Film Review: Da 5 Bloods

Been a loooooong time since I wrote anything here but what the hell…

Given where we are in the country and the hype surrounding the release of this film I felt I should see it when it “opened” which was last Friday 6/12. Filmed in early ‘19 and written originally back in ‘13 it does not have nearly the connections to current events that may critics try and draw. That said, given the ongoing issues regarding the BLM movement and the deaths of African Americans that have driven the aforementioned, it is nothing, if not timely.

First—The criminally under utilized and under appreciated Delroy Lindo dominates the film. No one else comes close. His conflicted Vietnam Vet with an affinity for Trump and MAGA hats is phenomenal. Its his film and his character of Paul is the prism through which we see the events including the death of the larger group’s leader, Norman, who is seen only in retrospect. Lindo’s Paul is more nuanced that critics give voice to. His criticisms of immigrants who take jobs from African Americans and his love of Trump for telling things like it is strikes a chord of truth in how some people of color view the President. Lee won’t see things in that manner but does little here to dissuade the viewer from agreeing with Paul’s strong beliefs. There is no counter to those jobs being taken away or the bluntness of the President’s language—conversely the course language, past relations with whores, children out of wedlock, heavy drinking, male bonding, etc. used here only serves to back the view that Trump talks and walks like a run of the mill American male of all colors and not the pantywaisted waif that Lee’s liberal leanings would have you want.

Second—The film is uneven. It has gigantic gaps in logic and emotion. Primary example? When Paul leaves the rest of “Da Bloods” behind to wander off into the jungle he does so with barely a blink or a tear from his son who has accompanied the group to this point. Nary a mention is made of his absence and none of his end. Its a thread that diverges completely from the rest of the film and it being self contained without impact or impression on the rest of the characters is a major fault. We return to it in the end by means of a previously written letter by Paul which is read by his son David but you sit and ask “Yeah, great, you’re sad now but you didn’t do anything to follow your father when he was at his weakest or even look back? How am I to have sympathy for you?”

Third—it does come off a bit like a Spike Lee film in the guise of Tarantino production. Both have operated in similar veins for years with Lee probly finding such comparisons insulting…but there it is. From the color palates, to the colorful language, the pop culture references, the work with people of color…they are more similar than they are different at this point, particularly since Lee has gone more mainstream vs. his early days of She’s Gotta Have It and School Daze which were decidedly uncommercial works. Here I mention the connection simply because some of the pop culture references are forced—Flight of the Valkyries as the boat goes up river? This is so much the case that the NYT came out with a “pop culture guide to Da 5 Bloods” today in order to key viewers in on all the references Lee makes. This isn’t additive. Its references for references sake…a “how cool do I look that I can include this?” moment. Tarantino does it and here so does Lee.

So what’s the end result? A largely enjoyable film that has Lindo’s performance as its centerpoint but is NOT the cultural voice on the issues of racism, class warfare, BLM or similar that critics wish to portray. Nor is it a real look at the African American experience in Vietnam that others have pushed out. Too little of the film deals with the war at all keeping enemies nameless and faceless and barely mentioned. Lee pays lipservice to the statistical inequities of more African Americans fighting and dying (on a % basis) than whites in Vietnam but that is glossed over in a one sentence description and not delved into further. This is a commercial film despite all its critical trappings—you get the “happy” ending, you get the resolution, the characters get the gold (literally), the good guys win, the bad guys lose, the violence is muted, people dance through clubs in Saigon, etc. Its enjoyable but does it speak to our real problems in a reasoned and impactful way? No. Watch it for Lindo. Watch it again for Lindo. Go back and watch Clockers for Lindo. Then get on with it.

Three Sci-Fi Novels...Two Good...One, Not So Much...

Maybe I’m just a classic Sci-Fi fan and am officially an “old”….

But then again…I’ll take the fact that I greatly enjoyed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and could not stand Consider Phelbas as a sign that I’m not quite ready for “retirement” yet.

