Baron Dave Romm
Timeless Comedy
By Baron Dave Romm
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Archiving Bartcop-E Columns
My html today has been to archive my Bartcop-E columns on my own web site. This is harder than it sounds, since my coding and internal directories are just a shade different than Marty's. Plus, I'm trying to keep Baron Dave's Recommended Music in a different archive than the political commentary or other thoughts. So it's been slow going. Maybe by the time you read this I'll be into the 2009 columns...
So no review just yet. But some more audio thoughts.
Timeless Comedy
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a bunch of kids, college or college grads, who were unfamiliar with the Firesign Theatre. One of them had never heard them of at all. This is becoming more and more common. On one hand, their heyday was forty years ago. On the other, they were groundbreaking in their time and continue to produce comedy CDs to this day. Perhaps their combination of wordplay, time bending plots, stereo, sex and drugs isn't quite as unique as it was when straight-laced albums were still being pressed in mono. Still, they were important to the development of audio comedy. And when they were good, they were very good.
I don't want to harp on just the Firesign Theatre. But for a kid today to not at least be familiar with them is like a kid in my generation not to know who Jack Benny or Will Rogers was.
Fortunately, I'm a DJ. In spirit if not actually on the air anymore. Plus, technology has caught up with many of my techie needs. I resolved to make a CD with a whole bunch of comedy that the youth of today might still find funny, even as their parents and grandparents did.
Thalia's Retreat: Timeless Comedy For Whippersnappers is the first draft at such an attempt. Nearly 8 1/2 hours of Firesign Theatre, Monty Python, Steven Wright, Henny Youngman, Tom Lehrer, Allan Sherman and, of course, Shockwave Radio Theater.
My goals were simple: Audio comedy. Yes, they should see Marx Brothers movies, but they should listen to some of the albums. With few exceptions, I the bits are from 1970 or early (roughly FT). And again with a few exceptions, this was meant to be a sampler, encouraging the kids to buy the CDs extant.
Of course, was limited to the audio files I have, and there's a lot of really excellent material out there. And of course, I missed a few that I did have.
I've already added, in rev. 2, "New Horizons In Music Appreciation" by PDQ Bach (probably my favorite bit of comedy, ever), more Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman.
What would you recommend? Again, this is audio humor from at least a generation ago. What would you want your kids to hear?
Send replies to Marty, if you dare, or to me.
And no, I'm not going to explain who Thalia is. Use your Mad Skillz.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog maintains a Facebook Page, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. A nascent collection of videos are on Baron Dave's YouTube channel. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Bill Maher: New Rule (huffingtonpost.com)
New Rule: The Republican leadership in America must produce their birth certificates! Not because I doubt they're Americans, I just want to make sure they're not eight-years-old.
Ed Pilkington: 'Would I drop the atomic bomb again? Yes, I would' (guardian.co.uk)
Theodore Van Kirk was the navigator aboard the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima 65 years ago. Now the sole survivor of the crew, how does he live with the deaths of 200,000 people?
Feminists fighting to change the world (guardian.co.uk)
Early feminists weren't just fighting for the vote - they wanted to change the world. What can we learn from these audacious utopians, asks Sheila Rowbotham.
"Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin: by Hampton Sides: A review by Steve Yarbrough
Among other things, this memorable book serves as a chilling reminder that a single loser with his finger on the trigger and mayhem in his heart can bring an entire nation to its knees.
PAUL CONSTANT: Money Talks (thestranger.com)
In Modern Literature, Are Bankruptcy Woes the New Sex Scene?
CHARLES McGRATH: The Afterlife of Stieg Larsson (nytimes.com)
THE THIRD VOLUME in Stieg Larsson's immensely successful Millennium trilogy, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," finally goes on sale here this month.
MARK EDMUNDSON: The Pink Floyd Night School (nytimes.com)
A professor hopes that his graduating students know that everyone deserves a few aimless years after college.
George Varga: Undaunted by Effects of ALS, Musician Ned Mann Still Follows His Passion (creators.com)
Ned Mann always used his head to make music as a prominent jazz and pop bassist, recording engineer and producer in the 1990s. Now, 11 years after being stricken with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) - the debilitating neuromuscular condition known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease" - he is again making music with his head. Literally.
