USC Remembers Junior Seau with this video.
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Lamborghini swore they would never do an SUV. They brushed off rumor after rumor to the contrary. They even showed other concepts to throw people off the scent. But apparently, all their statements were a smokescreen because the newest Lamborghini is here . . . and it’s an SUV. Following in the footsteps of Porsche and every other luxury manufacturer, Lamborghini just released their very own luxury SUV, the Urus. Well, they released an SUV again, that is.
Although the Urus is a shock for those expecting another supercar debut, SUVs are not new for Lamborghinis. From 1986-1993 Lamborghini produced the LM002. Originally, the LM002 was produced as a military vehicle. However, after losing the account to AM General (also known as the producers of the H1), Lamborghini sold the truck to Sheiks, movie stars, and mental ward occupants.
The Urus is not related to the LM002 in the slightest, however. The LM002 was the right kind of crazy. It had a Countach engine, was barely drivable, and was a classic example of Italian lunacy at its finest. The Urus cannot afford such eccentrics. The LM002 was built with product first, business plan later procedure. The LM002 probably didn’t make any money but was just an expensive marketing campaign for the poorly managed Lamborghini at the time. But the Germans own Lamborghini now, and they don’t take kindly too the “all play and no work” mentality; just look at the friction between them and Greece, for example. So the Urus has been designed to produce profit as well as power figures.
The segment for big dollar supercars is shrinking rapidly, so the way forward for many sports car manufacturers has been creating SUVs. This way, their buyers can still show their status, without the compromises of a supercar. The results of this new strategy has horrified automotive enthusiasts since the introduction of the Cayenne, but the car makers have been laughing all the way to the bank. Additionally, with ferocious demand for SUVs and status in China, Lamborghini is cashing out in a big way. And the product fits this goal.
Brash and exceedingly loud, the Urus is not a pretty truck. Every inch of the Urus seems to be designed to show how obnoxious its occupants are. From front to back, the Urus is slashes, creases and sharp lines. However, it is a Lamborghini in the classical sense that it is outrageous to look at, and will draw attention wherever it goes. Plus, it doesn’t look nearly as out of place next to the Aventador and Gallardo as it should. Lamborghinis were always designed to draw attention, but the Urus seems to be designed as a rolling tribute to conspicuous consumption.
The interior is gloriously ridiculous as well. Like the supercars that have come before it, it appears that you can’t see out of the Urus either. The seats and dash are the resting places for a whole herd of cattle hides, and the décor has more in common with a jet fighter than a car. Plus, the Urus won’t have side view mirrors, only little cameras on the outside that will display the sides of the car on a video screen inside the car at all times. Once the flight of fancy on concept cars, the technology is now road worthy. And I could think of no better vehicle to equip it on than the Urus.
Like all Lamborghinis before it, though, it will be fast; absurdly so. Lamborghini has announced that when the production Urus arrives it will have around 600hp. The type of engine that will be making that figure has not been announced, though my fingers crossed for a V-12. Power will most likely be directed to the ground by all four wheels, and the truck will most likely share platforms with the Audi Q7. That may seem like a compromise on such an exotic vehicle ($200,000+ estimated), but Audi and Lamborghini tie-ups have always worked out well. However, basing the Urus off an Audi will not stop many critics from claiming that the brand is being watered down.
Not that Audi and parent company VW care, of course. Enthusiast opinions are not necessary in this segment, and are often terribly wrong. When the then independent Porsche debuted the Cayenne, critics claimed it would ruin the brand. Again these concerns were raised when the Panamera debuted only a short time ago. But, much to enthusiasts’ chagrin and irritation, those two models are Porsche’s best selling models.
With the Aventador, many in the automotive community wondered if the days of crazy Lamborghinis were gone. And they are. However, they are still patently absurd cars in the best way possible. The Urus, however, will not be bought by the eccentric millionaire playboy types that bought Espadas, Miuras, and Countachs of yesteryear. At $200,000, it will be out of the reach of the average club patron, but the customer base will no doubt be more at home at the Jersey shore than the shores of Saint-Tropez. But, there are a lot more of those people in this world than those looking for supercars, especially here in the United States, and Lamborghini estimates that 50% of sales will be here.
So prepare yourself, the Urus will be such a success that you will be seeing a lot more of them than Aventadors and Gallardos. And that’s a pity when a small kid won’t grow up with an evocative supercar on their bedroom wall, but an SUV with a Lamborghini badge on the hood. Luckily, though, they may take the Urus racing in Dakar so there is a glimmer of hope yet of this truck keeping Lamborghini’s tradition of lunacy alive. This Urus is just a concept, but Lamborghini says to expect the production model sometime near 2015.
