dimland radio 12-8-12 show notes

The Storm Of The Day!

I started the show talking about the weather.  I knew we were going to get some snow, but I was told earlier in the day that the amount of snow would be more than originally predicted.  Batten down the hatches, everyone!
 

Dimland Radio's War On Christmas

Why should Fox News have all the fun?  I jumped into the "War on Christmas" by ranting about the guilt imposed on me by the bell ringers of the Salvation Army at the entrances of the stores I frequent.  And I went on about a car ad campaign featuring a very Santa-like salesman.  The jokes of the ads center around the salesman possibly being the gift-giver himself.  One ad in particular is very funny.  Or it was last year, but this year it was changed a little and the humor was diminished by that change.

 

I also mentioned Penn Jillette's take on the fictitious war.  You can listening to Penn's take here.  And, although I didn't mention it on the show, Jon Stewart has a very spot on take on this whole mountain-out-of-a-molehill business. 

 

JFK, GHWB, and BE

Or maybe it's just some other guy?

There's a conspiracy theory out there that says that President George Herbert Walker Bush had something to do with President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's death.  There's a picture from the day, shortly after the assassination, showing, among others, a man in a grey suit standing by the Texas School Book Depository building.  He does look kind of, sort of, possibly similar to a man that might maybe be GHWB.  But there's another person it might be... Beatle's manager, Brian Epstein!

The image just isn't clear enough to be certain who it is, but I think it's BE!  What was he doing November 22, 1963?  DOES ANYONE REALLY KNOW?

Wanna Feel Old?

'War Games' will turn 30 years-old in 2013.  The classic film is about a couple of teenage kids unwittingly hacking into NORAD's missile launch control computer.  This sets of a series of events that brings the world perilously close to nuclear war.  In those days there was a palpable fear that President Ronald Reagan was going to get us into a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.  It didn't happen.  (Spoiler!)

A couple things about the movie stood out.  One was the amount of advancement our technology has made in those 30 years.  The other was how upset my wife got when the two teenagers remarked about how old some fellow was when he allegedly died.  He was 41 years-old.

A couple weeks ago my wife had turned 41 herself.  Poor Honey Bunny,  you're not old.

Movie Recommendation: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

 

 

  Twentieth Century Fox

A sweet, quirky, wry, and vulgar family movie by director Wes Anderson.  Anderson's movies are all a bit odd and that's what I like about them.  'Fantastic Mr. Fox' is also odd and I like that.  It's not really vulgar,  The characters, voiced by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, and others, use a lot of profanities, but instead of saying the actual word or bleeping it, the characters say, "Cuss".  As in, "What the cuss?" or "You cussed that up."  (I'm not sure those are actual quotes, but that's the general idea.)

Music heard on the show (Whenever Possible, I Will Link To The Song)...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: 'Nobody Told Me' & 'Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)' by John Lennon
Second ad break bumpers: 'Woman' & '(Just Like) Starting Over' by John Lennon
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

politics and skepticism

"Note that this disparity began with Reagan's 'trickle down' economics and rewriting the top tax brackets so the rich paid MUCH less--and now we have income disparity like some 3rd world dictatorship..."

(I will make the concerted effort not to identify the person quoted here. I don't want to be "that guy.")

This quote was found on Facebook included with the graphic above. The graphic purports to show the income growth disparity from the period of 1947 - 1979 and the period 1980 - 2007. The implication of the graph and the explicit statement in the comment lay the blame for this alleged income growth disparity at Pres. Ronald Reagan's doorstep. It was his "trickle down" economics that was responsible.

Thanks to several sharp-eyed internet skeptics (your humble writer included) the graph and the commenter were called out on the misleading nature of the information presented. As I've stated in a previous blog, numbers can lie even while telling the truth. The following is a short list of what's wrong with the graphic's implication.

- The two time periods compared are of differing lengths (32 years vs 27).
- The top 1% is not separated out from the top 20% on the part of the graphic showing when "we all grew."
- The two time periods are taken from two different sources and therefore should not be compared.
- There is no indication of adjusting for inflation.
- There is no indication of the growth of GDP over the two periods.
- The graphic arbitrarily chooses the cut off line between the two periods in order to imply that Pres. Reagan's economic policies are to blame.
- Ronald Reagan did not become president until January 20, 1981 and his economic policies, after making compromises with the Democratically-controlled Congress, did not take affect until much later.

That last point says it all and not just because it was my contribution to the rebuttal comments to the person I quoted at the top. This chart clearly shows an anti-Reagan and anti-Republican bias. As does the quote. If 1980 was the last year of Pres. Jimmy Carter's term in office, how can Reagan be blamed for the income disparity in 1980 and in most of, if not all of, 1981? But the casual viewer of that posting in Facebook will almost certainly come away thinking that it's all Reagan's and those evil Republicans' fault.

