'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
X-Mas 2006CE
By Baron Dave Romm
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A political digression
The War on Channukah
Must be the holiday season: The Nine Commandment Christians are whining. The complaint is of a made-up War On Christmas. Yeah right. Aren't they watching tv? Don't they look at the ads in the newspapers? A good economic indicator is how early Christmas begins. When Clinton was president, Christmas began after Thanksgiving, or at least stores were pressured not to put up their holiday decorations until the day after Turkey Day, known as Black Friday. Now, under Bush Lite and after 12 years of Republicans rule in Congress, you don't see many Thanksgiving decorations up at all. Stuffing doesn't have a high enough profit margin. We've gone right from the black-and-orange of Halloween to the white-and-red of Christmas. The stock market may be high, as overseas investors pick off bargains due to the falling dollar, but most US citizens have less money to spend on necessities like presents for the kiddies.
Meanwhile, most retail establishments wish customers "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays". What ever happened to the oldest holiday celebrated during the season: Channukah. Let's not even talk about Kwanzaa or the Winter Solstice or Sol Invictus.
Why not celebrate the holiday that Jesus celebrated? What's wrong with Christians nowadays? Be like your Savior, and wish everyone a Happy Channukah. This year, it begins an sunset on Kislev 25 5767 (Dec. 16, 2006CE) and is celebrated for eight days, until the night of Dec. 25. I hope there isn't a football game or anything to mar the celebration.
Meanwhile, in your ears
O Christmas Bush
The Capitol Steps are always timely and ephemeral. Their albums are always funny and on point, but become dated fairly quickly. I want to mention this one while it's fresh. O Christmas Bush is already a bit dated, obviously pre-election, but with Bush in office and Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State, it's still relevant. The songs are parodies of standard Christmas songs, so get 'em while they're cold.
Too many of these songs will, alas, be relevant for a long time. My favorite cut is The Fright Before Christmas is a spoken word parody of The Night Before Christmas as read by Michael Chertoff, Director of Homeland Security . The terrorists have won: We are frightened, and this song captures much of the institutionalized fear. Do You Fear What I Fear takes on the politically-generated paranoia of Bush and Deadeye Dick Cheney. Little Bomber Boy skewers Bush and his lies about Iraq. In the spirit of bipartisanship, Told You So jabs at Al Gore and global warming.
I miss the Lirty Dies spoonerisms, but I can wait an album. O Christmas Bush is highly recommended as a stocking stuffer or to add to your Capitol Steps collection or simply to have alternate versions of standard songs.
Note to the Capitol Steps: Put your albums in CDDB, please.
Yuletide Anarchy
Have you always admired Good King Wenceslas? Well, Chaston & Groditski are "Your Headquarters for Demented Wensislavian Rock Music". Probably just as well, as the 10th Century king was murdered by his brother not too long after the events of the carol; his family was demented, not he.
Chaston & Groditski's latest CD is a two-song sampler called Yuletide Anarchy. Both songs are to the same tune. The second song is their old standard We Roasted Santa Claus, about Santa coming down a chimney onto a lit fire. It's not so much sung as exuberantly warbled, with fire sfx. The first song is We Burned The Christmas Tree, with a rhythm machine and a back up singer and everything. A fine(r) piece of music. It's like they rehearsed!
I'm not going to go so far as to recommend this disk, but if you like their other work then you'll be pleasantly surprised with the new variation. Here is a link to their mp3 sample of WBTCT.
A few quick oldies, to pad a short column
Green Chri$tma$
Back in 1958, Stan Freberg issues a scathing indictment of the commercialization of Christmas (the real War On Christmas) entitled Green Chri$tma$. Green as in $. It received no airplay on AM radio until 1983.
A Christmas Carol
A few years after Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer took on the same subject in A Christmas Carol
Both these songs can be found on Dr. Demento Presents: Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Vol. 6. This collection also contains such necessities as Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer and All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth. All Dr. Demento CDs are generically recommended.
The Chipmunk Christmas Song
Oddly, one of the few great Christmas songs not on the Dr. D collection above is The Christmas Song by The Chipmunks. "... I just want a hoola hoop..." In a sign of the times, you can buy this song from iTunes (and a whole bunch of other Alvin & the Chipmunks) for $0.99 each, but the Freberg and Lehrer songs aren't listed. You can get the video of the 25th Anniversary Edition of A Chipmunk Christmas. What the heck.
Christmas At Ground Zero
Weird Al Yankovic will make fun of anything, from his hair to sacred holidays. One of the latter is Christmas At Ground Zero, a darkly funny song that fell out of pop culture after 9/11, but is coming back after Korea tested a nuke. It's on his Polka Party CD, and you can watch the video on YouTube: Christmas At Ground Zero (takes a while to load).
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, 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. 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.
