If it's not getting over 90 degrees today, then you must not be living in Tucson. Today's high - only 91! That's ten degrees cooler than last week! And tomorrow won't even break 90! Rumor has it that we'll be into the low 80s by the end of the week! WOO-HOO!! I can tell that fall is here because I unsealed my windows this past weekend, and I've been keeping them open at night. This is a very good thing, and I'm just praying that it doesn't get over 100 again. (We had 99 days over 100 degrees this year. A new record...)
My wrist is healing very nicely - I now have a cool scar about an inch long on the top of my left wrist. It looks like I slit my wrist without reading the directions first...
I saw "Red Rock West" with Nicholas Cage. (Rather, Nicholas Cage was in the movie; I saw the movie with Christina.) Pretty good, and much better than I expected. Although it's no "Time Cop"...
It appears that my friends are entering a new stage in their lives. Over the last two years, I came to terms with the fact that all of my friends were getting married. This is no longer the curse that it once was to me, and I have accepted marriage as a natural phenomenon, not to be feared or dreaded. Well, I think the next phase is upon me, with the announcements of two pregnancies in the last two months. Uh-oh...KIDS. Oy! To me, a baby is an administrator of sleep deprivation therapy, and a breaker of all that is technologically dear to one's heart. I see my CD collection and an inquisitive child as mutually exclusive. Of course, I'm thrilled for the parents-to-be. It's just that once again, I've been left in the dust; I just recently accepted that they're all married, and now they're going to be parents. Oy! Someday, I hope I have the patience to be a daddy, but right now things don't look so good.
(Congratulations again, Jon. You are a more brave man than I. It's time to hide the good china...)
And in the music world, I have a new discovery - Barenaked Ladies. (I can hear you all snickering, since I've known about barenaked ladies for some time now.) They're five guys from Canada who thought that "Tonight - on our stage - Barenaked Ladies" would look pretty funny on a sign and would get people to walk in off the street. They're like Crowded House with a sense of humor, and that's a very good thing. Lots of acoustic guitar, strong hummable songs, a terrific lead vocalist who sounds like the guy from the Housemartins (who?), and not a hint of big hair or spandex. They have songs like "Be My Yoko Ono" and "Not The King of Bedside Manner", and two albums: "Gordon" (1992) and "Maybe You Should Drive" (1994). They rule. You should buy them.
And our football team won again. We stomped on Oregon State, 30-10. The school paper's sports section has been covering the football team extensively (no surprise), and on Friday ran the headline "Beavers not to be overlooked". Two points for someone on the staff - how did this headline get past the editors???
For you Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans, the U of A's own Gallagher Theater will be showing an MST3K episode on the big screen next Wednesday. Free admission and T-shirts and stuff. I'll be there 48 hours in advance to ensure that I get a ticket. And with the upcoming Thanksgiving Day MST3K Marathon on Comedy Central (and my VCR), I'll have enough bad movies to last the entire year! Woo-hoo!
And finally, Wayne, the guy who owns Disk Jockey Entertainment, sold the company to Bob, who owns Desert DJs. I now belong to Bob. In selling off the company, Wayne sold most of his equipment, and I was able to buy a nice little system for about 80% off list price. So I now have everything hooked up to my home system, including a microphone and a 12-volt lamp. Frivolous is not in my vocabulary...
And write back to me. I don't particularly enjoy listening to myself type, and it would be nice to read other people's ASCII characters every once in a while.
Later, grizzly dudes (last night's Simpsons was amazing, by the way),
Ron
(written October 6th:)
I think I've outdone myself. The following is a letter that I sent out to Tucson Cablevision. I think you'll like it...
Dear Sirs:I wonder if I'll get a response...
I have a suggestion for your company that would potentially benefit all of your customers.
I have received quite a few junk-mail solicitations, and heard more than my share of Tucson Cablevision radio commercials, all of which inform me that your company provides the best TV entertainment around because you offer the most channels. Well, after subscribing to cable TV for a summer and discovering that the majority of your channels offer little or no intelligent programming (Atlanta Braves baseball? Or that motorcycle-jumping sport that's always on ESPN2?), I will probably never subscribe to any pay-TV service again.
There is one channel, however, that consistently produces offbeat, intelligent programming, and is not offered by your system. Owing to an advertising campaign of years past, "I want my BBC."
The British Broadcasting Company produces comedies that are truly funny, eclectic programs that are hosted by real people who take pride in their show's content, and unquestionably the best documentaries in the world. It would be an enlightening experience indeed to see a television personality who wants people to pay attention to his words, not his hair.
I would like to see the BBC offered as a channel on Tucson Cablevision. As an alternative to the typical mindless trash on television, the BBC would certainly be the best TV entertainment around.
