RIP Air America...

There was a time when I listened to AAR all day. The early programming was that good, and with the exception of the grating Randi Rhodes who I sometimes couldn't take, it was my touchstone of sanity at a dark time in American politics. At some point I realized that I was keeping the radio on all day as I went through my schedule, often stopping to write things down and look them up, always feeling like there was some small ray of hope in what had become a real national nightmare.

For AAR, still considered fledgling, its been a rough go of investors and owners who wanted to see a profit in a business that is guaranteed to not show a profit for years. The lack of patience that each management team has shown was uniquely American, causing the loss of its best shows, tinkering all the time rather than allowing momentum to grow, and missing chances to build on the incredible well of talent that had been assembled from the beginning. Someone was sleeping in Broadcasting 101, unless this was just another corporate fuck, with the attitude of 'how much can we get out of this sucker?' and leave the drained carcass to die. The teams that came and went certainly talked a good game about AAR being more than just a station; yeah, really, "a movement!!" but the problem is bigger than just that; Americans want their profit and their big screen TV yesterday. We haven't yet lined up our Rupert Murdoch, willing to lose billions of dollars in service to a message. The visionary part of that for the neocon very rich is the long run, where an administration like Bushco actually pays them and their friends back tenfold in contracts and breaks. Im not so sure that the very rich liberals are that tied in to the military complex or visionary enough in the same sort of cut throat take over the world vision.

The day that Ronald Reagan did away with the fairness doctrine which protected our airwaves from the likes of the sort of big business machine that has come to rule them, was the day that this all began. The airwaves belong to the American people and the push of capitalism to take over and privatize everything is uniquely ...um...neocon. Privatization with regulations cut, and batty uncle Ronny saying "why do we need regulations? Old Mr Floyd from the hardware store down the street is perfectly willing to police himself...? Right?" Of course, the legacy of that deregulation has come to fruition now in the Supreme Court ruling that corporations have seemingly endless rights...forget it, we're fucked...

So long AAR; it went into reruns last Thursday and no one even noticed. The New York Times had a piece the other day about how liberal radio has to be more business-like and in these troubling financial times it was a bad business proposition, yada, yada, yada....
OK, was anyone gonna get rich on this? They were fools if they thought so. The new corporate model of a quick payout doesn't work in this medium, and trying to force that made the thing messy and embarrassing by the end, with the likes of the well hated, smarmy, Mark Green and his infomercials and continual failed bids at being a political player..."hey, wanna go on a cruise?"...yuck!

AAR was a mad experiment cast by the minds that brought us the likes of the Daily Show, it had a different tone, and it expected more of the audience than to just sit back and absorb the lies; the early Air America challenged us to think, reason, and take control of our lives using the tool of truth. The entire weekday lineup was challenging and at a time where the government was spewing lies at us, echoed by the main stream media news outlets, so, it followed that this programming would take all the more time to find its audience and create the foundation upon which to grow. We sounded like conspiracy theorists before AAR came along and we had Al Franken fact checking everything thoroughly...to the point that no matter what anyone said about him and how ne presented things, they coulldnt say that what he said wasnt true. This was a revelation for me; you could hate Al and his persona, you could say "youre gonna believe that guy?" but you couldnt ever say that his facts were incorrect.
It did find an audience, in that the numbers were growing with the kind of fans that are loyal and long-term. The problem was to maintain an already screwed up business situation and for that they brought in the wrong person.

Danny Goldberg, CEO/investor/good friend of Don Imus, and a music industry "big shot", seemed to think that with Don's input he could program a radio station like he was rearranging the songs on a record or the members of a band. Coming into a situation midstream must have been difficult for him, and the pressure of the board and stockholders was an issue but really, what was needed was a firm hand in assuring everyone that tinkering too much would dislodge the invaluable hardcore fans in the service of passing numbers. According to Goldberg, he turned himself inside out fighting The Man, saving Rachel Maddow from obscurity, and if not for the stockholders and capitalism in general, he was going to save radio from itself.
This guy thought that his gut could somehow turn AAR into a profitable business, way ahead of schedule, and on top of that he would tinker with a lineup with steadily growing numbers to try to create a magic that he knew nothing about. If he thought he could show a profit at that point and presented himself in that light, he was full of shit. No programming, much less a new station which is building an audience could be profitable in that amount of time. In a way it was folly to put a non-radio guy in that job in the first place, but perhaps that was the only way that the investors could hear what they wanted to; that this thing wasn't going to hemorrhage money for 4 or 5 years at least. Goldberg quickly ushered in the beginning of the end of AAR and as much as I understand that he viewed this as production pre-release, he was unprepared for what would happen when he messed with what was a good lineup. His claims that he was hired to raise money fall on deaf ears here, because he clearly was rearranging the lineup more than he was out raising money. This was not the job for him.

Yesterday Goldberg wrote what I'm sure he thinks is the definitive obit of AAR at Down With Tyranny , (and then much more in comments,) alot of pap about how he struggled under the finger of the money people, and how they stopped him from raising funds because of their feelings of asking for funds being unseemly...huh?...He said that maybe he was an asshole sometimes...he had such a hard time...etc...feel sorry for him?...No! He walked out of there with a big payout at a time when the station was foundering, and was one person who did OK in the situation; he didn't take a bath the way others did and he took his payout while others, like talent who didnt come into this rich, were owed money. Its not our problem that he accepted a job for less money than he normally makes; he did OK for doing not much that was helpful and alot that was destructive.

What I know from the inside and as the spawn of a radio family, is that you don't treat people, much less the working talent, like shit, especially in their last weeks. Goldberg might have made the mistake of his life by trying to "save AAR" instead of staying in the music business "where he belongs," but during his time at AAR he certainly tried to cut a bold swath of change, relegating the same Maddow that he supposedly saved from obscurity, FROM the 9AM-noon slot in the fantastic Unfiltered show, TO the dead 5AM slot. He then set about deconstructing Morning Sedition, which was one of the best shows on radio, period. He didn't like Maron and he didn't get the comedy. He didn't make a secret of that either, and to say that it was purely a business decision forced on him by the stockholders and other bosses is disingenuous at best.

Goldberg knows the truth, and regardless of the depths of his depression, which may have had him playing solitaire on his computer for hours on end in his office, rather than raising funds or whatever it was that he was supposed to be doing, he isn't going to be able to escape what happened and his part in it. Tying himself to the coat tails of Maddow is not going to change history either; sorry. The advice of Don Imus was wrong; Goldberg had no talent in programming and tinkering, and every move he made was to render the programming into a more and more dumbed down,happy, format. It did what AAR had never done, which was to pander to the audience. By the time he had alienated the base, what was left?

The Mark Riley Show was what Goldberg wanted, and it was junk....totally junk. It reminded me of the Whoopie Goldberg Feel Good Show, which was not what the base was tuning in for. Riley was a pawn in all of that, and his show was painful to listen to. What could he follow up that sort of brilliance with? The Riley Show was what Goldberg thought was good radio. Regardless of the corporate structure or the financial situation, this guy came into a tanking situation and instead of trying to shore up what was there and growing he decided to scramble it all up and put the best talent either out of a job or in the boondocks. Even with star power, had any been there beyond those with a strong following, it would have been starting over. I have alot of trouble with Goldbergs's line about firing Maron to save Maddow. I just don't think that's true at all...and I am sure that Rachel is not thanking Goldberg for her great career.

Rachel had star power when she started Unfiltered, and continued to be herself on the same intense level straight through to Olbermann regardless of and in spite of Goldberg. The first thing he did was to cancel her show!! Those who got put at 5AM or on Sundays were those with contracts still in effect as opposed to those who's contracts were up.

What became of those talented players? Check out Maron's fantastic WTF Podcast and of course the Rachel Maddow show, which is a must watch every night of the week on MSNBC. I am assuming that Maddow's radio show is no longer available anywhere.
For background on that one particularly brilliant show and its comedy bits, check out Sedition Radio for which we owe PJ Sauter a huge debt of gratitude. The rest is out there if you look for it: Unfiltered, Sam Seder, Janeane Garafolo, even Al and Randi who had their ups and downs, but still are sorely missed around here... Lizz Winstead deserves a shout for putting alot of it together; Its over for good.

AAR as it was in the beginning, brought me laughter, joy, relief, and a kind of deep misery at its loss, that I couldn't have expected. I always though that this was so much more than a radio station and should be funded by a Rupert Murdoch type of deep pocket investor, but for whatever reasons it was set up wrong, by the wrong business folks and that doomed it from the start. Its all about the money in the end, and the money wasn't there...but it should have been, considering how much money is out there in liberal land. Showing a growing audience of loyal listeners and tapping those listeners for funding would surely have gone further towards interesting investors than dismantling what they had back to zero.

What of the Fairness Doctrine? These are our airwaves and just because Rush Limbaugh is a huge corporate force barreling through all sense and reason, doesn't mean that this outlet shouldn't be regulated by the government so that one corporation can exert too much influence on people because of money...um...oh yeah...never mind; corporations are now individuals with rights. As it stands our free airwaves are being used to misinform the people of this country, leaving the Fairness Doctrine as perhaps the most important political issue to address because of the way it touches all other issues; voting on issues that you have been lied to about comes to mind.

It was an idea and a dream, and much like Obama not being a corporatist or Edwards telling even the most basic truth, its all gone now. Rush and O'Reilly can breathe a sign of relief because there is really only Sirius Left, for those who have the subscription money; Internet radio shows for those who can afford the Internet...the rabble will never hear a bit of truth. Maybe its when things are really bad and there is no hope left, that some sort of movement will begin that will rise up and again give voice to the progressive agenda. Heaven knows we're out here in Internet-land shouting into the black hole and hoping someone hears. But there is too much noise, and we need more than just one Rachel Maddow to move this thing forward.

Its kind of sad to let those dreams go. But somewhere out there in podcasts or blogtalkradio format the message still lives, and in that there is hope, even if its sketchy....
godspeed to our kids, that's all I can say...this is a very different country than any of us could have imagined.

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Maron V. Seder Debuts Live Wed. Oct 1st, 2008

In the meantime, check here for the past vods that led to the messy birth of this thing. Technical glitches and growing pains aside, its a fantastic show and they guys have great chemistry. Add that to the fantastic and funny commentary therein on the state of things and you have a huge slice of what made early Air America great...and what alot of us have been fighting to get back for too long now!
Be sure to check back www.samsedershow.com daily before 3 PM to catch the warm-up shows live. I'm not sure of the schedule, but it's well worth it to see this thing unfold in real time. Congratulations, guys! We love you!

( hey, wait a minute...wasn't that Seder v. Maron for a minute there?...)

Want more?


c/p RIPCoco

Seder v. Maron; Friday 8-22-08, 3 PM EST, LIVE! Be There!!

...Or check here for the video on demand (that's vod, baby!) of today's big announcement show (and you can always look at the evolution of past shows there too!)

