Monday, December 1, 2014

Season's Greetings 2014


My family left religious beliefs up to its individual members. We did not call ourselves atheists, but we were realists and on rare occasions when we went to church on Christmas Eve, it was to take in the atmosphere and music. December 24th was also the day on which the main events took place, and we observed the holidays as Danes of a variety of persuasions did, with great food (always a Christmas goose stuffed with fruit), good wine, and practical gifts. The latter tended to be selected with much thought, and never from a catalog. We also had a tree, a real one, lit with real candles, which was dangerous but the only way in those days, and ever so lovely.

I later discovered that several of our friends were Jewish, but I was never aware of that as a young person—coming to live in the U.S. changed that. I worked at a Philadelphia radio station, WHAT, where I was the only non-Jewish white person—I was also the only one who did not feel a need to alter my name. In Denmark, one of our most popular entertainers was Børge Rosenbaum, who had to change his name to Victor Borge when he came here at the outbreak of WWII. I recall him substituting for Jack Paar during a Christmas week and explaining to the Tonight Show audience how "we" celebrate the holiday in Denmark. It can be done just as well without bringing religion into it.

When hand-carried mail was how we communicated our holiday well wishes, I always looked forward to those decorative cards, displayed them for the remainder of the year, and stored them away for future fond remembrances. A few years back, as friends began to depart, all too soon, the cards served well to rekindle those memories. 

I was very fortunate to have worked in a field that generated true friendships, and some of these are reflected in this little video compilation that I put together a few years back. I hope you like it and can forgive a sentimental old fool for lapsing into a sentimental old fool. 


30 comments:

  1. Please fix the video.

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    1. Video fixed. My apologies for this WBAI emulation? :)

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  2. What are you going to do for Chanukah and Kwanzaa?

    KGT

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  3. Very best wishes for the Holidays and for the New Year, Chris :)

    ~ 'indigo'

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  4. Cute video. In my case the only cards I ever kept were from a friend of mine who is a graphic artist. Every year he takes a picture and has it turned into a custom made card. Something about that makes it more personal. Anyway, I am one of those people that wishes he never met most of the people he met in life.

    Happy holidays for those into this season. However, for me, the corporate control of it and crass commercial have me running in the other direction. The nastiest people I have met in the past decade are people out and about on Christmas Eve. So much for festive...

    I'll stick with my old remaining beliefs from my heavy metal teenage years. Anton Szandor LaVey and his great radical libertarian tract mis-titled The Satanic Bible is probably the greatest influence in my personal philosphy of life. No, it's not a religious book. LaVey stated that it was a libertarian philosophy cloaked in religiosity because most people are weak and stupid and need ritual and hocus pocus. He was always honest about being an atheist, but the nitwit Satanists never seemed to hear/read that part, since they wanted to do their dark rituals.

    As LaVey said, your birthday was the greatest holiday, as it is a celebration of your own existence. Sure beats a childlike egotistical schizophrenic Middle Eastern war god of blood and misery. Social Darwinist, Satanist, radical moderate libertarian, guerilla ontologist. No wonder all the politicos hate me.

    SDL

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  5. Merry Christmas Chris. Thank you for the kindness you've always shown me.

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    1. Thank you and here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and a better 2015. I hope to hear you streaming somewhere or hear that you are writing that book, or both.

      I don't know if you have read my Bessie Smith biography, or have any interest in doing so, but let me know if you want the audio version. bessiesmith [at] mac.com

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    2. Did you ever think of doing a Billie Holiday bio? Or maybe a Doris Day? Doris Day is the greatest.

      KGT

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    3. I spent some time with Billie, both here and in Copenhagen, but I was not thinking in terms of writing. I did, however, record an interview with her when I was a jazz DJ in Philly. It's around here, somewhere, but my reel-to-reel decks both need a new belt.

      As for Doris Day? She has been among my favorite since the late Forties, when I first heard one of her recordings. I am sorry to say that we never met, but she's still alive and kicking.

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    4. As much as I'd like to see a book about your time at WBAI, I know it isn't worth the effort.

      SDL

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    5. I agree, SDL. I would gladly contribute recollections and thoughts to a book, but I have no interest in writing one.

      Btw, Mitchel posted on PacificaRadiowaves that they have just sent out the 2009 "gifts"! You read right... 2009!!!

      So, one can presume that some WBAI listeners, or their loved ones, died while waiting for that "cure."

