Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
For the Boys
Today's show was broadcast from the Veterans Outreach Center's Stars and Stripes flag shop on South Avenue. I wandered down to see the gang and meet everyone I haven't met yet. I got to talk to Joe T and Willie and I finally got to meet our Lilly! (Yes, I am developing a Mother Hen complex about our favorite morning show, lord help me.)I didn't get to meet Jamie and Anthony yet but I will ... oh I will.
You can see all the pics HERE.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The dumbest of the smart and rich
Today I had the fortunate experience of directing the webcast of the commencement at the University of Rochester. While I truly enjoy being on the campus setting I must say that if this is the best of the best (as many Rochesterians like to think) then this country is in a heapin helpin of trouble.
I have NEVER before today seen so many helpless and self-absorbed people as I did today. I wonder in amazement how these families survive a trip to the grocery store much less putting a child through a university that costs well over $30,000/year!
Best story of the day... I was walking down a long hallway that leads out of the Library and saw ahead of me a Father, Mother and Daughter staring blankly at the door leading out to the lobby. On the glass was displayed a decal saying "caution, Automatic door." ....
... and there they were, standing there waiting for the door to open magically before them. It took me about 20 seconds to get down the hall, say excuse me, and reach around the baffled trio to push the door open and walk through.
MY GOD I thought, they couldn't have been THAT dumb could they? Could they really have thought that since the door said automatic, pushing on the big silver handle wouldn't have worked as well?? No, they probably were not.
No what I think happened here is an indication that we in this great country have become complete... lazy... spoiled... brats. If something says that it is "automatic" well then we're gonna let it do something FOR US. Kind of like our government. or our cars, or our toasters. or, sadly enough, our doors!
I have NEVER before today seen so many helpless and self-absorbed people as I did today. I wonder in amazement how these families survive a trip to the grocery store much less putting a child through a university that costs well over $30,000/year!
Best story of the day... I was walking down a long hallway that leads out of the Library and saw ahead of me a Father, Mother and Daughter staring blankly at the door leading out to the lobby. On the glass was displayed a decal saying "caution, Automatic door." ....
... and there they were, standing there waiting for the door to open magically before them. It took me about 20 seconds to get down the hall, say excuse me, and reach around the baffled trio to push the door open and walk through.
MY GOD I thought, they couldn't have been THAT dumb could they? Could they really have thought that since the door said automatic, pushing on the big silver handle wouldn't have worked as well?? No, they probably were not.
No what I think happened here is an indication that we in this great country have become complete... lazy... spoiled... brats. If something says that it is "automatic" well then we're gonna let it do something FOR US. Kind of like our government. or our cars, or our toasters. or, sadly enough, our doors!
Monday, May 11, 2009
The morality police...
Who are these people and what gives them the right to control what I hear and see? This subject I have hit upon twice in as many days, in my comments to Patty's post, as well as the video below. There is a Right guaranteed in the United States Constitution, known as the freedom of speech. Now this is not to say that I will always agree with everything that is ever said, or that a person can say anything at anytime with no consequences. With every freedom comes a certain amount of responsibility. Knowingly causing a dangerous situation, ( the yelling of "fire" in the crowded theater... an old chestnut, but for good reason.) or inciting people to harmful action. ( lynch mob anyone?)
I do not believe that it is up to the TV and radio stations to play nanny to the children of the world, and pay attention to all the little words that may offend somebody. You know what offends me? Hearing someone say that I must save my soul by giving myself to some or other religion. That is completely offensive to me. Yet it is their right to say it on any radio or television station in America. Yet I can't suggest that they go have carnal relations with themselves, in a simple and succinct way, without incurring the wrath of the FCC or even worse the Morality watchdogs of America. The very same douchebag who wants to "save my soul!"
Why is it that these "moralists," who preach and patrol the airwaves looking for reasons to complain, are almost invariably the same people who end up in a cheating, stealing, cuckholding, bathroom blow-jobbing, or child molesting scandal! The dirty cocksuckers are so worried about the airwaves that they forget to live the example that they expect everyone else to live up to.
