Feeding off tragedy

Truckers bringing blankets to people in need. Others running to get help, calling ambulances, and just generally bringing news and comfort to those in worse straits. Those are the sorts of things that give you warm fuzzies even in the midst of a bad situation like the multi-car pile-up on I-90 this Sunday. Those are the sorts of things I saw.

And so it is especially disconcerting when you then hear about people taking advantage of the situation, working hard to ruin those silver linings.

Channel3000 is reporting that a number of the people effected by the crashes on Sunday are being bilked out of large sums of cash by the towing companies.

Keslie Werner, of Monona, wrote that she was appalled at an even higher towing charge. Werner said her family boarded a bus after being stuck for six hours, only to have their car towed to Prairieland Towing in Sun Prairie."When my husband called, the person answering the phone stated that the charge for the tow was $695," wrote Werner. "After explaining that his car had no damage, he was told that the owner agreed to reduce the fee to $200."

No damage to your car, forced to leave it on the road so that you can spend the night in a warm bed instead of the cold interstate, and the damn towing company is still trying to charge you hundreds of dollars? That's just dirty pool.

If you're not going to comp the tows, the decent thing would be to at least offer a substantial discount. That Werner's husband was initially told it would cost nearly $700 for the tow is unacceptable. Had he not mentioned that the car was not damaged, they would have happily fleeced them. Profit over people is never acceptable. Not only is that bad morals, it's bad business to boot.

The demise of the King Club

There's been a lot of chatter recently about a perceived lack of live music venues in Madison. As a musician, I don't necessarily agree--we've actually got quite a few options for a city of our size. Yes, it would be nice to have a few more mid-to-small sized venues that actually had decent sound systems, but overall, we're not super hard up.

I read today that the King Club is closing its doors, only to reopen sans live music (except for Clyde Stubblefield's weekly "Funky Drummer" gig, thankfully). Part of me is sad to hear it, especially since it means that a number of great live acts and organizations will now have to find new homes (IndieQueer and MadCabaret, for instance). The other part of me, however, isn't all that surprised.

See, every single time I've played at the King Club, something has been wonky. On one occasion, they double-booked the evening, forcing the touring act we were playing with to find a different venue at the last second and thus losing a good chunk of audience. I'm told that this wasn't an uncommon occurrence, either. A number of other local musicians have told me similar stories of double bookings.

Every gig I've played or gone to see has started an hour or more later than was advertised. In at least one instance, this made it so that I couldn't actually stay to watch the show.

It seems that better management might have helped keep things alive and well at the King Club. Their dedication to local acts was great, but showing a little more respect toward those local acts would have been even better.

I'll be curious to see what new format the King Club reopens in. And I do hope that another similar capacity venue, friendly to local music and with better booking operations, opens its doors soon.

Of fog and multiple car pile-ups

I just walked in the front door of my house (6:15pm), a full 5 1/2 hours after leaving Chicago. Normally, this little jaunt takes something like 2 1/2 hours.

We had just crossed over into Wisconsin when the fog set in. At first it wasn't very bad, but then, rather suddenly, it thickened into a white soup that reduced visibility down to about three car-lengths. I slowed down to 35 mph and left several car-lengths between me and the vehicle in front of me. And thank God for that, because a few moments later, a wall of stopped vehicles loomed up immediately in front of us. I hit the brakes and veered off onto the left-hand shoulder to make sure no one hit me and that I didn't hit anyone. Thankfully, the cars immediately in front of and behind me were all able to stop without incident, but just a few seconds passed after we stopped before we started to hear loud screeches and bangs just behind us.

One after another, probably four all-told in our immediate vicinity, vehicles were colliding. It's one of my least favorite sounds--that brief squeal of tires followed immediately by metal and plastic slamming into each other.

And then we waited. I jumped out and found a bare bush off in a field to pee behind, then tried to catch a glimpse of what was stopping us. But the fog was too thick, and the line of cars just went on as far as I could see. Soon enough, dozens of emergency vehicles began to whiz by in either direction. It became clear that they'd completely shut down the south-bound lane so that ambulances and the like could get to where they needed to be. People were getting out of their cars to seek out information, some making sure others were OK--the trucker in front of us brought blankets to one family in a car behind us.

After two hours of sitting, the state patrol was able to clear enough of the crashed cars behind us so that we could all pull y-turns and head south in our north-bound lane, eventually crossing over into the actual south-bound lane and then getting onto Highway N. We could see that this was where they were diverting all of the interstate traffic (which was waaaay backed up), and I don't suspect Stoughton has ever seen that kind of traffic on a Sunday night before.

