WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Factum Non Fabula: Julie Andrews/Adolf Hitler - Bastards & Blood

Can the mere appearance of schizophrenic tendencies in an individual be endearing? Can an aura of scariness in a person ever be considered sweet? The fact that these questions don't really need to be asked does not erase the fact that I ponder them daily... preferably from a distance. The value of human nuttiness and the value of the internet are two great tastes that go great together. The experience of dipping into other people's inner worlds is a sport that thrives on the internet... with it's endless, almost zoo-like hallways of human exhibits held safely behind cathode-ray glass walls... allowing one to privately sift through and gawk at a leisurely pace without the aid of a tour guide.
    Ahhh... World Wide Web, you are such a sweet and endless pie... what's that? Why yes, I would love another crunchy slice of you! Why, thank you so much... mmmm... oh wait, what are you doing? Put down that gun! OH MY GOD NO!!!
    Anyway, in the grand and esteemed tradition of web masterpieces like Timecube, American Spy Cow, Toothphone, Mucus Fat, Santa = SATAN?!, Baron Von Volsung, George Dahl, Elizabeth Brady Cabot Winslow, Francis E. Dec, and Theodore Kaczynski... comes Mikko (Michael) Juhani (John) Jack, who is apparently the first born son of actress Julie Andrews.
    Mr. Jack, it appears, is yet another sibling-of-the-famous oddity. He list a few of his favorite things in his rather remarkable, rather fascinating, ode-to-mom web page "Factum Non Fabula: Julie Andrews/Adolf Hitler - Bastards & Blood," and respectfully gives us a very sweet slice of his own mind, to ponder and pick at from behind the cathode-ray glass exhibit wall (which is there for your protection ladies and gentlemen... please do not tap on the glass).
    (via BoingBoing!)

Work Song From Postal Employees in Ghana (MP3)

Here's a beautiful little work song created by four postal employees who were recorded as they canceled stamps at the University of Ghana post office in 1975 (MP3). Their whistle-and-stamp song was recorded by James Koetting and appeared in the book/CD-Rom Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples. For more information on the recording, check out Elise's homework assignment on the recording. I hope she got a good grade. Ain't the internet grand? Thanks to listener Nick for sending this in; he's already booked the next flight to Ghana. If you want to see some of the stamps these postal workers might've been canceling, check here.

Einstürzende Dead Mosquitos

I hear the Germans have a good chuckle at the American tendency to view Blixa Bargeld as some mysterious, dark and dangerous creature.  The man we know best as the firestarting sledgehammer-wielding Einstürzende Neubauten shriek'n howling Bad Seed with S&M themed performance & fashion aesthetic is better known to his country volks as a national institution: Movie Star, Urbane Gentleman, Celebrity Chef, and now, the face of the German equivalent of Home Depot.

Fabio Roberti, aka Our Fobsie, host of Strength Through Failure, shows us the following award-winning German television commercials, starring our hero:

• Blixa recommends a strong mosquito killer.
• Blixa can't get enough of these new paving stones.
• Blixa not love a power drill?  Pshaw!
• Blixa on paint.

You're invited to further nosh on Neubauten.  Herewith, my interview with Blixa (RM link) on April 28, 2000.  I was scared shitless.  It was my first radio interview ever, I was intimidated, and it was my birthday.  I desperately needed to smoke cigarettes and drink beer. We did, and it went fine, though I'm sure I'd be humiliated to hear it now.

And here once again is Our Fobsie, hosting (RM link) another Neubauten, Alexander Haacke.

And finally, here's an mp3 download of the song you hear playing in all those commercials --
12305 Te Nacht (5.7m), from the album Tabula Rasa.  Yippee ya-ya yippee yippee yay.

Christmas Lights Sequencer From Hell

Merry Christmas, Con Ed; or, I'm Glad I Don't Live Next Door to Them.

3-minute video (Windows Media) (Or here or here) (Music is "Wizards of Winter" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

(Artist neighbor unknown)

VARIOUS UPDATES:
Another arrangement on the same house, with Jingle Bells audio by (brace yourself) Barbra Streisand: 2-minute video (Windows Media)

(Users of better operating systems can view Windows Media video using the open-source video player VideoLan (a.k.a. VLC).)

The light arrangements are by Carson Williams on his Mason, OH house.  The show ran four hours a night at low volume, simulcast via low-power FM radio for drive-bys, and used 16,000 lights and the Light-O-Rama sequencer.

Or, play Pong on the side of an office building using your cell phone.

(Thanks to Barrett Golding and others for more info!)

UPDATE 12/5/05: How to make the EXACT same display on your own house using Carson Williams' sequencer file.

