dimland radio 1-6-18 show notes

It's A New Year...Again

As I get older, these years just go by faster and faster. Why it seems just yesterday I was making the same resolution I make every year. And it's tradition for me to talk about that very specific resolution, which I have yet to break. 

Should We Really Feel Guilt About Our Guilty Pleasures? 

I don't think people should feel embarrassed or guilty for liking something other people might think is silly or strange. Hey, your 53 and you like old toys and comic books? That's cool. You like what you like. As long as you aren't causing harm to others, why feel shame.

So what if you like ABBA. Everybody should. In fact, those who don't ought to fell guilty. The weirdos. 

ABBA, Not Exactly A Deep Cuts Band

 
My talk about guilty pleasures led me to talk about a deep dive I did on ABBA's music. I listened to all their albums through Spotify. It turns out that the Swedish supergroup is more a singles band than an album one.

If you know their hits, you've pretty much got it. There might been a deep cut or two, but really their singles are so damn good, you don't have to dig for much more. Unless you want to, then go for it.

Peppermint Lump

 
I thought I knew virtually everything there was to know about the music produced by Pete Townshend. Well, I was wrong. In 1979, Pete teamed up with an 11 year old girl singer, Angie (Angela Porter) and produced pretty catchy bit of pop tunage.

I've been obsessing on the song since I learned about it this past Tuesday. It's called Peppermint Lump. The little girl lead vocals aren't great, but that doesn't stop me from liking it. See the Three Cool Things for the link below.

Conspiracy Theory Response Not Sent

  

I have more than 2,400 Facebook friends. Many of them skeptics. Some think themselves to be skeptics but they are actually conspiracy theorists. One of them posted some conspiracy nonsense of personal incredulity trying to say 9/11 was an inside job.

I didn't unfriend the fellow, but I wrote a response to one of his posts. I didn't send it though. Some hills you just don't want to die on.

Instead I posted the following XKCD comic strip:

I also mentioned this strip on the show. I considered using it as a response:

I'm A Little Slow And Oregon's New Pumping Gas Policy 

Oregon state has joined most of the rest of the country in allowing people to pump their own gas. There were several comments and memes spreading around the internet poking fun of Oregonians.

One such fun poker image (see above) left me baffled for quite some time. My Facebook friend refused to explain the joke when I expressed It didn't understand the "green" gas reference.

The answer did come to me. Eventually.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things from this week.

3) Stan Lee turned 95 on December 28. Yes, that wasn't this past week, but it's still cool. I blogged about The Man and his importance in the lives of comic book fans and creators.

2) Season 11 of The X-Files premiered with plenty of alien/conspiracy theory goodness.

 

1) And the song that has been this week's obsession: Peppermint Lump.

Movie Recommendation: None

 

I ran out of time, so you are on your own this week.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Villier's Terrace' by Echo & the Bunnymen & 'I Believe In You' by Don Williams

Second ad break bumpers: 'Keep On Working' by Pete Townshend & 'Eliminator Jr' by Sonic Youth

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

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

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 11-12-16 show notes

Well, Well, Well 

It looks like everybody got it wrong, Well, everybody except Michael Moore, he seemed to have a handle on this election. He didn't underestimate President-Elect Donald Trump's outsider appeal.

Look, I ain't nowhere smart enough to figured this one out. And I don't want to just say the everything will be OK. I don't know that it will. I worry about plenty of the possibilities of a Trump Presidency, most notable is how will science fair and how will this effect the world's fight against climate change.

I advised my listener, "Let's not just say things will be OK. Let's do everything we can to make sure things are going to be OK."

Here's a couple links to give some perspective and balance and caution. Here and here.

ABBA Can Help

After I did what I could to assuage fears, I played a bit of a song by ABBA. I put to you that it is impossible to feel anything but serene when listening to this song:

Ahhhhhh. ABBA. 

These Were Cool!

 
I chatted briefly about the old voting booths and how much I liked them, although I only got to use one once. I just thought the pulling the level to close the curtain was such an awesome thing. I'm not sure why they're not used any more, but such is progress, I guess.

Photojournalists Don't Just Snap Pictures: Follow-Up

My listener, Trisha, wasn't sure about some of the information I gave about that terrible photograph depicting the horrific-ness of war from the Vietnam War. So, I looked into the photo and learned more details and that photographs can lie.

AP photo/Eddie Adams

The above photo shows a South Vietnamese officer summarily executing a prisoner. The photo won a Pulitzer and was used be the anti-war movement, but it doesn't tell the whole story. The man being shot was accused of being a Viet Cong assassin who was caught almost red-handed in the mass murder of South Vietnamese officers and their families. The general who shots the man judged the prisoner as guilty and took him out. War is all hell.

You can read more about the incident here. 

Weird Choices In Censorship

It's not exactly censorship, it's just cutting out the swearing. But sometimes what gets censored or cleaned up and what doesn't has me scratching my head.