Philip K. Dick’s seminal “DADOES” is of course the basis for the movie Bladerunner and one of if not the most well known of his works. Having read other novels by Dick I was not prepared for such a straightforward read. Less psychedelic than something such as Lies, Inc. or retro as The Man in the High Castle DADOES is more of a futuristic Raymond Chandler work than anything else with the beaten down gumshoe, perpetrators in hiding and femme fatale all included. Its a bit hard to read without picturing Harrison Ford as the protagonist and Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty given how closely the movie hewed to the book but seeing the film first and then reading the novel does not ruin the experience and each stands on its own as a masterpiece of its format. Ridley Scott’s film ends up being far more cyberpunk in nature and while still a core of any sci-fi curriculum, DADOES resembles The Man in the High Castle than it does something like Neuromancer or Snow Crash. Regardless, you will still be stunned by how prescient it is and how many underlying themes of AI, the nature of consciousness, role of media, etc. that are present here look out from their post some 50 years ago at today’s world. Putting this up there with 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 is completely appropriate.

Consider Phelbas on the other hand is an overly long, meandering, mess of a “space opera”. I began reading it as, well, Elon Musk kept naming his drone ships used to recover SpaceX rockets out in the ocean after ships present in these novels and I kept hearing about how these series of books by Iain Banks were so great and such a wonderful representation of AI, that I had to read them. I could not have been more disappointed. Outrageously long (seriously, do some authors get paid by the word?), silly in its action, disjointed, muddled, without purpose and seemingly just a series of ridiculous mishaps befalling the main character over and over. Throw in moronic depictions of “aliens” all over the place and you have a cajun soup of spacefaring tropes….I’ll pass regardless of who may think the book is worth it. Musk likely enjoyed it during an acid trip or two where everything seems “cool” without real analysis…

Lastly and unmentioned till now is Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers which is barely a sci-fi novel to begin with and unlike DADOES, its film version is NOTHING like the novel and in fact rather than honoring the novel, the film seeks to repudiate and make fun of the novel (connecting the Starship Troopers film to DADOES, Paul Verhoven the Starship Troopers director also filmed Total Recall, a film version of We’ll Remember it for You Wholesale another Phillip K. Dick short story). The written work contains nothing of the “action” one would expect. Outside of a short battle scene at the very beginning of the novel and a somewhat longer one that concludes the work the vast majority of the book is alternatively a description of training and integration into the Mobile Infantry as well as what are long, descriptive viewpoints given by various authority figures under which the protagonist receives his tutelage. Many a critic has taken issue with this, seeing it as merely being a mouthpiece for the author to express his views on the military, evils of communism, and growing softness of the West in general. Others have taken it further and put the work under scrutiny for racism, misongynism, and all sorts of other perceived evil “isms”. Critics, like Verhoven the direct of the film “version” miss much of the underlying themes or care not to find value in them. Heinlein was a well known Libertarian…not a facist, not a racist (hell, the main character here is of Philippine lineage). Heinlein was also vehemently anti-communist—thus the communistic nature of the “bugs” that are fought here. Value is placed in sacrifice of self for the benefit of society and I can hardly think of a more “leftist” viewpoint…but that is ignored by critics because of the positive light the military is given. Here the military is the savior of society…not just a somewhat necessary evil that many liberal school indoctrinated critics and “artists” see it as. Pairing this work with Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a phenomenal start for anyone interested in looking at the world through eyes which do not distinguish between race, religion, or any other characteristic other than what an individual brings of value to their fellow humans. Great works both.

Route 500 Trans-Lab Highway Stickers

As I made Mexico Route 1 stickers for myself and those who have traveled the length of Baja Rte 1 from the border to Cabo (no, if you’ve only gotten to Tijuana you don’t count) so I have made these. You can see the Baja ones in one of the posts below and are available as well.

These stickers are from another favorite road of mine but on the opposite corner of the continent. These commemorate a trip down Route 500 across Labrador. Ending in the “city” of Happy Valley-Goose Bay it is some 337 miles just within Labrador itself (not counting several hundred more unoccupied miles through Quebec before you even get started and is now evidently paved though was not when I traveled it some decade plus ago. It is about as remote as a road gets in North America and now connects to Route 510 which actually continues on from HV-GB out to the Atlantic coast…someday I want to travel that as well.

Its an epic journey, particularly when done in the Fall when I did it and I would say is the best time of year to do it. The road is solid, the bugs are dead, the mud is gone. The days are short and the weather can still be very cold, the snow deep and ice treacherous…but all in all, I’ll take that over mud and bugs any day.

So if you’ve also travelled this “highway” in either its old or new form…reward yourself and let other fellow travelers know you’ve done it too. And if you ever see my truck with the stickers reflecting trips down Mexico 1 and Labrador 500, stop me and say hello.

You can post comments here asking for these stickers or email me directly at: spalind@yahoo.com which is also my PayPal address if you want to shoot me a couple dollars to mail these out to you.