Yet another UPDATE 12/8/05: Williams has pulled the plug on the light show at his house, due to traffic problems and accidents in front of his house.

UPDATE 12/20/05: Another video to the same music here (Windows Media) (thanks Joe!)

Genius Is Pain: John Lennon Interview, National Lampoon MP3

On Saturday at 2pm New York time, BBC4 will broadcast the unreleased audio of Jann Wenner's 1970 interview with John Lennon. You can hear the interview in realaudio from this page when it airs, or if you can't wait, you can just download this MP3 of the National Lampoon's parody based on the interview, in which Lennon bitched about Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and declared that "Genius Is Pain." Several times, in several different ways. BBC article. Thanks Fabio and Douglas!

We Suck, But We're Free! More Scare Tactics From the NAB

With Howard Stern moving to Sirius Satellite Radio in less than a month, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is stepping up its scare tactics to keep people away from alternatives to broadcast radio. Here is another spot the NAB recently released to commercial stations all over the country (MP3), including the NAB introduction. It doesn't mention Sirius or XM by name, but you know who they're talking about. (Here's a previous post about the NAB's last scare-spot.)

In this spot, the NAB paints an absolute nightmare scenario for its core constituency of male radio listeners: during a baseball broadcast, it's two out, bottom of the ninth inning with the bases loaded, when a hit is headed out of the park - it's going, going, when suddenly the broadcast is interrupted by an a long distance operator requesting 25 cents for the remainder of the broadcast. The horror! What more proof do you need that the good Lord ordained that radio should be free?

The spot is remniscent of the famous Heidi incident in 1968, when NBC cut off a New York Jets game during the critical game-deciding moment so they could cut start the TV version of the movie Heidi on time. The ensuing outcry changed the nature of sports television in the US forever.

Clearly, the NAB sees Sirius as a huge threat. My colleagues in non-commercial radio see podcasting as a bigger threat than Sirius or XM. People who work in radio are running scared, which makes sense, if you see new technologies as a threat instead of the opportunities they could be.

This Week in Sex: Baby, It's Cold Inside

Station manager Ken forwarded me an email from the Netherlands which said: "Could you slip this to Amanda?"

Sounded great, until I found out "this" was a giant icy penis with its own parking space. Cold, people, cold.

The email continued:  "I think this one will fit nicely in her most informative blog."

(Editor's note: The pic purportedly ran in a leading Dutch newspaper, and blog is the Dutch word for...something giant penises fit nicely into.)

Grandmaster of Iron Crotch Tu Jin-Sheng pulled a rental truck around a parking lot a couple times with his penis. I don't know why it is important that the truck was a rental.

There oughta be a law. There is, and it is the best law ever. A judge in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, makes guys who get busted for peeing in public apologize in public--in a letter to the editor in the Fond du Lac Reporter. For example, Michael Huebner of Madison, Wisconsin, wrote: "I am so terribly sorry for urinating outside of a public place in your city. It was not a very intelligent thing to do." Amen! You could revitalize certain dormant political parties with this stuff.

Things you didn't know you needed to worry about. Your labia should be tan, but your anus should not, especially if you want to "keep your bum-hole looking younger." If I could see it, maybe I would care more.

mp3s of radio commercials for schlocksploitation movies. This is the best thing I am slipping you this week, so go check it out at toestubber.

Stiles On Your Dials

Intro (MP3)

On Monday December 5, the Dean of Deja Vu, your Vicar of Vintage Vinyl, the mighty KAT MAN! celebrates 58 years on the airways of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.  Tune in to an aircheck here (MP3) from WEVD in 1966.  Danny Stiles will be appearing at John's Pizzeria in New York City to meet and greet all his fans like Joe Costanzo from Queens, NY.  The hardest working DJ in the biz can still be heard every Saturday night from 8 to 10 PM on AM 820 WNYC.  As well as WPAT-the Gaslight Staion-AND- WNSW-AM 1430 during the week.  You'll hear classic American standards of the '30's and '40's including the Big Bands and swing era, novelty tunes, v-discs, nightclub entertainers and vaudevillians and soundtracks from movies, television and Broadway shows.  Danny also mixes in his own personal stories of the music which is what really makes his show a can't miss Saturday night swing party.  WFMU's Glen Jones interviewed the Kat Man on April 4th of 2005.  Archive here.  Happy Anniversary, Danny, and many more.

