dimland radio 11-18-17 show notes

I Turned 53 This Week (Astrologers, Put Your Charts Away)

I call it a milestone age: 53. I explain why after talking about the TV comedy Barney Miller. The show was pretty damn good and still is.

 

The connection of the show and my age has to do with the actor Abe Vigoda.

 

Pedantic Moment: Geico Casual Friday At Buckingham Palace

Geico has about three or four dozen ads on radio and TV, some of them are pretty clever. But there's one that shows one of those Buckingham Palace guards (you know the sort: Big furry hat, stand absolutely still, shows no emotion, etc) being relieved by a rather sloppily dressed fellow. You see, it's Casual Friday.

Funny, right? Well, not to this pedant.

There Is That Funny Ad By Progressive

Much like Geico, Progressive Insurance has many, many ads. Geico and Progressive must have massive advertising budgets. They might be able to charge lower premiums if they weren't spending so much to advertise.

 

There is one ad in particular that is very funny. It's the one that plays like a soap opera featuring Susan Lucci.

I'm Done With Sargon Of Akkad

There's a whole lot of difficult people on the internets. Trolls and others who just can't play nice with others. I try to stay out of the fray between YouTube atheists and skeptics over social justice and feminism and anti-feminism that has been boiling away for quite some time now.

 

I've watched videos, read opinion pieces, and listened to both sides SJW/Alt-Right/Nazi/Feminist arguments. I find reason and unreason on both sides. I try to side with the facts and treating people with respect and kindness.

 

Sargon of Akkad has been one of the more visible and controversial voices tending to call the SJWs (Social Justice Warriors) on what he thinks is their bullshit. I haven't done a deep dive on his stuff, but I've watched a few of his videos.

 

I might agree with him on this, disagree on that, but I haven't heard anything that I've thought crossed the line. He gets close, but nothing I'd heard him say made say, "That's it, pal. We're done."

 

Then came Mythcon a convention held earlier this year. I'm not exactly certain what Mythcon is, but it's a convention and it raised a few eyebrows by inviting Sargon and others in his camp to appear. Speakers decided not to attend due to how controversial these fellows (they are mostly middle-class, white males) are.

 

Sargon was interviewed before an audience that contained more than a few of his fans. The interviewer was Thomas Smith and he asked Sargon to confirm his statement made to a politician who is a woman who had been sexually assaulted. The statement to her was, "I wouldn't even rape you."

 

That's when I said, "That's it, pal! We're done!"

 

I go into a little more about my reaction to Sargon's assholery.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things from this week.

3) Sure, I turned 53. Yep. Same age as Abe Vigoda at the premiere of Barney Miller. That's right. I'm old. But it's a birthday. A trip around the sun completed, another begun. That's cool.

2) At the Stuck in the 80s blog it was XTC week. I got to promote one of my favorite bands for a whole week. Somehow the first and last installments didn't get posted, I wrote six in all, but still. Four is pretty cool.

 

I wrote about the following songs:

Love On A Farmboy's Wages

Grass

Towers Of London

Senses Working Overtime

 

1) I will be the guest on Minnesota Atheist Talk Radio. My friend Maddy will being interviewing me. It should be pretty cool. And fun.

 

 

Movie Recommendation: The Iceman (2012)

 

Millennium Entertainment

Based on a true story, The Iceman introduces us to Richard Kuklinski (played by Michael Shannon), a quiet but menacing man who has no qualms about killing. He becomes a hitman for a local mob boss (Ray Liotta), a job he keeps from his wife (Winona Ryder) and their daughters.

 

It's a fascinating looks at a man's violent life. The film gets a bit violent, of course, and there is a scene showing part of the process of dealing with dead bodies that fairly disturbing. It may be on the brutal side, but if you enjoy true crime movies, I recommend this one.

 

It is streaming on Netflix.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Earn Enough For Us' & 'Dear God' by XTC

Second ad break bumpers: 'I Bought Myself A Liar Bird' & 'No Language In Our Lungs' 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.

dimland radio 5-13-17 show notes

Technical Problem Forced Hiatus

The laptop needed a new hard drive, so I was unable to record the show. That put me on hiatus for a couple weeks. Fortunately, we still had some money from our tax refund and my wife has the know-how, so the laptop wasn't down for too long.

 

Dimland Radio ARGH!

 

You'd think the argh would be about the tech problems, but it's not.

 

This argh has to do with a couple of the podcasts that I listen to and extraneous noises. Noises that could be avoided with minimal effort. I realize that there are noises that occur on my show such as cars or motorcycles rumbling by or the occasional fireworks explosion, etc. But I do my best to prevent the noises I can prevent: shuffling paper, tapping, shifting the chair.

