Which is also something that we enjoy here at Aquarius Records: the kind of music that a select few can stand or even tolerate.
That's pretty enjoyable to read even for someone with no knowledge of any of the music referred to.
Oh man. I know nothing about metal. And I've been listening to it for 25 years. They did remind me of Stefon from SNL, though.
That is a good interview. "Footwork music" (which appears to maybe also be called Chicago Juke music?) is indeed kind of insane, in and old-school hardcore kind of way.
Happy holidays everyone. I'll be heading out to go to Genf in a couple hours. Fortunately I'm not changing planes in Europe since that seems to be pretty FUBAR right now.
||
Just spend the best part of 4 hours stuck in snow on the motorway, which was near impassable. Getting through meant winding through lots of crashed/abandoned trucks. Also, lots of powerful rear-wheel drive cars, which seemed to have chocolate-teapot levels of usefulness in snow.
I passed literally dozens of BMWs and Jags just spinning impotently [at best] or slewing sideways across the road towards the other traffic.
First time I've driven in weather that bad for any more than short distances. Very interesting, trying to drive 80 miles in 5 inches of snow.
>
lots of crashed/abandoned trucks...literally dozens of BMWs and Jags just spinning impotently [at best] or slewing sideways across the road towards the other traffic.
It's been a while since I've driven in similar conditions, but I find that pretending you're escaping a Roland Emmerich-style apocalypse helps to take the edge off the stress.
The most stressful part was not knowing why we weren't moving. And then when I got to the first pile of trucks it made sense, and I assumed that if I could keep going there'd be a route through. Lot of people stranded though.
Also, lots of powerful rear-wheel drive cars, which seemed to have chocolate-teapot levels of usefulness in snow.
As god is my witness, I will be stealing this line.
The big 21" snowfall here was last weekend and, while we mostly manged to avoid driving before the ploughs had gone through, my drive home as it was starting took me 1:45. It normally takes 15 minutes. When I finally got off the road, thinking I had stayed pretty calm through the whole thing, I found my heart was pounding from all of the accumulated adrenaline.
On the luxury cars in ditch phenomenon, I see that here too. I think they think they're better than ice and snow are used to being able to faster than other vehicles in poor conditions and don't realize that those rules don't apply here.
Yeah, my car is small and has front wheel drive, but has a reasonable amount of power for the weight of the car, and as it happens the tyres are also only a couple of months old.
At point I saw a couple of teenagers stop, get out, put snow-'socks' onto the front wheels of their battered old Fiesta, and drive off happily past all the luxury cars.*
I had to take evasive action for real at one point as a BMW came spinning backwards towards me as the driver seemed to assume that more gas was the answer. I don't know how they design buses, but a bunch of them seemed to just plough happily on through where all the massively-engined trucks were stuck.
* I also saw them stop three times to help push some people who were stuck, which was nice of them.
chocolate-teapot levels of usefulness
Wonderful phrase!
Why are buses able to drive on roads that cars get stuck on? I wonder that every time I'm on public transportation in the snow.
Following the advice of a hobo consultant (well, a taxi-driver) we bought winter tyres this year - and fitted them on Friday. Just now we managed to drive the back roads round Oxford with no trouble, with abandoned cars all over the place. The only problem is that being the only car on the road with functioning brakes is... interesting, especially if the people behind you don't realise that they don't really have functioning brakes.
|| Final vote on DADT repeal. I wonder if it will get more or fewer votes than in cloture. |>
More! Huh. 65 yeas to 31 nays. Or YAYS!
I wish I could be more enthusiastic about it, but DADT repeal seems like a small achievement in the context of creeping oligarchy. But hey, gay men and lesbians can participate in our imperial adventures!
22: if you can't be enthusiastic about our small achievements in the context of creeping oligarchy, you're going to find yourself vanishingly short of occasions for enthusiasm.
Which, I guess, aptly describes unfogged. Keep banging the rocks together, guys.
23: True. Deficit-increasing tax cuts for the wealthiest were extended, but I managed to get my Christmas packages mailed. And there was only one person ahead of me in line at the post office! Life is fucking great.
Well, you know, I don't want to be in the army (etc.), but the stories of deeply committed people being hounded out of their chosen and hard-won professions due to their sexual orientation are grotesque. I find it hard not to be enthusiastic about that.
If I'm to believe Land Rover commercials, the farther apart a vehicle's wheels, the....something something. I dunno.
I am terrified to drive in the snow. A friend is in their first year of school in Syracuse. She keeps calling. "Why didn't anyone tell me?" They've had 70 inches so far this year, and apparently it's all still on the ground.
This is making me want to store blankets, water, and kitty litter in the back seat.
17, 27.1: Longer wheelbases do generally mean more stability, but I think the biggest thing going for most modern buses is that they are rear-engined and have the most weight (and a lot of it at that) right over the drive wheels.
What a banner day for John McCain and his legacy.
1) His vote helps to kill the DREAM Act which is in total alignment with his immigration position for many years.
2) ZOMG MARINES HAVE NO LEGS11!!
3) Has his useless time-wasting kabuki amendment to the START treaty voted down.