True Detective Season 3 Review

I had hopes coming into this season…not high hopes….just hopes.

After the disaster that was Season 2 that contained some of the worst dialogue and writing this side of a B-movie the producers tried to revert to the form of Season 1 which was some of the most intense drama ever created for the small screen.

In some respects Season 3 staring the now multiple Oscar winning Mahershala Ali succeeds and in others it falls far short. The acting is solid all around with exactly zero over the top, out of place performances like Season 2 was filled with from Vince Vaughn in particular. Ali and his cop partner played by a surprisingly effective Stephen Dorff are compelling characters each with their own vulnerabilities and both worth investing in. Carmen Ejojo, Ali’s wife in the series is less engrossing and is actually a turn off for the series with her portrayal of an independent, driven wife often distracting and not really pertinent to the core issues. Time and again we return to her as a token lead female for the sake of doing so but without real purpose.

I suppose the writers intended for her to be Ali’s anchor…the rock on which he would break…but in fact that role is already filled by Dorff who by the end clearly realizes that the most valuable person in his live has been his male partner…someone he can’t live without.

But I digress…the real issue here is the lack of real drama. Brooding music and a crazy Indian who blows up his house aside, I came away surprisingly bored. Skewer Season 2 all you want….and its a disaster…but I never found myself falling asleep during it. Here? We end up with a decidedly non-interesting finale in which everything turns out pretty much OK and we find out that the reason for all the not-really-that-horrible things we’ve witnessed was a sad daughter who wanted a surrogate child to take care of and then had a mental breakdown…not exactly the Satanic cults, human sacrifice, and frightening atmosphere of Season 1 nor the political and business infighting and violence found in Season 2.

Was Season 3 “bad”? No, not really. Was it a step up from Season 2 and redeem the series for the possible development of Season 4? Yes. Are critics climbing over themselves to declare it the best of the three seasons? Absolutely…and for various reasons including their own agendas. Don’t feel you’ve missed anything if you haven’t seen it. You haven’t and its not driving the common discourse the way Season 1 did week after week. As the police might say “Move along, move along…nothing to see here…”

Baja Russia Northern Forest Rally 2019

Just a quick blurb…

First event of the 2019 FIA World Cup for Cross Country Bajas…the only snow and ice rally-raid on any schedule. It usually has a relatively small entry list given how remote it is in Russia as well as the uncomfortable conditions. Other events on the schedule are in Spain, Italy, UAE, and Jordan among others. Most of the entrants are from Russia and the surrounding areas.

This year saw 33 entrants with a mix of UTVs, pickups and full Dakar-size "trucks”. Among these were some four Nissans with two Nissan Patrols, one Nissan Navara and one Nissan NP300 pickup. The two Patrols were under the control of some Turkmenistan drivers while the Navara was from Romania and the Transcarpatic Rally Team while the Pickup was under Russian control by the Uspenskiy Rally Tecnica team.

Roads were tight and technical and fully studded tires were allowed and you can see that narrow profiles were the order of the day.

Results after the five stages ended with a Fin (Fins and snow, right?), Tapio Lauronen, taking the win in a “Mitsubishi Pajero”. The best Nissan of the event ended being the #215 Patrol of the Muhammetmyret Gurbanov in 17th of the 20 finishers. The other Nissans finished 18th and 19th with the Navara not taking the checkered flag.

Nissans at the Kameel 250

This is a “warm up” race in South Africa before the larger National events kick off in March. Think of it as a “regional” event with a decidedly lower key atmosphere.

Still the race brought out some big guns, particularly on the Nissan side of things. Terence Marsh and the Red Line Racing team brought two of their top flight Navara’s out to race while other older Nissan Frontiers and even some old Datsuns were entered as well.

The Red Line Navaras finished 1 and 2 in their class, not much of a surprise given there were only three in their class but more importantly out of 43+ entries of all kinds finished 2nd and 15th overall. Oh, and the old green Datsun here also won its class—please note it leaf sprung front and rear ends…what a joy to race that thing!!

