On the air -- Now 24/7!

As you can tell from the big thing over there on the right  - I am now a radio station, at least on the internet and Second Life anyways. Click the radio picture to listen on your computer. We will not be broadcasting 24/7 just yet, but and I can promise you a couple of things - live broadcasts on Sunday nights from 8 p.m. to past midnight EST/ 5 p.m. to 10 p.m PST and the tunebot that lives in my electronic record collection playing stuff at random over the weekends. Starting NOW!

Update: Thanks to everyone for tuning in on Sunday, sorry about the technical meltdown that occurred at about midnight EST -- apparently someone forgot to put fresh hamsters on the treadmill that powers the servers at Shoutcast. Better luck next time, I guess. Leave comments/requests in the comments if you so desire and keep listening, this will get fixed in time.

Upperdate: thanks to the patience of Mr. PB Recreant of Second Life, the stream is fixed and Radio Woodshed is now a going concern 24/7!!

Every picture tells a story, don't it?

Crappy Rod Stewart tunes aside, check out the best photos of 2008:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Peas in Middle East


I betcha the folks at Mossad are wetting their pants in terror over this guy.

(Hat tip to Dr. Dawg)

Best of the year

If you are looking for some swell holiday reading, the ever trenchant Jon Swift - the man who puts the "arch" in "archconservative" - compiles the best of the year from his lengthy blogroll.

Been there, done that



I've been tapped by Chet over at the Vanity Press with the latest blog meme: List all the paying jobs you've ever had in roughly chronological order.



Paperboy (bet you didn't see that coming)

Fastfood burgerflipper

Newspaper reporter (first paid byline at age 14)

Babysitter

Strawberry picker (which quickly became...)

Independent door-to-door fruit and vegetable salesman

Dishwasher/delivery driver at Chinese restaurant

Newspaper reporter (covering Rotary Club meetings for local paper)

Forest Ranger (Jr.)

Electric motor winding assembler/shipper

Roadhouse cook

Technical writer at IBM

Mechanic's assistant

Pizza delivery driver

Reporter/Photographer/Darkroom technician/layout monkey for weekly community newspapers in Ingersoll, Caledonia, Port Dover (Ontario)

Photographer (theatrical publicity stills)

Freelance PR copywriter and photographer

Radio reporter

Baker

Line Cook in Italian chain restaurant

Acting Editor/Reporter/Photographer/Darkroom technician/columnist/ main layout monkey for weekly community newspapers in Listowel, Ont.

Reporter/Photographer for community weekly newspaper in Napanee, Ont.

Editor-in-chief/Reporter/Photographer for twice weekly newspaper in Picton, Ont.

Folksinger

Industrial temp

ESL teacher in Japan

Private language tutor and education consultant

Staff writer at English language newspaper in Japan (duties include book, music and film critic, page editor, copy editor, rewriter, reporter)

Freelance writer and editor



Volunteer gigs include:

Farm labourer

Artist's agent for singer/songwriter

Wedding celebrant/clergyman

Folk Festival organizer

Union president

Santa Claus

Internet DJ/projectionist/virtual clubowner in Second Life

Record producer/political fundraiser



I'll pass this exercise in nostalgia on to David at Jim Dandy Goodness, Dan at Jackson Street Books, Shini, No Blood for Hubris and Willy Loman

My favorite Christmas story

This song always brings a tear to my eye.

Merry Christmas - peace on earth and goodwill toward all mankind, even conservatives.

Radio woodshed is on the air

At least for Xmas day anyways. Tune your browser to http://janefinch.serverroom.us:4930/listen.pls  

or try 

http://janefinch.serverroom.us.4930/index.html 

and click "listen" in the bar at the top of the page and enjoy the best of seasonal podcasts and music -seasonal and otherwise- from a dramatization of "A Christmas Carol" from 9 in the morning on the East Coast of North America straight through to holiday storytime starting around 7 pm EST featuring stories from Dylan Thomas, Stuart Mclean's Vinyl Cafe,O. Henry, Paul Auster, Tom Waits, Dr. Seuss, Steve Martin, David Sedaris and others and lots of music. And no cursing or punk/heavy metal/free jazz during prime time, I promise.

Stay tuned for more in the new year, there could be a weekly show/podcast coming.

Truer words were never written in any paper called "The Sun"

And lest the cheesy new age music and the daily affirmation self-help Stuart Smally video imagery lead you to think the writer, Frank Church, was some touchy-feely fancy pants, think again. He reported from the front lines in the American Civil War, so he'd been around and seen some things. Charles Bronson played him in the movie

Christmas wishes

"What Christmas means to me"

From Paul Simon and Steve Martin

An early Christmas present

You have been good this year, right? 'Cause just like Dick Cheney, Santa sees you when you're sleeping and he know when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so you better smarten up while there is still time.

This may take minute to load up and the whole thing is about a half hour long, so get yourself a beverage while it loads and enjoy the radio piece that launched David Sedaris' career.

