A couple of days ago, we glanced over to the left there and noticed that we're on pace for 2009 to be our most prolific year as a blogger.  That surprised the hell out of us.  It had seemed to us that the month that just ended was a microcosm of our output this year as a whole.  But about the same time we decided we were being a little too self-critical, we remembered that late January and early February saw a flurry of "posts" from Tampa which inflate the overall number.  All told, we have literally phoned in nearly forty posts so far this year, and all but a handful of them are just a photo with no explanation.  There's no denying it - 2009 has been the laziest year in the short history of hotrod.vox.com.

So in an effort to rectify this, for the entire month of November we're going to focus on quality over quantity.  We won't be posting any photos or videos.  We're going to rely solely on our words.  (Frankly, this strikes us as a more appropriate way of commemorating National Blog Posting Month than posting daily, for what it's worth.)  And no, we don't have any idea of how this is going to play out.  We hope that we might find something to say in the next four weeks (besides this introductory post) that doesn't require a visual crutch.  Lord knows, we've still got stories to tell.  Maybe we'll even get to the tale of how we got our nickname....

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We've been wondering for the past few days what is the protocol on the off chance one of the copycats happens to post a song we had on our agenda.  Because that happened.  We ultimately decided to go ahead and stick with our original setlist because A) we started Rocktober and B) Cappy is an idiot.  His blog isn't even written in English.  We're not sure what it is (our best guess is some bizarre variation of whatever language Sarah Palin speaks), but it sure as shit ain't English.  We've often wondered what his many followers are thinking when they comment, because there's no way they can possibly understand what the fuck he's supposed to be talking about.  They're probably just nodding along because they know better than to upset the crazy person.  Anyway, we've kind of gotten off-topic here.  Let's just get to the rock....

Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle

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This is shaping up to be a pretty crappy Rocktober.  We mean, sure the songs all rock and all, but the commentary has left a little something to be desired.  We'd say it's the "Worst. Rocktober. Ever." if only Cap'n Crunch hadn't set the bar so goddamn low.  Anyway, welcome to the third straight day of us phoning it in.  It usually takes another week to get to this point.  Look at us, overachieving!

Nazareth - Hair of the Dog

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Man, I feel like Daby or Jodi today - throwing up junk at the last minute just to meet some arbitrary deadline.  I got to Ohio later than I expected, and time is running short.  Plus, I don't want to do this now.  So more tomorrow.  Maybe.

The Pretenders - My City Was Gone

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Well, lookee here: we made the [music is good] page.  Again.  This time it was for our insightful commentary on Weezer and the Replacements' legacy in the annals of rock history.  We're surprised - not to mention honored and flattered - to be featured by the good people at Vox so soon after our last fleeting moment in the sun.  But then, we can hardly blame them for recognizing greatness when they see it.  We should totally become, like, a professional blogger or something.

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Hey, we made the [music is good] box again!  And we love the caption.  It encapsulates perfectly - and much more succinctly than our words - one of our most valued rules for life.  In fact, let's go ahead and update the rulebook right now.

Hotrod's Rules for Life, #13:  All's good if you keep your shoes on, okay?

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We may have mentioned this before, but those that pay attention can track our general disposition through this humble blog.  We've noticed over the past three years a clear (to us) pattern of negligence when we are down.  Now just so happens to be one of those unfortunate times.  We've been fairly stressed out lately, and we've been dealing with the inevitable low after a long spring of being mostly up.  And despite our week-long dalliance with the Question of the Day, we feel hotrod.vox.com has not been getting the attention it deserves.  We had hoped to rectify that this evening with an off-topic and humorous personal anecdote, but nothing came to mind.  Or at least nothing that we could crank out in twenty minutes or less.

Then we remembered a couple of posts by Dabysan (before he jetted off to another hemisphere; god, we hate that asshole) about smooth music.  Those posts prompted us to re-watch the tremendous Yacht Rock series in its entirety one sleepless mid-June night.  This is our favorite episode.

Yacht Rock Episode 9

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Now is the time when I'm supposed to announce that for the next week I'll be posting nothing but a daily response to the Question of the Day.  But I'm not very clever to begin with and I had a really shitty afternoon.  Just this introductory post is proving to be quite the challenge.  So let's just say that for the next week I'll be posting nothing but answers to the Questions of the Day and leave it at that.  God help us all.

Oh, and memes can blow me.

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Today is a big day.  We turn three years old today.  We've come a long way since our humble beginnings, and have much to commemorate.  It's a less-than-ideal day for festivities, given our other plans, but birthdays are meant to be observed on the day the of.  We'll make no exceptions for ourselves.  So without further ado, here's the latest installment of our annual look back at the year that was:

• Our one and only (and ill-advised) reader poll led to a disastrous week of nothing but internet memes.
  
• There was a minor security breach when Jodi hacked our site and offerered her confessional.
• Our trip to the Outer Banks culminated with the awarding of the 2008 Beachies.
  
• We had a busy weekend.
  
• Cap'n Crunch failed in his attempt to make a mockery of Rocktober.
• We discussed wrasslin' scenarios, and other things lit'rary.
• We were part of this delicious breakfast.
• A cool Christmas present made us feel highly uncool.
  
• The Steelers won the Super Bowl....
• ....and we won Karaoke to the Death.
• M-----l posted about facial hair and an argument ensued.
• Hellooooooo, new bike!
• We spent a lot of time making maps and riding our new bike.
  

Which brings us full-circle to this morning....  Sorry to bail on our own party, but we really do have to go.  Next year, we will host a proper celebration.

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No One

Hotrod

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