Be the Media

Coming up on this weekend's show: more about memory (if I remember my notes correctly)

• A Brilliant Idea for your pets
• A very bad memory
• Doesn't anyone remember there's a war?
• Much Much More?

I know that you all know I'm often kind of lost in my own little world, really the whole show stems from that curious quirk, but I've had reason to question if I'm not a little too far off the beaten path lately.

It started with a political email about the sexism inherent in the coverage of Hilary Clinton crying. I hadn't actually heard about her crying but I wrote back a slightly snarky response that I'm sure if any of the other candidates resorted to crying we'd be making fun of them as well. We still make fun of a few sports figures who cried in press conferences and not because of their gender.

But when I mentioned this to a friend she pointed out that A. Hilary Clinton actually hadn't cried so much as was a little choked up and B. it was being covered EVERYWHERE that she was a big crybaby. This friend also mentioned that she thought Willard Mitt Romney had actually cried in the campaign and no big deal was made of it.

I still haven't heard anyone make fun of her for doing anything she didn't do. I'm not saying that they aren't making fun of her in an unfair or sexist way, they probably are, all I'm saying is I never saw it.

Another friend (this does get to a point eventually if you'll just bear with me a moment longer) posted on a blog a mean entry about 2008 predictions and how all the people making them are just pulling them out of their ass and that's about how much they're worth. I had the same response to that as I had the Clinton thing, I hadn't seen anything like that.

And then it struck me, I'm not what most people would call uninformed I don't think, especially about politics and the campaign and yet somehow I'm missing an awful lot of the "mainstream" coverage. For a moment I doubted my own connection to reality but after thinking a bit I think the very fact that I'm ignorant of these media moments is a good thing and in fact indicative of an ethos I have that serves me well and perhaps could you.

Rather than rail against "the media" for covering politics in a skewed and biased way, I apparently just don't watch or listen to that kind of media. I don't think I can change the media. I don't think that letter writing or blogging or complaining is going to make a damned bit of difference and even if it could, it's asking someone else to change to suit my tastes.

If you don't like "the media" don't take it in. Change your own habits. There are plenty of ways to keep yourself informed, plenty of media outlets (albeit mostly new media) that aren't doing these things that are apparently so egregious. It's much easier to do that than to make others change. Of course if everyone did as I do, the mainstream would change because the other way wouldn't be marketable.

Yes, I did essentially just make an Adam Smith's Invisible Hand kind of analogy to media and life in general but it really works out pretty well. Don't buy from people who put out a product you don't like hoping they'll change for you. Buy the product you really do like. If it doesn't exist, make it. If others feel as you do, they'll buy your product instead of the other thing.

I guess that's where the Oddcast comes from; the need to make the kind of show I'd like to listen to.

The Persistence of Bliss (recap)

Heard on this show were:

• Memories Can't Wait - Talking Heads
• How to be Dumb - Elvis Costello
• Casiotone Nation - Soul Coughing

2008 - This came from the idea of creating an audioscape of the open canvas of the new year. I was initially going to come up with a scenario where 2007 would try to usurp 2008's place but that's awfully similar to another sketch I have half written. I also wanted to let people know about the new group and the big plan for the upcoming year of doing 12 old time radio scripts, one a month this year. Speaking of which, that group can be found at http://groups.google.com/group/black-tie-martini-club-players

Celebrate Ignorance Come to Church - I've just had that sitting around in my notebook for a while.

You Are a Work of Fiction - this comes in large part from my listening to Guy David's early Night Guy podcasts www.guydavid.com In the first one he talks about how his memory works and that got me thinking about how my memory works et cetera. This is just the logical conclusion from all that noodling.

Brilliant Idea Dangerous World - I wanted to both rant about Huckabee and tha absurdity of making the world too safe. I wanted to throw in a bit about how when there are warnings on everything it encourages people to tune out and stop thinking, to become more passive, more easily led. But since I don't write these things out ahead of time, I just forgot to hit that point. So much for diligence eh?

Do we need Israel?

Coming up on this weekend's show:

• Welcome to the New Year!
• Welcome to the New Season!
• A Brilliant Idea!
• Much Much More?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm not just trying to get a rise out of you when I say this but... do we really need Israel?

