Humpybong State Infants School, Margate, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Superthread

[Axver]

You're talking to a guy who's rarely been to the snow, and certainly never travelled through it in a car (gone to it via train and helicopter), so that sounds positively terrifying! Glad Traviud's alright.

 

[bono_212]

I'm assuming he did it on the same road where, last month, I spun around in a complete 360 into oncoming traffic.

 

[Axver]

Sweet jesus! I take it you were OK, but ... fuck.

 

[bono_212]

It was scary, but thankfully a lot of us round these parts are used to winter driving conditions and usually handle things pretty sanely.

I was more scared driving in Texas on the rare occasions it snowed, because the people there weren't accustomed to such driving.

 

[Reggo]

Another reason to move to Australia: no snow (usually)

 

[Axver]

I was more scared driving in Texas on the rare occasions it snowed, because the people there weren't accustomed to such driving.

Oh yeah, I know what you mean. God, if it snowed here, I wouldn't be going near a road because people would have no fucking clue. Melbourne last had snow in the CBD in 1951.

 

[Reggo]

It was scary, but thankfully a lot of us round these parts are used to winter driving conditions and usually handle things pretty sanely.

I was more scared driving in Texas on the rare occasions it snowed, because the people there weren't accustomed to such driving.

You'd think with all the snow we get people would know how to drive in it here. But, no. Every time it snows, people freak out and there's accidents everywhere.

I'm glad you both are okay.

 

[bono_212]

Well yeah, accidents are inevitable, BUT I'd like to believe there aren't as many as there could be, ya know?

 

[bono_212]

Oh no!

Reggo, worst news ever. That band Steel Magnolia? The one I was going to lsiten to ironically whatever genre it ended up being? (My hope that it was an ironic name in general and that it'd be a metal band or something)

They're a country band .

But I'm listening to their lead single, and it's pretty ok actually.

Unfortunately the whole album's not on grooveshark yet. Jeez people, the album came out today, move your asses.

 

[bono_212]

Blake Boldt with The 9513 gave it a three star rating, calling it "a promising start" and saying "Steel Magnolia suffers when the tempo slows. "Just By Being You (Halos and Wings)", a limp romantic ballad, is the worst offender, and the more serious cuts, full of overwrought emotions and overused sentiments, fall flat".[8] Thom Jurek with Allmusic gave it a 2½ rating, and largely criticized the sound of the album, saying "Other than a banjo here and a fiddle or pedal steel there, this may be what passes for country music in the 21st century, but simply put, it's '80s-styled pop with different production".[2]
Sarah Rodman with The Boston Globe was in favor of the album, saying "On their eponymous debut, the duo known as Steel Magnolia continue their winning ways combining her bluesy bruised angel rasp with his slick, keening country pop tenor".[3] Matt Bjorke with Roughstock gave the release a four star rating, saying "While Steel Magnolia may not appeal to fans of the traditionally-minded music; it is nonetheless a solid collection of mainstream country music that introduces a charismatic and dynamic duo ready to become one of country music’s top duos".[6] Jonathan Keefe with Slant Magazine was critical of the album, giving it a two star rating.[7] He referred to the material on the album as "weak" saying "the songs on Steel Magnolia aren't the least bit noteworthy".[7]

so....country mags liked it, other music ones didn't. Shock and fucking AWE.

 

[Reggo]

Sad day.

 

[bono_212]

Travis and I listened to about four songs before I accidentally cleared the whole thing out of the playlist during track 5, so we called it a day there.

 

[Axver]

Just saw a picture from a block or two up the road from where I used to live in St Lucia, Brisbane and the road is a torrent. Can't imagine the block of flats I lived in would be faring any better, since it's on even lower land than the site of the photograph ... my flat itself wasn't on the ground floor, but the carpark and ground floor flats must be buggered. Looks like substantial flooding at the University of Queensland too - one of the photos shows a field I used to walk past daily completely under.

Man am I glad I don't live there now.

 

[bono_212]

Seriously

One thing I don't have to worry much about here is flooding.


