Monday, November 22, 2010

California at last

Hello, camping fans!

Today we left Phoenix and headed to Banning. We had crazy winds all day! Really crazy - especially once we made it into southern California on interstate 10. We got into Palm Springs California and the wind was particularly bad - it came tearing right through the valley like I've never experienced before! At least they were making good use of it - there appeared to be several hundred windmills in the city! I've never seen this many windmills all in one place! The picture doesn't do it justice, but this place makes the windmills on interstate 65 north of Indy look like child's play.

The countryside now is less sandy, but still very arid. The mountains seem higher and closer and there are a few snow caps visible. Fortunately, the cacti seem to have thinned out if not disappeared completely. Here in Banning it's extremely windy. It never lets up. And it's quite cold! Right now it's 41 degrees (34 after wind chill)!

Just for kicks and giggles, I cranked up the ol' aerial antenna tonight. I was shocked to find what was on! There are ten channels; one alternates between vacation commercials in some eastern European language and a Korean show that plays youtube videos, one is Korean, two are Spanish, one is a channel list, one is Japanese, two are Chinese, one is Italian, one is clearly a homemade slideshow set to bad elevator jazz (I mean even Kenny G would cringe if he heard this!), and the last was in some language I didn't recognize but from the script in the corner, I'm guessing Arabic ... Which raises a question ... Where are we?! What is going on with these tv stations?!

It was a fairly uneventful drive. I'm now on book three of the Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I'm liking it a lot. Book one was really good, but book two was kinda weak in my humble opinion.

To add a little variety, I'm listening to Matt and Kim's "Sidewalks" - which is fantastic! I'm also listening to Sleigh Bells' "Treats." The first three songs are especially good. Micah put me on to this album. It's high energy and fun - which makes it great driving music. I think the best way to describe Sleigh Bells is to say that they're Phantogram meets The Go! Team. I couldn't come up with a "vs" ... You wanna take a shot, Micah?

So I'm watching episode 7 of Band of Brothers and guess who I just saw? You'll never guess. In fact, closest guess get's a hat!

Come and see us in Banning if you're around!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mel Gibson and Meryl Strep
Send me the hat

Anonymous said...

David Bowie

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 2...that's lame, everyone knows David Bowie is Gay!
Anonymous 1
send me the hat

mikeT said...

Need to rescan the channels on your TV. New location requires a new scan. Hope this will help.

Micah said...

Phantogram meets M.I.A. versus Wavves. BOOOOSH! Why do I have to do everything around here?

brandon said...

Anonymous 1: So close ...

Anonymous 2: You are the winner! The answer is Jamie Bamber, the guy who plays Lee "Apollo" Adama in Battlestar Galactica! Bowie was also something of a space cadet - from his crazy outfits to songs like Major Tom and Space Oddity - so you win! Send me your address!

mike T: Did that first thing, and these crazy channels are what I ended up with.

Micah: Get serious! Phantogram meets The Go! Team is way more apt a description than Phantogram meets M.I.A.! Wavves was a good pick for the "versus," though.

Micah said...

Go! Team does not rap ... Sleigh Bells rap (or at least talk-sing)... Therefore MIA is a better selection than Go! Team b/c MIA raps/talk-sings (plus, Go! Team uses multiple vocals, and Phantogram trades off between male and female vocals, thus MIA has the all-female vocals thing in common with Sleigh Bells). PLUS, Sleigh Bells is on MIA's label -- she personally signed them -- so that's the cherry on top. SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!