Chris Wilson: I'll Be Bach (slate.com)
A computer program is writing great, original works of classical music. Will human composers soon be obsolete?
roger ebert's journal: Cannes #8: Of lies and ghosts and fathers
The days dwindle down to a precious few. At 6 p.m.on Friday, Cannes is oddly silent. The tumult on the streets a week ago today is forgotten. There are empty seats at some screenings. The locals of Cannes know this is the time to stand in the ticket lines. The daily editions of Varsity and Hollywood Reporter ceased Thursday. Friends are in Paris, or London, or home. Some few diehards stay for the award ceremony Sunday night.
Roger Ebert: Rio Bravo (1959; A Great Movie)
Howard Hawks didn't direct a film for four years after the failure of his "Land of the Pharaohs" in 1955. He thought maybe he had lost it. When he came back to work on "Rio Bravo" in 1958, he was 62 years old, would be working on his 41st film and was so nervous on the first day of shooting that he stood behind a set and vomited. Then he walked out and directed a masterpiece.
Will Harris: A Chat with Robert Davi, Star of "The Dukes" and "The Profiler" (bullz-eye.com)
I wanted to tell a story about people who've done something and how they redefine their lives, and the moral choices they might be faced with, i.e. pulling a heist. But we wanted to tell it in a fun way.
David Bruce: "Composition Project: Writing A Manual" (Lulu.com)
Free download at http://stores.lulu.com/bruceb. This free pdf download describes a composition assignment that I have used successfully during my years of teaching at Ohio University. Feel free to make as many copies as you want to for educational purposes.
Leona Lewis: Better in Time (youtube.com)
Hubert's Poetry Corner
"Texas Fixes Whatz Rong with Amurican Hiztury Textbooks"
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Petitioning for Polanski' Edition
CANNES -- To sign or not to sign is the big question at this year's Festival de Cannes, and there's not a deal memo in sight. But then a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, who is under house arrest in Switzerland in connection with a 33-year-old sex scandal, is always going to set tongues wagging... The petition, posted on a website overseen by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, asks for "justice" from the Swiss authorities...
Roman Polanski petition circulating at Cannes
What manner of "justice" do you think would be appropriate for Roman Polanski?
Send your response to
Friendly Reminder:
Polling cut-off is tonight (Monday) at 8pm EDT
(5pm PDT fer you 'Left Coast' types, haha)
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny but windy and cold - never hit 60°.
Page Is Back Online
Facebook
The Facebook page that led the Pakistan government to ban the entire site was back online Saturday, at least for some users, after it was inaccessible for about two days.
The page was removed Thursday after one of the moderators had his e-mail and Skype account hacked into, and his personal data revealed, according to a post on the page on Saturday. The moderator then got scared and deleted the page, a blog, and e-mails, according to the post.
The page had over 108,000 fans and over 11,700 photos posted on Saturday. Though the Facebook users who created the page put it back up Saturday, some users in India were able to access it for only a brief time before their access was once again blocked. Meanwhile access to Facebook as a whole continues to be blocked in Pakistan.
Facebook
Condemns Malawi
Madonna
Pop superstar Madonna said Saturday she was "shocked" at the sentencing of a Malawian gay couple for 14 years for sodomy, after they held the African country's first same-sex wedding.
Madonna, who has adopted two children from the poor nation and runs several charity projects here, said the imprisonment of Steven Monjeza, 26, and his 20-year-old partner Tiwonge Chimbalanga was a violation of basic human rights.
"This week, Malawi took a giant step backward. The world is filled with pain and suffering; therefore, we must support our basic human right to love and be loved."
She urged "progressive men and women of Malawi -- and around the world -- to challenge this decision in the name of human dignity and equal rights for all."
Madonna
Urges Fans To Ignore Protests At Memorial
Wendy Dio
Ronnie James Dio's widow has urged the rocker's fans and friends not to turn on religious right protesters who plan to picket outside the late Black Sabbath and Rainbow star's memorial service in Los Angeles on 30 May.
Wendy Dio, who also managed her husband's career, has released a statement in response to reports that members of the Westboro Baptist Church will protest outside her late husband's public farewell memorial service at Forest Lawn cemetery's Hall of Liberty.
She writes, "Ronnie hates prejudice and violence! We need to turn the other cheek on these people that only know how to hate someone they didn't know. We only know how to love someone we know!"
