It’s Friday! It used to be my favorite Corvette event. MidAmerica Motorworks holds their annual gathering every September. It’s open to everyone, but Corvette owners are encouraged to bring their car for display. In the days before Covid, this show would regularly attract thousands of Corvettes. It was so popular, people from other countries would travel to a small town in central Illinois called Effingham, where MidAmerica Motorworks was located. And then Covid hit and the show has never been the same. The number of Corvettes and spectators showing up for the show are far less than before. It’s just not the same and I’m not sure why. After going every year since 2001, I decided not to make the 3-hour trip down this year.

Fortunately, one of my readers did make the journey from Indiana. Even better, he sent in a few photos from the show. I put them into a gallery and you can check them out below. A huge thanks goes out to him for allowing me to share them with all of you.

Okay, since it is Friday the babes & jokes are doubled today… enjoy!

-keep

It’s Thursday. I’ve been recently having a problem with my new Microsoft Surface Studio 2 Plus. I’ve had it now for a couple months and its been working flawlessly. I really like this thing. However, earlier in the week it started shutting off randomly. It doesn’t shut Windows down, it simply shuts off a few times a day. I have to turn it back on and it boots up normally. It seems to work normally for roughly an hour, sometimes more and sometimes less.

I searched online for any known issues and the only thing I saw related to random shutdowns was overheating. A friend suggested that I install an app called Core Temp to monitor the temperature of the processor. I did that and the app keeps track of the current temperature of all 4 cores, along with a minimum and maximum temperature for each. I’m seeing average running temperatures of 110 degrees for all 4 cores. The maximum it recorded was 220, but generally it stays around 120. I have no idea what is normal for this computer.

I checked the BIOS but didn’t see any settings for the fan.

As I mentioned, it’s new and still under warranty. I contacted Microsoft support and we went through some minor diagnostics. They offered two options. I could send the machine in to Microsoft for repair or take it to an authorized Microsoft repair place–located in only 3 states! And Illinois isn’t one of them. So basically my only option is to box it up and send it in.

If anyone has any suggestions, drop me an email.

-keep

It’s Wednesday. As a huge Corvette fan for most of my life, I can trace my love of the car back to the 1978 movie “Corvette Summer” starring Mark Hamill. It’s the story of a kid who builds a custom Corvette as a project in his Highschool auto shop. One night when the class takes the Vette out for its first drive on the streets of Van Nuys, it gets stolen. After hearing that the Vette was seen in Las Vegas, Mark Hamill leaves home to spend his summer tracking down his beloved Vette.

The other star in the movie was the highly customized 1973 Corvette Stingray. When I saw this car I immediately fell in love with it. It was wild, even by 1978 standards. Many years later I heard that one of the two cars made for the movie had been sold to a Corvette parts company called MidAmerica. When I mentioned on my website that I had located the Corvette Summer car, one of MidAmerica’s employees contacted me and invited me out to McCormick Place in Chicago where the car was going to be on display during a Corvette show. I was finally able to see the car up close and take some photos and videos. MidAmerica eventually sold it to a private owner for an undisclosed amount. I still love that car and even had the opportunity to buy a replica of it, but it was in rough shape so I passed on it.

Anyway, all of this came about when I noticed that Green Day had a song on their new album called “Corvette Summer” that was inspired by the movie. They even created a video for the song, in which they pay homage to the original movie. And yes, they got Mark Hamill to reprise his roll! You can check out the video above.

-keep

Rev up those engines, the Corvette Summer music video is here and it’s one wild ride!! The song was named after one of our favorite cult classic movies, so it only made sense to pay homage to it with the music video. We even took things one step further and got Mark Hamill (who starred in the original) to star in our remake alongside us, Hannibal Buress, and some others. We blew the entire budget on them so we had to get creative with cardboard boxes, some duct tape and matchbox cars we found in Tre’s basement. Directed by the dynamic duo Ryan Baxley & Brendan Walter. Buckle up, and enjoy the ride!