Bummerville, CA, United States Superthread

[bono_212]

Actually, I lie. The hot minute I was in Arizona was absolutely the worst part of the trip:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/La+...fdf6f254608f4!2m2!1d-118.2436849!2d34.0522342

(that was because one lane of the two lane highway was closed, so traffic was bad, and the mountains were making me feel really claustrophobic.)


Here, more pictures of my drive:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/La+...fdf6f254608f4!2m2!1d-118.2436849!2d34.0522342

 

[bono_212]

And don't even get me started on driving through Colorado...

:shudder:

 

[Axver]

That's a pretty impressive road, I mean engineering wise just slicing through there. Meeeeaaaanwhile, here is the Crown Range Road, part of the drive I mentioned before. Although not actually a state highway, it's the main road between Queenstown and Wanaka, the two best known tourist towns in New Zealand. I was going to go with streetview (which, incidentally, revealed to me that the pathetically small and probably ineffectual guardrails alongside some of the most perilous drops were only installed in the last six years), but this photo does an even better job of capturing what looks like a bloody go-kart or luge track: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Cro...d895f9a013!2m2!1d168.878308!2d-44.9762861!1m0

But if you want a state highway, well... this still actually exists in northern Taranaki: https://www.google.com/maps/@-38.98...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sTkGPNHPmIGSlDhffbfGYFA!2e0

It's now called the Forgotten World Highway. I wonder why!

(I was going to use my own photos, but clearly on this front I've become tech illiterate in the past few years because I don't know - don't think you can? - repost photos from friends-only Facebook albums and I don't have any other photo storage account any more.)

 

[bono_212]

Holy shit, those are scary. Beautiful, though.

There's a lot of roads like that up in Maryland, actually. I mean, once you get off the highway, it's really anybody's game. I was driving around back in the Hollywood Hills to deliver some stuff for work about a month back and that's insanity. Not to mention, Mulholland Drive, or the road up to the Griffith Observatory. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.121...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sGnTr5iI28p5U2XqNiN9rsQ!2e0

 

[Axver]

If it weren't for the drier terrain, I'd say that looks like a lot of suburban streets in Wellington or Dunedin! Some of those roads, I don't know how people live on them. I suppose they're similar to San Francisco actually. San Fran and Dunedin actually are crazily similar - harbourside towns that exploded into cities with the gold rushes, impressively steep, first and second cities in the world respectively to adopt the cable tram, and now known for a vibrant art culture.

 

[Axver]

And while we're on the topic of crazy roads, here's a good one. State Highway 2, as the designation may indicate, is one of New Zealand's most important roads, running up the east coast of the North Island.

Thing is, to get from the Wairarapa region to Wellington, it has to cross the Rimutaka Range, which isn't that high (I think the highest peak is only about 900m above sea level) but crazily steep. When I was a kid, we lived on one side and my grandparents lived on the other, so I did this road all the time. Here's a good angle. In the distance you can see the road cutting through the hill higher up: https://www.google.com/maps/place/F...m2!3m1!1s0x6d40cbda6016546d:0x500ef6143a2c310

My grandparents have some pretty good stories of going over the Rimutakas before the road was sealed. Even in my lifetime the road has improved out of sight. It's still intimidating, as I'm sure Charlotte can attest from her one trip over it, but it feels almost easy to me since most of the worst curves have been removed and the road now has barriers.

 

[bono_212]

And for being the most expensive place in their respective countries to live?

 

[Axver]

Hah in that case no. Whenever I go to Dunedin I notice all these nice houses and realise that I could probably afford to buy one. Meanwhile you go up to Auckland and the house prices are almost as bad as over here in Melbourne - by which I mean astronomical and the mere thought of home ownership seems absurd to me.

 

[bono_212]

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

the german autobahn is amazing, just gotta put that out there.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

15,625 sq ft for $1m in memphis...i'd believe it. it's insanely cheap to live/rent here. an apartment in a good area can be ~$1/sq ft. in a shitty area you can find it for half of that.

 

[Axver]

I'm going to go get a palace in Detroit.

... and then get shot, by the sounds of it.

 

[bono_212]

It's not even that bad from what I hear, there's just NOTHING there.

 

[Axver]

Some of the photos of abandoned neighbourhoods look both eerie and terrifying.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Especially those narrow townhouses standing alone whilst everything else has been demolished.

 

[Axver]

Sometimes around Melbourne you see a random narrow Victorian era townhouse standing alone by itself after its old partners have been knocked down for some house on a large block or whatever. It looks strange, except in these cases everything's in good repair and way too fucking expensive to rent let alone buy!

 

[Axver]

Also, Charlotte and I are doing our own Hottest 100 today, so we can drink now and suffer the consequences on the day off tomorrow rather than drink tomorrow and suffer the consequences at work on Tuesday.

