Dimland Radio

dimland radio 8-26-17 show notes

Solar Eclipse Talk And Mr. Pessimism: The Aftermath

This whole show was pretty much dedicated to the solar eclipse of last Monday. You may have heard of it.

Last week’s show was loaded with my pessimism of seeing any of the eclipse, let alone the peak of 85%, which is what was expected in the Twin Cities. For the week leading up to the event, the weather outlook was consistently cloudy. I was certain I wouldn’t see a thing.

Monday came and I did get to see the moon cover about 75 – 80% 0f the sun before the clouds rolled in. It wasn’t every bit of the event that we could have gotten, but it was better than nothing.

Some Friends And The Path Of Totality

I have a few friends who made the trek to the Path of Totality in order to observe a total solar eclipse. None of that 85% crap! They went for 100%.

I asked them to tell me of their experiences. Did the clouds stay away? How was the trip there? The trip home? And what were their over all impressions?

I got good responses from them. Especially from Maddy, the host of A Minnesota Trans-Atheist Podcast. Her story was so good I read the whole thing on the show. If I had summarized as I did the others it just wouldn’t have done her story justice.

Now we can look forward to 2024.

Eclipse Science Isn’t Doubted

I mentioned this last week, but I thought I’d read what someone else wrote (see above) on the fact that no one seemed to doubt that the eclipse would happen just as scientists had predicted. Whoever wrote it said it so much better than I did. 10 points to that person.

What Should Have Been The Official Song Of The Eclipse

Bonnie Tyler dragged that awful song Total Eclipse Of The Heart out for her performance on an eclipse cruise to sing during the event, reminding everyone what a lousy piece shit it is. (OK, you might like it. I loathe it and just about anything else written by Jim Steinman. Art is subjective. We’ll just have to agree to disagree.)

I talked about what should have been the song of this celestial event. It’s by the avant garde artist Klaus Nomi. It’s called Total Eclipse.

It should have been (and in my mind was) the song for the eclipse for two reasons. One, it actually uses the line “total eclipse of the sun,” not the heart. And, two, it’s a much, much, MUCH better song.

Pedantic Moment (And Trump Apologetics): He Didn’t Stare At The Sun

Don’t let the headline mislead you. I’m not a Trump apologist. I want accuracy in reporting. Sure, it made for funny memes, but still photos of the Fifth-Grader in office are of him glancing up at the sun. He didn’t stare. People are so determined to find any little thing to get on him. He does and says plenty of dumb and dangerous stuff as it is, you don’t have to mislead the public by lying about him staring at the sun.

A glance is not staring.


Pause a glance and it looks like a stare.

I glanced at it, too. Unprotected. Glanced! I’m sure many, many other people did the same. But, no, Pres. Trump stared at it. Watch the video of him staring at the sun. It’s right at the beginning, but careful. If you blink you’ll miss him staring.

I was unfriended by someone on Facebook who accused me of being a Trump apologist and he said he didn’t tolerate assholes. Really? He seems to tolerate himself.

Dimland Radio ARGH!

We watched Kong: Skull Island this past week. We noticed that Brie Larson’s character was a photojournalist who didn’t believe in taking photographs. I swear she never took a single picture of Kong.

Take a picture!

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things from this week.

3) My friends’ stories of their Path of Totality experiences.

2) Being able to share my eclipse glasses with my boss, my wife, my son, my neighbor, her daughter, my dad, and his neighbor.

1) And the fact I got to see as much as I did. Maybe as much as 80%. I’ll take it.

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so you are on your own this week.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Escape From The Planet Earth‘ by The Alleycats & ‘All That Jazz‘ by Echo & The Bunnymen

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Skin Deep‘ by The Stranglers & ‘Traveling Man‘ by The Woodentops

Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook‘ by $5 Fiddle

That’s it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 08-19-17 show notes

Solar Eclipse Talk And Mr. Pessimism

A solar eclipse will be making its way across the United States. Here in the Twin Cities we won’t be getting the see the total eclipse. We’re too far north, but we should be able to see more than 80% of the sun covered by the moon. We should, but…

It’s looking like it’s going to be raining up here on Monday. Just great.

