The IDSL 06/30/2009

Here's your download link from Archive.org.

On "The IDSL" today:

"Apartoplayourself" from Lesser Known Saint

"Apart" from the Sam Keenan Trio

"Apocalypse Love_Song" from Holly Wood Homicide

"Approaching the Distance" from NoSmallWonder

"APRIL'S FOOLS" from SUNSHINE_BEHAVIOR

"Words That Rhyme" from BalderBox of The FuMP

Thanks for listening!

Theme: "140 Times" from RockOn

Changes in Grizzly's Growls

I decided to make a significant change (or change back) in Grizzly's Growls.

The live, midday, Sunday show just isn't working for me.  Most people aren't around for the live part, and I'm usually not prepared to do a live show, unless I'm also prepared to do a recorded show.  And I've never been ready to do a recorded show at noon.  I always fiddle with stuff all Sunday, then finally get the silly thing recorded at the last minute on Sunday, edit it late at night, and get it done at some ridiculous hour of the morning Monday.

Sure, I -had- the live show on Sunday, but I still haven't edited it, and if and when I -do- edit it, it'll kinda suck, because I had nothing to say.  Ended up playing a bunch of music, and talking briefly with one guy on the phone.  He was calling from the UK, had a lot of background noise, and most of the time I couldn't understand what he was saying.  Not his fault.  Not something I could "fix in post," either.

I might well do better on live shows if I had a co-host, so between the two of us we'd always have something to talk about.  But maybe not.  And if I'm that boring, it'd be unfair to inflict that burden on a co-host.  ;-)

So the Sunday shows as currently constituted are gone for the moment.  Gotta think about that one a bit.

One option would be to just leave the BTR shows on BTR and forget about the copying and editing business.  But with The IDSL, I really prefer to produce a better-quality version.  Really don't like the low-bitrate mono files BTR archives automatically.  Not fair to the music or the musicians for the low quality copy to be the only copy.  If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right.

I'll let you know.

Griz

The IDSL 06/29/2009

Here's a download link from Archive.org.

On "The IDSL" today:

"Anyone But You" from Not A FaN

"Anyone But You" from Welmore Mile

"Apart (Rough Mix)" from Echo Effect

"Killing You Softly" from Carrie Dahlby of The Fump

"Are We Lawyer?" from Project Sysiphus of The Fump

Thanks for listening!

Theme: "140 Times" from RockOn



Listen to Grizzly Smith on Blog Talk Radio

Grizzly's Growls Live 06/28/2009

The "Life and Times of a Minor Local Celebrity" podcast, recorded live.

MUSIC:

"Anti Drama Club" from Eta Carinae

"Anti Nothing" from Anti Anne

Rule 1. This Is My House. Behave yourself.
Rule 2. Nice folks, like me, are welcome.
Rule 3. Rude folks, are unwelcome.
Rule 4. Lots of shows want to listen to you argue & insult folks. Go there.
Rule 5. See Rule 1.

Thanks for Listening!

Listen to Grizzly Smith on Blog Talk Radio

Coming soon on Stories from the Hiber-Nation: "Heretics"

I'm seriously considering my next project for "Stories from the Hiber-Nation" being a collections of essays by G.K. Chesterton, entitled "Heretics."  I admit, it's a kind of odd choice.

I first encountered G.K. Chesterton while going through an extended period reading murder mysteries & such.  He wrote the "Father Brown" mysteries, of which you may have heard.  If you haven't read them, and you like mysteries, you should read them.  Not brilliant, but rather well done, and Father Brown is an appealing character.

Recently I came across a quotation from a Chesterton essay from his book, "Orthodoxy," which was a sequel of sorts to "Heretics."  And not wanting to start with the second book, but loving the way that was written, that led me to consider starting at the beginning, with "Heretics."

Consider.

People who aren't like me might not appreciate Chesterton.  The book is old, the style of writing is old.  And it certainly seems on the surface like it ought to be heavy going for a reader.  I'm not a religious man, and I don't agree with everything Chesterton says.  But it is remarkably refreshing in these times to read someone who feels strongly about religion, and can speak intelligently about it without growling and foaming at the mouth.  There are still people who can do that.  You don't hear about them on TV, though.

So the Plan is to start recording "Heretics" soon, to be the next book for "Stories from the Hiber-Nation."  Will I end up posting that to Podiobooks.com, too?

Don't know yet.  Don't know that there'd be much interest.  But I just might.  Not because of a greater or lesser value to the book; I'm just too lazy to record a whole book and not also put it on Podiobooks.com.  And Evo did say they wanted more non-fiction.

Besides, it'll be fun.