It's really fun. We pooled together a lot of our favourite songs into a playlist and have put it on shuffle (I basically ripped the idea off monkeyskin, though he had a more formalised version with a drinking game, while we're just drinking casually). No shitty DJs in between, no horrifying "Is It a Banger?" nonsense, no stupid Like a Versions, just quality tunes with a bit of surprise added to the mix.

 

[Axver]

Hey Vlad, somebody just posted this on RYM.

How to Be Okay with Having a Communist Friend: 8 Steps

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I don't think I'd suggest anyone read Das Kapital straight off the bat. I heard the first part is fine, but the rest is nigh on impenetrable. I'm not sure what's meant by 'some communists also support democratic socialism,' unless you're talking about someone like a Salvador Allende or something.

 

[Axver]

The whole thing's fucking strange! Either obvious shit about how you should treat anyone (except Tories, because Tories), or really weird suggestions. As you note, democratic socialism and communism are completely different ideologies! I'm not a communist by any stretch of the imagination, but democratic socialism is very close to my old school social democracy.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Though yeah, as I alluded to earlier, there have been plenty of instances of anti-capitalists winning elections and trying to change things through liberal democratic means, but often enough these attempts are fraught with danger (hence I mentioned Allende). It especially gets tough when the existing capitalists attempt to sabotage any sort of progress, and a significant part of it is quite violent. Today (I think?) we'll have another sort of those governments become elected, by which I mean SYRIZA in Greece (a coalition of radical leftists, communists and left progressives alike, which is something that might interest you, Ax).

 

[Axver]

I'd been meaning to ask if you'd been following that, since you pay more attention to European politics than I do. What do you make of Syriza? The impression I've got is that they've moderated some of their policies to broaden their appeal, but in a generally sensible way rather than selling out. Beyond that I know little though, and if I'm not grossly mistaken they're Eurosceptic?

 

[Vlad n U 2]

They're interesting, my position is cautious but optimistic. In a wider European context, the idea of a left wing party winning an election in a EU country, where practically everywhere else seems to be going further and further to the right, it's massive. They're not running on an explicitly anti-capitalist platform, but it's still a good alternative to whatever's on offer, and I hope the far left wing of the party keep the leadership from veering off course. As it stands, they're facing pretty significant propaganda against them, which is unsurprising. I think they're Eurosceptic but they're not advocating leaving the EU? I think if they did, shit would go down big time. I should mention, Tsipras comes off as ridiculously charismatic, too.

I think it's worth adding though that Greece have a pretty strong left tradition. You can go as far back as WWII, and when the UK forces suddenly turned on the partisan resistance whilst upholding the same reactionaries they were trying to eradicate earlier. Spain may see Podemos having a big victory soon too, and of course, once again, Spain have a vast leftist tradition too (Anarchist Catalonia, Republicanism etc).

 

[Axver]

Yeah a leftist victory would be massive - I'm totally with you. However I thought I read they want to leave the Euro and bring back the drachma - which to be honest I imagine some of Europe's bigger powers might not necessarily oppose.

If (when?) they win, it will be very interesting to see how they go, how much they stick to their ideology, and how they handle Greece's many problems. To me, the Greek situation seems almost insurmountable now as a result of the damage of austerity policies.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

The election is today I'm fairly sure.

Is Greece about to call time on five punishing years of austerity? | World news | The Guardian

 

[Axver]

Good read.

My if/when comment was more not wanting to claim a win just yet. And I am still worried about how Golden Dawn will poll.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

They're not as influential as they were a few years back, but they have a great deal of support amongst the police force, which is not surprising given there have been instances of leftists being severely beaten in custody.

 

[Axver]

What worries me as well is the manner in which Golden Dawn have tried to get support from the Greek ex-pat community. I know they made a play at ex-pats here in Melbourne, though I think they didn't do terribly well out of it.

The rise of (slightly closeted) neo-Nazis in Germany right now is really disturbing too.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I don't think the NDP in Germany really try to hide it. Most of Europe is going deeper and deeper into right wing shit, you can comfortably say. Hungary's got Jobbik and the ruling party isn't that much less reactionary. Poland's got a pretty extensive nationalist movement, and the largest parties are basically all right wing (imagine how popular Solidarnosc was, and it was a socialist movement until the leaders embraced neo-liberalism!). Ukraine's pretty self explanatory, as is Russia. Scandinavia's not doing too well on that front either. You can go on and on, really.

 

[Axver]

It's honestly scary. I understand France is swinging strongly towards the Front National as well? What the hell.

People, you don't dig yourself out of a fucked-up austerity-ridden neoliberal death spiral by voting in people who want to take that further by adding a dash of Islamophobia and racism.