Outro (MP3)
 

MP3 Download Dinner Bell for December

Olde Frothingslosh  (MP3's)
In the 1970's my brother was an avid collector of independently brewed beer, he belonged to a club that sent monthly samples of the stuff. Well, having read in a book about Olde Frothingslosh, the "Pale Stale Ale" and proudly-self-proclaimed worst beer in the world, 8-year old me was hopping up and down at the prospect of it arriving in the mail like Ralphie in A Christmas Story waiting for his Red Ryder BB Gun. And sure enough, a can of this stuff did arrive for my brother, and I set upon drinking it immediately. The company claimed the "foam was on the bottom", which I didn't quite see, but I was in awe of the picture on the can, a photo of an enormous woman in a bathing suit lying on top of a bear, who had clearly been crushed by her. Turns out the stuff was just really a joke repackaging of Iron City Beer for holidays/collectability, but still, was like Mad Magazine crossing over into real life. Here's a "plea" (MP3) from the company spokesman, and also an excerpt (MP3) from an "official" Olde Frothingslosh newscast, chronicled from a site dedicated to Pittsburgh DJ Rege Cordic who wrote this history of the beer and sort of was the point man of steamrolling the "foam on the bottom" myth.

Worst Audition Ever (MP3)
Tyler and Perry-in-waiting going over their mutual repertoire. 25 goddamn minutes. Thanks to Listener Greg.

Leland Stanford University Marching Band "White Punks On Dope" (MP3)
From Scott Soriano's great Crud Crud blog of vinyl lost treasures comes this stab at the Tubes from an 1979 self-released LP titled Starting Salary $22,275.00. These guys apparently were somewhat of the Animal House of marching bands, though as Scott eloquently explains, they were more or less a "scatter band": "A scatter band is different from a marching band in that it spells out words or makes shapes, instead of marching in formation. In the Stanford Band's case, that meant doing a tribute to the recently kidnapped, Cal student Patty Hearst at the Big Game against Cal (UC Berkeley) by making a formation of a hamburger bun which was missing a patty. During the 1971 Rose Bowl game half time show, the band first spelled out OHIO STATE and then quickly rearranged themselves to spell OH SHIT. This was broadcast on NBC to a national audience. They were banned from the next year's bowl game. In another spelling fiasco, the band first formed HI FOLKS and then shifted the top of the O to the top of the L to spell HI FUCKS. This, too, made it on TV and got them banned." 

WFMU Heavy Airplay List

WFMU Top 30 compiled by Music/Program Director Brian Turner
(click on artist name or compilation title to hear a sample tune in real audio)

Various - Dark Holler: Old Love Songs and Ballads (Smithsonian)
Various - Searching For Soul (Luv N' Haight)
Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain (Load)
Wanda Sa - Vagamente (Dubas)
Dirty Three - Cinder (Touch & Go)
Lori Burton - Breakout (Rev Ola)
Various - The Midnite Sound of the Milky Way (Big Beat)
Various - Invisible Pyramid: Elegy Box (Last Visible Dog)
Michael Waisvisz - In Tune (Sonig)
Various - Coconut FM: Legendary Latin Tunes (Essay)
Greg Davis and Sebastian Roux - Paquet Surprise (Carpark)
Zelienople - Ink (267 Latajjaa)
Riz Ortolani - Cannibal Holocaust O.S.T. (Grindhouse/Coffin)
Animals and Men - Revel In the Static (Hyped 2 Death)
Atmosphere - You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having (Rhymesayers)
Matthew Herbert - Plat Du Jour (Accidental)
Geraldo Pino & the Heartbeats - Heavy Heavy Heavy (RetroAfric)
Mahalara Rai Banda - Mahalara Rai Banda (Crammed Disc)
Nurse With Wound - Livin' Fear Of James Last (Sanctuary)
Fireball - Blessed Be (High Roller Society)
The Hospitals - I've Visited the Island of Jocks and Jazz (Load)
The Gasman - The Grand Electric Palace of Variety (Planet Mu)
Koenjihyaekkei - Angherr Shisspa (Skin Graft)
Danger Doom - The Mouse and the Mask (Epitaph)
Various - Rolas de Aztlan (Smithsonian Folkways)
Bush Chemists - Raw Raw Dub (ROIR)
Hanin Elias - Future Noir (Cochin)
Fourtet and Sa-Ra - Sun Drums and Soil (Domino)
Various - Bread, Beard, and Bear's Prayers (Bastet)
Red Dirt - Plus (Audio Archives)

DJ Compilation Of The Month: Songs From The Midnight Matinee

MP3s: 26 of them below the jump.

