dimland radio 6-8-19 show notes

A Dimland Radio ARGH!

Neighbors. Most are just fine. Quiet. They take care of their properties. They wave. Maybe stop to say hello.

 

Then there are the assholes who don't give a shit about any of that. We have such a neighbor. He's the loud car guy I mentioned on the show a couple weeks back. In fact, we heard the loud car on one of the shows. Also in fact, he and the several other people who reside in his house own several cars. We think there are 10 or 11 cars connected to that house. No, he doesn't have an 11 car garage.

 

The cars are parked all over the place. And that's what led to an interesting encounter between loud car guy and his next door neighbor: An actual round of fisticuffs.

 

And I was at work when it all happened. ARGH!

Cool Thing #1: Air conditioner!

For the last five or six summers, the AC unit at the office had been slowly dying. Last summer it had stopped working altogether. It was just a loud fan.

 

I had attempted last summer to convince my boss to buy a new one. I researched, I complied a list of possibles at affordable prices, I sent it to the boss's wife (she controls the spending), but that just wasn't enough. I sat sweating all summer.

 

This year I started the process again. Again the feet of the boss's wife seemed to be dragging.

 

Enter my younger brother. He had a spare AC. The rest is pretty cool! Literally.

Left Lane Slowpokes Need To Move Over

The state of Minnesota has passed a law requiring slower traffic to keep right on the freeways. I learned long ago that if I'm driving in the left hand lane and a driver behind me wants to go faster than me, even if I'm speeding, I get out f the way.

 

On my Facebook page, my posting of this story and my comment mirroring what I said above, drew some cantankerous response. There was a bit of a back and forth debate, but I realized we weren't really in disagreement... 

Cool Thing #2: Keith Moon Article

 

Written by a musician, this article in The New Yorker from 2010 gives an intriguing take on the crazy awesomeness of the manic drumming of the best Keith Moon-style drummer in the world - Keith Moon.

 

It's cool!

 

Don't Declaw 'Em, Don't Keep 'Em Outside

 

A BBC article on the barbarity of declawing cats (and New York state's recent banning of the practice), a practice that is unthinkable in the UK, had a decided "aren't Americans awful" tone. But, as much as I dislike the practice of declawing, I really dislike the barbaric practice of allowing your cat to roam free outdoors. That's something the UKians really enjoy.

 

They'll say it's good for the cats to be free to practice their natural behavior. They'll say cooping cats up indoors will harm their psychological well-being.

 

Well, cats that part time pet owners allow outdoors face: Predators, cars, and feline (I mistakenly said female, whoops) viruses. Those were covered in the article with it making sure to note the predation was a bigger problem in the US.

However, the article neglected to mention: Fights with other cats or with dogs, parasites, infections, being stolen, tortured, or poisoned, and pregnancy. They didn't mention the damage cats can do to neighbors' property. The screen on my porch door got shredded by an outdoor cat trying to get at my indoor cat.

And the article also neglects to mention the damage outdoor cats do to biodiversity. Cats kill approximately 2.4 BILLION birds each years in the US alone.

So, you tell me. Both practices are barbaric, but which seems worse for the cat, the neighbors, and the birds?

 

Cool Thing #3: This Photograph

More pink than I expected.

The internet provided this cool thing. It was shared on Facebook: A color photograph (above) showing the living room set of the 60s TV comedy The Addams Family. I believe it is an actual color photo and not a colorized image. I hope I'm right because it is damn cool.

 

The 75th Anniversary Of D-Day And A Crazy Thing A Conspiracy Theorist Said

I had done a drawing (above) in honor of D-Day and posted it on Facebook. It was greeted by an interesting thought about what was really going on on D-Day. Oh, boy.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Me And Sarah Jane' by Genesis & 'Red Rain' by Peter Gabriel

Second ad break bumpers: 'If Hollywood Don't Need You' by Don Williams & 'Generals And Majors' 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

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.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 11-17-18 show notes

Someone Is Trying To Kill Me

Not literally, of course. Well, hm, maybe.

We received a couple bills in the mail. One that presents its own set of problems, which I won't get into here, the other was something that nearly did me in. It was a bill for our property taxes from our mortgage company.

 

"WHAT?! We have an escrow account! Why the hell are we getting a bill?"

It turned out not to be a bill, so I was pulled back from the brink. No far from the brink, though, because there's still that other bills which presents its own set of problems.

 

It's always something.

 

OK, Let's Try This Again, Shall We? 

Nothing's wrong. Each state gets two senators. Them's the rules.

I listened to last week's show. My Pedantic Moment about the number of senators and representatives per state in America didn't go quite as smoothly as I intended. It was a math thing that I thought I had worked out earlier. Actually, I had, but I got snagged on a number that I couldn't pull out of the recesses of my brain and I started stumbling from there. I think I was still able to make my main point in the end though.

 

Still, the pedant in me just needed to go through it again and do it right. Hey, I need to be able to sleep at night, don't I?

 

I'm OK With This

 

A cousin of mine posted the above image to his Facebook page. My initial reaction was to point out that schools may not close on Veterans Day, but they do on Memorial Day. My cousin claimed that some schools stayed open on that Memorial Day. I suggested that maybe some private schools might, but that I was fairly certain public schools would close to observe the day. And that if there were any public schools that didn't those would be rare.

 

He claimed that some schools in California and Pennsylvania didn't close for Memorial Day. That may be, but I couldn't find any public school schedules in either state that didn't show the day America honors the military men and women who gave there lives serving our country as a day off from school.

 

Look, one day for MLK, one day for the American military. I'm OK with that.

A New Car For Mom And Dad

 

I hadn't done an impression of my mom in a while, but this week I had an excellent opportunity to bust it out. My impression of her is a favorite of at least one of my listeners, all twenty of them.

