h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's like North Carolina, Willem - we had a lot of landscaping workers from Mexico. They tended to use machetes on the undergrowth.

Today, I was backing out of the driveway, and had to stop because there was a large cement mixer heading our way...

Around here, they love their machines. My brother-in-law has a giant tractor he inherited from the nice couple who owned the farm they bought their farmhouse and land from. My 13-year-old grandnephew has been driving it for several years now, and winning prizes with it at the fair. It's an antique.

Sometimes, there are backhoe demonstrations. We saw one at a local market fair last year.

This may make more sense after next Sunday, when the new Post appears.

Or maybe not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIbacSdKEOM

I know: this is a video only CC could love. Music to trance out by.

Interesting thought, being approached by a cement mixer.

What to say?

I guess in the time it takes to think what to say, one can get out of the way.

Always time later to cement the relationship. hohoho. That's almost-funny.

Definitely! Marvellous lunar trance mix.

Oooh that's good. The almost rhyme of (Radio) Station and Realisation.



I've been thinking a lot about the transmission of information, re our talks about Guide Entries and Post Entries and other h2g2 Thingies beaming out o'er the pearly starry energy pools and galaxies and Mars Bars.

The Thingie sat on a holographic bench, dipping its toes in the stream of consciousness, and chewed on a Juicy Jupiter bar.

to the point, please childe, to the point!

OK, so I was trying to remember the earliest of such transmissions which changed my life, all this being pre internet, naturally.

And ....

And ....

Well, like most kids of the time, it was the early grainy b/w? Dr Who episodes, with that spooky and never heard before electronic music, arranged by Delia Derbyshire and the pattern that looked like a moving xray.

I think those episodes were b/w. I remember them that way.

Amazing woman, Delia Derbyshire. The unsung genius behind British electronic music

Anyway. I digress. Delia I love you.

Then it was radio!!!!

Listening to radio Luxembourg on an illegal transistor radio, under the pillow in the school dorm. Ooooh, how risky. Radio Luxembourg, it was a pirate radio station I think, amazing sounds, from what seemed like the home planet coming through the airwaves.

How crucial was the transistor radio!!! The cure for feelings of alienation.

I still have a little portable radio. An actual radio with an aerial, love that aerial. You can pick up Planet Rock in Brighton. Couldn't get it in the South West.

Despite the now wide open access to internet, I still get the magic buzz when the frequency appears through the static.



Oh, have to go. Lunch!!! calls the chef through the static.

I wonder what your memories are. The First Transmissions (that changed your life)

I didn't discover radio until my grandmother gave me a tiny transistor one with an earbud, sometime in the mid-60s. I used to have trouble falling asleep, so I'd lie in bed and listen to KDKA's late-evening talk show featuring a pleasant couple who talked about all the sorts of things h2g2ers talk about - shoes and ships and sealing wax. They even had a quiz (of course, I couldn't call in), and I could get the answer if I stayed awake until midnight...

In case you haven't seen this in my journal, here's the 'Dark and Stormy Night' video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdLJStrQApk

Do the Hoggetts walk around to a theme tune by Jerry Goldsmith by ant chance?

Any chance not ant chance...that was probably one of his Twilight Zone pieces!

Hullo! My name is Ant Chance, and I'm an ant, with a chance. Or possibly not.



Ah, marvellous radio story. KDKA. I also love the names of radio stations.

Holymoly that is one dark and stormy night. . So atmospheric! Filmic! I love the music!!!

Music for Lightning

Hah! (heads out to write some sounds)

KDKA was the first commercial radio station. 1920. Ah, Pittsburgh.

Here's some more mood stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FhdToufl_A

Mood music is moody and me like psychedelic visuals!

Thanks!

Just a quick advert: I've got a story in this week's Post you haven't seen before. Not even FWR. It's called 'A Deal's a Deal'. Inspired by a bad movie. A87948210

I've come back from a fortnight in France and, even after reading all the posts, feel I have nothing to say that's clever or zany enough for this place.
I don't remember any encounters with concrete mixers. But we sometimes see big lorries carrying small houses, which are escorted by a van with a label 'Convoi Exceptionel'. The English is 'Abnormal Load' which sounds less interesting.
When my husband opened the cellars, he found a couple of bats.Now I quite like bats, but there is something jerky about the way they fly that's a
bit sinister.
In our old garden, which was thigh high with dry grass, the trees were looking very sick. But the plum trees were covered with plums. We came back with plums, plum jam, apples and quinces and we made apple and quince chutney.

Sounds productive!

Did you apply the approved method for ridding the cellars of s? Broom and dustpan?

They just flew away. I don't mind if they come back now we've gone home.

You've left them a very large bathouse.