'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater
podcasts
Note: I recently updated the directory
structure, so links to individual podcasts may not work
but all
the podcasts are still available.
Read the review, hear the music! Read Last
week's review
of Paul and Storm CDs.
Listen to the Shockwave
Radio Theater interview with with Paul and Storm.
Applecon
The first Applecon -- as in the MiniApple = Minneapolis --was held this weekend in Bloomington Minnesota. It was a small, musically intense, very friendly event with some exciting programming activities. This is a report on one programming item.
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Recipe: Chas and Bonnie Somdahl
2 Litres liquid Nitrogen
1 quart heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Narrow deep bowl
Long handled whisk
Gloves
Goggles
Two people
Stir together cream, sugar and vanilla until sugar is dissolved. A whisk is recommended.
Have one person (wearing gloves) hold the bowl & stir quickly as another person pours in nitrogen until frozen.
Makes one quart.
A Visual Demonstration
Stir together cream, sugar and vanilla until sugar is
dissolved. A whisk is recommended.
Have one person
(wearing gloves) hold the bowl & stir quickly as
another person
pours in nitrogen until frozen.
Makes one
quart.
Use a larger bowl than might be
apparent
Dee-lish!
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.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Felice Prager: Neglected Disabilities (irascibleprofessor.com)
It was about four PM. I was home alone. I was sitting on the bed that used to belong to my son before he married and moved to another state. Three of my five cats were looking out the window, and I was watching them as they stalked a bougainvillea leaf as it was being moved by a breeze. I am easily entertained. Some have referred to me as a cheap date.
John Gray: Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican (tvnewslies.org)
Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.
P.J. O'Rourke: "Seven New Deadly Sins: Suitably updated" (weeklystandard.com)
1.Celebrity. This is far and away the besetting sin of the 21st century. Note that the root of the word is "celebrate." What evil, pentagram-enclosed, goat-heinie-kissing ceremony are we celebrating with Kevin Federline?
FROMA HARROP: Score One for Consumers (creators.com)
To anyone who has felt trapped in a circle of bad service: If you haven't heard the story of Mona Shaw, pull up a chair. The 75-year-old Virginian had ordered a much-advertised package of services from Comcast, her cable company. The installers failed to show up at their appointed time. They came by two days later but didn't finish the job. Comcast subsequently cut off all her service. Shaw and her husband decided to visit the Comcast office and speak to the manager. They arrived with their equipment and were directed to a bench. They sat there for two hours. Then a customer representative informed them that the manager had left for the day.
TOM DANEHY: Political correctness run amok has hit the Tucson Fire Department (tucsonweekly.com)
Nobody should have to put up with a hostile work environment. If someone has a lousy job, a hostile work environment makes it exponentially worse, and if someone has a career full of promise and impact, it only takes one knucklehead to mess things up and keep everybody else from fulfilling their potential. However, having a co-worker who's annoying doesn't automatically make the workplace hostile.
Susan Estrich: Fragile Freedoms (creators.com)
What is the line between freedom and responsibility? When is the connection between speech and violence sufficiently close that the speaker can be charged criminally for his words? "We're going after anyone who had any part of getting this Š
Annie Zaleski: John Vanderslice's Spring Mix (Riverfront Times)
Vanderslice came up with a better term for what he chose -- "hopeful weather jams" -- even though his choices aren't necessarily what one might expect.
LORRAINE CARPENTER: Fowl language (montrealmirror.com)
Duchess Says set off a synth-punk explosion on their long-awaited debut LP, Anthologie des 3 Perchoirs, with guidance from their spiritual leader - a budgie named the Duchess.
Katherine Stephen: "FRIDA KAHLO: A FULL LIFE, FULLY EXPRESSED" (csmonitor.com)
Behind Kahlo's carefully cultivated facade was a person for whom art was a lifeline.
A C Grayling: Happiness is the measure of true wealth (telegraph.co.uk)
John Ruskin said, "a man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel." The only way to achieve happiness is therefore to get out of yourself...
Hubert's Poetry Corner
The Surge, the Pause - and the Shaft
Five years down and only 95 years to go?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD's still on the road.