Other reasons to be cheerful: Last day of the Olympics is so soon I can feel it!...God, was that 99% boring!
Driftglass dismantles Bill Kristol to hilarious effect here. Be sure to check the Driftglass Word Chipper (tm) in action!
Oh, I'm sure there are two or three other reasons, including the fall-like weather in the New York mornings, but Ive got to go and move the car.... meantime, here is a little bit of Drifty on Kristol:

Once he stood upon the brink of a brave, new Neocon order: so close to Wingtard Heaven he could almost smell the sweet perfume of a billion scary brown people (who just happened to be squatting on top of Our God Damn Oil) being nuked to shadows and dust, almost hear the triumphal march of Blackwater storm troopers merrily rounding up the last of the hippies. Negroes, queers, uppity wimmin and ACLU card-holders, almost touch the headstone over the grave where he buried the American Middle Class, and almost taste George Bush’s golf shoe on the throat of every other nation on Earth.

And he did it all by waving his little pen around.

Y'know, if you take away the ability to write (and/or read) this could be about W hisself.

See ya at 3!

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Marc Maron Plays a Stealthy Week at NYC's Comedy Cellar...

Last night I had the good fortune to catch Marc Maron at a sold out show at the Comedy Cellar in downtown Manhattan. It turns out that he's been doing a stealthy set or so there nightly for a week, with no word to the fan base. Its a pretty good lineup nightly there, though I am not the one to ask about stand up. I'm a fan of the Andy Kaufman brand of Mighty Mouse comedy, Morning Sedition bits, and very old Saturday Nite Live....I had a moment with Steven Wright's comedy but then I got sick of it very quickly.

Maron; call it a workout , call it laziness on his part that it didn't make it to the mailing list, call it sets too short to be crowed about as full shows...but then, the denizens of the comedy cellar certainly are on top of things because the venue has been sold out for early and late shows for the entire week. Maybe that's just the state of things in NYC nightlife, but on a Sunday at 10 we stood outside the club and people were coming by to ask if they could get reservations for the 11! Comedy Cellar is a well established place that holds only 160 people, and the lineup was pretty stellar, if you're into the stand-up thing, and its very old home for a road warrior like Maron who seems to know everyone everywhere that I've seen him! As always, I like the camaraderie around the clubs and ensembles often more than I like the stand-ups themselves.



Yeah, its been a while since I saw Maron do stand up, and Ive got to say that with everything happening in my life it was good to kick back with some of the funny (and some of the less-funny of the other comics sharing the bill with him, but oh well....)
As usual, Marc was funny and warm, and as usual also the material he does is ever evolving with the issues and where hes at emotionally...Hes got a great bit on McCain and what a crazy fuck he is...and also a good line on the gaze of Obama, and how hes seemingly looking at ...something...out there....
But the underlying theme in that short set was that you'd really have to be retarded to be undecided between crazy old fuck and intelligent young black man. The crowd roared in agreement with this...Marc went on to wonder when McCain would blow (knowing anger management issues intimately)...and that crowd reaction is a good thing. I hope that he gets the same reaction with this material in bigger settings such as Seattle's Bumbershoot festival next week where he will be appearing with the Satiristas; call it an informal poll.

Not that the liberal comedy crowds in NYC and Seattle are much to gauge the mood of the nation by, but I have to say that we all seem to be holding onto each other and holding our collective breaths about how close this race might be...and if its close, then what does that say about us? "Retarded?" (tm Maron)...yup! Cowards? Yup! Racist? Uh-huh!...and really, Anti-American! If McCain gets into office it will be the most unAmerican act ever committed by the American people as a whole...because what is going on, and has been going on here for the past 7.5 years is criminal and against everything we stand for.
...anyway, I hear that Burlington,VT might be a good place to build the self sufficient bunker for the next 8 years if McCain gets in....next stop Canada.



In other news, Sam Seder will be traveling to Denver to cover the Democratic Convention for Air America Radio. He promises interviews, video, audio and all sorts of good stuff...maybe even a week of Maron v. Seder, which is my absolute favorite show these days. It will be good to hear from Sammy, (and Marc too, of course,) as it seems that we've had a dearth of reasonable, intelligent, liberal talk...or maybe I just haven't been listening enough...Air America went from a 90% fantastic and groundbreaking lineup to the polar opposite, screwing people over along the way, in its short life.

When Air America began it gave hope to alot of us who felt totally frustrated and insane with this rogue leadership and their obvious lies. It was such a relief to find sane, funny voices that understood, and through that we found each other. The netroots is nothing to scoff at, folks. It may not be a huge landslide in the popular vote, but it is an active force of many intelligent (and some less so,) people who have the drive and desire to effect change. We're entering a time of hope and possibly empowerment now, which will only be effective if we quit turning on one another and keep our eyes on the prize. Its at a time like this that I treasure the likes of Maron and Seder in whatever form I can get them...because I'm even more disillusioned with not only the leadership but especially my own party. I've clung to the ideals of the spoken word, in whatever form its taken with the technology out there, because it made sense to me, and because I needed an outlet...anyone who knows me, knows that I have alot of words to let out! Going forward, I am again reminded by last night's show how important this discourse remains...
I look forward to anything that these guys have coming up...
Tune in for the next Seder V. Maron live and join the chat! Its a fantastic meeting of two minds that are quirky, tuned in, smart as all get-out, funny, and just plain fun! Watch this space for dates and times...sometime during the convention we should get an installment, and then, as usual, we play it by ear,depending on everyone's schedule (but rule of thumb is sometime Tuesday around noon-ish eastern time. But if you want to see the evolution of a hilarious and technologically groundbreaking workout of chemistry, intellect, and really funny glitches (especially Maron's reactions to them,) check here for the archives. Its not always smooth, and its certainly not perfect...but there is something very real there that works beautifully....and I, for one, want more!


c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Sam Seder and Marc Maron; Air America's Wrestlemania Meets American Idol. What if You Threw a Contest and No-One Came?

Welcome to our very own American Idol-ish...sorta contest...In which we vote for our favorite voice of the left while Howie Mandell holds a phone up and excitedly makes offers from some "banker" dude. Vote early and vote often, kids! Stream it live and leave comments at Air America, (and check out the Sammycam, while you can, here. For a short version of the long story of the Sammer look here.) And there is always the comments accepted by PCollins@airamerica.com which may or may not ever register. Who knows? For someone who earned his chops in interactive media, he is certainly not all that interactive, even in a got your mail, thanks for the comment. auto-mail sort of way.

Such is the pathetic state of one of the very few outlets for the liberal voice left in this country. To watch the unraveling continue is heart wrenching...to see a "contest" where talented, passionate voices are akin to sheep to the slaughter (and Simon Cowell's name is even mentioned in the mailer advertising this little game,) and into the corporate grinder of another possibility that looks to be much like the last possibility was...well, lets just say that hope is not winning out anymore....and if the Whoopie Goldberg Happy Show doesnt sound feasible to soothe the masses, well, think again.

First of all, I should say that the choices are a little uncertain...who is actually in the running here? I don't know for sure. In the wake of the Randi Rhodes debacle, the new suits need to fill the 3-6PM slot, and its not enough for them that they have, under their very noses, the most shuttled around, loyal, and excellent, Sam Seder, but they have felt compelled to try out some celebrity hosts who couldn't possibly want the gig, and who have pretty much sucked so far. Just to recap for the latecomers; we have heard from Roseanne Barr, Joy Behar, Richard Belzer, and still to come is the duo of Ron Kuby and Ron Reagan, which might only be half bad, but, hell, all things equal why not just give Kuby a show late night or very early morning somewhere, not prime drive-time, fer' Christ's sake, and be done with it?

This week, our heroes, Marc Maron and Sam Seder, share the slot on alternating days. This whole thing is seemingly an audition for Maron, but there is no comparison between him and any of the others, except Seder, who is from the same crowd of comedians and comedy circuit. Their long relationship lends itself to a very nice shorthand and knowing grin sort of back and forth that works. Maron used to think that the two of them together might be too "Jewey," but I don't get that as much as I get their long relationship as very different brothers who approach things differently, but have the same jumping off point.

They each have a different approach which has its points, with Maron leaning more towards culture and variety with politics thrown in, while Seder is straight up politics with reflections on the work-a-day life we, most of us, share. Maron does more sketch comedy and is more inside his own head, which either reflects our collective neurosis, or just seems funny to the more balanced of us out there. Both are funny and real, and more importantly, both are Air America originals, and are actually what was that hopeful, new, edgy voice. When either of them appears on the network, the fans come out in droves. This is a no brainer, and why a competition is being set up is either high concept from around a conference table with communications school grads who think they have some creative edge, or some money making priming of the pump. Maybe celebrities impress advertisers? Only so long as listeners tune in.

The idea of audience input in this decision is quaint, to say the least, to those of us who have attempted to communicate with that organization in large numbers only to be ignored. In fact, the newsletter that broached this little experiment didn't even specify how one would vote for one or the other, and since, as far as I can see, the contest is between Maron, Seder, and possibly Kuby, I suppose they could be counting streams, or emails or...it just doesn't seem like they planned it too well. So, in case there was a question over in the home office, yes we want Maron back on the air however we can get him and within his own west coast constraints. Yes we want Seder in a 5 day per week slot. No we don't want any of your celebrities.


In any case, Sam Seder hosted Monday the 5th, and will host again on Wednesday the 7th. Marc Maron will host Tuesday the 6th, Thursday the 8th, and Friday the 9th. We were to hear a tag team of the two of them on Friday, but some glitch prevented it...too bad; these two are excellent together in their weekly VOD-cast, here, on Tuesdays at 11AM,EST.



My favorite Air America Radio sweatshirt says "...because we couldn't make this stuff up..." across the chest. The story of AAR will no doubt be told beyond what we know from the Left of the Dial documentary, which was full of hope at the raw talent and creativity of those early days of the creation of what was to be a strong voice for the left. Late last week on Hardball, the bland Mark Green, third "owner" of AAR, compared a John McCain presidency to Herman's Hermits; "Second Verse, Same as the First," with a stiff chuckle and nod to "pop culture." I was struck by how far removed he is from the current of modern society and what the meaningful touchstones of what remains of our culture might be, outside of the incestuous world of NYC politics, and the level that he just cant seem to get past. When I think of this guy and his ilk, I get a vision of furniture and lamps covered in plastic and slick young guys standing by the ropes of Studio 54, never to get in because of those damned bridge and tunnel shoes and gold chains. Its not something that I find necessarily bad; its a culture all its own, and a Brooklyn upbringing that I understand because I also grew up there. But it is like a time capsule and there is a sort of mentality and taste implied there, born of Tony Manero, rented limos, and power hungry failed politicians, picked last for the team time and again. New York City is a hard place to make your mark, and at some point maybe its best to stop trying so damned hard and look at the reality of whats in front of you.

