#two way radios rentals Philadelphia

[rent2way]

As a product built to the DMR standard, the PD702 has a compact, yet durable design which has been tested to IP57 water/dust protection and military spec standards. State-of-the-are digital DMR technology allows it to provide versatile digital functions such as secure encrypted communication and spectral efficiency. These radios are compatible with Motorola’s Mototrbo products in both direct and repeater mode. This makes it possible for a company to deploy both Mototrbo and HYT

[unicornery]

For my own amusement, I started tracking how the songs from the Billboard Hot 100 from this week in 1974 have been used in movie soundtracks. Feature Films only people! As you read, you will see the “gimmes” that made me think of the idea, but I’m putting this behind a cut because there ended up being so many which had a soundtrack match. As a reminder, you can follow along as I do the Hot 100 each week corresponding to which classic AT40 and VJ Big 40 get played on SiriusXM ‘70s on 7 and ‘80s on 8 respectively with my ever-changing Spotify playlist. 

100. “Beyond the Blue Horizon” - Lou Christie. This one is a cheat because when I looked it up on Spotify it showed up on the Rain Man soundtrack. The only song I could have told you off the top of my head was in Rain Main is the Belle Stars’ version of “Iko Iko.” Rain Man marked the first soundtrack appearance for Christie’s version. 

98. “The Air That I Breathe” - The Hollies. Very memorable appearance in The Virgin Suicides, which had the score done by, wait for it, French electronica duo Air. The song would go on to be heard in other movies. 

90. “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” - Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. The Paper Lace version appears in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Both acts topped the charts with the song on opposite sides of the pond: Paper Lace in the UK and Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods in the US. [Update: the BD&H version may be in "To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday"] 

87. “Hollywood Swinging” - Kool & the Gang. This oft-sampled track first appeared in a feature film in the 2005 Get Shorty sequel Be Cool. 

84. “La Grange” - ZZ Top. Armageddon first, followed by others. 

68. “Band on the Run” - Paul McCartney and Wings.  I didn’t search for this at first because I didn’t think there would be anything, but then Jet was on the chart at #27, so I did a twofer search on imdb. Jet has not been in any films (save “One Hand Clapping, a rockumentary on Paul, which I don’t count for purposes of this discussion) but “Band on the Run” appears in The Killing Fields, in a shocking scene that contrasts the light tone of the pop song with the horrors of the Khmer Rouge’s executions of Cambodian citizens. 

66. “For the Love of Money” - The O’Jays. Has been used many times, according to IMDb the first feature film use was the Richard Pryor roman a clef (if I’m using that right, I only know it from Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man) Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling. 

59. “Rock Around the Clock” - Bill Haley and his Comets. Notably used in Blackboard Jungle, the song is on this 1974 chart for its appearance in American Graffiti. 

55. “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” - Rick Derringer. First one that comes to mind is Dazed and Confused bc I had that soundtrack, but it has been in others.

49. “Love’s Theme” - the Love Unlimited Orchestra. The swirling strings of this song indicate that someone is indeed falling in love. That’s my way of saying, if you think you haven’t heard this, you have. Imdb has it in Mean Girls, among others. 

47. “The Way We Were” - Barbra Streisand. The titular song of the 1973 film The Way We Were, starring Barbra and Robert Redford. A little long, but worth a watch bc Barbra is amazing in it. At the 1974 Academy Awards, Marvin Hamslich won Best Original Song honors for this tune, and was awarded Best Original Dramatic Score for his other musical work on the film. I always think of Lisa Loopner’s big crush on him.  

44. “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” - Stevie Wonder. First feature film usage was the 1998 Eddie Murphy flop Holy Man, which surprised me as it’s such a good song, you’d think it would have been in something earlier. Notable given Eddie’s impression of Stevie Wonder he performed on SNL! 

42. “Rock On” - David Essex. Michael Damian’s cover (or remix as described by Patton Oswalt) was recorded for the 1989 2 Coreys classic Dream a Little Dream, and per imdb, David Essex’s original appears in the alternate-history comedy Dick, from 1999. 

37. “Oh Very Young” - Cat Stevens/Yusef Islam. Surprisingly, this sweet song appears in the gross-out bowling comedy Kingpin. 

36. “Jungle Boogie” - Kool & the Gang. This song may have been used in the most films and tv shows of any I’ve researched so far, but its first appearance was in Pulp Fiction. 

34. “The Payback - Part 1” - James Brown. First feature film appearance was in 1995′s Dead Presidents. A different James Brown track appears on the soundtrack for racist-ass Melly Gibson’s Payback from 1999. 

33. “Help Me” - Joni Mitchell.  Another why’d-it-take-ya-so-long shocker, this mellow tune first appeared in the 2018 sci-fi movie Kin, narrowly beating Welcome to Marwen from 2019. 

31. “The Entertainer” - Marvin Hamlisch. The title theme from the Redford/Newman team-up The Sting. Hamlisch won a record-tying third Academy Award in 1974 for Best Original Score for The Sting.  It seems at this time Best Original Score and Best Original Dramatic Score were separate categories. Hamlisch would win Grammys for both this and “The Way We Were,” eventually becoming an EGOT winner in 1995.

30. “Eres Tú” - Mocedades. This Spanish Eurovision entry notably appears in the buddy comedy Tommy Boy when Chris Farley and David Spade’s characters sing along with the radio. 

28. “Midnight at the Oasis” - Maria Muldaur. Catherine O’Hara and Fred Willard perform their own rendition in the Christopher Guest film Waiting for Guffman. That should be all you need, but imdb has the first film appearance for the song as 1995′s Falcon and the Snowman. 

24. “Let it Ride” - Bachman-Turner Overdrive. This lesser-known but not less great BTO jam has appeared in a handful of films, the first being Ash Wednesday, starring Elijah Wood and directed by Edward Burns and not Garry Marshall. Note: it does not seem to be in the Richard Dreyfuss gambling movie Let It Ride, a classic VHS cover of my youth. 

18. “Mockingbird” - James Taylor and Carly Simon. Memorably performed by Harry and Lloyd in the dog van in Dumb and Dumber, later joined by a Latinx family on guitar and vocals.  Before that, Beverly D’Angelo and Chevy Chase’s characters also sang it on their road trip in National Lampoon’s Vacation. I couldn’t find an instance where James and Carly’s version played in a movie but I am sayin’ there’s a chance. That it could be someday. 

16. “Tubular Bells” - Mike Oldfield. This instrumental is best known for being the theme to The Exorcist, but I was surprised to learn from the Wiki entry that it was not written for the film. Tubular Bells or something that’s meant to sound like it has been in a ton of other things, generally uncredited. Of note: Mike Oldfield would go on to do the score for The Killing Fields. 

14. “Seasons in the Sun” - Terry Jacks. Now here is the type of song that ‘70s haters point to as an example of the whiny wuss rock that they feel over-dominated the era. It’s not one of my favorites but I appreciate it for how weird it is. I suppose being translated into English from a French/Belgian poem will do that to ya. Before I did my search, I imagined I would find it in a Farrelly Brothers movie or two, possibly the Anchorman sequel. However, the only feature film match I found was the 2002 indie flick Cherish, a movie I have never seen despite being confronted by the cover many times at rental places over the years. Before today, when I watched the trailer, I would have told you it starred Jennifer Love Hewitt and was about “a band trying to make it.” It turns out I am thinking of the 1999 film The Suburbans. Anyway Cherish seems aggressively indie and very of-its-time in a way that makes me want to watch it. 

13. “Dancing Machine” - The Jackson 5. The song appears in the Blaxploitation spoof I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, as well as the movie of Starsky & Hutch.

