Calsonic Impul GT-R (R35)

After i finally got my long search Calsonic Z, i found another target of getting the whole Calsonic team!

LOL..the hunting never ends..anyway here is the second Calsonic car i got recently..The GT-R!!

Actually i got poisoned by my friend Loon who posted a picture of his Xanavi team.

and since i already got the Z, why not i just start with the calsonic team? lol

GT-R looks best in "corner baring" style indeed! heh

Really need to sharpen my photoshop skills, 

radial blur + motion blur not enough to make it looks cool XD

The body kit looks just like the Motul Autech version i talked about earlier

At first i thought the decal is different for both cars..but nooo~ i was wrong.

turned up there's a variation for the GT-R with the exact same decals of the Z!

NO, im not gonna get it..haha!

Side by side with the Motul GT-R..really cool stuff!

mmm could have been better looking with a better camera...argh~ can't wait to get one!

So, which JGTC team livery u guys like and want to collect most? =)

Why I'll never be a judge on AMERICAN IDOL

Watching the twelve semi-finalist girls on AMERICAN IDOL earlier this week I was struck by how similar they were.  Big voices all doing Maria Carey and Alicia Keys.  Ya need someone to belt out a power ballad?   Ya need someone to show off and do useless runs in the middle of songs for no reason?  These are your gals.  The judges fawn all over them while I just shake my head.   Not only are these women becoming interchangeable from each other, they're becoming interchangeable from season to season.

Here are two women singers that I really like.  I'm sure many of you know them. They've sold a shitload of records ("shitload" being the official RIAA measurement for tallying music sales). I suspect neither of these girls would have survived day one of Hollywood Week, assuming they even got that far.  Clearly, my taste is not in line with what the producers of AMERICAN IDOL want. 

What do you think?  And you're welcome to call me crazy. I've been called a lot worse, this week even. Up first are two girls that I like.  Then two AMERICAN IDOL contestants that are wowing the judges. One was on the bubble, had to compete with two other girls, gave the worst, screechiest performance ever, just massacring a song, and yet she was still selected over the other more deserving two. 

Listen carefully because I'm going to ask you to vote.

Here's Nicole Atkins.  She's been called a female Roy Orbison.  Throw in a little Mama Cass. 


Next up, Feist (Leslie Feist). This song makes we want to dance and buy an iPod Nano.


And now here are IDOL standouts Haley Reinhart and Ashley Jones.


Okay America (and the world), it's your turn to vote. Of these four, which two would you keep and which two would you send packing? The lines are open!!   THIS is AMERICAN SOMETHING TO DO ON THE WEEKEND!!!!

Harley Davidson Night Rod Special

Currently my favorite bike in Harley Davidson range. This is from Harley Davidon VRSC range and is called the Night-Rod Special and maker is Maisto. One day maybe I will get the real thing...just maybe. Anyway check out my scale model....

Brandon Tartikoff

Taking a break from all of yesterday's controvery, here are a few Friday Questions and Answers.
ajjjj begins:

What do managers do, and is it worth it to have one or submit to them when you're starting out?

Generally they make out the line-up, decide on the pitching rotation and… oh, you mean that kind of manager. Sorry. My head is into spring training.

In theory, a manager has just a few clients. So he is able to give you a lot of personal attention. He should be able to advise you on career choices. If you have a specific goal he should construct a game plan. The idea is that he’s really looking out for your best interests.

Your agent negotiates any deal. Your agent generally has a lot of clients. So if your agent isn't giving you the attention you require your manager keeps on his ass,

Sometimes a manager can act as your protector. Agencies make their big money not on your commissions but on putting together package deals for series. If the show becomes a hit they own a piece and that could be a jackpot. So even though there are better deals or better situations for you, your agent may try to steer you towards a show that is their package.

Let’s say the agent has two clients – you and the showrunner to that show. The showrunner needs a writer and you’d be great. But he’s also an asshole and impossible to work for while at the same time another showrunner wants you and he’s a prince. Whose best interest is the agent going to serve? Yours or the cash cow showrunner? So he’ll try to talk you into taking that job. Your manager, on the other hand, should look at the big picture and advise you take the other position.