The news that "new owners" were once again climbing aboard the sinking ss. AAR gave me little hope, especially when I heard that Green was being kept on. Still, I heard from a couple of different people on the inside that the new group seemed pretty smart and that there might yet be hope. I don't know; hope seems so distant these days in light of a paralyzed senate, unable to effect any real change without enough votes or enough balls to even speak up about criminals in the White House... and the infighting in the party which doesn't seem to have any sort of logical basis....the partisanship within the democratic party which was so clearly reflected in AAR management.... So, I didn't expect much, especially when the network seemingly set up and then took down Randi Rhodes. The whole episode was a horrible example of what is wrong with an entity like AAR being run by a bunch of pseudo politicians who are really home shopping moguls, posturing and posing as they try to figure out how to present the "left" side of things in as palatable and soothing a way as possible, so as to make money while appearing PC. Start-up media outlets seldom make money in the first 5 years. Outlets with a controversial message tend to need ongoing financial support; just ask Rupert Murdoch.

Whatever is going on over there resembles the divide in the democratic party in that someone's idea of how to fill a slot left empty by the network's biggest draw who is a concise, on point, broadcaster, that knows her stuff, is with guest "celebrity hosts" who are not only a little old and soft, but not especially up on the issues, while popular originals stand by. The messages from each of these categories of hosts is so completely different as to be almost representative of the differences between candidates.

AAR would be lucky if any of the original Air Americans or the celebrity guests would even consider a job with an outlet with this track record. I guess that performers, commentators, and the like are every bit as masochistic as their fans, and the message has to get out one way or another. I have no doubt that the cream will rise to the top here or elsewhere, and if this is where I part ways with AAR, then so be it. I lost my ability to care a long time ago....but I will stream the show...I will vote equally for Maron and Seder...and I hope that when this thing is over that AAR might be able to give a nod toward mistakes made, and start to rebuild what was once a pretty damned great line-up.

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Air America...What Could They be Thinking?...Sign to Let AAR Know That We Want Sam Seder on 5 Days Per Week!

Brave New Films has set up a petition to let Air America know that we want Sam Seder to have a 5 day per week show. Go HERE and sign. Then write to pcollins@airamerica.com and let him know what you think about the lineup, the celebrity guest hosts, and what this country needs as far as the liberal voice goes.

I'm not down on Richard Belzer, who is filling in from 3-6 PM this week in Randi Rhodes sold slot, but the problem with him is alot like the problem with Jerry Springer or Lionel; there is a lack of real reporting and deep knowledge of the issues there. They may be able to get guests or liberal callers, but they don't stretch our awareness of the issues much past what is on the normal news or in the paper. If you want a talker who is just there to lull you from a left sided viewpoint, then I can understand liking these guys. But of you want to be challenged, to think, to find out more about the surface story, and to find out what you can do about it, then Sam Seder is better for the network.

When the Green brothers took over Air America and put Lionel in the morning slot that had previously been Sam's, there was talk that the feeling was that Sam was too substantive and that there was a desire for...er...less substance in the morning. Now, already, Morning Sedition had proven that wrong as the numbers were good and climbing when the plug was pulled on that for no other reason than that one person didn't like it. And I would also say that the fact that there are a range of news programs in morning drive time disproves that as well. I think that its completely disrespectful to the audience to say that they should have less substance in that time slot. I suppose that a morning zoo with content would be nice...but one would have to rebuild that from the ashes of bad management decisions.

The thing is, that where maybe Randi Rhodes was maybe too wild for the new owners, and not enough of a Hillary soldier, (and good luck trying to find anyone who is anymore,)or they didn't like her contract, or whatever it was, to replace her with Richard Belzer who is a bit of a snooze, but might be fine in a night slot, is gonna alienate any listeners who haven't followed Randi but who tune in for a peppy afternoon show with a little anger and energy. I just cant imagine how the casting is done over there in the bowels of AAR, but the management of said casting and the way that the very talented Sam Seder has been treated, is deplorable if one wants to go for continuity and keep the audience that they have.

And in a nod to the brilliance of the late great Morning Sedition, Belzer had a Kent Jones character call in. Unless management is renewing Kent's contract, I find it in pretty strange taste...though I am not in that loop at all, so who knows what goes on...but the thing is, Belzer is not a sketch comedian of the sort that played those sketches originally. So the comparison is brutal, and the sketch didn't make alot of sense...and as much as Belzer is held in high regard in the liberal community, the comedy community, and the NYC community, he just didn't hit it right, leaving those of us who knew the origins of that sketch shaking our heads, and those who didn't wondering what the fuck that was. There is a need for more of the funny on AAR, but digging this stuff out of the vault and trying to recreate it is not the way to go. That's the recycled funny and it doesn't work unless the originals are called in to reunite with these characters; to do it right, you've got to build it new from the ground up, and with some very talented people who have the time to work together so its not so strange and stilted.

I suppose I'm pretty well finished with AAR. I wrote a pretty good second letter to Phillipe Collins, and I signed the petition....I don't know how much I can even care anymore...and as long as Mark Green is in on these decisions, and I keep seeing his face on Hardball and the like, I get an icky, sticky, smarmy feeling about the whole thing. The edgy coolness is all gone now...you only have to look at Green and know his history in NYC to hear that bell toll. So, I'm expecting the worst, and Ill be happily surprised if they do anything that makes sense. But we are not in an age of sense, and I can see that there is gonna be a time soon where all of the media content out there is going to be cobbled together by subscription, and delivered by WiFi (wait...get this...I ordered an 80 gig Zune!...more on that as it develops.)I really hope that Sam is offered a good, 5 day per week slot, with some job security, but I also know that he is so talented and so interested in the media of the future that not being saddled with AAR could be a good thing for him too. So, in the long view its exciting to see what he might do...its just that in the short term its going to be a real bummer not to have him navigating the decline and fall of the Bush empire, and the election and cleanup of whatever comes next. This is a season that I would hate to go through without his voice and point of view out there with me.

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Randi Rhodes Leaves Air America...Different Owners, Same Crap...Catch her on NovaM Beginning Monday!

Sometimes I get a nostalgic feeling for Air America Radio and how it appeared with its cool quirky hosts at a time when things were low in my life, very bad in the government, and no one was supposed to talk about things lest they be viewed as somehow unAmerican. Because I'm a fool, as my grandfather might say as he dragged his ancient self up the hill in front of the house to pull down the IMPEACH War Criminals sign, to prevent the fire bombers from coming, I was, at the time really itching to find out the truth. I was also interested in what could possibly be in the minds of people who lack empathy for others and I wanted to look hard at the truth of cognitive dissonance up close and personal, as I was seeing it all over the place. It was such a relief to hear these new voices find their ways in their new jobs and to hear a fresh message that was researched and carefully backed up as true.

Well, its been a long 4 years and most of the stand-out original voices have long ago fallen away in one way or another, mostly by foolish management decisions, and the changing face of who owns the network and their personal proclivities. And, honestly, its been painful to watch this thing get disassembled in bits and chunks like a toy, and as if it wasn't at one point, a long time ago, a vital part of information dissemination of the sort that we had when the fairness doctrine was in effect.
What started as a utopian dream; a great experiment, as I've called it before, has been dying a slow spiraling death for far too long.

So, it came as little surprise when last week Randi Rhodes was suspended for a stand up routine in which she used the word whore to describe Hillary Clinton and Geri Ferraro. It was during a show that she put on at an AAR affiliate in San Francisco and a few days later the AAR brass caught wind of it via a YouTube video, and they suspended her. What I found disconcerting about that was that the speech matched the venue and the crowd; its wasn't out of place for Randi to say something like that, and I don't know if rules had been set forth for her that she disregarded, but if they didn't want this sort of show, why would they book her? It seems that she was on the company clock and knew that the newest AAR owners were Hillary supporters, but it is just unlike the spirit of the Air America brand to try to shut down that sort of speech. Of course. its time to realize that the brand has changed; its now in a sport shirt and it visits Florida or the tanning booth; Its got a mean temper and is personally not well liked in political circles.

Yes, it seems that they Greens are still the public face of AAR, even though there is a new owner. The only major change so far is that the web site, which under the care of Sam Seder, is all new and fancy...its much better.
The rest? Well, Lionel is untenable, Thom Hartmann is more than a little slow and boring for daytime, and Randi has been on edge, seeming very unhappy, and ranting on and on as usual. Rachel Maddow has one foot at MSNBC, and I can't imagine that her future wont be in the visual media. I have to think hard to remember who else there even is out there, but I do love Ring of Fire, vanity project that it is at this point, and I adore Sam Seder and his Sunday show plus all his jumping around filling in.

And its there that I found myself today, after a hard week of trying to get medical care for a child who has crappy insurance (not y child even, but mine has crappy insurance too,) and stranger than fiction goings on around this homestead, listening to Sam filling in for the suspended Randi. I was heartbroken to see his surprise and outrage when he found out, on the air, that the brass had booked Richard Belzer for the slot next week. They hadn't told him before they leaked it to Huffington Post, and the whole thing sorta smacked of the sort of disrespect that they have shown not only to Sam all along, but to departed talent Kent Jones, Mike Malloy, and Marc Maron. It seems that no matter who the management is at this place, they lack the ability to treat their talent right.

In the old days, actors and announcers and the like were viewed as a commodity to be owned, and treated as so much disposable puppetry. But that is a very old fashioned idea, and the people who were originally recruited for this startup roller coaster ride are of a different ilk. It seems like it should be taken into account that the path that was forged by this group, and the hard work, threats, and unstable work conditions, were not nothing. Some of the original hosts relocated to New York leaving behind family, to work in a new medium that required alot of research and knowledge, besides just becoming comfortable in broadcasting. And for that, they got treated with something less than respect, and in some cases, with total disregard.

So, I'd like to see a little something come out of the new management of the new AAR. Start with Sam Seder and give him a regular weekday show. He is, without a doubt, the best talent that you have left there, and he only gets better. Thousands of fans will attest that he should be on weekdays over any star turn by Richard Belzer or anyone that you can rope into the position. next, Get Marc Maron back on a regular show immediately. Try a signing bonus in Marc's case, and a raise and bonus for Sam while you're at it. I would also strongly suggest that you start to give Rachel a little more budget. She not only is better with some sort of co-host, but she should be able to have Kent Jones with her (and he is, in so many ways, the signature versatile voice of AAR.) get rid of Lionel right away. He doesn't represent Air America Radio or progressives. Its hard to tell what he represents, and its even harder to figure out how he ever got on air with that voice!

I can understand that every new set of owners wants to put their mark on the station. I know that you have your program managers and specialists on board trying to figure out how best to put the interactive mode of AAR into effect and to make big announcements, but listen, you are best served by rolling the thing back and building on the initial foundations that were there before the shuffle began. The hosts never had the time that they deserved to move the numbers properly...and to expect a profit from a media outlet that was started from scratch, and one that has endured so much shuffling of lineup, is insane. Anyone who invests into an outlet like this expecting a return right away, or even in a couple of years, is dreaming. Where are the rich liberals who want to finance this thing because its sorely needed in this country? Why was this sold to the Green brothers in a questionable deal that allowed it to go for a fraction of the agreed upon price in cash, and then a payback to only certain debtors, while throwing the workers and talent under the bus? And now that the new owner, Charlie Kireker, is in place with additional money and suits, why are the Green brothers still on board?

