Tuesday, April 30, 2013

FIRST FRIDAYS OPEN MIC

Hi all,


This Friday May 3rd at 7 pm at the Marmora Curling Club (2 Crawford) the lights will be up, the sound system on, the beer chilled.

I hope you'll come out. We had a packed house last time. Fun, friendly, and musically diverse.

Email or call if you have any questions.

Eileen

613 472 1042

DEAR DUMB DIARY

I recently read the first book in the Dear Dumb Diary series, the diaries of Jamie Kelly, written by some guy whose name I can never remember.

Man, if this girl were my daughter, I would take her out to the woodshed and beat her with a board with a large nail sticking out of it.

RADIO-RELATED STUFF: ADLER LEAVES SYNDICATION

So Charles Adler is no longer going to be syndicated as of September 3. Wonder what AM 640 is going to do?

Picked up WIMA 1150 Saturday night.

Didn't realize Michael Barry was as widely syndicated as he is.

THE SNOW GOOSE

Man this story by Paul Galico ends tragically. I mean, could he not have ended it on at least somewhat of a positive note, like having all the geese survive with Frissa taking care of them in the man's memory or something?

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

DETECTIVE LEAPHORN

I like the Tony Hillerman novels about Detective Joe Leaphorn. Though I don't care for all the Native mythology in these books, they have a certain charm to them. They also focus on a place that isn't really talked about.

MEDIA-RELATED STUFF

Partially at least, it sucks "Bomb Girls" isn't being renewed.

"The Parent Report" needs to start making new episodes.

I dislike that Subaru commercial with the husband, wife and baby going on a trip.

I also dislike that Nature Stone commercial where the guy talks about always forgetting stuff his wife told him to do.

Glad CJBQ has death announcements again. With a lot of places around here not having daily newspapers, you can sometimes hear about a death too late to attend the funeral.

989 The Drive was coming in sort of well today.

WRMM Rochester was also coming in well today.

The music on Fly FM has sure changed from what used to be played.

Monday, April 22, 2013

RADIO-RELATED STUFF

Listened to Indie 88.1 Toronto online today. Sounded pretty awesome and definitely different than what any other station is doing.

Are the full three national hours of "Ground Zero" on WGY now?

Kudos to Fox News for mentioning the Juneau Awards.

I continue to hear that numbers thing on WTWW 5830.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

SAM CAMPBELL

I've been rereading the Sam Campbell books in the last couple years. I read them as a child but didn't really understand them.

On the whole, they're quite enjoyable. However, I don't know how true some of the stories are, though. Everything seems to work out too perfectly.

I just reread "On Wings of Cheer." It brought back a lot of memories from childhood and I got into some of the descriptions and activities in the book.

That being said, even I think the idea of naming three racoons Amos, Andy and the Kingfish is racist. Plus no kids today will get that reference anyway.

I get the books from a Christian organization for the blind which is kind of strange because they seem kind of humanist at times, along the line of thinking that man will one day work out all his problems.

REPLY AWL

This week's edition of the online Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind contains an article by Karen Krowter about trying out a new digital mixer. It was nice to here about her experimenting with this piece of technology.

The editorial in the February issue of Good Times started out good but quickly turned pithy.

There is an article in last week's issue of the online Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind about the radio station at Perkins School for the Blind. I wish the school for the blind I went to had had a radio station, or really anything in the way of encouraging someone to get into radio.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

NOEL JONES-GOD WILL GET YOU THROUGH THE STORM

Overall this was a wonderful, powerful sermon.

I think Jones could have used a better example about marriage than health, though. There are caring men and women married to sickly spouses by choice.

BREAK ON THROUGH

by Jill Murray. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2007.

Nadeen Durant moves with her family from Parkdale to Rivercrest. She struggles to adapt to her new life and forms a b-girling group to appear at an important battle.

The main thing I took from this book was how Nadeen's parents don't want to be "the black people." They try to keep their credit card troubles quiet and have the neighbour over for shrimp, but there is this undercurrent of them being thought of as the black people throughout the book, even though it isn't said.

