Excellent Zombie movie. This gives you that Mad Max wasteland with the action movie rewards you deserve. Every zombie movie needs key elements in it for the super Zombie-movie-buffs. I feel as though this film delivers all those core elements with the best of them. The characters are unknown to me but I felt there skills were on point in delivering the real-life scenarios in the event of a Zombie apocalypses. Great movie, fun action with some laced in humor as every Zombie movie can be complemented from.
Not sure how this perfect 10 Sci-Fi movie passed by me but glad I watched it. The films trailer almost makes you think you seen all of the best parts but you would be very wrong. This is a brave execution of the classic Alien Horror style- Sci-Fi that really comes together in the excellent cinematography. You don’t feel CGI over worked, instead you feel like authenticity along with the films concept demands respect. Several scenes were done so well that it’s build up is well worth the potential truth.
Tara Eckman Scott was my friend. She passed away from health complications on July 12th 2021. She was survived by her 3 boys, all very successful and 2 have scholarships for football with the potential to be drafted to the NFL. Among her many other accomplishments she is a great friend, loyal family member, loving mother and simply great company. Her memorial service was held recently at her bar in White Center called “Taradise Cafe” which was a local bar that featured adult beverages, food, music and community. Taradise is the former location of Marv’s Broiler which many people would have considered the “cheers” of White Center for many decades. Once Tara took over the bar she was unable to change the monumental Marv’s Broiler sign without significant efforts so her sign was placed over the original. Despite the unfortunate outside altercations that happened outside of her bar she still defiantly achieved the status as the new “cheers” of White Center. Tara had a major presence, she was beautiful, funny and quick witted. Often times you could find her inside overseeing things and/or having a drink with one of her friends on the center couches in the lounge area. The bar had all the dive bar accents with a Beach theme. Tara had this talent where she could entertain 10-15 people at a time with conversations making each person feel special like she was only talking to them individually. I know because I was one of those people. I remember staying longer than expected just because I would spot Tara walking in. Her infectious smile mixed with trucker mouth humor complimented every aspect of the bar. Most of her staff has been there with her since the beginning because they enjoyed working for her. Tara would do anything for anyone including allowing homeless inside during cold seasons to stay warm. Taradise sometimes would get a rough press due to the several tragedies that happened outside of the bar. Tara once told me she thought of closing the bar to avoid any more issues but told me many that many loved it there. Basically I felt like she knew the bar meant a lot to the community from the feedback she was given and I agreed. I never once had one problem there and trust me I frequented this place a lot. I have celebrated birthdays at Taradise, pre-gamed before concerts, met for business, went on dates here, relocated from other venues or sometimes enjoyed live music or comedy shows here. In the summer time Tara would have Food Trucks outside in the parking lot supporting other small business owners. She would welcome anyone inside no matter who you were and sometimes that can have consequences but isn’t that Seattle right now? It’s a shame so many are quick to zero on the outside of her bar when the city of Seattle is showing scars everywhere. Either way, when you walked inside you could see Tara’s messaged across the wall. Where she had a large banner that read “Nuthin but Love” across the wall. The music was always on point and the vibe always felt right. Tara built this. At the memorial service last Saturday we heard some people give speeches on Tara’s life including her 3 sons. Many shed tears and we all felt the pain of the loss as her bar was filled with the entire community. Every parking spot down 16th Ave SW was filled and parked on the sidewalks as family and friends filled her parking lot. Tara will be deeply missed by everyone across the city and White Center may never be the same. There has been talks of the family continuing the bar in Tara’s memory but nothing confirmed as of yet. Rest in Taradise my friend.
When I first watched this movie back in the late 1990s I didn’t really grasp the concept and thought it was just an entertaining guy with a sword cutting people up while being blind. Now I watch it again and see the hidden gem it is. One of the scariest things in life would be to lose your eye sight. Your hearing, your speech and your limbs are all very important but if you lose your ability to see you are forced to rely on every other sense to survive. This is true for this Vietnam War Veteran who loses his eye sight during war and wanders into a Vietnamese camp assumed to have been dead but where he learns the ways of the sword. I think one of the cool parts of this movie is how so many people try to take advantage of him for being blind yet he out smarts them with patience and attention to detail. This is an old early 90’s movie so you spot some cool vintage attire as well as cool pre-ban guns throughout the action scenes. I think the story is moving and you still have some good surprise scenes for how old it is with oddly relevant situations. Great throw back Reno Nevada scenes to see and the character build up doesn’t disappoint at all for the action scenes delivered.
