dimland radio 10-24-15 show notes

Really? I Mean - REALLY?

I started the show a bit hot under the collar.

 

I like baseball and this is the best time of the year for the game. It's the postseason and I try to catch as much of the games as possible. BUT, the local ESPN Radio affiliate believes it's better to run local programming or University of Minnesota Gopher Hockey rather than some of the postseason games.

 

Each of the games in baseball at this time of the year truly count and the Gophers are early enough in their season that one could miss a game or two, but, nope, gotta preempt baseball. It's probably a contractual thing.

 

Still. I WANT BASEBALL! Not local talk or college hockey. Sheesh.

Tales From The Janitorial Side

Oh, I know what you think: Janitorial is nothing but joy-filled, totally rewarding, and appreciated evenings of cleaning offices. Well, it's not. It's mostly thankless work that usually has you hearing from customers only when they complain.

 

I gave a few examples of the travails of a janitorial service provider. There were a couple positive stories, but those are fairly rare. 

 

Don't Just Read Headlines!

Headlines are tricky things. They are meant to get people to read the article. Or, at least, that's what they should be about. But, I noticed an unbelievable headline to the affect that Donald Trump would close mosques in the US if he's elected president.

 

That seemed a little outlandish even for Trump, so I read the article. Trump was being interviewed on FoxBusiness by Stuart Varney. Varney asked if Trump would do some of the things the British government is debating about doing to fight terrorism and ISIS. Varney mentioned two actions: Revoking some passports and closing some mosques. Trump indicated he might do that, although he did back away from closing some mosques when asked about religious freedom.

 

My problem? It was some mosques. Some not all. To me many of the headlines appeared to just give the impression that Trump wants to close all mosques in the US. Perhaps I'm splitting hairs, but not by much, because the comments I've seen on Facebook sure indicate that those who dislike Trump believe that's what he wants to do.

 

Read the article, damn it!

I Didn't Care For 'Whiplash'

My opinion was likely influenced by George Hrab's absolute excoriating of the highly rated, Oscar winning film 'Whiplash'. Geo is a musician and son of two teachers and he found technical errors and many other problems with the movie. His biggest beef was with what he called lazy script-writing.

 

So, as I said, my opinion was probably affected, but Adam Carolla and, Carolla sidekick, "Bald" Bryan Bishop raved about the movie. Bryan said it was the best film he'd see in the last 10 years, while Geo said it was the worst he'd seen in 10 to 15 years.

 

It appears I value Geo's opinion more than Bryan's; because, although I didn't hate it as much as Geo, I thought it was pretty meh. JK Simmons was very good in his Oscar winning performance of an egotistical, domineering, sadistic, abusive, cruel, terrorizing asshole of a music teacher at an elite music college. I think even without Geo's influence I would have great difficultly believing the man would keep his job for long with throwing chairs at and slapping students as he does in the movie.

 

Watch it if you like. It's up to you.

Movie Recommendations: None

 

Ran out of time, so you're on your own this week.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Take It Away' by Paul McCartney & 'America Is Waiting' by Brian Eno & David Byrne

Second ad break bumpers: 'Head Over Heels' by The Go Go's &  'The Unguarded Moment' By The Church

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.

dimland radio 12-28-13 show notes

Predictions For 2013

After briefly reviewing a few of the big events of the year 2013, including one last dig at Sylvia Browne, I reviewed the predictions I made at the beginning of the year.  Turns out all my predictions came true.  Admittedly, my predictions had a high probability of being correct.

Click here to see my predictions for 2013.

Science Continues To Do Big Things

One of my 2013 predictions was that science would continue to make discoveries and advances that would benefit the world, which it did.  Easy prediction.  I gave a few examples of science news items for the year.  Wikipedia has quite a list detailing the march of science which you can see here.

Never Found In The 80s: Wire

Another of my blog series for the Stuck in the 80s blog focusing on musical acts that did not chart well in the 80s, despite the quality of their music.  Wire is the latest band to be profiled.  The song I featured is Ahead, which used to be the opening theme song of Dimland Radio.

Read more here and watch an early concert of theirs here. 

Predictions For 2014 

So, I made four more high probability predictions for 2014.  They are:

1) The sun will continue to rise in the East and set in the West (duh!).
2) I will finally get to see the 2nd half of Breaking Bad's final season (I think this will qualify as a self-fulfilling prophecy).
3) There will be more failed predictions by the psychics (another duh).
4) The JREF's Million Dollar Challenge will remain unawarded.

See? I'm staying on the safe side with my predictions.

Breaking Bad A Bit Spoiled 

I don't have cable, so I have to wait for cable shows to become available on Netflix for me to see them.  And since September 29, 2013, I have been doing my best to avoid having Breaking Bad's finale from being spoiled.

I was doing pretty well, until earlier this past week, when the local morning news served up an unexpected spoiler.  God damn it!

Pedantic Moment 

I had a couple pedantic moments for this show.  Both had to do with the phrase "better than ever".  One had to do with the ESPN Radio show Mike & Mike in the Morning.  One of the Mikes ends each show with saying they will be back and better than ever.  I would think that at some point they won't be able to live up to that statement.

The other moment goes back to 1991 in my young curmudgeon days.  Revlon had a shampoo that was great until they changed the formula.  In a commercial featuring Cindy Crawford and another model, the point was made that the change was a bad idea, but they changed it back and, as Crawford points out, it's better than ever.

