LD7: Hypothetical Real Genius Soundtrack

A scant week later, it's time for Live and Direct, episode #7. This week I've assembled a hypothetical soundtrack to the 80's comedy Real Genius, starring Val Kilmer. I say "hypothetical" because there was never an official soundtrack, however many fans have compiled their own lists of songs heard in the movie. This week's show is 44.5MB and runs for 50:36.

The playlist for the show is below, along with the point in time at which each song starts (minutes:seconds). The only song played in the movie that is not included is Tonio K's "The Tuff Do What", as it is unreleased and apparently unavailable in the wild. (however, if you have it, please, please send me a copy?)

1. You Took Advantage of Me - Carmen McRae, 01:31
   
2. I'm Falling - The Comsat Angels, 03:32
   
3. Number One - Chaz Jankel, 08:01
   
4. All She Wants to Do Is Dance - Don Henley, 11:50
   
5. One Night Love Affair - Bryan Adams, 17:01
   
6. The Walls Came Down - The Call, 21:26
   
7. Pleasure Seekers - The System, 25:47
   
8. Standing in the Line - The Textones, 30:25
   
9. Summertime Girls - Yesterday & Today, 34:51
   
10. You're the Only Love - Paul Hyde and the Payola$, 38:25
    
11. Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears, 44:16

a Real Genius sequel? What you say? That's right, at the end of last year multiple news sites, wikipedia, and blogs were reporting that Val Kilmer has announced a desire to reprise his role as Chris Knight in a sequel to the original Real Genius. A fan has started a site dedicated to this hypothetical sequel. We'll see how that pans out. I suppose it could work, though I'm leery of sequels by default.

If you haven't seen the movie, you should. In the immortal words of Chris Knight, it's a moral imperative!

Enjoy this "what if" soundtrack, and as always, please let me know what you think.

LD6: Ending the Endless War

This, the sixth episode of Live and Direct is now available for your consumption and critical analysis. It's me, interviewing protestors and activists who were at last Sunday's demonstration and who are involved with several local organizations whose causes include pro-impeachment, anti-war, and pro-peace groups. This episode is 53MB and features 57:56 of thoughtful, non-mainstream political discussion. What follows is an annotated timeline.

I first interviewed Sue Ferra (at 1:33) and George Miller (at 2:58) at the From Every Village Green protest on Sunday.

NOTE: in the show I got the percentage wrong of Americans who would favor impeachment, given Bush's lies about the war. It was actually 53% in favor of impeachment vs. 42% against. For details, see Majority of Americans Support Impeachment.

As George suggests, you should google "federal reserve bank ownership" and read for yourself the history and true nature of what many Americans assume is a branch of their government.

Here is a 2002 speech by Congressman Ron Paul advocating the abolishment of the Fed. For those of you who prefer to watch a video, here you go.

The solitary, yet appropriate song I played during the show is Deirdre Flint's "Presidential Succession". Should you wish to listen, it's from 12:42 to 15:40. Deirdre also has a podcast.

The two people I interviewed on the air were Deb Atwell and Steve Burke. Deb is the local contact for Maine Impeach, and Steve is one of the original founders of the Midcoast Peace and Justice Group. Midcoast Peace and Justice holds meetings at 7PM on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Rockland. They are free and open to the public.

Both Maine Impeach and Midcoast Peace and Justice will provide pro-impeachment stickers and yard signs, should you desire that.

There are many such groups around Maine. The two largest are Peace Action Maine in Portland, and the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine in Bangor. An umbrella organization is the Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice.

I had a first for Live and Direct, a caller expressing her views. The transcript of that segment is below: (this exchange happens between 29:48 and 31:29, for those of you eager to hear it)

Female Caller: I'm a Republican, and I think George Bush is the best president we've ever had, and this is all just a bunch of crap.

Kim: Well, I understand those are your political views and you're welcome to them. We have the people that we're interviewing, and they're welcome to theirs as well.

Caller: Let me just say: George Bush is only against slackers and sinners and terrorists, so if you don't like him, which one of the three are you?

Steve: I guess I can try and answer the lady's question, or at least give my spin on it. I don't think George Bush is a Republican at all. I think the Bush administration is pretty much run by neo-conservatives and they've defied most of the tenets of the Republican party. Most Republicans aren't really thrilled with the ideas of military adventurism, they support fiscal responsibility, a balanced budget, in the Reagan tradition they're against increasing the size of the federal bureaucracy, and the Bush administration has failed at all of this. I think that true Republicans are going to be severing ties with this administration pretty fast come election time.

Caller: Twenty years from now when they blow us all up, you'll remember that, and you'll say George Bush was a good president.

Kim: Thank you for your call.

I thank everyone that took the time to talk to me for their thoughts and criticism, opinions and analysis of the most important—but least aired, in mainstream media—political issue of our time. As always, I welcome your dialogue and criticism. If you are so inclined, please contact me.

LD5: Live and Direct Listens II - ESCM - BT

Behold, Live and Direct #5. This, the second episode of Live and Direct Listens, and the 5th episode of Live and Direct, is upon us. This too-long-for-the-air, uncompromising, special podcast version runs for one hour, ten minutes, and seventeen seconds, and will set you back 64.4 megabytes of disk space.

Today's featured Listen is ESCM by BT (also known as Brian Transeau). This album was released in 1997 following his debut album Ima. The US version (featured in this podcast) included the track "Lullaby for Gaia" (5:26); in the UK, the track included instead was "The Road to Lostwithiel" (8:38), which I have not heard but will attempt to dig up.

I didn't have time to play tracks 5 and 6 ("Memories In A Sea Of Forgetfulness" and "Solar Plexus") on air, but I've inserted them in the proper place in the podcast, thanks to Audacity, a podcaster's best friend.

BT rose to fame in the late Nineties and helped define the sub-genre of Electronica called Trance (specifically "Dream Trance"). His albums, however, often avoid categorization and jump genres happily. He has created and employed several production effects, notably the "Stutter Edit" and "Break Tweaker", which are both slated to be released by BT's software venture this year. Speaking of software, BT codes much of the software used to produce his music himself, by hand. Check out some of the interesting trivia and hard-core geekiness behind his latest effort, This Binary Universe. On a more domestic note, "BT has said that the album has a lullaby-like quality, inspired by his newborn daughter, Kaia, who sat on his lap throughout most of the song writing process." [from this Wikipedia article]

As one of my listeners noted, sadly, BT's studio was recently burglarized again (the first time was in 2001), and hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment stolen. This includes the data for his current show. On his site, Transeau discusses his intent to create a non-profit dedicated to helping musicians recover stolen gear and also to providing equipment to aspiring musicians who would not otherwise be able to afford it.

If you have ideas for future Listens, please email me. Good night, and enjoy.

LD4: Live and Direct Listens - Chill Out - The KLF

Live and Direct episode 4 is available for you to download and enjoy. It's 44.4MB in size, and 48 minutes and 24 seconds long. Live and Direct Listens is a new series on my show where I'll play cohesive albums in their entirety, as they were meant to be heard. This week's album is Chill Out, by the KLF.

I prefer to listen to this album at night, because of the atmosphere and mood it evokes. It brings to mind a road trip through the Deep South, which was the artists' intent:

I've never been to those places. I don't know what those places are like, but in my head, I can imagine those sounds coming from those places, just looking at the map.

Chill Out is one of my favorite ambient albums of all time, by one of my favorite artists of all time. Let me know what you think of it, and if you have any suggestions for future albums to feature on Live and Direct, drop me a line.