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

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

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....

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...











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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!!