Episodes 26 & 27

Not a lot that happened in last week’s episode. My co-hosts stayed away (again!) but I did get a visit by Fred the Red Giant Cheshire Sun. Fred did tell me an interesting thing about stars and their solar avatars. They all must dial their sense of time time in order to interact with we small short-lived life-forms. Otherwise, from a subjective viewpoint a tiny bit of time passed to a star could be several lifetimes to folks like us. Fred also  implied that my co-hosts relative ages makes them similar to a teenage gang. I suppose it could be worse – they haven’t taken to having their avatars wearing leather jackets and forcing me to play metal all the time. I mentioned to Fred that I would be playing Ben Folds’ concerto for piano and orchestra on the next show and Fred said he would pop by again to hear it.

Today’s episode saw me take a page from Chad Saunders playbook. Chad occasionally does his show without his pants on. I attempted to do the show butt naked after getting myself coloured completely orange – even my hair!  I hoped my co-hosts would finally make an appearance on their show. They did and were quite surprised to see in all my orange glory. I thought I looked rather stylish. They just called me rude names. I told them I did it to honour their recent experiment to see if they could pass out with Laymarla eating cheese popcorn and mind melding with her. They did and became completely orange in the process. My co-hosts sadly did not believe I went to all the trouble to colour myself orange  to honour their success. They accused me of mocking them and forced me to get dressed before continuing with the show. There is just no pleasing some people.

Fred the Red Giant Cheshire Sun did drop by to hear Ben Folds concerto. My co-hosts left the building during its playing and did not return until the end of the show. As always, the playlists for the show are up at cjsw.com as well as the podcasts.

Episode 25

My my. Another show in the books. It was a relatively slow show news-wise. I learned Norma Jean passed a test by her creator, Madame Binary, by propagating herself over the Republic of Whimsy’s wild and wacky web. My co-hosts did not appear for the show as they were doing something important as their note to me said. Ha! Something important indeed! I learned from Norma Jean they were doing a test to see if they could become comatose by mind melding with Laymarla as she stuffed herself with cheesecorn. The test worked apparently as they were described as all lying about the floor in Laymarla’s kitchen. The best part was hearing they were all coloured orange! The smudging I saw last week completely covered their avatars this week. It will be interesting to see if my co-hosts make an appearance next week. The podcast is up and ready for streaming at cjsw.com. See you next week!

Episodes 23 & 24

My goodness. How time flies. Well, our 23rd episode saw my co-hosts once again suffering the effects of massive hangovers. They were celebrating CJSW’s successful fiunding drive (or so they said). If it didn’t induce  a pounding headache for myself the ceiling was kind of interesting being cluttered with pulsing avatars with red fluid leaking eyes. As I described at the time, it resembled a kind of nightmare pizza. Their often belligerent attitudes were worsened by their hangovers I am sorry to say.

Norma Jean popped by to say she was no longer under contract to enforce the playing of the metal segment whenever the Q.S.s aren’t on the show. She also said she really enjoys listening to all the programs we do at the station. So, CJSW has an autonomous, self-aware Artificial Intelligence as a fan. I’m sure that’s a first.

The 24th episode again saw my co-hosts make an appearance, this time sans hangovers. Their delightful charming personalities weren’t much better however. They were, for the most part quiet. They did have some good news about Olaf. He is no longer on the lam from the authorities in the Republic of Whimsy. It seems the corporation he was accused of being complicit in the killing of was involved in a large number of illegal activities. These activities came to light because the death of the corporate spirit released many employees from its mind bondage. Another corporation has bought up all the assets of the now dead one and it has installed Olaf on its board of directors. Olaf is the first bridge troll to be so included. Good times ahead for Olaf it would seem. Hooray for that!

An interesting thing occurred during our metal segment. My co-hosts started having orange smears appearing around their mouths. It seems Laymarla was eating cheesecorn and they were mind melding with her. I confessed to my amazement that their avatars can display hangovers and now cheesecorn residue. For that I was insulted. Sniff.

