text:
Hello there. You know Truck Festival, right? Held on a little farm in Steventon, Oxfordshire, Truck has been growing in reputation thanks to its cheapness, its great line-ups, and great vibe. As this mammoth review is mammoth enough as it is, let's get stuck in…
Thomas Blatchford (TB)
John Brainlove (JB)
Andrew Farley (AF)
Kate Price (KP)
Raziq Rauf (RR)
Colin Weston (CW)
Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly!
*(RR) *This mega-voiced youngster from Essex belted out a raw bunch of laptop and trombone assisted tunes worthy of even greater stages than this. Opening a festival ain't easy and this is definitely one to watch in the future.
*(CW) *The one man electo-acoustic genius has a bit of a moment when he realises he is without his headphones but after that is all plain sailing. Pulling a set out of his full debut EP he wins over the crowd with his brand of 'appcoustica' (Apple Mac acoustic) while winning hearts throughout the field by slagging the BNP good and proper. A short 30 minute set but the ideal way to start the festival.
Mystery Jets
*(RR) *I've only heard about the barmy nature of these Londonshire crazies but was yet to see it for myself. They did not disappoint in the loony stakes but sadly did in the coherence or quality stakes. Especially the goon with the saucepans…
*(CW) *They are running VERY early so the Barn is almost empty but that doesn't stop the Essex boys, as they are currently on a roll. New single on a major label out in a few days time and a string of supports with Sum 41 to back them up, the band are here to convert the uninitiated and boy do they do it! Gone are tracks such as 'Trick or Treat' but replacements such as 'Arsehole' is more than enough. Dave struts the stage like the rock star he is and their intensity comes across on a willing crowd. Top bombing from the boys from Southend.
*(TB) *Can't claim to have been to all of them myself, but I wouldn't be surprised if Truckfest was the greatest festival, in the world, ever. One thing that lead me to this conclusion is when, with banana smoothie in one hand, liquorice bought from the local church in the other and a pasta salad tucked under the arm, I hear from the Trailer Park Tent the pulsating techno-pop-rock insanity of Zea. One guy stands playing his guitar like he's trying to saw it in half with his bare hands, the other bashes at the vocoding keyboard devices like he wants them to explode, and they end up making one almighty racket that could be called 'dance' music. If you happen to dance like a malfunctioning washing machine, that is. Ace.
*(AF) *Indie-techno duos from Amsterdam shouldn't work, by rights, but after queuing for what seemed like an age and missing a few bands as a result (thanks everyone for arriving at the same time), Zea opened Truck for me and proved my theory wrong. One guy sings indie-pop songs while playing electric guitar and the other dances like a crazed madman behind his laptop/synths that emanate loud techno beats and whilst being slightly messy, is beautifully crafted and well thought out. Compelling.
*Pedro *
*(TB) *Apparently every laptop messiah you've salivated over the past few years has got their best ideas from Pedro, and you can't really blame them. Even though he isn't the most vibrant of showmen, even for a bloke stood in front of his computer, the music more than makes up for it. But folktronica? Folktronica my arse. This is lowdown glitchiness that works as music for the head but is more useful as beats for yer feet. Shame everyone's sat down, then. Haven't you had a drink yet?
Chris McMath
*(KP) *They claimed to have got the band together and written the songs only a week ago. I find that very hard to believe – I can't imagine writing such songs in five years, let along 5 days. There must be something in the Oxford water.
*(TB) *Strange that, in my first foray to the Acoustic Tent, there should be an almightily marvellous din coming from Chris McMath and his amped-up side project Patrick Moore's Glass Eye. Imagine that Futureheads have been smashed to pieces with an electric mandolin and crudely stuck together again with the spittle from inside a kazoo, but imagine it's good. "Here's our ten-minute retro piece", he says, and with that the anti-psychedelic twists and turns are unleashed. Coo.
*(AF) *Fresh from signing their major label deal with Warners, Battle pull the large crowd to the Barn. Singer Jason Bavanandan is endearingly humble and seems genuinely overwhelmed at the numbers standing in front of him. The clarity and energy of recent single 'Isabelle' is a bit lost but as the set moves on the band find their feet (as does the sound engineer) and their sleek shoe-gazing influenced sound flourishes.
*(CW) *Opening with 'Tendency' was a hell of a good call and has the crowd eating out of their hand. It is not hard to see why they are lauded by the assorted musical press. A good solid set or at least the first half was because after that I head out to see what else lies in store.
(RR) The latest band to fit into the mould of young, British, sounds a bit like Cure/Joy Division but are more likely to be labelled as the next Coldplay. They will go far with these songs. That is for sure. Hats will be bet on it.
*Sexy Breakfast *
*(CW) *I couldn't help but feel I was watching a Beastie Boys tribute band but without the intrigue. They were not awful, just not very interesting. I flit off again to get some water before the girls of matching suits hit the main stage.
The Schla La Las
*(CW) *Dead centre and at the front in my piss poor DIY shirt, perfect for the seeing the Schla La Las. I am poised, ready for the fun that I know the ladies will spread in just a few moments time. It is however then that band drummer Delia sees my shirt and points and laughs. I feel VERY silly. It passes quickly though as the sassy (and quite frankly blasted) Schlas take to the stage in their matching white dresses. As ever they are all onstage banter including subjects such as veggie burgers and shirts guaranteed to get you laid. Add to that their throwaway care free attitude playing the songs they love and it is yet another winner for Truck 05.
*(AF) *After one song I realise that I could be watching somebody else, so I trek to the Barn.
A Silent Film
*(AF) *I didn't catch all of Silent Film, but their mightily impressive sound can only be described as 'big'. The Barn was filled with keyboard led anthems-in-waiting and the vocals soared and genuinely impressed. Nice.
*Motormark *
*(CW) *They are dressed all in black and hit the crowd with their 2-piece electro rock and are as good as ever. 'Eat Drink Sleep Think' is as vicious as it could be and closing out with 'My Sharona' was inspirational. They may head back to Scotland a little worse for wear (and believe me, Marco was!) but not without some much deserved new fans.
Stuffy/The Fuses
*(AF) *Singing drummer Stuffy and his Fuses provide me which much entertainment; fizzed-up guitar pop and inbetween song banter all aid to pull me in to their world. At the end of the set, Stuffy attempts to do a competition and asks a ridiculously impossible lyric question to a baffled audience. I didn't write down what it was, but Stuffy quickly realised his mistake and gave an album to the first person to put their hand up.
*(TB) *Stuffy and The Fuses are also mostly Chris T-T's 'rock' band, or if you'd rather Chris T-T's 'rock' band are mostly also Stuffy and the Fuses. But do they sound the same? Do they heck. It's good to know that, in a weekend with its fair share of guitar bands with distinct genres (stand up emo, post-rock, hardcore…) that there's at least one band that do the jittery start-stop-pop business with heavy-fisted drumming and "ooooh" harmonies and still manage to rock out. Their bark seems worse than their bite, but luckily the bark sounds great.
(RR) Grabbing a marquee of people with Fugazi-esque riffs and an utterly compelling frontman, an all-bouncing, all-crooning drummer greets me. His t-shirt says "Stuffy". It's a terrible name for a band and will be the reason why not.
*The Edible 5ft Smiths *
*(KP) *Twee but not sickly. Usually this sort of thing makes me want to become a goth but I really quite enjoyed them. I think I might be turning into a hippy.
Malmo* Radical Cheerleaders *
*(CW) *Are they what they say they are? Well, two parts of it; they are Swedish and are cheerleaders. Not really radicals, just feminists who cheer about hairy pussies. Amusing in a cringe worthy way but the number of people here thinking something slightly more raunchy were on offer leave disappointed.
Patrick Wolf
*(AF) *A genuinely interesting and different performer, Patrick's set reflects the understated beauty of his latest 'Wind In The Wires' LP. 'The Libertine' sounds as amazing as ever, even if the sound gets carried away from the main Truck stage when standing further back than a few meters.
*(KP) *I arrived unconvinced, I left with a tear in my eye and an addition to the hypothetical 'fuck list'.
*The Tenderfoot *
*(CW) *Loveable boys from Brighton. Nice soothing acoustic songs of life and love are just what I need at this moment and they supply in plenty while making a very sound case for why bowls should be for the people, not just the aged. Keep fighting the cause lads!
The Young Knives
(AF) Amazing live. Three less than fashionable cheeky chaps, two of them are brothers and one of them is called The House Of Lords. Still reading? Do. They're arty disjointed guitar pop could do wonders for society if it'd only give them a chance – the door opened by The Futureheads may work wonders for them.
*(KP) *The difference between a show where these three are having fun and one where they can't really be bothered is absurd. This weekend their choppy, angular songs were backed by quirky personalities, snappy enthusiasm and a dance that would put Ricky Gervais to shame. Definitely worth seeing again.
Dive Dive
*(AF) *Acoustic, this really shouldn't work. And to start with you think it's not going to. Seeing the four of them sitting down and not dancing around the stage frenetically is odd in itself, and singer Jamie struggles to get to grips with the acoustic guitar, breaking a string almost straight away. It's plain sailing from here on in, however, as the enthusiastic home crowd pull them through. Jamie even threatens to 'rock out' at one point, standing up and moving around before realising he's still playing an acoustic guitar in front of a tent full of people who are sitting down.
