Dimland Radio

dimland radio 10-5-13 show notes

Congratulations, Mr. Fitzsimons, It’s A…Cat

With the passing of my mother-in-law, we have a new member of the family. My father-in-law had to move in with my brother-in-law and his wife and dog. The dog is a Boxer and she is very energetic and would be a challenge to Mom and Dad’s cat, so we have her now. Her name is Callie and she’s been adjusting. And, with the help of over the counter allergy medicine, so am I.

Neat Stuff

The last two shows were pretty heavy with me talking about the loss of my mother-in-law, so this week I decided to talk about the neat stuff we’ve been finding in their house. My in-laws didn’t have much money, but they had lots of old items that had been in the family for a long time.

Stuff that includes miniature furniture for a doll house, two old and very ornate ceremonial swords, a Mason’s ostrich-feathered dress hat and medal, and lots of old photographs. Included in the old photos was one of my mother-in-law at age 14. The photo was featured in the Minneapolis Tribune in May 1954 after a particularly windy day.

Yes, she did some modeling when she was younger. Ain’t she cute as a button?

Never Found In The 80s: The Fall

My latest blog entry on the Stuck In The 80s was about the avant-garde, punkish band from the UK – The Fall. Read my piece here.

Invisible Mom Baby Pictures

Folks in the UK will be familiar with the very funny, sort of quiz show QI. The show is hosted by the great Stephen Fry. If you’re not in the UK and you are unfamiliar with the show you can find several episodes on YouTube. The show is about quite interesting facts from history, science, and popular culture. In fact, QI stands for quite interesting.

Well, on one of the episodes I learned about “invisible mom” photography. In the early days of photography, with the long exposure times, when people wanted pictures of their babies and small children, but not the moms, the photographer would cloak the mother in a blanket or some sort of furniture cover, so she could be close to the child to keep him/her calm, but not be seen.

Quite interesting, isn’t it?

Well, I told my wife about it and a few days later she found that we have a family picture that features the “invisible mom”. We don’t know who the family member is, but it’s a cool keepsake (see below).

Yep, that’s a mom behind that baby. Look closely, you can see the back of her dress.

Kari Byron Likes Them Big?

I had quite the laughing jag recently when my wife, son, and I were watching the latest Mythbusters on Netflix. In one experiment, the B squad (Tory Belleci, Grant Imahara, and Kari Byron) was testing to see if bullets fired from a gun could make a playground merry-go-round spin.

They kept ratcheting up the caliber of weapon with the highest only moving the ride eight inches. Kari turned to the fellas and said, “Eight inches isn’t very impressive.”

Immediately a joke came to mind, but I couldn’t make it with my ten year-old right there. So, I had myself a good old fashioned laughing jag.

Who knew Kari was such a size queen?

Movie Recommendation: My Kid Could Paint That (2007)

Passion Films/A&E IndieFilms

An intriguing documentary (please say documentary and not “doc”, ok?) about a four year-old painting phenom. Or is she? Did she really do those paintings? Did her father help her? Did he do them? With abstract art it’s sometimes difficult not to question how it is art. It helps to have a good BS story to help explain why it is art.

Now if someone could explain Rothko to me.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram’ by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: ‘Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely‘ by Husker Du & ‘Cruiser’s Creek‘ by The Fall
Second ad break bumpers: ‘I Would Die 4 U‘ by Prince & ‘The Analog Kid‘ by Rush
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

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 9-28-13 show notes

A Follow-Up On Last Week’s Show

The service for my mother-in-law was held on Saturday September 21st. Quite a few people came to give their last respects and by the end of the service there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The service was a little more religious than I had expected, but Mom was a believer and the memorial was for her, not me.

My oldest brother-in-law said a few words, the deacon who conducted the service read the tribute my wife wrote and he read the poem my son wrote. Everyone was impressed with his poem. Here’s what he wrote…

Do you want another blanket, Grandma?
You’ve been so kind, Grandma.
It’s time for me to be kind to you.
You’re so cold, Grandma.
Would you like another blanket?
Are you alright, Grandma?
Please say yes, please?
I wish you could hug me, one more time.
I wish you could laugh, one more time.
I wish you could walk in with a platter of food – the last one.
Goodbye Grandma, please say goodbye.

I also mentioned on the show of 9-21-13 that I would post a link to that Slinky drop phenomenon. I forgot to do that last week, so here is the link.