That led to me talking about the pessimistic way of viewing things. You’re prepared to be disappointed, so when things turn out better than you thought, well, that’s even more better.

I also talked about future eclipses.

Statues, Racists, And Our Child President

Last weekend wasn’t one of America’s better moments. And it certainly wasn’t anywhere near a better moment for Pres. Trump. He did condemn the violence that led to a white supremacist carrying out the terrorist act of driving he car into the gathered anti-racist protesters, killing Heather Heyer. But, then he went on to say, “on many sides.”

What? I tell you. I just don’t have the words to express how frustrating and infuriating this guy gets. There seems to be no end to his non-presidential behavior. This guy is supposed to be our leader.

I also talked about the removal of Confederate war heroes being the reason the racists gathered to protest. There are those crying about the erasing of history. I don’t see it that way. It’s more a correcting of history. Put the statues in museums.

More Statue Talk

The western New York town of Celoron’s claim to is that TV legend Lucille Ball grew up there. The city officials decided to commission a statue made to honor their hometown gal done good. What they received did not resemble Lucy at all. The townspeople took to calling it “scary Lucy.”

I defended the original artist a little. That’s because it seems clear to me that sculpting famous people in which their likenesses are captured is not where his talent lies. His online portfolio does not include any examples of his capturing likenesses. I wondered how he was picked and didn’t he show someone the sculpture before setting it in bronze.

Another artist as commissioned and she delivered a lovely sculpture of Lucille Ball.

Pedantic Moment: Won’t Get Fooled Again

On a recent episode of Penn’s Sunday School, host Penn Jillette began reciting the lyrics of The Who’s great anthem song Won’t Get Fooled Again.

He got a few lyrics wrong. As it turns out, so did I.

You May Not Be As Smart As The Internet Quiz Says You Are

I did an experiment on a clickbait site (women.com) after I guessed on two of the multiple choice answers and got 100% as a result. It seemed pretty lucky and someone else on FB questioned how it was some many people did so well.

My experiment was to take the test several times, each time purposefully answering an increasing number of the questions incorrectly. Answering six questions incorrectly still gave me 100% results. In a 15 question test, six wrong answers is not 100%. Neither is getting one wrong

I recommend not trusting any internet quiz that doesn’t show you the correct answers. Women.com doesn’t show the answers.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things from this week.

3) Tina Fey’s reaction to the shameful events in Virginia and her advice for handling such rallies in the future.

2) Seth Meyers’ reaction the Pres. Trump’s inability to handle the shameful events in Virginia.

1) The people of Virginia’s reaction to the shameful events in Virginia.

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so you are on your own this week.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Above It Now’ by Figures & ‘Love Song‘ by The Cure

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Terror Couple Kill Colonel‘ by Bauhaus & ‘Lay All Your Love On Me‘ by ABBA

Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook‘ by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 8-12-17 show notes

It Seems This Song Is Relevant Again

Our current leader with the famous face, our fifth grader in the oval office, is making with the tough talk against the world’s other child leader. There is a fear of nuclear attack. Boy, we sure live in interesting times.

In 1984, XTC released the song This World Over. It’s a vision of a post-nuclear apocalyptic world written by Andy Partridge, giving voice to the fears the world had about Pres. Reagan and the Soviets destroying the world. There were a lot of songs like this one in those days.

Looks like they’re relevant again.

A Pedantic Moment: Get The Lyrics Right!

As I talked about that song by XTC, a Pedantic Moment came up. It was a minor one. Google has part of the lyrics wrong for this song. It lists “dry odd numbered limbs” as “dry off numbered limbs.” That don’t make no sense given what the song is about.

Yeesh! Good job, Google.

Pastor Robert Jeffress Thinks He Knows What God Wants

Of course, I don’t believe in a god, but I do enjoy when certain religious types seem so certain as to what their god thinks.

Pastor Robert Jeffress, a spiritual advisor to our child President, says that God sanctions whatever actions Pres. Trump might decided to take against North Korea, including using nukes.

I may be wrong , but I think the pastor may be one of those religious extremists rooting for End Times.

I Have An Unpopular Opinion

It’s been a thing on Facebook lately: People asking others to post an unpopular opinion in the comment thread. They ask others either agree or disagree, but do not argue.

