Mom, don't listen

Five years ago while talking to my mom on the phone, I advised her to not listen to the show I was doing that night since I knew the material would offend her. Of course having never listened to my show before she decided to listen that night.

After three tracks, she turned it off and told everyone in my family the horrible things I play on my show. The song "What Your Parents Think (all your music sounds like)" definitely applies to me as her opinion was warped by what I played that night. Granted, I stoop as low if not lower than anyone else as far as material played on my show but most shows are not completely ridden with songs and sketches full of profanities.

I decided afterward to dedicate the show that plays on a certain week in late March or April specifically towards songs which my mom should not listen and it has become one of the most listened shows I have during the year as people tune in specifically to hear the most religiously offensive and profane material I have. Listeners over the years have also suggested and e mailed songs to me that would work well with this theme.

This is a breakdown of what I am currently planning to play in the two hour show on Thursday, April 1 from 7-9 PM CDT. (other than three new ID tags): You can listen @ www.dementiaradio.org.



Note: I am planning on playing the most evil and corrupt song ever about 7:10PM. I have never played it before on my show and have only heard the full version once. I am going to try to hear it again.

the camera eye

More than an eleven minute Rush song it is what captures the present where in the future the past will be recalled.

On this week when the historic health care bill was approved and signed by President Obama (the success of which will definitely define the success of the Obama's first term and possibly decide if there will be a second one) my thoughts about it have been asked since my political views are by me defined as chaotic neutral.

As I have stated in the past, I believe many of the problems with health care and in other fields would be solved if every overweight American would lose 10 percent of their weight. Of course implementing that would create more problems than it could possibly solve. (For me I could lose enough for two, now maybe three) By the time I am done with talking about that, people forget what they originally asked me.

In the past at Marscon, I have taken many pictures and the time after I get home have been spent editing and posting them to sites for others to see. Since my camera is busted and knowing a professional photographer will be taking pictures there along with many others, I knew it was not necessary for me to bring a camera this year.

Thanks to Facebook, I have been getting many notifications of pictures where I was tagged as being in it and comments being made about them. (Thanks to Baron Dave for this pic of me with my wife and Davroz for the group pic and his work and personal help in getting them posted.)



Yup, the 30% seems about right.



Fifteen different states represented. Others who were there did not make it for the picture.

Also past group pictures have been posted this week. After waking up Tuesday evening from a 3 1/2 hour nap I wobbled into the basement and looked at them being only one of three people who are in every one. As I did earlier this month when I was considering making a video montage of pics from past Marscons but realized I do not have the time nor the computer knowledge to make it look good, I noticed how heavier many of the guys and I now look. As my brain malfunctioned from the fatigue of working 10 days in a row and still being tired, I commented about how much weight everyone in the group has gained in the last 6 years. (I wanted to post the edited for content pic but it was too small when I tried to post it.)

As can be expected four of the six ladies in the pic took exception to that comment. Unlike me who physically fatigued and got fat instead of fighting it, they had lives to live.

My friendship with all but one of them started that weekend and I have watched as they have become wives and mothers and how they each overcame obstacles to become the wonderful people (well except for one) they now are.

I didn't mean to hurt anyone with that comment.

Attending by state

My initial plan for the post after Marscon was showing where everyone traveled from and I was making notes.



I was surprised to discover the number of states where people left to either perform or watch music there.

Note about last week's post: Not all who joined others on stage had speaking or singing parts and some of them were in video form only including this one which premiered at the con:

www.baconnipples.com

That is the website for the new sketch comedy collaboration Cirque du So What. It consists of four artists who have appeared at Marscon for the past four or more years. They talked about creating this in the past without producing much but early this year they realized since none of them have a new CD for the convention they decided to get together on a snowy weekend in upstate New York to recorded a whole bunch of pieces that were put together for a cd. On the ride home three of the cars were listening to it and when we stopped at a gas station in Menomonee, ten of us were quoting the cd in front of two very confused cashiers.

It has become common for people to record and perform songs together or to record parts and through e mail send them to be put together. One of the reasons Marscon is special is that certain combinations of performers only occur there. On the way home, Blasted Bill Putt, the man who started the internet radio station which I do my show, suggested I do this week's chart on the combinations done last weekend. Thanks to pictures taken and from memory, this is what I was able to determine.



I did colorize part of it since it got confusing. I did include the four occasions that generally did not involve speaking or singing on stage and those who appeared in a video that premiered there.

Note: Arrows mean that person or group appeared in that performance. The two ones without arrows signify they are members of that group. This does not include all who volunteered to dance on stage; just those who had a predetermined reason to be there.

P.S. Thanks to Insane Ian, Devo Spice, Holly Luckes, and Jace McLain for mentioning a couple of ones I missed. They along with one spelling error are fixed.

home

123 hours after picking up someone at the Wood Dale Metra station, I finally arrived home from Marscon after dropping him at his house and getting home at 10PM Monday night.

I am happy to report that my wife and daughter on both trips were able to make them without incident and in less time than it took me since we had a caravan with 2 or 3 other cars which had one person who officially went into her second trimester on the ride home and needed to use the bathroom frequently. Note: As someone who shows symptoms for potentially needing Avodart, the more frequent stops made the use of an empty Coke bottle not necessary.

Though I was able to use the hotel free internet and look at this site, their filter did not allow me to log in being unable to post on it until I got home.

This video was taken on Saturday by Baron Dave Romm (the little girl is my daughter):

My December 22

Tomorrow I will be renting a van and driving to Bloomington, MN for Marscon 2010 featuring over a dozen comedy music acts who are traveling from both coasts and many places in between. I call it the 5 day trip that makes the other 360 tolerable and as someone stated this weekend is like my Christmas and I tend to agree though people were confused when I said Merry Christmas as I left work yesterday.

Over the past 6 weeks, I have talked about guiding my wife to Marscon. Compared to some people, our trips are short. Here are two maps showing the drives/rides 33 other people have to Marscon starting as early as today.



Note: The dark blue line from A-B is my trip. Since some of the people driving need to pick up others, the most direct route is not always taken.

I detailed the Chicago area as 5 other cars make their way specifically to my house to either ride with me, caravan with me, drop someone off at my house or meet others along with the route taken by the person I will pick up in my car.



There are 3 more cars with 4 people in the Chicago area and two other cars from outside the Chicago area who I know are going but do not know exactly where they start.

Since this post is about the long journeys people are making, I decided to not make a Minneapolis-St. Paul area map to show those who need to travel as little as 2.5 miles. Sorry.