Tag Archives: Radio

Seattle Focus: The Celebrated Return of RON and DON

Seattle’s Ron and Don – The Protectors of the People

Guest column by Jennifer Daydreamer

Any study of pop culture would not be complete without a look at talk show culture. Let’s take a look at Seattle’s Ron and Don. Followers of the former Ron and Don Show on KIRO would attest to the program’s integrity. They now have their own DIY podcast! These two cool dudes take up causes with honest discussion. In fact, I am knighting them,  “The Protectors of the People.”  Now, why such a lofty title? Because they have a knack for seeing an injustice before any of the local news media does. I am not kidding. Even if the media reports a story, Ron and Don are the ones who know how to put all the moving parts together.

Case in point: the homeless crisis in Seattle.  About ten years ago, long before the TV news reported that there are illegal encampments and any ramifications of crime, Don and Ron talked about these issues. They walked around their neighborhoods, scoping things out. They decided to just go to the RVs camped out and talk to the people there.  They said, quite emphatically, that many of the tenants are good people and being homeless is crushing. And yes, of course, that homelessness is not a crime. They talked quite a lot about volunteering at homeless shelters and how the listener can help. They also talked to policemen and firemen and they were really concerned, warning Seattle had a real problem it was not addressing. They said that there is a subset of the homeless population, not the majority by any means, but that there is this subset that is doing drugs and selling and stealing and they had weapons and they don’t care about you, nor your family and your kids. They said “We are really worried about this. We talked to the mayor and we talked to the council and no one is doing anything about it.”

I remember their warnings so clearly. I told myself that the mayor would step in if things got this unsafe for citizens, in the very least, the governor would step in. Cut to today. Based on my own crime experiences, and my friends and strangers I have spoken to, we are now all living their warnings.

Crime in Seattle has steadily risen in recent years. Regarding crime, it’s not the same Seattle from even just ten years ago. The discussion now is not about crime by the unhoused or by drug addicts or by the housed, it’s just about crime, man. That’s the bottom line.  Here are some recent basic facts: The overall crime rate in Seattle is 115% higher than the national average. For every 100,000 people, there are 16.14 daily crimes that occur in Seattle. Seattle is safer than 7% of the cities in the United States.

In case you don’t know, California arrests for .3 grams of any hardcore drug while Seattle does not. Hardcore drugs are illegal here but police have stopped arresting as attorneys are not prosecuting the way they do in a lot of states, including California.  Experts say that when you don’t arrest for hard drugs, it creates a lot of chaos in a society. Seattle police feel their hands are tied with red tape. Another way to put it, California is a liberal state and Seattle proper at least, is very far left by comparison on how it enacts its law and order.

Seattle media is very disjointed and it makes it difficult to find the truth. There are a lot of hard-working journalists out there but a lot of stories that should be common knowledge fall through the cracks. Many people know we have a homeless crisis but have no idea the crisis is cloaking “crime in general” activity. In other words, concerns about theft, break-ins and assault are looked upon as “complaints against the homeless” when people just want basic safety. That’s really what people want, including safety for the unhoused or homeless (choose your adjective) but all the moving parts of this BIGGER PICTURE are getting mixed up. There is in-fighting and sidetracks and name-calling and it’s really about grounding Seattle. Get the basic safety in place and then everyone can continue with improvements. Part of the problem is the fact that we are basically a one paper town. The Seattle Times does a good job, sometimes a great job, at reporting. But, it’s not enough. We need commentators like Ron and Don more than ever to keep us all informed with their natural point/counterpoint type of coverage. I am rooting for their continued success.

Be sure to listen and support the new Ron and Don Show.

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Filed under Commentary, Radio, Seattle

TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, SEASON 2 LIVE!

Tales-From-Beyond-The-Pale-2013

Happy Friday the 13! You are likely in a good sinister mood and so consider checking out this devilish and delightful series of horror radio shows for the digital age!

TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, SEASON 2 LIVE!
Launches with FREE streaming of THE CRUSH by Glenn McQuaid and CAPER by Larry Fessenden

Featuring the voice talents of Sean Young, Mark Margolis, James Le Gros and the regular TALES stable of audio artisans.

All 8 episodes available for download at TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE right here and on Audible, iTunes and Amazon

(NEW YORK, NY—September 13th, 2013) Yearning for something suitably sinister to do this weekend? Well look no further. Prolific production outfit Glass Eye Pix (I SELL THE DEAD, STAKE LAND, THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, THE LAST WINTER) is pleased to present season two of the cult favorite TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, audio tales for the digital age. And to mark the occasion, they’re streaming a double bill of terror — right now, for free!

This weekend check out Glenn McQuaid’s crime suspense shocker THE CRUSH and follow it up with Larry Fessenden’s phantasmagoric heist tale CAPER in a new online listening room at TalesFromBeyondThePale.com. All eight explosive tales are also available for download in the online store and are coming this weekend to Audible, iTunes and Amazon.