Enjoy the pictures and if you want to see more of what South African offload racing looks like go to the event’s Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Vryburgmotorclub/?tn-str=k*F

Mexico Route 1 "Euro" Stickers

This is a bit of a repost from my old blog but I recently got an order for four of these so I want to make sure to put the info up here as well. And I don’t want sell them through Amazon…You’d have to print thousands of these at a time to produce them cheap enough to offset the percentage of your sales that Amazon would take so I’ll sell them here as I always have in small batches. One item of change I have recently made to the design is in the movement of the “1” slightly to the left to make it appear more centered—in actuality the image of the “1” to the left IS centered based upon the flying tail at the top of the 1 and a number of Mexican road signs use the same centering method…however…centering the 1 based upon the “pillar” of the 1 and ignoring the flying tail I think gives it the appearance of being better centered and there are roadsigns that use that method as well…so I’ve made an artistic decision (sarcasm here) and gone with what I think is the better looking version. Let me know if you want to see what one looks like in this way and I can grab a shot of one.

Introducing the first real product from NISMOStuff Racing.  Not exactly a hardcore fabrication product but after racing down the Baja in this years NORRA 1000 (this was 2014) I knew I had to have these made.

Anyone who has driven Mexico 1 down the Baja Peninsula knows exactly what I'm talking about.  Military checkpoints, agricultural checkpoints, scores of dead bodies both animal and sometimes human, rampaging 18 wheelers, never ending construction zones, incredible roadside taco stands, friendly locals, slide-rule straight sections of highway, non-existent breakdown lanes, mangled guardrails, turquoise blue waters--there is nothing like it.

When I got home I knew I wanted something on my daily driver commemorating the trip and representing the difficulties involved in just traveling that road.  So I looked online...there a handful of places that sell similar Mexico Route 1 vinyl stickers for vehicles but none seemed to use the correct font or design to appear authentic.  So the above was designed and I had the result printed at a local car wrap facility using quality 3M vinyl.  The stickers are 3.25"s by 2.42"s.

I am selling them at this point for $5 inclusive of shipping to anywhere in the continental US.  The simplest way to purchase one or more is simply send me your mailing address along with an appropriate Paypal payment to: spalind@yahoo.com

They will ship the next business day after any order.  If Paypal doesn't work for you, just drop me a line at the same email address and I'm sure we can work something out (Square, Venmo, paper check, etc.)  Get your Mexico Route 1 vehicle sticker now--either for yourself or to hand out to the ever rabid Baja "steeker hunters"!!

Film Review: They Shall Not Grow Old

If this film is showing anywhere near you at this point in time you must go see it.

I included the trailer here but the trailer really does it no justice in terms of its visual impact.

I have never, until seeing this film, heard an entire audience audibly gasp at a film and its presentation as they did here. I hate 3D films. It was a gimmick that grew in popularity a few years ago largely for kids films and other popcorn material and has largely begun to fade away thankfully. I also don’t like the colorization of old black and white films. The colors are always off—particularly skin tones…and so I had reservations here.

Trust me…go see it in the manner Peter Jackson (he of Lord of the Rings fame) intended and see a 3D version (you will find some theaters showing 2D versions). The work done by Jackson and his staff of New Zealand artists in restoring and enhancing the 100 year old film is nothing short of a miracle. Also stay past the credits to see a 1/2 hour addition to the film that shows some of the painstaking work they went through to do the restoration. You will be amazed at the detail and improvements (not alterations) they were able to make.

So to the film itself. Its a documentary regarding WWI. It doesn’t cover the whole war and in fact only covers a “generalized” group of British men from their time joining up through their return to Britain after the war. Its real footage of the war is impressive enough on its own but its not the draw. The draw is the looks in the eyes of the boys (for the 14-17 year olds that often largely populated these armies are just boys) doing the fighting. Having never seen a film camera before they don’t understand that they can move while being filmed (vs. static cameras) and so stare at the film camera allowing you to see into I dare say their souls.

At moments heartbreaking in scenes of piles of broken and torn boys to images of disgust at rats feeding on the corpses of horses and humans to moments of humor and play in the trenches the film lays bare many of the horrors of war while also reflecting why many members who serve look back at such times with fondness longing for the close relationships that are only developed under fire.

Go see it. Its in limited release and not everywhere but where its showing the theaters are busy due to word of mouth. It won’t be around long in this format and won’t be nearly as impressive at home. You owe it to yourself to see it in this format. You will be awed at what Jackson has achieved.

Nissan Truck Sales January 2019

And we’re off!!

and walking…

Nissan corporate is in disarray if we are being honest. Ghosn and others under indictment and in jail…others fleeing the company before they get fired…Renault unsure of what to do with its position and influence on the company, its ownership of Mitsubishi still rudderless and sharply declining sales across the board in the US with a portfolio of generally good quality but uninspiring models…ugh…Oh…and the Next Gen Frontier? Likely not out soon enough to blunt the rush of small truck buyers who are scooping up the new Ford Ranger in droves (2,153 sales in January and likely to increase exponentially in February)

So Nissan truck sales in January ‘19? A mixed bag but perhaps better than Nissan as a whole in the US. Nissan sales overall were down 20% from January ‘18.