I recently had a conversation with a friend about picking up Tera, an MMO from En Masse that was making its way to the States. Tera’s big sell is a combat revamp from the typical MMO. Gone are the days of tab-targetting. Tera requires that you actually be facing your target in order to land your skills. It’s a nice concept, and it plays fairly well, but I still can’t justify buying the game. In a world of free-to-play, microtransaction games, the box cost just doesn’t play anymore.
Gaming is a zero-sum hobby at this point. If I want to pick up a game like Tera, it means subbing one of the games I’m currently enjoying out of rotation. Strangely enough, it hasn’t always been this way. Ten years ago, there just weren’t as many high quality games. With the proliferation of quality indie titles and the accessibility of those free-to-play games, though, I have plenty of titles to play. So why pick up a game like Tera?
This may seem a little clinical, but it’s the best system I’ve been able to devise. When I’m considering a new game, I basically break down the game’s entry cost. It’s not just the monetary cost. I also consider the amount of time I need to invest learning the game before I can really enjoy it (for some games this is a fair amount of time). For Tera, it looks a little something like this:
$50 box cost
$15 monthly fee
5+ intro hours
Is that really worth it? When I consider it against another game I’ve been playing lately, it becomes pretty clear. For Tribes Ascend, the cost looks more like this:
1 intro hours
And even that is a little aggressive. I was having fun with Tribes in the first 30 minutes, but if you haven’t played any of the previous titles you might take a little more time. Now granted, Tribes and Tera aren’t exactly analogous titles, but the list of top quality games with low entry costs continues to grow. And that says nothing of the changing face of the MMO. Players aren’t as dedicated to single titles, so does it really make sense to charge a box cost and a sub? Not to me.
I realize publishers want to recoup some of their investment with an initial return, but the box cost is actually keeping me from buying the game at all. I’d gladly throw $15 at the first month of a game, but $50 on top? I don’t think so.
As more games embrace MMO-style play without MMO subscriptions, the box + sub model just won’t be sustainable. Take a look at Diablo 3 – Blizzard could easily ask a sub for that game, but it’s box cost only. They aren’t even working in a microtransaction model (granted, they’re looking to get a cut of the real money auction house). It’s not just top-tier publishers; even the alpha-funding model upstages Tera-style pricing. I can pay as little as $10 to fund the development of an indie title and receive the full thing on release.
As the quality of games continues to improve, publishers are going to have to consider more flexible pricing structures. Like I said, gaming is a zero-sum hobby. I only have so much time to dedicate to games. When the low-cost games are outperforming the high-cost, you can guess what I’ll be playing.
SPOILER WARNING: All events that have occurred in the TV show up to and including yesterday’s episode are fair game. I have read the books but I will not go any further beyond small hints that only fellow book-readers will catch on to. You’ve been warned.
Morning Announcements: It’s come to my attention that non-readers (and probably some readers too) have a hard time keeping all the names aligned with their faces. In order to help remedy that problem, the first mention of a character in a post will include a link to a picture of them.
I almost can’t believe that a show exists where the opening sequence bears discussing week in and week out. But one does in Game of Thrones. No new cities this episode, but as the camera panned from the Wall across the Shivering Sea to Qarth, we actually got an up-close glimpse of the mysterious red comet. Now, all the best shows have incredible attention to detail, but I challenge you to find one that reaches “Throne’s” level in its opening sequence. Moving on.
Renly vs. Stannis, Littlefinger and the Tyrells
Well they certainly didn’t waste any time here, which is a good thing. After leaving us with a cliffhanger last week, not making Renly’s death the opening scene would’ve rustled my jimmies. Now all of us Stark supporters will be left wondering what might have been if Renly and his hundred thousand swords had been able to join forces with Robb against the Lannisters. Stannis is “pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He’ll break before he bends.” He will never align with the Starks as long as Robb insists on calling himself the King in the North.
You’ve got to credit the showrunners for the way they handled this. From the preseason trailers they made it seem as though Renly would have a tremendous part to play, which I’m sure made his sudden death that much more surprising. Plus, the CGI was fantastic, the shadow assassin actually looked like Stannis, as it should considering it’s his “son.”
Only Littlefinger knows what Littlefinger’s true motivations are. He knows that war is unpredictable, so he’s trying to be everybody’s friend. Problem is, nobody trusts him. His conversation with Loras and Margaery Tyrell was illuminating for all three characters. Lord Baelish asks Loras what he desires most. Loras responds, “revenge,” which Littlefinger has “always found to be the purest of motivations.” Perhaps a hint as to why he betrayed Ned Stark, who was married to the only woman he’s ever loved, Catelyn.