 

About a year ago, Mom announced to the family that if Dad ever cracked open his wallet and decide to buy a new car she wanted a red one. She had always liked red cars and had never owned one. "I want a red car!"

 

Well, they got a new car. It's a 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport. Click here to see the color they got.

FilmStruck Isn't Dead

Netflix is great. It's wonderful. I love it. But, its streaming catalog has a decided lack of classics, independent, art, and foreign films. You know, the stuff film snobs like. Their DVD branch does have a pretty deep selection, but you have to wait for it the come in the mail and on those night when you want to watch it now, it would be nice if there was a streaming option other than paying separately to watch through iTunes, Amazon, youTube, etc.

  

I lamented that fact a couple months ago to my wife and she told me there was subscription streaming service that offer exactly what I was looking for.

"Oh? Tell me more?"

That's when I found out about FilmStruck, a streaming service that offers the kinds of movies film buffs crave. It sounded perfect and we were considering signing up. Then last month, WarnerMedia announced they were shutting down FilmStruck at the end of this month. The decision was due to lower than hoped for subscriptions.

Well, shit.

However, Hollywood didn't like this news. Just about every big time filmmaker raised a protest and signed a petition asking WarnerMedia to reconsider. This art needs to be readily available.

Well, good news, FilmStruck (sort of) will back in the spring of 2019 as The Criterion Channel. As I understand it, it will be available as a stand alone service, but also be offered in a streaming package service offered by WarnerMedia. This is good, but even at just 10 bucks a month we might not be able to afford it. Remember, there's that other bill that is presenting its own set of problems.

But, we'll see.

The Conspiracy Theorists Are At It Again

There just doesn't seem to be an event that happens in the world that conspiracy theorist can't twist into some nefarious plot against humanity. The latest that I've seen is the massive wildfires in California aren't really forest fires. They're an attack by "them" using directed energy weapons ate select neighborhoods in that west coast state.

Seriously, they think there is some death ray (probably controlled by the evil Dr. X) firing from space. Why? To make way for a high-speed railway?

Those of us without a conspiratorial mindset can look at this latest conspiracy to see excellent examples of anomaly hunting and the Dunning-Kruger Effect. These people just don't know that they don't know enough about wildfires to know they shouldn't make declarations such as there is a death ray in the sky. They don't understand why houses made of dry materials would burn, while living trees filled with water wouldn't. Huh. It's a head scratcher.

Mick West of Metabunk gives a quick demonstration to explain why houses burned while trees didn't.

Here are a couple memes created by the anomaly hunters to suggest a great conspiracy:

 

Just ignore the burnt trees. And do you see the above ground swimming pool (center, lower half of picture)? Why didn't it burn?

 

 

And why didn't those two houses on the lower left not burn? They most belong to the conspirators!

Three Cool Things

 

1) Stan "The Man" Lee died this past week. That's not what's cool. I blogged about my reaction to the news of his death, touching on how he changed comic books (and the world). Stan's legacy is very cool.

 

Crow? Cat? Hmmmm

2) Is it a crow? A cat? It's a cat. This photo (above) was shared by mentalist/skeptic Mark Edward. I don't know if he took the picture or just shared it on Facebook, but it certainly looks cool.

 

3) A friend clued me in on this take by CollegeHumor on the long running TV ad campaign of Chevy. The "real people, not actors" campaign has been running long enough that one would think people would recognize the fellow asking the questions.

"Which truck has the best..."

"Chevy!" It's Chevy. You're the guy in the ads that have been running for the last - what? - five years? You guys really need a new ad campaign."

CollegeHumor has a cool take.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Next Position Please' by Cheap Trick & 'Epic' by Faith No More

Second ad break bumpers: 'Seen And Not Seen' by Talking Heads & 'Only In America' by Naked Raygun

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.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 1-20-18 show notes

What The Happened Last Week?

Well, I talked over a sounder and forgot to take my second break. I just kept talking.

 

Then I changed Morgan Freeman's name to Martin Freeman. Whoops.

Sports!

It's finally happened! A break in a playoff game went the Minnesota Vikings' way. 50 plus years of playoff and Superbowl futility and several breaks going the way of the Vikes' opponents.

 

In case you live in a cave or are a member of al qaeda, you may not know about what is now called the Minneapolis Miracle. Well, I let you know about this show.

 

I talk all about it, my reaction, the reaction of Minnesota fans, etc. I also give a little advice to those who are so dismissive of sports fans. 

Fun With A Conspiracy Theorist

   

I posted the internet comic strip you see above to my Facebook. And it brought a response by a conspiracy theorist claiming the President doesn't even have full clearance to all areas of Area 51. Friend of the show, Craig, and I decided to have some fun responding to his comment.

 

We must have had too much fun, because the fellow making those claims deleted his comment and our teasing was lost.

 

The next day he posted a curious message on his Facebook feed. 

I Liked Star Wars: The Last Jedi

  

I wrote a review on the Warehouse Find blog, in which I admonished some Star Wars fans' negativity. But, I guess they are entitled to their opinions.

Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: Star Wars Light Saber Battles And The Turned Back

  

I talked about what a bad idea it is to turn you back on your opponent when in a sword fight. Why would you expose your back, however briefly, while in a duel? It might looks cool to the audience, but it's still just a bad idea. 

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

There's just one Cool Things from this week.

1) Come on! What else would it be?

 

 

 

Movie Recommendation: None

I've recommended this before, but since it's part of my Pedantic Moment this week, why not recommend it again? Besides, it's a modern classic. 

 

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'I Ran (So Far Away)' by A Flock Of Seagulls & 'Like It Or Not' by Genesis

Second ad break bumpers: 'Lay All Your Love On Me' by ABBA & 'Little America' by REM

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 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.