Lewis Black exposes the LIBERAL MEDIA

Lewis Black sums up The 1/2 Hour News Hour, Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones / WSJ, and Conservapedia in one glorious segment. Probably the best Back in Black I've seen in months:

I don't read the Bible

I don't trust disciple!


Sounds like every other one of their songs - but that's okay, because they're fun.

Dumb internet memes, local indie bands, and Rolling effing Stone

Joey just sent me this link, via Philebrity, of a video on Rolling Stone's website that features local act The Teeth. Of particular interest to us is the setting for the first half of the video, which just so happens to be the music library of our old station, WCUR. Early on in Joey's and my reign of terror at that station, we decided to heft those huge shelves full of vinyl you see in the background out of the middle of the room and against that back wall so that bands could play in there. We also went on a somewhat rabid search for cheap used couches to place in that areas so that bands could also sit. Anyway, what I think this all boils down to is that WCUR just made a cameo in Rolling Stone, which means that it's not cool to like that place anymore. Shame.

In other news, I almost decided to make a habit out of reading Philebrity, which I hear a lot about, but decided not to based on the title of their Rolling Stone / Teeth post: "OH HAI, IM IN UR SCENE, PUTTIN UR BANDZ ON VEEDEE-OH". Mmm....no. Not even in jest. No, sorry.

Link: [Philebrity]
Link: [Rolling Stone]

Good news, everyone! Pt 2

Here's a brief summary of what the girl and I have been doing over the past couple of days:

1. Knock on friend/family member's door
2. Shoot the shit for a couple minutes in the kitchen
3. I announce "We've got some good news!"
4. We both stare at the friend/family member waiting for them to guess the good news
5. Friend/family member either guesses it or shrugs, clueless
6. I shout "DO IT!"
7. The girl swings her lovely hand out with a whip-cracking motion
8. Jumping/screaming/shouting/hugs/kisses
9. Repeat

So, can you guess? Did you guess it?

Radio geek links

If you're a radio geek like myself, there are a few crucial links you ought to have stashed away in your special bookmarks folder titled "Nerd Alert!" It's how I stay so up-to-date on current events in the radio industry, and it's also how I got this hot ass.

First, of course, is FMQB. I first discovered this site the morning Jamie called me in a panic early one morning in February 2005 to tell me that Y-100 was going to flip formats that day and that she had been maced and drug out of the studio by Radio One riot police along with the rest of the interns. I read updates on that site for the rest of the day and have been hooked on it for industry news ever since. One of their feature articles today, FCC Opens Commenting On XM/Sirius Merger, deals with a topic we've touched on here at Open All Night a couple of times, and is worth checking out.

The second link was relayed to me by one Dany Sloan and is called Arcane Radio Trivia. It can be a bit dry at times but for the most part it's filled with interesting, uh, trivia. What did you expect?

The last link is one I found while trolling around the internet looking for dirt on a former employer that fired me some years ago (not obsessing, I swear - just bored). The search was sparked by a link Bob sent me regarding a station I've applied for work with on more than one occasion and it ultimately led me to this message board: Radio-info.com. Here is the Philadelphia sub-forum, where people call each other names, geeks with delusions of grandeur claim to have inside information, and radio snobs quietly peck at each and every change or rumored change in the #7 market. It is here that I have delightedly taken to trolling the folks that claim that the Kidd Chris show is the zenith of talk radio, or that contestant callers on Power 99 are to blame for the skyrocketing murder rate in Philadelphia. (It's pronounced "Sep-tem-BER" not "Sep-tem-BAH"! If those black folks would only talk right, we might see an end to the violence around here! )

Speaking of racism and radio, check out this commercial for WHIT - Power 102FM if you haven't already.



Link - [FMQB]
Link - [Arcane Radio Trivia]
Link - [Radio-info.com]

Goodbye, Tony

One of my favorite television programs, The Sopranos, wraps up this Sunday. If you're a fan of the show like I am, you're going to be glued to the set for the finale of one of the best written, acted, and produced programs in the history of the boob tube. I'm not exaggerating when I say this, either: from the beginning, each episode has been treated like a short, one-hour long movie documenting the life of TV's anti-hero king. The show, originally pitched to Fox as what was essentially going to be a Goodfellas TV show (Ray Liotta turned down the role of Tony and Lorraine Bracco originally auditioned to play his wife, Carmela, before accepting the role of Tony's psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi) under the title "Made In America", has morphed into a chilling drama / dark comedy about Tony Soprano, his family, and his Family. It has created some of my favorite characters, only to kill them off at the end of each season, all while paying tribute to the great mob movies. By the way, "Made in America" is the title of the final episode this weekend - take that, Fox.

I can't emphasize enough that if you haven't ever watched the show before, you shouldn't tune in for the last hour this Sunday at 9. Poor idea. If you have any intention of going back to season 1 and starting at the beginning, this last hour could ruin six and a half seasons of the best show on television for you.

Since I'm feeling all nostalgic about this show, check out this clip from the pilot I found on Youtube. It's weird to see James Gandolfini looking this skinny, as he's about twice this size now towards the end of the show. (The rumor was that the weight gain was written into his contract, as Tony was supposed to grow physically in proportion to his greed and penchant for violence.) The tone of everything is a lot less upbeat, nowadays, too -- but there are still little clues even from this scene that keep popping up in scenes seven years later. I mean, check out Christopher's baseball cap - and listen to Tony rant on about the "degenerate gambler" they're whaling on....



edit: OK OK check out this classic scene, also from Season 1:



And while we're at it, this: a short compilation of all the "OHHH"s and "AYYY"s in the entire show:

Radio rock sucks

Proof.

(my apologies if you've seen this a million times already, but there are a lot of folks who still have to see it and it never gets old for me.)