Dimland Radio

dimland radio 6-17-17 show notes

An Opportunity To Be A Good Neighbor

A neighbor had a significant part of a tree in his front yard the other morning. That presented me with an opportunity to be Good Neighbor Jim. But did I take advantage of the opportunity?

Maybe.

It Then Became A Pretty Heavy Show

The entire show didn’t wallow in the heaviness of recent events, but a good portion of it did. Before I got to the heavy stuff, I talked about some heavy thunderstorms that came through the Twin Cities and of a photograph taken of the storm by one of the Minnesota Skeptics. You can see and maybe even buy a print of that photo here. And as of this writing the image has been shared more than 37,000 times on the Facebook.

This past week saw Congressional Republicans become victim to a mass shooter as they practiced for the annual Congressional baseball game; the jury return a not guilty verdict in the manslaughter case against Officer Yanez, the cop who shot dead Philando Castille; and an apartment building (or block of flats as they’re called in the UK) known as Grenfell Tower completely engulfed in flames.

I couldn’t do a show without saying something about each event.

In brief, I noted it would be interesting to see how the GOP deals with their support of gun ownership now that they’ve been the target of a lone nut. I also gave some advice to those who wish to see more gun regulations. I may not have been clear enough in my advice. What I suggested isn’t what I want to be done. I was just advising that others need to be intellectually honest and go all out. Stop pussy-footing around.

I expressed my dumbfoundness at the not guilty verdict in the manslaughter trial of Officer Yanez. I realize that the public doesn’t know everything the jury saw. We don’t know what evidence they considered. It just seemed pretty clear cut.

Then there was the Grenfell Tower fire and the not surprising reaction by 9/11 Truthers. “See? That building didn’t collapse. It was on fire for several hours. The Towers were built to withstand an impact by a 747, Building 7, blah, blah, blah.”

The apartment in the UK was not built the same way. Dammit! Do I have to go through this all over again?!

I learned that building regulations enacted in 1971 in the UK made it so that Grenfell Tower, built in 1974, was constructed in such a way that it wouldn’t collapse due to an explosion or major fire.

Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: That’s Not John Lennon

One of those clickbait quizzes got something wrong. There was a quiz to determine which member of The Beatles you might be. I didn’t take it, because whoever put it together didn’t realize their posted image of John Lennon was not John Lennon. Dumbass.

This is not John Lennon. It’s Christopher Eccleston portraying John Lennon.

Photoshop Is Used By Liars

I tried to give a brief tutorial on how to spot Photoshopped images shared on social media.

The lesson was prompted by this image of Whoopi Goldberg:

Whoopi found out about this lying image of her and admonished the liar who created it.

Below is the actual shirt.

Those Aren’t His Hands!

I talked some Star Trek: TNG. Specifically about Capt. Picard’s story about how he came to own and play a particular flute and about an episode in which Picard develops a romantic relationship with a new member of his crew. She’s happens to be a musician and she gets involved with her Captain musically as well as in the bedroom. Wink, wink.

There’s a scene in which they are playing music together and I think it’s very obvious those are not Patrick Stewart’s, the actor who plays Picard, hands. There was a musician lying below camera and reaching up into the shot in order to make it look as though the Captain is actually playing a fairly complex melody.

It is ridiculously obviously. Not only because the angle of the hands isn’t quite right, but because Stewart has to rely on eye acting for the scene. And he doesn’t look convincing. He looks a bit hammy and really awkward.

Have a look.

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: ‘Dodo/Lurker‘ by Genesis & ‘Atom Tan‘ by The Clash

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Down In The Siene‘ by The Style Council & ‘Shut Out The Light‘ by Steve Diggle

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 6-10-17 show notes

Today My Son Is…

…No longer a middle schooler.

My boy made it through preschool, kindergarten and, now, middle school and I’m feeling kinda melancholy. My wife and I are gonna miss that school and we anticipate the next four years going pretty fast.

These kids grow so fast.

We noted the wide range of physical maturity was on full display with those 200 or so 13 and 14 year-olds. It was incredible. Some appeared to be old enough to be graduating from high school. One young lady looked as though she could have been a teacher at the school.

