Hard News: Reasons to be cheerful
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I wonder given the number of times that car drivers trot out that classic line "but I just didn't see them" regarding the cyclist or motorcyclist they've hit, if the car driver was asked "If you had an extra look, do you think you would have seen them?", would many of the indicate that the extra look would have made a difference?
That classic line is used all too frequently in my somewhat limited, skewed and entirely anecdotal recollection. If drivers were using appropriate levels of care, they simply would see that person is riding a bicycle, or motorcycle rather than having longitudinally mounted a recently arrived tardis and make a decision not to enter the collision path.
NZ drivers all too frequently don't expect to see bikes, thus don't look or occasionally take the risk that the rather more vulnerable person on 2 wheels doesn't have the guts to deliberately allow themselves to crash into a larger vehicle that has pulled in front of them.
If a driver is found to have reasonably caused an accident, be that inadvertently or otherwise, it's a pretty good indicator that they are actually (not allegedly) unsafe to be sharing the road as a driver.
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Amy Tauben (I think it was) said of Seven that it wasn't a great film, but it was great filmmaking. I agree with her assessment of the film and Fincher's ability. Fight Club was much better - a flawed classic. Oddly, I feel somehow the flaws make the film better somehow, as if they mirror the imperfections of the protagonist, maybe.
I'd go along with both of those opinions, except at a basic level I didn't buy the "twist" to Fight Club at all- it makes thematic sense, sure, but very little logical sense, and in the end Fincher spends the last 20 minutes of the film trying to "explain" it when he would've been better off just letting it stand. It's a mess of a film, partly brilliant, partly awful but perhaps as confused as the material warrants. It boggles the mind that something so unhinged, scrappy and misanthropic was ever greenlighted by a major studio at all, though- they didn't even fob it off to one of their indie subsidaries.
Amy Taubin was (and is) a great film critic. I got really pissed off when the Village Voice, in their infinite wisdom, fired her. It's amazing how much the takeover of the Village Voice has sabotaged their reputation- fortunately, they still have the wonderful J Hoberman, arguably the best American film critic working today, or at least the most interesting (I have soft spots for AO Scott, Roger Ebert, Michael Atkinson, and a few others, mind).
And yet he feels out of place with the current shower of people employed for the Voice- the worst aspect being the way that their music staff seems to consist almost entirely of writers for the insufferable Pitchfork Media.
Reading the Village Voice Fillm Guide (published a couple of years back) put forward a strong argument for it being, at least in its heyday, the best publication in America covering films. They had so many great critics at their disposal- Jonas Mekas, Georgia Brown, Amy Taubin, J Hoberman...the list was endless (although I always found Andrew Sarris's writing style prissy and defensive, especially compared to his arch-nemesis, Pauline Kael). What's more, they all brought their own distinctive ideological or aesthetic bent to their writing and seemed to actually be engaged in cimema.
Also, through reading the reviews, you got an interesting view of New York as a film city, too- their constant references to cinemas and districts, some of which may no longer be around . I guess the magazine's demise was inevtiable, but it is sad.
Anyway, onto more cheerful subjects- it's briliantly sunny outside and I'll be off for a swim soon.
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Erm, that was quite some tangent, wasn't it? Sorry about that. I'll let you get back to your discussions on roads and cycling... :)
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I don't think anyone, cyclist or motorist, (lots of us are both, of course), can have a productive discussion
So....what I guess (without wishing to sound reductive) we have established is, cyclists can and do have a difficult time on our roads and van drivers can and do have a difficult times on our motorways, and generally all get bloody frustrated by each other at some time. Much like here also. :)
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Ha, yes. My line is 'is it longer than The Big Sleep and if so why?'
I believe in one of the extended versions of LOTR the end titles alone might be longer than The Big Sleep.
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[various words about lycra gear]
Also, I'd guess that the appeal of race-replica lycra gear to some riders is actually increased by the general mockery expressed by non-cyclists.
<am-psych>To be ridiculed for wearing race lycra in traffic is to be reinforced in your self-perception as a serious cyclist, because non-cyclists just don't get it and never will.</am-psych>
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<am-psych>To be ridiculed for wearing race lycra in traffic is to be reinforced in your self-perception as a serious cyclist, because non-cyclists just don't get it and never will.</am-psych>
Oooh, I like that. You could apply it to, almost, any minority taste/fashion. Yes, I dress like a zombie from a Micheal Jackson video but you don't understand because you're just not cool.
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http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/
The designation of the 1 compromise seems a bit of a stretch. 488 promises to go.
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Oooh, I like that. You could apply it to, almost, any minority taste/fashion. Yes, I dress like a zombie from a Micheal Jackson video but you don't understand because you're just not cool.