*(CW) *Opening with a cracking rendition of 'Good Show' to which a fully rammed tent sang-a-long too was awesome and they just kept it up throughout. They're also the only band I had seen thus far come back for an encore. Singer Jamie may well be 'too rock for acoustic guitars' but this set was pure and unbridled excellence.
*MC Lars *
*(RR) *As succinct and intelligent as ever, the Oxford graduate powered through often sultry, rarely spectacular hip hop beats with his trademark incisive and dramatic lyrics as the second laptop utilising artist on the Truck stage today.
*(AF) *Demonstrating his vocal skills to a packed Truck crowd, those three months touring with Bowling For Soup have certainly given him lots of practice. He's rapturously received and reminds us that music can contain elements of comedy and not be shit.
(TB) MC Lars may be to hip-hop what Sunny Delight is to orange juice, but when he rocks the mic, he rocks the mic RIGHT! Spitting Edgar Allen Poe and Willy Shakespeare shit over his hyperactive E number beats, and matching the lyrical emo sentiment found in his samples with a more literal (and hence naïve) narrative, he's about as demanding on your intellect as an episode of Balamory but still, it's all about fun, right? Plus the guy with the inflatable bananas provides a decent enough metaphor for the music, so thank you.
*Fonda 500 *
*(TB) *With songs about simians, Jesus and robots from outer space, I had Fonda 500 down as twee-er than a fowest full of twees. Turns out they ROCK! For whilst songs like 'Computer Freaks Of The Galaxy' and 'The Colour And The Birdsongs Are One And The Same' sound like cutesy electro ramblings from the comfort of your own stereo, on stage they're turned into pumping disco-geetar-core beasts, with everything from Brakes to Russ Abbot free-styled over the top. If you close your eyes you could just about imagine that Hot Hot Heat have grown beards, bought instruments with bigger red buttons on them and acquired a sense of humour. Open your eyes, though, and you'll see fresh-faced indie darlings surrounding a bear on keyboards. Figures. But still they're the most exhilarating band in a day of exhilarating bands. Buy the record, eat the record.
*(AF) * Sound interesting and fun as ever from the edge of a packed tent.
*The Raveonettes *
* **(TB) *When the sun goes down, the dark shades and white heat come out to play. A bit like comfort eating and drum n' bass, you pretty much know where you are with The Raveonettes; it's just a bit of a thrill to experience how you get there in the first place. Not that this makes them rapidly unexciting, far from it, it's just you know there's always a band that understands how being in a leather-clad bicycle gang is much better when you actually sound like you are too. If Phil Spector were dead then his musical (ahem) spectre would be writhing its way all through their new material, the songs achieving wall-of-sound like they just need winding up and placing in the hands of cucumber-cool cheekbone-sporters. Plus with songs like 'Attack Of The Ghost Riders', 'Ode To LA' and 'That Great Love Sound', it goosebumps-all-over time. Feedback is a rhythm too, y'know.
* *(AF) Fail to convince with their dull as ditchwater live show.
(KP) Compared to the last time I saw them, the Raveonettes actually seemed to enjoy and get into this. Pleasantly surprising. Or maybe that was the home-made wine thinking.
*(RR) *The tired retro New Rock Revolution that took place a few years ago sadly lives on at Truck in this Danish duo. While eschewing the horribly predictable garage rock formula that so many use, there is nothing revolutionary here. There's not even much that is fun.
*Editors *
* *(KP) I've heard it all before and I'd still rather listen to Joy Division.
*(RR) *See Battle. Just a bit more miserable. They are from Brum after all.
Biffy Clyro
*(AF) * Triumphantly end the first day's proceedings, many sing along moments ensue, pop/emo/whatever – you know the drill. Their set highlights the breadth of their catalogue and looking at the crowd you realise that this band have brought the delights of Truck to a whole new audience – this can only be a good thing.
(TB) I'll throw my hands up and admit to you, I have a bit of a soft spot for Biffy Clyro, realised when the disco beat from 'Glitter & Trauma' switched to pounding power-chord assault. Which meant enjoyment during the obvious moments - '57', 'Joy Discovery Invention', 'Eradicate The Doubt' - but also meant the occasional bout of meh when the band bash out their tunes with invariable intensity. So BiffyWorld is here presented as a place that's terrible to live on, but it'd be worth looking at the timeshares. Hats off to guitarist too, what with risking wearing white jeans at a festival and all…
*(KP) *This show rekindled a flame in my heart that has long been out. For epic live shows with incredible atmosphere and audience intensity, Biffy Clyro are still top of their game.
*(RR) *More powerful than I've ever seen before, the crazed Scotsmen have clearly scorned their earlier Mogwai-esque roots in favour for rock to grace stadia with. Where there was quite definite light and shade, only rock remains. The rock is brought with such ferocity and it works so, so well.
*Scratch And Sniff *
*(CW) *OK, so it is Sunday and it is early and I am soaked wet through with the rain that is still lashing down. Too early for this shit. Time for a bacon butty me thinks. On my way to the site I catch a little of local folk act Scratch & Sniff in the acoustic tent. Sounds nice enough but at this time of the morning in these weather conditions, seeing a woman having a good fiddle just doesn't do it for me!
The Half Rabbits
*(AF) * Definitely full of promise. They don't look 100% lively but then for 11 on a Sunday morning we can forgive them, their indie/art rock with a twist comes over well, rather unlike Colony, who follow. I don't want to remember Truck for bad bands so I won't dwell too much but after a couple of songs I couldn't handle any more tuneless waffle.
*Trailer Trash Orchestra *
(TB) After an evening of DJ Marky worship and All Night Disco Partying, the morning after wasn't going to be made much easier with local Battle Of The Bands victors' making 'Sweet Child O' Mine' sound even worse than before. Isn't there some sort of BOTB law that states the winners must attempt said song? Luckily, my faith in cover versions was restored instantly when The Trailer Trash Orchestra , complete with camper-than-campsite pink cowboy hat, burst into a hillbilly rendition of The Ramones' 'I Wanna Be Sedated' . Yee-haw! Shame that The Bad Livers, The Kingswoods and Hayseed Dixie have become more successful with the same idea, but TTO's repertoire from Buzzcocks to Gram Parsons is just the sort of pick-me-up needed on the morning after.
Martin Grech
*(AF) *Had he actually practiced for this gig I might be finding it difficult to put into words my feelings here. He clearly didn't (and couldn't remember how to play half of the songs) but I can still quite confidently state that he's an unbelievable, undeniable talent who's shy and charming along with it, but I wasn't exactly blown away like I have been on previous Grech experiences. It was worth it alone for his comical wince after the announcer pronounced his name wrong…IT'S GRECK GODDAMMIT!
*(TB) *Judging solely on his performance in the Acoustic Tent, it appears that I don't really get Martin Grech. Okay, so I appreciate his right to make music, and if it helps him vent some sort of emotional turmoil then great. I just don't see why his 'plaintive' (read: weak) strumming and physically-rather-than-emotionally-painful caterwauling should be hailed as anything more than underwhelming. The sooner he proves this approach to his music to be a knee-jerk reaction, the better.
*(KP) *I fell in love. Seriously. All the weight, effects and instruments behind the recordings and full live shows do no justice to the power of this scuzzy-headed imp's brain-shatteringly evocative voice. Effortlessly spectacular.
*Mesaplex *
(CW) One of the revelations of the weekend, Mesaplex are three men with a laptop, guitar and bass and my god they are awesome! Thumping beats over intriguing riffs. Some of their stuff reminded me of the more epic moments of ...Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia . It is only after I find out that 2 parts of the band are indeed ex-members of the now defunct MBICR. This is one band I really need to see again.
*(TB) *Alright in a bleepy, atmospherical way; presumably like post-rock was before it became synonymous with the quiet/loud formula. Would have been a reasonable substitute for 65daysofstatic if the songscapes had more peaks, more troughs, and more deviation from the mood it actually delivered. Still, for two guitars and a fiddly bit of computer equipment they do quite a good job.
Fell City Girl
(AF) Singer Phil McMinn's vocal performance is truly spectacular. In the driving Sunday rain (and by God, it rained) his leads his young Oxford-based band through a set full of character. Plenty of tunes and bagfuls of ideas, the only regret is that he only brought a handful of CDs along with him to sell afterwards. They last seconds.
*(RR) *Great shoes but the rest sounded like something from Quadrophenia or something. Erm, hello! It's 2005. What is that in your hair? Brylcreem? Really? Have a think. Get some rockers in to clear this mod rubbish OUT. Obviously from London.
(AF) Following Fel City Girl, they sound horribly wrong, performing Joy Division crossed with bad Pulp songs in a summery fashion.
*Trademark *
*(CW) *Time for my beloved Trademark and yet again, I am right at the front wearing a stupid grin. The guys come on stage wearing suits straight from Burtons; gone are the lab coats of the past. Their brand of '80s-influenced electro-pop has the room hooked throughout mixing up old classics such as 'Interim' along with newer tracks from their forthcoming album. Closing out with a cracking rendition of 'Whiskey In The Jar' was inspired and long after they have gone they leave a packed Barn still grinning. I leave the front of the stage convinced I will see nothing better this weekend. Little did I know that one of the band members had something even more amazing in store for me...
