved further and further west in the 70s and 80s and the downtown core began boarding up. Ever since about 1998 when the new convention center & arena was built, development there has been non-stop. Most of it is because former mayor Hal Daub and current mayor Mike Fahey have been extremely progressive and active about revitalizing downtown. The riverfront used to be full of abandoned 9-story warehouses, rusty chemical tanks, non-functional rail lines, and open patches of land. Now they have a new National Parks Services regional office, residential loft conversions, hotels, performing arts center, Gallup poll campus, new condominium towers, parks, and two new skyscrapers. This has all happened over a period of 6 years or so. People are moving back into the city because they want to. Out of all the cities in the Midwest, Omaha has to be one of the top ten most progressive. Most of Omaha's citizens are conservative and don't want to pay more taxes for all these projects. They only look at the short term and not the long term benefits. If it weren't for the continuous pushing of Daub and Fahey to get this stuff built, the Omaha riverfront would still be an empty wasteland. I'm not sure how progressive Detroit's current mayor is, but with the right leadership, anything can happen.

Ther trunk lid almost looks like it was banged up in an accident. The chrome strip on the back end looks like it was bought at a hobby store for $2.99 and glued on there.

Actually, the only thing that really looks bad is the hood. Proportionally, it looks about right, and it avoids all the cartoony shapes and styling that Toyota usually puts into concepts. I can't help but think that the concept of this vehicle was inspired by the Ford SynUS though.

I can appreciate a book if it's about a subject I'm interested in. My favorite book of all time is 1984 by George Orwell. A friend of mine got me to read "Anthem" by Ayn Rand and that was a good one as well. For fictional stories, I enjoy Stephen King, Michael Crichton, and H.G. Wells. My favorite fiction book is The Stand by Stephen King, mostly because he has a great sense of imagery when writing a novel.

Yeah, I noticed that too. The roofline looks about as low as the '96 Mustang I rode in, and with me at 6'4", it was a PITA. This looks to be one of those cars where tall peoples' heads will be bumping the rear window.

Edit: I didn't realize this had been posted already. Is it just me, or is the interior extremely cheap looking? Especially compared to the Zephyr's interior? What's with the vast expanse of gray plastic?

I don't understand why Chrysler doesn't use the 1997 Chronos concept as more of a basis for the Imperial? I love everything about this concept, and it would be a nice break from the blockiness that all new Chryslers seem to have. This concept looks fresh even almost 10 years later. More Pics

I can't stand the "ur" way to type your. Actually, I'm getting tired of how the "AOL way" to type is spreading around the internet. I bet over the next 10 years the ability to spell will spiral downward because most people simply don't take the time to correctly type a word. Now, I don't always use all punctuation and capitalization when I'm on an instant messenger (but I rarely shorten words like "ur"), but on message boards and other places where I am trying to clearly express ideas, I use correct punctuation and capitalization. I agree with LA about everything being turned into a sexual innuendo these days. It's annoying and immature. It's getting to the point where almost anything can be turned into a sexual innuendo. And I can't stand L337 in any form. Nothing is more lame than creating your own computer language that only you and your online gaming buddies can understand. I have a cousin that says "ell" for words that you would normally pronounce "ale." One time at work, he said to me "Go make a bale" (when cardboard boxes are crushed and wire is wrapped around them), but to me it sounded like "Go make a bell." I said "Go make a bell?" and he was like "Yeah, you know, a bell." It took a couple minutes for me to realize that he meant bale instead of bell, but that small indiscrepency in pronunciation makes a hell of a difference.

I've heard that Ford has kept the D3 trio to a steady 10-12% fleet sales, which is why resale values for the Freestyle are at 50% (49% for the Five Hundred), compared to 30% for the Taurus. I believe the highest resale value is 67% for the Mini Cooper, so Ford is doing very nicely with the new models.