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another record-setting day, heat-wise.
New Global Poverty Campaign
WFDA
A high-powered alliance of women from government, advocacy groups, faith-based organizations and Hollywood kicked off a major campaign Sunday to help impoverished women and girls around the world.
The alliance, which has the backing of Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Queen Noor of Jordan and former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright among other luminaries, announced it had amassed fundraising commitments of 1.481 billion dollars at a summit held at Washington's National Cathedral.
The Women, Faith and Development Alliance (WFDA) said the hundreds of millions of dollars which have been raised so far will cumulatively benefit one billion women and girls burdened by poverty worldwide.
UN figures show that women represent 70 percent of the world's poor, own just one percent of titled land, and make up two-thirds of the world's illiterate people.
WFDA
Foreign Correspondent Now Singer/Songwriter
Doug Levitt
Singer/songwriter Doug Levitt specializes in war zones.
Initially working as an overseas reporter for outlets like CNN and MSNBC, he'd gather firsthand accounts from people in Rwanda, Iran and Bosnia. But now the Washington, D.C., native is "reporting" on conflicts of a different kind.
Four years ago, after returning to the United States, Levitt boarded a Greyhound bus with a bag and a guitar and crossed America for six weeks. He interviewed other travelers -- many of them military veterans -- and began writing songs based on stories of poverty and sticky social issues. He performed in bus terminals and at political rallies and city meetings. When he returned home, he burned some CDs of the songs and wrote a book, "The Greyhound Diaries," published by Dogged Pony. Then he did it all again. And again.
Levitt has since created a Web series that features his music and narrative accounts on douglevitt.com, a home for his thoughts on the conflict in the Middle East and musings on America's shifting political climate. His support of the Democratic Party has also lead to a unique way to share his music: He is a surrogate for the Barack Obama campaign and has stumped for the presidential candidate when he was unable to appear at rallies himself.
Doug Levitt
Cancels Rodeo Concert
Matchbox Twenty
Matchbox Twenty has canceled a performance at a large rodeo event out of concern for the animals.
Lead singer Rob Thomas confirmed that the band is pulling out of its July 18 show at Cheyenne Frontier Days, which bills itself as the world's biggest outdoor rodeo.
"We ask that (fans) please understand that it would be impossible for us to put ourselves in the position of making money from what we believe to be the mistreatment of animals," according to a statement from Thomas posted Saturday on the band's Web site.
The Grammy-winning band is still scheduled to perform this summer at the North Dakota State Fair, which includes rodeo events.
Matchbox Twenty
Gets Opera House
Norway
King Harald V opened Norway's long-awaited national opera house on the shores of the Oslo Fjord on Saturday, kicking off a gala performance before royalty, national leaders and music lovers.
The Nordic nation's newest landmark, a stunning $840 million building of white marble on the water's edge, fulfills a more than 120-year dream for Norwegian music fans used to watching the Norwegian Opera and Ballet in old downtown theaters.
The Norwegian parliament's decision to approve construction and funding of a national opera house belatedly confirmed an overly optimistic 1881 report in an Oslo newspaper that the capital was about to get a new opera house.
Funding problems and political debates contributed to the long delay.
Norway
More Ratings Whoring
'Dr. Phil'
Employees of the "Dr. Phil" television show posted bail for a central Florida teenager jailed for taking part in a videotaped beating of another teen, a spokeswoman for the show's host confirmed Saturday.
Staff members of the talk show helped Mercades Nichols - one of eight teens facing charges in the case - post bond this weekend, "Dr. Phil" McGraw's spokeswoman Terri Corigliano said in an e-mail.
"We have helped guests and potential guests in the past when they need financial assistance to come on the show - assisting with clothing allowance, lost wages, accommodations, travel and necessities," Corigliano wrote. "In this case, certain staff members went beyond our guidelines (re the bail being paid).
"These staff members have been spoken to and our policies reiterated. In addition, we have decided not to go forward with the story as our guidelines have been compromised."
'Dr. Phil'
Going To Court
J.K. Rowling
Author J.K. Rowling is eager to tell a judge this week that one of her biggest fans is in fantasyland if he believes a "Harry Potter" encyclopedia he plans to publish does not violate her copyrights.