These freaks (yes, I know it's juvenile to call them names, but I don't care! So there!!) have made it so that every producer in America is sitting on pins and needles with one hand hovering over the kill or cut switch, praying that they have enough time to catch the slip of the nip before the delay runs out. It is so bad in fact, that even the chatroom (Not broadcast in anyway, simply affiliated!) attached to the morning show has a built in censor. One may not type a word the contains certain letter combinations without them being turned into #$%^. What letters? cum, dick,pussy, ass, shit, fuck, homo, and a few others that are escaping my memory at this moment. Yet in Canada, our wonderful neighbor to the north, has no such broadcast standards to live up to, and with a good antenna MILLIONS of American can watch Canadian TV and see tits and ass, and hear ( oh my goodness!!) course language that in American is only available on channels that one must pay for!
This is not to say that I wish to listen to a radio program that is a constant stream of cussin words and bodily functions. What I would like is to have the freedom to be able to speak my mind and impart the full emotional impact of what I am trying to convey. I wsih that my morning show could do an interview with someone and not have to hang up when they accidently let an f-bomb slip out. Not eveyone is a professional broadcaster and they don't have the built in censor. I would like to hear a radio show that can say what they mean rather than dancing around ideas with code words, like "vagee-gee" or "Fuzuk", or "shizit"
I blame in on the puritans. The promised to live in peace with the indians, but when they saw the first brown nipple they lost their minds and it has been down hill ever since! Rebel, rebel and REBEL!!!! let American airwaves be free just as they are in the wild. Pirate Radio must once again live and dominate the airwaves!
I do not believe that it is up to the TV and radio stations to play nanny to the children of the world, and pay attention to all the little words that may offend somebody. You know what offends me? Hearing someone say that I must save my soul by giving myself to some or other religion. That is completely offensive to me. Yet it is their right to say it on any radio or television station in America. Yet I can't suggest that they go have carnal relations with themselves, in a simple and succinct way, without incurring the wrath of the FCC or even worse the Morality watchdogs of America. The very same douchebag who wants to "save my soul!"
Why is it that these "moralists," who preach and patrol the airwaves looking for reasons to complain, are almost invariably the same people who end up in a cheating, stealing, cuckholding, bathroom blow-jobbing, or child molesting scandal! The dirty cocksuckers are so worried about the airwaves that they forget to live the example that they expect everyone else to live up to.
These freaks (yes, I know it's juvenile to call them names, but I don't care! So there!!) have made it so that every producer in America is sitting on pins and needles with one hand hovering over the kill or cut switch, praying that they have enough time to catch the slip of the nip before the delay runs out. It is so bad in fact, that even the chatroom (Not broadcast in anyway, simply affiliated!) attached to the morning show has a built in censor. One may not type a word the contains certain letter combinations without them being turned into #$%^. What letters? cum, dick,pussy, ass, shit, fuck, homo, and a few others that are escaping my memory at this moment. Yet in Canada, our wonderful neighbor to the north, has no such broadcast standards to live up to, and with a good antenna MILLIONS of American can watch Canadian TV and see tits and ass, and hear ( oh my goodness!!) course language that in American is only available on channels that one must pay for!
This is not to say that I wish to listen to a radio program that is a constant stream of cussin words and bodily functions. What I would like is to have the freedom to be able to speak my mind and impart the full emotional impact of what I am trying to convey. I wsih that my morning show could do an interview with someone and not have to hang up when they accidently let an f-bomb slip out. Not eveyone is a professional broadcaster and they don't have the built in censor. I would like to hear a radio show that can say what they mean rather than dancing around ideas with code words, like "vagee-gee" or "Fuzuk", or "shizit"
I blame in on the puritans. The promised to live in peace with the indians, but when they saw the first brown nipple they lost their minds and it has been down hill ever since! Rebel, rebel and REBEL!!!! let American airwaves be free just as they are in the wild. Pirate Radio must once again live and dominate the airwaves!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Idiots abound and they often call radio stations
This is funny, and I happen to know Tommy Rocker personally. The station is 95 Rock in Grand Junction, CO. and as rock stations go it is the same general junk as you will find anywhere in the country. Nothing as original as Brother Wease, but occasionally even a blind mouse will find a peanut. Nothing against Tommy, I like him, he is a good guy, but he does what he knows, and he doesn't know how good it could really be!
The caller shows just how stupid he really is, and ya just gotta love it!
The caller shows just how stupid he really is, and ya just gotta love it!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Patty's words of wisdom!