Sincerely,
Ron Gerber
Ron
(wirrten October 11th:)
Ooog. I spent 7 & a half hours in production at KXCI yesterday. First I went home from lab at 3, then spent an hour and a half cueing stuff up on my VCR, then dragged my VCR and armfuls of tapes through rush hour traffic down to KXCI, where I spent the next seven + hours dubbing, cutting, pasting, and putting together the most excellentest drops in the entire world. (Drops are the fancy name that radio people give those amusing little snippets of funniness between songs, etc.) I have about twenty Casey Kasem drops, most of them taken from a 1979 American Top 40 episode. He unflinchingly says, "Disco is the pop music of tomorrow.", "I'd like to take everybody doing evil in the world and turn them on to the positive energy of disco dancing.", "Well, I don't know that roller skating to a disco beat will end crime in the world, but it couldn't hurt.", "This is to show thanks to Boy George for just being himself (on KXCI.)", "We listen to all types of music, but we're especially inspired by Culture Club.", and "Matthew, here's your long-distance dedication."
And I came up with possibly the best radio bit ever. It uses that last "Matthew" drop, and it goes something like this:
Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber: Well, let's check the Boogiemonster mailbag, shall we? This letter is from a 43-year old musician in Woxahatchie, Texas. He writes, "Dear Boogiemonster, I am a 43-year old musician, and I haven't had a hit on the charts since 1984. After my ground-breaking single, "Break My Stride" fell off the charts, I never had another hit. I released a second album, but the only person in the entire world who bought it was my mom. I even earned a distinction as the only artist named "Matthew" ever to hit the top 40. So can you please play "Break My Stride" to revive my sagging career? Thanks. Signed, Matthew Wilder."
Casey Kasem: "Matthew, here's your long-distance dedication."
-Break My Stride plays.-
I have to actually look up Matthew Wilder's age and hometown, but you get the idea. The true beauty of that bit is that I can do it every week with a different first name and a different washed-up artist. (It may not work out as well as this one, though. I couldn't think of anyone named Renee, for example.)
I think this bit is truly a thing of beauty, and you radio people (Kenny, Pat, and Seth if he ever decides to get his lazy creative butt in gear) are welcome to try it out. If I've only learned one thing in the eight years I've tooled around in radio, it's that Casey Kasem-worship is a healthy thing.
The smaller the numbers, the bigger the hits...
Ron
(written October 20th:)
How-dee! Oy, what a day yesterday! First, we had our biannual (diannual? Anyway, it's twice a year) sponsors meeting. We fly reps from the very large corporations that give us money out to Tucson, we give talks and lab tours, and we eat like kings at a fancy hotel. To a starving grad student like myself, the free food is the best part, and is something we look forward to for about six months.
Well, in between talks yesterday, I managed to wash my car and look at a drum set (saw an ad). I decided that I want the drums, and will be picking them up today. Woo-hoo!
And after dinner was over, I went to see Bruce Cockburn. (He's like Jackson Browne, only Canadian.) Bruce rules!
And now I'm very very sleepy. I guess that's what happens if all you do the day before is sit around and eat. (This explains why ancient France is no longer around.)
Gotta boogie,
Ron
(written October 21st:)
It was &^$%##%&*())!! cold this weekend! It was 10 degrees warmer in Chicago, they tell me. No need to worry, though; we'll be up in the mid-80s by Friday.
Speaking of the mid-80s, Crap From The Past went very well on Friday. I played 12 requests out of 30 songs, so that's 40% requests. Not bad at all, considering that I didn't do any publicity at all for the show. The number of phone calls during the show has been doubling with each show, with no signs of slowing down. (You can see that it will be a ridiculously large number, fairly soon. And extrapolations are never wrong...)
And our football team won, if only 10-7. We almost lost, but we somehow managed to snatch victory from the intestines of defeat. We beat the same team 9-6 last year in a snoozy game...
I went to lunch yesterday with Meghan. She's a new addition to the friends-of-Ron roster, and she's VERY cute. (We technical people would say that she's maximally attractive.) She has two exams this week, and will be a basket case until the weekend. More to follow, hopefully...
Does anyone know how to do least-squares fitting in MATLAB? I need to fit my data to an ellipse.
Later,
"Ron" Boogiemonster "G"
(written October 24th:)
Goot morning! This Monday most certainly feels like a Monday.
Hope you had a good weekend. I did. Spent a good portion of the weekend playing drums at Eric & Julie's house. Julie and I figured out the guitar and bass lines to a whole bunch of tunes; it looks like our band will be playing covers of the Greg Kihn Band and the Shoes. (Band name: The Ultra-Violet Catastrophe.)
Also saw Priscilla Queen of The Desert again. And it's still funny. And
our football team won - we moved up to #11 in somebody's poll.
Why am I all yawny this morning? Bleh!
Ron