27: Are you driving outside of your megalapolis? If so, then yes, put those things there. It's important.
Stormcrow's theories make a lot of sense. I would also think with a bepassengered bus that you'd have pretty even weight distribution, making it less likely to fishtail (at least in my imagination). Land Rovers are harder to flip, and the 4-wheel drive means they get out of being stuck more easily, but they seem to spin out with the best of them.
Land Rovers are harder to flip....
They don't really need to gild the lily of a reputation for spontaneous engine fires and driver-shocking wiring.
28 answered this, but there is another reason why buses can manoeuvre in horrible weather: bus drivers know what they're doing.
So we got 5 inches of snow over London in three hours. This had been forecast in a general way for a week, it had snowed on Thursday night exactly when the forecasters said so, but on Friday, it snowed in the middle of the day. Transport for London seemed to have gritted the main roads, the boroughs didn't bother with the back streets.
This morning, the airports shut down in advance of the snow, which was forecast for 6am-10am. The snow arrived at 1005 and came in fast. No sign of any grit. What the fuck?
Up on Highgate Hill, all sorts of vehicles were stuck, and a right show was on. Enter the bus driver. Several buses had got stuck on the way up or down. One of them was trying to retreat down the hill. One driver opened the doors and stood there, looking downhill to act as banksman. They then reversed back downhill through the general scouse wedding without locking a wheel even once, very slowly. It was a real moment of craft. Bus drivers know what they're doing.
Also, don't buy a BMW 118d. They sound a great idea, but I saw a lot in deep trouble. (I also saw a BMW with snow chains, obviously a foreigner.) For some reason, anything French-built was coping really well. Cheap mid 90s Peugeots were moving over the snow like small tanks.
re:32
Driving up the M1 this morning I was behind a gritting lorry for a few miles, so they definitely were gritting. Driving back I don't know if they'd gritted the southbound carriageway or not, the snow was so deep it'd probably not make any difference. My local council only seem to grit a couple of roads. The streets surrounding our flat haven't been gritted once during the snow over the past few weeks.
I have a cheap Peugeot [2001]. I can confirm tank-like traction. And yeah, I can imagine it might be driving skill with buses. I saw a lot of people failing to move today when it was clearly driver error. Flooring the pedal rather than gently accelerating, braking hard, making sudden turns, etc.
Since this is the thread for random nonsense, apparently, let me mention that this library is pretty cool.
No sign of any grit. What the fuck?
You expect the government to apply grit to the roads? I don't think you're really getting into the spirit of the Great Society, Alex.
This is making me want to store blankets, water, and kitty litter in the back seat.
If you have to drive any distance in heavy conditions this is, in fact, a good idea. My BiL, who has to do 500 mile round trips every couple of weeks, has taken to keepng a quilted sleeping bag, water and biscuits (cookies) in his car at all times.
Yeah, I had a sleeping blanket, water and some snacks in the car yesterday. No kitty litter, though.
36: As it happens, it's quite common for British town councils to put big yellow bins of rock salt on street corners for the use of the public, as well as gritting the roads themselves. Unfortunately the one opposite my flat has disappeared since last winter. Cuts 1, Big Society 0.
The pavements have been gritted today, though.
38: when my dad used to commute over the Pennines every day, he used to carry a sleeping bag, food, and a shovel as well.
Last new year, during the big cold-snap, our council in Oxfordshire gritted or plowed nothing, as far as I could tell, nothing at all. Our residential street I could understand being left alone, but the main road through the village was completely untouched. So the village was completely cut off to all forms of transport for about 5 days, and this isn't some remote hamlet, this is right on the edge of Oxford city itself. That's rank incompetence.
Driving around Ealing this morning, none of the smaller roads near our flat have been gritted, and the idea that the pavements might be is comical. I haven't seen a yellow salt bin since I lived in Glasgow.
I loved the interview as I loved reading an occasional bridge column in childhood--entirely innocent of the subject. Favorite line: "I bet his name wasn't Pastor Bob."
Once more I worry for the vanishing Local (Whatsit) Store...
ps Is Chocolate Teapot a band name yet?
Reading the Guardian's blog has been amusing. Here in the Washington area, during winter storms it seems to be required to quote people from the Midwest or Buffalo saying that the weather is worse where they come from and wondering at the "ineptitude". At Heathrow, the Guardian has found a Finn for this (and then it found a fin).
Driving around Ealing this morning, none of the smaller roads near our flat have been gritted, and the idea that the pavements might be is comical. I haven't seen a yellow salt bin since I lived in Glasgow.
You may be living in the wrong bit of London - round my way the pavements have all been gritted (though with little effect - the grit's just sitting there on top of the snowpack).
re: 43
I don't think anywhere I've lived in England has been regularly gritted. Neither in Oxford, or in London. I think the larger roads round Ealing have been gritted as most of them are fairly clear, although even some of the larger roads have a central stripe of ice and snow with strips cleared either side by tyres. The pavements and roads in the residential bits, not at all, though.
So far (first track!) the Murmuüre album mentioned in the interview is fantastic.