But here’s the thing – if a manager puts a client in a show he can take a producing credit. So he’s then acting in his own best interest, not yours. And he winds up with a producing credit and piece of the action and does absolutely nothing for it.

When you’re starting out you want anybody who will work on your behalf.  If you can’t get an agent but can get a manager and that manager has connections and can make things happen for you, then do it. Otherwise, if you can get an agent, and you like him (and even trust him) then I think a manager is unnecessary and you’re just paying out more of your salary.

Personally, I have never had a manager. I’m confident that the agents that I’ve selected do in fact work on my behalf, and if I thought otherwise, I would just change agents.

That said, there are writers who swear by their managers. Bottom line: you just need somebody to have your back. It could be a manager, an agent, or an attorney.


Brian Doan asks:

Riffing on the anecdote you told-- what was it like working with Brandon Tartikoff? When you worked on CHEERS, did you come in to contact with him a lot? Especially since his passing, there seems to be a legend that's grown up around him, as one of the last TV execs to fill both the "creative" and "business" sides of the job. Did you find that to be true? Sorry if you've answered this before!

Brandon was the smartest and nicest high level television executive I ever worked for.  A complete mensch.  It was clear that he really loved television. He never considered programming a network just a rung on the ladder (a la Jeff Zucker). He treated everyone with respect. He was very collaborative, never tried to strong-arm you.

And he had taste. He appreciated quality and encouraged it. That’s not to say he didn’t see the need for standard popular fare, but even then if he was going to pick up THE A TEAM, he wanted to make the best possible A TEAM.

And Brandon was by far the most down-to-earth executive I have ever encountered. I have a basketball net on my garage. One day my son and I were shooting hoops. Brandon and his family drove up. They were attending some event at our neighbor’s. I look up and there’s Brandon walking up asking if he can work in with us. I’m standing in my driveway shooting baskets with my son and the President of the National Broadcasting Company. He was truly one of a kind. And had a great jump shot.

And finally, from Rory Wohl:

On taped shows with a live audience where there's some acknowledgment of the commercial break (I'm mostly thinking of talk shows where the host says, "We'll be back after these commercial messages"), how long a break does the show actually take? Do they take the two minutes (or six, if it's Jimmy Fallon or Craig Ferguson) and pretend commercials were shown? Do they take just enough time to set up the next shot (i.e., host moves from monologue stage to sitting behind desk)? Do they use the break as time to adjust other stuff?

They tape those shows as if they’re live. Rarely will they stop tape. So if a commercial break is six minutes, they will wait six minutes before starting up again. I believe that the network commercials are actually put in at the time of the taping. The only real holes are for local spots. This goes for game shows, too.

What’s your question? And "Play ball"!

What they're saying in writing rooms all over town about Charlie Sheen

DISCLAIMER: What I am illustrating in this post is the type of thing that goes on in writers rooms.  If this is a sensitive subject to you I completely understand.  Don't read this.  Come back tomorrow.  Commenters are making it seem I'm personally attacking Charlie Sheen.  No.  I'm letting you inside the process.  One of my objectives with this blog is to do just that.  There are not many that do.  But sometimes that can shine a light on a darker side of the business.  If you're offended I'm truly sorry.  But trust me, the type of jokes I spell out in this post are precisely the kind (or much worse) that are currently swirling around writing rooms.  Along with horribly distasteful sex jokes.  If you have hopes of someday being on a writing staff, be forewarned that this is what you can expect.   And if you find it offensive I truly respect that but then this is not the line of work for you.  Which is fine.  If you have no desire to ever be in a writing room, then also fine, and again -- come back tomorrow. 

But remember -- comedy is subversive, comedy is dark, comedy is taking chances.  As Larry Gelbart (a man who won Peabody Awards) once said, "If you write a comedy that offends nobody than you've failed".  

I'm sorry if I may lose a few readers, but I feel it's more important and instructive to offer a real glance into the world of show business, warts and all. 