In this week’s “Inside the Episode,” the showrunners explained that House Tyrell is a “secret matriarchy,” in which the men are “handsome dopes” and the women are the “brains behind the operation.” Littlefinger asks Margaery if she wants to be a queen. “No,” she responds, “I want to be the queen.” Margaery is a saner version of Cersei, she’s not so conniving, but she’s certainly a player in the game of thrones.
King’s Landing
Back in the capital, Tyrion continues his attempts to restore order and institute justice, always quipping as he goes. Lancel tells him of Cersei’s plan to defend the city from siege using wildfire. Tyrion takes control of the plans, knowing that in the wrong hands, the volatile substance is likely to burn the city, and people, it’s meant to protect. On his way to the Alchemist’s Guild, he learns he’s being made a scapegoat for the city’s ills, because it’s easy to blame someone who’s different. Tyrion is incredulous, “Blame me?” he asks, “I’m trying to save them.” Story of his life.
The parallels between both Cersei and Joffrey and Aerys II Targaryen, the “Mad King,” are becoming increasingly clear. Joffrey is quick to punish anyone who questions his reign, or, you know, anyone he feels like punishing, be it Sansa, Ser Dontos, or a lowly bard. And like Cersei, the Mad King had a penchant for paranoia and wildfire. Last season, when asked what Aerys said when he stabbed him in the back, Jaime responded, “He said the same thing he’d been saying for hours. Burn them all.” In the books we learn that Aerys planned to burn the city, and everyone in it, rather than surrender. “Let [Robert] be king over charred bones and cooked meat… Let him be the king of ashes.”
The really fun part of setting up an interview with John Cusack is telling people about it and getting their reaction. The still boyish star of such classics like “Say Anything,” “Grosse Pointe Blank,” “Bullets Over Broadway,” “The Grifters,” “Being John Malkovich,” and recent ‘plex-fare like “2012” and “Hot Tub Time Machine,” is one popular guy, and not only with women.
Now in his mid-40s, the former teen rom-com leading man is also something of a paradox in that he’s been able to keep the details of his private life private while also being unafraid of a little controversy. He maintains a direct connection with his fans via his well-known Twitter feed that often touches bluntly on his strongly left-of-center politics. We interviewed Mr. Cusack back in 2008 about his somewhat underrated satirical broadside, “War, Inc.,” and he makes some revealing comments about its production below. He has nevertheless avoided becoming a Sean Penn-style right wing whipping boy, though his recent election-year bashing of the Obama administration’s civil liberties failings on “CBS This Morning” attracted some attention from conservative outlets.
The fact of the matter is that Cusack, still best remembered by many as idealistic aspiring kickboxer Lloyd Dobler, is the closest thing modern audiences have to a Jimmy Stewart. He’s a low-key, yet charismatic and highly energetic actor who never seems to act at all. That’s high praise, but it does make him a slightly counterintuitive choice for the role of Edgar Allen Poe, the flamboyant, floridly romantic author who largely invented modern horror and crime fiction.
Directed by James McTeigue of “V for Vendetta,” “The Raven” has the master of the macabre trying to solve a “Se7en”-style killing spree inspired by his own stories. Critics have not been impressed by the film and the crowded opening weekend box office returns have been kind of dismal, but that won’t have been for any lack of effort on John Cusack’s part. The actor spent weeks promoting the film everywhere from “The View” to our humble selves. He did, however, take a moment to receive a very special Hollywood honor.
Bullz-Eye: It’s been a good day for you; you just got your star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
JC: Yeah man, thanks.
BE: What’s that like at your relatively young age?
JC: I don’t know. I’ve never got one before so I don’t know. It was pretty surreal; pretty cool. I liked that I was right next to the Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry. That was pretty cool.
BE: That is cool.
JC: I was right across from Musso and Frank’s, so I thought that was pretty damn cool. That’s such a great place. I’m also next to this great book store, so I’m well represented. I liked it.
BE: Speaking of books — a great segue there — I know that one of the reasons that you took on “The Raven” is it gave you an excuse to read up on Edgar Allan Poe. Why do you think he has remained kind of contemporary all of these years?
JC: I think he’s this classic sort of archetype for all of the shadow parts of ourselves that we don’t want to admit out loud or you’re not supposed to admit in polite company or society. You know, all of these terrors and fears and phobias and anguishes and torments, and also this kind of grave, deep love of language and poetry. I think he’s a genuine genius and he spoke to the language of the subconscious and he was a great poet and artist. A great storyteller; a wild creator of different genres and hybrids of genres and mash-ups of genres. He was a pretty talented man, and he was also just wired way too tight, so it was a volatile mix.
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