'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
By Baron Dave Romm
Hell
and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and
What We Should Do by Joseph Romm.
A clear, concise and convincing book on climate change and why we
need to hurry to fix the problem.
Climate Progress: An
Insider's View of Climate Science, Politics and Solutions
Shockwave
Radio Theater Podcasts
for iTunes and iPods, with pictures
Shockwave Radio
broadcasts on archive.org
Bookmark my bookmark page.
Nascent Wikipedia entry for Shockwave Radio Theater
Folksinger - Treehugger
Disclaimer: Michael Johnathon is from the same part of the country where I grew up -- the Hudson Valley area of NY -- and we have a mutual friend in Pete Seeger. But we never met and I hadn't heard of him until these CDs came my way. I wound up in Minneapolis, he found a home in Kentucky. Neither of us quite left that area of the country, that curve of New England from Boston to New York that encompasses the Berkshires, the Catskills and the lower Hudson, which avoids the megalopolis to the south as well as the mountains and seacoast to the north. His songs remind me of Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School of Art.
Johnathon is quite active, and the WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour is now also on tv, he has a live webcast, blog, and more! The liner notes say he has "nine released albums and two books ", but I can only comment on the three CDs I have.
Walden: The Earth Song Collection
Walden: The Earth Song Collection is a fine CD and fitting tribute to Henry David Thoreau. The first song comes from a two act, four character play Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau:
Still, the songs I like best remind me of the gentle hills and bucolic yet close-to-civilization to be found in the foothills of the Catskills. In The Woods has some marvelous harmonies and nostalgic instrumental breaks as well as colorful lyrics:
Similarly, The Cabin, "the music from a chimney fire fills the air again" and imagery. I never lived in a cabin in the wood, but I knew a lot of people who did.
There are too many people in the world for everyone to go live alone in the wilderness, so Thoreau's lifestyle makes lousy urban planning. Still, simplifying your life and keeping an eye on what's important are useful ways to structure your life. The collective nostalgia for places and times we never experienced are, nonetheless, home to many. Walden: The Earth Song Collection is an album about the home you never had, but remember. The songs are iPod worthy (iPw) and the CD is Highly Recommended.
Evening Song
Evening Song isn't about Thoreau or the Catskills, but the writer and the mountains lurk in the background. Even on a red-eye flight going from coast to coast is cause to reminisce about the Americana one passes while traveling alone. "I saw America late one night" along Blue Highways. Many of the songs are about being alone and trying not to be. Evening songs. His dealings with women run the gamut, when she leaves by the Nighttime Star and loves him as she and the family sings a Sunday Song and he frees her to stay as her love brings out his Spirit:
The Troubadour wonders where the time has gone. He bemoans the destruction caused by the Master of War who are away from the fighting; a live cover of the Dylan song.
Evening Song is, perhaps, the strongest of these three albums, which is saying a lot. Johnathon orchestrates the music with 18 of his friends. The sound is lush and inviting; acoustic country folk at its finest. Highly Recommended and well iPw.
Live
When Michael Johnathon puts out a Live album, he doesn't play around. And this is Volume 2 of The Best of WoodSongs! The picture of Michael Johnson and the FolkBoy Orchestra with Irish songstress Maura O'Connell shows eight people. As with most live albums, it was probably a great concert. The CD avoids most of the common mistakes of live albums, and produces a strong, tight effort.
Wings of Change establishes that "The only part of life that will ever stay the same is: everything will change." When it does, we might die from those mistakes that never go away in The World We Made. He covers Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door and sings of women who leave and women who wait. The longest song, and the saddest, is Chimney and the Grave, a duet with O'Connell as parents are ripped apart after the death of their child:
The wrenching imagery continues, with somber mandolin and cello in the background. Eventually a song rises from the ashes of despair, but it's toolate for the marriage. Not a song I can listen to a lot.
Live is the earliest of the three CDs, I think. Johnathon is very busy touring and promoting acoustic folk music, appearing on various NPR shows and such. While it has many strong songs and terrific performances, this isn't the CD to start off with, though you'll want to add it to your collection if you like either of the two above.
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
Nat Hentoff: The CIA's No-Questions-Asked Travel Agent (villagevoice.com)
CIA director Michael Hayden, defending the practice of sending terrorism suspects to countries that interrogate by torture via secret "renditions," told USA Today last month that this program is "lawful, in keeping with Western values.