Finally, after yet more tense, foggy driving, we made it home safely. I'm checking the news now and it looks somewhat grim. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the injuries were all relatively minor, and that no one was seriously hurt or, God forbid, killed.

In closing, FOR GOD'S SAKE, IF IT'S FOGGY WHEN YOU'RE DRIVING, SLOW THE HELL DOWN! And may you all be safe and sound tonight.

Channel3000's coverage of the pile-up
(update) NBC reporting 2 killed in the accident

(later update) I'm starting to realize how incredibly lucky we were. Looks like we were at the very back of the miles-long line of cars crashed and backed up, which is why they were able to clear the cars behind us and let us turn around. Crazy things is, we hit the wall of vehicles around 3:15pm, and I'm told the original accidents that started the whole thing happened around 2:30pm. That's a long accident.

I'm incredibly thankful to be home at all, while many of my fellow motorists are stuck in motels and such tonight. My thoughts go out to the families and friends of people who were injured, and especially of those who were killed. What a shitty night.

An open letter to Barack Obama

Dear Mr. Obama,

I watched and listened to your Iowa victory speech last night with great interest and optimism. You (or your speech writer) hit the nail on the head when you said, "I know you didn't do this for me. You did this because you believed so deeply in the most American of ideas: that in the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it." Because while you yourself are an inspiration--your story, your ideas, and, so far, your actions--the reason you won the Iowa caucus has less to do with Obama the man than it does with Obama the idea.

We the hopeful optimists of this country have endured eight years of demoralizing defeats. We have been tricked and forced into unjust wars. Our leaders have passed laws we did not want and ignored us when we called for laws that were needed. The beauty and sanctity of our own home, our planet, has been repeatedly violated and desecrated. Those who were supposed to guide our country into a more prosperous and secure 21st century have instead used their powerful positions for their own personal gain, ignoring some of the most important and basic tenets of our Constitution. They laughed at the idea of checks and balances, of those who would hold them accountable for their misdeeds, doing all they could to shelter some of the most heinous lawbreakers our government has ever known.

Our leaders have destroyed our beloved country's reputation worldwide, reigned down terror and bloodshed in our names, killed many and turned even more against us. In what was perhaps the greatest betrayal and most disgusting act so far this century, they used the events of September 11, 2001 simply as a means to grow their power and influence.

So it is from these catastrophes of governance that we the weary people of the United States turn to someone like you for guidance, for help finding the light again. This is no exaggeration, no hyperbole, no attempt at melodrama for the sake of getting attention. We really are at our wit's ends. And we really, really need a leader who will help bring about the change that's so desperately needed not just in our own country, but world-wide.

I have no illusions about you being a perfect human being or even a perfect politician. Even our greatest leaders were riddled with the faults of humanity: infidelity, prejudice, infirmity, etc. But it was their ability to relegate those things to their private lives alone, keeping them far away from how they made public decisions (or perhaps as motivation to make those better public decisions), that made them great. Most importantly, it was their recognition that one person alone does not an effective government make. Understanding that no one person can know everything there is to know about anything, they brought a whole team of talented and dedicated people with them to the White House to help out. And they listened.

What we need now is a whole new team, individuals uncorrupted by the habits and influences of past administrations. Part of the problem with the current president is the unsettlingly large number of former Nixon administration officials still serving under him. If ever there was more proof of people not learning from past mistakes, the Bush White House makes it difficult to remember.

Mr. Obama, if you would be our next president, I can only plead that you never forget the promises you make to the hopeful, exhausted people who will put you there, that you never forget where you've come from, and that you always remain willing to put in the extra long hours and effort to make sure every voice gets heard and that the right thing gets done.

We are more than ready for change. We demand it.

Best regards,
-Emily Mills
Madison, WI, USA

P.S. Please come to Wisconsin. I'd like the chance to hear you, and the other candidates, speak before this whole thing is said and done. We will happily bribe you with cheese that is far superior to anything California can produce.

WWCD?

Iowans are headed to their local caucus headquarters tonight, getting ready to shuffle about from one room to another in an interesting and slightly antiquated display of choosing a candidate. Personally, I think the whole thing is completely over-hyped, and more than a little annoying.

The caucus itself wouldn't be so bad (hey, every state needs to have a nominating procedure) if it weren't for the constant jockeying for position between Iowa and the other states for the position of first caucus/primary in the nation. If they push things much further forward, we'll be having them in a completely different year from the actual elections. As it stands, this whole messed up process is already mucking up how we elect our leaders in this country. The people of Iowa shuffle their way to a nomination and thus influence the votes of their impressionable fellow citizens in other states--people who might have been inclined to throw the lever for a more impressive but, say, second-tier candidate but are now convinced that they're unelectable and will instead settle for the uninspired old white guy picked by the first three states to vote.