Trust me.

The IDSL 06/26/2009

Direct download from Archive.org

From "The IDSL" today:

Why do I do The IDSL? "Take Back the Music" from Sudden Death/Devo Spice featuring Possible Oscar

"Another Long Day" from Bus Nine

"another song about amazing" from Disgruntled Monkey Music

"Another Time" from HC Fragile

"Anti Armadillo" from Thy Epileptic Squirrels

and "Swine Flu!" from Seamonkey of The Funny Music Project.

Thanks for listening!

Want to hear it all better? Try here!

Listen to Grizzly Smith on Blog Talk Radio

Arbitrary and Capricious Extensions

I was just glancing at the copy of the NaBloPoMo Colllective Feed that shows up at the bottom of my own blog, and realized I wasn't in the feed anymore.  In fact, there were only two blogs left in the feed.

That seemed kinda silly.  Oh, I suppose it doesn't make sense to have a collective feed of blogs that aren't doing NaBloPoMo at the moment.  But the ones that are, or may be, haven't asked to participate.  And it was looking kinda sparse.

So I went back to the list and Arbitrarily and Capriciously updated a whole bunch of blogs on the list, just so there's something in there.  Including mine, of course.  I don't know if the blogs selected actually wanted to be on the list anymore.  And if you want off, I'll take you off.

But I was bored.

The IDSL 06/25/2009

From "The IDSL" today:

"Getting Old Sucks" from Sudden Death/Devo Spice of The Funny Music Project

"Angry Dance-featuring Ben Oppenheimer" from Noah Bradley

"Anorexia" from No Social Skilz

"Another Day Another Drama" from kingsakillabeats

"Another Day" from Good For You Band

"Another Day" from THE FOUNDATION 2008

Thanks for listening!

Listen to Grizzly Smith on Blog Talk Radio

Re: [#458945132] Blogger complaint received

Hello,

Please note that Blogger is a provider of content creation tools, not a
mediator of that content. We allow our users to create blogs, but we don't
make any claims about the content of these pages. We strongly believe in
freedom of expression, even if a blog contains unappealing or distasteful
content or presents unpopular viewpoints. We realize this may be
frustrating and we regret any inconvenience this may cause you. In cases
where contact information for the author is listed on the page, we
recommend you working directly with this person to have the content in
question removed or changed.

In cases where the author is anonymous, please note that in accordance
with US state and federal law, it is Blogger's policy to only provide a
user's contact information pursuant to a valid third party subpoena or
other appropriate legal process.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
From: grizzly@grizzlysgrowls.com
Subject:
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:12:54 +0000

>
>
> AutoDetectedBrowser: Firefox 3
> AutoDetectedOS: Windows Vista
> Country: US
> IssueType: blogger_dmca_infringment
> Language: en
> a01_first_name: David
> a02_last_name: Smith
> a03_company_name: Grizzly's Growls Presents
> a04_copyright_holder: David "Grizzly" Smith
> a05_copyrighted_location: My podcast "Stories from the Hiber-Nation,"
> located at http://grizzly.libsyn.com/index.php?post_category=Story and
> http://feeds2.feedburner.com/grizzlysgrowlsstory
>
>
> a06_copyrighted_work: My recorded productions of several books
originally
> in the Public Domain. My readings are offered under Creative Commons -

> Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives 3.0 licensing. The work is

> being used for commercial purposes and apparently attributed to
themselves.
>
> Didn't actually have enough space below to list all the drug-related
> Blogspot blogs using my stuff this way. There are maybe 40 or 50,
> according to my Statistics pages from Google Feedburner.
> a07_infringing_URL:
> http://rimadyl-7544139.blogspot.com/2009_06_20_archive.html
>
http://rimadyl-7544139.blogspot.com/2009/06/1800pet-meds-hiber-nation-36-monarch.html
> http://rimadyl87922.blogspot.com/2009_06_04_archive.html
>
http://rimadyl87922.blogspot.com/2009/06/ped-meds-hiber-nation-53-wild-animals-i.html
>
> a08_confirm1: checked
> a09_confirm2: checked
> a10_signed_date: 06/23/2009
> a11_signature: David B Smith
>

The IDSL 06/24/2009

On "The IDSL" today:

"And I Try" from the Scalywags

"Andrea" from Drive Love Live

BTW, Chaz Damrow from Drive Love Live is looking for a drumming gig in the Twin Cities area, and wanted me to share his contact info in the shownotes. Contact him at 651-428-0584 or cdamrow@comcast.net. Okay?

