A Tale of Tires

Today was tire buying day. My 2017 Toyota Camry has 21,500 miles on it, and before winter arrives I want to replace the very noisy Bridgestone Turanza EL400 tires that came with the car. For an all-season tire, I wasn’t impressed with its traction in snow.

I have been very pleased with the Michelin Defender T+H tires on my 2011 Honda CR-V. The ride in the CR-V is quieter with the Michelins than in Camry is with the Bridgestones! Which isn’t how it should be, comparing an SUV with a passenger car. Having a set of Defenders on the Camry seemed like a good idea, but another Michelin option seems even better — the CrossClimate2. Here’s the CR comparison.

The Camry’s mileage — up to 40 mpg highway — is much better than the CR-V’s, so the CrossClimate’s lower rating for rolling resistance compared to the Defender isn’t a concern. The Camry being FWD, not AWD like the CR-V, the CrossClimate’s superior snow traction is the big attraction.

Taking advantage of a Michelin promotion at BJ’s (the warehouse store for those of us not near a Costco), four CrossClimate2’s, including installation and tax, cost $800. The tires are on order and are scheduled to be installed a week from Monday. So if there’s a freak Halloween snowstorm like the one we had in 2011, I’ll be ready!

There are a lot of YouTube videos about the CrossClimate2. This one is the most informative and interesting overall.

Uncensored Cartoon Violence

More than a year after the birth of this blog, during the subprime mortgage mess leading up to the economic meltdown that resulted in the Great Recession, Quentin Tarantino bought the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Tomorrow morning there will be a meeting of the Cartoon Club, hosted by noted animation historian Jerry Beck.

https://thenewbev.com/program/october-8-cartoon-club/

All Shook Up

After getting the Covid-19 Bivalent booster yesterday, I woke up in the middle of the night shivering uncontrollably. Eventually I was able to get back to sleep, and I feel okay today.

“Shakin’ All Over” is in this fantastic, official 65-track Who playlist. “My Generation” remains one of my all-time favorite performances, with a spine-tingling power chord crescendo at 11:30 into the track.

Shellacs

I wouldn’t be surprised if R. Crumb had dealings with the recently deceased Joe Bussard. Crumb’s collection of vintage 78 rpm records is large, but the collection Bussard has left behind is enormous.

The Washington Post spent time with Bussard not long before he went into hospice care: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/joe-bussard-record-collector-78s/

Bussard cites “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” by Blind Willie Johnson as “one of the greatest sides ever cut,” but the article neglects to mention that two copies of it are traveling through interstellar space.

An interview with Bussard from ten years ago: https://dustandgrooves.com/joe-bussard-frederick-ma/

Moving up the music timeline into the 40’s and 50’s, I’ll take this opportunity to mention Jim Dawson’s updated and revised edition of his book, What Was the First Rock ‘N’ Roll Record? After Jim saw copies of the original edition going for $75 and up on eBay, he thought he’d better put an end to that. The Kindle edition of the all-text book is only five bucks.