I have an easy solution for all of this. We ask ourselves: what would Cthulhu do? Frankly, the answer would probably involve a lot of earthly destruction and human sacrifice. But the way I figure it, we take the good and discard the bad: destroy the primary system, but leave out the baby eating. Everybody wins.

Used to be, the major party's national conventions really were a place for candidates to prove their mettle and win the nomination. Nowadays, the candidate is all but picked and primed by the time the convention rolls around. Heck, they're pretty much agreed upon well before half of the states even make it to their primaries. And that, ladies and gentlemen, really does make the baby Jesus cry (because we saved him from Cthulhu's merciless clutches).

The Lost Albatross' Year In Review

Everyone else is doing it so why can't I?

I started this little blog back on February 8th, 2007, with pretty much no idea what I was going to do with it. I wanted to write about...something. It took until March 2nd for me figure out what my "special blogger purpose" was - and even that, it turned out, would grow to include much more than I had originally intended. While my primary focus here is to promote, review and discuss all things outdoors, cultural, and local, I couldn't help but dip a few toes into the political fray. Still, the second I start thinking this blog has some sway over the national debate, that's when I urge someone to step up and give me a good slap.

Still, I've been exceptionally flattered by the small but very decent amount of traffic this place has been getting. As of this moment, total hits for the blog are at 3,200 - most of which came between August and December. Not bad, if I do say so myself. I'm very glad that my words and images hold some interest for people, and I thank you all for stopping by!

Here, now, for the sake of sake's sake, are my favorite and most read posts of 2007:

Favorite(s) - Honestly, I'm most proud of my personal account of the ACT Ride, both because it was probably the most important thing I did all year and because I was happy with how I was able to put it into words. I can't stress enough how amazing the experience was, and I hope to do it again someday.

Most Hits - "In Response: Bask in conservative bumper sticker wisdom" - Honestly, I suspect a combination of factors that pulled in so many readers. The original post that mine was written in response to went viral and was passed around conservative websites nationwide. Anything associated with it probably enjoyed some residual hits. Plus Isthmus Daily Page linked to mine, too.

Runners Up, Most Hits - "Naughty Nurses unite, Halloween needs you!" I have a dark and sneaking suspicion that the reason this got so many hits was simply because of its title and tags. Between the whole "naughty nurses" thing and the popularity of attending and/or debating Halloween on State Street, people were interested. More importantly, internet people were interested. Because, as we all know, the internet is for porn (a subset of which is naughty nurses). Sadly, there was no porn in my post, so I hope visitors weren't too disappointed (I did, however, include a skanky photo).

What's Coming - There's an old adage that my father-the-minister used to like to recite for me from time to time: "If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans." After everything and so far, it is probably the most accurate adage I've ever heard. Even so, we make plans because we have to, else we risk falling into apathy and staying indoors playing Guitar Hero for ever and ever (rock!).

I was pleasantly surprised when I went back and checked on my resolutions for 2007. Turns out I actually managed to nail most of them. But there are always kinks, always the cosmic wrench being thrown into the spokes of your life, as it were. So it's best to set goals, make plans, and still be willing to bend and change as the winds shift. You never really know what's coming next, so shouldn't you be prepared to change your mind? Keeps things fun and interesting.

For this silly little blog, I hope to continue posting regularly, with a heavier focus on local/regional content than before, with even more emphasis on outdoor activities and the green movement, and with less fear about talking politics, too. I also want to start writing one personal essay style post per week or two. Sure, I'm full of opinions, but I'm a storyteller at heart and I'd like to get back to that a little more. Hopefully it'll still be interesting to read.

And hey, as always, suggestions are always welcome.

In any case, may your year be pleasant, prosperous and relatively pain-free!

Auld Lang Syne

Happy New Year, everyone! And I really, truly do hope it will be a happier year. We finally get to rid ourselves of that ninny in the White House, possibly even replacing him with the first ever female or African American president in US history. Regardless of which candidate you prefer, that's pretty cool. We also have the chance, as with every new year, to improve ourselves and our world. It's never too late until the sun explodes, y'know?

I can't help it--for all the cynicism and anger that finds its way into my blood, I'm still an optimist at heart.

So here's to a better year, to real progress at home and abroad, both personally and on a larger scale.

In the meantime, go vote in the Old Farmer's Almanac straw poll. Seriously, the Ron Paul flock are turning out in droves for this, so cooler heads need to mobilize.

Vote here.