dimland radio 4-4-10 show notes

Just when I thought I was getting to hang of this radio thing, I forgot to have my iTunes activated properly with my broadcast software. I spotted the error in the first few minutes and corrected it. But we I listened to the show afterward, I noticed that my opening did not broadcast. Whoops. Well, I’m working on it.
Condolences to Tanya Douglas and her family

Z Talk’s own, Tanya Douglas and her family recently suffered the loss of her father-in-law. I took the first few minutes of the show to express my deepest sympathies.

Scooby Doo, How Could You?!

I talked about being disappointed by the animated feature ‘Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost’. My main objection was that there was an actual ghost in it. You read more in the previous blog entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo_and_the_Witch’s_Ghost

Movie talk

I talked about an AARP movie quiz, continuity errors and lens flare. My favorite film continuity error comes from ‘A Christmas Carol’ from 1951 – a face in the mirror! It was likely a crew member and not a ghost.

http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/powerof50/articles/top_50_movie_zingers.html

I talked about ‘Wall-E’ with the lens flare usage. There is no camera used in the creation of Pixar films such as ‘Wall-E’.

There was no camera used in ‘Wall-E’ yet we still accept the lens flare.


Penn & Teller: Bulls Hit

I transitioned from ‘Wall-E’ into talking about Penn & Teller’s skeptical program that airs on Showtime. I used ‘Wall-E’s first 20 minute depiction of a trash ridden world to talk about Penn & Teller’s take on recycling. The world will not be buried in trash.

Warning! Penn & Teller: Bulls Hit contains bad language and nudity. They also use sarcasm and insults toward those with whom they disagree. View at your own discretion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvz-z7CvsYA

Ouija Boards and Haunted 911

While sticking with Penn & Teller: Bulls Hit, I’m mentioned trying to describe a Ouija board test they had done to the hosts (Ray & Wayne) of Haunted 911. I difficulty getting the point across through the Z Talk chat room, so I decided to talk about it on my show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG4wTZuT3wM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA5uYhXpa-E&feature=related

Minnesota Twins baseball!

I closed out the show with a little Twins talk. They have a new ballpark, just for them. There will be no more sharing a stadium with our football team, the Minnesota Vikings.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ahead’ by Wire
First ad break bumpers: ‘Your Silent Face’ by New Order & ‘Beat Surrender’ by The Jam
Second ad break bumpers: ‘Abacab’ by Genesis & ‘Whatever’ by Husker Du
Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook’ by $5 Fiddle

That’s it! See you next week for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com You can also download my show from the Z Talk On Demand page.

scooby doo, how could you?!

Some of my readers may be aware that I have recently started doing an internet radio show. It’s called Dimland Radio and you can find it at www.ztalkradio.com Saturday nights at 11:00 central. In fact, you can read my show notes each week right here at my blog. There, that gets the plug out of the way.
The first topic of my first show was ‘Scooby Doo, Where Are You?’, because it was the first kids’ program that encouraged a skeptical viewpoint. It debuted in September 1969, focusing on four kids and their dog roaming the countryside in their Mystery Machine van, looking for mysteries to solve. These intrepid trust-funders (there was never a hint of any of them having a job) would stumble upon a mystery of some apparent supernatural event and search for clues. Chased by ghosts, witches, werewolves and other assorted creeps, our heroes would always manage to reveal the truth and catch the bad guys.

The bad guys, as I’m sure you are aware, never turned out to be anything near being supernatural. It was never an actual ghost or witch or werewolf. It was nearly always a person in a costume (there was the one episode where the creep was a robot run amok). It’s a wonder that the kids, especially Shaggy and Scooby, would continue to be scared of “g-g-g-ghosts!” After all the times the mystery turned out not to be supernatural, you’d think they would no longer believe in ghosts or the like.

Just the other day, when I got home from work, I joined my son in watching a Scooby Doo animated movie online via Netflix. (Oh, Netflix! How truly wonderful thou art!) The show was called ‘Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost’. It was produced in 1999, 30 years after the world was introduced to Scoob and the gang.

