dimland radio 9-14-19 show notes

Cool Thing #1: New(ish) Who Song!

I must apologize for attempting to sing in this segment, but I didn't have clips of songs to play. Sorry.

 

Imagine my excitement when Friday morning I saw that my favorite band had released a "new" song. It is a new Who song, but it's a cover of a solo Pete Townshend song which he had released in 2015. I explained this was not the first time for there to be a Who version of a solo Townshend song, demos notwithstanding.

 

I like the Who version a little more than Townshend's. That where my attempt to sing comes in to demonstrate the growliness of Townshend's older voice. I don't know if he puts the growl on or if his aged vocal cords give him no choice but to sing that way.

 

I give a brief history of other Who songs released after 2000:

 

Real Good Looking Boy (2004)

 

Old Red Wine (2004)

 

Be Lucky (2014)

 

Ball And Chain (2019)

 

Solo Townshend songs since 2000:

 

Guantanamo (2015)The original version of The Who's Ball And Chain

 

How Can I Help You (2015)

 

If you think there was a lot of talk about The Who for this song, wait until the new album drops in November! Heh heh heh. 

A Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: University Avenue And The Twin Cities

My wife Amy suggested I listen to the true crime podcast produced in Australia called Casefile. It sounded intriguing as she described it, so I did. It's pretty good, but my pedantry kicked in when they profiled the Weepy Voiced Killer. I realize this pedantry might be a bit on the eye-rolling side, but that's pedantry for you.

 

The show can be forgiven since it is produced in Australia that the host, who is anonymous by the way, doesn't know how University Avenue is situated in relation to to Twin Cities. He describes it as splitting the two cities with St. Paul on one side and Minneapolis on the other. That's not how it runs. University Avenue runs through then Twin Cities, not between them.

 

Paper Straws

I had my first experience (at least an adult, but I can't remember back that far) with drinking a soda through a paper straw. Paper straws are becoming more common as a measure to protect the environment and turtles. The paper kind are biodegradable and less likely to end up choking out turtles.

 

That's good I guess, but...

Cool Thing #2: Network Television Brightened Harry Potter

 

The other evening NBC was playing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and I noticed something: I could see what was going on!

 

On the DVD version the Battle of Hogwarts scene, in which Lord Voldemort and his Death-Eaters and other magical beings attack the fabled school, is damned dark. I adjust the brightness level, but that doesn't help much. The darkness makes it difficult to see details. You can still tell what's going on, but it is a little frustrating.

 

NBC must have felt that same frustration and brighten the movie. Doing such did bring out missing details, but it also tended to flatten the look of the movie and expose some of the flaws in the CGI effects that had been hidden by darkness.

 

Cool Thing #3: Helena Bonham Carter

 

Helena Bonham Carter is a terrific actor. I don't think she gets enough notice for how good she is and in Deathly Hallows Part 2 she really shows why she's so good. In the scene in which Harry, Ron, Griphook, and Hermione as Bellatrix LeStrange (if you don't know Harry Potter, I'm not going to explain it to you - sorry) make their way into Gringott's bank, Helena really shines.

 

She is playing Hermione as Bellatrix and you absolutely see the mannerisms of actor Emma Watson in Bonham Carter's performance. In the scene of the group gathering on the beach to apparate to Diagon Alley (again, I'm not going to explain) as Bellatrix (really Hermione) approaches the group you swear it's Watson, but it's Bonham Carter. Incredible!

 

Links below:

 

This video has several Bellatrix moments including the Hermione as Bellatrix moments. Note the excellence. Spoilers! And in this you can see how dark the films are.

 

Behind the scenes with Helena Bonham Carter.

 

Seinfeld, Corbert, And Cosby And Separating The Artist From The Art

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld recently appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Cobert promoting his new Netflix comedy special - Jerry Before Seinfeld. The conversation turned toward Jerry's influences and Bill Cosby was discussed. Cosby contribution to comdey cannot be denied, but can his work still be viewed in light of what the world learned about the man.

