The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd

Imagine for a moment an older scientist with a freakishly small head. Give him a fairly normal sidekick and a walking computer companion. Are you with me so far?

Now consider that this scientist is the most intelligent person on the planet. He has designed, not one but two, “Time and Space Travel Devices”. Now one would be enough, but just like in the recent movie “Meet the Robinsons”, a second needed to be built in order for one to be stolen by an evil mastermind.

There you have the basic plot behind “The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd”. Grant Baciocco and Doug Price have brought back the imagination of radio that had faded years ago. The program is available by podcast at their website found off to the left, and at I-Tunes.

The program has been around now through five seasons. The most recent episodes are available at no cost. Otherwise, you can download the previous episodes for $0.99 at I-Tunes.

The program is reminiscent of “Beany and Cecil” and “Bullwinkle and Rocky” of years past. The writing is crisp and the voices are engaging. Even though the program is silly, you are pulled in and want more.

The program is billed as “family friendly” and there is no mistake about that. There is very little of the bathroom humor that I deplore. The humor is found within the characters and the situations that present themselves.

Without spoiling anything, the two leads, Dr. Floyd and Dr. Grant, are chasing Dr. Steve throughout time. Dr. Steve wants to steal historical artifacts to sell in our time on e-bay. Dr. Floyd and Dr. Grant are doing what they can to avoid Dr. Steve causing havoc with history.

Along the way, they run into historical figures including Galileo, George Washington, Annie Oakley, etc. Just as Boris and Natasha were constantly foiled, so are Dr. Steve and his sidekick Fidgert.

The images conjured by Baciocco and Price and wonderful and they move at a swift pace. Each episode runs six to eight minutes so you do not get bored. Schoolteachers have begun to include Dr. Floyd in their curriculum to get students interested in history. I would believe that high school English teachers would include the program to give students an example of creative writing.

The program is winning awards throughout the podcasting world, including the Parsec award in 2006 and the Podcast Peer award two years running. It has attracted the attention of many people. Celebrities have begun lending their voices to the show, including the great and wonderful June Foray, Emmy award winner Jeffery Tambor, and Saturday Night Live veteran Don Novello.

If you have not heard of “The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd”, now is your chance to get acquainted. Click on the link and download one or two. Beware! If you are not immediately hooked, you may be accused of not having a sense of humor!

Thank you for reading. We’ll talk again soon.

Daylight Savings Time

As a young man growing up, I had a job playing the organ for a small church in our community. I did this for four or five years.

During Daylight Savings Time, it was fun to watch and see which of the regulars would either miss church altogether, or show up early. There was one fellow who was consistently twenty to thirty minutes late to church every week. He would miss the recitations and the hymns and show up for the sermon.

Once each year, he would arrive on time. That was during the change of Daylight Savings Time.

There was no getting away from the reminders this week. At my workplace there were meetings and discussions about how to make certain cell phone users had their phones updated and how we would make certain our meeting calendars were correct.

At home, there were emails on how to update my Palm Tungsten E and various other electronics. Surprisingly, neither computer clock auto-updated.

Anyway, it is the beginning of a new week. I am on time and ready for the day. Here is hoping you have a great week!

Rev. Al Sharpton and "The Daily Show"

The Rev. Al Sharpton made a surprise appearance on “The Daily Show” last night. I continue to be amazed at how much more I can learn from and interview with Jon Stewart than during an interview with most news people.

Sharpton was not funny, but he did not need to be. Stewart was plenty funny for both of them.

The point of the interview was to discuss the appearance of Strom Thurmond in Sharpton’s family tree. It is amazing how a man who ran for President as a segregationist in 1948 and a man who ran for President as a civil rights leader in 2004 could be related.

Stewart ran the line “Ebony and Irony”. The Reverend did not appreciate the humor, but did not blast Stewart. He understood that “The Daily Show” is primarily a comedy show, but one that allows people to share their points of view.

Stewart is amazing. He took a show that had run its course with Craig Kilborn and breathed new life into it. In fact, he made the show bigger and better than it had been with the people who created it. It is more relevant and funnier.