The WBC is led by pastor Fred Phillips and members of his family, who were the subject of a 2007 BBC documentary.
Wendy Dio
Dutch Sculptor
Ap Verheggen
Some time over the next few months or years, someone on the Newfoundland coast may look out onto the ocean at the parade of icebergs drifting majestically by and do a double take.
Is that - could it be - a dogsled atop that berg?
That moment of wonder, when surprise opens the door to insight, is what Dutch sculptor Ap Verheggen hopes will carry his message.
Last March, Verheggen travelled to the small Greenlandic coastal community of Uummannaq, not far from the famous section of coast where massive chunks of the Greenland ice cap break into the Davis Strait. His plan was to place two sculptures of stylized dogsleds on icebergs and let them drift south until the icebergs melted.
Ap Verheggen
Medical Tests
Johnny Hallyday
Veteran French rocker Johnny Hallyday arrived in France on Sunday night to undergo medical tests as part of a legal case to determine whether a surgeon who performed an operation on him in Paris last year was at fault.
Hallyday, 66, who had been due to resume a concert tour in January, was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital on December 7 suffering complications after an operation in Paris.
Shortly afterwards, he began legal action submitting a letter to French judges declaring that he had "come close to death."
A French court designated a neurosurgeon and infectious diseases consultant to determine the cause of ill health for the judicial proceedings, with their report due by July 15.
Johnny Hallyday
Offered Access For Cash
Sarah Ferguson
Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson said Sunday she was "very sorry" for her lapse of judgment after she was recording apparently offering to sell access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew in return for 500,000 pounds ($724,000).
The tabloid Rupert's News of the World posted video on its website that appears to show Ferguson discussing payment terms. She is heard to say "500,000 pounds when you can, to me, open doors."
The sting was the latest scoop for News of the World undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood, nicknamed the "Fake Sheik" after his signature ruse of pretending to be a rich Gulf businessman to dupe celebrities, politicians and suspected criminals.
He is a controversial figure who has targeted members of the royal family
Sarah Ferguson
Border Businesses Lose
Arizona
Adalberto Lopez' family-run musical instrument shop in the bustling Arizona border city of Nogales sells guitars and accordions to foot-stomping banda musicians and mariachis who cross up from Mexico to shop.
But in mid-May, the music stopped in the store. Mexican customers who account for almost all its sales stayed away as part of a two-day boycott to repudiate Arizona's tough new immigration law.
"The street and my shop were empty," said Lopez, of the "Day Without a Mexican" protest on May 14 and 15.
The law may make life more difficult for border retailers already hobbled by the recession and long border crossing waits, and Arizona's economy could take a hit from lost business.
Arizona
Cable Providers To Play Nice
Customers' Revenge
For far too long, cable customers fumed as they waited in vain for the cable guy to show up. When he did come, sometimes it took multiple visits to fix outages. Some customers grappled with billing mistakes that took months to resolve. And cable prices went up every year.
Cable TV operators are trying to treat their customers better. Consumers now can get a 30-day money-back guarantee from at least two major cable companies. Soon subscribers might set specific times for technician visits and get their orders confirmed in writing.
Cable companies are forced to do it because of intensifying competition from satellite TV and phone companies that offer video - and from people disconnecting subscription TV services altogether to watch videos online.
And people are leaving. In 2006, cable TV companies had 68.5 million video customers. The number fell to 63.3 million in 2009, according to research firm In-Stat.
Customers' Revenge
Mystery Surrounds
Plum Island
Hannibal Lecter, the fictional villain in "Silence of the Lambs," said it sounded "charming." Author Nelson DeMille made it the centerpiece of his 1997 thriller about deadly viruses and hidden treasure.
Since the infancy of the Cold War, Plum Island has been the site of an animal disease laboratory; access is limited to scientists, support personnel and, on rare occasions, invited guests. Because of its remote location a mile and half off the eastern tip of Long Island's north fork, it frequently has been the target of rife speculation about what really goes on there.
The general public could someday get access to the 840-acre pork chop-shaped oasis now that the federal government is moving its animal disease research functions to a new lab in Manhattan, Kan. With a "For Sale" sign about to go up at Plum Island, the General Services Administration is seeking community input on what should be done with the property. A hearing was held Wednesday in Connecticut and another is scheduled for Thursday on Long Island.
