A short conversation between Orson Welles and H.G. Wells (MP3) aired live on KTSA radio in San Antonio on October 28, 1940. The main subjects are the Welles’ radio production of Wells’ “War of the Worlds,” from two years prior, the accuracy of Wells’ science fiction, and a Wells-incited plug for Welles’ “Citizen Kane." (Via Alan Dean Foster’s remembrance of Arthur C. Clarke in the July/August 2008 Skeptical Inquirer.)
David Byrne has collaborated with David Hanson, the guy who made the Philip K. Dick robot at NextFest in 2005, to make a robot named Julio that sings, for a show titled “Machines and Souls: Digital Art” at the Museo de Arta Reina Sofia in Madrid. Byrne writes: I love where this is going. It brings to mind an image of someone sitting in a comfortable chair, maybe with friends, and maybe they’re having drinks—and at the same time Jentsch posits that layered over or under this image is the profoundly creepy, the deeply strange and disturbing. We’re in the land of David Lynch and Hitchcock. ET landing in the familiar U.S. suburbs could be viewed this way, or the various living dead and vampire movies. More recently Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori proposed the existence of something called the uncanny valley. This “valley” is an area of emotional uncertainty and often revulsion experienced by an observer when a robot or computer animation (for example) approaches being human, is almost believable, but not quite. ...
We’ve purchased a few of these designs, at 25% off… I didn’t get them in time for TAM6, but I wore the element one this weekend. Kat and I each have one of the “because we know that dinosaur bones were really planted by beelzebub” shirts, and I’ve got the “because we know that the earth sits on giant elephants which in turn ride on an even gianter turtle” one along with the “because we know that the real periodic table of elements only numbers five” shirt.
Einzige, Kat, and I attended the Richard Cheese show tonight, and he put on a great crowd-pleasing performance. The recorded versions of his songs don’t give a complete picture–his performance is filled with a lot of audience interaction and humor, and he had quite a few special bits tailored to his hometown audience, such as the theme from “Alice” dedicated to the folks at Mel’s Diner (the fictional restaurant that the TV series put in Phoenix, rather than Tucson as in the Scorsese film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”). After the show, Richard Cheese and the band spent about an hour signing autographs and having pictures taken with people in the first seven rows, and then there was a short period of time for him to talk to friends from grade school (me) and some friends from high school who came to his show and managed to stay up late. He’ll be performing at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on August 29 and 31, and I recommend seeing his show if you get the chance.
Richard Cheese will be performing live on the radio this afternoon on Phoenix’s KEDJ, 103.9 FM, at around 4:45 p.m. Arizona time, during Tim Virgin’s show. You can also listen via the Internet via a link at the radio station’s website.
Today’s Arizona Republic has an article about Richard Cheese, who will be appearing at the Celebrity Theater on June 7 with his Lounge Against the Machine band. The article describes his roots in Arizona and the man behind the leopard-print tuxedo–who shared a table with me (we didn’t have desks) in sixth grade. (Mark and I attended the same schools and were friends from third through eighth grade, then went different ways, though we have crossed paths from time to time since then, including when he got me a DJ job for ASU’s campus radio station, KASR-AM, when we were both undergrads there. Sadly, KASR’s call letters now belong to a sports radio station in Arkansas.) Einzige, Kat, and I will be at the show. Phoenix New Times had a similar, more detailed story about Richard Cheese the week of May 19, 2005, “Big Cheese” by Jimmy Magahern. Also watch for Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine on TV3’s “Good Morning Arizona” program on Thursday, June 5, at around 8:30 a.m. ...
Some Arizona atheists are putting together a regular podcast called “ApostAZ,” including music from Greydon Square (who will be performing at The Amazing Meeting next month in Las Vegas). Subscribe to the RSS feed here. The first episode discusses a woman who killed her six-year-old daughter thinking she was killing a demon, upcoming Atheist Meetup events (Arizona Fetish Prom, ballroom dancing–which turned out to be swing dancing and was a fun event Kat, Einzige, and I attended, and a musical performance to benefit Ayaan Hirsi Ali), a baby-tossing event that they take issue with but seems unobjectionable to me, and more. ApostAZ has a website here.
Local artist Susan Barken completed her painting of Otto, and here it is. (Previously.)
An interesting series of captioned photographs of people shortly before and shortly after their deaths (all of people who knew they were terminally ill). Most seem to have come to terms with their impending end, but sad are those like Gerda Strech (photos 13-14), who felt she was cheated out of a long-earned retirement, and Roswitha Pacholleck (photos 15-16), who was unhappy until she became terminally ill, only to enjoy every day of her life as she was dying. She vowed that she would volunteer in a hospice if she managed to survive her cancer. The fact is, we’re all already terminal cases. Don’t wait until life is near its end to start living it. (Also via The Agitator.)
Julia Sweeney writes at her blog: Ben Stein once did a Groundling show, an improv show, that I was a part of. I found him to be spectacularly ill-informed and narcissistic and weirdly devoted to his schtick and worst of all, hacky. He didn’t listen to his fellow performers and played everything outward to his friends in the audience who laughed (fake, forced) at every single thing he did. When he became known as a “thinker” – when his public persona became the “smart guy” I was astounded. So this type of film does not come as any surprise.(Hat tip to James Redekop on the SKEPTIC list.)