*(RR) *Every instrument was unreal. In the way that it did not take human skill to play. Just buttons and shit. Electropop is very popular at the moment luckily for them. Nice cover of Whiskey In The Jar (oh) too.
*Hondo Maclean *
*(RR) *Bringing the Welsh Metal to Oxford in some mighty fashion, this troupe blustered about the stage sprawling screamo metal core or whatever with vigour and gusto. It was very nice.
*Winnebago Deal *
*(KP) *Not much good for the hangover but a riot none-the-less. They just seem to get louder and angrier which is fine by me.
*(RR) *There are more and more songs with every show and this was no different. The Deal have the greatest anthems for drinking and shouting to when you just wanna get absolutely mindless and bust stuff up. RAH!
*Reuben *
*(RR) *Carried by their affable frontman, Reuben rocked stuff like girls just can't. Girls don't get mortally rejected like boys. Fact. Girls aren't geeks when boys are beautiful. Fact. Teenage angst! All over yer face!!
*Chris T-T *
*(TB) *You gotta hand it to Chris T-T, even with a splitting headache and screamo spilling across the site from the Main Stage, he can still give a powerful enough performance to silence a rammed Acoustic Tent into flabbergasted awe during the pregnant pauses. Here to showcase his forthcoming political album of 'Red Songs', it's good to know that there's still enough sincere comic relief ( "The Countryside Alliance – we'll call them 'The Cunts' for short… ") and biting truth in his new material to make it stand up with his best work, and that's saying something. Too many protest singers, not enough protest songs…luckily we found the best one on a rainy Sunday in Oxfordshire. Plus 'Drink Beer' was, as usual in this sort of instance, a fitting finale. Fantastic.
(CW) He comes on stage and the crowd falls silent, expectant of what Chris will perform and he does not disappoint at all. From attacking the 'Country Alliance' to songs about drinking beer are all carried off sublimely even despite the discomfort Chris is suffering onstage with a killer headache. He comes off to rapturous applause and I can't help but wonder if he appreciates it feeling like he does.
*(KP) *Witty and entertaining but not in a Tenacious D way. The lyrics have far more depth and weight than at first glance and, cor, this guy can SING.
*The Eptstein *
*(CW) *This band are strange as I heard them in two states. Fully awake and aware of what was going on, they were OK but nothing special but when I was drifting off to sleep they were an amazing band to have drifting around my hazey mind. When I come out of my haze, the band have finished and I am smiling. Still deciding if I like them or not but for that moment between awake and sleep, they were perfect.
*Robochrist *
*(TB) * "Hello Didcot!" screams Robochrist , the only artist this weekend worthy of attention from everyone, even if half of them would probably see a grown man in sado-masochistic Kiss make-up, floating sideburns and a Mohican and run the hills. They'd be fools, however, seeing as they'd miss a flurry of TV theme samples (Geordie Racer being the most pleasing), four-to-the-floor-eight-to-yer-face beats, turbo-thrash guitar and the sort of plunderphonic mayhem that makes a Werther's Original advert sound like a sex-pest confession. This sonically baffling assault is the only time this weekend where you'd be able to have your jaw on the floor but still be pissing yourself laughing, which is more than you can say for most Sunday afternoons. And who would've thunk that the doom-pah-pah version of 'I Love Horses' would better the original? Wow.
(JB) Robochrist will always be a highlight of mine at any festival he's playing. A single strange dude, head painted silver, mohawk standing tall and jet black, dressed in a shimmering black skintight costume, takes the stage to sound of the 'Old Spice' music... and then, KER-LAAAAANG!!, he's playing dark-ass metal guitar over it! KER-LAAAAANG!! And there are church bells chiming ominously as well, and then, fuck, it's straight into some breakneck speed digital thrashing punk-rock stupidity that's so loud and ridiculous that the volume paints a smile across my face. He doesn't so much play to you as drag you kicking and screaming through his set, which includes a remix of "I Love Ponies - they're my friends!", stitched together samples featuring everyone from Aswad to Simon Cowell to Johnny Vegas... there is so much going on, and it's done with such a brilliant sense of humour. Robochrist RULES.
*A Scholar & A Physician *
*(CW) *I head to the Lounge tent. I recognise the tune coming out of there... who the hell is playing THAT!?! I poke my head in and there, onstage is Trademark singer Ollie and his 'other' band, A Scholar & A Physician bring the crowd to life with their cover of Partners In Kryme's 'Turtle Power' . This has me going like a good 'un and I am jiving as much as I can in the cramped doorway to this classic. Sadly, their next song is their last but 'The Counting Song' has everyone smiling again due to the fools who can't count to 66. Now THAT is possibly my highlight of the weekend.
*Lux Luther *
*(RR) *Led by a vivacious and dreamy frontman this London gang lofted sweet anthems through the air in a Boomtown Rats kinda way. It's pretty sweet. Ended my day of rock in poor fashion.
*The Walk Off *
*(TB) *Whoever said baggy was dead was probably right, but if you've ever wanted to put several million volts through such a tired genre and force it to make people pogo rather than sway about, then I point you in the direction of The Walk Off. So maybe their shouty pumpy techno-rock seems a bit of a step down after Robochrist, but it's still a source of filthy-dirty tanked-up dance fun. Plus they've brought a six-foot crowd-surfing bear with them, which means I can do my Bunglist Massive joke.
*Piney Gir *
*(CW) *This is her first time on the main stage and it is clear from the outset she is set to deliver! Opening with 'Jezebel' sets the crowd off perfectly and even a few minor 'hitches' (like nearly falling flat on her ass after tripping on a stage wire) she carries it off with her typical grace and charm. Highlights of her set include a duet with Jane Motormark, the introduction of her Country Roadshow (her country & western backing band) and, quite memorably, her duet of 'Nightsong' with Truck Records own P.C. ! Think Shane McGowan and you are ont he right track but being the legend he is, he carried it off with a fat cigar in one hand and champagne in the other. Sir Paul, we salute you!
(KP) I like Piney Gir. She makes me want to dance and shout 'HELL YEAH'. Much better than last year – the truck stage suits her well.
*(AF) *Restoring my faith in the afternoon, their completely bizarre offerings somehow sit very well in the my head, from sub-30 noisy lambastes ('Cheney', 'Pick Up The Phone') through to country-tinged pop gems about getting Ponies. Marvelous.
*(TB) *There's not been a more ludicrously distinct supergroup since, uh… Emerson Lake and Palmer, but Brakes ' ramshackle British Foot Parade wonder is all the more endearing for it. Anyone who can switch effortlessly from the joyous retroclash of 'All Night Disco Party' to straight-up rawking Camper Van Beethoven covers is bound to be pretty enjoyable. And whoever tells you that five-second songs aren't the way forward obviously doesn't wear out their attention span often enough.
*(KP) *All I've heard about this lot so far is British Sea Power this and Electric Soft Parade that. After all the hype I was happy to have my scepticism proven firmly wrong. Some fantastic tunes and great covers, Brakes are on my 'to buy' list.
Captive State
*(AF) *The sun just about emerges for long enough to dry out my tent, so I take this opportunity to take it down. Lyrically challenging, they sounded great but I'll leave a more detailed appraisal to another DiSer…
Cassette For Cassette
*(AF) *They're female frontedremind me of former Reading heroes Saloon, which is a good thing, but their apparent disinterest and inconsistent songs don't warrant much attention at this stage.
Towers of London
(RR) No altercation with Winnebago Deal today. They had to shock the crowd some other way. Didn't hang around long enough to be bothered.
*(KP) *If this band spent more time writing their music and less preening and dressing themselves, they might actually be worth the hype that surrounds them. Short lived entertainment unless watching a few monitors being kicked around really does it for you.
*65daysofstatic **
*(KP) *Watching this lot in full daylight seems to knock a few shades of intensity from them. Regardless, one of the most impassioned and brutal acts of the weekend.
*(RR) *On fire in the mega-tent, this Sheffield band hammer their intense drum and bass riddled post-rock right the way through to the back of the farm and pick up more than a couple of dancing admirers along the way.
*This Ain't Vegas *
*(KP) *Sounded like Biker Grove rioting with guitars. That's a good thing by the way. Probably my favourite find of the weekend.
iForward Russia!
*(KP) *This Leeds based quartet are unstoppable. I thought I'd seen them play well before but this weekend they were ludicrously good. If you haven't already, download some of their tracks, pronto!
*(TB) *As iForward Russia! say themselves, "we're magic, and we've got more numbers…here's 'Eleven' !". The prefix is 'agit', the suffix is 'core', but the music itself? I'm working on that. Because the beats say 'punk-funk', the guitars say 'alt.rock', the lyrics say 'political', the vocals say 'WAAAAAAAAAAH!!' and the overall vibe says 'You Shall Love This Band'. The latter is the one I'm most sure about. Let's hope the stewards don't mind wiping sweat off the tent, then.
