Toys for desk jockeys
This made my Christmas:
Mom got the unit for me for $80, including a home & car kit. Took me a couple days tinkering around to figure how the hell to mount it in my car, but I like the way it's set up now. I used some scrap metal I had laying around & wedged it in the A/C vents like you see here. It's removable from the cradle & comes with me to work, where I get great reception. There's a terrestrial repeater in Portland which helps.
Yes, I got it for Stern. Is the show as funny or cutting edge without the threat of the FCC? Yes. It's better. They even have George Takei (Mr. Sulu) sitting in this week, and he is one of the most unintentionally funny people I've ever heard. He was fooled by an Arnold impersonator over the phone this week, making for some classic radio.
This HAS made work less "tedious". It's got a 45-minute buffer, so I can pause it when someone stops by my desk to talk, & I can FF & RW. Didn't think it would be that handy, but oh man I use it all the time. It can remember songs or bands I like and alert me when they are about to come on another station. Yes birdflag, I've got Talking Heads set in memory so it will alert me whenever a TH song comes on.
I had an alert for Death Cab For Cutie, but I was getting alerts every half hour so I had to delete that one.
Ah, finally the seal is broken & I can now post freely.
Mom got the unit for me for $80, including a home & car kit. Took me a couple days tinkering around to figure how the hell to mount it in my car, but I like the way it's set up now. I used some scrap metal I had laying around & wedged it in the A/C vents like you see here. It's removable from the cradle & comes with me to work, where I get great reception. There's a terrestrial repeater in Portland which helps.
Yes, I got it for Stern. Is the show as funny or cutting edge without the threat of the FCC? Yes. It's better. They even have George Takei (Mr. Sulu) sitting in this week, and he is one of the most unintentionally funny people I've ever heard. He was fooled by an Arnold impersonator over the phone this week, making for some classic radio.
This HAS made work less "tedious". It's got a 45-minute buffer, so I can pause it when someone stops by my desk to talk, & I can FF & RW. Didn't think it would be that handy, but oh man I use it all the time. It can remember songs or bands I like and alert me when they are about to come on another station. Yes birdflag, I've got Talking Heads set in memory so it will alert me whenever a TH song comes on.
I had an alert for Death Cab For Cutie, but I was getting alerts every half hour so I had to delete that one.
Ah, finally the seal is broken & I can now post freely.
posted by scrooner at 5:22 PM
9 Comments:
If I had Sirius radio I would put on the alert for OMC's "How Bizarre" and then listen to that on repeat.
All.
Damn.
Day.
Hmmm...don't have that one. One of the worst songs ever!
I do have "Amie" by Pure Prairie League & "Easy" by the Commodores set in memory.
Some other bands of note: Iron Maiden, B-52's, Bela Fleck, The Cult.
Oops, guess I should stick to using my nickname.
yes...corporate media. reminds me of the stern scenario. didn't listen to
him much, but think he was generally intriguing and enjoyable. i like potty
humor and he appeals because he "seems" to be the every man in how he talks
about issues. the same things that make him appeal to the "common man" make
him a risk to corporate interests that deal in the public domain where
restrictions are placed on expression. he moves to serius radio and
declares it a victory because now HE has free speech. interesting to me.
he has a following, so people will buy that service from another corporate
entity to hear him. this is a different medium that is not regulated
because it is not deemed to be "public" domain because of the pay service.
I see it as a loss for free speech because arbitrary limits on expression
won and forced Stern to a new pay medium.
this brings up the issues that public airwaves, which all radio and
television channels are considered to be, are no long public. but secondly,
and more interesting in a more philosophical context is the notion of what
denotes free speech. if a tree falls in a forest does it make a noise. if
a man says what ever he wants, but has no audience, does this contitute free
speech? more specifically to stern, if a man says whatever he wants and
people must pay for the privilage to hear that speech, does that constitute
free speech? can free speech/expression only exist when that speech is
accessible to all? so...free speech is in the ear of the listener, NOT in
the mouth of the speaker.
some further make analogies of satellite to terrestrial radio that are
false. the argument is that they are analogous because just like
terrestrial radio, you have to buy equipment to access the medium and
subscription costs are a part of this. this is false because the
information is not free to access if you happen to find a receiver walking
down the street. the two cannot be analogous with subscription costs. or
can it? we pay in tax dollars, the governing bodies that oversee our public
airwaves...are these analogous to subscriptions costs? we shop at
advertisers on terrestrial radio...are these subcription costs. public
monies and private donations contribute to public broadcasting...are these
subscriptions costs? Even more, after considering these questions, I come
to the conclusion that free speech is only constituted in terms of the
ACCESSIBILITY of that speech. this is why public monies are diverted to
ensure public accessibiltiy to public airwaves! if media becomes pay
subscriptions for access then free speech in media dies and if these
subscriptions become more a la carte as proposed for cable and satellite tv
providers (to ensure children are safe from accidental exposure) then even
choice of this pay speech is diminished.
so as alluded to the same thing that will happen with satellite radio
already has been witnessed with cable...slowly the freedoms of expression on
cable networks have become erroded because the medium has become so common
place and package deals where channels are grouped into tiers expose
children to possibly detrimental programming. without tiered programming
packages, many of the new cable channels that have arisen in the last 10
years would not exist and therefore the larger choice in programming would
not exist since networks would not take chances on some of the niche
programming that has grown. Imagine a world without Battlestar Galactica,
Stargate, and Stargate Atlantis from Sci Fi, all the WWII and Nazi
programming from the History Channel, Shark Week from National Geographic
Channel, the nausiating amount home remodelling and decor shows on TLC and
DIY Channels, all the music videos on VHI and MTV (okay...I know there are
virtually no music videos on these channels, but the endless stream of
replacement popular culture countdown shows are suitable replacements), the
non-news of the 24 hour news channels (even though Countdown on MSNBC is
quality), the irreverent and blue collar humor of Comedy Central, and the
true crime reality of Court TV....ok, I stop here, but you get the point,
which is...TURN YOUR TVs OFF! I watch enough for all of us.
I have neglected Iron Maiden in my cd collection for far too long.
Bruce Dickinson will be avenged.
Seriously, The Maiden is way better than I remembered. I downloaded some tracks last month and it was better than I remembered.
and I remembered it as a slice of awesome.
Yeah, Maiden is making a big comeback in my play selection. I saw them in high school, but then sometime in college I "grew" outta them & gave all of my tapes away.
Now listen to Two Minutes To Midnight or Hallowed Be Thy Name...simply amazing stuff.
Related, but only as a tangent: I want to put 70's Heart on my watchlist, but not 80's Heart. Why couldn't they have renamed the band like Jefferson Starship did?
I used to have a cat. We didn't have a lot of money, but one day we decided to treat her to some of that fancy dry cat food. Y'know, the kind that comes in lots of different shapes like fish and t-bones...
The next time we went to feed her there was only one kind of shape left in the bowl. Apparently, she had eaten everything but the fish shape. Really really cute.
This pink scheme makes me want to boot.
Esteemed Host, no one gets that you’re writing as your best friend. I tuned out after the second paragraph. The Nazi reference? The use of capitalized letters? So you.
But I agree with your motivations, ultimately.
You must get a kick out all the head-scratching that occurs as a result of your hijinks.
Look out for Number One, always.
Sorry...your esteemed leader only posted my comments as to possibly generate some deeper debate on the blog. Guess I will keep trying until something stick.
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