Nissan moved 6,062 Frontiers…a near 3% increase from a year ago and again, stunning for a 15 year old platform, and the most its moved in this period since ‘16.

As an FYI, the total Frontiers moved in ‘18 of 79,646 was the second highest annual figure EVER for this generation…only 2016 saw more Frontiers sold…all of which is COMPLETELY without marketing or any real push by the manufacturer…The highest ever sold for the Frontier came in the previous generation in 2000 with about 109K sold.

The Titan? Well….again and again I read in the press—”its a great truck with good quality but overlooked even when compared to Toyota’s Tundra”…well…there’s a reason for that…Nissan brought it out to minimal fanfare and has since largely orphaned its support. When you are bombarded with Ford, Chevy, Dodge and even Toyota adds 24-7 on their trucks you can’t compete for share of mind. Nissan has refused to acknowledge this.

Titan sales in January were just 3,031, falling well short of ‘18’s 4,051 which came on the heals of a strong College Football tie-in campaign. It does however mark the 2nd highest # of units sold since 2015 with only last year selling more.

Nissans at Dakar 2019--Final Results

It’s been a week or so since the dust settled (literally) and we can assess the results of the few Nissans who entered this year’s Dakar.

Both Jurgen Schroder and Shameer Variawa withdrew from the Dakar on Stage 5 of 10 due to its difficulty and repairs needed to the vehicles while on the stage causing them to time out of eligibility. Both were able to repair their vehicles and restart the event after “Rest Day”.

Shameer made it to Stage 8 where it hit something in the “fesh-fesh” that prevented him from continuing and ending his Dakar. His biggest hurdle he admits is the dunes and deep sand and has a lot of learning to do. His navigator also feels he has learned a lot after making some mistakes early on. The #429 Nissan however showed some real speed, running in the top 40 when healthy. This bodes well for Shameer’s future given this car has only been run a handful of times to date. Shameer also states that he will be back at the Dakar in this vehicle for 2020.

Jurgen Schroder also restarted after Rest Day and also was taken out before seeing the finish line. I had expected it to be Jurgen to make it to the finish in his Nissan if any did given his lengthy experience and prior Dakar finishes. Unfortunately engine issues ended their rally on Stage 6.

Last but certainly not least is the #419 of Thomas Bell. A Dakar rookie in a new car this South African team pressed on through some really tough circumstances including an accident on one of the transit roads that required Thomas to go to the local hospital, get checked out and medically cleared to reenter the race, get back in the race car and go on and finish the stage. The team finished 57th out of the 66 entrants to finish the event out of the original 99 starters in the care category.

So that’s it for this year. At least there were some Nissan entries and none were using “old” cars…all were in current generation T1 race cars which is good news. Also good news is the high level of business that Red Line Racing out of South Africa has for these cars…they are churning them out constantly and while not many go to Dakar they are spreading across the globe in a number of Rally Raid events due to their cost effectiveness. Red Line has new versions of the race Navarra/Frontier coming out later this year as well—one a solid axle rear end version and another a twin turbo version…should be great stuff!

Congrats to Thomas Bell and Red Line Motoring for the fantastic finish!

Book Review: A Separate Peace by John Knowles

While ostensibly about teen boys I’m not sure that this book is targeted at that audience.

I had picked it up due to its frequent listing on books for teen boys when looking at works for my own son to read. John Knowles used his own experiences at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH (one of the most prestegious schools in the nature acting as a feeder to the Ivy League) to drawn upon as well as his time in the US Air Force at the end of WWII.

Core themes here include numerous ones you would (in my opinion) want any son to learn in his youth—loyalty, strength, kindness, independence, athleticism, competitive nature, etc. A young man’s time at such an academy should shape what he is for the future—here we see it also forever impact their lives for both good and bad.

Its main characters, Gene and Phineas, share a friendship like many young men do when put in such close circumstances…they both love each other (and I do mean "love”) as well as have, at least from Gene’s perspective, a decided jealousy of the other for what Phineas can do that Gene can’t. Its this desire to outmatch his best friend’s efforts that cause the cascading set of events resulting in bitter self examination for one of them.

