Friday, January 29, 2010

Fidel has a new laptop!

Due to a recent financial (-aid) windfall, I was able to pass Go and collect 200+ westerndollars towards the purchase of a new Macbook Pro 15" that is quite orgamsic. The process of transferring files from the old Powerbook G4 12" onto this one is going well. I may even be able to run the show next Tuesday on the new laptop. :rubs palms together while attempting to look menacing:
Getting a new computer is like starting over in some ways, and with that in mind (along with my previous post on the decline of radio), I'm going to strive to keep the playlists fresh and interesting. If anyone has feedback on what you'd like to hear, please let me know.

By the power of Greyskull,
Fidel Podcastro

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

MIckey "Mouse" Rourke

This is an excellent example of a G.A.P.E.S. but unfortunately due to us not living in a free nation, we cannot play this one on the show, so instead enjoy it here.

Censorship makes this taboo and unique but in the end they are just words, and if you are offended by words I'm offended by your ignorance.

In other good gay news, there is a new show called "the increasingly poor decisions of todd margaret", first the good news, David Cross, Will Arnett and Spike Jonze are in it, and David wrote the Pilot. The bad news, due to rampant FCC censorshit, you won't see it here in the land of the free. Here is a sample for you to salivate to...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLPsSZf5YKY

JYNXED

So after making such a big deal on the air about how we podcast, archive.org decided not to work with us on this. So unfortunately at least for the moment, the newest show "The LAN Party 01-27-10" will be uploaded at a later date. Please excuse the slight inconvenience, it will appear on iTunes as scheduled, though I don't know what that schedule is.

Don't be alarmed, america is safe.

Fidel & Raul

Friday, January 22, 2010

Why I won't shed a tear when Radio dies.

Last week, a Constant Listener made a request for a song that I no longer had on my laptop. Due to limited hard drive capacity, some songs were sacrificed in exchange for more space. The song in question was a metal cover by Pat Boone, which I confessed was not something I particularly enjoyed. Constant Listener made an excellent point that our radio show isn’t necessarily about me playing songs that I like. It’s my duty as a DJ to provide listeners with new music, varied genres and avoid repeats when possible. My hope is that listeners will at least be turned on to a handful of new songs and get a good laugh or two. Radio programming that relies on repeats and boring DJ banter is worse than no radio at all.
Granted, there are a lot of songs (MC Chris material, for example) that are requested frequently, which means the High-Pitched One will get played more than once or twice a month. I am willing to make that concession to fans but I am against constant repeats, for that makes the show predictable and unexciting. Our podcasting has made me even more diligent than before when it comes to artist and song repeats, for there’s proof of it out on the intarwebs now! WIDR is about providing listeners with a wider variety, after all (pun intended). I appreciate call-ins; many of our listeners turn us on to good music as well. That said, we had requests for Weezer and Green Day last week. I made the comment to my co-DJ that we were not WGRD. Weezer and Green Day may be on soundtracks, yes, but their popularity overcomes any likelihood that we would play them on The LAN Party.
Coincidentally, I caught a 20-minute slice of WGRD’s weekday evening show, Dahmer After Dark (airdate 1/18/10). His personality comes off as completely unappealing and fabricated. He read from an article about the three worst Facebook status updates that a person could make. One of them was making an update about your last bowel movement. Dahmer proceeded to make an unfunny joke about bowel movements and then encouraged listeners to become a fan of his show on Facebook. Or not. He didn’t “give a crap.” Whoop, better make that two unfunny jokes about bowel movements! Har har har!
The three songs that played in the block I listened to were “Break” by Three Days Grace, “Sweet child o’ mine” by Guns N Roses, and “In the end” by Linkin Park. Not only did Dahmer manage not to list song names (instead only listing the artist) but completely eschewed all proper description of Guns N Roses, instead referring to the song only as “a GNR classic!” Where’s the professionalism? (I understand that most radio listeners are familiar with Guns N Roses and the GNR nickname by now; the band probably does not need much of an introduction. Additionally Sweet child o’ mine is a perfect example of an overplayed song.)
I was offended by this brush off style of DJ’ing as well as the choice of music. The Guns N Roses song was the least bland of all three as well as the most dated, signifying something was seriously wrong with this radio station. This prompted a look at their day’s playlist when I arrived home. I was rather horrified to see that Metallica was played eleven times over the space of the day. That’s nearly once every two hours!