Besides the laboratory, the island is home to a defunct U.S. Army base and a charming little lighthouse that looks out onto Long Island Sound. And, as Agent Clarice Starling told Lecter: "There's a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there."
Plum Island
Invade Chinese City
Red Roofs
Their drab concrete apartment buildings are starting to look more like Spanish villas with red-tiled roofs, and that's angering many who live in them.
For the past year, workers have been repainting hundreds of buildings in Guangzhou and topping them with pitched roofs made of PVC sheets molded to look like tiles. It's part of a government-led campaign to spiff up this gritty metropolis for the Asian Games, a major sports competition in November.
The faux roofs have enraged many middle-class residents, but there is little they can do. Urban Chinese have enjoyed an explosion of personal freedom in the past three decades. They can pick their own jobs, start their own businesses and buy their own apartments.
But the government can still show up one day and announce that their homes will be getting a red roof - whether they like it or not. Though many believe they deserve a greater say in civic affairs, citizens remain powerless when officials launch a massive campaign with little or no public consultation.
Red Roofs
Unearthed In Egypt
57 Ancient Tombs
Archeologists have unearthed 57 ancient Egyptian tombs, most of which hold an ornately painted wooden sarcophagus with a mummy inside, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Sunday.
The oldest tombs date back to around 2750 B.C. during the period of Egypt's first and second dynasties, the council said in a statement. Twelve of the tombs belong the 18th dynasty which ruled Egypt during the second millennium B.C.
Egypt's archaeology chief, Zahi Hawass, said the mummies dating to the 18th dynasty are covered in linen decorated with religious texts from the Book of the Dead and scenes featuring ancient Egyptian deities.
The council said the findings were unearthed at Lahoun, in Fayoum, some 70 miles (100 kilometers) south of Cairo.
57 Ancient Tombs
Weekend Box Office
`Shrek Forever After'
"Shrek Forever After" roared its way to the top of the box office, making $71.3 million in its opening weekend.
But the fourth film in the monster franchise from DreamWorks Animation had the weakest debut of all "Shrek" sequels, according to studio estimates Sunday. "Shrek 2," from 2004, opened with $108 million. "Shrek the Third," from 2007, made $121.6 million in its first weekend.
Last week's No. 1 movie, "Iron Man 2," dropped to second place with $26.6 million. The superhero sequel from Paramount Pictures has now made over $251 million in three weeks.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com; final figures will be released Monday:
1. "Shrek Forever After," $71.3 million.
2. "Iron Man 2," $26.6 million.
3. "Robin Hood," $18.7 million.
4. "Letters to Juliet," $9.1 million.
5. "Just Wright," $4.2 million.
6. "MacGruber," $4.1 million.
7. "Date Night," $2.8 million.
8. "A Nightmare on Elm Street," $2.3 million.
9. "How to Train Your Dragon," $1.9 million.
10. "Kites," $1 million.
`Shrek Forever After'
In Memory
Martin Gardner
Prolific mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner, known for popularizing recreational mathematics and debunking paranormal claims, died Saturday. He was 95.
Gardner died Saturday after a brief illness at Norman Regional Hospital, said his son James Gardner. He had been living at an assisted living facility in Norman.
Martin Gardner was born in 1914 in Tulsa, Okla., and earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Chicago.
He became a freelance writer, and in the 1950s wrote features and stories for several children's magazines. His creation of paper-folding puzzles led to his publication in Scientific American magazine, where he wrote his "Mathematical Games" column for 25 years.
The column introduced the public to puzzles and concepts such as fractals and Chinese tangram puzzles, as well as the work of artist M.C. Escher.
The American Mathematical Society awarded him its Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition in 1987 for his work on math, particularly his Scientific American column.
Gardner also became known as a skeptic of the paranormal and wrote columns for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He wrote works debunking public figures such as psychic Uri Geller, who gained fame for claiming to bend spoons with his mind.
Most recently he wrote a feature published in Skeptical Inquirer's March/April on Oprah Winfrey's New Age interests.
He ended his Scientific American column in 1981 and retired to Hendersonville, N.C. Gardner continued to write, and in 2002 moved to Norman, where his son lives.
Gardner was preceded in death by his wife, Charlotte. Besides James Gardner, he is survived by another son, Tom, of Asheville, N.C.
Martin Gardner
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