dimland radio 9-10-11 show notes

My Son's Back To School

My son started the third grade this week and, hopefully, he won't be sick before the end of next week.

News Item: Man Chops Off Own Hand

It's not exactly a new story (it was new in 2008) about a fellow suffering from the delusion that his hand carried the "mark of the beast," so he cut off his own hand and microwaved it. I'm sure that made God proud.

Read the story here.

News Item: "Fortune Tellers" Charged In $40Million Scam

Apparently several "fortune tellers" had been busted in Florida for fleecing people out of $40million. They would convince their clients that bad things (disease, financial hardship, etc.) would befall them unless these "soothsayers" cleansed their clients' money. Well, they certainly cleansed their clients of their money. Let's hope justice is done.

Read the story here.

A Rant: Celtic Thunder And Lip-syncing

Feet apart, backs straight, arms to the side, look to some distant point, be dramatic. Ok, now pretend to sing!

I ranted about Celtic Thunder, Celtic Women, and the Osmonds specials on PBS. The whole concept of the Celtic shows bugs me, but the fact that they all lip-sync their songs that is really wrong.

You can read my blog about it here.

Fox News Poll: Most Believe In Power Of Prayer And Creationism

I talked at length about a Fox News poll and went into a bit of a rant about faith healers and speaking in tongues. I mention the creepy Robert Tilton and his peculiar "talent" of speaking in tongues. It sounds more like baby talk to me.

Robert Tilton: Jesus wants you to send him money.

I also talked a little bit about the fact of evolution.

Read about the Fox News poll here.

Some 9/11 Talk

It's the 10th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. I talked (again) about the conspiracy theories being misguided and wrong. Sure, I'm not that skeptical of the mainstream view of the events, but that's because the science bears up that view. It wasn't an inside job.

Here's a video clip giving the actual and simple reasons for the collapse of WTC 7.

I also thanked the people, government agencies and military for, thus far, keeping us free of any further terrorist attack on our soil for the past ten years. You should thank them too and put out your flag.

Movie Recommendation: Live And Let Die (1973)

First film with Roger Moore as James Bond. First Bond film I saw in the theater. First Bond film my son Hayden has seen. The Bond film with the best theme song of any of the films (Live And Let Die by Paul McCartney and Wings).

Sure, Sean Connery is the real Bond, but Moore is pretty good for a few films anyway. And this one is pretty good, as good as or better than the last couple Connery 007 films. At least, I think so.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: 'Four Engines Burning (Over The USA)' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & 'The Beat(en) Generation' by The The
Second ad break bumpers: 'Tantalized' by The Church & 'Twist' by Tones On Tail
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

PBS pledge time…roll out the crap

It’s that time again. Time for PBS to beg its viewers for money. And you know what that means don’t you? It means that PBS will start playing some of the lousiest programs they have to offer. The crap you only seem to see during pledge time. PBS will roll out all the motivational speakers again and play the same lame music specials. Most of their prime pledge time material just doesn’t do anything for me.

Specifically, I want to talk about The Osmonds’ 50th Anniversary Special, the Celtic Thunder shows and the Celtic Women shows. All are music programs. All are performed before an audience. All of them are (in my opinion) lame. The Celtic Thunder men with their bold, manly walking and standing; the Celtic Women and their gentle arm waving and swirling movements; the Osmonds being… the Osmonds, I mean, it’s all enough to make me turn the channel and not pledge my support.

And what is it with the Celtic thing anyway? ‘Braveheart’ came out in 1995. It’s been fifteen years can we drop the Celtic worship already?!

Celtic Thunder and their dramatic standing.

Those pretty Celtic Women, so angelic.

But the thing that bothers me most about these programs is that all of the performers are lip-synching! That’s right. Lip-synching.

Remember American Bandstand and Solid Gold? Those were shows that booked musical artists to perform their hit songs. They never played the songs live. They were always performed to the actual record. For those shows, I’m sure the producers wanted the hit song that was on the radio, not the live version. And it was probably easier to set up for a lip-synch performance. There were many shows that handled their musical guests this way. 

There were also shows like Ed Sullivan, the Midnight Special and Saturday Night Live that wanted live performances, which is cool, the SNL Ashley Simpson incident notwithstanding. But if you think Ashley Simpson was the only lip-syncher before or since on SNL, you’ve got another thing coming. Can you say Beyoncé?

How can I tell? I just can. There’s something about the lip-synched voice. The sound is too clean, as though they were recorded in a studio. You can’t hear the performer breathing as you would if they were actually singing. Their microphones are good but not that good. And no matter how good a lip-syncher they are, they can still be just a little off. Besides, their throats don’t move. When singing some amount of vibrato, I would expect to see their throats vibrate a little.

Of course, then there’s The Osmonds. It’s easy to spot they’re not singing. Just watch the older brothers, Jermaine and Tito or whatever. They are pretty bad at it, so there is no doubt.

The Osmonds being The Osmonds.

So why should this bother me? Well, I think of the audience that shelled out their $50, $100, or whatever extravagant amount those poor saps paid for a ticket to watch lip-synching. These performers are singers. That’s what they do! So sing! These are concerts, not a three minute performance on a hit record show. So sing! The stages are set up for a concert. The audience expects a concert, not a dance show such as the shows one gets from Britney Spears, Janet Jackson or Madonna. So sing!

It makes me wonder if they can actually sing. Are they pulling a Milli Vanilli on their audiences? Or are they just too concerned with being perfect? Well, at least, I didn’t hear any evidence of auto tune. I hate the auto tune.

Still, the audiences do seem happy, so maybe it doesn’t matter to them. Maybe they don’t even realize what’s going on. I would feel ripped off. I can handle the occasional bum note if it means I’m going to get the energy and passion of a live performance. A lip-synched show also precludes any spontaneity, excitement. But, then again, there’s no way I’d ever go to one of these shows.

Hey, Osmonds, you Celtic people! You’re supposed to be singers! So sing!


UPDATE 3-17-15: As much as this pains me to admit that I am wrong, it is very possible I'm wrong and the Celtic singers are actually singing. I'm still not absolutely certain they are actually singing, but I have recently watched a video clip of the Celtic Women singing Danny Boy and there is a bit of throat vibrating and other signs of actual singing. A Facebook friend more familiar with singing techniques and such has pointed out those aspects which lead her to conclude they are not faking it.

So, at least for that one song and for the Celtic Women it appears I may be wrr...wah...wuh...wrrruh...wrrrrrong. Damn.

Well, I'm still right about the Osmonds!