The showdown between Rowling and Steven Vander Ark is scheduled to last most of the week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Rowling brought the lawsuit last year against Vander Ark's publisher, RDR Books, to stop publication of the "Harry Potter Lexicon."
Rowling is actually a big fan of the Harry Potter Lexicon Web site that Vander Ark runs. But she draws the line when it comes to publishing the book and charging $24.95. She also says it fails to include any of the commentary and discussion that enrich the Web site and calls it "nothing more than a rearrangement" of her own material.
J.K. Rowling
Rear-Ender
Britney Spears
Britney Spears' motoring misfortunes continue. The pop star was involved in a minor traffic accident late Saturday, but no one was injured and no vehicles were damaged, authorities said.
Spears was driving her 2008 Mercedes on the eastbound Ventura Freeway just east of the 405 freeway about 8:20 p.m. when the mishap occurred, said California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Kimball.
Spears was in stop-and-go traffic when her car struck a 2006 Nissan in front of her that had stopped. The Nissan then pushed forward into another vehicle. No damage was noted to any of the vehicles.
Britney Spears
Behind=The-Scenes Sideshow
'Project Runway'
Not even a catwalk catfight could prove as riveting as the behind-the-scenes sideshow that enveloped "Project Runway" last week.
With NBC Universal contesting in court the move of the unscripted series from its Bravo home to rival Lifetime, the TV industry has a war on its hands worthy of its own reality show.
But with all the attention on the boldfaced names battling over "Runway" -- series producer Harvey Weinstein and NBC honcho Jeff Zucker -- there's a deeper shift of cable's aligned forces only true programming wonks can appreciate.
Picture ABC losing "Grey's Anatomy" -- that's what Bravo faces with the loss of "Runway," one of its longtime hits. While the network is no one-trick pony, possessing one of cable's deeper benches, "Runway" clearly was one of its marquee attractions.
'Project Runway'
Unearth Sox Jersey
New York Yankees
So much for the curse. The New York Yankees have ended a construction worker's attempt to jinx their new stadium with a buried Boston Red Sox jersey.
Team officials watched Sunday as construction workers removed the jersey, with slugger David Ortiz's name on it, from 2 feet of concrete in a service corridor of the stadium that's under construction.
The team says a construction worker - who is a Red Sox fan - recently buried the jersey there while on the job. Two other supervisors found the tattered shirt Saturday.
New York Yankees
Families As Guinea Pigs
Sludge
Scientists using federal grants spread fertilizer made from human and industrial wastes on yards in poor, black neighborhoods to test whether it might protect children from lead poisoning in the soil. Families were assured the sludge was safe and were never told about any harmful ingredients.
Nine low-income families in Baltimore row houses agreed to let researchers till the sewage sludge into their yards and plant new grass. In exchange, they were given food coupons as well as the free lawns as part of a study published in 2005 and funded by the Housing and Urban Development Department.
The Associated Press reviewed grant documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and interviewed researchers. No one involved with the $446,231 grant for the two-year study would identify the participants, citing privacy concerns. There is no evidence there was ever any medical follow-up.
The idea that sludge - the leftover semisolid wastes filtered from water pollution at 16,500 treatment plants - can be turned into something harmless, even if swallowed, has been a tenet of federal policy for three decades.
Sludge
Weekend Box Office
'Prom Night'
Audiences made a date with "Prom Night," the remake of the 1980 slasher flick that took in $22.7 million to debut as the weekend's No. 1 movie, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Opening in second place was 20th Century Fox's "Street Kings," a cop drama starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker that took in $12 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Prom Night," $22.7 million.
2. "Street Kings," $12 million.
3. "21," $11 million.
4. "Nim's Island," $9 million.
5. "Leatherheads," $6.2 million.
6. "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!", $6 million.
7. "Smart People," $4.2 million.
8. "The Ruins," $3.3 million.
9. "Superhero Movie," $3.1 million.
10. "Drillbit Taylor," $2.1 million.
'Prom Night'
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