![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkA huge thunderstorm woke me up at 3:00 a.m. I love the sound of rumbling in the distance, like some space war or momentous event far away. The bottom of the blinds flash as if they were alive with the lightning.
I turned on my shortwave radio, but the weather conditions limit me to U.S. radioevangelists, who use the word sin about as often as I use the article "and". One program is a radioplay in which one character lures another into "sin" by use of a promise of a "big needle full of heroin", and I pause to think that drug sales of seriously addictive and destructive drugs probably does fit my personal definition of "sin", but the revelation did not make me wish to listen further to hear how the play comes out.
I bypassed altogether the Reverend Gene Scott, who seems to be on 24 hours a day on multiple stations, and who operates a ministry from a rather unimpressive former movie theater in downtown Los Angeles. Some consider him a more refined taste than the more pure grain radioevangelist, because his fund-raising zeal is so unadorned that some services degenerate into Dr. Scott saying "we're going to play this damn music [usually referring to easy listening jazzy stuff] until enough pledges come in". I rarely listen to his program, though I do like that sometimes the "damn music" is actually pretty listenable 60s era cocktail jazz.
Lately I think that fundmentalists and charismatics
have a few pages in their playbook which my own personal team of liberal religionists should adopt.
When the fundamentalists and charismatics perceived a threat to their worldview, they promptly started not only churches but also Bible colleges, media programs and other ways to reach out to ordinary people. Perhaps religious liberals need their own "movement" of little liberal church schools affordable for ordinary people and alternative press and media outlets just as the fundamentalists and
charismatics have. I can imagine a hypothetical set of names--Word of Evolution Scientific College,
Books Unbanned Magazine, and a Book of Uncommon Prayer.
Of course, Skeptic Magazine already exists, so the slate is not completely empty.
One thing I love about the internet is the ability to look up song lyrics for songs I loved but never knew the words to sing. Tonight was a look at the Sundays' "Sound" album. I have sung along to "Here's Where the Story Ends" hundreds of times without having the foggiest what the lyrics actually were. There's something about "it's that little souvenir of a terrible year" that drew me in when this song was released, and draws me in even more today. That line:
"and the only thing I ever really wanted to say was wrong, was wrong, was wrong" really resonates. Even as we all grow too old for our affectations, this is the kind of song which can help one get in touch with one's inner teen. Next I'll no doubt be trying to figure out those Cocteau Twins songs.
I'm really impressed by how creative the folks here on LiveJournal can be. It seems as though I'm always seeing a great work of art, or a successful writing project, or a new website being created. Perhaps
instead of helping found a Multi-scriptural alternative to Bible colleges, I should be focusing on
an alternative to talent--the Word of Mediocrity College. Without meaning to offend anyone's tastes, I do get a chuckle from the idea of the Jon Bon Jovi School Distinguished Professorship in Music, the
Thomas Kinkeade Art Fellowship ("I'm a Kinkeade Fellow in watercolors") and the Greta Van Susteren School of Journalism. I'd endow the Ogden Nash professorship for poetry any day....
I turned on my shortwave radio, but the weather conditions limit me to U.S. radioevangelists, who use the word sin about as often as I use the article "and". One program is a radioplay in which one character lures another into "sin" by use of a promise of a "big needle full of heroin", and I pause to think that drug sales of seriously addictive and destructive drugs probably does fit my personal definition of "sin", but the revelation did not make me wish to listen further to hear how the play comes out.
I bypassed altogether the Reverend Gene Scott, who seems to be on 24 hours a day on multiple stations, and who operates a ministry from a rather unimpressive former movie theater in downtown Los Angeles. Some consider him a more refined taste than the more pure grain radioevangelist, because his fund-raising zeal is so unadorned that some services degenerate into Dr. Scott saying "we're going to play this damn music [usually referring to easy listening jazzy stuff] until enough pledges come in". I rarely listen to his program, though I do like that sometimes the "damn music" is actually pretty listenable 60s era cocktail jazz.
Lately I think that fundmentalists and charismatics
have a few pages in their playbook which my own personal team of liberal religionists should adopt.
When the fundamentalists and charismatics perceived a threat to their worldview, they promptly started not only churches but also Bible colleges, media programs and other ways to reach out to ordinary people. Perhaps religious liberals need their own "movement" of little liberal church schools affordable for ordinary people and alternative press and media outlets just as the fundamentalists and
charismatics have. I can imagine a hypothetical set of names--Word of Evolution Scientific College,
Books Unbanned Magazine, and a Book of Uncommon Prayer.
Of course, Skeptic Magazine already exists, so the slate is not completely empty.
One thing I love about the internet is the ability to look up song lyrics for songs I loved but never knew the words to sing. Tonight was a look at the Sundays' "Sound" album. I have sung along to "Here's Where the Story Ends" hundreds of times without having the foggiest what the lyrics actually were. There's something about "it's that little souvenir of a terrible year" that drew me in when this song was released, and draws me in even more today. That line:
"and the only thing I ever really wanted to say was wrong, was wrong, was wrong" really resonates. Even as we all grow too old for our affectations, this is the kind of song which can help one get in touch with one's inner teen. Next I'll no doubt be trying to figure out those Cocteau Twins songs.
I'm really impressed by how creative the folks here on LiveJournal can be. It seems as though I'm always seeing a great work of art, or a successful writing project, or a new website being created. Perhaps
instead of helping found a Multi-scriptural alternative to Bible colleges, I should be focusing on
an alternative to talent--the Word of Mediocrity College. Without meaning to offend anyone's tastes, I do get a chuckle from the idea of the Jon Bon Jovi School Distinguished Professorship in Music, the
Thomas Kinkeade Art Fellowship ("I'm a Kinkeade Fellow in watercolors") and the Greta Van Susteren School of Journalism. I'd endow the Ogden Nash professorship for poetry any day....