This movie was released after Culkin already did Home Alone 1 and 2 thus framing him as the nice kid growing up in a big family with clever skills to avoid burglars. However the Good Son is a story entirely different than Home Alone. Macaulay Culkin was also born into a large family in real life and supposedly had some rough patches. I think The Good Son shows an alter ego of who this kid could have been OR what he was feeling inside. Without going deep into that topic the reason to watch this movie besides that it was a classic about a young sociopath who has the entire cast fooled except Elijah Wood who was suppose to stay with Culkin during his Dad’s business trip. Some critics felt Culkin couldn’t pull off this role and wasn’t believable. I disagree. One of the scenes that is among favorites is when Culkin surprises Wood with his actions, then he turns to Wood and says how he came across a revelation that he could do anything he wants in life and he could even fly if wanted, he looks sternly into Wood’s eyes and says “Don’t be afraid to fly” as wood just stares back scared as fuck. Some of the moments captured make us all wonder what we would do in these situations or if we put into a situation where we had to make tough choices. Watch the movie and you will see what I mean. It’s a great story that has very few slow parts in it and you see what early signs of what a sociopath looks like. You watch it thinking how could a kid do any of these things living with such a good and loving family. Yet as the pain gets revealed you can see how easily young kids are impressionable with thoughts that they don’t know how to express. What’s worse is when those kids are too smart for their own good and rather use those revelations for bad. The Good Son stars Macaulay Culkin with a smaller role of Quinn Culkin (his real sister) playing his sister in the movie. Culkin comes from a family of actors but none of them ever gained the notoriety he did in the business. This is a look at Culkin in the only time he played a character like this during an era when Home Alone casted such a shadow that it didn’t get the exposure it deserved.
If you are like me, this picture makes you uneasy even despite the cartoon esq form of the death poke device you see. Just kidding but I have what Harborview Medical calls “The most intense needle phobia they have ever seen” -2004. Since then I slowly tried to get over my fear but when do humans really need their blood drawn? Usually it’s never but on top of that, “they” claim to be sending rovers to Mars but we still haven’t figured out a less sneaky pokey way of getting your blood for related symptoms in healthcare. As of now you need to do blood work for most things medical and a needle seems to be here to stay for now. I have always been very afraid of needles, partly because my Father was but also my own developed fear of not wanting to be poked or inserted into like that. Like all fears they just fester when they go unattended or confronted. I had no choice but to go under the needle recently and what I have noticed is that if you can find someone you feel comfortable with it makes worlds of difference. I really just encourage you to explain your complete situation without any fear of embarrassment. For me I don’t like to hold my arms out straight, I hate thinking of the vein punctured and typing that makes me squirm and lose composure just thinking of it. So if your fear is as intense or close to mine, here are a couple things I have done. Once you really connect with someone they always can work with you and your fear because sometimes going under the needle means life or death so don’t ignore it please. For standard blood draws I had been going to the Indian Health Board in Seattle, WA to se Mary-Jane who I trust with everything needles but that doesn’t mean she will be there for surgeries. The technique she first used with me was sitting in a position in front of me in sort of a tandem approach and the best way she could access was with me behind her and my arm wrapped in front. Sort of like we were spooning without touching at all as I was slightly to her corner to reach my arm around. This blocked my vision of what was going on and enabled her to hold me still for a moment so I stopped flexing and relaxed. I told her to put the baby gloves on (meaning be nice) but also take control as needed, which is a balance. I stared at her eyes as she swabbed the area to clean, which is the indication it’s “go time” soon. As I started to freak out she calmed me by asking what I was going to do for the weekend which I explained but in a panic I just asked her if she had green eyes which she did. I told her around 2% of the worlds population have green eyes and they are cool because they change color. She says, oh well I did not know that in sort of way that sounded impressed but how you would tell a small child. Then she says “you’re all done” and I gasped for air from tensing up and hugged her immediately with relief. I told her she saved my life and I couldn’t remember the last time I ever let anyone near my arm with a needle like that. Even though it was all in my head we went on to future visits to be slightly more comfortable and I could sit in the chair like normal the next times which was a huge step for me. Flash forward I have been living with what’s called a Angiolipoma which is a rare fucking annoying little fatty tissue wrapped in nerves that sits under your skin in either the arm or in my case the lower back which apparently is more of a rare location. It’s benign and won’t kill you but feels like someone poking you with a thumb tac if anything touches it or anything comes in contact with it. Just imagine all the times your lower back could come into contact with something like that just siting down. 2021 I made the decision to rip this annoying painful button out of my lower back just above my crack to the left side. I looked online and apparently Angiolipoma is semi rare but even more rare to have in the location I had. In fact a 2017 study indicated that less than 200 cases confirmed having this annoyance in this location on the lower back. Maybe many people just don’t even know what they have. The first discovery of this was while working out about 12 years and laying on my back for the bench press was all it took to make me jump right out of my skin like a thumb tac was laying on the bench. Ouch. I met with Darlene Barr at the Swedish medical center to schedule a time for the following day to cut it out. Even not seeing the needle bothers the shit out of me but let me tell you, Dr