 

Seinfeld had no problem separating the work from the man, the art from the artist. Cobert can't. There was a brief and interesting discussion. After the commercial bring, Jerry had changed his position...

 

Interview part one here and part two here.

 

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'OK Wait' by Naked Raygun & 'Uncertain Smile' by The The

Second ad break bumpers: 'Rusholme Ruffians' by The Smiths & 'English Roundabout' 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.

dimand radio 4-14-18 show notes

Mom: No Update This Week

Mom is OK.

 

I guess that is an update. Oh, well.

I Made It Through That Top Ten List

After a little talk about a show that used to be on Z Talk Radio (it still cycles through the autoplay when no scheduled show is on), whose host believed he could talk to angels, I revisited the topic of my rant at the end of last week's show: WatchMojo's Top Ten list of the Most Electrifying Live Bands of All Time.

You will recall my two complaints about that list were the placement of my favorite band, The Who, at #10 and the voice-over child not knowing how to pronounce Pete Townshend's name.

Well, during the past week I mustered the courage and watched the entire video. On this week's show, I talk about that list and I try to look at it from the perspective of someone who isn't as big a Who fan as I am. (Apparently, there are people out there who don't even like the greatest band in the world. Go figure.)

These kinds of lists are subjective and I try to keep that in mind. But The Who at #10?!

 

Here's the video.

Tool Time Talk

No, I don't talk about Tim Allen and his manly man, tool-obsessed sit-com. This talk was about a band I know very little about. The band is Tool. They are a highly respected and acclaimed prog-metal or alt-metal band from California.

As I said, I know very little of them, but recently friend of the show Craig introduced to a couple of their songs. Metal was never a favorite musical form for me, but there are some songs I like. And I was impressed with the musicianship displayed in those two songs and the vocals did not put me off as is what usually happens when I listen to metal, especially 80s Hair Metal.

 

The two songs are Crawl Away and Forty Six & 2.

 

And Then There Are These Music Students

 

Craig also linked me to a video of some music students of Maineville Music Academy doing a cover of Forty Six & 2. The kids range in age (I'm guessing here) 9 to 18 or so. And they are pretty damn good.

 

You Take That Back, Travis!

 

Next I talked about a conversation I had with another friend of the show, Travis, about my learning about Tool. I think Tool is to Travis as The Who is to me. We also talked about the cover by those school kids.

 

Travis mentioned how there were nine of those kids (eight on instruments, one doing vocals) to do that song, while, when playing live, Tool consists of three on instruments and one on vocals and they pull it off.

 

Hmm. Three on instruments and one vocalist. WHO does that sound like, eh? Of course.

 

I know. I'm sick. I can't help bringing them up (Although I will try.) So, I brought The Who into the conservation. It was then that Travis suggested Townshend wasn't much of a musician.

 

...

 

Travis is still alive. When you listen to the show you'll learn how he managed to survive.

 

They Aren't All Playing All That Music?

 

I learned this from a recent Penn's Sunday School podcast. It's an industry secret that some of the major touring rock bands will hide additional musicians to fill in the sound, cover the mistakes, hit the high notes, etc. I guess I can understand when a band wants to reproduce the sound of their records, but they don't want to appear mortal not being able to do it all.

 

U2 is one a band that employs a keyboardist who is hidden away from the crowd, but they do introduce him to the audience. Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones aren't as open about it. At least, according to Penn Jillette and pianist Mike Jones.

 

You know, when The Who tours now and since the late 80s they have their additional musicians right on stage with them.

 

The Who are so great. They just... Sorry, I'll stop talking about them for a while, OK?

 

Three Cool Things

 

3) Well, it appears I can't stop talking about them for long, because there's this very cool video on YouTube that isolates Keith Moon's drum track on the song Won't Get Fooled Again.