Long before the the great convergence of all media into one, John Schnall was remixing movies for the radio on his WFMU program The Midnight Matinee. The show combined dialogue from movies with music in various ways, and turning such cinematic classics as Jerry Lewis' feel-good Nazi flick The Day The Clown Cried into hour-long radio programs. In the process of remixing, songs were sometimes created out of the dialogue and musical snippets. Many of the the full shows are archived in realaudio on this page. Here are 26 of John's Midnight Matinee songs, along with the title of the episode each song came from, which often suggests the film that provided the original source material.

Off-Mic DJ Activities for December 2005

Ahh, the end of calendar year 2005 approacheth, and where matters of off-mic activities are concerned, we've got the proverbial bizzle in our hizzle, as the kids say. Now that our ceremonial decompression rituals associated with Record Fair recovery (let me just say that Pseu Braun gives one MOTHER of a foot massage...) have passed, we're tightening all the escape hatches for the ensuing end-of-year holiday madness that's on deck, but also pointing our collective bad selves towards tomorrow's horizons and whatever 2006 holds in store.

Take Fabio Roberti for example; erstwhile host of the Strength Through Failure program (currently off the schedule, but enjoying enormous celebrity on in the internet in archive form). Never one to be caught lounging around his stylishly decorated flat wasting time,  Fabio will soon be participating in a film presentation at the Galapagos art space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The weekly "Ocularis" exhibit on December 5th will feature the films of Mr. Roberti, along with contributions from Larry 7, Jim Sharpe, Michael Wolf, and Oscar de la Renta. More info on the specifics of the screenings can be found here.

Later that week (December 8th at 8 PM), catch the L train back into Manhattan and do the thousand-meter-mosey downtown to Burrow (31 Crosby St. between Broome and Grand Streets) for Bronwyn C.'s reading of one of her self described "scary little stories" as part of the inaugeration of Burrow's non/fiction series of readings. Other participants slated to read are Jason Bitner of Found Magazine, and Glen Szabo of Sweet Action and Purple Fiction. Admission is FREE, and will feature delicious beverages courtesy of Sixpoint Craft Ales.

How Does It Stinkin' Feel? (MP3s)

MP3s: Ten of them below the jump.

"Give me a throw pillow and a crowbar; I'll show you how to hit it with a nine iron." — Anonymous

A couple contributors to this blog have mentioned before how great the wild early days of Napster were, mostly because you could search for home recordings made by (and inadvertently offered by) the users sharing their Britney Spears and Eminem MP3s. However, the example Napster/Mic In Track recordings that have been presented have been few and far between. I would like to correct this oversight by presenting for the first time a comprehensive review of the recordings made by one specific person that produced some surprisingly entertaining songs.

This kid wrote his own material and performed the songs with accompanying percussion. It sounds like his drum kit consists of one (1) cardboard box and one (1) unknown metal object (pan lid? lamp shade? metal colander?). And as if that wasn't enough, this kid hit on the bright idea of overdubbing his recordings so that he could lay down backing vocals on his songs, a technique that's pretty obvious, yet I don't think I've ever encountered it elsewhere in the Mic In Track field. Les Paul would be proud.

Some of the songs he wrote are love songs or about relationships, but the more interesting ones are the ones about food. He sings about trying to get some ice cream from a fat ice cream man, about buying soft pretzels and hot dogs, and about chicken wings. Lots of chicken wings. Stinking chicken wings, even.

I found these songs to be extremely funny and charming, so I ended up downloading all the Mic In Tracks that I could by this artist. What follows is my complete collection of this anonymous kid's original songs. These files were untitled, so I have taken the liberty of providing them with names. A couple cover songs, alternate takes, and false starts are not included here, but will be included as bonus tracks in the inevitable CD release of this material in 2018.