 

So, it really annoys me when I listen to a podcast, which is edited, mine is not, and there are noises that could be avoided. The one in particular that  gets under my skin is the sound of ice clinking in a glass. The sound made when a host is drinking an iced beverage.

 

There are two podcasts guilty of this. Both have two hosts and both, as I said, are edited. The editor must surely hear all that clinking being done by one host as the other is speaking, right?

 

Advice to podcasters: Do not drink iced beverages in glasses while recording your show. Your listeners can hear the clinking.

 

ARGH!

Dimland Radio Science Heroes: Steve Spears, Brad Williams, & Gayle From DC

 

Steve and Brad host the very popular podcast Stuck in the 80s. On a recent show, the topic of anti-vaxxers came up. The two hosts and their guest co-host, Gayle from DC, all voiced their disappointment with such anti-science sentiments. Brad's family was needlessly touched by the low herd immunity in large part caused by the anti-vax message: Vaccines cause autism. They do not!

 

Brad was willing to talk privately with listeners of the podcast who had their misgivings about vaccines. Steve was less accommodating.

 

The three of them are correct in their support of vaccination, quite probably the single greatest development in medical science.

 

Speaking Of Anti-Vax

 

Minneapolis currently finds itself the center of a measles outbreak. As of the recording of this show, there are more than confirmed 50 cases. This outbreak is mainly affecting the local Somali-American community, its children in particular, and has been reportedly linked to anti-vax sentiments.

Where anti-vaxxers go, vaccine preventable diseases follow.

Stephen Fry A Blasphemer?

 

Stephen Fry was almost a victim of some kind of new Inquisition. In 2009, the Irish government passed an anti-blasphemy law. It's intent was to protect minority religions in a predominantly Catholic country. But, I always bristle at the idea of limiting free speech.

 

In 2015, Fry was a guest on an Irish television show hosted by Gay Byrne. Byrne, an apparent believer in God and an afterlife, asked Fry, an outspoken atheist, what he would say to God, should it turn out Fry was wrong, when he arrived at the Pearly Gates.

 

"Bone cancer in children?" was part Fry's critical response. He went on to call God, if there is one, "capricious," "mean-spirited," and "stupid." This was greeted with a bit of eye-rolling on the part of the show's host.

 

It was also greeted with a formal complaint lodged by a viewer under the blasphemy law. What century is this?

 

Irish authorities began an investigation. The punishment is for those found guilty is a hefty fine. I suppose that is an improvement over burning at the stake.

The investigation was short-lived. The authorities cited the one complaint wasn't enough to warrant looking any further into the matter. So, Fry is off the hook.

 

Although the fellow who lodged the complaint loses points for doing so. He does get a few back for his reasonable response, "I did my civic duty in reporting it. The guards did their duty in investigating it. I am satisfied with the result."

The Mandela Effect And The JFK Assassination

 

In psychology it's called confabulation, people are so certain their misremembering of something that evidence to the contrary seems absolutely wrong. "They were called Berenstein Bears when I was a kid!" Actually, they were always the Berenstain Bears. Folks are just remembering it wrong.

 

Nelson Mandela did not die in prison, yet many people remember it that way. This, too, is confabulation, but it has led to the popular naming of the phenomenon as the Mandela Effect.

 

I, myself, have fallen victim to the Mandela Effect. In fact, it affected me during the show while I was trying to demonstrate that the last three words of Queen's 'We Are The Champions' are not "of the world." I had thought it was and it was so ingrained in my thinking that it came out wrong in my demonstration. I wish I could say I planned it, but I didn't. I'm glad I caught it right away, though.

 

The proper reaction to learning you have fallen victim to the Mandela Effect is, "Oh, that's what it is? I always though it was something else. I guess I was wrong." And then incorporate the correct information into your memory banks.

 

The incorrect reaction is, "Oh, wow! We must be connecting with a parallel universe in which the way we remember that thing happened that way." Or, "They are trying to change history!"

 

Paranormal believers and conspiracy theorists appear to react in those two ways, respectively.

 

For instance, memories of the JFK assassination seem to have some confabulating going on. People are discovering the car the President was shot in had three rows of seats and six people in it, not the two rows and four people as they remember it.

 

Three rows, six people. If you thought there were less rows and people, you were wrong.

This wrong memory seems to be due to reenactments, made over the years since the event, of the assassination using the wrong style of convertible. I can only guess as to why the wrong style was used. It may have been out of convenience or the exact car wasn't available. I don't think it's an effort to change our history.

 

It was always three rows and six people. We are just remembering it wrong.

 

This led me to finding out there is someone else on whom to place the blame for President Kennedy's murder. Of course, we should all know it was Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone who was responsible for the horrendous act; but, conspiracy theorists don't want to accept that explanation.