11. “Lookin’ For A Love” - Bobby Womack. This was in the movie of The Ladies Man starring Tim Meadows as his SNL character Leon Phelps. I almost skipped this one but I’m glad I didn’t because Tim Meadows rules.

8. “The Loco-Motion” - Grand Funk Railroad (the single and album it was on are credited to Grand Funk). We have our second song from the Kirsten Dunst/Michelle Williams movie Dick. Since that was satirizing Nixon and Watergate, well done to the filmmakers for including these 1974 hits!  It appeared in one earlier film, My Girl 2. 

5. “Come and Get Your Love” - Redbone. Known to modern listeners for appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy. [Sidebar: if you can find a way to listen to the With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus episode T.G.I.G.O.T.G.OST (Thank God It’s the Guardians of the Galaxy Original Soundtrack) with Sean Clements and Hayes Davenport, do it!] The song first appeared in Dance Me Outside, a Canadian film about First Nations youth, which is a cool parallel with Redbone being composed of Native American musicians. “Come and Get Your Love” is also in Dick! 

4. “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” - Gladys Knight & the Pips. Another SNL feature pops up on our list, 1994′s It’s Pat: The Movie. 

3. “Hooked on a Feeling” - Blue Swede. ALSO known to modern listeners as being from the GOTG, but possibly only in the trailer? I’m fuzzy. The song ALSO also appears in Dick, and its first feature film appearance was Reservoir Dogs. 

2. “Bennie and the Jets” - Elton John. You know it, you love it, you cackle at the gag in Mystery Team. IMDb has this song down as first appearing in the low budget feature Aloha, Bobby and Rose, from 1975. It is ALSO in My Girl 2, with proper credit for Sir Elton. 

1. “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” - MFSB featuring The Three Degrees. IMDb says this appeared in the Al Pacino film Carlito’s Way, and I have no reason to doubt them because it means we are done! Thanks for readin’ and rockin’ along. 

[toothtub05-blog]

The Linc - Sidney Jones among Eagles players who will define the 2019 season

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

Lawlor: Six Eagles Who Will Help Define 2019 - PE.com Sidney Jones had a good offseason. He flashed serious talent and expectations were high going into the season. Jones played well early on. He was mostly in the slot and many people wanted him to move to the outside, where the Eagles were struggling a bit. In Week 6, Jones hurt his hamstring and then missed the next three games. He came back against the Saints but reinjured the hamstring. He missed the next game. Jones came back for the next couple of games, but got hurt during the game in Dallas and really struggled. He just couldn’t run. He didn’t play anymore in 2018. Jones showed some talent. The problem is that he only played in nine games. He has got to find a way to stay healthy. Jones’ play dipped as the season went along. Part of that may be due to injury, but not all of it. He must get better, both in coverage and as a tackler. If Jones can take a notable step forward like Agholor did, it would make the defense substantially better in 2019. Jones spent most of his time in the slot last year, but I’m guessing he plays mostly outside in the upcoming season. Anyone who watched Jones play in college knows the talent is there. He’s got the potential. We just have to see if he can put it all together at the NFL level.

Busting six myths from the Eagles’ 2018 season - BGN Nick Foles averaged 22.1 points per game in five regular season starts and two playoff starts, while Carson Wentz averaged 22.0 in his 11 starts. Of course, two playoff games are tougher draws for an offense, so that should be considered, but while Wentz averaged nearly 15 passing first downs per game during his time as starter, Foles averaged just shy of 13. Carson Wentz had seven performances with a passer rating over 100, while Foles had two. Foles certainly came through late in games and helped the team win two huge contests with last minute drives against the Texans and Bears, but Wentz had a 4th-quarter passer rating of 102.4, while Foles’ was 67.5. The biggest difference in Wentz’ ability to put points on the board and Foles’ time in the starting lineup wasn’t what they were doing on offense, it’s what the defense was doing to help out. The defense allowed an average of 23.3 points per game when Wentz was in there, as opposed to 18.1 points per game for Foles.

For First-Time Head Coaches Brian Flores and Zac Taylor, It’s a Post-Super Bowl Scramble - MMQB Nick Foles and Teddy Bridgewater would be the next two quarterback names on the list. And one agent raised the possibility that their teams could transition tag them ahead of free agency. There’s merit to the idea on the surface. Bridgewater won’t be franchised. Foles, you’d imagine, only would be if Eagles czar Howie Roseman had a trade worked out before the tag window closes. And so retaining matching rights might give these teams hope to hold on to valuable backups. The problem? The salary cap. The Saints and Eagles project to have less than $10 million in breathing room each—both are top five in money committed to the 2019 cap right now—and the transition tag at quarterback is expected to top $20 million. So Bridgewater or Foles simply signing their tenders could create problems, even after the teams make some moves to clean up the cap, logistically, if the Eagles or Saints wanted to do anything in March. That means it’s a good bet Bridgewater is on the market unfettered in March. And it’s not hard to imagine Foles getting there either.

Kyler Murray and One Coach’s Argument For Why The Small QB Will Have a Massive Impact in the NFL - FMIA Nick Foles heads toward Franchisetagville.

NFL Trade Rumors: Redskins were interested in trading for QB Joe Flacco - Hogs Haven Reports came out today that the Redskins were also interested in trading for Flacco. The Redskins love trading for older QBs on the downside of their career. Flacco will count for $18.5 million on this year’s cap. This would have been a ridiculous amount for the Redskins considering they have Smith’s $20.4 million and McCoy’s $3.375 million($2m dead money). The Redskins are likely to bring in at least 1 new QB this offseason, unless they plan on tanking the season with McCoy/Johnson behind center. There will be expensive rentals like Case Keenum and Nick Foles available. Or cheaper backups like Teddy Bridgewater and Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Will Eli Manning return for his 16th season with the Giants? - ESPN When will there be a decision about Manning’s future? A final verdict needs to be made by March 17, which is the fifth day of the new league year and when Manning is guaranteed a $5 million bonus if he’s on the Giants’ 90-man active roster. That would all but cement his status for 2019. Of course, it’s likely a decision will be made before then. The Giants can’t afford to be so patient. Free agency begins March 13. Teams can begin negotiating with players March 11. If the Giants elect to dip into the free-agent waters, they’ll need to make Manning aware of their intentions. They aren’t about to leave the most accomplished quarterback in franchise history dangling while flirting with a potential replacement, especially not with their concerted effort to handle his case carefully after what unfolded with his benching during the 2017 season. The more likely date to watch is Feb. 26. That is when the combine begins. The combine is where a lot of behind-the-scenes flirting takes place. It’s expected that the Manning decision will be made public before that week is over.

Pre-Combine Risers I Just Don’t Get - The Draft Network But you have to pick up the other end of the stick: unheralded players who, despite being draftable, don’t deserve the same pre-Combine juice as other late discoveries. Sure, they might even be better than you thought given their in-season hype, but that doesn’t mean they’re more than Day 3 pieces, with intriguing traits or tape to some degree. But it’s important to remember that uncovering those players as better than expectation does not mean they have to catapult in the top of your rankings. It’s important to calibrate, and remember sometimes Day 3 guys are just that: Day 3 guys.

The NFL’s collusion settlement suggests Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid had a case all along - SB Nation For the NFL to decide not ride out the lawsuit, and settle with both Reid and Kaepernick instead, suggests that the two players had a case. This settlement also came before discovery, a period in which more evidence is brought forward, was completed. The NFL chose to close the lawsuit before whatever skeletons they might have had in their closet were potentially exposed. They paid for silence.

