Was listening to Lukas on KGLT this weekend playing all kindsa insane and inane Xmas-isms. Called him up and he pointed me to Otis Fodder’s three free mp3 free collections, Holiday Freak Out & In. I knew the Otis’ name from his 365 Days Project. But didn’t realize, till Lukas, informed, he’s also the music sampling phenom The Bran Flakes.
Holiday Freak In 1 includes one of the best Christmashups ever; it’s Corporal Blossom assembling bits of Satchmo, Elvis, Bing and The Supremes all wishing for a “White Christmas” (3:19 mp3):
Tomorrow on NPR Morning Edition- Hidden Kitchens is Weenie Royale: The Impact of the Internment on Japanese American Cooking, the latest in the Kitchen Sisters series. Here’s a preview of “Weenie Royale” (2:23 mp3):
Seattle Times sez “Music dies at renowned Crocodile.” The legendary indie-music venue has closed its doors. It’s one thing for CBGBs to shut down. But the Crocodile? WTF? Next you’ll be telling me the Rat(hskeller) in Boston is gone. What’s that? When? Damn.
Big blow-out memorial down the road in Butte last weekend for Evel K, with fireworks, evangelists and thousands of mourners. Leave it to WFMU’s Blog to have Evel Knievel’s LP Always Wear A Helmet with his poem “Why” (5:26 mp3):
An Xmas fave from the Vinyl Orphahage (aka “Our Lady of Perpetual Obsolescence Vinyl Rescue Mission and Orphanage”) comes this Xmas fave Christmas at C.P.H. – , a recorded performance by the Children of the Inpatient Music Therapy Program, University of Michigan’s Children’s Psychiatric Hospital. One of the best on the LP is this audience sing-a-long “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful” (2:16 mp3):
Turns out all those Bollywood dance videos were in English all along. You just haven’t been listening close enuf to the lyrics. YouTuber- buffalax trascribed for us this “Crazy Indian Video… Buffalaxed!”:
“Have you been high today?”
h o w j s a y . c o m is an online English Pronouncing Dictionary. The site uses
They’re associated with fonetiks.org‘s free “guides to the sound systems of ten languages” (including nine varieties of English) and “pronunciation samples by over 40 native speakers.”Their Phonetic Alphabet for Keyboards is potentially useful for radio scripts. “We needed a practical phonetic alphabet for use with a standard computer keyboard. These phonetic annotations were needed as an aid during recording sessions. To increase typing speeds, upper case symbols were mostly avoided and the commonest items were assigned to easy-to-reach keys.” For example:
A while back Found Magazine asked musician friends to craft songs out of their finds, debris of notes and letters that people send in. Several songs appeared on their Found 7-inch vinyl release. But my fave is not on disc, nor any longer online. So, here ’tis, Devon Sproule with “Julie” (3:06 mp3):
(Just heard from Davy Found himself: “we ARE eventually gonna release a CD with songs based on Found notes by awesome musicians, including devon sproule’s “julie” song… we welcome all submissions!”) More…
Weekend America has been running Ann & Kara‘s latest series One Thing, stories of refugees. Last week’s was the sisters Leena and Mariya, and their mother, Shafiqa Sher, “Afghanistan to Amarillo” (8:40 mp3):
Mariya Sher Ali behind the counter of her store, Amarillo International Foods:
The Hollyweird writer’s strike pits the wits of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) against the pens the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Well, online at least, the WGA pens have the AMPTP pinned. AMPTP.org never got around to registering AMPTP.com, but WGA did. Sez Deadline Hollywood Daily of this “satirisite”:
It looks almost identical, too, down to those Did You Know? factlets. (Example: Six out of 10 non-Judd Apatow movies never recoup their original investment… “Writer” comes from the Latin ritem meaning “unhygienic and doughy.”) This is what clearly happens when writers have way too much free time on their hands.
We are heartbroken to report that despite our best efforts, including sending them a muffin basket, making them a mix CD, and standing outside their window with a boombox blasting Peter Gabriel songs, our talks with the WGA have broken down.
While we’re not going to point fingers or assign blame, we do feel justified in saying that they are entirely at fault.
Why does the WGA hate freedom and democracy so much?
Notice: The staff of ChestyMorgan’sForbiddenLove! and Post-Modern Times — two of the ground- and wind-breaking radio shows of the last century, announce their consolidation into a new entity called:
The Witless Protection Program
featuring Larry and The Self-Fulfilling Prophets… Brought to you by Chesty Chunks, the breakfast Cereal roasted in the box by Larry himself — for better flavor and better sleep.
We reach back this week to a time in the last century when airline pilots still took the time to tell you why you were scared and tired, when woman challenged men to tell us things, and a little angel named Rollo could tell time.
Had some visitors here in the ‘hood. This message and photo came in from my neighbor (Thanks, Debbie)…
This is one of the 2 cougar kits that was roaming our neighborhood. This one found refuge in our window well until Fish and Game came and got him. What a beautiful animal.
Sound-artist Joan Schuman offers her audio oeuvre online as HyperAcousia. What’s a sound-artist? Glad you asked… “Radio~Sound~Art” by Joan Schuman (6:07 mp3):
Welcome to the World Premiere of the earth-shaking, ass-tounding new old radio show ChestyMorgan’sForbiddenLove! The Producers are the well-known international dateline traders and typhoon tycoons, Artissimmo Silverguy, Ask Amy, The Medium is the Massett, Christ Mantra, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Flowers.
So, you asked for it, and you’re gonna get it. Now, Loadies and Gentrifieds, w/o any further undo, we give you CMFL, Episode One, in which our Chesty searches for Identity (7:36 mp3):
Tune in next week when Chesty gives good headings to the Dog Lovelorn.
Born with no legs, photographer Kevin Connolly rolls thru the streets of the world and takes pictures of the folk looking down at him: The Rolling Exhibition.
(The guy lives in my hometown so you can bet I’ll be doing a radio story with him.)
UPDATE: ABC News 20/20 ran a piece on Kevin. Thanks for all your comments, however, this is NOT Kevin’s site. I’ll forward your notes to him, but do visit his web works at The Rolling Exhibition and Kevin Michael Connolly.
Tomorrow on NPR Morning Edition- 
Seattle Times sez “
Big blow-out memorial down the road in Butte last weekend for Evel K, with fireworks, evangelists and thousands of mourners. Leave it to WFMU’s Blog to have Evel Knievel’s LP 
An Xmas fave from the Vinyl Orphahage (aka “Our Lady of Perpetual Obsolescence Vinyl Rescue Mission and Orphanage”) comes this Xmas fave 
This morn on 
A while back 
The Hollyweird writer’s strike pits the wits of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) against the pens the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Well, online at least, the WGA pens have the AMPTP pinned. 
Sound-artist Joan Schuman offers her audio oeuvre online as 
This American Life on the radio, on TV, on tour: you never know where 
Welcome to the World Premiere of the earth-shaking, ass-tounding new old radio show 
Born with no legs, photographer Kevin Connolly rolls thru the streets of the world and takes pictures of the folk looking down at him: