Thursday, May 15, 2008

Escalator Safety Issues

There were about 11,000 escalator-related injuries in 2007 in the US of A, according to estimates from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. A disturbing new trend in escalator-related injuries (ERI's) is entrapment (starring Catherine Zeta-Jones!). "CPSC is aware of 77 entrapment incidents since January 2006, with about half resulting in injury" reads their report. "All but two of the incidents involved popular soft-sided flexible clogs and slides."
So you can't have it both ways. If you're gonna wear comfortable (ugly) shoes, you gotta take the stairs. I imagine it won't be long until every mall has a little sign at their escalator warning Croc-wearers away.

It's a little-known fact that Knoxville, TN is the world capital of escalators. People there just hate stairs. Little wonder that a band such Diacon-Panthers should emerge from such mobile-staircase mecca. They've just released an album called Make It Feel Better. They're hard to describe, and even harder to forget (to fudge a Bill Callahan line). There's elements of, I dunno, Kings of Leon and Jason Molina, and maybe a little Modest Mouse. They're like the Band in a slapfight with the Flaming Lips. They're sort of a scaled down, garage-y Lambchop. Comparing bands to other bands is foolish, uninformative and boring. I'm gonna stop while I still can. So let's just say that Diacon-Panthers make music with lots of space, creepy howling and Southern rock motifs.

mp3: "St. Anthony" by Diacon-Panthers
mp3: "American Creature" by Diacon-Panthers

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