*(AF) *Whilst many were off watching The Magic Numbers, The Trailer Park tent hosted a band with their own 'numbers' who've rightfully built up a reputation for blistering live performances. I say 'Numbers', as all their songs are titled numerically, named after the order in which they were written. They are Leeds based iForward Russia!, who are truly one of the most exciting bands around right now in this correspondent's opinion. Sounding like a shouty Bloc Party fused with The Pixies, they storm through their set with great urgency, singer Tom moving about faster than your eyes can follow. It's exhilarating to watch, with Rob providing thunderous basslines, Whiskas and Katie on guitar and drums respectively offering vocal support (most notably on the glorious limited edition single Nine). Eleven rounds off the set and re-affirms my belief in brilliant music, just in case there was any doubt in my mind. The highlight of my festival, and I can't bring myself to watch The Magic Numbers performing Smiths covers and doing countless encores after such an experience.
Do Me Bad Things, The Schla La Las, Patrick Wolf and Winnebago Deal photographed by Ben Jones


text:
Where? Copenhagen, Denmark
Recommended by Franciszek K.
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This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Three people died from the blast and shrapnel of the pressure-cooker bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Hundreds more were injured, many severely. But as bad as it was, it could have been much, much worse.
Remarkably, everyone who arrived alive at an emergency room that Patriot's Day is expected to survive. Everyone in Boston, from EMTs and bystanders to nurses and surgeons responded with courage and competence. Hospitals had trained for mass casualties, and there was an element of luck.
As we look at what went right in Boston, we want to hear from emergency hospital workers around the country. What are you ready for, and what scares you? 800-989-8255. Email us, firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, the merits of memorizing poetry. Caroline Kennedy joins us on her new collection. But we begin with Dr. Paul Biddinger, medical direct for the emergency department operations at Massachusetts General Hospital. He's with us today from member station WBUR, and nice to have you on TALK OF THE NATION.
PAUL BIDDINGER: Nice to be with you, thank you.
CONAN: Can you take us back to the day the bombs went off?
BIDDINGER: Sure. When the race was going on, I was actually working in one of the medical tents on the course, on something called Heartbreak Hill, which is usually one of the busier tents, and my pager went off with notification there'd been an explosion at the tent at the finish line. Initially there was a suggestion it was a manhole cover.
I was standing next to officials from Boston Emergency Medical Services, EMS, and from the Department of Public Health. And so we quickly compared notes and rapidly figured out that this was much more than a manhole cover explosion and that this was something quite serious. We secured our operations at the medical tent, and I went to the hospital, first arriving at the hospital a couple minutes after the very first patients had arrived in our emergency department.
CONAN: And what did it look like?
BIDDINGER: There were parts of it that looked like one of our drills. People were standing where they were supposed to stand, gowned up for trauma resuscitations. We had lots of resources mustered and lots of people ready to go, but it was also incredibly clear that this was nothing like an exercise. There were very active trauma resuscitations going with some very, very critically injured people, and the noise and the intensity and the voices made it quite obvious that this was something much more serious than the exercises we've conducted.
CONAN: Did you have to decide whether to call in extra people?
BIDDINGER: Somewhat. We were fortunate that the events happened right at about shift change, and so around 3:00 is when hospital shifts often change. We had the day shift. We made the decision to hold all of them in the emergency department, and we kept the evening shift, obviously, quite busy. There were a lot of responders from elsewhere in the hospital, and some folks did come from home, but it was really remarkable that given the staffing we had, we actually had capacity to take care of even more patients, had we been asked to do so.
CONAN: Yet you had six critically injured patients. They came in almost immediately, some with almost no pulse.
BIDDINGER: That's correct. Six patients arrived in very, very short order, and they arrived into an incredibly busy emergency department. Our department is like most across the country, which is we are very busy and very active. I have 49 beds in our emergency department, and we had more than 90 patients that were receiving care at the time we first heard notification of the bombings.
CONAN: So how did you prioritize? Triage, we all hear about it, but how did you prioritize?
BIDDINGER: Well, the first thing is to have good plans in place to be able to make room for the incoming patients. We've studied mass casualty quite a bit, and we knew that the first few patients would arrive very quickly. Indeed, the first patient came without notification, initially about nine minutes after we first heard anything about this event. So we had very little time to make room.
Nonetheless, what we had planned for is if something like this happened, we had to make a lot of room in our emergency department. So we had patients sent from the emergency department to the upstairs floors with incomplete medication evaluations. But the admitting services, our medical service, other providers, really took the lead and were an integral part of our response so that we could have 30 open rooms within about 20 minutes after initial notification, which is what we had.
CONAN: So preparation, training played a big part in this?
BIDDINGER: It's not possible to tell everyone what to do when you hear something like this. They have to know it. And the only way they're going to know it is they will have practiced it, because I can tell them about it in a lecture, but they'll forget it very quickly. So we practice again and again and again. And people did the right thing because of practice, and that's one of the most important things that influenced our response.
CONAN: Where did you go to get advice as to how to prepare?
BIDDINGER: We've done it in a number of ways. Certainly we review the literature. There's a lot that people are studying out there about this. But we did two really important things, I think, that helped us a lot. Back in 2005, we invited a group of Israeli physicians and others to come over. They lectured us about their experience with improvised explosive devices, with terrorism, and gave us a lot to think about.
But they actually watched one of our practice exercises and critiqued it. And so when we responded, what we actually did was we used an altered triage system, different than what we had planned for before their visit, that allowed us to get patients into the emergency department much faster.
As a city we've also done a lot, and we hosted a conference here in the city two successive years, in 2008 and 2009, with leaders from London, where they had the subway bombings back in 2005; Madrid, where they had train bombings; Mumbai, where they had a mass terror attack, and they shared their experiences of how hard it is to distribute patients equally among the hospitals, how hard it is to make room inside active emergency departments, how hard it is to communicate and get good what we call situational awareness or a picture of the actual events.
And as a city I think we've worked very hard to learn those lessons. All the hospitals in Massachusetts, especially in the Boston area with Boston Emergency Medical Services, have been practicing these plans. And I think, again, the fact that we've worked together and practiced together, not just as individual hospitals, really affected our response.
CONAN: And have you gone back? Have you had the time to go back now and critique what you did right and what you did wrong on Patriot's Day?
BIDDINGER: We're working on it. We've had a number of internal debriefings in the emergency department, at the hospital level, with the surgical services, with the anesthesia services. This is one of those things where lots of lessons you want to capture quickly. People's memory fades, or it changes over time. But it's also important to process this in a rigorous and structured way. And so we are starting just now to really analyze the data of what we did, when we did it, what we could do better.
I'm sure there are things that we're going to need to improve, but right now we're still collecting data as much as we can.
CONAN: Yet your performance there and every other emergency room in Boston seemed to have certainly lived up to expectations.
BIDDINGER: Well, as someone who has professionally lost sleep about this for the last decade or so, it was good to see that the system worked the way that all of us had intended, as we've designed it across the city and across our hospitals. It's a terrible, terrible event, and I think all of us would have been much happier never to have had to test the system in the first place.
But it was good validation to know that the systems we've been planning for actually were able to perform.
CONAN: We want to hear from those of you work in emergency rooms around the country. What crises are you ready for, and what keeps you up at night? 800-989-8255. Email us, firstname.lastname@example.com. And let's bring Richard Knox into the conversation, NPR science correspondent, who's been covering the aftermath of the bombings and joins us now from his office in Boston. Richard, nice to have you back on the program.
RICHARD KNOX, BYLINE: Yeah, thank you very much, Neal.
CONAN: And we heard an element of luck there, that this happened pretty much at shift change, so there was a double staff on hand to help deal with this flood of patients. But there were other elements of luck. You reported the other morning that yes, these bombs were very nasty, but at least they went off outdoors.
KNOX: They went off outdoors. They were low to the ground. I think one of the hallmarks of these injuries is that they were very predominately lower-extremity injuries, and unfortunately that caused I think 15 people to lose their limbs because the force of the explosion went out laterally. And unfortunately one effect of that was that the 18-year-old - excuse me, the eight-year-old boy that was nearby got killed, one of the three fatalities.
But, you know, remarkably, nobody else of those - other than those three who died at the scenes, did die out of this. I think that's really one of the amazing things. Nobody who got into the hospital subsequently died.
CONAN: And outdoors is important because the blast effect is reinforced if it's enclosed.
KNOX: Yes, I gather that, you know, there's a lot of - well, there's two things. One is that the blast wave will get - will bounce back from the enclosed walls and structures. And then secondly you get collapse of the building if the bomb is strong enough, and then you have people crushed by that and difficulty in extracting them from the debris. So it's - it was a good thing, I guess, that people were outside.
And also, you know, amazingly there was this big concentration of first responders right there because it was near the finish line of the marathon, which is a very well-organized medical team on, you know, ordinary years. I think they see - they're prepared to see about 1,000 patients...
CONAN: They're ready for dehydration, maybe a heart attack.
KNOX: But you know, the people who are there may not be ready for this in terms of their equipment, but they certainly are trained first responders.
