OT: The Newer OT Thread III and Lounge

[Gord]

Its not even for the fans. Its that each director finds the superheros dark past suffered at the hands of Machiavellian villains to be a part that they WANT to again deconstruct and put on screen. One figuring they could do the maudlin vaudeville scene better than another... Which really, when one looks at is, is what the whole comic book movie genre is about. A director figuring he could better the original product.

My own criticism of the genre is that its ALL redundant. Its one thing to put classic works of literature on screen as movies (usually disappointing anyway) but to put classic comics on the screen just evokes a period in time where Hollywood is setting the bar real low on inspiration and script worthiness. Its interesting that at a time where more brilliant writers exist, and are often left begging for work that Hollowwood is more swayed by comic sequels with scripts with less depth than the original comics offered.

Perhaps sensing they miss out on that depth of portrayal the directors always opt for those early formulative sequences. They're attempting to develop character. In comic book movies they often fail at that.

good points.

along the same lines, look at the new star wars movie.
I was always a huge star wars fan. the trailers looked great, lucas wasn't writing the thing. I was very excited to go see it.
I came out appreciating some of the special effects and seeing han solo and chewie, but overall I thought "meh"
the way people were talking, you'd think shakespeare wrote it. I was disappointed.

also maybe that's part of the problem, the over saturation of movies in media. Maybe I'd enjoy these movies more if I wasn't constantly bombarded with hype for many months before they open. and then the bombardment of reviews on social media.

 

[Aceboogie]

good points.

along the same lines, look at the new star wars movie.
I was always a huge star wars fan. the trailers looked great, lucas wasn't writing the thing. I was very excited to go see it.
I came out appreciating some of the special effects and seeing han solo and chewie, but overall I thought "meh"
the way people were talking, you'd think shakespeare wrote it. I was disappointed.

also maybe that's part of the problem, the over saturation of movies in media. Maybe I'd enjoy these movies more if I wasn't constantly bombarded with hype for many months before they open. and then the bombardment of reviews on social media.

I think in todays age people go to the movies to switch off their brains. They want simple, they want cool FX. They dont want complex story lines, challenging subjects or any of the like.

The new Star Wars COULD have gone different directions and challenged how we think about Star Wars. But why would it? They could put out literally the same story line as first Star Wars with different characters and they automatically rake in hundreds of millions. No upside in producing anything different.

I think movies are a reflection of where were are as a society. And to be honest we are very shallow these days. Not many people want to go to a movie and be challenged mentally to question beliefs. They want Captain America pummeling some guys. Cant really blame movie studios for producing films majority of scoiety wants to see

 

[Section337]

As far as your specific question many of Edmontons thoroughfares have extra room as TUC corridors. For instance on south side 91st being obvious example. Many other main streets like 97th street in northside have center median and/or extra width allowing for expansion or other use. We have many potential BRT ready routes. In some cases only different signalling and extra lane paving is required. Speaking of signalling transit now has option of altering signalling on some signalled lights. For instance exiting MWTC busses can get immediate green to make a left or right turn exiting the terminal. They don't have to wait for the light. This signalling ability alone makes any bus more of a potential BRT. With very little cost.

Not a BRT, but found the Wroclaw and (to a degree) Krakow used the middle stops and liked them more than I expected. Found it good space, away from the walkers (people spread across the entire sidewalks waiting for the bus drives me nuts here). Crosswalk lights were based to get to the meridian, not all the way across, which worked well.

Finally, the most popular ETS product offered is park and ride. But somehow the concept of express buses following the shortest, most efficient possible routes is lost on ETS. Even with this new Valley line too many stops which just decreases efficiency and slows the line down.

Agreed, both the Sherwood Park and St. Albert express downtown buses show this.

Also agree on the too many stops issue. This is an area where I think transit is trying to compete too much with cars, trying to get people close to the door. I admit it is more convenient to have stops every couple of blocks, but walking 4 or 5 blocks is not that difficult for most people and many people do it when they park downtown for work anyways.

 

[Aceboogie]

Wow really scary stuff in Fort Mac. It looks like its getting pretty bad up there. Hope everyone is ok and any damage is minimal

 

[Spawn]

Wow really scary stuff in Fort Mac. It looks like its getting pretty bad up there. Hope everyone is ok and any damage is minimal

Yeah very scary.

 

[Replacement*]

^One of the difficult things is that Highway 63 going south is closed and evacuation can only take place North into the opposite direction of where a lot of Evacuees would want to go if they were going to come to Edmonton for awhile.

Just a huge tragedy and the worst fears that this is Slave Lake is probably understatement.

Meanwhile it early May, usually still spring and wet, and its tinder dry all over the province with not a drop of rain in sight.

Its getting to the point where prescribed burns of forest and grassland will have to occur around any city or town. Otherwise nothing stops these monsters.

Hope everybody gets out safe, that's the main thing.

 

[Aceboogie]

wow seems like it got so bad so fast. Is the North exit still all good to go? How many exits out of there are there?

 

[doulos]

The hospital is being evacuated as well. This is really really bad.

 

[JordanGalhanth]

Just heard the emergency news conference from Notley. Largest evacuation in Alberta's history.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

Couple of crazy images I saw on twitter in the last few hrs

 

[Replacement*]

The evacuation is not going well and confusion is not helping. What should be mentioned EVERY minute is that you CAN'T evacuate south as highway 63 is closed south of Ft McMurray. yet people still going in that direction, turning back and aiding to the clogging of vehicles due north. With this highway not adequate for normal rush hour traffic let alone an unprecedented emergency. Right now fire suppression efforts need to treat this as a war zone and every effort expended keeping the one highway direction open.

