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...Hello again, everybody and welcome back to KTMT, where it's time once again for your KTMT "Traffic On The Tuesdays" Road Report, giving you an up-to-the-minute, real-time look at your drive-time travel day! Traffic this week is brought to you by... uh...byyyy... well, by Tiny Mix Tapes! Tiny Mix Tapes: "With a Name This Lame, We've Got To be Cool."
Now, without further obvious diversion, here's a look at your TMT Traffic Outlook for Tuesday, July 24, 2007! Vroom, vroom, commuters:
> I-19 Inbound is tied up from Rural Route 3 all the way into downtown with an accident blocking two of the three available northbound lanes; all in all, it looks like a 73-minute trip to the junction at 87th Street.
> Right now, it's 25 minutes from the William Henry Harrison Memorial Expressway at Lake Street out to the Riverside Toll Road, and if you're thinking about taking the bridge out to the suburbs, think again, as a stalled Transit Authority bus has brought all traffic to a standstill while workers hurry to clear the area. No word as of yet on exactly when the blockage is expected to be cleared.
> Lastly, the road to British MC Mike Skinner's new record as The Streets seems to be experiencing some massive delays due to a serious roadblock that has apparently halted neuron traffic in the fame-paranoid rapper's main creative throughfare. Preliminary reports from the KTMT Traffic-Copter cite a post on Skinner's MySpace as the source of problem, wherein the particulars of Skinner's skid-out are detailed, as is the statement that this new Streets record, the follow-up to 2006's The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, is now scheduled to be under construction until early 2008.
When we managed to pull Skinner away from his jackhammer for a moment and asked him to comment on all of this unscheduled Streets construction, the reluctant rapper replied "Making an album when you're quite well known is a bit stressful. I've had to accept this week that because my album isn't quite right yet it won't be coming out this year."
While fans of minimalist, storytelling, everyman nu-rap hoping to pick up the latest Streets disc may be miffed to find themselves stuck in traffic for quite a while, it seems to be Skinner himself who is experiencing the brunt of the road rage. "I think I've got the makings of a great record," the addled MC explained, "but I've been working so hard on it my head is spinning at the end of every day, and when I wake up each morning the first thing I feel is panic."
Thankfully, however, Skinner is trying his best not to drive angry while he navigates his way through the bottleneck. "I've decided to try to get some distance from it while we do this Scotland tour, Get Loaded (In The Park) and Ibiza. This also means I'll maintain my tidy pattern of releasing an album in 2002, 2004, 2006 and, now, 2008." No word yet as to exactly when all of the lanes will re-open in 2008, but The Streets are scheduled to play a handful of 'cross-the-pond shows throughout the summer, including the Ibiza Rocks festival August 6, which should at least keep European commuters mildly entertained while they wait out the nasty six-month trip to their nearest record store.
And now, Weather:
07.24.07 - Inverness, Scotland - Ironworks
07.25.07 - Aberdeen, Scotland - Moshulu
07.26.07 - Dundee, Scotland - Fat Sam's
07.27.07 - Edinburgh, Scotland - Liquid Room
07.28.07 - Glasgow, Scotland - ABC
08.04.07 - Odemira, UK - Sudoeste Festival
08.06.07 - Ibiza, Spain - Ibiza Rocks Festival
08.18.07 - Hasselt, UK - Pukkelpop Festival
08.25.07 - Coppersfield-Cardiff, Whales - Cardiff Calling-Coopers
08.26.07 - London, UK - Get Loaded in the Park 2007-Clapham Common