Santaland Diaries - David Sedaris

Ho-ho-ho=no-no-no
The stupidest thing I've heard this week, is this story about an Australian company telling its Santas not to say Ho-ho-ho as it might be offensive to women and frightening to childern. WTF? And before you say it, this is not political correctness or anything like it, this is just plain old fashioned dumbassery. Maybe the Santas down under should switch to a good old yuletide Vincent Price-style "Mwahahahah" instead?

Merry Christmas, but the War isn't over

With the election of Barack Obama, we've been told that U.S. troops will be leaving Iraq soon. That doesn't mean the war is over just yet. Merry Christmas to the troops and keep your heads down and come home soon.

God, rest ye merry gentlemen

This ad from the UK is not really safe for work, or kids, or prudes, but it is seasonal and very, very funny. Remember, 'tis better to give than to receive. Usually.

h/t tip to the wanton fiends of Jackson Street Books.

Boot to the head

Protestors deliver some shoes and some street theatre in front of the White House. Get those packages in the mail people!

Progress

Gee, its nice to see some kind of progress in Iraq. Under Saddam, throwing shoes at the leader would have gotten you killed. Now it only gets you beaten half to death. Mind you, under Saddam Hussien, throwing shoes at George Bush probably would have gotten you a cabinet post or at least some kind of public commendation.

Anti-Bush insurgency in its last throws

To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie: If one person does it, they'll think he's crazy and ignore him. If two people do it, they'll think you're both fruitckes and won't pay attention to either of you. But if 50 people-- can you imagine 50 people a day boxing up shoes and sending them to the White House? -- if 50 people a day do it, they may think it's an organization. And if 500 people a day do it - send a pair of smelly, raggedy-ass old shoes to George W. Bush -- then friends they may think it's a movement. And that's what it is: The Give Bush the Boot Anti-Massacre Movement. And all you have to do to join it is send your old shoes to:

President George W. Bush

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Washington D.C.

USA 20500

George W. Bush looks into the sole of Iraq

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28223089#28223089

"This is your farewell kiss, you dog!" shouted Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned Cairo-based TV station. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those were killed in Iraq."

Many will decry this lack of respect for the office of the presidency or the lack of professionalism on the part of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the man who invaded and destroyed a country for no good reason except that he could. Those people are wrong. Bush has already so defiled the office the presidency that it can't really sink much lower and sometimes even the most professional and objective observer must put their humanity ahead of their professional ethics. I'm sure al-Zeidi is now a national hero in Iraq and I'm almost equally sure he won't see the light of day or his family anytime soon.

Frankly, I think Bush is lucky it wasn't a grenade, or at least a bottle or brick. To be honest I'd like to see Bush pelted with shoes everywhere he goes for the next decade. I'd like to see about 4,200 pair of empty combat boots dumped on the White House lawn. I think people from around the world should mail him their oldest, smelliest, most dogshit-encrusted sneakers both en masse and for the rest of his miserable life so that he never, ever forgets.

Update: While Dubya doesn't understand "what his beef was" and doesn't think the sentiments he expressed so forcefully are representative of Iraqi society as a whole, al-Zeidi has become a folk hero overnight across the Middle East. It turns out his experience and outlook are not so different from the average Iraqi. He hates the United States and Iran, and not without very good reasons.

The Washington Post's Dan Froomkin has a good roundup of the coverage.

I guess the RCMP now has a '00' section

This outrageous ruling just gave the mounties the licence to kill anyone who loses their temper, no questions asked. It's funny no one ever dies of hysteria when the cops aren't involved. I have family friends who are in the RCMP - I don't think of them as killers, but these four don't pause for an instant to try to calm the man, they just kill him. 

Watch the whole video -- I insist-- and remember that the man had been there for TEN HOURS without getting any help to find his way out of the customs section and into the arrivals lobby. Watch it all, and tell me that the officers involved acted in a reasonable way and that the man deserved to die. Tell me they had any reason to fear for their lives or were defending themselves. Because if you can tell me that, you are watching a different video than I am.

The four horsemen arrive at 6:12, at 6:40 they taser Robert Dziekanski for the first time, by about 9:30 he seems to be dead, and the Mounties never even try artificial resuscitation, in fact they don't even seem to be in any rush to try to get medical help for the man they have just murdered. 

 

I hope someday the 4 officers, the crown attorney and the judge involved all in their turn travel to some far off foreign land like China or Uruguay or, oh, I dunno, maybe even Poland, on a holiday or a business trip. I hope they get lost in the airport. I hope that what with the jet lag, and the lack of sleep and the confusion and frustration and the fact that nobody speaks English that they just flat out lose it after a few hours and throw down their suitcases and start shouting. And I hope it doesn't cost them their lives, because these fuckers should live with this poor bastard's needless death haunting their consciences every waking moment for a long, long, painful time.

RNC Morans

How many of these pictures of misspelled signs from various Republican and conservative rallies, hate-fests and box lunch socials do we need to see before they admit the truthiness of John Stuart Mills dictum that "not all conservatives are stupid, but all stupid people are conservatives" ?

Shamelessly stolen from the Buffalo Pundit