Many have pointed to a homosexual element to A Separate Peace…and it is there in some of the teens interactions and language—however—the author has strongly disagreed that he ever had any intent to include any homosexual interactions between any of the characters. If he says so, I would tend to agree…so what do I attribute it to? I see only what I have come to view as the “homosensual” (a term a college professor of mine coined) nature of these schools. In any situation where young men are thrown together for extended and confined periods of time there is bound to be this sort of contact and commentary between one another. Disagree??

Please go see Winston Churchill, George Leigh Mallory, and any number of other male histories of those brought up through the English Academy system of education in the 1800 and 1900’s of which there is buckets of documentation. This contact between males may or may not end up sexual nature but either way it was understood by those of the time that these sort of relationships would develop in such environments and would naturally dissolve upon their transition to the “real” world. With Knowles having been brought up through such a system it is natural that he would describe actions and events that may appear to modern eyes to be homosexual in nature but in reality are “merely” the type of contact that often develops between young men in such situations having little to do with true “sexual” attraction a we think of it in the male-female “norm”.

Regardless, the book doesn’t focus on this issue, I just wanted to mention it. The novel itself is deeply affecting and could be seen as both an anti-war novel as well as a “coming of age” tale. In both regards it succeeds and is well worth anyone’s time in reading, particularly any man’s time as there are numerous items and emotions that will readily appear familiar to those found in both one’s own youth as well as their present. Its lessons are universal in time and place and more boys would be better off if they took the lessons to heart.

Nissans at Dakar 2019 Update

So it could be worse….

With only three Nissans running there really wasn’t much hope of a great finish but there has been some sign of future success.

Of the three, two are still running.

The #319 of Jurgen Schroder, the most experienced and battle tested of the three teams has been forced to bow out after Stage 6. Engine issues had taken them out on Stage 5 but with repairs to the vehicle they were able to restart the race on Stage 6 to contest the 2nd half of the Dakar. It was not to be. Stage 6 saw a return of engine troubles and this time they could not be repaired. Reportedly some sort of crankshaft failure that melted a sensor (at least that is the Google German translation.

The #429 rookie team of Shameer Variawa running their Frontier/Navarra in only its second event had issues on Stage 5 that prevented them from properly finishing the stage but were still running. The effected the minimal repairs and restarted Stage 6, again with the intent of contesting the 2nd half of the Dakar which is a new rule in ‘19. Prior Dakar’s had banned racers from running at all once they failed to finish a stage. Now there is a limited, one time “restart” allowed though such racers are relegated to a different class and cannot contend for the overall win. Still Variawa is running well, finished Stage 7 in 5th out of the 24 cars restarting under these rules and stands in 10th overall for those who took advantage of this new rule.

Lastly there is the #419 of Thomas Bell. This Nissan is still running and still in the big event, not having any serious mechanical or navigational issues that put them out of the event. Stage 7 saw the South African team finish the day in 50th place and running as high as 34th. Overall they sit 54th out of the 61 teams still running (99 started the event) with two three stages left.

Overall? The two rookies are still running which is a big deal and all have equipped themselves well, showing the platform does have potential and can run in the top 30-40 in this event. Nissan still needs more entries to really be a force but as always…we’ll take what we can get.

Ashton Woods, Windham, NH

Went for a short hike today around a little area my town purchased in order to maintain as conservation land.

In combination with the purchase of an area called Clyde Pond, the purchase of Ashton Woods is 3/4 of a mile or so from my house and is clearly home to a large number of beavers, deer, owls, hawks, muskrats, turtles and other wildlife. The 40 acres of Ashton woods are connected to other conservation land surrounding the high school and other residential areas. about 2 acres of the 40 are open pond while much of the rest is marsh/swamp. The “trails” within it are barely used and difficult to distinguish at times and do not go all the way around the property. Bushwacking on the Northwest side of the land is required.

It also appears that there was a dump or in looking at a Windham map of the land, perhaps an auto repair garage and home on the Northwest side of the property as well given the junk and garbage present there along with two monitoring wells in that same area that I can only assume are there to monitor for groundwater contamination. Regardless…most of the property is quite nice and secluded and quiet. Now kept in an undisturbed state it should provide excellent water filtration, drainage and wildlife habitat for the coming years. I am going to try and research the garbage/debris and find out its origin as I’m curious given the notations of the garage on the town map…

Nissans at Dakar 2019

Been following and posting this info for the past few years and 2019 is no different.