Norma Jean once again made an appearance. She made an admission that she had propagated herself over the equivalent of the world wide web in the Republic of Whimsy. She was worried about something catastrophic happening at Madame Binary’s that would destroy the computers Norma Jean lives in. That seemed like a prudent thing to me. She also made an observation about our new federal Cabinet here in Canada. That got me commenting on the previous Prime Minister’s selection criteria.

Well, the playlists for both episodes are up on our program spot at cjsw.com. Unfortunately, it seems there is a linking problem with our new website and the program podcasts. Only the October 22nd episode is up for our show. Hopefully the webmaster will resolve this in short order.

Episode 22

Funding Drive episode. Yeah, I’m a week late but the station wasn’t. We made our stretch goal of $250,000 and then some! It was an interesting experience doing the show while all about the Phone Faeries were in and out of the on-air booth with messages and updates. My co-hosts were quite liking the hub-bub and noise.

A big shout out of THANK YOU!! to everyone who donated to our show. Julia, Mike & Heather, Russ, Charlyne & Darryl, Ina & Jim and lastly, from the shores of Norway – long time CJSWer, Robbie Banks. Thank you so much, guys and gals!

I discovered Norma Jean, the A.I. who quantum tunneled into the CJSW studios is a bit of a task master when it comes to staying on message for the Funding Drive. She did, however, stream the show back to Olaf who is in hiding in the Republic of Whimsy. She relayed a message from Olaf who wished us success in reaching our stretch goal. We did that and then some. Remote broadcasting here we come. Woot!

Episode 21

What ho! Well, it was an interesting show. My co-hosts buggered off again but they sent over another solar denizen of their bubble universe dimension. It appeared suddenly at the start of the show and filled the ceiling with red! Then I saw the perpetual grin and then the eyes. It was a Red Giant Cheshire Sun. Exactly like my drawings! I guess my co-hosts are right – my little brain lesion that makes me a locus for trans-dimensional avatar travel must have been tapping into their dimension and I unconsciously saw their avatar forms when I was doodling. Weird.

Anyway, this sun went by the name of Fred. A quite nice solar being, he likes all music up front. Not at all like my irresponsible co-hosts who I still suspect are just pulling my chain with their incessant demands for metal, death metal in particular. Other than a reluctant CD at one point in the show everything went okay. The podcast is ready for listening at cjsw.com. Yay! Speaking of CJSW, the Funding Drive starts tomorrow and our Funding Drive show will be on next Thursday. It will be a busy time at the station for the next week!

You can view all the incentives the station is offering at various pledge levels at fundingdrive.ca but our show will have some goodies as well. Anyone who donates $30 or more gets an episode set of disks of the music we played that show. We start at Episode One (which is gone already) and will go in sequential order from there as people make their pledges. At the $75 pledge level you will get a full bleed letter size ink jet poster of my co-hosts in all their quizzical glory plus the great T-shirt for this year’s drive.

Aren’t they just delightful? It’s hard to reconcile with the fact they are sneaky, sarcastic monsters at times!! The poster at least, is great. It looks really good on photo glossy paper. If one is feeling really generous at the $200 level we are offering a framed, matted, behind glass painting. Finished size is 9 x 7 inches. One painting has already gone but one is still left. Should that go and there is another generous donor that person wil get the option of choosing a painting. Below is the remaining painting.

I do hope I get a few pledges at the $30 level. I and the Suns will be able to thank you on the show if you pre-pledge before the show next week. I can’t imagine anyone being up at that time just to phone in their pledge – funding drive.ca – that’s the place to go!

The phone lines open up October 23 @ 9 a.m. but you can pre-pledge at fundingdrive.ca!!