Recent Faves From the New Bin

PSYCHATRONE RHONEDAKK - Disturbs the Air (Black Plastic Sound/Summersteps)
TODD TAMANEND CLARK - Nova Psychedelia (Anopheles)
Growing up in a valley in Eastern Pennsylvania, one gets used to long days without much sunlight in the winter; you go to bars, you hang out, you would drive to New York or Philly for the odd show as a real music scene hadn't quite begun to flourish as of yet given the odd AOR radio hitmaker. Not much else to do except immerse yourself in whatever your kick was. Psychatrone Rhonedakk hung out a lot in the record store I worked at and could spiel for hours on Zappa, Chris Knox, Robyn Hitchcock, Barrett, Roky, and he knew his stuff inside out and always was digging deeper into the seeds of the underground to tie the new and the old together. In fact one time we left a bar at 2am while he was having an intense parking lot conversation with another Zappahead, and he was then spotted the next morning by a friend on his way to work in the same spot still talking. So when he finally got a moog and started recording at home and sending out CDR's, it seemed like a logical progression. Gradually the heads and mags of the underground psych scene started to take notice despite his continued hobbit-stance of never playing live; Acid Mothers-related collaborations happened, contribution to a Jandek tribute, and this year he dropped quite a bomb of a record, Disturbs the Air. Prime-era Ash Ra, Tangerine Dream, and other electronic pioneers who have been oft-quoted find a very unique phrasing in Psychatrone's music; in the past his recordings were often full of warm and fuzzy sketches of analog om-ness, but now distilled into cold, freezing nuggets of dark, fully-structured songs that include perfectly adapted covers of Gandalf, Bill Martin, and Warren Zevon bathed in a stark vocal performance. Good comfort sound.
Meanwhile, on the western side of the state, Todd Tamanend Clark was hanging out at Jerry's Records in Pittsburgh and committing to now-collectable vinyl his psychedelic music of a somewhat different weed. Clark coalesced his Native American activism, love of analog synths and home-fi recording, cosmic poeticism and big ol' Jim Morrison fixation into tons of recordings now encapsulated on this 2CD set.  In the years from 1975-85, Clark's weird and wooly sounds featured collaborations from Cheetah Chrome, Allen Ravenstine (Pere Ubu) and William Burroughs, dominated by theremins, moogs, modulators, assorted percussion and total bedroom-metal axe action (the weirdly 80's cyberpunk take on "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" kills). He covered his body in silver paint, performed theme music live at comic book conventions, and basically lived the rock and roll life (and still records). It's fellows like these two that really make me appreciate the unique personalities that form in often-backwater locales. Everyone these days is splitting the big cities to head out to the countryside to become the next Current 93 or Tower Recordings, but somehow the artists that have originated out yonder doing their interpretations of what they perceived was already going on in the big city have won me over again and again creating and following a muse that they can't deny, and this is where our Barretts and Roky's really originate in many ways. Here's Psychatrone's "They Moved the Moon" (Real Audio) and Todd Clark's "March of the Legion" (Real Audio).

Blanket Fodder

In honor of my second week of hazy reality following hernia surgery, I present some "previously unreleased" material (i.e., I'm feeling too leaden and lifeless to churn out something shiny and new.)  These then, are my riffing sessions, ideas that might have been full-on essays (or blog posts), had they only jazzed more than 3 paragraphs out of me.  Hope you enjoy.

Don't Show Me Your Shit

One of my personal goals is to make it through life without ever seeing another person's faecal waste.  Well I've already failed, though by no fault of my own.  A holistic M.D. once asked me if I "looked" when I flushed after a dump (I have to assume this was a "psychological" question), to which I replied, "Yes, I look. I look FONDLY."  I say bye-bye.  But only to my shit, not yours.

The arrogance in "forgetting" to flush is staggering.  It's sort of the ultimate fuck you.  "Here, man, here's what I think of you.  Look what I left for you.  Isn't it pretty?" 

So don't show me your shit, OK?  I don't want to see it.  Don't take pictures of it, either.  (And that means YOU, Dave; your camera phone privileges should be suspended for life.)  The image of your brownish-yellow, spiraling doopy-doops will give me a bud of repulsion that will last a lifetime.

On Necromancy

If raising the dead were as easy as lighting a few black candles and reading from a book, everyone would be doing it.  The focus and dedication required to conjure up a spiritual entity within an exhumed corpse, usually for the purpose of divining information, is way beyond a guy like me.

Eliphas Levi, widely believed to have been somewhat successful in such ritual conjurations, most likely didn't have to punch a clock full-time.  Bon vivants such as The Great Beast, Aleister Crowley, were removed enough from ordinary society by wealth and class to afford them the time necessary to indulge in such pursuits.  I can't remember the last time I went on a horseback opium-poppy expedition, crafted a homunculus, or just performed a good ol' black mass.  There just isn't time for these things once your life gets going.

Sites for Sore Eyes

Ahh, the internet. It sucks company bandwidth, blows your productivity at home and in the school library, and there are naked people. LOTS of them. There are also crazy MP3s, weirdo animations, stupid movies, arty things to impress your intellectual pals with, old timey robots, and European football hooligans armed with video cameras. Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby present half an hour of your life that you will never get back.

Mile and miles of vintage arcade sounds
And not just recordings of the games themselves, but the geek-chic ambience of the arcades themselves, which I spent countless hours in as a kid, as I imagine many of you did as well. Left! Left! Bodyblow! Bodyblow! Quickly followed by the buzzsaw gun from some shoot 'em up, and the lame victory music from Tron. Ladies, have I lost you yet?

Cup stacking championship?
Next up, a salad-tossing derby.

