Comic for Monday, December 8, 2008

Posted: 6:30 am, Monday, December 8th

The Times had a random shout-out to collitch radio on Saturday, and the station that they picked was RPI's own 91.5. I didn't get 91.5 that strongly where I was growing up, but 88.3 from Siena came in loud and clear. As a high schooler with very bad taste (although it was good enough to know that Bush - the band, not the 41st president - sucked), college radio was too weird for me. Also, I think I remember it being kind of rap heavy, and I wasn't there when I was in high school.

Also from the Times was a Bill Ayers op-ed, explaining his silence during the campaign. My favorite part,

The dishonesty of the narrative about Mr. Obama during the campaign went a step further with its assumption that if you can place two people in the same room at the same time, or if you can show that they held a conversation, shared a cup of coffee, took the bus downtown together or had any of a thousand other associations, then you have demonstrated that they share ideas, policies, outlook, influences and, especially, responsibility for each other’s behavior. There is a long and sad history of guilt by association in our political culture, and at crucial times we’ve been unable to rise above it.

So that's fun. I put together a unit of lessons on the Apocalypse for my final project in my education class over the weekend. For famine, I had 'em look at the Donner Party journals, pestilence is Mask of the Red Death, war is excerpts from Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and death is in two parts, one is Will Eisner's Contract with God and the other is watching Children of Men in class. The entire thing is basically an excuse for me to watch Children of Men again.

That being how I spent most of my weekend (there was also Saturday academy and lesson planning for the Odyssey), I *did* also get to go to CK's housewarming yesterday, which was very delightful and full of cheeses and cured meats and a tray of samosas, most underrated of all bar foods. And after that, Mario Kart. Wheeee! Sorry, that was bloody terrible.

Oh, and, man, tough weekend for the Irish. Loss to tOSU down in Indy, loss in the title game to UNC in my boy Scodub's hometown of Cary, and we're playing in a bowl on Christmas Eve in Hawaii. If the Robot of Within Two Standard Deviations of Average Intelligence is wearing a Hawaiian-themed ND shirt, I'll probably just start crying.

bullfrog

Ted's Head -- Monday, December 8 2008, 09:19 am

As a good ol RPI alum, I can tell you that you weren't missing much by not getting the WRPI broadcast. Just weirdness. Except for one of my buddies who had a 3am shift at one point and just played Phish the whole time. I listened to the Siena station as well - it was actually the first place I heard 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' from any kind of 'official' media outlet. I actually used to call them up and request it.

KCOU, the college radio station at Missouri, definitely was your eclectic station. Fortunately, it had a wattage power of that of a toaster oven, so you could only hear it for about a half a block.

I think they may actually finally get rid the station this year.

As for Notre Dame going bowling, at least you're going to a bowl, which is better than it was last year.

You went to RPI Ted's Head? Small world...

I agree with not missing much from WRPI. One of the football players had a show for 3/4 of a semester until he got kicked off the air. It was actually a really good show but it was on late and I think we showed up drunk at the studio demanding air time a little too often.

Without doubt my favorite broadcast to this day was "The Dipping Episode" with Ryan McGuff. McGuff was the local authority on all things smokless tobbacco. It started off as an informative discussion about Skoal and Copenhagen but then degrenerated into madness as the dipping virgins tried out the various products he brought in. I believe its the only time I have ever actually heard more than one person vomit on the radio without it being staged.

WVFI (Voice of the Fightin' Irish) projected almost all the way down South Quad, and played a lot of Dave Matthews Band. I may have been one of maybe 140 students at ND who didn't own a DMB album. Blah.

The college radio station I listened to was WSHU (Seton Hall's Pirate Radio!) back in Jersey. On Mondays, it was incredible they played only metal bands from the 80's. I haven't listened to it recently as they changed the format to christian rock to keep in line with the Catholic nature of Seton Hall. What do you expect from a bunch of Papists!?! Princeton has a pretty good college radio station too. I used to be able to pick it up when I was down with the Pineys.

Ironically enough, my Alma Mater's arch rival Kansas's college radio only played Top 40 songs, but I could hear it all the way out here in St. Joseph. (A good 50 miles away.)

Did AV ever do a piece about college radio stations? I thought they did once, but I'm not sure.

Wood - Yup, RPI Engineers all the way. Except I was a stupid management major. I think Bullfrog tried to figure out if I knew you but I didn't. I didn't know too many people because I was too busy eating wings at Sutters and getting my groove on at Eldas. (how's that for name dropping fellow Engineer?)

Well played with Eldas and Sutters. I too spent many a class in the Pittsburgh building but I was IT/MIS.

Sutters was called the Ruck by the time I arrived (arrived Fall 00, left Spring 04). But I bounced at Eldorados and Eldas for my last two years there. They were simpler times, carbombs every day of the week at Theta Chi, trying to get cell phone reception in the Sage building, and launching sex toys out of the potato cannon at Pi Phi. How I miss them ::tear::

Man, all I ever shot out a spudzooka was potatoes. I missed out.

About a hundred years ago I was a college DJ at WVOF, the Voice of Fairfield. I was a hard rock dude and since I didn't want to play Skinny Puppy or the Screaming Blue Messiahs my shifts over the years were 4-7am Tues, 2-4am tues, and then finally going up against Howard Stern at 7-9 tues. I was absolutely awful and got kicked off the air one semester for playing clips from Blazing Saddles unedited and then berating the person who called to complain on the air (turned out to be my programming director - oops). It was a lot of fun but if someone tuned in and heard me they had to come away thinking that college radio djs were pretty bad.

Zero

I was a DJ for WVFI :) I think maybe 3 people could hear that broadcast...

I agree frog. It does require a certain type of engineering mind to attempt to rifle the barrel of a potato cannon so that a sex toy will fly further and straighter.

I can say that, after viewing it first hand, a dildo flying the length of two football fields to smash into the front window of a sorority is among the greatest engineering feats of all time. I respect those who build planes and bridges but they just dont have the dedication of unruly troublemakers hell bent on causing mischief.

I went to RPI longer ago so we weren't as advanced. We used an old fashioned 3-man slingshot to shoot frozen cow parts onto the front lawn of the prestigious Emma Willard School for Girls. We couldn't quite reach the dorms. We also shot juice boxes at rival fraternity houses. Dildos through sorority windows though - how can you top that?

The aqueducts have nothing on you, Wood.