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Source: https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2019/2/18/18228865/eagles-news-sidney-jones-among-players-who-will-define-2019-season-philadephia-cornerback-slot-cb

[selectautoglassplus]

Auction Autos Inspection Tips

Looking to buy your next car at an auction? There are a few things you need to keep in mind and be prepared for when buying this way. The main thing is to get your head straight. You are trying to save money, right? Don't get caught up in a bidding war. Know beforehand how much you want to spend and stick to it. Check your emotions at the door so you don't get carried away. This holds true for all sorts of auctions --real estate, collectables, etc.

What kind of auto auction is this? Police impound? Municipal government surplus? Repossessed? Rental fleet? It's important to know what sort of life your car has "lived" before you two met. A vehicle used by the police may have seen some rugged action chasing bad guys. And that fancy Mercedes over there could have been the one being chased. Now, if the auction is for repossessed cars that the bank took back from someone who suffered some financial loss, chances are it's not been "ridden hard and hung up wet." In any case, you need to inspect it. Here's what I do:

1. Start at the bottom. Look at the tires--better yet, feel the tread. If there is uneven wear or the tread has a "saw toothed" feel, that may indicate suspension and alignment problems.

2. Look under the engine and the transaxle (on rear wheel drive cars) for any wet, oily drips on the ground. Also look for any crud that's stuck to these areas where there is oily "sweat" road grime coating it. These are from leaky seals and could indicate serious maintenance problems.

3. Stand up (stretch you back) and go to the four corners of the car. Press down firmly on each corner and let go. If the car bounces, you'll need shock absorbers or struts.

4. Pop the hood. Take a helicopter view of the engine. Look at everything, and if there are any loose wires, corroded connections (battery) frayed electrical tape, cracked "rubber booties" on the spark plugs, ragged belts or dried out, cracked hoses, you should be aware that these things will cost money to repair. Check the oil. If it's dark and smells burnt, there's a problem. Check the transmission fluid. It should be a transparent amber color and at the proper level. Check the coolant level and the brake fluid levels If these are not ok, adjust you bid accordingly.

5. Inspect the exterior. Is the paint and shine regular all around the car? No ripples? Is the gap between the doors, hood and trunk even with the body of the car? If it is, good. If it's not, the car has been hit and it wasn't repaired properly. Beware.

6. Open the doors--all of them. Listen for squeaks and groans--not good. Check the glass for even the tiniest of cracks and chips. Do the windows roll up and down easily? Try them all.

7. Get in. Is the seat firm and comfortable? Or does it feel like a hippo has been sitting there?

8. Turn on the engine and listen for knocks and noises. Press on the gas. Any vibrations? Noises? Let it idle and look at the exhaust pipe. Any smoke? A little is OK, a lot is not!

9. Check the radio, CD player, cigarette lighter, turn signals, interior lights, head lights, brake lights, and everything else you can that should work from the inside.

10. Get out, shake your head, look disgusted (even if you really like the beast). This last one is to psyche out the other bidders and possibly reduce the competition when the bidding starts.

Window Tint Philadelphia PA

[usuallyrics-blog]

Freestyle On Flex

New Lyrics has been published on usuallyrics.com https://usuallyrics.com/lyrics/freestyle-on-flex/

Freestyle On Flex

What we doing, Flex? They see us, Funk Flex, Meek Mill, 017 I mean, why not? Dreamchasers in the building, you know what it is Philly, New York City, what’s up? All my NY niggas, what’s up? The mafia, ha, let’s get it!

Mixed the Balmain with the Bape shit, I’ve been going ape shit Finna go banana like the K clip Niggas talk about me, they see me and never say shit Keep them suckers dippin’ and dodgin’, like it’s The Matrix Heart full of hatred, show it on the Internet Weirdo niggas in my comments, but we ain’t into that We was in there making it double and tryna get it back Bust a thousand traps all in it and take that rental back Couple hundred, tint it black, tryna make a mil in it I’m a let ’em shuffle when I cut it, got to deal with it When I got it, put my homies on like a real nigga And they all still with us Seen too many trill niggas fall to let you bitch niggas beat me ‘Fore I take a loss they gon’ have to RIP me But that’ll never happen, take this war shit deeply My young niggas starving in them trenches and they need me They like, “Meek Milly, won’t you spit that crack again?” Fake niggas up three, bring us back again Riding down Broad Street, I’m in the Bach again I bully niggas, I’m unlike Mac again Philly, money can’t make me, suckers can’t break me Back to back jabs, but I’m still gettin’ eighty Just to walk through, and have them hoes going crazy All this cash money, got me stuntin’, like I’m Baby Posted up with Nicki, that’s when it get tricky Niggas in their feelings, that’s when it get drizzy Speaking on the Chasers, definitely get busy We get money, stay a hundred, we don’t never keep it 50 And we don’t cosign no rats over here, my G On scopes on them straps over here, my G Lot of security with badges over there, I see You brought the law with you, I brought them hittas with me It ain’t a nigga that I met I thought was realer than me I’m ’bout to take ’em 4th quarter, I can feel it in me Catch ’em on the inbound, watching for the shot clock 5-4-3-2-1, pull up for the jumpshot Swish, nigga! We used to play Sega Now its Glock 40, with the red lasers Niggas want to kill us, but they can’t fade us Play them corners, we trappin’, watch for the damn neighbors Call the cops on us, and we had them Glocks on us Pocket full of rocks on us, they was sending SWAT for us Super predators, is what they said of us Watching bodies drop on the regular, it was regular Said it made us cold, but really that shit affected us Fell in love with hoes, they the only one that accepted us White folks was prejudiced, so the foreign’s all black We done turned nothing into something; what you call that? Eighteen, caught my first case, had to fall back Ten years of probation probably set us all back Started public housing, now we Kings Grandma and Mama, we called ’em queens Chasing that money, and chasing dreams Serving out people, ’cause they was fiends On the North side of Philly, where niggas’ll serve they mamas And go spend that money they made on a new designer They say I’m still stuck in my ways, and to be honest I probably am; sorry, Your Honor! I was made like this, I was raised like this Selling coke to get a mil, shit, I got paid like this

New York City! What we doing, Flex? Special cloth, special cloth Shout out to DJ Khaled, this that special cloth At the radio station Going brazy with your boys in the building New York City, what the fuck is up? We here! Let’s get it! Let’s get it, Flex!

I’m from a hood of broken dreams Shots firing, yellow tape on the scene, as spooky as Halloween Go to school, what do you mean? When your mama a fiend but your lil’ sister a queen And the fridge so empty it’s hurtin’ your self-esteem Now to get out on the corner and get it by any means How the judge gon’ judge us when this is all that we seen? This is all that we know, eviction note at the door So we pray like we gon’ get to eat one day I promise we gon’ beat them streets one day Running ’round, living reckless Knowing we gon’ live at peace one day I’m thinking, “Should I get to sleep some day?” ‘Cause I’ve been up all night chasing this cake To feed my mama and them Summer-time, you hear them sirens again They said, “That boy won’t make it.” You hear them screams, Mama crying again We had to kill and get as violent as them, we tryna live My young bull, she was supposed to go to the league Started popping on them P’s, running ’round with the fleas All them A’s and them B’s start to turn into C’s Go from crossing niggas over into running from D’s ‘Fore you know it coppers pointing at you, telling you “Freeze!” And you can’t afford a lawyer, so they telling you “Plea!” Man, this shit worse than cancer, like a fucking disease Living this nightmare, they telling us “Dream!” Look what they did to Martin Luther, bullet holes in our Kings And they wonder why we never believe And they wonder why we never would leave Nigga, we poor, young niggas worrying about that corner store But the chinks own that And you claiming that’s your block; who you think own that? Quicksand in the hood and we gon’ sink on that You should think on that Poison water out in Flint, they let them little babies drink on that; they don’t care about us

