Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts

Saturday, June 18, 2011

George Carlin Tribute


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 25 -- June 18, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio program #172, June 21, 2011

George Carlin Tribute


George Carlin died three years ago, on June 22, 2008. Lacking much formal education, he proved to be an impressive thinker and political analyst. Originally a hit as a middle-of-the-road, Hollywood comic, his political thinking moved leftwards over the years. By the 1990s, he was America's preeminent Progressive comic and satirist--and more popular than ever. This tribute includes four of Carlin's finer routines from the 1990s, with introductions by me.

The routines presented are these (the titles are mine):

1. Religion = B.S.
2. Airlines English
3. War on Homelessness
4. Euphemisms


Notes, credits, & links

Two other fine Carlin routines--"They Own You" and "The Class System in the U.S."--are included in New World Notes #164 ("They Warned Us!," April 24).

Thanks to Scooter, of "The innerSide" on KPFT-FM, Houston, for the first Carlin routine.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "benign neglect") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • June 28 -- John Pilger
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Men and War



New World Notes News

Volume 2, Number 15 -- April 21, 2009


This week in New World Notes, #60 -- April 21 &24:

Men run the world. The world is seriously messed up. Could there be a connection?

Particularly when it comes to war--which seems to be everywhere and never-ending. Do we have so much war because we have so many men running around and--worse--making most of the decisions?

Graphic by Eric Drooker

A number of thoughtful people say yes--and the only real question is how much the problem ultimately is caused by biology (testosterone) and how much by socialization.

I hesitate to latch on to any single "root of all evil." And in this world of Hillary Clintons and Nancy Pelosis and Condoleeza Rices and Tzipi Livnis--to say nothing of Margaret Thatchers, Indira Gandhis, and Benazir Bhuttos--I think we can at least rule out testosterone as the ultimate cause of war. But that doesn't let men off the hook.

Utah Phillips
(All photos: click to enlarge.)

This week New World Notes features three voices, all male, each discussing how the American style of manhood leads to war. The voices belong to Utah Phillips (the U.S. war in Korea), Bruce Springsteen (Vietnam), and George Carlin (Gulf War I). Phillips and Springsteen each tell a story from their personal experience; Carlin discussses broader economic and social forces. In this performance, from the early 1990s, Carlin is as angry, as bitter, and as profane as I've ever heard him.

Song played: Bruce Springsteen, The River (live)

Soon to Come -- Date of first scheduled broadcast [on WWUH] listed:

  • April 28 -- The Things They Don't Tell You! (Lies, distortions, and propaganda in your American History textbooks and courses. No wonder you hated History class!)
  • May 5 -- Kent State Remembered


Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern) . . .


Bruce Springsteen


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Saturday, April 4, 2009

Can Technology Save Us?




New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 14 -- April 7, 2009


This week in New World Notes, #58 -- April 7 &10:

Did you hate Day of the Jackal because you knew that the plot to kill DeGaul would fail? How about The Greatest Story Ever Told? Did you ever think there was even a chance that Jesus would plea-bargain the charge down to Practicing Medicine Without a License and get off with "time served"?

This week's installment of NWN is about the near-future Critical Petroleum Shortage. Its title is, Can Technology Save Us? And you already know the answer--better than the U.S. Department of Energy does (or pretends to).

On one of its Web pages the DOE has a breathless account of how hydrogen will keep our SUVs running throughout the forseeable future. No lifestyle changes required! 50 years from now, the grapes sold in New York State will still be grown in Chile and shipped northwards economically. And if the U.S. has any jobs available other than currency arbitrage, you can still drive 50 miles to work!

Right. And thanks to nuclear energy, electricity will be so cheap to produce, they'll just give it away. Industry flacks were actually saying this in the early 1960s. I remember. So it must be true.

Two nuclear-industry P.R. flacks explain the benefits of Clean
Energy For Tomorrow ... Today! Oops, wrong picture. This is
actually Jello Biafra (left), playing a Zombie mayor, in a scene
from the major motion picture, RetarDEAD. The lady on the
right looks a bit un-dead, too.

Don't worry about the fact that it requires so much fossil fuel to produce enough hydrogen to drive 100 miles that you'd save energy by burning gasoline instead. Scientists will surely solve this problem Real Soon Now. Look how well they solved nuclear waste disposal!

This week's show presents two funny and intelligent views on why high-tech won't forestall the disruption that Peak Oil will cause.

Jello Biafra addresses the matter indirectly by discussing--with a good deal of wit--the down-side of two "new technologies" that many expected to enhance personal freedom and transform the world: cell phones and especially the Internet. Thanks in part to these technologies, we now have less freedom and more social alienation.


Then urban-design theorist James Howard Kunstler tells of his unhappy but funny failure to get Silicon Valley "genius dudes" (at Google) to comprehend that technology cannot replace energy. You can turn petroleum into jet fuel or into Ipods. But you can't turn Ipods into jet fuel. Like, sorry, Dude!