Doesn't help either, and this needs to be dealt with, is all the rubberkneckers pulling off on the highway occupying every shoulder and in some cases lanes. This needs to be dealt with an in an emergency situation like this every available lane way, including shoulders, should be dedicated to getting people out of there. If you must stop pull right off the road.

Not one mention on the newscasts emphasizing the absolute importance that people keep moving AWAY from the area. The backlog in traffic is all the way to the neighborhoods that are ON FIRE.

of course its the newstrucks that are also taking up vital highway space right now in what should be a nobody stops situation on that road.

 

[Oscar Acosta]

Not one mention on the newscasts emphasizing the absolute importance that people keep moving AWAY from the area. The backlog in traffic is all the way to the neighborhoods that are ON FIRE.

of course its the newstrucks that are also taking up vital highway space right now in what should be a nobody stops situation on that road.

Good god that's a horrifying and heartbreaking thing to think about. Can only imagine sitting in a car with my kid trying to get to safety while things get worse around you. Survival instincts and anarchy can turn quickly.

Pray they all get out safe.

 

[nabob]

The backlog in traffic is all people driving AWAY from the fire. With the way the fire reached the highway at the South side of town it meant that everyone North of there had to be evacuated North, which is like 90% of the people who were still in town. Only so much room on the road as it bottlenecks into the down town area and each neighbourhood is also a bottleneck situation.

I work 50km south of Fort Mac and theirs guys here who didn't make it home in time to be evacuated with their families, guys who have lost their homes, but are stuck south of town not knowing if everything they own is gone, not knowing where their children are, it's really tough to see.

 

[DerpMorg]

Checking up on friends. Some made it out up north to Noralta, some are still stuck trying to get out out Timberlea and traffic is at a standstill.

For lack of a better description, the whole situation is ****ed.

 

[OilerPensfan97]

Things are sounding extremely bad in Fort McMurray. Hope everyone is safe.

 

[Replacement*]

Checking up on friends. Some made it out up north to Noralta, some are still stuck trying to get out out Timberlea and traffic is at a standstill.

For lack of a better description, the whole situation is ****ed.

Primarily because theres endless vehicles stopped and pulled over on the highway taking pictures and videos with not the slightest thought that theres 30K people behind them and trying to get out of there on the same ****ing one highway. From reports so many people are trying to pull over to look at the fire that its preventing anybody from moving. Just like in JNP when 200 doofuses are stopped on the highway looking at bears or wildlife.

There should be police helicopters, ATV patrols insuring people get moving. From yesterday on theres been an apparent lack in organization and prep. No way today should have been approached as a business as usual day. People actually (most of them) went to work and school today. I just can't picture that with a huge forest fire just out of town and that can go any direction the wind blows..

But even as prevention you get everything mobilized and much more happening BEFORE today.

But the other side of it is Ft McMurray was never even remotely designed to have +100K people living there in a city with less infrastructure than St. Albert had 15yrs ago..

 

[Replacement*]

Good god that's a horrifying and heartbreaking thing to think about. Can only imagine sitting in a car with my kid trying to get to safety while things get worse around you. Survival instincts and anarchy can turn quickly.

Pray they all get out safe.

Yep. All the footage is unbelievable. Nobody in news coverage or emergency bulletins or anywhere commenting on stopping being Prohibited except for emergency means. This is an absolute emergency out there. Except people are not being properly instructed on all of what that means and what they need to be doing. i.e. driving, not stopping and rubbernecking.

A family could drive their bikes faster out of dodge right now from what I'm seeing. Traffic just stopped. Everywhere. People in communities begging for help and who couldn't even get out of their own neighborhood with vehicles as fires were raging. undoubtedly theres a huge problem with abandoned vehicles on roads as well as people would panic and just run away.

Some unbelievably terrible scenes.

 

[Replacement*]

Not even sure what to say about the many reports of people running out of gas on the highway because they didn't heed the fill up gas tanks order yesterday. Wow. What a lack of being on board with preparedness. Run out of gas right in the middle of the highway because you didn't want to wait in line for gas yesterday. Boggles the mind.

Tragic when many peoples safety are threatened by the inaction by some. This full on evac has been going on since 2pm and its going nowhere.

just praying for all involved.

 

[Burke the Legend]

Can't they nuke the fire?

 

[doulos]

People are losing everything [mod]

What a horrific situation.

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

Hey guys, just dropping in to say I hope these fires up north aren't affecting any of you. Looks really scary

 

[Philly85*]

its ****ed up

 

[DerpMorg]

Uncle and two friends have lost their houses. Sounds like of all of the Beacons Hill neighbourhood is gone. That's a couple hundred homes right there. Flying J gas station, Shell, Super 8, Burger King, Denny's, Centennial campground are destroyed.

Spot fews through out Gregoire industrial park due to embers. Other areas have slight damage.

 

[Gord]

I hope the MLA's will put aside politics for now and just deal with the emergency.
now is not the time to complain about the NDP.

 

[joestevens29]

Not even sure what to say about the many reports of people running out of gas on the highway because they didn't heed the fill up gas tanks order yesterday. Wow. What a lack of being on board with preparedness. Run out of gas right in the middle of the highway because you didn't want to wait in line for gas yesterday. Boggles the mind.

Tragic when many peoples safety are threatened by the inaction by some. This full on evac has been going on since 2pm and its going nowhere.

just praying for all involved.

Places ran out of gas, hence why people are taking fuel up there now.

K-Rock is getting a tractor trailer lined up. Not sure what they are taking, but they were focusing on water and then kids toys