That's not how it works, Cindy.  Either it's been changed back or it's better than ever.  It can be both. 

Movie Recommendation: Throne Of Blood (1957)

Toho Studios

 

I didn't have a recommendation for this week, but I had just watched this Akira Kurosawa film, so I went with it.  It's Kurosawa's telling of Shakespeare's MacBeth.  Somewhat overdramatic in its acting, the film has some excellent imagery and haunting moments.

Music heard on the show...

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

First ad break bumpers: 'Emotional Rescue' by The Rolling Stones & 'Ahead' by Wire
Second ad break bumpers: 'Take Me Down To The Hospital' by The Replacements & 'Cracking' by Suzanne Vega
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.

dimland radio 7-6-13 show notes

Dimland Radio's Look At Sports

 

Two items here really. First was how ESPN Radio, the national shows anyway, seemed to be obsessed with NBA star Dwight Howard.  They talked about little else.  Seems as though they just didn't care about the greatest game ever devised by man: baseball!

My second point on sports was about my home team the MN Twins being completely owned by the Hated Yankees.  The Twins regular season record against the Evil Empire since 2002 is 21-59.  That's just sad.

 

A Merlins' Tale

 

We have a family of merlins leaving in a tree across the street from us.  Merlins are birds, so relax, I'm not talking about tree-dwelling wizards.  Merlins are birds of prey and some local falconers came to check them out and one of them snatched a pair of the five chicks to raise for hunting.

It was very cool.

 

Never Found In The Eighties: Urgh! A Music War Week

 

Urgh! A Music War is a concert film that was released in 1982.  I first saw it in 1985 and thought it was awfully cool.  It features 30 plus New Wave, punk, post punk, and otherwise alternative bands from the late 70s and early 80s.  I did a week long series of Never Found in the 80s dedicated to this film.

I profiled the following bands:

The Fleshtones

Echo & the Bunnymen

Au Pairs

Gang of Four

XTC

 

An Atheist Monument In Florida

 

It's the first of its kind in America and it's way under the Bible Belt in the deep South in Florida.  It is a monument to atheism and it sits along side a monument to the Ten Commandments.  The American Atheists, having failed in getting the Ten Commandments removed from the public square, opted to erect a monument of their own.  A bench with quotes from noted atheists.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  Learn more about it here.

 

Saint Pope John Paul II?

 

The late Pope John Paul II is a sign off by the current Pope away from being a saint.  It is alleged that after John Paul II died he performed two miracles.  Two miracles is the minimum number need to become a saint.

One of the miracles was curing an old nun of her Parkinson's disease.  Too bad his powers didn't manifest themselves until after he died.  I can think of one person John Paul II might have liked to have cured of Parkinson's while he was alive... John Paul II.

Oh well, the Catholic church can make whichever of its members a saint that it wishes.  It's their club.

 

Oh, Norm...

 

Poor Norm MacDonald doesn't believe in DNA or science in general.  (I think he confuses his ignorance for disbelief.)  However, he chooses to believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing being who loves us so much that he'll send us to hell for not believing in him.

DNA (and science in general) have lots and lots of supporting evidence, while the Christians' god (and all the other gods for that matter) have no supporting evidence.  You just have to have faith.

Kudos to Larry King (who interviewed Norm) for correctly pointing out that when scientists get something wrong it is the application of more science that corrects the mistake.  Not prayer or faith or wishful thinking.

Here is the clip of Larry King and Norm MacDonald.

Movie Recommendation

None this week. I just ran out of time, so you are on your own.

Music heard on the show (These songs are linked above)...

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

First ad break bumpers: 'Come Again' by Au Pairs & 'He'd Send In The Army' by Gang of Four
Second ad break bumpers: 'The Puppet' by Echo & the Bunnymen & 'Respectable Street' by XTC
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.

how can an all sports talk format possibly work?

Boring.

That’s one word for it. An all sports talk radio format gets to be exceedingly dull. The repetitive nature of the format gets to be so tedious that I groan in disgust and turn it off. I don’t know how this format can be profitable. I like sports, but I don’t want to talk about it all day.

A local talk radio station, after drifting in the direction of an all sports format from a right wing political talk format from some time, became ESPN Radio earlier this year. I used to listen much more often to the political talk some years ago, but, sometime after the 2004 Presidential election, I began to listen less and less. The station also started moving away from the political talk format at about that same time. I guess both the station and I were getting tired of the political polarization that had been going on.

But an all sports format? Who are the people who can’t get enough talk about Ben Roethlisberger’s restroom activities, the NBA Playoffs, and, lately, LeBron James. Oh, man. It doesn’t seem I can get through five minutes without hearing LeBron James mentioned 2,687 times. Ok, a bit of hyperbole.

By now you’re asking, “Why are you listening to it then?”

I’m not listening that much. It’s the station that is set on all my radios from the old political talk days and I’m lazy. I don’t want to switch them or try to find something else to listen to. Besides, the MN Twins are on that station and I will listen to their games on occasion. So, it stays on the ESPN Radio and it wakes me up in the morning.

7:10am radio alarm sounds…

“Today, LeBron James went for a walk. Is LeBron James thinking of leaving Cleveland while Lebron James is taking that walk? Will LeBron James say what LeBron James is planning on doing in Lebron James’ future at Lebron James’ press conference? And later, we’ll talk to Ben Roethlisberger and get his thoughts on restroom etiquette and LeBron James. That’s coming up on ESPN Radio. Lebron James.”

Booooooring.