Alternative Medicine V Medicine

I talked a bit about alternative medicine and prayer and such. Medicine, which is science based, can seem cold and it doesn’t have all the answers or very comforting answers. Alt med tends to be the opposite. That’s, at least, part of the reason people get taken in by it.

Just remember the old adage: Alternative medicine that works is simply called medicine.

Dimland Radio Science Hero: Jimmy Kimmel & His Writers

In early September, a video of a young woman having a twerking fail in which her legs caught fire had gone viral. The news media reported on the video and it had received more than 10 million views when Jimmy Kimmel revealed the story behind the video. Brilliant!

So, for showing how the 24 hour news cycle has helped heighten the news media’s gullibility in order to fill that 24 hours, Jimmy Kimmel and his writing staff are Dimland Radio Science Heroes. Congratulations!

Check out Jimmy’s reveal video here.

Movie Recommendation: Argo (2012)

Warner Bros.

Sure, you’ve probably seen this Best Picture Oscar-Winning film, but I still wanted to recommend it. Ben Affleck does a great job of both acting in and directing this true-life thriller. And he’s never been more handsome. The longer hair and the beard really work on him. Just sayin’.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram’ by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: ‘(Modern Industry)‘ by Fishbone & ‘Rattlesnake‘ by The Replacements
Second ad break bumpers: ‘The Sinking Feeling‘ by The The & ‘Too Much Love‘ by The Screaming Blue Messiahs
Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook’ by $5 Fiddle

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 9-21-13 show notes

Why No New Shows For Two Weeks

To cut to the chase, the reason I hadn’t done a show over the last two weeks is my mother-in-law had taken very ill and died. We learned that she had pancreatic cancer, which is a very aggressive and deadly cancer. And it did its damage very quickly, from the first notice by the doctors to the time when she passed, it had been just 12 days.

Much of the show was spent describing the terrible vigil we were forced to make. Amy, my wife, showed the family just how strong and amazing she is as she stayed by her mother’s side virtually every minute of that vigil. Amy was a rock.

I also told of an unfortunate exchange over the phone with other family members, whose worldview embraces the alternative medicine and New Age nonsense of which we skeptics take a dim view. Words got heated and something particularly mean had been said to Amy. It was during this segment that I suspended my no swearing policy on the show.

Apologies were made the next day and we were able to smooth things over at the service for Mom earlier on the day of this show.

Never Found In The 80s: The Jam

I took a break from talking about the end of Mom’s journey to talk about a really excellent band from the UK that most Americans never found in the 80s. The Jam was very big in the UK in the late 70s and early 80s. They had a bunch of hits over there, but not here.

Click here to get my report on The Jam.

More About The Loss Of My Mother-In-Law

My talk about Mom had stopped at a rather upsetting point when I broke to talk about The Jam, but when I got back to it I talked about how the entire family wanted Mom to get better. We wanted more of her and we weren’t ready to let her go. But life is like that, we don’t get a choice. When the time comes the time comes.

But I wanted to express that though mean things had been said they came from the desire to keep Mom with us.

On my next show, I will talk more about this and about the very moving, if a little more religious than I anticipated, service we had for Mom. I will also address this alternative medicine thing and the power (or lack thereof) of prayer.

Movie Recommendation: None This Week

You will forgive me, I’m sure, but I didn’t get to one this week.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram’ by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: ‘Another Tricky Day‘ by The Who & ‘Cracking‘ by Suzanne Vega
Second ad break bumpers: ‘Keep Looking‘ by Sade & ‘That’s Entertainment‘ by The Jam
Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook’ by $5 Fiddle

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 9-15-13 show notes

Again, because of some family issues taking priority over putting together a new show, I replayed part two of my interview with George Hrab (originally aired 1/22/11). I shall try to get a new show together for next Saturday, if I can I will explain the reason for my absence.

A Guest! George Hrab Part 2

The dapper George Hrab

This week was part two of my interview of the totally awesome George Hrab.

But First A Little Tale About A Dead Volvo

A dead Volvo ain’t no fun!

My wife’s car finally decided it had had enough. It was a 1990 Volvo 740 GL and had well over 200,000 miles on it. We bought the car for $1200 a little over four years ago and, despite the age and mileage, we really didn’t have to put much money into it. But, Thursday morning, as Amy (my wife) was returning home from dropping our son at school, the Volvo’s transmission went kaput.