It is even becoming a better breeding ground for talent than “Saturday Night Live”, producing Mo Rocca, Steve Carell, Steven Colbert and others. The latest to attempt to break out is Rob Corddrey, who has a new Fox sitcom titled “The Winner” and appearances in movies including “Failure to Launch” and “Unaccompanied Minors”. He also has appearances in several movies coming out this year and next.

Stewart has had plenty of opportunities to jump ship to network television, but continue on since this gig fits him so well. You never get tired of the blank stare or the self-effacing silliness he provides.

Rev. Al Sharpton and other political figures are smart to appear on Stewart’s show. They know they will be treated fairly and that people will remember them, and what they said, the next day.

Personally, I see no sharks in the future of “The Daily Show”. This one is going to last a long time.

Not Enough Indians

Yesterday I mentioned “LeShow”, Harry Shearer’s witty radio exercise that is as thought provoking as it is funny. Shearer has been doing the show weekly since 1983 and archives are available as far back as October of 1995 at the Harry Shearer website (look for the link off to the left).

Shearer entered a new medium during 2006 when he authored his first novel, “Not Enough Indians”. He has had two other books published during the 1990s, including “Man Bites Town” and “It’s the Stupidity, Stupid”. Both are considered social commentary.

In “Not Enough Indians”, Shearer carefully crafts a town in upstate New York who is suffering financially. The town is like many across this great country who are searching for ways to build their economy and can’t quite find the best course of action.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the leaders of Gammage, NY are not that bright and have questionable morals. In fact, throughout the book, it is hard to discover any character that you can identify with or that you hope will be successful.

The joy of “Not Enough Indians” is not in finding a small, forlorn character that you can root to victory. The joy of the book is seeing how far people will go. In the world Shearer creates, people are willing to stretch the truth so thin you can hardly see any truth remaining. People are willing to jeopardize their values to achieve a financial goal. Does any of this sound familiar?

No, I do not believe the book is intended to be an allegory of the current Bush administration, but the way the townspeople make their decisions does appear to mirror decisions made in our country’s recent past.

If you have not heard of the book, find a copy and take a look. It is quick and funny read. If you have heard of the book, but have not taken the time to read it yet, shame on you! Yes, it is a novel and there are plenty of Iraq books you have yet to read, but “Not Enough Indians” is required reading now.

It can be found at Amazon.com. Click this link to take you straight there.

“Not Enough Indians”

Don’t forget to let me know what you think!

Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!

The MP3 player must be considered one of the best inventions of the later days of the twentieth century. Five Germans are credited with developing the audio compression technology that we enjoy today in various instruments, including I-Pods and cell phones.

Today, Bernhard Grill, Karl-Heinz Brandenburg, Thomas Sporer, Bernd Kurten, and Ernst Eberlein are my heroes. Someday I will explain where the acronym MP3 comes from, but that is not what I want to tell you about today.

Today I want to tell you about what I am listening to with my MP3. Much has already been said about the superior jazz music podcast “Detroit JazzStage”. Sunday morning political programs, such as “Face the Nation” and “This Week” also find their way to my daily trips to work and home.

Still, there is a place on my MP3 for humor. I was so disappointed that Michael Feldman’s “Whad’Ya Know” couldn’t be downloaded in its entirety. It is available as a stream on the internet, but I cannot sit still in front of the computer that long.

Feldman does offer a short snippet from the show as a podcast, but it is not one of my favorite parts of his program, so I let it go.

Since I first received my MP3 I have been listening to Harry Shearer’s “LeShow”. It is one of the most consistently funny and well written programs produced for radio today. It will get you thinking as well and get you laughing, which is why I enjoy it so.

If you find a moment, check out this past week’s (January 28, 2007) program. Along with Shearer’s dry wit, the show features a song by “The Bobs” called “Slow Down Krishna”. The Bobs are an A cappella group from California who sound great and the song is hilarious.

Recently I stumbled across a program on NPR quite by accident. How I could have missed the program I do not know but I had never heard of it until this fall.

Since 1979, NPR has produced a program titled “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me”. It is a quiz program where NPR voices Peter Sagal and Carl Kasell shoot questions at such celebrities as Mo Rocca, P.J. O’Rourke, Roy Blount Jr. and Paula Poundstone.