Our boy still is on the young looking side, but that just means he’ll look much younger than his actually years when he makes it to middle age. Just like his father.

And no Dimland Radio show could be complete without me complaining about people taking video in portrait format. I really need to cool it with that, but seated right in front of my wife and me at the ceremony were four people taking video the wrong way. ARGH!

But there are times when portrait can work. For instance…

Is Richard Spencer A Nazi Or Is He A Poe?

Probably a Nazi, although today’s Nazis aren’t exactly your grandfather’s Nazi, but they’re almost as bad. Still, whenever I listen to Spencer, which hasn’t been very often, I keep hoping he’s some performance artist playing this part to parody the racists of this country. He can’t really think that way can he?

Well, yeah, he can. He doesn’t impress me as being a deep intellectual thinker. In fact, he seems like a dipshit. He even finds the American ideals of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happy to be “faggy.” Well, he’s definitely not a member of the Tea Party.

Former NBA star, Charles Barkley hosts a documentary series that focuses on race problems in America. He’s attempting to have the difficult conversations he believes are necessary to improve the lives of all Americans, especially those in the minority. I haven’t seen the series, so I’m not sure how well he does in furthering those ends.

The series does have its critics. But watching the segment with Spencer has me thinking Barkley and his partner in that interview, Gerald Griggs, showed great restraint as they listened to the bullshit. And, as far as I know, neither man punched the Nazi.

But is Spencer just putting one over on everyone? Probably not, but watch this clip. Can he really think this way?

Dimland Radio ARGH! Cats Being Let Outside

You really shouldn’t let your cats outside people. There are way too many hazards out there: Disease, parasites, predators, poisons, cruel people, traps, traffic, and unwanted pregnancies to name a few. There is also the fact the cats are really doing a number on bird populations. Some experts might disagree, but indoors is the best place for kitty.

Last week, I discovered another reason you should keep your cat inside. Not that they might do their bathroom duties around the shrubs in your backyard, which is bad enough. No, some of those little buggers might actually damage your property.

We allow our cat on the closed in front porch, which she really likes. Well, the other night one of the neighbor’s cats tried to get on the porch and tore the shit out of the screen of the porch door. Good thing the glass was down.

Don’t Forget The Power To Edit

The Barkley documentary clips reminded me to once again tell listeners that whenever they watch documentaries, people on the street interviews, etc to always remember the filmmakers have the power to edit.

Remember the viral video of a young woman walking the streets of New York City being constantly approached by strange men? I will say I‘ll never understand how dudes can just hit on strange women just walking by. I guess it’s not in my nature.

That said, remember the viral video clocks in at just under two minutes. That was edited down from ten hours of video of her walking around. Ten hours! Another editor could easily cut together two minutes of he walk without be spoken to or approached at all.

I wondered if a two minute video could be made from those ten hours showing only women talking to her.

Timing Is Everything

I ear-witnessed a car accident the other morning. After getting my son on the bus, the bus got a little hung up on the corner. The driver was trying to make a turn, but there was a young fellow driving a car in the way of the bus. After a few moments, the young fellow was able to get by the bus and the he and the bus went on their way.

I’m crossed the street heading the same way as the young fellow. A few seconds passed and I heard a loud crash. The young man hadn’t noticed he needed to stop at the next intersection. He drove through and was T-boned.

Had the bus gotten there a minute earlier or later, the whole accident might have been avoided. Timing is everything.

Rod Hull And Emu

Finally, I talked about how weird the 1970s were and I used the comedy act of Rod Hull and Emu as an example. I blogged about it for Warehouse Find, the official blog of Nostalgia Zone. Click here to read all about 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: ‘Celebrated Summer‘ by Husker Du & ‘Armgh‘ by Au Pairs

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Turning Japanese‘ by The Vapors & ‘Subdivisons‘ by Rush

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 6-3-17 show notes

In Search Of Licorice Ice Cream

When I was a kid in the mid-70s, I used go to the Bridgeman’s restaurant and ice cream parlor to get my favorite ice cream: Licorice chip. Oh, I liked it so much. Eventually, the Bridgeman’s closed and licorice ice cream became just a pleasant memory.