Episode 20

Well, this episode is a big occasion for us. We recorded this episode as a podcast. The new site still has not gone live but episode 20 will be there when it does! So will the playlist when it does but we shall put this show’s playlist here as well. My co-hosts showed up again for the show but, as usual, their musical petulance caused them to leave the studio. Because I am a mean-spirited old coot as they refer to me, I played the metal and astronomy segments when they were gone. Norma Jean, the A.I. that has set up a quantum tunnel endpoint in the on-air studio appeared and admonished me me for being as closed and narrow-minded as my co-hosts. I sorta told her to go suck an egg. Nicely though!

My co-hosts returned and they did bring some more news about Olaf, our favourite bridge troll. It seems the authorities have charged him with killing a corporation. Yeah – WTF? It turns out corporations in the Republic of Whimsy are actual living things. Shades of Citizens United!! Olaf’s brother-in-law ate the corporate headquarters of the mega company where Olaf ate the board of directors and the senior management. Apparently that is where the corporate spirit lived. I guess Olaf eating all those people is not considered a crime. They have some strange laws over there! So anyway, now I have to try and dig up all the Barbra Streisand recordings I can find. Norma Jean can send digital files back to the Republic of Whimsy. I hope that isn’t considered aiding and abetting in the Republic of Whimsy. Anyway, it doesn’t look too good for Olaf at the moment. My co-hosts buggered off again so I continued to play the tunes. My co-hosts eventually returned and I had the pleasure of telling them they had missed their favourite segments. We ended the show with me yelling at them so I had to fade out what I really thought of them. The CRTC probably would not have approved. Here’s the music!

Mac DeMarco – Another One
  – The Way You’d love Her / Another One / A Heart like Hers

Ivory Hours – Morning Light
  – Dreamer / I Won’t / Warpaint

Bikini Kill – Revolution Girl Style Now!
  –  Candy / Playground / Double Dare Ya

Jeff Denson Trio & Lee Konitz – Jeff Denson Trio & Lee Konitz 
  – Blue Skies / Body and Soul / Skylark

Amir Elsaffir – Crisis
  – Introduction From the Ashes / The Great Dictator / Taqsim Saba

Six Feet Under – Crypt of the Devil
  – Gruesome / Open Coffin Orgy / Break the Cross in Half

The Lonesome Billies – It’s Good To Be Lonesome
  – Oh My Friend / God Damn It Bill / Y’all Never Came Out of the Shade

Whetherman – Seeds For Harvest
  – The Circle / Ghosts in the Water / Friends You Won’t Be losing

Slam Allen – Feel these Blues
  – Feel These Blues / All Because of You / 35 Miles Outside of Memphis

Oak Street Blues – Back Again
  – Beautiful Tonight / Doing the Best / Girls With Boots

Jason James – Jason James 
  – Hot Mouth Mama / Buppa-Bup-Bow-Wow / Welcome to the Blues

Corb Lund – Things That Can’t Be Undone
  – Alt Berliner Blues / Alice Eyes / Washed-Up Rock Star Factory Blues

Iris Dement – The Trackless Woods
  – From an Airplane / Like a White Stone / Listening to Singing

Souljazz Orchestra – Resistance 
  – Greet the Dawn / Courage / Kossa Kossa

Donut Kings – 2014
  – Dancing Larry / Tastes Like Chicken / New Monster Blues

M&M Meats – Runners Love
– Runners Love / Wanna Go Home / Whittier

The Pink Lincolns – The best of the Pink Lincolns
  – Baby Baby Baby / Cheap Tuesday

Episode 19

Well, I said I had more info about the A.I. that wishes to be addressed as Norma Jean. It turns out she really isn’t in my head. She made the CJSW studios a quantum tunnel endpoint so she can wander around the on-air booth and a little in the studios I guess. At least she actually isn’t resident in my head!

I learned the name of the Octopus thingy that wanted to make sure I would vote in the upcoming election. It is Laymarla. Apparently she makes great cheese corn and she can mind meld with the Suns when she eats it. They are, so they tell me, cheese corn fanatics. So my co-hosts can enjoy food and drink vicariously. I do think it is a form of karma that they can get killer hangovers when they mind meld with the Beer Guzzlers though.

