That averages roughly 62 songs per day. 62! That’s a bigger number than any number that’s smaller than 62. Pretty incredible, no?

Ok I know it’s not that much to get excited about. Still, I like statistics and figures and facts (what’s up with that?) so I’ll wrap up this mini-post with a screenshot of my top tracks and artists right when I hit 100,000 plays, all available after the cut.

Overall artist/track plays:

Last 12 months:

Last 6 months:

Last 3 months:

First up is Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colours, which I hope I can describe without delving into too much fruity album-review speak. This album really impresses me with how it combines the accessibility of catchy dance-pop with interesting layered sounds that give each song the depth to stand up to many repeat listens. Also, it’s very refreshing to hear an album that manages to both be easy to listen to while also being more than just a collection of single songs. Beyond the simple fact that most tracks tend to fade in and out of each other, I’m struck by how appropriate melding all the tracks together is everytime I listen to this album…it really is greater than the sum of its parts. Part of this can be attributed to the appropriate usage of filler tracks, such as We Fight For Diamonds, Voices In Quarts, and Silver Thoughts, to give the listener a brief break from the rowdier sounds of the main tracks. Unlike so many artists, Cut Copy found just the right number and tone to accentuate the main tracks of the album. Secondly, every track seems to find its beat and its groove and get into some techno-style repetition, but then just before you start to get tired of that same sound, they change it up. Gotta love that.

Oh yeah, and one last thing, I think my favorite track is “Strangers In The Wind”. It starts off sounding like a standard that could’ve been released forty years ago, albeit with a refreshing modern twist, and evolves into an intense club floor beat before wrapping up with some new wave sound. Sooo addictive.

Three more albums after the break.

The Features are a rock band from the southeast that have sadly found next to no market in the United States (fortunately for them, they’re supposedly quite popular in Britain). Their 2005 debut, Exhibit A, is an ass-kicking rock album with powerful guitar licks and energetic top-of-the-lungs vocals that I find totally infectious (go find yourself a copy now and crank the volume on “Exorcising Demons”). Their 2008 album, self-released because they have no label right now, follows the course of their 2006 Contrast EP, which introduced a softer-edged and fuller sound, but is by no means soft. The distorted mid-tempo “GMF” sounds paranoid and dark, while “The Temporary Blues” (my favorite track off the album) offers a full-of-hope rock sound with a streak of world-weary bitterness that I feel like labeling neo-Springsteen. Overall, “Some Kind Of Salvation” sounds several years more mature than their previous efforts, but just as energetic and alive. More people should be listening to The Features.

I found out about Okkervil River when they were supporting The Decemberists on a 2004 tour for the sake of promoting their “Black Sheep Boy” album. I was impressed enough to buy a copy of the CD right at the show, despite being a poor high school student at the time, and I haven’t looked back with Okkervil River since. Their ability to combine competent song crafting with excellent lyrical storytelling, begun on Black Sheep Boy and honed on 2007′s The Stage Names, continues on The Stand Ins, but this time with more punch to the backing band. There’s something very special about listening to an Okkervil River album and pulling all of the intertwined metaphors and story elements, so many of which tie in with other songs and even other albums, and piecing them together for yourself. Moreover, both The Stage Names and The Stand Ins, written from the get-go as a complementary pair of albums, stick to a complex and compelling theme that follows the lives of those who have fame, those who are desperate for fame, those who are trampled by fame, and those who are desperate to be loved by the famous. It manages to expose that seedy underbelly of fame in a unique way and I find myself impressed by that literary competence. A winner.

Alright, last one before I type too much (whoops, too late). Fleet Foxes’ debut album (called Fleet Foxes) impresses me more on every listen. To describe the mood that this album puts me in will take too many words and puts me at risk of being monitored by some psychiatric hospital, but here goes: From the beginning to the end, this album makes me feel like I’m sitting in front of a warm cozy fire in a secluded cabin in snow-covered mountains. However, outside it’s sunny and warm and the snow is melting, and when I look out the window and close my eyes I can imagine flying over the hills and woods, taking in the beauty of nature in the midst of a springtime thaw. Ok that’s fruity and all that, but seriously it just puts me in the mood of being out in somewhere beautiful, which is intense. Favorite tracks include “He Doesn’t Know Why” and “Blue Ridge Mountains”, which have such a full sound that it feels like it could fill all of the outdoors, the opening “Sun It Rises”, which delivers exactly what its title promises and is just a stunning album opener.

Route Description

From north to south, Country Route G16 starts at Highway 1 at the south end of Carmel and is a major two-lane access route to the Carmel Valley. After ten miles, there is a major intersection with County Route G20 (Laureles Grade Road) which connects with Highway 68 to the north, offering more direct access to cities like Salinas and Del Rey Oaks, as well as Laguna Seca Raceway. The road then travels through the quaint Carmel Valley. This is the last gas available for about 40 miles, so fuel up here if you need it, but it is pricier than in the bigger cities of Monterey and Salinas.



After puttering through the village (if you’re the shopping and dining type, there’s several little restaurants and stores here you could explore) the road winds out of the village area. For a few miles, there are lots of driveways and usually a fair deal of traffic, but it slowly fades away to nothing. For about 33 miles, you’ve got a nearly empty stretch of pavement between you and the flat lands of the Salinas Valley near Greenfield. The road is on the bumpy side, so those with very stiffly spring cars may want to avoid this road, though in a car with adequate compliance it can be a real blast to drive and there is little in the way of potholes or extremely rough sections. After a few miles, the center stripe disappears, so those uncomfortable with driving on a one-lane road be forewarned, though throughout the road is of adequate width to pass any oncoming vehicles you may encounter.



