The Pete Townsend version compelled my finger to hit the up-vote!

Let Devin Townsend do Garfunkle's lines.

If Devin Townsend isn't on this list representing Prog Metal, there's gonna be some head-bangin' trouble!

Immediately thought of this entry in "City of Dreams", a Wiki-like book of facts about Port Townsend (PT) WA:

"Centipedes"

The Port Townsend Centipedes (PTC) were a ten-man team who, on July 27,1977, thrilled some 10,000 Seattle Kingdome spectators by winning the Seafair World Championship Tug-of-War. They not only brought home the laurels but also a winner-take-all check for $10,000. The PTC's success story was an object lesson in strategy. By adding art, ratiocination, strategy, and what might best be called a strange brand of PT spirit, they essentially redefined the sport. One reporter described their tactics as a "gumbo of hatha yoga, marital arts, intense dedication, and communal discipline." They proved that tug-of-war can be a little man's sport. Their average weight was less than 150 pounds. On the evening of their victorious tug in the Kingdome against the Montgomery Loggers of Cle Elum, Washington, authoritative bystanders noted how much more muscular the opposition was and predicted an easy victory for the Centipede's opponents. But, as one of the Centipedes said, "We are one being when on the end of a rope." They chose their name as one indication of their strategy: traction. They reasoned that if they could get ten sets of arms and legs working in perfect unison, they would have an advantage over those who tugged with fewer, larger bodies. They were right.

They also practiced rhythm, which included not only coordinating their breathing, but also pacing, the use of the "standing arch," and allowing some members to rest at given times during the tug-of-war. The Centipedes developed their own mythology and terminology: their "house of pain" was a technique of prolonging the tug-of-war in order to exhaust the opposition before administering the coup de grace.

[Not noted in this article is the rules stated that the each team had a weight limit, not a number-of-people limit. The PT team chose to spread the weight over more people.]

Ah, I can see you have a FORT in mind. There is no FORT, really. The whole area is the Fort, the land itself. The "blocking fort" ARE the bunkers -- on top of the bluffs and at water level. There are two other forts in a triangular shape -- one on Whidbey Island and one on Marrowstone Island. The idea was if any boat came into the waters of Admiralty Inlet, one of the forts bunkers' big guns could take them out.

The bunkers are all still there. They were going to jackhammer them away, but they were made from imported Belgian concrete and they just would NOT break up.

So you can go crawling around in all sorts of bunkers. Some of the rooms have had their doors welded shut, for safety reasons. But there are plenty to explore.

These three forts aren't on an estuary, however. It is ocean water, but not the ocean. The Pacific Ocean stops about where the Northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula is kind of south of Vancouver Island, in Canada. Things get narrow there, and the ocean waves can't reach. Or something. So there are bodies of water that ships and boats follow going east, then they turn south to Seattle, which is on the coast of Puget Sound.

It's all very confusing. I can never figure out which way is north. Port Townsend has water on three sides, fer pitys sake!

Oh, and they did remove the big guns, even as they left the bunkers. You can see where they were and get a good sense of how big those guns were.

None of the three forts ever shot in anger. Just practice.

Exactly! "Shop fronts" only.

So when are you coming to America? It is beautiful in my part of the country, albeit very young by European or even East Coast standards. We are very proud of our oldest building. I think it was built in 1875 or something. Maybe even later. Ha.

The Olympic Peninsula is a giant rock that ran into the continental US. When the white settlers first got here, they looked at all the massive trees and thought -- FERTILE LAND! Woo-hoo!

They were shocked when they clear cut, dug down, and found rock, like, really quickly.

Port Townsend was supposed to be Seattle -- the main entry point of all ocean shipping. But they could see that there wasn't enough water and the deep bay wasn't protected enough. When a storm came in and beached a bunch of sailing ships. that ended PT's hopes. The money moved to Seattle, protected by Puget Sound.

PT is also in the rainshadow of the Olympics. Over 100" of rain on the ocean side of the Olympics. PT, which is on the other side? Gets 19" a year. Seattle gets 40".

Micro-climates rule over here. Even within city limits -- once I was downtown (which is one block from the water) and struggled to get home through a snow storm. By the time I drove half a mile to a flat area to attempt to go inland, and drove four blocks away from the waterfront, it wasn't even raining.