Well, as the tow truck driver put it to me after I told him what I just told you, “That car doesn’t owe you a thing.” It’s true, but now we’re back to being a one car family for the foreseeable future.

And Now, George Hrab Part 2

Take a look at these hands!

This part of our interview centered almost exclusively on Geo’s music. Geo talk’s about how he gets his ideas and how he dealt with writer’s block. I gushed over him a couple of times, but Geo handled it with ease. He’s so great!

If you missed either part, you can download both from the Show Archives at ztalkradio.com.

If you haven’t heard his podcast, you should! Be warned Geo will use some profane language on his podcast, but you’re an adult, you can handle it. You can download, for free, the Geologic Podcast from iTunes or you can go here to listen to it and see his show notes and even make a comment if you like.

Please check out his latest album Trebuchet.

Movie Recommendation: George’s pick – Young @ Heart (2007)

In a spur of the moment stroke of genius, I decided to have my guest recommend a movie. Geo suggested the documentary ‘Young @ Heart’. The film follows a senior citizens’ choir who perform contemporary music. Pop, rock, punk, this group gives the songs a new meaning as you watch them learn and arrange them, while dealing with the loss of their membership to death. Geo says it is wonderful.

My wife has seen this and she has been trying to get me to see it. I want to watch it, but my timing has been off. It is currently in the pole position on our Netflix queue, so I will be seeing it soon.

Before I Signed Off

After my interview with George Hrab had ended, I had a few moments left to fill. So, I let everyone know that next week I’d be doing another all music show. This one will kick ass! As always, you’ll need to tune in to be able to enjoy the music, because I am not allowed to archive the all music shows. Licensing rules do not allow archiving. So, be there!

I also mentioned to upcoming 10:23 event. Around the world, on February 5th, people will attempt to overdose on homeopathic sleeping pills. I’m sure the world will be rocked by the mass deaths and hospitalizations…Oh, wait! What am I saying? No one will suffer anything. Homeopathic medicine has NOTHING in it. Not to worry, everyone will be fine.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ahead’ by WireFirst ad break bumpers: ‘Once In A Lifetime’ by Talking Heads & ‘Where Have You Been’ by George Hrab
Second ad break bumpers: ‘When I Was Your Age’ by George Hrab & ‘Scarecrow People’ by XTC
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

dimland radio 9-7-13 show notesBe

Because of some family issues taking up my time and ability to devote attention to putting together another stellar show, I opted to replay part one of my interview with George Hrab (originally aired 1/15/11). If I can get it together, do a new show next week. If I can’ maybe I’ll play part two.

A Guest! George Hrab

The multi-talented George Hrab

My excitement was undeniable as I greeted my listeners, because I was going to play part one of my two part interview with musician/singer/songwriter/podcaster/raconteur/atheist/skeptic: George Hrab.

But First A Little Tale About Pink Eye

Pink eye ain’t no fun!

But before I got rolling with the interview, I told everybody about my bout with pink eye. Pink eye! It is no fun, I can tell you. Happily, I am on the mend.

You can get info on pink eye here, if you really want to.

And Now, George Hrab Part 1

Much of part one of my interview of George Hrab centered on skepticism and atheism. We talked about the “power” of prayer and George gave his idea of how to better use the time spent praying. I gushed a bit, I couldn’t help it. I’m a big fan of Geo’s.

If you haven’t heard his podcast, you should! Be warned Geo will use some profane language on his podcast, but you’re an adult, you can handle it. You can download, for free, the Geologic Podcast from iTunes or you can go here to listen to it and see his show notes and even make a comment if you like.

Movie Recommendation: True Grit (2010)

My last movie recommendation was the original True Grit starring John Wayne. My wife and I had just watched the Coen brother’s True Grit the afternoon before this edition of Dimland Radio. We really enjoyed it. The story is essentially the same, but the tone is much different. Jeff Bridges might just snag another Oscar for his performance. And Hailee Steinfeld as the 14 year-old Maddie Ross is terrific.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ahead’ by WireFirst ad break bumpers: ‘Help Me Somebody‘ by Brian Eno/David Bryne & ‘I Don’t Believe In Christmas‘ by George Hrab
Second ad break bumpers: ‘Fifties Stories‘ by George Hrab & ‘You’re the Wish You are I Had‘ by XTC
Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook’ by $5 Fiddle