Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christmastime Absurdities


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 50 -- December 18, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #146, December 21:

Christmastime Absurdities

Publicity photo for a performance of Ionesco's The Lesson--a classic of the Theatre of the Absurd. Most Photos: Click to enlarge.

In brief

This is a season of absurdities--in both meanings of the term--and Installment #146 of New World Notes explores them with a light touch.

(The second meaning--known only to those who majored in Drama, Philosophy, or English in college--refers to the unbridgeable gap between what exists and what the human spirit needs.)

With prose by me and AP ... and with comic-satiric seasonal songs by Roy Zimmerman, Hugh Blumenfeld, and Stan Freberg ... we celebrate the absurdities of the season. Some of which can be traced back to Biblical times.

Like, can anybody make sense of the historical Jesus? What's with driving the money-changers out of the Temple? What's so bad about currency exchange? American Express does it all the time. Now, driving the High Priests out of the Temple . . . that would have been 'way cool!

Included, at no additional charge: an update on the most absurd news story of last Christmas ... anybody remember? ... the Scam of the Alleged Underwear Bomber.

Roy Zimmerman in West Hartford, August 2008.
Photo by Kenneth Dowst
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Notes, credits, & links

This week's music:

  • Roy Zimmerman, Buy War Toys for Christmas
  • Hugh Blumenfeld, Long-Haired, Radical, Socialist Jew
  • Stan Freberg, Green Chri$tma$

Of the 3 recording artists who produced this week's Christmas music, one (Stan Freberg) is actually a Christian. You don't have to be Jewish to write a good Christmas song, it turns out!

Check out Tereza Coraggio's podcasts at http://www.thirdparadigm.org/ .

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Top: Hardened Muslim-extremist terrorist Umar Abdulmutallab. On cap, note logo of terrorist organization, AQIWA (Al Qaida in Western Africa). Bottom: Stan Freberg, creator of the immortal Big Production Number, Green Chri$tma$.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • December 28 -- TSA: Teaching Submission to Americans? (Thousands Standing Around? Testicle Squeezers of America?)
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net


PS: For fun, scroll down to the previous entry & check out these photos of an apparition that appeared in the ice cubes in my wine glass. (Please don't ask what ice cubes were doing in my wine glass.) Is it Christ? Sonny Bono? Saddam Hussein? Fr. Guido Sarducci? You decide! (Permanent link: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/2010/12/apparition.html .)

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Christmas Special 2009


New World Notes News
Vol. 2 No. 50 -- December 19, 2009

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #94, Dec. 22:

Stan Freberg

Christmas Special 2009


Brevity is The Soul of Wit Department:

Somebody famous was born on Christmas--I forget who. John Lennon? In celebration thereof, we present 3 seasonal songs, performed by 3 Jews (Simon, Garfunkel, & Stan Freberg) and 1 "out" homosexual Gentile (Elton John). Less humorously, we also commemorate 2 unhappy anniversaries: the sack of Fallujah (2004) and the sack of Gaza (begun Dec. 27, 2008). "War is over, if you want it." Happy Christmas!

Credits

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "unisex bathroom") of WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.

Notes

This week's holiday music (all Oldies):

  • Simon & Garfunkel, Silent Night / 6 o'Clock News
  • Stan Freberg, Green Chri$tma$
  • Elton John, Where To Now, Saint Peter?

http://www.annefeeney.com/

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut dates on WWUH shown:

  • December 29 -- Potpourri . . . including Israel's secret weapon in Palestine . . . U.S.'s bloody foreign policy since 1898 (if not 1756) . . . and Obama, "the Banksters," & dancin' to The Monster Crash. Happy New Year!
  • January 5 -- Varieties of Sexual Experience, OR: Goldberg's Other Variations

Broadcast schedule: Scroll down to previous entry.

Sir Elton John

A Christmas Carol

Where to now, Saint Peter,
If it's true I'm in your hand?
I may not be a Christian,
But I've done all one man can.
I understand I'm on the road
Where all that was is gone.
So where to now, Saint Peter?
Show me which road I'm on . . . .


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