So, I posted my unpopular opinion about OJ Simpson. As related to his parole for his conviction that landed him in prison for the last nine years, I think…

Oh, but that would be a spoiler. You’ll have to listen to the show. However, you can probably guess, since the opinion is unpopular.

Children Are Our Future And How To Use A Ladder

This young man is trying to get a rag off a pipe with a ladder. Yep. He’s using a ladder. Uh huh. That’s what he’s doing.

Incidentally, this is an example of a very rare occasion when making video in the portrait format actually works.

My Conspiracy Theorist Friend Thinks He’s Checkmated Me

Watch the following video…

If you are a conspiracy theorist who believes “they” are trying to control the populace of the world with some chemical put into the atmosphere at high altitudes using jet airliners creating chemtrails, you will think this video shows a CIA director admitting to just that. As my friend believes.

If you are not a conspiracy theorist and you understand what contrails are, you will hear this fellow talking about ways to slow global warming so that “the world economy additional time to transition from fossil fuels.”

My friend thinks this is an admission and that “they” have been doing this for years. I think it shows that conspiracy theorists hear what they want to hear.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things from this week.

3) A Russian satellite has taken a series of pictures of the earth and a video of the images has been made from the photographs. It provides a different perspective of our home. It’s way cool.

2) Youtuber Captain Disillusion has a new video out. This time he’s showing how some of those amazing trick shot videos are made. Not all rely on computer trickeration, so are just take after take until the shot is made.

1) An optical illusion created by Victoria Skye is way cool. It demonstrates nicely how people just can’t say, “I know what I saw.”

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so you are on your own this week.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Away‘ by The Feelies & ‘New World Man‘ by Rush

Second ad break bumpers: ‘New Dreams‘ by Naked Raygun & ‘Empty Glass‘ by Pete Townshend

Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook‘ by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 8-5-17 show notes

A Pedantic Moment: Winking Face Emoji

On Facebook when you type a semicolon and the right half of a parenthesis – 😉 – the site automatically posts a little winking face. My pedantry is that the wrong eye is winking. When typed it should be the face’s right eye that winks, not the left.

Wrong eye.

Explosion At Minnehaha Academy

Wednesday morning there was an explosion at Minnehaha Academy, a private school in South Minneapolis, caused by a natural gas leak during some construction on the school. Two people were killed. I talked about how you just don’t when your time might come and about how fast emergency vehicles are allowed to go to get to an emergency. I also talked a little bit about the Go Fund Me pages that have been posted in relation to helping out in the aftermath of this tragedy.

I also talked about there being a suggestion this accident might have been part of Islamic terrorism. I was asked how long it would take before someone suggested it. From what I can tell, about an hour and twenty minutes. A local psychic tweeted about her suspicions.

She’s psychic. Can’t she divine the answer?

There was a vigil at the school later that day at which people involved gather to give each other support. Of course there was some mention of how God would help people through this. And, of course, the atheist that I am has me wondering why God didn’t help by preventing the explosion. I know, I know. Mysterious ways.

The news of this vigil led to…

Another Pedantic Moment

On the 10 o’clock news that night, a young reporter noted that the people at the vigil (held earlier that night) are taking it “one day at a time.” He said that twice in the report.

Um. It’s only been one day. There was no other way to take it at the time.

“Do Your Own Research”

The above image is being shared on social media was created by Stop The World The Teabaggers Want Off. That is a bullshit site that generates fake quotes by conservatives. I said as much when a Facebook friend shared the image. I also stated the Melania Trump speaks five languages, so she’s not exactly stupid.

That language comment was disputed with evidence, while I provided two sources. The person disputing me did not provide sources. They eventually resulted to ad hominem.

Oh, well.

Dimland Radio Science Hero: John Oliver

John Oliver has been declared a Dimland Radio Science Hero once before. He and Senator McCaskill were named Heroes for their exposure of Dr Oz’s peddling of snake oil.

John Oliver, on his HBO program Last Week Tonight, has also exposed the bullshit of the media’s false equivalency on climate change, the bullshit of the anti-vax movement, and the batshit, crazy, bullshit of conspiracy theorist king Alex Jones.