Barr has skills! Even if I told you what she did you won’t feel her do it, and she wins. I laid down face down with my huggies slightly pulled down. I threw in earbuds and blasted Rage Against the Machine “Know your enemy” as if I was storming an enemy fortress fearless of all needles. I started to sweat like a mutherfucker as I bear hugged the medical chair/bed thing. I breathed heavy and flexed hard. I felt her clean the area aka “permission to launch!” but then something different happened next. She pinched the skin with her fingers and poked in between thus causing my senses to focus on the pinch! Genius! The thought of the needle not going into a vein and just merely numbing me from contact mixed with the pinching to confuse my sensations helped drastically. I squirmed a bit imaging the numbing formula working through but she returns for business after it takes effect. She touched in places that made me feel like she was verifying the area was numb and it was, but I sure as hell wouldn’t tell her if it wasn’t! Just get it over with was my thoughts and each touch just felt like someone petting your skin. My music moves onto a Marilyn Manson song on my playlist as I could only head bang in my scared little mind. I started to become unable to ignore the situation and prayed to god to please make it over and be gone. I shit you not, about 20-30 tops minutes later she taps me and says, “you are all done and good news, it’s not a Pilonidal cyst, it’s actually a Angiolipoma and they usually hurt like a son of a gun”. She offers to let me see this piece of fat that has bothered me well over a decade. I take a quick look at this little blob of fat and think, damn, we were stuck together for over a decade and now you are gone, I hate you but I want a picture to marvel in how something so small can bother a human. So again, you don’t have to attempt to trust every doctor but find one you do and you both can make magic together. This little fatty fuck was my only physical weakness, and now it’s gone. I owe this joy all to Doctor Barr so look her up if you are in Seattle, WA as she has other procedures she does. Anyone else out there with the same fear, you are not alone but just pop in some Rage Against the Machine and yell FREEEEEDOM!! (Rage voice) & (only in your head)
This by far was one the strangest nights in my life. If you read anything I write or know anything about me you would know that is saying a lot. This is not a good story by any means although it’s not a terrible story either. While you let your noodle smoke on that contradicting thought take for an example a time you get burned in your life yet in some way you also learn a valuable lesson. Similar concept is to say that what if when something happens to you there is this paradox of a thing where as by definition it just means an absurd situation could have some odd truth to it. So now that you are strapped in like a canoe about to go directly downward on one of those wild waves water slides with no bottom. I wanted to create the very best Birthday for someone important in my life. In doing this I felt the best strategy was to plan a trip that was both familiar to us and new at the same time. Why not a tropical Island flying first class at a very manageable time in travel and a simple game plan. Once I checked that idea off the long list of amazing things I want to do for this person I thought it would be great to add the traditional “secretly invite this persons friends to a location and surprise ” for the VIP person thing. Though the surprise birthday party idea has been around since the beginning of birthdays I wanted to toss it in the pot of awesome for the birthday memory section. When everyone showed up and the night was an entire success I eventually make it back to my house accompanied but a small handful of people that I consider very close to me. Of these people included a mixture of family and pseudo family, intertwined with others who are greatly significant in our lives. The group anticipatedly should have night, right? Kind of. I knew the more I dragged my feet the VIP person was going to tapped out on energy and most likely going to call the early night. We into the West Seattle Cabana where a family member joined to go deep conversation with each other. Meanwhile in the kitchen, myself and two other close friend / family friends are having intelligent conversations at first. This goes way south as one of these said friends starts to go full cross fade on continuous shots and high amounts of Milligrams in edibles. It’s to the point where even though this person was having several enlightening moments, he was also having several animated moments that was like the excitement of a topic was so explosive to say out loud that this whacky dude probably felt like these great thoughts were coming in so fast his brain couldn’t organize them. This fire hose of thoughts makes regular words impossible to articulate. This made that person go more indifferent to things. Not in an angry or violent way but more of like it was Christmas time and they couldn’t open any gifts while others opened theirs. Also at the exact same time I was talking about moves that could be in such life changing way that it felt like manifest destiny wanted to get in one of those capsules to take us to another place. Let me tell you about manifest destiny in truth cinema or cinema verte (google those film techniques if you hadn’t heard of those and then jump back in these sentences. The thing with manifest destiny is the only way to capture the opportunity or the destruction is to see it a mile a way and act. Meaning , if you know that dropping an item typically allows gravity to carry it down to the ground unless you catch it or changes it’s path. As the item falls to the ground you have a moment to react and catch it or let it fall but based on the circumstances you can decide risk vs reward. Just try to apply that to this scenario is to say that I walked right past manifest destiny in a few missed shots or opportunities yet every make or miss always seems to have one absolute path with no such thing as coincidence. None of this is in a scary way so don’t wig out on me. What I am really saying is the person and I were talking some important ass shit in the kitchen and I wanted to limit all distractions around me and talk about how we are gonna to make a plan. As these strategies of harvesting dead presidents was happening, I noticed before my eye sockets that my other friend was 3 sheets to the whacky wind and was having rolling brown outs of revaluations every 5-10 minutes. Some