Rick Perlstein: How Liberal Activists Outfoxed FOX (TomPaine.com; Posted on commondreams.org)
A really illuminating panel showed how a major right-wing organization was set back on its heels - and how it can be done again and again and again.
Josh Aterovis: Interview With Rod McCullom (afterelton.com)
Rod McCullom , creator of Rod 2.0, has been on both sides of the journalistic fence. In addition to founding Rod 2.0, one of the most popular and informative gay blogs online, he has also worked for almost every major network news outlet. We recently talked with him about the differences between blogging and mainstream news, his friendship with Perez Hilton, and what he hopes to achieve with his online writing.
"Hey, bitches!" (advocate.com)
The newest Web celeb is YouTube's William Sledd-the fashion-savvy Gap manager from Paducah, Ky. The genial 23-year-old talks to us about homophobia, boyfriends, and movin' on up to Bravo.
Don't Quote Me: Why I Choose Jodie Foster (afterellen.com)
The top 10 reasons Kim Ficera loves the lesbian icon.
Interview by Wendy Schuman: Pete Seeger's Session (beliefnet.com)
A Beliefnet interview with the great folk singer on God, religion, and whether music can change the world.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
THAT Night at Leroy's Corral
Primeval urges of youth on a sultry distant Saturday night in a small
southwestern town?
Purple Gene Reviews
'Stan Lee's Harpies'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and pleasant.
Alzheimer's Campaign
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce is helping start a campaign against Alzheimer's disease, which he saw two family members suffer from.
"I think the hardest thing in both cases, with my grandfather and with my dad, were the moments when they understood what was happening to them," Pierce said on ABC's "This Week" program in a segment that aired Sunday. "It's a disease that takes your brain apart, a piece at a time. And it doesn't stop till it kills you."
The longtime "Frasier" co-star said the Alzheimer's Association's Champions campaign aims to recruit one American for every person with Alzheimer's. A website lets people sign up for events, make donations and buy T-shirts. More than five million people in the U.S. live with the disease, according to the association.
David Hyde Pierce
Arrive After 34 Years
Missing Films
Musty brown boxes containing educational films about the Netherlands have finally made their way back to western Michigan, 34 years late.
Holland, Mich., Postmaster John Masuga believes someone had the two boxes stored somewhere, found them and tossed them in a mail collection box. They already had metered postage and arrived in Holland from a bulk mail facility in Allen Park.
The boxes were from University of Wisconsin-Barron County and the University of Texas in Austin. The films were loaned by the former Netherlands Information Service, a public relations office run here by the Dutch government from 1936 to 1974 that is a precursor to the Holland Museum.
One of the boxes arrived June 15 containing the educational films "Jan - Boy of the Netherlands," "Rotterdam Europort: Gateway to Europe" and "The Netherlands - Blueprint of an Urban Society."
The other came Tuesday, with the Dutch-language films "Zeilen" (Sailing) and "Holland Terra Fertilis" (Fertile Land).
Missing Films
Victim Of Street Crime?
Foxy Brown
Rapper Foxy Brown - who's on probation for assault and facing a battery charge in a separate case - had another brush with violence over the weekend. But this time, she was the victim, police said.
Four people teamed up to rob the racy rapper of a Louis Vuitton bag, $500 in cash and credit cards around 5:30 a.m. Saturday in the East New York section of Brooklyn, police said.
Roshawn Anthony, 23, was arraigned Sunday on charges of robbery, assault and grand larceny, said Clinton Hughes, an attorney with Legal Aid who is representing Anthony.
Brown's lawyer, state Sen. John Sampson, did not immediately return telephone and e-mail messages early Sunday. But Brown told the New York Post that the robbery never happened, and that she hadn't been at the location police gave, near a public housing complex.
Foxy Brown
Speaking Terms
Lennon's Sons
Half brothers Julian and Sean Lennon have begun speaking to each other again.
Their reconciliation follows Julian's eight-year feud with Sean and Sean's mother, Yoko Ono, the widow of the men's father, Beatle John Lennon, the New York Post reported in Sunday's editions.
The rift stemmed from comments Julian made about Yoko Ono, he told the Post. Julian's mother is John's first wife, Cynthia.