Oh, boy! Was I disappointed!

First, it was 1999 and the world was beginning to be bombarded with the whole global warming, the earth is in danger message. So, of course, a kids’ cartoon had to deliver some save the earth message whether it pertained to the plot or not. In this case, it didn’t.

We were introduced to a grrl rock band named the Hex Girls. They called themselves “eco-Goths”, which seemed to mean that they were girls that liked to look like the undead and sing about how much they love the earth. And, as if to add some authenticity to the group, one member was Wiccan. I found it interesting that they treated Wicca as though it was an ethnicity, as in being Jewish, and not a religion, as in being Catholic. I may be wrong, but I don’t think Wicca can be considered an ethnicity.

But this was a minor annoyance.

What really bothered me was the fact that, at some point in the intervening 30 years, Hanna-Barbera thought it would be a good idea to drop the no supernatural policy as applied to Scooby Doo. And that’s what I was so disturbed by when watching ‘Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost.’ There was an actual ghost. My skeptic’s heart was broken.

Sure the first two thirds of the show held to the guys in costumes and other trickery angle, but act three went supernatural. A character who turned out to be a double-crossing villain found a book of spells and released the witch’s ghost from whatever limbo in which she had been imprisoned. It wasn’t smoke bombs and mirrors or any other tricks, nope, it was magic. Black magic!

It was also very anime. Lots of energy blasts, lightning bolts, explosions, yelling and screaming in that anime fashion. Trees became animated, as did pumpkins. People were lifted into the air and held in some sort of energy field. Finally, it took the pure of heart Wiccan girl to read the spell that would rid the world of the evil ghost and her helper. Mystery solved.

When the show ended I felt that I had been insulted by Hanna-Barbera. I explained to my son how it was wrong for Scooby to have been promoting supernatural, after having shown that such mysteries always have a real world explanation. Scooby had taught kids that the supernatural, the paranormal and the unexplained are merely mysteries that can be solved.

I don’t have a problem with other shows and movies, for kids or adults, indulging in the supernatural fantasy. I am a fan of The X-Files, Jonny Quest, Harry Potter, Dracula, Frankenstein, haunted house movies, etc. Those shows never held that the supernatural was just unexplained natural phenomena (well, Scully tried). But when Scooby went supernatural, I felt so damned insulted.

Scooby Doo, how could you?!

dimland radio 3-27-10 show notes

Hello, again. Show number three is in the can, as they say. In fact, it is up on Z Talk Radio’s On Demand page, so if you missed it you can download it there.

Apologies for my mess up during the 3-20-10 edition of Dimland Radio

Followers of my show, if there are any, will know that I started the show by apologizing for going off the rails, as it were, during that final segment in the previous show. Don’t look for it, it’s gone. If you don’t know what happened, you can check out the show notes for the 3-20-10 show.

My apologies made, I moved on…

Wisdom tooth extraction update

The swelling is pretty much gone, but there’s still some pain. And I still haven’t looked in there to see the damage.

A Haunting

This Discovery Channel program dramatizes “hauntings” and other paranormal cases that are allegedly based on fact. The episode I discussed is called ‘The Unleashed’.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/haunting/haunting.html

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/haunting/episode-guide/episode-guide-tab-03.html

Julia Sweeney’s ‘Letting Go of God’

http://www.juliasweeney.com/letting_go_mini/

The following link will get you to the first part of Julia Sweeney’s one woman show, you should be able to find the rest from there…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qixXRkCNrtE

I also mentioned Sweeney’s ‘God Said, “Ha!”

http://www.amazon.com/God-Said-Ha-Julia-Sweeney/dp/0553379232

I gave a shout out to me friend Bill in Arkansas

Hey, Bill! Thanks for the article on Charlie Pierce, director of ‘The Legend of Boggy Creek’.

James Randi is gay

I briefly touched on James Randi’s recent coming out. He’s 81 and he thought it was about time. And, I’m proud to say, I talked about his self-announced outing and avoided saying that Randi could now change his title from The Amazing Randi to The Fabulous Randi. However, I did just say it here, so I shouldn’t feel too proud.