CONAN: So that was an element of luck as well. Clearly, though, we cannot rely on that combination that was - well, preparedness, that's something you can prepare for. Obviously the training that Dr. Biddinger described, that's something anybody can do. But that it happened at the right time and to some degree in the right place and in a city that has, well, extraordinary capacity.
KNOX: Yes, I think it's also very lucky that - where this happened. The explosions happened without about a - roughly a mile of six major trauma centers, one for pediatrics and five for adults, about equidistant from the Brigham and Women's and the Mass General and Tufts Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, Children's Hospital, Beth Israel, Deaconess Medical Center.
So, you know, it was pretty quick that people got to the hospital. I think, you know, within about the same amount of time that we're having this conversation, 30 of the most critically injured patients were treated and transported to hospitals, and that's pretty remarkable.
CONAN: Dr. Biddinger, as you look back on that day, do you feel lucky?
BIDDINGER: It's always hard to choose the right words. When there was so much death and injury to say that you feel lucky just never sounds like the right word. I think we do feel fortunate that things were not worse. We feel fortunate for the resources that we had. There are indeed a number of very capable hospitals, trauma centers.
Children's Hospital is a pediatric trauma center, as Richard mentioned. There are others. My hospital also can take care of adult and pediatric trauma. We have great clinical capability in this city, no question. But it also comes from a lot of planning and a lot of practice that I think we were able to - that we were able to respond the way that we did.
We were - I'll gladly take every single factor that worked in our favor that day, and if it means that fewer people died and fewer people were injured, that's a very good thing.
CONAN: Dr. Paul Biddinger, chief of the division of emergency preparedness, at Massachusetts General Hospital; also with us, NPR's Dick Knox, one of our health police correspondents there in Boston. We want to hear from those of you who work in emergency rooms. What are you ready for? What worries you? 800-989-8255. Email us, firstname.lastname@example.com. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan. As the weeks passed since the bombings in Boston, we've learned more about some of those injured at the marathon. Some like Jarrod Clowery, a carpenter from Stoneham, Massachusetts, has spoken with the media. The blast left him with second-degree burns on 10 percent of his body and nails, ball bearings and bits of his own jeans embedded in his skin.
He has been treated at Brigham and Women's Hospital and told reporters his memories of the blast keep him up at night. That also severely injured three of his friends. That said, Clowery also remembered with awe how efficiently the hospital's doctors and nurses worked in the chaotic aftermath. That kind of praise echoed from all corners since Patriots' Day.
If you work in emergency medicine, call and tell us what emergencies is your ER prepared for and which ones scare you, 800-989-8255. Email us, email@example.com. You can also join the conversation at our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. Our guests are Dr. Paul Biddinger and NPR's science correspondent Richard Knox. And let's see if we can get a caller in. This is Kelly(ph), Kelly on the line with us from Lakeview in Oregon.
KELLY: Hi, how are you?
CONAN: Good, thanks.
KELLY: Good. I'm calling because we are pretty rural, and I work on the ambulance out there, and we work pretty closely with hospital staff because it's just a small community. And we're - our hospital ER is trauma level four. And that's one of the lowest, if not the absolute lowest. And for a big mass-casualty incident, we would end up transporting people by air to far towns, Portland, Oregon; Medford, Oregon; Bend, or by ground transport. And that's just hours for people to get the definitive care that they need. So by then the golden hour is kind of long gone. So we're really out there on our own.
CONAN: And that's obviously pretty scary. The odds of something happening, though, are relatively low.
KELLY: Yeah, they are. You know, we actually train and prepare for mass casualty incidents. Sometimes we prepare for school bus incidents or like a traveler, tourist bus incident come through sometimes. We have a mill up there. So we do train and prepare for those kinds of things. The risks are low, but I would argue that they're also a little bit higher because, I mean, our resources are just so slim.
CONAN: Well Kelly, thanks very much, and keep up the training.
KELLY: OK, thanks.
CONAN: Dr. Biddinger, I know you talked about worrying about this for the last several years, and, well, then in some degree your worst nightmare comes true. You have many more resources there in Boston than most hospitals.
BIDDINGER: It's true, but I would point to the experience of Joplin, Missouri, where a hospital sustained a direct hit from a tornado, and though it was not a small hospital, it was a several-hundred-bed hospital, it was relatively more rural, certainly, than Boston. And their preparations were fantastic. They only had a few seconds' notice before the tornado hit their facility, but all of their staff had planned, had trained, knew what to do.
And they protected patients. They rapidly were able to evacuate the hospital, and as the caller noted, they were also constrained somewhat in available EMS and transport resources, yet they were able to provide a lot of good medical care after the event in the parking lots, other unusual places.
And this really was the result of remarkable training that, again, you don't have to be a big, urban hospital to be able to make a big difference if something terrible happens.
CONAN: And has this kind of training accelerated after 9/11?
BIDDINGER: It really did. There's a lot of good work that was done in hospital emergency preparedness before 9/11. Here in Boston we actually had an emergency planning committee of the hospitals that was active since the 1980s. But most hospitals really re-evaluated their emergency operations plans. Many hired new, fulltime emergency managers after 9/11, and I would say that a great amount of progress in the health sector for emergency preparedness has been made in the last 10 to 12 years.
CONAN: And you've talked about how you were consulting with, well, people from Israel, people from Mumbai, people from London. Will you now be offering your expertise to places like Joplin, Missouri?
BIDDINGER: Absolutely. I think it's incumbent on all of us that have been through something like this to learn all of the lessons we can and to be as open and transparent and honest about our response as we can. Already the surgeons, emergency physicians, others involved in the response are forming, actually, a data-sharing group so that we're able to publish this in a way that's bigger than any one institution, bigger than any one hospital. And hopefully we'll let others, who are going to adjust their plans, learn our lessons and improve their response from the things that we both did well but also that we could have done better.
CONAN: Here's an email that we have from Kathleen(ph) in Cleveland: Many years ago I was the radiation safety office at a small outside of Cleveland. We once conducted a mock disaster involving a radiation spill. The drill went well, but my heart sank when I found out about the nuclear power plants in Japan. There are some things no amount of planning can prepare for.
And Dick Knox, as you see those kinds of incidents, yes, there are things that you can train for and you must train for, but yeah, people can get overwhelmed, too.
KNOX: Sure, yes. I mean, there's an infinite possibility of things out there that can - bad things that can happen, and you never know which one is - you're going to have to be confronted with. But I mean, I think that there's been a lot of thought, as Dr. Biddinger - I'm sorry...
KNOX: I've heard it pronounced a couple of different ways - Dr. B has pointed out there's a lot of planning and thought put into some of the contingencies that might have to be faced. And, you know, with a nuclear power plant, that's - there's a finite number of things that one can plan for, evacuate from, you know, and be ready for.
So, you know, it's - it's daunting, but it seems to be doable to plan.
CONAN: Let's see if we can go to another caller. This is Cindy(ph), Cindy with us from Charlotte.
CINDY: Hello, yes. I'm a retired paramedic with nearly three decades of experience, and in Charlotte we have an international airport, two nuclear power plants, and we host one of the largest sporting events in the world with the Coca-Cola 600. And several years ago we conducted a large multi-agency drill for a sarin gas attack. And the local media blasted us for wasting taxpayer money to play.
So I really appreciate your doctor raising awareness for the need for agencies and hospitals to drill because apparently a lot in the general public are not aware of that.
CONAN: When you say blasted for playing, in other words you had people who were portraying victims, that sort of thing?
CINDY: Well yes, we had hundreds of people. We had multiple agencies. And I know at least one local radio station, the hosts were complaining about us wasting taxpayer money to go out there and play.
CONAN: Dr. Biddinger, can you give us some idea of, well, what kinds of resources you devote there at Mass General to training?
BIDDINGER: Well, I think this is an area where being a bigger hospital does help. We have dedicated a good portion of our own hospital funds to training and preparedness. And I think it - your caller's experiences is right on with many and actually is really unfortunate. A lot of hospitals rely on federal funding. There's a great program called the Hospital Preparedness Program offered through the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services.
And they give money to hospitals and to health sector organizations to practice their preparedness. Like a lot of the preparedness money since 9/11, it's actually been decreasing from Congress. And I think that's a real shame. I think that we've built a tremendous capability in the health sector with those funds, with those lessons, with those exercises.
And the threats really are not going away. So it seems really challenging to ask people to continue to practice, to continue to maintain a state of readiness when you're taking away the funding that supports them being able to do so.
CINDY: Yes, well, the agencies that were involved in our drill were all governmental agencies: police, fire, and we have a government-based EMS system. So we were using taxpayer money because we are taxpayer-based. So - but it is imperative that we drill for these things because, as you say, you can't just tell somebody how to do this. You've got to know what to do.
CONAN: Cindy, thanks very much for the call.
CINDY: Thank you.
CONAN: Here's an email, this from Ruth(ph) in Lincoln City, Oregon: I've worked as a medical laboratory technologist for over 35 years in a community hospital, a busy level two trauma center and a small critical access hospital. In a mass casualty situation, my greatest fear is not having enough blood available for transfusion. Blood supplies are often critically low. Blood donors are always needed.