"I thought it time to make big changes in my own life," Julian, 44, told the Post in what the paper said was his first interview since 1999. "Part of that has been to get Sean back into my life, because I love him so much."
Lennon's Sons
Weekend Box Office
'Evan Almighty'
Steve Carell proved not nearly as all-powerful as Jim Carrey. "Evan Almighty," with Carell taking over for Carrey in a follow-up to the comedy smash "Bruce Almighty," debuted a solid No. 1 with $32.1 million, though that was less than half the $68 million opening of its predecessor, according to studio estimates Sunday.
1. "Evan Almighty," $32.1 million.
2. "1408," $20.175 million.
3. "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," $20.15 million.
4. "Ocean's Thirteen," $11.3 million.
5. "Knocked Up," $10.6 million.
6. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," $7.2 million.
7. "Surf's Up," $6.7 million. 8. "Shrek the Third," $5.8 million.
9. "Nancy Drew," $4.5 million.
10. "A Mighty Heart," $4 million.
'Evan Almighty'
Battling Parents
The Lohans
The parents of troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan are fighting in a Long Island court over visitation of their younger children. Estranged father Michael Lohan claimed at a hearing Friday that Dina Lohan failed to make payments as part of their separation agreement.
Michael Lohan's lawyer, John DiMascio, said he plans to file a motion to set aside the agreement and impending divorce by proving Dina Lohan did not live up to the terms. Dina Lohan accused Michael of breaking the rules first, but did not specify how.
The two also are arguing in Nassau Family Court whether Michael Lohan has the right to visit their younger children.
They have three other children in addition to Lindsay: Michael, 19; Ali, 13; and Dakota, 10.
The Lohans
The Perfect 'Cash Crop'
Princess Diana
Princess Diana's brother and sons fear she will always be the perfect "cash crop."
With the 10th anniversary of her death looming in August, bookstands and magazine racks are already awash with tales of "The People's Princess" as documentaries rehash her final days.
Her family says that Diana, once the world's most photographed woman and epicenter of a whole celebrity industry, will never be allowed to rest in peace.
Princess Diana
Celebrates Potato Diversity
Peru
The humble potato puts on a dazzling display at 13,000 feet above sea level.
Along the frigid spine of the Andes, men and women in bare feet uproot tubers of multiple shapes and colors - yellow, red, blue, purple, violet, pink with yellow spots, yellow with pink spots; round, oblong, twisted, hooked at the end like walking canes or spiraled like spinning tops.
Their names in Quechua, the ancient language of the Andes, evoke an intimate human connection: "best black woman," "best red woman," "makes the daughter-in-law cry," "like a deer's white tongue," "red shadow" and "like an old bone," to name a few.
Respect for the many variations of potatoes is so profound among Aymara's 650 villagers that it was a natural place for the world's agronomists to produce seeds for a gene bank to preserve their diversity. The cold climate also protects against parasites that infest low-lying potato farms.
Peru
Aims For Blogger-In-Chief
Fred Thompson
If Republican Fred Thompson enters the presidential race next month as expected, the actor and former senator will be aiming to add another title to a crowded resume -- blogger-in-chief.
Thompson has been contributing frequently to conservative Web sites as he gears up for a 2008 presidential bid, posting thoughts on topics ranging from the French election to the Middle East and the immigration debate.
Thompson has promised to keep the Web commentaries coming even after he formally kicks off his campaign. He praises the blogosphere as part of "a true information revolution."
Fred Thompson
In Memory
Willy Holt
US-born film production designer and art director Willy Holt, who worked with leading film directors in Hollywood and France, has died in Paris, aged 85, his family said Saturday.
Holt, who died Friday, was awarded France's top film prize the Cesar for best production design in 1988 for Louis Malle's "Au revoir les enfants."
He also worked with Malle in his 1990 film "Milou en mai."
Among his many credits were John Frankenheimer's 1965 film "The Train" and Fred Zinnemann's "Five Days One Summer" shot in 1982.
He was also production designer for Rene Clement's Franco-American film "Is Paris Burning? [AKA: Paris brûle-t-il?] (1966)".
Born in Florida but a French citizen, Holt wrote about his deportation to Auschwitz in his 1995 book "Femmes en deuil sur un camion".
He was a member of the French Resistance and was arrested in the eastern city of Grenoble in December 1943 when transferring money for anti-Nazi Resistance fighters.
Willy Holt
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