It’s the end of a long season. Every writing staff is now working on fumes. Flailing, gasping, anything to get to that wrap party. They’ve worked nights, they’ve worked weekends. They’re fried, burned out, walking zombies. They’ve hit the wall and seriously worry that they’re not going to make it till the end, even if that end is only two weeks away.

And then, just when all hope seems to be lost, a miracle. A gift from God.

Charlie Sheen.

If there was ever a topic to jumpstart a group of brain dead comedy writers, it is an insane celebrity going off the rails. Guys who only days before couldn’t write a grocery list are firing off hundreds of Charlie Sheen jokes in a single hour. It’s a beautiful thing.

They’re imagining new shows. Charlie’s Angels starring Charlie Sheen and three whores. The Cosby Show starring Charlie Sheen. Trust me, in minutes they’d pitch out the whole Charlie “Huxtable” beats the crap out of Claire episode. And I can’t even tell you the scenario they’ll cook up for the very special daddy-daughter, Charlie-Denise episode. Picture the sickest most appalling, depraved thing ever. Then use that as a starting point.

And every writing staff is doing it. Even the dramas.  Even the shows that win Humanitas and Peabody Awards.  Family Channel shows, Disney Channel shows -- it makes no difference. 

They’re also imagining what the Charlie Sheen obit will sound like. Whether the chapel where they hold the service will be trashed because “that’s the way Charlie would have wanted it”. Who will deliver the eulogies, and just what those eulogies will be. “Chuck Lorre couldn’t be here but asked us to read this vanity card instead.” “Hi, my name is Dee Dee Mounds, I only have a few minutes because I’m due back on the set for a gangbang scene but I just wanted to say Charlie always paid in full, never left bruises, and everytime I see a butt plug I will think of you, Charlie”. Priest: “Thank you, Ms Mounds. Now let’s hear from his father”. That sort of stuff only much much worse.

They’re also organizing pools. Who will Charlie kill first? And when?

They’ll do impressions of his lawyers, his ex-wives, his hookers, Charlie as Gaddafi, Charlie getting advice from O.J., Charlie on Oprah, Charlie on THE VIEW, Charlie on Dr. Drew, Charlie as contestant on DANCING WITH THE STARS.

They’ll be jokes on Paula Abdul marrying the wrong Estevez. There’ll be fix-ups with Bret Butler, Sarah Palin, and Amy Winehouse.

There will also be some writers that are taking his side. Those are the writers who have been fired by Chuck Lorre somewhere during their career.

The end result is that it will get the comedy juices flowing again and the writers will get that much needed second wind (although at this point in the season it’s more like their seventh wind) and will make it to the coveted finish line.

So on behalf of all working writers – thank you Charlie Sheen – not only for your colorful public unraveling, but for waiting until the end of February to have it. You may be a fucking loon and possible serial killer but at least you’re a considerate one. Actors always say they appreciate writers, but very few, like you, really show it.  I salute you, you psychopath knucklehead.

I actually received this stupid note

This is one of those “what’s one of the stupidest notes you’ve ever gotten?” posts.

In the late ‘90s I was directing a sitcom that starred the junior senator from Minnesota. At the time, he was just Al Franken. When I see him on CNN acting very senatorial, it’s odd to think that at one time I was telling him, “stand over there”. But he was a pleasure to work with and very funny. I’m guessing he’s the funniest U.S. senator, although in fairness, I haven’t been in a writing room with Orrin Hatch.

Anyway, the series was called LATELINE and it was essentially a fictional version of ABC’s NIGHTLINE. You saw the behind-the-scenes machinations of a network news program. So we had very elaborate sets. A big newsroom, a control room with multiple monitors, and a TV studio. In addition to the four film cameras used to shoot the show, I also had four tape cameras to shoot the fictional show and provide different angles for the control room monitors. We shot this in front of a studio audience and for certain scenes that meant I had eight cameras rolling simultaneously. As a director, I was in heaven. So many fun toys to play with! And like I said, Al was great. Always on set. We never had to break while he went and voted.