of these thoughts were half genius and half cryptic. While some of the shit made no sense and was making others in the house uncomfortable for sure. So as the night goes on the drunk group faded into the night-party which shifted to saddening thoughts and cries out at the ceiling to morn a dead family member. After having such an in depth conversation the person is now crying and screaming to bring someone back that will never come back. It was heartbreaking in every way you can imagine and this was coming from my perspective of roughly 48+ funerals I have attended but this was different. I sometimes so go so numb to death that I forget how it affects people. I respect the grim reaper. I do. That fucker has a job to do and it probably isn’t easy. That being said, when my homie is trying to rip a soul back to life by clenching their mind and squeezing their battle cry…it just never comes. I am use to that. Back on the freeway…. and so as I explain this story my friend just needs someone there to express pain for another fallen soldier dear to him. We both sort of do the “there there” it’s gonna be ok man, life finds a way to reveal it’s purpose. You know, saying the nice shit you say to help anyone find some understanding. Once the tears disappear this home slice starts telling me that about 20 minutes ago when he was asking me to film the conversation in the kitchen we had, which at the time was just us arguing that I was too lazy to film anything and I could duplicate my words at any moment thus in my way doing a flip on a paradox or contradicting prediction. Now if I didn’t lose you speed limit thinkers what I am actually saying is that if a paradox a completely and utterly bizarre truth that defies some type of basic logic…then what if I can take that same contracting idea and make it energize like a fucking battery positive and negative. To put it even simpler is that the person in the kitchen who was wigging out about filming the monumental kitchen conversation about deep world affairs had a point. This cross faded person felt it was so gold it couldn’t be duplicated and the Christmas present just remained unopened. We probably should have filmed the conversation in the authentic cinema verte capture but the path will reveal itself again. Eventually it all tapers off into this conversation of how capturing film of deep conversations and great story telling is important. We decided to create a code word to signal when one or both of us should have the camera roll on each other to capture something profound. I was with that. Like having a high performance sports car waxed to perfection waiting in the garage to burn rubber, I wanted to put the petal to the metal. As this thought comes racing towards me I notice that cross faded homie is severely making others feel uncomfortable to a way that potentially could be irreversible. One of the close humans exits the VIP room she gets semi offended by a comment from the whacky cross faded homie. However it was innocent and all in good fun to make fun of a spill mark on the person. Sometimes when people spill liquids from drinks on themselves others find it endearing to tease and make light hearted jokes about those spill marks being bodily liquids. The whacky cross fade person once again was in a paradoxal situation (yep made that word up I think) The whacky seemingly dude just felt like at this point it was agreed that we were all straight up family and he could make crude or soft core dirty jokes within the circle. I agree 100% he should feel ok doing that and I even encourage it at times. However this other person’s mind was like a little bunny rabbit with soft delicate fur. It’s in my opinion they were misunderstandings. Because to know this whacky cross faded person who was crying is a solid person who is a cloth cut from a fabric they just don’t make anymore. Anyway again, I understand whacky dude was cross faded and missing his second pair of pants he couldn’t find but he wasn’t crazy. Meanwhile my sports car is in the other room losing battery power as if the stereo was wired directly to the battery which thus causes a slight power draw on the beauty. Back in the main quarters the whacky cross faded homie is searching the entire house for the pants that have his car keys in them. It’s at this point I am now in the paradox of misconception. Ask yourself do you want to be the hammer or the nail? Could this homie get into a car crash due to his cross faded night which falls directly on my conscious. Some might try to write this off as a simple choice between wanting one thing an risking another. My whacky friend is one of the most talented drivers I know. I am just confident he will drive home safe relying on his skills to guide him home just like I am 100% confident I can’t tell him to stay either. Moments are recalled in my mind of this whacky vessel pouring sprite into a cup at distance with one hand as the 2 liter wobbles and slightly spills around the cup. Whacky homie just giggling and laughing at the mess he is making all by himself. As I look at him in astonishment to his ability to time travel back to when he was a child, I make the quick judgement call to assist pouring but was quickly derailed by his already fragile grip on the 2 liter. When I reached for the Scottie Pippen assistance the 2 liter spilled more and went to launch from his giggle fingers. Once this happened it caused me to squeeze down which resulted in massive disaster across the counter. He laughs and asks why I squeezed the bottle and spilled everywhere. He was Convinced that dribbling the spite into the cup like a toddler boy with one hand creating spillage, was basically the normal thing. Hilarious but back to the point. I knew if I kept the OG at my house he would have just got more twisted into a oblivion and drove regardless what anyone would have told him. Click-it-or-ticket came out as an effort to get people safe wearing their damn seatbelt. However the fines for disobeying meant a traffic paid to the city. How odd when all they would have needed to do is make vehicles not start unless the seatbelt is clicked in place. Boom, mic drop. Collecting money on humans misfortune was a more lucrative idea and/or maybe a necessary strategy. However go back 20-30 years you could drink and drive with minimal consequences and why is that? Evolution? More risk with less experienced drivers or something else? My whacky ass homie text me he made it home and I hope the dead continues to try and watch out for us. That is the story of just one night so pedal to the metal as the credits roll.