This is especially distressing to me. Not because I'm a great supporter of Ronald Reagan (I'll keep that to myself), but because the person I quoted is supposed to be a skeptic. The person is well-known to most of us skeptics. And well-respected. I've heard the person interviewed, give talks and have read much of what they have written (blogs away I haven't gotten to the books yet, but I will).

This person is a scientist. But also human.

I'm a Facebook friend of this person and that's how I spotted their posting. I've also seen other postings that clearly indicate this person is a supporter of Pres. Obama, the Democrats, and even the Occupy movement. Now, I'm not saying that I'm not a supporter of them as well (I'll keep that to myself), but it seems to me that when politics get involved, even the most scientifically minded and the most ardent skeptic can be susceptible to confirmation bias. That is: my guys are good; you're guys are bad and I accept only that evidence, no matter how flawed, which confirms my position.

As of this writing, the skeptic has not addressed the many reasonable illuminations of the problems of the graphic. Nor even admitted they could be wrong.

dimland radio 7-2-11 show notes

Can We Drop The "Under God"

No "under god?" We're going to hell!

I talked about how the phrase "under god" should be dropped from the Pledge of Allegiance. The words were forced in the Pledge in 1954 and essentially made the notion of "one nation indivisible" divisible, because including the two words excludes polytheists, non-theists and those who believe in a different god

Read about the Pledge here and a humanist's reaction to Religious Right's reaction to NBC not saying "under god" when the Pledge was recited during the US Open coverage here.

A Tale Of Reckless Fireworks Usage

Years ago, a couple friends and I acquired some very powerful and illegal fireworks to celebrate our nation's birthday. We went to great lengths (well, distance) to get them. We drove all the way to South Dakota from the Twin Cities instead of just heading to Wisconsin.

I tell the story of the beer-influenced decision to blow up our beer cooler. Boy, it blowed up good. We were fortunate to not suffer any injuries.

This video clip will give you an idea of what an m200 firecracker sounds like.

This Week's Dubious Item

Imagine Lennon voting for Reagan, I wonder if you can. I can't.

Some fellow is claiming that John Lennon was a Reagan Republican in the later days of the former Beatles' life. I'm not so sure about that. I can see John being less interested in his activism, but becoming a Reaganite? I doubt it.

Read the dubious report here.

It's Not True: The Coriolis Effect And Flushing Toilets

Clockwise? Must be in the southern hemisphere. Well, not necessarily.

It's not true that where you are on the planet affects which direction the water flushes from your toilet. The Coriolis forcing deals more with weather systems, hurricanes rotate counter clockwise north of the Equator and clockwise south of it. Your toilet flushes in the direction it was designed to flush.

Michael Palin of Monty Python fame was taken in by a con artist's trick of draining water. In the BBC series 'Pole To Pole', Palin shows us a fellow demonstrating the effect in a small Kenyan town on the Equator. The fellow is playing a trick.

Learn about the Coriolis Effect and how Palin was fooled here.

Movie Recommendation: Michael Palin: Around The World In 80 Days


Yes, I know. It's not a movie, but it's very good and worth watching. Michael Palin attempts to travel around the world in much the same way as Phileas Fogg does in the Jules Verne novel. It's wonderful and available on Netflix.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: 'Independence Day' by Urban Guerrillas & 'Only In America' by Naked Raygun
Second ad break bumpers: 'Little America' by REM & 'America Is Waiting' by Brian Eno/David Bryne
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

concert memoirs pt. 46 - urban guerrillas

Urban Guerrillas (Minneapolis band)

This is it. The last installment of my concert memoirs. I'm ending it with the band I had seen the most of any band I've ever seen, the Urban Guerrillas.

The Urban Guerrillas are among the most local of all the local bands I've seen. I mean that they didn't get much national attention. I know they toured around the States, but I think they were more of a Twin Cities phenomenon. But that doesn't mean they weren't any good. (I have a memory of them being named Best New Band in the City Pages' Best of the Twin Cities at some point in the 80s, but I can't confirm it.)

The band photo (above) comes from the cover of their second album, 'The Attack of the Pink Heat Seeking Moisture Missiles'. (The title was lifted from a Robin Williams' bit.) I had to scan the album cover, because I just can't find any images of the band anywhere online. So, I scanned the cover and put this image together. I made sure to include the picture of Pres. Reagan. I came to think of him as sort of an honorary member of the band. Him and his running mate... Ronald McDonald!

This is the custom art card that came with the cassette of one of the band's live shows at First Avenue. The cassette is titled 'Armenian Heat Wave Dance Party' and it was a very limited release.

Playing a fun mixture of punk, reggae, ska, blues, and I don't know what else (it's so hard to categorize these guys), their shows were always entertaining. They had a core of fans that would show up for most shows and have the best time. It was at the Urban Guerrilla shows that John and I learned how to properly slam dance.

Larry Sahagian was the focal point of the band and he was a good front man. He really enjoyed playing and partying. He would often invite audience members to the after parties, wherever they were. John and I never went to any.

