Who's asking: Claire Bea, Montreal, Quebec
This is something I've wondered about ever since moving to New England; Claire asked yesterday when we stopped to fill up.
"Dry gas" is an ethanol-based fuel additive that is supposed to keep any water or condensation that's collected in your gas tank from freezing. It's not necessary in weather above freezing, or if you're using a gasoline that already contains 10% ethanol.
Claire and I made the 175-mile roundtrip to Sugarloaf last night to see John Hiatt, who's currently touring with a one-man retrospective of his career. It's worth driving 175 miles just to hear John Hiatt sing "Have a Little Faith in Me," but Sugarloaf's seating system was greedy and dumb, and those of us standing at the back (general admission) could barely hear the first few songs, before they got the sound straightened out.
I'll make this pronouncement: except in cabarets, live music shows should not have seats. If the musician is standing, the audience should be standing, too. If some members of audience need to sit, put them at the back of the house. As it was, a lone man worked his heart out last night to entertain a mostly-inert crowd, and the unwashed masses at the back felt like farm animals, herded behind metal barriers (I wish I were kidding; I'm not). I won't be going to another Sugarloaf show with reserved seating.
Now Claire's on her way back to Montreal, and Dizzy and I are sad our company couldn't stay longer.
2 comments:
I managed to find the answer to one of the many, many questions I asked this weekend. Settlers in colonial America settled north and south instead of west not because they necessarily wanted to be close to the coast, but because the British wanted them close to the coast. Though many pioneers would have been willing, even eager to expand westwards, they were forbidden to do so, because British officials wanted them within easy reach.
So you see, my mother was right: we really CAN blame the British for everything.
Post a Comment