This movie was a complete shock to me in a good way. I always like to watch movies and then read the reviews after and bash the shit out of them for bashing the movie. So for starters it’s long run time was excellent because this is an action / sci-fi / horror film with tons of realistic gore. So if you can’t get enough of people getting blown up, shot, sliced and robots crushing human bones with vicious close ups, look no further. So, there is that point to you fuck sticks online saying it was too long, nope give us a sequel. Next people reviewed on rotten tomato’s or somewhere that the movie had holes in the plot with other grey areas. Nope again you nerd wallets! First off, yes, many of the characters have you confused in the beginning as to where they place roles in the film when it starts but just have the faith they all get explained as it goes on. Meaning some of their character build ups or backgrounds really don’t fuck’n matter when the movie is about military AI and how dangerous it could be. Not to give anything away but it follows a few different character stories converging into one story of Robots on a test mission under a potential government contract deal to sell Military Robots somewhere or mass produce them worldwide. These robots are heavily armored and can problem solve on their on. Problem is, where is the problem with that? You shall see. Another thing was someone with a granola bar stuck up his or hers ass named “Kalis Adventures” needs to take an adventure on sharp blade of knowledge. Here is why. Kalis posts online claiming the movie had bad acting. I disagree you waste of post space! Ly Ty plays the child in a hostile environment, new actor unheard of and KILLS IT. We don’t know any of these actors so it’s hard to really say who was good or bad because you don’t know what they are capable of. When you see an actor you see all the time you have a margin with each one that tells you what is believable and what is not. For an example you wouldn’t cast Jim Carey in a movie like this but Bruce Willis maybe. So with entire cast of newbie actors/actresses you have to allow them to fall into who they can act as. So that makes the viewer not sure if they can believe them or not. Let me just say that the kid Ly Ty deserves some type of rookie of the year award. This bad ass kid never misses. The lead character Brett Tutor builds his stage presence and you believe him. The bad guy is played by a corrupt agent, (Jose Rosete) and seems like a guy you don’t want to fuck with. Rosete is ruthless and has scenes you wish you would have wrote. That being said many of the plot helps close back doors. Which means that most sci-fi action films with gore always make us question what we would do in reality or what appears real on screen compared to real life. It’s in my opinion a great display of how the Military has weaponized Artificial Intelligence far beyond what we can imagine and usually if it’s already on screen they are already implementing it and we are behind. You learned that same lesson when you heard about GME in the stock market, so same applies to movies of technology. Back on track. This film never disappoints all the way to the end even into the credits. Make sure to watch through the credits because this is one of those films that encourages you to watch till the screen goes black or starts the movie over again, not many movies can do that. The robotics appears very realistic because that level of tech means things move fast and the old style of oil and gears and pistons moving is a thing of the past. More of the form and movement along with detailed visuals is what we need in the 2020+. The story has emotions to it and of course when you are yearning for the machines to have some type of soul tied to the movie, they do it. Not in a corny way where you think some editor watched too many Sci-Fi straight to VHS type movies , no, it was thought out and believable when you understand a little about AI. That whole what if…..what if machines became self aware of what they are or are not and what if they were built for the military how dangerous could that be. This movie is a real underdog that compares to all the greats in robotic sci-fi so watch it yourself and feel free to post what you think but don’t lead spastics like the mentioned sway your opinion. Check stuff out on your own and support these up and coming directors for better or for worse.
Have you ever seen the 1983 Classic film by John Carpenter called “Christine” which was about this old classic red car that came alive to kill people? Well, this isn’t really that same story of killing people and instead a personification/story of a small sedan vehicle that never wanted to hurt anything except competition. Regardless if you have seen that classic movie or not this car has a story in my life that later semi resonated as such. When I was growing up my Father had a Datsun 510 and back then there was a limited amount of options for motor swaps and his was a L18 he put in. Back then you could upgrade your 510 with parts variations from Datsun 240Zs which was the more sporty roadster version. The Datsun 510 was very popular because of the basic design and affordable introduction. Many would consider the 510 as the very first Japanese Import Tuner racer car. This was also in a time when only nicer cars like the BMW came with Rear Wheel Drive and Independent suspension accompanied by sports car chassis design. The Datsun 510 was the anomaly that created some of the early terminology of calling a sports car a “sleeper” which is a term for a daily grocery courier car in disguise because it’s sports car skeleton underneath was hidden by the base model shell and hiding an engine that can perform at the touch of the throttle. Now that you know what these little 21xxlb one-step-above a clown car/race cars history is, let me explain why I think they are so cool. As mentioned my Dad who was a teenage parent that had a 510 along with his friends. Even to this day West Seattle car scene people still tell stories of “The flat Black 510 boys” which was when large groups of 510 owners, now called Generation X age groups would race 510s around WS. They all spray painted their 510’s flat black to avoid cops being able to decipher who was who when they would scatter from neighborhood races. Kid stuff, but kids having fun stuff. My Dad wasn’t apart of those groups and not super into 510’s he just happened to have one briefly amongst other friends but still the 510s had this special place in my heart to me as I remember seeing them and pointing them out to my Dad. I would grow up into my teenage years always seeing 510’s at car shows or local import tuner magazines in the local 7-11s. As kids we all knew of the history and importance of the Datsun 510 as a small sleeper race car. The US versions of these debuted 1968-1973 which only the 1968′ being a 1 year out of the series meaning that in 1968 certain features only came on that one specific year of production while the rest all had exactly the same options and ALL were same body style. Back in 1998 I acquired a poop brown Datsun 510 I found from some internet website back when you had to type the entire web address into the old school dial up computers search engine. Thus I located this crusty 510 in Portland Oregon and with the help of my Grandfather I got this relic history piece back to West Seattle. It never would stay