If Kireker is there to infuse money into the business, then I hope to see some positive announcements very soon. If Sam Seder quits or is relegated to some secondary role again, I am just moving into a place where I further don't give a shit...I'm already there more or less...but I'm ready to move it over to NovaM, spend money there, and seek out podcasts that are produced in a way that doesn't hurt anyone (or do animal testing.)


For those reasons alone you would think that any one of the originals would deserve some higher level of respect. But, for some reason, each variation of management seems to lack basic skills in treatment of others...especially those who are on the air and having to juggle callers and concepts, timing and a ton of information. Its an incredibly hard job on many levels, and not the least of it is that its easy to get burned out in this atmosphere of bad government getting worse and having to roll with the punches in an industry that is historically rough.

For the life story of AAR check out Left of the Dial, available on my coolio roundabout widget over on the right side of RIPCoco, and also at any outlet you might prefer. Its such a great documentary, even if you're not a huge fan of this network...and it speaks volumes about lost opportunity and the kind of talent that the following management teams squandered.

Breaking: Randi Rhodes just appeared with Larry King Live and according to her statement, when the new owners were looking at the company and making their deal, they had a problem with the terms of her contract, in that they didn't have the power to fire her without cause. She refused to alter her contract and in the ensuing months they decided to send her on these stand up sort of appearances, and then suddenly found this instance of what they viewed as cause. They would not let her back on the air unless she agreed to amend her contract as they had originally wanted, and she refused. Since under her contract they do not have the power to fire her, she was to remain in limbo. But somehow she has a job beginning on Monday at NovaM radio, so she either had a standing offer, had been considering leaving, or she hustled and found a soft landing. Good for her! I am again happy that someone else got out alive, as I was with Maron (which doesn't stop me from hoping that these guys will prove me wrong and fix things,) and I continue to worry about Sam, who really deserves better treatment and more job security.

Good Luck to you all!

Bounce yer Boobies!

Hey Mister! Have You Got a Dime?...Bad Girl Randi Suspended For Calling Hill a Ho

Oh Charlie, I dunno...It was San Francisco, it was stand-up of a sort..
At this time in the life of Air America Radio, don't you think that bringing a little edginess back to the network might actually help? Fer Christ's sake, its practically an infomercial channel after the Greens, and you're worried about a little dicey stand-up in SF?

You shoulda given her a pat on the back, (and give Marc Maron a morning show while you're at it! )Instead we are lucky to be treated to the fantastic vocal stylings of Sammy Seder, who I love, as you know, and who needs a daily show, it's true...and look at all those open slots you have just waiting for the liberal, funny voice!...But, give Randi a break, She has been there since the beginning and the least she should be able to expect from her network is not to be thrown under the bus for an edgy stand-up routine, on the clock or not.

Can we just sorta pretend that you have some intention of resurrecting AAR? Can't we just pretend for a little while that after 5 years of downward motion, we can hope for more than a further gutting of the place and some sort of, oh...investment in talent? I've had a hard year so far, and the democrats have to start to wrap their heads around something common. How 'bout trying that on for size? Help us! We're fighting for our lives out here!

I'm guessing that Randi is not long for this world...she is pretty over the edge. But, a little controversy is GOOD RADIO! As thrilled as I am to have Sam Seder on and some content that I can actually listen to, I really think that this should be a non-issue. They're only words,and she didn't, as far as I could tell, use it to mean what it might seem to mean; like, she is actually a streetwalking, Spitzer-fucker, whore! She is a politican...and they ARE whores!!


c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Another Chance for Air America Radio?

Why doesn't anyone know this? The news that Air America Radio is under new management once again came as no surprise to me, but then I guess nothing surprises me anymore. Surely its been a sweet deal for the brother Green who gained control for a minimal layout of money, and has now sold out...its sorta like flipping a building, huh?

The Greens have been a pretty big disappointment for those of us who were hoping for a return to the original groundbreaking Air America formula of edgy, smart, talent that was breaking through the old ho-hum radio of yesterday, and leading the charge into America's next chapter. As a new media outlet, Air America deserved the luxury of the years that it takes for any new venture like this to start turning a profit, and ever since Danny Goldberg cut that off at the knees, what has been needed is new management that could see what happened and try to roll back a bit and try to once again give the brilliant formula a chance. This thing is a long term investment, not a moneymaker....and flipping the mostly empty shell doesn't count.

Mark Green is not what you'd call a beloved New York icon, and his continual run for office and compulsive push towards the klieg lights, with his brother's endless financing, made his view of public service seem like more of a vanity project than an honest move to further the liberal voice or help his constituents . Y'know, we're fighting for our lives in this country; things have never been this bad...maybe it will never be the same...and we need a voice. What we don't need is the cronyism that Green brought to this vital programming. This cronyism brought in a New York programmer on board, who brought his friend "Lionel" along with him. Jerry Springer was a dream compared to this guy, who barged into a morning slot with a bad attitude towards the die hard fans of AAR, and made it quite clear that he didn't like them. Nor did he feel like a liberal himself...some voice for the progressive movement, huh?

Meanwhile the brilliant programmer just couldn't find a far enough corner to stuff Sam Seder into. For some reason they have a problem with an intelligent, funny, and truly progressive host who can hold his own against any veteran broadcaster, even as he remains fresh and new enough to be edgy and fresh. Seder who easily holds a place among the breakout stars of this thing, has been shuffled around until realizing his upwards book trend involved piecing together 3 different slots, managed to keep his rabid following intact despite the best efforts of the management; currently, he fills in for hosts on damned cruises, and oversees his own little corner of Sundays with his take on the week and the Sunday shows. His fans are waiting patiently to get him back into a daily slot. The fans may be willing to wait but how long is the very talented Seder going to take this shit. Lets hope that the new management rights this immediately.

Surely, the new management of Air America Radio must realize that Seder and Marc Maron are experimenting with a video cast show that already has an impressive following in its beta stage. The show still involves quite a bit of hilarious technical difficulties, but beyond that there is the original, concise political commentary and topical humor that is reminiscent of the golden early days of working out the kinks and moments of sheer brilliance that was the mark of early Air America . They must realize that Maron's following has not given up hope that he might return to radio. They must see that the original formula needed time to gain ground, and that the biggest mistakes made along the way involved yanking shows, shuffling them around, and replacing what had become the branded AAR hosts with what seemed to be "established" shows but were just fillers that alienated the growing audience.

Enter Charlie Kireker, a Vermont investment specialist who has an eclectic background and an iron in quite a few fires. He has done government work, sat on boards, and has consulted on an array of companies. From what I've heard, Kireker is a sharp guy and is someone who could be a good fit with AAR. That remains to be seen, but Kireker's Pendulum Media is in the process of buying Green Family Media, and for the time being Mark Green is still acting as President; the money brother is still sitting on the board as well.

The interesting thing about the team that Kierker is bringing with him, is that
it ranges from founding members of AAR to an array of individuals who each bring very strong backgrounds in business, investment, marketing, and hopefully, common sense, to the table.

Most notable is Phillipe Collin, who has an extensive background in the management of digital media, and who seems to realize the strong connection that Air America has with its audience. If the plan is to tap the possibilities of Internet Broadcasting and the interactive model that is being explored by Maron and Seder, among others, then this is a good place to start and a promising line up.

The fact that this news has not been all that widely reported and has remained underwhelming is testament to the fact of how low AAR has slipped in their interaction not only with the audience, but also as a force and presence in media and the ongoing political conversation that is going to be so vital during this coming political year and further. Unraveling the mess that the neocons have made of this country is going to be a huge job and the progressive voice is going to be ever more important as we move into our next phase.

So, here is my advice to the new guys: Get Maron back under contract. Do whatever you need to to smooth out the crap that he has been through. Get Seder back on 5 days per week for a few hours; how about the empty morning slot? How about the 9-midnight slot? He has been on early and late and his fans seem to follow. Don't dump the mornings; that's a mistake. Get someone like Maron in place and give him a few years to work though the curve. Look at the very real possibility that Rachel Maddow might have better things to do sooner than you think, and that those things may entice her more than a 3rd hour. Be sure to at least have some hosts on board to fill in, so that you're not scraping around for someone after Seder has worked 7 days in a row.

Understand that some of your hosts are a little tired, and really look at how insane some slots have become; lots of screaming going on. But mostly, lets have some humor back in this thing! The thing about AAR that saved so many of us from pulling our own hair out, made so many of us more politically active, and worked in concert with the netroots to bring about real change in this country, was that it mixed the Daily Show funny with really intelligent commentary. It inspired so many people who were in despair and got people off the couch and into elections, onto the net, and out marching and voting. Along the way, many of the shows were on an upwards trend. You are not going to be profitable for years...I cant imagine that you are unless you've got some sort of magic business plan. Just put something good in place and let it grow. Go with the edgy and new, rather than the old tired Springeresque Lionels out there. Your audience is not stupid...don't treat them that way. You've got something that was very special for a long time; don't fuck it up.


Anyone wishing to contact Air America to let them know how you feel about the current lineup or what you'd like to see, should write to Phillipe Collin

Marc Maron and Sam Seder to Begin Experimental Vid-cast...The Funny Returns and We Get to Talk Politics Too!

Maron & Seder: everyone's favorite liberal talk radio talk hosts who clawed their way to fame on Air America Radio by delivering the truth and the funny, are launching a new experiment in daring-do, anger, and magic, to bring their very own independent broadcast show, and their actual faces, into your homes and onto your players, via a new video-cast technology that Sam Seder has been playing around with on his much embattled and shuffled around, yet still beloved, Sam Seder Show/Seder on Sundays.


What started as the nicknamed SammyCam, was probably due more to Sam's love of tech and film making, and him trying things out than any grand plan to take over the world. But, it quickly turned into a fun and interesting glimpse into the inner workings of the technical side of broadcasting and also a live back and forth conversation with listeners during the breaks, with the audience on Sam's blog and instant messenger, with Sam making technical adjustments as he got feedback as to the video quality and streaming of the show, and also still talking politics. It seemed to me like it was only a matter of time before it took off, because Sam was running around Yearly Kos2 with a mission, trying it out during his audio interviews, (and Yes I did beg to sit in the corner of that room and watch, but he actually said...er...NO!...damn him!...not even for Joe Conason...)

I can only imagine how quickly this thing would have come together if Mark Green, the terrible new owner of AAR, hadn't taken Sam's daily slot away to give it to his buddy, who I wont even mention here because he makes me nauseous. But considering that he only had Sundays and a few odd trials, he has got it down pretty nicely.




