In recent years, I would scour the internet to see if there was any of my favorite ice cream to be found around town. I didn’t have much success until very recently.

I found Nelson’s Ice Cream with two locations, one in Stillwater and one in St. Paul. The St. Paul parlor isn’t far from the comic book store I do some work for each week. So, last weekend I got myself some licorice chip ice cream. It was pretty good.

Nelson’s in also exceedingly generous with the amount of ice cream they consider to be a child’s size, their smallest. There must be more than a pint of ice cream loaded into that cup or cone.

Holy smokes!

Pedantic Moment: Vague About In What Vehicle One First When Over 120 MPH

A Facebook friend shared the above image, but wasn’t very clear that he meant in what kind of a car you first broke 120 MPH. He included the phrase “in a car” when he posted the image, but I thought he meant that as his answer. In the comment thread he was more specific.

I answered truthfully, “In an airplane.” But that’s not what he wanted. He wanted the model of car I was in. I don’t know this fellow well enough to go all pedantic on him on Facebook, but for the show…

Is This Slut-Shaming?

Another Facebook friend shared the image above. My apologies for the naughty word.

I questioned whether or not this was slut-shaming. I pointed out there is certainly a bit of making fun of immigrants and a suggestion that Melania Trump is dumb. I contend anyone who can speak more than one language is not dumb. Melania can speak five!

I talked about the tendency to think the worst of people who are not in our group. That’s what I see happening with the person who created the image and those who share it. Immigrants are to be welcomed and respected and cherished. Unless they are married to a Republican, of course.

Kathy Griffin, Free Speech, A Fake Severed Head, And President Trump

I’m a bit conflicted on this one. The part of me that wants people to act decently toward each other found the image of Kathy Griffin holding a severed head that looked like Pres. Trump’s to be cruel, mean, shameful, and counter-productive. However, the free speech advocate in me appreciates the need for artists and comedians to push the limits of speech. They need to do this to protect free speech for all.

Griffin apologize, but should she have?

It’s a tangled web.

I also talked about this sort of image of the American President isn’t exactly new.

And there was “covfefe.” The typo heard and ridiculed around the world.

I also mentioned the cartoon (?) showing the political spectrum and the state of political discourse these days. See below.

Movie Recommendation: Live And Let Die (1973) & The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)

Roger Moore was my generation’s James Bond. Dad had Sean Connery, but Moore was the first Bond I saw in the theaters. So, in memory of the recently deceased Roger Moore, I recommended my two favorite of his 007 films:

Live And Let Die

The Man With The Golden Gun

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Summer Fun‘ by The Barracudas & ‘Love Like Blood‘ by Killing Joke

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Uniforms (Corp D’Esprit)‘ by Pete Townshend & ‘Too Much Love‘ 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.

dimland radio 5-27-17 show notes

Pedantic Moment: Where Do We Live?

I’m often annoyed by local TV news’ habit of cutting together video montages to play during a report on some news item, but the montages are always cut much shorter than the news items take to be reported. That means viewers see the same video clips looped over and over and over. Drives me batty.

The other morning I was watching a report on the local Twin Cities’ morning news about the expected traffic and travel levels for the Memorial Day Weekend. They had a video montage, way too short, looping over and over. I noticed something. This local morning news program, which serves the Twin Cities metro area, was showing traffic video from Chicago.

Why Chicago? Where do they think we live?

In Praise Of A Dent

Being a skeptic who wishes to get others to become better critical thinkers can be a frustrating hobby. As one of my show ID sounders states, it’s like constantly pushing the rock of reason up the hill of paranormal. So, being a skeptic trying to dispel the notions of unscientific thinking is rather like a game of whack-a-mole, there always more nonsense to deal with. Often it’s the same old nonsense popping up again and again.

It gets rather discouraging.

But, every once in a while, something happens that indicates that skeptics are having an effect. For instance, on a recent edition of the Mike and Mike Sports Talk show on ESPN radio, one of the Mikes talked about a concept he had just learned: Occam’s Razor. I was impressed that he described it properly. His guest co-host hadn’t heard of the very effective skeptic’s tool and neither, I suspect, had a large portion of Mike and Mike’s rather sizable audience.