Three Nissan Navaras in this year’s Dakar, all coming out of the same Red Line Motorsport shop in South Africa. Two drivers are newbies to Dakar while one is an old hat.

Today, 1/8 marked the second day of the race…after an 80+ km “warmup” stage yesterday, today was about 350kms. What is really interesting this year is that near 100% of the racing over 10 days is done on the sand and in the dunes of Peru vs. the dirt/gravel and WRC like roads in recent editions. This puts a priority on route finding and sand skills.

The old hand, Jurgen Schroder in his #329 Navarra finished 37th out of 94 listed finishers and now sits in 36th overall in the event.

The newest entrant and one who may have the fastest effort once he gets a bit of experience is the #429 of Shameer Variawa who came across 66th today moving to 65th. He had trouble with navigation, a puncture and his starter today, so just finishing at all today is a win.

Lastly is the #419 Navarra of Thomas Bell, also in his first Dakar finishing 61st in the second stage, also improving his standing to 58th for the event.

Prior statistics say that only one of these entries will finish the event but I’m hoping for better as while navigation will be tough throughout the event the sand should create fewer impact related stress on the vehicle—though perhaps greater strain on the engine given having to keep tire spin and revs up in order to get through the deeper sections. I’ll keep updating as the race goes along and including photos as I find them.

Film Review: The Way Back

Well…if I’m being political…there certainly is a reason this film has gone unnoticed.

You couldn’t find a more anti-communist film in today’s Hollywood. From beginning to end the Communist system and officials are endlessly demonized—and appropriately so. While part of Russia was busy trying to beat back Hitler, Stalin was also busy rounding up hundreds of thousands and shipping them off to Siberia where many would die simply for being an intellectual or merely suspected of having an opinion outside the Communist party line.

Over and over the film hammers home the removal of individual freedom in the Russian system. Over and over you are struck with the cruelty of the Communist system and its supporters.

The film itself was directed by a top notch filmmaker in Peter Weir (Gallipoli, Year of Living Dangerously, Dead Poets Society, Witness, Truman Show, Master and Commander: Far Side of the World, etc.) and it has A-list actors in Ed Harris, Colin Farrell and Jim Sturgess. All do solid work in their roles as Polish and Russian escapees from a Siberian gulag. Their foot based journey over 4000 km from Siberia to India is covered in detail taking them from snowy forests in Russia to caves and deserts of Mongolia. Never leaving their side though is the horror of being returned to the Communist system…and its that fear, less than that of the harsh prison that hangs over everyone. A system that turns wife against husband, brother against brother…one that strips individuals of all free will that is the bigger horror than any environmental danger.

This one likely goes on all “young conservatives” list of films to watch from the past 10 years. Its faults, and it has a few, is its length (at over two hours you FEEL the length of their journey) and externalization of danger as almost all conflict is vs. nature itself or vs. the Communist system. There is no person or object against which the characters really struggle…they just move from one poor environmental condition to the next, which makes for some pretty scenes on film but not overly thrilling.

Worth a watch. Might want to sit Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez down for a watch as well…

December 2018 Nissan Sales

So let’s not kid ourselves…we only care about trucks or maybe SUVs…if they’re cool.

Nissan released its final number for both December and its full year 2018 results. Overall Nissan sales were up more than 7.5%but that didn’t offset earlier declines and overall ‘18 results were down some 6% from ‘17. This isn’t necessarily terrible given how strong the whole industry was in ‘17 and ‘18 truck results were what I’d call “acceptable”.

December was another exceptionally strong month for the Frontier, moving 7500 trucks bringing ‘18’s results to about 80,000. Given this is a now 13+ year old platform that showed a 7% growth over ‘17, Nissan execs have to be wondering why they would ever bother replacing it…Hell, why not introduce a new model and continue to market a down-contented “classic” Frontier as they have with the Rogue in the past?

The Titan? Oh the Titan…as an owner of a ‘17 Titan (and Frontier, and Pathfinder) I root for this truck but despite the money Nissan spent in developing it and what a quality truck it is—strong engine, good quality, good amenities, solid towing and cargo, good gas mileage, etc. Nissan just hasn’t seemed interested in promoting it outside of the occasional small sponsorship. People just truly don’t realize the value the truck is given its 100,000 mile warranty. And so…its December sales were only 4,600+ units bringing its ‘18 total to about 50,500 which is down from ‘17’s 53,000. There is just too much competition in this segment for Nissan to let it sit without major marketing backing.