I also picked up on the fact Nadeen's parents ignore her (except to nag and yell at her) and devote all their time to the new baby because this new daughter is going to be their legitimate child for whom, unlike Nadeen, they can do everything right. Buck of it is they live so far away that bucking kid is going to be raised by the bucking daycare centre anyway.

Pathos is also developed for Nadeen, who had never had friends or really been good at anything until she discovered break dancing. Now she's a square peg living with two other square pegs trying to fit into the round hole of some horrible subdivision. I mean buck, you can't even call it the suburbs and you certainly can't call it a community because most of the residents work in Toronto and have two-hour commutes each way so a community can't develope.

RITA MACNEIL DEAD AT 68

Former Canadian TV show host and singer Rita MacNeil has died of complications from surgery at the age of 68.

I admire the fact that she had a variety show in the nineties when variety shows had disappeared from the television landscape decades earlier.

I also enjoyed the parodies Double Exposure used to do of her.

Friday, April 12, 2013

THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN: JOE STRUMMER

This is an informative and interesting documentary about the unique lead singer of The Clash. I especially love the clips of Strummer's BBC show interspersed throughout the film and the old television and home movie clips.

RADIO-RELATED STUFF: TRYING TO GET WEATHER INFORMATION DURING A BAD STORM

The other night WTAM was running two feeds at the same time.

Glad Paul and Carol Mott now have a syndicated show.

Took my radio down to my buddy's place today and listened to 1310 News.

THE NHL AND HOMOSEXUALITY

So the NHL wants players to come out and to create an atmosphere friendlier to homosexuality, you know, that thing God calls an abomination?

The NHL and the organization they've partnered with don't just mean they want players to feel free to be openly homosexual, which would be bad enough. These entities are in this to create future homosexuals. Lots of kids idolize these athletes. They tie their skates like them, imitate the way they play and probably even eat the players' favourite foods. If a child or teenager learns his favourite NHL or other major league sports star goes out with other guys, chances are he's going to want to do it as well.

You have to wonder: The NHL has this lock out over revenue sharing or something and finally, after months and months decides on 50-50, an agreement the owners and players could have reached in August. Considering it takes a while to get things like the homosexuality initiative going, you have to wonder what was really being discussed during the negotiations.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

FORGIVING THE ABUSER

In her book "Meeting Myself", Brenda J. Wood talks about forgiving a now dead relative who abused her when she was twelve. She recounts going to the abuser's gravesite, weeping for him and praying that he is in Heaven.

While it is definitely essential for a victim to forgive an abuser for the sake of being right with God as well as for their own personal peace of mind, I don't agree with weeping over the fact that a dead abuser wasn't saved and praying that he is in glory. God is a god of justice and a pedophile deserves the death penalty and to spend eternity in Hell. Also, the whole praying that they're in Heaven thing is kind of skirting the Catholic teaching that you can pray someone out of purgatory in my opinion.

PAUL MCCARTNEY REALLY IS DEAD: THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF GEORGE HARRISON

Though I do believe in a lot of conspiracies and things of that nature, I try to think logically and judiciously about things.

The set up for this documentary is a filmaker receiving two mini-cassettes preporting to be George Harrison explaining how Paul McCartney was killed in a car accident in 1966. These cassettes were recorded in December 1999, around the time Harrison was stabbed by a deranged man.

This documentary has several problems.

First, to my knowledge, the tapes received by the documentarian are never played in the film. The man who made the film says pherensic experts could not conclude whether the voice on the tapes was that of Harrison's or not, but the technology available in 2005 when the tapes were received should have been able to draw some sort of conclusion.

Second, the content of the tapes is narrated in the film by a guy trying to do a Liverpublian accent. The impersonater fails at this spectacularly. English people don't pronounce Maxwell "Moxwell" or decapitated "decopitated." Also, I believe Liverpublians don't drop all their hs, just some.

The film claims McCartney left Abbey Road Studios at 5:00 a.m. on November 9, 1966. At 6:00 a.m., a man calling himself Maxwell ("Moxwell") came to the studio just as the three other Beatles were leaving. Maxwell related to them the news McCartney had died and said he was with MI-5, who had taken over the case due to it's high-profile nature. McCartney had apparently picked up a hitchhiker named Rita who had managed to flee the vehicle and get help.