Carmel Valley Road has hallmarks of great rally stages, or at least that’s how it makes me feel when I drive it in a spirited fashion, with blind crests, beautiful scenery, and complex apexes strung together in a near non-stop onslaught of corners. My personal favorite section is a steep downhill (when run north-south) winding its way down a mountainside in a series of open hairpins and tight sweepers with lots of road camber to help the suspension work. Other sections of Carel Valley Road are run in deeply shaded oak-filled canyons that can make sunset seem two hours sooner than usual, and then as you press onward you’ll find yourself climbing up and over open ridges with beautiful views of green valleys below or through sunny meadows surrounded by rolling hills of oak and pine.



There is only one turn to make on the route, where Carmel Valley Road meets Arroyo Seco Road a few miles west of Greenfield. Taking a left to continue to Greenfield (or a right if traveling northbound) will keep you on County Route G16 at this intersection. As the road exits the mountains and enters the Salinas Valley, you can have the choice of bearing right to stay on G16 and cross the Arroyo Seco bridge or bear left to take G17. Either way can get you to US 101; if you’re traveling southbound on 101, take G16, otherwise take G17 to Thorne Road.



Nearby routes of interest include the famous section of Highway 1 south of Carmel, Highway 25, and Jolon/Interlake Road, just to name a few.

Summary

Cruising Rating: 3/10
Excitement Rating: 8/10
Highs: Beautiful scenery, remoteness, variety of technical sections
Lows: Too bumpy for stiff cars, some cattle guards (mostly unsigned)

As always, please treat public roads with respect. Avoid pushing the limits of yourself or your vehicle, allow reaction time for unexpected animals, people, or things in the road, always honk your horn around blind corners on one-lane roads, and just generally keep it cool and stay safe. Enjoy your drive!

After the break are plenty more snapshots from that day, as well as impressions of the famous track and other musings.

This rather peculiar machine had me scratching my head for awhile, though I think I finally figured it out. At first glance I thought it was a Datsun 510, then I realized it was an old Chevy of some sort; Corvette is what my gut said but my friend said Camaro. As far as I can tell, this is actually a C5 ‘vette with a bodykit that makes it look like a ’67 Camaro, but with lots of modern detailing (the rear bumper and lights looked like they were lifted directly off of the new Camaro concept). In any case, it was loud and fast:

One of many GT3s at the track (996 & 997 and RS & non-RS were all represented at least a couple times over each):

360 Challenge Stradale:

Fast, heavily modified Mustang:

One of two black M6s present (the other was a convertible):

Elise:

See? Another GT3 RS:

A positive gaggle of performance metal:

GT3 RS in foreground, Boxster S & Ferrari 360 CS & Elise in middle, M3 Competition Package & C6 Corvette in background:

Pretty Cobra replica. Sounded divine:

One of many, many, many S2000s…the only Evo in the background, with a Supra, Miata, and 325Ci in back:

Radical SR3s in the paddock. There were roughly a dozen of these, there at that same day for a sprint race in a Radical series:

Another look at that weird Chevy. Loud 993 in background:

Action on turns 9 and 10 of the track:

Most of the paddock from up above (there’s more to the right):

Race-prepped Cayman S:

New STi making a showing:

The owner of Speed Venture’s car, a beat-up Spec Miata:

Exige S. One of two or three there that day:

Lined-up on the front straight in a double-pass. Happy accident:

Cars in foreground are lining up to get on track. From front to back = C5 Corvette, S2000, Ferrari 360 Modena, C6 Z06, Audi A4:

One of the Radical SR3s during qualifying around lunchtime:

Another shot of the before-seen Cayman:

996 GT3 in profile:

New STi at rest:

And late in the afternoon, it rained. Made for a fun last session:

My wet car, all packed up and ready to go home after the last laps of the day:

The following pictures were taken by my friend Branden, who was so kind as to hang out for the first half of the day with me:

In terms of the hit to the wallet, this particular trackday was $260; Laguna Seca is higher cost than many others because it’s in such high demand. Some tracks are as little as half that. Add in a night’s motel the night before, a bite to eat and a bottle of water the day of, and the gas to drive to, on, and from the track and it all added up to about $350.

The track’s actually pretty straightforward, really. Unlike Buttonwillow (one of the other tracks I’ve been to), there really is only one proper way to do each turn, so you spend less time figuring out what to do and more time refining your technique. But don’t confuse “straightforward” with “boring”…it is a very flowing track, where each turn is paced to come at you nicely, and it’s just flat-out fun. I could definitely see first-hand how Laguna is one of the world’s most famous racetracks.

The corkscrew’s not as daunting and people make it out to be. The key is braking earlier than you think you need to because braking over the crest before the turn makes you all squirrely on the entrance, and then you turn in normally, hold the wheel for a constant radius turn, roll out of the left turn when you see the short oak tree (it’s one of many, but after one lap I knew it instantly) and then you drive toward it until the bottom of the turn opens up in front of you and then just apex the curbing on the right and roll out toward turn 9. The gearing on my car (and, I assume, many others) forced a 2nd-3rd upshift right at the bottom of the corkscrew that was awkward, but other than that, the corkscrew is more sheer entertainment than sheer terror. Of course, my opinion would change if I were working to make up that last tenth of a second here or there, but I was just there to make clean, quick laps and have fun.

This was also my first experience driving on a racetrack in the rain. Fortunately for me, I had just invested in a brand new set of Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2 tires just a couple weeks before this trackday and they excelled in the wet and slipper conditions. I felt like I barely had to slow down at all from dry pace, and they were immensely confidence inspiring. Suddenly cars that had been quicker than me all day were struggling to match my pace (I even pressured an S2000 into spinning off turn 6, sorry man, didn’t mean to do that).