[shipping troll] 11:11 am: I think the people in the media should just rebel and take
back the airwaves
[Cashman] 11:11 am: this business will implode and then from the remains left will
radio rise from the ashes and become relevant again
[Pattycake] 11:11 am: yep
[Pattycake] 11:11 am: like the phoenix ... like everything
[Cashman] 11:11 am: big business is the reason it's so bad
[shipping troll] 11:11 am: It got too big and now it needs to get small again
[Pattycake] 11:12 am: big business is why EVERYTHING is so bad
[Pattycake] 11:12 am: the PEOPLE lost the power!
These were the last words in the Wease chat room today (Thursday May 6). The reason I am reposting them here is that they underline a recurring theme along the airwaves this week. As is my habit, I pick up on the cultural buzz in blogs, via Twitter, around the office coffee pot, on television and RSS feeds, and the buzz reveals that people are just plain frustrated, either with the status quo or what they percieve to be a threat to Life as We Know It. In usual fashion, during my passive listening to radio programming on my long commute, I was listening to the Diane Rehm show (WXXI 1370 AM). Her guest, author Joshua Cooper Ramo, was discussing his new book The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Order Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It and something he said caught my attention. In essence, and I quote Publisher's Weekly on this because they said it best: "(Ramo) argues that there must be some audacity in thinking before there can be any audacity of hope." He stated in the interview that it is not only enough to be audacious in our thinking, there must be action also.
The spirit of this morning's conversation prompted me to recall this because there are more than a few folks who visit the chat room who are feeling the effects of an imploding economy and wondering what to do. The above discussion attempts to head in the direction of a solution and it got me to thinking that we MUST think of alternative ways of facing the future or we will not survive. This does not mean rejecting any of the old ways; on the contrary, we need to figure out what has worked in the past and combine it with innovative NEW thought and action if we are to insure a future for ourselves and the generations to come. Not to mention that innovative thought and action is a gift to the next generation, especially those who are graduating from high school and college right now and facing a bleak employment future. Big business has laid this at their feet. It is almost as if audacity of hope, on the part of recent graduates, is in hoping that they can find a way to make their place in the world. Big business is in trouble right now and perhaps entrepreneurship is going to be the next big wave. I could be wrong, but judging from the number of chatters wanting to do work independently, this may be the best we can hope for. Since loyalty to one's employees went out the window in the 1970s, we can no longer rely on the corporation, especially since the advent of outsourcing. Now, with unemployment at record highs, the fact remains that people must earn a living, so I predict we will see more audacious thinking when it comes to people eking out an existence.
How this ties in to radio has everything to do with the collapse of the media as we know it. Just two days ago the Boston "Globe" fended off closure with concessions from the unions but their days are numbered and we know that Gannett is in its own death spiral. Paper news is rapidly disappearing and so the nature of journalism must change. This is a job for Audacity of Thought Man! Even radio is not immune: since the FCC tied the hands of broadcasters everywhere, the corpration has insured that a career in radio is no longer enjoyable. Ask any one of the chatters who has ties in the business. We remember when radio was fun and when the threat of a six-figure fine did not hover over every live minute like a black cloud because someone out there might be offended. Tom Petty was right. The Last D.J. is an appropriate message about the state of radio broadcasting. Digital media might only be yet another way to regulate the airwaves.
The last time people felt constrained by bodies that govern public media, they created Pirate radio. Granted, the rules back then were loose and rarely enforced, especially by the FCC in the United States but the Europeans were once the rulers of the airwaves when it came to piracy. I see this happening again but in what fashion? That remains fuzzy on my horizon and this is where audacity of thought, innovation in action, a rethinking of the status quo, seem timely and appropriate right now.
back the airwaves
[Cashman] 11:11 am: this business will implode and then from the remains left will
radio rise from the ashes and become relevant again
[Pattycake] 11:11 am: yep
[Pattycake] 11:11 am: like the phoenix ... like everything
[Cashman] 11:11 am: big business is the reason it's so bad
[shipping troll] 11:11 am: It got too big and now it needs to get small again
[Pattycake] 11:12 am: big business is why EVERYTHING is so bad
[Pattycake] 11:12 am: the PEOPLE lost the power!