I say that and then remember that when I was 13/14 I lost almost all of my shit because our basement flooded and that's where my bedroom was (tried to sue the landlord because they lied to us about having the flooding problem fixed, but they declared bankruptcy and got out of it. Lost all of my baseball cards pretty much and my love of collecting them at that point. Always wanted to get back in at some point.)
And then when I was 18, right before I went to college, I drove my car through what looked like a puddle, but was actually a small pond that had developed in at the base of a hillish road. The car did not survive.

"Floods" have not been good to me.

 

[Axver]

Oh shit, that sucks! I've been pretty lucky when it comes to floods. In 2001 there was some pretty substantial flooding on the Gold Coast and that got close to our backyard, but luckily we were just high enough and it stayed in the gully below. I've got some pretty neat photographs of the trains going past what looks like a lake, but was really a little gully that had a footpath on which my friends and I played handball, and a nice shaded area where I used to write ... back when I wrote things by hand!

And I evidently made the right call leaving Brisbane when I did!

Had a couple of close calls with relatively minor bushfires too ...

 

[bono_212]

Oh man, I've got some still shots from a film you need to see (the still shots, not the film, though the film's good) now that you mention that.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

It looks so much more scarier than I had ever imagined. Just one look at the Brisbane river.

I know, I really don't have much to add. I don't think I've ever really experienced a flood before, but I know for a fact that it happens pretty much every year back home, the difference being that most live in multistorey apartment blocks and you'd be pretty safe in them.

 

[bono_212]

And of course now I can't find any still shots that are good enough.

Anyways, I was going to show you a before and after comparison, but this is after heavy flooding causes it to look like the train is sitting in, yes, a lake:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aDvwHKT9GI&feature=related

 

[Axver]

Hah, that just makes me think of some real photos from Melbourne last year of trams "wading" through flooded city streets. Including a couple where I have no idea how the traction motors didn't get buggered by the height of the water.

 

[bono_212]

I wish that had been the whole scene, it's the most gorgeous part of the film.

thatmovie.

 

[The Sad Punk]

Ashley, I was drawing Catbus before.

 

[bono_212]

While I was in Japan, I went to the Ghibli museum, and they show a variety of different unreleased short films that, they switch 'em out every couple of weeks or months or something.

Anyways, the one I got to see was a story about only Catbus. It was adorrrrabbblleeee.


However...

Spoiler

I still haven't seen Totoro.

 

[The Sad Punk]

Oh god is that the kittenbus one? I wish I could see that.

There's all these Japanese stores here that sell catbus plushies, I am seriously considering this as an important purchase.

Also, go watch it now. No excuses!!

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Catbus.

I remember they used to show the film every so often back in primary school. And without subtitles.

 

[Reggo]

I've been thinking about things with Dave. So far the only thing I've come up with, besides a harsh reality I don't exactly want to face at the moment, is I need to listen to U2. So I'm going to spin NLOTH.

 

[Axver]

Dear Melbourne,

The rain I can handle, the heat I can handle if pushed, but please, the Queenslandesque humidity is a bit much.

Cheers,
Ax

 

[bono_212]

Oh god is that the kittenbus one? I wish I could see that.

There's all these Japanese stores here that sell catbus plushies, I am seriously considering this as an important purchase.

Also, go watch it now. No excuses!!

Yes, I believe that's what it was. Too adorable for words.

Catbus is a must purchase. Something else they have at the Ghibli museum:

My excuse is that I don't own it, it's not streaming and it's not on-demand. I always forget to rent it .

 

[Reggo]

Dear Melbourne,

The rain I can handle, the heat I can handle if pushed, but please, the Queenslandesque humidity is a bit much.

Cheers,
Ax

*sends sub-zero temperatures to Ax*

I love Dave. But then I think, for God's sake, WHY? And I can't come up a legit reason. Maybe that's good. It means it's unconditional. The cynic in me is thinking that because I can't think of a reason, I should part ways with the dude.

 

[bono_man2002]

 

[bono_212]

sup