New York City DC4 on the motherfucking way You already know what it is We only doing it strictly for the streets We ain’t doing it for the Internet Strictly inspiration for the streets Motivation for my young niggas behind them walls My young niggas stuck in the trenches You know what it is New York City like my second home, nigga Flex, we in the building Hot97, you already know what it is

Views from the trap, nigga I’m back, nigga, with two 9’s; Warren Sapp, nigga The crack dealers was new slaves, I toot Tre’s Jordan with the mic, making dudes fade, I do says Sippin’ on that shit like it’s Kool-Aid Rollie with the blue face, diamonds, they clear as Blu-ray Suckers all in they new ways, different chapter, a new page You fake if you don’t speak to me Real soon as you wave, I get it Favorite singer, favorite rapper, I hit it, I’m with it Try to tell me I’m losing and niggas winnin’? They ain’t want to see me on the yacht, no They don’t want to see me in the drop, no Coming down Collins with my young niggas wildin’ on the bike Vroom, vroom, 12 o’ clock, whoa Hear no evil, I don’t see no evil Pocket full of dead presidents; them C-note people We thought you was flamin’ hot, why you cheat those people? You fraud niggas, we can’t believe those people I need a witness Now back to them trenches, we trap on them benches With MAC’s with extensions, this Shawshank Redemption Locked my body up, but my soul free Niggas do not know me, so how could they oppose me? Kill ’em with success, they gon’ kill me with emojis Kill me with a meme, you pussies never could expose me Did I fuck his bitch? Maybe it was the ‘gram Hurting these niggas hearts, I really can’t understand I started off with a dollar, turned it into a grand Flipped it into a milli, I’m still reppin’ my city I pull up poppin’ a wheelie, bending corners on coppers Toting choppers and whiping the work up like Betty Crocker Money, power, the crab in the barrel, no getting out it What I told ’em, but I’m in Miami eating on Lobster Bad bitches, I bag bitches that bag bitches They mad niggas, they only hate, I get the cash quicker Savages that blast with us, I past niggas I lap niggas, I bend the corner, ride past niggas I know how that money feel Delaware State, landing choppers on the fucking field My life so fucking real I don’t never go to sleep, ’cause I’m trying to see a hundred mil That automatic automatically on me I automatically clap suckers for running up on me And automatically smack suckers and fuck up their homies Finna fuck up that money, you think it did something to me? I do things, new things I’m getting blue cheese, no hot wings I really cop things, new V’s and hard top And y’all niggas saying hoop dreams was hard rock And serving samples to the new fiends, whoa

Who is Meek Mill

Robert Rihmeek Williams, famous stage name Meek Mill, is an American rapper. Born in Philadelphia, the artist began his musical career with The Bloodhoundz. In 2008, hip-hop artist T.I. made the first entry.

[autopinions-blog]

Big & Tall Car Review: 2017 ND Mazda MX-5 (Miata) RF Club. Crushing My Hopes & Dreams.

If you’re reading my review of the 2017 ND Miata, I shall assume that this isn’t the first time you’ve elicited cursory information on the world’s most ubiquitous roadster. I shall therefore, attempt to present my opinions devoid of the most obvious statistics & observations you have likely already heard/read ad nauseam.

First off, I feel it necessary to elaborate on the specific review format herein which is unique to me. As previously mentioned, I am not a small fellow. In fact, I am quite sure I exceed Mr. Matt Farah’s dimensions in every quantifiable measure at 6′4″ tall & nearly 300lbs. With that in mind, it has become my mission for the reviews on this blog to give an accurate account of just how comfortable or uncomfortable I am in any given automobile.

Rest assured though, I will cover all pertinent areas of the car including, but not limited to interior & exterior impressions, practicality-which will lump in safety, predicted reliability, efficiency, & price/value-as a poor showing in any of those areas would thus make the car impractical in my opinion, & noteworthy features or technology that help diferentiate it from it’s competitors. With that all out of the way, please allow me to set the stage for you, dear reader.

It is the doldrums of winter in South Jersey. I am eagerly anticipating the approaching 2018 Philadelphia Auto Show. I generally make a habit of going every year as you might imagine I find it quite entertaining. This year, I managed to score a pair of free tickets from a friendly, local VW dealership. I was prepared with a list of various makes & models I specifcally wanted to check out, as well as a map of the event floor & my plotted course pre-planned to maximize efficiency.

I admit, in prior years & visits to many auto shows, I never paid the Mazda MX-5′s any real attention. But, the new ND generation has captivated me since I first laid eyes upon it. I’d always considered previous iterations as too slow, too small, too rental car inside. All assumptions, I must confess, as I still have not driven one. Yes, that’s right, I have not driven an MX-5 of any vintage, new or old. Allow me to explain...

I am quite literally too big to drive the Mazda MX-5. At least, the current ND version anyway. I have never even attempted to situate myself into the driver’s seat of an NA, NB, or NC to be honest. I was however, astonishingly & hilariously able to shoehorn myself into the driver’s seat of the ND with only marginal effort, truthfully.

So, what gives? Why don’t I fit, you ask? Well, when I attempted to simulate changing gears & operating all 3 pedals, I found that my knees consistently & significantly impacted on the backside of the steering wheel. And, I should also mention, that this occurred in both the soft-top & RF (Retractable Fastback) models Mazda had on display.

Additionally, I found that the soft-top reduced my headroom to nill. I was indeed pushing firmly up against the inside of the fabric top. This surprised me, as I had heard & read on other automotive outlets that the RF, in fact, was the stingiest of the pair in the headroom department.

I found this to be quite the opposite when I slid into the RF & immediately engaged the folding hardtop in it’s closing operation. If my legs were capable of operating the pedals without contacting the steering wheel, the RF would undoubtedly be my choice among the two as I could actually sit quite comfortably within its cozy confines.

So, if you happen to be perhaps a smidge shorter in the leg department than I, you may be lucky enough to find that you are capable of comfortably operating either of these popular sports cars more comfrotably than you might have imagined. Now, the rest of the review.

The exterior of the current ND MX-5 is quite strikingly beautiful to my eyes. I recognize there are Miata purists out there who take issue with its squinty/angry headlights, or argue the circular portions of it of its taillights are too far inboard of the rear fenders. With them, I must respectfully disagree, or at least declare myself not as nitpicky. I love this car from just about every angle I have seen it in.

Though, color choice does make all the difference, as it does in most cases that I have observed. As such, I do not care for the dark metallic gray available. I much prefer the wonderfully metallic red, dark blue, & even the silverish-white. Typically, I am not as big a fan of the monochromatic offerings, particularly shades of gray.

I am indeed a sucker for bright colors, & this is where I think the MX-5 misses a key opportunity to distinguish itself even more amongst the crowd, not that it has a plethora of competitors at the moment, but why can’t we get a really bright blue, or orange, or yellow? I bet those would all be popular choices among potential MX-5 buyers.

I can’t help wondering what either the soft-top or the RF would look like in something so bright only a true sports car could pull it off. I just think it would make this fun, affordable sports car that much more endearing to its owners as well as those who encounter it, if it offered a color palette as splashy as say the Fiat 500 Abarth.

Beyond my prior assertions about the commodity that is interior space in the MX-5, I found the cabin a very pleasant place to be for the most part. Materials were quite nice & had a luxurious feel to them. Everything was ergonomically laid out by and large.

My gripes? I think the instrument cluster from the Mazda3 GT is superior in its readability & funtionality. I prefer having a digital speedo represented in the LCD display of the center-mounted tach, as opposed to having gear selection information presented therein. I likewise found the analog speedo to the right more difficult to read than the tach. A problem that would be easily remedied by utilizing the aforementioned portion of the tach to digitally display the speedo. This would free up more real estate to install more pertinent performance driving gauges such as oil temp. & pressure info, or battery status, or something else fun & unique.