After the first season, we shot the show in New York. Normally on the third day of production you have a big network runthrough. Reps from the studio and network attend and give you notes. But they were all 3,000 miles away. So someone devised a system whereby I would shoot the runthrough and beam it back to Los Angeles via satellite.

However, the regular camera crew didn’t come in until the following day to start blocking. So we had no cameramen and no one to switch from camera to camera. We were confined to one tape camera and that’s it. We brought in one of the tape cameramen and I gave him instructions to just follow the action as best he could.

I didn’t envy him. There were scenes in the newsroom with people spread way out. There were scenes that intercut between the on-air studio and the control room. The only way to capture even a portion of what was going on was to have an extremely wide master.

So I do my first network runthrough. Back in Los Angeles the executives are watching. The satellite transmission is up and running. We of course, can’t see or hear them. We have no idea what their reaction to anything is. But the runthrough goes pretty well I think. The poor camera guy is so far back he’s almost in a different borough, but that’s the only way he can show everything.

So we get the call from L.A. with the notes. The network honcho says, “Gee, I’d really like to see a few close ups”.

It was all I could do not to burst out laughing. What a fucking idiot! I delicately explained that when I actually shoot the show I will have four cameras and two passes, meaning I will cover the scene from eight different angles. None of them will be from the bleachers. That seemed to satisfy him.

But I can just imagine him going back to Burbank and reporting back to his superior that he saved the show.

My final Oscar thoughts (for this year)

The Motion Picture Academy has got to figure out what it wants. Trying to straddle the line between stature and hip isn’t working. The end result is that is the show is COP ROCK. You can’t have it both ways.

You can’t have Justin Timberlake make “Banksy” jokes one minute and cart out Kirk Douglas the next. You can’t do a tribute to Lena Horne and let Gwyneth Paltrow anywhere near an orchestra.

As long as they maintain essentially the same format they will remain as uncool as Members Only jackets. That's just a fact.  It makes no difference who they get to host. And boy they’ve tried everybody. Ellen DeGeneres. Whoopi Goldberg, for godsakes! Three times! Even Wile E. Coyote stopped using the Acme rocket launcher after it blew up in his face twice.

This year the plan was to just let two hot young movie stars host. They didn’t have to be funny. They didn’t have to dance. Considering James Franco, they didn’t even have to be awake. But even if I was 20 and the world’s biggest Anne Hathaway fan, why would I think it was a big deal to see her host a stodgy awards show when I can rent a movie and see her naked for a half hour?

As last night's ratings and reviews revealed, the audience does want them to be funny and entertaining (who knew?). Eight costume changes and a couple of joints aren’t enough. Also, and this is where they both struggled, the audience wants to feel that the hosts are in command. They can move things along, they can ad lib if they have to, they can handle unforeseen situations (and those happen on live TV… or at least you hope). Anne and James were two first-time skydivers pushed out of planes. Not their fault. They’d never done it before.

So the Academy has to make a commitment. If they really want to capture the young audience then just turn the Oscars into the MTV Awards. Have Howard Stern fly in as Fartman. Cut to a shot of Helena Bonham Carter in the audience and super the words: Lady Gaga. Bag the editing, costume design, and sound awards. Do those at a dinner hosted by the guy who played McLovin’. Keep any category that NYU students can win. Show classic movie montages that only go back to 1997. Give the lifetime achievement award to Marisa Tomei. Have Justin Bieber host. No orchestra. Hire a D.J. If you want to use Anne Hathaway, fine. Just have her dry hump Amy Winehouse. Hold the ceremony at the House of Blues or the Skybar.

And if you don’t want to do that, then go the other direction. Make the show as elegant and glamorous as you can. Hire pros like Alec Baldwin or Steve Martin to host. Celebrate great stars from the past like Kirk Douglas because they are national treasures that soon will be gone. Have security stop Russell Brand at the door. Embrace your history and tradition and don’t run from it. Discontinue the silly practice of having ten Best Picture nominees. It’s schmuck bait and everyone knows it. Return dignity and class to the ceremony. And who knows? Maybe someday dignity and class will be considered cool. And when that day comes, you don't want to be stuck with Chelsea Handler hosting.