Best Rejected Advertising
TV, Radio, Print, you name it -- All of 'em share the common theme of having been complained about by consumers. Says a lot about the national standards of "taste and decency" in the various countries of origin, especially in places like Italy, where you can't sell granola bars, carburetors, or airline tickets without a multitude of nude bodies.

Spray it, Don't Say it
The incredible beatbox stylings of San Francisco's Kid Beyond.

Google News in Map Form
Did your family Thanksgiving dinner feature one of those fist-through-the-wall styled arguments with your Dad about that kooky old liberal media? Did you, at any point summon the crusty specters of NPR vs. Fox News or New Yorker vs. The Drudge Report? This newsmap application (seems to launch best in Internet Explorer) will dazzle you regardless of your good witch/bad witch/cowboy/indian/liberal/conservative leanings.

Sony's Deteriorating DRM Mess: One Month Later

It's been one month since details of Sony's invasive Digital Rights Management rootkit malware came to light.  (See my earlier articles: Nov. 1, Nov. 3, and Nov. 7.)

About 9,777 blogs now mention "Sony rootkit", while a web search for Sony rootkit malware yields 13 million results.  Here's a messy update on this mess:

Sony hired First 4 Internet (one of whose corporate directors spent 12 years as a Sony director) to build the intrusive digital restrictions management software "XCP", which has been quietly installing itself on about half a million computers over the past year, including military and government sites.  Many more Sony CD's install spyware DRM called "MediaMax", made by another Sony-related company, SunnComm.

Some of the bad things the XCP and MediaMax DRM malware do:

• Modifies your OS to hide and embed itself (and helps other malware hide itself).  It masquerades as a real Windows service, to make it harder to notice that something bad is running.
• Interferes with your computer's ability to read the audio on that CD, not letting you use your own audio player.
• Silently interferes with any CD-ripping software you might use, even with non-Sony CD's, adding random noise to your copies.
• Secretly "phones home" to send information about you and your listening habits back to Sony (although Sony originally denied this).
• Runs all the time and slows your computer down.
• Can crash your computer, while being difficult to diagnose and repair due to its self-hiding methods.
• Using advanced tools to try to uninstall the software can render your computer's CD drives completely useless.

Some bad things Sony (and friends) appear to have done:

• Snuck the XCP software onto people's computers, providing nothing but a legal jargon license that never actually explained what the software would do, while claiming it could be uninstalled without providing an uninstall mechanism.
• The MediaMax software may install even if the user clicks "Decline."

Oh My God, You Don't Know What You TOOK?

I was watching the Brian Turner / WFMU-curated episode of NY Noise the other night, and up comes this Public Service Announcement from the Bad Council (who've actually done some cool things - remember The Crying Indian (RM video link)? One of theirs).  Two little kids are having diner dinner with Dad, who's clearly got a scar on his ear where once hung an earring.  The announcer says something to the effect of "your dad had an earring back in the day when only bikers and hippies had earrings" (the dude's only like 30, but whatever).  "And you know what bikers and hippies had in common?  The Drugs."  The remainder of the hour was filled with similarly snarky anti-drug messages from the same source, like the dad who rolls himself up in the rug and tells his daughter he's a joint.  Relating, you know.  A bunch of grownups desperately trying to convince their kids they're hip to the now scene, while maintaining a just-say-no message. 

One of my duties here at the so-called Magic Factory is serving as Public Service Announcement Director, so if some organization's got an anti-drug campaign, they're sending their material to me.  Mostly it's dreadful.  Mostly it's the former mayor of Hillsborough or some such place politely suggesting the kids find something else to do: "Hey kids, my anti-drug is politics!" - in astoundingly low fidelity.  But not the Bad Council!  They're F-U-N!  Sometimes.  No, mostly not.  Here's all the fun ones, enjoy.

(mp3s) A-B-C-D-PCP...  |  Baa Baa Black Sheep  |  Humpty Dumpty

These here all cleverly update some of your favorite nursery rhymes, while the ones that follow get a little more "very special episode" on you:

(mp3s) You Wanna... y'know?  |  You Don't Know What You Took?!

Now let's go back to 1973, when Bill Cosby actually did this kind of thing pretty well (RM link to Kenny G's show). "The Dopepusher" (alright, the chorus blows -- but those shouted verses are great!)