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/914-how-to-say-it.html

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ahead’ by Wire
First ad break bumpers: ‘One Day In Your Life’ by 54-40 & ‘Eliminator Jr.’ by Sonic Youth
Second ad break bumpers: ‘Talking Doll’ by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & ‘C’est Comme Ca’ by Les Rita Mitsouko
Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook’ by $5 Fiddle

That’s it! See you next week for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com

dimland radio 3-20-10 show notes

Oh boy. I learned a valuable lesson from only my second show on the Z Talk Radio Network. I learned that intentions and effect are not always the same thing. I’ll give more detail on this lesson after a few other show notes.

My wisdom tooth extraction

The following link is to the podcast I was laughing at while while getting my tooth pulled…

Warning! The podcast is of an adult nature, although in a high school boy’s sex fantasy sort of way. It’s very funny and very profane. Listen at your own discretion.

http://www.last.fm/music/Kevin+Smith+and+Scott+Mosier/_/SModcast+110:+Pink+Limp+Moan

ADE-651 Device & Dowsing

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/05/earlyshow/main6269551.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruTmqfGJhTI

http://www.skepdic.com/ideomotor.html

Charles B. Pierce (director of ‘The Legend of Boggy Creek’) died at age 71

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/arts/10pierce.html

‘The Legend of Boggy Creek’

At Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Boggy-Creek-Sandra-Cassel/dp/B000G296X4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1269200405&sr=8-1

It is also available through Netflix.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ahead’ by Wire
First ad break bumpers: ‘Customer’ & ‘You Lose’ by The Replacements
Second ad break bumpers: ‘I Will Dare’ & ‘Achin’ To Be’ by The Replacements
Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook’ by $5 Fiddle

Ok, now to the important part of this blog entry. After some technical issues that I was having were sorted out, I went into the final segment of my show. My intent was to talk about how skeptics react when being read by a psychic and about cold reading techniques. Nothing wrong with that right?

Well, no, there isn’t. However, the way I went about was all wrong. The night before during Z Talk’s Paradigm Shift with Dave and Christy I called in and joined in on what was a ribald, loosey-goosey off the cuff call in portion. It was a conversation consisting of various hosts of shows on Z Talk, including Allie Cheslick.

Allie hosts ‘Wings of Love Radio’ on Z Talk Radio. During that conversation, she did what I think could be considered a mini (very mini) reading of me, wondering why her spirits were telling her that the age 32 was important for me. That something life changing happened to me when I was 32. Well, being a skeptic I didn’t go along. I wanted her to tell me what the event was. I’m a skeptic, that’s what skeptics do.

After Paradigm Shift ended, I had the idea to use a couple clips from that show. I thought it would be good for my show. I asked Dave Berck if I could use three clips. He said it would be no problem.

I did the segment, played the clips, and gave my thoughts. I ended the show and went into the chatroom. What I found happening in there stunned me. People in chat felt I had betrayed them by attacking Allie. I immediately became defensive. “I did not attack Allie,” I protested. And, honestly, I didn’t think I had.

But then, after mere moments in the chatroom, I realized that intentions and effect were two different things. I had not intended to attack Allie, but, in effect, that’s just what I did. When I realized I was wrong I immediately began to apologize to Allie and to everyone at Z Talk: owners, hosts and listeners alike.

I was wrong in how I proceeded. I did not get permission from all involved in the Paradigm Shift conversation. I was wrong when I did not discuss with Allie about what I intended to do on my show. I did not give her a chance to give her input. I was wrong when I did not explain what clips I wanted to use and how I would use them when I asked Dave about using them. If I had told Dave, I know that he would have advised me not to use the clips and approach the topic in a different way.

I assure Allie and everyone at Z Talk that I had no malicious intent. I have nothing personally against Allie or anyone at Z Talk. It could have easily been anyone else giving me that “mini reading” and my reaction would be the same. And I would have been just as wrong with them.

I can also assure everyone that that show no longer exists. It’s gone. The whole show, not just that segment. It has been deleted from my files and will never find its way back onto the internet. I did not even listen to it before making sure it was gone.