 

2) There a very entertaining podcast that humorously focuses on American history. It's called The Dollop and there's a YouTube video of a live performance done on baseball's maverick owner Bill Veeck. The talk includes the infamous Death To Disco event held during a doubleheader at Comiskey Park.

 

1) As is most always the case on the second Thursday of the month, I met up with the Minnesota Skeptics and got all good and skeptical with them. Always a cool time.

 

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Take It Away' by Paul McCartney & 'Walking & Falling' by Laurie Anderson

Second ad break bumpers: 'Infected' by The The & 'No Reply At All' by Genesis

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.

dimland radio 12-2-17 show notes

More Mad Mike

I named Mad Mike Hughes a Dimland Radio Science Zero last week and talked about his intention to jump a California ghost town in a steam-powered rocket he made himself. But! The government stepped in and told him he needs to get the proper permits to perform his stunt. Mad Mike thought he had a new way to get around the permit problem by changing his launch and landing area to private land, but the Bureau of Land Management told him he still needs the proper permits.

 

As of this writing, the stunt has still not been performed. Stay tuned.

 

Dimland Radio Science Zero: A Few UK Water Companies

I had another Dimland Radio Science Zero to bestow this week. Two weeks in a row? Yep.

 

This Zero was too good not to do. In the UK there are some water utility companies that have engineers using dowsing techniques to find water mains. That's right. Dowsing.

 

Sigh.

 

Pedantic Moment: Yeti DNA Used To Find Bigfoot?

 
One of the Minnesota Skeptics shared an article about scientists testing material claimed to be yeti DNA. Not surprisingly the DNA does not show those creatures are real. The pedantry was raised by how the headline was written:

 

"Scientists DNA tested nine 'yeti' samples. They didn't find Bigfoot."

 

Can you guess what I got pedantic about with that headline?

 

A Dimland Radio ARGH!

Of the non-skeptical, non-scientific ideas in the world few get my goat more than the anti-vax notion. Anti-vaxxers believe vaccines cause autism. They don't. Just try to convince an anti-vaxxer though.

 

Well, I spotted an image on Facebook indicating that as the number of vaccinations increased over the years, the number of autism diagnoses increased. They are making the correlation the vaccines are causing autism. Correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

 

 

I decided to add a little something to that image and get that out on the internets. Please feel free to share it. 

 

OK, It May Not Be All Men, But Lately It Sure Seems Like It

 

I dove into this whole rash of sexual harassment and assault claims against famous men of power. I hope I didn't get in over my head, but I did voice my concerns over the lack of due process. I'm troubled by the way an accusation seems to be all that's needed to prove guilt. People's careers and lives are being turned upside down on the basis of accusations.

 

I brought up Pres. Bill Clinton and Justice Clarence Thomas, comparing the public's reactions to those accusations to today's accused fellows. I noted that at least one defender of Bill Clinton twenty years ago is today thinking that President maybe shouldn't have been defended and should have been forced to resign. 

 

It's a mess, but I remain hopeful that we as a society will come out of this being a better society.

The Artist Versus The Art

 

I talked about the difficulty of appreciating art by very flawed artists. I'm not certain I could give up the art of some of these artists. I even talk about the likelihood of not giving up the art of my favorite artist, Pete Townshend.

 

It's difficult.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things from this week.

3) A YouTuber named Swede Mason has made a quite disturbing, but nonetheless cool, video mash-up of Talking Heads and Pres. Trump.

 

 

2) Dimland Radio's Facebook page was up to 189, now 190 as I write this.

 

1) Brian Dunning of the Skeptoid podcast is spearheading a crowd funding project to finance a documentary to expose how the media abuses and misrepresents science in the pursuit of ratings. If you have the means, I suggest you give this project your financial support.

 

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: 'Tape Your Wife To The Ceiling' by The Suburbs & 'Heat Of The Moment' by Asia

Second ad break bumpers: 'Epic' by Faith No More & 'Public Highway' by Luxuria

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.