Trends

New World Notes #408, 29:00 (December 29)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Botox for men. Extra points for the two-day-old-looking beard.

In places seriously, in places tongue-in-cheek, we take a look at some current trends. Important ones include the decline of suburbs and the increasing wealth of the plutocrats.

But let's not neglect Botox for men ("brotox"), celebrity vegetarianism, women NOT dyeing their hair, special-interest magazines, exploring power plants while naked....  Contributors include J.H. Kunstler, George Carlin, Paul Krassner, provincial newspapers, and singer David Rovics.

With a new foreword by K.D.  Previously broadcast, as NWN #217, in May 2012.

Comic Satire for Christmas

New World Notes #407, 27:15 (December 22)
Broadcast quality MP3 (labeled as #355 -- 39 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (labeled as #355 -- 13 MB)

This year's Christmas show bears a certain relationship to last year's Christmas show.  The name of that certain relationhip is "identity."  (Yes, I stole that one from Peter Schickele/PDQ Bach.)

The show contains brief commentary by me, five satiric seasonal songs, and one imitation Broadway "big production number." All take a comic but critical view of American hypocrisies, religiosity, commercialism, class warfare, and other Christmastime traditions.

I'm especially fond of the pseudo- "big production number": Stan Freberg's 1958 masterpiece, Green Chri$tma$.  The audio fidelity is very good even by today's standards; the production is rich and sophisticated; the script is witty; and the message (alas) is still relevant.

Other contributionsare by Hugh Blumenfeld, Simon and Garfunkel, Anne Feeney, Roy Zimmerman, and Tom Lehrer.

Bah! humbug! and merry Christmas to all!

Scooter's War on Christmas Kickstarter

New World Notes #406, 28:33 (December 15)
Broadcast quality MP3 (39 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

The Church fights back

A fine audio collage on Christmas and America produced by Scooter. A blend of social satire, inspired nonsense, improbable music, serious debate, standup comedy, right-wing craziness, & great fun.

This collage weaves together a debate on religion by the late Christopher Hitchens and Bill Donahue, a parody musical-comedy Christmas movie, a parody war movie (climaxing in the death of all three Chipmunks), ravings by Bill O'Reilly and a few televangelists, heavy-metal Christmas carols, standup comedy by Lewis Black and Sam Kinison, and more.

Last December we played a 12-minute excerpt from the piece. This year (what the heck) we present Scooter's tour-de-force almost uncut ... almost uncensored ... and almost unabridged!

Scooter, in a reflective moment

Scooter produces "The innerSide" radio program at KPFT-FM, Houston. Find more of his work at http://aksisofevil.org.