Nope. Oswald was a patsy, at most. The real person responsible, according to at least one conspiracy theorist, was Jackie Kennedy. That's right. She took the kill shot. It's so obvious when you slow the Zapruder film down and enlarge it. Jackie was mad at her husband for sleeping around and she decided to kill him in the most public way she could. But she didn't want to get caught, so she hid the handgun. Which you can see in the film...

 

Oh, I have got to be kidding!

 

Well, I'm not. That idea is out there. Way out there.

 

I won't to link to the conspiracy-mongering videos, but you can go to YouTube and search "Mandela Effect JFK assassination" and you should be able to find a couple videos discussing the ludicrous ideas. Be warned! The video about Jackie being the assassin spends four minutes repeatedly showing the President's head exploding.

 

Movie Recommendation: None

 

Too much other stuff to talk about, I didn't have time. 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: 'No Language In Our Lungs' by XTC & 'I Want You Back' by Hoodoo Gurus

Second ad break bumpers: 'Analog Kid' by Rush & 'Mammoth Gardens' by Game Theory

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 5-7-16 "the who show" show notes

Second Easiest Show Notes I've Ever Done...

 

Photo credit: Steve Cohen/CityPages

Honestly, I had not intended for the show to be solely about the greatest rock band ever: The Who. I even had notes prepared for a few other non-Who related topics, but I just couldn't help myself. I just had to gush about my all-time favorite band.

 

I talked about the first time I saw The Who. I hadn't planned on it, because I wasn't much of a Who fan then. But, my friend had an extra ticket and asked if I would go. I said yes and my life has been a love affair with the band and Pete Townshend in particular ever since.

 

I also covered the other times I saw the boys in concert. Each concert was thoroughly enjoyed by me, but then why wouldn't they be? I'm a massive fan and The Who are the greatest rock band ever. Have I mentioned that?

 

As part of my Who indulgence show I included the story behind this current tour and it's postponement due to Roger's illness in the fall of 2015. That illness added close to seven months to what would have already been a yearlong wait. The tickets went on sale in October 2014 for a show that was originally scheduled to take place in October 2015. The concert was to be part of Amy (my wife) and my 14th wedding anniversary celebration, but, because of the postponement, it became part of our Mother's Day celebration.

 

Photo credit: Steve Cohen/CityPages

The concert took place in the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. The Target Center is located across the street from the legendary nightclub First Ave & 7th Street Entry. Before heading into the stadium, Amy and I went over to see the temporary memorial that has been put up by Prince's star on the wall of First Avenue. There was a posting on the wall from The Who paying tribute to Minnesota's musical genius.

 

I described the show. I talked about my favorite moments and about the crowd. I speculated about those elderly audience members and how they may have conducted themselves way back in the 70s when they were young and going to concerts.

 

There are two versions of my review of the concert online. A shortened version for the Stuck in the 80s blog and a more verbose version on my weekly blog at Warehouse Find, the official blog of Nostalgia Zone. And was able to find a YouTube video of the ENTIRE concert! It's not the best quality video or sound, but you will be able to see what I was talking about.

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so no recommendation this week. You are on your own.

 

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Another Tricky Day' & 'Athena' by The Who

Second ad break bumpers:  'Cry If You Want' & 'You Better You Bet' by The Who

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 3-5-16 show notes

An Original Pic Of Re-Enactors

Are these the actual Earp brothers and Doc Holliday?

A Facebook friend shared a photo (above) that was said to be an original pic of Doc Holliday, Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp. Weeeeellll. Not so fast there, Spanky.

 

To my somewhat trained eye, the photo looked too modern. It didn't look like the kind of photographs taken in the late 19th century. In fact, it looked more like a color photo that had been grey scaled. I was skeptical.

 

The real Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil Earp.

 

 

 

The real Doc Holliday.

I looked for what I could be reasonably certain were actual photos (above) of the four men in question. Those men didn't quite match up with the four fellows that my friend shared. And the photographs look much more as though they were taken in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. In fact, Wyatt's and Morgan's photos appear to have been taken earlier than Virgil's.

 

I continued my search and found a color photograph of four re-enactors from present day Tombstone, AZ. Surprise! Surprise! Two of the men in the color photo are also present in that "original pic of Doc, Wyatt, and his brothers".

 

Compare the two on the left in this modern image to the two of the left in the picture of the alleged real lawmen.

That sealed it. However, my FB friend didn't care, because the image was romantic. Well, she should care. The internet is full enough of misinformation. She and the rest of us should all do our best to not add to the bullshit.

Abe Vigoda's Oscar Snub

His daughter called it an injustice. I don't think it's quite that, but I was disappointed to find out the producers of this year's Oscar ceremony didn't think to include Abe Vigoda in its In Memoriam segment. I guess they must have thought Vigoda was more TV than movie. More Fish, less Tessio.