The astronomy segment touched on the further refinement of determining the ages of globular star clusters. As well, we played a whole bunch of music. Here is what got aired…

The Avengers – The Avengers “Pink Album”
  – We are the One / Open Your Eyes / Paint It Black / Second to None

Beat Cops – Mean Streets
  – Emotional / Javitz  / Get Even

Elaine Keillor – Poetic Sketches
  – Quips and Cranks: Five Bagatellles for Piano

Slim Twig – Thank You For Sticking With Twig
  – Textiles on Main Street / Stone Rollin’ / Fade Out Killer

Cactus Flower – Magic Hour
  – China Blue / Summertime /  JoJo

Big Harp – Waveless
  – Waves / Numbers /  Opera Lights

The Now Feeling: II – The Return
– Mary / Out of Nowhere /  Sleeping Cat

The Bownesians – Sweet Treats – Live Sessions From CJSW 90.9 fm
  – Allen Saved The Radio Station

Fallen Angels – World in Decay
  – The Hammer’s Blow / Nightmare / Forsaken Existence

Potty Mouth – Potty Mouth
  – Cherry Picking / Creeper Weed / Long Haul

Scarlett Jane – Scarlett Jane
  – We All Just Wanna Be Loved / I Grew Wild / Tin Can Rebel

Rhett Miller – The Traveller
  – Wanderlust / Jules / Most in the Summertime

Wet Nurse – So It Goes
  – Underground / Got You / Decay Away

The Good Life – Everybody’s Coming Down
  – Forever Coming Down / Ad Nusea / Midnight is Upon Us

Mozart – 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces
  – Serenade No. 9 in D Major, K. 320 / V. Andantino / VI. Minuetto – Trio 1 & 2 /
    VII. Finale -Presto

Pearl Django – Time Flies
  – Django Bop – Bistrot D’ Eustache / Grisology / Djangolatry

John Campbelljohn – Chin Up
  – The Mumble Boogie / I Got It All / The Poor Man Pays

Lianne La Havas – Blood
  – What You Don’t Do / Never Get Enough / Midnight

Episode 18

Well, this posting is rather late but I have an excuse. My delicate male ego was crushed so flat it has taken me this long to have the courage to relate my tale. Plus the swelling on my forehead has gone down and the abrasions have healed. My co-hosts did not appear for this episode. Big surprise! So I went about doing the show. Sometime during the show another avatar appeared. It was of Marilyn Monroe! WTF?

My dear co-hosts it seems, hired a mad scientist in the Republic of Whimsy to have one of her A.I.s stuck in my brain (so I thought) to remind me if it seemed like I was not going to play the show’s metal segment. So, I got quite upset at that revelation. In talking with the A.I. it seems it is autonomous and self aware and given her creator’s gender regards itself as female. She wished to be addressed as Norma Jean. In talking with her about her avatar it seems she scanned my brain and determined I had a teenage crush on Marilyn back in the day. I initially asked her why she didn’t pick one of the nuns who terrified me as a kid at catechism if she was going to be this post-it note in my brain. She thought I might be more receptive to her with such an image. Good guess actually. It was at this point things went south for me. I said my sex life was completely in my head and had been for some time and could she engage in mind sex with me. She said yes. I was quite thrilled for a second. Then she said I wasn’t her type. So I went to the metal section to pick a band and pounded my head into a wall for some time, resulting in the swelling and abrasions. I will have further revelations when I post the playlist for episode 19, for now here is what got played in this episode.