I personally think the cloth seats should also have heating elements as they are quite desirable to have in a roadster such as this. Let’s face it, a lot of MX-5 buyers do daily these cars & would no doubt really appreciate this sort of creature comfort.

I wish this car could be optioned with an infotainment delete of sorts. Or perhaps a more basic headunit with a small dot-matrix style display, no app support or satellite radio, no navigation, etc. Something very basic, if not completely nonexistent. Hell, you could market it as additional weight reduction, & most MX-5 buyers would be happy about that.

I feel that a lot of people who buy this car, buy it as a toy. They don’t value such creature comforts & technology as much. They care much more about the experience of actually driving & feeling they are in harmony with their cars. Modern infotainment thus serves as a distraction from that purist’s dream, & is quite antithetical to the MX-5′s mission statement. Doesn’t the melodious thrum of the 2.0L 4-pot through it’s aluminum intake manifold & dual-outlet exhaust provide an adequate soundtrack to get your blood pumping? Again, I feel this is a missed opportunity, Mazda.

My closing statements on the interior include the afterthought that was the command & volume knob placement. That needs a serious re-evaluation as they are both easily & inadvertantly bumped while shifting or even just resting your arm. I’m totally OK with the movable cupholders though. And, I feel the dearth of storage is acceptable in such a car as this. If you need storage, get a hatchback or a wagon.

This car has a singular mission, to put a smile on the driver’s face every second they are behind the wheel. A mission that nearly all reviewers agree it successfully executes year-after-year. I feel more fat could have been trimmed from the new ND examples though, and it would only have improved their ability to execute.

Moving on to practicality-this should be a short read! Safety? Well, it’s hardly bigger or heavier than the go-kart you had in 5th grade, and being a roadster, you can surmise it won’t envelop you in a cocoon of airbags if the proverbial fecal matter impacts the fan, so what do you think safety is going to be like, realistically?

Storage space? Well we did briefly touch on it already, but I didn’t mention that you only need one hand with 5 fingers to count the number of cubic feet that are available in the trunk. Did I mention that it has no glovebox? And, the center-console storage is laughable. It has just enough room for maybe a medium-sized suitcase or a couple dufflebags. It won’t hold a weeks worth of groceries, & the storage cubbies behind the seats will not be easily or safely accessed while the car is moving. And, good look reaching the cupholder(s) behind you or not spilling a drink located behind you when you bump it with your elbow while shifting.

But, all of this is a non-issue, really. Again, because practicality is not this car’s mission. A lot can be forgiven when you look at what makes this car truly special from an enthuisiast’s perspective.

Fuel-efficiency is the big win here. The ND has demonstrated itself to be superb in this regard easily attaining 30mpg combined or better in everything I’ve read, or heard. And, the practical benefits don’t stop there.

This car’s exceptionally light curbweight means it can operate with tiny brakes & tires in addition to its fuel-sipping prowess. Tiny brakes & tiny tires are much more inexpensive to replace than their monstrous counterparts that you will find on more portly sports cars such as the Corvette, Camaro, or Mustang. Honestly, these brakes & tires are likely smaller than what’s currently installed on your Mom’s Toyonda Camcord, yet they are just as effective at doing their jobs thanks to the overall light weight of the car.

Additionally, the fact that this car operates without the complexity of forced-induction or a larger displacement V6 or V8, means it will be easier & cheaper to work on.

If history teaches us anything about this MX-5′s expected reliability, it’s that it will likely be near bulletproof. The NA, NB, & NC generations have shown themselves to be among the most steadfastly reliable cars ever produced. The fact that they’re purpose-built sports cars only makes their reputation for durability that much more impressive.

That being said, the all-new 6-speed manual found in the ND has experienced some hiccups at least in the ealier production runs of MY2017. Expect a fix for this going forward, or play it extra safe & wait for a MY2018 or newer MX-5.

On the whole, I can’t imagine that the ND will not be a solidly reliable & inexpensive to operate machine. In fact, it will undoubtedly provide economy car levels of frugailty & maintenance expenses.

That is probably one of its greatest appeals to enthusiasts. The MX-5 can be had for relatively little money compared to other genuine sports cars on the market, without sacrificing low overall cost of ownership, which for Miatas, has been historically much lower than the majority of competitors past or present thanks to Mazda’s committment to lightweight simplicity.

The fact that it can do all of this while still providing superior levels of driver engagement & enjoyment is a testment to its nearly 3 decades of overwhelming sales success. I just wouldn’t buy one new, because then I think they can get a bit expesive for what they are. There are some great deals to be had on preowned ND’s as well as prior generations if you fancy them more.

Laslty, if you fear the ND will be too slow for you with it’s diminutive 155hp, just know that it is geared extremely agressively & weighs less than almost anything else on sale today (as little as 2300ish lbs. in some trims). It will therefore, accelerate more agressively when compared to the gear ratios you might find in say a Golf GTI for example.

I remember reading that at least one of the major magazine publications was able to coax a 5.8 second 0-60mph run out of an ND Club trim with the lightweight BBS wheels. That is genuinely quick in my book, I don’t know about yours.

So, depsite the fact that I can’t operate one myself, I would be remiss were I not to at the very least prompt you to go take an ND MX-5 out for a test drive to discern whether it’s the sort of driving pleasure you’re after. In the meantime, I’ll just sit here hoping the next (NE?) MX-5 will offer just a tad more room and/or adjustment in the steering wheel positioning. I have a sneaking suspicion it’s first 4 iterations may just be the most fun I’ll never have.

[israel-jewish-news]

High-rise Sniper Kills 59, Injures Hundreds, In Worst Shooting in U.S. History

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High-rise Sniper Kills 59, Injures Hundreds, In Worst Shooting in U.S. History

Debris is strewn through the scene of a mass shooting at a music festival near the Mandalay Bay resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Monday, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A 64-year-old man with multiple machine guns rained down gunfire from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel on a country music festival on Sunday, slaughtering at least 59 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history before killing himself.

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo says 59 people have been killed and 527 injured in a mass shooting Sunday night at an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas.

The barrage of bullets from the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd of 22,000 people lasted several minutes, sparking panic.

The crowd, funneled tightly into a wide-open space, had little cover and no easy way to escape. Some victims fell to the ground, while others fled in panic. Some hid behind concession stands. Others crawled under parked cars.

“It was the craziest stuff I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” said Kodiak Yazzie, 36. “You could hear that the noise was coming from west of us, from Mandalay Bay. You could see a flash, flash, flash, flash.”

Some of the injured were hit by shrapnel. Others were trampled in the mass panic.

The shooter appeared to fire unhindered for more than 10 minutes as Las Vegas police frantically tried to locate the man in one of the Mandalay Bay hotel towers, according to radio traffic. For several minutes, officers could not tell whether the fire was coming from Mandalay Bay or the neighboring Luxor hotel.

Police on Monday identified the gunman as Stephen Paddock, who lived in Mesquite, Nevada. He lived in a retirement community, owned rental properties, held a private pilot’s license and liked to travel to Las Vegas.

They said they believed he acted alone and did not know why he attacked the crowd. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the massacre, but U.S. officials said there was no evidence of that.

The preliminary death toll, which officials said could rise, eclipsed last year’s massacre of 49 people at an Orlando, Florida venue by a terrorist who pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

Police said Paddock had no criminal record. The gunman killed himself before police entered the hotel room he was firing from, Lombardo told reporters.

“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Lombardo said. “I can’t get into the mind of a psychopath.”

Federal officials said there was no evidence to link Paddock to terrorist organizations.

“We have determined to this point no connection with an international terrorist group,” Aaron Rouse, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s special agent in charge in Las Vegas, told reporters.