For all of that, I once again declared John Oliver a Dimland Radio Science Hero.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things from this week.

3) I got a pair of eclipse glasses to observe the celestial event later this month. I joked a bit about how to tell your glasses are safe, but here is a better way to do that. I looked at the sun and it was way cool!

2) It’s Not True: This video, although very cool, does not show lightning making water explode. It’s part of a mining operation clearing a channel and the lightning seen in the video is a wired charge setting off the explosion.

1) My son turned 14 years old this past week. Happy Birthday, Hayden! Astrologers, put your charts away!

Movie Recommendation: N

I ran out of time, so you are on your own this week.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Epic‘ by Faith No More & ‘Refugee‘ by U2

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Certain Things Are Likely‘ by KTP & ‘Here Is The News‘ by ELO

Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook‘ by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 7-29-17 show notes

Another Perspective On Justine Damond’s Death

I discussed a blog post that pointed out that media coverage of Justine Damond seems to be different than the coverage of other victims of police violence, such as Philando Castile. Specifically, in Castille’s case the news media wasted little time exposing his police record and that of his girlfriend. This has not been the case with Damond. The media hasn’t felt compelled to show her and her fiance’s warts.

The blogger makes a very good point. As does the writer of this piece.

Here’s a very good collection of the details that were available as of July 23. And there has been some news about the patrol car having been claimed to have been slapped by a woman prior to Damond being shot. I haven’t seen any news about whether or not the car is pressing charges.

A Different Take On ‘Institutionalized’

California hardcore punk legends Suicidal Tendencies and their classic teen angst song Institutionalized came to mind earlier this week. I watched the video (see this week’s bumper below) and read the lyrics and I noticed my attitude toward the song had changed since I first heard it in the mid-80s. Just a little.

Some Talk About Senator John McCain

Senator John McCain has brain cancer. He also gave an impassioned speech to his fellow members of the Senate to get back to public debate and compromise. He voted the send the Republican’s idea of a healthcare bill on for debate. He voted no, along with two other Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, on the “skinny” bill to repeal Obamacare.

Busy bit of time for the longtime public servant.

There were a few people who pointed out the Sen. McCain is benefiting from taxpayer funded healthcare, while he seems determined to take it away from millions of Americans. Well, Obamacare is still in affection and partly because Sen. McCain voted against repealing it. He might do so in the future, but we’ll see.

And, of course, the internet being the internet, there were a few people hoping he would being dying soon and in pain due to that cancer. How compassionate.

Senator Amy Klobuchar doesn’t agree with the naysayers talk on John McCain. She’s a Democrat.

Full Moon Review

I briefly went over my reaction to the Keith Moon biography detailing the craziness of the maniac drummer of The Who. I found it difficult to read due to the multiple authors’ inability to use the proper verb tense. I also found it tedious and, in the end pathetic and sad.

You can read my full review here.

It’s Not True: John McCain Was Pardoned By Nixon

With Sen. McCain being in the news, a meme has been floating around claiming he would have been court-martialed for treason had he not been pardoned by Pres. Nixon. It’s not true.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things that I spotted this week.

3) Recently, I begged for more Facebook likes for Dimland Radio. It went from 173 to 181. I looked at how the numbers break down by country. Number one was the US, no surprise there. Number two, at 22 likes, was… You’ll have to listen. 😉

2) A couple friends and I sat on on the internets earlier this week. We joined Douglas Arthur in recording an episode of his podcast Assault of the Two-Headed Space Mules. We talked about filmmaker George Romero, who died just recently. The show isn’t up yet. I will let you know when it is. Douglas says it might be a two-parter.

1) A friend gave me The Who Tommy Live on VHS. (Yes, I have a player.) I gave the concert from their 1989 a little review. For the must part , it’s an excellent concert. Thanks, Craig! You can watch the Tommy portion of the video here.

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so you are on your own this week.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Headmaster Ritual‘ by The Smiths & ‘Institutionalized‘ by Suicidal Tendencies

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Tom Sawyer‘ by Rush & ‘Lie Detector‘ by The Screaming Blue Messiahs

Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook‘ by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.