;-)I used to feel that way about swimming in speedos, finding anything else uncomfortably restrictive. My wife has put an end to it, though. "They're undies, even on a beach" she said.
Heres a funny, from the film Les Triplettes de Belleville
Heh, I loved that film. The visual hyperbole is great, I loved the stuff in New York. And in this clip, the way he's so tired that even his eyeballs move slowly.
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Oh God. The tide of you-cannot-deny-this coolness flows yet.
Playing at the Obama Staff Ball, Arcade Fire covered Born in the USA.
Shame the guy holding the camera had to sing along for the first part ...
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On a completely unrelated note. I just checked my readouts from my home ventilation system. It is 51.5c in my roof, that's about 125f.
Steve, could I borrow 30 deg C? The high here today has been -21C. It was -28C when I set out this morning. Eight hours of intermittent exposure to the elements later and I feel like I've been dehydrated and snap frozen for future use.
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Steve, could I borrow 30 deg C?
Yeah, forget about carbon credits - we should be trading directly in temperatures.
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dc_red: Ouch. Pittsburgh got down to a low of -22 last week, and it was not pleasant, and it makes me glad for the -11 we're currently experiencing. It's amazing how the cold seems to seek out any exposed skin at those temperatures. I feel your pain.
Yesterday, though, it got up to 10 degrees. Pittsburgh winters get into these weird cycles of mostly -6 -- -18 degrees, and then every couple of weeks it will get above freezing for a couple of days. When I left home in the morning it was 2 degrees C, and I remembered what it felt like to be warmed by the sun.
That was definitely a reason to be cheerful.
Oh, and this town is going Superbowl crazy. This morning I saw people lining up outside stores in said freezing temperatures in order to buy Steelers merchandise.
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I don't think the Southern Cross cable has a thermal superconducting layer
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Jake, do you get the ice-encrusted eyelashes thing? That's a real treat when it's below -20C.
I know what you mean about welcoming those days where it's just hovering around zero. "Ha, no scarf or gloves for me today!", 'That strange yellow orb in the sky actually emits heat ... go figure", etc.
Now, where could I buy one of those superconducting cable thingees? A length of about 12,100 km should do it.
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Mark Harris - what an idea! If it only could happen (but I rather think it's in the region where dwell Canterbury hopes of excess water that can come from the West Coast through a tunnel to them...)
With cooling thoughts from Big O where it is 30plus C, and I am melting as I type-
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It's amazing how the cold seems to seek out any exposed skin at those temperatures.
I feel for you, Jake. Presumably you have double glazing, hay bales are stacked along the base of your house, and a gas furnace roaring. A famous moment for me was when the-person-is-now-my-wife came to visit me in midwinter in NW Ohio, when I was doing my PhD. She had a shower and stepped out into a minus 29 afternoon (with wind-chill factor). Her hair froze solid and had to be carefully thawed out.
About the bike vs car battles. It is not so much cars as continuously dodging broken glass. Presumably it is idiot car drivers who toss the bottles onto cycle paths.
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Any car driver who tosses bottles out onto the road is
a)a hoon-all other labels (irresponsible idiot, munter, shitforbrains, fuckwit)
are covered therein- -
Frozen HAIR???
My curls would snap!
My curls wouldnt like this!
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I think today was a really good reason to be cheerful. The weather was just so beautiful.
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I lived in Montreal for 3 years. In winters during the day it was -30c, but night time temps with wind chill was -40c.
Temps down to -15 were ok. Past that and you really had to watch what you were wearing. I remember it being 0c, and thinking how warm it was. It made me realise how weather temperature is 'relative'. -30c is cold, but 0c is warm.
I made the mistake once of using bare hands to hold the metal door handle to my flat while using my other gloved hand to turn the key in the lock. Fortunately only my thumb and forefinger were stuck. I had to kinda blow/lick them to unfreeze them from the door handle.
Black ice was dreadful - I came to dread those days (day temps above 0c, night temps below 0c). I walked, crimping my toes in their boots involuntary for 'grip'.
The wonderous thing was the 'big thaw' - at the end of winter. Everything melted - huge puddles would form everywhere - people got through them on upside-down milk crates. Then one day, everything had evaporated, and the world was dry, and two weeks later, green buds would be on the trees.
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Arcade Fire playing Springsteen! This is some kind of nirvana for me!!
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The thing I hate the most about extreme cold is women being all rugged up. Oh and snot icicles.
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....and Intervention!!!
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Another reason to be cheerful: Kiwiblog and The Standard agree on something for once! (OK, the comments quickly degenerate into the usual tar pit for small stupid animals, but being positive here!)
And who could fail to agree that The Herald on Sunday is a sheltered workshop for the journalistically challenged?
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