Micro. Climates.

What you say is true of the Seattle side of Puget Sound. But once you keep going east, over the Cascades, you end up in a huge rainshadow that is most of Eastern Washington.

I couldn't tell you word one about climate in Europe. Typical American!

Hey! Tristan Stoch! I know that kid! Helped with publicity as he scrambled to make a movie here in Port Townsend -- went on to win some awards and get picked for several film festivals.

Small world.

And yeah. I'm with Lann -- skillful really seems warranted. I have never seen a cake built like that. An amazing combination of innovation and art and... cake.

And Deano is right to toss out a lot of the skillful stuff that ends up on his channel. Don't agree with him on this one, though.

*promote last year's news-
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."-Townsend, Daltrey.

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20121211/NEWS/312119996/driver-jumps-car-onto-port-townsend-beach

I live in a small town. This is what passes for high entertainment.

http://videosift.com/video/Port-Townsend-WA-my-hometown

If you are on the Olympic Peninsula, be sure to come see Port Townsend...


In reply to this comment by CrushBug:
>> ^bareboards2:

http://videosift.com/video/Permafrost-is-leaving-us-mud-avalan
ches-now-happening
Related?


Not really. The whole west coast has been getting tons of rain for most of June and some of July. I am on vacation this month and we have been going through BC and Washington state. We missed most of the rains of June, but we have seen many highway clearing operations dealing with mudslides.

Permafrost is way up north. This place is east of the Kelowna area, where it has been 28-38 degrees C when we were there, so it was pretty damn hot. Not any permafrost there. :

>> ^Deano:

Hmmm. Surely this is more interesting as a talk? talks
He's a skilled musician but he takes an awful long time to do anything and then he doesn't totally blow you away.
Thing is, if I removed the recent UFO video which had, to be fair, some very impressive guitar work why should this stay in?
I'll remove for now but if you can convince me I'll put it back in - though that mean UFO getting in. And you know I don't like music sifts in Skillful


Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm just being a fanboy.

>> ^Deano:

Hmmm. Surely this is more interesting as a talk? talks
He's a skilled musician but he takes an awful long time to do anything and then he doesn't totally blow you away.
Thing is, if I removed the recent UFO video which had, to be fair, some very impressive guitar work why should this stay in?
I'll remove for now but if you can convince me I'll put it back in - though that mean UFO getting in. And you know I don't like music sifts in Skillful


i skipped up and down that video and all I heard was " blah blah blah "

no worries.

Love this idea. I'll add something a little different...

You really ought to check out some Devin Townsend if you're into some really unique sounds.. The guy has an incredible range but dedicates his base music to "metal." Though the genre is closest to metal most of the time, he also has some really outside music as well with a recent example being the paired 2 disc project of deconstruction and ghost, 2 wildly different albums. One of my favorite projects by Townsend, however, is an album called Synchestra, which when played as intended is a seamless blend of an entire album. There are no gaps between most of the songs making it very easy to listen to the whole album. It's also got cameo artists like Steve Vai and Deborah Tyzio in some tracks.

On a side note I he's incredible live. Seen him twice, once headlining. Amazing. He talks to the crowd the entire time and got down in the crowd to play a few times. Wonderful energy, great personality and really intelligent.

I'll stick a few links from synchestra in here though it's better to go start to finish and enjoy the rollercoaster

All from Synchestra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc2dsNQX4Tw - Triumph. Metal + banjo? why not...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XERqZRMG5Cg - vampolka. Directly precedes vampira, which can be found on the sift.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzewVfIX9_w - Gaia. awesome tune. A "sprinting" song for me when running..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ0T7_3YD6o - Pixillate, follows Gaia. awesome vocals once it gets going. goosebumps.

Although we get half the rainfall of Seattle, it is overcast and gray a lot in the winter.

And all this exciting activity? It happens over a year's time -- any given day could be pretty boring. We're a small town in a rural county!

Nothing is perfect... but the vid is accurate, my friend, in all its edited glory!


>> ^DerHasisttot:

Looks too good... I'm suspicious...

Bring @berticus with you!

In reply to this comment by dag:
Looks beautiful. I'm going to come visit.