I can鈥檛 be the only person disappointed to know Foo Fighters are performing live again, after the band had to cancel their Oct. 1, 2022 show at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Foo Fighters are rock 鈥檔鈥 roll heavyweights. Their culture impact has been impossible to avoid for anybody under 60. And the frontmansa国际传媒 a former member of Nirvana. Itsa国际传媒 easy to see why tickets to their Penticton show sold out in 10 minutes after going on sale.
But of course, it never happened because drummer Taylor Hawkins died.
Since then, Hawkins has been replaced and the Foo Fighters are a touring band again.
So are the Foo Fighters coming back to Penticton?
Hmm letsa国际传媒 check 鈥 no, the only upcoming concerts at the SOEC are Killswitch Engage, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Hollywood Undead & Tech N9ne. Between these three shows, I鈥檓 familiar with a few of the Bachman-Turner Overdrive songs that get overplayed on the radio.
Tickets for all three concerts, which have been on sale for months, are still available. Believe it or not.
Theresa国际传媒 always going to be a level of subjectivity to musical tastes. But all four upcoming headliners (even if we pretend Bachman-Turner Overdrive is The Guess Who) have zero Grammys combined. Foo Fighters single-handedly have 15.
It feels wasteful to see a nice big stadium like the SOEC booking all these mediocre bands.
The City of Penticton recently announced that the venuesa国际传媒 name is up for sale. If culturally relevent bands like Foo Fighters actually played there, I bet its name would be worth a pretty penny.
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Penticton is the perfect size to have blinking traffic lights at night.
Red, green and yellow lights work great for most of the day when we鈥檙e all running around between work, school and our errands. But after 11 p.m. it gets pretty sleepy in Penticton. As a driver sitting through a full light cycle when theresa国际传媒 no other traffic in sight, before waiting a few seconds longer for the bike lane 鈥 I鈥檝e had lots of time to think about needless idling. It may just be a few seconds here and there, but between all 40,000 of us, plus visitors 鈥 thatsa国际传媒 a lot of carbon emissions.
Just two months ago, the City issued a release that nags drivers to 鈥楾urn your key, be idle free鈥.
Included among the Citysa国际传媒 anti-idling tips, 鈥淭he best way to warm up a vehicle when itsa国际传媒 cold is to drive it 30 seconds after starting at a moderate speed,鈥 and 鈥淚nstead of solely relying on defrost or defog, scrape the windshield to remove snow and ice,鈥 and 鈥淐onsider taking active or public transportation instead of driving.鈥
Heck, why not tell us to take cold showers too. Sorry but most people warm up their car before itsa国际传媒 time to drive to avoid the tedious task of scraping ice. And I wonder how many city staffers are forgoing their warm cars to ride the bus in the dead of winter.
Itsa国际传媒 pretty wishful to expect drivers to start torturing ourselves like that, when we can warm up our cars for five cents worth of gas. If every second of idling is so crucial that we need to stop warming our cars, then the City should share tips that aren鈥檛 completely out-of-touch.
Or better yet, reduce idling every single night by programming our traffic lights to flash red. Suppose itsa国际传媒 midnight, and you roll up to a blinking red intersection in the middle of the night 鈥 just like when the power goes out. Everyone with a driversa国际传媒 lisence has already been taught to treat such intersections like four-way stops. It may sound extremely obvious, but the concept 鈥 which has been working for decades in places like Banff 鈥 hasn鈥檛 been embraced in the Okanagan. But it seems like an easy way to reduce pollution.
And for a City that wants to reduce idling, we still haven鈥檛 found a way to cut the red tape that blocks the SOEC parking lot from exiting onto Highway 97. The infrastructure 鈥 already paid for and built 鈥 would reduce considerable congestion after every major event. But rather than finding a way to open the exit and ease traffic after every concert and Vees game, the City wants us to scrape ice and ride the bus.
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And at the stroke of a pen, our healthcare system could make organ donation an opt-out system, rather than forcing us to opt-in.
We could at least make everyone state their preference when itsa国际传媒 time to renew our licences.
Our healthcare system is bad enough without carte blanche to harvest organs. Itsa国际传媒 nice to know that people with religious superstitions get to enjoy their pancreases in heaven, but they should be the ones who need a decal on their driversa国际传媒 licence.
In the meantime, donors have to make sure they’re registered through .
Dan Walton is a Penticton Herald reporter.