So that’s it for the month and year…we’ll see what ‘19 brings…maybe the intro of the next Frontier?

Black Mirror Bandersnatch

Black Mirror as a series is one of my favorite items on all of TV. I was an early adopter on this and it rarely lets me down. Seminal episodes like “San Junipero” and others are simply the best of what has been produced on all visual media in the past 20 years.

The most recent episode if you can call it that is a one off “movie” of sorts released just a few days ago and if are here, I’m betting you’ve heard of it given its hype. The series pushes the envelope a bit with this one and it doesn’t completely succeed. The whole “audience chooses the outcome” movie/TV thing has been done in the past and this is probably the best effort in this direction to date but the whole format, while interesting for artists, always leaves the audience experience lacking.

The acting and story are great and hop on the retro-cool of the 1980’s thing that is popular at the moment and carry it off well. Throw in the geek-chic dialogue and mentions of Commodore computers, early stage video game industry, new wave music drops and it all seems like a home run.

The conceit here is that as you progress through the movie, you, the audience get to chime in with what you want the main character’s decisions to be. What you choose through a click of your remote determines various outcomes in the film—Will the character listen to this music or that music? Will he accept the job or not? Will he punch his dad or run out of the room and so on…

In the end there are really about (I say about because there are numerous rabbit holes you can go down and lots of easter eggs to be found) five endings to get to and I got to all five making different decisions and being looped back to redo decisions when my original ones end the film quickly. In all my experience lasted close to an hour and a half and much of it was enjoyable…but I couldn’t help feeling like there was only one true ending that the directer really wanted and every time I made a decision that branched off from that ending, it would loop me back eventually. Great…I get to see what the director thinks of my decisions but I don't get a complete narratively cohesive work. Watching a film and seeing that the story can have multiple endings takes away from the emotional impact of all of them…Its like watching the Godfather and being told—Well, Don Corleone only has to die if you choose for him to die…great…that totally ruins the weight of the work.

I applaud Netflix for attempting this and Black Mirror was certainly the right vehicle for the effort. While supremely interesting and among the best things on TV, this singular episode is both a success and a failure at the same time….much like its audience driven methodology.

Oh and in case you were wondering…”Bandersnatch” Its a silly word for an imaginary creature coming from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass”, the companion piece to “Alice in Wonderland” and specifically the “Jabberwocky” poem contained within it…

Too Old for Bad Books

So this is where I’ve gotten to be in life…

No longer am I willing to continue slogging through books in order to get to the end and claim that I’ve finished it, no matter how revered the book is or what status it may imbue upon me to be able to legitimately claim to have read it. Life is too short.

Up first on my “discontinue” list? Two revered books from completely different genres.

Initially I thought “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” was going to be an interesting reflection and wise observation on the protagonist’s life intertwined with the focus and simple mechanics that make a motorcycle run. In reality it immediately devolves into the author’s cult like psychobabble that appeals only to those hippies who have dropped acid too many times to know the difference between good and bad material. The fact that this book has been purchased so many times only means there are a lot of brain dead people out there…Not worth my or your time…

I did get several hundred pages into the book because Pirsig weaves a thread into the work covering the protagonist’s (really Pirsig himself) travels with his son cross country on, yes, a motorcycle. This real world story is far more interesting than the metaphysical babble (author was a philosophy and journalism major and went to Zen conferences and studied “Eastern Thought”…) the author tries to impart as advice on his audience. The father-son interplay is far more interesting…but not enough to keep one reading

Second on my list? Another beloved work but here from the SciFi genre. As a youth there were always peer geeks who slavishly spoke about how great and how funny “Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was. Maybe if I was an 11 year old boy I would have been able to finish this but certainly not now. Its not that I’m humorless, I find many things to be funny. It’s not that I don’t enjoy different strains of humor—Monty Python to Beavis and Butthead I find humor in. And geeky? Well I’ll have you know I think I still have some D20s rolling around my house somewhere. This work is just “silly”…and not in a good way. It is so nonsensical as to dull the wit. Words are fabricated, tangents are taken, non-sequiturs used…all to little effect. Adams (author) does not bring me in to care about Arthur Dent or Ford Prefect (the two main characters) and they remain cardboard cutouts of zero consequence in the first 100 pages where I left it off to be moronic and useless and sold on Amazon for 25 cents.

So there is my philosophy for the day…life is too short...there is too much rare good out there to spend time wasting with the popular bad…