The first example was from a video by Arnold Schwarzenegger attempting to get viewers to battle climate change. Try as I might, I can't find that video, so I can't link to it. You'll just have to take my word that I actually saw this and that I wasn't hallucinating.

In the video, the former CA governor said "bullshit" more than once. Each time he did, the English subtitles showed the word as: bullsh t. There was no attempt to clear up the audio. Apparently, the hearing impaired don't like swearing.

This next example I do have a link. Louie CK was a guest on Conan O'Brien's TBS late night talk show. Louie talked a bit about the upcoming election. He dropped F-bombs and S- bombs, which were all censored. Viewers knew he was swearing, but we just couldn't hear it.

He reached the punchline and said, "If you vote for Hillary, you're an adult. If you vote for Trump, you're a sucker. If you don't vote you're an asshole."

"Asshole" went uncensored. Weird.

Blowing My Own Horn

Sometimes a blind squirrel find a nut. And sometimes I say something smart. At the MN Skeptics meet-up last week, a skeptic asked, "If you know something who can't get sleep. They've tried doctors and all their remedies and none of them worked. The science had ruled out anything seriously, physically wrong with her. No brain tumor, etc. Then she gets acupuncture and she sleeps like a baby. Yes, we know it's the placebo effect, but why should a skeptic feel compelled to ruin it for her? She's tried science and there was no deeper physical problem found, but the not science is working."

 

The group of us batted it around and it struck me. The problem isn't that his friend uses the not science after trying science, which didn't work, but the not science does. The problem is when she tells someone else who is having sleeping problems. She'll immediately advise the acupuncture and her friend might skip consulting an actual doctor.

 

My fellow skeptic declared me a genius and that I was brilliant. He kept saying how I must be the smartest person of all time. It got a bit much to be honest.  

Movie Recommendation: Not A Movie, But This...

I blogged about one of my favorite parts of those early years of Late Night with David Letterman. Go here to read my effusion.

Music heard on the show...
 

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'This Charming Man' by The Church & 'Destination Unknown' by Missing Persons

Second ad break bumpers: 'Running On The Spot' by The Jam & 'After The Lights Go Out' by Urban Guerrillas

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 5-18-13 show notes

Talking About The Weather Again

 

Yes, more weather talk.  This past Tuesday in the Twin Cities we went from having the heat on in the morning to needing the air conditioning on in the evening.  That's right.  We went from temperatures in the 50s to a high of 98 degrees.  Ick.

 

Whoops!   Spoiler Alert

 

I didn't mean to spoil the Kevin Spacey connection to the film Se7en, but I did.  In order to not dig a deeper hole, I went into the spoiler after the show "ended" so that listeners could turn off the show if they wanted to avoid the spoilage.

SPOILER ALERT!  The thing I talked about was that I swear Spacey works in a little Henry Fonda in the delivery of one line.  I'd love to ask Spacey if it was intentional.

Here's the scene from Se7en the line comes at the 1:20 mark.  Compare it to this scene from the Henry Fonda film 12 Angry Men.  Pay close attention to the 1:49 mark.  Am I right or am I right?

ABBA's Super Trouper

It's a really enjoyable song about how sick and tired the singer is of touring and performing in concert.  But, at the up-coming show the love of her life will be in the crowd, so that show will be fine.  The fans should be insulted.  "What are we?  Chopped liver?"

 

Never Found In The 80s: Cocteau Twins

 

This band certainly requires a lyrics sheet if you want to know what is being sung.  With this Scottish band it was more about the feeling than the words.  You can see my piece on this never found band at the Stuck in the 80s blog.

Gas Pump Couple A Put On?

It was a feel good moment.  It really was, but the skeptic in me wondered if it was too good to be true.  Well, it just might have been.  The singing and dancing couple "discovered" at a gas pump during a regular gag bit on the Tonight Show became an internet sensation.

 

The original clip was very inspiring, but subsequent information has cast doubts on just how spontaneous the whole thing was.  Read all about it here.

 

The Skeptic's Bias

 

Last week I talked about Ben Radford's admonishment of "psychics" failing to warn of impending tragedies.  Well, I talked about it some more.  I acknowledged that we skeptics probably do have a bias against folks claiming to have psychic ability.  That bias is come by honestly, because thus far no one has ever proved they have any abilities that a competent magician doesn't also possess. 

 

I also touched on open-mindedness.  Skeptics (big "S" or small) are the ones with the open minds.  Show us the evidence to back up your extraordinary claim and, if it stands up to scrutiny, we will change our minds.  That's being open-minded.

 

Movie Recommendation: Unforgiven (1992)

 

Warner Brothers

This is a terrific Western!  Clint Eastwood stars in and directed this nuanced take on one of my favorite film genres.  This film blurs the lines between the good guys and bad guys.  And with a cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, and Richard Harris it is hard to go wrong.

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

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

First ad break bumpers: 'Cotton Alley' by 10,000 Maniacs & 'Ivo' by Cocteau Twins
Second ad break bumpers: 'Jesus Chrysler Drives A Dodge' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & 'Baby Have Some Faith' by 54-40
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.