In those days, in an age without cell phones and other forms of instant communication, how was it that the following series of events took place in one hour: Paul left the studio, started driving, picked up Rita, continued driving, got into an accident, Rita called for help, the local police came, the local police called in MI-5, Maxwell came to the studio?

After Paul died, the film claims a man named William Campbell was chosen to be the false Paul and was made to look like McCartney.

First, why doesn't the filmaker compare Paul's voice before November 9, 1966 with his voice after?

Second, McCartney was left-handed while Campbell was right-handed. Why aren't examples of McCartney playing before and after that day also shown in the film?

The film claims clues about McCartney's death are spread throughout "Rubber Soul", both in song lyrics and cover art. Yet, "Rubber Soul" was released December 3, 1965, nearly a year before Paul's supposed death.

It is also claimed "Act Naturally", on "Yesterday And Today", is about the band coping with their friend and bandmate's death. In actuality this is a cover of a Buck Owens song.

It was at this point I stopped watching the film.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

HAM CHATTER

Heard a ham talking Saturday night. He was talking about bike trails and campsites in Pennsylvania and I think other parts of the northeast.

DR. JOHN MCDOUGALL, YOU ARE TICKING ME OFF

So Dr. John McDougall comes on "Coast To Coast" the other night to talk about carnateen, a supplement I had never heard of till then and wasn't planning to take anyway. He starts talking against nutritional supplements, saying they take nutrients away from your body, and that instead people should eat a vegan diet.

First, what brands of supplements were used in the studies McDougall looked at? There are a lot of crummy brands of supplements out there.

Second, there's no real proof vegans are healthier than other people. Actually, studies might indicate they're less healthy because they can't get certain ameno acids and forms of calcium and vitamin B-12 as easily.

Lots of vegans substitute meat products with soy imitations but this is also bad because most soy is genetically modified. Soy also increases estrogen levels.

McDougall ends the interview by saying to George Norey, "I've been working on you. I'm slowly having an effect" or something like that. That is just being an arrogant son of a bitch right there.

Monday, April 8, 2013

JESSI'S GOLD MEDAL

by Anne M. Martin (but really some ghost writer.) New York: Scholastic, 1992.

This is the Baby-sitters Club book where Jessi takes up synchronised swimming. I wonder if she ever met Buck McSweeny.

I had read a couple BSC books as a kid, due to lack of reading material in formats blind children could access. When I attended the school for the blind in what would normally have been my high school years (though I don't really refer to them as such), a girl I liked was into this particular series so consequently I got into them as well.

First, the obvious thing regarding this book is that in general black people don't swim;. The Ramseys, from the few Jessi-centric BSC books I've read, are about the whitest black family around.

Second, the subplot of this book involves the Baby-sitters planning a kiddy olympics. They have their hands full because Stoneybrook's children take to the idea like ducks to water and all come over to each other's houses to practice. These days, the BSC would probably be sued into oblivion for having an uneven ratio of sitters to children as outlined by the BSC's official legal policy.

People speculate about what would have happened to the members of the Baby-sitters Club when they got older. Really, you can't tell from these stories because people can change drastically after entering high school.

Possibly the one with the most potential would have ended up on welfare in subsidised housing raising a bunch of kids. That seems to happen all too often in this world today.

Also I think there's a possibility Kristy might have grown up to be a dyke.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF BEAUTY

by Sylvia McNicoll. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2004.

Elizabeth Kerr, a fifteen year old girl who has just entered high school, is raising her second guide dog. She meets Kyle Nicholson, a sixteen year old who is petrified of dogs and has just lost his sight.


I have a couple major problems with this book.

First, the continuity is all bucked up. Kyle enters school the second week of the schoolyear and has an Orientation and Mobility lesson the Friday night of that week. Yet, Liz sees him at the mall with his instructor on what is supposed to be the first Friday of the schoolyear.

The second major problem I have with this book can be summed up in the line "That guy deserved to be stuck with a white cane the rest of his life."

While guide dogs are great assets for many blind people, they aren't for everyone. As I have stated a couple times on this blog, I prefer being a cane user. A guide dog is not for everyone, and this group includes myself.