And finally, don't forget: Daddy drinks because you cry.  (mp3)

Radio News You Can't Use

Decency Drool on the Hill
A recent Senate forum on indecency and broadcasting unearthed a wealth of old ideas and opinions from the usual suspects: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, outraged christians from the PTC, uptight Senator Ted Stevens, and a few TV networks. As predicted, Martin wants to drag cable and satellite TV into the FCC's domain (they already have a bit, as a recent ruling by the commission requires cable and satellite programmers to comply with the nation's Emergency Alert System, EAS), forcing them to offer a-la-carte programming in the name of protecting families (bad news if you're anything like this guy). The pressure is now on for the FCC to levy indecency fines to TV stations with pending complaints before the end of 2005. Indecency fines for radio stations under investigation for infringements, meanwhile, aren't expected to surface until next year.

CPB Shake-Up
Kenneth Tomlinson, the republican former Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), resigned from the board this November, in light of an investigation that found him responsible for misappropriating CPB funds, violating the organization's ethics code, and breaking federal laws. Earlier this year, Tomlinson secretly hired a "consultant" to uncover evidence of liberal bias in PBS programs, leading to the ousting of veteran host Bill Moyers and the creation of a right-bent news program (more on the debacle here). The republican plan to force a partisan agenda in the venue of public broadcasting has been put at bay, at least for now.

Warner Music Group Fesses Up to Payola Accusations
Another Eliot Spitzer-led payola investigation ends with a multi-million dollar settlement...

Meanwhile, Up North
A malicious radio signal disrupted the band at 390 MHz in Ottowa, Canada earlier this month, disabling remote control garage door openers in a 25-mile radius. Some residents are blaming the U.S. military's new Land Mobile Radio System for the interference, but we suspect that the extraterrestrials have now found our most vulnerable weakness and could launch into a full-fledged attack at any moment.

Energy Drink Disguised as Poison... wait, Poison Disguised as Energy Drink
In Missouri, the gatorade/antifreeze myth finally comes to fruition: a wily radio host was charged with slowly poisoning his wife to death by adding antifreeze to her gatorade.

Upcoming Special Programs on WFMU

December is set to be a heartstopping month in terms of live music and special programming on our webstreams, archives, and ever-lovin' FM signal. Go to our upcoming page to peer through the bug splattered windshield that I like to call "the future" for Townes Van Zandt documentarian Margaret Brown, UK folkie Bridget St. John, MIT Professor Noam Chomsky, Garage Rock legends The Original Sins, Philly-style newcomers Jukebox Zeros, avant noiseniks The Noisy Meditation Band, and early 70s John Peel fave Michael Chapman -- all of whom will be swinging through our hallowed halls this month. Also worthy of special attention is the multi-band extravaganza that will be hosted LIVE on Transpacific Sound Paradise from Barbes in Brooklyn. If you're local to the NYC area, come down and experience some LIVE seat-of-the-pants radio with hosts Rob Weisberg and Irene Trudel! More info on all of these special programs can be found here.

From the WFMU News Vault: The Reincarnation of WFMU Poster

In the great tradition of WFMU-related art, here is a poster heralding "the Reincarnation of WFMU", created by an unknown artist sometime in the very-early 1970's.

As seen earlier on this blog, in the Summer of 1969, the WFMU staff walked out in protest in part due to pressure from Upsala College over their "far-out" (free-form) programming.  WFMU was off the air for about 10 months until Upsala hired a new Station Manager who would run the station with "a more professional effort"

At left (click to enlarge) is a copy of this poster which a listener donated to the station.  We estimate that it dates back to the time around when the station went back on the air in 1970.  It is a seriously groovy flyer for the night-time slots, and promises "good karma" and that "a splendid time is guaranteed for all".

The Power of the Floor Compels You

College students at MIT finally got it together and constructed a modern-day version of the disco dancefloor from Saturday Night Fever.

Space out to the bright lights and flashing colors. (avi, 5MB)

Geek out to the construction design and planning schematics.

Check out the followers.

via Pixelsumo

Z Channel's Freeform Movie Mayhem

Seeing Xan Cassavettes' recent documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession I became somewhat jealous that I didn't grow up in LA and have the access to this amazing independent pay-TV service that programmed the most eclectic films imaginable. Z Channel, started in 1974, was freeform defined, broadcasting everything from never-seen-on-TV foreign films to celebrated Golden Turkeys to kitschy softcore, often showcasing single directors or actors for a given week. They were unafraid to air the epic 15 hour Berlin Alexanderplatz. Ratings were not an issue, quality was. And it worked; Z Channel reigned supreme (kicking both HBO and Cinemax's collective asses in the LA area), influencing many minds and breathing life into many overlooked films that the promo machine just didn't work correctly the first time around.

Got to investigate Silophones

That picture on Bryce's recent post reminded me of the Silophone, an audio art experiment that answers the question, "Just what does audio sound like if you pump it through an abandoned 10-story-tall grain storage building in Montreal?"

The building, originally known as Silo #5, was turned into the Silophone by the Montreal artists collectively known as [The User], and has been accessible to interested parties in Montreal's Old Town neighborhood through a cool-looking installation nearby the building. You can also upload audio through the Silophone Website, or phone it in live by calling (514) 844-5555. The Website provides a live audio stream so you can hear other people's contributions or, more often than not, the quiet white noise of a completely silent abandoned building.

More Silophone info available in this NPR story from 2001 about the installation. [The User] played the Silophone on their 2003 CD Abandon (RealAudio sample from the WFMU archives). As far as I know, no WFMU DJ has used the Silophone to augment their on-air talking, but really, it's only a matter of time.

Violence Real and Imagined: Which One Gets Banned?

Here's a recent TV commercial that Microsoft commissioned for it's new Xbox 360 and then banned, ostensibly because the non-existent violence portrayed in it was deemed to be too.. violent: streaming video via youtube. (This seems to be a pattern with Microsoft - here's a link to their last banned ad for the xbox 360.)

And here's the "trophy video" which alleges to show (possibly Irish or Scottish) security contractors in Baghdad randomly shooting at motorists on the infamous highway linking Baghdad to the airport: downloadable quicktime video. Although the incident is being investigated, since the shooters in this case were private employees (of  Aegis Defense, Ltd, a firm hired by the US), they're not in any legal danger, even if the people they shot were innocent civilians. The Elvis song "Mystery Train" was added later by the Aegis employees who shot the footage. The video first appeared on this Aegis employee's site, but the files have since been removed. Here's a Telegraph UK article about it.

The Lost Art of Jim Flora

Purveyors of fine vinyl have no doubt come across the amazing LP designs of Jim Flora, whose illustrations graced the covers of albums by artists like Sauter-Finegan, Gene Krupa, Sidney Bechet and dozens of other jazz LPs from the 40's and 50's. WFMU's own Irwin Chusid was so enamored of Flora's art that he authored a book about him, The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora. Flora's art has also been used on various WFMU T-shirts and bumper stickers, and his style has influenced dozens of current artists such as Tim Biskup and Gary Baseman to name but two.

Recently, Irwin discovered a previously unknown cache of unpublished Flora artwork which showed a new, more demented side of the artist. From an interview with the AIGA Journal of Design, Irwin described the untombed cache of Flora art:

"A lot of his work is cartoonish. It's fun to look at, evocative of childhood nostalgia and dereliction of adult responsibility. There are clowns and kitty cats, grinning faces and beaming suns. But despite his later reputation for G-rated kid-lit, Flora, in many of these works, did not restrain himself from expressing darker impulses. There's no shortage of guns and knives and fang-baring snakes. Muggers run amok, demons frolic with rouged harlots and Flora's characters suffer from severe disfigurement. These elements - the banal and the violent - often co-exist within inches of each other on the canvas."

Here is the full interview with Irwin about his efforts to preserve and publish Flora's discovered works, and here's the great Jim Flora site.

 

Long Live Lassiter

While it wouldn’t be accurate to call Bob Lassiter the best talk radio host of all time, it would be fair to say that he’s probably the least famous great one. In the metro areas where he took calls on the radio (Miami, Tampa and Chicago) he’s still loved and loathed by those who remember his work, but everywhere else he’s mostly known by those who collect and trade tapes of arcane and unusual radio. That is, except for some lucky WFMU listeners who have heard us rebroadcast some of Bob’s radio shenanigans (and yes, there are archives).

So, why am I writing about a local Florida talk host who hasn’t been on the air for six years? And what would make recordings of a talk show collectable in the first place? And more significantly, why in the world would we play portions of his show on WFMU? Simple. When Lassiter was good, he was REALLY good. He could make your jaw drop, make you curse the radio, or maybe just pee your pants.

Unlike other talk hosts who hope to change the world (assert an agenda) or want to be liked, Lassiter's was always driven to simply grab and hold the listener's attention. And he would do whatever he could get away with (or whatever amused HIM at the time) to shock or awe listeners into becoming addicted to his program.

A key element to what made Lassiter’s radio work mind-blowing was how he consistently generated confrontational calls and turned them into compelling radio theater.  Every other talk host I’ve ever heard usually gets off on like-minded callers, but not Bob. In fact, he was often quite impatient with callers who agreed with him. As a master contrarian, phone-in fans and callers on his side merely bored him. They were just getting in the way of the pissed off listeners who were steaming on hold, waiting for their chance to take on “The Mad Dog.”