DECEMBER 9, 2020

(GMC images)
The GMC HUMMER EV has arrived at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds to continue validation tests and will head to northern Michigan to run through GM’s grueling winter testing process. GMC will document the journey and share updates in the coming weeks and months. The HUMMER EV’s development speed was enabled by extensive virtual testing, which will be a hallmark of GM programs moving forward. Initial production of the GMC HUMMER EV will begin in the Fall of 2021.

(Acura images)
Acura has unveiled the fourth-generation 2022 MDX calling it the "the most premium, performance-focused and technologically sophisticated SUV in Acura history" according to Acura PR minions. The new MDX will be positioned as the brand's flagship. What does it have worth talking about? An all-new, ultra-rigid platform with an MDX-first double-wishbone front suspension; new technologies, including Precision Cockpit all-digital instrument display (with Amazon Alexa Built-In, and Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration); it is more spacious as well, with its three rows adding a multi-function second-row with removable middle seat. The 2022 MDX will arrive at dealers Feb. 2 with an MSRP starting at $46,900. The MDX Type S, which will be powered by Acura’s new 3.0-liter Turbo V6 and equipped with fourth-generation Super Handling All-Wheel Drive,™ is set to arrive in the late Summer of 2021. 

(Volkswagen)
This is the first official picture of the 2022 VW Taos. Call us underwhelmed.

I think this photo posted to Facebook is vintage L.A. and sums up 2020 perfectly. It is of a Tesla that crashed into the statue of Rocky and Bullwinkle on Sunset Blvd. Would only be more perfect if it were pink and driven by Angelyne. Or on autopilot. Or both. - Tom Pease

The AE Song of the Week:

Oh yeah

I hear you talking
When I'm on the street
Your mouth don't move
But I can hear you speak

What's the matter with the boy?
He don't come around no more
Is he checking out for sure?
Is he gonna close the door on me?

I'm always hearing voices
On the street
I want to shout
But I can't hardly speak

I was making love last night
To a dancer friend of mine
I can't seem to stay in step
Come every time that she pirouettes over me

And I only get my rocks off
While I'm dreaming
I only get my rocks off
While I'm sleeping

I'm zipping through the days
At lightning speed
Plug in, flush out
And fire the fuckin' feed

Heading for the overload
Splattered on the dirty road
Kick me like you've kicked before
I can't even feel the pain no more

But I only get my rocks off
While I'm dreaming
I only get my rocks off
While I'm sleeping

Feel so hypnotized, can't describe the scene
It's all mesmerized, all that inside me
The sunshine bores the daylights out of me
Chasing shadows, moonlight mystery

Heading for the overload
Splattered on the dirty road
Kick me like you've kicked before
I can't even feel the pain no more

And I only get my rocks off
While I'm dreaming
I only get my rocks off
While I'm sleeping

And I only get my rocks off
While I'm dreaming
And I only get my rocks off
While I'm sleeping

Only get them off
Only get them off
Get them off
Only get them off, get them off
Only get them off


"Rocks Off" - The Rolling Stones from the album "Exile On Main St." (1972)* Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards; Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC; Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind. Listen/Watch here.

*Andy Johns, who engineered the Exile on Main St. sessions, told Goldmine magazine in 2010: "It went on for ages. When Mick came back from Paris for the first time he seemed happy with the sound. And Keith would sit down stairs and at one point he sat there for 12 hours without getting out of his chair just playing the riff over and over and over. And then one night, it was very late, four or five in the morning, Keith says, 'Let me listen to that take again.' And he nods off while the tape is playing. I thought, 'Great. That's it. End of the night and I'm out of here.' So I go back to my place where I was staying. (Horn player/arranger) Jim Price and I had this villa. It was pretty swanky. I'm tellin' you. A half an hour drive. I walk in the front door and the phone is ringing. I pick it up and it's Keith. 'Where are you?' 'Well, I'm obviously here 'cause I answered the phone.' 'Well you better get back here, man, 'cause I have this guitar part. Come back!'" This was the first of 18 songs on Exile on Main St. Most of the album was recorded at the Villa Nellcote, a place Keith Richards rented in the South of France. The Stones went there to have some fun and get away from England, where they were taxed heavily on their earnings. This song features Bobby Keys on sax and Jim Price on trumpet. They provided horns on albums and tours through the early '70s. Nicky Hopkins played piano on the track. Keith Richards explained the title of the album in his autobiography "Life" (2010): "We could record from late in the afternoon until five or six in the morning, and suddenly the dawn comes up and I've got this boat... We'd just jump in, Bobby Keys, me, Mick, whoever was up for it... We'd pull into Monte Carlo for lunch. Have a chat with either Onassis's lot or Niarchos's, who had the big yachts there. You could almost see the guns pointed at each other. That's why we called it Exile On Main Street. When we first came up with the title it worked in American terms because everybody's got a Main Street. But our Main Street was that Riviera strip. And we were exiles, so it rang perfectly true and said everything we needed. The whole Mediterranean coast was an ancient connection of its own, a kind of Main Street without borders. I've hung in Marseilles, and it was all it was cracked up to be and I've no doubt it still is. It's like the capital that embraces the Spanish coast, the North African coast, the whole Mediterranean coast. It's basically a country all its own until a few miles inland." (Knowledge courtesy of songfacts.com) Editor-In-Chief's Note: "The sunshine bores the daylights out of me..." is one of my all-time favorite rock lyrics. -PMD