These were the last words in the Wease chat room today (Thursday May 6). The reason I am reposting them here is that they underline a recurring theme along the airwaves this week. As is my habit, I pick up on the cultural buzz in blogs, via Twitter, around the office coffee pot, on television and RSS feeds, and the buzz reveals that people are just plain frustrated, either with the status quo or what they percieve to be a threat to Life as We Know It. In usual fashion, during my passive listening to radio programming on my long commute, I was listening to the Diane Rehm show (WXXI 1370 AM). Her guest, author Joshua Cooper Ramo, was discussing his new book The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Order Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It and something he said caught my attention. In essence, and I quote Publisher's Weekly on this because they said it best: "(Ramo) argues that there must be some audacity in thinking before there can be any audacity of hope." He stated in the interview that it is not only enough to be audacious in our thinking, there must be action also.
The spirit of this morning's conversation prompted me to recall this because there are more than a few folks who visit the chat room who are feeling the effects of an imploding economy and wondering what to do. The above discussion attempts to head in the direction of a solution and it got me to thinking that we MUST think of alternative ways of facing the future or we will not survive. This does not mean rejecting any of the old ways; on the contrary, we need to figure out what has worked in the past and combine it with innovative NEW thought and action if we are to insure a future for ourselves and the generations to come. Not to mention that innovative thought and action is a gift to the next generation, especially those who are graduating from high school and college right now and facing a bleak employment future. Big business has laid this at their feet. It is almost as if audacity of hope, on the part of recent graduates, is in hoping that they can find a way to make their place in the world. Big business is in trouble right now and perhaps entrepreneurship is going to be the next big wave. I could be wrong, but judging from the number of chatters wanting to do work independently, this may be the best we can hope for. Since loyalty to one's employees went out the window in the 1970s, we can no longer rely on the corporation, especially since the advent of outsourcing. Now, with unemployment at record highs, the fact remains that people must earn a living, so I predict we will see more audacious thinking when it comes to people eking out an existence.
How this ties in to radio has everything to do with the collapse of the media as we know it. Just two days ago the Boston "Globe" fended off closure with concessions from the unions but their days are numbered and we know that Gannett is in its own death spiral. Paper news is rapidly disappearing and so the nature of journalism must change. This is a job for Audacity of Thought Man! Even radio is not immune: since the FCC tied the hands of broadcasters everywhere, the corpration has insured that a career in radio is no longer enjoyable. Ask any one of the chatters who has ties in the business. We remember when radio was fun and when the threat of a six-figure fine did not hover over every live minute like a black cloud because someone out there might be offended. Tom Petty was right. The Last D.J. is an appropriate message about the state of radio broadcasting. Digital media might only be yet another way to regulate the airwaves.
The last time people felt constrained by bodies that govern public media, they created Pirate radio. Granted, the rules back then were loose and rarely enforced, especially by the FCC in the United States but the Europeans were once the rulers of the airwaves when it came to piracy. I see this happening again but in what fashion? That remains fuzzy on my horizon and this is where audacity of thought, innovation in action, a rethinking of the status quo, seem timely and appropriate right now.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
The more things change..
It's funny how things that seem different on the surface, are truly the same as they ever were. As Shakespeare wrote ( supposedly), "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." And then there is the old saying that, "No matter what you call dog shit, you still don't want to eat it." So what am I referring to?
The show of course. The personnel changes, but the overall atmosphere stays the same. Lilly is the new Tommy, negative to the extreme and refers to porn constantly. Jamie remind me a lot of the old BJ Shay, he has the quick quip for every discussion and he is good with the back relate. If you're not paying close attention to the show, you can miss it, and think he's just making stupid jokes.
I haven't quite figured out where Anthony's anti-intelligence fits the pattern, but Nick is the resident Righty/devil's advocate. He plays to the more common man in the audience to counter the flaming liberal that is dear Brother Wease.
With Anthony, I just don't ever remember there ever being such a Goombah on the show. And sadly he is not even pure I-talian, he's a Don Juan! A real Puerto Rican Italian. He never fails to remind us that he is half Rican, but that he is much closer to his Italian side, because of his mother and grandparents. He has no reference for life but Brooklyn, any Mafia Movie, and his catholic upbringing. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, but he also seems to be dumber than a bag of hammers. Oh well. I guess ya can't have everything.
I enjoy the show as I always have, but somethings annoy me, as they always have. The difference is that so far tha annoying thing are far outweighed by the things that I like, so I will stick with it. Besides, now I actually have friends who are listening too, and when we can discuss the show as it's happening, or our own stuff on the side it makes it much more fun. Too, having some actual contact with certain elements of the show make it seem more personal as well, even when it really isn't.
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