It’s Tamara Warren, your faithful Gotryke Editor, and longtime writer of all things freelance. I love a New Year – especially this one — it’s the beginning of a new decade, and there’s the event of a Blue Moon this year to make it that much more grand. I’ll be toasting glasses and juice boxes with friends tomorrow, but here are 20 exciting reasons, I’m looking forward to Twenty-Ten. Count it down, baby.
1. The tech onslaught from CES in the first week of January. MP3 overload!
2. The North American International Auto Show in Detroit has cool cars coming. We’ve had sneak peaks at GM and Ford’s treasure chest. As for Cobo Hall? Still standing.
3. Driving Aston Martin Rapide through the Spanish countryside Feb. 1. Jealous?
4. Sade and Massive Attack in stores Feb. 9. Definitely, iPod necessary.
5. Benicio del Toro as the Wolf in “The Wolfman” in theaters on Feb. 12. Makes my hair stand on end, just thinking about it.
6. “How To Make it America” premieres on HBO Feb. 14. More to come on How To Make it from our camp with Lee Quinones weighing in on his contributions.
7. The Year of the Tiger also begins on Feb. 14. (Let the jokes commence.)
The Abstract Expressionist official USPS stamp goes on sale.
8. The Ford Fiesta drive in March. It’s a celebration of small cars!
9. Best-selling author of Faith Hill’s tell-all memoir and talented scribe Aliya S. King’s first novel “Platinum” hits shelves in June. Pre-order on Amazon for the perfect summer reading list.
10. “Ghostbuster III” goes into production. I was in the Ghostbusters in 3rd Grade. It’s what we named ourselves as a part of the nerd table-I mean- “gifted” program at Maple Elementary School. I’m definitely not afraid.
11. Cooking and Grape Harvest Tour in a Castle in Puglia, Italy — June 12-19 and Oct. 2-9. “Attend hands-on and small group cooking classes, taste amazing wines and extra virgin olive oils. Learn about the Mediterranean cuisine of Puglia. Come stay in a beautiful 17th-century castle with a swimming pool.” Ciao, bella!
12. Bicycles in California can be ridden without seats if designed to do so, according to California law, which goes into effect on July 1.
13. John Mellencamp and Stephen King’s “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County” debuts in September at an Atlanta theater. King and Mellencamp will appear on stage– both spooky and rocking. Sheryl Crow, Neko Case and Elvis Costello are on the accompanying CD playbill.
14. My grandfather becomes a centenarian Oct. 13. The Auschwitz survivor, great-grandfather and proud electrical engineer is an official triple threat.
15. Taking back the pen. Credible journalism explore Islamic news with integrity, enterprising reporting to sort out the rest of the world’s effect on our own.
16. The writer’s digital revolution. Let’s here it for more experienced journalists going digital, and bloggers engaging in ethical coverage. Recognize!
17. The zero-emissions Fisker Karma orders fulfilled.. some time?
18. The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Figure eight and breathless bob sleds are on the horizon.
19. The Chevy Volt in showroom in November. Detroit must deliver, says NPR.
20. More food, government health care, jobs for everyone incuding creatives, and world peace. Why not dream?
I edged the nose of the new Toyota Prius to turn onto the busy thoroughfare. I felt small and insignificant. No one could hear me, quiet as a church mouse with the super silent engine. I prayed no one whizzed by and missed me as I leaped forward into the blind spot. And on a few separate occasions, one of our test car drivers left a quiet hybrid running. He couldn’t hear it. Hence the latest quagmire of new technology — the too silent engine. For years, car companies have thrown money into making quieter luxury cars, and now that hybrid and electric engines have achieved that goal it’s back to the drawing board.
The New York Times reported on a precarious side effect of the hydrogen-hybrid industry — cars that are too quiet. That got me to thinking after chatting with a New York based music producer friend who works for Sirius/XM — why not produce automotive sounds? It could be a sample-based MP3. While you may not have the money or gas guzzler conscious to drive a Shelby GT500 or fully-loaded Dodge Ram, you could sound like one. In fact, tuning could become a whole new form of tune. Or perhaps there’s room for customization here –personalized car tunes. In fact, Henrik Fisker equipped the Fisker Karma with bumper noises quelled from Hollywood sound effect studios.
The article reports that Nissan is also in talks with the film industry on sounds for the Leaf battery-electric vehicle, and Toyota is engaged with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Federation of the Blind and the Society of Automotive Engineers on making faux-sounds. “One possibility is choosing your own noise,” said Nathalie Bauters, a spokeswoman for BMW’s Mini division.
The NY Times article also quoted Toyota spokesman, John Hanson. “I don’t know of any injuries related to this, but it is a concern. We are moving rapidly toward broader use of electrification in vehicles, and it’s a fact that these cars are very quiet and could pose a risk to unsighted people.”
While Hollywood is one avenue, there’s a quite a few Detroit producers who could reproduce sounds. The only question is, will they need to license the sample? Or will it be a new ProTools option? Perhaps someone should call Detroit producer Nick Speed — Speed knows sounds.
When it comes to the hybrid game, Toyota leads the pack, and with its latest intro, continues to set the place. The 2010 Toyota Prius is on the prowl, ready to throw a wrench in everyone else’s hybrid game. Put-putting along at low speeds to achieve maximum fuel economy, the Prius takes the hobby to a whole new interactive level, with technology that is accessible and easy to operate, and endless mpg streaming. (We’ve heard 70 mpg rumors, but unfortunately we don’t have the eco-minded patience to achieve such feats in the Gotryke Garage.) We spent a week in the Prius, being regular, which is at the end of the day what most Prius owners will do, averaging about 50 mpg. That means conducting errands in busy traffic, and making cross-town jaunts to art events and practical stops at grocery stores. We even tested the baby seat and stroller component with our starring backseat 1-yr old evaluator. Truth be told, the baby factor sometimes knocks small cars out of the game, with proportions that cancel out the passenger’s hope of leg room. For a small contender, the Prius survived our gear test. So what do we think about the looks and feel?
It’s a whole new look for the Prius in 2010, but it still looks like, eh, a Prius – a space-age four-door hatchback that seats five people, or three adults and one baby seat. [click to continue…]
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