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Michael Dare's 'Emulsional Problems'
TODAY's Cool Site Of The Day!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Michael Moore: The liberal filmmaker extends an olive branch to disheartened conservatives (latimes.com)
I WOULD LIKE TO extend an olive branch. Those of you who consider yourselves conservative and usually vote Republican have not had a very good couple of weeks. Trust me, I know how this feels.
Joel Stein: Borat's biggest patsies -- reporters (latimes.com)
Why are journalists interviewing Sacha Baron Cohen's alter ego as if he were actually real?
R.C. Baker: Republic of Pokémon
Suspended anime: the crazy collision of Japanese and American pop culture
Rachel Jones: Football's Women Huddle and Hustle for Their Sport (womensenews.org)
Football helps many U.S. households relax, relate and get outdoors on Thanksgiving. This year it also gives female football players a reason to give thanks for a breakthrough in their struggling sport: a first all-pro game.
Kim Ficera: Don't Quote Me: That's Kinda Gay (afterellen.com)
"I'm not your little faggot." - Actor Isaiah Washington to fellow cast member Patrick Dempsey during an argument on the set of Grey's Anatomy last month
Gay penguin book shakes up Illinois school (advocate.com)
A picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is getting a chilly reception among some parents in Shiloh, Illinois, who worry about the book's availability to children--and the reluctance of school administrators to restrict access to it. The concerns are the latest involving And Tango Makes Three, the illustrated children's book based on a true story of two male penguins in New York City's Central Park Zoo that adopted a fertilized egg and raised the chick as their own.
Christie Keith: A Totally Different Kind of Slash Flick (afterelton.com)
Do you watch Lost and find yourself imagining Jack and Sawyer throwing themselves into each other's arms? Did you live for the day Spike and Angel would forget Buffy and realize they were each other's dream date? Do you watch House every week screaming at House and Wilson to just get over themselves and kiss already? Were you always convinced Star Trek: The Next Generation's Picard and Q were meant for each other? Well, why not make it so?
Robert Urban: Parker Posey Asks For Your Consideration (afterellen.com)
"Dying is easy. Playing a lesbian is hard!" Such is one zealous fan's opinion - shouted aloud at a TV set - as an entertainment news show prepares to announce the latest round of movie award nominations in For Your Consideration, the new film from Christopher Guest (Best in Show).
Belief-O-Matic™ (beliefnet.com)
Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic™ knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic™ will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing. Warning: Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
CARNALLY ACKNOWLEDGED
GEORGE W. AND CONDI EXPOSED?
Thanksgiving and Friday
Erin Hart
Join
Erin Hart on
Progressive Talk AM 760 Thanksgiving and Friday
(Nov. 23rd and 24th) when she fills in for Jay Marvin from 6am - 10am MST (8am - noon EST / 7am - 11am CST / 5am - 9am PST).
Tune in if you're in the area, or listen online.
What a harvest! The first woman speaker (and YES, they made far too much of
her support of Murtha), a new day for the United States, IF Bush, Cheney and
all the Presidential henchmen LET change happen. And if they don't, history
and the country may just leave them in the dust.
Let's talk about new discoveries of worthy charities--this year one of mine is
Uplift International. We will talk to the founder and the vice-president on
Friday. So call from wherever you are digesting or shopping.
All that and some movie and entertainment surprises. Enjoy your family,
your food and the hope for change in America and around the world.
And a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Please keepin touch via erinhartshow.com.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and in the 90°s.
Have you visited Cool Site Of The Day yet?
Manufacturing News
Faux
Several Fox affiliates have chosen not to broadcast "If I Did It," the two-part special where O.J. Simpson talks in hypothetical terms about his role in the 1994 killing of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Lin Broadcasting and Pappas Broadcasting, which own a combined nine Fox affiliates, have said they won't air it. Fox has scheduled the Simpson interview for Nov. 27 and 29.
The Fox stations in most of the nation's biggest cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, are owned by Fox, so they would abide by the network's decision on what to air.
Faux
Let's see - Judith Regan works for Harper/Collins, which is owned by News Corp/Rupert Murdoch.
Faux News and Faux TV are owned by News Corp/Rupert Murdoch.
Bill O'Really and Geraldo have their panties in a knot over the entirely
Faux-manufactured OJ story?
Kinda funny to watch Loofah Bill and serial philanderer Geraldo go all moralistic.
And any way it falls, News Corp/Rupert Murdoch makes money.
Quite an example of perfect synergy.
Lobbys For PA Casino License
Sylvester Stallone
Appearing in a recorded video message, Sylvester Stallone, famous for his movie role as hard-luck Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa, was part of a parade of celebrities and gambling executives who asked Pennsylvania state regulators last week for a casino license in Rocky's hometown.
Most of the testimony revolved around topics like business plans, financial backing and traffic studies, leavened by occasional celebrity cameos. Actor Bruce Willis recorded a video message, and other celebrities, including music producer Quincy Jones and Donald Trump, showed up in person.