Take a look at the number of plays the following bands get in 24 hours:

Metallica – 11 (no repeats, but all singles.)
Linkin Park – 10 (the song “New divide” played 4 times)
Alice in Chains – 9 (two of their songs were played more than once)
Breaking Benjamin – 8
Chevelle – 7 (not only is “Jars” played four times, but Chevelle was also played twice within one hour)
Nirvana – 7 (“Come as you are” played twice)
Guns N Roses – 6
Three Days grace – 6
Kid Rock - 6
Puddle of Mudd – 5
Foo Fighters – 5
Stone temple pilots – 5
Pearl Jam - 5
Papa Roach - 5
Nickelback – 4
Shinedown - 4
Red hot chili peppers – 4
Godsmack - 3
Beastie Boys - 3
Lenny Kravitz – 2
White zombie - 2

It is my opinion that nearly all of those bands are tripe and repeats make it worse. I am a bit of a music snob, I suppose, and a station that plays Metallica eleven times in the space of a day will not win my support. None of these bands are very thrilling, and I certainly wouldn’t want to hear them more than once a day. I am too much of an active listener to leave music in the background, and really bad programming like this forces me to actively hate when I become aware of it.
The above list is not complete, merely the ones I was able to catch. (Hey kids, can you catch them all? That’d crack me up!) Of the approximately 234 songs played over the course of the day, at least 117 of these songs were by repeat artists. That means half the playlist could have been new material if the DJs had simply played artists that hadn’t yet been played that day. To say nothing of the quality of the music being played, this is deplorable. Radio complacency. It is no wonder modern radio is a becoming more and more neglected. This type of lazy broadcasting is an insult to the intelligence of the listener.
I understand that there are a percentage of radio listeners that tune in for their favorites but I am of the opinion that any station format other than “strictly the oldies” should be introducing new music into the mix when possible. Turning listeners on to new music benefits all involved. Listener loyalties as well as increased attention to the new artists both serve the radio station. There is no downside to introducing new music, and playing repeats all day offers myriad, boring downsides. Maybe I am such a music elitist turd that I am out of touch with the casual radio listener these days. It’s certainly possible. But I am no more of a turd than the person who subjects listeners to endless repeat artists. The playlists are no better then the commercials. This programming is doing listeners a disservice by not exposing them to new music (of any type).
There is literally half a day’s worth of opportunities within that playlist to throw in new songs!
If there are bands other than Pop Evil on their playlist that are local, please inform me. I was surprised to see a local band on the list at all, but Pop Evil conveniently fits right into the format of WGRD (which would be awful music). There are too many local and national acts that are much more interesting and deserving of airtime than repeating singles all day.
It is not my intention to convince any of you to listen to my radio show, or to WIDR at all. To WIDR’s credit, the rotation features constant changes in genre and specialty show. This is more of a service than non-independent radio stations are doing for you. Even if I wasn’t a DJ, I would still urge you to stop listening to bad radio and instead seek out music that stimulates you. If you’re anything more than a passive music fan, do yourself a favor and ask yourself if WGRD or any other station that relies on awful progamming is a station worthy enough to stop twisting your radio dial for. Ultimately, the choice is yours to make. Listen carefully.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Primer for the Geyser!

So in anticipation of Fidel Podcastro's critique of modern radio, I thought I would put down a layer of distaste.

My personal pet peeve comes courtesy of Genres, and the completely ass backwards way they are used to not describe music.

In our endless searches for new and exciting music to entertain our listeners, yes we do every single week scour the depths of music, we don't just skim the froth off the top. Sometimes descriptions for musical acts are written on blogs by dipshits and so here are my top 3 favorite shit genres: experimental no punk, anti folk, and no rock. To be fair I'm not saying the music they described is bad, I'm saying I have no fucking clue, because out of principle for using such bad descriptors I will not listen to anything described as NOT one single genre. For example I drive a non Chevrolet, what car do I drive? I drink anti pop, does that mean I drink anything but pop, WHO THE FUCK KNOWS! I also wear anti sandals and my fighting style can best be summed up as crabcore!

P.S. I know Kymia Dawson plays AntiFolk, and I think it's a really bad descriptor for what is just cute silly acoustic music, that is anything but anti folk, if anything it is pro folk. This just now was a really good example of something else that pisses me off, people who name drop, assuming everyone that reads their shit review will know what it means if they say a band sounds a bit like early Ted Leo, or like a mid era less aggressive Fever Ray. It is an obvious way to spread your taste in music as someone may look up those bands to try to figure out what the fuck you mean. I am not fully against name dropping though, I have found many great bands this way, however it says something about us as a people who are unable to describe what music sounds like without numerous comparisons to other bands, when we can't even come up with descent descriptive genre names.

With all this in mind here is Kymia performing one of the songs she had on the Juno OST, hey now you know exactly what she sounds like and you know where to get here music if you so desire.

Now that wasn't so hard.

Raul

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The LAN Party is free for all girls and boys! Oh and we have a vann and candy too!



http://www.archive.org/details/TheLanParty01-20-1089.1FmWidrKalamazoo

Hope you enjoy our show, we just want to be your friends, we here at the Lan Party enjoy partying down with all our good friends! We really just have one question for you, who do you think can be more quiet, Justin Bieber or Asher Roth?