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    6. Morbid, but probably true, considering the average age of WBAI listeners. Well, I guess they could call them Chistmas presents you never expected. You have to wonder how many packages will be returned because of "moved (or deceased) no longer at this address." 2009..? Seriously..?

      I'll tell you what WBAI management should never do - run a hospital!

      SDL

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    7. Neither a hospital nor a radio station. That said, I DO think they should "run," but as far away as possible.

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    8. WBAI should make an annual calendar as a premium. However, they should date it for five years in the future, so it is useful to people when they finally receive it. Therefore, next year they should issue a 2020 calendar as a premium.

      SDL

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    9. I admire your optimism, SDL.

      Apropos premiums, I wonder if they have an expiry date. Does the Double Helix chewing gum lose its curative properties if you leave it on the bedpost overnight? How many years does it take for it to evaporate? And how about those timely doomsday documentaries? How well do they date?

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    10. Chris, I am surprised by your lack of critical logic. Your presumption that Double Helix chewing gum has any curative properties has not been proven by science nor shamanism nor shape shifting lizards nor even Mr Magoo. Shame on you. I think you have been listening to Geoff Brady and "Cake" Davis too much for your own good.

      As for doomsday videos. The longer it takes for someone to view them, the longer they are potentially valid. If you watched one 5 years ago and the world is still here, then you would lose faith in it. However, if you watch it in December 2014, you will be more likely to believe in its possible veracity for some time to come. Ergo, it actually favors said documentaries not to be seen for as long as possible.

      What I wonder about most are the health powders. I believe they have an expiration date of 2 - 3 years. If these things have been sitting around WBAI for 5 years, they are probably very well expired already, regardless of their alleged health benefits. They could possibly even turn toxic, with or without an overdose of ingredients via the lab that formulated Gary Null's personal near expiration date.

      Anyway, this sort of fits this tirade...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BAHp1cWoHo

      SDL

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  6. Chris, did you see Jim Dingeman's hysterically stupid post on the Pacifica Radio Waves list?

    https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/PacificaRadiowaves/conversations/messages/22630

    I really have to wonder which group is more insane - WBAI management or these LSB dopes, like Dingeman, Cohen, etc.

    Maybe a thread on this piece of idiocy is in order.

    SDLaughing

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    1. You can't accuse Jim Dingeman of dishonesty or ill will, he really means what he says and he's personally putting his ideas into action...

      People have pointed out the crappy programming and premiums for years on the blue board, and Jim Dingeman's response was always, that's all true but we need just this much more money to survive for the coming six months. And then six months would pass and he would say, we just have to make this much money during this marathon. And so on. This is just the current iteration of that. He's trying to get out of BAI's hamster wheel by running faster.

      However the reference to Amazon is WAY off the deep end... this is the glint of lunacy.

      You can't save BAI by keeping it alive this way, because what you're keeping alive is what's wrong with it. Doing that is being part of the problem. What WBAI needs is a hard reboot.

      J.

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    2. You have accurately described Dingeman's narrow horizon and the futility of his ways. I think Mitch Cohen also means well, but neither can look very far ahead. Reimburse, i.m.o. sees nothing and, ergo, does nothing that is of any use. Perhaps, if Dingeman and Cohen could see Reimers—I mean, really see him—they might wake up.

      Yes, the Amazon fantasy alone is a clear sign of Dingeman having gone off the deep end.

      It is, of course, far too late for any rebirth of WBAI.

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    3. The biggest joke about a person like Dingeman is how much he talks about money for a leftist. WBAI isn't buying itself out of its self-made mess. If, by some chance, a load of money came into the station, I guarantee it would disappear, without any real investigation.

      Dingeman is another useless humanoid cult follower.

      SDL

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    4. If these were stupid people, I would be able to dismiss them more readily, but they aren't stupid, they just do very stupid things—so I find myself wondering why, and looking for some sub-plot. :)

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    5. I guess there are many sub-plots, as it is one big soap opera...

      SDL

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  7. Yes, I read that and had thoughts of posting at least some of it. May still do that. No pun intended, but I think they are all bunkers. Mitchel is amazing, in a sad sort of way--I hope you read some of his irrational rationalizations. None of the people make much sense, so what do you think their game is?

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    1. To be honest, I don't think they have a game. If they did, they would probably be better about putting it into action. They play games with themselves, but don't have a real game or conspiracy.