Which brings us back to Jesus. Or rather, to Monty Python's Brian . . . on a hilltop in Palestine, crucified along with several other culprits, all singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!" as the camera slowly pulls back and the closing credits begin to roll.

So this installment takes these folks' advice by viewing the impending breakdown of what now passes for civilization with a certain amount of humor and good cheer.

  • When you're chewing' on life's gristle,
    don't grumble . . . give a whistle!
    And this'll
    help things turn out for the best!


By the way, WHUS broadcast this installment on April 3. As they say, consult station listings for the installment they'll broadcast on April 10. (You won't find the answer, but you might find some additional shows you want to check out!)

Song played: Chumbawamba, The Wizard of Menlo Park


Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern) . . .

Soon to Come -- Date of first scheduled broadcast [on WWUH] listed:

  • April 14 -- Independent Journalism & Alternative Media: Jeremy Scahill
  • April 21 -- Men and War

Personal Note:

On April 3, I delivered a paper at a conference--Teaching Peace Across Disciplines: Strategies of Peace, Global Sustainability, & Conflict Transformation--held at Central Connecticut State University. It was sponsored by 4 NGOs and 3 local colleges/universities including WWUH's gracious host and licensee, the University of Hartford. I met some really interesting people there and expect some of them will speak on future installments of NWN.

My talk was titled, "Composing Language, Promoting War, Creating Peace." Complete with photo ("slide") illustrations & 10 pages of handouts. OK, I overdid it a little. The whole shebang was based largely on what I learned while putting together NWN's four recent shows--and four blog entries/newsletters--on media distortions of the Israel-Palestine conflicts.

It's rare that I find cause for optimism . . . but encountering a handful of young, educated, enthusiastic graduate students and young professors committed to making positive change in the world . . . . As we used to say, 'way back when, What a blast from the past! A little good news! . . . The first since November 4. . . .


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Thursday, March 26, 2009

"Feed the Naked": Comedian Jimmy Tingle



New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 13 -- March 31, 2009



This week in New World Notes, #57 -- March 31 & April 3:

"Feed the Naked":

Comedian Jimmy Tingle

A surprising amount of humor is heard on New World Notes. I'm as surprised as anybody. On the one hand, certain comedians deliver astute social and political commentary (George Carlin, Stephen Colbert). On the other hand, certain social/political commentators and activists sometimes are very funny.

This second group, larger than the first, includes Medea Benjamin, John Pilger, Michael Parenti, Kathy Kelly, Molly Ivins, Jello Biafra, and singer/songwriter Roy Zimmerman--to name only a handful of voices that have apppeared on the show so far. And James Howard Kunstler (next week) and Jeremy Scahill (the week after that).

As Monty Python used to say . . . before serving up a generous helping of more-of-the-same . . . And Now For Something Completely Different!

This week's radio show comprises an interview with stand-up comedian Jimmy Tingle intercut with selections from his recent CD, Jimmy Tingle for President (see http://www.jimmytingle.com/).

Tingle is a Boston-area institution--like Legal Seafood but better looking. He's known nationally and abroad, thanks to appearances in films and TV. He served a 2-season stint as the humorous commentator on CBS's 60 Minutes II.

I didn't know there was a 60 Minutes II, but these oversights happen when you deep-six the TV set. Alas, unlike Utah Phillips, I didn't have the wit to blast the damned thing to Kingdom Come with a 12-gauge shotgun. I assume he used a 12-gauge. It doesn't really matter. Even a .410 would do the trick, I should think. I'm just speculating, of course.

I would have given the program a more creative name, though . . . like Another 60 Minutes . . . or Son of 60 Minutes . . . or maybe 38 Minutes Plus Commercials.

Jimmy Tingle is a self-confessed, card-carrying Roman Catholic Massachusetts Liberal Democrat (RCMLD--pronounced "rice-mold"). Could he possibly be funny?

I mean, look at fellow RCMLD John Kerry. There was a laugh riot in 2004! How about Michael Dukakis? OK, maybe he was Greek Orthodox, but still. . . . Face it: the Democrats nominated Kerry just to make Al Gore look alive by comparison.

In any case, as Lance Itoh was always saying, "You be the judge!" No, he isn't the bicycle racer. Think back. . . .

Personally, I like him. Tingle, that is, not Itoh.

Entertaining the troops: Tingle on the picket line in Cambridge, MA,
during the Writers Guild strike, December 2007


Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern) . . .

Soon to Come -- Date of first scheduled broadcast [on WWUH] listed:

  • April 7 -- Can Technology Save Us?
  • April 14 -- Independent Journalism & Alternative Media: Jeremy Scahill
  • April 21 -- Men and War


Poster by Ricardo Levins Morales (courtesy
Northland Poster Collective)



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