"Angel From Above" from Stupid Emo Kid

"Angelic Sunrise" from Murder for a Friend

"Angelina" from HELVA

The show starts at 9:00 pm Central Time on BlogTalkRadio. Only a half-hour long, so I talk quick!

Thanks for listening!

Griz

Listen to Grizzly Smith on Blog Talk Radio

Those who can't remember...

"Gotta get down to it/Soldiers are cutting us down/Should have been done long ago..."

I admit I got very upset the other night with the young people over in Iran, marching in the streets, and getting themselves killed, some of them.  I get upset when people get killed.  That's the way I am.

I grew up in the '60s.  And I do mean grew up in the '60s; I was 12 in 1970.  I grew up watching all the Big Kids marching in the streets, waving signs and very angry, apparently.  And I grew up watching TV reports from Vietnam, wounded guys being hauled away, the press on both sides arguing back and forth.  Adults are supposed to know the answers.  Nobody seemed to.  And young people kept getting killed, and more young people kept getting sent over to get killed.

In 1970, students as Kent State University protested the Vietnam war.  The Ohio National Guard was there to "keep the peace."  And they started shooting.

And guess who got elected President with the promise to end the Vietnam war?

Richard Nixon.

Paris peace talks.  They talked, and they talked.  And more young people got sent to Vietnam, and more died.

And then everybody came home.

In 1978, I went to USAF Basic Training at Lackland AFB in Texas.  On the plane with me were a couple of guys in these funny looking foreign uniforms.  I was told they were Iranian, coming to Lackland for training.

And in 1978 and 1979 -- not so long after -- the Iranian people rose up against a tyrant.  Kids marched in the streets, and people died.

And I didn't go anywhere.

And now, I see kids marching in the streets.  And I see troops shooting again.  And I'm that 12-year-old kid again.

"Khamenei, Khamenei, how many kids did you kill today?"

This shouldn't be happening.  But it is, and it all looks so familiar.  I wish it didn't.  But what can you do?  As Henry Kissinger is supposed to have said, "Those who can remember the past are condemned to watch those who can't remember the past, repeat it."


"What if you knew her/And found her dead on the ground/How can you run when you know?"

I gather her name was Neda.  Now you know.  And now I'm very sad.

-- Lyrics, by the way, from "Ohio" by Neil Young.  Perhaps you knew that.

Live with Natalie Brown! 06/21/09 Noon Central

I am a very lucky guy.

I get to interview Natalie Brown, on my live show on BlogTalk Radio. The interview is supposed to be this Sunday at Noon Central. And I admit, I'm really nervous about it. This is a Big Deal.

According to Wikipedia, "Natalie Brown is a Canadian-born, contemporary R&B, pop and Blue-eyed soul singer-songwriter," active in the industry since about 2000. She's got her second album, "Random Thoughts," out now. I'm listening to her music while I type this, and she's amazing.

Watched an interview with Tina Louise, and she said "Natalie Brown is awesome!" Tina Louise! I mean, c'mon!

Now I gotta think up questions and whatnot, like interviewers do.

Remarkable, the things I do these days... ;-)


Griz

Declaration of Principles

Bernstein: You don't want to make any promises, Mr. Kane, that you don't want to keep.
Kane: These will be kept. 'I'll provide the people of this city with a daily paper that will tell all the news honestly. I will also provide them...'
Jedediah: That's the second sentence you've started with 'I'.
Kane: People are gonna know who's responsible. Now they're gonna get the truth in the Inquirer, quickly and simply and entertainingly and no special interests are gonna be allowed to interfere with that truth. (continuing with the declaration) 'I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings. Signed, Charles Foster Kane.'

Citizen Kane: Declaration of Principles

What Asperger sounds like...

I'm in the middle of editing my last regular Sunday Show on BlogTalkRadio, and of course that involves listening to what I end up talking about.  And I just had one a them moments where I really listened to what I ended up talking about -- the technology.  Instead of talking about a Topic, I talk about what's involved in producing the show.

I think it's an Aspie thing.

We tend to get very involved in a particular topic or activity to the exclusion of much else.  This can be a good thing, to a point.  I've been learning a whole lot in a hell of a hurry about what breaks in BTR, how it breaks, and how to fix it.  I've made an incredible number of mistakes and encountered a continuing series of disasters, considering I've only recorded four shows on BTR so far.  But I'm likely to have learned a whole hell of a lot more than some folks might have in such a short time, because I've pushed the technology to the limit at every stage of the game.

And we sure do like to talk about our current perseverations.  Since the recording thing is my perseveration, and that ends up being the topic of my shows.  I imagine my shows would be a whole heck of a lot more popular if I could manage to talk about something else.  There are actually a fairly significant number of things I'm pretty good at.  I have a knack for figuring things out, especially mechanical and electronic stuff.  I most assuredly don't have a blinking 12:00 pm on my VCR, for example.  Although I do still have a VCR.