According to Sam himself, Marc Maron will be joining him on the unnamed-as-of-yet, experimental show that, though still in the planning stages, looks to be a must see/must subscribe to!
The duo will be trying out the format next Tuesday, September 25th, at 11AM EST, as they did this past Tuesday (Check Seder's page for an audio link to the rough first time trial... it will be posted soon,) with a dual screen, dual host, dual coast show, that will, when all the kinks get ironed out, offer a live version with viewer interaction, downloadable video on demand, guests, and who knows what else when you get those two together, working for themselves in a rather unregulated format. Expect politics and expect the funny...expect to feel better about the world in general. This thing will be available on a subscription basis, and I am so there, first on line, for it!
The details, such as cost and how subscriptions will be handled are still in their infancy....But I plan on supporting this no matter what cockamamie scheme they come up with.
Reached for comment for this piece on location in Vancouver, where he is performing at a comedy festival till the 22nd, Marc Maron said something to the effect of..."...its me and Sam on the screen talking about shit."...Which is code for Get ready for the Funny, People!!
More to come from the other coast as soon as he gets some ideas!!
Look for Marc at the UCB Theatre in LA on Oct. 5th and in NYC at Comix Oct 12th and 13th!
Check his page for details and additions!


I am just thrilled that out of the ashes of AAR we are going to see another interesting experiment...and who knows? Old Green might just figure it out somehow...I dunno...but miracles sometimes happen...right?


For a long time I've thought that this sorta streaming wireless content was going to be the wave of the future. I just finished listening to David Pogue's NY Times Circuits Podcast from August 17th, where he discusses radios that have WiFi chips on board. These chips make it possible to tune into any of thousands of streaming Internet radio stations or the Internet streams of terrestrial radio, not to mention podcasts, in pretty sterling clarity, depending on your WiFi setup or the public WiFi available.
I used to covet these very expensive and rare pieces of equipment, which were available at Dell for a while or on the Internet, but in short order, Air America Radio got killed by one Danny Goldberg and another Mark Green scavenging the wreckage, so I put it off until the prices came down.
Still, anyone who knows me knows that this is a big theme around here: Soon all phones will have these chips, all radios, even cheap ones, and the startup streaming content sites will wrestle the cream to the top. To that end Ive been working towards starting up something myself with content produced by my grandfather. That is still in the air, and its very possible that the technology has already gone beyond that old time audio in that, here come Vid-casts for the YouTube generation. Its still going to be all about content and the quality of the content; the talent of the players.
The adoption of this technology will happen passively and be as successful with non-technical people as the tech designers are at integrating a search/scan, and save option into even the smallest transistor radio.
I believe that the future world will have cities and towns with fully free wireless, with America likely lagging behind in our struggle to re-regulate big business and get back to a population that knows whats going on. As more places like Cosi pop up, with their free WiFi and good coffee/better food/comfortable atmosphere and couches, its going to become more and more silly to pay a corporation via Starbucks $10 to get online for a day.
And I do believe, as does my friend from YK2, (who I imagine might be a blogger secretly, as he has a sensitive job but alot to say,) who has been struggling to bring WiFi to another large city, that it is possible. My exasperation with the city of Stamford is that their "free" WiFi that stretches through downtown, past UBS Warburg and on to the train station where the masters of the universe converge with their handhelds on their way to run with the bulls, runs just to the edge of the poor part of town, where too many people cant afford even cable TV much less a cable modem or even a dial up. Add to that the news that the library's hours have been cut back due to budget shortfalls that have hit the schools and public services pretty hard, and here we are.
So, with the understanding that things have to change and my sure feeling that they will first gradually and then all of a sudden, I've been keenly aware of what can be done with the emerging technology and how much of an investment it is in the future to try some of it out.

The other thing that is crystal clear is that the screen is here to stay, and that these shows do great if offered in audio or video versions. When the iPod Nano suddenly has a nice screen and the iPod itself has jumped generations by getting rid of that silly phone part and keeping the touch interface, I am positive that Sam and Marc are investing in the right area of this tech curve. Whats the worst that can happen? Wasted time? Streaming content for their own site? ...not so bad...and besides the fact that we need those intelligent and funny voices in the public discourse,
The obvious is to see the popularity of some of the shows out there like Ricky Gervais in audio, and Diggnation in audio or video (big or small....very cool!) You bring some people and sponsorship follows... or your subscriptions grow and you can offer more content.

This is one show that I will be watching develop.

Welcome Back Sam Seder!

Well, so far so bad for Air America Radio 2.1 or whatever they are calling it now....It absolutely breaks my heart for reasons that I suppose are boring anymore for anyone who read this blog even occasionally...and Im not writing about Maron anymore unless Im reviewing a particular show, because its just maudlin at this point to look back with anything but fondness at what that crew accomplished...and I'm the last person to want any artist to stay in a box...onward and upward is what I always say!...Yeah right!..pass the Prozac!
Other blogs have covered the horrible disspointment that is Lionel (or "God" as he likes to call himself..."Its just a Joke" says Mom. Oh yeah? Well I guess I forgot what funny was in the months, or has it been years, since we've lost the funny...oh well) and Im not going to bother anymore except to say that I'm only listening to a little Rachel Maddow and Ring of Fire on the weekends.
Well, today I got a cool little newsletter from Sammy Seder called The Seder Reader. His new show, Sam Seder 3.75's Seder on Sundays, will be starting this Sunday, May 20th, at 4PM EST. Its apparently a 3 hour show and will be pretty much along the lines of his weekday show, except that there will not be enough of it. The Sammy Cam WILL be in effect, making the commercial breaks as fun as the show itself, so do stream it live from your computer and AAR's page. Otherwise, you may be at the mercy of fickle terrestrial radio signals (1600 AM in the NYC area...and good luck with that!) or podcasting which may or may not be part of the premium service...ugh!
One nice thing is that Sam's web page seems to be coming together and it would be nice to have a working blog over there...I could hardly ever post on his official blog and I was always sure that it was just me (blocked, no doubt!) until I started to hear that from alot of people.
Anyway, I am tremendously happy that Sammy will be back on the air, and I know that the mooks at AAR will have to reinstate his show to a daily affair before long.
In the meantime, I have been pretty disappointed at the Imus slot situation on MSNBC , with Stephanie Miller never really doing it for me one way or another, (not to mention that she is not all that nice to Brian from Everett, and she STOLE the Liberal Confessional,) whoever that scary bald guy was and then David Gregory, who I like as a reporter but who is not great as a radio personality or goofy performer guy. But I have strangely been enjoying Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe. Call me crazy, but I can take Joe in the morning a little bit better than at night. And as Jill said a while back, you know that things are changing when you start to think that Scarborough is making some sense!
In reality, I can always watch the Daily Show and Colbert from the night before...and sometimes even Olbermann...in the time I actually have in the mornings...Its the driving around parts of the day that are rather dead now, though the weather has been totally wild so Ive been listening to alot of local news as things happen.
Welcome back Sam! You deserved a better shake than you go, but this is gonna have to be it for the time being...and we will hope for more in time....

Virginia Tech Shooting, The Deluge, Mark Green Responds to His Email, Gramercy Finale for Maron Rollins & Garafolo......

Bear with me here... I've got pumps running in the basement and the intrepid Panda Garden deliveryman boating up here through the floods with $50 worth of Chinese food, in the interest of growing boys who want MEAT!! (and my little broccoli rabe and tofu steam on the side...though roast pork calls with a pretty intense voice....)
School was canceled and half my town is shut down...and I cant even describe the mess.
This is what it is going to be like as coastal areas go under water due to global warming. Maybe we wont have an alarmed Jake Glyndenhall looking over his shoulder at the ice wall rolling through Wall St., but the consequences of rising water and the inability of the ground to hold it all, is very real here at sea level...and even my place which is 200 feet above the water and sits up from the road on an upward sloping mountain of sorts, is completely overcome by the new amount of water that is coming down all at once, and over a long period of time. The water is shooting up out of the boulder in the basement, and as ready as I can be is not enough in the face of this thing. I'm a little scared at how this is playing out so quickly...and just from a layman's point of view, in the number of years that I have lived in this area, its changed pretty rapidly weather-wise. I don't need to read a scientific report that warming is real or have Rush Limbaugh tell me that this is part of a natural cycle and that I shouldn't worry...This is really happening, and something has to be done about it right away.

Meantime, people are shooting each other here and blowing up and shooting each other in Iraq and the clear voices that I've been listening to lately, speaking truth to... whatever it is anymore out there powering this thing (fear?), are dwindling as I work my way through the last podcasts on my iPod that mean anything ...I am struck by what I'm reading and what is going on, and the little tiny moments of clarity that Ive been having.

First the unclear: This Virginia tech shooting is unfolding horribly today, and as much as this sorta thing tends to happen from time to time (though apparently not on this level) and will undoubtedly be dissected over and over in the next few days, I view this as a tragedy that is part of the natural progression of a sick society that solves things with violence, and doesn't provide health care for its citizens. If its a crazy guy who did this, who would ever have known unless circumstances were just right? We're so busy trying to get them over there before they get us here ....and we want to spread our own brand of democracy so badly that we are willing to give up the rights that come with that democracy...but meantime, all we've really been doing is making sure that back in the homeland the profits of the health insurance companies, drug companies, and oil companies are safe.
So, while our down-armoured surge troops may be bravely trying to hold Baghdad, we're really at the mercy of the underpaid campus police, and the constraints of whatever healthcare, educational, and social system this guy was raised in.
For Christ's fuckin' sake, how is it possible that such a huge portion of OUR money is being funneled into the pockets of unregulated corporations and we are not taking care of our own people?
I cant possibly say that any specific event could be prevented, but I know for sure that its getting harder and harder for everyone in this country to stay even partially sane and get anything at all done besides the grind of work, family, crap you need to do, and trying to navigate the fucked up system and the huge amount of information coming at us all, much of it nonsense and noise. There is nothing to shoot for, for most people, and the American dream seems to be more about that winning the Lotto fairytale than any realistic plan of community coming together to make a better world...So, there is naturally so much more obsessive compulsive feeling about every little thing and an increase in depression too. If every loss, slight, or just the pain of living, eats away at so many of us, who is gonna be next? Who cares and who is even paying attention in an increasingly alienated society? ...and what are we thinking when we spend our resources to fight an ideological lie that doesn't have an end, much less any hope for victory or defeat,rather than taking care of our citizen's own safety and health?
Whats missing besides community and oversight is what might be possible if family were supported in our society; Why aren't we teaching critical thinking and ethics in school? What happened to philosophy?...even in the lower grades of public school in my own very good district, I see am early push towards cutting corners, the easy way out, and what is the best way to pass the test that allows the school to get funds. Lost in there somewhere are the patient steps necessary to actually solve problems, do research, figure things out, and knowledge of how to accomplish a task while learning. There is a lack of empathy all around and little time to address the needs of overcrowded classrooms full of kids who often just don't care....and its not that the teachers and school administrators aren't trying or don't care....they are victims of the priorities of our government; a government that used to value education, stability, and community above all.
So, will it be a spurned boyfriend? A foreigner? ...A local?....Will the police have screwed up?... the university? What sort of real security is there anywhere for any of us? Who are the campus police in our own lives?
This is just a tragic microcosm of the way things are going.