U.S. officials discounted the claim of responsibility for the attack made by Islamic State in a statement.

“We advise caution on jumping to conclusions before the facts are in,” CIA spokesman Jonathan Liu said in an email.

The Islamic State has been known to make unsubstantiated claims of responsibility for attacks around the world.

Multiple Machine Guns

Lombardo said there were more than 10 rifles in the room where Paddock killed himself.

He also said investigators found 18 firearms, explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition in the home of suspected shooter Stephen Craig Paddock in Mesquite, Nevada.

U.S. law largely bans machine guns.

Police found several more weapons at Paddock’s home in Mesquite, about 90 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Mesquite police spokesman Quinn Averett told reporters.

The shooting, just the latest in a string that have played out across the United States over recent years, sparked an outcry from some lawmakers about the pervasiveness of guns in the United States, but was unlikely to prompt action in Congress.

Efforts to pass federal laws on guns failed following mass shootings from the 2012 massacre of 26 young children and educators in Newtown, Connecticut, to the June attack on Republican lawmakers practicing for a charity baseball game.

Nevada has some of the nation’s most permissive gun laws. It does not require firearm owners to obtain licenses or register their guns.

House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, called on House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday to create a select committee on gun violence.

“To all those political opportunists who are seizing on the tragedy in Las Vegas to call for more gun regs. … You can’t regulate evil,” Kentucky’s Republican Governor, Matt Bevin, said on Twitter.

Hospitals Jammed

Two broken windows are seen at The Mandalay Bay Resort next to the concert grounds near the scene of a mass shooting at the Route 91 Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, Monday. (Reuters/Mike Blake)

The dead included at least three off-duty police officers from various departments who were attending the concert, authorities said. Two on-duty officers were wounded, one critically, police said.

“It’s a devastating time,” the sheriff said.

Hospital emergency rooms were jammed with the wounded. Rep. Ruben Kihuen, a Democrat whose congressional district includes part of Las Vegas, visited a hospital and said: “Literally, every single bed was being used, every single hallway was being used. Every single person there was trying to save a life.”

Las Vegas authorities put out a call for blood donations and set up a hotline to report missing people and speed the identification of the dead and wounded. They also opened a “family reunification center” for people to find loved ones.

In its claim of responsibility, the Islamic State group said the gunman was “a soldier” who had converted to Islam months ago. But it provided no evidence.

Trump said he would travel to Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with victims, their family members and first responders.

“It was an act of pure evil,” said Trump, who later led a moment of silence at the White House in honor of the victims.

The suspected shooter’s brother, Eric Paddock, said the family was stunned by the news.

“We’re horrified. We’re bewildered, and our condolences go out to the victims,” Eric Paddock said in a phone interview, his voice trembling. “We have no idea in the world.”

He said his brother belonged to no political or religious organizations, and had no history of mental illness. Their father had been a bank robber who for a while was listed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” suspects list.

‘Just Kept Going On’

Video of the attack showed panicked crowds fleeing as sustained rapid gunfire ripped through the area.

“People were just dropping to the ground. It just kept going on,” said Steve Smith, a 45-year-old visitor from Phoenix, Arizona. He said the gunfire went on for an extended period of time.

“Probably 100 shots at a time,” Smith said. “It would sound like it was reloading and then it would go again.”

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said the Sunday night attack was the work of a “crazed lunatic full of hate.”

Interstate 15 was briefly closed, and flights at McCarran International Airport were suspended for a while.

Las Vegas draws some 3.5 million visitors from around the world each year and the area was packed with visitors when the shooting broke out shortly after 10 p.m. local time.

Mike McGarry, a financial adviser from Philadelphia, was at the concert when he heard hundreds of shots ring out.

“It was crazy. I laid on top of the kids. They’re 20. I’m 53. I lived a good life,” McGarry said. The back of his shirt bore footmarks, after people ran over him in the panicked crowd.

[junker-town]

The Georgia Dome got the farewell it deserved

Monster Jam was the last memorable event in a stadium that begged to be forgotten.

Monster Jam fills up enough of the Georgia Dome — most of the bottom bowl, and a good chunk of the mezzanines and upper deck. There is competition in town — but there also probably isn’t a lot of Sunday night overlap between the monster truck crowd and the people across town at Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium watching Atlanta United lose its first game ever to New York Red Bulls.

There are mostly dads, myself included, towing kids there with the promise of monster trucks and multiple concession stand runs.

One of these runs: for a $20 Monster Jam official Grave Digger sno-cone with commemorative Grave Digger cup with molded grinning skeleton face and flashing lights triggered via a button in its plastic forehead. I bought it; one $15 commemorative non-truck-specific Monster Jam sno-cone; a $15 pair of headphones/ear protectors, with rubber tires mounted around the ear cups for one child; a $20 pair of less-elaborate ear protection for the other kid, who could not be persuaded to get the cheaper ones because, “I need different daddy”; at least $30 worth of bribes in the form of food and drink to keep them in the stands for half the show; $0 in alcohol, somehow, because two children at a monster truck show keep you so busy and running that you cannot find the time to get drunk enough to deal with the children.

While waiting, a towheaded 3-year-old behind us pointed to the beer man selling $12 oil cans of Busch Light.

“Daddy, you could get a beer.”

“You know Daddy only drinks crown.”

The Omni

The first thing I can remember about going to a live sports event involves DeBarge, and the memory is wrong. Wrong may not be the right word, actually. Better put, I misremembered because I was probably 6 years old, and 6-year-olds can’t be counted on to provide accurate testimony in a court of law or in a recollection involving the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers.

My dad took me to a Hawks game at the Omni. The Omni was the least-lovable building ever constructed, a black cube with tented pyramids of black sheet metal jutting from the roof, weird angular corner windows, and the street presence of a giant, menacing blast furnace. I thought it looked cool because it reminded me of the doomed spaceship in Disney’s The Black Hole. Kids have bad memories and deplorable taste in architecture.

The Omni was built to rust, to be an uncherished memory before it ever happened.

The first claim there is literal. By rusting, the steel elements of the building would become even more fused to each other. In its later years, it started to look like an overturned running shoe or waffle iron left outside to the elements. The designers reportedly did not factor in Atlanta’s subtropical climate, and the Omni kept rusting and rusting until the entire building had an incurable form of architectural arthritis. Holes appeared in the building’s frame, holes big enough for people to pass through without tickets or permission. Rather than fix the gaping holes in the building designed to rust in one of the United States’ most humid places, management instead put up chain-link fences along them.

The second claim, that the Omni was designed to be an uncherished memory, is a guess. The Hawks played there either way. My dad drove me down into the city with the radio on — never the rock station, but always the R&B station with Switch, Brick, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Gap Band, Roger and Zapp, or Kool and the Gang on. I knew the Hawks had a player named “Tree Rollins.” This was enough all by itself, but I would also get to go to Burger King for a kids meal, which, for a kid who was avowedly not into sports, was a low, low bribe bar to clear.

Tree Rollins totally looked like someone named Tree. I remember the Omni very much looking like the inside of a doomed spaceship, and that everyone was very excited that someone called Dr. J was there, even though he was evidently some off-brand version of Dr. J not equal to a previous version. There were men there with giant Jheri curls and Magnum, P.I. sunglasses and mustaches indicating that they were serious, wealthy, and just dangerous enough to wear a mustache. I remember the hair across all races and genders being massive and more carefully constructed than the arena they were standing in; I remember being one of the few kids in the building, and thinking that maybe, sometimes, my dad might just be taking me to stuff he liked in order to get out of the house and have a few too many beers by himself.