And Dick Knox, this is - from time to time you hear appeals from various places, particularly coming up on holiday weekends, that sort of thing.
KNOX: Yes, that's, you know, a chronic problem, and it gets worse, as you say, during holidays and things when people are not donating - at least the ones who do donate regularly aren't. Often when you have a mass casualty event like this, it's striking that people really do come forward, and there's sometimes even a surplus of blood.
Obviously you don't want to count on that, and then of course in rural situations, it's not going to be as effective as in a place like Boston. But, you know, I think that at least with these high-visibility mass events, you know, people do step to the plate.
I wondered - I was going to ask, if I may, Dr. Biddinger, your impression of the importance of the bystander response, the Good Samaritans out there. I mean, one of the striking things about this episode we've just been through is that there were a number of remarkable stories of people at the scene who had the presence of mind to apply compresses to staunch the bleeding which saved the life of an 18-year-old girl, who I've been following, to rip off their belts and apply tourniquets and, you know, do things like that that I wouldn't necessarily expect bystanders to do. How big a role did that play in our good outcomes here?
BIDDINGER: I think it likely played a very significant role. There's no question that stopping the bleeding from this type of injury saves lives. Interestingly, it's actually one of the most important lessons, in the civilian medical community, we've learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, actually, as a result of it, the Boston EMS ambulances carry tourniquets just like the military tourniquets on their ambulances. They were used at the finish line. I have no doubt they saved lives.
I have no real way to know just yet, though. It is one of the many things we're looking at, whether bystanders started applying tourniquets because it seemed right or because they watched the Boston EMTs and paramedics and other medical professionals at the finish line doing the same and simply used whatever they had available. Whatever the reason is that they knew to do it, it absolutely saved lives. And I think it is tremendous to say that it's not just the professional responders that saved lives that day.
It really was doctors and nurses standing at the finish line who were in every way unaffiliated with the formal part of the medical response, but everyone stepped up, and everyone played a role. And I think it speaks wonderfully not just of the Boston community, but those that were visiting from out of town and quickly jumped in to lend a hand.
CONAN: There was an interesting piece in The New Yorker by Dr. Atul Gawande at Brigham and Women's, a frequent writer for The New Yorker. I don't know if you had a chance to read it, but he said: In a way, we have lost the naivety and that sense of shock that we had at 9/11, and that we were - in some sad sense, maybe - but in a real and important sense, ready for this. Would you agree with that, Doctor?
BIDDINGER: It's surprising to me, when I talk to people about events like this, that they seem to have thought it through, even when they're not part of the professional response community. People wonder what direction they would run or how they would help or what their first priorities are. And I think that's probably right that we are a little less naive as a nation, and more people have thought if - wondered to themselves, if I'm in the middle of a crowd, what would I do? But I think it's wonderful to see how many people step in and help and save lives when something like this happens.
CONAN: Dr. Paul Biddinger, chief of division of emergency preparedness at Massachusetts General Hospital. Also with us, NPR science correspondent Richard Knox. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. And let's get Katherine on the line. She's joining us from San Francisco.
KATHERINE, BYLINE: Hi. I'm calling because I'm a nurse in both New York City and San Francisco. I work in intensive care, and I've really never been a part of any of these kind of preparations. And I worry if I'm pulled to the - moved to work in the E.R. during this kind of situation, that we aren't as prepared. We're not actually helping the team as much as we could. In your situations, were they trained in the whole hospital, or was it just the emergency part?
BIDDINGER: Well, I think that's a great question. We are certainly trying to get deeper and deeper into the hospital with every exercise we do. Again, my hospital is relatively large, about 20,000 employees, so we can't say we've gotten to everyone. In most situations, what we actually need people to do is do their own jobs as well as they can. And so our intensive care unit nurses, for example, took on extra assignments, took extra patients in so that of the existing patients in the emergency department who needed ICU care before the bomb went off, they rapidly took care of those patients in the ICU faster than they normally would have assumed care. And that was incredibly helpful in supporting our response.
Since the event, we certainly have been continuing discussions with our operating rooms, our intensive care units, our medical service and others to find ways to get them to participate in the exercises. Again, we've been very fortunate at my hospital that we have a lot of buy-in across the institution for people to practice these exercises, but it still can be hard. When the intensity of events like this passes, people don't really want to have their day jobs bothered by persistent exercised activities.
And I think it's just important to remember that not just one year from now, two years from now, five years from now, but we will be exercising across the hospital just in case, and hopefully people will continue to participate with us.
CONAN: And a critical word there: persistent. You can't just do this once or twice.
BIDDINGER: That's exactly right.
CONAN: Katherine, you think your intensive care unit would be ready for that kind of buy-in?
KATHERINE: I actually - I do. The intensive care unit I'm working in right now, they're very cohesive. They work together very well, and they're - everybody pitches in and helps a lot. I was just worried about, you know, if we were pulled and sent to the E.R., which happens sometimes. And so I would just a little concerned about not being as helpful as I possibly could.
CONAN: Katherine, thanks very much.
KATHERINE: Thank you.
CONAN: And let's see if we can go next to - this is Bill, and Bill's on the line with us from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
BILL: Hello.
CONAN: Hi, Bill.
BILL: Hi. I heard the comments earlier about the caller who was talking about the criticism they received for participating and planning exercises. The one thing I've learned from the exercises that I was involved in as a participant and as an organizer is that you get your best results when the players, the participants do not know the content of the exercise before they arrive.
CONAN: Oh, in other words, they don't know if, for example, it's a sarin gas attack.
BILL: Exactly. They don't know what challenges they will face. You get - you really waste some of your resources or your time if they have time to prepare in advance, because in most emergencies, particularly as we saw in Boston, no one really was preparing for that type of event. You really need to prepare for all types of events, and the planning should be a challenge. It shouldn't just present an opportunity to practice. It should be a problem-solving event.
CONAN: Dr. Biddinger?
BIDDINGER: Well, I think that's right. I think it's hard to plan exercises that are appropriately both test the system and make sure you know what you're capabilities are, but also don't break the system and undermine confidence. It's interesting. I heard a presentation just yesterday from a colleague of mine who was part of the New York Hospital evacuations after Superstorm Sandy. And she said that if someone had ever given her the scenario that they faced with loss of power, loss of generators, loss of light, loss of phone, everything they went through, and they had to evacuate the entire institution, she would have criticized the scenarios as over-the-top and too much.
And so I think we do have to be willing to push ourselves. We have to be willing to give scenarios that are challenging. But, again, it's the iterative. It's participating in this regularly that helps us most.
CONAN: Bill, thanks very much for the call.
BILL: Thank you.
CONAN: And, Dr. Biddinger, thanks very much for your time today.
BIDDINGER: My pleasure to join you. Thank you.
CONAN: Doctor Paul Biddinger of Massachusetts General Hospital. Our thanks, as well, to NPR's Richard Knox, with us from his office in Boston. Coming up next: Caroline Kennedy joins us with the poems we should learn by heart as children. It's the TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. Stay with us. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Average total household income in 2020
Average Salary in Camrose
The average salary in Camrose is $51,750, which is 5% lower than the Canadian average salary of $54,450. A person making $40,000 a year in Camrose makes 22.7% less than the average working person in Camrose and will take home about $32,590.
Cost of Living Calculator
Below are the details used to generate the average Cost of Living for Camrose. Change the inputs to match your lifestyle and see how it compares to the average cost of living and a salary of $40,000.
The average monthly cost of rental housing in Camrose is $1,579.
The average monthly cost for a driver in Camrose is $606.
The average person spends $522 on groceries per month in Camrose.
The average monthly cost of utilities in Camrose is $226.
Leisure & Entertainment
The average person in Camrose spends $157 on leisure & entertainment per month.
The average person in Camrose spends $41 on clothing per month.
The average person in Camrose spends $347 on restaurants per month.
The average person in Camrose spends $150 on miscellaneous goods and services per month.
General Disclaimer: This tool is designed for approximation purposes only and should not be used to replace a legal or accounting authority. To simplify the process, some variables are assumed to calculate the numbers included on this page. The results of this calculator should not be relied upon to determine career or tax decisions.
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Disclaimer: These numbers estimate what it costs to live in Camrose based on Numbeo data. People can live in the city for much less, while others may need much more to fund their lifestyle.
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Jobs in Camrose
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Wood Species: Birch
Door: Semi-full overlay shaker squared door , 3/4" thick & Soft close hinges
Cabinet Boxes: Side panels: 1/2" plywood , Top & Bottom: 1/2" plywood , Back Panel: 1/2" plywood , Frame: 3/4" solid wood , Exposed sides are finished with matching color wood veneer , Natural color wood veneer interior
Drawer: Matching semi-full overlay shaker drawer front , 3/4" thick , Box: Natural wood dovetail drawer joints , 5/8" solid wood , 5-piece construction , 5/8" thick bottom panel , Under mount soft-close drawer glide
Shelf: 3/4" plywood w/ natural color wood veneer , Adjustable , Concealed metal shelf pins
Certifications: Environmentally friendly , CARB (California Air Resources Board) , E1 (European Standard)
Outside molding 96"L Wood I'm a Return and Refund policy. I'm a great place to let your customers know what to do in case they are dissatisfied with their purchase. Having a straightforward refund or exchange policy is a great way to build trust and reassure your customers that they can buy with confidence.