I don't want to go on too much about the Air America Radio situation because I'm pretty much gone from there and have only to cancel my premium, but I was struck today, first of all by Bobby Kennedy Jr's comments on Sam Seder's last show, that he had spoken to Mark Green and that he just cant understand what Green is thinking. That a terrible mistake is being made.
I love Bobby Kennedy Jr.....but, he doesn't understand? What must it be like for Mark Green, who is basically politcally impotent to have to have Bobby Kennedy Jr come to give him advice? Who's in charge now, Bobby?...But, it doesnt work that way, really. Bobby actually knows a thing or two, and the idea that he would have that conversation with Green and get nowhere is just incredible to me.
I've had more than one person imply that I'm being too conspiratorial in my growing feeling about this situation, (and I am NOT a conspiracy theorist by and stretch,) in that the blogosphere is full of comments that Green is moving the network towards center and into a safe political zone. It is not an understatement to say that that Sam Seder has been the heart of the place since certain shows were canceled and other certain people left the network...but more than that, there is something about Sam that makes him a great broadcaster. He isn't as multi-talented as Maron or as famous as Franken or as ...whatever...but the whole package has developed in a way that has made him into such an excellent voice for the network and the liberal viewpoint, that it makes no sense to get rid of him...unless he is too left for the new owners of the network, and one in particular who is always positioning himself in the power elite of NYC politics. I think that this slimy move to Lionel and the less substance model of broadcasting is something that he thinks will bring him closer to his goal of....?
I'm sure this must be a joke, but I'm struck by it nonetheless.... Via Jill to the Seditionists blog....its a joke, right? Jill: Draft Mark Green For President in 08...


With a big hat tip to Move To Iceland here is what Green had to say on AAR's page about the outpouring of protest emails of support for Sam Seder:

Comment from Mark Green about Sam Seder
Statement:

I want to thank all of you who took the time to contact us at Air America about the Sam Seder Show. It shows you care and are part of our extended Air America family, even if we can't agree on every lineup judgment.
I, too, think Sam is terrific and was eager to keep him on air. After we discussed various possibilities, I'm very happy that we agreed on a new show that's really unlike anything else on radio (or television). The three hour program, as I wrote in my posted "Message" earlier week, will focus on "networks and netroots" -- that is, a review of the Sunday political talkfests with mostly bloggers as commentators.
Please know that, consistent with my 35 year history as a dedicated progressive advocate and author, I'm devoted to keeping Air America as the leader in progressive talk and to taking it from the red to the black. Both.
I believe when we're done with all our plans for the new Air America 2.0 -- in terms on overall lineup, new platforms, better marketing, important collaborations (like our partnership with MoveOn this week broadcasting the "Virtual Town Hall on Iraq") -- you'll be as optimistic as I am that Air America will both survive and thrive after a roller coaster past year.
Mark Green
President
Air America

Does Green think that we are idiots? They "agreed" that Sam should do this Sunday thing? He thinks that we all just don't agree on a simple lineup judgement, but are really part of an extended family? And he wants us to buy this shit about turning round the station that they got on the cheap into some fantasy-land of profitability? With Lionel at the morning helm?...Sam, Armstrong Williams, The Young Turks, Thommm Hartmannn?
No, this is so much more than that.

This was my answer to that in a comment on Move To Iceland:

... as a hard core AAR listener from the get go, I think that Mark Green is totally wrong in his shifting views of 2.0 and short sighted retooling.
We have to know that the old model of terrestrial radio as the only outlet for the programing that he thinks speaks to...um...the future(?) is living on borrowed time, as even old folks will eventually find themselves buying radios with the capacity to get internet content and wireless will reach 50 miles or more before we know it.....
To move ahead into a model that cuts out the strongest move towards the interactive, internet... movement is foolhardy.
regardless of Mark Green's political aspirations and what goes on in the power centers of NYC politics, where he has been scratching at the door for so many years, he is stone cold wrong to think that the only way that AAR will be a force will be through earnings.
He has thrown away more money on Starbucks for his campaign staff than it would cost to invest in the future of broadcasting....
But I don't see him doing that...I see him promoting his own vision of the good old boy's network...
Good luck Greens....
I think we used to call this penny dumber and pound dumber....
They've lost all of the best established talent who had already made the inroads and contacts that are paving the future....
Go on and serve the lowest denominator....
see ya at your future learning annex course on how to run for office...or how to run a radio network....

All I have left is a few observations from last night in New York City for the final night of the Garafolo/Rollins/Maron show.

First, the storm didn't keep anyone home...it was a pretty full house and a very good crowd. Also,Janeane is not as emaciated as Jill was thinking she is, nor does she really have the old lady upper arms that she seems to think she does. She was fantastic and brilliant. I was happy to see her again. She took off her coat!
I cant say much about Maron because you all know that I am too big of a fan of what he does to give you anything new....but he kicked ass...again!

Rollins does a great piece on what Wolfe Blitzer should have said to Cheney when Cheney shut him down about the gay daughter questioning. This is something that I hope he has written or put on a CD because it is so true in a universal sense about how the press should grow some balls. I really like it when Henry does these specific rants about current and real events in his life....I like it less when he goes off into his singing in the rain/isn't New York wonderful spiel....I like that he is positive but I don't get the feeling that he is revealing who he is...or maybe he is and its a little much for me....? I could watch him only 1.25 times over the course of 2 shows and hope to someday soon see him in a different venue to see if its any different. Following Maron isn't easy...that's something else I realized...their crowds are a little different and some people left. maybe it was the rain and that it was Sunday, but it was also a little too loud... unnecessarily so. That's just how he uses the mic. I like Henry but I would like to see him more focused.

Catch them in LA if you can, April 24th-29th...and also try to catch any of them separately wherever and whenever you can....its honestly a great time; you'll laugh, you'll cry...you'll wonder why these folks don't have more of a forum to talk to the world without all the corporate bullshit getting in the way.

I drove home through the Bronx listening to the Replacements, old Elvis Costello, and
Marvin Gaye...and managed to avoid all the cars that were hood deep in water, and the closed highways along the coast....
I love a good Nor'Easter....

I don't believe that Don Skeletor Imus is a racist anymore than any of these guys are. Maybe thats not saying much...I do believe that he is a dinosaur, disgusting, and pretty anti-woman and sexist....but he is not a racist, as far as Ive ever heard. The problem with these neocons in disguise, like old Don, is that he is a little too in touch with the reptilian layers of his brain...and for old farts like him, that racial slur is in there just waiting to come out. You see it alot in old folks. Some of them are the most liberal and empathetic people, but somehow as they age, a little of what they heard growing up, before they decided how to live their lives, is in there just waiting to pop.
Here is the crazy part: Imus has been putting down just about everyone in a disgusting way for years and years....He hosts the supposed top journalists in the world and somehow they are cowed into his simplistic, blunted, format, as he and "Charles" chuckle and joke about one thing or another, and never really seem to say much of anything....And Imus chooses who he supports depending on who scratches HIS back: case in point is the horrible Rick Santorum who bought Imus' support by putting through a bill on autism. So Imus went on and on about what a great person Santorum is, with no reason except that he was supportive of this bill. It was the same thing with Joementum Lieberman. Imus liked him because he just "made some sense" and he showed up on the show. He had no idea what Lieberman was doing or the details of Bush's butt boy and his psychotic support of the Iraq war, except that he just "liked" him. He didnt know nothing about that stranger Lamonte, and he felt no need to find out.
So, I don't like Imus (even though I grew up in a house where he was on the radio all the time,) because I think that he supports the basest of the very human ability to turn a deaf ear to what is clear and right in front of you. Why does this guy have such a big platform to say...um... not so much? And, by the way, Mark Green and David Bernstein, in case you're reading this, Imus is NOT funny...this show is not comedy!!

Well, David Gregory, in for Chris Matthews on Hardball tonight, fielded a lineup with the likes of ...ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS (he of the local NYC Air America Mornings lineup, and the secret paid shill of Bush's No Child Left Behind program, acting as if he was "reporting" on it when he was a White House employee...uh-huh,) who was saying over and over that MSNBC is the white man's station with no Latino or black hosts...to which Gregory kept trying to drive home that Allison Stewart is on staff (and a woman to boot!)...but I think that he was more after an actual HOST job, and not a fluffy newscaster with a day slot and fill-in work. You tell 'em Army!

Breaking News!!! MSNBC suspends Imus' simulcast for 2 whole weeks!!!!! As if soldiers aren't dying in Iraq and Bush and Cheney aren't criminals, THIS is the big news of the day.
Well hell...tomorrow we will also find out who the real father Of Anna Nicole Smith's baby is....and THIS is what they are gonna spend an entire hardball on? This is what makes the media look at itself? What a joke!
Imus is a sexist, neocon, who has some sort of good streak that allows him to straddle the fence on enviornment and sick kids, but he has done the country and the children who will live till tomorrow no favors in his complicity in this administration's disinformation program...and his cowed "friends" in the media are "dismayed" as Gregory said, because it is so troublesome to think that they might be associated with that sort of language...huh? Lets discuss how to change Imus' show...lets discuss whats wrong with Imus....I'm bored....

Into the middle of this walks Lionel....well, nevermind...LTR again has the lingo down so well. "...slides into Sam's spot" eh?...pretty seamless, all this shuffling round, huh? Some people have an interest in this thing because what is LTR without LTR? Im afraid to even say it, but it may very well be over. Time to change that LTR to NPR-ish Nightmare.....maybe they can give Imus a slot when Sharpton marches on CBS radio and forces them to fire him. Oh the uppity disbelief that the radio station has not yet removed him... yet....just give the Rev a day or so to assemble the troops and you never know...maybe old Don will be available yet. And I know who can afford him too!
Oh, and to the person in the comments on LTR who compares this to "not quite as bad as Danny Gold-schmuck," I must say that I find it worse, because they have the hindsight of those mistakes and the damage that followed an egotistical pseudo-bottom-line choice that didn't listen to the fans, and now they are doing the same thing over again.

Its like the haunted look in John McCain's eyes...the empty stare of realization that maybe everything that your house of cards is built on is just so much shit, sliding away through the Gaza.... Trying to salvage his political career, McCain was heard to say that so much did he believe in his own belief that Baghdad is safe, that he would be willing to walk solo through the market anytime.
Maybe he could ask Mitt Romney to come along with his "varmint" rifle....
But really, I hear McCain also say that he can fly...somewhere around when he was last seen with the angel dust dealer round the side of the rug stand. Fly Johnny, fly.....I hear Sanjaya is gonna join the campaign as official singer just as soon as he wins American Idol....

If everything runs in some sort of cycle, I suppose it may be time to start the run of Air America Radio from its inception and hope for better days sometime in the next 2 years (and I have just the archive to do it)....or maybe the angel dust thing is something to consider. Maron and Garafolo are playing NYC for a week, beginning tomorrow night, and I feel like going every night...with the angel dust and maybe some drinking thrown in! Too bad I have no tolerance for chemicals or drink anymore...too bad....