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

On the way home, I remember passing the few super-distinct pieces of the Atlanta skyline: the Peachtree Westin that Dar Robinson jumped out of for a Burt Reynolds stunt, the UFO-shaped alien cake of Fulton County Stadium where the Braves played and where my dad would later take us to sit in empty seats and pick up fiendish sunburns, the Georgia Capital that always seemed completely out of place in all that retro-futurism and brutalist forestry around it. That’s the kind of place Atlanta was and still is — a place where the past is what seems unnecessary, not the future.

The music had changed. My dad drove in silence and smoked Vantage cigarettes with the window cracked even though it was winter, I think, and cold enough to have the heat cranking. It was Quiet Storm time on the radio, and that meant Jeffrey Osborne, Marvin Gaye, Rita Coolidge, and Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Teddy Pendergrass. DeBarge’s “All This Love” came on and the nylon string guitar solo played and I looked up and thought how the streetlights were on but still looked so dark against the streets and the houses of what I now know was a decimated Techwood.

I’m pretty sure since that song came out in 1982 that we’d already moved to Tennessee by then, but at a certain point emotional memories are immune to fact-checking. The fadeout and ride in the song is endless over the background singers going say you really love me baby/ say you really love me darling/for I really love you baby/sure enough love you darlin’

At the Georgia Dome, there is some of exactly what you think should be at a Monster Jam show in the South.

There was, for example, a terrifying man in the sleeveless Confederate flag shirt eight rows below our seats. I asked him if he knew where I could get ear protection before the race. He looked at me for about five seconds before responding because he:

comes from someplace where there is a daily quota on words for interpersonal communication

thought I was a godless bearded urbanite hitting on him

or was very drunk and hearing me talking on a built-in beer-induced tape delay.

I hope he was drunk, and also that he thought I was hitting on him.

The trucks have names ranging from the super-uninspiring and corporate — the FS1 Cleatus Truck! the Team Hot Wheels Firestorm! — to the classic and menacing (Bounty Hunter and El Toro Loco). There is a truck called Obsession and its unimaginatively named partner, Obsessed. One is called Ice Cream Man, easily the least-intimidating monster truck of all time because it comes out to tinkly ice cream van chimes, or the most unsettling because it plays a song synonymous with the sketchiest non-related regular cast member of most people’s childhoods — the neighborhood ice cream man who might have lived in the van he worked in.

There is a Monster Energy truck with green neon lights built into the undercarriage. I am here to report against my will that it looks absolutely and positively sick. It is called “the Monster Energy Truck” because there are two good monster truck names in the universe, and both are taken. (Grave Digger and Bigfoot, to be specific.)

The anthem is sung while a bald eagle flaps in slow motion on the end-zone video boards.

The Georgia Dome was built in 1992, and it will be imploded in the summer of 2017. It will never see its 30th birthday, and it will not be missed because it, too, was built to be forgotten. The last event in the dome will be Monster Jam. If you are from outside of the state, you will think it is appropriate because LOL REDNECKS; if you are from here, you will probably also think it is appropriate because LOL REDNECKS, but will get mad when anyone else says it.

For the record, the Dome didn’t even try to be interesting on the level of the Omni or Fulton County Stadium. It was fine but unmemorable as something you drove past, sat in, or saw in shots of the city skyline. Take a hotel bathtub, preferably one of the cheap ones, too shallow to do anything in but sit unhappily for five minutes before giving up and draining the water. Cover it with a large golf umbrella blown inside out by the wind. Solder the two together. Paint it first teal and maroon, because someone in 1991 thought putting the bedroom color scheme from a Florida vacation rental on the outside of a stadium in Atlanta was a good idea.

When you remember the Atlanta Falcons play football there, paint it in a new scheme with red and black in it to remind everyone of their existence. Don’t do this until 16 years after you open the stadium, and only nine years before its eventual demolition.

Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images

Monster Jam is the last event here. Other things happened before that. The Atlanta Falcons played mostly forgettable football here, unless you take out the Vick years, which you might want to given how they ended. If there were some way to keep the part where all the mostly African-American fans in the upper deck went bonkers the minute they started playing “Bring ’Em Out” for those teams, you should do that. That may be the most excited single concentration of minutes you could salvage from the team’s history at the Georgia Dome: Before the team played, but after they remembered they were going to watch the fastest player in the NFL touch the ball on every play. This is a happy memory. There aren’t a lot of those there.

It hosted a lot of college football, including the annual SEC Championship game. Tim Tebow cried on the sideline there after Alabama clipped Florida’s undefeated streak short in 2009; Les Miles in 2007 used his backup quarterback to win an SEC title there, and then a national title LSU somehow got with two losses later in New Orleans. Before that game he hustled every reporter in reach to a press conference where he denied Kirk Herbstreit’s report that he was going to take the Michigan job, and then with his chest at full inflation demanded that the room “have a great day.” I was there for that and, yes, it was just as confusing in person as it was on television.

Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images

LSU coach Les Miles after defeating the University of Miami, 40-3, in the 2005 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

There was Wrestlemania in 2011, when the Rock returned and I nearly flipped my laptop off a table when the glass broke and Stone Cold Steve Austin ripped down the entry ramp on an ATV like the Pope of All Shitkicking Rednecks. In 1994, Deion Sanders and Andre Rison punched each other while wearing helmets in fight during a football game, an event that easily clears the hurdle to being one of the top 25 most memorable moments in Atlanta history, and was also incredibly dumb. Those two circles overlap a lot here.

There were two Super Bowls in the Dome. The first was a forgettable one in 1994 where the Cowboys beat the Bills. This beating was different from the seven other Bills/Cowboys Super Bowls in the 1990s because the pregame show featured Kriss Kross, Charlie Daniels, the Georgia Satellites, and the Morehouse Marching Band doing a tribute to “Georgia Music Makers.” Charlie Daniels is from North Carolina but did a song about an unenforceable contract between the Devil and a mentally ill violin player, so by any standard he counted.

The second is best remembered for an unseasonably brutal ice storm and Ray Lewis picking up two murder charges from the Fulton County District Attorney after a very bad night out on the town with his friends. The Tennessee Titans came up a yard short in Atlanta, but most Nashville things measured in Atlanta terms fail by much, much more than that. Feel better thinking about it in those terms, Nashville.

There was also the time the tornado struck the Georgia Dome while I was inside it during the 2008 SEC basketball tournament, rippling the ceiling like water and throwing the scoreboard around like a weight on a fishing lure. That happened, too.

Other than all that, there’s not much else. Monster Jam will close out the building’s life, if you like to anthropomorphize a stadium no one ever thought to give a personality or memory. The seats will be auctioned off or sold to high schools for repurposing. The innards will be sold in stages, right down to a yard sale of whatever’s left in the building getting gutted and gaveled out right on the sidewalk outside the Dome on Northside Drive.

Sometime during the summer it will be imploded and become a parking lot for the new stadium. It’s a corporate-sponsored metallic oculus someone will probably remember as looking like a very old future. The Falcons and Atlanta United will call it home, and the Georgia Dome will be gone and not mourned. That’s fine, and I don’t want you to think for a second it isn’t. Some things are built to be forgotten, and the Georgia Dome is one of them.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

The trucks spend the first half of the show racing by pairs in heats. They can sort of drift a corner — sort of, as much as a 10,000-pound truck can slide on dirt. The drivers don’t hammer the gas so much as they get up to speed, and then feather the throttle to keep the trucks moving with careful blasts of the engine. It’s like watching extremely short rallycross races run by farting whales in track shoes.

Finishing fast is interesting. Finishing sideways doing something reckless and badass is better, but finishing first and flying sideways across the finish line is best. This is particularly true if you can roll the truck over, hit the throttle, catch one enormous tire in the dirt on the end of the roll, and flip the entire vehicle back onto all four tires for a save, a round of WOOOOS and applause, and a pass to the next round of racing.