Also, what is this magical world where OandM instructors work Friday night and there's always one available when needed? In reality, the CNIB's staff is spread so thin those types of people can barely see clients every two weeks.

Friday, April 5, 2013

REPLY AWL

The First Quarter 2013 issue of Children's Friend contains an exerpt from a book. The exerpt is entitled "Just Like Jesus." The piece starts off really well but by the end degenerates into Seventh-day Adventist legalism.

There is a story in the same magazine written from the perspective of the daughter of Jairus. She is the dead girl Jesus raised in Mark 5 21-43, Luke 8 40-56 or Matthew 9 18-26. I kind of think it's dangerous when stories are told based on incidents in the Bible like this because we really don't know the details.

There is a really good article in the December 22 2012 issue of Guide that talks about a fungus that grows inside an ant and eventually kills the ant.

Returning to the First Quarter 2013 edition of Children's Friend, there is a story in the magazine about a boy named Jordan who receives a book from a Seventh-day Adventist missionary and then asks Jesus into his heart. First, the boy probably hadn't attained the age of accountability. Second, the story doesn't contrast his life and the life of his family before Jesus and after.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

PAULINE CARELLI-BLOOM

I like the Pauline Carelli-Bloom books by Edeet Ravel. They kind of remind me of the Adrian Mole series.

Though the aspects of the books targeted to the fourteen year old demographic can get to me at times, there is still a fair amount this nearly thirty year old man can laugh at and enjoy here.

A GOOD HORSE

by Jane Smiley. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.

Abby is a thirteen year old girl growing up a few decades ago on a ranch in northern California. When her father gets a letter saying one of the mares he bought the year before may have been stolen property, Abby is faced with the possibility of having to give up the foal she loves.

While ostensibly about the potential problems caused by the foal of the possibly stolen horse, this book is more about Abby being thirteen and learning more about the world. Contrasts are drawn between Abby's life on the ranch with her devout Christian parents and that of Jane Slater, her riding instructor, and the Goldman sisters, girls from school who's house Abby visits a few times.

This is a wonderful book that really draws you into the narrative.

RADIO-RELATED STUFF

So I have to turn to CKNX for my Blue Jays games now?

Glad WRVO has the same staff announcer they did back when I listened regularly in the nineties.

WGY has been coming in really well the last couple nights.

Arnold Murray's broadcasts appear to have moved one hour later on World Harvest Radio, from 2:00 p.m. Eastern to 3:00 p.m.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

RADIO-RELATED STUFF

This week's episode of "This American Life" was sure interesting.

Can't believe Lester Roloff's messages are still on the air.

It would appear Pirate Joe's show isn't on WBCQ anymore.

FIRST FRIDAYS OPEN MIC IN MARMORA (THIS FRIDAY EVENING AT 7:00)

Hi all,


Our friend Eileen Quinn has asked me to forward this information (scroll way down....) to everyone on our email list for the Amazing Jam. Eileen hosts the “First Fridays’ Open Mic” at the Marmora Curling Club. As you might imagine, this event takes place on the First Friday of every month at the Curling Club in Marmora. (That will be this Friday....!) What you may not know is that this is one of the absolute best open microphone events around.

It is well worth a visit.

Sign up on the stage list when you arrive. The format is 2 or 3 songs per act in rotation, followed by a second set (time permitting) of 2 or 3 songs for those who want to play some more. Starts at 7 pm, runs until about 10.

Eileen is terrific, the venue is excellent, the atmosphere is welcoming, the beer is cold, the red wine is passable, the snacks are very edible and everyone has an excellent evening of music in the company of friends and like-minded people. The range of music offered is quite eclectic. The venue is supportive to ‘first-timers’ and experienced performers alike. Performers range from young people in their teens to proto-geezers like myself.

Those of us who’ve played this venue give it an ‘Amazing Recommendation’. It’s really worth checking out. Come to perform or be part of the audience. You’ll enjoy yourself!

Eileen is building her own email list to promote this event. So please, if you want to be assured of updates and be kept in touch directly from her, email her in return and ask to have your address added to her list.

regards,

James Reid




First Fridays’ Marmora



April 5th at 7pm

Bring your ears, voice, instrument, friends

Marmora Curling Club

2 Crawford