Meantime, just watching the nestbox...my father is back in the hospital in Cape Cod, after one night at his hotel, and trying to get home to LA somehow...maybe figure out what the problem is...and the rest is just complicated....very complicated....

Meanwhile, Back At The Nestbox: aka The Den of Sexual Iniquity, And What Goes On Round Here, Complete With Eggs.Sam Seder Cancelled By Idiot Green....

Just to get it out of the way before I'm off to my usual...whatever it is I do with all of this time that seems to fall away....I want everyone to know that the Air America email system goes by a pattern of first initial and last name followed by @AirAmerica.com , so the new programmer, David Bernstein, can be reached at dbernstein@airamerica.com . Feel free to write to whoever you want to over there and let them know how you feel about the new "programming" decisions....I expect that we soon will be seeing audio home shopping, 6-10 hours of Thommm Hartmannn (smart but boring!) and a little Randi Rhodes on the side just to mix it up, then another 4-8 hour block of The Mark Green Show....
Haven't we suffered enough? We're fighting for our lives here, people!
I would love to be wrong about this, but every turn has uncovered another dark revelation about this deal ...I'm already disappointed beyond reason...and the whole thing is indicative of what was the problem in the first place, which is this idea of following old programming plans and trying to make the thing profitable in a certain time frame...a time frame that isn't even supported by the old fashioned ideas of programming that they are using....WTF?? Pick something and stay with it, guys! Well, apparently the thing that they are picking is gonna be mediocre. I keep hearing this thing repeated on the internet that the Greens and/or programmer wanted something of less substance in Sam's time slot. Well, that indicates to me right away that these guys definitely never listened to Maron. If its less substance that they want, Maron's hilarious, densely empathetic, heavily political, and painfully personal, radio work would never make it....oh wait...it already worked in a morning slot! Ratings were going up on that day that they pulled the plug the first time!















I guess that it comes down to dollars and cents, and a certain inability to hire someone without making him stab his old friend in the back and shows an extreme misunderstanding of what they've got. I think that the stab-your-friend-in-the-back tactic is the divide and conquer thing that certain folks do to feel powerful. This is all very bad news for the liberal voice....understand that these people have billions of dollars and that if they were doing any of this out of support of the liberal voice or even in a way that wasn't what I consider to be the sorta corporate bankruptcy court raiding that is a little slimy, they wouldn't be handling things this way.
I'm sure Ill have more on this in the days to come, but Im gonna be finishing up with AAR as Sammy's show ends on Friday April 13th...a night when I will be going to see Marc Maron, Janeane Garalfolo and Henry Rollins perform their show at the Gramercy Theater in NYC.
What better way to go out?...I just hope that Sammy and crew show up...especially Pashman, who has to answer for the curse before he goes off to ruin Laura Flanders' show!
And what could it possibly be that Green has for that slot that is gonna be so exciting and pleasing to us die hards? I keep remembering when we were supposed to be pleased that Jerry Springer was coming on-board.....in the ashes of the brilliant Unfiltered. Oh my God. What a nightmare....And Mom saying that she sorta liked Jerry as a political talker....which, fits his demographic. she also listens to the CSPAN call in show.
And when Maron covered Springer's slot, some months back, I went on the blog and immediately got in a fight with his bloggers and his producer (also Springer's long time best friend...eeekkk...what does that tell you? was it Gene?...ah, memories)...we were too quick and snarky for the somnambulist crowd over there...




So, the state of liberal Radio aside, its egg coloring day and Ben is sick, so I'm contemplating cutting Will's hair and watching the nest box anxiously....what else is there...what goes on...See the photo essay accompanying this article for a taste of this day in the woods.



And then further meantime, the young lovers of the Yellow-side-green-cheeked conure world are getting busy in some way in there...very much roosting together all the time on a hollow in the bedding. Todd says, (in response to my silly questions,) that they could just be roosting because they've decided to make it their bedroom, or she could be ready to lay some eggs. Its hard to tell, but I am ever hopeful that I will see something when I can peek. They hardly come out and I don't want to open it when they're in there, lest they get nervous and not lay or kill the eggs in trying to hide them.

I've been reading quite a bit about the effort to save the Blue-throat Macaw which is a huge bird, and so all of my nest box info right now comes from an extremely wild, extremely large bird. I cant find my conure book because I decided recently in all my cleaning and purging, that I want to keep my bird library separate from any possible purge, so I would put them all together in a really logical place...which of course escapes me now. FUCK! (To which, Mr. Aggressively Anti-tech Todd said, " Well, you've got the internet available to you, don't you?"...as if I maybe should not be bothering him with this nonsense....and of course I'm hormonally compromised right now, so I'm overreacting to everything....)
The end of the story is that its a wait and see game, because once you've got the basics down its individual.
These birds (Rosie and Ben,) love eachother so much that its touching. He lords over her (and tries to fight everyone else, really,) but is sweet and gentle with her. I guess that if I can't find a guy like him, its probably best to stay single....I'd probably kick his ass anyway because I'm steeped in this human raised consciousness of my Mom in the 60's. No boy lords over me like that....But maybe if someone was actually nice and not an idiot it would be OK to let him feel like he was some of the time....? Who knows? I'm definitely not good at this crap, and tend to keep relationships short and to the point. I guess Ill outgrow that someday when I'm more free and feeling less destroyed by everything thats happened.



So, speaking of relationships and my own lack of ability in that and all, My father was up in Cape Cod this week shooting a documentary about old friend David Caradine (who had been in a movie of my father's back in the bad old days of the late 70's,) who is shooting a feature in Chatham (where my fisherman uncle lives....and coincidentally so does the Caradine uncle who fixes boats, both on the same path and not even knowing the degrees of separation were closer than the freakin small world that this is,) with the likes or Rip Torn, (another old family friend, I guess,) Bruce Dern, (who perhaps wins the most fucked up family prize with his story of having to wear white gloves to dinner every night, in formal dress,...but no, I could outdo him in a second....really....I usually win that hands down...)
Lets see....Mariel Hemingway, John Savage, and ...oh, someone else I'm forgetting, I'm sure. Old salty guys finding themselves on the seaside...you know that movie, right?...Norman Mailer's son is a producer...and he also, coincidentally, went to school with us...damn! What a nightmare of the past crashing round me....just when I'm feeling like myself again for the first time in a long time.
Anyway, I turned down going there. Ive done my time on movie sets and I have too much happening here. That led to a certain amount of consternation with my father...whatever... and then he proceeded to have some sorta huge internal to external bleed and wound up in the Cape Cod hospital in intensive care....and he almost died...very strange and sudden.
So death and life collide again....Luckily,the very wonderful woman who puts up with him, Suzanne, saved his life and oversaw his hospital stay, and he is out today....He had to get blood and has a fever ..and who knows what it really is....I hear the "diverticulitis" diagnosis a little too often when Dr's are treating the older set....watch out for blood thinning vitamins as you age, people! That is my diagnosis.
I cant go on into the details because...well, wait for my book in some 10-20 years, if I'm not in an asylum long before that! More on all that as I can bear it.



















Things are beautiful here....its been cold with snow showers but even as the daffodils all come up and the rain falls...I'm feeling a little positive...I guess....
I feel like Ive got a pretty good footing...or like my meds are working...or something...
And the politics? I'm on top of that too...and whats to say? Its a beautiful thing...and horrifying too. I feel like the little girl in tights sitting in front of the black and white TV during the Watergate trials.





So, in some hope of a little emotional break and going fishing, turning off the computer, looking at the stars and trying to ignore the human devastation all around me, I bought a big fake stone firepit for outside, fancying myself to be an outdoorsgirl and back to thinking...besides, my wireless reaches out there so I could actually write there too...right?...Then I went and bought fancy marshmallow skewers and some garden gnomes...and a couple of comfortable chairs...and I'm back on the hunt for a week in Cape Cod later in the summer...











*******












Just planning and waiting on the nest box and taking pictures...and now on my way to color eggs and then to old friend Joyce's B'day dinner.....
Happy Birthday Joyce!!

Is It All Just Rumor? Me Thinks Not!...Hope I'm Wrong!

Liberal Talk Radio blogger, ltr, has posted a totally silly piece that acts like a few of us out here are repeating senseless rumors and that ltr is above the fray in that he/she has a responsibility to all of the radio folks (and hosts too!) who rely on the blog for information, not to spread rumors..or apparently even report on whats going on in a pretty tense situation. Youd have to be not paying attention to write off this thing as just rumor and a joke....
ltr's take on this is strange to say the least....The demise of the Sam seder show is just a rumor and the fact that it has been talked about by Sam himself and his producer Dan Pashman, on air, is just innuendo? ltr says that it is in fact an APRIL FOOLS JOKE!! ltr must be getting the same emails that Ive been getting about programmers talking listeners and the majority rule and whatnot....
Lets set aside the emails and instant messages, and the email to me from the program manager, what we heard with our own ears, the live blogging of the event by the Seditionist blog, and what we know has happened all along with this network.....lets just set that aside and go into a little place that I like to call logic-land:
Why would a radio host and a producer play a practical joke on fans that would direct ire towards the new bosses? Why would they play a joke that would be so cruel to devoted fans?
It doesnt make sense...and I'd like some of whatever ltr is smoking, because things are getting pretty tough out here in the land of practicality and logic...
I hope to god that ltr is right and I'm wrong...maybe the whole thing was a dream and Ill wake up to Al doing the oy,oy,oy show (...or maybe that would be the wrong place in programming to wake... like, rapture watch...OK that works...Dream diary and there are nilla wafers in the bed....)
But I think that Bobby is really dead and that whoever shot JR is probably gonna give himself a show right quick....

Another Air America Misstep...Is This Goodbye to Sam Seder?

I love Dan Pashman, (son of Lewis and Linda Pashman.) I got familiar with him as a producer and on air personality on Air America Radio. His work with Brendan McDonald during the Katrina disaster was stellar. They were a couple of, probably not so innocent, producers covering a vacation week for the hosts of late lamented Morning Sedition, when the dam burst and they were in the driver's seat. They did such a great job and their banter on various talk shows that they have produced since then, and particularly with Marc Maron, has been great.
I guess that also, the Dan Pashman laugh has been something that signals to fans of a certain type of comedy that we are all on the same planet.
So, I was sorta thrilled to hear Dan take over for Sam Seder's departing temporary producer, Joel from Al Franken's show. Are you following me?
I shoulda realized, though, that the Pashman laugh is not a sign of comedy anymore....Its a sign of the endtimes!
So, after a pretty straightforward Seder show today, Pashman was heard to say, on the Sammy-cam that had been inadvertently left on, they had to tape the promos for next week and that, after the holidays, Thursday and Friday of next week are their last shows. Pashman himself is moving to Laura Flanders show, which is probably, I'm guessing, moving to a daily slot where maybe we might have seen Maron at some point.
I wrote to the new director of programming, hired on just a a week or so ago, by the Green brothers, David Bernstein ,in my usual style, which is pretty intense and wordy (see my post from the last time they canceled Maron...was that almost a year ago?) and I was very happy to get a response pretty quickly.
The thing is that the response, while kind, thoughtful, and thorough, sort of goes against what I'm pretty sure is happening. Unless there are some last minute talks going on, the reply I got was either a bit of a snow job, or the words of someone who isn't fully into the job and up on whats happening yet.