This happens twice in the racing segment of the show, which is two more times than anyone should be able to pull that off in the aforementioned 10,000-pound trucks. Grave Digger sacrificed itself for the crowd’s pleasure early — it hit a massive jump while trying to speed across the finish line, bouncing sideways, blowing out one enormous tire and a mess of important-looking metal stuff in the chassis on impact, and then rolling to stop on its ceiling while soaking up the applause. Grave Digger left the arena with three good wheels, one completely destroyed tire, and the limp of a champion who’d given their all. If I had been drinking, I might have teared up a little.

The second half is the freestyle, the more entertaining part where Monster Jam ditches the entire concept of racing, and just lets drivers try to tear apart their cars for the crowd. The drivers have two minutes to run through their routine. The most popular runs don’t even make it that long, though. They end abruptly and satisfactorily when the driver rolls their truck onto its roof off an ill-advised but spectacular jump, breaks an axle or blows out a tire, or cripples the thing trying to land a backflip.

The Monster Energy truck — the one with the absolutely sick neon — whipped itself around during the freestyle event with such force that its flimsy body panels sheared off in every direction. One truck just did donuts for the last 20 seconds of their routine. If a monster truck rips donuts on dirt, there is an involuntary response from the body. “WOOOOOOOO” leaps from the diaphragm. You can’t fight it, and wouldn’t want to if you could.

The MCs yell out this or something like it repeatedly.

“DOIN’ IT ONE LAST TIME FOR THE GEORGIA DOME.”

It doesn’t have much effect, not even when a local DJ yells it out during a bike race between three audience members racing on children’s bikes. But then, the Georgia Dome is used to quiet echoing off its cavernous walls, or having fan noise piped in to ricochet between its empty seats. There is nothing more to give from this afternoon’s audience, for one: Being at Monster Jam is getting blasted in the face for three hours with engine noise, and then coated with a gentle drizzle of dirt floating down between runs. Maximum audience participation is clapping and yelling just loudly enough to be heard over engines that burn a gallon of fuel a minute. There is no 11, or giving it up any harder than one is already giving it up.

Very few people seemed to realize this was the end, or at least attached any significance to it, or cared whether anyone would begin gutting the building the instant the last earth-mover carried out the dirt.

We had to leave three trucks into the freestyle when both of their attention spans wore out, and were unrecoverable. We left before the Georgia Dome paid one last tribute to itself: A grease fire broke out in a concession stand, which was quickly put out only after filling a concourse with smoke and scaring the hell out of a few patrons. Remember that on the way out: that the building tried to save everyone the trouble of demolition by burning itself down.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

A tear in the ceiling of the Georgia Dome is visible after severe weather passed over the building during the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament on March 14, 2008.

Walking out with my kids, they were about the same age I was when I left the Omni with my dad at the Omni in 1982, or 1983, or whenever it was in fuzzy kid-time. They saw the new stadium next door and thought it looked pretty much like a spaceship, or like someplace where Skylanders would live.

That is exactly what the Omni and Fulton County Stadium looked like to me as a kid —so much so that later, when my dad and another dad would awkwardly hang out for the benefit of their sons’ juvenile need to socialize with other dudes, my friend Jim and I would sit in the backseat as they drove and point out the buildings we would own in the future. He’d take the Westin, and keep all his Legos there. I’d take Fulton County Stadium, and reserve it exclusively for my collection of helicopters. A city was a place to be had, a thing to be purchased for your convenience.

Kids, weirdly enough, understand that a city is just something to be bought and sold.

Later, weirder, less-tenable ideas creep into your head: That it could be home, that the buildings you can name mean something beyond the names, that there might be some kind of resonant harmony between you and this random system of properties and spaces. Sometime someone might superimpose a sports team into that imaginary relationship, making this city not just a place, but a place for you, and people like you, and that all of you can thrive here. It is special. You are special, and the team, its players, and all the spaces they pass through and live in are special and remarkable and unlike anything else in the world.

There is a magic you can believe about a place as an adult that children do not even begin to believe or accept. A 7-year-old would laugh you out of the room, probably while telling you that the new place was much better, both because it looked like a place where Skylanders would live, and also because it was new. New things are better, and you should always take the new thing.

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

That shouldn’t be hard to accept. Take the new thing, even if the nagging, haunting feeling of living somewhere boils down to a problem with you, with that thing where you’re looking for something in tangible space to consider a landmark, a guidepost. To consider something significant, if only so that you, in relation to it, can have a bit of that significance. The city I live in makes that hard to do, though there’s an honesty in that constant self-digestion and auto-demolition. Do not get attached. It, and everything in it, will eventually move, just like the teams and the people who call it home.

That’s the rational, reasonable thing to think, yet even with an intentionally blank, mostly unmemorable empty space like the Georgia Dome I want something to be there, to definitively have happened there. There should be a definite something there, thinks some deeply schizophrenic part of my brain that doesn’t want so much as a garden shed to collapse around me without some memory attached to it. Otherwise it’s just a thing — and by extension, so is the city, and the very personally important me I’ve attached to it.

I have a definite thing to attach myself to here. After all, I thought for a few seconds on March 14, 2008 that I was going to die on the floor of the Georgia Dome on press row at the SEC men’s basketball tournament.

I thought Kentucky fans were stomping their feet in unison on the bleachers at first, but the noise swelled, and swelled more, and grew so loud and limitless all at once. It felt limitless in the sense of being infinitely powerful with no range or end to the noise, so loud and yet so obviously just getting started on the way to a theoretical full volume. What do you think a tornado at pace is? It’s actually just clearing its throat and warming up, volume-wise. It’s whispering, holding back. You just hear it as a roar.

There wasn’t even a shudder from impact. There was just the sensation that the entire building was next to an immense floor buffer, spinning and vibrating at thousands of RPM. When that vibration turned into waves the roof flapped like a subwoofer, the air vents started spitting out pieces of insulating foam, and for one second I weighed the options of dying standing up and being crushed by the falling roof and lighting, or taking my chances ducking under a table, only to be crushed by all that plus one flimsy plywood table. The lights swayed 10 to 15 feet in either direction. The waves got stronger, and the entire overturned bathtub of the stadium was now being thumped by a very pissed off janitor pushing that giant floor buffer into the side of the Georgia Dome.

I was sitting next to Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery. That would have been memorable for me, at least, getting crushed next to a legendary announcer, in the few seconds I had to have a last memory. If I’d heard Verne say “oh my” as it collapsed, it would have been my last tweet, and the RTs and favs would be infinite.

Instead of bearing down at full speed and colliding with the Dome, though, the tornado drunkenly staggered into the Georgia Congress Center next door, then down Marietta Street and into Cabbagetown before dissipating into the night. Not knowing what else to do, I walked out and took pictures of holes in the walls of the Congress Center, and thought about how great I felt about not dying in the Georgia Dome that night.

Leaving the last event at a building that was designed to be forgotten, I didn’t even really think about the one thing I should remember and attach to the spot.

Instead I thought about the only song I think about when I think about the irrational need for a place to give me something only a human can — especially this place, the first place I did so many things, like leaning my head against the window listening to DeBarge after a Hawks game. That need will never make sense, no matter how many games you watch there, or how many moments you spend there. It won’t make sense, not even after years of silently asking a place to just talk back to you once after you spend years monologuing to it. To look at a place that eats its own every day, and buries its stadiums and buildings and places under like daisies beneath a plow, and ask it, as if you were some exception to the rule, to sing the outro to you:

say you really love me baby

say you really love me darling

for I really love you baby

sure enough love you darlin’