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-05-26 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-05-26 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-05-26 10:19 am (UTC)i would like to see Michael Moore's School for Slacker Activism and the Bernard Jacobson Graduate Deprogramming System...i know him from a quote hanging in my studio "the way to the heart is through individual thought and feeling, not through collectivism of either artistic schools or political structures"
all fundamentalism is dangerous. it disavows the existence of the "other" based on prejudice and fear
no subject
Date: 2002-05-26 06:31 pm (UTC)right as long as you are on the left.
I gotta google up Bernard Jacobsen...
and I forgot the W.J. Clinton chair for interactive studies....
Re:
Date: 2002-05-26 06:44 pm (UTC)thanks for the laugh
no subject
Date: 2002-05-26 10:57 am (UTC)Now, are these evangelists from the Southern U.S., who pronounce the word "sin" with two syllables (SEE-YIN)?
no subject
Date: 2002-05-26 06:32 pm (UTC)short wave!!!
Date: 2002-05-26 11:57 pm (UTC)your mention of gene scott reminded me off watching him late night in dallas back in the 80's. i always thought he was a riot!!! i remember on night he was smoking his cigar and getting all irritated and just got up and walked off of the set...i was just floored!!! i knew far to well all of his shenanigens, but i really thought it was great!!! they just filmed his empty chair for like 30 min.s or more until he came back. i sat there the whole time just watching that empty chair, in silence, waiting to see what was going to happen next!!! it was very suspensefull (sp) and i'm sure quite effective on the true "believers", but i never will forget that...it was my favorite "episode" ha!!!;)
really, i am very interested in getting a really good shortwave. if you have any tips, like i said, i would be most appreciative!!!;)
oh, by the way, don't tell anyone this...but i really like listening to those wacko evangelist!!! especially the "conspiracy theorist" ones. america's last vestige of true exploitation entertainment for me!!! i love it!!!;)
Re: short wave!!!
Date: 2002-05-27 12:11 am (UTC)This gives one two options--either subscribe to the annual guide and keep assiduous notes, trying to bag "big game" finds such as local tribal stations in the aboriginal parts of the Amazon, or "my way", which is to intentionally skim the surface, and decline to figure out "why". My own short wave right now is a simple Radio Shack portable I got on
ebay for 30 dollars. Its original retail price was probably 60 or so. I have received each of the following:
a. bbc
b. radio australia
c. radio new zealand
d. radio havana
e. radio moscow
f. canadian bc
g. radio netherlands
h. radio beijing
i. dozens of great little mexi stations
j. more travelling radioevangelists than
you'd ever believe
k. radio denmark
l. radio stockholm
m. radio sydney
n. radio taipei (great programs)
and the list goes on. BBC 4 I've never gotten, ,and would be surprised to get, but I'd bet you could find it on internet radio somewhere.
Indeed, internet radio has cut into shortwave somewhat, as BBC, for example, has cut back service to US transmitters, which makes it a little harder, but not really that hard, to get bbc by shortwave.
My local dollar store has cheapo shortwaves for
8 ! dollars right now. With 15 dollar cheap radioshack headphones, one could have a "get your feet wet" experience. I'd be happy to send you one assuming that the dollar store still has them.
To "move up" to where I am literally is a matter of bidding 30 or 40 dollars on ebay for a "decent" portable. If the hobby really "catches" with you, you'll want a 400 to 1000 dollar unit and to install a shortwave antenna at your home.
I tend to advocate cheap hobbies, though, and I have had endless fun with just a "decent" portable and a two bit built in antenna.
Let me know if I can help you get started. It has a randomness and a "spin the dial, you never know what turns up" which is fun. My German is awfullly lightweight schoolbook, and my spanish tourist,
or I could listen to even more shows. Fortunately, virtually every station broadcasts part of the day in English.
Re: short wave!!!
Date: 2002-05-27 01:00 am (UTC)are you familiar with their models? is there something that i should look for particularly if i go back and check them out again...like bandwidth, etc. i know nothing!!!
oh i appreciate your offer regarding the dollar store model...really that is very kind of you!!! but i should just cash this gift cert. out. what do you think!!!
i can't wait to get one and hear all that you have listed...i bet we could have some great, "you're not going to BELIEVE what i heard on shortwave last night" entries!!!;)
i want to dx!!!
Re: short wave!!!
Date: 2002-05-27 05:28 am (UTC)not have quite as many bands as desired. The third one was 99.99 and had 11 bands. This is not bad at all, altho like a lot of brookstones I'd say that it "should" cost 60 or 70 dollars. The way I see it, though, a 100 dollar certificate at Bstones will always get you really cool, quirky stuff, but also cool, quirky stuff that would cost less elsewhere, so it may be good to splurge the certificate on the good radio (not the mini). Anyway, I checked out radioshack.com, and their 100 dollar model did not look that much more elaborate, so the brookstone may not be that overpriced. The brookstone website purported to be out of all 3, but I'm sure the stores will have them.
My only caveat is avoid the "mini" one (you'll see it on the website), as one snippet of the shortwave band, instead of 5 or 10, is not enough. Part of the fun is flipping back and forth among the bands.
Re: short wave!!!
Date: 2002-05-27 10:50 am (UTC)