The program has a stable of close to twelve panelists and each week three appear on the program to suffer the slings and arrows Sagal provides. What makes the program so appealing is that you hear about news you may have missed the previous week, and you find that intelligent people, like Blount and Kyrie O’Connor (Deputy Managing Editor of the Houston Chronicle), have also missed a few things as well.

Each of the people chosen to participate have an extensive list of writing credits and are known for expressing their views on what is going on in the world. They are not afraid to speak up here as well.

The program is produced live in Chicago each week, which always is a plus for me. My goal this summer is to talk one or more of my family into going to the Chase Auditorium some Thursday night for a taping.

Included is a link to the podcast off to the left. The program is usually about forty-five minutes long and worth every minute. If you like to laugh and enjoy the wit of television programs like “The Daily Show” and the “Colbert Report”, you will love this. Enjoy!

Open Letter to Harry Shearer

Dear Harry Shearer:

Here’s an idea for a sitcom. You are the general manager of a news-talk radio station in New Orleans. The station has been mostly conservative, but with the recent change in the congress, you’ve decided to alter programming a tad.

The ensemble cast in addition to your character’s leadership, consists of four on-air personalities and four producers. Not all the characters would appear each week. Who would appear would depend on the storyline for that week.

The morning drive personality would be your “big-as-life” Ted Baxter type male. The late morning personality would be a left-leaning liberal female who is hired during the first episode. The remaining characters would have various contrasting personalities and attitudes.

The program itself would fill a spot left open by the passing of the series “Murphy Brown”. The program could include topical humor as well as the underlining “how we get along” theme.

Of course, Hollywood people are afraid of producing another Murphy Brown. That type doesn’t sell well in reruns. Still, I believe there is a market for such a program. It would provide a platform for some of the thoughts you share each week on “Le Show”.

Picture the opening scene from the first episode. Faith Ford, playing a “Dr. Laura” type personality, comes to your office. (Faith Ford works because of her accent. You believe she is a New Orleans radio personality.) You begin to explain to her why you are letting her go. She quickly goes through the five phases of grief, but in the end she lets go with a conservative rant about why your station (i.e. the country as a whole) is so “messed up”. You turn around with a softly stated rant that explains why she is wrong.

There have been “industry” sitcoms for years now, from Dick Van Dyke to WKRP to Frasier. One more can’t hurt, especially if it can be timely and relevant. Maybe even funny.

The good part is, you are the best person to do this show.

Give it some thought.

Alexander Dimm

Harry and the Trib

Sunday Night and a new week starting tomorrow. I am one who like Mondays. Not to sound to much like a "Pollyanna" but there is always a feeling a promise to a new week.

Don't get me wrong, I like the weekends. I love the time with my family and a chance to relax (sometimes). But a new week means new experiences and new things to learn.

I didn't want the weekend to end without adding a couple of new links outside of the podcast links I add on Friday. You will see what I've added off to your left.

The Chicago Tribune is a site I look at nearly every day. There is a nice balance of world news and local (Chicago) news. Being the third largest city in the nation, what happens in Chicago and the things discussed in Chicago have an impact on the nation.

When you go to the site, check out a Washington reports blog they have called "The Swamp". If you are interested in national politics, there is some fascinating reporting found there. Rarely a day goes by without my visiting "The Swamp".

I have also included Harry Shearer's website. As you may know if you read my earlier blog entry about KCRW, I am a huge fan of Shearer's "Le Show". This site is a little overwhelming in its promotion of all things "Harry", but you can find information about the program including a listing of the music he includes on the show.

Shearer has a new CD available entitled "Dropping Anchors". I haven't purchased the CD yet, but he has included cuts during "Le Show" and they are very funny.

One of my favorite bits he's done on the show that isn't included (yet) on any CDs available is a song called "Crossing Fingers". It was written when our President made a big show of signing anti-torture legislation that McCain was promoting, and then quietly signing another piece that essentially said that there maybe circumstances when torture would still be okay.

The lyrics state, "Torture is torture no more. The ceiling is now on the floor. You can do anything if you don't own the cost, as long as your fingers are crossed." If you haven't heard it, go the "Le Show" archives and find the April 2, 2006 edition. It's worth it.