I think we skeptics can count that as at least making a dent.

It’s Not True: This Is Not A Kid’s Drawing

My daddy also drew this.

I spotted this on a clickbait site that was meant to illicit laughs from children drawing adults doing things the children didn’t understand. There were about a dozen images and four or five of them were like the one above: Drawn by an adult.

When I suggested as much on Facebook, some people commented that their grandchildren can draw that well. Sure. OK, theirs are child prodigies. However, the rest of the mere mortal children of the world just don’t draw like this. The face is too well proportioned and the mouth with its surrounding facial hair is too properly placed. The eyes and nose are perfectly sized and placed.

Children do not tend to have sketchy lines. They usually draw their lines more directly. And they also don’t write in all caps.

It’s my considered and somewhat expert (I am an artist) opinion that this drawing was done by an adult attempting to my it look as though it was drawn by a child.

At least the Rs aren’t backward.

Dennis Prager Wrong About Judaeo/Christian Values

I think Prager is a decent, intelligent, and thoughtful man. I’ve heard him talk and have watched a few of the videos his Prager University produces. I sometimes find myself agreeing with them. Probably because they agree with my personal biases.

However, I think he fails with his video asking whether humans are more valuable than animals or not. His contention is that secular moral values value humans less than the morals held by those with Judaeo/Christian values. He’s trying to say Judaeo/Christian values are more humanist than humanist values, because they come from God.

He uses Nazis and abolitionists as his prime examples. Yes, he also uses the Commies and there he has a stronger point. Prager argues the Nazi’s secular values led to their devaluing human life and to the Holocaust. And that abolitionists’ Judaeo/Christian values led to their opposing slavery.

First, the Nazis. “Gott mit uns” (“God with us”) was emblazoned on the uniforms of the German soldiers. Perhaps not Judaeo given the Nazi attitude toward Jews, but certainly Christian. The Commies in the USSR arose in largely Christian populated countries didn’t keep Christian sentiments as part of their soldiers’ uniforms. And Hitler had made statements about the Christian values of the Nazi party. I think I’ll take Hitler at his word.

Second, I’ll give Prager the fact that the abolitionist movement was largely Judaeo/Christian in its values, but the values of the slave-holding states were also largely Judaeo/Christian. Those fighting for State’s rights (and, really, so that the wealthy could keep their slaves) could point to chapter and verse in the Bible, the users guide for Judaeo/Christian values, to demonstrate that God sanctioned and laid down rules on the keeping of slaves. Christian Apologists would point to some of the inferences made in the New Testament that appear to be anti-slavery, but I’m unaware of any specific verse condemning the institution of slavery.

In that, the slave-holders had a stronger case that God wanted them to have slaves. They could quote chapter and verse. I would argue the abolitionist movement had an element of humanism in their values, which, in part, led to their opposing the institution of slavery.

Prager also brings up PETA and abortion, which I don’t address here. I’m not sure how I’d refute those points, but when he brings up Nazis and slavery, I think his argument fails.

There is another video Prager made on how murder isn’t wrong unless there are Judaeo/Christian values. I mentioned video refutations of that video: One by Michael Shermer and one using Christopher Hitchens’ arguments. It may not the same video I challenged, but many of the same themes are in both.

Let’s Call Them UFBs

The term blobsquatch was coined to describe the blurry photos, films, and videos of bigfoot offered as evidence of the large cryptid’s existence. Well, flying saucers also have the same kind of crappy evidence, so I figured we ought to call them UFBs – Unidentified Flying Blobs.

One of the more recent videos to surface of UFBs comes from a Oklahoma local TV news weather report. The weather reporter is discussing what can be see in a video of a oncoming storm. He doesn’t mention the two UFBs that can clearly be seen.

Do you know why he doesn’t mention them? Because they were bugs calling across the windshield of the vehicle of the videographer who took the storm footage. Duh!