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Mike Woodson:
"Almost need the perfect game to beat this team."Josh Smith, defining success down:
"We have to look at the bright side. We played hard and we didn't just let them roll over us."Jamal Crawford lends support:
"We came in their place and were down one entering the fourth quarter. That shows you we are right there."Al Horford on the first half:
"I think we had more movement going around instead of keeping the ball on one side and playing isolation. We were moving the ball and just sharing it. When we play like that, we are at our best."The second half was the Hawks if not at, near, their worst: All-NBA Third-Teamer Joe Johnson was 1-7, Jamal Crawford was 4-11 (6-6 FTA), Josh Smith was 4-8 (4-4 FTA) but with 5 turnovers, Horford was 3-5 with 2 assists when not sitting next to his disqualification-phobic head coach.
Michael Cunningham mentions an obvious flaw (and one without a short-term solution) of this Hawk team:
VC, Jameer Nelson, Pietrus, and Rashard Lewis combined to make 27 of 51 shots. I still think the Magic just has too many good perimeter players and the Hawks have too many bad matchups out there. That's something that needs to be addressed in the offseason.Kevin Pelton on Atlanta's porous defense:
The problem for the Hawks ultimately came down to their inability to get stops. Aside from a 17-point second quarter, they allowed 95 points in the other three periods in what was a very slow-paced game (featuring eight and a half fewer possessions than Game One). The Magic got anything it wanted on offense, whether from the paint or on the perimeter. Orlando shot an incredible 64.4 percent (29-45) on two-point attempts and turned it over but nine times. The result was a 135.4 Offensive Rating the Phoenix Suns would envy.HawkStr8Talk on Josh Smith's effort:
Kudos to Hubie Brown for doing what Mike Woodson should have done 2-3 years ago and publicly called out Josh Smith for dogging it during this game. Josh Smith should have been benched for his play in the first 4 minutes of the 3rd quarter. And by benched, I mean - for the rest of the game. I'm sorry, but I will not lose with players who aren't committed to the team and to the game. And this from someone who has always thought of Josh Smith as my favorite Hawks player.Peachtree Hoops on Josh Smith's mindset:
Josh is always right, and when he is wrong, it clearly does not matter.Feel free to nominate your favorite Game 2 Josh Smith memory* in the comments. For me, it's a narrow decision between stepping out of bounds while trying to launch a three-pointer in the fourth quarter and falling to the ground grasping his face (after being touched there several beats and part of a play earlier) rather than getting back on defense.
*You needn't specify which time the ESPN cameras caught him strolling back on defense.
At SI.com, Frank Hughes views bad body language as a team-wide problem:
Even though they were within striking distance for most of the game, the Hawks appeared to be defeated as soon as the Magic made a 9-0 run at the start of the second half.Ben Q. Rock gives Vince Carter his due:
Though Howard scored more points and drew more attention, Carter is the player who really put Orlando over the top tonight. After a first half in which he deferred, Carter asserted himself in the second, scoring 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting and making arguably the game's defining play. Early in the fourth quarter, Williams scooped up his third offensive rebound of the night and went back up to score, but Carter spiked his offering from behind. He made the outlet pass, and just seconds later, stepped into a trailing, delayed transition three-pointer from the right wing that gave the Magic a 6-point lead and knocked the roof off Amway Arena. And he shredded the Hawks in the halfcourt running the high pick-and-roll with Howard: as ESPN analyst Hubie Brown so beatifully illustrated, the Hawks kept sending Carter's defender over the screen in order to take away the three-point shot, so Carter just continued driving to the bucket, which forced Horford to decide whether to step over to cover him or to stick with the rolling Howard. It's how Carter got free for two huge dunks and several more lay-ins. He was squarely in attack mode tonight, or at least for the final 24 minutes.Eddy Rivera continues this train of thought at Magic Basketball:
[T]he Magic were able to turn a close game into a blowout before cruising to an easy victory by running the 2/5 pick and roll with Carter and Howard on almost every possession. Because Howard was having his way on the low block throughout the evening no matter who was defending him, Atlanta was forced to compensate and keep an extra eye on him as he was rolling to the basket. And because the Hawks almost always fought over the screen since they were concentrating on taking away the three-point shot the entire game, that opened things up for Carter offensively and he was able to make the Hawks pay by being an efficient playmaker.Finding a play that works and running it until the other team stops it? (Or, in this case, until the game ends.) The Atlanta Hawks say, "That's unpossible."
That play was the difference in the fourth quarter and that play was the difference in Game 2.
Zach Harper (#2) breaks down Orlando's 21-3 fourth quarter run:
During a seven-minute stretch of the fourth quarter, the Hawks scored just three points while allowing 21 points to Orlando. The reason for this lack of Hawks offense had a lot to do with the types of shots they were settling for. Atlanta took seven jumpers (six off the dribble) during this scoring drought but only managed to make one of them. It also had two forced post moves by Josh Smith that weren't exactly good shots and a layup attempt off an offensive rebound from Marvin Williams that Vince Carter emphatically swatted away.Al Horford:
The Hawks fell right into the trap of the Magic defense and went away from what worked for them during the first three quarters. When Atlanta was scoring well it was because it moved the ball and found the open shooters. The Hawks utilized spot-up shooters who knocked down timely 3-pointers in the first three quarters. When they allowed Orlando to make their big run in the fourth quarter, they had too much one-on-one play that resulted in forced jumpers. And this is what Orlando does so well.
"I think we realized we had to play harder than we did. I think that we we got away from our game plan in the first game and we learned from that. We tried to put a whole game together tonight and just couldn't do it."


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Release all your doubts, and REJOICE!
01/24/2017 by John Smallman
Saul Audio Blog for Tuesday January 24th
As you have been told so many times by so many in the spiritual realms "There is no separation, there is only the One." Now your scientists have found it to be true, and that everything is connected inseparably to everything else that they are capable of measuring. They are still having difficulty with the concept that there may be "stuff," "material," "consciousness" in the observed universe that exists but which they cannot be aware of through their five senses and which, therefore, they cannot measure with their instruments. And many of them still believe that even the thought that there could be a 6th sense is but an insane chemical aberration within the brain!
But some have moved forward beyond that severely limiting concept and are accepting that Reality is far, far vaster than they ever thought possible. The best and the brightest of them are wise, humble, and open to new concepts which mainstream scientists still refuse to acknowledge, let alone investigate. However, much progress has been made in the last three or four hundred years because science refused to accept religious dogma. But now they have their own scientific dogma to replace it, although it is now being actively dismantled.
As humanity's spiritual awakening continues to advance, more and more of you are becoming open to Love and to the enormous field of knowledge that It contains. Your planetary damage issues, that seem insoluble, can and will be very easily resolved when minds open to Love and then allow their individual fields of knowledge to accept and investigate new concepts freely instead of refusing to admit that such seemingly preposterous ideas could perhaps have have merit and be worthy of further investigation.
You have all you need to heal yourselves and the planet that you have damaged so badly. You are Love. There is only Love. As humans you have chosen to live lives of limitation and fear. The human condition is illusory, that is, it is temporary. Reality, Love, God, is eternal, everlasting, unchanging, profoundly creative, and utterly and unconditionally accepting of all life forms – and there are many – way more than you can possibly imagine.
Your science fiction books and movies give you only the conceptual possibility that there could be myriad life forms other than the ones on Earth of which you are aware. That this concept is mainly accepted now is good, because it has prepared you for your inevitable meeting with races from elsewhere in the universe, even though in doing so it has suggested to you that they may be a threat to your existence. They are not. Any who visit you on Earth come in Love. Remember that there is only Love.
So allow the concepts that science fiction has provided, to assist you to open your minds to the realization that of course you, humanity, are not the only intelligent beings in the universe/multiverse, and then open your minds and hearts to allow loving interaction to occur between you. You are not alone, creation is abundant and fully alive. The illusion you constructed all those eons ago was to limit your awareness, your intelligence, and your willingness to see that it was but an illusion. Now it is time for you to awaken and meet your nearest galactic neighbors and experience the Love that they have for you.
There is nothing to fear from your brothers and sisters who inhabit different parts of the universe. They have always known of you because they did not choose such an intense sense of limitation and separation in which to experience life removed from Source. They know that they are inseparable from Source, while still choosing to experience a life of limited separation for the lessons they have chosen to learn and, being aware of humans and the pain and suffering that the illusory state they have chosen to undergo provides, are deeply committed to assist you to awaken. Your well-being is important to them because they have not forgotten, and could not forget that Love is the only Reality. They are aware that they are Love, and they desire only to help you to see once more that so are you. Love always embraces Itself.
Love seeks to awaken any parts of Itself that appear to be asleep or unaware. Humanity is one of those parts, and it is awakening. Many of you have become aware as 2016 has moved into 2017 that great changes are in progress, changes of enormous importance for humanity and planet Earth, changes that will completely alter the way you relate to one another and to the Earth, Gaia herself. This is no accident, this has been planned for eons in the knowing that it would take eons, and that planned moment is now here.
