Downsides of driving a Mazda Miata

Taylor Swift has a new album coming out this November, and my ear chambers are ready for the magnificence. Red and 1989 was such spectacular standouts that I expect no less greatness from reputation, though someone please explain to me why the letter r isn’t capitalized in the album cover.

One of the downsides to owning a minuscule car as the Mazda Miata is that other drivers in modern behemoths such as the typical sports-utility-vehicle or Toyota Camry absolutely cannot see me alongside them. Worse, because of the MX-5 diminutive size, I can hide completely in another car’s blindspot, where even with an over-the-shoulder check the other driver cannot see me at all. I’ve lost count on how many moments I had to do emergency evasive maneuver simply due to people merging directly into me. 

Perhaps a 2,300 odd pound car isn’t meant to be daily-driven when the average vehicle weights nearly 1,000 pounds heavier. Needlessly to say, I run a dash-cam - as the Russians do - at all times, though I’m not sure how useful the camera footage would be if I’m squashed dead by another car. The Miata is a convertible, after all. 

Excellent choice of car, Healy. Simply masterful. 

Why don't Kpop albums come in vinyl?

Like a true millennial hipster, I quite fond of vinyl records of contemporary music, not because I like the sound - I don’t even own a record player, but rather I’ve always enjoy album art (a hearty rest-in-peace shoutout to iTunes cover-flow), and they don’t come any bigger than in LP vinyl form. Naturally, I prefer to display my records trophy-display style instead of purchasing an IKEA Kallax shelve like everyone else and inserting them in vertically. 

On a similar vein, I’m an avid listening of Kpop, and the one thing I’ve come to lament about the “genre” is the absolute lack of vinyl print of Kpop albums - no, I refused to fork the over $250 price for G-Dragon’s limited vinyl release of his ‘Coup D'etat’ album. Kpop albums have some of the most creative and imaginative album-art designs, and it’s a shame I can’t procure them in the larger format for display. Of course, having a few albums with beautiful girls on the cover isn’t all that bad of a thing, either. 

At least Kpop comes fully correct in how they package their music albums in what is now old-school CD format. American music CDs arrives in the same classic jewel-case with only a booklet in addition to the front and back cover to differentiate. Kpop CD albums are full-on visual art productions, with innovative packaging (check G-Dragon’s first album), substantial photo-books, and various collectible totems such as trading cards.

In lieu of not having vinyl prints to purchase, I do often buy physical Kpop albums just on sheer art value. And like the LPs of American music I own, I don’t play the CDs themselves at all (who owns a CD player these days anyways?); online and on iTunes is where I actually listen to music.