I do lean on other people a lot for my podcasts, when I have the opportunity.  I am after all well aware of my tendency to ramble on about technical details.  And I know other folks are not as fascinated as I am about such things.  I often wonder why people continue to listen to my shows.  I'm mostly rather boring.  But I sound pretty on boring topics.  A Good Thing?  Maybe.

So, that was my flash of insight -- I sound like an Aspie.  This is not an entirely bad thing.  But I really need to keep reminding myself to find something else to talk about than my current perseveration -- which happens to be podcasting itself.

I will endeavor to take a greater interest in the rest of the world.  So finally, hopefully, I'll have a whole world of things to talk about.

Right?

Something nifty a friend created

While I'm typing this, I'm listening to my friend JC Hutchins on BlogTalk Radio being interviewed on "PodioRacket" about his new book, "Personal Effects: Dark Art."

One topic that came up was how to continue the Buzz for the book. One little thing I -can- do is this.

Something there is that doesn't love a Wall...

The other day, Jeff over at "In The Loop" was nice enough to use a bit of parody language I offered for a bit he did on his show.  There's even a video of his recording the "mash up" on his Facebook page.

Even when I suggested the idea, I thought there was more to do with the "Desperado" parody than the couple of lines I came up with off the cuff.  And I "liked having thought of it so well," as Robert Frost said it, in his poem, "Mending Wall."

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun,

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
...

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."





I wanted to share it with you here. 

Apologies to the Eagles -- but it's parody, so it probably qualifies as fair use, doesn't it?

Here's hopin'.

North Korea

(A parody with all due respect sung to the tune of "Desperado" by The Eagles)

North Korea, why don't you come to your senses?

You've been building defenses, for so long now,

Well, Kim's a hard one

I think he's losing his reason

These games that are pleasing him

Will hurt you somehow.



Don't play with threats too often, boy,

If you've got one atomic toy,

Well, we've got more, but we would rather talk.



Don't think it's weakness that you see,

They say the word Diplomacy

Means sayin' "Nice Doggie" till you find a rock...



North Korea, Kim Jong Il's gettin' no younger,

And your pain and your hunger are drivin' you home,

And freedom, oh freedom, is not just some people talkin,

You're prisoners, walking through this world all alone.



Don't your feet get cold in the winter time,

In bunkers down on the borderline,

The floodlights make the nighttime like the day.

When you're standing guard in blinding snows,

It ain't funny how the feelin' goes away...



North Korea, why don't you come to your senses,

Come down from your fences, and open the gate.

Well you've been lucky, there's still no

Mushroom clouds above you,

You better let somebody love you, before it's too late....

Beautiful Red

Just finished listening to M Darusha Weim's "Beautiful Red" audiobook on Podiobooks.com. This is dark, cyberpunk Science Fiction.  Lemme throw in another official reviewer-type term.  This is singularity cyberpunk.

The idea of the singularity as I understand it is that some time in the next few years, technology will have advanced so far, and the human-machine interface will have become so seamless, that we can not now understand what will become of humans or of machines.  Arthur C Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."  Beyond the singularity, science fiction essentially becomes fantasy, but truth will still be stranger than fiction, and we can't be at all sure that even fantasy will be strange enough.

Beautiful Red takes place at the event horizon of the Singularity, when the future has not quite disppeared from our view.  The human-machine interface is very cozy indeed; net access is so vital to life that it isn't a business anymore; every job is a high-tech job, but because of that, the highest of high-tech is entry-level grunt work.

Jack is responsible for Network security for her company, but the universally available security software is apparently so perfect that she's not really necessary.  Jack is a former hacker and cracker, but she gave it up when it became pointless.  Nothing can go wrong.

No, of course not, don't be silly.

Beautiful Red takes place at the event horizon of the machine-mind interface, at the event horizon of universal plenty and universal poverty, of those fighting for liberty and those stealing liberty, of the Beautiful and the ugly.  There's a line there somewhere, and Jack just crossed it.

What I like about Beautiful Red is its plausibility.  Wehm's world, with all the high-tech you could want, is as bland and mundane on the surface as the world many of us high-tech types have grown up in.  And it's as seedy, dark and dangerous as any mystery fan could want, as is the world many of us have grown up in.  It couldn't ever really happen this way.  But yeah, it could.

I recommend you check out Beautiful Red on Podiobooks.com.  It's a dark, and scary, and sexy mystery with heroes who could be any of
us.  So could the villians.