You are waking up. All of you reading this, and all the many other beautiful channeled messages that are out there for all to see, are aware that something momentous is occurring. Don't doubt that sense of awareness, don't be distracted by the news the mainstream media blasts across the airwaves day and night, humanity is awakening, RIGHT NOW! Your intuitive sense that this is happening is the only meaningful feeling that you are experiencing in these early days of 2017.
Go within daily, frequently during the day if you can, and reconnect with the field of divine Love that burns brightly within you all, and KNOW that God's Love for you is utterly irresistible and that you can no longer block It out or hide from It. It is there for you, lovingly embracing you in every moment, because It is you. So allow yourselves to feel It, then release all your doubts, and REJOICE!
With so very much love, Saul.


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Fewer Guns, More Crime
ACRU Staff
December 20, 2012
This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published December 19, 2012 on The American Spectator website.
To President Obama, the word "politics" means anyone who disagrees with him, as in the phrase "It is time to put politics aside." Whenever he says that, he is really saying "It is time to put aside anyone who disagrees with me on this issue."
Our hearts are all still hurting over the mass shooting and murder of 20 innocent small children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. But it was in the same breath as the announcement of the tragedy that President Obama's all politics all the time ideological warriors inserted their politics, seeking to exploit the deaths of these small children for their ideological and political gain. For them, such gain means liquidating even more of the liberties and even constitutional rights of all Americans who had nothing to do with the mass shooting.
Twenty children are murdered in cold blood by a deranged gunman, and the answer is to seize the guns and flush the effective right to self-defense of 300 million Americans? The answer is actually just the opposite, as I explain below. Just ask yourself what political philosophy has had disarming the citizenry near the top of its agenda for more than a century.
But the question we all have to ask now is are we going to tolerate left-wing infiltrators exploiting the gruesome murder of small children to advance the further diminution of our liberties and constitutional rights?
More Guns, Less Crime
The sharpest person in America on the issue of guns and crime is John Lott, the author of the classic book, More Guns, Less Crime. Early in his career, Lott was an economist for the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which established federal sentencing guidelines, leading to his subsequent career as a pathbreaking thinker on guns and crime. His book More Guns, Less Crime is the bible for understanding how to respond effectively to the Sandy Hook school tragedy.
Lott's book is not an opinion piece or a lawyer's argument. What it does is carefully present, review, and analyze copious data county by county, city by city, state by state, all across America, for several recent decades. Moreover, he doesn't just cite stats that he thinks will make his case. He presents the data through highly sophisticated regression analysis that befits a first rate economist formerly of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and thoroughly explains and demonstrates what the numbers show. These regressions
account for not only all the law enforcement variables (arrest, execution, and imprisonment rates), income and poverty measures (poverty and unemployment rates, per capita real income, as well as income maintenance, retirement and unemployment payments), the thirty-six measures of demographic changes, and the national average changes in crime rates from year to year and average differences across states….In addition, the [regressions] account for the differences in various concealed-handgun laws and other types of gun control laws.
In other words, this is the most sophisticated presentation of the data in the world.
What the results show is that in localities where there are more guns, there is less crime. That is because criminals avoid victims who are or might be armed, and prefer to prey on the defenseless and unarmed. It is this unparalleled scholarship that has swept the states with newly enacted "concealed carry" laws. Those laws require local authorities to issue permits to carry concealed handguns to those who meet the specified qualifications (known as "shall issue" laws). Lott describes the sweeping change in his latest Third Edition of More Guns, Less Crime:
In 2007, there were about 5 million Americans permitted to carry concealed handguns. Thirty-nine states have right to carry laws and nine have may-issue laws. Only two states, Illinois and Wisconsin, still completely ban people from carrying concealed handguns. That is a big change from just the eight states that had right-to-carry laws in the early 1980s.
Also in the Third Edition, published in 2010, are the results of sophisticated regressions run on the effects of those conceal and carry laws:
There are large drops in overall violent crime, murder, rape, and aggravated assault that begin right after the right to carry laws have gone into effect. In all those crime categories, the crime rates consistently stay much lower than they were before the law. The murder rate for these right to carry states fell consistently every year relative to non-right-to-carry states.
Lott adds:
All the results indicate that violent crime falls after right-to-carry laws are passed….There is a large, statistically significant drop in murder rates across all specifications. The before-and-after average comparison implies that right-to-carry laws reduce murder by roughly 20 percent. In all cases, right-to-carry laws cause the trends in murder, rape, and robbery rates to fall.
Lott quotes the Detroit Free Press on the results of conceal and carry in one state:
"Six years after new rules made it much easier to get a license to carry concealed weapons, the number of Michiganders legally packing heat has increased six fold…The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined. More than 155,000 Michiganders — about one in every 65 — are now authorized to carry loaded guns as they go about their everyday affairs…. About 25,000 people had CCW permits in Michigan before the law changed in 2001."
Conceal and carry permit holders have been incredibly law abiding, with revocations running at about 0.2 percent or less in most states, sometimes much less. Many if not most of these are for infractions unrelated to guns, such as failure to maintain vehicle insurance. People are safer around permit holders than among the general public.
In fact, armed permit holders often serve as the first line of defense, as explained by David Kopel in Monday's Wall Street Journal:
The media rarely mention the mass murders that were thwarted by armed citizens at the Shoney's Restaurant in Anniston, Ala. (1991), the high school in Pearl, Miss. (1997), the middle-school dance in Edinboro, Penn. (1998), and the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. (2007), among others. At the Clackamas Mall in Oregon last week, an active shooter murdered two people and then saw that a shopper, who had a handgun carry permit, had drawn a gun and was aiming at him. The murderer's next shot was to kill himself.
Of course Lott and his work have been attacked by liberal and leftist ideologues. But in his book he thoroughly and brilliantly decimates them, too. It is easy for hardened gun control campaigners to assert that "Lott has been discredited." But there is no basis for such assertions.
Can Liberals Reason?
Lott applies the lessons learned from this work to mass murders such as the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. In a recent talk radio interview, he noted that the mass murderers usually choose so-called gun free zones such as schools, or movie theaters or shopping malls where guns are prohibited. That is because they know they can carry out their plan for mass murder there without being stopped.
Lott insightfully explains that these mass murderers are consciously choosing to commit suicide in carrying out their crimes. But they don't want to go out qui
etly. They want to make a big splash to draw national and even world attention to their pain and their plight. This is all a reflection of the mental illness that generally plagues them.
The lessons of More Guns, Less Crime actually apply quite directly to this problem. When Israel suffered terrorists targeting its schools, it ultimately decided to arm its teachers. In fact, Israel generally follows the conceal and carry policy Lott favors throughout society. This way, the Israeli people themselves are the first line of defense against terrorism.
Such a policy would have prevented the extent of the killing at Sandy Hook. School policy should seek to train as many willing teachers as possible in each school, empowered with conceal and carry permits to defend themselves and their children. Such permits more generally would help to prevent such mass murders elsewhere.
Is this just a wild west scenario? We are already living in the wild west, but often with only the bad guys having guns. And that is where the policies of the liberals and President Obama would take us further. As Lott says, "The evidence should make gun control advocates pause, as all the gun bans that I have studied show that murder rates increase after the ban is enacted." But our experience with President Obama shows that he doesn't learn from experience. That is why he wants to expand the experience of murder capital Chicago to the entire nation.
The bottom line is that the government does not have the power to take away guns from dangerous criminals and mass murderers. The government cannot stop drugs from crossing our borders, and even showing up in prisons. The government can only stop law-abiding, innocent victims from being armed. But there is no sense or logic to that.
The gun control policy is even worse than that, because it sacrifices the liberties, self-defense, and constitutional rights of every innocent American, to an ineffective policy that will not work, unless your policy is precisely to disarm the public because you have nefarious plans for the American people. Just bring back the ban on assault rifles? We already tried that, and it didn't work, with no significant change in the data when the ban went into effect, and no significant change when the ban lapsed. More effective would be to ban braindead liberals from public service. Would that violate the Constitution? Aren't we already discussing policies that would violate the Constitution?
There really is no such thing as an assault rifle. They are defined by references to their cosmetic appearance rather than to their functionality. Banning assault rifles is really just a PR stunt deluding the gullible that something important has been accomplished.
Other liberal policies have only contributed to the problem as well. Liberal deinstitutionalization policies have liberated the mentally ill to roam the streets, giving rise to the homeless problem as well as to more mass murderers. As Kopel also notes in Monday's Journal:
A 2011 paper by Steven P. Segal at the University of California, Berkeley, "Civil Commitment Law, Mental Health Services, and U.S. Homicide Rates," found that a third of the state-to-state variation in homicide rates was attributable to the strength or weakness of involuntary civil-commitment laws.
Violence-drenched movies and video games contribute to disrespect for life in our culture. The breakdown of the family and widespread out of wedlock births give rise to more violence and crime as well. The airhead liberal policy of piously declaring certain public areas "gun free zones" very directly contributes to mass murder.
Maybe we need to look at that idea of banning brain-dead liberals.