Wednesday, January 31, 2007

flourescent light never, incandescent light forever

Say what? Me and smiller have a flourescent light in our kitchen and we were just discussing this morning how much it bites it, and how lights like that will NEVER catch on in a home setting. I will go to jail to fight this if I have to.

I'm going to S'Frisco after work to see The Mantles (Don't hate, LL), The Moore Brothers, Colossal Yes, and of course, The Finches at Cafe Du Nord! Can't wait.

I know it's a little early to be talking about the weekend, but I have tomorrow off so I thought I'd remind you now that there are a bunch of good shows this weekend so you are not going to sit home and watch tivoe'd episodes of Battlestar Galactica. Friday is Th' Losin' Streaks, Swords Award (with members of the Four Eyes and Rock The Light) and Sexrat at the Blue Lamp. Saturday has dueling shows with a rare Knock Knock show in Davis at the Delta of Venus. They are playing with Freeport (members of my yoga teacher, best yoga instructor evs) and it starts at eight (yeah right) and is three bucks. Back in sac, Fool's has another good show on saturday with the Sic Alps (read about them in the news Midtown Monthly, out tomorrow!). That is at regular fools time so it will start super late.

18 comments:

fft said...

Th Losin' Streaks are not playing. Matt's band the Pizzas are playing instead.

And read about Sic Alps (and Girltalk and all that shit) in Midtown Monthly TODAY! Look for the white, purple and red cover with some buff dude without a shirt.

leon said...

The Pizza's? Sounds like a band name CA would think of.

As far as light bulbs go. Yeah those fluorescent bulbs don't cut it in all settings. I wonder where the article got the $7/bulb price tag though. You can get them at the Co-op for a buck (every now and then).

Anonymous said...

I think it might be brand specific on the fancy pants lights. The ones that I have work great, but I've been places where they're crap.

Anonymous said...

"The common light bulb may be headed the way of penny candy, dime stores and eight-track rock 'n' roll tapes -- extinct."

The fact that I resent that last example aside, I believe the difference is that there was no law written that bannded any of those things. Fluorescent lights, for the most part, make a room look like crap. Not exactly what I consider mood lighting unless the mood you're trying to create is "waiting room". It just seems so insane to propose banning regular ol' light bulbs in California! If lamp light is wrong, I don't want to be right!! I can't wait to start buying light bulbs on ebay in 5 years.

miller

Anonymous said...

On a related note, this new house has a lot of dimmer switches & regardless of whether they're set to a lower light or all the way up, the lights make a high pitched buzzing sound. Some of you out there are handy - is that something we're stuck with or is there a way to make that stop? Please, I need to dream about something besides buzzing lightbulbs & the stupid heater that won't stop turning itself on even when it's set to off.

Liv Moe said...

the dimmers they installed aren't capable of handling the elctrical load they're carrying. it's actually not so safe to run them that way. the warehouse had the same problem in the front room. if the switch plates get warm when they buzz like that you should talk to landlord.

beckler said...

great, so now we can worry about burning the house down!

is midtown monthly actually getting distributed today? can i pick it up at temple after work?

fft said...

yeah i dropped off 15 at Temple and about 50 at the Crest Theatre.

wburg said...

Very often, lawmakers will propose a law that is far ahead of the technological curve, like "smart gun" technologies that threaten to turn simple, reliable mechanical objects into unreliable crash-prone things that need batteries, because they saw it done in a movie.

I use fluorescents whenever possible. They cost $1 here because, as mentioned in the article, SMUD subsidizes the price of the bulbs. There are a couple of places where fluorescent bulbs aren't practical: they don't work with dimmer switches or three-way switches, they don't work with motion-detecting circuits, and they don't fit into every lamp designed for fluorescents.

I'm all for encouraging their use: I find that five-year lifetimes for the bulbs are typical, and I pick up extra when they cost a buck just in case one does burn out during the course of the year (in my last house, I think we lost two in four years, and moved most of the bulbs from the old house to the new house.) Generally I find the light quality is just about as good, although a bare bulb is a bit intense.

The other place I like a compact fluorescent is in the bathroom. Because they take a few seconds to warm up, it reduces the "blinded by the bathroom light when taking a middle-of-the-night piss" effect.

But no, generally, I think their use should be encouraged, not mandated. Subsidize that shit!

Patrone said...

How this thread isn't titled, "Watt's Up With That?"

Anonymous said...

Or at the very least, "Say Watt??".

-miller

Anonymous said...

Where can you get them for $1? I got a couple for around $6-$8 at Target.

Anonymous said...

Nevermind- I found the list from SMUD:
http://www.smud.org/residential/saving/rebate_pdfs/CFL_availabilitylist.pdf

Stephen Glass said...

Wattever.

Charles Albright said...

I, Charles Albright, do play bass in the Pizzas. We go on second after the open act Crazy Bread.

Charles

wburg said...

I got mine from the Ace Hardware on I Street but they had some at the 99 cent store on Northgate last time I was there.

Anonymous said...

If any of you want to volunteer some time at an Earth Day event I am organizing...you will get one of those bulbs for free!

-Alisha

Anonymous said...

I say get rid of them ol' bulbs, ration gas and otherwise make drastic changes. Durring the world wars people planted gardens, did without, and otherwise supported the war effort. Shouldn't we be ready to make twice that effort to try and deal with the environmental crisis we're facing now?
Florescent bulbs are improving and natural light's mighty nice. My boss just installed a solar tube in my office, allowing me to have a bit of sunshine despite the drop cielings and total lack of windows, and it was fairly cheap.