Movie Recommendation (Music Video Edition): Going Mobile – Simon Townshend (2012)

This is a first for Dimland Radio. Instead of a movie or television series recommendation, I’m recommending a song clip. Of course, it’s Who-related, but it’s not The Who. Pete Townshend’s younger brother Simon, a gifted musician and singer himself and member of The Who’s touring band, can be seen here doing a live cover of the classic Who song – Going Mobile.

It’s a faithful and very tight version of the song. Simon’s vocals are up to the task and maybe even better than what his famous brother would have been able to do if he would ever play the song live, which, apparently, was something he refused to do.

This version rocks!

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Boy About Town‘ by The Jam & ‘Spring Collection‘ by The Vapors

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Undertow‘ by Suzanne Vega & ‘From The Air‘ by Laurie Anderson

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 5-20-17 show notes

At Home With Monsters

Guillermo Del Toro and friend

The first segment was me praising the excellent art exhibit currently on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art – Guillermo Del Toro: At Home With Monsters. Del Toro is a filmmaker who has done pretty well and is able to afford an extensive collection of art of horror and the macabre. I mistakenly thought that everything on display was owned by him. Much of it was, but not all of it. Several pieces were part of the Institute’s collection.

Be that as it may, it’s fantastic!

There was art by Francis Bacon, Chris Mars, Mike Mignola, Edward Gorey, HR Giger, Richard Corben, and Bernie Wrightson, just to name a few. There were life-size figures (in wax?) of HP Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, characters from the film Freaks, the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth, and of a scene from The Bride of Frankenstein.

Photo source: University Chonicle

Somehow we in the Twin Cities got lucky enough to get this exhibit. It was first shown in Los Angeles and then it came here. Next it will head to Toronto and then it might go to Mexico. That’s it. No stop in Chicago or New York. No European tour. From what I can find, there are no other stops for this exhibit. Of course, who knows what the future will bring? Although Del Toro has said no to further tour stops.

The exhibit will be in Minneapolis through May 28th. If you are in the Twin Cities before it leaves, I highly recommend checking it out. Be warned! Some of the items are quite disturbing and some of the video clips of Del Toro’s film, which are shown on monitors throughout, are brutal in their depiction of violence.

Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: Black Is A Color

Other pedants of the world will say black is not a color when talking about light, in which black is the absence of color. In pigment, it’s the mixing of all colors. (I think.)

But, this pedant says black is a color and I use the 64 Crayola crayon set to prove it.

Wanna Know How To Lose An Argument Every Time?

A Facebook friend demonstrated the proper way to lose an argument every time, at least when it comes to religion. This friend stated, ” In an attempt to shorten the argument about how I feel about religion, I came up with this: If you are religious, f@#k you!”

First of all, that’s not even an argument. Perhaps he meant this as a way to stop an argument before it even starts. He’s being asked about how he feels about religion. Using F U as an answer is just a little rude and it is self-defeating.

This made me think of that Heineken ad promoting the idea of having people with opposing views on social matters talk to each other over a beer. I think talking to each other is a good thing. It may not change anyone’s mind , but maybe we understand each other a little better.

Of course, that conversation over beer could get out of hand, so drink and converse responsibly.

So He Knows Good Customer Service

A friend who is a business owner told me the other day that he and his partner were going to fire a longtime employee for not getting it. The employee was good a some things, but he would shirk as much as he could. He was beginning to poorly influence his coworkers. No matter how many times he received a talking to, his improved work and attitude just wouldn’t last long. So, they decided it was time for him to go.

That reminded me of an office manager I used to work with. He made an art of shirking. He drove me nuts. I told a story that was the perfect example of the kind of worker he was and how his personal business took priority over all other business.

Movie Recommendation:The Devil’s Backbone (2001)

Since I raved about Guillermo Del Toro’s art exhibit, I thought it only fitting to recommend one of his films.

In a small, out of the way orphanage attempting to go unnoticed by the authorities during the Spanish Civil War there is a treasure hidden. A treasure of gold bars. A shifty hired hand attempts to find that treasure, while a ghost attempts to…

That might give it away.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Brilliant Blues‘ & ‘And I Moved‘ by Pete Townshend

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Communication‘ & ‘Keep On Working‘ 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.