running very well and was missing many important crucial interior parts. The floors were rusted out and surface rust was around the entire car. The engine would smoke and sputter bad when it would only run for maybe 10 mins total. The brakes barely worked and the metal sounded zip tied together as it would rattle when I would attempt to drive it around the block only to push it back home. Glad it was such a light car. I loved it and dreamed of rebuilding it to do massive burnouts and race my friends down California Ave. I envisioned lots of work done with my own hands to restore that little poop crusty 510 back to life. However as fate would have it it died one too many times and sat in my Grandparents driveway for weeks into months. Soon my Uncle Jim bought my Grandparents house and moved them into assisted living apartments. My Uncle Jim was one of the uncles that actually had a 510 himself amongst my Dad and his friends back in the late 1980’s. Either way he didn’t understand my dedication to that poop crust bucket and had asked me to move the car to the street and off his newly owned property so it could not be an eye sore. My uncle Jim was doing extensive remodeling to the house and I understand the space was needed. Jim was very mechanically inclined but after a couple attempts on the rusty 510 I think he just gave up interest in a car and probably felt I should have sold it. I pushed the car out front of the driveway onto the street. I would still visit the 510 after school and ride my BMX bike over to it. I couldn’t get it running due to my lack of knowledge at the time which was around 9th grade of high school. I did however wire up a CD player inside and would listen to music in the car until the windows fogged up. Eventually I came to work on it and it was gone. Apparently someone possibly one of the neighbors had it towed since it was looking like a heap of wasted childhood dreams. I remember the impound fees were too much and I already lost faith in being a 510 owner so I just turned in the title to GT Towing on Harbor Ave signing over all interest to the tow company. Many years would pass and many cars would pass in my possession. Classics to imports to motorcycles to modern new stuff. I would even consider myself a collector now as I have 4 classic car insurance policies with Hagerty. As the years passed since my high school 510 dreams were shattered I decided to look for these little fuckers again off and on for almost two decades. Finally in 2020 I just told myself if I really wanted one why don’t I really hunt one down. Initially I wanted a classic Datsun Orange 4 door 510. The Orange is liked by some but the 4 door isn’t the favorite for most 510 enthusiast as they prefer 2 doors for being lightest and MORE sporty versions. The wagon option was also available but that was more for a specific taste group. I probably viewed and lost out on maybe 5 different “good deal” 510’s throughout the 2020 search. I searched on the local websites and apps all the way across west coast. I was starting to think these things just slipped by my radar and even started to look at Lexus IS300s, and the BMW 3 series for other small rear wheel drive cars I could build. I reached out to a guy that I missed another good 510 deal on just to see if he knew of any sellers. This guy basically tells me that his buddy’s Dad owns one he is on the fence selling and it’s semi under construction with motor swap that isn’t completed but he will sell it as-is. The pictures he sent was of a baby blue 4 door 510 in solid shape but some minor surface rust in various places. All trim intact and body exclaimed it’s original paint. Original paint is always a very cool thing to have because classic vehicles are only original just once. This 510 was also a 1968 making it a 1 year car as mentioned before it has small details like suicide style windshield wipers and various trim differences. The paint showed flaws and the interior was weathered and displaying it’s age with some interior panels withered away. I went to go see the guy who owned it way out in Everett WA in the freezing cold. When I walked in to see it in person it was in a pop-up tent area with shop-style 2 post lift underneath where the 510 sat nestled about 2 feet from the ground. The owner was a football field wide dude with catchers MITs for hands, no neck and chest the size of 2 massive home plates. He spoke with a deep voice almost with the intensity of Randy Macho Man Savage a former WWF Wrestler which was a deep and raspy voice. You wondered how he fit his giant bear hands in between the tight places in the engine bay but he sure did. This specific 510 looked light baby blue and seasoned interior but under the hood was a SR20DE Fuel Injected motor that came from a Japanese vehicle that wasn’t available in the US markets. Japanese or JDM engines are desirable even today because they usually out perform US versions with more horsepower and better reliability with their performance. Apparently this 510 changed hands between Bear hands guy and also his two sons who first bought the car from Portland Oregon that they claim was from the 2nd owner. In PDX it was sitting on a street owned by an old lady who let it sit in the rain out front. These Datsun 510s were made of very thin sheet metal so they rusted out easily if left in the elements too long. I did a tour around this Baby Blue 510 not really wanting to like it even despite the Motor Swap because it wasn’t an orange one. The motor swap wouldn’t make the car scary fast but it would be able to get off it’s ass and spin the tires at any given moment. I came back to see this car two more times trying to gauge what I could offer him and what he would take for it. He shows me the work that was done to make that motor fit as well as what it needed to actually run and drive down the road. I make the deal with him and he tows the car to my house. The Christine movie reference all starts at this point in the story. The previous owner/Man Bear guy unhooks the 510 off the tow-dolly and starts it up. The 510 was missing it’s muffler with just a straight pipe so it was loud as a fuck. He inches it to my garage door quickly because at this time no radiator was inside it either. It rasped loud with each throttle response coming to silence when it was shut off. Almost immediately after the guy took the last of the cash he was owed for the car he switched moods. He first apologized for being such an asshole during the process and that he was really burnt out on working on the car to finish it. I told him I would call with questions and he made a look like he would rather not have that call. I did in fact have questions on what parts were installed and what specs they had so I would know where to buy parts as needed to finish the car. This basic text questions angered him because he said he was burnt out on the car and he soon stopped responding all together even when I offered to buy spare parts for it. The 510 had it’s issues but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with some time and patience. With the help from a friend who also use to own a neighborhood auto shop helped me re-wire the entire car. This was to avoid any wiring complications with lights, electrical gauges, readings and computer ECU connections. I later discovered I had the matching JDM transmission and a Subaru LSD rear end which in simple terms means I have good