Their songs were often times political and sexual. Not always at the same time. Once they were booked to play a dance at a local high school and they stirred a bit of controversy. Their lyrics could be very graphic and when Larry started singing about four-lettering his mother the school principal pulled the plug. The whole incident got a quite a bit of local news attention. Those naughty boys!

There was also an occurrence common to many of the Urban Guerrillas' shows. Sahagian was never too worried about presenting the bisexual side of his nature during the shows. (I don't know if Larry is gay, bi or straight and I don't care. His stage persona suggested he was bi.) He wasn't on the make for the girls and boys at the shows, he just had that personality. This personality would sometimes make an audience member or two a little uncomfortable. Sometimes Larry would be called "fag" or some such. Larry would usually turn it around on these guys. He'd say, "Does that mean you want to sleep with me?"

As I said, I've seen them many times in many places. Here are a few highlights...

1) Music Island, St. Paul

In St. Paul there used to be a nightclub called Music Island. It was a pretty lame club and it is no more. It became a Best Buy or something.

One night they had the Guerrillas play. I don't think the Guerrillas were the sort of band they normally booked, because they seemed completely unprepared for the slam dancing that took place at the show. So, when the punkish fans began slam dancing, the bouncers thought it was a fight and they went in to break it up. Larry tried to explain that the fans weren't fighting, they were dancing. I remember fans yelling at the bouncers about the same thing. But I think the bouncers won, I can't remember for sure.

2) Duffy's (?), Minneapolis

I don't remember if it was Duffy's, but I'm sure it was the club that became Norma Jean's. This show was the last concert at the club before it was to shut down and then reopened as Norma Jean's, that's what I remember.

John and I headed down there and met up with some of my art school buddies to take in this last show at the club. The Guerrillas were entertaining as always. However, I think the turnout was pretty small.

The atmosphere was loose as it most always is at a Urban Guerrillas concert. That's just the way the band liked it. Larry wanted to get high, so he asked if anyone had some pot. Of course, someone did. They brought it up to him, but Larry didn't want to get the club in trouble so he went outside to smoke it.

There was an outdoor access near the stage, so he took the joint and his microphone outside. The band continued to play while Larry toked away. He would give us the play-by-play and, in his languid manner, would say, "I'm getting high now."

Larry was quite the showman.

3) The Cabooze, Minneapolis

John and I had seen these guys many, many times at the Cabooze. This night, however, would be a little out of the ordinary. Something would go wrong.

I don't recall how it started, but an argument broke out between Larry Sagahian and the drummer, John Hewitt, that brought the show to a halt. John was not happy. Words were exchanged and he got up from behind the drums and walked out of the club. I can still picture him walking away angrily.

Now drummerless, the band tried to carry on with the rest of the show, but the air had been sucked out of the room. The argument was pretty entertaining, though.

4) First Avenue, Minneapolis

A little background on me is needed for this part. I was never much of a ladies' man. They just seemed to only want to be friends. I didn't ever really try either, so I was mostly to blame.

I would get a little morose from time to time, lamenting on my loneliness. And one particular night in my art school years, I went out to First Avenue with several of my friends from school. It wasn't a concert night, so I wasn't expecting a show.

While hanging out with my art school friends that night, I noticed that I was the only single of the group. I was the fifth wheel, again! This sent me into a bit of a pity party and I began to mope around a bit. I withdrew from my friends and began to wander around the club.

Then the unexpected happened. The screen over the stage began to lift and there they were, the Urban Guerrillas! I had no idea they'd be there. I was thrilled and immediately took to the dance floor.

I danced and danced and I didn't feel so alone anymore. I even joined in when Larry had everyone lay on the floor. It was one of only two or three times I'd actually laid on the floor at First Avenue.

It turned into a good night.

5) Brian's Warehouse Loft, St. Paul

Finally, my favorite concert memory of the Urban Guerrillas. It took place at a private party in a warehouse in St. Paul.

Brian was a fellow art student and he had some really good parties at his place. He usually managed to get a big role of butcher paper for the party goers to doodle on. That was always fun to do and it was great when Brian would bring the results to school. We were a clever bunch of doodlers.

For one party, Brian booked the Guerrillas. It was a blast. Dancing right there with the band. They played well into the night and we all had a great time. Well, I did, at least.

"Four o'clock! Stop the bus! Get out in the street and jam!!"




There you have it. The series has now come to an end. I started it nearly a year ago and it has been good to walk through my memories. I wish I had kept a concert journal, but I'm glad for what I can remember.

A short list of bands I've seen, but didn't cover in the series. I just don't have enough memory of the shows:

The Phones
Idiot Savant
TVBC
The Screaming Tribesmen
Man-Sized Action
The Whole Lotta Loves

There have been others, I just can't remember them.

I hope you've enjoyed this series and that it may have sparked a memory or two for you.