Inspired by the classic radio shows of Alfred Hitchcock, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Orson Welles, each TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE is chillingly brought to life by the extraordinary vocal talents of Sean Young, Vincent D’Onofrio, Mark Margolis, James Le Gros, Michael Cerveris, Kate Lyn Sheil, and Jonny Orsini, to name just a few.
Hosted by Glass Eye Pix CEO Larry Fessenden, each thirty-minute episode is written and directed by one of today’s horror auteurs including Joe Maggio (BITTER FEAST), Clay McLeod Chapman (HENLEY), Jeff Buhler (THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN), Ashley Thorpe (THE HAIRY HANDS), Kim Newman (ANNO DRACULA), Glenn McQuaid (I SELL THE DEAD), Simon Barrett (YOU’RE NEXT), and Larry Fessenden (BENEATH).
Conceived during a fog-drenched car ride by Fessenden and frequent collaborator Glenn McQuaid (I SELL THE DEAD, V/H/S), TALES continues the mission at Glass Eye Pix to celebrate and elevate individual voices in the arts and to bring the vast palette of moods that comprises the horror story to fans everywhere.
For more information and the latest news, please visit http://www.talesfrombeyondthepale.com Follow on twitter: @talesbeyond

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Filed under Entertainment, Horror, Radio

CULTURAL AMNESIA 101: THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL

If the humanism that makes civilization civilized is to be preserved into the
new century, it will need advocates. These advocates will need a memory, and
part of that memory will need to be of an age in which they were not yet alive.

— Clive James, “Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts.”

My friend, Roy, was telling me all about his favorite radio station, WFMT and its celebrated “The Midnight Special” program where folk and satire and oddball antics collide. It used to be more common to find eccentric shows on the radio dial. Thanks to YouTube, if you know where to go, you can still find a lot of treasures. And, of course, you can still tune in to WFMT and listen to “The Midnight Special”  archives whenever you want or check the “The Midnight Special” site for a station that carries the syndicated show.

Here are just three personalities from yesteryear that Roy mentioned to me in relation to his adventures in late night radio. There are plenty more but I thought it interesting to focus on these three as a set given that I did not find them through trial and error but from a real human being. These are entertainers you would have found on the radio in the ’50s to ’60s: Flanders & Swann, Anna Russell and Tom Lehrer. What do they share in common? Well, Roy loves them and that’s really a good place to start. Given what I know about Roy and my initial sampling, all three of these acts have a wry sense of humor and love of musical whimsy.

Flanders & Swann – “The Hippopotamus Song”  This is one of the songs that Flanders &  Swann are best known for. You can hear a theater crowd roaring with laughter. Very cool. Very vaudevillian.

Anna Russell – “The Ring of the Nibelungs”  If you like Victor Borge’s antics, then you’ll love Anna Russell. She’ll bring classical music down to Earth for you.

Tom Lehrer – “The Elements Song”  This may be your lucky day, or night, if you’re new to this song. It is a major hipster find that keeps being covered by new artists.

You start to think about it, these entertainers, perhaps more obscure for some audiences, will bring to mind other entertainers from that time period, Victor Borge, The Smothers Brothers, Woody Allen, and then other entertainers up to the present, They Might Be Giants, Flight of the Conchords, Sarah Silverman. It’s all just a matter of keeping an eye out for new talent, new to you. One of the most asked questions by casual observers is a very direct and honest question, “How do you find out about all this stuff?” It’s not a question to dismiss by any means! The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind: Just ask, search around, pan for gold, if you will. Not so long ago, one of the most respected ways of stumbling upon something cool and new was to go look in the bins at your local record shop. You know, with the passion for vinyl unabated, specialty shops are still there for you to explore.

Remember the movie, “High Fidelty,” about a record shop owner, played winningly by John Cusack, and his staff who were walking encyclopedias of pop culture? All very pre-internet. You were sort of at the mercy of the hipster geeks who seemed to have hoarded all the information. A small price to pay in retrospect. Either they took pity on you, actually liked you, or cast you out as soon as they set eyes on you.

Remember Jack Black in that movie? He was the ultimate gatekeeper of cool. If he didn’t think you could handle it, or should handle it, out you went.

Pretend Jack Black decided you were okay and recommended to you Flanders & Swann, Anna Russell and Tom Lehrer.

This is all part of a grand continuum. It’s a particular mindset: folky, lefty, offbeat. A way of life. So many interconnections. Until next time, chin up, and don’t forget the patron saint of lowkey deadpan humor…

Mr. Bob Newhart. Don’t ever forget Bob.

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Filed under Comedy, Culture, Entertainment, Humor, Jokes, pop culture, Radio, Vinyl Records