      I think it's just a bunch of middle aged, obsessed politicos devoid of any real association with reality and the real world. Their lives are wrapped up in the insular land that is WBAI, and they know nothing beyond it. They don't get out and around much nor understand that WBAI's programming simply doesn't appeal to anything more than a tiny fringe of people, well below what a radio station needs to survive on a shoestring level.

      Sorry folks, but there is more to the world than Ferguson. WBAI is so piss poor at reaching out to their "community" that it bludgeons its few thousand listeners with the same topic. Nothing about slum lords or welfare and food stamps or crime in public housing or poor quality education? Really? These are topics their "community" deals with every day! However, the WBAI dopes don't know it because they are elitist asswipes who don't even associate with the people they claim to represent.

      WBAI people are a bunch of idiots living on other peoples' money as long as they can, playing leftist politics so they feel like they are doing something with their meaningless lives.

      The single biggest fact that I can present is that none of these moronic twerps is willing to accept the fact that WBAI's programming sucks and doesn't even appeal to their own "community." Their own "community" doesn't listen to the station. Their "community" doesn't give a crap abouut WBAI. The only reason WBAI survives is Gary Null, who primarily appeals to white bourgeoisie. The money that keeps WBAI alive comes from white liberal capitalists. Talk about irony!

      There can be no serious discussion about WBAI until it is accepted that the programming is mostly vapid and unappealing tripe that needs a total overhaul. I don't see that happening with delusional people at all levels, or they'd have nothing to do with themselves, although they could discover video games, Netflix, online porn, etc. and leave the rest of us alone to do what needs to be done.

      WBAI is not a radio station but an amusement park for psychotics, obsessive compulsives and morons.

      SDL

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    2. I did more reading on Pacifica Radio Waves tonight. Mitchel Cohen is indeed sad, in that he is a cult follower. As a cult follower, he has no critical faculties remaining and believes totally in the cult. Lucky for him (unlucky for us) it is WBAI and not The Peoples' Temple or Heaven's Gate. The man is simply a tool of propaganda.

      SDL

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    3. Mitchel is not a bad person, but--as you suggest—he is seriously misguided.

      Did you read the following observation by Kevin White re WBAI and its reliance on Null? I think it bears repeating:

      "Gary collects a huge audience of dumb people who don't question authority. You've driven away intellectuals in one of the smartest cities in the world. And now you're catering to churchgoers? You're selling out a desirable audience for an audience of simpletons and schizophrenics who hear the voices on invisible sky gods or get a hard on when they hear the word 'Natural.'"

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    4. Yes, so true. Reminds me of things I have said here, in fact. However, it's a cycle of a dumbing down of both the audience AND the on-air staff. One hand washes the other.

      Null is a true cult leader, keeping his followers in fear of the outside world. Everything but his crap is wrong and the enemy. His listeners DO question authority, just not Godlike Null's authority. They are people who want a leader to promise them immortality and found one.

      The real question is whether this is only indicative of WBAI or the far left in general. Both are aging and not getting enough new recruits to take up the slack.

      Time will tell.

      SDL

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  8. I had a thought! (Yes, I am capable at times.) I now present to you REAL "community" radio for the people.

    1) Cancel ALL regular programming.
    2) Divide your broadcast time into one hour blocks.
    3) Invite anyone and everyone to come to the station and broadcast.
    4) Give everyone who comes down every day a numbered ticket, and call them out at random. Alternately, just do a first come, first served method.
    5) The people do one hour shows in the order that their ticket numbers are called out or they arrived.

    It would be great to have real people talking about whatever is on their minds, like politics, economics, TV programs, constipation, hating a neighbor, drug dealing and usage, porn, divorce, work, landlords, the voices in their heads, how
    their supermarket sells expired items, etc.

    And, to make money, you could sell tickets to all the fights that would break out when people accuse each other of cutting the line, stealing tickets, etc.

    Now that is real peoples' radio! Yeah, right. Like any of these left wing elitist hoarders of airtime would let the public speak for themselves...

    SDL

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  9. Chris, I hope you have a beautiful season for whichever holidays you celebrate, or don't celebrate. And I hope you have health and prosperity in the coming New Year.

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    1. Thank you, Justine, I wish you the same for yourself and yours. Your presence here has added much to this blog—thank you for that and I hope you stay in touch as the farce continues to unfold.

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