So, while my own ears, and the ears of many of my fellow bloggers heard one thing come out of Pashman, David Bernstein claims that he will listen to listeners and station managers around the country in order to make a decision....a decison that I think has already been made.

I'm upset, but not as upset as I guess I have been in the past. I think I may be writing Air America off. It was a voice of reason in the darkness 3 years ago, and a grand experiment that was new and very real in a sea of crazy lies. Now, its become another hack network that needs to scramble to meet revenue requirements. I should add that those requirements are arbitrary and set by some business plan that shouldn't exist at all, considering what we're dealing with here.

If there is to be no fairness doctrine, and the FCC has moved again and again to allow conglomeration of media outlets, and then the liberal voice has been silenced methodically by the big bucks of the right, who have created a strong foundation over many years, and using bluster, lies, fear, and hate...and drama...to spin a story and a following that puts them not only in the black but in the driver's seat as far as the information getting out to the American people, then the American people have been robbed of their right to know....Is this not the Pony Express or the Guy riding into town shouting "The British are coming, the British are coming!"
Are Americans expected to live in a world of propaganda with an educational system that is hell bent on dumbing down the masses? Don't we have a RIGHT to hear both sides?...or is that up to the president and Karl Rove to decide?

Air America is as important to the American people as the assurance of a free flow of information and ideas. An assurance that has been stifled in a campaign by the right to ensure that the masses don't find out the truth. The lies that pass for "news" coming out of the likes of the Limbaugh's and O'Reilly's out there would be laughable of they weren't so tragically accepted as the gospel truth.
The fair exchange if ideas should be subsidized by the government if the marketplace does not allow for a balance.

Beyond that, whoever takes on Air America is not taking on an entity that is anywhere near to being profitable...and thats not the point....Just like funding failed campaign after failed campaign is about ideas, this project should also be looked at as a campaign. The return is not going to be something to put in the bank right away, but the social return will be great...and in funding this venture, the Greens will ensure themselves a great place in history as the Pony Express when the right would have cut off the news and the mail. Air America will surely become more important as the country turns more and more blue. So its a little troubling to me to have the programming manager email to me:

It is a business as well as a platform. Air America had a horrible financial showing and ended up in bankruptcy.
New owners have a mission of reviving the brand name Air America and making it a financial success, or else there will be no liberal talk radio at all.

He then went on to say that he was still going to talk to listeners and program managers around the country and then because "majority rules," he will make his decision.
This is a decision that seems to already have been made and I don't think that majority rules...usually in these parts, bullshit rules.

So, as much as I want to think that the new Air America owners get it, I expect that we are looking at more of the same. There will be a business plan that is not profitable and is reworked every quarter in the futile effort to try to wring something out of this mess, and the money brother will sink just as much money into a format that will resemble NPR and still not be profitable....The same amount of money risked on exciting and edgy talkers would at least make history and a statement.
Unfortunately, it looks to me that this thing is going to go out with a small fizzle rather than a bang....and the sad thing is that it doesn't have to go out at all.

Hopefully I'm wrong...hopefully they will pull a Maron/Seder show out of their butts, but I'm not counting my joy before its hatched.
I'm expecting a Mark Green Show, that will have poor ratings but will never be canceled, and more of the Thom Hartmann sort of somnambulists intelligencia shows.
What do these people have against comedy?? Why do liberals have to be so freakin' serious? A huge part of our inability to get anything done is that we take ourselves too seriously...as Maron put it "..progressive utopians with no sense of humor..."



Sam Seder is one of the best talkers on liberal radio right now, and he is funny and cool too...The Greens are fools if they let him go...lets hope they come to their senses, but I am sort of doubting it....In the meantime: Buy Sam's great book FUBAR. I have the book and the audio book and they are both great and make great gifts! Look for it in soft cover in the coming months too!




In bird news, the Parrot store is bulging with babies of all sizes and they are CUTE!! They even have EGGS in the incubator! I will have to get more pictures pronto.The baby bunnies are hopping around in their mini perfection (thats gonna end in a second as soon as they start to get big enough to become the poop factories that rabbits are.)
I know that Todd wasn't thinking about cuteness last night when he was up every 3 hours feeding pink squirmy birds, but hell, Will spent a few months waking every hour and didn't sleep through the night till...well, recently...(and then, welcome to the teen years, aka, you think you had it bad before this!...)
Todd says that every time he sees one of the little pinkys he thinks of buffalo wings! Now, of course, he is a bird lover, and is only kidding (so PETA folk, don't bother with the hate mail,) But they are so cute when they are naked and helpless...and then when they get their fuzz and pin feathers. I could be very happy with a job at the bird store as my final career move.
In the meantime, and while i work out the nasty details of my little life here, my breeding baby parrotlets are doing well (cute,) but they wont breed till next year. the beautiful breeding pair of Yellow Side Conures are comfortably ensconced in their new home, which I refer to as the den of sexual iniquity, complete with private nest box that I am thinking of outfitting with a night vision webcam for when and if I get babies...we'll see. Someone need to be getting some around here, so I hope they are getting busy!
For birds that have been breeding stock for the past 3 years, they are very nice, and only bite a little. They have an incredible interest in being part of the household and interacting....so I'm working towards taming them (which might hurt their breeding potential, but oh well...I think that every bird should have the opportunity to know what its like to be part of a family, if they can't be in the wild or in a huge aviary.)




Thats all I have. I could get in bed and just stay there for the entire weekend, but I think I'm going to try to go to a bird show tomorrow and then I have to go to the city on Sunday to bring the boys to the Origami USA club at the Museum of Natural History (where I am still hoping to have time to get to the evolution exhibit when it doesn't have a freakin' cocktail party going on,) see grandpa and do some stuff there, and hopefully head downtown to walk around SoHo with mom a bit. She found a great new store that I have to go to...today she brought me some of those Chinese articulated fish charms and a silver skull charm....and I need more STUFF...right???

Lets hope for some good news in the world, from Air America, and from whatever lucky media outlet(s) is/are gonna get Marc and Sam...

And maybe we need to think a little bit more about our rights, and the need to have as much information from both sides as is possible under law.

Drowning in Shit, Literally and...Oh Never Mind....Sam Seder on the Ball or in Front of the 8-ball?...John McCain Has Really Lost It This Time!

Not to be indelicate here, but what sort of planetary alignment has provided us with such a literal illustration of the state of things in much of the world, than the sewage flood in Gaza yesterday. A sewer collapse caused foaming putrid waste to flood into towns full of tin shacks, many of which remain up to their roofs in the stuff?
Apparently the sewer (and many others) cannot be upgraded because of fighting. Indeed, when authorities rushed to the scene to check out the damage, they were fired upon by locals.
If it really was only 5 people that died, I'll be very surprised...and what a way to go!
I read about this in my local paper, where it was a back page international blurb story. As I sat in a waiting room making some interesting ewwwww/yuck faces, it occurred to me that this must be one of the most particularly bad ways to go...or survive and have to clean it up in the middle of a war zone. It adds insult to injury, the poo.... Yeah, you can have your Katrinas and Tsunamis and mudslides; I'm guessing that the earthen wall that is all thats standing between your tin shack and smelly oblivion...well, lets just say that it was probably pretty smelly to begin with and you run fast when you have to pass it on your way to market.
I don't want to step into the Israel/Palestinian poo at all, but it seems like somehow there has to be some humanity in this crisis that lets these people, on both sides, at least build a sewage treatment plant. What if disease there was gonna come here, for instance? If there is a total dearth of empathy on both sides that extends even to poo-poo, then maybe the self centered and selfish on both sides can try to focus on the down-side of this for themselves....?

I hadn't heard much of the sewage in the news, but was pretty enthralled with how spot on and fantastic Sam Seder was today. I podcast the show later on in the afternoon, so I missed the moment on the Sammy-cam where, I hear, Sam mentioned that he was about to get fired.
I just want to repeat to any Air America employee or suit who might happen by here via a Google search or whatever, that if you fire Sammy, I'm done with AAR and all the crap that you've put your loyal listeners through!

John McCain handed us the best story of the week with his crazy echo of the crazy president, and his butt-boy Joe Lieberman, (and their little dog too,) about how fucking great things are in Iraq.
Even Wolfie Blitzer had to go to, correspondent on the ground (and one of my personal heros,)Mick Ware, who put McCain's story where it belongs, in the poo heap of talking point nonsense.
This is a must see piece of film:



Its not just McCain, though I wonder about him as he seems to fade to white, more every day....he is merely talking the talking points, and this is, incredibly, what they expect us to believe! Someone has to tell these people that the American people are tired of the lies and that even the stupidest of us are startign to wise up. What part of neverland are they talking about?
Sam cuts to the 'World of Pure Imagination' song or his daughter's music, which is so funny (yes, I can say it now because my kid is 13, but its Sam's own fault if he doesnt get her something deeper like the Muppets or Dan Zanes...or even Paul Westerberg's Open Season...hell, the pathos of Cookie Monster alone is enough to bring back all that abnormal psych stuff from your old pot smoking days in college)....If you believe in a land of marshmallow skies and candy cane lamp posts, then clap your hands children....
Even though the wall of shit is rolling towards you...the earthen wall is breaking as we speak...believe hard enough and we will achieve VICTORY!
I really wonder how McCain sleeps at night, knowing what he knows.

I guess its a gift to Olbermann, Stewart, Colbert, Sammy, Maron (wherever he is performing tonight,) and even Wolf Blitzer, at this point, to have these wackos out there spouting nonsense every day, but its more than a little unsettling that Bush is so out of control and no one is able to do anything substantial about it.
I think we gotta start the impeachment thing right away....immediately...

I have to hand it to Mick Ware for his 4 long years in Iraq and his spot on, no holds barred, reporting of the truth that he sees with his eyes. He has been exasperated with the Liebermans and McCains of this thing all along, and hasn't been afraid to say it. Maybe its because he hasn't been tied up too tightly by any one network and is less American (I think he is Aussie, but I don't actually know what his citizenship is.)He is a real old fashioned reporter, and I imagine that like so many others, he has suffered for it. I cant imagine how anyone can work out of that area and in those circumstances without somehow getting wrecked...but then, the citizens of these places have no choice, not to mention the soldiers, and the brave reporters who act as our eyes and ears out there while carrying the burden of documenting history, which is no small job.

Every day has to be bringing us closer to some sort of resolution in this mess. I can't face it otherwise.