Friday Fives

1. In the rock business, for the longest time,  “Floyd” ruled.  Who rules now?

to the scale of Floyd or Zeppelin? I don’t think that exists right now.  The closest would be Springsteen or U2.  Both are amazing live.  In fact, I have seen almost all of those bands live.  All other three, and for the Zepp, I did see Page and Plant live.  So, that mostly counts.  It’s tough to be a live music fan, the big shows are hundreds of bucks each, and Ticketbastard now charges 100% fees.  So, the business of rock is suffering.

2.  What is the secret vice that can only be found in the suburbs?

ClownFight

3. Do any current devices use the 9 volt?  Where does the juice come from?

being a guitarist, I have zillions.  about five petals, and my wireless rig.   It sucks, 9 volts are incredibly expensive.  About $5 each, and they don’t last long. While all my stuff at home and in the truck is rechargeable, that won’t work for stage gear.  They drain too quick.  Luckily, I bought this great product this week that powers all my pedals off one power line.

4. What job would you never want to have to do?

Fishmonger

5. What is your favorite flower?

The Columbine – it’s the state flower of Colorado, and rightfully so

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Friday Fives

1. What is the  first song you remember hearing?

West Virginia, Mountain Mama… that John Denver song.  Don’t remember where I was, but I was a kid and we were somewhere in the woods.  It seemed I was living that song, and it was a transcendent moment.  I think it is a moment I try to relive every day living here in beautiful and amazing Colorado.

2. What is the first movie you remember seeing?

Star Wars, vaguely.  Movies haven’t really shaped me like books and music have.  I mean, a few have rocked me to the foundation:  Harold and Maude, and Forrest Gump to name a couple.

3. What is the first book you remember reading?

five were missing, or mouse on a motorcycle.  Though it has been 30 years, I have found those books as an adult and am super proud to own them.  A couple of years ago, when I finally found a copy of ‘Five were Missing‘ i read it in the tub in an hour or two.  It did not age well.  It was a revolutionary piece of literary awesomeness… at the time.  Today, it reads as something shit out in 90 minutes for 10 year olds.

4. When did you first realize the world around you?

I remember feeling profoundly different and seperated from the world at a young age.  Not alienated, mind you.  I had an awesome and fun and perfect childhood.  I just remember wondering why i thought so different from everyone.  In retrospect, I turned out mostly normal.  So, maybe everyone has those thoughts.  I don’t know, I was afraid to talk about it.   Plus, I think I may have saw a space ship when I was really young.  Problem is, I can’t be sure if it was an actual occurance or maybe a show I saw.   true story.  You are the first person I have EVER told that to.   So, don’t tell anyone.

5.  How should Carl Kipper  celebrate his AIG rewards?

Carl was a hard worker.  Carl bust his ass every single day why you sat in your cubile and played solitare.  Carl is the reason any of us still have a job.  So, let’s just quit the blame game and put his stapler in jello again.

Let’s have a study pt 3

Update Oct 2014 down below ****

In order for this to make sense, start here.   Then, here.  Ok, here today is part three.  They have finally agreed on a solution.  Apparently, there was a fourth consideration I wasn’t aware of.  In order to ease congestion on the i-70, they are going to charge a toll to use it.  It will be $5 a pop to use the freeway to get into the mountains.  Why?  Lot’s of reasons.  One is that by charging such a toll, less people will use it.  Indeed, congestion is an issue, so their is limited virtue in that thought process.

The other reason is to raise money for the widening.  Yes, apparently we are widening and tolling.  Basically, everyone loses.  See, we have no money for the freeway fixins.  I mean, on it’s face it makes sense.  Except:

What the heck are my tax dollars paying for?  Is this not now a law to keep poor people from camping?  Is this not an elitist and short term solution?  What about people who commute every day?  Is this designed just to punish tourists?  I thought that is what hotel and rental car taxes were for.   This solution is stupid, and angers me.  I don’t want to pay a toll to use my mountains and roads.  Also, I don’t want my mountains paved over with roads.  Nobody does, that is why we call them the Rocky Mountains… not the Rocky Mountain Roads.  Maybe Coors should get rid of their current logo and just have a stretch of pavement as their icon.

Let’s say you widen the road from two lanes each way to three lanes each way.  That is 33% more traffic.  You see that, I guess.  I see 33% more pollution, plus an absolute dreaded ten year construction cycle marring the mountains.  Oh, and a bonus $5 per way levee to sit in construction for the next ten years.  Right now, we need an obstructionist!  John Caldera, where are you?

*** update Oct 2014

It’s been 6 or 7 years, and not much has happened.  Well, they tried metering.  Unlike assholes like me, who sit on their couch and decry the efforts of those trying solutions. It was a great idea.  It was counter intuitive and most definitely out of the box thinking.  It worked, but not nearly to the level they needed it to.  I totally respect the effort, though.  In the 17 years I have been here, it is the most anyone has done about anything… except studies.  I respect the CDOT like hell for not just sitting around and waiting for someone to hand them 200 million bucks.

The other update is this; someone recently suggested banning big rigs from the freeway.  That is dumb, short sighted… and (most importantly) mean.  The trucker’s aren’t the problem.  If they were, it wouldn’t just be on Sunday afternoons heading East back to Denver.  It’s the skiers.  I am not blaming the skiers.  Well, actually, I am.  It is the skiers.  However, they are super duper critical to the success of the mountain towns economies.  To ban skiers is as dumb as banning trucks.

Last Winter (that of 2013) was a breaking point… to me at least.  It became a 10 hour struggle to make it the 11 miles from Dillon, CO (the first town at the base of i-70 once you cross the tunnel) to the tunnel.  Ten hours… in a snowstorm.  Does your car have fuel for ten hours?  Do you pack ten hours worth of food when you go skiing?  You can’t turn your car off, either, to save fuel.  You need the heat.  Last fall we took a trip and got stuck in that, and ended up taking the most terrifying detour around I have ever experienced as a driver.  Knowing it was going to be shitty, I bought $50 worth of jerky.  It was a lifesaver.

I want to clarify something.  I am not bitching.  Well, I was.  I am older and wiser now.  I love Colorado.  I love the mountains.  I love my truck.  I was reminded of this recently when I saw a freeway sign in Los Angeles.  It said “you are not in traffic, you are the traffic”.  So, I don’t want to come off as a nimby.  I am absolutely a part of the problem here, being a driver.  This is why I have a vested interest in making things better.  It’s selfish.

Here is the big concern, very soon it is going to be deadly.  Someone is going to run our of medication stuck on that road.  Once the backup starts, you can’t get off.  You are packed in.  You can’t pull of the road or even turn around.  They can’t get an ambulance or a wrecker to you.  Even if you called 911 they could not get a medivac helicopter to you, because this happens during snow storms.

I know no one wants to think about it, or spend that much, but I have the solution.  It isn’t cheap or easy or maybe even fair.  It will solve everything, and works long term.  I said it ten years ago, and I’ll say it again.  I am just waiting for you yahoos to to figure out that I was correct.   Monorail.