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I'm Andrew Dubber
I read, research, and talk about music, radio and the internet for a living. I'm also a DJ and a whisky writer, as well as some other stuff.
This is (currently) where I outline some ideas I'm working on - or just what's on my mind. You'll get the picture as it goes along.
You can also ask me stuff here. I'll probably reply..
- Email Me
- Personal blog
- Flickr
![animalstalkinginallcaps:
YOU THINK I GIVE A SLIPPERY SHIT ABOUT ‘TODAY’S YOUTH’? RUNNIN’ AROUND WITH THEIR SPACE BEEPERS, GOOGLING EACH OTHER OR WHATEVER IT IS THEY DO?
BUNCH OF PISH. BACK IN MY DAY WE DIDN’T HAVE ZIMA XXX OR PISSED OFF BIRDS OR ANY OF THAT CRAP. I SWAM UPSTREAM, BOTH WAYS, JUST TO GO TO WORK FOR NINE HOURS. NOW THEY JUST SIT AT HOME AND BLOG ABOUT HOW HARD THEY GOT IT. ONLY THING HARD ABOUT LIVING IN THIS DAY AND AGE IS SITTING THROUGH FIVE MINUTES OF THAT GARBAGE THEY CALL MUSIC.
“GRANDPA, HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEW LADY GOGGLES SONG?”
“GRANDPA, DO YOU LIKE NANCY MINAJ?”
IT’S ALL JUST NOISE. HORRIBLE NOISE.
[preorder the book]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/620d32ce7c0d0ccecf757ae9256b3a5c/tumblr_mocv36KMlf1qmf9gqo1_500.jpg)
YOU THINK I GIVE A SLIPPERY SHIT ABOUT ‘TODAY’S YOUTH’? RUNNIN’ AROUND WITH THEIR SPACE BEEPERS, GOOGLING EACH OTHER OR WHATEVER IT IS THEY DO?
BUNCH OF PISH. BACK IN MY DAY WE DIDN’T HAVE ZIMA XXX OR PISSED OFF BIRDS OR ANY OF THAT CRAP. I SWAM UPSTREAM, BOTH WAYS, JUST TO GO TO WORK FOR NINE HOURS. NOW THEY JUST SIT AT HOME AND BLOG ABOUT HOW HARD THEY GOT IT. ONLY THING HARD ABOUT LIVING IN THIS DAY AND AGE IS SITTING THROUGH FIVE MINUTES OF THAT GARBAGE THEY CALL MUSIC.
“GRANDPA, HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEW LADY GOGGLES SONG?”
“GRANDPA, DO YOU LIKE NANCY MINAJ?”
IT’S ALL JUST NOISE. HORRIBLE NOISE.
Decided to do something a bit radical…
![4gifs:
Corgi stuck in tent. [video]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/8811fc92741319dcddcb9d47f7397ba3/tumblr_mo1ydtxFui1qdlh1io1_250.gif)
FPS-MAN
Playable first person game of Pac-Man which is as enjoyable as the original (and surprisingly tense).
Try it out for yourself here
First person Pacman? Okay then…
A chicken disguised as a gnome.
Put this inside a giant circle that says Don’t Be a Dick and you’ve got my fundamental rules for life.
Why habit is the secret of creativity.
Chuck Close would agree: “Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.” As would E. B. White: “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.”
Hear that, brain? It’s like I’ve been trying to tell you.
SOMEWHERE OVER THE WEST
“I really don’t know one plane from the other. To me they are all just marginal costs with wings.”
-Alfred Kahn, airline economist (1917-2010)
Commercial air travel has changed a lot over the years. Since the US airline industry was deregulated in 1978, fares have dropped and lots more people have been flying. Airlines have merged and morphed and vanished. The rise of hub-and-spoke airline systems means that a major delay at one important airport can ripple across the country for days.
What hasn’t changed is the incredible vastness and variety of the country you see out the window. On a recent round trip from southern Colorado to Portland, Oregon (via Phoenix), I saw the Grand Canyon and the Colorado river valley, tract housing as far as the eye could see, and irrigation circles laid out like giant board games in the desert. I saw dormant volcanoes in Oregon and a bird’s eye view of the oil fields of the San Juan Basin in northwest New Mexico.
Commercial flight is the only way most of us will ever get to see those wide, wide views. Every time I fly, those views remind me of all the thousands of places in the US that I haven’t been to yet. And that takes the sting out of the scores of little annoyances along the way.
Because wow, America.
Guide Notes:
Read about the history of commercial flight in the US at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s America By Air exhibit.
Read about Alfred Kahn, who headed up the Civil Aeronautics Board that oversaw airline deregulation, in his obituary from The Economist (January 20, 2011).
* * *
Amadee Ricketts is an At-Large Guide to the West. She’s worked as a cemetary groundskeeper, a shoeshine valet, and a bill collector. More recently, she’s been a children’s librarian in five states. She takes a lot of pictures and lives near Durango, CO. You can see her photos at textless.tumblr.com.
Need to go back. Need to see all of the things.
My evening
Emily Baker with Fiddes.