I stayed in the chatroom after the show for more than an hour. I made sure that I apologized to everyone, especially Allie. I did not engage in any excusing making. I was wrong and I knew it. Allie’s friends were understandably and rightly upset with me. I stayed and took my punishment. I did not want to appear to run away.

I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know the folks at Z Talk over the last few months. I wanted them to know I am a skeptic, but that I am not a jerk. That they could trust me. Well, it took only two shows for me to break that trust. It is now my job to regain it. I hope I can.

What I did on that show was unprofessional. It was disrespectful. It was rude. And it will not happen again. Life is full of lessons and I just learned a hard one.

I hope this blog entry and the on air apology I will make first thing on next week’s show will help in rebuilding that trust. To Allie Cheslick and everyone at Z Talk, I say again, I am sincerely sorry for my poorly thought out behavior and it will not happen again. I hope you can forgive me.

When I discussed this with my wife, she wrote the following in response to this whole issue. Yes, she is biased and, no, she didn’t hear the show, but she was present and helped out as I went over my show prep. Consider it character witness testimony on my behalf…

My husband Jim, Dr. Dim, is my best friend first and foremost. I am biased, but I want to let you know that he is genuine. He is the most generous person I’ve ever met. He is extremely respectful and patient. Yes, he is strong in his beliefs, but he is also someone who appreciates and understands different points of view. He has no enemies to be sure.

He came to Ztalk to listen to his friend, Scott Roberts, host his show. Jim and Scott have been friends for nearly twenty years. Jim has supported his friend no matter what the situation. Their relationship is puzzling to many as Jim is a skeptic and Scott is not. Their beliefs could not be more opposite. They have debated and debated, going ’round and ’round without ever losing sight of their friendship. I’ve yet to understand it in it’s entirety, but it shows how loyal a friend Jim is. They are able to throw what others would perceive as barbs at each other, laugh at them and maintain a friendship.

As Jim spent time in the Ztalk community, he has come to find true friendship in yet more people with opposing beliefs. He has been able to get his point across without hurting feelings, without fighting. He and I love witty banter. We love to exchange sarcasm and are huge fans of sharp witted people. As alike as Jim and I are, I’m more emotionally charged. I could generalize and say that’s because I’m a woman, but. I do have very close friends who are extremely religious, where I am not. We have enough in common otherwise to be life long friends. I’m able to relate and appreciate those with opposing beliefs, so it’s not foreign to me.

Jim can and does rant away with the best of us. If something irks him, and many things do, he will confide in family, friends, and me and let it all out. We go out of our way to show respect, therefore we get insulted by those who have no sense of others’ feelings.

Back to the issue at hand. Jim would never be intentionally hurtful to anyone. He has found this community that is made up of people who’s beliefs do not match his to be wonderful. I assure you he has not thrown a barb at anyone off- air. He talks about the shows and the chats with fondness. I know he truly enjoys spending time on Ztalk. He is embarrassed and hurt that he made you doubt his loyalty. We failed to really think it over and look at it from all sides, up, down and backwards. We of course can see where it all went wrong. He meant no harm. He wasn’t launching an assault. Thank you to those of you who have forgiven him and I hope those who haven’t will reconsider his apologies.

Personally, when he told me that he was going to do a radio show on Ztalk, I wondered how that would be possible. He has befriended all of you and as a skeptic myself I wasn’t sure he’d be able to discuss what he’d like to without hurting you. But, this is Jim we’re talking about and if anyone could, it would be him. His show came out of suggestions from many of you and his closest friends. As far as I’m concerned a radio show is right up Jim’s alley. He is a wealth of information, he is articulate and intelligent, he loves to talk (!), he’s got a great sense of humor… it simply is a perfect venue for him. Having a show on Ztalk? I wasn’t sure. Just two shows in, I think he’s done a wonderful job thus far. He made his first big mistake and he feels terrible about it. He is nothing if not genuine and he had every intention of doing this show to inform and have fun, not to hurt.