gear ratios and posi-trac making burnouts and donut slides much easier. The 510 already had 4 wheel disc brakes and coil over suspension. The wheels are JDM HERO’s that were professional re-surfaced to give an alloy shine. I covered the middle flog lights with yellow film and bright yellow bulbs for the classic rally look. The exhaust is all hooked up with a turbo muffler giving it the same rasp with a tamed low RPM cruising curve. I tightened and had a friend re-weld the driver motor mount restoring it’s reliability. Basic tune up and new radiator with dual electric fans wired to their own relays and switch. The speedo is very hard to hook up given the 68′ 510 cluster and the modern 90’s transmission matchup. So a cool alternative was a GPS digital speedo that is the size of an iPhone 4 that I horizontally mounted to the right of the OE speedometer. RPMs are also very important so I mounted the tachometer to the column for quick monitoring. I tossed the weird front seat out and cleaned up the Original back seats best I could. I used shiny silver KilMat across all of the floor and ceiling. which is sound deadening to reduce road noise. I decided to leave the ceiling and pillars exposed of the ultra shiny silver matte. So when you look inside it looks like a space shuttle. I put new black carpet down with custom diamond plate floor mats that appear like the floor is all diamond plate. I installed some interior matching grey 1994 Nissan SE-R racing cloth bucket seats in that look period correct. The interior pedals are all silver metal to match the bullet proof interior theme. The shift knob is of a pretty lady waiting for me to shift her around by her head. I put a few expressive stickers on it but nothing to obstruct it’s already factory beauty. The license plate frame was purchased from a company called “Stealth Plates” which specializes in flipper plates like the James Bond 007 movies. So from a push of a button my License Plate flips to a bogus plate that says WS King on it. Perfect toll booths or evading a Smokey burnout patch. After I got the car all dialed in my friends had been stopping by drinking beers and hangin out in the garage as I worked on it. So one night I decided to pick them up and go for a first time cruise since I got it all road worthy. This was one of the best times in a vehicle I have ever had. Before I left the house I shined the car up before leaving, spending extra time spot waxing the entire car and cleaning each corner as if it had Barrett Jackson level paint on it. The 510 almost seemed to respond and shine more than ever. So much so that people asked if I clear coated over the flawed original paint. I said no but they were sure it was at least buffed before me from it’s intense gloss shine that it had. We all piled inside the 4 door drift machine. We all instantly started laughing because we felt like we all got into a cool little fast clown car. Someone in the back seat even mentioned how Mario Kart he felt inside. We took off fast avoiding bumps and dips in the road yet hugging corners on rails. Shifting to second gear from stop lights made the cars tires chirp because the left over power would transfer hard into the next gear. We all felt like we were experiencing different childhood memories of first discovering why the 510s were such cool cars. I talked about what good drift cars they make and then immediately I said hey fuck it let’s spin this little cock sucker right now. So right before I pulled into my driveway I spun the 510 into a fast donut that sounded deep throated and quick like the revolutions that a street bike can make with the sound that power produces. As the car broke free from grip and everyone tossed from various directions inside the cab I could feel the 510 proving itself. I switched the other direction mid donut tossing the passengers to the other direction while still keeping steady throttle spins. The headlights with yellow high beams on lit up every houses as the car spun around inside a cloud of smoke. As I decided the 510 proved itself enough, I gently left the track of circles I created and crawled the 510 pass some pot holes leading to my bat cave where I keep it. Everyone could not stop laughing from excitement including myself. Everyone who rode in the car had videos from different angles and posted clips on various platforms. One of the best compliments I read was “Damn, that 510 has some heart!”. That really resonated with me when I was cleaning the car up. In conclusion it’s a fun car and my own favorite compliment about the 510 is for it’s appearance and functionality and I would say this 1968 Datsun 510 is Honest and surprising.
It’s clear as night because soon that’s all we will see, if we even see that. Living in West Seattle I never experienced drastic changes of the affects of other weather in other states or counties but I have a basic grasp that the weather varies from area to area. Which when you think about it is a drastic change every few states given how large we think the world is. With out getting off track, back to my point of the end and a dark blackout. It’s become very obvious why the politics meant so much more this year than it did than any other year in history. The reason is around as simple as seeing the cities crumbling is exactly where it’s headed. Let me explain my rambling. Currently California is experiencing rolling blackouts because of power outages which is being due to severe weather conditions, wind and wild fires and such. This is reported to be directly due to global climate changes related to pollution that is causing severe weather changes that will continue to damage the earth at an exponential rate. Apparently the things we are told that ruin the earth are things we all know and have been taught such as; , burning gasoline cars and fuel based things as well consumption of eating meat and other various machinery that hurts O-Zone damaging things as well as the machines it takes run various operations. They have ideas to fix these problems before the world completely roasts in a dark blackout of power. Ideas like “The Green New Deal” has a plan to run our biggest resources into mining the earth for rare metals and silvers to create solar energy and battery powered utopias on earth. Maybe you didn’t here me but our government is convinced that taking away anything that uses fossil fuels will help is out. The idea would not only replace almost all means of gasoline operated things on such a wide scale that it may even be illegal to own an old car. Next is the equality issues we see on the media which Biden already signed an order to hire a task force specifically to investigate any racially motived crimes. The fires in California were previously reported as angry protestors when global climate change could be the direct reason. Current 2021 videos show CA without power and rolling blackouts of internet, phones and basic needs are being cut off. Apparently they are purposely cutting their power because the city simply cannot sustain all the power usage of all the people at home. Solar doesn’t work when everyone is stuck locked down at home running juice all night and day. They simply can’t handle that much power usage even in one of the most richest cities. Only the very wealthy can survive at this very moment. The Earth seems to have given up on us but the scary part has nothing to do with naturally disasters. Eventually