Five competitors - professional casino operators with politically connected or celebrity investment partners - are vying for two slot-machine gambling licenses in Philadelphia, which could become the nation's biggest city with a casino.
Sylvester Stallone
Court To Rule
Wedding Photos
Celebrity magazines OK! and Hello! are to meet in England's highest court on Monday for the final round in a lengthy legal battle over photographs of the 2000 wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
In a case that will help establish how far individuals are protected against media intrusion, the House of Lords must decide if OK!, which had a deal to buy exclusive rights to the wedding pictures of the Hollywood movie stars but was trumped by unauthorized shots in Hello!, is entitled to compensation.
OK! was originally awarded damages of just over one million pounds ($1.9 million), but was stripped of that by the Court of Appeal. It is that decision which is now being challenged before the law lords.
Wedding Photos
Pair Use The Force
Jedi Religion
Two self-styled Jedi Knights are stepping up an intergalactic campaign for formal recognition. Umada and Yunyun, also known as John Wilkinson and Charlotte Law, want the UN to acknowledge "The Force" is worthy of being called a religion. The couple claim to be part of the UK's fourth largest religious group, after 400,000 people recorded their faith as "Jedi" in the 2001 Census.
They say that as a religion, they deserve tolerance and respect. November the 16th is the annual International Day for Tolerance.
And as part of a global battle worthy of Luke Skywalker's efforts against the Empire, the band of self-styled Jedis want the UN to re-name the day as Interstellar Day of Tolerance.
More people claim their religion to be Jedi in England and Wales than those who follow Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism. And the cause has global support.
Jedi Religion
Former Spy Poisoned
Col. Alexander Litvinenko
A former Russian spy poisoned in Britain and now hospitalized under guard may have been targeted for his criticism of former colleagues and his investigation into the killing of a prominent anti-Kremlin journalist, friends and fellow dissidents said Sunday.
Col. Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, said earlier this week that he fell ill on Nov. 1 following a meal with a contact who claimed to have details about the slaying of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist gunned down last month in Moscow.
A doctor treating Litvinenko told the British Broadcasting Corp. that tests showed he was the victim of poisoning by thallium - a toxic metal found in rat poison. He is under armed guard at University College Hospital in London.
Boris Berezovsky, the Russian dissident and tycoon who was at Litvinenko's bedside on Friday, told The Associated Press he suspects Russia's intelligence services of the poisoning.
Col. Alexander Litvinenko
Speaking Clock's New Voice
Sara Mendes da Costa
A 40-year old telemarketer from Brighton & Hove will soon become one of the most listened-to people in Britain after she was chosen to be the new voice of the Speaking Clock.
Sara Mendes da Costa won a nationwide competition to be only the fourth permanent voice of the clock since it started in 1936, taking over from 77-year old Brian Cobby, the voice for the past 21 years.
Out of 18,405 entrants who left a recorded message with BT Mendes da Costa was chosen for her warm tone and clear diction.
"I just can't believe it! I only entered after my dad heard the competition on the radio and suggested I should give it a go," she said.
Sara Mendes da Costa
Considers 'Class-Act' Corporate Sponsors
Golden Gate Bridge
The operators of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, its orange towers recognizable the world over, are looking into selling corporate sponsorships for the landmark to reduce a budget shortfall, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.
The authority operating the bridge faces a shortfall of $87 million over the next five years, and its board on Friday may vote to hire a consultant to review corporate partnerships, said spokeswoman Mary Currie.
She said the bridge authority would develop a "class-act" program, adding it admires the National Park Service's "Proud Partners Program," which allows corporations to pay for projects and take credit for them.
Golden Gate Bridge
Opens Factory In Eastern Germany
Gunther von Hagens
The quirky museum that opened its doors in eastern Germany last week is, literally, a human factory: manufacturing "plastinated" sections of cadavers to supply researchers and medical students.
The brainchild of controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, the factory will churn out preserved human and animal body parts and arguably offer another bonus -- to take a small bite out of the region's massive unemployment.
Housed in a defunct 19th-century textile factory, the new factory cost a million euros to set up. It has already hired 42 workers and plans to expand its staff to 200.
Gunther von Hagens
In Memory
Francis Girod
French filmmaker Francis Girod has died in a Bordeaux hotel following a heart attack, medical officials said. He was 61.
Girod's first film as director, "Le Trio Infernal" ("The Infernal Trio") with Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider, came out in 1974.
Other works included 1980's "La Banquiere", also with Schneider, "Le Bon Plaisir" in 1984 with Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Louis Trintignant, and 2004's "Transfixed".
He was also a producer, writer, and documentary maker, and occasional actor, and also found time to be closely involved with the French film industry as a member of numerous industry bodies.
Francis Girod
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