I'm not saying anything against the Israeli people or Jews in general but how much simpler would world politics in general and the "war on terror" be if there was no Israel? I'm not saying it's right or fair but just what if?

The Islamic Extremists would have no more beef with the U.S. right? They'd still need someone to attack though right? Their power base is dependent on an enemy, who would they attack? That's right, the other sects of Islam. Wahabis would be killing Suunis would be killing Shia would be killing Wahabis. Iranians would fight Iraqis would fight Saudis would fight Lebanon etc.

Once they were done, we could put Israel back there, we could put up Jesus Camp, we could put up the greatest Disney world or strip club or bouncy castle or whatever.

Maybe the key to Israel's survival is not to fight but to disband temporarily?

On a parallel line of thinking, if we believe that the majority rules to some degree, aren't they in the minority? Why are they so special? Sure there's that whole bit where they really are an ally unlike our other 'allies' in the region. People will say it's to avoid another holocaust but who are they kidding? The rest of the world does not care if there is another holocaust of the Jews. They could've prevented the one that happened, nobody thought it was politically viable to intervene because it was Jews who Hitler went after. If he'd gone after another group that way first, Europe and the States would've tried a lot harder to stop him but they and their populations didn't like the Jews any more than the Germans did. Hell Truman's wife wouldn't let them in her house. If you ask me, the only reason Israel exists at all is as a ghetto because the rest of the world don't want us there.

I know, that's a little rambly and disjointed but in this day and age I really can't think of a logical reason why we need to have an Israel any more. Judaism is on it's way out, we're not breeding as fast as the other major religions and lord help us it won't be that much longer before religion is dead anyway. Why hold on?

That isn't rhetorical. I'm really curious to know. Why shouldn't Israel be disbanded, assuming it could be done without harming Israelis?

Mediocre Media Core (recap)

• CSIHOP - came from a discussion with Laurence Simon where I went through a painful variety of other CSI antecedents. CSITUNES, CSIRAN etc.
• Specials - I just don't like the interruption to normal every day life which is more fun than "the holidays"
• Carpathian Tunnel Syndrome - this pun literally came to me in a dream. That's right, I dream in puns. Don't you feel superior now?
• PSA - Sometimes it's just fun to monkey about with sound effects
• Humpty Dumpty - This came from listening to the Steve Dahl show a couple weeks ago. They were talking about albumin because they don't like runny eggs and this bit hatched in my head. There actually is some small controversy about the history of the rhyme. Most people think it's a riddle the answer to which is 'an egg'. But some think it's older than that and refers back to certain historical battles. I learn the weirdest stuff trying to find background info for these stupid sketches
• Blonde White Girl Network - I guess this is really my 2007 wrap up. Seems like all year I just heard about Blonde White Girls instead of news.
  
• Writer's Strike - Would you believe I actually paid money to produce this 40 second joke? I had to buy the mic feedback sound effect. I'm an idiot
  

We Should Be Better

Coming up on this weekends show:

• The media core and the mediocre
• An in depth report on Humpty Dumpty
• What would Hitler watch (hint it's not anything to do with The Jews)
• The Writer's Strike Continues
• Much Much More?

So this morning we all wake up to see that Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated. Okay, that's not a huge surprise to anyone and I have to admit I don't have strong feelings about it other than that I'm not a big fan of assassination.

What's surprised me today is the venom I've seen spewed at the victim. I've never seen any victim of what is essentially political terrorism be so vilified so soon. Crazy right wingers are pulling out every allegation ever made about her as if they are all 100% true and crazy left wingers are rising to the bait and defending her.

I tried checking out the middle line on her today a bit and results come up inconclusive. We know she was smart, having gone to Harvard and Oxford. She was charismatic and all first hand accounts of her say she seemed to have real passion for leadership. She supported the Taliban and then later admitted it was a mistake to have done so. Kind of like how we supported Bin Laden when he was fighting the Rooskies only we don't much like to talk about that. She was accused of a great deal of corruption which may have been purely political or may have been valid.