we might see the power being out for so long in California that the local businesses all flee from one of the largest and most technologically advanced states in our country. Once we lose all substantial amount of our basic services, deliveries, shipments, gasoline, groceries we become a 3rd world or as Trump said “A 9th world country”. Once this happens the domino effect happens with lightening speed. You might just simply ask yourself why don’t we just switch the electric power and be fine -well ask yourself how many businesses losing fossil fuels would be killed. Even though the new green deal plan offers tons of jobs for energy efficient green technology, it’s actually highly unlikely it will ever match efficiency. NOT TO MENTION, the only way to achieve lowering the Earth’s consumption is to cut back drastically on luxuries as well as anything fossil fuels that hurts the environment. No one will own anything and you will rent everything you use which aligns from the same agenda. I know what some of you hippies are thinking…hell yea! As you snap into a Granola bar. Well listen up you sick fucks…When our current economic environment cannot sustain a 1905 era of low energy living on candle light and driving horses and buggies and all that shit…well there is no going back. Another way our leaders in charge intend to save the environment is to dig up every square inch of our earth for resources to build tons of shit to make tons of solar powered equipment. The problem is that even then it won’t save us at all because for multiple solar or electric machines they must work over time to match Natural Gas technology. Let’s also remind ourselves that the last places we haven’t dug for resources like oil and special shit to keep the lights on is it involves going to other hostile countries for those things. So if those places have more energy and power they become superior than the other countries. This has created wars over history. So has that theory continues in our minds I think the end is coming because it doesn’t matter one way or another if the world is headed to natural disasters or not. Because the war on our technology has already weakened us and next is our complete destruction of money and last is our freedom removed. The reason why any of this is important is because as our economy and natural resources diminish, our leaders in charge were down to just two realistic plans to save the damn world. One of the plans is to go to solar energy and invest in ways to end all oppressions to create some type of peace which in this deal would basically help our energy and social issues on each side. Plus the UBI or universal basic income set by the government keeps people at a set income excited to tell each other about stimulus bonus days. The other plan was to keep on as we were going and cut back as necessary and let technology possibly advance enough to figure out a problem when we get closer to more issues. Basically open back up and toss a coin in the air really. It’s no mystery there are dozens of problems in the world right now with racism, homelessness, unemployment, social distancing, social unrest, government control and conspiracy theories galore. One thing is for sure, even speculating the power outages in CA and multiple agendas in the media you can’t deny that this Green New Deal they purpose will not only flatten the economy out like cookie dough. It will introduce communism on steroids’ that will monitor where you go, what you do, how much you spend, what you get, what you are worth to society based off your social score and monitor your every move. Money known as the fiat currency in the USA is being destroyed with every stimulus and bail out they print and print. Not to mention next to zero percent interest rates promoting Americans to take on more debt and leverage their money. Plus if you can’t pay your mortgage or rent they are offering more time leaving owners in financial devastation. Racism was resurrected to the point of violence and destructive events. Censorship is so heavy that people are often worried about what they say and who hears it or where they typed it. The internet use to be a vast gateway of knowledge and answers or solutions to life’s problems. Now it’s just a wasteland of lies and misinformation but what’s even worse is that much of it is catered to specific audiences. This means like a volume button “they” are able to control how much they feed you and how much they take away. The Energy crisis along side the unemployment rate breeding desperation, neighboring civil unrest and antigovernmental Militias is starting to surface. California is being taxed out of the state with debt price tags following them, look that up. Even if we were to speculate the causes of these wild fires or power outages in other states/countries that’s fine and of course electric cars and Jetsons style lifestyles sound great. However it wasn’t as realistic as we thought. With all of these issues the United States is having we run the risk of having another country happen to use a cyber attack to our power grid? This is the Grid that literally powers our country. If attacked we lose everything and it’s cave man era vulnerable to attack by anyone with a flashlight and weapon already pointed at us. Let’s not forget we are blaming China for something with the virus, Russia has never been our best friend and communist countries having a long history of not liking us. Who cares about an attack some might think? In our most poorest time in history and media working against us it doesn’t set us up very well to fight anything. Power outages in more cities that potentially could be on the way means chaos in our cities. I mean chaos across the country not just on the West Coast. So if we don’t experience an attack from another country we will lose our poor minds in the dark fighting each other over bullshit in our cities. This is the time that sticking together is literally the only thing we can do to survive as the inevitable conclusion that ” Survival of the Fittest” wasn’t world wide accepted by the lazy mutherfuckers and our destruction to the Earth is going to cause restrictions that challenge our every day of living so quickly that revolt will be the only answer to billions of different personalities. Money, guns, power and strength in numbers to protect our basic elements to survive. Like I said, two different ways to look at it is save the planet and restrict the fuck out of us. OR, go on living life like normal and see what wins the race for a remedy to the global warming. We as a country had to face the music which is that to create the exact energy sources we use with Fossil fuels and carbon foot prints/emissions etc to duplicate that power it would mean that by comparison the biggest battery factory that Tesla has made in NV would actually take hundreds of years of development to battery power to power the entire US for just 1 single day. Meaning we can’t leave fossil fuels just like that which also means the left and right of politics was on each of the fence arguing this issue. So living the good life like before would lead to destruction of the world due to fossil fuel “Gangdam” style “normal” living. You can choose whether to die with a granola bar saving the planet OR die with a piece of what you had before 2020 in your life. Choose to be the nail or the hammer. WS 4 Life even in a blackout.
The SkooB View 