– Dr. Dim’s biggest fan, Mrs. Dr. Dim.

This has been a long blog. Thank you for reading it.

PBS pledge time…roll out the crap


It’s that time again. Time for PBS to beg its viewers for money. And you know what that means don’t you? It means that PBS will start playing some of the lousiest programs they have to offer. The crap you only seem to see during pledge time. PBS will roll out all the motivational speakers again and play the same lame music specials. Most of their prime pledge time material just doesn’t do anything for me.

Specifically, I want to talk about The Osmonds’ 50th Anniversary Special, the Celtic Thunder shows and the Celtic Women shows. All are music programs. All are performed before an audience. All of them are (in my opinion) lame. The Celtic Thunder men with their bold, manly walking and standing; the Celtic Women and their gentle arm waving and swirling movements; the Osmonds being… the Osmonds, I mean, it’s all enough to make me turn the channel and not pledge my support.
And what is it with the Celtic thing anyway? ‘Braveheart’ came out in 1995. It’s been fifteen years can we drop the Celtic worship already?!

Celtic Thunder and their dramatic standing.

Those pretty Celtic Women, so angelic.


But the thing that bothers me most about these programs is that all of the performers are lip-synching! That’s right. Lip-synching.

Remember American Bandstand and Solid Gold? Those were shows that booked musical artists to perform their hit songs. They never played the songs live. They were always performed to the actual record. For those shows, I’m sure the producers wanted the hit song that was on the radio, not the live version. And it was probably easier to set up for a lip-synch performance. There were many shows that handled their musical guests this way. 

There were also shows like Ed Sullivan, the Midnight Special and Saturday Night Live that wanted live performances, which is cool, the SNL Ashley Simpson incident notwithstanding. But if you think Ashley Simpson was the only lip-syncher before or since on SNL, you’ve got another thing coming. Can you say Beyoncé?

How can I tell? I just can. There’s something about the lip-synched voice. The sound is too clean, as though they were recorded in a studio. You can’t hear the performer breathing as you would if they were actually singing. Their microphones are good but not that good. And no matter how good a lip-syncher they are, they can still be just a little off. Besides, their throats don’t move. When singing some amount of vibrato, I would expect to see their throats vibrate a little.

Of course, then there’s The Osmonds. It’s easy to spot they’re not singing. Just watch the older brothers, Jermaine and Tito or whatever. They are pretty bad at it, so there is no doubt.

The Osmonds being The Osmonds.


So why should this bother me? Well, I think of the audience that shelled out their $50, $100, or whatever extravagant amount those poor saps paid for a ticket to watch lip-synching. These performers are singers. That’s what they do! So sing! These are concerts, not a three minute performance on a hit record show. So sing! The stages are set up for a concert. The audience expects a concert, not a dance show such as the shows one gets from Britney Spears, Janet Jackson or Madonna. So sing!

It makes me wonder if they can actually sing. Are they pulling a Milli Vanilli on their audiences? Or are they just too concerned with being perfect? Well, at least, I didn’t hear any evidence of auto tune. I hate the auto tune.

Still, the audiences do seem happy, so maybe it doesn’t matter to them. Maybe they don’t even realize what’s going on. I would feel ripped off. I can handle the occasional bum note if it means I’m going to get the energy and passion of a live performance. A lip-synched show also precludes any spontaneity, excitement. But, then again, there’s no way I’d ever go to one of these shows.

Hey, Osmonds, you Celtic people! You’re supposed to be singers! So sing!


UPDATE 3-17-15: As much as this pains me to admit that I am wrong, it is very possible I’m wrong and the Celtic singers are actually singing. I’m still not absolutely certain they are actually singing, but I have recently watched a video clip of the Celtic Women singing Danny Boy and there is a bit of throat vibrating and other signs of actual singing. A Facebook friend more familiar with singing techniques and such has pointed out those aspects which lead her to conclude they are not faking it.

So, at least for that one song and for the Celtic Women it appears I may be wrr…wah…wuh…wrrruh…wrrrrrong. Damn.

Well, I’m still right about the Osmonds!