I'm not going to lie and say I knew much about her or that I was a big fan. I don't and I'm not. I didn't know enough about her to hate her either. What I do know is that no matter who it is, when they are brought down by a terrorist attack, you don't start jumping up and down saying how great it was. I understand the impulse, I really do. When that movie came out about George W. Bush being assassinated, I was amused. I felt that kind of sick glee about the notion of being rid of such an odious murderer. But that was in a movie, a fantasy. I'd like to think that if such a thing really happened we, and the world, would be more outraged at the violent death than pleased. Otherwise what does that say about us?

I remember hearing about a relation of mine that when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot down he said, "It's about time somebody killed that nigger." Now I'm not equating King and Bhutto but when you celebrate murder, you debase yourself considerably.

ACleveland Yankee in King Razzap's Court Over The Rainbow and Waiting for Godot

The only song in this show was Cool Yule by Louis Armstrong

I'm afraid I have to go about this in a scattershot manner because that's how this week's show was written. Primarily this blog exists to, and yes this is the most pompous thing I've ever said, chronicle the creative process that gets this show in your ears every week.

The Duel - This show started back when I didn't have internet access and so had no podcasts to listen to. One of the songs that came up on shuffle was The Devil's Gallop, a light classical favorite that is the music you hear behind the sword fight.

I've had this track downloaded for over a year but when it popped up a month or so ago as I was waiting for the bus I immediately thought, "Sword Fight!" At the time I imagined it being the climactic ending to some Razzap Snookums adventure .

The Wizard of Oz Ending - I imagined the swordfight going over a cliff not unlike the death of Sherlock Holmes and his arch enemy Moriarty but then how could I end the show? Aha! I could do a ripoff... I mean homage of the Wizard of Oz and that would let me get all my plugs in without using up all of the end credits.

The Intro - I vacillated between doing a Wizard of Oz beginning where I complained about boredom and sang over the rainbow but at the same time I was also thinking of the intro basically how it stands. The main difference between the intro as initially conceptualized and the way it plays in the actual show is the list. I was still operating under the notion that Razzap would be the villain in this show and that he would be zapping me back for some nefarious purpose.

The Knight - This scene is an obvious allusion to or again ripoff of, the scene in Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court where the Yankee is captured by a knight. Quite fortuitously I had been looking at iGoogle as my homepage where I have the Shakespearian Insult Generator which sometimes makes up new insults and sometimes uses actual insults from Shakespearian plays. I thought it would be entertaining to have the knight use the best writer of the English language instead of my sorry putdowns.

Two other points on this scene. 1. I stole the line ,"yeah... Sharks are peckers" from a Second Life DJ named Speelo who is something of a Jazzbo. Get him to tell the story of "Yeah... Sharks are peckers" and you will be amused. 2. I stole the concept of changing a violent duel to an insult duel from an episode of Benson that I saw one time as a small child and it stuck with me ever since. I know that the writers of Benson were not the first people to use this idea but I wasn't stealing it from the original source, I was stealing it from 80's sitcoms and the great Robert Guillaume.

Dunstable The Unstable Existentialist - Three quarters through working on this thing I decided it would be better if Razzap and Caleb had to team up against a stronger villain. Except for trying to blow Caleb up from time to time, Razzap's a pretty nice martian and most of the time Caleb's suspicions are unfounded and perhaps based on a certain bigotry towards little green men. I thought it would be interesting to monkey with the dynamic of their relationship by making them work together.

But the question left then is what kind of a villain would be a suitable nemesis for Razzap Snookums who claims to be a villain himself and who has such megalomaniacal aspirations? The villain couldn't be more into world domination without being essentially a clone of Razzap Snookums. An all powerful but completely enigmatic villain seemed the perfect counterpoint to Razz's unknown power and obvious goals.

The rest pretty much was filling in the spaces to get from one thing to another.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

A Holiday Message

Coming up on this weekend's show:

• Razzap Snookums
• Knights in shining armor
• Shakespearian insults
• Sword-fighting
• Existentialism
• and much much more!

It's important at this time to remember the true meaning of the holidays. It isn't about giving gifts or tradition or religion, or even spending time with family and friends. At the heart of the whole holiday season is getting something for nothing.

Not only do we try to work it out so that we give good enough gifts to ensure getting good gifts in return but we also get time off of work. At the end of things if you spent more on travel and gifts etc. than you made in presents and the time you were paid for not working, you lose. But if you take in more than you spend, you win.

It's the basic economic model on which we base our whole society. What could be more beautiful?