May the Farce be with you!
Fidel & Raul Podcastro (no relation)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A Pat's History of Haiti!



Pat knows his history, okay so maybe he doesn't know anything about Haiti, or the rest of the world, but he sure knows that if you just say insane shit with confidence, you can get away with it, keep it up Pat, we all needed a good laugh.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Nothing is Better Than Better Off Ted

The day we can play this clip on the radio is the day we live in a free nation, until then enjoy the censorshit :)

Support shows that aren't afraid to get offensive and creative. Seriously just watch it until it get's canceled so we can all suck back the koolaid of another reality show, filled to the brim with cock guzzling hookers.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Fidel Podcastro's review of Steven Seagal: Lawman


I was finally able to watch two episodes of A&E Network’s Steven Seagal: Lawman. What makes this show amazing is its attempt (and subsequent failure) to be a better show than Fox’s COPS series. All the ingredients are there to surpass COPS: ride-alongs with police, the urban neighborhoods of Louisiana promising ghetto drama, and topping it off, action movie celebrity Steven Seagal presiding. However, the show manages to be much less than the sum of its parts. COPS relies on true life demonstration and action of police work. Steven Seagal: Lawman relies on Seagal’s presence to carry the show, to which Seagal continually fails. He is not entertaining, does no police work, and is largely ineffectual to all involved.

Seagal is a deputized policeman for the police department in Jefferson parish, Louisiana. This should be the first tip-off that this show will manage to be worse than COPS. An agency that either needs or merely tolerates Seagal’s presence on the job needs to be restructured. Yesterday. His deputy status means that he is merely a background player to actual police work and is not allowed to dispatch suspects or act in any other manner than loitering about crime scenes.

I was not aware that Seagal was such a tall man. I will admit that he is probably a disconcerting man to be around, if only because he is a hefty man wearing yellow shooting glasses and a permanent scowl (think John Goodman in The Big Lebowski). Many camera tricks are employed to avoid showing his complete heft, however. Chest-up views and bulletproof vests hide his considerable belly from the viewers at home.
During the in-car scenes, Seagal rides shotgun, barking orders and directions at the driver. If I was the policeman in the drivers seat, this type of behavior would end when I dispatched my finest pistol-whip to Seagal’s face.

The in-car banter emanating from Seagal the Hutt is both broad stereotype and unnecessarily exaggerated. A suspected drug dealer warrants a comment from Seagal along the lines of “Goddamn criminals in this town piss me off. No one deals drugs in my town.” Mr. Seagal, I may be the first to tell you this (because no one wants to deal with your idiocy when unnecessary), but crime will not stop due to your presence alone. Groups of young men passed on the street are met with flippant remarks from Seagal about how he is completely sure they have guns and drugs. Completely sure. No question.
He is wrong about this almost every time.

Seagal and crew intercept what they believe to be a burglary in progress. Seagal complicates matters by insisting that the burglar is still in the house, even after the initial search leads the police to believe the burglar already fled the scene. His insistence wastes police time and resources. He turns out to be wrong. Again.
Life is not a movie. Assumption and stereotype do not make a good policeman, Seagal!

Also disturbing is the unconvincing delivery of Seagal’s remarks. He speaks with a slight Louisiana accent, but still manages to sound droll, flat and bored. This lack of feeling makes his comments even more absurd. I suspect that Seagal has forgotten he is not on a movie set and does not need to deliver clichéd and over-the-top lines about everyday life.

In another scene, Seagal teaches Aikido self-defense techniques to the officers. This is probably the best (and also highly questionable) use of Seagal’s presence on the police force. Best, because he is off the street away from citizens that have no reason to be hassled. Questionable, because officers using the Aikido tactics Seagal demonstrates on the street would be met with abuse charges quite often. Is a citizen better off for knowing these techniques? Most assuredly. Is a police officer going to get in trouble for using them while on the job? Most assuredly. I will concede that Seagal’s moves are still fluid and sharp. Years of practice on and off camera have paid dividends in that respect.

Much practice is still needed to make this show more entertaining than COPS. Seagal is, in fact, not a lawman. His involvement with the police force is little more than a self servicing, elaborate name-drop.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

First Show Of The Year

Our Atomic Clock says it's time for a new year, I guess that's ok, but we're watching you! As you shower and perform fecal transfer operations in what you think is the privacy of your home!!!! Is that too creepy?

Ok well enjoy the show, and feel free to throw suggestions our way, we want the show to be better badder and more widely consumed, why you ask, we don't know, we must think our taste in nerdy music is pretty darn good.



http://www.archive.org/details/TheLanParty01-06-1089.1FmWidrKalamazoo

In an ongoing effort to rid the world of people, hey did you know that ciggaretes help
ulcers, and if you're strugling with divorce, well my friend Jack might be there to help :)


Raul "fullofhate" Podcastro