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wombat_sochoThey call them mortal sins for a reason, after all.
G-d has apparently decided to fire a shot across my bow for checking out this Fark photoshop contest, for which many Farkers are getting aisle and window seats to Hell; on my return from Washington, I have to change planes in Atlanta. This experience is apparently right up there with colonoscopies and cavity searches; the late Lewis Grizzard was known to curse people with: "May you go to Hell and change planes at Hartsfield." Well, we'll see. Grizzard's been dead a while and for all I know they've completely revamped the place a la Reagan National, or replaced it like they did the Launching Pad.
Everything seemed to take forever this morning, and once again I was late to work, not arriving until shortly after 0900. Maybe I shouldn't have packed lunch after all...regardless, after a short lunch today and the extra 20 minutes I'll be working tonight, I'll be caught up for the week. I'm thinking I need to switch the clock radio back to rock in the morning, because the classical just doesn't seem to be cutting it....I just lay there for a few minutes after the music starts, unable to tell whether I'm awake or just dreaming. What I really need is The Senator from the old Harden & Weaver show on WMAL down home. That character was a Foghorn Leghorn type who would banter with one of the hosts for a couple of minutes about some current Capitol HIll stupidity (an inexhaustible topic) before introducing a rousing march tune by John Philip Sousa or similar composer, and there was nothing quite like it for getting you going in the morning. Sadly, Weaver died in 1992 from heart and kidney failure; he is probably better remembered as the original voice of Smokey the Bear.
Looking up Harden & Weaver led me on a brief stroll down memory lane; there's apparently quite an extensive set of Wikipedia entries on DC-area radio stations, including Top 40 favorite of my youth WPGC, legendary home of shock jocks DC 101 (which I frequently mocked in the early 1980s, parodying their slogan as "Recycled Rock - Turn it off!"), and alternative music station WHFS, whose rise and fall happened while I was in exile up here.
Nothing for WGTB, the old Georgetown U station that introduced me to whale songs, Ultravox and other alternative music decades before alternative was cool; the entry for C-Span Radio alludes to but doesn't fully explain GTB's demise; having been in town at the time, I can testify that the college president shut down the station after the radio hosts stupidly announced their plans to hold a benefit for Planned Parenthood. Not the brightest thing to do at a Catholic university, much less one run by Jesuits, kids.
So the Thomas Dolby Retrospectacle CD showed up yesterday; I promptly threw it in the Deskpro's CD player and gave it a listen. Then I took it to work this morning and tried it once more with headphones. How was it?
Not bad, not bad at all. Unsurprisingly, I like the tracks from Blinded By Science and Astronauts & Heretics best, while not being so fond of the stuff off Aliens Ate My Buick and The Flat Earth. Early releases "Urges" and "Leipzig" are pretty neat as well, bringing the good tunes content up to 12 out of the 16 tracks. Worth buying, especially if you only have Dolby's music in analog formats, though I could have wished for the inclusion of "Flying North". Ah well, that's what digital recording and MP3 players are for, to allow us to mix compilations the way we want them.
By the way, I was mistaken about Magnus Pyke, who appears on "She Blinded Me With Science"; he was not in fact the brains behind Project Habakkuk. That was his equally odd cousin Geoffrey.
Now to do a little more work on the Stipple-APA before heading home.
G-d has apparently decided to fire a shot across my bow for checking out this Fark photoshop contest, for which many Farkers are getting aisle and window seats to Hell; on my return from Washington, I have to change planes in Atlanta. This experience is apparently right up there with colonoscopies and cavity searches; the late Lewis Grizzard was known to curse people with: "May you go to Hell and change planes at Hartsfield." Well, we'll see. Grizzard's been dead a while and for all I know they've completely revamped the place a la Reagan National, or replaced it like they did the Launching Pad.
Everything seemed to take forever this morning, and once again I was late to work, not arriving until shortly after 0900. Maybe I shouldn't have packed lunch after all...regardless, after a short lunch today and the extra 20 minutes I'll be working tonight, I'll be caught up for the week. I'm thinking I need to switch the clock radio back to rock in the morning, because the classical just doesn't seem to be cutting it....I just lay there for a few minutes after the music starts, unable to tell whether I'm awake or just dreaming. What I really need is The Senator from the old Harden & Weaver show on WMAL down home. That character was a Foghorn Leghorn type who would banter with one of the hosts for a couple of minutes about some current Capitol HIll stupidity (an inexhaustible topic) before introducing a rousing march tune by John Philip Sousa or similar composer, and there was nothing quite like it for getting you going in the morning. Sadly, Weaver died in 1992 from heart and kidney failure; he is probably better remembered as the original voice of Smokey the Bear.
Looking up Harden & Weaver led me on a brief stroll down memory lane; there's apparently quite an extensive set of Wikipedia entries on DC-area radio stations, including Top 40 favorite of my youth WPGC, legendary home of shock jocks DC 101 (which I frequently mocked in the early 1980s, parodying their slogan as "Recycled Rock - Turn it off!"), and alternative music station WHFS, whose rise and fall happened while I was in exile up here.
Nothing for WGTB, the old Georgetown U station that introduced me to whale songs, Ultravox and other alternative music decades before alternative was cool; the entry for C-Span Radio alludes to but doesn't fully explain GTB's demise; having been in town at the time, I can testify that the college president shut down the station after the radio hosts stupidly announced their plans to hold a benefit for Planned Parenthood. Not the brightest thing to do at a Catholic university, much less one run by Jesuits, kids.
So the Thomas Dolby Retrospectacle CD showed up yesterday; I promptly threw it in the Deskpro's CD player and gave it a listen. Then I took it to work this morning and tried it once more with headphones. How was it?
Not bad, not bad at all. Unsurprisingly, I like the tracks from Blinded By Science and Astronauts & Heretics best, while not being so fond of the stuff off Aliens Ate My Buick and The Flat Earth. Early releases "Urges" and "Leipzig" are pretty neat as well, bringing the good tunes content up to 12 out of the 16 tracks. Worth buying, especially if you only have Dolby's music in analog formats, though I could have wished for the inclusion of "Flying North". Ah well, that's what digital recording and MP3 players are for, to allow us to mix compilations the way we want them.
By the way, I was mistaken about Magnus Pyke, who appears on "She Blinded Me With Science"; he was not in fact the brains behind Project Habakkuk. That was his equally odd cousin Geoffrey.
Now to do a little more work on the Stipple-APA before heading home.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-27 05:45 pm (UTC)WGTB-FM (We Go To Bed - For Money) needs a wikipedia entry. Do it up.
--RS
(no subject)
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