Bulletin Board
Some artists go to Wal-Mart. Bob Dylan goes to NPR. Beginning at midnight Monday, NPR will be streaming the entirety of Dylan’s forthcoming Tell Tale Signs. The two-disc set is the eighth volume of Dylan’s bootleg series and will be officially released Oct. 7.
Today is Museum Day, which means that if you have a card you can download here, you get free admission to a variety of museums around the country, including several in South Dakota.
Congrats to Denise Ross, whose Unplanned Democracy won the Best Documentary jury prize at the South Dakota Film Festival last weekend.
Are book festivals the new harvest festival? Last weekend was the (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest, this weekend is the South Dakota Festival of Books and the Twin Cities Book Festival is Oct. 11.
Speaking of book festivals, the National Book Festival is underway today on the National Mall in Washington. Maybe that explains why Salman Rushdie and Richard Price aren’t at the South Dakota festival.
Linkage
An (unfortunately) highly accurate flowchart of America’s immigration process.
Now this could change my position on oil drilling.
Is today’s SF guilty of “a failure of imagination“? Responses here and here.
The National Book Foundation has announced its “5 Under 35” fiction selections. I’ve only read one of the books and, while a decent read, I didn’t find it particularly noteworthy.
So, is it a burden or a joy when the headline in a newspaper article describes you as the “world’s best writer of prose“?
The Bookstove picks Five Great Books for the “C” Student (which is about where my attitude put me in high school).
Here’s a bank we should all be interested in helping. (HT)
Random observations
Note to City: It takes more than painting a symbol of a bicycle and an arrow in white on downtown streets to create a bike lane. A bike lane is, at least according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, a part of a road “designated by striping, signing and pavement markings for the preferential or exclusive use of bicyclists.” One other technicality. All the markings I’ve seen are in the left hand lanes of one-way streets. You might want to know that state law requires bicyclists “ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway.” Just saying.
Well the dawn cracked hard just like a bull whip
Cause it wasn’t takin’ no lip from the night before
“Spare Parts I,’ Tom Waits, Nighthawks at the Diner
There are three types of roadway bicycle facilities being placed in Sioux Falls. The shared parking/bicycle lanes – examples on Bahnson & West 32nd. Full bike lanes – east 41st and I think soon on 22nd Street west of Minnesota Ave. Finally sharrows – which you’ve seen on Dakota and Main.
Justification for left side of roadway – based on the number of single use autos, left side sharrows get cyclists out of the “door zone.”
My personal feelings about left side sharrows – the idea is taking a lot of getting used to. I haven’t ridden them yet so I don’t know if I fully accept the idea.
Legally speaking – I’m not a lawyer – oh, you knew that? – the left side of Dakota and Main may have gotten a bit more practicable to ride on.
Roadway bicycle facilities are considered pilot projects – the transportation office encourages your feedback.
Thanks, Michael. I will always defer to you on any issues and matters relating to bicycling. After all, realistically speaking, I’m not a bicyclist — but you know that.
Although we’ll never see the development of the types of bike lanes that exist in European cities, at least a variety are being tried here. Your comment does, though, raise another concern about the markings I’ve seen. The term “sharrows” causes severe pain in the linguistic side of by brain.