 

Perhaps. That was the same reasoning when Farrah Fawcett wasn't remembered after she had died. But both Farrah and Abe had made movies. And Abe was in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, for crying out loud! I mentioned it would have been very poignant to show the scene in which Tessio realizes he won't be returning from the ride he's about to take. "Tell Mike it was just business." How great would that have been?

 

Vigoda wasn't enough of a movie guy, eh? How much of a movie guy was David Bowie? Do you think of Bowie as a movie guy? He does have more than 20 films to his credit, but so does Vigoda.

 

I looked back at past In Memoriam segments. I was looking to see of Johnny Carson had been included after he died. I looked for Carson because someone on Facebook suggested Vigoda might be like Carson - too TV. But Carson had hosted several Oscar ceremonies, so I thought it might be possible he was included. He wasn't. But! I saw that Jerry Orbach was.

 

Jerry Orbach had made some movies. He was the voice of the candelabra in Beauty and the Beast and he did put Baby in the corner in Dirty Dancing. But, come on! Most everyone who remembers who he was identifies him as Lenny Brisco, the police detective on TV's Law & Order.

 

Well, someone always gets missed. Abe Vigoda should have been included. The Emmys will likely remember him, but I don't ever watch the Emmys.

 

Maddy Love Talks About Being A Skeptic

 

I have been trying to listen to more of the local skeptical podcasts lately. One of which is the MN Trans-Atheist Podcast hosted by Maddy Love. I haven't gotten to listen to much but on a recent show Maddy gives a six minute talk addressing what it means to be a skeptic. She uses some ideas gotten from the awesome Carl Sagan, but she weaves in plenty of her well-focused ideas. She says in six minutes what I've been trying to impart in six years of doing Dimland Radio.

She graciously gave me permission to use her talk on my show. She even linked me to a nicely set-up mp3 version that I could easily play for my listeners.

 

Thanks, Maddy!

The Return Of Never Found Live Bonus Week

My Never Found in the 80s segments on the Stuck in the 80s blog had been dormant since last September. So, with Steve Spears and Brad Williams (hosts of the Stuck in the 80s podcast) heading out on the 80s Cruise, I thought I'd help Steve out with the blog by providing five more live clips of 80s alternative bands.

 

The acts I covered were: The Replacements, Let's Active, Cocteau Twins, Killing Joke, and Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians.

 

I talked about how the song by Let's Active (Blue Line) had an opening that was very similar to an REM song. I told how I had difficulty figuring out which REM song it was. Finally, I figured it out. It was Kohoutek from their album Fables of the Reconstruction. Phew! You can compare the songs using the links. Let me know if you think I'm right... or wrong.

 

I also noted the fan made video for REM's song Green Grow The Rushes was nothing but anti-capitalism images. I found it ironic as REM has made millions and millions of dollars through the capitalist system. I guess it's OK for your favorite band profits from capitalism, but not Coca-Cola.

And speaking of Robyn Hitchcock, I told the story of when Amy (my wife) and I were dating. We both had tickets to see shows on the same night. She had tickets for Joe Strummer, I had tickets for Robyn Hitchcock. We saw Hitchcock. Amy had never seen Strummer, I had. Amy would never see him. Joe Strummer died not long after that show.

I have regretted not going with Amy's tickets, instead of mine.

Someone Send Megan Fox The Demon-Haunted World!

 

 

Megan Fox has once again been photographed in public carrying a book written by my friend Scott Roberts. Scott is pretty much at the opposite end of the skeptical scale from me. Oh, he has his moments, but overall he tends toward the paranormal. I don't.

 

There's his name: Scott Alan Roberts!

In May 2015, Ms Fox was seen with Scott's book about giant angels. This past February, she had Scott and his co-writer's book on the Exodus (which didn't happen). Jeepers! It's good for Scott. I'm happy for him. It's just not so good for rational thought.

 

I wonder if I can figure out how to send her Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World.

 

Movie Recommendation: Breaking Away (1979)

 

20th Century Fox

A little sleeper hit from 1979 about four young men coming of age. They are called "Cutters" by the college students after what used to be the main industry of the town: Stone-cutting. "Cutters" is meant to be an insult when used by the students. Our four friends don't much care for those college kids.

 

There's Dave. He is the focus of the film. He is adrift like his friends, but he has cycling. And he's very good at it. He fancies himself Italian because he so admires the Italians' cycling skills. But reality hits him hard.

 

The conflict with the college students leads to the college allowing a team from the town to compete in the big cycling race to be held on campus. Dave and his friends enter that race to prove "cutters" are just as good as any college kid.

 

If you haven't seen this, put it in your queue!

 

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Blue Bell Knoll' By Cocteau Twins & 'Every Word Means No' byLet's Active

Second ad break bumpers: 'The Wait' by Killing Joke & 'The Man With The Lightbulb Head' by Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians

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.