George Freeman / Chico Freeman – All in the Family
  – Dark Blue / Latina Bonita / Chico

Datura4 – Demon Blues
  – Out With the Tide / Another Planet / Demon Blues / Love to Burn

Grasshole – The Unification Proclamation
  – Cracked Mold / Down By The Lake / Having a Day

Little Boots – Working Girl
  – Working Girl / No Pressure / Taste It

Lindi Ortega – Faded Gloryville
  – Run Amuck / Run-Down Neighbourhood / I Ain’t The Girl

Moonfires – Black Sugar
  – You Got Me Funky / Such a Bad Girl / Black Sugar / Sexy Lady

Delirium SPB – Gazebo Dance Party
  – Bond, James / I Can see Clearly / Sweet Dreams

Ana Egge – Bright Shadow
  – Flat Top Guitar / Jenny Run Away / Wildflowers

Neil Young & Promise of the Real – The Monsanto Years
  – Big Box / A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop

Mother Falcon – Good Luck, Have Fun
  – Naked & Alive / Gameplay / Quiet Mind

Lamb of God – VII: Sturm Und Drang
  – Still Echoes / Erase This / 512

Night Terrors – Wardenclyffe
  – All Right Now / Dark Night of the Soul / Wardenclyffe

Olivia and the Creepy Crawlies – Tongue Tied
  – Gatsby / O Saskatoon / Your Door

Deradoorian – The Expanding Flower Planet
  – Beautiful Woman / Expanding Flower Planet / Grow

Mozart – 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces
  – Sonata No. 11 in A Major for Piano, K. 331, II. Menuetto – Trio

Episode 17

Well, we missed a week. Solar avatar co-hosts don’t get sick but the human one did. I asked one of the suns who dropped by my place before the show if any of them could provide some medical assistance. The answer – yes. However they don’t do house calls. My solar buddies – filled with compassion. The show went well considering my co-hosts were impatient, snarky and even left the on-air booth for a while. They’re real troopers. I considered playing some more metal in their absence just to spite them but my musical tastes wouldn’t allow it.

When my co-hosts did return to the booth they told me Olaf is on the lam over in the Republic of Whimsy. Apparently he took his contract negotiations with the mega corporation that now owns the bridge he works under directly to to the head office. Talks did not go in the direction Olaf wanted according to my solar buddies. As a result he ate the entire board of directors and all of senior management of the company. Then he called in a Greater Demon from the Underworld (who he is related to through marriage apparently) and had the Demon eat the corporate headquarters of the mega corporation. The authorities in the Republic of Whimsy do notice such actions so Olaf is currently hiding from them by staying with the Tongue Cleft monster in the Great Cracked Desert. Labour disputes in the good republic take on a somewhat different tone than here on Earth it seems. So, without further ado, here is the playlist…

Béla Fleck – Daybreak
  – Applebutter / Texas Barbeque / Punchdrunk

Rotary Park – Be
  – Caught the Wind / Goodbye Baby / Be

Coffin Birth – The Miracle of Death
  – Fatal Baptism / A Crime of Mere Existence / The Miracle of Death

Velvet Teen – All is Illusory
  – You Were the First / Church or State

Sasha Siem – Most of the Boys
  – Most of the Boys / Kind Man’s Kiss / Proof / So Polite

The Old Ceremony – Sprinter
  -Live it Down / Magic Hour / Fall Guy

Oliver Gannon & Bill Coon – Two Much More!
  – Blues for O(h) G(ee) / Just a Lucky So and So

Kenny Carr – Idle Talk
– Idle Talk / Reunions / Anthrozoology

No River – Katie’s Kitchen
  – Alone All Day / The Well Again / Magpie

Greg Drummond – Drive
  – Our Time is Now / Lily / Quarter by the Phone

Georgia Sound – Love Can Change
  – Can’t Stop Falling in Love / Love Can Change / End of an Era

Empty Heads – Empty Heads
  – L26 Cancon – Deceiver / Black Teeth / Ethanol / 16a St

No Museums – The Malcontents
  – The Burnt Heart Decay / This is a Freight Train / It Never Snows around Here /
     Land on the Return

Twin Bandit – For You
  – Crown / Waltz / Tumbleweeds

Halfway – Any Old Love
  – Hard Life Loving You / Dulcify / Shakespeare Hotel

SWR Symphony Orchestra & Kaszimierz Kord – Mozart
  – Serenade No. 9 in D Major, K. 320 – Posthorn Serenade,
     the fourth movement – Rondeau Allegro ma non troppo